//------------------------------//
// A Rich Seapony Landing 
// Story: A Rich Everglow Adventure 
// by RadicalDishonesty 
//------------------------------//

Sand Castle opened his eyes to an unfamiliar expanse stretching above him. Obviously he always knew the sky was up there, above the surface of the water, but he was used to waking up to the marbled effect of the sun peeking through it, or at least to the thatches of his hut on the island.

But this… this big empty nothing was alien to him. He reached a hoof up to the sky. The huge blue expanse up here was inaccessible to him. There was no top he could swim to. He never spent much time up at the surface. It had unnerved him. If he fell up off of the ground, would he be able to catch himself? He would just float away forever…

The dull roar of the coast was interrupted with the sound of laughter, and he sat himself up. He was sore, both from sleeping on the sand and from pulling the sled from yesterday.

Looking around, he quickly saw the two former slaves and the pony that brought him here: Dawn Crest. She was the one laughing, and the stallion of the pair saying something with a smirk, while the mare rolled her eyes. They were joking around. Of course, he couldn’t understand what they were saying, as they were speaking in the strange language of the land ponies.

Of which he was about to embark onto.

He certainly couldn’t go back home, anymore. If he did, they would string him up for being a traitor, of which he was now one. He betrayed the orders of his queen. Even if it was probably the right thing to do. Even if the ponies of the fortress already treated him like he was on the bottom of the totem pole. Even if… he looked over to Dawn Crest. Even if he was just following her…

Well, no matter who she was, she was not the queen, and it was treason for her too.

She looked over to him, and smiled broadly. She called out to him, “Good morning, Castle! Come on over!”

He covered his uncertainty with a smile, and walked across the beach to the trio. “Morning.”

“Alright, alright, introductions! “This, is--” she said two words in their language, pointing to the stallion “--and--” she said two more words, pointing to the mare. “Their names translate to uh… well his is a saying that means he’s very wealthy, and hers is a saying that means she is too accustomed to wealth.”

He looked at the two ponies, both of them wearing tatters. The clothing… might have been nice, once. But where were the rest of their outfits? They were wearing an unusually small amount. Was this the way that ponies on the mainland dressed, in just something covering the front half of their torso? He had many questions.

Instead, he said, “That’s odd.”

She giggled. It was actually a very pretty giggle, and Castle smiled a little. “You know, it’s actually even funnier in their language, because both of them sound like insulting names, even though they mean something else. Apparently they were pretty important ponies back in their hometown.”

“So…” He nodded at the stallion and the mare. “Pleased to meet you <Filthy Rich> and <Spoiled Rich>.” The two of them nodded back at him, and Dawn turned to them, reciting what was probably the same speech to them.

These were the two ponies he left his life to save. They were captured, but are now free. Dawn Crest, too, had already left her life underwater for a life on land. He was the only one who had just left his home.

Dawn Crest finished an explanation, and nudged Castle saying something to him she obviously thought he could understand. He stared at her a moment, blinking. “What?”

“Oh, right.” She stuck her tongue out, winking. “My bad! It’s time for us to go. Let’s load up the little supplies we have. We’ll have to be on the lookout for things we can use to build tents and stuff, until we can’t find anyone to buy something from.”

“Where are we going?”

She looked out to the treeline, with the wilderness beyond that. “I’m not sure!” She gave a big smile, darting off to the current place the sled is, turning back for just a moment. “But I’m excited to find out.”

Sand Castle huffed a sigh. At least somebody was excited about this. He followed her, gathering the small amount of supplies they did have, packing up for the travel into the wilderness.






The group of four made their way through the lands. It was beautiful, nobody could doubt. Rolling hills and patches of trees dotted the countryside, but none of them seemed to be places for ponies to actually live, though. Nor did they indicate anything of the sort.
“So, where exactly are we going to?” Spoiled Rich said. “Nopony appears to live in this area. Do we have a plan to actually locate anything?”
Dawn Crest looked up in thought. “Well, I figure we need to get pretty far away from the water sled, because once the guards find it on the coastline they will start looking from there. Staying on the coastline’s no good, either. Beyond that--” She pronked just a little. “--we get to find out.”
Spoiled Rich made a dubious noise. “That is hardly much of a plan.”
Dawn Crest glared a touch at Spoiled. “Do you have a better one?”
“No, but I know more about what we need. We need food, we need water, and we need shelter. Do we have any plans for those things?”
“Well, if we can’t find any berries or grains, there’s always…” Dawn Crest looked down at the ground they were walking on.
Spoiled cringed. “On the grass we’re currently walking on? That’s disgusting!”
Dawn Crest shrugged. “It’s food, and if we’re hungry, beggars can’t be choosers.”
Spoiled turned up her nose. “I am no beggar.”
“Hey! It’s not my favorite either, but--”
Spoiled wheeled around to poke a hoof in Dawn’s chest. “So, I’m sure everyone would appreciate it not coming to that. Where are we going to go to fix this?”
Pushing away Spoiled’s hoof, Dawn rubbed her chest. “I don’t know. Buuut… I do know nature.” She puffed out that chest that was still aching. “I knew all sorts of things about the land underwater, and I’ve heard a lot from the patrols sent on the land about it.”
“... And?”
Dawn put a hoof on her chin. “Well, we’d have better luck in places with denser foliage, with more trees. We’d have better chance to scavenge some food there.”
The group then looked around again at the land around them. Pastoral countryside as far as they could see, with dottings of underbrush and trees in the distance. “You had better be right about this…” Spoiled said, and they made their way through the countryside toward the closest foliaged area.
Arriving shortly, they searched the area and shortly found a small bush with many small red berries. Dawn puffed out her chest. “See, what’d I tell ya. Easy. These are things that many land plants use to spread their seeds called berries.”
Spoiled Rich looked at Dawn Crest with half lidded eyes. “Yes, we know what berries are.”
Dawn laughed nervously. “Of course you do, you’ve lived up here the whole time, right? So, dig in.”
Spoiled Rich did not move to the bush, but Filthy crept up and poked the bush’s spiked leaves. “Do you know if they are safe to eat?”
Dawn blinked. “Could they… not be?”
“You must be joking,” Spoiled Rich spat. “Yes. They could be poisonous to ponies. Not to mention whatever else might be wrong with them on this Celestia forsaken continent. You said yourself you never were on land before, and it’s becoming clear you don’t know anything.”
“Look--” Dawn held up her hoof in a stopping motion. “I’m sure that’s an exaggeration. Why would a plant, who uses berries to spread seeds, make them lethal to eat. That doesn’t make any sense. Here--” Dawn immediately reached over, and plucked a berry from the bush, crushing it in her teeth. It was a little sweet and a little sour. Not too bad. “See. No problem.”
Filthy and Spoiled Rich shared a dubious look. “No offense, but we’d rather see if you have any problems before eating,” Spoiled said.
Dawn unlaced a small pack from her back, and started loading it up with berries. “Fine. And when they’re fine, they will be a great way to eat and you won’t have anything to worry about.”
“I sincerely hope you’re right, and you’ll be okay,” Filthy Rich said.
Dawn scoffed. “You shouldn’t worry about it!” She continued to pile berries into the bag. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sand Castle watching the exchange with a confused expression on his face. She turned, smiled, and gave a weak laugh, returning to the language of her birth. “Sorry about this, Castle. You must be very lost.”
Castle cast a glance at Filthy and Spoiled Rich, and looked back at Dawn. “Yes. What is going on? Are we picking fruits or not?”
“Yes.” Dawn nodded. “We are definitely picking these fruits.”
Castle walked over directly and started loading up one of his pouches with berries, pulling them off of berries. He moved to pull one out with his mouth, obviously about to eat it. Dawn’s eyes went wide and she smacked it out of his mouth, before he could chomp down. “No!”
Castle stepped back, his eyes in shock.
“Sorry! Sorry!” Dawn waved her hooves. “We just need to save these… for later!”
“O-oh.” Castle ignored the berry on the ground and focused on scraping the berries off of their spindly vines into the bag, his shoulders slouched.
“Right. Sorry about that. Just don’t eat any until I give the okay to.”






Dawn Crest marveled at the land world around her. She had been about this far inland before, when she was caught by the Queen, but she had never noticed how great it was. Everything was so green. And the sun was so yellow. She never knew the sun was so yellow.
She took another berry from her pouch and smashed it between her teeth. The sour sweetness was delicious, she had decided. She had also decided that there was nothing wrong with the berries. She felt fine.
She felt better than fine.
“Guys!” She hopped up forward, bounding to the front of their party, directly in front of Filthy Rich. “Today is wonderful!”

Filthy Rich backed up a step, raising an eyebrow. He opened his mouth but nothing intelligible came out.

“No no! I mean I feel great. We’re in a new world, a beautiful, wonderful world!” She raised up and spun on one hoof, landing back down on four hooves, facing back away. Surveying the world ahead of her, and all its verdant wonder, she smiled broadly. “I mean, just look at it!”

Filthy Rich blinked, and his mouth opened to unintelligible words again.

Dawn pronked forward, practically singing, “I can’t understand yooou.” She pulled out a berry and popped it into her mouth, bouncing the whole while.

Another voice came from behind her, a sharper feminine voice, and she looked back to the grumpy face of Spoiled Rich, who grumped over to Dawn, and grabbed her bag. The bag with the delicious berries in them! She showed the bag to Filthy Rich, who frowned too. Harsh.

The two of them started saying something but boy were they being hard to understand. The two of them kept looking at Dawn, too, and eventually started emptying out the bag! Dawn cried out. “No stop!” and reached for the bag, but they didn’t stop! Instead, she was stopped by the large hoof of Sand Castle.

“Dawn, what exactly is going on?”

She gestured to the two of them. “They’re dumping out my berries and won’t stop when I told them!”

Sand Castle furrowed his brow. “Dawn… you’re speaking in our language. They can’t understand you.”

Dawn looked up and around, as if she was searching for the answer, then started a low giggle. “Oh yeah! I’ve been speaking in that for a while now.”

“Dawn… do you feel okay?”

“I feel better than okay, I feel the best.”

Sand Castle continued to furrow his brow, and looked to the other two ponies with him, who gestured to the bag of berries, and made loopy gestures toward their heads. “Are you sure these fruits are alright? I think the other two are trying to tell me they aren’t.”

“Don’t you slander the good name of berries!” Dawn said, poking her hoof into Sand Castle’s very large chest. She followed it up and looked up at him. My goodness was he large. But the good name of berries must be defended, and she locked her jaw and glared at him, which he shrank away from.

Filthy Rich walked over to them, saying something hard to understand. But Dawn remembered this time it was a different language, and managed “What?” in that language. “I’m sorry, I’m having trouble.”

“We can’t stop out here, we need to find somewhere for shelter,” he said, slowly, this time. “Tell Sand Castle that.”

“Oh…” She relayed the message to my sea pony companion, who nodded his head at Filthy Rich. Not even at her. Rude. But, he did turn to her after that and say, “We should keep going, come on.” The three of them started back across the lands, and Dawn watched them for a moment, before scrambling after.