//------------------------------//
// A Rich Sunny Trip 
// Story: A Rich Everglow Adventure 
// by RadicalDishonesty 
//------------------------------//

Dawn trotted behind the three other traveling companions, but she paid them no heed, as she was busy looking at the world around her. The further inland they walked, the more amazing this land was. Bright green hills rolled around them, slowly undulating as they walked, punctuated by tall red pillars with cloudy green tops. In the sky a school of fish swam, darting around until they flew directly into the gaping maw of a blurry white whale, cleverly disguised as a flying plant.
Nearer to them, there was a huge rock, and on top of it was a small white coral blossom. She pushed off of the ground to swim up to the blossom, but instead of swimming up she just gently wafted off the ground a little, and slammed her chest then head into the ground, crumpling into a heap.
The world spun, and she could feel hooves on her, pulling her up.
“Dawn, are you alright?” a masculine voice said, in a familiar language. A tan and green pony was in front of her. Sand Castle. He looked worried.
“Don’t worry.” She smiled a big smile, pat him on his shoulder, and nodded.
He tilted his head in confusion as she let go and walked past him, marching back into the wilderness, in the direction the were headed. Filthy and Spoiled both gave her looks as she walked past them, and Spoiled leaned over to whisper something to Filthy.
Dawn’s smile waned. Whispers were bad. She turned around. “Well! Let’s get moving!”
The three of her companions all looked at each other worryingly, and Filthy said. “Well, at least we need to get moving to somewhere where we can take shelter, if we are going to let Dawn… well… sleep this off.”
Dawn forced out a laugh. “Come on, Filthy. I don’t need to sleep anything off. I’m feeling fiiine. Let’s get going.”
The four of them set off, one bouncing happily, the others looking at her, worried.






They were talking quietly. Dawn could hear them talking, but couldn’t make it out. She didn’t think they knew she could, or maybe they don’t care. Lots of ponies don’t care that Dawn could hear them, even if they talked about her.
She finally wheeled around. “Just what are you talking about?”
At least Filthy had the decency to look worried and blush, because Spoiled just glared at her. Filthy nudged his wife and said, “We were talking about where we should go next.” He pointed into the not-too-far distance where a large patch of trees laid nestled between two large hills. “We thought we would go to the edge of that forest there, and camp beside it.”
Dawn clapped her hooves. “Of course! Because it would be easier to scavenge for food there! Like I said.”
Filthy nodded. “And because it would be easier to build a fire there.”
“A what?”
Filthy Rich stared at her and Spoiled cursed under her breath. “Of course she doesn’t know what a damn fire is.”
“It… provides heat and light,” Filthy Rich said. “We can show you when we get there.”
Dawn hopped a huge hop. “Great! Let’s get going.”
A few more hours of travel later, the sun was starting to get low in the sky, and they finally reached the edge of the forest. As the Riches started rummaging around, Dawn stared into the forest. In the dusk light, it led down into dark paths, where the sunlight could not reach.
Dawn knew what that was like. The light of the sun didn’t touch everywhere underwater, the great forests of kelp, rocky underwater caves. Wild untamed places, far from the prying eyes of civilization.
Dawn Crest stepped into the shallows of the forest. She knew this kind of place. It was teeming with life, but she knew she could be alone here. She could see a few fish swimming above her, where she could not reach, in between the leaves of the kelp. She walked through, watching the splendor of nature.
Until she heard the whispers. She couldn’t make out what they were saying, but the hushed voice was familiar. She knew what was wrong, this forest wasn’t remote enough, and she strode further in, deeper into the dense foliage.
The whispers, however, followed her. She didn’t know what they were saying. She didn’t care. She didn’t want to care, so she took off at a trot. Behind her, ahead of her, always the whispers continued. She couldn’t escape them.
But she didn’t care what they had to say. About what they had to say about her mark. About her family. About her place in her family. She needed to escape it all, and her trot became a gallop. Faster and faster she ran, the last glimmers of sunlight fading in the deep woods, until she could hardly see her hooves in front of her.
Of course, she couldn’t see the ground either, so when it rather suddenly fell out from under her her, she fell forward, tumbling through the air for just a moment, and slammed on the thankfully soft ground.
She groaned as the world continued to spin from the ground. She tried to get up and almost immediately fell back down, her gut turning and churning. Pulling herself up into a sitting position, she glanced around at the faint patches of bluish light. The lights streaked and spun around the room.
Around here she could hear whispers and the rushing of waves. Something was here with her. Was it one of the guards? Some angry court rival? An assassin? She felt the presence draw close and she twisted around to flee, but the ground wasn’t done spinning, and she only leapt up to stumble and hit the ground again.
Something coarse was wrapped around her legs, and yanked. The world upended itself and the realization hit that this must have been the Queen’s agents. Taking her back, again, to use her for god only knows what. She thrashed and flailed, her hoof striking something with a firm knock, only to be rewarded with a knock to her head as well, and everything went dark.







Filthy Rich gingerly placed the last log onto his shelter. It was just a simple lean to, a log propped up on one tree at an angle with other logs forming a makeshift roof. It was simple, but he made it, and even if he had never built one before, he was sure it would be alright.
Looking over to his traveling companions, he saw the structure constructed by Sand Castle was much taller than his, and appeared to stand on its own. Underneath it there was a bed of leaves and greenery, that actually looked sorta soft.
Filthy looked back down at his own structure, and as if sensing his gaze, the larger log it was balanced on slid off it’s bracing tree, bringing the whole structure down. He breathed in deeply, let out a slow exhale, and plopped down on his butt.
A groan from behind him revealed that his wife had noticed, and he turned around. Her glare made it clear she wasn’t mad, just disappointed, as behind her a campfire grew. He smiled weakly, and changed the subject. “So, is Dawn sleeping off the berries somewhere?”
Spoiled’s grimace turned to curiosity. “No… is she in, uh, Castle’s structure?”
“I didn’t see her there… but…” He led the way over to Sand Castle, calling out his name.
Sand Castle turned to them, and reflexively said… something short in his language.
“Uh… Do you know where Dawn Crest is?” Filthy spoke slowly, as if that would help someone who doesn’t understand any words at all.
But, it apparently did just enough, as Castle responded. “Dawn Crest?”
Filthy nodded. “Yes! Yes.” He pantomimed looking around visibly. “Where is Dawn Crest?”
Castle looked just a little confused, and also looked around himself, calling out her name in his language. There was no response. Filthy and Spoiled Rich shared a concerned look, and the two of them started out canvassing the area to try to find her.
Filthy found hide nor hair of her. However, when inspecting the tree line, he saw that beyond the trees, there were broken branches. Broken branches happen all over the place, right?
But how many of them had a bright orange strand torn off in it.
Okay, so apparently he did find hair of her.
“Spoiled, Castle,” he called out, and the two of them joined him, and he held up the hair, and then looked back into the increasingly dark woods. “We would see her if she was out in the fields. But… we wouldn’t if she was down here.”
The three of them looked back at each other, then Sand Castle took a step forward into the darkness, only to be stopped by Filthy’s hoof. “We’ll need a source of light,” he said, and he picked up one of the thicker branches off of the ground, setting the top alight. It didn’t burn like he had seen torches burn, with the flames easily flowing over the tips, but it was burning, so he held it aloft in his mouth.
The three of them set off into the woods, Filthy Rich and his flickering light leading the way. The makeshift torch cast harsh shadows in the woods, and Filthy stepped quickly, but tried his best to keep his wits about him.
Beside him, Spoiled practically stomped down the path. “That filly has phenomenally bad timing. Wandering off, at night, into a damnable forest? What a moron.”
Filthy Rich sighed, the torch still in his mouth. He hated the way she said it, but they were in a pretty awful position, walking into this forest at night. This world already proved to be dangerous, and he was sure that this forest was no exception. He glanced over his wife and Sand Castle, trying to measure all of them up. He had a dagger tied around his midsection, and he knew his wife had one too, as well as a larger sword strapped to her side, all of which were claimed from the escape.
Sand Castle, though, had no weapons. None Filthy knew of, anyway. Unlike the two of them, Sand Castle wore full clothes, so he might have something hidden in his gear, but… what?
Filthy tried to say something, but he was muffled by the torch in his mouth, and instead he nudged his wife, who looked to him. Filthy motioned a hoof of his to the dagger he had tied to his midsection, and pointed to her, then to Sand Castle?
“What?” she whispered.
He pantomined drawing the dagger and passing it to Sand Castle.
She looked up and down the large earthbound pony, who was looking back with a confused look, and she drew and passed over her dagger to him, which he retrieved, grasping it with a hoof.
Sand Castle turned the knife over in his hoof, the blade reflecting the torchlight, and he brought it up to his mouth. The dagger was tiny in his rather large mouth, barely sticking out the side but he still nodded with a determined look on his face.
Filthy then looked around, taking a step one direction, before looking around again. He remembered the way they were coming, and he stepped forward across the clearing, finding that the next trace of Dawn was straight ahead.
“She’s went straight through these woods,” Spoiled said, stepping forward. “I’m not sure why, but at least it makes following her easy. Let’s go. We don’t know when or if she stops.”
They continued forward through the darkened forest at a faster pace. Around them the trees rustled. Filthy eyed them as they hustled through the forest. Was it animals? Monsters? Just the wind? He really hoped it was the latter of these, but he tried to put it out of his mind. The three of them were together, and hopefully they will find Dawn shortly and be able to fix that as well.
The sound of his wife’s voice and the touch of her hoof brought him out of his thoughts. “Hold on,” she said, holding out her hoof to stop him. “Look.” She motioned ahead and down. There was a steep drop off right here, with the ground below several feet down.
Filthy tried to say something, but he was still holding the torch. He grumbled from behind it. This was very frustrating. He needed to like strap it to his side or something, or be able to hold it with his hooves…
He very nearly smacked himself with those hooves, and set down the torch gingerly so the top wouldn’t touch the ground. With a word of power and a gesture, the increasingly familiar surge enveloped his hooves, and they glowed for a moment. “Okay!” He touched his hoof to the torch and held it aloft. “Do you think she fell down here?”
Spoiled peered down the cliff, trying to get a good view. Filthy reached out his hoof, stretching the torch extra far out. Spoiled looked back with a raised eyebrow, and Filthy smirked. He swore her eyes rolled before she went back and looked. “Yes. It looks like she fell down.”
Filthy looked down, dubious. “You think we can drop down?”
Spoiled Rich made a displeased noise. “I would be more worried about getting back up. But I suppose we could stack once the time comes. We don’t have much of an option. This is where Dawn fell and beyond it is where we would find her. So if we wanted to retrieve her...”
Her words hung in the air as she looked at Filthy pointedly, and Filthy came to understand what she didn’t say. They could leave without her. Not endanger themselves further in this forest. Maybe they could hope she comes back by herself, even, after falling off of this little ledge.
However... Dawn helped them out when they were in a hopeless situation, putting herself at risk when she absolutely did not need to. It would be awful of them to turn their backs on her now, and they didn’t even know that things were dangerous.
No. Filthy Rich was resolved. They would not be deterred by this pitfall. “Then let’s get going.” He looked back at Sand Castle, who was staring at the torch. Specifically where the torch stuck to his hoof, with a pale blue glow.
Filthy Rich winked and placed the torch back in his mouth, smiling. He sat down by the ledge and eased himself off of it, hitting the fortunately soft ground with a somewhat bracing thump.