//------------------------------//
// A Rich Thirsty Walk 
// Story: A Rich Everglow Adventure 
// by RadicalDishonesty 
//------------------------------//

The party trudged their way out of the forest, coming out in a new location. Filthy Rich surveyed the land, dimly lit by moonlight. It was probably on the same side of the forest as they were before, but it was too dark and he was too exhausted to tell.
He couldn’t see any smoke, but he knew there was fire, and they trudged far out of the treeline, by some rocks, to make sure that the fire couldn’t spread. At least not easily.
Spoiled was the first to collapse down to the ground, exhaling deeply. Sand Castle let Dawn down gently, staying up, and Filthy Rich allowed himself to come down next to his wife.
The enormity of the whole night came down on him like a crash. His body ached both with exhaustion and with no doubt bruises from where he was struck by the various plant monsters tonight. And not only plant monsters, but also the plant… woman. The now-most-certainly-dead plant woman. A sour feeling welled up in him. He burnt her. He might not have done the final blow, but he burnt her so many times. He undoubtedly contributed to her death. He probably contributed the most. So even though Spoiled snuck around, and Sand Castle had proven himself to be tough, Filthy felt he was responsible for this death. The death of a thinking, feeling, intelligent creature.
… But she was trying to kill them. She was. She had even followed them. She could have left them alone, let them escape.
He looked over to Spoiled. That was the same logic she used back in the cave, when he asked them to patch up the slavers who attacked them. But they… they had the power to tie them up and leave. This fight didn’t… really have the chance to do that, did they?
Was the situation really that different? Or was he just telling himself that...
“So.” Spoiled broke the silence. “Dawn, are you sufficiently sober to hold a conversation?”
A moment’s pause, and a small “yes” came from Dawn, on the ground.
“Good,” Spoiled pulled herself up and walked over to Dawn, looking down on her. She took a deep breath and… “Just what exactly were you doing?!”
Dawn cringed away. “I-I…”
“You got yourself high on some sort of berries, then pranced around into the deepest darkest corners of a forest in the middle of the night, and almost get all of us killed.”
Dawn shrank away further.  “S-so--”
“And to make matters worse, it’s not like you contributed to the battle, since you were weak from bloodloss and your own stupidity.”
“Spoiled,” Filthy said, starting to pull himself up, despite his soreness.
“In fact,” Spoiled began to shout. “Maybe we should have just left you there to die. It would have served you right--”
“Spoiled!” Filthy spun Spoiled around with a hoof. “What are you doing?”
She brought herself up to her husband, gritting her teeth. “I am making sure this mistake will not happen again.”
“Is that what this is?” Filthy stepped back. “Because it looks an awful lot like you’re just taking out your frustrations on her.”
“My justified frustrations,” Spoiled said. “She nearly got the lot of us killed tonight.”
“The plant monsters almost got us killed, Spoiled. She was loopy from berries and we didn’t even make an effort to watch her.”
“Well she shouldn’t have been eating them in the first place! We had no idea if they were safe.”
“No, but neither did she. None of us knew what was safe or unsafe! The issue was that there just happened to be monsters in the forest, accidentally eating unsafe berries is hardly an issue on it’s own.”
Spoiled opened her mouth to continue, but was interrupted. 
“I’m sorry.” The two of them looked down at Dawn Crest, who breathed a heavy breath. “I’m… sorry. I should have known better. I don’t know enough about the land… I should have been careful, and I wasn’t. And you’re right, this is all my--” her voice faltered. “My fault.”
Sand Castle leaned down, a concerned look on his face, and he softly said some words in the seapony language. Dawn responded with a few words, and he leaned back up, his worry not abated.
Spoiled and Filthy shared a look, and Filthy steeled himself, giving her a look.
She rolled her eyes and looked away. She wouldn’t pursue this, but he was sure it wasn’t done.
That was fine. “Then let’s all get some sleep.”
One by one they all laid down, and the exhaustion of the night caught up with them.








Filthy woke up to aching. His legs ached, his neck ached, but most importantly, his side ached where the monster last night landed the worst blows. He cracked his eyes open. Morning was in swing, but he didn't want to move. A day laying down would be perfect, right about now. Then his stomach grumbled. It had been more than a day now, since he ate. Food was necessary, and nobody would come around to serve it to him today.
So he wrenched himself up. His companions were still asleep, but the sun was in the sky and the birds were chirping. He cast his eyes over the forest they were on the edge of. The fire apparently did not spread very far, as there was no smoke or light. But this was still the forest with the plant monsters in it, and they had to leave. He nudged his wife, and she began to stir, and his shuffling started to rouse the sea ponies.
Dawn pulled herself up and said something in the sea pony language.
Filthy Rich tilted his head. “What was that?”
“Ah,” she said, transitioning to the language Filthy was familiar with. “I said… I feel drier than I ever have. My throat feels it, too.”
Filthy made a face. “You never had to worry about drinking before, did you?”
“Drinking? I mean we… swallow water when under it, but... “ She looked around, her eyes wide with realization. “Oh no. Up here you… you could go weeks without seeing water, and not drinking in that time.”
“Hmph. not likely.” Spoiled’s voice rang up from the ground, as she stood up. “You die if you don’t drink for a few days.”
Dawn Crest blanched. “Oh… that’s no good.”
Filthy clopped his hooves together and, ignoring his sore body, stood up. “So, that means our first order of business is to find water. Then find food.”
Nods were exchanged, and the plan was set.









The four of them walked in silence for a long while. The direction was chosen mostly at random. After the adventure in the forest, nobody had any useful bearings anymore. They chose a landmark, somewhat in the distance, that appeared to be a raised hill, and had decided to use that as a vantage point. Almost any water would be better than nothing.
So they walked. And there was quiet. For a while, at least.
“So,” Dawn piped up, hopping up into the air a little. “Filthy!”
Filthy looked to her, a little surprised at her tone. “... Yes?”
“For how long have you known how to use magic?” she said, chipper as two days ago. She wiggled her eyebrows. “How long were you sitting on that before the escape?”
“I… well…” There’s no real secret in this, he figured. “I figured out I had them during the escape itself. I didn’t even believe that… I had no idea I could use magic in that way. That it was even possible.”
She laughed. “Awesome. There’s no better time than to awaken to hidden magical powers than the absolute moment you need them.”
Spoiled made a displeased noise. “Yes. A convenient coincidence, isn’t it?”
Filthy smiled to hide his grit teeth. “Of course. It made the escape possible, didn’t it?”
Spoiled simply snorted.
“Maybe it’s not so coincidental,” Dawn said. “Does it run in the family?”
Filthy blinked. “Does… what run in the family?”
“Magic powers. Do they run in the family?”
“I… no,” he said. “I don’t have any unicorn in my family. Not that I know of, anyway.”
“I’m just sayin’.” Dawn shrugged. “You don’t have a book or anything, and you don’t seem like you pray to any gods, and some people are just… born magical, and it tends to run in the family.”
“Born with magic?” Spoiled Rich looked to her husband, her gaze like daggers. “As in just something he… has, at random? Powerful useful magic?”
Filthy Rich wondered what exactly she was getting at. The powers were obviously good, and he opened his mouth, only to be interrupted by Dawn. “Sorcerers. We have em down underwater. Just every once in a while someone’s born with magical powers and doesn’t have to study or dedicate themselves to anything to get them.” She looked back, a very broad smile on. “Pretty lucky, huh?”
“Yeah,” Spoiled Rich said, venomously. “Lucky.”
Filthy Rich snorted. If she wanted to be in a foul mood about something, she could be. 
Dawn piped up again. “So what kinda powers do you have?”
Filthy tried to keep his lips from twisting up in a smirk, but didn’t try very hard. “Well, I could arrange for a demonstra--”
“He’s got what you saw last night,” Spoiled Rich said, interrupting him. “And didn’t you run out rather abruptly in the middle of a fight?”
“We’re hardly in danger now, dear, are we?”
“We literally got in a terrifying fight after we thought we were done traveling last night, honey,” Spoiled spat back. “I think until we actually are sure we are safe, it’s a bad idea to exhaust whatever that is, if even you still can.”
Filthy snorted again. Exhaust his powers? No, he clearly felt them humming beneath the surface. He did, right? He stopped walking to hold up his hoof and pointed it away from him. He willed the energy to his hoof, creating a small beam that wound up blasting a small patch of dirt up.
“Nope,” he said, staring at his wife. “Still there.”
These were his powers to command, he added, inwardly.










They reached the top of the hill right as the sun crested it’s highest, hottest point. Filthy Rich knew he was hungry, but the hunger pangs had subsided, for now. Thirst was worst, and he knew they needed to find some source of water, but that it must not be too far away. Animals survived in places like this, finding water, right?
He looked out onto the vista. He could see what he thought was the coast to one direction. They might be well served to go back, as following the coast would naturally find them at a river sooner or later. Or maybe a city, if this world… even had cities.
The familiar Canterhorn was missing, instead to the left there was a smoking mountain. He could see the forest they came from from here too. He kept scanning the horizon, there must be something in the area, but there was a lot of area to scan.
“Filthy!”
He turned to face Dawn, who was calling for him.
“Here, I see… something!”
Filthy blinked a little as she pointed excitedly, but came over to her.
“I see… I thought I see some water? But… okay, look.” She stood closer to Filthy and pointed out on it. “See there? There are a buncha trees, but they stop, and there are more on the other side? I think I saw water...”
Filthy Rich held himself up, standing up on his hind legs. What must have been a river cut out to the… was it east? Was it south? He wasn’t paying attention to the sun, and it’s not obvious today. But what was important, was…
“A river.”
“Is that what they’re called? Is that a normal thing?”
There was a snort from behind him. “Of course it is. Without water life would have a hard time springing up,” Spoiled Said, walking up, taking the same height. “Looks like you’re right.”
Dawn smiled, a little too broadly. “Great! Let’s go!” She immediately hopped up, trotting down the hill. “Rivers are cool!”
Filthy and Spoiled shared a look of bewilderment at the… strange reaction to belittling Dawn had, though. They looked at Sand Castle, as if he has some answers, and he blinked back at them, either as shocked as they are, or nervous from the staring.
“Do you think, in addition to being simpering, he’s a simpleton too?” Spoiled said, casually.
“Spoiled!” Filthy admonished.
She waved a hoof and began walking the same direction as Dawn. “Oh, it’s not like it’s going to insult him. He can’t understand us, remember?”
Filthy followed after her. “That doesn’t make it alright. It’s still disrespectful.”
Spoiled continued forward, not apparently paying attention to his concerns, and he snorted.
Sand Castle started back up, catching up with Dawn Crest, apparently none the wiser, Filthy noticed, to his displeasure.







It was late in the day when they reached the river. And what a river. He couldn’t see it too well from the hill, but he was more suspecting a small river, but instead this was a very large one, with beautiful clear water and foliage lining it.
Filthy walked straight up to the river, nearly dunking his head in. He hadn’t realized just how… thirsty he was, and he drank the delicious cool water greedily. He pulled his head out of the water with a sated ahh sound, after he was done.
The sea ponies both almost immediately dove into the water, reveling in swimming, and Filthy sat down, looking around. Trees and verdant grasses. With water covered, he wondered if any of the grasses or flowers nearby were edible. It wouldn’t be a treat, but it would be food.
But for now, things seem like they’re looking up, and as he scanned the area there was more to come, as coming down the river to them was a broad flat ship.