Survival Island

"Finding water is the priority," Dusk said, "Not everypony is up yet and Griff decided to stay up all night. Now that he's finally getting some sleep, somepony needs to stay behind and watch over them. We were thinking you could while we go and try to find some water."

Scroll wakes up only to remember the events of last night, with a groan of ghost burrs still in his mane he sat up. Hearing the others discuss the water situation he grinned, "I found a spring in the forest, I'd lead you there if it wasn't so dark out when saw it."

He sat up and walked over to Rebel innocently, "Oh look your armor!" He said with a teasing gasp.

Rebel looked to Scroll, irritated. "Please, do not annoy me…" She sighs and sat down. "That armor was made for me by my best friend…It's a bit special to me." She glared at Scroll, giving him the hint not to be a jerk and mess around about her armor. She drew her sword and innocently began sharpening it with a rock.

"Wait, you found a spring? Can you lead us to it now?" Dusk asked, glad they hopefully wouldn't have to search the whole island.

"How's a spring going to help us find water?" Wisp asked completely clueless as she tried to imagine how a coiled piece of metal would get them water.

Oliver just shrugged at being yelled at by the mare. "I was just trying to wake you up." He listened to the others talking, but when he heard what Wisp said, he walked over to her. "A spring is water, Wisp. It's probably the most useful to use then what we might find else where. Come on. We should head out. We don't want to get caught in the forest in the night, no telling what's in here." He said, walking over to the forest line and waited for the others.

Dusk never thought he'd hear that kind of question from a pony, but he wasn't going to be mean or anything about it. He figured he'd elaborate a bit more on Oliver's explanation "As Oliver said, Scroll means something like a spring of water. You know, how a well gets water from underground, only a spring is where that water comes to the surface on its own, often forming a river or a stream. At least I think that's how it works. Either way, it's a source of fresh water."

Before Dusk wanted to go, he wanted to know what the Thestral's name was. "Um, pardon me for asking, but could you remind me of your name? I must've missed it somewhere."

Wisp made an exaggerated 'Ohh' expression before moving to follow Oliver into the woods and join in the search. Whether or not she was embarrassed didn't show past the gleeful expression on her face as the trip began.

"You'll need me there too!" Scroll exclaimed as he began after them, he paused and turned to Rebel, "You know you should check near your bag, I was being literal when I said: 'oh look your armor'" he walked away with a bit more of a spring in his step, next to the bag she would find a mostly complete set of armor, he saw that it matched her armor, so he placed any piece he could find late at night near it. He couldn't sleep even after being so tired, so thought it was a good thing to do.

He foraged into the woods by Oliver and Wisp.

"My name is Rebel Blade…" She trailed off, and gasped in surprise at wat Scroll said as she went to her bag and immeadiately began putting on the armor. Se was glad to see she was only missing the back hoof armor as she put on the helmet. She sat down by the ashes of the fire and yawned, rubbing sleep out of her eyes. She turned to thank Scroll but he was already gone.

"Come on Dusk!" Oliver yelled behind him at Dusk as him, Wisp, and Scroll walked into the forest. "Okay Scroll. Mind leading the way to the spring you found? We have...," He trailed off looking at the sky to she where the sun was. "About three to four hours before high noon. We will also have to catch or cook some fish to eat."

Scroll frowned, "Or somepony could go back and have a few begin cooking fish, while we get the water, so we can have them both together?" Allowing the thought to settle he quickly continued, "It's only up ahead somewhere, I can almost see the steam from here, it was a HOT spring mind you. But hot fresh water isn't as bad as no fresh water."

Dusk followed after Oliver and the others as soon as Rebel went to get her armor. Though a little late in joining the group, he did catch what Scroll said.

"Wait, a hot spring?" Dusk said. He felt his enthusiasm from earlier vanish a bit. "I think the only thing that water might be good for is relaxing in, supposing it isn't hot enough to boil us alive. I mean, I'll be thankful if it is drinkable, but I doubt it will be. There's probably heavy amounts of minerals in it, and maybe even bacteria and stuff growing in it. It might be better to drink seawater than that." Dusk hated sounding like a pessimist, but he felt he needed to stay grounded in reality.

Wisp looked over to Dusk with a freshly confused expression as they walked. "Why would minerals make water bad? And springs can be hot?" Wisp asked as the mental image of a coiled spring made of stone over a fire filled her mind. She thought for a few more moments before a newer memory surfaced, one from her brief time in Ponyville. "Wait, would it be like the hot baths at a spa?"

"Yes, it's like the hot baths at a spa. Only this could be so hot that it boils us alive in a matter of moments, thanks to the possibly high mineral content, which could be more than what seawater has and would only dehydrate us more if we drank it. Plus, who knows what could be growing in it. If it turns out it is safe to be in and drink, I will be pleasantly surprised," Dusk said.

"How can we tell if it's safe?" Wisp asked next. Still very curious about how water could actually be dangerous. After all, up to this point she hadn't really known water could come from underground, or be naturally hot, let alone dangerous to drink.

Dang, she has a lot of questions, Dusk thought, but he thought he might as well be nice and answer them.

"Well, you can kinda tell by how it looks. If it's murky and stagnant, then it's less likely to be good. Running, clear water is much more likely to be good. Ultimately you have to smell and taste it. As a rule, if it smells or tastes funny, it's bad."

"It didn't look like it killed ponies." He stated flatly, "A spring in the wilds is usually a pool of water that is pumped up from deep underground, a HOT spring, is a much warmer version of a spring. A GYSER however is usually boiling hot water. The water from the spring I saw however was steaming. So I'm sure that it's very clean water. And I didn't smell and sulphur either. So no gases are going to kill us. I could describe in great depth about water, but at this point I'm just thirsty."

He huffed waiting for the ponies to follow, looking for steam in the air.

Oliver followed close behind, but didn't say anything. He stayed close to the group and was prepared to attack if something sneaked up on them. "Um...After we get some water, do you think we should explore more towards the middle of the island?" He suddenly asked, looking up at the ponies.

"That sounds like it could be fun," Wisp piped up looking over happily to Oliver. "What do you think we could find?" She asked in a followup question that was laced with curiosity. "What all can there be on an unknown island?"

"Alright, I'll take your word for it," Dusk said to Scroll. After Oliver asked if they should explore the middle of the island, and he heard Wisp's reply, Dusk said, "I don't mind exploring a little more, and I'll be glad if we find food other than fish. Fish is not my favorite."

Oliver looked over at Scroll. "You take the lead. You know where the spring is after all." He said, gesturing for him to go first. "I'll stay in the back and guard our rear." He made his way towards the back of the group, looking around sharply. The drew his sword and stood at the ready if something attacked.

Scroll shrugs and moves deeper into the forest, wandering around until he spots steam in the distance, he tells everypony what he sees and begins moving towards it, the group stumbles upon a hot spring, with fresh clean water as Scroll begins chuckling, "Oh I LOVE it! Haha! We got water!" He exclaims as he bounces around.

Dusk soon walked up to the hot spring. He saw the water was quite clear, and it didn't look bad to drink. He soon stuck a hoof in it, finding it wasn't boiling hot. It actually seemed like a natural hot tub. He then gave the water a taste, and was rather surprised that, although it was hot, it was drinkable.

"Okay, the water's good. Anypony have anything to carry some in?" Dusk asked.

"Why do we have to move it?" Wisp asked looking curiously at the spring. "Why don't we just move to the water? The beds we made are really light and such, we could just move them over here," she suggested looking about the area for something of a clearing where the beds could be put. She was also looking for any signs of food like the few fruits she'd seen growing on trees before