Finally, the group reached a natural pitstop: a big waterhole, just over the next hill.

"FINALLY!", shouted out Keshuff in excitement, "I can finally quench my thirst!"

"As can I", added Faris.

"Time for some wet and wild fun!", exclaimed Griffy.

"Yeah baby!", shouted Spike.

"Time for a beauty bath!", said Rarity with joy.

"Time to replennish my fluid levels!", said Rainbow, "I'll need it for speed"

"We can play splash games!", squeeled Pinkie with happiness.

As the 11 Beings reached the top of the hill, they were all expecting to see a really big source of cool fresh water the size of Ponyville's park. But when they got to the top, they saw something that shocked them gratefully: the huge, Ponyville park-sized waterhole was dried up, not a trace of water left. The thing that remained were a few boulders, a whole coating of sandy dust and a few bones.

"How could I have been so ignorant?", growled Faris outloud, smaking his hoof onto his face, "It is the middle of the dry season"

They all just sighed.

"Keep your spirits up!", anounced Faris, "Sandorraia is only a few more miles away from this area, KEEP MOVING!". And he started moving along the edge of the dried-up waterhole.

"Faris!", complained Keshuff, trying his best to catch up with the determined Gemsbok, "No outlander, not even us Tarko natives have gone this far without water. We may lose some of our friends here"

"Well to bad for them", growled Faris, "Most of them are Ponies"

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The 8 friends could not believe that the usual water in this area was gone for the season. They all then noticed poor Polish dragging himself into the dried-out waterhole, moaning to himself: "I've visited this area before, while I was lost, and I could have sworn that I found a bit of h20 here"

The 8 friends followed Polish into the dried-out waterhole, trying to tell to keep moving along. Suddenly, Applejack got a little frustrated that there was no water that she stimped as hard as she could on the ground. All of a sudden, that stomp she made with her natural Earth Pony strength made a strange, liquid-sounding rumble course through the ground of the waterhole.

"Wait a minute!", said Griffy, "AJ, don't move!"

"What in tarnation's goin' on?", asked AJ.

"I think I know what's being attempted here", interjected Twilight, "Zecora told me about a technique she and other large herbivores do back in her savannah homeland whenever water is seemingly missing"

Applejack dug a little deeper in the ground, making a small hole, and then pressed down, just as she had seen Zecora the Zebra do. All of a sudden, water, trapped underneath the surface, emerged, getting AJ's hoof wet.

"WATER!", shouted out the 8 friends and Polish in joy, "HEY! FARIS! KESHUFF! WE FOUND WATER!"

The two locals were still moving, Keshuff trying to talk Faris out of believing that Ponies were bad. When they both heard the "outlanders" calling out that they had found water, they both got really excited and raced over to the group. The 11 Creatures all drank the water like crazy, chugging the liquid down as fast as they all could. The water was little dusty, but that did not enitirely matter to the group.

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Meanwhile, that mysterious gigantic Bird from earlier that is tracking down our heroes got a some some of message warped into his brain, from Terrorixie (Trixie posessed by Kurayami): Be sure to make it to Sandorraia before the heroes do and pretend that you are not there

"Yes master", replied the huge, Eagle-like Bird, "And maybe I will get Celestia to care for me again. You sure that all this evil activity will get me back my reputation in Canterlot?"

"You have my word", spoke the voice of Terrorixie inside the huge Bird-of-Prey's head.

To Be Continued