//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: The 6 element seas // by Randomateverything //------------------------------// Princess Rainbow Dash walked the streets of Trottingham, she was accompanied by her two best friends, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, as well as her new bodyguard. He was a muscular white unicorn with a blue striped mane. His cutie mark depicted a blue shield with a purple star in the middle, and the blue stars above the shield. His name was Shining Armor. Queen Celestia had insisted the her daughter visit every town and city, even the small villages, in Equestria, so that she knew the land she would rule over, and for the last few days, that is exactly what she had been doing. "Princess Rainbow Dash, please, your mother instructed you to visit these towns and cities so that you could see your country and show yourself off to the public, not so that you could mess around at the beach." Shining Armor insisted, but he was ignored by the mare, Pinkie Pie, however, who was bouncing along merrily, turned around mid-bounce, and, whilst continuing to bounce backwards, looked him in the eye with a wide grin and said "Yeh, but Dashie's the Princess, so, she can go to the beach if she wants to, no-pony is gonna stop her, plus, don't the coastal lines count as part of Equestria. And besides, we're not even there yet, how do you know how long she'll take?" Then Pinkie Pie turned back around and continued to bounce along. "That may be, but Queen Celestia has carefully scheduled out where we are to go in each town, city and village, and the beach is not one of those places." "Be quiet, Shining, if I want to go to the beach, then I will go to the beach, I don't care what mother put on that schedule, I am not going to follow it, I will do this at my own pace, and my pace includes going to the beach to relax for a bit. Besides, you wouldn't tell her, would you?" Rainbow turned her head to the side slightly, and turned her eyes to look behind her, just enough so that he could see that she was staring directly at him "After all, you wouldn't want her to find out that you've had eyes on Princess Mi Amore Cadenza from the Crystal empire, now, would we?" Shining Armor tensed up, and his eyes widened with horror "You wouldn't." He croaked, he knew he was trapped, 'Damn, how did she know?' he thought "I won't tell if you don't tell." Rainbow smirked, she knew she had him, Shining gritted his teeth for a few moments before relenting "Fine, we never went to the beach, and I don't like Princess Cadance" "Ooh, she lets you call her that?" Her smirk grew bigger as Shining Armor blushed heavily, his white coat not hiding it in the slightest. "Well then, we're almost there. And don't worry Shining Armor, I've made sure that mother never goes into the West guest wing whenever Princess Cadance visits." Pinkie and Fluttershy thought that neither Rainbow's smirk, nor Shining Armor's blush could get any bigger, they found out just how wrong they were. "And look, here we are, Horse-shoe beach. Ponies say that there's a bay around here, hidden between the rocks, and only pirates know how to get there, from both land and sea. You can't see it from the sky, that's why no pegasus has ever reported it." "Dashie, you know that Pirates wouldn't dare come anywhere near Equestria, Queen Celestia would have them beheaded the moment she knew about them." Pinkie giggled "*sigh* Yeh, I know, still, it's nice to imagine it's real, don't you think? What about you Shining? What do you think the likely hood is that pirates actually do come to Equestria?" But Shining Armor didn't reply, Rainbow turned around, only to find him staring out across the beach at somepony, "Shining? Who are you looking at? Shining! I thought you liked the Crystal Princess, not...who is she anyway? You know her?...Shining!" Shining Armor snapped out of his thoughts and shook his head "Yes, Princess?" He asked, sheepishly, Rainbow sighed "I said, who is she? That purple unicorn you've been staring at for the last minute?" Rarity walked the streets of Trottingham, she had just been to the spa, and what a wonderful job they had done. She felt amazing. She had already tasked one of her crew-Star Hunter-to put the artifact on the black market. The artifact was said to have been used by the Burrowers as a form of ability enhancer, of course, nopony nowadays knew how to use it, as the last pony who did, died a little over 2000 years ago. The artifact could enhance the abilities of any creature who possessed it, as long as they knew how to use it, otherwise, it was just a gorgeous idol, crafted out of a metal called Damascus steel, a metal which, the secret to creating, had long been forgotten. The idol was made in the shape of a dragon, the beautiful wave pattern of the metal flowing along it's sides. It's wings were held out in a landing position, it's legs stretched out beneath it, ready to touch the ground. In each eye socket, there remained a beautiful emerald, each the size of a pea. Rarity sighed, several potential buyers had already made themselves know, all offering good prices, but none of them were enough, no amount worth the idol, and no amount enough to keep her mother's medicine going another month, the time it would take for her mother to be cured enough to stop taking the medicine. She sighed again, she had worked so hard to find and get that artifact, she had put aside so many other things, and other treasures she could have collected, because she thought that this artifact would give her the money to keep her mother on the medicine for 30 more doses. But alas, so far, not so good, she had been in Trottingham a few days already, and had restocked all her supplies with the remaining money from the last looting. She no longer had any money to pay the hospital where her mother was kept for more medicine, and if she didn't pay soon, then the hospital didn't have enough to afford the medicine for her mother. Only 3 more doses of medicine, that's all her mother had, but she needed another 27 doses on top of that. Rarity sighed a third time, just for dramatic effect. 'Oh woe is me' She thought 'Whatever am I to do?' She looked down at the ground, not caring if it would make her mane droop out of place, she could always go back to the spa tomorrow. She slowly trudged along the streets, down towards the beach. When she got there, she noticed that Twilight had already set up their sun beds and umbrellas. She was currently sitting on one of them and reading a book, as usual. Rarity trotted over to her, "Hello Twilight, aren't the others coming?" Twilight , having been to caught up in her book to notice Rarity approaching, jumped a bit, and looked up, "Oh, hello Captain, you startled me. Oh, yeh, the others are coming, they're just...well, you know them, Applejack and Octavia are probably overseeing Wooden Plank's work, Big Mac's with Red heart having his leg fixed, Spike's insisted that he clean up the ship with Bonbon, Star hunter's still at the black market and that just left Thunderlane and Braeburn to look after the fillies, and well, when you have those two idiots looking after those three...maybe I should have stayed to make sure they were okay, but I had to be here for when you came....I uh, have some information you might like to know." "What information?" "Princess Rainbow Dash is here, in Trottingham. They left the beach a while ago, but, uhh, well, her bodyguard is somepony I knew a long time ago." "The Princess is here? What about Queen Celestia, or Princess Luna?" "As far as I know, they aren't here. It's just princess Rainbow Dash with a bodyguard and two mares, who I presume are her hoof-maidens." Twilight's eyes shifted around a bit "You said you knew her body guard? How?" "Well, I-I, uh, well" Twilight was struggling, she didn't want to admit the truth, "Twilight?" Rarity looked concerned, Twilight waved a hoof, took a deep breath in, and let it out "He, he's my brother, I haven't seen him in years." "Your brother! Your brother is part of the royal guard? Why didn't you tell me this?" "I didn't think it was that important, he doesn't know I'm a pirate, and, well, he was only a new recruit when I left. I didn't think he'd get to become the princess's Royal body guard!" "You could have at least informed me that he was part of the guard! Ohhh! Does he know you're here?" "No, I'm sure that if he had, he would have come up to me. I ran away from home years ago, there's no way he'd pass up the chance to see me after all those years. I'm pretty sure I had my family thinking I was dead." "Right, well, that's okay then, you'll just have to be more careful. Do you know why Princess Rainbow Dash is here?" "No, but while they were here they just relaxed on the beach. I heard some ponies mention that she turned 15 not long ago. And, when prince or princess turns 15, they get a public coronation, and they travel around the country they live in so they know everything they'll rule over. That could be why she's here." "Ok, that means she's not aware of us, nor is the Queen, that's good, but, it also means we'll have to get moving as soon as possible." Twilight nodded in response, then went back to reading her book. Rarity sat down on the other sun bed, pulled a pair of sunglasses on, lay back, and started to sunbathe.