//------------------------------// // Chapter 10: Manehattan // Story: Game of Harmony // by CommanderApplejack //------------------------------// Chapter 10 Manehattan "Where do you think we can get passage to the other side, Twi?" Rainbow asked as the group had found a spot overlooking Phillydelphia's harbor, the captain of the ship that had brought them here didn't want to try crossing the straight over to the empire as he didn't fancy his ship to be destroyed by either unicorn or earthpony warships. "It's not going to be the earth kingdom, if they're caught ferrying us over it'll give the Empire a valid casus belli against them." Twilight sighed as she levitated out the bag with the group's remaining coins. "We're going to need to find a smuggler to transport us to the other side." "That's gonna be darn expensive ain't it?" Applejack surmised, Twilight sighed and nodded. They would probably have enough to make the passage but that would leave them without any money to buy a lot of supplies, but, that was a problem Twilight had already figured a solution for even though what she had thought up might be... divisive. "We have enough funds to get to the other side but we might have to forage if we get unlucky with the ferry fee is on the high end," Twilight said explained while looking over the docks' storehouses to see if there were any cafes that might house anypony who could ferry them over. "We should split up to find a captain that's willing to take us." Moonlight suggested while the disguised changeling was huddling up against her, Twilight approving of the suggestion. "We'll split into two groups though we should be careful, the places we're bound to find the ponies we need are probably not going to be the safest places in the city," Twilight said as she stood up and started pointing at ponies, "Moonlight, Amber, and I will form one group and Cherry, AJ, Apple Bloom, Dash, and Scootaloo the other." "So, where and when are we going to meet back up?" Cherry asked as the group also needed to find a place to sleep for the night. "An hour after nightfall, if we haven't found a captain to take us by then we're going to try again tomorrow," Twilight answered, the earthpony soldier nodding in agreement, "In that case, we should get going. We'll see each other again in a few hours." With that, the group split into two and they both made for a different section of the docks, the clean appearance maintained by the earthpony navy quickly faltering as they got into the civilian area of the harbor. "We should start at one of the pubs along the docks, even if they don't have anypony in there that can get us over they might still be able to point us to somewhere that does." Moonlight suggested as she made her way towards one of the establishments, Amber staying as close to the bat pony as she possibly could but Twilight faltered. "Uhm, Twilight are you coming?" Twilight looked slightly guilty as she made her next suggestion, "We need to cover your eyes if we're going to get anywhere, Moonlight, they might scare off anypony who would be able to get us across." The bat pony stood still for a moment as she contemplated Twilight's remark and then responded in a way the unicorn didn't expect. "Okay." "Wait, you're okay with possibly meeting criminals with a blindfold on?!" Twilight gasped at which Moonlight just shrugged and tore a strip of cloth off her cloak and bound it around her head. "I'll just act as if I'm a blind pony and don't worry I'll make it work," Moonlight said as she motioned for Twilight to lead the way, "Amber'll guide me after you." "O-okay," Twilight stuttered in amazement but started moving to a pub anyway. The moment they entered the building the entire room went silent, all of the earthponies looking at the unexpected new arrivals. Moonlight seemed to care only a little as the decently disguised bat pony somehow made it to the counter. "Two beer please," She asked as Twilight and Amber sat down next to her, a murmur going through the pup and just as fast as Moonlight had taken a seat she had left and suddenly stood behind Twilight. "Not one more step." Color drained from Twilight's face as she saw two earthpony stallions with large knives that had been silently approaching from behind. How did she know they were coming?! She's wearing a blindfold! "Step out of the way, we have no interest in killing a blind pony." The largest of the two growled but the bat pony didn't budge an inch. "I'm afraid you won't be killing anypony today." She calmly stated, the entire pub was now attentively looking at how this was going to be resolved. The large stallion rolled his eyes and laughed as he tried to push past Moonlight, only what happened next was something no-one expected. Instead of being pushed aside Moonlight stepped to the side and took a hold of the stallion's foreleg, throwing him to the side. Not giving the second stallion a chance to respond she charged him, ducking below a panicked swing from the knife the second stallion, turned around and bucked the stallion in the ribs. The pub was engulfed by silence once more as the supposed blind pony strolled back to the counter and took a gulp from her beer before turning back towards the two stallions. "I suggest you two leave now." She stated as they got back onto their hooves, flashing a knife of her own. The two stallions glancing at each other nervously before slowly backing off and making a run for the door. "Well, that was interesting." Moonlight muttered as she turned back to her mug of beer, Twilight along with more than one of the earthponies were staring at her slack-jawed. "H-how..." Twilight stuttered as her brain was trying to make a coherent sentence. "I've got my secrets, Twilight." Moonlight simply responded as she continued taking gulps from her pint, conversation slowly starting up again although the pub as nopony else dared to approach them. Waiting for another fifteen minutes Moonlight decided to call over the barkeep since Twilight still seemed to be broken and Amber wasn't one to start talking to strangers. "Do you know anypony who might be able to ferry us to the other side of the straight, barkeep?" Moonlight asked the seemingly nervous stallion stood at the other end of the counter. "Ya'd have ta ask Flint Gravel, the pony in the corner over there, Ah'm not concerned with business like that." He told Moonlight who nodded and threw a couple of coins onto the counter only for them to be pushed back by the barkeeper, "It's on the house if ya get yer business done and leave as quick as possible." "We will, thank you." Moonlight said as she dragged along the unicorn to the corner of the bar that gave a good overview of the entire establishment, even though it was sure she couldn't see the earthpony she still managed to somehow 'see him'. "Flint Gravel?" The old earthpony looking inquisitively at the three ponies who had approached him, "We were told you could help us with a problem of ours." "That depends on the problem." He responded, his voice a low rumble as he pointed at the chairs on the opposing side of the table. The trio taking a seat as the stallion clearly wasn't going to continue otherwise. "So, what do you need?" "Passage across the straight for six mares and two fillies." Twilight being the first one to respond as her brain had finally rebooted, Flint studied the three ponies in front of him to see if they were trying to scam him in any way. "I see, that's gonna cost a hefty sum of money..." He stopped for a moment, pondering if he really wanted to ask what he was about to. "...Unless you're willing to do me a favor." He added as he tried to gauge the trio's reaction. Twilight looked at Moonlight who 'looked' back at her and nodded. "What might that favor be?" Twilight carefully asked, the stallion smiling slightly as the three seemed to be willing to do his work for him. "I need a package to be delivered to Manehattan, since you'll probably be stopping there at the very least, you might be the ponies for the job and if your blind friend's demonstration showed anything." Twilight thought for a moment but came to the conclusion that even if the others found a captain to take them over none would do it for a price that fell within their budget. "I need to speak to my companions to see if they agree, where can we find you if we do?" "Find the Ranger, she's docked at pier seven. If your group is not there before tomorrow evening the deal's off and we'll be gone." He said, getting off his chair and slowly strolled to the door. "I'll see you there... or not, I'm leaving regardless." Moonlight, Twilight, and Amber quickly departed after the old stallion had left, making their way to the point where they had promised to meet back up with the others. The sun was nearly completely below the horizon as they arrived, the other group not having reached the location yet as they sat down on a stone bench. "So, Moonlight, are you going to take off that blindfold now?" "Oh, yeah. I almost forgot," Twilight stared at the bat pony as she undid the piece of cloth and stashed it into her saddlebag, blinking her eyes as she got used to the quickly dimming light. "Wow, that's much more disorienting than I remember." She said as she looked at the two friends that accompanied her, both Amber and Twilight staring at her. "You want an explanation, don't you?" She deadpanned. "That would be appreciated," Surprisingly, Amber instead of Twilight asked the question. The changeling cringing as Moonlight looked at her charge and smirked. "Echolocation," She answered, "The tone is so high that your ears can't pick it up, if you could it would sound something like this." She opened her mouth, her canines on full display. "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" "STOP IT!" Moonlight immediately stopped at hearing the voice coming from the side, Rainbow, AJ, Cherry, Bloom, and Scootaloo all clutching their ears. "What in tartarus was that?!" Rainbow groaned from her position on the ground. "Uhm, oops?" Moonlight sheepily said as she noticed every one of her friends lying on the ground. "We'll explain later. First I want to know if you girls found a captain to take us." Twilight interupted, Cherry shaking her head. "We found one that wanted to take us but his rates were far to high for us to afford." The earthpony answered as she sat down on another bench next to the one Twilight and Amber were sitting on. "You three have any luck?" "We found a captain who wants to take us over as long as we... do him a favour." Twilight answered, "I wanted to talk to you girls first before deciding to take it." "What kind of 'favour' did he want us to do?" Cherry asked suspiciously. “He wants us to deliver a package to somepony in Manehattan, though it sounded as if that pony was important to him.” Twilight answered, the earthpony looking at the others. Dash and Scootaloo shrugged, while Applejack and Apple Bloom nodded, hearing this Cherry turned back to Twilight. “So where do we have to go?” ”Stay low and don’t make a sound, the water carries your voice farther than land does.” Flint said, the boat they were on was floating near the shore of the Empire. The earthpony had taken them on board the moment they had arrived at the dock where the Ranger was located and they had left the next evening. ”Where’s the package you wanted delivered?” Twilight whispered as the group quietly lowered a rowing boat into the water. Flint grabbed a watertight package and passed it to Twilight who picked it up in her magic, only for Flint to quickly hit her horn making her drop it again. ”Are you STUPID? They can see that light coming from that stick for miles!” He hissed, ”Use your hooves.” Twilight picked up the package with her hooves at the scolding and placed it into her saddlebag, ”So who is this supposed to be for?“ ”I need to get that to my organizer on this side of the straight, since I don’t usually take anypony to this side I don’t get to send her a lot of messages.” Flint took out a letter that was also protectively encased, ”Burn that the moment you’ve read it, she is instrumental in ensuring safe passage across the strait.” Twilight looked at the encased scroll and gently added it to her backpack, ”I will get it to her, I swear.” ”Good, when you meet her don’t let your preconceptions judge her. She’s made the lives of a lot of earthponies, and unicorns for that matter, a lot better.” He told Twilight as the unicorn stepped into the rowing boat, ”You’ll find a group of earthponies at the shore, I was supposed to pick them up before you approached me. They might be a bit skittish around unicorns so make sure they don’t bolt when they see you, I can’t come back for them if they do.” With that he pushed off the boat and waved before the darkness swallowed him and only the outline of the ship could vaguely be seen, Applejack and Rainbow Dash meanwhile had started rowing to the shore. After a couple of minutes of rowing as silently as possible the boat ran ashore, the faint outlines of a group of ponies a bit further ahead on the beach. ”There’s the group of earthponies.” Cherry whispered as she secured one of the cloaks they had bought to hide the armor they were wearing. The earthpony group had also spotted the boat coming ashore and were running towards the boat, skidding to a halt the moment the came close enough to notice Twilight standing among the group. Their eyes went wide open as they probably thought they had been set up and they slowly started backing up. ”Shh, it’s okay, we’re not with them.” Twilight whispered at the group who still suspiciously eyed the group that had just landed, ”The ship is anchored over there, head straight out and you’ll be able to spot its outline against the horizon.” ”T-thank you,” The lead earthpony said as she motioned for her group to board. The group consisted of a stallion three mares and two fillies quickly stepped aboard the boat, the small fillies gawking at Rainbow as she strapped on her extendable blade and tested it. Rainbow noticing the attention smiled a bit and ruffled the mane of one of the kids, ”Good luck on the other side all of you.” The earthponies watched as the strange group of ponies helped push the boat into the waves and into the open water where the group began rowing towards the faint outline of the ship further up. The companions waited for the boat to get some distance before finally turning and heading inland as to avoid accidentally running into a patrol, after that they'd turn and travel towards the city and would attempt to enter. "So how are you going to get inside? Can you teleport?" Rainbow asked, she and Moonlight would be able to fly over the wall but the others would have to find an alternative entrance into the city. "Teleportation is out, there are wards avoiding it and even if I figured out how to circumvent those the teleport would still be detected," Twilight answered as she looked at the wall to see if there were places they could enter, "If we find out how to destroy the metal grid in one of the wall's drains we can enter there." "I can do that," Amber answered, surprising the others as they looked at the disguised changeling. She cringed back as she realized that everypony curiously looking at her. "And how are you planning to do that exactly?" Rainbow asked skeptically, though not as hostile as she initially had been she still didn't fully trust the disguised creature. Amber looked at the ground and spit out a small glob of green goo that immediately sizzled and burned into the ground, "I'll need some extra food but I can burn through the metal." Twilight looked at the newest member of the companionship with a small smile, "We'll wait until nightfall before breaching into the city." She decided as the group pulled back into their hideout in the field of grain that surrounded the city. Seeing that they would have to wait for at least another hour Twilight decided to pull out the letter she had gotten from Flint Gravel that apparently detailed whoever his contact is, and separated from the group for a bit before opening the letter. Miss Sparkle, though I would understand that you wouldn't trust my contact but I must reiterate that she has been instrumental in getting earthponies out of there. My current problem is that I haven't received word back from her runner after I sent her a message, though since there are still groups of earthponies getting to the extraction point she's still active but I'm afraid that he was captured and interrogated. If that's true my contact is in grave danger and needs to get out of there herself. Now I'm sure you're interested in what my contact's name is, again I must reiterate that despite appearances she is a good mare. My contact is Countess Rarity Belle, I'm not sure how you'll get this to her but I want you to personally hoof it over to make sure it doesn't get seen by any other eyes than hers. Remember to burn this letter after reading. -Flint Gravel.