Melody looked at the map she got from aunt Zecora. She turned the map every which way as she tried to make sense of it. Still sitting on the back of her horse.
Cheese yawned. "Can we please go to sleep? Ittle be morning soon." He said as he almost fell off the horse.
"I have no time to rest. And besides, I'm not even… ahh" she yawned. "... Tired."
"Uh-huh." Cheese muttered grumpily.
Melody grew a scowl as she searched through the map, aging. "Uh, this makes no sense. I mean, we just left Canterlot, so we should be…."
"Do you even know how to read maps?"
Melody scowled. "I got to canterlot from my home, didn't I?"
Cheese sighed," let me see." She rolled her eyes but handed him the book.
"Ok, we just left canterlot and have been following the north star, so we've been heading north." H mumbles as he yawned. Suddenly he noticed the sky begging to change. "Oh, great daybreak, we've been up all night", he complained.
"Just read the darn map." Melody yelled as she rubbed her tired eyes.
"Ok, ok, got it. I think. This is an old map. And it's not just of the kingdom, but pretty much the world. We're to head up north to the crystal kingdoms according to this. Huh, I wonder why your aunt wants us to go there."
"Beats me. How far are we from there?"
"Well, the crystal kingdom is pretty far. But. He looked around. As strange as it is, it seems we're much further than we should be. That horse of yours must be the fastest horse alive. According to this, we're right by the stern river. And then, we, uh oh."
"Uh oh. What uh oh."
"Well, we have to cross the North Sea. It's treacherous this time of year. Not only is it known for its crazy storms, it's known to be home to sea monsters of all sorts. You'd have to be crazy to pass it during this time of the year. We should go around it."
Melody put a hand on her chin. "Going through it would be the fastest way, tho."
"It's not safe."
She smiled. "You don't have to come along if you don't want to."
He yawned. "Fine ill join."
She giggled at that. "If we find a boat with a good captain, well be able to sleep while we travel."
Cheese yawned, aging but nodded in agreement. He grabbed on her before she snapped the rope, sending flash running. They soon came across the river and traveled upstream till they found a small fishing town.
The little town was already bustling with people heading to the docks, bakeries, or shop stands. "Get your fish oil here…" melody heard one of the shopkeepers call out.
"Fresh eal. Anyone want fresh eal?"
She got off the horse, leaving Cheese to take control of it. "Umm, hay excuses me." She said to one of the fishermen. He turned around. "Can you help us, we're trying to cross the sea?"
The fisherman laughed. "Ha haha. Yeah, right… good luck with that. Everyone knows that you can't pass the sea during this time. Hay flam get a load of this. She wants to pass the sea today."
A salesman looking just like the fishermen only without a mustache laughed along with him. "We only go out and catch fish in the morning before the storms hits at night. Crossing the sea means staying out there in the middle of the night. No one is dumb enough to do that."
"Hay you two. What did I tell you about setting up shop here?" An Angry sheriff called out.
"Uh oh. Brother, we got company.
"Uhh yeah look it was nice talking to you but we're off." The salesman and his brother the fisherman ran, leaving the three confused.
"Get back here." The sheriff called as he ran after them.
The three asked every single person they crossed by to see if they would help them cross, but no one would help. Especially when they learned they did not have any money. After a few hours, exhaustion took over, and they fell asleep on side of the dirt roads just a ways away from the docks.
A loud sound woke melody from her rest as she gasped. She looked around and saw a clock on the wall say 11:50.
"It's almost noon." Melody yelled out as she kicked cheese awake.
"I'm up, I'm up. " He started with a tired yawn. "Where should we go from here?"
Suddenly something broke through the wall behind them landing on both of them creating a pile of wood and dust.
"Oww." a few moans were heard. "Ahh, what was that?" Melody said, rubbing her head. As the dust cleared, she got her answer.
Flim and flam got up slowly. "Hay, I know you two." Melody announced to them.
"Yeah yeah. Hay, mind if we borrow your horse?"
"Wait what"
"Thanks!" They both shouted as they hopped on the back of flash and took off.
"Hay, that's my horse." She shouted. But then she saw what they were running from. It was several officers of the town.
"Hay officer, those two just stole my horse!"
"Yeah yeah. Well, get 'em." The officer said back and continued to go after them.
The town was not very big, and you could hear the ruckus they caused going up and down the roads. Cheese's stomach growled as he followed the sounds of chaos, looking left and right.
"Well, I'm hungry. What's for breakfast?"
Melody sighed. "I'll make you some food once we get my horse back, come on." She shouted and pulled him by the arm.
"Hay, watch where you're going!" Flim said as he ducked behind a sign that almost hit him.
"I'm trying, but the horse has a mind of its own. I can't control it." Flam argued back.
Suddenly someone whistled, and the horse turned right, smashing through a wooden fence. "Ahhhhh!" the brothers shouted as they helped on for dear life.
They then smashed into a chicken coop. The chickens all flew as Flim and flam came out covered in eggs and muck.
"Someone stop this crazy thing!" Flim cried out. Suddenly the horse came to an abrupt stop, sending the two brothers flying into an outhouse. Flam brought his head up out of the broken toilet. He was soaked in egg muck and toilet water. Flim had his head stuck in the ceiling. Broken glass from the small mirror in there, stuck between his skin. "Ouch", he said as he tried to free himself.
"Hold on, I got you." His brother told him and grabbed him and pulled, trying to free his head from the roof while in the ceiling. Melody walked forward towards them while Cheese got back to the horse.
"Umm, help." Muttered Flim
"Serves you right for stealing my horse. Why are so many copes after you anyway?"
"Heh, it's a long story. Look, if you help me get my brother out and away from those cops well do you any favor."
"Anything." A devilish grin spread across her face, showing a fang like tooth.
"Yes, yes, anything now just get me out of here." Cried flam.
Using her magic, melody made several vines grow and split the wood freeing flim and flam.
"You, your ah, ah."
"If you dare say, witch." She grits her teeth, showing more sharp fangs. "Or vampire..."
"No, no. no. I was gonna say, magic user." Flim smiled.
"Yeah, not many magic users left out there like us." Flam replied.
"Wait, your magic users."
"Yep, tho only because of this." Flim held up a shell with an odd marking on its back that looked like a trident.
"Anyway, we're men of our word, what do you want?"
"We want to cross the sea. And you have a boat to do it. Wait you do have a boat right?"
"Oh, not just a boat..."flam boasted. "... A ship. Finest ship you ever see. If not a little rustic."
Flim continued with. "But traveling will be much too dangerous this time of year."
"Would you rather be in jail?" melody said as she pointed behind them. The copes were catching up.
"Uh no, well take our chances on the sea. Come on brother." Flam shouted as the 5 of them headed off to the docks. Flim ran over to a wooden ship that was stuck on land. It was a rather large ship with 3 flags, two decks and a lower deck that was trapped on land.
"Uh, guys, thanks for doing this but that ships on land not in the sea. How are we gonna get sailing if it's not in the waters?" Cheese called out.
"Oh, don't worry about that." Flam told him
"Just get on quickly." Flim announced.
As soon as they got on, Flim pulled out the shell with the trident symbol on it. He held it up to the sun. "liastes nova" (set sail) a flash of light came from his eyes and suddenly the water itself as if drawn to the boat by the tides grabbed a hold of the ship and pulled it in. Flam pulled on a rope, letting the sails open. The wind caught it and with that, they finally set off. Flim grabbed the stirring wheel and began to chart their way across the waters.
"So why do you guys want to go across the sea anyway?" He asked.
""I'm on a journey to find my father. I plan to bring him home, so he can save my mother from dying." Melody said as she took flash and made him lay down on the deck.
"And I'm just here to help." Cheese replied.
"Oh really? Well, sorry to hear about your mom. Who's your dad anyway. Heck, we don't even know your names."
"Oh, I'm Cheese the horse is flash and this is." He held out his hand to her. She rolled her eyes. "Melody shy. And as for my father, I don't know. I've never met him. But he's supposed to be a really powerful sorcerer. Only I just learned he had magic. I was always told he was a knight. And you?"
"I'm flim he's flam we are the world-famous film flam brothers." They sang and chuckled together.
"Well, we wanted to be famous at one point."
"Oh yeah, what happened?" Asked cheese.
Flim spoak." Well you see me and my brother here for the longest time we had a dream, see. A dream of being rich and famous and even making our own castle one day." Flam continued. "We traveled all over the map. Bring our show along with us. Stories of mythical creatures. Down below, we even have crates full of stuff from the show. The problem is, most of them were all fake. We made most of them up. And those that we didn't we just legend and folk tales we heard on our journeys. but one thing for sure. Magic didn't exist as far as we knew."
"unless..." flim continued. ."… You went to chaos castle."
"Chaos castle." Melody asked curiously as she took out the map.
"Oh yeah. That place had magic alright. the place was protected by a creature that was unrecognizable. We don't even know what to call it. After that, we tried to spread the word, but no one believed us. Finally, we thought we would have to get proof, so we tried to capture the creature."
Flam continued. "Only to be tossed out and thrown to the sea. But that's when we were saved by a mermaid."
"A mermaid cheese repeated, skeptical of their story..."
(Flam)"Yeah, a mermaid. Not only did she save us, she gave us this." Flim held up the shell as he finished his brother's sentence. "And told us if ever we needed help, we could rely on its power to help guide us."
(Flim) "But no one belies us. And soon we became nothing but a laughingstock. So we decided that we needed proof."
(Flam)"And ever since then."
We've been on the hunt for mermaids. They both said simultaneously.
"Yes well, we're hungry and tired." Melody said, waving the story aside.
"Oh, there's food and beds below the deck. Have at it, you two."
"Cheese didn't hesitate to run downstairs. He opened a box full of oranges and chowed down before he laid down.
Melody chuckled at the sight of him as she took a bite of an orange. Her eyes begging to slightly glow in the darker light.
After a few moments, he flipped on his side." Ugh, I can't sleep now. "
"Why's that." She asked.
"I'm." His face began to grow green. Never been on a boat. And I feel too sick to sleep."
She set a hand on her mouth, trying to stop a giggle. "Here, let's read some more of the gargoyle king. Maybe that will help you sleep."
He nodded as he set a hoof over his face, trying not to throw up.