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// Early one morning... 
// Story: Dangerous waters 
// by Honest Wisdom 
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	Canterlot castle perched neatly atop the cliff-face, the structure building into the existing stone. It hung neatly over the city like a diamond stuck in rock. the city beneath it was alive with action. Market stalls were set up, vendors were bickering over imagined slights against each other, and children chased each other as their parents rushed to keep them from harm. Near the edge of the city was a large academy, with towers that looked as though they were trying to outshine the castle itself. it stuck out from the sprawling twisted streets of the city with it's neat orderly buildings. The towers were all the same height yet were decorated garishly.
The entire City was filled with thousands of different ponies, Unicorns, Pegasi, and Earth Ponies alike all together in harmony. Six ponies, although they had never met, were about to engage in a grand Adventure to accomplish the impossible. The story starts with a small purple Dragon boy, running through the square, carrying a large bundle of scrolls. "Excuse me, coming through." He knocked into an Earth Pony woman that was writing on a scroll, dropping everything he was carrying. "Gah!" He scrambled to retrieve his luggage. 
"Y'all alright, sugarcube?" The orange woman asked, rolling up her scroll and tucking it into her belt. The white Unicorn woman beside her also turned to see what the commotion was all about.
"Yeah, I just need to get this to Twilight." He dropped the paper's he held. "Drats."
The unicorn frowned as the orange mare bent down to help him. Oldest trick in the book, She thought. Well, no reason to let it go to waste. She removed the woman's purse and pocketed it, watching as the two stood. Both of them carried equal loads. "Ah'll help ya, Where's this 'Twilight' of yers live?" The white unicorn began to cross the street, to be as far as possible once the mare noticed her purse was missing.
The dragon boy beamed. "This way, It's not too far. I'm Spike by the way."
"Applejack, you can call me AJ." She tipped her hat to him as the pair walked away, chatting happily.



A thin Pegasus woman drifted from market stall to market stall Her mane was light pink and fell over one eye, her coat was the color of a daffodil. She eyed the wares of the many different salespeople. One of the stall owners smiled at her. "Hello, Fluttershy."
The woman jumped in surprise. "Oh... Hello Caramel."
He leaned over the counter slightly. "See anything you like?"
"Just browsing." She smiled. "Dash is visiting!" She rummaged through her purse and showed him a letter. "I'm just so excited. I haven't seen her in over a year and she's been doing so well."
Caramel flashed her a flirtatious smile. "Well she has an excellent role model." Fluttershy blushed as he reached behind the counter. "Here, how about some caramel apples? I know they're Dash's favorite."
"Oh!" Fluttershy reached for her purse.
Caramel waved away the bits. "No charge, I'm just looking out for a friend."
She beamed. "Thank you so much!" She picked up the caramel apples and turned to leave. "I'm sure Dash will love them."
"Stay safe." He waved goodbye to the yellow mare. He glanced at the stall owner to his left, she had a sneaky look on her face and seemed very interested in fixing some crooked roses. "Shut up."
Her red haired woman smirked. "I didn't say anything."
"You were thinking it." He huffed as the mare burst out laughing. A customer glanced at the pair. "How may I help you?"
The griffoness tapped her beak. "A box of those fruit filled chocolates, please."
Caramel hummed as he filled a small box with four cherry, four blueberry and four crystal berry chocolates. "That'll be three copper bits." The griffoness tossed a silver bit on the counter and left, her tail wrapped around the box. "Hay, you forgot your change." She hardly acknowledged him as she disappeared into the crowd.



Twilight hummed as she poured over the historical texts, absorbing their ancient knowledge like a sponge. She sat in the middle of a circle of pillows, letting her Pegasus nesting instincts take hold. She sighed and silently wished Spike were there. He was small enough to cuddle and he almost never complained. She instead clutched a poor abused pillow that had lost almost all it's fluff and kept reading.
An Illusion spell caught her eye. Not that she'd ever really cared for them, that was Cadence's thing. She had never cared much about her appearance to learn them. But this one didn't disguise appearance, it disguised species. A unicorn could disguise themselves as A griffon or a Minotaur. There were variations for dragons and and seaponies even ones that could disguise them as Pegasi. The spell seemed pretty straightforward as far as illusion spells went so she decided to try it.
The magic began to collect in her horn as she read over the incantation, pages of spell books began to flip in a magical wind. Just down the street from the tower paused at the shorter one's gesture. "What's wrong?"
"Do you hear that?" Spike asked, hand still raised to block AJ. 
"Ah can't hear nuthin'." AJ said.
"Exactly." Spike's eyes narrowed. "It's too quiet."
As if the Universe agreed with that Comment, a loud cracking sound filled the air as Spike cried, "Hit the deck!" the thick oak door that sat at the base of the Archaic tower was flung from its place to the other side of the street. Applejack watched in amazement as a short Unicorn mare stumbled out of the gaping hole in the wall. "Twilight! That's the third door this month."
The Purple mare giggled and kicked at a pebble. "Sorry, I guess I put too much magic into it. Who's your friend?"
AJ snapped out of her shock and grinned widely. "That was amazing! Ah've never seen a Unicorn with that much raw Magic!" Twilight blushed. "Ah'm Captain Applejack, Mah friend's call me AJ. How would you like to come work with me on my ship?" Spike's eyes grew wide in amazement. 
Twilight opened her mouth to decline but was quickly pulled away by Spike. "Could you excuse us for a moment?" AJ smiled and left them to talk. Spike looked up at Twilight. "You have to do this."
"Spike," Twilight sighed. "I can't just pick up and leave, I'm a Princess."
He scoffed. "So an Equestrian Princess is allowed to seal herself away from the public eye and act like a total recluse but getting a job is forbidden." He placed both hands against his face and gasped. He spoke in an effeminate voice. "'The princess has a life, How scandalous!'"
Twilight narrowed her eyes and  huffed. "That's not what I meant and you know it. You think I wouldn't like to go on one of those expeditions myself? So much of the world is still undiscovered, so much we can learn from all those lost civilizations. But I can't because I have  responsibilities here between my studies and training I have no reason to risk my life like this. So, no." She turned away from him and crossed her arms.
Spike sighed and scratched the back of his head. "Welp, Gonna miss you. I'll send you a letter." He started to walk towards Applejack and was pulled back sharply by Twilight's magic. Drat.
"You can't just go with a random stranger on a voyage across the ocean! What if you get shipwrecked or are attacked by sea monsters? What if you get kidnapped by pirates and they force you to join their crew? I can't live with that on my conscience!" Twilight grabbed him by the shoulders and hugged him. "I don't want to lose you."
"Well maybe if a powerful Alicorn Princess came along to protect me from all those things than I'd be okay." Good job, brain.
Twilight pulled away and looked him in the eye. "I won't be able to talk you out of this." He shook his head rapidly. She sighed. "I might as well come with, I have always wanted to see a sea serpent up close."
Spike punched a fist into the air. "Yes! Adventure awaits!" He rushed into the tower.
Twilight brushed herself off and approached Applejack, who seemed to be avoiding looking at the pair. "I've decided to accept your offer."
Applejack beamed. "Welcome aboard, Miss Twilight. The Harmony will set sail in two days time from Moonlit Pier, Ah'll Introduce ya to the Crew then. Ah should warn ya, The cooks a bit... odd but I'm sure you'll be the best of friends in no time at all." She took Twilight's hand and shook it forcefully. At that moment Twilight felt glad she was born an alicorn or else she was pretty sure she would've lost the arm.