WARNING: I cannot be held responsible for this MLP:FiM fanfic, as apparently my squirrel became a brony and learned how to type.
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Everypony ran frantically around the harbour searching for the missing fillies. Rarity could not believe that both Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were right in front of their eyes and then they just vanished. How in Equestria did that happen? Then it hit her. She quickly ran to the jetty’s edge and screamed “SWEEEEETIE BEEEEEEEEELLE!”
The boat had already disappeared. Rainbow was just about to dart off when she felt a tug on her tail.
“HEY! Lemme go!”
Twilight had caught hold of her “Rainbow, it no use, you can’t follow them”
“Why not?!”
“They’re going to Tallon Port Rainbow. It’s where Gangway will drop Braeburn and Spike off.”
“What?! Are you crazy! Tallon Port? As in Griffonia’s Tallon Port?”
“It’s where Braeburn said they’ll go, because Gangway is a pegasus and he can’t go further than that.”
“But.... what about Sweetie and Scootaloo?!” Rainbow exclaimed, “It’s Tallon Port we’re talking about! Do you know who’s in Tallon Port?”
The group just looked at Rainbow.
Everypony gasped simultaneously, “Gilda.”
The group looked towards the sea.
“Oh no...” Fluttershy said sheepishly.
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“You sure this was a good idea?? Ouch Sweetie Belle! Your horn is stabbing me right in the back!” Scootaloo complained mutedly.
“Well, keep your wings out of my face! It’s tickling me!” Sweetie retorted, “Hey! Stop flapping!”
“Shhh, I think somepony is close to us!” Scootaloo said and she peeped through a hole in the box where they were tactfully hiding.
Braeburn slowly clopped to the edge of the boat and looked toward the horizon. Then he turned around and sat down on his haunches. He eyed Gangway with much apprehensiveness. Spike was cleaning one of his gems ready to eat and Gangway with fixing some sail rope. Spike then noticed Braeburn looking at Gangway strangely. Gangway was also returning glaces at Braeburn then Gangway spoke.
“Where you from?” Gangway asked.
“Someplace far from here.” Braeburn said defensively. “Farther west”
“You’re an earth pony?”
“Yeah, so what?”
“Nothing. I’ve never seen one that’s all. I’ve travelled all over and I’ve seen everything! I guess I was wrong.”
“Same here, I ain’t never seen a pegasus before now. You ain’t looking all that scary to me.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Nothin’.”
“You going west you say?” Gangway said, “I’ve tried going west but there ain’t nothing there! There’s always a storm when I go that side.”
“Cuz’ maybe you can’t go that side.” Braeburn scoffed.
Gangway looked annoyed. Spike noticed a little tension between the two ponies and decided to avert Braeburn’s attention. He walked over to Braeburn and sit next to him.
“Hey uuuuh, good weather we’re having eh?” Spike scratched his head.
“Yeah I guess so” Braeburn said and turned toward the sea.
“Something wrong Braeburn?”
“No nothin’, I just can’t wait to get home that’s all.”
“Why do you look at everypony like that?”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“Like... that. You know, like they did something to you.”
“I ain’t never met a unicorn or pegasi before now. But I heard stories from Granny Smith.”
“Granny Smith?”
“My grandmother...” Braeburn said and then he sighed, “a long time ago, the earth ponies left Equestria...”
“Oh Twilight was reading a book about it. It said that the earth ponies rebelled and left.”
Braeburn looked at Spike with a bit of an annoyed expression, “That ain’t so.”
Spike kept quiet after that.
“We were slaves.”
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were now trying their best to keep quiet to listen in.
“Slaves?!”
“Yeah, Granny Smith said that the unicorn and pegasi kept us as slaves and treated us really badly.”
“But why would...” Spike did not finish his sentence.
“’Cuz we weren’t born with wings or horns. That’s why. Then, one day the unicorn king gave an order for us earth ponies to be killed.”
“Killed? Why?”
“Dunno. But she said it was because he became really evil. The unicorn used their magic ‘gainst us, burnin’ everypony, and the pegasi use to lift ponies high in the air an’ then drop ‘em to their deaths. Even foals!”
Spike gave somewhat of a whimper and covered his mouth while Scootaloo and Sweetie looked at each other in shock.
“Did unicorns and pegasi really do that to earth ponies?” Scootaloo whispered. Both she and Sweetie had drooped ears and looked forlorn.
“An earth pony named Grey Willow; he was our firs’ king by the way, saved some of us and took us to Argil. We’ve lived there since.”
“Braeburn, do you hate them?”
Breaburn pondered for a few seconds while looking back and Gangway.
“Naaaw, like I said, I ain’t never met a unicorn or pegasi before. They never done nothin’ to me, but many ponies back home still feel resentment ‘gainst ‘em. The general feelin’ is we don’t trust ‘em. I dunno how it will turn out with the princess Spike, to be honest.”
“Why didn’t you tell these things to Twilight, Braeburn?”
“Didn’t cha hear me Spike. I don’t trust ‘em.”
“They’re not bad Braeburn, you just gotta give them a chance. It’s horrible what happened long ago, but things are not like now, and I think holding onto something from the past is also bad. I can’t speak for anypony else but Twilight and my other friends can definitely be trusted!” Spike said with a puffed chest.
Braeburn looked at Spike.
“For a little funny looking, purple, spiky headed...”
“Dragon.”
“Yer a pretty smart guy.”
Just then, Captain Gangway came up and announced that they’ll reach Tallon Port in the morning. Braeburn looked at him again but this he was a bit more conscious on how his expression might be. He gave a little nod.
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Rainbow was anxiously fluttering about the area surrounding the harbour. Rarity was also pacing up and down and Fluttershy was sitting on her haunches looking most worried. Twilight came back running.
“Well?” Rarity asked.
“Okay, I sent a message to alert the Griffon police guards that if they find Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell to inform us and send them back.”
“Sweetie Belle is going to get it when she gets back... Tallon Port is no place for a filly to be.” Rarirty grumbled.
“Girls, we got work to do back in Canterlot,” Twilight said.
“Right.” Everypony said with a heavy sigh. They wanted to wait on the harbour till they got word about Sweetie and Scootaloo but they knew that Princess Celestia was also counting on them. With that thought in mind, they left.
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“TALLON PORT AHEAD!” Gangway called as the sun rose.
Braeburn and Spike rushed up to the front to see the land mass ahead. It was also devoid of vegetation as any other area outside of Argil he thought. It was more volcanic as the stench of sulphur filled the air. As they got closer, the port became more visible. It looked more like a huge pile of rock and mud much like housing in Equestria but it was bustling. Sweetie and Scootaloo fought each other for a chance to peep through the hole in the box.
Finally the small boat made port. The noise of the market area echoed throughout the harbour. Then two Griffon guards and another griffon that looked important came up to the boat. Braeburn and Spike left the boat and Gangway was speaking to griffon about the small cargo on his boat. The griffon eyed the boxes as Sweetie and Scootaloo pulled back. The kept really still. Then the griffon called for the boxes to be removed from the boat. Some younger griffons swooped down from above and grabbed the boxes one by one and flapped back to the jetty. The guards ordered the boxes to be checked. Sweetie and Scootaloo gasped.
The griffons took up the box right next to Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo which made them start to panic and pant heavily.
Finally they could feel their box being lifted.
“Uh oh.” Sweetie Belle whispered.
Then they noticed that the lid was slowly rising. They closed their eyes tightly.
“HEY HEY! THAT’S MINE!” shouting in the near vicinity was heard.
“BUCK YOU!”
“RAAAAAAAAAH!”
A fight broke out between a griffon and a zebra and it caught the attention of all the attendees to Gangway’s load. They rushed over to the commotion. Sweetie and Scootaloo acted fast as they quickly climbed out of the box and ran for it behind one of the rock buildings.
“QUICK! WE GOTTA FIND SPIKE and I’m dying! I need food!” Scootaloo said and breathed hard.
“Shhh!” Sweetie motioned her hoof to her mouth.
Discreetly, they scoped the surrounding area for Breaburn and Spike. All they could see was hoards of griffons bustling about.
“BRAEBURN!” shouted a voice.
Sweetie and Scootaloo felt a sigh of relief of hearing that name. They looked for the voice and saw a female griffon stomping up to the two familiar forms now coming out a building. She was young and looked menacing enough to take on a dragon.
“GILDA!!” Braeburn said with an awkward smile, “How good to see yer”
“Don’t GILDA me you sorry piece of shit of a pony. You didn’t meet us to deliver those apples!”
“Imma sorry! Mah ship went down see... an’ I had mahself a bit of a setback!”
Spike looked confused.
“My father is furious! You know how mad he gets when shipment is late! We got customers down our throats! Especially the unicorns!”
“Wait, Braeburn, you do business with griffons?”
“Who is this little pric-?”
“This is Spike the funny little, purple, spiky headed...”
“DRAGON!!”
“I’ve seen you before.... ” Gilda said menacingly eyeballing him. Spike cold-sweated. But Gilda seemed not to recall right away. Spike knew that if he mentioned Twilight and Rainbow Dash, he’d be in for it.
“Anyway,” Gilda said turning her attention back to Braeburn, “we need those apples and we need it now!”
“That might be a bit of a problem see... the shipment went down with the... um, well... ship.”
Gilda’s eyes were turning red. Spike backed away.
“I think I’ll go wait at the harbour Braeburn” and he ran off.
“But I can fix this. I promise! Look it’s harvestin’ time I just arranged with yer cousin to take me and Spike here back to Argil. He can pick up a new shipment from Applejack at once.”
Braeburn smiled even more awkward.
“You got till this afternoon, ya hear? ... On second thought, I’ll come with you” Gilda said indignantly.
“YES MA’AM!”
Gilda stomped off but turned around, “Oh, you by chance haven’t seen two fillies around have you?”
“Fillies?”
“Yeah, we got word that two fillies stowed away here”
Sweetie and Scootaloo gasped.
“Nope. Mah boat was clear I think. They checked it when we were leaving. You can ask the cap’n though.”
Gilda walked off. The two fillies took the opportunity to follow Braeburn to the ship. They were careful not to get caught. They swiped one or two apples and other fruit they had never seen before to eat. When they saw the ship that the two were boarding, they quickly took the chance to climb into another box on the ship. They were lucky to be small. No one noticed them at all.
“ALL ABOARD!!” the captain called. Braeburn, Spike and Gilda and a few other mean looking griffons boarded the ship. Sweetie and Scootaloo hearts beat rapidly in excitement that they were finally going to see Argil.
“We’ll be the first pegasus and unicorn to see Argil!” Scootaloo squeaked.
“Maybe we’ll get our cutie marks for this!” Sweetie added and both fillies smiled.
The sails were let down and the sound of the foghorn alerted all that they had taken off.
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Twilight and her friends were back at the library rummaging through heaps of history books and paper. They were careful to treat it well as pages were already falling apart. The history section shelves were almost empty as the three mares were multi reading several books at a time.
Twilight re-read ‘A History of Equestria’ again and a few other reference books. All seems to be coherent with one another except for one. ‘Secrets of Equestria: An Archaeological Story’ by Dr. Strike Gold.
‘Archaeological digs of mass graves around Equestria shows countless remnants of earth ponies. These remnants, when examined, showed signs of serious injury over a period of time, distorted bones from being broken and healing without medical intervention, bone fragments damaged by magic which most likely to be an ignition spell. Dating of the remnants shows various dates between 1000 CPE and 500 CPE (common pony era) which can lead to hypothesize that earth ponies were treated with utmost indignity.
A study of the architecture in Canterlot revealed that there was an arena used for blood sport, during the rule of Princess Moonstone, it was demolished and the Royal Library was built on top. A recent dig on the outskirts of Canterlot shows an uncountable number of mass graves where only earth ponies were found with fatal injuries and remnants of clothes had desiccated blood.’
Twilight had an expression between puzzled and shocked. This can’t be true she thought. They were standing on top of someplace where thousands have died? She herself has never seen evidence of it.
Fluttershy pulled another book from the shelf when she noticed at the back, on the wall, there was a small niche. Curiously, she put her hoof in the niche and then a click was heard.
A small rumble began. The mares turned and saw that one of the bookshelves shifted revealing a secret room.
“Wow, neat Fluttershy!” Rainbow said.
“Oh. It was nothing, I think.” She said while blushing.
Everyone entered but Rarity seemed to be engrossed in a book on the outside. The room was really grimy inside and the air was musty. A glass-tinted window with a picture of Princess Moonstone was lit up by the sunlight. Twilight brushed over the books which seemed quite old. She pulled one off the shelf. It had no title on it and when she opened, pages began falling out. She quickly levitated the fallen pages and trotted over to the dusty table where she laid them. Rainbow flew up and browsed over a series of scrolls that had turned brown over the years. She took hold of the topmost one, went back down and opened it. Her eyes opened wide and her pupils dilated to just small dots.
“Twilight, listen to this!”
Twilight walked over and looked at the scroll Rainbow was reading. The words had faded greatly and the edges were jagged. Rainbow struggled a bit but she was able to read it out loud.
THE FIVE FORBIDDEN RULES OF EQUESTRIA.
‘The forbidden rules were created by the Princess Platinum to make our beloved Equestrian society healthy.
Earth ponies are our inferiors and we have to treat them as such. Therefore unicorn and pegasi are encouraged to follow these rules.
1. Never be intimate with an Earth pony. They are dirty and brutish.
2. They must never touch anything of the unicorns and pegasi.
3. Do not speak to them. They are only to be given orders.
4. They are to work only. No celebrations allowed.
5. Do not teach them the sacred knowledge of the unicorn and pegasi. They are incapable of learning.’
Teach these rules to all fillies and colts of our society. Long live Equestria and long live the King.
Everyone gasped. Anger built up in Twilight as she could not comprehend fully what really took place in the past. A dark history covered up.
Rarity came in sobbing.
“Twilight you must listen to this!” as she turned to a marked page:
‘July 18th
King Sombra has ordered the mass eradication of earth ponies yesterday. At first I was not hesitant to raise my sword at them but my tour of the northern plains where the aerial squad had been dumped screaming foals onto the jagged rocks below now haunt me. Today, I monitored the unicorn firing squad burning ponies alive with mares writhe in scorching agony but I have to harden my heart and do my duty to the throne. Earth ponies serve no purpose here anymore.’
Rarity read the entry with a bubbling voice. Twilight looked at the book and she realized it was the same red bound book she was about to read before her summon to the princess. Tears were streaming down Rarity’s face. Fluttershy’s ears were drooped and she covered her face while Rainbow looked like she wanted to hit something, probably a pegasus from the past.
“Why?” Fluttershy managed, “those poor, poor ponies.”
“How disgraceful! If I lived in that time I would be ashamed to be a unicorn!” Rarity said puffed up.
“If we lived in that time Rarity, I’m pretty sure we’d be doing the same as everypony else.” Twilight said. Rarity became poignant. Twilight was probably right.
“But I don’t understand, why cover it all up?” Rainbow asked.
“I think it was the shame,” Twilight said, “Ponies then probably didn’t want to let ponies of future generations like us to know what they did. The truth is earth ponies fled for their lives to be free from persecution, slavery and death. There were no rebels or anything. They didn’t want to overturn any government. What we’ve been taught was all a lie.”
“We should let the princess know what we’ve found Twilight”
“Yes, we should. Rarity can I borrow that journal? I want to read it some more.”
“Sure thing darling.”
Twilight chose a few other dusty books from the shelves and with the others went to the checkout counter.
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Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo slept in the box that was peacefully rocking with the waves. It was roomier so they didn’t fight so much. The noise outside seemed to calm them and they had stolen enough fruits from Tallon Port to keep them happy for a while. But they were awoken suddenly by shouting and the deck pounding with footsteps. They awoke groggily and scratched their eyes. They ears perked at the shouting of a voice close by to them.
“BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES!” the boatswain called, “STORM AHEAD!”
“Where in the name of Grey Willow this storm came from? Spike you’d better go down” Braeburn said.
“But...” Spike started in protest.
“Go spike, yer a guest on this here ship, it’ll be bad on me if anything happen’ to ya,” and with that Spike nervously went down below.
The boat began to rock more vigorously. Sweetie and Scootaloo held onto each other tightly. The boxes began shifting. The water began to hit hard against the ship and the winds and rain were blowing almost everything lightweight off the boat.
“BITE THE BULLET!” The captain shouted, “THIS SHIP’LL TAKE IT!”
The storm got worse. The waves became so high, crashing water onto the deck. The box started to fill up, and Sweetie and Scootaloo panicked. They tried kicking the lid open but something was on top.
“GILDA! GILDA!” The boatswain called. “LOOSEN THOSE ENDS!”
Gilda rushed over to port and loosened the ropes. The ship rocked back causing everypony to fall over. The box that fell on top of Sweetie and Scootaloo shifted. Then the fillies finally kicked open the lid. Another giant wave hit starboard and the crates fell over causing the fillies to fall out. They grabbed some nearby ropes and wrapped their hooves around, holding on for dear life. The captain started laughing manically. Braeburn thought he went mad.
“COME ON!!! HIT ME AGAIN! HA HA HA!”
Thunder struck and a huge wave crashed almost flipping the boat.
“THIS HERE’S A GRIFFON SHIP! YOU CAN’T SINK THIS!!!! COME ON!” The captain shouted again.
Sweetie was shivering, “SCOOTALOO!! IF WE DON’T MAKE IT! I’M GLAD YOU’RE MY BES-!” But a second wave crashed onto the boat.
The fillies coughed up salt water when the water subsided. The winds were blowing so hard now that some of the decks planks were blown right off. The sails had ripped and the rain beat down on them so hard it was actually painful. Thunder struck again this time hitting them mast, and one of the griffons that was on top holding on to some ropes had blown away.
Spike couldn’t keep himself down below. He went back to the deck and saw Braeburn holding on to a rope from the bottom of the mast post.
“BRAAAAEBURN!” Spike called. But the sounds of the storm was too much.
“BRAAAAAAAEBURN!” Spike tried holding on to some rope but him being rather small only allowed the wind to sweep him up, “HE--------------LP!”
“SPI--------KE!”
Spike then felt something caught his claw. He looked and all he made out was a griffon had caught hold of him.
“HOLD ON!!!!!” it was a female’s voice. Gilda’s. Gilda pulled Spike towards her and he climbed on her back and held on. By then winds finally started to ease up and the water waves became smaller. Pretty soon, as if nothing ever happened there was a calm on the seas. The captain continued to laugh.
“HA! I TOLD YOU THIS IS A GRIFFON SHIP! YOU CAN’T SINK IT! YEAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
Everypony cheered on que at the captain’s maniacal rant.
“Strange... how did it have a storm?” Braeburn muttered to himself. Gilda landed on the deck with Spike on her back.
“You okay?” Braeburn asked
“Yeah. Thanks” Spike said to Gilda. He was visibly shaken but okay. Gilda huffed.
“You should have stayed below.” she said.
“Check everything!” the captain ordered.
Everypony started shifting everything.
“Scootaloo quick, we gotta get these ropes off!” Sweetie tried feverishly to tug the ropes free from their hooves.
“CAAAAAAPTAIN!” a voice shouted from right behind them, “STOWAWAYS!”
Sweetie and Scootaloo turned around and there stood a burly, mean looking griffon behind them.
“Uh-oh.”
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“This is what we’ve found out princess....” Twilight said. She and her friends related all that they had found out so far to the princess. Everypony had a look of shame on their faces. The princess weakly smiled.
“Now you know the real truth of what happened Twilight Sparkle. But that is only part of it. If you recall what I told you before Argil is protected by ancient magic. You must find a way to lift it.”
“Princess...I” Twilight began.
“The answer is close by Twilight, I trust the answer will come to you when it’s time.”
The group looked at each other looking a little confused.
“Are just to wait here Princess? We have a bit of an issue also...” Twilight explained to the princess that Sweetie and Scootaloo were missing and most likely followed Spike.
“They having gone there may give a chance for the earth ponies to see that we have changed Twilight Sparkle, however, if it is your wish you may journey also but please be careful.”
“Yes princess” and the group left.
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Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were sitting on their hauches and cowering while the crew was arguing.
“IT’S BECAUSE OF THEM THE STORM CAME! WHAT’S A UNICORN AND PEGASI DOING HERE ON THIS SHIP?”
Braeburn walked up to them.
“Why did you follow us? Didn’t I say over and over that unicorn and pegasi can’t come into Argil?”
“We.... we just wanted to see it.” Sweetie said crying, “We heard the story you told to Spike. We’re sorry about the past and what happened to earth ponies.”
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were sobbing uncontrollably. Braeburn looked them. He could not help but think of Applebloom.
“Look yer young an’ you probably don’t understand but it ain’t yer fault. What happened happened. I guess well...”
“What about the barrier?” Spike asked, “if they can’t get through then...”
“There’s a couple of rocks just outside. If we let them wait we can pick them up on the way back.” the captain said.
Spike and Braeburn looked worried. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle said nothing but kept drooped ears and had a pitiful look.
“We can’t leave two fillies on their own on the rocks outside!” Braeburn protested.
“Then what do you want us to do? Turn back?” Gilda asked.
“Let’s see what’ll happen.” Braeburn said.
“What?” Gilda said.
“Let’s see what’ll happen.”
Sweetie and Scootaloo looked at Braeburn.
Then the lookout called.
“LOOK YONDER! AAAAAAAAAAAARGIL!
Everypony ran up to the front to glimpse the sight. Braeburn called out Sweetie and Scootaloo from their dejection. “LOOK!”
Sweetie, Scootaloo and Spike looked toward the great land mass.
“WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!” their eyes sparkled.
They have never seen anything like it. Thick greenery hung from every corner. Tall trees towered over the grasses that covered the dirt. It was play of different colors from the green base as different species of flowers danced in the breeze. Spike, Sweetie and Scootaloo had the same expression. Awe.
Then came the test. As the ship approached closer, Braeburn put his hoof on Scootaloo’s head. The ship moved in. Sweetie and Scootaloo felt a jolt from an invisible force and nothing more. Had they pass?
They looked at him and he smiled. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo had become the first unicorn and pegasus to enter Argil.