“Welcome to Seaside,” Rumble read aloud as the pair ran past the sign at city limits.
“Seaside. This is a port town,” Moonstruck said. “It's a fairly new settlement, but it's population's already exploded to something like a couple thousand ponies, I think?”
“I never understood how ponies could stand to live so close to each other,” Rumble said.
“Ponies don't grow to be big and scary like dragons,” Moonstruck reminded him. “There's strength in numbers. That's why it's important for everypony to get along.”
Seaside town center bustled with activity. Moonstruck marveled at the architecture of the buildings; Most of the houses that lined the edges of the town square were closer to mansions than the humble abodes in Ponyville. The town hall was a spectacular display of Seaside's wealth, made of gilded marble and what must have been mahogany. There was a fountain in the center of town which had a stylized golden statue of Princess Celestia that stood on a rocky outcropping. All along the base of the outcropping, halfway in and out of the water were mythical sea-ponys, half pony and half fish, that sprayed water in beautiful arcs over the fountain.
“We're getting some strange looks,” Rumble noted as they made their way through the town square.
“I'm sure it's just because they've never seen a dragon up close before,” Moonstruck assured him. A mare in a particularly elaborate hat caught her eye. “Excuse me, Miss?”
“Mmyes?” she asked. She spoke in an accent that sounded like it tried for Canterlot or Manehatten, but missed both marks. “Oh my...!” she took almost a full step back when she turned.
“Don't worry, he's harmless,” Moonstruck promised as she indicated to Rumble. “We're looking for something. Have you noticed anything really strange happening in or around town?”
“I'm... afraid not, Dear,” the mare replied with a nervous shuffle. “Perhaps you could try the markets? They get out of town far more often than anypony in Seaside Center does.” She indicated down a nearby street.
“Okay. Thank you, Miss.” Moonstruck smiled and nodded. “Come on, Rumble.”
The Seaside Market was not nearly as fancy as Seaside Center. Homes were much more subdued, built from simple wood and roofed with hay or clay shingles. Business seemed to mostly thrive in stalls, simple affairs made from wooden poles and canvas. There were a handful of storefronts and restaurants as well, which were the only things that would have given any indication that the town was very wealthy at all had somepony just been dropped in the streets.
“Excuse me,” Moonstruck got the attention of a passing stallion.
“Yeah, whatdayawaaaaa...nt?” the stallion had an incredulous look on his face as he turned to face her.
“Hi. I was wondering if you've noticed anything odd in or around town in the past couple of days?” Moonstruck asked.
“Ah...nope, sorry.” The stallion quickly vanished into the crowd.
“Uh...no.”
“Nope.”
“Sorry.”
Moonstruck pawed the ground in frustration after the most recent failure.
“Maybe we should split up?” Rumble suggested.
“That sounds like a good idea,” Moonstruck agreed. Everypony was clearly scared of Rumble. She was certain that they'd be more cooperative if she was on her own.
“N...n...no. I haven't seen anything.”
Moonstruck huffed in frustration as the pegasus took off over a building. She didn't get it. As far as she knew, Rumble was on the other side of town. What could have possibly gotten the other ponies so frightened? She sighed as she passed a stand that sold mirrors. She caught a glimpse into one, jumped, and looked around for the creepy half zebra pony that she'd spotted. She blinked a couple of times, then clopped her face into her hoof. She was probably the absolutely least convincing pony she'd ever seen, a mere mockery of the real thing.
“What happened? Rumble said I looked fine,” she thought as she glanced furtively around. Once positive nopony was looking, she began to correct her disguise. She pushed her horn into the center of her head, and stretched her smaller eye out so it matched the larger. Yellow sclera faded to white, and her irises expanded to more normal size for a pony. She stuffed her fang up into her mouth and smiled with a row of flat pony teeth. She made stripes symmetrical to the natural ones on the opposite side of her body, and gave herself a cutie mark; An eight-pointed starburst of arrows that pointed in all directions.
“There,” Moonstruck thought as she checked herself over. “NOW I look like a pony.”
“Moonstruck!” she looked up as she heard Rumble call her name. She let out a sharp whistle to get his attention. He landed next to her with a small thud.
“There you are. Why'd you change your disguise?” he asked.
“Because it was terrible! Why didn't you tell me I looked like a monster?” she asked as she nudged his shoulder.
“I didn't think you did,” Rumble shrugged. “Four legs, long head, a horn. You looked like a unicorn to me.”
Moonstruck let out a long sigh.
“Anyway, I found a guy who says he know something. C'mon,” Rumble indicated for her to follow him.
Rumble lead Moonstruck down the street into the Seaside dock district. Most of the buildings along the docks were ramshackle affairs held up by rotten and moldy planks. The majority of the population were big, muscular earth-pony stallions with scars, or eye patches.
“This place looks really gross,” Moonstruck said. Everypony immediately stopped and glared at her.
“A little louder, Moon. I don't think the princesses heard you,” Rumble whispered. “You guys got a problem?!” he growled as he flared his wings. The ponies sneered, but continued about their ways. “This way,” he said as he pulled Moonstruck along.
Moonstruck smiled as they got close to the water. She'd never seen the ocean before; It was so amazingly vast. Boats floated in and out of the docks. Most of them bore a bust of Princess Luna or Nightmare Moon on the front, but other than that their designs varied wildly from tiny fishing boats to enormous passenger vessels. Mostly earth ponies, but a handful of unicorns as well, scurried in and out of the docked boats to load them with huge boxes of supplies.
“In here,” Rumble said as he nudged her towards one of the nicer buildings, a three-story building with a sign that read "The Stopover". The entire first floor of the building looked like a dining room. There were a handful of sailor ponies scattered amongst the tables. They silently looked up from their food or card games at the new arrivals. There was a lone seafoam stallion at the bar, with a shaved head and a short, blue tail. A black leather strap went around the back of his head.
“Oh. It's much mmph mphmph mmph mm,” Moonstruck was cut off as Rumble wrapped his claw around her jaw.
“That's the guy,” Rumble said as he pointed to the seafoam pony. “Hey, old timer,” he called.
The pony turned to face them. Over his left eye was an eyepatch. His right eye was cloudy and didn't seem to be any particular color.
“There ye be, ye scamp,” he said as he focused on a spot just to the right of Rumble's face.
“This is my friend...” Rumble indicated to Moonstruck.
“Moonstruck,” she supplied.
“Arr, ye didn' tell me yer friend was a mare, ye scurvy dog,” the old pony chuckled. “Name's Cap'n Salt Waters, lass.”
“What happened to your eye?” Moonstruck asked, as she focused on the misty right eye.
“What's wrong with me eye?” Cap'n Waters asked.
“Er,” Moonstruck backpedaled, “why're you wearing an eye patch?” she rephrased.
“Ar. It's ta protect me good eye,” he pulled the eye patch up and revealed a completely normal, bright green eye. He only showed it briefly before he allowed the patch to snap back into position.
“Ah. Makes sense,” Moonstruck nodded. Rumble blinked several times. “Anyway, Rumble said you might know where there have been strange things around town.”
“I'm suddenly having second thoughts about this,” Rumble whispered.
“Yar, out in the waters!” the Cap'n started, loud enough to make the dragon jump and get the attention of everypony in the bar. “Me and me crew din't know what ta makea it at first. 'Twas an isle, not on any our maps. The sea aroun' it churned an' frothed madly. Dark clouds stirred the air an' spat hail the size an' shape a pegasus at us! Fish that flew like birds started flyin' from the sea like arrows!” the Cap'n took a breath. “Most a me crew went overboard. The rest staggered off the docks an' I ain't see the yellow-bellies since.”
The rest of the bar started to chortle.
“Yeah, alright, Crazy Cap'n Waters,” somepony called.
“Yar, I ain't seen any o' you goin' out to see it yerselves!” Cap'n shouted back.
“Where was the island?” Moonstruck asked.
“What? Ar, about a day's northwest 'o town. Ye'd be needin' a boat to get out that far,” he pointed out.
“Can you take us?” Moonstruck asked.
Cap'n began to laugh. After a few moments he paused. “Ar, yer serious, ain't ya lass? Alright, tell ye what. I'll sail yer sorry plot out there IF ye can get me a crew to sail with.”
“How many?” she asked.
“Three others fer a skeleton crew, an' at least a dozen more iffen ye want food an' sleep.”
“That might be rough,” Rumble said.
“Give us an hour,” Moonstruck said with a nod. “We'll meet you back here.”
“Alright, Lass.”
“Moon, where're we gonna get fifteen other ponies to sail with us?” Rumble asked as they walked out of the inn.
“We're not going to find them. Come on, I've got something I want to try,” she replied as she led the dragon out of town. Once clear of the city limits, she clipped her hooves together. Mud rose from the ground and formed into three clay ponies. With pieces of her own coat and mane, Moonstruck constructed three semi-realistic pony dummies. They weren't shaped quite right, and they lacked faces or cutie marks.
“So what's your plan?” Rumble asked as she finished.
“I saw this in one of the stained glass windows back home,” Moonstruck explained as she clipped her hooves together, then pulled them apart to reveal a manipulator's control rod. “Ever played with marionettes?”
“That's not the kind of toy a dragon would have,” Rumble admitted.
“The window showed Discord using a thing like this to control ponies,” Moonstruck said as a set of magical strings stretched from one of the clay ponies to the control rod. Once completed, she lifted the rod high above it with her telekinesis and began to manipulate it. The clay pony sprung to life and began to trot around, mostly like a normal pony.
“That's creepy,” Rumble said as he watched the pony golem walk about. “He'll never fall for it.”
“As long as he keeps his good eye covered, he will.” Moonstruck set up the other three with control rods and started to practice moving them about, and tried to perform a series of complex tasks. It was almost more like they moved in reaction to Moonstruck's will then how she manipulated the control rods. “They need names,” she concluded. From nowhere, she produced a palette and a paintbrush. “This one will be Anchors Aweigh,” she painted a blue anchor where it's cutie mark should have been, “Ms. Compass Rose,” she painted the symbol on the next one, “annnnd Mainsail.” Moonstruck painted a simple boat on the last one. Finally, she painted some crude expressions on their faces.
“Now they look really creepy,” Rumble said.
“It's fine,” Moonstruck insisted.
After some careful maneuvers, Moonstruck guided her marionettes back to The Stopover. “Cap'n Waters, we've got our crew!” she shouted.
The Cap'n looked up from his drink. His uncovered eye widened. “Yar, ain't this a surprise!”
“This is Mainsail, Anchors Aweigh, and Ms. Compass Rose.” Moonstruck made each golem nod as she referred to them. The other patrons of the bar gave the puppets strange looks, but said nothing. The Cap'n's eye narrowed as he leaned in close to inspect Compass Rose.
“Ar, ye be quite the beauty, Miss Rose.”
Moonstruck indicated for the puppet to nod again. “Thank you, sir,” she replied out of the corner of her mouth in a slightly different voice from her own.
“Alright, Lads and Lasses. I be on me honor now. To the docks.”