Chapter 5
Chapter 5
Until they arrived at the harbor and started looking for the Sea Stallion, Twilight didn’t speak much the next morning. She had a very slight hangover, but even worse, she of course remembered everything about last night, including that incredibly stupid… thing… she had done right before going to bed. Flirting with Rainbow Dash? What had she been thinking?
It didn’t help that Rainbow Dash had been making fun of her ever since she had discovered that Twilight was not only a little hung over, but also quite embarrassed by the way last night had ended. Twilight’s reactions had remained monosyllabic, even though, between two fits of laughter, Rainbow had assured the mortified unicorn that it was no big deal.
Not that she found Rainbow Dash unattractive, no, in fact, the athletic pegasus was rather –
With an annoyed groan she choked off this train of thought.
“Just drop it, ok?” she heard Rainbow’s telepathic message. The smirk in her voice was impossible to miss, even though she was hovering in front of Twilight. “It’s completely normal to lose control in the presence of The Rainbow Dash!”
“Very funny”, Twilight replied. “Let’s just find the boat.”
“Come on, Twi”, Rainbow insisted. “It’s no big deal. It’s just part of the story.”
Twilight just reacted with another exasperated groan, but continued looking around, trying to push back the embarrassment with some success. Rainbow was right – this was just a story, and if Rainbow was cool with it, then she could pull herself together too. Still she mused about Rainbow’s last statement.
It made sense in a very confusing meta-narrative way, she assumed. The whole point of this story was, as far as she knew, to prove the validity of a romance between Daring Do and Rosetta, so there had to be such a romance between the two characters in the first place. A little flirtation was probably just what the story required at this point. Rainbow sure enough didn’t seem to be upset about last night. Reassured that she hadn’t crossed any boundaries and had only done what was required, she pushed her worries away and looked around.
The harbor was located on the banks of the river, a little upstream from the river mound. The quay was paved and offered enough space for around a dozen bigger ships, and several more lay at anchor in the middle of the river which here, just off the mound, was several hundred meters wide. A bunch of smaller vessels of seaweed farmers and pearl divers were bustling about in between.
The quay itself was lined with a couple of big warehouses and several shady taverns like the one they had skipped the night before. Ponies and alpacas were busy carrying around boxes and sacks and rolling barrels from and to the moored ships. A big wooden crane was lifting a large bundle of boxes, wrapped in a strong net, from the deck of a steam boat. In between all of the busy dock workers, ponies were selling foods in a plethora of stands and booths, sometimes even just a small grill behind a box serving as a counter.
“Ugh, how do you even find a ship in this mess?” Twilight groaned.
“Easy peasy”, Rainbow boasted, and before Twilight could so much as answer, she shot up in the air and began darting from one ship to the next. It took less than a minute before she found it and told Twilight, “Last ship upstream.”
Twilight set herself in motion, following the rainbow-colored trail her friend was leaving dangerously low above the ships’ masts and superstructures. She smiled at the intricate patterns the pegasus flew – Twilight thought she recognized a Double Inverted Wing-Flip. Flying was Rainbow Dash’s life, and ever since they had started their adventure, she hadn’t gotten to it quite a lot. And even though, according to the manual, only one hour had passed so far, they had in fact spent almost a day in Marenagua already – inside the story it felt completely real.
The different smells of foods were enticing; despite the breakfast they had had at the hotel. Thanks to her being completely mortified, it hadn’t been very enjoyable, and she probably hadn’t eaten quite enough. She levitated some bits out of her saddle bags and bought a spit of deep-fried battered pieces of banana and pineapple for each of them.
When she reached the ship Rainbow had indicated, she found the pegasus hovering lazily above the gangway. She handed her friend one of the pineapple-banana spits, and they took some minutes to eat them in companionable silence.
Twilight examined the ship. It was a steam boat and about thirty meters long. The hull was made from metal and painted in patches of all kinds of shades of brown, olive and rusty red. The cabin in the rear part of the deck had once been white, but the paintjob was almost as patchy as the hull’s. The black chimney was puffing clouds of brown smoke into the air. She exchanged a doubtful glance with Rainbow Dash.
“Can I help you, señoritas?” a brown stallion with a dark olive mane, standing on the gangway, asked them, almost grunting. He looked bulky and weathered and wore a captain’s hat.
“Hope so”, Rainbow Dash replied. “We’re looking for a captain Flew Ho. That you?”
“I’m Capitán Flujo”, the stallion confirmed. “Who are you?”
“Daring Do, world famous adventurer and archeologist. And my assistant, Rosetta Sparkle. We’re travelling with you.”
“Ah. Good. We were waiting for you. We are ready to cast off. Follow me, I’ll show you around.” He beckoned them onto the ship and led them into the cabin. While walking, he yelled at nopony in particular, “Cast off!” A bell rang in response to his order.
The captain showed them their cabin and the mess hall and then left them alone. Not really knowing what to do, they found a spot near the bow where they wouldn’t be in everypony’s way and settled down next to the railing.
Slowly the banks moved past them. So close to the city of Marenagua, the land was still fairly cultivated. Along the river, a broad strip of jungle had been cleared, and a bunch of farms were scattered over the area.
The farm buildings mostly were solitary large manors with additional subsidiary buildings, surrounded by orchards and plantations. Twilight recognized pineapples, bananas, avocadoes, and coconut palms, but there was also a huge variety of other crop she didn’t know. She made a mental note to read up on Neighcaraguan agriculture. Workers were busy tending the fields, and most of them waved at the ship as it passed by.
Not long and the strip of cleared land became thinner and the manor houses sparser and also simpler until they were only simple log houses. It was obvious that these farms had been established more recently. Their fields were smaller, and more time-intensive crops such as avocadoes and coconuts were missing.
About an hour after they had cast off they sailed past the last farm on the river banks. The jungle crept back to the water, with the canopy projecting far above the river and air roots looming out of the shallow water near the banks. They saw the motions of a lot of wildlife in the branches and under the trees, but could not discern individual animals. Logs were floating in the river – or at least that was what they thought until one of those logs suddenly propelled itself out of the water to snap at a small cat-like animal just as it was about to drink. They gulped and shared a look – crocodiles! Unconsciously they scooted a few paces further back from the railing.
As the sun rose higher in the sky, it got hotter and hotter. The river and the jungle seemed to be steaming, and the humidity was very oppressive. Mosquitoes as big as a filly’s hoof circled them, and they had to constantly wave their tails to try and keep them at bay.
They stayed put until lunch, chatting idly about this and that. The jungle, while interesting and exotic at first, quickly turned into a monotonous green mass that was rather tiring to look at. Rainbow Dash took off for a quick flying exercise, antsy after so much time spent sitting still, and Twilight took the opportunity to have a look at the contents of her – or Rosetta’s – saddlebags.
She found a promising book about the ancient high cultures of Neighcaragua and put it aside for later reading. There was also a pith helmet such as Daring Do’s which would come in handy for exploring ancient ruins, a lantern, a notebook with a pencil, a topographic map of the region around the Rio Marenagua and, surprisingly, a paperback romance novel. Apparently Rosetta had interests beyond her scholarly life. With slight embarrassment, Twilight realized that she had read the novel in question. Burying the cheesy book deep in her bags, she instead turned to the history book.
When they returned to their spot after having tea, the captain joined them at the railing. He scanned the jungle ahead, and suddenly, as the mound of a tributary came in sight, he spat into the water and growled, “Malditos chivos.”
“Goats?” Twilight repeated in surprise. “What are goats doing here?” Rainbow’s head snapped around as she focused on the captain; she looked alarmed. Which was hardly surprising, as she had had a few encounters with a certain goat Hauptmann who had tried to snatch invaluable artifacts for the questionable goals of the Goat Empire – no, wait, Daring Do had had these encounters, and Rainbow had read about them. Knowing just who was who could get a little confusing.
As if to confirm her assumption, the captain started to explain, “They are after the old temples and ruins of the ancient alpacas that lived here. Want to steal our heritage and bring it to their Empire.” He spat in the river again. “I may not be an alpaca, but I’m Neighcaraguan nonetheless. This is our country, and our cultural heritage, and we shouldn’t sell out to those goats.”
“But how can they even do that?” Twilight asked. “I mean, they can hardly just come here and start digging for artifacts, can they?”
“If only that were true”, the captain said. “They bribed some officials, and they leased this river to them, so this is now territory of the Goat Empire. They have armed soldiers there, and they get really nasty when they find people trespassing, or so I’ve heard.” He spat in the water a third time. “If it were for me to decide, I’d kick them out of the country, along with their arrogant attitude and their shiny boots and all.”
“Yeah, I’m with you, captain”, Rainbow agreed. “All the goats I’ve met were mego… mangalo… Twi, what’s that word again?”
“Megalomaniac”, Twilight helped her out, chuckling. “Yes, Hauptmann Hornmeyer is more than just a little crazy. We had some run-ins”, she added for the captain. “We are not on the friendliest terms with the Empire.”
“Nopony in their right mind should be”, the captain mumbled. “I have to return to the bridge.” He left them. Twilight stared at the river the goats had taken possession of. As unbelievable as it was, there was the black, white, and red flag of the Goat Empire hanging limply from a flagpole next to the river banks. It looked very foreign as it slowly floated past them.
“You really brought Hornmeyer into this?” Twilight finally asked, unnecessarily waiting until the captain was out of earshot.
“He’s the best villain”, Rainbow explained. “He’s so mean, and he always comes with a gazillion minions… and when he took me hostage and brought me to Black Forest Castle in ‘Daring Do and The Golden Cup of the Knight Errand’, that was one of my favorite parts of the whole series.”
“Daring Do”, Twilight corrected her. “They abducted Daring Do, not you.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever”, she smirked. “It’s basically the same anyway, ain’t it?”
Rainbow was probably right, Twilight mused. For the time being, Rainbow was Daring Do. Everypony in this, this world, for lack of a better word, addressed her as such. And she, Twilight, was Rosetta just the same way as she was herself. Which meant –
She gasped.
If she was Rosetta, and if Rainbow was Daring Do, and if Rosetta and Daring Do were set up to end up in some sort of romantic relationship, that meant she, Twilight, and Rainbow Dash would –
Carefully holding the thought at bay, she looked at the pegasus rested next to her from the corner of her eye, almost expecting that she had come to the same conclusion just now. But Rainbow just looked idly at the jungle that was floating by.
The idea scared her a little. She was woefully underprepared for this kind of situation. Her own romantic experiences were limited to the odd filly crush back in school. And of course, being on a boat in the middle of a jungle in the middle of a book meant she didn’t have easy access to any reference material either.
On the other hoof, after all, this was a book, and as such a somewhat safe environment. Judging from the unexpected knowledge she possessed about Neighcaraguan culture as well as the specifics of their task here, there was a good chance she’d know… know… know what exactly?
Know what to do, apparently. Or know what to know, for that matter. She smiled. The anxiety that had shortly overcome her was now replaced by excited anticipation. She suddenly couldn’t wait for her and Rainbow Dash to, well… hit it off.
***
After a night in the stuffy and hot cabin, they reached Malatierra the next morning right after breakfast. The town was clearly visible from afar, thanks to the large headframe that towered above it. When they moored at the wooden pier that protruded far into the river, they were greeted by a huge crowd of harbor workers who immediately began unloading the ship.
The captain bade them goodbye and reminded them that he’d be back to Malatierra in a few days, and then they found themselves on dry land at the end of the pier.
They decided to find their hotel first, and a miner pointed them in the right direction. ‘Hotel’ was probably too big a word for the place; the ground floor was taken up by a saloon from which resonated loud honkytonk music and the hoarse voices of drinking workers, despite the early time of the day. A small sign indicated open guestrooms.
As they entered, they earned a few curious looks from the various groups of pony and alpaca workers grouped around the tables. An old alpaca was hammering on a piano as if it had insulted his heritage, and a mare in a flouncy dress was dancing a can-can on a small stage. And at the bar were seated a group of –
“Goats!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in utter surprise.
The four goats turned around at once and glared at the two mares. They were all wearing the armbands of the Goat Empire’s military, but no uniforms, except for one goat wearing a beret. He slowly rose to his hooves. “Got a problem viz zat, mein Fräulein?” he asked with a thick goat accent. Suddenly the saloon was quiet, workers, musician, dancer and the barkeep eagerly watching what was going on with the two newcomers.
With slow, menacing paces the goat walked towards the two mares. His comrades stood up as well and followed a few paces behind him. “I know who you are”, the leader said threateningly. “You are zat pegasus who keeps interfering viz zee Empire’s operations. Hauptmann Hornmeyer told us to vatch out for you.” He gave them a mean grin. “Looks like today is our Glückstag!” The other goats sneered and smirked in anticipation.
“Oh yeah?” Rainbow shot back at them, wings and temper flaring up. “I’ma buck you in your Glückstag so hard you’ll fly back to your beloved Empire!” She pawed the floor with her hoof. “Bring it on!”
Twilight, although worried at the prospect of a physical fight, also lowered her head menacingly. She was determined to have Rainbow’s back against these guys. The goats slowly closed in on them, the three other soldiers fanning out behind their leader in an attempt to flank them. Rainbow snorted aggressively.
“Fillies, gentlegoats!” a cultivated voice suddenly shouted from behind Twilight and Rainbow. “Please, don’t let’s argue, okay? There really is no need for physical violence!”
“Stay out of zis, Silver”, the goat leader retorted to the newcomer, not lifting his gaze from Rainbow Dash. “Zis is none of your business.”
“It is my business to keep order in this town, and that includes you”, another voice growled from behind them. “I will not tolerate you causing havoc in this saloon, Empire or not.” The goat leader halted, quickly followed suit by his underlings. “Now sit down, have another beer on the house, and drop it, Feldwebel.”
Obviously reluctant, the goats returned to their seats, the Feldwebel never turning away his gaze from Twilight and Rainbow Dash. Only when the goats were seated again at the bar, the two ponies turned around to see who the newcomers were, and they experienced their second surprise within a few minutes.
“Manehattan Silver!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “What the hay are you doing here?”
“Keeping you from trouble, Do, it seems”, he chuckled. “Allow me to introduce, this is foreman Pico, he’s in charge of pretty much everything in this town. And who would be your charming companion?” Before Twilight could so much as squeak in protest, he had grabbed one of her hooves and planted a kiss on her fetlock.
“I’m Tw… Rosetta Sparkle”, she stuttered. “Daring Do’s assistant.”
“Well, it is my unadulterated pleasure to make your acquaintance, Miss Sparkle”, he assured in a smooth voice, looking into her eyes. For a second, Twilight found it hard to turn away.
The foreman pointedly cleared his throat. “Mind explaining what this was all about?” he asked. “What are you doing here?”
Twilight quickly levitated the letter from Copper Star out of her saddlebags and presented it to the foreman who gave it a cursory read. “So the ministry sent you to investigate the ruins. Qué curioso.”
“What a coincidence!” Manehattan Silver exclaimed. “As it happens, DeBridles, the mining company that’s running this town, hired me to do exactly the same. It’s really a small world, isn’t it?”
“And what was this argument about?” Pico insisted, ignoring Manehattan Silver, just as Twilight was about to answer.
“It vaz a misunderstanding”, the Feldwebel called over from his place at the bar. “Vun vord gave zee uzzer, temperaments rose up, you know how zeese zings happen.” He raised his glass to Rainbow Dash, his eyes cold as ice. “All forgotten, nicht wahr, mein Fräulein?”
Rainbow was apparently about to explode at him again, so Twilight put a calming hoof on her shoulder. The pegasus reluctantly gritted her teeth and nodded slowly. “All forgotten.”
“Alright. Make sure this doesn’t happen again”, the foreman added, turning to Rainbow Dash and Twilight. “Now. What do we do with you?“
“Foreman, if I may?” Manehattan Silver turned to him. “As it seems, my esteemed colleague is on the same mission as I am, and as you know, I was about to set out for a first examination of the ruins in question. Why don’t the two ladies just join me?”
“Are you sure this is such a good idea?” the foreman asked back suspiciously. “After all, you were brought in by the company, whereas these two –“
Manehattan Silver didn’t let him finish. “Miss Do is a distinguished archeologist. If anything, it will be more than beneficial to have her on board. I really want her and her assistant to join me”, he quickly explained the foreman, giving him a sharp look.
The foreman stared back at the brown stallion and furrowed his brow. He shrugged. “Whatever you do, just don’t get in the way of my workers.” He turned to leave. “Well, you know the way. I have a mine to run.”
“Wait!” Twilight stopped him before he could leave. “We’re supposed to meet a Señor de Cuarzo of the ministry first!”
“Don’t worry”, Pico said dismissively. “I’ll let him know you’re here.” With that he left.
“Well, I guess that has to be enough”, Twilight said, unsure of what to make of that scene.
“Wonderful. Are you staying in one of the guestrooms here?” Manehattan Silver asked them. As they nodded, he continued, “Well then, why don’t you quickly get settled and meet me down here afterwards, and then we can be on our way?”
“Sure”, Rainbow Dash agreed.
There was only one thing bothering Twilight. “Was he just flirting with me?” she asked with consternation as they trotted towards the stairs.
“Don’t think too much of it, Twi”, Rainbow reassured her. “When he first met Daring, he acted pretty much the same, remember?”
“I don’t know. I somehow suddenly don’t like him too much. He was… sleazy?” Rainbow just chuckled at that. “Did you write him like that on purpose?”
“Dunno”, the pegasus happily confessed. “But he’s been a jerk all along.”
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This looks very promising, I can't wait to get around to reading the whole thing!
Promising, and the idea behind it all is original. Keep it up please.
Well, you've hooked me on premise alone, and I've definitely been where Dash has after reading a story more times than I'd care to admit.
Nice tension between Twi and Rainbow here, too! Following!
If I had one piece of concrit, I'd suggest looking into just using "said" for dialogue verbs (or nothing at all!) as opposed to billions of synonyms ("replied," "squealed,") for it. Not only will that flow better for your readers... let's face it, keeping track of all those synonyms has to get tiresome.
Looking forward to more!
why is there no more?
Well done. Nice casual transition from Rainbow confusing himself and Daring Do to Twilight catching onto the implications for the romantic plot.
Seeing that the latest comment was posted six minutes ago, I will hold my wrath and fury: for this time...
On a sidenote, I do indeed like the way it progresses. Somehow The actual writing should be more clumsy and dumb, seeing how it is written by rainbow in two days //bwhahaha\\
Just kidding, great writing.
On another sidenote:AT WHAT CHAPTER DOES THIS TURN INTO A FULL BLOWN CLOPFIC BWAAARGH MUST SATISFY NEEDS FOR- urghum. Excuse me. I meant to say:you never read that last sentence.
The German goats made it for me.
Thanks everypony for reading and for the comments and likes! Since this is the first story I've ever shown around outside my closest friends I'm completely overwhelmed
2850734
Thanks, I will fix that. I blame MSWord, for some reason it thinks it has to be a capital 'P'
2851506
Aw, and here I'm so proud of having found so many synonyms... personally I really really dislike reading the same word too often in a short piece of text. I will think about reducing it, thanks
2851537
There will be; the deadline for the contest is July 13th and I fully intend to meet it.
2851793
Which last sentence? 
Mind you, the logical lucidity generator has probably has probably smoothed out the rougher patches
2851634
Thanks
2852080
I fought back the urge to call them goatzis, for meme reasons
great work, can't wait for more
2852798
That's like in 3 days?!?!
how can you possible finish this story before that? or do you have it written already and you're just polishing it?
Great work btw, favorited
2853206
The latter
And thanks
Oooo. Another one for this prompt!
I'm in!
~Skeeter The Lurker
well it sounds like a good plot idea having two ponies go into a story but i see a few problems.
1. i don't think you should've used a machine, but rather, a spell. this is because they don't really have machines in equestria. plus spells are more twilights style.
2. maybe you could've had them enter something other than a novel that has romance because i can already see the clop lovers waiting for this to be finished.
that is all
There's a word for a fic like this: fun. Plain and simple, that's the best way I can describe this, and I love it. It's cute, it has fluffy romance, a bit of adventure, and I want more.
2854384
But ever since the industrial size blow dryer in Just For Sidekicks, in my head canon Equestria has the potential to be as industrialized as it needs to be for any given situation. I can see your point though.
Huh, I actually never even thought about a spell
As for the romance - that's a requirement for the contest. Plus I'm a sucker for romance
But no clop in this story. Sorry everypony!
2854528
Romance, adventure, German goats, vivid imagery, ponies? This is very well written, entertaining, and fun. I think I shall watch and fave.
Cwl beans
Huh, goats as Nazis, eh? An interesting take... I like it!
Commenting on an old story is stupid buut....
Its fun
_----------------------------------------
GEEZ THAT TOOK EXTREAMLY LONG FOR THEM TO UNDERSTAND....!
I'm a little confused as to why a German is wearing a beret. That gave me the impression that they were French.
s6.postimg.org/f2hwe2bdt/Indy_Hates_Goats.jpg
I can definitely see why this won the contest. I love the concept! ^^
LOL Rainbow wrote Silver how most writers would write Flash
Evil German goats? Wow ... just ... Wow.
Also, I don't know why but lines such as those make me laugh really hard because of the mix of languages and also creep me totally out.
"Umlaute" in english texts? That looks kind of weird.
But I have to agree. Good story!
And the term goatzis is also somewhat funny
I am suddenly reminded of 'Glitchtale'.
Looks like the smartest unicorn around finally figured it out!