The 6 element seas

by Randomateverything

Chapter 11

Rainbow, Fluttershy and Pinkie all quietly trotted down the streets of Trottingham, each of them disguised under Rainbow's spell, Pinkie as a dark grey earth pony with a black mane, Fluttershy as a green pegasus with a pale yellow mane and Rainbow as a white coated, blue maned pegasus. At Fluttershy's insistence, they all wore a cloak of sorts to stay warm. The streets were quiet and mostly empty, with only the odd homeless pony, sleeping in the alleys. It was early in the morning, the sun wasn't even peeking over the horizon yet, which was good, because Rainbow Dash wanted to get out of the country before that happened.

"How are we supposed to get a ship at this time, Rainbow?" Fluttershy asked from her left

"I'm sure they'll be plenty of ships that are leaving at this time, we can hitch a ride on one of them."

"B-but, we don't know where they're going! And what if they don't come back to Equestria for months! Or even years!"

"Relax, we'll ask them where they're going first, and how long they'll take, besides, some of them will only stay in a port for a few nights before leaving to come back to Equestria again, so, we shouldn't take that long, a month and a half at most."

"Hey Dashie?" Pinkie butted in before Fluttershy could reply again

"Yeh?"

"Why don't we go back down the black market and see if any of them know of a ship leaving this morning?"

"Why? You know most of those are smugglers, right? And that they don't really care what they smuggle? I mean I doubt they actually participate in pony trafficking, but I really don't think they'll care if three ponies just happen to ask for a lift."

"Well, if they do, you can just whip out your horn and zap them until they let us go!"

"Yeh, there are several things wrong with that; 1, I can't use magic that well, 2, they'll outnumber us and not even I'll be able to handle them all, 3, they'll probably threaten to harm one of you if I use magic, 4, if they see me as princess Rainbow Dash, it'll either mean that it would be harder for us to escape or they'll inform mother and I'll be grounded for life."

"Well, we could at least try, right? I mean, we don't have to actually get on the boat, do we? Also, what if some of them are pirates?! I mean, sure, the chances are low, but it's possible, right?"

"I guess..."

"Oh, no, Rainbow. B-but, what if.." Fluttershy started

"Don't worry, Shy. Like Pinkie said, we don't have to get on the boat, we're just looking, kay?"

"Oh, alright, if that's what you want..."

Rainbow nodded, and so they changed course, heading down one of the alleys into the black market.
Getting there was easier than they expected, it must have been bigger than any of them knew. It was drastically different in the market, unlike the quiet, calm and empty streets, the alleys of the market, were loud, hectic and cramped. Making their way through, the three mares eventually found their way to a vendor who seemed to be closing down her stall for the night. The vendor did seem to know of a ship that was leaving in the morning, and she lead them down to a large cove, where several ships were lined up. They ranged from long sea sloops to bulky frigates, but the one the vendor lead them to was a middle sized brigantine.

It's sails were down, and it was darker in the cove than out in the streets, but the complete blackness of the sails was clear, a pirate ship.

---

Rarity awoke to knocking at her cabin door, opening her eyes, she noticed that it was dark, darker than it should have been in the morning, even with her new curtains. Furrowing her brow in confusion, she permitted whoever was at her door to enter.

Twilight walked in,

"Captain, there are three ponies outside who seem to be looking for a ship to take them somewhere."

"...Where to, specifically?"

"The didn't say, just that they needed to get out of the country." Rarity thought for a moment

"Would we have enough food to take them to Neighgeria?"

"Yes, but Captain, there's something odd about them."

"Odd, how?"

"They appear to be wearing disguise spells."

"Many ponies wishing to escape the country would wear a disguise spell."

"Yes, but, the magic is coming from one of them and none of them are unicorns." Rarity almost jumped out of her skin at that

"You think one of them is an Alicorn?"

"It's likely, but if it were Queen Celestia or Princess Luna, they'd have already had our heads, not to mention that they'd have a while army of guards swarming the rest of the place. And it's unlikely to be Princess Rainbow Dash, since the whole country knows how she despises the position and has asked the Queen multiple times not to ascend her. However, it's also a well known fact that the Queen dislikes her daughters attitude towards royalty and would probably do it anyway. In which case letting them onboard would mean we're harboring a royal Princess running away."

"So we'd be more at risk of being found..." Rarity murmured to herself "Do you know for sure if one of them is the Princess? I mean, it's rare, but I have heard of Pegasi and Earth ponies being able to cast simple spells."

"It's likely, and if it was the Princess, she'd still have to take her body guard, as he likely wouldn't be allowed to leave her side, ever, until, of course, she goes to the bathroom, but those are too secure to leave from, and I should know, my brother told me before I ran away, not that he's been in the mares bathrooms, but, he heard from the guard-mares. Anyway, that means that it's very likely it's not Princess Rainbow Dash, and one of them just happens to be able to cast spells. But I can't check either theory, unicorn magic doesn't allow the caster to see if a disguised pony is anything other than a unicorn, unless you use a specific spell that was made for changelings, but there aren't spells like that for the other pony races. Besides, I'm not quite sure which one is the magic user, and if I use too much magic, or use it for too long, then whoever is casting the disguise will know."

"So, we can't know who it is. Hmm, well, Neighgeria isn't that far from where we are now. How long did you say it should it take to reach Twilight?"

"About a week, possibly longer, depending on the weather, which, unfortunately, none of the Pegasi aboard our ship have experience with. We could ask if one of the ponies asking for a lift had any experience, but we can't know if any of them are actually Pegasi."

"Right..." The Captain tapped her hoof, looked at the floor and thought for several moments 'We'll have to port at Neighgeria anyway, and should one of them turn out to be the Princess, the guards shouldn't be able to track us down so easily, we're leaving in a few hours at most, before anyone should notice the Princess is missing, and no-one but us criminals know where this bay is, so a week should be enough time for us to take her to Neighgeria, drop her off and leave for our treasure before anyone gets suspicious. Plus, if one of them is experienced in weather, they may be able to warn us about rough weather, if they aren't, then we have more hooves on deck anyway, so they can help run the ship. We've been needing more crew members anyway....' She looked up and cleared her throat, "Tell them, that if they agree to our terms, they can hitch a ride with us to Neighgeria but no further, and we will not provide a return trip should they decide that they want to come back."

Twilight nodded her head

"Yes Captain."

Author's Note:

note that the map of the world in this story is different to both the actual Equestrian map and our own earth map.