Next morning Slipp and Blaggut followed the Crusaders through the forest as they tried to find their way back to Ponyville.

"By the fang, I could swear that's the same tree we've passed three times already," Slipp snarled.

"Well, it ain't," said Apple Bloom. "It's a different one."

"You better not be leading us a false trail."

"Don't worry," said Scootaloo. "Somepony will come an' find us eventually. Somepony like Rainbow Dash, or Applejack, or Rarity. They always do, you'll see."

"So you admit you don't know where we are any more than we do, you…" Slipp was interrupted by a voice calling down from the sky.

"Hey you rats, put a paw near those fillies and I'll let daylight into you!"

Slipp and Blaggut looked up and saw a blue Pegasus with rainbow hair hovering above them. She was Rainbow Dash!

Rainbow Dash fluttered to the ground. "Come stand over here by me," she told the Cutie Mark Crusaders. "You rats, stay where you are."

Blaggut and Slipp did as they were told, though Slipp was figuring the odds of either seizing one of the Crusaders as a shield, or attempting a rush attack on Rainbow Dash. Blaggut heard hooves approaching and whispered, "Psst, Cap'n, there's more of 'em comin'."

In a moment, Applejack, Rarity, and Twilight Sparkle emerged from the trees. Now the rats were heavily outnumbered. Slipp gave Blaggut a swift, vicious kick. "See wot you've got us into now? Leave the talkin' to me."

Applejack, Apple Bloom's older sister, thought Slipp was talking to her and she leaned closer, asking, "Eh, what's that y'say?"

The searat captain put on his best oily smile. "Good morning to ye, marm. I 'ope yore not 'ere to rob 'onest travelers like us."

"Fiddlesticks!" said Applejack. "We're ponies. We don't do stuff like that. But more t'the point, where in tarnation do y'all think yore takin' mah sister an' her friends off to?"

Sweetie Belle piped up, "They weren't taking us anywhere. We were takin' them back to town, cause they were lost!"

Rarity caught her little sister by the ear, saying, "What've you been told? Don't interrupt your elders, even if they are searats!"

"Did the rats hurt you?" Twilight asked.

Apple Bloom shook her head. "No, they was real nice to us. At least the big un was."

Blaggut was unsure what the proper protocol was, so he held his coat edges and dropped an elaborate curtsy. "Don't be 'ard on the liddle uns. Tis the truth they're tellin' yer. Bless their liddle hooves, they was takin' me an' me mate 'ere back to Ponyville. We're lost, yer see."

Twilight was skeptical. "Lost? What are two searats doing this far inland?"

Slipp adopted a look of injured dignity. "Beggin' yer pardon, marm, but we're not searats. I mean to say, we are rats, and we're from the sea, but we ain't pirates. Ho no, my name's Slipp an' I'm a cook. This 'ere's me mate Blaggut, an' 'e's a, er, er, carpenter, aye, that's wot 'e is, a carpenter!"

"You still haven't told us what you're doin' round here," said Rainbow Dash.

Slipp wrung the tails of his coat in both claws, as if the tale was too harrowing for him to tell. "Well, y'see, me and Blaggut were looking for work. We set sail on a ship bound for Mossflower Woods, hoping to find jobs there. But the Muddy Duck- that was our ship- was sunken by a storm off the coast of Equestria. We're the only two beasts left alive from the wreck; all our mates was drownded. Ain't that right, messmate?" He gave Blaggut a sly kick.

"Oh, er, that's right, Cap'n," Blaggut stammered. "The ole Dirty Swan was lost at sea sure enough. There's on'y me 'n' the Cap'n left alive to tell the tale."

"Why does that one keep calling you Captain?" said Twilight, smartly relieving Slipp of his cutlass.

"You'll 'ave ter forgive ole Blaggy, marm. 'E's a bit slow in the 'ead. Cap'n is his nickname fer me." Slipp gave Blaggut a playful buffet, as hard as he could.

Twilight inspected the chipped cutlass blade. "One of you said your ship was the Muddy Duck, but the other said it was the Dirty Swan. Now, which was it?"

Both searats started contradicting each other. "The Muddy Swan, er, the Dirty Duck, er, the Mucky Dud, er, er, the Swanny Duck, the Dirty Mud…"

"Ya mean ya cain't remember the name of yore own ship?" Applejack interrupted sharply.

Slipp collapsed to the ground, covering both eyes with his claws as he made weeping noises. "It's the shock an' 'unger! Oh, it was awful. Awful!"

Blaggut produced a grubby kerchief and began comforting Slipp. "Don't go gittin' upsetted now, Cap'n. 'Ere, blow yer snout an' you'll feel better."

Blaggut performed a silent dance of agony as Slipp bit savagely on his paw. Twilight separated them. "That's enough of that!"

"Ah don't like these guys, Twilight," Applejack said. "Ah cain't quite put mah hoof on it, but there's somethin' fishy about 'em."

Twilight was quiet for a moment as she considered. Finally she said, "Well, they haven't shown bad will to anypony so far, and with that in mind, we can't refuse them the magic of friendship."

"Without them, Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo might have come to harm," Rarity agreed.

Twilight turned back to the rats. "S'pose you'd better come back to my castle with me."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Blaggut was impressed by Twilight Sparkle's castle. Everything was so clean and shiny.

Twilight lived with another unicorn named Starlight Glimmer and an old mouseman named Joseph. Joseph's daughter Mariel and a dragon named Spike lived with them too, but right now they were off on an adventure somewhere. (The story of how Mariel and Joseph came to Equestria is told in another story of mine, MARIEL OF PONYVILLE.)

Now Twilight, Starlight, Joseph, and the two rats were eating dinner together. Blaggut dug his spoon into a bowl of mixed fruits with honey. "This is the life, eh, Cap'n?" he said as he shoveled it down with gusto. "These is the fanciest vittles I ever et in me life."

Slipp was forging hastily through a wedge of yellow cheese studded with beechnuts, but he could not resist a sarcastic dig at the former boatswain of the Pearl Queen. "Fanciest vittles you ever et, eh? Didn't they 'ave stuff like this at Blaggut Mansions?"

Blaggut grabbed two hot blackberry scones from a platter. "Blaggut mansions, where's that? Pity they ain't got no seaweed grog. Yowch!" He jumped sharply as Slipp's claws nipped his stomach.

The searat Captain saw Joseph watching them across the table, so he pasted a smile on his face as he muttered threateningly, "Lissen, onion bonce, one more mention of seaweed grog an' I'll rip yer nose off, see? If'n they 'ears you blatherin' on about seaweed grog, they'll know fer sure we're searats!"

"Aye, Cap'n. Sorry, Cap'n."

Slipp kicked Blaggut beneath the table. "Will you stow all that 'Cap'n, Cap'n!' Yer an addle nosed, bottle brained, butter bellied barnacle!"

Twilight and her friends tolerated the bad manners of the two searats with great patience. Slipp and Blaggut continued grabbing and gorging, with scant regard to the other diners.

After the meal, Joseph helped Twilight clear the table. "Huh, I suppose we'll have the pleasure of those two at breakfast tomorrow morning," he murmured. "If I had my way, I'd sit them both outside and make them drink from a trough!"

"They might not have the best table manners, but I'm the Princess of Friendship and I've gotta be nice to them," said Twilight.

"I think I've heard the name Captain Slipp before," Joseph said. "I think maybe that was the name of one of Gabool's captains. They're definitely pirates. You can tell that by their clothes, and the way they talked."

"Well, just cause they're pirates doesn't mean they're bad," Starlight Glimmer argued. She was always ready to believe the best of other creatures. "Captain Celaeno's a pirate, and she's good."

"We'll need to keep an eye on them," said Twilight. "But even if they're evil, they can't do us much harm. There's only two of them, not a horde. What's the worst that could happen?"