Downtown Baltimare
"She should have been back ten minutes ago, I don't like this" I said finally standing up from the ground and beginning to pace while Pick and Soarin watched me. "Captain you have to stop worrying so much about Luna, she can look after herself and she is resourceful, Pick told me she saved you by hailing a train and bringing you into Dodge after being fatally poisoned by some scorpion" said Soarin but despite knowing all he said was true I was still worried for Luna's safety and should have suggested some other way into the city.
"Perhaps we could have gone back through the tunnels and found our way into the more central part of the city" I suggested but Pick shook his head to and fro and said "No way am I going back in those tunnels even if Celestia threatens to send me to the deepest and darkest dungeon in Equestria, at least it would smell better".
Although I agreed with him I couldn't deny that I was worried that the city would overwhelm Luna with all its social interactions and business ponies that went by at a non-stop, tight schedule pace to get to their destination in their busy lives.
"The plan to send Luna to get dye was not only a good plan but the only one at the time and since Luna would need all her energy she was the only one that could do it and you weren't so bothered at the time" said Soarin but I argued back "I know but it was different then and I was still angry at her from using that spell to clean us which weakened her already".
"Hey I'm not complaining it's amazing what torrential rain concentrated over a small area can do to clean" he said shaking his mane and glad not to be filthy. "Yeah I don't know how you could stand it Captain, being covered in blood since the Bad Lands and not being able to wash" said Soarin and although I was disgusted I responded "I had more important things to worry about like whether a Wonderbolt or a Changeling was going to come bursting out of nowhere".
"I can see you've all been very productive whilst I was going on my little stroll" said an unfamiliar mare's voice. We looked up at the wall of crates to see a typical common pony with a red coat and yellow mane and book for a cutie mark drop down and dust herself off slightly.
She looked like the most common pony ever and no pony would have suspected her of anything. However all this changed when slowly like water her image flashed bright blue and a scarred, white coated and blonde mane of Clearwater or to me what I had always seen as Luna.
Her Cutie Mark of the moon too was there but not for long if this plan of mine could work. "Was there any trouble on your way? Were you followed?" I asked her but she shook her head to both my questions and responded "No trouble and no pony followed me, however I am both amazed once more but also worried about this marvellous city" she said with worry quite evident in her voice.
"Why?" I simply asked and she went on to say "Well apart from the hundreds of posters and banners with the event tomorrow and our faces all over the city's buildings there is also a huge military presence here, similar to the armies back in my day but they look wrong in this place and the ponies of Baltimare look nervous about the guard and the astounding number of militia about the place" she said and I told everypony "We can worry about such things when Clearwater is dead but for now we need to see how the stuff you were able to buy works".
Luna nodded and we all gathered round as she emptied the sole saddle bag once full of bits we'd given her for the small mission out and revealed bottles of every colour and size. "Amazing, I thought dye was used only for clothes but once more this new world has astounded me" remarked Luna as we all peered at the bottles of dye.
"Yeah…well we need to figure out how to use this stuff fast so that we can formulate a plan to get aboard a vessel bound for Manehatten" I said picking up a bottle to study the back of. "What does thou mean figure out? Have you not used this dying technique before?" she asked and we all kind of kicked our hooves too and fro and Soarin said "Generally Stallions don't dye their coats and manes different colours, not even I dye my hair to look natural" he said and looked to me asking "Captain don't the guard dye their manes and coats to look identical"?
"Yeah I knew a few that did that but I was born with the natural body and mane of a guard so I've never used this stuff either" I said and Pick just sighed in frustration and said "Oh give me a bottle, it can't be that hard to die yer coat a different colour you just have to put it on and rub it in" he said snatching the bottle whilst I held out a hoof to stop him from dumping the whole thing on.
10 minutes later…
"Pick I think the new look suits you" said Soarin through a grin whilst Luna tried not to giggle and I simply looked on depressed as Pick felt around the fresh bald patch on his head where he'd put all the dye on at once. Unfortunately he only picked up the bottle after which read:
Warning!
Use of Dye without water may lead to rashes, burns and fur and hair loss. We take no responsibility for anypony who does not follow these rules.
Looking back I kind of knew that Pick had meant well but I was curious to see now if we put him in a room with poison labelled water if he'd drink barrels of it or have the sense to smell the stuff first. Pick was pissed to a level way above that of the time he'd been shoved on a train and forced to leave his hometown with a couple of crazy ponies.
Pulling up his hoodie he shouted "Shut up, I was just trying to be direct and now this will take months to fix" he said but Luna shook her head and said "Hold still" before her horn lit up and suddenly Pick's hoodie was thrown back and his mane grew back slightly, although he now looked a bit ragged.
He gasped and felt his head and smiled in glee before looking back at Luna and accusing "You're saying you could have done that for ten minutes and you left me to have a heart attack"! "It is a joke" she said grinning to the chuckles of me and Soarin and the sulks of Pick.
"Well Luna, I know you've used a lot of magic today but can you somehow summon a lesser rain cloud and direct It over heads and we'll just try to do this properly with water" I said looking at Pick who avoided my gaze with an embarrassed look on his face.
So Luna summoned a lesser rain cloud and we all took off our saddle bags, weapons, armour and clothes and began the strange process of dying our manes. "I'd heard that there was some dye which acted like washable paint which you could easily remove but this dye seemed a little more simplistic yet difficult for us all to do since Luna had no idea about dye and equally with Soarin, Pick and I.
I saw that I'd chosen black and grey dye for my coat and an electric white for my hair which funnily resembled that of the other normal look for the guard. I grabbed the bottles and applied a little to my hooves and carefully rubbed some into my chest. The rain seemed to dilute it and I spread it around with my hooves and thankfully did develop any bald patches on my coat so continued to slowly dye my hair along with the others.
It took forty minutes but by the end I looked up at us all to see quite a different sight of the ponies I was used to. Soarin's dark blue mane and pale coat was now a bright red with a blonde mane whilst Pick was now green with an orange mane and finally Luna had dye her coat blue and her mane a lighter shade of blue than her coat's.
We looked at each other for a few moments before small grins spread across our faces and we congratulated ourselves on turning into completely different ponies. I didn't smile so much but I was none the less happy and said "We need to conceal our weapons here for the time being and our clothes which look too suspicious, take the saddlebag without the moon insignia on it Pick and put all the bits we have in it, we need to get some regular looking clothes" I said and Luna asked "Does this mean we need to go shopping"?
Despite the fact she had no shops or stores in her time and being royalty probably got made whatever she wanted there was a girly bubble in their which was easily detectable and I sighed and said "Yes". I was positive that she almost went Squee had it not been for the composure she regained a second before.
"Ok let's do this, over the wall we go" I said as I leapt on top and pulled Luna and then Pick up whilst Soarin flew over and landed next to us. "We good to go" he asked and checking we were all good I realised our cutie marks were visible and would have cursed had I just noticed that the posters mentioned nothing about them.
"Yeah we're good, let's move out" I said as we strode forward from the docks, keeping relatively silent since we didn't really want to be seen by anypony hanging around the docks. We made it through the dock entrance which Luna showed us to and ducked below some crates being moved inside until we got through the gates.
After getting out and into the streets which were overlooked by the not so large apartment blocks built next to the docks to accommodate the dock workers and sailors most likely. I saw that the ponies moving in and out of the city were indeed tense and more so when a patrol of the militia dressed in their red coats came round the corners and immediately asked ponies questions.
"We need to be careful of these patrols, we may have changed colour but if they study us carefully they'll notice our faces and some may have been informed of our cutie marks" I whispered as we began to push into a heavier crowd.
"I know I was given a funny look when I was walking around the city by a guard but luckily somepony asked if I needed directions and showed me to a salon" said Luna. "I remember flying above the tallest building and waving to the crowds from above, some building which deals with all the administration for the shipment of supplies and goods throughout Equestria" said Soarin as he looked to the tallest high-rise.
"How is it possible to create such a tall stone structure" asked Luna and I answered "A lot of Labour and mathematical stuff". "You know I might not have been the sharpest tool in the shed but I'm pretty sure mathematical stuff isn't the proper word" Pick pointed out to me to which I sighed and prepared to berate him with how I didn't care and wasn't a mathematician.
However before I could do anything a small colt and his friends seemed to come out of nowhere and point at Soarin and yell "See guys he looks just like the Wonderbolt in my poster"! The other fillies and colts screamed and pushed past us all to crowd around Soarin who was in the process of half smiling half scowling as the kids fussed over him.
"I knew I should have covered our cutie marks somehow" I thought to myself as a million questions were flung at Soarin like "Are you a Wonderbolt? Can I have your autograph? Can I smell you're mane"? I was panicking as a nearby patrol which was questioning an elderly old mare took notice and began to murmur to themselves.
"Soarin… I mean Sprinkles" I said making up an alternate name for Soarin before the fillies and colts realised my mistake "We really need to be going and getting some proper clothes for that wedding of yours" I made up to which all the fillies cried "A wedding!" and more questions were launched at Soarin who was now trying to stop a filly from clipping a feather off of his wings.
Suddenly a red Pegasus colt with a dark stripe down his mane shouted "Leave the pony alone, it's not him"! All the others instantly stepped back and went silent as this much taller and older colt stepped forward and apologised "Sorry to bother you mister but my siblings can get a little overexcited when they see somepony who may be famous".
I looked at the group of fillies and colts and exclaimed "They're all you're siblings"? He shook his head and explained "Not connected by parents, we're all orphans at the local orphanage but since no pony wants to adopt in a town mostly full of sailors, we kind of consider ourselves to be family and look after each other".
"So you're the big brother of the group I'm guessing" I said smiling and he nodded and asked "I heard mention of a wedding for your friend, If you're knew to town then maybe you'd like us to show you around?" he offered.
Although I was sceptical about letting a bunch of fillies and colts show us around the city, this one was quite mature and the patrol had stopped interviewing the mare and were now striding across the street towards us. "Ok sure kid, just lead the way" I said quickly and they all seemed to exploded with happiness, pushing us along the street and in Soarin's case carrying him.
"You children seem to be very energetic" remarked Luna and a filly replied "We're like this with everypony we meet" and I couldn't help but smile along with Luna. "See it's not all that bad" I said and she had to only agree with a nod of her head.
They seemed to direct us In a strange up and down motion, crossing streets and double backing until we were in a grubby street with run-down looking apartments that smelled of cheap Gin and vomit. "Are you sure there's a clothing shop down this way?" I asked and the mature colt responded "Oh yes, just in this alleyway right here" before we turned the corner and were practically pushed into the dark alleyway which I knew almost immediately was going to be a trap.
Suddenly we were boxed in by six ponies of similar stocky builds with brainless looks on their faces and all with the colour pattern of brown with black manes cut very short. They were dressed in old and worn brown jackets and two of them carried old and rusted pipes for what I assumed was weapons unless these ponies were in fact tailors.
"Nice work Billy, here's advancement" said the bulkiest one and obviously the leader who threw a small bag of bits at Billy who grinned along with the other children who now looked very evil and said evilly "Nice one we'll be back by lunch with another, enjoy the wedding Sprinkles"!
The children ran off laughing and we were now surrounded by six Earth Pony thugs without any weapons or plans to combat them. Diplomacy seemed to be the option we'd have to take here so I chose to negotiate and said "Please just take what's in the saddlebag and leave us alone we won't tell no pony".
"Well Mr that does seem like a pretty good deal and one we would have gone with before" said one behind me. "But we're afraid that since a militia is now enforce across Equestria we have to make doubly sure that no pony talks". "By beating them until they swear they won't tell anypony" said another as they moves in all at once.
"Look gentle colts, please can you just let the lady go?" I pleaded as I pretended to stumble and hit the ground in fear. "Look here Mr, perhaps where you come from ponies will do that but here I believe in all ponies being treated the same" he said laughing with his colleagues and bringing the pipe up to strike my back.
I rose from the ground like a striking snake and stabbed the shard of glass I'd picked up from the floor where I'd stumbled right into the side of his neck. He gasped in shock as blood sprayed from his neck but I didn't stop and grabbed the pipe he'd been about to use and with all my force I brought it down on his buddy next to him. There was a loud thunk and he went down unconscious and at the same time Pick and Soarin acted bot together, Pick hitting one of them squarely in the stomach whilst Soarin went up and deliver the knockout blow with his wings.
Luna was pretty low on magic but had enough to levitate the other pipe from the hooves of the other thug and buck him in the chest. Next she wielded the pipe on the pony behind her who was able to grab it and wrestle it free from her hooves.
He was about to strike her and I was too far away so I quickly gauged the distances and flung the pipe in my hooves just like a javelin. The pipe spiralled through the air just above Luna's head and went through the neck of the pony who'd been about to strike her.
His blood splattered her face and she stumbled back in shock as he clawed at his throat and half gurgled half screamed for help. The other two who'd been standing next to us looked at their two dead and two unconscious buddies and did the sensible thing and run.
It ended up with us standing in a pile of bodies with blood on our faces along with grim expressions. "Damn it all I thought that those kids were too cute to be real!" yelled Pick dusting himself off. I was actually surprised that he had handled himself so well and asked "Where did you learn how to deliver a punch like that"? He looked proud and said "Soarin taught me a few Wonderbolt moves".
Although Wonderbolt fighting techniques were in my opinion lightweight I was pleased to see that in a battle situation he hadn't gone off and cowered in the corner like all the other times. "Can we please praise each other's fighting techniques later and focus on our current predicament" said Luna frustrated that we'd been led into yet another trap.
"Look we need to cover these bodies up and get out of here, those other two don't have the integrity to not tell the guard what they were doing if it means our arrest" I said quickly brushing down the nearest thug who I'd killed and finding quite a hefty purse in his ragged jacket.
The others looked at me and I sighed and said "It isn't looting if it wasn't theirs and they won't need it anymore anyway. Although Luna didn't like it she didn't protest as we rifled through the pockets and saddlebags of our muggers without shame… at least on my part.
Now considerably richer and completely lost in the city I decided that we should head in whichever way looked better than the other streets and so led the way north. "I still can't believe such sweet children would do such an evil act" muttered Luna and I didn't respond, I didn't have any way to respond to her. Equestria wasn't making a very good impression right now and although I knew it could be better right now I too was pissed off with it so I kept my silence as we passed by the odd poor pony and eventually made it to a much safer and quieter area which thankfully had shops in it.
"Ok There is a clothes shop over there for dresses, a clothing store for generic clothing and a it looks like that fancy place at the end of the street sells suits" I said as I gave everypony enough bits to buy an entire wardrobe and said "Buy something that will cove you're cutie marks and don't cause trouble" and with that we all disembarked in separate directions. Soarin and Pick went over to the clothing store whilst Luna went into the dress shop. I walked into the suit place but it also seemed to sell other things beside that like antiques.
"Good day sir, do you need help with anything?" asked a rather stuck-up assistant tailor and I nodded and instead of going through the tediousness of actually trying the suit on dumped a bag of bits on the table and said "Show me you're finest suit".
There was about fifteen minutes of him trying to get me to buy some antiques or asking if I wanted something else but eventually I strode out of the changing rooms with a three-piece suit and a black hat like the one I'd previously owned.
In truth I wasn't used to such expensive things since the little money I'd earned went towards booze but I felt slightly better having something on me that could help me blend in. I was glad the suit jacket had tails at the back to hide my Cutie mark and although I was sure it would clash with a saddlebag I was confident that this would make me almost undetectable near guards.
I was about to head out but then the front bell rang and suddenly two militia ponies walked in with one calling Crafty you in here, me and Files are here for this month's share of the profit and no cutting out the bits like last time cause we can check with your boss.
I realized these two militia ponies hadn't notice me yet and so I ducked behind an antique giant vase as they continued their conversation. "So did you hear that the central districts sewage is smell, the guys in the city sewage say that a section of the old sewer has collapsed and the smell of some unknown and older sewer is now stinking worse than the current one and these smells are leaking out to the surface" said Files whilst his buddy nodded and asked "Yeah it was just a few hours ago just after they completely sealed off the city and blocked all the freight trains, what gives with that"?
Files scratched his chin for a moment before shrugging and saying "Extra security for Celestia or something, I don't really understand her anymore she's not acting the same way like before the attempt on her life, I mean starting the militia it gave us work and the opportunity to feed our families with food and not scraps but now I hear tales that the Royal Guard are putting their hooves through doors and rounding up curfew breakers" he said and his friend nodded and remarked "They seem to have gotten meaner, not like those new Night Guard one actually shared his sandwich with me the other day"!
These new developments were quite interesting and although I might have gotten more out of them I decided it best to sneak out via the front door and try not to ring the bell. I exited quietly as the assistant came back and made my way back onto the streets of Baltimare with more questions now than ever before.
"Curfews, hiring the poor for militia and further more aggressive Royal Guards?" it all made no sense in my mind and the only explanation was that somehow Clearwater was influencing Celestia and causing these security measures to take place.
I was really worried about all this but not as worried as to the thing they'd said about shutting down travel throughout the city because if they could close the railway station and the main gates then I supposed that the docks would no doubt have been shut down as well.
However I decided to tell this to the others first and went about looking for them. I found Pick and Soarin in matching Trench Coats which just about hid their entire bodies and end at their hooves whilst Luna was harder to find but eventually it seemed that she was all this time at a hair salon she'd found after wandering away from the dress shop and buying nothing and instead of getting a coat she had discovered an even better dye which seemed to act like paint and had her Cutie mark changed to that of a book.
I decided that I'd lecture her later about sticking to one street and not wandering off and told them all about the latest developments. "Sweet Celestia, you think the harbour has no boats?" asked Pick in a panicked tone. "I'm not saying anything but it looks like Clearwater is quite obviously planning something and with the stories about the Night Guard and the Royal Guard arising I don't really like it" I said looking across the street from the corner we were standing on as a Royal Guard Patrol went across to an old mare and upturned her purse.
"Well we can at least try to get a ship now that we're disguised "said Luna who before I could stop her went up to a stallion in a suit like mine and asked sweetly "Would you please direct us to a place where we can buy tickets for the ships"?
Obviously won over by Luna's charm the stallion offered to show us but after those kids had led us into that trap we declined and instead he gave us some crude directions which we quickly thanked him for before heading on our way.
Luna really seemed to have grown in confidence and although I would never walk up to somepony unless I really had to I was glad that somepony in our group had some diplomatic talents about them. We walked along however until we came to a ticket office where to our surprise and my concern about a hundred ponies, some bearing suitcases and small carts were standing in a circle around the Ticket Office where two Royal Guards were hammering a notice up which read:
By Order of Princess Celestia all sea transportation is hereby suspended until it is deemed safe to re-open.
This was obviously getting to some ponies in the crowd and one stallion yelled "How am I supposed to get to Manehatten where my wife is heavily pregnant and in need of me!" whilst another yelled "I have to deliver this for my Employer or I'm fired this isn't fair"!
The two Guards didn't look right to me and when one young stallion put a hoof on the one on the rights chest and began to demand a proper explanation they smacked him in the jaw and sent him sprawling instead o just detaining him.
This sparked uproar in the crowd and like a powder keg about to go off all it needed was a spark which to my great annoyance and worry came from Pick who yelled at the top of his lungs "They want to imprison us all and starve our families, get them"!
Although simple and not really thought out well it gave the crowd an ample excuse and they surged forward in frustration and anger and soon the two guards were overwhelmed. Although half the ponies in the crowd didn't want trouble and left the others quickly began to beat up the two guards and try and pry open the ticket office and vandalise anything they could see owned by the government of Baltimare and thus Celestia.
However the riot was taken to a new level when about ten guards from the docks came charging out of the main gates and began to try to quell the dissidents by picking them off one by one and beating them senseless. Despite the level of danger we'd created it was also one of great opportunity and I ushered for us to move into the docks undetected whilst the mob fought the guards which had been in the docks.
I led us all back to our equipment and instead of us all going to get it we got Soarin to fly over and fetch it for us instead. "What in Equestria is going on here, I thought this was an age of prosper and communication where no pony was misunderstood and our advancements in technology made us great as a nation" said Luna and I replied "You're right about the latter and would have been right about the first point had you seen this place a month ago" I told her and although she seemed to doubt me she admitted "It would seem though that the times are better than when I was Princess and the rats have certainly decreased as well".
Soarin retuned with our things and after I strapped my sword behind my back and grabbed my Saddlebag we all crept through the harbour for any ship which might be operable or which might be going somewhere last minute.
However although the guards were missing they had left the ships inoperable as we discovered upon boarding a small double sail vessel which was big enough for about ten ponies with only two small decks. "They've disabled the rudder" announced Luna as she checked the ships wheel and then looked behind at the bottom of the boat to which she announced "Scratch that, they've completely removed the rudder".
"It's hopeless, we won't get out of here and Celestia will find us by tomorrow" said Pick in anguish but I looked towards the large warehouse at the end of the harbour and announced "No…There's still one ship which will work" and with that I strode off the ship and towards the end of the harbour whilst everypony wondered what in Equestria I was talking about now and the distant shouts of the worsening riot got louder and louder.