Until We Meet the Horizon

by DunkelWars

Rating: everyone
Tags: Original Character, Adventure, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 4301

A young Zebrizcan princess joins a pirate crew to find the free life of an outlaw.

A young Zebrizcan princess joins a pirate crew to find the free life of an outlaw.

Published 2014-12-06 03:10:04 UTC
Last updated 2015-01-24 20:26:39 UTC

I

In the zebrizcan king’s castle, on the first floor to be exact, a zebra mare sat in the middle of her room, staring outside her window. In her mind she went through her list once more. 'Bag? On my back. Contents? Where they should be. Hopefully-working invisibility charm? Ready to be put on. Open front gate for the guards change of shifts? Should happen any second now.' Suddenly though, there were hoofsteps coming towards her room and shortly after there was a knock on her door.

“Who is it?” she called through the door.

“It is I, my dear princess, and it’s time for us to continue with your classes.” an old, yet still smooth, female voice answered.

She could see the guards approaching the gate. It was now or never. “I-I’ll be with you in a second Thyria, I just need to clean up in here really quick.”. She put on the charm, smiling as she felt the magic working.

The door opened behind her. “Oh princess. The maid can do that later… princess?” For a second, the old mare was confused upon not seeing her student, though upon taking a closer look she recognized the ingredients that lay on the floor. She then looked out the window and saw the guard opening the front gate. Her eyes widened in shock as she realised what was going on.

As the princess ran across the patch of grass towards the gate she could hear her mentor shouting that the guards should close the gates, but it was too late. The guard turned around to see who was shouting and suddenly felt something hit him hard on his right side. As he fell over he could, for a faint moment, see what had crashed into him, the collision had caused the invisibility charm to stop working for a second.

The grand city of Lusatrin bustled with life; One could find almost all sapient species of Hardille if he just looked long enough. Today though, one could walk into something where there was nothing and. Though, nobody paid much mind to this, everybody was busy with themselves. The invisible being that tried to make it’s way through the masses though had enough of it and walked into a small alleyway. She did not realise that there was a pair of eyes following her every move and, once she was out of sight, the owner of those eyes walked into the same alley. He followed her for at least another half an hour making sure that she stayed oblivious to his presence. Only when she was about to enter the harbor, he decided to speak up.

“Do you need a place to hide?” She immediately spun around and saw who had spoken these words. In front of her stood a pegasus with a grey coat, a blonde mane and deep green eyes. She was about to say something, then decided not to do it. Maybe the pegasus wasn’t talking to her. He looked once to his left and right and then spoke again. “You there. The zebra with the invisibility charm. That won’t last much longer. If you don’t find a hiding place soon, you’ll be out in the open. And I doubt you’d want that.”

Figuring that he definitely meant her, she answered; “And what makes you think that?”

“You’re using an invisibility charm. That’s all the info I need to know that someone doesn’t want to be seen. So I’ll ask again. Do you need a place to hide?”

She thought. It was true, her charm would be out of herbs very soon. And crossing the harbor without it was impossible without being seen. So she took a chance and asked something herself. “Can you get me out of the city?” She closed her eyes and prayed to every god that she could think of. He had to have a cart or a be with a caravan. Just something that would allow her to leave unseen.

“If you don’t mind a few days on sea, then yes.” Her eyes shot open. 'He's here per ship? That's better than I had hoped for!

“Then yes! Thank you so much!” She could’ve kissed that stallion right where he was standing.

“We have to hurry. You got 3 minutes left before your charm starts feeding off of you; at best,” With that he moved past her and stepped into the open. He started walking into the crowd and motioned her to follow with a move of his head. From where they had started, they walked towards the eastern end of the haven, when he suddenly stopped, which caused her to bump into him. She was about to ask what was wrong when she saw it herself: A group of four guards, at least one of them equipped with a disrupting charm. They carefully moved around the group and continued their way. They had reached the dock by now and were moving in a straight line. Then another group of guards came close to them. The pegasus stopped next to a ramp which led onto a ship and moved his head a little bit to the left. To their luck she caught on what he meant and walked up the ramp. He was right behind her and the moment they were on the deck he pushed her under the railing. Seconds later her charm went out.

He looked around once and then looked at her. She looked mostly like every other zebra he had seen in the town, though there was something off about her what-should-have-been-black stripes, there was a touch of green in them. Not much but just enough to be recognizable. Her eyes were sky-blue. He stopped looking over her and started talking. “Phew. Okay. You see that door over there?” He extended a hoof and she followed it with her eyes, when she saw the door she looked back towards him and nodded. “Get inside. Once you’re in, turn left and enter the fourth door on your right side. There should be an empty cabin in there. If you haven’t changed your mind, that’ll be where you spend the next few days. It’s probably the best for you to stay inside until we leave. Which will be happening this evening by the way. If you need anything just knock on the door, okay?” She nodded and half-walking, half-crawling started to move towards the door. Then she turned around again.

“If you don’t mind me asking, what’s your name?”

He looked at her and waited for a moment before saying, “Blitz Rush. What’s yours?”

She quickly made up a name, now that she was out of immediate danger to get captured again, she could overthink things again and she decided that she did not trust this stallion just enough to know her name.

“It’s... Lyrin,” and with that she started moving towards the door again.

Author's Note

Here we go, a new Story again. And all-OC at that!
About the names: Lusatrin is the capital of Zebrizca, which, who would've thought, is home to most zebras. Hardille is the name of the planet. I just really didn't want to call it Equus or something like that. So have a few selfmade names. More are to come.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments.

II

Once the princess was inside, she followed Blitz’s directions and entered a cabin. It’s interior was simple: To her left was a bed with a small chest next to it, to her left a chair and a table. Over the table was a round window. She put the bag and the now useless charm inside the chest and then hopped onto the bed. Whilst the bed didn’t have the quality of the one in her palace chamber, she still found it very comfortable and decided to take a nap, a good part of the sleep she should’ve gotten at night had been sacrificed to prepare the charm. She got comfortable and fell asleep quickly.

She was awoken 15 minutes later by the sound of many hooves and the occasional flap of a wing above her. She got up and was planning to get a look outside to see what was going on when there was a knock on her door. She responded with a slightly surprised "Come in.". Blitz Rush stepped in. He walked towards the window and took a quick look outside, then h turned towards her and started talking.

“We’re about to set sail. If you’ve changed your mind, you’ll need to leave now.”

“No, I’m set on coming along with you,” she immediately answered.

“Very well. The rest of the crew is informed that you’re on board, and are okay with it too. But you should probably still wait in here until we have safely left the harbor, there’s a huge search going on right now. They even started going through the ships. What please did you do to make the guard go crazy like that?”

“What makes you think that I’m the reason the guard is freaking out?” she asked, trying to make it sound accusing, though she sounded rather frightened.

“I’m pretty sure that any criminal that tried to leave the town or hide in it would have been caught by now. But if you don’t mind me asking seriously, what did you do?”

She was about to think of a lie that would sound convincing, when suddenly an earth pony came in. “Blitz! One of the guards got on the ship. What should we do?”

“Horseapples,” he muttered under his breath. “But it was to be expected. You think you can jinx him?” The princess was about to ask how an earth pony was supposed to jinx anybody without magic, when he sighed and suddenly his body was engulfed in green flames and a changeling came forth.

“I really hope that this is worth it Blitz,” the changeling said and positioned himself so that he was hidden by the opened door. It didn’t take long for the guard to arrive. It was a stallion, about as tall as Blitz. He also looked as if he was roughly the same age as him. His stripes where brown. But instead of trying to take the princess with him instantly as expected by everyone, he just stood in the doorframe and looked at her. The princess herself looked baffled. She regained her composure almost instantly though and spoke up.

“Lirk. I didn’t expect that you’d be the one to find me. I won’t come along though. So don’t even try to convince me.”

“I know you won’t come along princess. I didn’t join this search to capture you, I just wanted to say goodbye.” That left the princess with her jaw hanging.

“W-what? But dad will…”

“He can’t lay a hoof on me. And really, you took about the same risk saving my flank when you simply appointed me as your guard. I’m just paying off my debt,” Lirk said with a smirk.

“Oh come on. Dad will find a way to get you. We both know that. And I doubt your head is less worth than mine to you. Why are really you doing this?” Lirk was about to answer again, but Blitz was faster and stepped in between the two. He looked at the princess.

“Okay, what? Princess? You’re the Celestia-damned princess of Zebrizca?!” The princess mentally facehoofed.

“Yes, I am. Elionora, Daughter of Varet. Is there a problem with that?” she asked, her voice a mix of annoyance and impatience. Before Blitz could answer she pushed past him and started talking to Lirk again. “So I am still wai-” Blitz cut her off, his voice nowin a very angry and dangerous tone.

“Of course there’s a problem with that! That means we have to leave instantly! Before the whole port is blocked off as well.,” he shouted from behind Elionora. He then turned his eyes towards Lirk. “Sorry pretty boy, but you need to leave. NOW.” Then he turned towards the changeling. “Get to the decks and tell everybody to prepare to set sail. We leave the moment the guard is off of the ship” He nodded and dashed of. The green light of his fire indicated that he hadn’t forgot about putting up his disguise again.

Now it was Elionora’s turn to be angry. “What? Why does he have to leave already?” she asked standing in front of Blitz, barely fitting in the space between him and Lirk.

“Because I don’t want another guard on here.And if he stays much longer they’ll probably send someone to look for him. Do you feel like being caught by some other guard?” The thought scared the princess enough for her anger to subside.

“No. But…” Lirk spoke up again, taking a few steps out of the cavern.

“Let it be Elionora. He’s right. This ship isn’t that big. I need to leave.” He looked at Blitz and smirked again. “Take care of her for me, ‘kay?” Blitz looked at him rather annoyed, the stallion was ignoring the danger they were in far too good in his eyes. Lirk took the hint and dropped the smirk. He looked at Elionora again, nodded and walked off. Shortly after his hoofsteps could heard above them and a few minutes after the words ‘Set sail!’ could be heard from enough and they started moving. Blitz sighed happily but he was still tense.

“Why do you still look so grim? We left the haven we’re safe now, right?” Elionora asked. Blitz sighed again.

“Not quite. As long as we’re in their territory, they can stop us whenever they want. We’ll be safe once we’ve left it, what should happen in a few minutes. Until then you have to stay below deck. Got it?” While Elionora wasn’t exactly happy with his tone, she wasn’t going to be snarky, she was still a guest on this ship.

“Got it,” she answered. Blitz’s face brightened up a little again.

“I’ll come down once we’re clear. You’ll get to meet the rest of the crew then and can start working.” That made the princess’ ears perk up.

“Come again?” At that, Blitz chuckled a bit.

“What, did you think you could just be a freeloader? You’d better get accustomed working if you want to stay here.” She really facehoofed this time, which only elicited more laughter from Blitz.

‘I’m not sure what I expected,’ she thought to herself. “Okay. What will I have to do?” Blitz smirked.

“I hope you can cook.” Elionora groaned and Blitz really had to keep himself from laughing all too much.

Author's Note

Dear celestia, I am happy that I won't have to write 'the princess' so often anymore.
Also, lots of exposition next chapter. Be prepared.

Pre-read by the G-docs spellcheck.

III

Elionora thought about taking a look around but decided against it. ‘I’ll get a tour sooner or later anyways’. Instead she sat in front of the window and let her mind wander for bit. ‘I can’t believe it,’ she thought. ‘ I actually made it out! Sure, territory and all but dad won’t go that far. There’s no way he’d sacrifice even the smallest piece of his fleet to get me.’ And soon after, her thoughts were proven correct, as Blitz came into the room, now in a way better music than before.

“We’ve made it out. You are now officially free. Come with me, I’ll introduce you to the others.” Elionora nodded and followed him onto the deck, where she closed her eyes and took in a big breath of air, it was nice breathing fresh air again. There was also a scent that made her spirits go even higher: the smell of the sea. She had traveled by boat few times before and had always been kept under deck, the smell of air on the open sea was a new and very nice sensation. She could have just kept on doing this for some time, but Blitz snapped her out of it with a shout.

“Everybody! I want all of you to meet the pony I picked up in Lusatrin!” The ground beneath started to shake as creatures came walking from all directions towards them and a few came from the air. After a while everybody was there: 3 Unicorns, 3 Pegasi, Blitz included, 1 Changeling, 2 Griffons, 1 Deer and, what surprised her most of all, 2 Thestrals, making for a total crew of 14 creatures. The Deer stepped forward first and began introducing itself. It’s coat was a silver-ish gray and it’s eyes were yellow. It’s antlers indicated it was a female and she was the tallest member of the crew. All in all she looked rather regal.

“Hello there. My name is Latania. I’m the ships navigator. If you need any kind of help, don’t hesitate to ask, okay?” Her voice only made her appear even more regal, fitting her appearance perfectly. Elionora was about to introduce herself, but Latania had already retreated back to the others and now the three Unicorns walked towards her.

They all were about the same height, what meant a little taller than herself, and had definitely male features. At first, she thought they all were coloured differently, once they came close enough though she realised something; There were exactly three colours in their mane, coat and eyes. The one on her left had a bright yellow coat, green eyes and a purple mane, the one in the middle had purple eyes, a green coat and a yellow mane and the one on her right had a green mane, yellow eyes and a purple coat. The one in the middle introduced them; “Hey. I’m Crash Course and these two are Rash Story,” he motioned his head to the unicorn on her left, who waved at her, “and Swift Tap. We’re in charge of making sure the ‘Blue Storm’ - that’s what the ship’s called - doesn’t fall to pieces. We also were the cooks before and are really happy that you’ll take that burden away from us,” Crash Course said, putting so much fake emphasis on the ‘really’ that Elionora couldn’t help but giggle. She tried introducing herself again, but Crash, Rash and Swift were too walking back towards the others again, Crash turning his head around once more and giving her a playful wink. Once they had settled back in with the others, one of the Griffons and a Pegasus stepped forward.

The Griffon had dark brown feathers around his head and a typical brownish-yellow coat, the Pegasus had a turquoise coat and a purple mane, with a single red streak through it.They both had green eyes, though in different shades. The Pegasus’ ones were an emerald kind of green, whilst the Griffons eyes were limegreen.The pegasus was a bit taller than her and the Griffon was taller than him. The Pegasus started the introduction. “Hello. I’m Spontaneous Combustion and,” he was cut off by the Griffon;

“I’m Rubyn. We’re the ships… tinkerers? Is that the right word? Well anyways, I build stuff, he mixes fluids and usually stuff blows up. More often than not unintended.” Spontaneous took over at this point again.

“What he’s trying to say, is that I’m an alchemist and he’s an inventor.” They turned around again and Rubyn didn’t lose any time retreating to the others, Spontaneous though turned around again and talked once more. “If you wouldn’t mind, could you give some infos about charms at some point? I’ve been trying to make one for a while now, but it just doesn’t work.” Elionora gave him a nod at that, having decided not to speak until this was over. Spontaneous grinned and walked towards the rest. This time another Pegasus came up towards her.

The Pegasus was a bit taller than Blitz Rush. His coat was dark blue and his mane and tail were an unidentifiable mix between silver and white. “‘Sup? I’m Flick Flack. Around the ship I’m just the guy who helps out wherever he’s needed. On land though I’m the guy with the info and the connections,” he said and was off again. ‘Well, that was quick,’ Elionora thought to herself. She had no time to Dwell over it though since the other Griffon approached her.

This one had gray feathers and a darker body than the first one. It was also smaller than the other one but still taller than Elionora herself. “Nice to meet you. I’m Kira. I handle the ships log and make sure that we have enough supplies before we leave. Since you’ll be cooking, we’ll probably spend a lot of time with each other. I’m looking forward to it.” She gave Elionora a smile and retreated to the group. Now it was the Changelings turn.

He looked like every other Changeling, except for a scar in a cross form over his eye. He was also smaller than Elionora. “Hi. I’m Husk. I I handle all the normal jobs on land, like getting food and water or replacement materials. Other than that I’m usually the one who stays on the ship and makes sure nobody comes on here uninvited. I also tend to change my disguise very often, so just look out for the scar over my eye if you need to find me. That will always be there.” His voice died away at the last sentence, but she gave it no mind. Now Blitz approached her.

“Well, you know my name. Around the ship I’m the first mate and the guy in the crow’s nest. For as long as you’re here I’m also kinda your advisor since I brought.” And with a whisper he added; “Though really you’d better ask Latania about anything, she’s better at explaining.” Neither of the two could help but to smirk. He too went back to the group. Now only the two approaching Thestrals were left.

They were both rather tall, only a bit smaller than Latania but the one she guessed to be male by stature was taller than the one she assumed was female. Their coats bore the same dark grey. The male’s eyes were a cold blue, the female’s were almost golden. The stallion had a mostly dark red mane, with a dark blue stripe on the right front. His tail was the same, though the blue part was very small. The Mare’s mane and tail were a very dark green. Both of them almost radiated authority. The stallion spoke. “Welcome on my ship. I am Tenebrae and this is my sister, Lucida. We’re this ships captain.” That confused Elionora.

‘A ship can have two captains?’ she thought. Lucida reacted to her dumbfounded expression.

“What my brother means, is that we both have the same authority. We started this together and there was no reason why one of us should be more important than the other, so we decided to both be captains.” Now Tenebrae took over again.

“Now that you know our crew, we’d like to get to know you.” Elionora understood and braced herself; she doubted that Blitz had informed everyone about her heritage already.

She prepared herself and spoke; “My name’s Elionora and I... well I am, wait no, I... was the crown princess of Zebrizca before I left.” The reactions went as she expected; Surprised gasps rang through the air and many looked surprised; expect for Blitz and Husk who had already met her, and Flick Flack, who only sighed unhappily. Tenebrae gathered himself first.

“That is… surprising, to say the least. And really not that believable. Though I’m wondering why you would lie to us, I can’t simply believe you. Do you have anything to prove that you are who you claim to be?” Though it probably shouldn’t have this surprised her. Then again, it was normal that he didn’t believe her, he hadn’t been around when Lirk showed up.

“I have my jewels with me. The ones that I have to wear at any kind of royal event to mark me as the princess.” Tenebrea still didn’t look convinced. At this point Blitz chimed in.

"It’s true captain. The guard that was on the ship talked to her and addressed her as princess.” That seemed to do the trick.

“Very well then,” Tenebrae said,“ welcome Elionora. I hope that we can count on you as a part of our crew for as long as you stay on our ship.”

“Be aware though, you won’t get a special treatment from us because of your title. You’re part of a pirate crew now, you gotta work with us,” Lucida continued

‘So they really are pirates. Makes sense, I guess, who else would be willing to pick up a wanted pony and move around with a ship.’ She tought. “Don’t you worry about me captain, I didn’t expect to be treated better than anybody else.” All three of them smiled. Then Kira walked towards her.

“Come with me. I’ll show you the kitchen and the storage room, you’ll need to start cooking soon.” Elionora nodded and followed her as she led the two to a door on the deck. Behind them, Tenebrae shouted.

“Alright, you heard them. Dinner should be up soon and I want everybody to return to their posts until then!” and with that, the group dispersed.

Author's Note

God. Introducing thirteen characters in one chapter is hard. But yeah here's the crew. Spontanious Combustion belongs to a friend of mine.
Flick Flack is my usual OC, so there's a big chance that he'll appear in other stories, or maybe even get one for himself one day.

Still proofread by the G-docs spell-check feature.