Meet the crew(ds)

Well, if one aspires to write someday, one should practice his writing. Even if as bereft of any ideas of non-zero value as I find myself past five to ten years.
Anywho, I am seriously considering doing "Equestria Meets Lion King" story I kinda dotted few posts ago, and for that purpose I have quite literally dreamed up my characters.

In the story a crew of a ship will have sailed to the far shores of the world a new water pass to Zebricia since the usual way has been blocked by a nesting of dragons or something, when they stumble upon a whole new continent. The story will be told from the first person (past tense).
Since I have never written anything that can in any way, shape or form described as "Literature" before, I will try to commit as much as I can to the outline of the plot in hopes that it will help.
Once the outline of the plot and characters and setting and everything will be done, I hope I will be able to just sit down and write the whole thing.
Or not. We'll see.

As noted with the idea troubles above, I am having trouble with the central conflict of the hypothetical story. I think maybe it would be something on the meeting of civilizations, centered around a predator-prey civilization which routinely kills equines for food. Maybe it would be something like protagonists being set up by Scar to take out Mufasa, seing how the scavengers like hyenas are marginally better than predatorial lions?
I am not a huge fan of this idea, but as I said, not much better atm.
Maybe throw in a meeting-of-civilizations thing, like Watts' Blindsight, but I don't think I could swing that.

The main protagonist would be Bimini Twist or Bim for short. A young unicorn colt, who is a personal aide to the Captain Seabreeze, abord HMS Lightbug (name pending). He is tall for a colt and kinda lanky, not very coordinated but well-meaning and occasionally hyperactive guy, whose specialty is... well, knots, and generally holding or tying things together, as reflected in his cutie mark of a Bourchier knot. His coat is spotted-white and his mane and tail are brown.

Captain Seebreeze (Or Cold Shiver, I am still chosing) is also a unicorn, a сaptain of the ship and a magician of considerable skill. While she lacks the power or versatility of a really gifted magician like Twilight, but she can often circumvent this though her arcane knowledge and experience in her chosen specialization. She is stalwart, calm under stress and unfailingly polite... unless she finds a need for some more strong language. Her colors are red and pink, and she keeps her tail short as per marine tradition.

Weathermane is a pegasus the leader of the weatherponies, charged with dissipating the storms that threaten the ship and creating winds for its sails. He is rather old, and his once-yellow coat is now more pf a grayish color. He is level-headed and whistful, ready to regale any audience with the stories of olden times. In combat (and there will be combat) he uses a battle saddle with arrows, something FoE-inspired.

Iron Ore is an earth-pony and a boatswain of the ship. There is a rumor that he was captains' special somepony some time ago, but they act to give no indication of this. He is large and bulky, blue-green colored colt, of non-inconsiderable strength, who spends his time reading the same book (which he insists is "a special book" and is probably related to the Pie family in some way.

Professor (Name Pending) screw this, I can just make her actual name "Name Pending". Just have to add something about a clerical mishap or something, and show that her parents were as eccentric and absent-minded as her. That counts as a funny joke, right? She is a light-green earth pony, with stripe tatoos imitating a zebra coat pattern and glyphmark. She wears glasses and a hat not unlike that of Daring Do (note to self: find out what is the proper term for that hat).
She is enthusiastic, overly talkative, easily gets exciting by anything science-y and tends to write stuff endlessly in the numerous pads he constantly carries with himself. She is a member of Canterlot Royal Geographical Society and Corresponing Member of the Manehattan, Cloudsdale, Hoofington Societies and Honorary Professor of Crystal Academy.
She was initially expected to help with the plotting of the course and mapping things like weather patterns and currents.

As a background character, I would use a earth pony doctor called "Stitch" who has a bloodied needle with surgical stitching as his cutie-mark, and maybe something else.

The story should follow the general series structure, with an expectation of 22-25 chapters, chapter corresponding to an episode.
This necessitates the following structure:

Ch 1 introduction of characters, establishing baseline.
"The Storm".
The chapters starts with Bim playing cat's cradle and lazing off, when the weather patrol pegasus arrives. He immediately attends to him (showcasing his clumsiness when falling face-first on the floor when he forgets he still has cat's cradle on his front hooves), and then delivers the news to the Captain.
The short scene explains the storm, establishes the character roles (Captain steering the ship, Weatherponies bucking away the clouds, Boatswain keeping the ship together), and their basic characters.
The storm begins, making everything hectic an chaotic, up to the point of climax, wherein Bim spots a reef directly ahead. Being, through pure luck, the only one to notice this danger, he tries, but fails to raise the alarm, and in the final moment saves the ship himself by untangling the sails, and causing the ship to turn away from the reef.
Ship nearly overturns, everything gets thrown around etc, and Bim himself is taken out of the action, probably by crashing into the gunwale and blocked by something heavy. Or someone.
He comes to when the storm has been passed in Doctor Stitch's office and gets a lollipop and a summons to the Captain, who both commends and reprimands him for his actions.
In the end she puts away her captain persona, and it is revealed to the reader that she is Bim's aunt, as she hugs and nuzzles the shaking colt.
The scene ends with her asking him if he was afraid, and him, after a long silence lying to her "...No".

Chapter 2: This chapter creates a small breather after the excitement of the storm, and establishes existence of the dragonfire gems that keep expedition in contact with Celestia and homeland. This also details that the expedition did encounter a new land of unknown size, and that ship was significantly damaged in the storm and due to Bim's actions last chapter.
The Expedition Report
This chapter picks up some very short time after the previous one. The storm is over, the weather is good, and the ship has dropped anchor to assess the damage and get stuff fixed and repaired. Bim is on the mess deck, taking pause from helping the cook (name pending) to pass the meals to the crew to once again regale everyone with (very embellished) acting out of the story of how he saved the ship in the midst of the storm.
The lunch being over, he returns to his post of captain's aide, and is ordered to take a dictation for the letter to Celestia, giving a reader a look at the damages to the ship and the repair works that are ongoing.
The letter would detail the situation, the damage to the ship, the discovery of the new lands and asks on whether they should seek to find a way around this new land or send a land-based expedition force.
The letter is then consequentially sent via the "fire-dragon gem" - a magical ring that allows sending of scrolls the same way the dragon fire would.

Ch 3 transition to new setting that culminates in introduction of the thing that sets everything in motion.
Given the need for more wood to fix the ship, as well as the chance to replenish the supplies of clean water and maybe even fresh food, the crew assembles the initial expedition and landing force, consisting of the Iron Ore, few pegasi for aerial reconnaissance and dozen or so sailors and the Professor. Bim comes with them, being sent by captain to maintain the connection via the dragon-rings.
They enter the thick jungle, and most of them set up a temp base to start chopping down the wood, some start measuring the depth of the sea by the shore, so that ship could get closer, while a small group goes deeper in the jungle to look around.
Abruptly the jungle ends, and they find themselves on a grey, lifeless plane, upon which tar pits and bones of the animals are scattered. Even sounds seem hushed and subdued, and nothing live moves there.
Except for a frantic sound of the hooves against the rock, as they notice a hunting scene here. A pack of lionesses chasing a gazelle, or even a zebra. As the protagonists rush to save the pure equine from the "monsters", and while the battle is not in their favor, thanks to Iron Ore's strength they manage to retreat alive. They soon find themselves blocked against a rock, when suddenly they see death incarnate.
That would be the king-lion himself, out for a hunt.
Ponies are almost paralyzed with the prehistoric horror of the apex predator before them.
He does not engage in battle. He merely roars, freezing all but most composed ponies, and almost causing Bim to faint. He demands zebra to submit in a single majestic growl, which it does without any resistance, prostrating before him as he breaks it's neck with a single strike, killing it instantly.

Ch 4
Here, again, a pause is made for a breather after the fast pace of previous chapter, but, this time it should be smaller, as, by the end of the chapter the action picks up the pace, as ponies pursue the contact with locals, and encounter Mufasa agian.

The silent stand-off continues for a few more seconds, and the king merely retreats, lionesses carrying their prey with them, and release the ponies to leave, which they do. They walk back to the ship in silence, as they can almost feel every critter in the jungle watching them.
As if to make everything worse, a slow, cold rain starts, drenching them to the bones.
They report back to the captain on the way, and eventually they make their way back to the ship.

Somethings happen to take up the rest of the chapters' word count, while the crew regroups, establishes more stringent guard, and, to their dismay find that they cannot buck the clouds away, nor herd them away from the ship - the clouds just keep coming, and ship's aircrew cannot win the uphill battle, so they simply resign, as captain orders the weather team grounded. The air of incomprehension and even fear starts to creep up.

Finally, the pace picks up again, as Zazu arrives to the ship, as an official envoy of King Mufasa charged with making contact with the strange creatures.
They establish Zebrahi as the tongue of communication - a language Bim and most of the ship officers know, and proceed to set up an official meeting, wherei

5-6 antagonist characters introduced and relationships developed. Setting established further. That's where fillers happen.

Ch 7 episode 7 twist, wherein the conflict is created and sides, stakes and goals are set up.
And that's where I am actually getting fuzzy with the proper structure
Ch 8-15 is ostensibly the build up. Venues are explored, recognizance conflicts happen, etc. That is also a good place for filler episodes.
Ch 16 is the peak conflict, wherein everything is already brought to the table and nothing will be added (or so it seems)
Ch 17-18 the resolution fight, culminating with protagonists losing.
Ch 19 the ruminations and soul-searching caused by the defeat, that culminate with a plan.
Ch 20-21 season finale with renewed and wiser heroes triumphing and achieving their ends.
Ch 22 epilogue