"It's because they're more of a basic civilization rather than super advanced like us."
Kraglin huffed through his nose, confusion painted clearly on his face. "Yeah, well. I still don't understand what's up with their chins. It's lahk some kind of sweater pattern, you know?"
"Yep. It makes 'em look all swollen and fat in a way. 'Specially with the green skin and purple suit and all." Tullk said, gesturing to his face thoughtfully. Of course, his chin was perfectly fine, but the point he was trying to get across went pretty well. " Reminds me of the one time I faced off with one of those...er..."
"You told me this two times before, how do you forget it just like that?" Kraglin leaned back in his chair and smirked a little. Not only did he hear about it twice, but he doubted that he'd survive a face-off that easily.
"Memory ain't what it used to be is all. But I tell ya, it was an Asgardian, clear as day and tall as hell. " Was the response, his face turning a bit soft at the memory. "Ol' captain was there when it happened, laughing a little."
Kraglin nodded fondly as well. "Yeah. Captain ain't laughed in a long time has he?"
"Well, these ain't been laughing times, have they? With our work getting less profitable, the lot of us having to scatter more often and...the occasional interruptions from Quill..." He shook his head with a sigh. "Even heard rumors of Thanos being up to something. Yeah, no time to be showing teeth. "
"I'm surprised Captain hasn't given us strict instructions about how to handle Quill and his...friends."
"Probably wants our first priority to be steering clear of them, seeing as how they're practically backed up by the Nova corps. "
"Yeah...but, lately it seems--eh?" Kraglin turned at the sound of a light beeping and noticed a specific shape on the flat screen of the monitor. After scrutinizing the details as best he could, the human-esque Ravager nodded in a interest. "Huh... Looks like an abandoned ship, just about two hundred yards over to the left of the hull...Brand new looking, too. Real shiny."
"Hmm."
"We gonna loot it?
"Of course we are."
"Okay, No pony panic."
Derpy had no idea what she was saying, let alone what she had done to get them in this situation. Her head was still reeling from the sudden stop and the momentum of her body caused her to barrel forward swiftly. She blamed this vehicle. Nopony should have such a weird set of buttons up and and running for a clumsy klutz like her to press. Who needs a button that can send you into the farthest reaches of infinite darkness anway? Aside from Nightmare Moon, that is--
"What did you say?" It was Trixie who spoke, blinking at Derpy with an indescribable expression.
"I, uh--"
"That was rhetorical." Trixie narrowed her eyes harshly, stomping right up to the pegasus until there was barely any space between them. "And who are you, of all ponies, to tell me to calm down? You're the one who pressed those stupid buttons in the first place. Now we're Celestia knows where!"
Derpy backed away slightly, swallowing from intimidation. "Um, I think we're in space. You know, where all the stars are? The ones ponies look at?"
"Oh GEE. Thank you. I never would've put two and two together like this." Trixie snorted coldly, giving Derpy an expression that the pegasus was all too familiar with. A look of scorn to be exact. "Ever since you showed up, things have constantly gone downhill! You couldn't even bring in my stupid fireworks on time and you choose now of all times to bring it?! What am I supposed to do with these way out here?!"
"I...I-I'm sorry, Miss L--"
"Sorry?!"
Maud's hoof gently yet firmly divided the hoof and guided Trixie back towards the window. "Let's all calm down for a second. You just lost your home and you're looking for somepony to take out your frustrations on. Just breathe for a second."
Trixie whirled on the grey earth pony, tears stinging her eyes at the mention of her destroyed carriage. "Don't tell me what do! I don't need--"
"I said:" Maud's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. "Just Breathe."
Blinking, Trixie shared a brief stare with her acquaintance before tiredly lowering her head. Almost as if most of the troubles she was experiencing were all weighing in on her too fast. "F-Fine. Whatever."
"Good. Now...this thing is apparently out of power, so there's no point in trying to retrace our steps with the buttons." Maud pointed out. "And this is a small vessel, with not that many helpful items here. We're limited in options."
Derpy and Trixie listened intend as she continued. "Option one is to look out the windows and see if we're floating any closer to Equestria or another place. The other depends on Trixie. How far can you teleport?"
Trixie's cheeks glowed slightly. "Unless you want to end up suffocating out there, or mixed into a giant mass of body parts...we'll stick with option one."
"And speaking of which, I think I see something!" Derpy pointed out the left hull window, where a tiny speck of metal grew as it approached at a comfortable speed. "It might be another metal thing like this."
"Hmmph! I guess those crossed eyes are good for something." Trixie sneered openly, peering closely to view the speck as well. "It's definitely got some speed on it. Good. A quick rescue is the best rescue."
Maud followed their gazes outwards and tilted her head. "So, neither of you are the least bit worried about that?"
Derpy blinked at her with a shrug, and held up a hoof as a matter o'factly. "It's like my dad used to say: It can't be any worse than this!" She paused to rub her chin. "Then again, that was during a drought and then it rained so much it flooded. And then we lost a lot of stuff in the lake and we had to fish out what survived...but hey! There's no water here."
"I'm talking about who might be commanding that thing. It could be that monster that attacked Equestria for all we know." Maud reasoned, only to receive a scoff from Trixie.
"Well, I don't know about you but i'd rather out there than in here with two lesser ponies."
"...But we're the only other..." Derpy pouted suddenly. "HEY! That's a hurtful thing to say!"
"Yes, the truth hurts." Trixie sympatheticaly pressed a hoof to her chest, but her attention was smoothly shifting back to the approaching vessel. The entire space they occupied lurched ever so slightly before a series of clicks and whirs sounded from the cieling. "Huh. Did anyone see that hatch before?"
It wasn't long before the hatch shoved itself open, swinging wide and revealing that it was not connected to the other ship and it's own hatch. Two blurs landed loudly on the ground in front of the ponies, and soon there was an intense staring contest between all five beings in the ship. The ponies had never seen anything bipedal and pale and heavily dressed like these creatures, built with inquisitive yet beady eyes. One was scrawny compared to the other, wearing a scraggly beard on his face and a similarly scraggly red leather outfit to go with it. The other seemed older, with slicker hair and a somewhat darker outfit to resent his age, and maybe his status. Derpy tilted her head with a blink. "This is gonna make a great story for everypony back home."
Maud agreed, but she was more concerned with speaking to the strange alien creatures to destroy any future hostility. "Hello. I'm Maud, and this is Derpy and Trixie. " She paused, looking at the weapons they had briefly and the re-scanning their scarlet garbs. "Was this your...ship?"
"Well, it is now." The skinny one grinned, and it was clear he didn't have a toothbrush. "How'd yall end up in this fine piece of machinery if it aint yours? Oh. Thieves huh?"
"Oh, puh-leeze! Does Trixie even look like the kind of pony who would could be a theif?!" You-know-Who exclaimed rather haughtily.
Say, Tulik, what do you suppose is the species of these things?"
Tulik nodded as well, staring enough for it to feel a bit uncomfortable. Like he was sizing them up, measuring heights and weights thoughtfully. "Dunno. But seeing as how we don't know, I figure no one else will either. And that makes these critters very expensive to the right buyer."
It didn't take very long for it to dawn on the three mares, and they all shared similar looks of disbelief tinged with the slightest bit of worry. Derpy swallowed a little. "You mean you're going to...?"
"Well it's not like you're gonna go anyplace else!" The skinny one rolled his eyes boredly. "You've been floatin' in this thing for who knows how long!"
Trixie tried keeping the nervousness out of her expression, and did surprisingly well with that." Well, yeah, but that doesn't mean we want to be sold off like common furniture instead! We are going straight home from your ship, Good sir! And that is final!"
The two bipedal organisms stared at Trixie for the longest time, and the exchanged a glance with each other. Snorting, Tulik unsheathed a hand held weapon of sort and closed the distance between them, pressing the nozzle to the mare's forehead in an instant. "We'd rather sell you alive, you know. Then again, some scientist type would probably like something dead to tinker on too..."
Maud coughed aloud to save Trixie the trouble of having to think of something to stammer out. "Excuse me, Tullik, was it?" She paused. "My friends and I would like to discuss something in private."
The other creature narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Is that right?"
"We...We've been sold once before, but it was a small price in that area. I'd just like to collect all our thoughts about this area and how it may affect pricing. And then we'll relay the information to you. "
Tulik snorted again, his weapon still ready to do damage. After what felt like a full minute, he stood up again and motioned for the other. They blocked the entrance to their ship by standing underneath it. "You got half a minute then, critter."
"Thank you."
Maud bowed towards them, already guiding her friends a short distance away from the two. It wasn't too much longer before Trixie furiously whispered to them."Did you see that?! The absolute gall of that oaf! I--"
"When you teleport us, Trixie, I'll close the hatch down behind us." Was the small whisper. "Derpy, you get us out of here when that happens."
"You mean like, press their buttons?" Derpy said aloud, earning slight cringes from the ponies and even more suspicious stares from the bipedal creatures.
"Say, what are yall talking about over there?"
Maud ignored them and poked Trixie hard with a hoof. "You can teleport us now."
Trixie swallowed and nervously laughed at them. "Uh, I haven't really practiced teleportation all that well recently. Starlight's been training me, but--"
"That's enough talkin'!" The scrawny one started towards them.
"Now, Trixie."
It wasn't a yell, per se, but Trixie understood that it would have been had Maud been anypony else. Cringing, the blue unicorn ignited the tip of her horn and enveloped all the mares in her turqoise glow. Before the bipedal creatures could stop them, they vanished into thin air.
"Where'd they go?!" Tulik exclaimed, weapon already in hand again as Kraglin shrugged. "They was raght there!"
""Must be one'a them invisibility cloak thangs." Kraglin shrugged.
SLAM!
The hatch above was slammed shut by Maud, who just barely managed to keep it shut as they pounded against it. "Derpy have you started it, yet?"
"Yeah, you're taking a lot longer than last time!" Trixie complained.
"Almost! I think I'm getting the hang of it." That was half true in her case, and the other half slowly shrank down as time passed. The pegasus shoved and poked and rammed several buttons with her hooves until a beep was heard and the ship started to lurch forward at high speeds. "Oh, yeah! I just did that! Who did? Me!"
""Okay, No need to brag about it. I didn't brag when I teleported us in here, did I?"
A strange sound was heard, and then a hole was blow in the metal hatch door, right next to Maud's face. She blankly stared at the hole before turning to Derpy again. "Anyway to detach us from them?"
"No problem!" Derpy smugly declared and promptly pressed a big blue button.
"Self Destruct in thirty minutes!"
She hurriedly pressed it once more and then again.
"Self Destruct in ten --Self Destruct in five minutes!"
"Stop pressing stuff!"
Before Trixie could exclaim anything else about their situation, the ship lurched backwards as if something heavy had landed on the roof. Even the struggle with the hatch stopped as another object made softer landfall and then moved towards the hatch in the cieling. Derly, thinking it might someone like the two they were fighting against, gasped and shot up towards the cieling.
She came to a full stop as a raccoon (with a tiny figure on his shoulder) opened the cieling hatch and stared wide-eyed at her.
"...Well,sh!t."
"I am Groot!"