Chapter 1: Crew Troubles
It was my ship now... My ship, and it would have been nice if it had been my crew. "Guys, come on, you can work with me. It won't be that bad." I said, staring around the long round table at all the other crew members. They were mostly parrots, although there was the odd pegasi or griffon. "I know you all loved mom, but she's dead..."
"That's the thing Ellie." Came the voice of my mom's first mate. "I accept that it's your ship, and I'm willing to give you the dream, but I'm not taking orders from a child!" He slammed his hook hand into the table, and stares at me. "The whole crew agrees with me. We arnt going to take orders from you."
I looked at the rest of them, the crowd that was thick with people. "There has to be some agreement we can come to." I said, trying to be amiable before slowly getting mad. "I have been on this ship as long as you have bouford. You don't have any more right on how it was run then I do!"
The parrot shook his head, and stood up. "This conversation is over. I will not stay on this ship if you are not willing to take orders from me, at least until your older." He sighed and turned around, walking out into the deck. "Everyone else who doesn't want their life to be run by a child, come with me. I'm going to do up the gold and we're going to get off this thing."
And that's how it went, I was unable to stop them as every one of the people who I had worked with my entire life followed him and went to start bringing trade goods out onto the deck. Following them I stood at the helm, staring down at the somnambula port and woundering if it was worth it. But no, my mama told me, I could never let anyone else take this from me.
***
After several hours, my former crew we're ready. All the gold they were owed we're in their pockets, and they had sold enough trade goods to compensate for this Trip's wages. And they were gone, going to find work in caravans and some of the other airships ported in the dock.
"I'm sorry Ellie, but I couldn't take orders from someone who's diapers I changed." Bouford said, standing on the dock with his small pile of goods, and that made me blush. "Look, maybe in a few years I'll be able to do that. Okay? I gave you your mother's share, and I got the guys to get the goods into the market before booking it. So you could feisably have enough gold to live for a while. Take care of yourself."
He handed me the bag of gold and caps, and walked down the ramp into the docks. Dispapering into the crowd as I sniffed, and went to sit in my... In mom's room. I cried my eyes out, acting like a fucking chick. But I was still reeling from the pain. I stayed like that for the next few days.
***
A few weeks later my provisions finally ran out, and I was forced to go down into Somnambula. Thankfully I had plenty of caps and gold, as I walked my way through each and every street, buying little bits of old food, and a few southern crops... the kind that my ship used to be used for transporting.
Thankfully, the trade city was completely devoid of radiation, as the small cultural landmark was able to avoid any aggression from the striped forces. It did, however, have a few interesting things to it that I had learned as a young chick, as it was almost a home for our ship... not that we had a real home.
Back before the war, an archaeologist named 'Daring Doo' had fought many people here, and she eventually funded an expedition of more... low-key magical researchers to come and resurch the ruins, funded by the MAS. But what they found was much more than what they expected, as they found one of the most powerful magical gems in Equestria... right before the war struck.
So, Somnambula's newest export became small amounts of this gem, and a large magical study facility was built in the old temple. However, that temple is filled with dangers, and no one should ever go there, or so I was told as a child. In any case, that lead to the mechanization, that alowed Somnambula such trading power in the post-bomb world.
***
I was cut off from my thoughts by a shout in the distance. "My goods, thief!" came the yell from a
stand, just a block away. The guards were around, but it would take them time to get the thief, and by then everything would have run amok. So, with a sort of daring that would have frightened my mother to bits, I ran after the movement in the marketplace where I knew the thief must be.
I drew my Cutlass and stared after the perpetrator, trying to find him in the crowd. Thankfully, the crowd was mostly made up of ponies this far north, so I had a good bit of height on everyone. I was able to see the movement through he crowd, so with my blade in hand I began to dash through and get closer to the thief... Tight on their heel, despite their incredible speed at dodging through everything.
Soon he dodged into an ally and I followed, tight and following step by step. "Stop right there, I've got yo-" I said, before seeing what I was chasing after. It was a smaller, thinner creature. With the body of a lion and the head of a pony. It was a sphinx, and it was holding a peice of bread.
"Seriously, that's what you were stealing?" I asked, looking at the pitiful creature. "For Celaeno's sake... Look, you see that ship? with the colorful wings? yeah, go and hide there. I'll take care of this." I turned around, taking a few gold out of my pocket.
As I heard the cat-pony run I signed, and walked back into the crowd. "Hey, guards, he went this way. But he escaped." I said, pinching my beak. I then walked over to the stand and whispered to the person who had been stolen from. "Listen, here's enough gold for two pieces of bread. I'm paying for that cat as well" and without another look, I tossed the caps at her and took a sweet roll.
And so, I simply walked away, going to my ship. The guards didn't find anything, and looked somewhat disappointed, but I didn't care. This creature was pitiful enough that I'd had to give it another chance, hopefully it wouldn't make that another mistake of mine.
Footnote!
Electra:
STR: 4
PER: 6
END: 4
CHA: 4
INT: 8
AGI: 8
LCK: 6
Traits:
Parrot Sailor: You have been flying around your entire life on your ship. You start with Pilot +20, but you may not take any ranks of Survivalism and Traps during charecter creation. You also get 500 caps extra when you start, your cut of the treasure.
Swashbuckling Charisma: You can use your agility instead of your charisma once per day. This can be for intimidation, using a swing of your masterful swordplay, or instead of charisma in a persuasion check as long as you have just done something daring and acrobatic.