A Compass to the Soul

by CartoonNerd12

Troubled Youths

Fluttershy was walking with the rest of the captain's cabinet to get to the captain's quarters when she heard someone calling her from the crow's nest atop of the mast. She flew up to meet with Derpy as four pigeons carried in a satchel.

The gray pegasus with wall-eyes said, "More mail from Equestria."

Fluttershy took the satchel and cooed at the birds, "Thank you my friends." she faced the pony and said, "And thank you, Derpy."

The pegasus smiled and saluted, "No problem, Fluttershy!"

The rosy-haired mare nodded and flew back down just in time as she and the others were entering the cabin. They took their places at the table as their captain addressed the issue.

"So, what do you suggest we do with the stowaway as we get to South Amareica?"

Twilight motioned, "There's really nothing we can do except make her a cabin girl with Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom."

Applejack nodded, "Exactly. Besides, I think the fillies took a shine to her and with them we can understand more about her while she's with us."

Fluttershy added, "And hopefully she'll come to trust us and not cause so much trouble for herself."

Rarity asked, "Is it true the filly tried to fly away but ended up nearly falling into the sea?"

Rainbow said, "It is, but I don't understand why that is. She's a pegasus pony for crying out loud! How can she not fly?!"

Twilight frowned, "I have read cases of pegasi having very small wings due to birth defects and sometimes a disease affects the growth too."

Fluttershy pointed, "And if you'll remember, Dashie, I was a weak flyer until you encouraged me on, maybe this poor filly needs that same support."

Rainbow bit her lip and sighed, "I suppose you're right, Flutters."

Fluttershy then held up the mail satchel and set it down the table.

Pinkie exclaimed, "Ooh! Mail!" she jumped at it until Rarity's magic grabbed it out of the way, making Pinkie's face fall flat on the table.

"Now Pinkie, you know that our captain has to go through the satchel first." she handed the bag to Rainbow.

Dash went through the mail and handed envelopes addressed to her comrades. Twilight got a letter, so did Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Rarity.

Rainbow Dash had three envelopes but with one she set aside while with the other two she placed one in a drawer full of unopened envelopes and with the other she went to a lit candle and burned it.

Fluttershy inquired, "Oh dear, was that another invitation to courtship from Zephyr?"

Rainbow causally stated, "Yup."

Fluttershy shook her head, "I'm sorry, Dashie, I keep telling him that you're not ready for another relationship at this moment…"

"And will never be." she bluntly added.

Applejack questioned with a slight frown, "And are you ever going to read those letters your parents sent ya?" eying the drawer.

Rainbow faced her crew sadly, "No. Because I don't want to know what they think of me as a pirate. I'm sure they're disappointed in me because of that." She went back to the table and read the other letter she got before groaning, "That egghead, I told him to stay put."

Twilight asked, "What's wrong?"

"It's Professor Quibble Pants. He's insisting that the poison Celaeno has is getting worst and that he needs to join us so we make sure we get the right cure."

Twilight pointed, "But we're already miles away at sea how is he going to join us in time?"

"No doubt he's already on a ship heading to South Amareica, which is a pretty stupid move for him and he's supposed to be one of the smartest ponies I know."

Applejack asked, "And how do you know this guy again?"

She stated in a bored tone, "Celaeno and I found him captive on a rival pirate ship led by that scourge Caballeron, needless to say our first meeting wasn't the best way to start a friendship but he felt indebted to me and Celaeno for rescuing him and shortly joined the crew as a navigator. No doubt this is his way of paying her back but I told him that I could handle this without him but will he listen? Noooo." then she gives the satchel back to Fluttershy, "Make sure the rest of crew gets their letters from their families."

Fluttershy nodded.

Rainbow turned to her first mate, "Applejack, you know what needs to be done."

"Aye, Captain." she saluted and headed out.

---

Soarin had the colts lined up as he addressed them, "Alright, boys, you know why you're here, now it's imperative that you do everything I say or else your punishment won't get lifted. So it's best that you don't make any more trouble for yourselves, that way you can get this out of way and hopefully you'll have learnt something from all of this. Does that make sense?"

"Yes, sir." Pip, Skeedaddle, and Button Mash said.

Soarin noticed Rumble was the only one who didn't respond back as he had a grumpy look on his face. The older Pegasus raised a stern eyebrow, "Rumble? Do you understand what I just said?"

The colt merely grumbled out, "Yes, sir…"

The stallion thought, It's a start… But I'll get through to him yet.Then he said, "Alright then, boys, follow me." He led them to a section of the camp where there was a hole by some trees, in the middle of the hole was a cylindrical container. Soarin asked, "Now can anyone tell me what this is?"

The colts looked on in confusion and were drawing a blank.

Soarin stated, "It's a solar water still. It helps us get any additional water that we need especially if we can't get any rain water or we can't find a clean water source on the island. So we use this to get our water manually."

The boys except Rumble awed at the idea.

The stallion instructed, "Now I'm going to show you how it works and then we're going to make some more water stills."

Button questioned, "Does that mean we'll have to dig up other holes?"

"Exactly. It's going to take a lot of hard work but I have confidence in you boys." He smiled as he gestured, "Pip, Skeedaddle, I need you boys to find a clean sheet and bring it back here."

The two saluted and proclaimed, "Yes, sir!" and ran off.

Soarin told Button, "I'll need you to find two medium size rocks and a pebble, got it?"

Button saluted as well and enthusiastically said, "Sir, yes, sir!" and went on.

Soarin turned to the last colt, "As for you, Rumble… I got a special job for you."

The colt rolled his eyes and said, "Whatever."

---

Scootaloo indignantly exclaimed, "You want me to be a what?!"

Applejack stated firmly, "Ya heard me, we want you to be a cabin girl."

Scootaloo yelled, "But I told you, I didn't ask to be on this ship! So you can't tell me what to do!"

"Now look sugarcube-"

"Don't call me that!"

"Fine. Scootaloo. I can call you by your name, right?

The filly frowned and just nodded.

"Anyway, as you are stuck here with us you have to do what we ask of ya."

"Why should I?" the young pegasus challenged, "You can't force me to work."

But a devious look spread across Applejack's face told the filly otherwise.

---

"Leaves." Rumble muttered bitterly as he flew up to the treetops, "He wants me to get some stupid leaves. And not just any leaves, they have to be wet too!" He starts picking the foliage off and kept muttering, "Some special job this is…" with the large pile of leaves in his hooves he went down to the lagoon and started wetting the leaves.

---

Scootaloo grumbled as she was swabbing the deck with the other cabin girls that she met this morning.

Apple Bloom tried to reassure the newbie, "Don't worry, you'll come to love it here!"

Sweetie Belle nodded in agreement, "Yeah! We get to do all sorts of fun things on a ship!"

AB added, "That's right! And it's really help us try to figure out our special talents so we can get our cutie marks!" she motion to her blank flank.

Scootaloo stared at her own blank flank and inquired with newfound intrigue, "Do you think it'll help me get my cutie mark?"

Apple Bloom shrugged, "You never know!"

Scootaloo pondered deeply, Maybe getting stuck here isn't so bad after all… And it is nice to be around kids my own age for once… Until she caught a glimpse of the pirate captain that was at the helm and saw that she was eying her suspiciously. She returned the distrust and went back to work.

---

Rumble laid out the wet leaves in front of Soarin and declared, "There! Just like you wanted!"

The stallion merely nodded in approval, "Good job, I knew you could do it." then he turned to the other colts that had the things that he requested of them, "And good job to all of you too, now I'll show you how it's done to get water by hoof." he grabbed a handful of leaves from Rumble's pile and placed them next to the container. Then he took the sheet and covered it over the hole, having the two rocks holding it in place. Lastly, he put the pebble in the center of the sheet.

He told them, "Now all we have to do is wait."

Pip questioned, "Are you sure we'll get water this way?"

Soarin replied, "Positive." and stated, "Now I believe you better get started on digging some more holes, right?"

The boys minus Rumble responded back, "Yes, sir!"

"Very good, now get to it." he motioned them to go.

---

Scootaloo sighed as she finished swabbing. Apple Bloom came up to her.

"Come on, we'll show you where you'll sleep."

They led the filly down to the crew's quarters where hammocks and bunk beds were. The experienced cabin girls went to a triple bunk bed as Apple Bloom climbed up to the top while Sweetie Belle went to the middle. Scootaloo assumed the bottom bunk as hers.

Sweetie told her, "We hope you don't mind."

Scootaloo just said, "It's okay, I'm used to being on the ground anyway…" she flit her wings but she couldn't take off and landed on her side.

AB and Sweetie exchanged sad looks.

The pegasus saw and scowled, "Don't do that. I hate it when some pony pities me because of my problem."

Apple Bloom looked on in embarrassment, "Sorry."

Sweetie started, "We didn't mean…"

"It's fine, just please don't feel sorry for me again."

"Okay." both fillies said.

Scootaloo made a small smile and climbed into the bed, "You know, I never had friends before…"

"Really?!" the two exclaimed in astonishment.

The young pegasus nodded.

Sweetie motioned, "Well, we'll definitely be your friends!"

"You said it!" AB agreed joyfully.

Scootaloo smiled further.

Bloom added, "So now that we're all friends, what if the three of us work together to find out who we are and what we're supposed to be?"

Sweetie held her hoof up, "Ooh! Ooh! We could form our own secret society!"

Scootaloo exclaimed, "I'm liking this idea!"

AB beamed, "A secret society, yeah, we'll need a name for it though."

Scootaloo suggested, "The Cutie Mark Three?"

Sweetie pointed, "The Cutastically Fantastics?"

AB pondered a bit and slowly said, "How about… The Cutie Mark Crusaders?"

Scootaloo gasped, "It's perfect!"

Sweetie gleefully said, "It's great!"

Bloom stated, "Cutie Mark Crusaders it is then and we're going to be unstoppable!"

All three of them cheered.

---

Rumble hated getting dirty if he couldn't enjoy it. Normally digging up holes would be fun but the former lieutenant of the Equestrian Navy wanted a precise measurement of how deep the hole should be so it was just work. Rumble wanted to so much get back at Soarin for putting him through this, so what if this was supposed to be a punishment, he didn't care. He may get into trouble from time to time but if he was honest with himself he liked making trouble and only two creatures on island understood that above all else.

Capper was a con-artist and Rumble loved hearing all about the schemes he made on the mainland before landing on the isle. Then there was the head troublemaker himself given he was the spirit of chaos and disharmony. Discord ruled the island and on occasion pulled some funny pranks on the outcasts, much to their displeasure.

He didn't understand why he had to be punished for trying to make a little fun with his friends and thought, Well I know who I'm going to after this… as he eyed a hut in the shape of a castle in the fair distance.

Comments

[Godslittleprincess]

This setup just keeps getting better and more intense. So, when is Rainbow going to finally read those letters?

[Foxhelm]

Rumble, don't do it, don't do it...

[AutumnSky98]

I wonder what Rainbow's parents think? Hopefully they aren't being held hostage to force Rainbow to give herself up!
(can governments do that?)
Also, if Rumble plays a prank that involves Soarin's compass, he can prepare for a REAL punishment!
I love that the CMC have been founded now though, those three are going to need one another, I think.
...I also think Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash are going to grow on one another.
Aki