Bronies Beyond the Stars: Pirate's Plunder

by Digital Spark

Chapter 3: Past

All is quiet in the crew quarters. Everypony is either asleep or being extremely quiet. The captain snores quietly from his room. Elder lays awake, levitating star charts while he study's them. Squid sits dozing on the bridge. Dann quietly reads a mystery novel.
"What are you reading?"
Startled, he flaps his wings furiously and hits his head on the metal plating of the ceiling. His vision blurs and un-blurs. A knot starts forming on the top of his head, under the blue spiked mess he calls a mane. Below, a filly looks curiously at the book. A young earth pony, doesn't even have her cutie mark.
"How did you get here?" He yells down. A tinge of anger in his voice. Her appearance had been, frankly, quite frightening.
She looks up.
"It was easy. I just snuck back on when grandad wasn't looking. Then, I hid in the cargo bay with the fish."
Realizing he's still flying near the ceiling, he floats down to the filly.
"What's your name?" He asks, not as much mad as curious.
"Amy."
Satisfied, the filly starts levitating. Carried by Dann's magic, they move down the hall to the captains room.
"Cap! Captain!"
A few moments pass until the door opens revealing a sleepy looking captain.
"Captain. We have a stowaway."
The captain blinks. He turns and looks at a small clock on his wall. He turns back and gives a grin.
"Well then. It looks like you have a new friend for twenty hours."
The door shuts and locks. With a sigh, Dann lets the filly drop to the floor.
"Now. Amy. Stay in my quarters and out of trouble. Got it?"
She nods, and they walk back to the cabin. The door snaps open as they enter. Dann lays back on the small bed, and Amy curls into a chair. The book sits near the hoof of the bed. He decides to leave it for later. He turns the light out, and falls asleep without seeing a small figure exit the cabin.
The hallway is dimly lit, but, she can still find her way to one of the cabins. The door is unlocked, and she peeks in the room. A black pony sits on the bed, looking at star charts. He doesn't notice the door open and close. She backs away from the door and continues down the hall to the cargo bay. The hatch opens into the cavernous hold. The tank remains on the far wall. A box shakes slightly. As she approaches, it begins to shake more violently. The release button pulses with a dull red light. In a moment of extreme curiosity for the contents of the box, she hits the release. The top pops open, and a hairy ball of fur rockets out, bounces off the ceiling, and flies into a pile of supplies. Though no mouth is visible, it keeps making a strange sound as it bounces.
Meepmeepmeepmeepmeepmeepmeepmeepmeepmeepmeepmeepmeepmeep
Panicking, she jumps and tries to intercept the fuzzy creature. It hits her, full force, and they fall to the ground. She shoves it back into the box and closes it. She falls beside the box, battered and bruised. Deciding that the fuzzball was enough excitement, she retreats to Dann's cabin to recover.