The Storykeepers

Chapter 13: Sink or Swim: Part 1: The Master’s Ship

On board the war ship captained by the infamous Starlight Glimmer, the rowers, all slaves and Christians, were trying to row back home following a victory against Saddle Arabia.

“To port!”  Starlight cried out.  “To port, now!  Hard to starboard!”

Starlight then came down and addressed her second in command, Night Glider.

“Secure the slaves.”  Starlight said calmly.

“But captain, please!”  An elderly slave said.  “We’ll drown!”

“If this ship goes down, then you’ll go with it.”  Starlight replied coolly.

One of the slaves in charge of securing the barrels, Daring Do, looked around at the frantic pass.  She knew no one would miss a slave in this storm, in fact, they probably wouldn’t care, so Daring Do tossed a barrel over when no one was looking, jumped on to it and hung on for dear life.

Meanwhile, at the baker, the kids were putting on a show for Celestia, Luna, and Twilight.

“And now,” Applejack called out.  “The amazin' Rainbow and Fluttershy will juggle six rolls!”

Applebloom peaked inside to see how they were.

“Six?!”  Fluttershy called out.  “I can’t juggle six!”

“Sure you can.”  Rainbow said as she tossed a tray of freshly baked rolls into Fluttershy's hooves as she shrieked and began juggling them as the curtain opened.

“Oh my goodness, they're hot!”  Fluttershy called.  “Hot! Hot!  Hey, I’m doing it!”

“See?”  Rainbow said with a smile.

“A little trick me and Rainbow came up with called ‘Hot Tossed Buns’.”  Applejack said with a smile as everyone applauded, including Applebloom, who accidentally let go of the rope holding the curtains open, and it closed on Fluttershy and Rainbow.

“Sorry!”  Applebloom called out as she helped them out.

“And now…”  Applejack said.  “Our main attraction.  A story for the amazin' Celestia and Luna!”

Everyone cheered and sat around the two.

“Thank you.”  Celestia said with a smile.  “You know, your show reminded me of a stallion Jesus talked about.”

“Was he a juggler?”  Applebloom asked.

“No.”  Celestia chuckled.  “But he did put on a show every time he prayed.  You see, among the ponies that Jesus talked to, there were religious ponies called Pharisees.  They worked very hard at doing the right thing, but sometimes they overdid it.  One day, Jesus told a story and made sure the Pharisees were listening.

“He began by saying, ‘Two stallions came into the stallion’s court of the temple, to pray.  One was a Pharisee.  The other was a tax collector who worked for the Ronans.  The Pharisee stood on his own, where he thought he’d be noticed.

“‘“Oh lord,” the Pharisee called out.  “I thank you that I am not like other ponies!  Greedy, dishonest, and wicked!  Or like this tax collector!  I fast twice a week!  And I give a tenth of all I earn to the temple!”

“‘And while the Pharisee prayed, the tax collector didn’t even look up.

“‘After the Pharisee finished, the tax collector whispered, “Oh lord, have mercy on me.  I know I’m not good.”’

“Jesus told the people that it was the tax collector, not the Pharisee who went home forgiven.”

Everyone nodded understandably.  Suddenly, there was a knock on the door as Celestia went over to it.

“Celestia…” A voice whispered weakly.  “Celestia . . .”

Celestia opened the door as Daring Do lay weakly on the street.

“Daring Do?”  Celestia asked in surprise.

After some food and rest from the gang, Daring Do was well enough to talk.

“And then after the fire, I became part of a group of Christians who were sentenced to life on a slave ship, if you could call it life.”  Daring Do explained.

“Oh Daring Do.”  Luna said sympathetically, but Applejack had something besides the poor mare’s troubles on her mind.

“Me and Applebloom's daddy was on a slave ship.”  Applejack said.  “Hank Apple!  Did ya him?”

“Kiddo, there are hundreds of ships and many of their slaves are Christians.”  Daring Do said plainly.

“But still!”  Applejack insisted.  “He could’ve been on your ship!”

“You should pray he’s not.”  Daring Do said.  “Glimmer would rather starve the slaves than feed them.  There are hundreds of ponies still on that ship, and all of them are in worse shape than me.”

“We’ve gotta do something!”  Twilight called out.

“But what can we do?”  Fluttershy asked.  "I-if it's okay to ask."

“We’re going to do what we can with what we have.”  Celestia said plainly with a sly smile.  “In other words, I think it’s time we took our show on the road.”