Always an Adventure

Nilcoar paced up and down the deck of the Dragonfly, his peculiar junk rigged ship. His crew was lined up in front of him. The 4 ponies watched him with apprehension. Except Vissnir, that is, he stood quiet and unmoving, his eyes mostly covered by his hair. The other three crew members, Simi, his brother Hiri and Grif shifted nervously back and forth on their hooves, waiting for Nilcoar to tell them what was on his mind.

The pacing continued, it reminded Vissnir of a drill sergeant marching up and down rows of soldiers, the difference being, this one wasn't screaming at him. Nilcoar's hooves clicked and clacked against the hardwood deck for several more excruciating minutes, as the lanky captain pondered... well... something.

At last, Nilcoar spoke.
"It would seem... that we have a stowaway."
Grif spoke up
"Why would you think that?"
"Our stock has been getting nibbled away at"
Nilcoar gestured below deck while looking at his crew through slitted eyes.
"It wasn't me!"
Simi and Hiri said in near perfect unison, a 'skill' they had perfected over years of making up alibis, except this time they actually had no idea what the captain was talking about.
"I know it wasn't you"
Nilcoar spat
"You two are sick of bananas"
He glared at them distastefully before shaking his head
"It wasn't Vissnir, the bites are too small for his mouth, and I'd trust Grif with my life"
Nilcoar smiled at him, he was practically Grif's father, and he had taught him well.
Simi snorted.
"You wouldn't trust us with your life?"
"No."
Nilcoar paused
"Actually, yes."
"Well which is it?"
Simi asked
"If you were the only ones who could save my life would I really have a choice?"
Hiri looked a bit crestfallen at this statement, while Simi just smiled deviously.

"Back to the matter at hand!"
Nilcoar produced a pair of hot pink bunny slippers from under his hat, along with a crumpled up napkin that had some unintelligible looking scribbles on it.
The crew knew better than to question whatever he was thinking and chose to let him explain himself.
"According to my calculations, our culprit is a rabbit."
He gestured at the napkin, which upon closer inspection was covered in completely illegible writing and a crude drawing of a coconut... or... was it a bowling ball? Simi decided to ask.
"What's that drawing for?"
"What do you think?"
"I dunno, looks like a coconut"
"Wrong!"
So it was a bowling ball Simi confirmed in his head, at least until Nilcoar spoke again:
"It's a coconut bowling ball"
Nilcoar stated plainly.
Hiri was completely lost as to why this drawing existed.
"Wh-"
Hiri opened his mouth to speak but was promptly cut off by Nilcoar.
"I used my navigation calipers to measure the bite marks on the bananas and compared it to the bite marks on my coconut bowling ball, which a rabbit took a bite of after it had enough of being a rabbit bowling pin, then I cross referenced it to the averaged mouth size of a bun bun- err- rabbit."
He smiled proudly, but this answer raised more questions than it answered.
"Rabbit bowling pin?"
Hiri muttered.
"How did you think to cross reference with the average mouth size of a rabbit?"
Simi asked.
"A hunch"
Was the answer he got.
It was then that Hiri remembered about the rabbit slippers that had materialized out of Nilcoar's hat.
"And why do we need those?"
"Stop asking questions and observe."
Frankly, Nilcoar's response to Hiri was a lucky one, given his poor track record when being asked questions.
Nilcoar fit the slippers over his front hooves and walked below deck. The crew's nervous movements began again.

A few minutes later, Nilcoar returned from the hold with a rabbit perched on his head. Simi and Hiri's jaws dropped, while Grif just looked a little surprised. Vissnir was still quiet and showed no reaction. Hiri was speechless. Again.
"Wha..."
Simi spoke for him
"You let it touch your hat!?"
Hiri regained his composure
"And he gave him a banana!"
He poined at the banana balancing on the back of the rabbit. The rabbit looked around at the crew, it's nose twitching slightly.
"He gives everyone bananas"
Grif countered.
Simi simply shrugged in reply. Grif looked at Nilcoar, a curious look on his face.
"Now what?"
Nilcoar actually didn't know what to do now, he didn't expect to get this far, but we was a quick thinker, undaunted by this.
"Now? Well- now we throw him overboard."
He said frankly. The crew recoiled in shock.
"Or..." he had their attention again.
"We keep it as a pet"
The crew seemed to consider this for a moment before Grif spoke
"But what about the last time you tried to keep a pet?"
Nilcoar's smile faded and a distant look covered his features.
"Ahh... Gort, he was a good fellow..."
"You ate him."
Simi said matter-of-factly.
"Well what would you have done with the body?"
"I would have thrown it overboard!"
"Which brings us back to my first option!"
The crew shuffled their hooves, thinking. For the first time since this encounter began, Vissnir spoke up.
"Why don’t we just drop it off next time we put in?"
The rest of the crew thought about this and then looked to Nilcoar for a verdict.
"That makes perfect sense!"
He gave Vissnir a hearty pat on the back
"Why didn't you just say something earlier?"

• Several days later...

The Dragonfly skimmed lightly across the water, it's hold near empty from a successful shipping run and lightened by the weight of a rabbit. The wind was on it's beam, the ship's finest point of sailing. Grif approached Nilcoar at the tiller.
"Nilcoar?"
"Hmm?"
He kept his eyes up, watching the waves.
"You know when you went below deck to find the rabbit?"
"Yes?"
Nilcoar nodded.
"What did you do while you were down there?"
"I clicked my tongue and said 'Here bunny bunny bunny' "
"That's it?"
"Mmhmm"
"Really?"
"Yup"
"Huh..."
Grif thought for a second
"So what were the bunny slippers for?"
"I felt like putting them on."
Grif thought for a moment, he had known Nilcoar most of his life, but there were certain things he would just have to accept he would never understand about him. Grif shook his head and walked back below deck. Once Grif was gone Nilcoar reached into his hat to grab a banana to snack on, but instead when he pulled his hoof out of his hat he found himself face to face with the rabbit. It stared back at him with mischievous eyes. He could swear it was smiling.
"You sneaky bastard.” His face slowly spread into a grin.

• Several more days later...

Hiri urgently burst into Nilcoar's quarters, slaming the door open with reckless abandon. Something must've been terribly wrong.
"Captain Quick!! Come on come on! You've got to get out here!! And- come... fast..."
Hiri's sense of urgency faltered when he realized what Nilcoar had been doing before he rushed into the room.
Nilcoar was sitting bolt upright in his hammock, having been completely blindsided by Hiri's entrance, with an embarrassed look on his face. Hiri's gaze lowered to see a rabbit, no, THE rabbit, sitting on Nilcoars lap and very obliviously snuggling into him.
"You have to... Wha... So you did end up keeping it as a pet??" Hiri finally managed to ask, his previous frantic urgency completely gone now.
"I- well... You see, he managed to sneak back on board with us- and... Tenacity like that makes him a valued crew member to me!"
Nilcoar attempted to justify himself, turning up his nose authoritatively... for some reason- Hiri wasn't sure what, the captain was usually completely shameless in all the crazy stuff he engaged in. In fact, now that he thought about it, Hiri wasn't sure he'd ever seen the captain look embarrassed... something about rabbits, they were his weakness. Hiri filed that useful information away in his brain for later, he couldn't wait to tell Simi- they would surely get a lot of amusement out of this one.
"Sooo... what's her name?" Hiri asked awkwardly.
"Boog" Nilcoar responded reluctantly.
"Boog? Why? How did you come up with Boog of all names? Boog??"
"It's simple really, she's our second pet. The first was Gort, so I thought, why not Gort 2, but I thought that would be too similar to Gort, so to add some flair I thought, why not Gort 2 electric boogaloo but then that was too long, so I shortened it to Boog."
Hiri took a moment to digest that line of reasoning.
"Uhmm. Okay then" Hiri said, unsure of how to respond.
Nilcoar cleared his throat rather loudly and spoke again.
"So what's this crazy emergency you're on about hmm?"
It was Hiri's turn to look embarrassed. Nilcoar's err- Boog- had thrown a wrench in his plans. He looked down and suddenl;y found his left fetlock extremely captivating.
"I- We... we're just going to prank you, it was nothing, actually. I'm sorry."
Nilcoar perked up excidedly and quickly scrambled out of his hammock, gingerly placing Boog in his place.
"A prank! Oh that sounds like so much fun, what were you boys planning this time?" Nilcoar said excitedly. Hiri had no clue how to handle this situation, and hesitated before Nilcoar spoke again.
"Well don't keep me in suspense! Come on! there's no time to waste!" Nilcoar smiled wide and trotted past Hiri, out of his quarters. Hiri stood, stunned.
"I don't think that's how it works..." Hiri tried countering half heatedly, watching Nilcoar happily trot outside where he was promptly drenched by a bucket of bright red dye. Hiri winced as the liquid made impact with Nilcoar's coat staining it a dirty brownish purple when mixed with his turquoise coat. Simi could be heard laughing hysterically from outside.

"He really can't blame us for that one..."