The Free Skies

Exiting the room, Twilight found herself in a hallway with a door at each end and two doors on each side, the door across from hers opening to reveal a dark purple unicorn mare with a broken horn.

“Oh, hello,” Twilight said, surprised to run into someone right away.

The mare looked her over for a moment before saying in an evenly terse tone, “Don’t do anything to try to escape or damage the ship. You’re getting off at Everfree.”

Twilight frowned at that. “Why would a couple of thieves let the one that knows what they look like get away?”

“To prove a point.”

“And what point would that be?”

The mare sighs and shakes her head. “That we took you because you gave us no choice.”

A confused look appeared on Twilight’s face. “What do you mean by that?”

“If you hadn’t leaped after the ship like you did, you would’ve been left behind. If I hadn’t caught you when I did, you would’ve fallen into the Storm, and I know how bad the creatures can be.” At that the mare would turn and head for the far end of the hallway.

Taking a step, Twilight tried to stop the mare. “Wait, what’s your name? I’m Twilight Sparkle.”

The mare stepped to the side to avoid Twilight and said, “I’m not going to tell you my real name, but everyone calls me Tempest Shadow.”

“....That was the first time you tried to steal, wasn’t it?”

Tempest stops at the door at the far end, looking back at Twilight. “Yeah, ‘cause not everything’s been making it to Everfree.”

“Then it has been happening on the way between Canterlot and Everfree, or the captains of the various ships are keeping supplies not meant for them.” Twilight said assuredly.

“And how do you know it isn’t because Canterlot kept it from us?”

“Because I make the schedule, I check the work of every other bosun, and I make sure every ounce is accounted for in every ship that leaves Canterlot. I’ve had to the past five years to catch the ones who were slacking or stealing.”

At that Tempest looked confused. “Wait.... I thought you were just an overzealous warehouse worker?”

Twilight shook her head. “No, I’m the head bosun for Canterlot.”

Tempest’s eyes widened at that and she left without another word.

Twilight took a deep breath and started to pace the hallway, thinking to herself about the situation, What are they talking about? Supplies going missing? I- it’s not impossible...

She took another couple slow steps, If they’re being tricked or… not reporting pirate attacks then- Twilight shook her head, “I won’t get anywhere by wondering what’s happening. I need the facts direct from the source there at Everfree.” Banishing the thoughts from her mind as she looked around, she idly said to herself, “I need to find something to do.”

Rainbow sighed and leaned back in her seat. This was the fourth time she was put on hold. “This situation just gets worse the longer it goes on....”

Waiting for a few minutes a male voice would come from her ship’s radio saying, “This is Shining Armor, I was told you had information on a recent event.”

Sitting up straight Rainbow said, “Yeah, I wanted to say this got way too far out of hoof. My crew and I thought the mare that leaped for our ship was just an overzealous warehouse worker and just ten minutes ago she told us her name.”

There was a pause before Shining would continue, “So you’re calling to arrange a ransom?”

“No! No, no, definitely not. We’re going to drop her off at the Everfree Agri-flotilla and only ask that you look into all of the shipments you send out ‘cause not all of what’s been promised gets to where it’s meant to go.” Rainbow sighed again and shook her head. “We were gonna try to bring this to your attention, but everyone kept brushing us off, so when we heard that there was gonna be a gap in security, well....”

A longer pause. “I can see where you’re coming from, but there’s laws in place for a reason-”

Rainbow slammed a hoof down on her dashboard. “If it doesn’t concern gaining a new creature Admiral Igneous has. No. Spine. His family’s turned to eating rocks so others won’t go hungry! I’ve tried everything to get him to order a Death Race, but he won’t.”

Muttering that Rainbow couldn’t make out came from her radio for a few moments before Shining came back. “Very well, we’ll look into this information. Don’t think that this will pardon you, though.”

“My crew and I knew there wouldn’t be any mercy for us stealing from Canterlot. What I wanted to avoid was being accused of foalnapping such an important pony.”

“.... That is what I was talking about, actually.”

“What were we supposed to do, huh? Let her fall into the Storm to be eaten by whatever creature came by?”

“The best thing would have been to stop before you left the flotilla.”

“Yeah, and then get captured and tried with that other bunch for their same crimes? No thank you. Look, we knew we’d get fines and such for stealing food, but finding out that we have Twilight bucking Sparkle in our spare room was too much. Spare us from execution and we’ll accept any punishment that comes our way.”

Silence pervaded the air, each second holding onto the silent radio feeling like a hammer blow to her as her mouth went dry. After about ten minutes Shining said, “I think I can convince the Grand Admiral to give you only community service or jail time. I can’t promise anything, but I will try my hardest.”

“Thank you, that’s all I ask for. We’ll... wait around as well.” With that Rainbow turned off her radio, looking at Tempest as the unicorn came onto the bridge. “Where is she?”

“She’s organizing our stores,” Tempest said, looking a bit uncomfortable.

“Guess we did get that workaholic after all.” Rainbow rolled her eyes and switched the ship back to manual mode. “Keep an eye on her, but don’t get in her way until we land.”