A loud crash woke Blueblood from his slumber. Turning over in his bunk, he closed his eyes to sleep again. A series of crashes erupted, however, along with muffled screaming on the deck.
"Mmmph, what's going on," mumbled the lime green earth pony beneath him. The shouting continued above them.
Blueblood's bewildered mind was awake now, but his body wasn't. Drowsily, he sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes with his hooves as a loud explosion rocked the ship.
"Those mechanics," spat another pony somewhere in the room, "they probably let the engine overheat again. Go back to bed everypony. That's not our problem to worry about."
Blueblood sat still, concentrating on the sounds above him. Everypony else, believing the explanation, already had their heads buried under their sheets to block out the sound as they made their way back to dreamland.
Blueblood considered doing so as well, though he had to urinate. Cursing himself for drinking so much cider at dinner the night before, he slowly descended the ladder to the floor and made his way to the cabin door. As he reached for the handle, the door blasted inward, stunning him as it struck his head. "EVERYPONY OUT!" shouted a harsh voice, with a thick unfamiliar accent.
For two seconds, all was silent. "EVERYPONY OUT ON DECK NOW, OR I WILL SMEAR YOUR BRAINS AGAINST THE WALL WITH MY PIKE!" repeated the voice. Confused and scared, Blueblood looked up to see a towering figure holding a spear standing in the doorway. Upon hearing the pony's threat, the rest of the sleeping laborers, just as confused as Blueblood, began sitting up.
"ALL YOU PATHETIC PONIES GET UP! YOU ARE OUR PRISONERS NOW AND WILL OBEY." shouted the voice, even louder. At this, the tall muscular figure reached down, seized Blueblood, and tossed him out onto the hall causing him to wince in pain as his shoulder struck the edge of the staircase. In the dark of the cloudy, starless night, he blindly made his way up the stairs out onto the deck.
Upon arriving at the deck, he was surprised to see the majority of the boat's small thirty-pony crew huddled in a large group. As he stepped out into the open air, he felt a sharp pain in his side as another large figure with a spear poked him. Turning around, Blueblood saw the figure gesture toward the rest of the crew members with his spear while muttering something that sounded like, "Go."
Blueblood hurriedly galloped over to the rest of the crew members, unsure whether or not he was dreaming. No, he decided, the pain in his shoulder and side were too vivid to be a dream. Though the night air was chilly, he didn't notice. As he looked around, he saw that many patches of the deck were charred, as if they had recently been burned. In addition, debris lay everywhere. He noticed, too, a smaller vessel pulled up next to the one he was currently on.
The rest of the Blueblood's roommates stumbled out onto the deck, accompanied by several more figures. In the dim light, Blueblood realized they were not earth ponies, as he had originally thought, but zebras.
"Well, well, well," spoke a loud arrogant voice, "I assume this is all of you?" Another zebra, this one dressed in a fine black suit and carrying a sword paced back and forth in front of the huddled crew members, none of whom responded.
"I must say, I am quite grateful to you all, for making me a gift of this fine vessel of yours, as well as its plentiful cargo, which my zebras are opening right now."
"AAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII," came a terrified shout. A unicorn, with a look of terror in his eyes, frantically broke from the crowd, galloped past a group of bewildered zebras, and flung himself over the edge into the waters below. Together, the zebras and ponies gathered around the edge of the deck, peering downward. In the darkness, it was impossible to make out what had happened to him.
"Was...was that Captain Ironhoof?" whispered a pony somewhere in the crowd. The zebra pirate captain apparently heard the question.
"I do believe it was," he said. "Interesting. We were not going to do anything special to him."
The smaller vessel, floating by the larger cargo ship, had been steadily drifting toward it. Suddenly, a massive wave struck the smaller vessel, causing it to slam into the cargo ship. Most of the ponies had begun making their way back to the center of the deck to await the instructions of the zebra pirate captain. Blueblood, who had remained behind a little longer peering over the edge, was sent sprawling overboard by the jolt.
"AGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH," he screamed as he fell, bracing himself for a hard impact. In the end, it was not the force of the impact that surprised him, but the sudden wet and cold sensation of the water. Flailing around frantically, he felt a pain shoot up his arm as his hoof struck something hard. Realizing it was a large drifting plank, he seized it and continued calling for help.