Once again I felt the thrill of being airborne in my Equestria dreamscape. I climbed to an altitude of about fifty feet and then preceded to make a slow circuit of the Sea Stallion, I wanted to get a look what my likely landing approach would be and what if any obstacles would obstruct my way. The Sea Stallion was making about fifteen knots and was steaming with a breeze of about ten knots. In fact several of it’s sails were deployed to take advantage of it. Landing would be a straightforward affair.
 
Picking up speed I climbed to about fifteen hundred feet and then I began to perform several of the acrobatic maneuvers that Dash has been teaching me. I started with several barrel rolls at the end of last one I used it as a rollover into a dive to pick up speed. I then did one complete loop followed by a half roll.
 
That got my blood pumping. Climbing back to a thousand feet I glided in an ever-widening circle around the Sea Stallion, when got about three quarter of mile away I nosed over into a power dive. Pumping my wings as hard as I could I plunged toward the ocean. Quickly my speed rose to over a hundred knots, in long arc I leveled off my flight until I was about ten feet above the ocean. Still pumping my wings as hard as could I aimed for the stern of the Sea Stallion. The steamer quickly grew in my vision. At the last second I banked slightly to the right and shot alongside the great ship not more than fifteen feet it’s the starboard side. In a brief instant my brain registered several things.
 
One was Petina and Carousel standing on the main deck cheering at me as I shot by them. The other was the deck officer Lieutenant Windward standing alongside the railing staring at me with a rather disapproving face. Oh well, I was too much fun right now.
 
The instant I cleared the bow of the ship I climbed and did a long, slow roll to scrub speed. Beginning my cool down stage I slowly spiraled down until I matched speed with the great steamship and was flying just ahead it. Slowly I descended until I flying almost level with the deck. Carousel and Petina galloped up to bow and hailed me.
 
“Hey Brick!” Said Petina. “Looking pretty awesome this morning; RD’s training is definitely starting to pay off! Are you going want to shower before grabbing breakfast?” The sea breeze teased and frumpled Petina mane making her look even sultrier in the morning light.
 
“Yeah probably.” I said. “I worked up more of a sweat than usual for a routine wake up flight.”
 
Carousel was wearing her large brim sun hat again and had mane tied into braids again. She looked so adorable standing on their on deck.
 
“The Chief Steward said they will be serving corn flapjacks for breakfast.” Said Carousel. “Apparently it is tradition with the captain and the crew to have them once during a cruise. We’ve made reservations in the main dining room for 9am.
 
I nodded my head. “Okay, let me land and I’ll go wash up. Meet you mares back at our cabin.”
 
Increasing my speed I made a counter-clockwise turn and brought myself in line to land on the fantail of the steamer. I made a shallow dive and then cupped my wings to arrest my forward airspeed as I crossed the threshold of the stern. In one smooth motion my hoofs gently touched down on teak deck in the textbook fashion, rear hoofs first. It had been a good flight.
 
Lieutenant Windward trotted over and wrote my return time on the chalkboard, and then she accepted my flight token. After logging my return in the ledger and returning the two tokens to the drawer she assisted me in removing the floatation vest. She recorded this also in ledger and then hung it back in the closet. She then looked at me.
 
“So, enjoy your morning flight?” Inquired dun brown earth pony mare.
 
I nodded my head. “Yeah it was good, I have a friend who has been teaching acrobatics and so I have been practicing whenever I can.”
 
“Has your friend also been teaching you to be reckless too?” The desk officer asked in nonchalant fashion.
 
“Excuse me ma’am?” I said.
 
The mare stared at me in a deadpan fashion. “That little speed run of yours alongside the ship. I can’t fly but I know that strange air currents and eddies can form around the hull of a large ship as it is moving. If you’d hit one of those it could’ve pulled you a couple feet off your flight path.”
 
I shrugged my shoulder. “Yeah but I was at least fifteen feet away from the hull so it wouldn’t have much difference?”
 
The mare shook her head. “No you were fifteen feet away from the hull. However you missed the starboard side paddle wheel by only five feet or less. If you’d hit the wheel your body you would be just about hitting the bottom of the ocean about now, whether you had been wearing a flotation device or not.”
 
I stopped and replayed the moment in mind. Had I really passed that close to ship? The deck officer continued speaking.
 
“Now if you want throw your life away that’s your business fly pony, but I am currently the deck officer in charge. If you had hit the starboard paddlewheel at the speed you were going you would’ve most certainly damaged some of the paddles and maybe even knocked the entire starboard wheel out of balance. Besides the nuisance of you cleaning out of the machinery the ship would’ve had to come to a complete halt while we made repairs, which would’ve taken at least two hours.”
 
The deck officer step until her nose was almost touching mine. “The Sea Stallion is scheduled to arrive in Ft. Trotterdale tonight at 1900 hours. If we are late the entire crew loses its on-time bonus. In the six years I’ve served on the Sea Stallion we’ve never been late and I’m not going to have that record fall on my watch! Especially because of some featherbrain stunt!”
 
My wings drooped a bit. “Oh sorry ma’am. Didn’t mean to be a nuisance.”
 
She smiled slightly at me. “Well you’re not the first pegasi I have had this discussion with.” The dun brown mare looked up at the sky. “It must be amazing to launch yourself into the air and to dance under the vaults of heaven. I went up in a hot air balloon once and it was a wondrous experience.”
 
I started to comment about how amazing flying was to her when I noticed that her expression had changed. She was staring intently at southwestern horizon. Off in the distance a yellow parachute flare was slowly descending from the sky. The deck officer quickly stepped into fantail booth and returned with a pair of binoculars.
 
“Is a ship in distress?” I asked. The deck officer shook her head.
 
“No we have a flier from the mainland signaling us that they want to land. But the nearest reasonable place a flier could’ve originated from is Mare’s Bay and that is still forty-five miles away? Whoever this flier is they’ve got wings.”
 
I squinted, and eventually I could make out the speck of a pegasus pony against the grey morning sky. As I watched a series of tiny bright flashes began to appear from the flier.
 
“Well call me a mule!” exclaimed the deck officer as she put the binoculars away and quickly galloped over to an Aldis lamp. After a moment of preparation she began tapping back a reply.
 
A few seconds later approaching flier responded with another series of flashes. The deck officer parsed their message and then pulled a bosun whistle from her jacket and blew a quick series of signals, a few seconds later a couple of deck ponies came trotting over. The deck officer addressed them.
 
“Ensign Squall go and inform the bridge officer that a flier from the mainland wishes to come aboard. Bluemane I want you operate the Aldis lamp, keep in communication with the approaching flier inform them that they have permission to land.”
 
Over the next several minutes the flier grew in size. Eventually they turned and made their approach. Their landing speed was much faster than I thought would be safe. At the last moment they flared hard and dropped on the flight deck. Three things immediately struck me about the flier.
 
One, if sky pirates existed this could be the archetypal model for one. The pegasus had an eye patch where their left eye should be, and from the scars on their face and body it probably was not a fashion statement. They wore a vest of distressed, brown, heavy leather encrusted with pockets; the flier’s lower legs were sheathed in brown leather and metal. Strapped to the front of pegasus’s vest was small brass, folding electric Aldis lamp. Power cables went from the lamp to some type of battery that was carried in the main left side pocket of the vest.
 
Two, they were a mare and they were huge! This mare was almost as tall as Big Mac and while not quite as heavily built her body was not lacking in rippling muscles. Her coat was pale leaf green with a short yellow mane and tail.
 
Three, if she was a sky pirate this mare looked like she could take control of the entire ship all by herself. Besides the obvious scars on her body she had the aura of one not unfamiliar with combat.
 
The newly arrive pegasi took a moment to remove her goggles and looked around at the ship and sky.
 
“Thank ya ma’am fer me granting permission ta land.” She smiled. Her voice had a slight twang like Applejack’s. “Name is Morning Lily and I’m a currently based out of Ft. Trotterdale I’m here ta confirm fer my client that three passengers are aboard yer ship since they all failed ta wire my employer before ya’ll sailed from Baltimare.”
 
The deck officer nodded her head. “Lieutenant Windward at your service ma’am. Let me take to you to bridge and they can check the manifest to confirm these passengers are onboard. If I may say flying all the way from Ft. Trotterdale is quite and undertaking since you must’ve left before dawn. Why didn’t you wait a until later in day to fly out or just wait until we just docked this evening?”
 
Morning Lily smiled and shook her head. “Well first off the weather was deteriorating quickly around Ft. Trotterdale. Local weather service is struggling ta keep some wild weather from coming onshore until later tonight but they’re fighting a losing battle so I decided ta get out of town early this morning.”
 
“Second when my employer gets an idea in her head no amount of persuasion will change her mind. So instead just waiting fer the Sea Stallion to dock this evening I had ta get out of my nice warm bed at 0300 hours ta fly out here and meet ya.”
 
“So if I may ask who are these three passengers you seek confirmation of?” Lieutenant Windward was beginning to walk toward the bridge.
 
“I’m trying ta confirm that a Sky Brush, Petina DePony and Carousel of Ponyville are on board ma’am.” Said Morning Lily.
 
Windward stopped abruptly. “Well I can confirm that easy enough.” She turned and looked at me. “That’s Sky Brush standing over there.”
 
To be continued.