1. The sea beneath the sea...
The sun beat down upon us. Days never ending, sun never fading, sky never full of anything but blue color. With the water beneath our hooves attempting to match the sky, we are bombarded daily by heat and glaring shades of blue. I'm beginning to think this blue will drive us crazy. Our minds can only take so-much blue, after all. You are probably wondering who I refer to when I say the word "us" and "we". Well you may have come to the conclusion that we are at sea. That is the correct conclusion, unless I have lost my mind and sit in some warm room with the sound of seagulls over head and fish beneath me, then we are most definitely at sea. 'We' being me, my ship, and the crew I took along with me. We are a crew of few, barely thirty ponies. We hail from a land we have been dreaming of returning to. We hail from Equestria, land of many ponies and ruled by Princesses.
On one particularly dull and blue morning our food stores had been running low...
"Captain? Emerald Dream, ma'am?" My first mate called from the somewhere on the deck near the mast closest to the helm. I take my hooves off the helm and take a few steps off to my left and approach the wooden fence-like barrier that keeps me and other crew from face-planting the deck while at the helm.
"What is it?" I ask a tad annoyed at the fact that he his calling had driven me from my thoughts.
"We're running low on food, ma'am. We'll be running out of cheese in the next few days. Fresh water isn't that plentiful either. We'll need to find land or a ship to pirate soon."
I was caught off guard by his statement. I raise an eyebrow. "I did not just hear the word pirate come out of your mouth, did I? If we find land we will set up camp and let everypony get some rest on solid ground, if we find a ship: we will trade for what we need." I say with a stern gaze.
"With all due respect." He says coming up the wooden stairs to the helm and stern raised area. "We won't have anything to trade in a few days."
I had to admit, a year on the ocean encountering islands, ships, and other things every few months, had put a strain on our stores. Our last re-supply had been when we sank a strange hostile vessel and recovered a few crates of cheese wheels mostly. That came at a time when we were running low on stale bread and when no pony could make a solid bowel movement due to the rapid consumption of stale bread.
I scanned the horizon while a gust of wind hit the masts and propelled us with a sudden speed. Everypony on the deck and probably below noticed. "That was good gust." I state "We can search the sea a tad quicker. Tell Red Tail to keep his good eye out for land." I say pointing to the crows nest high at the top of our largest mast. "If he spots land I want to be alerted A-S-A-P." I say as I walk away from the helm and to the stairs leading down to the deck. "You can take the helm." I finish as I scurry down the creaky wood.
I take a slow trot towards the bow of the ship. The bow had a nice brass alicorn-headed ram design. As a young filly in Baltimare, I would always go to the fore-area of my father's ship and simply sit and look out over his mer-pony brass bow design. I maintain that habit, years upon years after I began it. However, instead of drawing on a sketch pad or writing a poem, I am on the lookout land and seek a sanctuary for my manifesting thoughts.
We, the mares and stallions of the Harmonious Existence (What? Were you guessing the name of my vessel was Sea Hag or something?) have been away from Equestria for one year, six months, eight days, and nine hours. Harmonious Existence was not meant for incredibly long term travel, or in other words, year or so long voyages. The odds of our continued survival have shrunk rapidly since we past the year milestone. Most days I attempt to remain optimistic, my crew seems to follow my example. If I'm depressed, my crew is too, if I'm in a good mood, my crew follows as easily as they did when I was depressed.
As I stare off into the distant ocean, sailors behind me hum to themselves as they go about their daily takes. They've learned, over time, that when I am in deep thought it is unwise to interrupt my thoughts. They can tell when I am in these times of thought, I always have the same two or three locations for thought. Those three are as follow: the bow (We are here), the helm (Only at snoozy times of travel), and my desk in my quarters. If I am sketching or writing at my desk in my quarters, I most likely would not like to pestered over daily issues.
I look down towards the water and see fish jumping out of the water around the boat. We are moving at a fairly brisk speed, all the sails are out and opened fully. I see something...odd....in the distance. It looks like a small....whirl pool? I squint against the sun's glare. A small circle of water is being funneled downwards into itself. Like somepony or something is sucking it down.
I try to shout "All stop!" but the funnel beats me in volume. The very world begins to shake as a deafening bass tone blares into our ears. My crew stops to clench their eyes shut and attempt to plug their ears with their hooves. I try to shout to them. More "All stop! All stop!" was sent out by my vocal cords but it fell upon deafened ears. I look back towards the funnel, it's expanded to compensate for our size. I start to gallop aft as the bow of the Harmonious Existence passes the event horizon of the whirlpool. I'm screaming for everypony to abandon ship as I expect the ship to be torn in half. I'm almost to the life boat at the aft section when the deck steepens to a nearly vertical angle and I, along with everything and everypony, slide towards the black center of the whirlpool. As I taste the sea and am blinded by the black water, my mind....shuts off.
