Sea

It was a beautiful day in the middle of the ocean. The sun had just risen, and the sky was still painted with orange and blue hues. The blazing orb itself was only a few degrees above the distant horizon, high enough to provide plenty of light but still low enough to paint the horizon like an artist's masterpiece. A number of clouds slowly drifted high above the ocean, aimlessly wadering with the high-altitude winds.

The sea itself was fairly calm. Small waves slowly moved across the blue plain like ripples of sand across a desert, and occasionally a white-capped rise would pass. The water was various shades of blue and green, mixing, matching, and blending with one another into an oceanic canvas, stretching on for miles beyond the horizon. Algae floated on the surface, and the silvery bodies of fish darted around in the waters below. A moderate breeze blew across the sea, bringing with it the cold air of the North.

A small boat floated, alone, on the ocean. It was a single brown speck in a vast sea; a mote of dust on the back of an enormous whale, slowly moving wherever the winds would take it. It was of a sturdy wooden construction, the kind that can only be achieved by someone who has spent much time training and practicing the art of shipbuilding, and who knows all the techniques and tools necessary to creat a strong, speedy, safe vessel. It was a dhow-rigged vessel with a single sail, square to the ship's keel, held on a tilted horizontal boom. A number of ropes secured the sail and beam to the boat's hull, and a second set kept the mast firmly in place. The beam and mast were both made of single logs, perfectly sized and tailored for their use and taken from a batch of strong teak trees. The boat's deck was made of much the same wood, made into planks that ran across the beam of the ship, square to the keel, from left to right. They were cut to just the perfect size to fit the vessel, and near the bow there was a small square of planks, about a foot on a side, that could be lifted to provide access to the area of the hull underneath the deck.

The vessel was unpainted, keeping entirely its original wooden coloration. It had a dark cherry hull, giving it a natural, earthlike color, while its deck and mast were both comprised of a much lighter teak. The hull's planks ran up and down the boat's length, coming to a rounded point in the front and ending in a U-shaped stern. Here, the planks were laid horizontally, filling the entire space left by the side planks. It was on the stern planks that the only manufacturer-placed markings on the entire vessel were placed; a bit of gold-colored text, standing out quite explicitly from the rest of the vessel.

"Twilight Sparkle."