Sea

Twilight Sparkle slowly awoke. Before she even opened her eyes, she felt an intense pain in her foreleg and in her horn. She tightly gripped her horn with a hoof; the pain subsided slightly. She let out a quiet groan, and heard what sounded like a door opening and closing. Her eyes shot open.

There was a sea of planks above her, stretching to the end of her vision on her right and abruptly ending on the left. She turned her head to the left; a small window lay in the middle of a plank wall, showing the wide ocean. Next to the window was a sconce with a candle in it, and on the other side there was a painting of what looked like a massive boat, with three masts covered in sails, passing out of a storm. Her eyes grew slightly wider as her vision went down towards her lower body. She was covered in a blanket in a mahogany bed; something that certainly wasn't there when she'd gone down. She looked to her right, into the rest of the room; the other wall was at least ten, maybe fifteen feet away, and was decorated much the same. There was also a large desk with a quill and inkpot on it.

She slowly took the blanket off and observed the state of her body. She was completely nude save for her own purple coat, which seemed much cleaner than it had before. She looked at her hooves; besides a slightly bloody strip of cloth over her forehoof, she seemed in fairly good condition. She slowly tried to get out of the bed and get a better look around; as soon as her hoof touched the teak deck, it let out a loud creak. She recoiled her hoof reflexively; she tried again, and while it made the same sound again, she deemed it safe enough to put her weight on. She awkwardly got out of the bed to rest on three hooves, with her injured foreleg hanging in the air. She walked a few paces into the middle of the room and took another look around. Sure enough, there was a door in what she assumed to be the front wall. Opposite it, there was a massive set of windows, spanning almost from one side of the room to another. They went almost floor-to-ceiling and offered a view of the ocean, and a massive wake following the vessel. She stumbled towards the desk, making it about three-quarters of the way across the room when the door opened.

"She's in there, Cap'n." she heard a voice say. She turned to look, eyes wide, like a deer caught in headlights.

A tall, lanky stallion walked into the room. He wore an elaborate sea-blue coat with white trim that flowed over itself and covered most of his creme coat, a tricorn hat over his burgundy mane, and a pair of brown leather pants on his rear. He leaned against the doorframe, looking at Twilight with piercing green-blue eyes. He walked into the room after a few seconds, staring at Twilight. He walked in a circle around her, paying careful attention to her flanks. After he'd completed a full circle, he muttered, "Well. Look what we fished." He cleared his throat and looked up. "That mark, on your flank. Where'd you get it?"

Twilight looked behinder her. "Who are you?"

"That comes later. First, the mark. What does it mean? Who'd you pay to tattoo it?"

"Tattoo it? This isn't a tattoo." Twilight looked back at her own side. "I don't even know any tattoo artists."

"That's not authentic." he said, staring at her face. "I can tell."

"What do you mean? I got it when I was a filly."

"Really?" The captain walked over to his chair and pulled it out with a whitish glow. It was only then that she noticed the small horn poking out of his hat. "Sorry if I don't believe the naked mare we found dying in a sinking boat is a genuine Marked," he said sarcastically. "Spit it out. What information are you smuggling?"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" she said, perhaps a bit too forcefully. "All I know is I need to go west."

The captain's eyebrow raised. "West? What for?"

Twilight looked at the ground. "I... I don't know. I only know that whatever it is, it's to the west."

The stallion looked at her intently. "Where are you from, lass?" he said, standing up and slowly walking over towards her.

"Ponyville... in Equestria..." she said, not looking up.

The captain's eyes widened slightly. "You don't say..." He walked over to her. "Tell me, lass. If you really are an Equestrian, what're you doing this far from there? You must've crossed the Great Barrier almost a month ago, going at the speed you were."

"Going west," she said, looking at him. The captain just sighed.

"Well, that's enough questioning for now. I assume I won't be getting much more out of you right now, anyway." He turned around, walked a few paces away, and then turned to face her again. "Let's start again. What's your name?"

"Twilight Sparkle," she said, not looking up. The captain just walked over to her. She cringed slightly, closing her eyes, but opened them a few seconds later.

"This is the part where you shake my hoof and I tell you my name," he said after she didn't move. She tentatively reached out her injured hoof; the captain pressed his to her hoof and shook it, before saying, "Nice to meet you, Ms. Sparkle. I am Captain Somerset of the Eastedge Naval Patrol. Welcome, officially, aboard Her Majesty's Ship, the sixth-rate Frigate Eagle." He did a over-the-top bow. "I hope you enjoy your time aboard."

Twilight just gently released her hoof. She still stared at the captain. "Thanks." she said awkwardly after a few seconds passed.

The captain just nodded, bowing again. "Right. If that will be all, I'll make my way up to the deck. Enjoy your time aboard, and feel free to go anywhere on the ship except the lowest deck. If you decide to go exploring, you're supposed to make your way back to the deck at sunset for evening roll call. And put on some clothes while you're at it."

Twilight just nodded as the stallion turned around and walked out of the door. She waited a few minutes in the room, looking around and leafing through the papers on the desk - mostly lists of terms she'd never seen before with numbers next to them - before realizing just how little there actually was to do in this room and, quickly slipping into a simple white shirt and brown pants slightly too big for her size, walked towards the door to the outside of the ship.