Shipwrecked

For as long as we can remember, my family has always served Princess Celestia as Royal Guards. As a little colt, my dad always told me I'd be one of the best Royal Guards to ever serve Celestia, and I believed that up until I entered ninth grade. One of my core classes was ELA, English Language Arts. My English teacher's name was Mr. Nightingale. I thoroughly enjoyed the class, but I can say my favorite part was when we read the tales of Sherclop Pones and John Trotson. After reading all four novels, Mr. Nightingale gave the class a project to do with a buddy. We were to choose a buddy, somepony we could trust, then pick up our assignment from him. Our assignments were investigative case files and suspect lists made up by the teacher. I remember Mr. Nightingale telling us that one of us would be the 'Sherclop Pones' of the group and the other the 'John Trotson' of the group.

My partner was Lui Starlight. He was the 'John Trotson' of our two-pony group and I was the 'Sherclop Pones'. Our particular case was to find the fictional murderer of a fictional Pegasus mare named Twila Fireflight within a three-week deadline. We knew the case was made up, but it looked so real. We took it seriously and solved it with a week to spare. It turns out, the fictional mare's killer was a stallion named Valor Leenor, a pegasus stallion who used to be her boyfriend.

The day we solved the case, we were in class. It was the best day of my life because that day, I got my cutiemark: An hourglass, which represents my quick thinking, and a magnifying glass beside it and a question mark inside that. Everypony in class was amazed, and the teacher was very proud of me. I knew that day I wasn't going to be a Royal Guard, but a detective instead. When I got home, my parents were proud of me, but I could tell my father was a bit disappointed.

About eight years or so later, I earned my detective degree at the Canterlot Universal College in Northen Canterlot, not far from the Canterlot Castle. A couple of months after earning my degree, I finally got hired at the Canterlot Police Department. A few weeks after starting, my first case was to find a missing filly who, for legal purposes, shall not be named at this time. What I can say, though, was that she had run away because she did not want to attend school. I found her in an abandoned house a few miles outside Ponyville. I've worked for the Canterlot Police Department for five years now. Over the time I've been here, I've solved about eighty-seven cases and counting. As the chief put it, I'm 'the absolute best detective he's seen in the forty years he's worked at the Canterlot PD'.

In the five years I've been there, I've been able to solve every single case, except for one. My last, and now current, case was that of the missing cruise liner, the Lunar Dawn. It sailed out into the South Luna Sea two years ago and never came back, and it never will. The case went cold and eventually closed. We had no leads to go on, no evidence that foul play was involved, or that even a sea creature swallowed them up. As far we know, it could be either one. But, I think it crashed, and that's why it didn't return. Where it exactly it crashed? I have no idea, but I know I'll find that out soon enough.

I begged the chief five days ago to open the case. After some persuading, he did reopen it. For five days, I've been on a medium sized fishing boat built to handle rough waters. The crew is nice of enough, and the ship is pretty decent. The food isn't exactly five-star, nor are the sleeping quarters, but hey, I'll take anything I can get right now. This is the only crew I've asked that would happily take me out to sea and help me find the missing ship. The other crews I had asked laughed at me, told me I was crazy, that it was useless, and that I was gonna get myself killed.

Honestly, I don't care if I die, so long as I uncover what happened and my findings make it back to the CPD. I'm not saying I want to die, and if it can be helped, I won't let myself be killed, but who knows what will happen. The crew is outside yelling, and for the love of Luna, I cannot go to sleep with them doing that. I might as well drag myself out of bed and see what they're yelling about.

As soon as I get out to the main deck, the first thing I see is a dark sky. The crew is running around, trying to brace the boat for the oncoming storm. The waves have gone from being peaceful to violent like the ocean wants us to kill us. For trespassing maybe? I guess we are technically trespassing. I'm pretty sure we're in unknown waters.

I looked up. Rain began to pour out of the sky like it was crying. I remember when I was little, my mother would tell me the sky was sad whenever it would rain, and that it was happy when it sunshiney outside. A crew member bumped into me as he trotted past. I heard him mutter an apology before continuing his work. Another crew member told me it would be better if I were to go to my room, and so I did.

Back in my room, I looked out the window. It looked horrid outside. The waves were even more violent now, and the rain seemed to be pouring harder. It had only taken me less than three minutes to reach my room. It could just feel the irony of the situation seeping into my bones. The boat was tossed to the right by the waves pretty hard, and I ended up falling on my face. The boat was tossed the other way, and I ended up slamming into the wall on the other side. Pretty sure my left foreleg is broken now, it hurts like a sonofabitch. Before I could move a muscle, the boat is tossed again, and I'm sent flying into the other wall. The boat stayed like this for some time before it tossed the other way again, but not as hard. I flopped onto the floor in front of my dresser.

I looked at my foreleg. It looked like it was starting to swell. I would say this isn't what I signed up for, but it kinda was, wasn't? Yeesh. One of the crew members ran into my living quarters and yelled at me, asking if was okay. Between the rain and the ocean waves, I could hardly hear him, even though he was yelling. I began to answer but I was cut off when he screamed. Everything went black.

oOoooOoooOoooOoooOoooOoooOoooOoooOooOooOo

I groaned as I came to, my eyes fluttering open. The sky was clear, bright and sunny. The air smelt salty and was warm against my coat. I could feel something warm and wet running over my back legs every so often. I slowly sat up, wincing a bit, and looked around. I was barely on the shore, my lower half in the ocean. I had cuts and bruises all over me, and my left foreleg was even more swollen. To my left, the boat was beached and utterly destroyed for the most part. A few bodies of the crew members were scattered on the beach.

I slowly stood up and wobbled towards the boat. As I walked, the irony hit me like twenty-ton anchor. I hoped there would be a first aid kit on the boat that I could use, and maybe my belongings could be salvaged. I wonder how I blacked out back on the boat before I ended up here. Was I hit by an object in the room? Or did water come rushing into the room and the pressure knocked me out? I had no idea, but either way would've resulted in the major headache I have now. As I step on the wreckage of the ship, I noticed not far from the beach was the outskirts of a probably thick jungle.

I turned my attention back to the boat. There wasn't much to salvage, but I did manage to find a first aid kit that was intact, and some of my belongings were salvageable, surprisingly. The captain's quarters was the only room that was relatively undamaged. The bed was intact, slightly soggy, but intact. After dressing my wounds the best I could, I laid down in the bed. My body ached like there was no tomorrow, I felt weak, and I was definitely in no position to go exploring. What I needed now was rest and to build up my strength. I closed my eyes and counted sheep. The sound of the ocean lulled me to sleep.