Wind in the Sails.

"Spike…..Spiiiikeee? Spike wake up!"

"Huh, whu… I'm up, I'm up!"

"Come on Spike, we need to finished making the plan for reorganizing the to-do list for how we are going to sort the new books for the library. I told you this yesterday"

"Sounds exciting. *Yawn*"

"You'll enjoy it once we get started, now- Oh, I wonder who could be coming to the library this early… Come in Granny Smith, oh my let me take that it looks heavy!"

"Darn tootin it's heavy. Eh, I found this 'ere monster in the attic! My mother told me about her great-grandmothers diary, said we still had it somewheres. I always wondered if she was right, so when I found this I thought maybe she was right… but I can't read the darn thing! It's so old the letters are all faded, the page nearly broke in two when I tried to turn it. I was wonderin' if you could see about restorin it. Do you think ya can?"

"Well there is a spell that could work, but it would completely destroy the original copy…"

"Any other options?"

"I could do it by hoof, but it would take much longer. I could get it done in about three weeks"

"Well, if y'all are busy I could mail it to Canterlot and have a professional do it…"

"Oh no, I would be happy to restore this for you. Besides you know the mail-pony here, as nice as she is I'm not sure I would trust her with something this delicate."

"Just so long as it ain't a bother. Thank ye kindly Twilight, I come back in three weeks to collect the finished product. Thanks again!"

"No problem Granny. Spike, we are going to need paper, quills, and a lot more ink."

" *Sigh* It's going to be a long three weeks."

Well, I've never been the best at writing, but some of the tall-tails that you may have heard about me are way off as to the actual events so I have taken it upon myself to correct some of these stories, as well as just get my adventures on paper so that songs can be written about them. Some of these chapters might be better written than others and that's because my good friend Sun Drop, who was raised a bit better than me and knows her way around the parchment more so than I, agreed to help write a few. I've always been better at telling em rather than written em, but Sun insisted I do more than just sit here a yap at her all day, so here I am doin' my best to tell you a bit, maybe a lot, about the life of "Peanut" Caramel Toffee. Now how I got the name Peanut is as good a starting place as any. It was long before I meet Sun Drop, why I was still a blank-flank then. It's starts off a bit sad, but believe me it gets better. But I am rambling, let's start the story!

Mother, father, little Joy and I lived happily in port city Trottingham, that is until the pox. Mother was the first to get sick, she lay in bed for days at a time. Father was a doctor, but medicine had run out all over the city so all we could do was sit and watch mother die, the pox took father and little Joy in the same way. We didn't even know that Joy had the pox until she was half-dead with it, that was always her downfall, she could break all four hoofs at once and smile about it. I would always cry my eyes out when I my ear got pinched in the cabinet, but dear, sweet little Joy would always come and comfort me. I was making lunch one day, if you can call it that, peanuts and old jam don't make much but it's what we had, when father came in. Tears where welling in his eyes, which instantly made me tear up as well because I knew something terrible had happened. He choked his way through telling me that mother had died, we both started blubbering at that, then little joy stumbled in to the kitchen. Her ever-present smile was gone, her yellow coat was pale, she moaned a weak mumble and then collapsed on the floor. Father rushed over to her, I started crying that much harder making myself absolutely useless. Two days later father and little joy passed away. The body-sellers came then, the bank kicked me out of the house and since I was just a little filly then and father had no next-of-kin the house was put on auction, I got to keep only the clothes on my back and the food in cupboard, one thin sleeping gown and a bag with two peanuts. I was sitting on the steps of what used to be my home, while all my family's worldly possessions got auctioned off. Even the bodies of Father and little Joy, they went to Spade. Spade was the lowest form of scum you will ever find on this earth, he made his living taking the dead bodies of the townsfolk and selling them to the doctors, surgeons, and professors who were willing to do business with such a shady pony. Some say Spade even robbed graves, which is a possibility, but they never caught him at it. As Spade came out of the house, and dumped father and joy's bodies into his wheel barrow, he spied me sitting there crying and crying. He walked over to me and puts his ugly face way to close to mine, and his bad breath was washing over me like I just fell in the sewers, and then he says.

"I'll give you three days, then I'll be comin back round ere for you too. I know a guy who has been wantin some young filly, your little sister ere might not be enough for 'im, but you'll do just fine" Those words haunted me down to my very soul, I panicked and ran away down the street crying and screaming in terror. Spade's cruel laugh following me down the street. I ran and ran until I came to a dirty back ally. I curled up in a little ball of sadness, and prayed to whatever Alicorn it was I had heard about in church all those days ago when we was happy, begging her to be merciful on me and let me die and get run over by a passing cart so that Spade couldn't sell my body for a couple a bits. I don’t know how long I stayed there, but it was well past when the sun set that I heard hoofsteps approaching on the cobblestone of the ally. I curled up a bit tighter and hoped that whoever it was would leave and go away, but instead they came up and one of them nudged me and said, "Ya think she's dead, Chip?", he sounded no older that I was."She seams dead." the colt continued.

"Nah she's still breathing, can't be dead if you be breathin'." The pony I assumed was Chip answered. At that point I lifted my head to look at the two colts, one of them was small, brown, pegasus clothed only in ragged trousers barely held on him by a piece of thread-bare rope. Then there was Chip, he was a pale orange unicorn, slightly taller than the other colt. His trousers where in the same state, but he also had a small vest that looked like it used to be red.

"See I told ya' she was alive Tot. What's your name little missy?" Chip asked, but I was too choked up on tears to answer.

"Is she a mute Chip, like Puff?

"Nah Tot, she's just scared. Listen, it'll get right cold out here soon. I can tell yer like us; poor, no home, orphan, stop me if I wrong." As much as I hated to admit it he was right on all accounts. Still unable to make myself speak I just nodded my head. He took that as an answer and continued, "So, unless ya want to end up in one of those homes wheres they barely knows yer name, and gives you chores all day and a hard bed, I would suggest you come with us. It's basically the same only we care for the fillies under our protection, and if you tell us your name I promise to remember it." I gingerly stood up, accidentally dropping my bag of peanuts. I watched as one rolled out into the ally between me and the two street-colts. "Well the gang would greatly appreciate your contribution, but one peanut is gonna be hard to split between all seven of us." Chip said with a laugh, as he scooped up the peanut and handed it back to me. "We have ta get back to our hideout. The coppers don't like us out this late, they think were gonna steal somthin'. Which we did but they don't know that. If you want to come with us, Peanut, then we will be glad to take ya in and show ya the ropes of the city."

"Shouldn’t we ask the others Chip?"

"Cmon Tot, One, I am the leader of our gang so what I say goes. Two, when have we ever turned away a decent pony in need?"

"I wouldn’t say any of us is "decent" Chip"

"Fair enough. Well your welcome to follow Peanut but we're going so choose fast." Chip said as he and Tot turned to leave.

"Um, my name is not..*sniff*… Peanut…" I said weakly.

"Ah she speaks!" Chip exclaimed. "Well if it aint Peanut, then what is your name?"

"Uh, Caramel… Toffee."

"Why, yer that doc's filly anit ya?" Tot piped up.

"My father…was…a doctor…was..." my eyes began to fill with tears, I thought I would have run dry hours ago, but more came.

"Oh sorry, I heard about his passin' yesterday. He would help us street kids out whenever he could. Yer father was the best sort of stallion. The world is a darker place without im around." Chip said as he moved over and put a reassuring hoof around my solder. "Now this may sound harsh but, in the street life, ya get used to death. We see it every day, if it's somepony ya know you say a prayer and maybe feel bad. But if ya don't know them, you loot the body afore anypony else can. But whoever it is, ya move on. Ya need to in order to survive. Speaking of survival, Peanut we need to get going."

"I told you…my name isn't Peanut."

"Yeah, but I kinda like the sound of it. Besides it fits you, bein as small as you are." He was right, I've always been on the small side, shortest earth pony of the family. There have been new-born fillies with legs longer than mine. Seeing no other option, I went back with Chip, and Tot. Their Hideout was a old abandoned storehouse, where they used to build ships. Somepony had packed up in a hurry, the large supports left towering up into the wide open area of the storehouse. When we got there I was introduced to all the other ponies in the gang, there was Lemon Twist, Hunter, Cloud Runner, Puff Ball the mute, and Green Gray. Chip was determined to tell them all that my name was Peanut, I corrected him each time but he insisted.

Just as Chip had promised, the gang readily accepted me. Me and Lemon got along splendidly, both of us being earth ponies. Hunter was the muscle of the gang, he was the same height as Chip, but twice as strong. But he lacked the brains to match, but he was always happy to do anything to help, he even flew us up to hard to reach places or sometimes the roof-tops of the city, even though I am sure we bent his wings. Puff Ball, the only other unicorn besides Chip, was indeed a mute, she talked with some form of signs she made with her hoofs. It took months before I could fully understand her. Green Gray was an odd earth pony, he was quick to tell a joke or slam you with harsh reality. He played the penny whistle, and he even taught me how to play a few tunes.

So our happy little gang lived, begging in the street for bits, dodging carts heading for the market. Green would play his penny whistle sometimes, I would walk around with a tin cup and ask the few that stopped to listen for some bits. We would scrounge together what little we could and go buy bread. Chip taught me how to pick-pocket, but I never did it. He told me I would need to one day, but it just felt wrong.

One day, I was out looking for a corner not guarded by the cops when I walked past a tavern called the Raining Sky. Through the open door I heard some of the sailors singing and telling stories like they always do, but tonight I heard something that made me stop and listen. One of the sailors was talking about a new land that his ship had discovered.

A land out in the middle of uncharted waters, populated by a strange sort of intelligent creature, living in small tribes much like the griffons when pony-kind first stumbled on them. He described them as lizard folk, with scales like dragons, who walked on two legs and had tentacles or something on the ends of their legs. They used their upper leg-tentacle-things to grip spears, and they could climb trees as easy as walking on the ground. The sailors went to one of their villages, and where amazed at the huts the lizard folk had built in the trees. Swooping walkways connected the huts into platforms, vines hanging from the jungle trees where used to swing from platform to platform. The Lizards that the sailors meet where a peaceful tribe of farmers, but they warned the sailors of other tribes there.

I for one wanted to ask how the lizards spoke equine, but a copper noticed me and chased me off before I could hear the rest of the story. But it stuck with me all day; the lizards, the jungle trees, the huts, the walkways. They sounded glorious, and I wished with all my heart that I could see them. I did eventually, but that's another story entirely. Before that ever happened I had to start my life as a sailor. Now how did that happen…?