I walked along the wharf, mouth agape in awe at the size of the ships towering above my head. The ships where taller than any building I had ever seen, and longer then the hoofball field in the Trottingham park. I wandered aimlessly down the docks, carefully avoiding the large stallions loading and unloading supplies. It was a good half hour before I spotted what I was looking for, a group of street-colts gathered around a large, official looking stallion. I ducked into the nearest alleyway, took out Chip's knife, and began to make myself look like a colt. I peeked out of my hiding spot and found a colt who I could easily make myself look like. Using him as a model, I cut my mane and tail to as closely match him as I could. When it was done, I looked into a puddle on the ground to inspect my hoofwork. I would have to remember to keep it short, but it would pass. I returned Chips knife to its sheath, and ran over to join the group of hopeful street rats. I got there right as the official pony began talking.

"All right, what can any of you colts do?" There was a silence, nopony had expect a question like that. Figures though, I assumed this wasn't a "Raise your hoof if you want to join the navy!" type of deal. One colt broke the silence by saying him and his brother knew several knots, and they rattled off a few when asked what kinds. They where motioned up the gangplank behind the stallion.

"So, anypony else got anything of value to offer?" More silence. "Hmm, let's try this. This ship that I'm assigning you all to is a combat vessel, name Eclipse, galleon class, twenty guns on both sides, able to hold up to seventy-five stallions comfortably. Its mission is to hunt down the fleet of the dread pirate Scabbard Peg. Peg is confirmed responsible for sinking sixteen navy ships, suspected on at least eight other accounts. Peg hold port in past the seas of dismay, were storms are almost as consistent as Celestia's sun. Very few ships have ever made it through there with their crew intact, and we are charging headfirst into there. So if any of you colts think you can't handle that, then step away now." A good half of the group moved away, scared out of their minds. I held my ground, but just barely, I noticed now that there was just eight other colts besides me remaining. One of them got called up on account of him looking like the strongest muscle out of us. Two got picked because they were unicorns.

"That leaves room for one more of you." it was down to me, two pegasus, and two earth ponies, one of which looked like he wanted to leave earlier but was too scared to move. The stallion moved down the line of us, inspecting each of us closely. He stopped at me, looking up at him made me feel incredibly small but I held my chin up and gave my best impression of the salute I had seen other navy stallions do.

"You look like you've been run over by a cart." The stallion said, chuckling at my salute. I chose to take the laugh as a complement.

"Well, uh, Sir. If I had been run over by a cart I wouldn't be standing here right now. I've seen ponies get hit by carts. They rarely get back up."

"Hmm, tell me then. If it wasn't a cart that beat you up, what was it?"

"Pale Mane. Leader of the Buckwater gang." I heard surprised gasps from some of the colts next to me, they knew about Pale and the Buckwaters. I guess it surprised them that I survived an encounter with him. "He was trying to take some territory that belonged to my gang. We fought him for it, and I got the short end of the stick when it came to bucking."

"Interesting, did you win the fight?"

"Well we scared them off, but…" I hung my head, trying not to break down into tears. "They… Pale… killed the leader of our gang. They also outnumber us three to one, so if they ever came back we all would die. So the gang broke up to go find work, and, well here I am." I looked back up at the stallion, his face was unreadable. He stood there for what seemed like forever, then finally spoke.

"It's obvious you've seen combat, and you look like the clever sort. It would be a shame to let the navy spoil that, but we could always use clever ponies. Your hired, get up the gangplank and check in with the master at arms." It was all I could do to stop myself from skipping up the gangplank, colts don’t skip. I think.

"Name?" A light blue stallion with a white mane asked when I stopped in front of him.

"Peanut. Peanut Toffee." I replied.

"Strange name ya got there."

"My parents where strange ponies…sir."

"Ha, you will be read into the ships log as Ships-Colt Toffee." He chuckled. "Until we are underway your duties are to stay on the ship but out of trouble. I suggest you get to know the other ships colts, you six are going to be very close for a while."

"Thank you sir." I tried a salute again, and was rewarded with more chuckling. They were just surprised at how good I was at it, I told myself.

I went over and found the other ships colts huddled in a group talking wildly amongst themselves, mouths and eyes wide open pointing and starring at the many amazing parts of the ship. I walked over to them and was instantly greeted by one of the two brother who got picked first.

"Hi, I'm Slip. This is my brother Hitch." Slip and Hitch were twin earth ponies, they both had deep yellow fur and light blue-green mane and tail. The only differences where that Slip talked a lot more, and their cutie marks; Slip's was a needle with thread going through the eye, Hitch's was spool of thread. The thread on both was the same color, a light gold that stood out from the rest of their fur. The strong looking one was a pegasus, he had very dark brown fur, and a multi-earthen colored mane and tail. He introduced himself as Mossy, he also had his cutie mark; a rolling boulder. I was glad to see that neither of the two unicorns had their cutie marks, I wasn't the only blank flank on board. One of the unicorns was entirely white, his mane and tail only a shade darker then his fur. He introduced himself as Cloudy Glass. The other unicorn was Purple, with a black mane and tail. His name was Midnight Sky.

We all got along splendidly, once we realized we were allowed to climb the ropes going up the poles that held the sails we were off into the air. We spent the rest of the day finding our way around the ship, looking at all the equipment onboard, and just being colts. As evening came we were ushered down into the lower level of the ship by the Master at Arms. He showed us to a corner where six hammocks were hanging on hooks from the walls, they all had one blanket and a small pillow sitting in them.

"This is where you will sleep, get some rest wile you can, the whole ship has to be up by first light so we can catch the tide."

We all excitedly picked out hammocks, and jumped in. Sleep was the farthest thing from our minds at that point, we were all excitingly chatting away. Eventually we got board of talking about the ship, and the conversation turned to each other's life stories. I went first telling a short version of how I lost my family, joined and left the gang, and then ended up here. Slip and Hitch where next, Slip did most of the talking, Hitch just filled in the details and reminded Slip to breath. Now let's see if I can remember what they all said…

Author's Note

Seriously though, give me your comments! I want to know what you think, even if you hate it let me know so I stop caring if you read it (Grammar Nazis are sort of welcome). Thank you!