After about twenty minutes of twiddling my thumbs, I heard the man’s footsteps coming down the stairs, and I unsheathed Vitra ‘Aku as quietly as I could, ready to strike. He walked around the main downstairs area for a while, humming an unfamiliar tune, before sitting down and yawning loudly. Thinking about my best plan of attack, I slowly stuck my head out from the doorway so I could see him, only to discover that he had randomly decided to start masturbating.

Rolling my eyes with disgust and annoyance, I supposed at least that I could catch him with his pants down (literally); emerging from the sleeping quarters, I strode towards the man with my sword held high.

The man screamed in panic, shouted something madly incomprehensible in Spanish, and lunged for his gun, he was able to grab it and made an attempt to aim, only for me to reach him and jam my blade into his chest; gasping loudly, the man tried to cry out, only for a gurgled wheeze to emit from his lips.

I was abruptly met with the all-to-familiar agony of a bullet wound yet again, the searing pain spread through my outer waist and I naturally lashed out horizontally in response, causing Vitra ‘Aku to effortlessly glide through flesh and bone alike and very nearly cut the man in two, dismembering his arm in the process, needless to say, he was dead very quickly.

Gritting my teeth, I looked down to inspect the damage, thankfully it was just a flesh wound on the outside of my hip, but it hurt like a bitch regardless. Wasting no time at all, I tightly gripped Vitra ‘Aku’s handle and repeated the same process from before, mentally commanding the sword to heal me with the newly acquired soul; my vision brightened and blurred as the mana flowed into my body and congregated around the injury. The pain soon subsided, and upon my vision returning I was extremely grateful to find a much lesser injury upon my hip, the bullet hole was now no more than a deep graze, and while it still stung, it was certainly an improvement.

There was suddenly a large thud and then a crash from the sleeping quarters, followed by a wild Rainbow Dash charging out of the doorway with her teeth bared and her hooves ready to strike.

“I heard a gunshot! Where are the bad guys, huh? Put ‘em up!” She growled.

The pegasus then looked down to see the mutilated body of the smuggler, including his nude lower half, completely soaked in blood. Her eyes widened drastically, and it took a few seconds for Rainbow to process what she was seeing; she looked up at me and blinked slowly, before tenderly walking up the stairs and then throwing up off the side of the boat.

“You were supposed to stay in the bag, Rainbow Dash!” I crossly called up to her.

“I thought you were in danger, asshole!” She shouted down back to me, retching a few times.

Rushing into the sleeping quarters, I found the other ponies crawling out of the bag as well, I sheathed the sword and folded my arms with immense disappointment.

“We heard a gun go off and got worried about you! We were originally going to stay put, but then Rainbow Dash went out and we decided to follow.” Applejack explained.

“So what happened? Are you hurt? You’ve got blood all over you!” Shouted Twilight.

“It ain’t mine, well, at least not most of it anyway. Look, I’ll explain what happened in a moment, but for now I have a… mess… to clean up, so can you all please just stay there and not come out?” I insisted.

From the amount of blood on my body, the girls knew better than to question me, and patiently waited while I removed the mangled body; dragging the open carcass up the stairs, a portion of his lung fell out and I very nearly joined Rainbow Dash, gagging heavily. Thankfully we were far enough out at sea to dump the body (and additional pieces) overboard. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was sat at the front of the boat, watching the water go by, clearly trying to forget the image she’d just witnessed.

“Bollocks, I just got shot, if that’s not danger then I don’t know what is. It’s good to know that I have you to rely on. You never know, next time I might be in more danger than I can handle on my own, and it’s damn reassuring to know you’ve got my back.”

Leaving her to calm down, I went downstairs and used one of the towels onboard to mop up as much blood as I could. After that, I explained roughly what had happened to the others, leaving out the smuggler’s last wank on Earth…

“Gosh, I’m so sorry you got shot again, I can only imagine how painful it must be! Thank Celestia you’ve got Vitra ’Aku to heal yourself from such a horrible wound.” Rarity exclaimed.

“Actually, I think I’ll thank the Titans, not Celestia, seeing as they literally made the sword.” I scoffed.

“Oh har har, it’s just an expression.” The unicorn replied, rolling her eyes.

“Not a damn clue, but I’ll make sure we’re going the right way once we’ve familiarised ourselves with the boat, we’ve got plenty of time and we’re on the move, so no rush.” I assured her.

“Quite right m’lady, I’ll get us on course shortly.” I repeated, albeit more submissively.

Heading outside, I found Rainbow Dash had mostly recovered from earlier, she was perched at the top of the mast with her wings splayed open, contently catching the wind. Upon seeing us all emerging onto the deck, she fluttered down and gave me a loud disgruntled huff.

This caused her to look away with a faint smile, slightly tickled by the response. She eventually dropped the attitude, joining the girls and I in exploring the boat and learning how it all worked; I’d learned the very basics of sailing back when I was seven when my dad would take Oliver and I to a sailing club, where we’d learn the fundamentals with other younglings of our age group, being on this sailing boat with the girls took me straight back to those old distant memories…

There used to be this nasty mother there called Madonna at the sailing club who would always put down the other kids in order to big up her own son, Josh. Madonna was one of those absolute madams who’d never stop flapping her gums about herself and her egotistical life, she was a classic case of an insecure possessive parent whom always thought that their child was a million times better than everyone else’s, and my father wouldn’t stand for it on the day she mentioned that I was a dysfunctional child due to my Asperger’s, I’d very rarely heard my father shout at someone, but it was safe to say that Madonna would never speak ill of the differently abled again; it was also needless to disclose that Oliver and I were no longer welcome to sailing club after that incident.
Turns out dad could be quite scary when he needed to be.

Retrieving my compass from my bag, I held it out in front of me and found we were heading southwest, we would need to be heading much further north if we wanted to get to America.

“Right girls, I’m going to steer us west by northwest, and then I need you to help me with these ropes so we can angle the sails properly, alright?” I announced.

With six voices of agreement in my ear, I went to the back of the boat and adjusted the rudder, keeping my compass facing to the front of the boat as I did so until we were headed west by northwest. After that, I walked the ponies through angling the sails in conjunction to the wind to ensure we were moving as efficiently as possible. Despite the odd rocking here and there, the sea was relatively calm, although it would probably grow rougher as we headed further out.

“Can we please establish this sooner rather than later, does anypony get seasick?” I inquired.

Everyone shook their heads, except for Applejack, whom uneasily rubbed the back of her neck.

“Well, I don’t exactly get seasick, but I must admit that I feel a little queasy without any dry land nearby.”

“Understandable from someone who’s always worked on a farm, all I’m saying is that if you think you’re going to hurl, please just make sure you do so overboard.”

“Well you’ve made your point, can we all please stop talking about it now?” Twilight snapped.

Raising my eyebrows in shock, I realised that Twilight’s body language was very uptight all of a sudden upon me bringing up the subject, her shoulders were practically hugging her ears. Perhaps she was having another mild episode from the Fel’s long-lasting damage?

“Well anyhoo, let’s also establish the fact that we’re all going to be cramped on this boat together for quite some time, so let’s all try our best to not get on anyone’s nerves and to respect one another’s personal space, I’d rather we didn’t all come down with cabin fever.” I continued.

Nodding in agreement, we headed back inside the boat and started establishing who slept where, along with devising some sort of shift rota so we could all take turns in adjusting the rudder and angling the sails; whilst we’d usually be working together as a team, it would be good to have some form of structure during such a monotonous and cramped part of our quest.

“Rarity, what’s the situation with our food supply? How much do we have left? This is going to be a long haul journey and we need to make sure there’s enough for everyone.” I asked.

“The last time I checked, we’ve got enough to last us roughly a month, but I think we could comfortably ration it out to six weeks. Sadly it’s not the most delectable of pickings, it’s mostly nuts, beans, hay, daisies, potatoes, onions, leeks, rice, peanut butter, and apples.”

“That’ll do just fine, I won’t need much to eat anyway, my first two weeks in Portugal proved that, I didn’t have a single bloody morsel until some nice old granny fed me.”

Twilight dipped her head in shame and anxiously rubbed the back of her neck, for it was her corrupted self that teleported me to the wrong side of Portugal on purpose, in an attempt to get rid of me.

Playfully rolling my eyes, I assured Twilight that there were no hard feelings, and that the Fel was entirely to blame for the event; although she still blamed herself, she was comforted by the fact that I didn’t resent her for it.

Aside from food and the management of our shifts, we needed activities to do onboard to keep us all sane during the voyage. There was no doubt that one of the hardest parts, if not the hardest part of this particular leg of the journey, would be the lengthy duration it would take to reach America. Driving across the desert was one thing, because we could see where we were going. We were always moving forward with the horizon edging towards us, beckoning us further, encouraging us to keep going. No matter how tedious the journey, we could see with our own eyes that we were going somewhere; meanwhile out here on the open water, the only thing we could see for miles in any direction was more water, days could pass and it could seem as though we hadn’t moved an inch.

Sometimes the simpler adversities were the most difficult to overcome, and in this case, it was simply time; from the most patient to the most eager, this journey would test all of us equally.

Rainbow Dash would grow bored very quickly, but at least she could fly above whenever she needed to stretch her wings. Applejack, the hard worker that she is, would need a project to work on in order to feel productive, otherwise she’d most certainly become irritated and short tempered. Pinkie Pie was more than sure to go mental within at least a week, to be crammed into such a small space with such a hyperactive pony was a recipe for disaster.

Despite the heavy mental scarring from the Fel (giving her the potential to break at any mild friction), I had faith that Twilight would cope relatively well, for she still had a few of my old books from home in her saddle bag (to be honest I was amazed they had even survived this far), so at least she had something to keep her focused and absorbed; hopefully her inability to use magic wouldn’t interfere with this too much.

As for Rarity and Fluttershy, they were certainly the most patient and would fare much better than the rest of us, so long as they had decent conversation and a dash of activities here and there.

Unsurprisingly, Pinkie was to the rescue on that front, having packed a few board games in her bag prior to coming to Earth; upon getting them out to display, I came upon the dumb realisation that I didn’t recognise a single game as they were from Equestria, although there was one that caught my eye that looked somewhat similar.

She slid beside me and pointed at the cover, which displayed four ponies sat around the board game.

“It’s called Sorry-Not-Sorry, or S-N-S for short, it’s a game for four ponies, and you all take turns to roll the dice to move your pieces around the board, you have to do a full lap around before you can get your pieces to the safe zone. If you land on somepony’s piece, it gets sent back to base. The winner is the first pony to get all their pieces into the safe zone!” She excitedly explained.

“It’s a board game practically identical to this one.” I told her, before explaining the concept of Ludo.

I had to admit, this Equestrian version looked much more fun, while Ludo had a basic square board with a simple route of tiles for one’s pieces, Sorry-Not-Sorry had an octagon shaped board with a much more playful tile route; the coloured pieces were designed to resemble unicorn horns, which was also a very nice touch, opposed to Ludo’s very simplistic cone shaped pieces.

About an hour or so had gone by, and the seas had been smooth sailing thus far, with only the odd wave that would send one or two of us into an unstable wobble for a few seconds. In the grand scheme of things, we hadn’t gone very far at all, but one couldn’t focus on that.

Whilst I had never really been one for fishing, I couldn’t help but enjoy the thought of casting a lure into the water and reeling up something for dinner; not that I had any idea of how to fish properly, it was one of the few things my father hadn’t taught me in my childhood.
But if humans had been doing it so proficiently for thousands of years, how hard could it be?

“So, I recall that you were the one responsible for packing essential gear for the quest, like camping equipment and such. I don’t suppose you’d packed a fishing rod or two by any chance?”

“I’m sorry darling, but I’m afraid not. We don’t eat fish, so such equipment wouldn’t have been considered essential, even if I owned anything of the sort.”

Shrugging, I told her it was fine and that I’d just wanted to inquire as I’d have enjoyed the prospect of catching myself dinner, along with it being something to pass the time.
Just as I was walking away to check on Twilight in the sleeping quarters, Rarity gave a loud “Ah-ha!” and called me back.

“You know, you just might be in luck darling! Now, I know for a fact that Applejack would often go on little fishing trips with Applebloom and Big Mac to the Ponyville Reservoir for a bit of competitive angling, before releasing the fish back into the water at the end of the day. Now don’t you go taking my word for it, but I think Applejack might have brought her own rod, I’d highly suggest you go and ask her.”

I headed back up above deck (trying not to bump my head as I did so), and emerged into the brilliant sunlight to find Applejack throwing up over the side of the boat.

Rolling my eyes, I instructed her to keep the horizon in her field of view and to stay in the shade to help with the seasickness, along with absolutely not going below deck whenever she’s feeling queasy. I also implored her to try her very best to keep it down, as we couldn’t afford anyone getting dehydrated with our limited water supply.

“So, I hope it’s not a bad time to ask, but Rarity told me that you might have a fishing rod.”

AJ’s ears pricked up, and a sly smirk lit up across her face despite her nauseous state.

Scoffing, I admitted that I wasn’t, (and not by any stretch of the imagination), but wanted to get into it now in order to pass the time.

Practically forgetting the seasickness, the farm pony led me down into the boat and into the sleeping quarters where the saddlebags were stashed, alongside Twilight and Rainbow Dash having a private conversation about her adopted human father; it was so bloody uplifting to finally see them truly getting along after what happened in Portugal, from hating Twiley’s guts to having one-on-one conversations with her was beyond comforting to see, it was safe to say she’d found it within her heart to forgive Twilight and move forward from the months of pain and torment instilled by the Fel’s underlying corruption.

“S’cuse me girls.” I merrily emitted, stepping over them to reach Applejack’s bag.

Rainbow responded by playfully giving my arse a firm prod with a hoof, to which I retorted by releasing a small and squeaky fart, causing both her and Twilight to shriek and scramble to their hooves, fleeing to another section of the boat while shouting ‘Ew! Ew! Ew!’ together.

Rolling my eyes, we dug through the bag until locating the fishing rod alongside her lures, and then clambered back out into the sun. A disgruntled Rainbow Dash glared at me as I passed her in the living quarters, to which I threatened to do it again if she didn’t give me a smile; this resulted in a cushion being thrown at me from Twilight, whom was trying to conceal the smile that clearly stated that she actually found the ordeal rather funny in all its crudeness.

“Right, you said that you ain’t into fishing, but have you at least held a fishing rod before?”

Confirming that I had, I went on to tell Applejack how I’d once caught a perch when I was about six or seven years old, and it was actually what put me off fishing for so long. Perches had two dorsal fins, one of which was tipped with small sharp spikes, and when a six (or seven) year old moron decided to grab it tightly, the obvious outcome was for those spikes to go right into his dipshit hand.

“Oh Sugarcube, I can just picture it now! A lil’ young’un Callum running around with a tiny fish stuck to his hand, hoo’wee that’s a good one!” Applejack hooted with laughter.

Rolling my eyes, I gripped the fishing rod and allowed Applejack to reteach me the basics, before I eventually hooked up the glimmering lure and cast it into the water. The lure twinkled a few times as it sunk, before it eventually descended into the unseen depths; I eagerly awaited to feel a tugging, but no such tugging came for what felt like forever.

“I’ve just remembered the other reason I don’t like fishing, it’s boring as hell.” I grumbled.

“It’s a part of the experience Sugar Cube, y’all have to be patient and enjoy the anticipation, wondering where the closest fish is and whether or not you’re within seconds of catching ‘er, or if you’ve still got some more time to wait. Fishing ain’t all about catching the fish hun, it’s about letting yourself go, whether it’s having a nice conversation, or spending some time woolgathering.”

I’d never really thought of fishing that way, and after Applejack’s advice began to sink in (no pun intended), I found the activity to grow on me a little, and after a while, I was having a truly peaceful time just chatting with Applejack about life, whilst the rod sat loosely in my hands.

Equestria was the main subject of conversation, in which I learned that Sweet Apple Acres was utterly huge, making up just over a quarter of all the land in the entire Ponyville province.
The Everfree Forest for that matter covered almost an entire fifth of the country! It was so enormous that there had to be multiple stations for the Everfree Rangers which were dotted around the edges of the forest, in total there were forty-six Ranger stations, simply known as Forts.

“The monsters from the Everfree really cause that much of a problem?” I inquired, astounded.

“Oh you bet’cha! On average, more ponies die to that darn Everfree than they do to natural causes!”

She went on to explain that the forest itself continually attempted to expand, thus creating more breeding grounds and hotspots for monster attacks. To combat this, the Everfree Rangers had a specific division for lumber-ponies, whom went on regular logging expeditions to prevent the expansion, along with armed guards to protect them from whatever creatures may be lurking nearby.

“That’s absolutely mental, how did the show never mention this!?” I exclaimed.

Eager to learn, I demanded for more information about the Rangers, and found out that they were in fact a proper organisation which was personally backed by Princesses Celestia and Luna, whom funded them from the royal treasury and would even send soldiers to assist when they were required.

The Everfree Rangers had four divisions which one could sign up for…
There were the Pathfinders, a scouting division which specialised in mapping out the forest and keeping tabs on certain creatures, along with their migration patterns. The Pathfinders was a line of work for ponies who wanted to brave the depths of the forest and study it.
Then there were the Loggers, which (as previously explained) would cut down trees to maintain the spread of the ever-growing Everfree, a good role for strong ponies that weren’t discouraged by the prospect of hostile creatures lurking nearby while they worked, namely timber-wolves.
Thirdly, there were the Blockades, defensive rangers that garrisoned the Forts and specialised in guarding the edges of the woodland, along with escorting the Loggers on their expeditions. Decked with thick armour and portable ballistae, they were the shield that guarded the realms of ponies.

Lastly, and explicitly the most treacherous division of the Rangers, there were the Hunters.
The bravest of the brave, it was the sole job of the hunters to track down and eradicate the most deadly denizens of the forest, either by repelling them from nearby villages, or to slay them outright.
Needless to say, this division was not for the faint of heart, very rarely did a hunt end without a casualty or two, but apparently the pay was very much worth the risk.

{Well, it’s absolutely official, if I somehow did end up in Equestria for whatever reason, I’m signing up to become a Hunter in the Everfree Rangers.} I decided in thought.

We nattered for well over an hour, when suddenly I felt a light tugging at Applejack’s rod, at long last the moment had arrived; grasping the rod firmly, I looked to Applejack for guidance.

“Woohoo! We’ve got a biter! Now, the next time you feel a bite like that, tug the rod to one side, that’s called striking, which is how you get the hook in.” She explained.

Nodding, I anxiously awaited the next bite, lightly stimming my fingers across the rod’s handle.

{This is where a bloody shark comes along and eats the damn thing.} I thought to myself playfully.

The next bite came, and I swung the rod to the right, and very quickly it came apparent that the fish was hooked, as the rod was almost yanked out of my hands.

Grabbing the rod and clutching it to my chest, I allowed Applejack to explain that I needed to pull the rod upwards towards me at first, and then reel in as I extended the rod back out, bringing the fish closer only in small increments.

“If you feel that blighter really putting up a fight, don’t fight back, or the darn line might break. Just hold the rod nice and steady, let the thing tire out before bringing it in.”

Having the time of my life, I followed Applejack’s advice to the letter and slowly but surely brought the fish to the boat, and very soon it became visible just beneath the surface.

I looked behind me to find that the excitement had attracted an audience, all six ponies were now gathered around to witness the climax of my angle. Smirking to myself, I maintained focus and kept reeling until the fish was continuously breaking the water, still battling for freedom from the fishing line.

After a fifteen-minute battle, the creature lost its fight and drifted along behind the boat; I peered down with Applejack to find that it was a sea bass, a rather big one at that.

She swooped over to the fish and scooped it out of the water, chucking it directly at me, forcing me to drop the rod and catch it with both arms.

“Damn it Dashie… Ugh, thanks!” I groaned, my wrists now coated in fish slime.

Placing it on the deck, I warned the girls that I was about to humanely kill the creature, to which Pinkie, Rarity and Fluttershy all shuffled back downstairs to avoid the event. The remaining three appeared to have a morbid curiosity as to how humans prepared once-living food, and watched me with unease as I withdrew Vitra ‘Aku and prepared to deliver the blow.

“O’ great bass of the sea, I hereby condemn you to die, for the greater good of my stomach.” I joked.

Other than lightly flopping its tail, the bass gave no response as I placed my blade behind its gills; at the sight of this, Rainbow Dash changed her mind and went downstairs.

Twilight and AJ remained, and so I continued without hesitation. Firmly pushing and sliding the sword down, the fish’s head came clean off, with the body convulsing a few times out of nervous reflex.
Outstandingly, a small wisp of soul energy emitted from the creature and seeped into the sword.

Nodding, the farm pony quickly ran to the boat’s railings out of precaution, while Twilight watched me throw the head overboard and begin filleting the fish; while a crystal sword from another world was hardly an appropriate tool for such a task, the blade’s sharpness certainly did the job equally well.

“So which bits do you actually eat? Back in Brazil I recall you only eating the crocodile’s muscles, does that apply to all, uh, previously alive food sources?” Twilight queried.

“Yeah, the muscle is basically the only good bit to eat, unless you’re a bloody neanderthal.” I replied.

“But that word, it’s awfully similar to Neighanderthal, which is a word fo-”

“Neighanderthal? Are you being serious?” I laughed, almost slipping with the blade.

I removed the first successful fillet, flipping the fish over to extract the other while Twilight explained to me that neighanderthals were ancient ponies from long before the days of Celestia and Luna, or even Champions for that matter. In turn, I explained to her that neanderthals were ancestral humans that lived millions of years ago, and had only just begun to use handheld tools, long before the days of metalwork and civilisation.

By the time we’d finished talking about the matter, both sides of the bass had been fully removed, along with the skin on the fillets, and thus they were ready for cooking.

While waiting for her to get the equipment and ingredients I needed, I cleaned up the fish blood on the deck and then dipped my hands in the sea water to give them a quick rinse, doing the same with Vitra ‘Aku before slotting it back into the void sheathe.

Rarity and Rainbow Dash emerged together with a portable grill, frying pan, and a small bag of spices between them; the pearly unicorn gave me a kind smile as I reached out to retrieve the instruments.

“That’s lovely, thanks. Don’t suppose you have any cooking oil?” I replied.

Dashing back down to retrieve the oil and fork, I set up the grill and was pleasantly surprised to find the pony equivalent of fire-starter blocks were runestones what would bleed some sort of magical liquid fire when activated, perfect for grills and campfires alike.

“They bleed for about half an hour before going out.” Twilight finished elaborating to me.

“That’s fine, these fillets will cook in about five minutes tops if the pan’s hot enough.” I replied.

Choosing to cut the fillets in half crosswise, resulting in four evenly sized chunks, I placed the runestone into the grill and allowed Rarity to activate it; cracking into multiple fragments, a vibrant array of flames emerged from the broken stone and lightly tickled the bottom of the pan. After applying the oil, I plonked the fillets onto the pan and they began to lightly sizzle.
Rainbow Dash and Applejack rejoined us to watch the meat cook, their curiosity returning.

“Is it safe to come out? Asking for a friend!” Pinkie giggled from the stairway.

Pinks hopped out to watch me cook, as did Fluttershy; soon enough everyone was yet again crowded around me to witness the activity. Opening the bag of spices, I decided simple was best, and went for the salt and just a touch of black pepper, the smell was already to die for, and I wasn’t the only one who thought so.

“So, nopony judge me, but this actually smells kinda good.” Dashie admitted.

After a moment’s thought and a hum to myself, I suggested that the girls could all try a small bite.

“Oh, um, I don’t know about actually trying it, it was still alive a few moments ago!” Rarity exclaimed.

“And wouldn’t it be like, really bad for our digestion?” Rainbow Dash quizzed.

“Look, it was only a suggestion, none of you have to try it,” I began, “but personally I don’t see the harm in just a tiny bit of fresh fish. For ponies that eat cakes, pies, and other processed foods, I can’t imagine your digestive system is actually that different from a human one.”

Twilight agreed, and being the most inquisitive creature in the multiverse, decided that she wanted to try some fried fish in the name of science; her vote swayed the majority, and soon enough everyone except Fluttershy were onboard with trying some.
Flipping over the four chunky fillets to cook the other side, I sliced one of them into five small cubes, not much bigger than a sugar cube; after a little bit of further sizzling, I took the pan off the flame and transferred the fish to one of the gold-rimmed plates that Rarity had stolen from the mansion.

“Well, as the expression goes, ladies first?” Rarity intreated, stepping forward.

Chuckling, I skewered the first cube and allowed her to levitate the fork out of my hand and pop the fish into her mouth without a moment’s hesitation; she recoiled in shock from the unfamiliar flavour but continued to chew and allow her tastebuds to adjust.

Swallowing the morsel and pursing her lips, the unicorn gave no indication as to whether she liked or disliked the flavour until she eventually clicked her tongue and stared at me intensely.

She looked around at everyone and insisted that they give it a try, to which they did, and one by one the girls all ate their respective cubes.

“Hm, I could definitely get used to it, but it’s a bit too salty for my taste.” Twilight hummed.

Bursting into laughter, the pegasus narrowly escaped the fork that I almost stabbed her with, I scowled at her and finally began to eat the fish for myself, and damn it was good.

“I’m sure it tastes lovely, but it just doesn’t sit right with me.” She replied, standing her ground.

Wholeheartedly respecting her decision, I finished the fish and threw the plate overboard.

“Firstly, you stole it, and secondly, it’s less washing up to do.” I retorted.

“I have magic, you imbecile, washing up everything, grill included, takes about twenty seconds at most!”

“Look, if you want to jump into the open ocean to retrieve a stolen dinnerplate, be my guest.”

Rarity looked out to sea, clearly thought of sea monsters, and looked back at me with a scowl.

With the food fiasco behind us, we packed away the fishing rod and now-clean cooking equipment (minus one plate), and decided to play Sorry-Not-Sorry until the night time.
The board game session was truly a blast, the hours went by like minutes, and soon enough the moon had replaced the sun in the sky, and everyone was growing tired.

After giving the pegasus a kiss on the cheek, I retired for the night along with the other girls, heading to the sleeping quarters where we had to make use of the one bunk bed the small boat provided. To combat the limited options, we had devised a rotating system where the last pony to take watch had the liberty of the top bunk, while two other ponies shared the bottom bunk.
Twilight and myself on the other hand, had created a makeshift bed on the floor using the boat’s cushions and blankets, we were always comfortable sharing the small space together, with a night-time cuddle seeming to efficiently help in reducing her night terrors (or Spookies, as we’d secretly dubbed them).

Rarity blew out the candle and we all began to drift off, until an ungodly stench began to drift around the room, everyone else could clearly smell it, with grunts and moans of discomfort resonating around and Twilight literally convulsing in an attempt to prevent coughing.

Hiding under the covers with Twilight until the smell dissipated, we eventually went off to sleep.
Until I was rudely awoken by the sound of crashing waves.

The Titans' Orb: Breaking Dawn

by Mister Horncastle

Chapter Five: The Young Boy and the Sea