My mind raced through a nearly infinite number of possibilities, trying to find just the right choice. I kept at it for hours at a time and counting, even though what I searched for had already revealed itself to me earlier. Unfortunately though, the thought also didn't stay with me for very long. Moments after being fully formed, it already bade me goodbye and left. The irony was almost uncanny, but there was nothing I could do to change that. I could only hope for my dazed and confused subconscious to deliver. And that might take a while, especially since it already had done so, thus far.

...I guess I should clarify some things here, shouldn't I?

I had this incredible dream last night. Something so tremendous, it slipped my mind almost immediately. I'm not even sure what the whole context was anymore, but it did have something super spectacularly amazing to it, I recall as much. The dream also revealed something to me that might not only have an impact on the life I've been living for all these years, no! This breathtaking, freshly unraveled mystery could easily have the power in it to change the very world we all live in, and the way said world remains seen through the eyes of ponykind. Fillies and gentlecolts, hold on to your seats, 'cause you're gonna need them, eventually.

The seats, I mean. Sort of like a seat in need. Heh. Anyway...

I had found the perfect icing flavor for the single, most perfect cupcake ever made. It's amazing, isn't it amazing? I know. I could hardly contain myself. Up until the point at which I forgot about what that perfect flavor combination was, of course. Which happened at some earlier point during the current awake cycle, probably right after getting up. Because when I rushed into the kitchen to share my stunning insight with Polly, the thought had already slipped my knowledge.

That sure was a bummer to behold. And I should know, I've seen a few.

The concept wouldn't leave me alone for the rest of the day, however. I could hardly concentrate on helping Polly with preparing lunch, and even my friend-making didn't make much progress, neither before nor after we ate. My job during the preparations mainly consisted of peeling potatoes, and doing so with a pretty sharp knife. Without paying that too much attention, a pony easily brings herself from one unfortunate mistake to another. Even at this point, my hoof still hurt from several minor cuts I'd received from my own clumsiness in the process. Who would have thought there might be a connection between cupcakes and pain? I sure didn't.

Not that any of that helped improving my concentration in any way. The clouds had mostly cleared off by now, so trotting around the upper deck between breaks had once again taken in most of my free time. Lost in thought as I was, I didn't take much notice of my surroundings. The only thing I embraced when stepping outside was the sunny day we were once again having. I like those, but I probably don't even need to mention that anymore.

But a lot of details, most of which I would have usually paid a ton of attention to, just kinda slipped my mind entirely. As did the ponies whom I was passing by, or the ones who were just standing around elsewhere or doing their job. Sometimes I was also passing by ponies who were doing their job by standing around, so they applied to all three categories at a time. And I didn't even mention the one talking to me, right now. Speaking of which...what was his name, again?

One week at sea and all of this already started getting to me, oh...dear.

I glanced to my right, taking a second look at the stallion, along with a first evaluation. Or so I'd say. I hadn't really examined his features before, and doing so now seemed like the only reasonable thing to do. Tan coat? Check. Lime greenish mane and tail? Check again. Blueberry flavored uh...eyeballs? No, wait. That doesn't compute. Uncheck. Blueberry flavor applied to the other thing.

In any case, it seemed I started getting two different topics messed up. That didn't make my situation any better, nor did I feel any less confused. On the contrary, that only made it worse, since I now got two different things messed up. In...my head. I might have mentioned that already. Duh.

I tried listening to what he said, trying to find a way to jump back into the conversation, hoping that my little moment of inconsistency may go unnoticed. Taking in a few sentences, I'd only need to put two and two and two together, and the answer would lay itself out before me. Or so I thought. Unfortunately, it was somewhat hard to determine what the subject was only going by his words. To be plain, I couldn't figure it out. With my luck, that pony kept talking in one go hardly even stopping to breathe, so he never noticed.

I listened again, this time more intensely. Some kind of sailor pony topic, that was for sure. No wonder I couldn't follow. I wasn't even so sure how we got to that. Or rather, how he got there. I never actually said a word the whole time, did I? But then...why was he talking to me, anyway? Shouldn't I be the one introducing myself? Did I even start to fail at that? I sure hoped I didn't.

He was blabbering something about waves, wavelengths, and...heights? I'm not so sure what that meant, it all sounded very technical. Very deliberate as well, I suppose. Big word. In the end, there could only be one way to jump back onto the bandwagon, so I figured I might as well roll with it straight away.

"What would you say is the better frosting flavor?" I thus asked. "Blueberries or mangoes? Either one sounds pretty good."

That seemed to have struck a nerve. I couldn't tell for sure, but at least he didn't keep on rambling about things I didn't understand. Instead, he turned his head to face me, a deadpanning look dominating his features. Did I ask the wrong thing again? Wouldn't be the first time, or so I assumed.

"Whu...wait, what?" he asked, stumbling along as he did. "I don't know about that. I'm not an expert on cupcake...frosting. Why would that even be relevant? I thought we were discussing the ocean tides just now, and you're starting something about flavors of...what?"

"Cupcakes! Blueberry or mango cupcakes! Well, one or the other, ultimately. I wanted to leave that choice up to you, that's why I asked the question in the first place. Because I think they both taste amazing, but what do you think? And if one tastes even more amazing than the other, how would that even taste? Amazinger? Amazinglier? Amazingest?"

I threw myself into a fit, and didn't even fully noticing doing so on first try. Then again, I was only being cheerful, so what's the deal? The way I saw it, that pony didn't have the slightest reason to look as bewildered as he did, right now. I leaned over to him, in order to lead over to our next topic of conversation. The one I wanted to start with originally, hadn't the cupcakes gotten in the way.

"What was your name, again?"

"Friendly Card, but I don't see how that matters right now." He blinked, cocking his head to the side a bit. "You...you're not even listening to what I'm saying, are you?"

"Of course I am, silly," I replied with a giggle. "How else would I know that your name is...is..." I paused for a second, causing him to start rolling his eyes. "I'm joking, come on! Isn't there anypony up for laughs in this place?"

He gave me another odd look, followed by a frown as he leaned onto the railing, looking out across the water. The ocean's surface was calm on that day, though not entirely flat. I couldn't recall any occasion on which it had been. There were always a few tiny waves left out there somewhere, which would disrupt the picture. And now this stallion seemed similarly disrupted in his speech, if not even disturbed, really. And I got the painful idea that it might have been me making him grumpy, just now.

That wasn't what I wanted. That was the exact opposite of what I wanted. I trotted over to his side in an effort to make up for a damage I wasn't even sure existed.

"Aw, come on, now. No reason to fret!" I patted him on the shoulder with a hoof saying so, but stopped as I noticed him shivering at the touch. I guess I didn't expect that, but it didn't really matter. As long as I still talked to him. Making friends was still my number two priority on this journey, so I might as well get to it. "You look like you could need some cheering up. You wanna be cheered up? Why don't we change the subject, then? I always change the subject whenever I need some cheering up because the current one is obviously not very cheerilicious."

I took in a deep breath, then concluded, "So, why don't you tell me something about yourself? How long have you been on this ship, anyway? I just got on, recently. You might have noticed that. Ah, silly me! Of course you did!" Again, I giggled. "I just told you, didn't I? Anyway, how did you get here? On here? There just has to be some kind of story behind that. And while you're at it, any favorite cake flavors on your behalf?"

He only groaned in response. One of his forelegs darted upwards to perform a facehoof, only to stop halfway through and settle back down onto the railing. He also did seem somewhat agitated. I couldn't say for sure regarding the latter. It was probably just a hunch.

"Did anyone ever call you bucking annoying?" He asked in a tone that sounded a lot less confident than one would have expected, considering his phrasing. His eyes flickered over in my direction several times, never to stay for very long. "It might just be about time."

I winced. Then sighed. Then winced again, ate a muffin (kiwi flavored!), sighed again, and finally turned to face him. "That's not a nice thing to say," I finally added. "Although I...might have been called annoying by some ponies before. Relatives, mostly. You know how parents can be. But you didn't answer my question." I managed a grin at that point, trying to break out of that pointless and sudden sad phase. "Just how long have you been here? I just wanna know!"

"You wanna, huh?" He snorted. "Well, I've been sailing on this ship for almost a decade, now. That answer your question?"

"Practically it does, I suppose," I told him. "I've got a friend who always does the logical stuff for me. I'm not very good at being reasonable, you know? Sounds like a long time though. It is pretty long, right? Or should I say has been? It's still going on now, after all..."

"I never really had a choice to leave." He scowled, but his answer seemed a lot more determined this time around. "I owe the captain too much for that. The ship I used to work on hit a shoal and sank. I drifted around the ocean for about a day after that, before Saratoga and his mates managed to spot and rescue me. And yes, I am the only survivor of that crash. The only one I know of, anyway."

I gasped. "That's terrible!"

"Isn't it, really?"

"B-but how did that happen? I mean, does that happen often? I don't want that to happen with us! There's ponies out there who still need me and my help!"

"Some kind of help that'll be," he responded, quietly nickering into the opposite direction. "No, but my old captain had it coming. He was a pretty reasonable pony to follow, back when I joined his crew. But lost his mind somewhere along the way, he did. Kept going on for weeks, obsessing about some kind of giant sea monster that he needed to hunt down, well. We chased that beast for ages, but eventually our best efforts weren't enough. Which might be because sea monsters don't exist, but nopony wanted to listen to me. So I snuck out on a lifeboat, and got taken in by the Cornucopia's crew. Never heard of the others again, but they're probably all drowned or starved to death, by now." He glanced my way, probably looking into a slightly disturbed expression. My mouth might have hung open or not, I don't exactly recall that. "You asked for it."

He had hardly finished when both of us heard a shrill, shattering sound from behind ourselves. Well, he did finish his sentence, but the sound reached us a moment earlier. And practically, I suppose I should only speak for myself when saying that we heard it, but since Friendly Card turned around alongside me, I suppose I may suppose the same for him...or something. As for the sound itself, it sounded like the one from a glass bottle splintering open after being smashed against something. Maybe it was more of a smashy sound, then.

Looking back, I was quick to spot the reason for the disturbance. There were two stallions standing in the middle of the deck, right next to the main mast. I decided each of them had to be a few years older than me, judging from their looks alone.  Being a unicorn, one of the two held the bottle in question within his magical grasp...well, most of the bottle, anyway. Parts of it lay scattered all around the floor. And his earth pony opponent constantly kept an eye out for those, while at the same time making sure not to lose sight of the half-bottle dangling menacingly between the two.

All things considered, the unicorn one seemed a lot more hostile than the other. He had his eyes narrowed down, looking mistrustful, almost threatening. I noticed that to some extend, although my eyes were more concerned with wandering over his oddly colored coat at that moment. It was white with a lot of larger, brown spots. He reminded me of that colt in Apple Bloom's grade a bit...Pipsqueak that was. Eight years old, zodiac sign Leo. His favorite cake was strawberry with vanilla frosting...I think. How in Equestria I didn't notice this stallion earlier was beyond me, though.

I was getting myself distracted again, of course. And it took just about as much as the unicorn stallion's raspy voice to bring me back into reality.

"Ya don't call me that," he yelled in an accent similar to the captain's. "Didn't get yer warning last time around, did ya? But I wasn't joking, I warn't! Say that to me again, and I guarantee, I will make 'em become your last words!"

Focused on his each other, they both blew a good deal of air out of their nostrils. Odd. I never do that, unless I catch a cold or something. And these two seemed perfectly healthy. Not happy, but healthy. The earth pony didn't hesitate to throw back his response.

"Well then, hit me with all you got, old man."

It was then that I recognized the unicorn's face change colors to a much more powerful shade of red. Although intuition told me that this was less of an embarrassed blush, and more of a fit of furious rage. Which couldn't be so good. Either of them wouldn't be very good, but this option felt even less than not good. What's that again? Oh, right. Worse. He swung the bottleneck in an angry half-circle. Or at least, it looked like a pretty angry shape. Can shapes even be angry? I don't know.

"Two years!"

"Huh?"

"I'm packing only two years more than you lot do. So I'm asking ye for the last time, stop calling me that!"

"Well, what's your preference, then? Geezer? Old bugger, maybe?"

There wasn't much time for him to say these words, before the angry-shaping bottle came sailing his way at a pace that truly did give away some reasons to be concerned. Fortunately for him, said bottle didn't make it across more than half the distance, before a lively pink object tossed it out of its path and safely overboard. That pink object being my muzzle, by the way. Ouch.

But ouchies or not, I couldn't just let everything unfold the way it probably would have. There was obviously a friendship problem on the loose with these ponies. And now, seemingly out of nowhere, an element of harmony came to the rescue. They couldn't have hoped for a better coincidence to resolve their issues. Although they didn't look as cheerful as they should have when I stopped to land in their midst. On the contrary, they only deadpanned at my appearance, never even losing a single bit of their hostility all along.

On first impression, I suddenly didn't feel all that assured about what just happened. My eyes darted around nervously, waiting for any kind of uplifting response from their part. The moment of rejoice brought to you by laughter personified obviously didn't work out the way I'd planned for it to do.

Or did it?

The elderly, well, somewhat elderly unicorn let out another snicker as he realized what I just did. A good two or three second after several pairs of disbelieving eyes and ears witnessed the descent of half a glass bottle, that ultimately splashed onto the water's surface, never to be seen again. Then, all eyes turned on me. And the unicorn giggled, like I said.

"Well, well...well," he stated, repeating himself more than necessary. Like I didn't get the hint on first try. Tch. "Looks like there's somepony new in the ring. And she just volunteered to take the bait for either of us. Ain't that too sweet." Saying so, he leaned in more closely, his eyes briefly darting back up to his earth pony opponent. "And what a sweet slice of cutie pie she is! Whaddaya think, then? Rest our little conflict for a while to see what we get out of this?"

I had no idea what he was talking about, but it sounded like a compliment, so I just rolled with that. Also, judging from the eye contact, he obviously dropped that last mentioning to his opponent...colleague...something. At the moment, it was pretty hard to tell how they felt about each other. But the tone he'd used just now was a lot less hostile than from a good ten seconds ago, so that could only mean a good thing. I turned around to the earth pony stallion for answers, only to see him shying away from the scene a bit.

"I...I don't know, mate. What about the captain, then? I mean...you know how he can get when working himself up and all..."

"Sure do," the unicorn replied, licking his lips. "But could ye refuse such a delicate offer? Almost like it was meant to happen. Heaven-sent by Celestia herself, I say! Unless yer a chicken or something..."

"N-no, I didn't..."

"Then lets get on with this, I say!" The unicorn tossed his head around, looking for...well, something to come out of the crowd. But to his obvious disappointment, nopony around actually answered his request. And in that moment of tension, all I could think of was the question that lasted on my mind most heavily.

"What's your name, again? Sorry, I forgot."

What? I really couldn't remember. And it felt kind of rude, referring to him with that dull pronoun all the time.

He noticed my cluelessness, I suppose. No way to tell for sure though. I felt pretty clueless, in case I didn't mention that earlier. Narrowing his eyes even further, and with some pretty weird kind of grin, he slowly approached me, one step at a time. "Oh, you can call me whatever you want, sweetie," he chimed in a deepened voice. And those confidently placed steps of his only got interrupted when a pale hoof rushed forth and blocked one of them.

The emotion formerly on his face quickly got washed away by bewilderment. He shot a nervous glance to the right, only to stare into a pair of angered, purple eyes bearing into his own. They expressed that sort of stare a foal would always recognize from their mothers as being in trouble for something.

"That's close enough," Polly sternly hissed with a frown. She then raised her voice, looking around the assembled crew. "Get back to what you're paid for, all of you!"

"Now, now," the stallion replied in a voice that marked his stature being restored. "Not everyone here's a dry squeezed lemon like you are, Rzeczpospolita. The, well...more contemporary generations do enjoy a bit of fun every now and then, besides..."

The same hoof that earlier blocked his step now rushed up in a blur, interrupting him mid-sentence. It slapped clear across his face, causing the poor stallion to stagger a few steps back. His eyes were wide open, fixated on our cook, as he gently massaged his cheek with a hoof. Polly replied to his annoyed groan by an angry snort making the unicorn fall quiet almost immediately.

"I know we're all joking about each others' ages now and again, but enough is enough," she told him with a glare. "And just how many times of explaining will it take a scumbag like you to see that I do not want to be called that? As for Pinkie...well, I take it, you all remember what happened to Krasny Valet?"

Some repressed moaning, along with a generally disappointed statement of "Yes, Polly," wandered through the surrounding ranks, following her statement. Even as it did, Polly herself turned back and headed for the enclosed section below deck. Tilting her head, she motioned for me to follow. And I did. Obediently. More or less.

She had the door swing close behind us as soon as we both entered the narrow hallway that it lead to. Even here, neither Captain Saratoga nor his first mate were anywhere to be seen. I had gotten over the captain's casual absence after a while, but I almost never saw the deck with both of them missing. Or did I just overlook Strange Days somewhere? Gee, I just might have. He sort of had a talent for being sneaky at times. Even I needed a while to recognize him in a crowd, mostly.

"See? This is exactly what I meant by watching your back," Polly started to explain in a voice that sounded no less stern than the one from earlier. "These two could have easily ripped you in half by sheer strength...or worse." She shuddered. "You need, no, you have to promise me that you'll be more careful, you hear? Who knows what's going to happen if you don't!"

I shrugged her off. Maybe she was right about feeling a little concerned, but that overdid it. "Eh, I guess. It's not like I was in any danger at some point. I think I had it all under control, at least."

"Well, you...you..." she trailed off, confusion entering her features. "...you thought wrong, okay? That wasn't all fun and friendship out there, and you should well be able to see that, I'd say."

"O...kie-dokie," I replied with an attempted smile. "So, what happened to that other guy you mentioned? Didn't quite catch his name."

Polly blinked, staring at me like there was something plain wrong with my answer. Shaking her head, she added, "Okay, you know what? I'll tell you. Maybe that way I'll actually get you to think about what you're doing to yourself, here.

"His name was Krasny Valet. I'm not sure where exactly he came from; just another poor working class son from Druzyovsk, I guess. Considerably older than me at the time, to be fair. A bit disrespectful, and exceptionally horrible at thinking ahead. That being said, he once brought me into a similar situation like you just found yourself in. Unlike you, I didn't have anyone to step in and rescue my hindquarters, so I needed to defend myself. Until the captain found out about what happened, that is. And we both know Saratoga can take his time with noticing anything going on around him, so I'm telling you to be careful. I won't always get there in time, up and able to help you out."

"Okay," I replied with a nod, as we pushed through the door to the kitchen. "But what happened to him?"

"What, you mean after Saratoga found out?" She sighed. "Well...Pinkie, I'm sure you know what the word keelhauled means?"

And in contrast to my most recent reaction to her words, I shook my head in response, this time around. "No, I do not. But..." I cheered up at the prospect. "I'm sure you can tell me. Can you tell me? Of course you can! You wouldn't have mentioned it otherwise. So, tell me, then. Is it exciting? Something fun, even?"

"It's..." She held up a hoof, hesitating. "Actually, never mind. It's not that important."

"Awww! But I wanna know!"

"I said it's not important, alright? Now if you'll excuse me, I have a thing or two to discuss with our captain regarding your personal safety, whether you like it or not. I'm sorry, but I can't afford to lose you, Pinkie. I don't think any of us could afford that, right now. And I need to make sure stupidity won't get the better of our crew."

She stepped towards the door, a somewhat stressed out look still dominating her face. Lastly, she sighed, hanging her head. "One last thing, Pinkie?"

My eyes lit up in excitement. "So you are going to tell me, huh? Are you, are you?"

"What? No..." She facehoofed. "Would you hear me out for one single minute? I just...I just wanted to apologize. I...can be a bit rough at times, but that's not because of you. It's just...everything this ship already put me through. So, sorry about that. That's all I wanted to say." She gulped. "That...didn't sound very convincing now, did it? Anyway...I'll have a few things to discuss. Why don't you wait in your room, for now?"

And without waiting for my response, she left and stepped back out into the hallway. Leaving me behind with a ton of unanswered questions on my mind, still not exactly sure about just what was going on here. For a moment, I just sat there, leaning onto the counter, trying to make sense off Polly's words and what had happened earlier. As that moment passed however, I got up onto my hooves and exited the room just as she had done. And believe it or not, I could still see her approaching the end of the corridor, where she disappeared behind the door to the captain's office.

She didn't seem to notice me while entering. And even if she had, that probably wouldn't have meant trouble. After all, I might still go to my room from here. I could also follow without her wanting me to, but I did not have to!

Now, did I follow her? Of course. She didn't want to be followed, after all. And that by itself sounded very, very suspicious. I pressed one ear against the door as soon as I got there. Doing so, I immediately recognized Polly's voice speaking just the way she'd addressed me earlier.

"...why? Why, you ask? Well, somepony will have to do something about this, won't they? And if these ponies out there won't listen to what you have to say, I wouldn't know what else to tell them."

What followed was little more than some muffled mumbling originating from some male voice, a good deal deeper than hers. It sounded tired, almost frustrated, like someone who had just been woken up a bit too roughly. I couldn't understand a single word that answer contained, only that the speaker must have been extremely unmotivated to do so. Apparently, the captain was only being his good old self again.

"I'm saying you have to do this. For her sake just as mine. And just as well as yours and that of everypony else on this ship! That filly doesn't even belong in such an environment. We shouldn't...sorry?"

Just what did she mean by that? Another pause cut her short, interrupted by the same mumbling as before. And no matter how hard I tried, I still couldn't make out a word that presumable answer contained. Only when Polly continued her part did I manage to follow suit once again.

"I know, I know! But throwing accusations at one another won't get us anywhere, will it? Of course I'm responsible for all this, and I admit that. But I can't fix this mess on my own. I need your support for that."

Just then, I jerked my head away from the door. I wondered whom Polly could be talking about when referring to that filly during the first few seconds or so. Only then did the realization dawn on me. Of course, I immediately asked myself what I did to make her say such awful things about me. I was a big girl, right? I could look out for myself. In the end, was Polly secretly only seeing me the way mom and dad would always do?

I turned away with a frown, and began to trot back down along the corridor. That just wasn't fair. More than a week into sailing with the exact same ponies, and I still hadn't made a single friend. As a matter of fact, the only pony whom I considered to be my friend thought of me as nothing more but some useless crybaby. Didn't she, really? I let my head hang low in disappointment. Was it possible an adventure like this could actually not be fun? I could only tell I was looking forward to seeing Ponyville again more than ever.

For a moment, I paused when stepping into my own small chamber. Sure, Polly had told me to wait here for time being. But if I followed that order, I'd then do...what? There really wasn't anything exciting to be found in here. Not that anything around the ship seemed any fun at all to me, just then. But even by those standards, this little room was incredibly dull. There wasn't anything at all really, safe for my bunk and that pile of stuff in the corner.

A pile of stuff, among which I spotted a thick, linen bag.

Now, here was something I hadn't noticed before, but it definitely made my situation more interesting. I moved in closer, examining the strange object. As I did, I recognized that this was in fact a bag of flour. Looking at it for a tad longer, one eyebrow slightly arched, I considered my options regarding that. And there sure was one reasonable option that came to mind. After all, if I hadn't made any friends around here this far, could I possibly still rely on...?

I carefully raised my foreleg, one hoof tapping against the bags surface several times. All the way through however, it remained silent as an eggplant. Y'know, because...eggplants are pretty silent, right?

There was no reply at any time, and eventually I decided to quit fumbling around. Snapping out of my state, I shook my head in confusion. "Come on, Pinkie," I mumbled to myself. "That's not gonna work."

Almost hastily, I turned away from the strange apparition that was none, and decided to head back out. After all, what else was there to do for me in this place? I couldn't tell what time it was exactly (old habits die hard and all), but we would probably start preparing dinner soon. And no matter what Polly might think about me, I wasn't going to let her down. If any, I needed to prove myself worthy to her more than ever.

And the element of laughter should be able to do at least that, right? Next Chapter: Chapter 16 - Strange Days Estimated time remaining: 24 Minutes