Mission 1: The Taking of the Phoenix 456
A/N: This is my second try ever at writing, as I lack: an editor, a prof reader and some experience in writing in English, any feedback provided would be very appreciated in order to improve this fic, or any other experiment of mine coming along
Baltimare Bay, 1:00 am
Baltimare bay, the stars shone beautifully under the night sky as a lonely ship traveled out off the bay, the HMS Phoenix was on his last day in service and was off to be scrapped tomorrow down the coast.
However as the old ship sailed his way out, a group of dark figures in the sky had other plans as they glided softly down to the ship. The four mysterious trespassers dropped quietly on the deck on the stern of the ship, and very quickly made their way into the back turret of the pre dreadnought avoiding in the dark one of the few crewmembers of the damned ship.
“I can’t believe she is actually making us do this with a crossover of that cool movie of hers!”
A unicorn whispered softly as he saw the sailor turn around in one corner of the deck.
“We don’t have much of a choice mister Brown, her orders were rather specific and don’t feel like disobeying a simple request.” Answered a rather large Pegasus as he made sure his old fashioned hat stayed in position after stealthy landing.
As soon as the sailor disappeared in the corner the 4 ponies ran up to the second deck covered by the night and the sound of the old engine of the ship as they advanced to the bridge, avoiding another pair of crew ponies until they were almost at the bridge of the vessel.
After inspecting the bridge from a dark corner, a smaller pegasus mare mused to the rest of the ponies in trench coats. “Well, she was right about the ship being almost completely empty, I shouldn’t be hard for an elite squad to take over it.”
“So if an elite infiltrator unit could do it so easily why did she picked us?” The unicorn asked pushing his thick framed glasses back on its place under the serious stares of his squad mates before another Pegasus mare replied in a whispered hiss.
“... We ARE an elite infiltration unit mister BROWN!”
Mister Brown looked back at her with a growing smile. “We are?, Horseapples, I am way more awesome than I gave myself credit for!”
The rest of the group face hoofed so hard that attracted the attention of a crew member nearby. Who turned around to inspect the strange noise.
“Oh buck me, they spotted us!”
“Shut the hay up Brown, I got this....”
As the unprepared pony got closer to them he was suddenly greeted by a green flash of magic knocking him out of the ship into the water, his splash muffled by the engine.
“Wow, great shot Green!, You have to teach me that,” cheered silently one of the intruders
“Oh by the Hive, shut the bucking hell up Brown,” Hissed back the small pegasus, her green glow fading undetected by the rest of the ship.
“Now, everypony knows what to do right?” Mister Blue asked stepping between the two, having almost blew the mission on the first step was now getting into his nerves staring at the two, before receiving a nod of confirmation from both of them. “Good, now thanks to mister Brown here, we are already at step two, so we better hurry up, mister green if you mind...”
Mister Green nodded again before a green flame surrounded her leaving in her place a Royal Navy Sailor in the same trench coat taking off the fake mustache.
“Good, now then split up and do what you were told, according to our movie loving friend, there are only 30 sailors aboard... well 29, so it shouldn’t take too long, we have... 10 minutes before the waypoint... and please... no background music please mister brown,” Mister blue gestured in brown’s direction as he readied some sneaking music into his player, suddenly hiding in his trench coat just as the team scattered rough the ship.
Mister blue made his way silently around the tight inner hallways of the ship, unsurprisingly most of the crew on top of everything was asleep so it was rather easy for him to slip into the ship’s radio controls.
The radio controller pony was not having a fine day apparently for the looks of his frizzled mane and his dirty coat it seemed that he hadn’t slept for a while, but well, he will sure have plenty of that coming on as Blue pulled out a small submachine gun from the trench coat and gripping it from the muzzle he swung it nailing in the back of the radio pony’s head knocking him cold with a loud “thud,”.
Then with the radio operator “offline” Blue quickly dragged him off of the equipment taking his place looking quickly through the dials and gizmos.
“Heck... this was a lot easier on Stalliongrad” me muttered to himself until he found the right frequency. “Garber, This is mister Blue over.... Come in Garber,”
After several tries another voice finally hailed back at him
“Mister Blue this is Garver, What's your status?”
“We are proceeding with stage two already, we had to dispose of a crew pony earlier than expected though.”
“Right time is set now to 10 minutes to deliver ransom, on my mark...... mark, make sure every pony to be loaded before leaving the bay”
“Copy that Garber, Will hail back in 5...”
“Blue’s speech was cut short as a shadow in the back of his eyes caught his attention making him turn around to face the radiopony about to smash his head with a pipe barely avoiding the offending object which slammed on the radio panel sending sparks everywhere the electric discharge resulting in the already beaten up pony to get shocked out of his senses falling on the floor and a new voice appearing on the other side of the hatch.
“Short Wave, is everything alright in there?!”
“Oh by Faust... you had to come back to your senses, didn’t you,” Hissed to himself the disguised pegasus as he dragged the unconscious pony into a corner.
most of the passageways of the ship were quite dark and empty, making rather easy for certain noisy unicorn to hop around undetected as he made his way into barracks of the vessel. Turning right on a corner he found his target as most of the remaining ship crew slept peacefully on the large room.
Smiling to himself he walked on the tip of his hooves into the center of room stealthy skidding to a halt before taking out from his trench coat with his orange tinted magic a small canister placing it on the floor, then with his teeth proceeded to pull out a small glass tube with some liquid inside, pulling out the lid he dropped its contents in the canister instantly causing some frizzling sound as it released some vapor into the air.
Clapping his hooves in excitement he happily started his retreat closing the hatch behind him leaving the sleeping bomb to take effect. “Well that takes care of it,” The overly happy unicorn gestured a salute to the door before mocking a military march turning around only to bump into one extra crew member, both of them instantly jumping off each other.
The guard was about to ask who the hay he was just before the unicorn realized he was found out
“JESÚS!” Interrupted the now panicky yell of the small magic pony as his magic aura took a fire extinguisher.
“Who the hay is J-” Was all he managed to say before the fire fighting device found its new home on the back of the head of the sail pony
*CLANK!! CLANK!!* “Hey, are you bucking taking a dump, open up!”
The sailor knocked again at the closed door of the radio station as the intruder discarded the unconscious radio operator on the corner before taking again his gun and stepping behind the door and unlocked it.
“Hey the captain reques-” The pony stopped dead on his hooves his eyes widening as he spotted the radio console smashed down and almost instinctively turned around falling in realization in time to catch the stock of the gun that was about to hit him in the head and ducked rolling on his back sending his attacker over him tossing him o the center of the room, and just as quick as his turn he readied the now captured gun in his hooves bout before he could aim he was tackled back against the door closing it again with a grunt of pain before kicking the cloaked figure of him but not without losing his grip on the weapon which the intruder now held up against him laying on the floor.
“Well...”- He panted -“Now be a good sailor... and rise your hooves where I can see them.”
The Sailor stood still against the closed door his frown showing is evident rage at the now easily lost battle and with a snort of annoyance and defeat raised his hooves slowly as his attacker stood back on his hooves never taking the gun of his target.
“Go over there,” He ordered with a small gesture from the weapon pointing at the sailor’s co-worker “You showed up just in time to help me carry him out of here.”
The beaten sailor just gestured a small nod in frustration and proceeded to pick up his unconscious mate from the cold floor of the room, but as he pulled the radio pony over to him the loud thud of the stock of the gun rendered him unconscious as well.
Sometime later Mr. Blue proceeded to drag both ponies out of the room and into the ships hallway groaning as he made haste to dispose of the bodies, then a something hard tackled him on the side sending both him and his attacker rolling on the floor ending with him on the bottom only to look up at a panicked unicorn in trench coat just about to smash his face with an fire extinguisher, dodging just in time for it to land next to his head, and the kick the pony off him.
“THE BUCK ARE YOU DOING!?” The bigger pegasus the punched the unicorn in the face sending him against a wall landing on his haunches looking up at him with a shocked expression on his face before growing more anguished as the seconds passed before looking at the floor.
“I... I'm sorry Blue,” Brown said looking ashamed and even scared to a certain point keeping his ears flat against his head, Blue could even have sworn that the small unicorn was even starting to sob, rolling his eyes in annoyance “I got scared.”
Blue took a deep sigh and patted Brown on his head “Did you at least made your part?”
The sobbing pony just nodded not looking up like a colt being nagged
“Well, I guess it's nothing then,” Blue too another deep sigh placing a hoof on Brown’s shoulder “Come on, help me get these guys to the rest.”
The young unicorn looked back up at Blue, rubbing his hoof on his nose clean before nodding again. “Alright”
8 Minutes later
The cloaked figures stood now on the back of the ship making a final count of ponies knocked out stashed on the ships emergency boats.
“I’ll assume that everything went smoothly on your side Grey.” Said Blue as he inspected the last boat counting the hostages until he reached 29 before stepping back down
“Well, they were not that much on the bridge and the cappy was an old man so yes, it was easy.” Gray responded with a wide grin which Blue nodded back before making a nod to Green who pulled a lever and proceeded to lower the boats into the water.
Brown, now more back in to his apparently usual self stared down at the boats descending into the water below before being released and started to float away from the ship “Will they be ok Mister Blue?”
Blue snorted smiling as the boats drifted away into the dark night “Sure thing kiddo, Garber will pick them up anyways,”
As the small boats disappeared into the darkness of the night, blue pulled out a large plastic bag “Alright, this is the last thing on that weird order of hers,” Blue then proceeded to unfold it and presenting it to the rest of the team, “hats,”
Exchanging looks between them, mister Green proceeded first to dispose of the accessory, revealing under it a cream colored mare with and electric green stare which smiled gently at blue meanwhile he held the bag, her blue mane had a nice fragrance, or at least blue thought so
Then came up mister Gray dropping his hat as well letting the squad meet another pegasus mare, with a green coat and a deep red mane and equally red eyes which grinned at him, Blue just grinned back at her before motioning Brown to come over.
Lastly Brown dropped his as well, as Blue expected, it was a young unicorn, a very young one at that, Blue could have sworn it was just out of school, the orange colored pony smiled nervously at him as if he expected to be scolded about something, but was quickly dismissed as now Blue himself proceeded to discard his own hat, under it was an icy-blue coated stallion, with a darker blue for mane and a sky blue eyes, that despite the usual strict tone of his voice so far, had some kind of kindness in them as he looked at the now uncovered ponies in front of them, “Alright, next trench coats if you all please, Tjetta?”
The green coated mare nodded discarding the trench coat along with its hidden gun in the bag before sitting next to Blue, stretching her wings and yawing heavily
“So, you know each other?” The blue manned mare asked at the now identified pony with a raised eyebrow, as far as she knew, this was the first time any of them would be meeting each other.
Tjetta nodded back at her as she disposed of her own attire “Actually yes, we are from the same place, but I think it's a mere coincidence she choose us both for this,”
“Ah I see,” She said stepping back now, the absence of the cloak revealing her small size, almost as small as the young unicorn “My name is-” She stammered for a few seconds looking back and forth a bit before speaking again “-... Zerkalo”
“Zerkalo?,” Blue lowered his head slightly, looking closer at her for a second meeting her nervous green eyes with a dark smile “It’s not a very pony-like name”
“It isn't...” Zerkalo almost whispered at him before Blue motioned Brown again, the small Unicorn then discarded his clothes as well.
“I’m Nube, Nube Castellano,” The small unicorn grinned widely at Blue and the others before checking on Zerkalo, a bit too close for the linking of the mare, as if she could explode at any moment into bacon “Hey, I’m really surprised we have a Changeling in our group!, I mean, How cool is that!?”
Blue just snorted slightly as he started to discard his own cloak with certainly some difficulty due to his abnormally large wings “Nube, be a gentlecolt and give Zerkalo some space,” Nube nodded and quickly turned his attention at the pegasus closing the bag, the larger than average winged pony had some small but quite numerous scars, mainly on his legs and his feathers were long enough to hide most of his cutie mark “My name is Vete, along with Tjetta here, we come from the north east,” Vete said extending a hoof to Zerkalo which took it on her own and shacked it gently.
“Oh, well actually I-” Zerkalo started
“Badlands, Captain Zerkalo of her majesty’s special corps” - Zerkalo eyes widened slightly at Vete’s statement- “Don’t worry, I am aware of your particular situation, so welcome aboard”
Zerkalo nodded with a soft smile drawn on her face just in time before Nube appeared out of nowhere on Vete’s back “Well yes that's nice and everything, but when do we meet the fifth one?”
“Fifth one?” Responded Tjetta as she pushed the unicorn off the stallion”
“Well yes!, The one who’s driving the ship of course!, cause I think” -In his reasoning Nube failed to realize the color quickly fading from his new friend’s faces as they just realized there hadn’t been anyone guiding the ship for half an hour now, and just as fast as a certain pink earth pony can make a cake disappear, they scrambled tipping on one another in a frantic race to the bridge leaving him to his words- “ that..., Hey!, It’s rude to leave somepony talking alone did you know that!” The little unicorn protested as he followed the messy race trotting casually behind.
“I guess they all want to meet him, he must be a cool guy!”
6:30 am, Canterlot Castle
It was a cloudy day, just as the weather team had scheduled, inside the majestic Canterlot Castle, an alicorn prepared herself to start yet another day of work for the welfare of her kingdom, Having risen the sun not too long ago she then proceeded to take a royal breakfast along her sister who would be going to sleep soon.
As she entered the massive dining hall of the castle, was greeted with a rather routinely sight, well, routinely for at least sixteen years, and yet, it never stooped filling her with joy to see her sister on the table discussing with some of her servants about some kind of new device invented as she ate her dinner, one could only guess how much the dark alicorn spend on this new technologies, ever since she came back she had gotten quickly obsessed with it, however as soon as she took notice of her sister approaching, she dismissed her servant and smiled as Celestia sat in front of her.
"Good morning Tia,"
"Good morning dear sister," Celestia responded in a soft calm voice "How was your night?" She said as he proceeded to drink some orange juice as her servants delivered her a nice stack of pancakes, ever since her sister came back, the kitchens had suffered a lot of changes, especially in the nature of the food, however her random reasoning about the evolution of the royal food came to end as her younger sister stared back at her now with a more serious expression on her face, quite making the point that her night hadn't been entirely fine.
"A royal navy ship was stolen last night"
Years of experience as the ruler of Equestria had trained her well at keeping her calm composure as she proceeded to eat the first of her stack of waffles.
"The Phoenix?" She asked taking another piece of her breakfast chewing on it at her own pace.
"Y-yes, How did you knew?" Luna raised an eyebrow at her sister's fast and nevertheless precise deduction.
"It was the easiest one, a practically dead ship, with almost no crew, sailing alone at night and on its way to the scrap yard so no one would miss it. What about the crew?"
Luna's frown softened in one of worry lowering her gaze at her own cereal "So far only one pony have been found floating in the bay, he's alive but was badly hurt, there are no signs of the rest of the crew,"
"This is troubling sister, whoever did this... knew about the ship route, and the number of ponies onboard, as well as their destination,"
"...We have a spy somewhere"
Celestia only nodded taking another sip from her orange juice, the rest of the breakfast was spent in more trivial matters, neither of them showing signs of the potentially big problem on their own ranks, but that's how Celestia liked it, she wouldn't allow anything to steal her time with her sister Luna now that she was back.
As soon as the meal ended however, a entirely different aptitude emerged from the calm princess as she walked her way to the throne room, quickly joined by her assistant.
"Quill Weave, I need you to take a letter," the mare almost by reflex took her quill and a scroll and begat to write as the sun princess spoke.
To the Royal Navy 1st fleet commander Sea Weed
As you may know by now, last night the HMS Phoenix was hijacked when leaving Baltimare on its way to the scrap yard by unknown individuals and disappeared off sight, however the ship was not even loaded with enough fuel to make it out of equestrian waters, which mean wherever its destination was, is inside our coast.
Your orders are to take the Canterlot and the rest of the 1st fleet and search the coast for the Phoenix, when you find it, do NOT fire at it, there is a high chance of said individuals to have the crew of the ship as hostages. You will report back immediately to me and do not lose them out of sight.
Whoever stole that ship from us will have to face the consequences of stealing the Royal Navy
-Princess Celestia-
