The Ponies Who Sail Below (Poem)

Now each of us from time to time has gazed upon the sea,

And watched the mighty warships pulling out to keep this country free.

And most of us have read a book, or heard a lusty tale,

About ponies who sail these ships through lightening, wind and hail.

But there's a place within each ship that legend fails to reach.

It's down below the waterline and takes a living toll,

A hot metal living hell that sailors call the "Hole."

It houses engines run by steam, that make the shafts go 'round,

A place of fire and noise and heat that beats your spirits down.

Where boilers like a hellish heart, with blood of angry steam,

Are of molded gods without remorse, are nightmares in a dream.

Whose threat that from the fire's roar is like a living doubt,

That any minute could with scorn escape and crush you out.

Where turbines scream like tortured souls, alone and lost in hell,

As ordered from above somewhere, they answer every bell.

The ponies who keep the fires lit and make the engine run,

Are strangers to the world out there and rarely see the sun.

They have no time for Princesses, no tolerance for fear,

Their aspect pays no living thing the tribute of a tear.

For there's not much that ponies can do, that these ones haven't done,

Beneath the decks, deep in the Hole, to make the engines run.

And every hour of every day, they keep their watch in Hell,

For if the fires ever fail, their ship's a useless shell.

When ships converge to have a war upon an angry sea,

The ponies below just grimly smile at what their fate might be.

They're locked in below like ponies doomed, who hear no battle cry.

It's well assumed that if they're hit, ponies below will die.

For every day's a war down there when the gauges all read red,

Twelve hundred pounds of heated steam can kill you mighty dead.

So if you ever write their songs, or try to tell their tale,

the very words should make you hear a fired furnace's wail.

These ponies of steel the public never gets to know,

So little's heard about the place that sailors call the "Hole."

But I can sing about this place and try to make you see,

The hardened life of ponies down there, cause one of them is me.

I've seen these sweat soaked heroes fight in superheated ai,.

To keep their ship alive and right, though no one knows they're there.

And thus they'll fight for ages on, til steamships sail no more,

Amid the boiler's mighty heat and turbines hellish roar.

So when you see a ship pull out to meet a warlike foe.

Remember faintly, if you can, the ponies who sail below.

~Author unknown

Princess Twilight Sparkle closed the book, entitled A Glimpse of Hell, A Captain's View of the Second Griffon War, by Silent Deep, and wiped a tear from her eye. She was in the castle library with her mentor, Princess Celestia, on a rare day that they had no other business.

"What is wrong, my faithful student?" Celestia asked, looking up from her newspaper.

"Nothing," She answered, levitating the book in her magic, intent on putting in back on the shelf. However, the book was seized my her mentor's magic.

"My, Twilight. I didn't know that you were interested in the Second Griffon War," Celestia stated upon reading the title. She turned to the marked page. "I haven't heard this poem in years. I do wish that he had listened to me and put his name on it."

"He? You mean you know the author of this poem?" Twilight asked, puzzled.

"Yes, I do. His name was Yarrow. He was a friend of mine. I was devastated when I found out he was killed in the explosion on HCMS Storm Seas. This was one of the last books he wrote."

"So Silent Deep is a pen name? What happened on the Storm Seas? I've never heard that name before.

"I'm not surprised that you haven't heard of it," Celestia replied. "The Navy was deeply embarresed about the whole ordeal, and tried to bury it deep. Storm Seas was repaired and rechristened as HCMS Canterlot. I believe that she is now a museum somewhere."

"So, what happened?" Twilight asked, curiosity piqued.

"It is a long story. Perhaps some other time."

"Fine. But don't you think that I'm not going to try to find out myself," Twilight told her.

Celestia laughed. "I wouldn't expect anything less of you, my faithful student."

With that, both Princesses left the library, leaving the book on a table.