The Valiant

Prologue

"There is no Equestria, and furthermore, Admiral, there is hardly even a Gaia. I would prefer to call this place Oceania, but...for whatever reason my sister believes it should be called Gaia. She has her views, and I have mine, and that is the way the cookie crumbles." -Chancellor Luna, New Lunar Republic

   As Luna stated, many, many years prior, the Gaia of old doesn't exist. With the sinking of most of the earth into the sea's murky depths, most of the life has followed suit, making lives for themselves on the sea. I was born on the sea, and will die on the sea as well, or so the old saying goes.

   Sentient life, be it pony, dog, griffon, or other, now reside in massive ships of iron, some up to three kilometers long, called homeships, and armed to the teeth. When they first started out, they were mostly wooden ships, possibly with bronze or copper bottoms. Now, however, they're pure steel, which is gathered from submerged mines, accessible only by submarine.

    Oh, I'm getting off track in my age. Heh, age. Being an alicorn certainly...I'm doing it again, aren't I? Back on track... Homeships are the "capitals" of a faction, or country, and is the flagship of the faction's commander. For example, Princess Celestia, commander in chief of the Solar Empire, leads from her Homeship, the SES radiant. It is, as I remember, two point three kilometers long, and it's guns include two massive forty-three inch forward cannons. Not only that, but it's armor is over four thousand millimeters thick along the deck. The deck. Not to mention the armadas of ships, massive, several thousand ship strong armadas, that accompanied the ships. To go up against a Homeship requires equal parts cunning, insanity, and vision, not to mention the firepower of an equally strong armada to back you.

   Even today, border wars are frequent and pirates are plentiful, but I digress. We haven't had a full scale war since... Not since I came into possession of the SS Valiant. And let me tell you, that was quite the story. So if you'll buy the drinks, then maybe I'll tell you. Oh, barkeep?