Twisted Nightmares: Voyage of the unknown

Equestria

Destination: city named as Manehattan

2035

15:45hrs Still going by the clocks aboard the Selena

Docked at Harbour. Unexpected storm consisting of hail stones and heavy rain

Marcus stormed through his dorm door after the incident that just occurred. So many thoughts were attacking Marcus's mind and he couldn't think straight. He slammed his door shut, but instead it ricochet back a bit which left it slightly ajar. He then stood in front of is cabinet. A letter addressed to him was left on it. The letter was by his wife. Marcus's heart seemed to have skipped a beat. He opened the letter and began to read. The ink was red. Marcus knew what it meant. Red is when someone passed away.

"Dear Marcus

If you are reading this now, then you are aware that I've passed away. However I had a few things I wanted to get off my chest before I did. First of all I was diagnosed with a rare disease that is yet to be named. The Doctors over in Germany said there was nothing they could do to cure it, and I had only twenty-four hours before the pathogen would attack my brain. Secondly I'm proud to be married to you. I've never been more proud of myself. I have a loving husband and a son. Last of all, I'll like to inform you that a mare came into my dreams. She was dark blue with a flowing mane filled with stars, but unlike a normal mare, she had a horn and wings with a picture of the moon on her flank. She informed me where you are. I'm happy that your helping them, just promise me this. Win their war. Help them restore their world back to its peaceful self. And one last thing. Our son has been offered a place to stay by Aleksey mom. So tell him I said thanks. So I'll see you on the other side sweetheart. Live your life and never regret anything. And please talk to this mare." Marcus said reading the letter out loud. A tear escaped his eye.

* * *

Rain hammered down on the UN Selena's deck, drenching everyone in seconds. The blood from the body began to be washed away as the excess water began to flow off of the ship. By that moment Aleksey had seen the last of the crew in, followed by the Princesses, element bearers and the Captain of Celestia's guards. Before he shut the door and locked everyone inside the ship. He turned round to see a load of concerned faces from the guests. However two gunshots caught all their attention. Aleksey knew were it came from.

"Marcus!" He shouted before running as fast as he could while he tightened the AK's sling so he could run with it. Once it was down, he belted down the hallways with Shining Armour, Twilight and Luna in pursuit. He found turned hard left and nearly tripped in the process, he regained his posture in razor sharp time and continued running.

"For bipedal, creatures they move remarkably fast when they want to." Twilight stated while she and the other two galloped after Aleksey. Who now just stopped in front of a bulkhead door. He moved the two levers so the bolt was half way past the door. A click signalled that one lock was removed, he repeated the process on the lower lever. It too clicked and he pushed the door open before, belting it down the hallway. Music could be heard playing. Judging by the flute and bagpipes, it was an instrumental. Aleksey recognised it as the theme to the Titanic. Hymn to the sea. Twilight watched him turn hard right. The music was beginning to get louder. Eventually Aleksey halted them outside Marcus's door. They noticed the music was coming from here and the door was slightly ajar, with darkness owning the room. With a deep breath Aleksey un clipped the sling so it allowed the weapon to move while still being attached to him. He pushed the door open slowly with help off Shining.

The lights to Marcus's room were off, so when Aleksey turned them on, they flickered on before eventually switching themselves on and off. Twilight gulped as she walked past Aleksey unaware. When the lights flickered on, she jumped back into Aleksey but before she could scream at the blood puddle, he had already silenced her with a hand over her mouth.

"Sshh. Don't scream. That's the worst thing you can do in a situation like this." Aleksey whispered causing Twilight to gasp quietly.

"How many times has Marcus been like this?" She asked while maintaining the whisper.

"Twice now. We just need to talk to him." Aleksey said letting go of Twilight and then slowly walking forward to the blood puddle, but a dark silhouetted human figure caught his attention instead. Aleksey noticed that the figure was wearing a hooded cape. "Comrade, talk us. We can help you." The figure slowly turned to face Aleksey and the others. The hood was removed from over the figures face and revealed Marcus in a near self mutilated state. His face had a cut running from his above his right eye, down to his right cheek. The object to blame was the survival knife that was idle hanging in Marcus's left hand. Even his hand was stained with blood which then dripped onto the floor. His eyes were red from something. Luna knew what caused. So she stepped forward slowly while keeping an eye on Marcus.

"Marcus can you hear me? Please stop this." She said stepping one step closer. "Remove the cape, please." Marcus was hesitant at first but he dropped the blade then slowly removed the cape.

"Twilight, darling where are you?" Called a voice from outside of the door. Aleksey turned round and opened the door slowly. Rarity was outside of the door. "May I come in darling?" Aleksey debated with himself but he still opened the door, only to immediately put his hand over mouth to prevent her screaming. He whispered for her to be quiet and to not make any loud noises while Marcus is in this state. She nodded then Aleksey released her. She looked at Marcus's bed a gasped weakly. His bed was suppose to have four poles with flags at the top of them. However one flag pole was broken three quarters of the way with the rest of the pole on the bed.

"Oh my." Twilight said when the cape hit the floor and revealed the rest of Marcus's body. The left side of his shirt was ripped with four gash marks which blood slowly ran down the now reddening shirt. Whereas the right side was unaffected. But his right arm, like the rest of his body had two long gashes going from the bicep to elbow. He just stood there like nothing was out of the ordinary. But when Luna took on more step forward, he stepped backwards. Luna noticed this and made a mental note where the door to the shower room was, then she took another pace. Just as expected Marcus took another step back. She kept repeating the process in till Marcus was in the shower.

"First of all, you are having a shower. Then I'm going to treat your wounds like you did my wing, then we are going to have a nice chat." She said as she finally stepped in the shower room with Marcus directly under the shower. If only her magic would work aboard the ship, but for some reason it doesn't. She cast that aside and took one last step forwards, this cause Marcus to step back and turn the shower, drenching both of them. At fist like all showers, the water came out cold then gradually got warmer. With her plan finally in motion she managed to get close enough to Marcus so she could take off the damaged shirt. She found a yellow sponge on a little shelf just above her. She reared up to get it before dampening it. She got to work of clearing Marcus's cuts.

* * *

"What's taking them so long? Don't you have a schedule to keep up with?" Twilight asked getting impatient.

"I've already told you. There was meant to be a party from half seven to eleven o'clock, but since it rained after... Well you what happened. Everyone has been stood down." Aleksey said while he did a NSP of his weapon without his mag in the weapon. "So Shining. This your first time aboard a military vessel?"

"First and only time aboard a military vessel. Equestria doesn't have these type of ships. To be honest, the alien ships as what you call them. Aren't even ours. We captured a few of them from the Griffin's. It originally shot small stones at high speeds. That alone was enough to kill. But we modified the cannon to fire heat using a magical charm." Shining said watching Aleksey strip the weapon. "Then we started loosing ponies faster then gaining this machines, so with are remaining 'spacecraft' we attacked you humans in hope, you'll follow us into the gateway and lead us to victory."

"So this was all a hoax so, one of our warships could enter the gateway, to help you win a war against the Griffin nation?" Aleksey said just as gently pulled the gas plug from his AK. "Bold but impressive, yet what makes you thing one of our cruisers is enough? Answer me this then. Why attack the innocent?"

"Actually believe it or not. The orders were to fire but miss military ships. But as I am now aware, someone changed the order, and whoever it was. They had higher clearance then mine." Shining said. "As for the one ship thing. We are aware of how much devastation one human warship can do."

"A traitor amongst your ranks is bad for the guard you know that? But you've got two human warships, which both have a secret weapon that is authorised to used with extreme force. The other ship, goes by HMS Frostbite. That ship carries experimental Liquid Nitrogen shells. Whereas this ship carries Hydrogen shells. To sum it all up. The HMS Frostbite will freeze you solid, and this ship will wipe clear an entire city in seconds." Aleksey said. A faint knock on the bedroom door got his attention, he groaned as he got up and made his way to the door. Once he opened it. Celestia and the other four elements of harmony were standing there. "Welcome to the bedroom, where dreams become a reality." He said sarcastically. Celestia led the rest into Marcus's room.

"Where has my sister gone?" She asked. She was halfway to the shower room door. Before she noticed the blood she began to panic.

"Fear not. That's Marcus blood, not Luna's blood. In fact Luna is cleaning Marcus in the shower. If you managed to catch up earlier, you would of seen what state he was in. It took your sister to get Marcus into the shower. Hopefully she has brought him back to normal." Aleksey said assuring Celestia. It seemed to be working. In-till Marcus sprinted out of the shower room with only a towel on.

"That went too far Luna! What would your sister think?" He shouted but when he turned his head to face his front, he slid to a halt while holding the towel so it didn't fall down. He stood in front of said mare. Never minding her he looked at his bed quickly ran and slid under his bed and waited for Luna to come out of the shower room.

"Marcus! I'm not finished with you yet! Get back here!" She shouted and then began to pace around the room unaware that she was being watched by the others. She found the water prints from Marcus's wet feet and followed them to the bed. Marcus silently cursed, but he got lucky and found a ball. 'Since when did I have a ball under my bed?' He thought before he threw the ball as a distraction. It worked so far. Luna looked to were the source of the sound came from which then gave Marcus time to get from under the bed. "You can't hide from me forever!" Marcus quietly creeped back towards the shower room but stopped in fear when Luna looked directly into his eyes. "Found you!" Marcus dashed into the shower and closed the door followed by locking it. He turned around to come nose to nose to Luna.

"How'd you get in? I closed the door!" He said in belief. Luna only lightly chuckled.

"Deception. I used a little spell that required little to no magic. A deception spell that allows the caster to project a copy of themselves while they are hidden. Did you really think you could get away from that easy?" She said and raised her right hoof which had the sponge. "Now come, drop the towel."

"No way! Your fucking crazy if you think I'm dropping this towel with you here. I knew you were up to something when you tried to take my trousers off. No offence your nice a girl, but I'd rather shower myself." Marcus said refusing the order of the princess.

"I'm only trying to pay you back for the massage you gave me earlier. Now I command you to drop the towel." Luna demanded. Marcus still refused. "Really? Your being immature about this. Just drop the towel."

"No and that's final. Besides I haven't got fur unlike you." Marcus said standing his ground. But to his relief Celestia opened the door. "Call of your sister, is turned into a fucking blood hound. She demands I drop the towel." Celestia just stopped and stared at both of them. Marcus seized his new chance and slid underneath Celestia and back into his bedroom. "Ha! No way your getting me back in that shower. Fuck that!"

"Language darling." Said a voice from behind him, he risked a glance. It was none other then Rarity. "May I make a suggestion? Just let the towel go."

"I wouldn't. You don't understand. Humans don't have fur to conceal our reproductive organs." Aleksey said trying his hardest to withhold his laughter. Marcus on the other hand was rummaging through his drawer and pulled out a normal pair of boxers. Not a second was wasted. He had them on in record speed.

"Ha! Can't get me back in the shower now. I'm getting dressed. Ha." Marcus said taunting Luna, but stopped when he notice she had the 'try me' look.

"Marcus... You shouldn't taught my sister." Celestia warned as she noticed that look in Luna's eyes. "Plus it's a bad Idea to get on the wrong side of her." Marcus just sighed.

"Shame, I've already finished getting dressed." He said as he finished buttoning up his clean shirt, which looked exactly identical to the other one. He switched his gaze to other six mares and Shining. "Can't a man have class. I was born into a wealthy family. But unlike the others I'm not a stuck up bastard, like the fellow you mentioned Rarity."

"Do you have a cane to go with that?" Rarity asked. Marcus opened a secret latch in the floor and pulled out a sinister looking cane. It's hilt was slightly less curved then normal, but it was the stick itself that caught her attention. It was the second royal tank regiment's motto. 'Fear nought'. But what really shock her was when Marcus unclipped something, he pulled the handle and it slid away from the stick and revealed a silver sword.

"So who is up for bit of fun, unless you want me to go mental again?" Marcus asked giving the sword a quick swish through the air. To his surprise Rainbow Dash had her hoof up. So being fair, he pulled up the sword that was in its secret place just the side of his canes secret latch. He handed the blade to Rainbow, before he put one arm behind his back and stood in the fencing position. "No injuring one another. The blade is to stop before it makes contact with the flesh, and aim for the blade." Aleksey soon gave the order when Rainbow Dash copied Marcus stance. Rainbow was the first to strike but ended with a deflect of Marcus. Who then did quick and aggressive moves against Rainbow's blade. Her balance was getting thrown over the place. In till she turned the tables. She used fast but weak moves to confuse Marcus.

"Now who's confidence is there downfall?" She said but regretted it was Marcus swiped her blade in half. He place his cane sword back into its sheath.

"Know the strength and weakness of your blade. In a fight that blade may save your life.." He said picking up the shattered blade. "It's best to know what metal your opponents blade is made of. But other then that. Well done." He offered his hand to shake. She respectfully shook it.

"May I ask what the time is?" Celestia asked while trying to look for the clock. Instead Marcus checked his watch.

"It's 8:30pm by my watch... Oh sugar I should of have the ship back out at sea. Aleksey notify the crew immediately! No offence I don't don't trust being here, I prefer being near the countryside. Besides the nights are the best time to sail through, in my opinion." Marcus said as he moved the broken pole of his bed. "Cadence and Armour go with him, Aleksey get the ship unhooked from the harbour and the rest of you follow me." They were out the door in seconds with it securely locked behind them. As planned Aleksey, Cadence and Shining Armour and broke off left whereas Marcus led the others to the bridge.

Once there, Marcus fired up the engines. The sound of them charging filled the bridge, to Marcus it was a reassuring sound, but it cut halfway through.

"Status report?" He asked. Twilight remembered what the other people were doing early before they docked at the harbour. She ran to the module she thought was the correct one. She looked at what was wrong with ship.

"Pressure valve. Something is wrong with the pressure valve." She said looking at all dials to see which one would help.

"Sparkle listen to me carefully. See the red hexagon shaped button? Push it in and twist it to the right. It'll activate the reactors repair function." Marcus said but got a confused look. "Yes, I'm fully aware that this is an ancient ship, but she has had modifications to her. An Reactor self-repair module to be exact and better cannon mechanics. Push it." Twilight did what she was asked.

'Reactor self-repair in progress. Analysing damage... Complete. Pressure valve fully restored.' Chimed the computer that Twilight was at. She gave Marcus the green light and he fired the engine once more. Only this time it fired up. Marcus noticed Aleksey give the thumbs up about unhooking the ship, and by the looks of it the rain was still pouring down. Marcus put the ship into reverse. The harbour began to slowly drift away. Eventually once they were far enough from the docks. Marcus turned the helm to the port position while he throttle the UN Selena to 5 Knots.

"You are fully aware it's still pissing down of rain right? Besides I know where you are going. Your heading to the village that was mentioned. I've taken the liberty of widening the cannel using help of the HMS Frostbite. It should be wide enough to sail through at a slow speed. Go get her moving the Frostbite will follow." Aleksey said before Marcus watched him and others run in. Not a second too soon they were in the bridge with the remaining bridge crew. Once settled, the ship returned back to its full efficiently and began to head towards the cannel.

* * *

Roughly an hour had past and they were only way half to the ever-free forest and by now the cannel was borrower with each mile they sailed, and the turns got tighter. Marcus had to bring the speed down to 3knots and anticipate the turns. But the rain still hammered down on anything unfortunate that didn't get to shelter.

"How far is it to the village?" Marcus asked. He wanted to mood going as it was dead inside the bridge. Everyone refused to talk during the storm.

"See that meander? It should lead you to a small island that splits the cannel into two before it rejoins. But be careful of the small stone bridge." Twilight said moving away from her friends and closer to Marcus. When she got close enough. "Marcus, may I speak to you privately please?"

"Fire away Miss Sparkle. I'm all yours." Marcus said. Twilight sighed with relief. She wanted to get this off her chest. It was bugging her the second Luna was acting a little strange.

"What do you think of Princess Luna?" She asked.

"In what way? Normally, I'd say she is generally a kind, playful but powerful mare, just like her older sister. I think she needs someone to help her be the way she is now. It must be hard for her to be normal especially because she is a Princess as well." Marcus said whilst he steered starboard with the meander.

"Yes that is true. Luna wishes to be friends with us normal ponies, but every treats her like she still is Nightmare Moon. This only upsets her further. She needs someone she can talk to, and your that person." Twilight said.

"Nightmare who? I thought Luna was herself for however long she has lived." Marcus said getting confused at Twilights mention of Nightmare Moon, but he divided not to get hung up on it for too long. Small flickers of red flame erupted on both sides of the canal followed by small explosions. "Battle stations now. Well use the night as cover. Rotate the forward guns anti-clockwise by 50°. We will fire a warning shot off towards the attacking side if they don't respond to the flare."

"Aye, aye captain Flare ready to fie sir."

"Forward cannons locked and loaded, sir."

"At our current speed, sir. We are practically ducks in open water, sir."

"We have the HMS Frostbite on our six, she is just as ready to unleash her Liquid nitrogen rounds on command. Be ready to drop the anchor." Marcus said while he concentrated on where the canel meandered. With the nightsky getting darker, the canel was becoming more dangerous, but casting that asisde, Marcus ordered the flare to be fired. Within seconds a hiss filled the dark night, before the flare activated and lit up the sky, Marcus blew the ships horn twice before turning the horn into voice amplifier. "This is the UN Selena declaring national security of the Equestrian nation. Stand down or we'll be forced to fire. I say again stand down. The leader of the Griffin nation is to report to my ship immediately. I warn you now, we have are authorised to use highly lethal force if you don't comply." With that state said, Marcus then switch it back into its horn before another flare went up.

"Please don't say you've loaded a Hydrogen shell into the cannon." Aleksey said. He spotted one of the Griffin 'spacecraft' arm it's cannon. "Sir it's going to..."

"Fire the H shell on that ship." Marcus ordered. While the cannon was being rotated to match the ships altitude. Marcus switched the horn back into the speaker. "If that is your wish, so be it. You have forced my hand. Now you'll see the devastating power of this ship." Once the speech was spoken, the second forward cannon fired its middle barrel. The H-shell ripped out the barrel and hit the 'spacecraft' with extreme explosive force, a small but powerful concussion waved swept in the air. Followed with multiple pieces of shrapnel fell out the sky. "That's a warning round, next time all guns will fire on ground forces, your army will be turned to ash, so stand down while you have a chance."

Celestia and Luna both kept switching the attention from the downed ship to Marcus, and realise he wasn't joking about extreme force. However both were impressed with the display of the test round, even though it was unbecoming of a Princess. They just tried to focus on Marcus's facial expression in the reflection on the Bridge windows.. 'Why is he so hard to predict. How does he keep a straight face?' Celestia thought to herself whereas Luna was trying to lower her moon, but to no avail. Somehow human technology indirectly affects magic if that wasn't already noticed. 'Why won't some of my spells work?' Luna thought to herself. Her moon was stuck where it was and she couldn't do anything to it. Depressed slightly, she looked at Marcus to see if he still had the emotionless war face he seems to have.

"Why does thou has no emotion?" Luna asked slightly slipping back into her old tone.

"Why should? After all from what I know of, equestria didn't do anything to the Griffons. I show no pity of them, if they want war, I'll give it to them full power. I suggest you use a SOS spell, it should be enough to bypass the 'no magic' aboard my ship." Marcus said, the he gave the order to both ships to drop anchor and get ready. Each of the old Baltimore cruiser's guns all loaded a Hydrogen-shell as the two remaining guns focused on protecting the port side of the ship. "This is why you attacked us? To help with this war? This will be over quickly."

"Actually this is just a scout force." Celestia said with a matter of fact tone. "I'm just as surprised as you. We wasn't exacted pony-ville to be first."

"War will surprise you, but I wonder why you can't use magic aboard my ship? The Griffins haven't stood down, is there anything else that is a threat in this war that you forgot to mention?" Marcus asked giving the Griffin leader a few more minutes to stand down before he would open fire on them once more.

"I have no idea. But there must be a explanation." Celestia said. "I've just realised your actually slightly bigger then me." She chuckled lightly before a question began to bug her. "I must know, why did you protect Twilight from the... incident.I refuse to relive what happened on the deck." Marcus turned around to face her. But he noticed a tear forming in her eyes, her ears were slowly pinning back even Luna was wondering what was going on. Marcus knew what bothered her.

"I may not like you for what you've indirectly done to me, but that doesn't mean I won't protect you, your sister or the six elements. They are aboard my ship and are apart of my crew, as you all are." Marcus said wiping her tears away with his handkerchief he pulled from his trouser pocket.

"Thou really are quite the gentleman." Luna said. Marcus thanked her as he continued to dap Celestia's tears.

"War changes people, your learning to fight back, now you need to let me help. Yes, you attacked cities and killed innocents in a two way war. But all that just to get our attention. Nice tactic, bad decision." He said finishing drying Celestia's eyes. Which were now puffed red. "They have had long enough. Fire! Watch this for fun." On Marcus's order the cannons fired the first round of the Hydrogen shells. What happened next was pure devastation. The shock waves caused by the concussion ways ripped through the rear ranks faster then butter on toast. Bodies were being flung all over the place, the once flying Griffin warships ripped themselves part as the concussion wave destroyed their reactor. "I was expecting a bit more of a reaction, clearly altitude is the key to detonate the hydrogen atoms properly. Aleksey fire another another flare." Aleksey passed the order down and seconds later a beautiful white light shone in the darkness. Griffins were scattered all over the place, their ranks were highly disorganised from the hydrogen bombardment. The UN Selena's and HMS Frostbite's AA guns opened fired at the griffins that attempted to fly away. The Selena's main cannons fired again, only this time firing high explosive shells.

Half and hour past, the order was given to cease fire. The cannons stopped just as fast as they fired. The opposite side of the cannel was left in utter wreck. Nothing natural was left as fires burned away at the once beautiful land and turned it to a deathly black. Celestia couldn't believe what devastation was just unleashed. Even the elements stood with their mouths agape.

"Pity. They didn't even put up a fight. However I'm thankful they didn't get into the village." Marcus said watching the burning land with disappointment. "Aleksey, damage report."

"Minor hull damage on the port side. Just shock damage from the H-shells. She'll be alright as long as if we aren't as close next time." Aleksey said. "It's nearing midnight. Perhaps we should head to bed, and you know get use to the time in this world." Marcus nodded in agreement before issuing the order to head to bed. But Aleksey had stayed further back with Celestia.