Chapter 1 "A Nice Day Ahead"

9:30 P.M. December 5th

HMS Moring Dawn

Tempest was taking a walk about the ship. He had gotten his sea legs and after a bout seasickness decided that the fresh air would do him some good. He came up to the bow and putting his hooves on the railing , looked up into the clear night sky. Ever since he was little he had loved to sneak out of the house and just sit under there inviting light. His parents never really found out except on one occasion with his Mare friend. He had remembered that day rather vividly since it was the last day he was back home with his parents and his Mare friend.

"You'll wait for me, right?"  Tempest asked quietly.

"Of course I will, what kind of question is that! She responded, glaring back at Tempest.

"Ok, Ok, Sea Breeze," He replied looking back at her Sea blue eyes. Her mane was a grey hue and her coat was that of a clear white that made her stand out to everyone. Her cutie mark was a anchor being dropped into a blue ocean.

"Anyway I have something I have to tell you," He said somberly.

She remained silent for a few moments before he spoke again.

" I'm joining the Royal Navy Sea Breeze," He said trying to keep his eyes from darting anywhere else or his mind from changing the subject.

"Why...Why are you joining the Navy!"

"Because, I want to follow in my great grandfather's hooves and be a Navy stallion", Tempest replied, Sea Breeze's eyes were welling up with tears as she tried to hold back her sorrow and grief.

Tempest had expected her to be upset but, not like this. He had known that her father was killed in the Navy but he had reopened wounds that were long sewn up.

"Sea Breeze, I won't be on a Battleship I will be an officer somewhere sorting papers, Tempest replied soothingly. Trying to get her to calm down and so that they both would not get caught by his parents.

"Tempest---" Sea Breeze collapsed in his hooves, He squeezed her as she sobbed into his sea green coat. "--tell me that you will be safe and that you will come back to me!" Sea Breeze was now squeezing him evermore tighter.

Tempest replied softly. " I promise that I will be safe and sound. Besides, I will always be with you, Sea Breeze. He then kissed her on the forehead and hugged her until his parents came.

That was the last time that the two had been together before he went to the recruiter the next day and joined up. Since Tempest was an A student and was on his student council he had been transferred to the Naval Officers Academy. He graduated with flying colors and was given the rank Lieutenant, his first posting would be on the refitted HMS Moring Dawn. Tempest's thoughts were interrupted by his friend and fellow officer Storm Wind.

"What are you doing here so late and mopey?" Storm Wind said as he walked up to Tempest "I would have expected anypony else but you."

Storm Wind had a cyan coat with a light green mane and tail. The two had met at the Academy and became close friends when they were posted to the same ship they were both happy that they got to serve to together.

"I just wanted to stretch my legs and get some fresh air, What are you doing out here?" Tempest inquired as he spun around to face his friend.

"I thought I heard somepony crying, I came to investigate and I found you crying out here all alone." Tempest now bewildered by his friend's last statement felt his face, He found that his eyes were irritated and his face was unusually dry.

"It's nothing, Tempest replied " I was just remembering my old dog," Tempest lied to prevent Storm Wind from reading the reason he was really crying.

"Oh...what was his name?" Storm Wind asked as he leaned up on the rails next to Tempest.

"His name was Husky," Tempest was nervous and decided to end the conversation. " I am goanna get some shut eye, You should two."

"Your right," Storm Wind yawned as he turned to head to his quarters. "Besides Captain Hurricane wants us ready for when we get in port, something about a competition with the flyboys"

Tempest turned around and said "I think I know what he may have in mind" He then followed Storm Wind below deck, after saying a quick good night to each other Tempest climbed into his bunk. He thought about what he would do once they got to Angel Harbor at Haywaii.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10:30 A.M.  Angel Harbor December 6th 11941

HMS Moring Dawn crew quarters

Tempest awoke to the sound of the ship's horn. Blasting away any chance of waking up normally, he got up and quickly made his bunk  putting on his uniform as he ran out of the officers quarters to the his station around amidships in charge of one of the gun crews for . As his eyes got adjusted to the light he made out the whole of Equestria's Eastern fleet. All eight battle ships including the Luna and Celestia were sitting as silent reminders of war, as he would later find out Battleship Row. He took a wide look around from his station and saw what looked like a city of to the left of the harbor while an Air force base to his right. As he looked around he many people playing Baseball and the various Battleships all having a boxing match aboard the Cadence.  After taking this good long look he went down to the deck to find a lot of crew. They were all yelling at somepony on the port side of the ship. When Tempest finally fought his way to the railing his jaw dropped at what he saw aboard the passenger ship.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10:20 A.M

Angel Harbor

HMS Haybound's deck

Rarity has always taken pride in her looks and was not expecting to go unnoticed but did not expect that every stallion in sight would be interested with her and the other mares on deck. Rarity who had taken a lawn chair and was reading a book about the Haywaiian island chain heard mare shout out "Hey boys we'll see you on the beach!" which made Rarity bury her head into her book from embarrassment.

I came here to get inspiration! Not get attention from a bunch of stallions who haven't seen a proper mare in Luna knows how long. But, some of them are cute and would be worth getting to know at some other time. But not when I came for a vacation and to find some inspiration for my new line which debuts in about a week. I hope that they at least have the decency to come and ask me like a gentile colt.

After they had past all the battleships and were on their way to the dock where they were to get off, they passed a small ship which blasted it's horn to announce it's presence. After the horn had ceased Rarity took a look over the railing to see if it was a tug or some other small ship, it was another warship with one stallion leaning on the railings looking up at the sky. He saw her and called out "Hey babe do you want to go with me later tonight?" The red stallion asked

"Who are you talking to Blast?" Another stallion said as he walked up to other one. "It better not be--" His eyes met Rarity's and he joined in with Blast "What is a good looking mare doing here in a---"He was interrupted by Blast

"--I saw her first Hood so just buck off!"

" Oh...but who is more handsome, Hey lady who would you rather go out with?" He shouted up to Rarity.

"Uh I think--"

" What the hay are you two doing he--" The third stallion stopped as he noticed what had caught his comrade's attention. "Hey guys check this is out a girl wants to go our with either Hood or Blast," This got the attention of everyone within earshot and they crowed around the three and began to yell up at Rarity

" Hey gorgeous think me and you could go to your place,"

" I'll show you a good time beautiful, come find me,"

This is but a few of the many of the catcalls, cheers, and whistles from the crew of this destroyer. Eventually an officer came to the railing, His jaw dropped. After a few moments of gazing at her, he with some other officers got the men back to there posts and were told to make ready for port. After hearing this she remembered she would do the same. She grabbed her book and sunglasses then ran down below to fetch her luggage and join the crowd of ponies waiting to get off. She knew two of her friends were here and she did want to see them again after the fight that drove them apart.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10:45 A.M

Hickaberry field

Pilots Quarters

Rainbow Dash had woken up fifteen minutes ago when a ship in the harbor became her alarm clock. Between then and now she was trying to revist her favorite dream, but to no avail. She decided to get dressed and to go meet her dear friend Applejack at the nearby bar to congratulate her on winning the boxing championship between the Battleships. Rainbow had kept in contact with Applejack after the fight in Ponyvlle. Rainbow quickly threw on some clothes and her cap then flew to the bar they were to meet at. As Rainbow flew over the airfield she saw all of her wing stallions and mares playing various games and or doing maintenance  on the new P-40 War hawks that had just arrived the week before. Their was a bit of a learning curve to the new aircraft but she was one of the first to be able to some crazy maneuvers. Yesterday Rainbow and her friend Starburst played chicken with each other, they barely missed and Major Napalm had revoked their fight status for the last 2 days and tomorrow she was getting it back.

When she arrived at the bar which was called Midnight Delight she found Applejack in a booth in the far corner of bar. Applejack motioned for Rainbow to come over. When Rainbow sat down she got a good look at her face. Applejack's face was a mess her right eye was turning a deep shade of purple, her other eye was swollen over and her normal smile was now a look of sadness and disappointment.

"So AJ," Rainbow asked softly "How did the tournament go?"

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10:25 A.M

HMS Applelosa crew quarters

Applejack was ready. She had been preparing for this fight for awhile now. So far it seemed that the boxer from the Phoenix was the best but she was going to change that. The tournament had started last week on the last day of November and now the final showdown was about to begin between Applejack and Bulk. Bulk who was the favorite to win, worked in the boiler room of the Phoenix shoveling coal into the boilers and do maintenance on them was something only the strongest ponies could do for hours on end. While Applejack who was the under dog, worked in damage control, her rank was Carpenter's Mate 3nd class. She in her own right was strong but not as strong as Bulk. Applejack knew this, and she knew she was a lot quicker than he was. She planned to use this to her advantage and wear him down before making a knock out blow on the stallion.

Applejack thought about how she would start the fight and make Bulk work. She put on her white navy shirt grabbed her gloves and headed for the makeshift ring below the No.1 turret. It was made out of some elastic cords tied to some wooden poles tied down with some cable. Everyone from both ships were jostling for a view of the titanic match that was going to begin soon. Before she could step into her corner of the ring a mare grabbed her.

"Applejack you better not lose this fight!" Applejack spun around to find her friend Fire watch holding a bag full of bits

"I promise I won't lose this fight," Applejack said confidently.

" You better, Cause I'm not going to the Luna empty hooved again." She replied with excitement and a hint of worry.

"Don't worry I'll send that coal head back to the engines where he belongs," With that she turned around to enter the ring.

Her confidence quickly faded away as she saw her opponent already waiting for her to enter. He was sitting down in his stool with his legs extended out towards the center of the ring his front hooves at his sides. His eyes were a deep crimson hue and he gave Applejack a look that told her one thing. I will break you in front of everyone then I will make sure you know who is the best. Applejack sat down on her stool and put her gloves on with the help of Fire watch. As she put on her gloves, her adrenaline soared, her heart drowned out any cheering from the crowd. The announcer who was the captain of the Applelosa, smashed any thoughts of her possible future as a orange pancake on the deck away.

"Mares and gentile colts," He said as he stood on top of the No.1 turret. He shot a quick glance at AJ before continuing which translated to good luck.

"May I present the reigning champion from the Phoenix Coal Bulk!" The mares and stallions from the Phoenix and others from different ships cheered loudly stamping their hooves into the deck.

"And our challenger from here on board the Applelosa, APPLEJACK!" The ponies from the Applelosa and most of the others that were from different ships roared in answer to the ones who supported Bulk, stamping their hooves into the deck trying to overpower the opposing fans. After a minute or two it became deathly quiet, tension filled the air as the captain made sure each person was ready for the melee about to take place.

"Bulk are you ready?" Bulk shot the captain glance and then looked back at Applejack.

"Applejack are you ready?"

"Yes I am captain," She said confidently as her gaze fell back on Bulk. The wait for the bell to sound felt like hours as the two opponents made plans for their opening moves.

Ring

Ring

RING!

Both opponents exited their corners circling each other trying to see through each other's guard seeing if they needed to alter their plans of attack. Bulk being overconfident swung first with a right hook going for Applejacks face. She ducked easily countering with a quick, hard jab to Bulk's gut. Applejack tired her luck with a few quick jabs to test his reflexes. The first two she threw which she had aimed for his diaphragm were easily blocked but the third connected with his face and sent his head the opposite way. Bulk countered with a jab to her face, she moved out of the way only to feel like the air had been sucked out of her lungs. Bulk had followed up with a hard punch to Applejack's gut causing her to keel over and backing away, tried to get her lungs with air again. Applejack then fell back on her original plan to keep the distance and to wear out the behemoth. She flew around Bulk throwing jabs when ever she thought she could deal some damage. Bulk seeing this tried to close the distance so that he could make it a slug out.

This lasted for the majority of the first round with both Bulk and Applejack had some sort of bruising from the hits. Bulk had some busies and a few cuts from the various jabs and hooks. While Applejack had taken a hook to her right eye which was now starting to turn a deep shade of purple. Now that they knew what to expect from each other the second round would be more active than the first. Applejack knew she had to avoid a slug match with Bulk and to box with him.

Ring

Ring

RING!

Applejack and Bulk both met head on and Bulk swung first, trying to keep Applejack off balance and to turn it into a slug match. It her glove and she countered with a flurry of jabs trying to make him back off. Bulk seemingly absorbed the punishment and had forced Applejack closer to the one place she did not want to be, the corner. She knew if she got caught in the corner she would be done for. She tried to move out but Bulk threw a left hook which connected on her glove but hit her head with enough force to make her dizzy. Bulk continued to force her into the corner and when he did he unleashed a flurry of punches at every possible angle trying to beat her into submission. Applejack weathered the monsoon of punches as best she could. Slowly though she saw what looked like a tunnel, Applejack was starting to lose consciousness from the assault. She felt her body start to sway and instinctively gave bulk an uppercut which threw the stallion back to the center of the ring. To Applejack she had blacked out, The next thing Applejack remembered was being held in her corner of the ring by a mare and stallion who were from her ship.

"You got him...ok, you won," The fiery orange mare said to her as Applejack relaxed and fell on to her stool. The mare and stallion went back over the ropes and joined the crowd of stunned spectators.

The captain of the Applelosa, though still shocked grabbed the mic and announced Applejack the winner of the tournament. She asked her friend Fire watch what happened after she had given him an uppercut.

"You just snapped," She said with great worry and concern in her voice. "After you gave him that uppercut and he stumbled to the center," She paused. " You....just kept punching him, even after the bell rung, Gold and Water spout were the ones who held you back. Bulk however was lying there his eyes were in his head," Applejacks faced turned from a happy winner to a distraught sob.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

11:00 A.M.

Midnight Delight

"Whoa..."Rainbow was in shock as her best friend finished up the story. Applejack had won but had begun to sob again as memories of the fight began to flood her vision and tears began to roll down her cheeks.

"Applejack it's ok, you won the competition." Rainbow now sitting next to her wrapped her wing around Applejacks shivering body.

"I won it, sure but I'm scared, scared if I get angry I will, I will, I-" Applejack gave Rainbow a hug and sobbed for a time before a time before talking again.

"Thanks Rainbow, I'm sorry if I upset you or killed the mood," Applejack said smiling, her eyes still bloodshot from crying into Rainbow's cyan blue mane.

"It's fine Applejack, so now lets talk about something else"

The two with their bottles of cider discussed the current state of affairs between the Crystal Empire and the Germanes and about their deployments should they have to back the empire. They also discussed the tensions of the nearby Gryphons who had begun conquering there neighbors little under decade ago. This last topic brought there conversation to halt as they both thought of the ramifications of fighting the Gryphons.

"So," Rainbow tentatively asked. "Is their anything else going on over on Battleship row?

"There's a competition between the ship bands tomorrow if you want to come," Applejack asked handing her a napkin with the time of competition and the ship it would be held at, she failed to mention that her band would be playing at about 7:30 in the morning.

Applejack took a peak at the time and had realized they had been talking for the last 2 hours.

"Tarnation, I got to get back to the Applelosa or else Bull's-eye's goanna kill me.

She raced out of the bar in a orange flash, She barely heard Rainbow say goodbye to her as she headed for the docks.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

12:00 A.M.  December 7

HMS Morning Dawn

Tempest Bolt was tired, hammered and just plain happy with his day and what he did. After docking and unloading Captain North Wind had given them shore leave for the whole day. Tempest was glad to have this shore leave since he could spend some of that time writing home to Sea Breese and his parents who always waited for a letter that he sent to them. He had sent each a letter detailing where he was stationed and the scenery surrounding him. He had also gone to the local navy bar with Storm Wind and to his surprise met old friends of his from the academy.

They all went out of the bar and played a game of baseball. This game lasted quite a while then after wards they went to the same bar and got hammered. Some Tempest's friends tried to pick up on some of the mare's in the bar, some had succeeded only to find out they got the wrong number or they had been outright slapped in across the face and the mare stomped out of the bar.

He had just left and after about an hour of drunken stupor towards the docks found his way the HMS Morning Dawn. As he made his way down to his bunk he fell down a flight of stairs. This had put him a less happy mood for a bit as he stumbled to bunk. He had heard that the next day would be another hot and beautiful day, he looked forward to it and wanted to have some more fun. He never thought in a million years that the next day would be the start of a long and bloody war.