Far Away

CHAPTER XXVI

On the EQS Equestria…

The sea was rough, playing with the convoy of two ships like toys in a bathtub. Giant waves pounded the convoy, tilting and tipping the ships to their extremities. Thick, dark black clouds swirled in the sky, ruthlessly striking the ocean with occasional bolts of brilliant white lightning, the energy cackling in the water in the aftermath of a strike, snaking through the dark waters like a million jagged knives. All was dark, the only things that were illuminated were the convoy’s windows that glared with a ferocious yellow light. The occasional flash of lightning brightened the sky, causing the ships to cast tall shadows onto the sea behind them.

In the turmoil, Iron stood next to a solid wall on EQS Equestria’s bridge. He felt every single wave pound ruthlessly onto the large iron structure. Each valley and crest the ship rode caused the furniture inside that wasn’t bolted down to tumble and slide across the room. The captain was standing at the wheel, wrestling with it to keep the ship on course to Portsmouth, now a near impossible mission.

The other ship was not faring quite as well as the Equestria. In the midst of the previous battle, Canterlot had suffered many hits to the stern, causing its rudder to be damaged, limiting its manoeuvrability. Canterlot was drifting slowly off course, away from Equestria. She had also suffered a hull breach during the battle, the repairs were now not holding up very well and causing the hull to dip lower than usual into the water.

“Where are we?” asked Iron as he struggled to stand straight.

“I don’t know, but when this damn storm stops, I can tell you,” said the captain through gritted teeth. The wheel was turning on its own accord, and he was struggling to keep it straight.

Suddenly, the door to the bridge swung open with a clang and Fire Streak stood there with a piece of paper clutched in his hoof. “The enemy fleet is only five nautical miles away behind us. They seem to be travelling at twenty-eight knots, even in this weather!”

“Wow,” was all Iron could say before a brilliant flash of light and explosion occurred behind them in the distance. White hot tracers travelled through the air at high speeds and slammed into the ocean beside the Canterlot. All hell broke loose. Continuous salvos of battery fire were aimed at the convoy, one hitting Canterlot in the bow, knocking out on of its secondary turrets. The quality of the shots was bad in this terrible weather, many of which didn’t even land remotely near the Equestrian convoy of ships but the quantity of shots made up for the lack of accuracy. Barrages from different ships pummelled the area around the convoy, with some hitting causing minor damage.

Shots from Equestria and Canterlot’s aft turrets were inaccurate, but the large enemy convoy made sure that the shots hit a target. The enemy were sailing too close together, causing missed shots to hit another ship.

“Fire Streak! Send a message for help!” commanded Iron as he walked into the thunderstorm and was soaked to the bone. Fire Streak quickly dashed back into his little coms room and wrote a message. There is a device in Equestria that used magic to teleport tiny message scrolls to the recipients. He quickly dialled in the area number of Canterlot Castle and pressed a glowing red button. The scroll vaporised into white smoke and disappeared.

Back in Canterlot…

Jack was all packed, ready to catch the night train to Manehattan. It was scheduled to leave at 2am and it arrives at 5am. He sat on his bed, watching Daring over on her side of the bed looking though her drawers to make sure she didn’t leave anything. He produced his revolver and spun the cylinder out of boredom. There was a knock at the door.

“Come in!” shouted Jack as he hopped off his bed and went to greet the pony at the door. Surprisingly, it was Celestia.

“Hello Jack, I think you should catch the train to Portsmouth. Manehattan is almost certainly in the midst of combat and the tracks will be closed in a few minutes. Two ships of my navy are currently returning to Portsmouth with a convoy of over one hundred enemy ships. If you want to be useful, go to Portsmouth,” said Celestia, stress creeping into her voice.

“Alright, princess. When is the train to Portsmouth leaving?” asked Jack.

“In around five minutes, you better hurry,” said Celestia, “And don’t you do anything rash!” she yelled as Jack pulled Daring out of the room and down the hall where all the other ponies were waiting.

“Hello Jack! You ready?” asked Spitfire as he rushed towards them.

“Let’s go,” said Jack, not waiting for the others to catch up.

Jack bounded down the flight of stairs, not caring about his aching legs, never feeling more alive than at this moment. He was built for this. He trotted ahead of the pack into the Canterlot Train Station, observing the grand building, illuminated with golden lights at night, casting shadows on the frame which looked intricate in design. Jack held up the tickets that the princess had given him to the conductor who pointed in the direction where their car was. Car G. It was again, a private car. Jack observed many soldiers board with their weapons, also heading to Portsmouth, from his window. It was early in the morning; one o’clock or so. Daring curled up next to him into a small ball, snoring quietly while Jack used an old oilcloth to polish his guns. The train lurched forward from its berth and started accelerating towards the east, flying into the sunrise.

On the EQS Equestria…

No help had arrived yet. The final reality sank in. They were doomed, unless a miracle happens. One whole night of fighting, the ammunition supplies were depleted. The two lonely ships sailed side by side, at around half a mile away from each other being trailed by a large fleet of enemy ships. The waters had calmed and dawn broke the dark night. Black clouds moved across the sky fast, like the sun was chasing them away. The orange streaks of light tore through the sky, changing the colour of the sky to a pleasant orange hue. The blue water glistened in the sunlight, and gently lapped onto the sides of the ships.

“Bismarck, are we still flooding in compartment two and burning in compartment four?” asked Iron wearily, still exhausted from taking command from Bismarck due to his exhaustion.

“We have cleared the fire but there is still a minor leak. We can barely go twenty-four knots currently,” said Bismarck from the table, where he was studying a map, “We should arrive in Portsmouth in one hour if everything goes smoothly.”

Fire Streak blasted into the bridge without warning. “Sirs, the enemy fleet is retreating according to our MADAR array on the ship. They are moving away fast. They are no longer in pursuit,” reported Fire Streak.

“Great,” said the admiral.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After one hour of riding the calm ocean waves the fleet of two neared the harbour, like injured soldiers limping back to camp. The sun was already around thirty degrees above the horizon. Iron could see the small fort resting on the small hill on the peninsula. They were approaching at a good speed. He could see dozens of masts that were swaying slightly in the harbour, on the other side of the peninsula.

They were finally safe. Bismarck drove his ship slowly into the harbour and took berth in the dry dock, to apply repairs to the majestic vessel. Canterlot took the other dry dock, slowly sailing in with a small tug boat guiding it. The personnel aboard the two vessels disembarked quickly through a small single file ramp that stretched between the ship and the high walls of the dry dock. Iron Skies flew warily onto the shore to be greeted by, to his surprise, Spitfire.

“Good morning Iron Skies,” she said.

“Morning, Spitfire,” huffed Iron as he walked up to her.

“Come on, let’s get you to the command room and we can assess the situation.”

“I’m exhausted…”

Undisclosed location…

An evil laugh rang through the stagnant air. “Perfect time to strike… They have been attacked!” said an evil voice, down the dark hallway.

“We demand to know who was attacked!” yelled Luna, in chains of heavy metal, magic subdued by a spell that had been cast on her five days ago.

All that answered was an evil laugh of a madman…