Arpeggio of Blue Steel: New Horizons

Unknown location
CENS Sovereign (CV-6)
Equestrian Commonwealth 2nd Hoofcific Fleet
8th Equestrian Surface Action Group ‘Omega’

On the open waters of this unknown world maritime shipping and aviation travel was at it's peak like on Unity but greater on the technological spectrum. But much like Unity the inhabitants of this world were also driven from the seas by a common enemy. One of similar design and motive but far superior to their Equestrian counterparts in every way. The atmosphere, calm and silent was suddenly disturbed by a rift opening on its surface for a brief moment before dissipating, leaving a small fleet in its wake.

On board the fleet carrier an SBD ‘Phoenix’ dive bomber loaded with munitions broke free of its tie-down chains during the transition and was thrown across the flight deck. The sensitive bombs latched onto the plane’s hardpoints detonated, destroying the aircraft and causing severe damage to the armoured flight deck and several aircraft. The ignited aviation fuel starts a large fire, triggering an automated response from the carrier’s damage control centre which activates the flight deck’s fire suppression system. Sea water from the hundreds of small sprinklers built into the flight deck burst to life spraying the whole deck with hundreds of gallons of water per second to extinguish the burning plane before the fire had a chance to spread.

“What the buck just happened!?” Sea Floor called out over the ringing of the ship’s fire alarm.

“Large explosion on the flight deck sir, damage control parties have been despatched and the fire suppression system has been activated.” The communications officer replied.

“Were we hit?” Admiral Ruby asked.

“Negative, Ma’am, it looks like one of our Phoenix’s broke free during the jump.” Sovereign’s X.O, Lieutenant Eden Rose replied from her brief observation.

Sea Floor was fuming. “Dammit, whoevers responsible for the loading of munitions on that aircraft and securing it I want their asses by my day cabin within the next ten minutes, or I’m gonna-”

“Twilight’s down!” the navigation officer shouted.

Ruby snapped her attention to the now unconscious princess and immediately rushed to her side. “Get a medical team up here, now!”

“How is she?” Sea Floor asked with grave concern.

Ruby, who was conducting a brief analysis spell on the unconscious princess briefly sighed with relief. “She’s gonna be fine, Twilight suffered severe magic trauma. We’ll need to be stabilise her magic before it puts her into a coma.

CENS Sovereign Medical Centre.
4 Hours later

In the time it took for a medical team to get up into the command island to bringing Twilight back down her vitals nearly took a turn for the worst with the Post Magic Trauma Stress taking it's toll on her brain. Luckily a few experienced unicorn nurses were able to relive Twilight of the PMTS and stabilise the Princess of Friendship. The now unconscious Alicorn laid motionless on a hospital bed with the sounds of the heartbeat monitor recording the rhythmic paces of Twilight's heart. Equestrian Marines stand guard on the opposite side of the curtains that separates curious crew ponies from the princess' personal space. The only ones allowed to be by Twilight's side are the shipboard doctors, Ruby, Seafloor and Wing Commander Rainbow Dash of the VF.184th 'Rainbooms' Squadron who sat quietly holding back tears of joy and sorrow upon seeing her long lost friend.

When Rainbow caught wind of Twilight's rescue from Fog flagship, Tyrant she almost tore bulkhead doors off throughout the carrier racing to see her close friend. Since Rainbow and Fluttershy's return from the time realm that Celestia sent them to over a decade ago the world she once knew was long gone. Many familiar faces have long passed under various circumstances but more commonly as a casualty to the war against the Equestrian Fleet of Fog. All that remained from her time was Fluttershy who still remains back home in her cottage on the edge of the Everfree Forest tending to the native wildlife as she had before. The Cutie Mark Cruaders were still young fillies when Rainbow left and have grown into mature mares over the last few decades. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were devastated by the deaths of their respected sisters but vowed to carry on their legacy through the inheritance of their family business'. Apple Bloom would grow to relieve Big Mac of the family ownership of Sweet Apple Acres and Sweetie Belle would do the same for Rarity's Boutique.

Scootaloo on the other hoof took the near death of Rainbow Dash most personally, the young Pegasus had an idolized sisterhood with the Element of Loyalty since Scootaloo first met Rainbow. In the following months after Rainbow and Fluttershy's transfer into the time realm, Scootaloo succumbed to a state of crippling depression and almost took her own life had Princess Luna not intervened in time. Under the care of the Princess of the night, Scootaloo would recover and rehabilitate from her depression by the time the Royal Equestrian Air Force was established and would enlist shortly after in a renewed pursuit to avenge Rainbow and her friends. From the day she signed up to graduating, Scootaloo became the first mare to pass through flight school with top marks and showed leadership potential.

Scootaloo's wartime career would see her becoming one of Equestria's elite fighter aces claiming sixty confirmed air to air kills against the Equestrian Fleet of Fog's fighter drones and sinking four ships. Tragically, Scootaloo's career came to a firery end not to the guns of the sentient warships but in a unfortunate training accident while test flying a prototype jet fighter in the desert plains of the Las Pegasus Tablelands. Two years later, Rainbow Dash would return to Equestria to be given the grim news regarding the deaths of her friends which not only shook her to the core but the death of Scootaloo destroyed what little hope she had left of reuniting with what few friends and family apart from Fluttershy that are still alive at the time.

The heartbreaking reflections weighed heavily on Rainbow's mind as she sobbed silently along side the only true friend she has within the fleet. The war had changed Rainbow's life for the worst, she had lost everything she held dearly and the fellow Ponies she held even closer to her heart. The rustling sounds of the curtains being opened briefly brought the troubled Pegasus' head up as Admiral Ruby stepped past the gap that she opened with her telekinesis. Rainbow tried to step up in quick succession to address her superior but the admiral motioned her to stay seated.

"At ease." Ruby smiled as she trotted over to a starboard porthole and opened it with her magic while simultaneously pulling out a Cotlantic special cigar from a pocket and lighting it with a ignition spell. "How's Twilight holding up, Lieutenant?"

"The Docs said that she's stable for now, but they can't do much more while she is in a coma." Rainbow muttered a reply as she tried her damndest to contain her sobbing.

Ruby didn't reply straight away but took a long inhale of her cigar before exhaling the infused tobacco out of the open porthole. The deep hum of the Sovereign's steam turbines and the revolving vibrations of her quad shafts kept the admiral's mind at ease as the smell of the vast ocean circulating in and out of her lungs serves as a natural form of stress relief. Ruby then turned and approached the left side of Twilight's bed, her cigar remained by the porthole held in thin air by her magic. Twilight remained motionless on her bed, not once did she respond to the presence of the two ponies on the opposing sides of her bed.

"You still good to fly, Dash?"

"Yeah, if the flight deck is still operational?"

"Damage Control parties have cleared the deck of debris and no serious damage was inflicted. Flight deck operations are scheduled to resume within the next hour. Your wing is the first one up on CAP duties while we determine how far off we are from the west coast. For some reason we can't seem to hail Fleet Base on all our encrypted channels or reestablish a connection to our Magika Network. Even Solar Eclipse can't access the Fog Joint Tactical Network..."

"I thought the Fog cut Solar off from their network when she went rogue?"

"That is true but Solar knows a few backdoors to regain access, I'm expecting to hear back from her any minute now so I better return to my cabin."

"Thank you for stopping by, Admiral." Rainbow nodded in appreciation to her Commander in Chief.

Admiral Ruby took one final draw of her cigar before flicking it with her telekinesis out the porthole as she left Rainbow Dash to collect herself. Rainbow remained by Twilight's side for as long as she could until it was time to head off to her squadron's briefing, she gave the princess a hug before stepping out past the curtains and exited the medical centre.

Admirals Cabin
One Hour Later

Admiral Ruby was expecting to see Solar as soon as she returned to her cabin but to her surprise she didn't. Pondering if the mental model had gotten carried away with attempting to re-access the joint tactical network or detected something unusual. Ruby only hoped that they haven't already encountered a Fog Submarine operating in the area rather than what was lingering on the back of her mind.

Ruby had just finished her Earl Grey tea when Solar Eclipse appeared in her cabin having teleported from her cruiser, she noticed an obnoxious expression of worry plastered on the A.I's face which can only mean one thing that Ruby despises the most; Bad news.

"Admiral, sorry for being late. I got distracted by what I've discovered over the last hour..."

"Don't worry about it, Solar. I only just got back from checking on Twilight, she's going to be fine in case you were curious?"

"Absolutely, Admiral, and I'm glad Twilight will make a full recovery once she wakes up."

"If she does... Is there anything you have to report to me that I should be made aware of?"

Solar didn't answer right away but instead activated her hologram data rings that allows her to oversee all functions and control of her ship. She brought up some surveillance data she had acuminated over the last hour regarding the JTN and hydrographic images. "I have managed to regain access to the Joint Tactical Network and conducted hydro acoustic surveys to determine our position in the Hoofcifc but there are some problems with what I have uncovered."

"I could already tell that you were bearing grim news with how you are expressing concern, Solar. How far do we still have to go before we make it back to Equestria?" Ruby asked as she took in the wall of data Solar had collected.

Solar hesitated for a moment before pressing her response. "That's the thing, Admiral... We are nowhere near Equestria."

"Define nowhere, Solar?" Ruby raised an eyebrow.

"As in nowhere at all, Admiral. The data I have collected so far doesn't add up at all! The Joint Tactical Network is not the same one that I'm familiar with. The Hydrographic images I have acquired to cross-reference doesn't match any undersea terrain that I have already surveyed. I just don't know how we've ended up here."

"Slow down, Solar, I don't understand with what you're trying to say?"

Solar took a deep breath before continuing. "Admiral... When Tyrant fired her Super-Graviton beam at Twilight's teleportation bubble it created a rift that has pulled us into an alternate reality which upon reestablishing a connection to the TJN, it had become clear that we were not teleported to a different location on Unity but we have been teleported to Earth."

"What!?" Ruby almost shouted on the top of her lungs. "T-That's impossible, how can we be on Earth! I thought the mirror portal is the only way to get to the Human realm?"

"As I stated before, Admiral, when Tyrant-"

"I got what you said, no need to repeat yourself, Solar."

Ruby sat back onto her office chair and brought both her fore hoofs to her face as she is overwhelmed with various emotions stemming from confusion to anxiety. The overall situation that her fleet now faces was looking very grim, the Fleet of Fog that rules Earth's oceans were technologically far superior to their Equestrian counterparts. Even with the combined firepower of the fleet back by the Equestrian Fog torpedo cruiser an Earth based Fog Destroyer can still single handedly wipe them out if Solar can't deal with it quickly.

Ruby's options were now limited, with no way of getting back to Equestria they now must locate and make their way to the nearest Human base quickly before they are spotted. Time is a limited resource and the Admiral knows that she is living on borrowed time. Ruby picked up her cap and rejoined Solar who still stood in the middle of her cabin.

"Solar, how far are we from the nearest Human base that that knows about the existence of Equestria?"

"The closest friendly base from our current position would have to be the American Naval Station based in Guam which is approximately eight hundred and seventeen nautical miles south-south-east." Solar examined the navigational data she extracted from the J.T.N.

Ruby shook her head hopelessly. "That's too far away for us to guarantee a safe crossing for the fleet. Plus our destroyers don't have enough fuel to make it that far without conducting a replenishment at sea. There has to be somewhere close that we can drop anchor and call for help?"

"Unlikely as all global communications established by Humanity have long since been destroyed by the Fog once they have secured their global blockades. However I am detecting a Fog Based network relay on an Island called Iwo Jima just one hundred nautical miles east of our position. If I can gain access to that relay I might be able to establish contact with the Americans."

"It'll have to do for now, Solar. Is there anything I need to know of?"

"No, Admiral. Nothing else to report."

"Good, but before you return to your ship, there's something I need you to do for me." Ruby asked as she placed a hoof on the mental model's shoulder. "In the event that we do set sail for the U.S Mainland and in the high likelihood that we do run into a Fog patrol fleet, I want you to evacuate Twilight and see to it that she makes it back home. Twilight must survive at all costs, Solar! Whatever happens to me and the fleet, promise me that you won't turn back and that you keep going as fast as you can!"

Solar stuttered for a reply but deep down she couldn't, since defecting from the fleet she had sworn an oath of everlasting loyalty to Ruby until she had sunk. She would refuse to abandon her Admiral to an untimely death but as her vessel she must carry out her orders regardless of the personal connection she shares with her superior.

"I promise to protect Twilight, Admiral. But I'm not leaving you behind to die." Solar nodded her head in agreement.

"Thank you, you're dismissed, Solar Eclipse." Ruby nuzzled the Alicorn before Solar teleported back to her ship.

Ruby took another deep breath before she exited her cabin for Communications pondering on the words she will use to address her fleet on this revelation. She frowned nervously thinking about the panic and the hit to morale that will certainly occur on the other vessels. "May Celestia help us all..."