Princess Celestia had never been as terrified as she was now, staring at the piece of parchment in her magic like a startled animal. Just months before, the human nation of Germany declared war on Equestria, claiming that they had broken the interdimensional barrier separating the two worlds. In response, she’d spent untold billions of bits on acquiring any warship her human allies were willing to sell. Equestria bought dozens of dilapidated American ships, maintenance equipment, and anything else Celestia thought she needed.
And now the German battleship Bismarck was confirmed to be in Equestrian waters. Sighted by an old S-boat from the Americans re-christened Harmony, the battleship was pirating trade convoys between Equestria and Griffonstone, menacing its helpless targets with huge guns and destroying ships without firing a shot, preferring to set them ablaze to save ammunition.
Finally, she cleared her throat and addressed the messenger still standing in front of her. “Inform Admiral Neptune that he is to engage the Bismarck whenever possible with all available forces at his disposal. It breaks my heart to do this, but we must sink her.”
He bowed his head. “Yes, Princess.” He turned and left, his hoofsteps echoing loudly in the throne hall.
At the white alicorn’s side, her sister stepped out from her position behind a pillar. “Sister, would it not be wise to send me to deal with the enemy? As Princess of the Night, I have many abilities that they could not hope to counter.”
“Not at all, Luna, not alone. If anything, it is our priority to prevent the Germans from ever knowing where we are. In doing so, we allow them to capture us and learn more about our magic. They will use it against us if they are able.”
“You know as well as I that we must sink the Bismarck. And as Princess of Equestria, I must be there to lead our sailors. It is tradition.”
“Tradition cannot overrule protection.”
“Admiral Neptune does not have the capabilities to manage a large fleet such as the one we are about to out to sea. I have seen the British Navy, and I understand their methods more than he. Allow me to lead to fleet itself while Admiral Neptune works the shipyard. That is where he is best suited, after all.”
“It will be dangerous, sister.”
“War is always dangerous. That is why you have worn your best armor to every battle.” In a flash, midnight-blue armor covered Luna’s body. Her helmet bore the crescent moon, and her wings stretched to accommodate the sudden metal beneath them. Her hooves glistened with pearls melted into the hoofguards. She looked majestic. “Do not worry, sister. I will not fail.” At that, she disappeared in a whirl of magic.
Celestia grimaced as she lost sight of her younger sister. “That’s what scares me.”
Luna materialized amid a flurry of activity. Perhaps three dozen American Wickes, Clemson -class destroyers, a single Omaha-class cruiser now named Redemption, and six S-boats that had been stripped of their undersea sailing capabilities were docked in the yard in various stages of refit. The only S-boat (Harmony) that could still submerge was out at sea, using its undetectability to track the Bismarck.
Ponies scurried about the ships, dismantling ironclad prototypes for extra metal and loading ammunition and consumables as fast as safely able. Luckily, a few humans had come across to teach their Equestrian counterparts how to operate the “new” ships, and a cadre of effective officers were using that knowledge to speed operations. In total, nearly three thousand ponies would be involved in the battle, and they had no idea what they were doing.
Across the bay, two sailing ships were beached and being covered in armor plating. It would make them top-heavy as hell, but it was better than ridiculously exposed wooden hulls. Or so Neptune thought. Luna knew that any dedicated sailer was no match for the technological monster lurking off the coast. With radar and unbelievable range for its fifteen-inch main battery, Bismarck could destroy a sailing warship before its crew even knew what was happening. If anyone got close enough, its numerous secondaries could wipe them out. And even then, nopony would have closed enough distance to actually shoot back.
She was interrupted by a gruff male voice. “Princess Luna, what are your orders? I cannot hunt a ship and run this yard at the same time.”
“Admiral Neptune,” she calmly replied, “I am to be taking the fleet out for the hunt. You will continue operating the Baltimare Naval Shipyard, as is your speciality, and send all completed warships to Manehattan. That will combine their shakedown cruise and sea trials into a single voyage. Finish that cruiser as soon as you are able; it will be my flagship.”
“Yes, Princess. Shall I increase the pace of operations further as well?”
“Of course.” Luna stared into the admiral’s emerald green eyes. “I want half of this steel navy in Manehattan by dawn in eight days’ time.”
His jaw dropped. “But Princess, the voyage alone can take a day, currents permitting!”
“Then you have a week to prepare.”
He gulped. “As you wish.”
Captain Ernst Lindemann of the Kriegsmarine* sighed. This assignment against Equestria had been seen as a great incentive--the first to conduct operations in another world!--but in reality, it was dull. The Celestial Sea was huge, almost a third the size of the Atlantic itself, and the Equestrian merchant marine was nearly invisible most of the time. The open sea here had few storms to obscure his view of the evening sky, but still…
Captain Lindemann’s ship was technically under the jurisdiction of Admiral Günther Lütjens, but the admiral hadn’t been needed recently. Both Bismarck and her consort, the heavy cruiser Prinz* Eugen and three destroyers, were performing admirably. Seventeen wooden-hulled sailing vessels under the Equestrian flag had been run down, seized, and burned with all cargo being transferred aboard.
“Kapitan*, Prinz Eugen reports the noise of a slow-moving vessel behind us via hydrophone. Kapitan Brinkmann suspects that it is hostile and requests permission to engage.”
He turned back from his perch on the port bridgewing, where he could see the cruiser power through the waves. “Say again?”
“Kapitan, there is a possible enemy behind us.”
Lindemann looked to aft. “I see nothing. Where is this ship?”
“It must be an unterseeboot*, Kapitan.”
“Then have the destroyers sink it. They are suited for situations such as this.”
Minutes later, several whoomps echoed through the ocean and hull, punctuated by loud bangs. One of the destroyers was circling over where Eugen had detected the enemy, and an S-boat popped out of the water to save herself from the bombardment of depth charges. But that was what the destroyer crew was waiting for: as the S-boat broke the surface, it was peppered with machine guns and naval rifles. Jagged holes appeared in the pressure hull and it went under in a matter of minutes with a hiss of bubbles.
“We cannot allow the enemy to know our position, nor can we permit their retaliation. Proceed on a course of two-seven-zero absolute, Leutnant*.”
“Aye, Kapitan.” The officer ordered the course change, and the Helmsman complied. As the great battleship steadied onto her new course, her consort followed suit, and all five ships steamed into the setting sun.
Luna cruised due north on the former Omaha cruiser she’d designated as her flagship three days before. With the wind in her mane, the salty air clinging to her fur, and clear blue skies all around--minus a squall to the north--it was easy to forget why she commanded the Equestrian Navy, currently centered around her ship, newly re-christened Redemption. The ancient, decades-old cruiser had never felt so alive, with her weapons re-bored engineering plant rebuilt from the ground up, and hull plating refitted to the proper thickness--all done in two and a half days! Magic certainly helped speed the process and would soon be part of standard procedure.
Seven former Wickes destroyers and two S-boats encircled Redemption. Going clockwise from straight ahead, Luna recalled their new names: Blossom, Daybreak, the converted sub Galaxy, Friendship, Amore, Raven, Twilight, the second sub Eclipse, and Princess. Not far behind the group, the destroyers Cadenza, Silverlight, and Goldstar were pegged at full speed. Sadly, these were the only ships she’d get until week’s end, when the others were through with their refit.
“Any word on Harmony?” she asked her Officer of the Deck, Captain Thunderstrike.
“No, Princess. Not after her final distress signal.”
“Understand.” Luna knew those ponies. Sailing under the ocean surface, out of sight from even the sun and moon, they’d had frequent nightmares and very real fears. She had to visit their dreams each night to comfort them, and had become close friends of a sort as a result. Now they were gone. She felt their hopes and dreams disappear as they went down with their ship. Luna’s ears pricked as she turned her attention from her lost ponies to an announcement from the talker.
“Captain, be advised: lookout spots a convoy consisting of, quote: ‘two very large steel vessels and three smaller ones.’ Recommend altering course to avoid.”
Luna furrowed her eyebrows. “No. We cannot see as far as they. If we can see them, they have already sighted us. How far is the second fleet?”
“An hour at present speed, Princess. If we adjust course to engage at extreme range, the group can arrive in slightly less. However, I strongly advise against firing. They will then without a doubt know our position and fire back.”
“I understand, Captain. But I command this fleet. It is my call. Prepare to engage the enemy at the maximum range of twenty-five thousand, three hundred yards. When we close to the maximum range for our destroyers, they will join the fight. This should place us at nearly sixteen thousand yards. Use magic to keep our shells on target.”
Thunderstrike gulped. “Aye, Princess, proceeding to maximum range. Will have the destroyers engage at sixteen thousand yards from the enemy.” He turned to the talker. “Sound the alarm.”
Luna felt the gong, gong, gong of the ship’s alarm reverberate. The wind blew more fiercely into her eyes as Redemption creeped to her top speed of thirty-five knots. The destroyers could still make that speed, theoretically, and she was pleased to see them cooperate. She donned her midnight-blue war helmet and grimaced. Then she saw huge splashes straddle the fleet and knew those shots were Bismarck’s.
Kapitan Lindemann watched through his binoculars as the first mighty salvo threw up enormous columns of water. Before the thought could register, his massive main battery bucked again, fire blossoming from their long, thin gray barrels. Eight massive shells hurtled through the air and drenched their targets.
“Why are we not hitting them? They are most certainly in range, are they not?” Admiral Lütjens asked.
“You have been behind a desk for too long, Admiral. At this range, shell dispersion will cause our projectiles to miss most of the time. Our effectiveness will improve as the range closes.”
“But then they will surely fire back.”
“Indeed, Admiral*. They will most assuredly not score many hits, if at all. In any case, our destroyers are currently sprinting to engage with theirs. Our quality will triumph over their dilapidated American ships.” Lindemann’s statement was punctuated by a third salvo streaking to meet the Equestrian fleet.
Redemption shouldered aside two straddling shell explosions, shuddering as her hull took the overpressure like a brick wall. The squall was closer now, rapidly building strength, but so was the Bismarck, and so were her shots. Those last two were uncomfortably near misses, and Redemption still had fifteen hundred yards to go. Her escort was in no better shape, being hopelessly outclassed by everything else in the area.
More near misses than usual came in. Bismarck had to have another ship with nearly the same range but less confidence in scoring hits. One thousand two hundred yards. A thousand yards. Seven hundred. Five hundred. One hundred. Fifty yards. Luna urged her ship forward, buying the little extra time she needed to retaliate. Around her, the seven destroyers and two S-boats scattered to deal with their approaching counterparts.
“Hard to port.” Ten yards. Five yards. One yard. She was in range, and all of her starboard and centerline guns could be used.
“FIRE!!”
Eight six-inch guns fired at once, blooms of fire lighting the darkening sky. The barrels sizzled under a light rain, and Redemption’s gyro system kept her guns steady despite the mounting seas. Luna concentrated on the projectiles, keeping them on target despite a buffeting wind. The shots fell short of Bismarck herself for the most part, but one sailed way overhead and hit the ship behind her on the deck aft of the superstructure. From this distance, she couldn’t actually see the effects of the hit, but she knew it angered them.
A second broadside thundered away, with similar results. All shots were near misses just off their adversary’s port beam. But the distance was still closing. The third scored a few brushes on Bismarck’s paintwork and dents in her hull.
More than the main battery replied to her gesture. Half of the secondaries aboard the battleship spat fiery tongues and hurled their fury at her lone cruiser. Several hit. In the ensuing shudder and heat of fire, damage-control parties converged on the wrecked foredeck and empty (thank goodness) amidships platform. She watched as the battle quickly spiraled out of her immediate control. Ships gyrated, guns boomed to the sound of thunder, lightning cracked alongside the crashing waves, and rain pelted the two opposing fleets.
Amore steamed parallel to a German destroyer, firing rounds at point-blank range into the larger and faster opponent. She received a terrible punishment for her strike. Her few guns slammed out round after round, only to be hit by returning fire. Machine guns raked her entire length, and her bridge was shot to shambles. Her sister Daybreak came to the rescue, but only succeeded in diverting the main battery for a few minutes. She shook with each high-explosive bolt that hit home. Suddenly, in a massive fireball that singed the fur on Luna’s back from a mile away, Daybreak’s magazine erupted. The catastrophic damage annihilated her keel, breaking her back and condemning her ruins to the bottom. A wave washed over her shattered deck, and the destroyer was never seen again.
The Germans paid their horrid act no heed. They continued to rain destruction upon Luna’s scattered ships. Her destroyers were surrounded and picked off one by one: Blossom, Friendship, Raven, Twilight. All the same, Redemption plowed on, shouldering aside the powerful seas. The surrounding fire slackened, though,as Amore sent her adversary to the bottom and Princess scored a lucky hit on a German engineering room. Without steam, the enemy destroyer quickly foundered and sank, air escaping through her perforated hull.
Luna was nearly off the bridgewing by an explosion just under her. Only Captain Thunderstrike’s quick thinking kept her from going overboard, dazed by the hit. Within a minute, she’d regained her mind and finally heard Thunderstrike yelling over the noise.
“Princess, we need to get you below! You’ve been hit.”
She took a peek at her aching foreleg. A piece of shrapnel had buried itself in her thigh, while a second had trimmed her fur. She felt her neck and found a small stream of warm blood. “Tis but a scratch, Captain. I will not abandon my position until our foe is ended. There are others who will need a doctor more than I.”
“Princess, we cannot risk--”
“I know the risks, Captain. If you are so inclined, then have a doctor come to me. I promised my sister that i would lead this operation, and I cannot do that from a medical bed.”
He swallowed his next protest, seeing it was useless. “Aye, Princess.”
“Captain, how far are our reinforcements?”
“Ten minutes, Princess, but the storm is slowing them down.”
“It is also likely to spoil their aim. Who do we have left?”
“Both Galaxy and Eclipse are undamaged, probably because they’ve turned practically invisible in this sea. Amore is close to foundering, but Princess is fully operational. Two of the enemy destroyers have been sunk, and the third is tangled between the S-boats. Princess should be able to finish it off. We are currently fifteen thousand yards from the enemy.”
“Have Amore attempt to fire at the enemy if her captain can spare the crew to do it. We must maintain pressure. When Cadenza, Silverlight, and Goldstar arrive, have them focus on the cruiser beyond.” She stood shakily and walked to the jagged metal that was once the starboard bridgewing. “Continue operations, Captain. We will not fail if it is the last thing we do.” Her horn glowed with blue magic once again as Redemption fired another salvo at the German battleship.
Lindemann laughed heartily as three shells merely bounced off Bismarck’s armor plating. At that size, they’d never be able to penetrate the twelve-inch belt armor. But the enemy was surprisingly on-target, especially at this range. Their lead was perfect, their elevation pristine. Every shot the cruiser had fired at him had been nearly perfect. That unnerved him.
“Kapitan,” his talker reported, “we have lost contact with all three destroyers, although the Equestrians paid dearly. They have lost five of their own destroyers as a result, and possibly a sixth. Their S-boats are nowhere to be found.”
“Then find them! They may be equipped with torpedoes. In this sea, they could easily approach undetected and hit us below the waterline.”
“Yes, Kapitan.”
Lindemann lost his hearty mood. S-boats, he pondered. Sneaking within range!
Luna limped to the port bridgewing. A doctor had just bandaged her leg and neck, and the sopping wet linen was already a dark crimson shade. Her helmet had been lost when she was hit, so her majestic mane had received an undue amount of sheet rain that blanketed the ship. Now, instead of flowing like a moonless night, her mane simply hung from her neck and dripped.
On the port side, Redemption appeared untouched by fire. The entire engagement had been to starboard. Soon, though, she’d have to turn about and retire, to lick her wounds and come again. It was inevitable unless Bismarck could be sunk in the next two hours.
No. We have not come all this way, lost hundreds of brave ponies, and sailed in this storm only to retreat. If we turn about, they will pursue and destroy us in Manehattan. She watched as a scorched gunner was carried through the port hatch from the forward turret. We cannot retreat.
“Princess, we are running low on ammunition. We have perhaps a hundreds rounds left,” Thunderstrike grimaced. “We must resupply.”
She looked out into the swells. Far in the distance, she could see the silhouette of a single destroyer marching along. She fired a magic burst high above to alert them and smiled. “They have arrived. Captain, we cannot retreat. This is our stand. We must sink the Bismarck and her consort.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Over the next hour, the three destroyers materialized though the rain and fired at the cruiser from behind it, now in range. The missing S-boats spat as well, appearing on the consort ship’s starboard side not five hundred yards off the beam. Their two four-inch guns (combined) didn’t look like they’d do much, but at that range, they scored numerous hits on the superstructure despite their gyrating gun platforms. Combined with near invisibility due to the weather, and neither Galaxy nor Eclipse sustained hits.
The consort--it had to be either a small battleship or large cruiser--unleashed its secondaries in panic. There was not a moment where the ship had nothing booming from its sizzling barrels and wild turrets. Her lower superstructure was set ablaze as four-inch high-explosive rounds exploded on contact and blasted chunks of metal into slag. An unarmored secondary gun** blew up, spraying hot debris into the crews of the adjacent guns. Others quickly followed, leaving the cruiser with almost no protection from the two invisible S-boats and three fresh tailing destroyers.
As Luna watched from her perch, the cruiser’s aft turrets turned to the destroyers. She heard their deafening roar as they fired individually, using each previous shot to correct their aim. Four rounds a minute slammed into the already-high seas, drenching her ships more than the ocean ever could. Then it happened.
The center destroyer, flagged as Cadenza, simply blew up. Burning bodies and ammunition were flung like rag dolls through the air, the ponies dead before they hit the water. Shrapnel turned Silvercrest into a pin cushion and killed half of her on-deck crew. Silvercrest coasted to a halt as her engineering plant flooded from her perforated hull while her crew dragged ponies out of the rain. Her medical ward had to be full with wounded, and she’d joined the battle only half an hour ago. Damage control struggled to keep her afloat.
Luna forced herself to turn back to the battleship ahead. They would either save their ship or call for Goldstar to take them off. She had to finish it here and now, while her enemy was hampered by the squall. Once Bismarck sailed past, she had no hope of catching her. Not with the damage Redemption had sustained so far. A near miss had taken one of the screws, and a hit from one of Bismarck’s big guns blew off her aftmost boilers. Redemption simply didn’t have the speed. Not anymore.
“Captain Thunderstrike, steam parallel to the enemy. Aim for her superstructure. Perhaps our shells will fall upon her deck or destroy her upper decks instead of bouncing off her hull,” she ordered.
Redemption heaved over a wave and staggered as another hit slammed into her upper mast. With a screeching wail, it doubled over and collapsed on the deck. Several Unicorns converged on the wreckage and combined their magic to lift it overboard, clearing the deck. Her less-than-stellar maneuverability somehow dodged every shot after that for the next five minutes, and Luna took every opportunity that presented.
Now aiming at the thinner armor on the deck and superstructure, Redemption’s shells were actually doing something. As the two ships drifted closer despite efforts to keep their range, she saw that her fleet had actually dealt some damage to the great battleship. Several holes where multiple shot had broken the armor had blown jagged bulkheads against the hull, resulting in scattered machinery and torn steel dangling from holes the size of a pony. Oil leaked from both ships’ tanks, leaving thick black ooze trailing between them.
Using a scrying spell to find the large cruiser, Luna saw that Galaxy and Eclipse were wrecking its port side. Repeated hits aimed with magic left a massive gash that resembled a horizontal canyon in its belt from just forward of its frontal turrets to the amidships seaplane catapult. Ugly black smoke billowed from its single stack, and Luna knew the engineering plant had been hit. The cruiser slowed to a halt as orange flames licked its sides and consumed its lower decks. Not even the pelting rain could kill the fire. Unless its damage control could contain it, the cruiser was nearly done for. The fire would eat its way to one of the magazines and--
Kra-KROOOOOOMMM!!
The explosion jolted Luna back into her body. She looked to where the cruiser had been and saw an enormous orange mushroom grow from its forward turrets. The turrets themselves were flung into the sky and splashed alongside, quickly sinking under their weight. Surprisingly, the bow hadn’t been knocked off. Instead of destroying the ship, the explosion had gone up and out, taking only the turrets to the bottom. But the aft magazine was still in danger, and not a minute passed before it also blew. This time, the guns had been in the reloading process, and the propellant detonated before the ship’s anti-flash doors had been sealed again. The entire aft section ripped from the cruiser under a pall of fire and pelting rain.
She turned back to the Bismarck. “Captain,” she ordered, her voice and hooves shaking, “your orders remain unchanged. Sink all enemy combatants.” Her eyes wide, she couldn’t push the image of the cruiser’s sudden, violent destruction from her mind.
“Yes, ma’am,” Thunderstrike calmly replied. In a raised voice, he called, “All unicorns to the deck! Broadside with destructive spells on my mark.” It took a few minutes, but soon Redemption’s starboard side was lined with seething Unicorns ready to strike. “Aim for the waterline. Three, two, one, mark!”
Coordinated with the guns, the spells slammed into Bismarck’s hull, ripping through it like foil and melting the bulkheads beneath. Explosions throughout the ship added to the cacophony of fire and flame. An armor-piercing round, its turret having run out of high-explosive shells, bounced off an inner bulkhead and fell through two decks to detonate in the boiler room. It blew rivets from the hull around it, forcibly removing armor plate and foundering the battleship.
As the Princess of the Night watched, scuttling charges blew the bottom of the hull out to prevent Bismarck’s capture. A piece of her keel surfaced briefly before the air pocket under it escaped. The it sank again as the battleship turned turtle to expose her undamaged starboard side.
“Cease fire,” Luna called. “Have all ships make for Manehattan if they can make it. We’ll stay out to look for survivors.” The deed done, she lowered her head in sorrow.
Redemption pulled into Manehattan Harbor with the dawn, the barely-floating hulk of Amore towed behind her. The rest of her diminished fleet had dropped anchor the day before and had transferred all wounded ashore. Princess had come out to take the two ships’ wounded off and later returned to escort them home.
As the creaking old cruiser came to a halt by the new Navy dock, Luna watched Celestia emerge from the crowd. The elder alicorn waited gracefully at the gangway, thanking sailors for their service as they disembarked. But when Luna herself reached the dock, Celestia held her in a tight embrace, tears streaking her white fur.
“I’m so glad you’re safe,” she cried. “I thought you’d never return. When the destroyers pulled in yesterday and you weren’t with them, I feared the worst.”
“I thought I prepared. I read countless books, sailed with our allies, everything. I wasn’t ready for this, sister. Nothing prepared me.”
And the two sister cried together, one relieved, the other with fear. But both knew that with the other close by, nothing could hurt them.
Author's Note
Kriegsmarine = the German Navy
Prinz = prince
Kapitan = Captain
Unterseeboot = submarine, literally "undersea boat"
Leutnant = Lieutanant
Admiral = Admiral. (oddly enough, it's the exact spelling as in English)
**To be clear, the Prinz Eugen was armed with 12 10.5cm Flak 38 guns for her secondary battery, which could fire at both ground and air targets. They were mounted in pairs and had no turret armor.
Also, my research led to believe that the detonation of a turret magazine aboard a German cruiser was subject to less damage than its British counterparts. A prime example is the Seydlitz, which, due to German firing procedures and magazine protection, only destroyed the turrets, and the ship was able to return to port for repairs. I decided to include this kind of explosion in Prinz Eugen's death to show that it can actually happen. The cause, however, is probably less realistic.
Feedback is most definitely appreciated (for the purpose of improving my other war stories). However, here's the question I want you all to answer in the comments below:
Should Luna have waited to engage Bismarck? Or should she have avoided confrontation altogether until her fleet was larger?
