For a long while, the voyage of the USS Texas went very smoothly. The seas were calm, and even though there were a few clouds, there was no sign of any rain, never mind any more bad storms! There was a bit of wind, and while this did blow some sea spray up over the bow of the Texas, it made the US Navy Jack on the flagpole at the tip of the bow flap strongly, just as it did for the American Flag that was flying on the flagpole at the tip of the stern. Interestingly, the US Flag that we were flying right then only had 48 stars on it, as there were only 48 US States when the Texas was retired in '46. Why were we flying this flag? Well, while it was "officially" to keep up the WW2 experience (which had already gotten way more bang for its buck than we could have possibly imagined!), there were whisperings that someone had screwed up back in Mobile, and accidentally hoisted a US Flag with 48 stars instead of 50, though no one was sure how it had happened. In any case though, the flag was historically accurate for the time-period, even if it had been made much later.

Down below decks, those in charge of the food for the 200 crew of the Texas decided that they'd had enough of pre-packaged food (most of the rest of the crew wholeheartedly agreed with them!) and they decided to take some of the food that was being stored in the pantry and elsewhere, and make a fresh breakfast for the crew. Granted, there were only 5 guys in charge of the food, but while they were not chefs, they did know how to cook, and do it well.

"Boy howdy! We've got loads of good food in here to cook for the guys!" One of them called to the others when he saw the fully-stocked pantry and scullery.

"Yeah, no kiddin' Bret! And we may not be professionals, but we're sure gonna make it count, right Guys?"

"You got that right Del!"

"Here here!"

After a little bit more cheering, they all washed their hands again, put on aprons and hats, and went to work. They washed, peeled, and grated potatoes to make hashbrowns, went next door to the galley to the bakery to make some fresh bread for toast and french toast (yes, Texas has her own bakery), and in the butcher shop close by (yes, Texas has a butcher shop too), they were able to find enough pork to make sausage patties. They also cut up some fruit, began brewing coffee, and in the area for storing cold foods, eggs for scrambled eggs were also found.

All 5 of them were really scurrying around, but once the smells of breakfast began to waft through the ship, they knew that it was all going to be worth it in the end.

"Hey Bret?"

Bret looked up from the eggs that he was cooking. "Yeah Del?"

"Do you remember how many cooks and the like Texas had on her when she was in service?"

Bret thought for a second. "Well, from what I recall hearin' in the past, as of 1935, the Texas had 26 commissary personnel, which included cooks, specialty cooks, butchers, and bakers, in addition to 38 mess stewards. This was before WW2 though, so those numbers could have gone up around that time."

"Yeah, maybe. I just wish that we had more help. There's only 5 of us, and we have 195 guys to feed on this ship beside ourselves! After breakfast, I know that we'll get help with the dishes, but then we gotta make lunch, AND dinner before we reach Galveston!"

Bret winced. "Yeah, you're right Del. It ain't gonna be easy. Maybe we can enlist some more help come lunch and dinnertime."

"Hopefully we can."

By about 7:36am, the food was ready, and Captain Bob sent a handful of guys at a time down to the enlisted mess so that they could get their food, eat it, and then clean up and get back to their duty stations before he sent more guys down. (It was easier to feed everyone on the ship in waves in the enlisted mess, as they only had 5 guys cooking; not enough to staff both the enlisted, and the officer's mess).

"Man, this food is amazing!" Ted said as he ate. "It feels like I'm at my Grandma's house outside of Amarillo again."

I agreed with him. "Yeah, I know what you mean Ted. Those guys in the kitchen REALLY know how to make good home-style cooking! I thanked them for breakfast when I was in line getting food, but I'll be sure to thank them again once I'm leaving."

"Yeah, so will I David."

After we finished our food, both Ted and I, as well as a few others, stuck around for a little while longer to help with the dish washing. There was a machine to wash the dishes, but it was still a bit tedious to dump/scrape everything into the trash, then rinse the trays, cups, and silverware off, and then finally put everything into the dish washing machine. We didn't have to put the dishes away, but washing them was hard enough. As we were heading back upstairs, I looked at my watch, and I noticed that the time was 7:36am. I knew that this was impossible, as we'd been moving at full speed for almost 2 hours now, and Time had started moving again at 7:30 when the engines started up. I checked my watch, but while it was still working, the hands were seemingly frozen in place.

"Is Time moving, or is it not?" I wondered, "This is getting REALLY friggin' confusing! Can Time just decide if it wants to move or stay still already?! Or better still, when will Time just move normally again?!" Once again, I had no answers, but I was really hoping that the whole thing with Time would be resolved soon.

Maybe 3 hours later, at 7:38am, the captain of the North Star radioed Captain Bob.

"Go ahead North Star."

"Captain, it looks like we might have a lot of fog coming in maybe 15 miles ahead of us. We can see a lot of low cloud cover just beyond the horizon. This might be a bit of a hazard to our navigation."

Captain Bob then radioed up to the lookouts in the mast, and asked them if they could see any fog, or any low, heavy cloud cover.

"Affirmative Captain. We can see what looks like fog right where the North Star said that it would be. It looks like it goes on for miles both to the Northeast, and to the Northwest."

Captain Bob then picked up a pair of binoculars that he'd grabbed from a supply closet as he was coming back from breakfast earlier, and walked out onto the starboard bridge wing to see what he could see.

"Yes, I see what you mean lookouts. That looks like a fog-bank alright, and a thick one too."

"What are we going to do Captain?" One of the lookouts asked.

Captain Bob then walked back into the bridge, and turned to Adam. "Lieutenant?"

He looked up from his table. "Yes Captain?"

"As I'm sure that you've heard, there's a fog-bank coming up ahead of us, and it looks to be a thick one. If we had to go around it, how much time would that add to our voyage?"

"Well, that depends. How far does the fog-bank stretch?"

"We're not sure Lieutenant. The tugs only have regular radar, not Doppler radar. According to our lookouts up in the mast, they say that it stretches for a number of miles both to the Northeast, and the Northwest."

Adam looked over his maps and charts. "Well, as of right now, we're about 300 miles off the coast of Texas. If we veer too far off course, that could add a lot of time to the trip. Even if we veer just 50 miles off course, that's 50 miles to make up again, and we don't know how long that fog-bank is. It could be 1 mile long, or it could be 100 miles long, and this isn't even talking about how thick it could be either. I can't give you proper numbers unless I have accurate data, and that doesn't seem to be soon in coming."

Captain Bob then had a decision to make. Do we go through the fog, or try and find a way around it, and then get back on course on the other side of the fog-bank? He didn't know, but he had to make a decision soon. Briefly, he did contemplate sending up the Kingfisher seaplane to see what it could see, and that might have worked, but the 2 pilots had very little experience with flying in fog. They had flown at night, and in some low-visibility environments, but Captain Bob didn't want to send them out. Call it a gut feeling, but he had a feeling that something was going on. Time wasn't working right, they couldn't contact anyone on the US Mainland, or the US Navy and US Coast Guard, and there was not a single ship or plane to be seen. Now there was a fog-bank coming up, and what if he sent that plane out, and it never came back? He didn't want to risk any needless deaths, or more disappearances, so he decided against using the seaplane. Finally, he came to a decision.

"Ensign Weaver?"

Dennis looked back from the helm. "Yes Captain?"

"Turn over the wheel to Ensign Gardner."

"Yes Sir." Dennis then stepped back from the helm, and I took over.

"Are we going through the fog Sir?" I asked him, a hint of nervousness in my voice.

"We are Ensign. We have our radars running, and the tugs have their radars running, so we should be able to see any issues before we run into them." He then looked out towards the upcoming fog. "Take us into the fog Ensign Gardner."

I nodded, still a bit worried. "Yes Sir." I then turned the wheel ever so much, and we were on course for the fog-bank, and would reach it in maybe 12 minutes or so.

Sure enough, at 7:38am, we reached the fog-bank, and were soon enveloped by it. Levels of visibility dropped from 100%, down to about 1% in less than 5 minutes, and it got really dark, almost as dark as night.

"Ensign Walker?"

"Yes Sir?"

"We can't risk running full-speed in the fog. Bring us back to half-speed."

"Yes Sir." Ted then grabbed the engine order telegraph, and brought it from "Full Ahead", back to "Half", and Texas's speed dropped from about 21 knots (24.16mph), down to only about 11 knots (12.66mph).

"So I take it that we're going through the fog Captain?" Dalton asked from the engine rooms.

"Yes CE, we are. I have to cut our speed, just in case we bump into something out there that our radars, and the tugs's radars can't see."

"Yeah, that's a smart move Captain, even though it'll drag out the length of our trip. Better to get there safely than to not get there at all."

"Nothing truer than that CE. I'll keep you posted on the status of the fog-bank, but so far it's about as dark as night, and visibility is below 5%."

"Yeah. That's not good, though thanks for any updates. CE out."

Time crawled on as we were in the fog, and my watch eventually showed that it was now 7:40am. We'd been in the fog for at least a few hours now, and while progress seemed slow, we were still moving. (How could we tell Time when our watches and clocks were not working right? Stopwatches. A handful of guys had stopwatches with them for one reason or another, and that was the only way to tell Time at a time where Time was seemingly moving in slow motion. Let them run for 60 minutes, and an hour has passed. It was rudimentary, but it was all we had).

None of us could see anything in the fog. All we could see was darkness, more fog, and whatever our imaginations allowed us to see, ranging from dark blobs, to strange wispy shapes.

"I wonder how much farther we have to go until we're out of the fog." Ted wondered.

I shrugged. "I dunno Ted. If I had to take a shot in the dark, I'd say that we have maybe 50-100 miles to go, and then we're on the other side of it, and can finally see more than 5in in front of the bridge!"

"Yeah. We can barely even see Turret 2, never mind Turret 1, or even the rest of the bow!"

"I'm just glad that the 3 tugs are attached to each other with lines, and that the lead tug North Star is connected to the stern of the Texas by lines, so that way we don't lose anyone in the fog."

I looked back at him. "Yeah, me too Adam. And they're using their own engines to keep up, so they don't put a strain on Texas's 2 engines at all."

Suddenly though, Captain Bob received a call from the ship's main radar room.

"Go ahead Radar Room."

"Captain, we just picked up a few other small blips on our surface-search radar screen. They were maybe 20 miles away from us off our port side, but they kept dropping in and out. Either our instruments are screwed up because of the fog, or there's something out there."

Captain Bob was deeply concerned. "How many blips did you see?"

"We counted 3, but usually only 1 or 2 were visible at any given time. They were coming and going too fast to be submarines, so maybe they were either fishing boats, or some other small vessels."

"And how many are on screen right now?"

"None Sir. All 3 blips have disappeared, but they could reappear again. What do we do?"

"Standby." Captain Bob then radioed the 3 tugs, and asked them to check their radar scopes for any other vessels.

"Negative Captain. We've got nothing." The captain of the North Star reported. The captains of the Pelican and the Jupiter said the same.

"Radar Room, keep a VERY close eye on this. Those could have been fishing vessels, or they could have been some kind of attack vessels, or even smuggling boats. Fog like this would be quite ideal for running something illegal."

"We will Captain. You can count on it!"

Captain Bob then put down his radio, and sent word to the lookouts on watch to keep a very watchful eye out for any other possible vessels in the fog, as something had been spotted on radar, but had dropped off the screens.

"Will do Captain."

Captain Bob then turned back to look out of the forward portholes on the bridge, completely unaware that his vessel, as well as the 3 tugs had been spotted in the fog, and the sighting was being reported elsewhere.

By about 7:45am, with there still being no signs of the fog breaking, though it was getting a bit lighter within, the crew in the radar rooms had another report.

"Captain, I'm not sure how this is possible, but we're seeing land."

"Land?" Captain Bob asked. "What land?"

"It's at the very edge of our radar screens, so it must be approximately 100 miles away from us, and we're detecting it towards our port and starboard sides, so it appears that we're heading right towards it."

Captain Bob checked with the 3 tugs, and sure enough, they spotted it on their radars too.

"Yeah, we're seeing land too Captain Bob. I'm not sure how we're seeing land, as I thought that we were still almost 300 miles or so off the coast of Texas, but then again, with how Time has been working as of late, maybe we covered a lot of distance in that time."

Captain Bob wasn't so sure. "Yes, but we've been traveling at only half-speed. That should have increased our travel time, not made it get less." He then looked over at Adam. "Lieutenant?"

"Yes Captain?"

"What's our current position?"

Adam looked at his maps for the umpteenth time that day. "According to all the current data, we're still about 300 miles off the coast of Texas. As for what the radar crews are seeing, I do not know. We're roughly 200 miles off the coast of Louisiana, and there's no other land out here that I know of."

"Is it possible that we've traveled farther in the fog than we thought that we did, even at half-speed?"

Adam then looked at the stopwatch that he'd been provided with, compared it to his watch, then took a pencil and a ruler, and began to look at the map where he marked our location. He was silent for a number of moments while he was working.

"Be a navigation officer my Mom said. You're so great with math, maps and numbers my Mom said. Why did I listen?" He thought while he worked. "Any job in the Naval Reserves, and I picked navigation. It would have been great......but unfortunately we've been knocked back to WW2 in terms of navigation technology! Yes we have GPS's, but none of them can get a f@#king signal for some reason!"

Finally though, he had the answer that he needed. "Well Captain, I've done all the calculations, and according to all of the available data......we're still 250 miles off the coast of Texas. I don't know how our radars are seeing land at 100 miles, but we're still too far out for our radars here on the Texas to be able to see it. I've checked and double-checked everything Sir. I don't know what else to tell you."

Captain Bob was genuinely perplexed. While it was possible that Adam had made some kind of mistake, he was a trained navigational officer, and he trusted his judgment. If he said that we were still 250 miles off the coast of Texas, then we really were 250 miles off the coast of Texas, and should not be seeing any land on our radar, which only extended to about 100 miles. However, we were seeing land on the Texas's radar, and on the radar of the tugs, which was a real conundrum. Were we really closer to our destination than what the data suggested? Had we been knocked off course without realizing it?

"Keep an eye on that land." He told the radar operators on both Texas, and the 3 tugs, "Let me know if it appears to just be some kind of an island, or a much bigger landmass. That will tell us if it's the US Mainland or not."

"Yes Sir. We'll keep you posted, though if you ask me, it seems too big to just be a little island to me."

"Noted Ensign. Just keep an eye on those screens."

"Yes Sir." The radar techs then went back to looking at the screens.

They kept watching for a long time, and the dull "ping" of the radar, the white sweeping line, and the 4 dots that represented the Texas, and the 3 tugs were getting a bit monotonous, but now they also had to watch the series of lines at the very top of the screens that indicated the unknown landmass, in addition to watching for any other blips that indicated other ships. Every now and again, a few other little blips would appear, but then disappear a few moments later. However, 2 blips appeared, and then stayed constant. This was immediately reported to the bridge, and it was noted that the 2 blips, which appeared to be small vessels, were located perhaps 10 miles off Texas's starboard side. Attempts to contact the vessels were made by the 3 tugboats, but they never received any replies, or heard any static indicating that the ships had radios. No attempts were made to use the radios in the primary radio room on the Texas either. The 2 vessels didn't move any closer, but did start moving away after a few minutes, and eventually disappeared from the radar screens again. This incident was strange, but things were about to start getting a whole lot stranger.

A few hours later, at about 7:50am, the fog was beginning to clear. We could start to see sunlight, though our visibility was still somewhat poor, hovering at about 35%. More reports of other small vessels kept coming in from the radar room, though they often disappeared just as quickly, and then came the report from one of the lookouts that they seemingly spotted a vessel.

"Maybe a mile off the starboard side Sir! I saw a small boat appear out of the fog for a moment, but then it was gone again. It might have been a small fishing vessel."

"This is getting strange." Captain Bob muttered. "Why do these vessels keep popping in, but then popping back out so quickly? Is it because we're sailing past each other? Or is it because they're doing something illegal that they don't want us to see?" He then picked his radio up again. "Just keep me posted Lookout."

"Yes Sir."

"And do we have anything on the radios?" He asked the captains of the Tugs.

"That's a negative Captain Bob. Either they don't have radios, or they have their radios turned off. We keep sending out the standard signals asking if there's any vessels in the area, but we can't get any replies."

Captain Bob still didn't give the order to try the Texas's radios, as there still didn't seem to be a point to that.

"And how far away from the land are we Lieutenant?" He asked Adam.

"We're about 30 miles Sir. In another 45 minutes or so, assuming that the fog clears, we should be able to see the coastline just beyond the horizon."

"And then we can hopefully finally get some real answers as to why we haven't been able to contact the US Navy, the Coast Guard, or anyone else on the US Mainland, not to mention all of the little boats that keep popping in and out!"

Adam nodded. "Hopefully so Captain. I'm just as baffled as you are."

"Same here." Dennis added.

"Me too."

"What Ted said." I finished. "Once we make landfall, then everything should finally become clear."

Captain Bob looked at all of us. "I'm hoping so too Boys. And at the rate it's going, give it maybe another 45 minutes or so, the fog should clear out. It's already starting to lighten a good bit, so it should be lifting fully here before too long."

We all agreed, and Adam reset his stopwatch to count 45 minutes, and we were all hoping to soon see the US coastline. It took a little bit longer than expected, but by about 8am, a cry was heard from the lookouts.

"Land ho! 15 miles dead ahead!" This was confirmed by the radar crews on the Texas, and on the tugs.

Captain Bob went out in front of the bridge, and he looked with his binoculars. Sure enough, there it was. Way off in the distance, almost to the edge of the horizon, he could just make out the edge of what seemed to be the US Coastline. He went back on the bridge, and got on the radio, as well as the ship's intercom.

"Attention all hands on the Texas, this is your Captain speaking. I just wanted to let you all know that we've spotted the US Coastline! Within the hour we'll be fully within sight of the good old Lone Star State, and then it'll just be another 50 miles or so north to Galveston! We're almost home!"

From all over the Texas, and on the 3 tugs there came the sounds of cheers. We'd been at sea for what felt like days (and with how Time had been out of whack, maybe it was), and now it seemed like our journey was finally almost at its end. Even the 5 guys down in the galley were cheering, even as they were starting to scurry around to get lunch ready for the crews, even though it was only about 8am.

"Well, we're almost home Guys." Del said to the others. "Almost home to Good ol' Texas!"

"Yeah, we're almost there. Just another 50 miles North, and then we're FINALLY to Galveston! We're so close now!"

"Hence the reason why we're making a celebratory lunch?" One of the others asked.

Del nodded. "Yeah, that's why we're making a celebratory lunch. We've come this far, and now our journey is almost at its end."

Well, that's what we all thought anyway. We kept sending out radio messages towards the coast, but we still weren't receiving any replies. Suddenly though, as we were closing in on 10 miles from shore, there suddenly came a call from the lookouts.

"Lookouts to Captain! Come in please!"

"Go ahead Lookouts. What do you see?"

"Well Sir, the fog has cleared up a lot, and we're looking at the coastline, but Sir, I've seen Texas, and what I'm lookin at right now ain't it!"

Captain Bob was confused. "Huh? What do you mean Lookout?"

"Just what I said Sir. I don't know what we're lookin' at, but it ain't Texas Sir!"

"That's impossible!" He then went out onto the bridge wings, and after having Dennis take over the wheel, I followed him out there, also with binoculars in hand.

We both looked, and we couldn't believe what we wee seeing. We were looking at what appeared to be a coastal city, but it wasn't any coastal city that we'd ever seen before along the Gulf Coast. It was still a bit hard to see thanks to the fog, but we could just make out what seemed to be tall buildings, as well as what seemed to be a city port, and what looked to possibly be some sort of naval yard, but that should have been impossible, as we were way north of Corpus Christi.

Captain Bob then moved quickly back to the doorway of the bridge. "Ensign Walker?"

"Yes Sir?"

"All Stop!"

He was confused. "Sir?"

"Stop the engines! Something's wrong!"

"Yes Sir!" Ted then grabbed the engine order telegraph, and moved the levers from "Half-Ahead", all the way back to "Stop".

Down in the engine rooms, Dalton saw the engine stop order, and he was confused. However, he decided to ask questions later, and gave the orders to stop the engines. Other engineers were scurrying about trying to stop the engines, and soon Texas came to a complete stop, as did the tugs behind her. Once the ship was stopped, Dalton got on the radio with Captain Bob.

"What's going on Captain? Why did we stop the engines?"

"Because something's wrong CE. We're looking at the coastline up here, but everything's all wrong. I don't know what we're looking at, but I don't think that it's Texas."

"What does it look like?"

"We're looking at a coastal city CE, but the buildings look a bit different, and we're seeing what looks like a city port, and some kind of naval base, but we're way North of Corpus Christi. I don't know what's going on, but just to be safe, get ready to start the engines up again in a hurry. We don't fully know what we're dealing with here yet."

"Yes Sir. Keep me posted on all further updates."

"Will do CE. Captain out." He then went back to the bridge wing next to where I was standing, and looked through his binoculars at the coastline maybe 10 miles ahead of us. "Ensign Gardner, I have this strange feeling that we ain't in Texas no more."

"Yeah, I know what you mean Sir. But if we're not in Texas, then where the heck are we?"

"I have no idea Ensign."

We both then resumed watching the coastline, little knowing that not only had we been spotted some time ago, but at that exact moment we ourselves were being watched from the coastline, and things were about to get interesting.

On the other end of this spectrum, in the Equestrian coastal city of Fillydelphia, life was going on as normal. The sun was raised at about 7:05am, and even though it was a bit foggy that morning, Ponies were either going to work, or just getting off work (if they worked night shifts), the streetlights were going off, the city's streetcars were just starting their first trips of the day, as were the city's subways, and elevated trains. Some stores were just beginning to open, and parents were getting their kids up, and ready to go to school. It was a day like so many others for the Ponies of Fillydelphia, but yet, sometimes on the most basic of days, the most extraordinary things can happen.

Just past the Port of Fillydelphia, where a number of freighters and cargo ships were docked, and being either loaded or unloaded, the city's naval base, Fillydelphia Naval Yard, stood tall and proud. Not only was this naval yard a hub for building new ships, but it was also the permanent home of 24 active naval ships; 3 of them being battleships (bearing some resemblance to the US Indiana-Class Battleships), and the rest being 7 cruisers (both light cruisers, and early-design heavy cruisers), 8 destroyers, one hospital ship, and the rest being repair ships, supply ships, or oil tankers, all of which belonged to the Equestrian Second Fleet. Other ships would sometimes be stationed there too, but they would rotate around between the Fillydelphia Naval yard, and the naval bases in Manehattan and Baltimare.

It was the dawn of a new era in Equestrian naval technology, with steam engines and propellers toppling the sails and paddle wheels of yesteryear, just as welded steel ships were sweeping away the wooden, and even armored wooden ships of the past, and breech-loading rifles, and other similar naval guns were replacing the muzzle-loading cannons on capital ships. The need for such a powerful navy started about a decade earlier with needing better and more powerful ships to ward off pirate attacks on Equestrian ships, as well as better protecting the Equestrian East Coast, though this need later evolved as a necessity to match the might of the Griffon Navy, which was Equestria's rival at the time. An uneasy peace eventually turned into an alliance between Equestria and the Griffon Kingdom, though the 2 nations still considered themselves rivals on some levels. Recently, a series of shore batteries were added to the area around the Fillydelphia Naval Yard to help deter a new kind of threat; possible ship-to-shore invasion, as did a brand new invention. It was only a prototype at the time, but the inventor, who called it "radar", said that it could be used to see threats up to 50 miles away from the shoreline. It was hoped that this new "radar" could help detect incoming threats.

On that October 3rd morning, the stallion in charge of Fillydelphia Naval Yard, 57 year old Rear-Admiral Sky Seas, was standing on the roof of the building where his office was, looking out over the naval yard, and then past it to the Fillydelphia Harbor, and out towards the foggy sea. He often did this every morning when he had a few spare moments, and longed for the days when he was still a junior officer, and served on a ship instead of at a base. He longed for those days, but with him now being a rear-admiral, and in charge of the Fillydelphia Naval Yard, him returning to sea seemed to be little more than a pipe dream. However, when the Rear-Admiral returned to his office, a messenger was waiting for him.

"Admiral, I've got reports for you here from the radio station on the base. They picked up reports from several fishing vessels, and one or two cargo ships of an unknown vessel that had been sighted in the fog, maybe 300 miles off the coast of Fillydelphia. They said that it seemed to be a larger vessel, but what it was was uncertain, as they only saw it for a brief time in the fog, and it was far away. The cargo ships tried to hail the vessel with signal lamps, but received no replies."

"Did anyone try to radio the unknown vessel?"

"No Sir. The cargo ship didn't have a radio, and nor did the fishing vessels."

The Rear-Admiral shrugged. "Hmm. Well this doesn't seem to be too unusual yet. It was a vessel in the fog, and far out to sea. It could just be one of ours, and they missed the signal lamp, as it is pretty foggy out at sea right now." He then told the messenger to alert the officer in charge of the radio operations to keep him informed of any new developments, and he then sat down at his desk, and got to work on the morning's paperwork.

However, maybe 15 minutes later, more reports came to the Rear-Admiral's desk of sightings of the unknown vessel. It was seemingly sailing straight towards Fillydelphia, but because the few vessels who had spotted it were far away, and it was still foggy, none of them had gotten a clear look at it, though one of the cargo ships that did have radio reported hearing some static, meaning that the unknown vessel did have radio, but because they weren't sure what frequency they were using, they were unable to contact them. The most recent reports stated that the unknown vessel was maybe 250 miles from Fillydelphia and closing, which meant that it was most likely powered by a steam engine, as it was moving too fast to have been powered by sails.

By about 7:30am though, the reports were starting to get more worrying. An Equestrian salvage vessel that was returning to port spotted the unknown vessel, as well as what appeared to be 3 smaller vessels behind it maybe 200 miles off the coast of Fillydelphia. Once again, attempts were made to contact the unknown vessel, but once again, there were no replies, only faint static. The crew of the salvage vessel also noted with some worry that the largest of the now 4 unknown vessels, which was maybe 10 miles or so away from them, appeared to bear resemblance to a modern Equestrian warship, but it was much bigger. The Rear-Admiral then called a meeting with a few other high-ranking officers at the naval base to ask their input on the situation.

"So what do you all think? Is this something that we need to be concerned about or not?"

"Have we confirmed that the largest vessel is a warship, and if it is, who does it belong too?"

Sky Seas sighed. "That's the biggest problem, we don't know. The ship, as well as the 3 other vessels with it, were only seen from a distance in the fog, and only for a brief time. Nopony who's seen them has seen them clearly."

"Do you think.....do you think that they could be His ships?"

There was dead silence in the room when the officer said those words. Few of those in the room dared to say their current enemy's name out loud, or his nickname, by which he was better known.

"He has tried this before, but those were just raids. Why would he start escalating this now?"

"Dark Claw is a warlord." Sky Seas reluctantly replied. "He has proven unpredictable in the past, and this could be the next step to one of his plans. However, this is assuming that the vessels that we've seen are even his. They could be ours, or they could belong to the Griffons, Minotaurs, or maybe even the Dragons. We don't know, and that's the problem here."

This meeting went on for a while longer, but at 7:46am, another report came in, this time from an Equestrian destroyer that was out on patrol in the Celestial Sea, only about 100 miles off the coast of Fillydelphia. The destroyer had seen the unknown vessel, and for a moment had seen it clearly.

"It was definitely a warship!" The captain of the destroyer reported. "We only saw it for a few moments, but it was close to us, and I could see gun turrets on the upper decks! The ship was also pained a dark color, and failed to respond to radio hails! It disappeared back into the fog, but we're trying to find it again!"

Now everyone at the base was starting to get worried. The alertness levels were raised to Yellow Alert, and various sailors were being sent up to the shore batteries to get the guns ready to fire. Some warships were being maneuvered into positions to protect Fillydelphia Harbor should the need arise, while other naval ships out at sea were also hunting the unknown vessels, but due to the fog, and none of the ships having radar, this was proving to be a very difficult task. However, a few minutes later, another report came in from an Equestrian minesweeper, and this report was the most informative, and the most chilling. The Captain of the minesweeper saw not only the unknown warship almost completely clearly, but also the other 3 vessels that were tailing it as well, and saw a number of their details, as they were only about a mile off the vessels's port sides, and were seemingly never spotted by the crews of the vessels.

"I could see all 4 vessels clearly Admiral! The lead vessel was large, and it had to be powered by an engine, as it had no sails, but a stack that was belching smoke, and the noises of an engine could be heard. The ship was painted entirely a dark color, and it was a bit hard to tell because of the fog, but I could see at least 4 large gun turrets on the main deck, and a number of smaller guns on the main deck, and amidships! It's definitely a warship, and it's big, bigger than anything that we have in our Navy! And the 3 smaller vessels with it seemed to be 3 of the same kind of ship, and they also had an engine, as they too were moving on their own without the aide of sails, and had a stack with smoke coming from it. They seemed to be either much smaller warships, or maybe even fishing vessels, or possibly tugboats. We tried to contact all 4 vessels, but all we were getting was silence, and radio static. Whoever they are, they don't want to be contacted!"

When Sky Seas heard that, his worst fears were coming to life right before his very eyes. Immediately, he put the base on Red Alert status, the guns were all fully manned, the radar was sweeping the area within 50 miles of the coastline, and more vessels were manned, and ready to be used in defense. Warnings were also sent to the Fillydelphia Port, and the city itself that there was a highly-possible threat at sea, and while there was no lockdown order yet, one could come shortly. The mood was suddenly tense, and everypony wanted to know what was really going on.

Suddenly though, at about 7:50am, 4 dots appeared on the radar screens at the naval base The dots were moving closer to shore, and one was larger than the other 3. This must be the mysterious ships that they'd been informed about, and it was time to prepare for their arrival. All guns were manned, locked and loaded, soldiers from the military garrison in Fillydelphia were called to action, and several large cargo ships made ready to block the entrance to the harbor should that become necessary. Reports were also being sent to Canterlot that 4 unknown vessels were approaching Fillydelphia, and were so far unresponsive to any attempts at communication. There was a request for reinforcements to be on standby, and those at the naval base would keep them informed of any new updates.

"Get Canterlot on the line right now!" Sky Seas informed the radio operators at the base. "The Princesses have to know about this! This could be the Big One right here, and we HAVE to let them know about it immediately!"

"Yes Sir!" The messages were being sent, and the 4 unknown vessels were moving ever closer to the shoreline. They would arrive within the hour, and if they were hostile, the Equestrians would be ready to meet them head on, and fight them if they had to.

From the time that the 4 unknown vessels were spotted on radar, to the time when they would be able to be seen once they were about 15 miles away from the shore (as the distance from the shore to the horizon is about 15 miles) was the most tense period of time for everypony at the Fillydelphia Naval Yard in recent memory. They had no idea what they were going to be facing, only that the warship that was leading the 3 other vessels seemed to be bigger, and more powerful than anything that the Equestrians had in their navy. The fog was starting to clear at this point, but it was still a bit foggy, and they were hoping that they could spot the ship to open fire on it before it saw them, and could shoot first.

At about 7:50am, the radar techs reported that the unknown vessels were maybe 30 miles out, and closing. Then, 10 minutes later, at about 8am, it was reported that the vessels were about 15 miles out.

"15 miles out!" The radar techs reported. "The unknown vessels just crested the horizon! They can now be spotted as the fog clears!"

Every sailor and soldier manning every gun, and every sailor on all of the ships, as well as all those on the base were starting to sweat. It's true what they say; the fear of the unknown is the strongest kind of fear. The unknown was out there, and it was rapidly coming closer. However, at about 10 miles out, the vessels suddenly stopped.

"The 4 vessels have stopped!" The radar techs reported. "I say again, the 4 vessels have come to a complete stop!"

"Huh?" Sky Seas grabbed his spyglass, and took it up to the roof of the building where his office was, and used it to look out to sea.

The fog was indeed clearing, but it was still hard to see. He kept looking for the unknown vessels, before he finally spotted what must have been the warship. Its silhouette could just be made out in the fog, and it just seemed to be sitting there, its bow pointed towards the shore of Fillydelphia, but it was not moving. The 3 smaller vessels couldn't be seen, but the radar techs confirmed that they were still there. More attempts to contact the vessels by radio were made, but aside from static, there were no replies. It was clear that the ships had radio, and were maybe trying to use them, but were doing so on the wrong frequencies. For another few minutes, the ship just seemed to be frozen in place, but then reports came from the radar crews that the ship must have started its engine, as it was moving forwards again.

"The ship is moving! I say again the ship is moving towards us again!"

The Rear-Admiral had no choice now. The unknown vessels had failed to respond to any attempts to contact them, and were coming towards Fillydelphia, a city with a very large population, and military presence with unknown intent, so after giving the order to city officials for a city-wide lockdown, a warning had to be given.

"Fire one warning shot!" Sky Seas told the crews of one of the shore batteries. "Once the ship has passed the 8 mile-mark, fire the shot at it! Don't hit the ship, aim for the water next to it!"

"Yes Sir!"

Sure enough, once the ship hit the 8 mile-mark from the shore, the shore battery could see it clearly, and they opened fire on it, or rather, at the water off what would have been its starboard side. The shell landed in the water less than 50 yards off the ship's starboard bow, and in that moment, all Hell seemed to break loose.

Meanwhile, back out on the Texas, we were still trying to figure out what the heck was going on. We were still at a complete stop maybe 10 miles away from the coastline, and while there still was fog, the fog was slowly lifting. The tugboats were trying to raise the coastal city with their radios, but were only receiving static as a reply. This could indicate that they were using the wrong frequency, though they tried other frequencies, but still couldn't raise anyone. A few crews who were trained with radios were trying to use the radio equipment in the Texas's primary radio room, though while they too could only get static at first, they suddenly began to pick up music.

"Wait, you're picking up music?"

"Affirmative Captain! We seem to have been been able to tap into a civilian radio frequency. I don't recognize any of the lyrics from this song, but if you ask me, it sounds like something that the US Navy would play during WW2." The tech then hooked the radio up to the ship's intercom system, and soon all of those on the Texas heard the sounds of a female voice singing a song in English, but the lyrics were very unfamiliar.

We were all very surprised. It sounded like the female voice was singing a song about the Navy, but parts of the song made little sense. Brand-new battleships? No more sails? Big rifles and no cannons? And what's an "Equestria"? None of us had the foggiest idea.

"Well, we're getting radio music, so that means that there's life on the Mainland. Have you tried using the Texas's radio to reach out to anyone on the Mainland?" Captain Bob asked the radio techs.

"We're trying to now Sir. We just wanted you all to get to hear the music first. We're picking up static, so there are radios there, but we don't know what frequency they're using."

The radio operators tried for a while, but all they could get was static, and a few garbled messages, but they soon realized that while they were switching frequencies to try and contact someone, others must be switching frequencies too, thus making it impossible for them to communicate. They then explained this situation to Captain Bob.

"Hmm, so we can't raise anyone on the radio? Well then, I guess that we'll just have to pull into the harbor, and find somewhere to dock. Maybe then we can FINALLY learn what's going on!" He then walked back into the bridge, and I was following along behind him.

"Ensign Walker?"

Ted looked back at him. "Yes Sir?"

"All Ahead Slow. We're maybe 10 miles out, but we need to come in slowly."

"Yes Sir." He then moved the engine order telegraph to "Slow Ahead".

Down in the engine rooms, Dalton told the engineers there to get the ship's engines going again. "All Ahead Slow!" He called after moving the engine order telegraph to match what the bridge wanted.

Soon the Texas was moving again at about 8:10am, as were the 3 tugs. None of us noticed it at the time, but all of our clocks and watches were running normally again, and at normal speeds. Whatever was affecting them before had either finally left them alone, or no longer had any control over them. However, as we began to get closer to the shoreline, and the fog continued to lift, we could begin to make out more and more features of the city ahead of us.

"Is it just me, or does that city look very similar to Philadelphia?"

I looked with my own binoculars. "It's not just you Captain, I can see the resemblance too. But we're nowhere NEAR Philadelphia! And since when does Philly have a harbor that big, even border the ocean at all, have several airships flying overhead, not to mention the Philadelphia Naval yard having vintage warships, and coastal defense batteries?"

"What?" Captain Bob then looked with his own binoculars, and what he saw astonished him. Everything that I had just said was absolutely correct, and it made no sense. "What on God's green Earth...???"

However, Captain Bob's moment of astonishment was rudely interrupted. From towards the shoreline, both he and I, as well as the others on the bridge, the lookouts above us, and a few others who were on the deck at the time all heard a faint distant booming noise. Then, before we could fully register what that was, there suddenly came a resounding splash just off our starboard bow less than 50 yards away from us, with the impact throwing up a large column of water.

Dennis jumped a bit. "Whoa!"

"Damn! What the heck was that?!" Ted wondered in a startled voice.

"Did something crash into the water?" Adam asked.

I was looking at where the splash was with my binoculars. However, just as I realized what it was, Captain Bob beat me to the punch.

"Warning shot! That was a warning shot!"

We all froze where we were when we heard that. We had just been fired upon, we were outside of a city that resembled Philadelphia, but had many features that were different, we couldn't contact anyone on the US Mainland, or the US Navy or Coast Guard, and it was just now beginning to dawn on us that we were nowhere near Texas at all, and that we were now possibly under attack. In that one instant, Captain Bob made a decision that would forever change not only our lives, but also how we viewed the Texas. Captain Bob then slammed down an alarm button, and the battle alarms began to blare all across the ship.

"Battle stations! Battle stations!" He yelled over the ship's intercom. "Get to your battle stations now! This is not a drill! I repeat, this is not a drill! We are under attack by unknown forces! I say again, we are under attack by unknown forces! General Quarters, General Quarters!"

When everyone else on the ship heard that, reactions ranged from shock and disbelief, to even minor panic. The Texas was a Dreadnought Battleship that hadn't seen combat since 1945, and they were a crew of 200 engineers, volunteers, retired Navy personnel, and US Naval Reservists. All of us were about to go into combat for the first time in our lives (or for the first time in many years), and we were all scared. However, we had all trained for this in Naval Reserves training (sort of. We were trained for smaller ships like destroyers and cruisers), and now it was time to put that training into action. As fast as we could, the decks were all cleared, all exterior hatches and portholes were closed and locked down, all interior bulkhead doors were closed and locked down, guns were being manned and loaded, the crew in the galley had to stop mid-lunch preparations, shut off all the burners and the ovens, and secure everything just in case the ship took any hits, the 2 lookouts evacuated the mast for the safety of the conning tower, the radar and radio crews remained where they were, as did the crew in the engine and boiler rooms, but all of them were scared.

"This is it boys!" Dalton told everyone in the engine and boiler rooms. "This is what you've all been training for, or if you're like me, you have trained for, and it hasn't happened in years, but this is it! We're going into combat against unknown forces, so let's make this count!"

Up on the bridge, both doors were closed and locked, Dennis grabbed the wheel, Ted grabbed the telegraph, Adam grabbed a gun, I grabbed my binoculars while also watching the bridge's radar scope, and Captain Bob kept hold of the intercom. We also swapped out our sailor hats for helmets that were brought up from the supply closets, and helmets were also given out to everyone else in the crew who worked in an exposed area as well.

Captain Bob then looked at Ted. "Ensign Walker?"

"Yes Sir?"

"All Ahead Full! We need to make this next turn as fast as possible!"

"Yes Sir!" Ted grabbed the engine order telegraph, and pushed it to "Full Ahead".

Once the ship was moving fast enough, he turned to Dennis. "Ensign Weaver?"

"Yes Sir?"

"Hard to port! We need to give them a full starboard broadside if we have to!"

"Yes Sir!" Dennis then turned the wheel as far to the left as it would go, and soon Texas was turning as fast as her single rudder would allow. Eventually though, once the ship was in position with her starboard side facing the shore about 7 miles away from it, Dennis straightened out the wheel again. "On course Sir!"

"Good." He then gave the order to slow down and stop, so Ted set the engine order telegraph back to "Stop".

"Why are we slowing down and stopping Captain?" Dalton asked.

"Because we need to better gauge our targets CE. We need a show of force to intimidate them, and I think that their guns will have a hard time hitting us out here, based on how old they looked when I saw them earlier. However, as they were able to launch that one shell close to us last time, be ready to get the engines going again if shit hits the fan!"

"Roger that Captain."

Once the Texas came to a complete stop, the 3 tugs quickly detached themselves from the ship, and began to move behind her port side as rapidly as they could. All 3 put about 5 miles between them and the Texas before coming to a stop again, as they had no weapons or armor at all. It was now up to the Texas to defend them. At this same time, all 3 x 5in guns on the starboard side were manned and loaded, as were the Oerlikon cannons on that side, and some of the 3in, and quad Bofors 40mm AA guns. However, due to a lack of crew, only the 14in guns in Turrets 1, 2, and 4 were manned, and those turrets turned towards the coastal city, and their guns elevated to the proper levels to have the best chance of hitting key targets there; Turrets 3 and 5 were still in their original positions.

"Fire one warning shot from the 1st starboard 5in gun!" Captain Bob ordered. "Aim too low on purpose, as I want our shot to hit the water maybe 75 yards from the entrance to their harbor!"

"Yes Sir!" The gun crew then took aim, and for the first time since 1945, Texas actually fired a shot from one of her 5in guns. The shell landed in the water almost right on target about 12,320 yards away from the ship, and 75 yards away from the shore, still well within the 5in gun's effective firing range of 17,000 yards.

"Right on target Sir! Whoever fired that first shot should hopefully get the message loud and clear not to mess with us, and that any further shots will be responded to in kind!"

"Excellent work Boys!" Here though Captain Bob's face fell a bit. "Now let's just hope that it'll be enough if something else does happen."

We all felt the nervousness in Captain Bob's voice, as well as hearing it. In all honest truth, we were just as worried as he was. If something really did go wrong, we wouldn't have enough crew to really do too much about it. For now, all we could do was hope that whoever had fired at us would back off, and then reach out to us to talk peacefully.

After Rear-Admiral Sky Seas ordered the crew of that shore battery to fire at the unknown vessel, that seemed to set off some kind of alarm. For a few lingering moments more, nothing seemed to happen, but then the sounds of alarms blaring on the ship could just barely be heard, and it sounded like a call to battle stations. Then, the vessel suddenly began to increase its speed, and was heading right towards the shore!

"Oh Ponyfeathers! That's done it!" One of the gunners of the shore battery that fired the warning shot muttered after he saw what was happening with his spyglass. "Now we're all gonna die!"

"Admiral, do we fire again?" A gunnery officer asked.

"Negative Lieutenant. Do not fire again unless we're fired upon."

"Roger that Sir. But this is certainly strange. If that vessel was going to attack us, then why would they only now be going to battle stations? It's almost like they were at Condition Green until we fired that shot."

Sky Seas agreed. "Yes, it is very unusual Lieutenant."

However, things were about to go from unusual to scary once again. Not too long after this, the unknown warship began to turn hard to port.

"Admiral, the warship is turning hard to port!" One of the lookouts reported.

"Oh no, that could mean that they're about to give us a full broadside! All shore battery gunners prepare to fire on my signal!"

"Yes Sir!"

As everyone at the Naval Yard watched, the warship continued to turn until its starboard side was parallel to the shore maybe 7 miles away. Now that it was somewhat closer, and the fog had almost completely lifted, they were able to see it fairly clearly through their spyglasses. To their horror, they saw that the warship was most likely a battleship, and not only was it bigger than anything that they had in their navy, but that it also had 10 large guns in 5 main gun turrets, and a number of smaller guns as well. The vessel was painted all dark-blue, and a single smokestack was belching out black smoke. The vessel then seemed to slow down and stop, but then 3 of its gun turrets began to turn towards Fillydelphia, and were soon locked onto it.

"Wait. Why have only 3 of its gun turrets locked onto us Admiral?" One of the other officers asked Sky Seas.

He shrugged. "I do not know Captain Hammer. Perhaps because they think that they only need the guns in 3 of their main gun turrets to destroy us, or to cause us harm."

"I knew that this was gonna happen one day. I KNEW that it was only a matter of time before the Black Baron tried something like this! But my question is, where did he get the tools and resources to build a ship like that?! He hasn't had that kind of technology before, and I didn't think that he had the facilities to accommodate such a vessel!"

"I didn't think so either Captain. Unless this vessel belonged to the Griffons, and then his thugs stole it from them."

"And where did those 3 smaller vessels go Admiral? I can't see them anymore."

Sky Seas checked with the radar techs. "According to our radar techs, just after the warship finished turning, the 3 smaller vessels peeled out, and raced back out to sea as fast as they could, and came to a stop at a point about 5 miles behind the warship. Maybe they don't have any weapons."

"Yeah, maybe they don't."

Just after Captain Hammer said this though, a distant *Boom!* was heard, and then came a loud splashing sound maybe 75 yards away from the shore.

"The unknown warship has fired at us! I say again the enemy warship has fired at us!" A lookout reported.

"Do we fire at them Now Sir?" A gunnery officer asked.

"Which gun on the ship fired it? Did anypony see?" Sky Seas asked.

"It was fired from one of the smaller guns!" Another lookout reported. "It also appears that they fired too low on purpose, and they only fired the one shot!"

"That was probably a warning shot of their own. Alert me immediately if that vessel does anything else! NOTHING happens on that vessel without me knowing about it! Got that?!"

"Sir, Yes Sir!"

"Good!" Sky Seas then contacted the radio operators again. "Please tell me that you have been able to establish some kind of communications with that warship."

"We're trying Sir. We've been able to pick up a few garbled messages, but we can't seem to figure out what frequency they're using. It also appears that they're trying to contact us, but they keep switching frequencies too, while we're also switching frequencies trying to match them, so it's going nowhere."

Sky Seas then put a hand over his face. "Great. Just sea-flippin peachy!" After he calmed down, he added, "I need you all to send another message to Canterlot immediately. The Princesses HAVE to know about this latest development, in addition to the messages that I sent them before."

"Right away Admiral!" The radio techs then got to work on that as fast as they could, and the message was soon on its way to Canterlot.

Once the message was sent, Admiral Sky Seas then looked out towards the unknown warship once again. It still hadn't moved, and it hadn't fired any more shots, but he was still wary of it. "The Princesses will know what to do." He thought. "They always know just what to do in a time of crisis, as well as just who to send for the job." He then awaited a reply from Canterlot.

Up in Canterlot, the Rear-Admiral's latest report on the situation had just arrived, and Princess Celestia, as well as her sister Princess Luna, the rulers of all Equestria, awaited the report with much anticipation, as well as dread. They too had feared that something like this would happen one day, and they understood all too well why everypony at the Fillydelphia Naval Yard was so scared.

"So it seems that that traitorous Griffon ex-baron has finally reared his ugly head once again!" Luna spat with disdain.

Celestia nodded. "Yes, it appears so Sister. Or if not him, then either somepony else affiliated with him, or another new threat altogether."

"And has the unknown warship done anything since the Rear-Admiral's last report?"

"No Sister, it has not. After firing that warning shot, the warship has remained where it is, and hasn't moved, or fired its guns any more. Further attempts have been made to contact the ship, though aside from static, and a few garbled messages that haven't been understood yet, no communications have been made."

"And you have summoned your former Student and her Friends, right Sister?"

Celestia nodded. "Yes Luna, I have. They should be here anytime now, and once they have arrived, then we can fill them in on the situation."

A few minutes later, Twilight Sparkle, the former student of Princess Celestia, and now the Princess of Friendship arrived at Canterlot Castle, and she, as well as her 5 friends, and her faithful Dragon assistant Spike were ushered towards the throne room.

"I wonder what's going on."

Applejack shrugged "I dunno Fluttershy. Whatever it was though, it was serious enough that Princess Celestia asked us all to come immediately."

"Yeah!" Rainbow Dash agreed, "Otherwise we wouldn't have to have been here so quickly, and so early in the morning too!"

Twilight looked back at her friend in slight annoyance. "8:30am isn't as early as you think that it is Rainbow!"

Rainbow Dash scoffed, but before she could say anything further, the group reached the throne room, and the guards let them pass. Once they were all inside, they hurried to the thrones at the very front of the room, and the Princesses came down to greet them.

"Princess Celestia, Princess Luna." Twilight hugged her former teacher and her sister.

"Twilight." Celestia hugged her back.

"So what's going on?" She asked once she was done hugging. "Whatever it is, it sounded extremely urgent, and we all came as fast as we could."

"For which Luna and I are so thankful. And yes, the situation at hand is indeed urgent, and if it pans out, it means that our worst fears have been realized."

"Wait. Does that mean that King Sombra has escaped from Tartarus? Or that Queen Chrysalis has returned?! Or that the whole world is ending?! Or that we're all characters inside some random guy's story and we all do what he wants?!"

Everypony in the room looked at Pinkie in shock.

"Pinkie, where in tarnation do ya even come up with crazy ideas like that?" Applejack asked her.

Pinkie shrugged. "I dunno. It kinda just came to me. It could have been my Pinkie-Sense, but I don't know."

Twilight then gave Pinkie a look to keep her from talking needlessly, and once she took the hint, Celestia continued.

"We fear that Dark Claw, aka 'The Black Baron' has reared his head once again, and has sent a warship to attack Fillydelphia."

When Celestia said that, the Mane 6 and Spike all gaped in shock and horror.

"The Black Baron?! But how...?! How did he...?! Tell us everything you know about this!" Twilight finally managed to sputter out. Her friends could tell that she was panicking, and were doing their best to help her calm down. Once she finally was, Celestia began to explain.

"About an hour and a half ago, we received the first transmission from Rear-Admiral Sky Seas from the Fillydelphia Naval Yard that they'd picked up an unknown vessel, tailed by 3 smaller vessels on their radar. The vessels had so far failed to respond to any attempts to communicate with them, and the Rear-Admiral feared the worst. He called everypony to arms to meet the incoming threat once other vessels at sea seemed to confirm that the largest vessel was a warship, and that it was coming towards Fillydelphia. The 3 smaller vessels are either tugboats, or perhaps fishing vessels, as they were not nearly as large as the main vessel. Then, about a half an hour ago, the 3 vessels arrived at Fillydelphia, and came to within about 8 miles of the shoreline, and that action would soon be taken to stop the ships from coming any closer."

Luna then took up the story. "A little while after this, another report was sent to Canterlot confirming that the largest vessel was indeed a warship (most likely a battleship), and was one that was larger, and more powerful than anything that we have in our Navy. It was painted all blue, and 5 main gun turrets, each containing 2 large rifles were spotted on the deck, as were a number of smaller guns. The unknown warship had still failed to respond to any attempts at communication, so a warning shot was fired from a shore battery, which landed about 50 yards off the warship's starboard bow. This seemed to send an alarm across the vessel, and it turned hard to port so that its starboard side was parallel to the shore maybe 7 miles offshore, and 3 of the turrets moved into a firing position. Other observers noted that the other 3 vessels, all 3 of which were almost certainly tugboats, retreated several miles behind the larger warship, seemingly for protection. The warship then fired a single shell from a smaller gun, which also seemed to be a warning shot. Radio-Ponies continued to report that while they could get static and garbled messages from the ship, they were uncertain of what frequency the radios on it were using, but that they were still trying their hardest to prevent any unnecessary bloodshed."

"Does....does this mean that we're under attack Princess?" Twilight asked slowly.

Celestia sighed. "Unfortunately, we're still not sure Twilight. The warship has so far only fired one shot, which seemed to be a warning shot in response to that shore battery also firing a warning shot. It also has not moved from its current position. However, and the Rear-Admiral also found this very strange, the warship seemed to have been on Condition Green up until the first warning shot was fired, during which time the ship seemed to sound General Quarters, and after the ship turned, and the 3 smaller tugboats retreated, the guns were manned, and the turrets moved, though only 3 of them turned towards Fillydelphia; the other 2 turrets remained in their previous positions."

Twilight paused. "Wait. They were seemingly at Condition Green before our warning shot was fired? That's...unusual. Why would that be, assuming of course that they are here to attack us. That seems like a strange thing to do."

"That's exactly what Rear-Admiral Sky Seas said. He couldn't understand it either."

"And only 3 out of the 5 turrets have their guns pointed towards Fillydelphia?" Spike asked. "Why?"

The Princesses weren't sure. "Unfortunately, we do not know Spike."

"The Rear-Admiral thinks that it could be because the warship could destroy the city with only 3 turrets, but he's also in the dark about that." Luna added.

"And do we know who's crewing this warship yet?" Rainbow Dash wondered.

"Yes, are they the Black Baron's goons?" Rarity added.

Luna shook her head. "Once again, we still do not know. The upper decks of the warship were largely clear at first, but then creatures in what looked to be naval uniforms did come out from the lower decks to man some of the guns on the upper deck, however, due to the distances, their species remains unknown."

Twilight then asked an equally important question. "And...what are we going to do about it Princess?"

Celestia looked at her sister, who nodded, and then back at Twilight. "Luna and I are sending you all to Fillydelphia so that we can finally get some answers for why this unknown warship is here, who it belongs to, and who crews it. And if they really are with the Black Baron, then they must be dealt with. You've all saved Equestria before, and now it looks like you must do it again."

Twilight looked at her friends, as well as Spike. All of them knew how dangerous this mission at hand was, but yet so were the missions to defeat Nightmare Moon, Discord, Chrysalis, King Sombra, and Tirek. They'd risked their lives before, but now they had to do it again in the face of yet another threat. The other 5 Girls and Spike nodded, and then Twilight turned back to Celestia.

"We'll do it Princesses. We'll get to Fillydelphia, and then see what we can do to figure all of this out, and if it comes to it, we'll fight, and use the Elements of Harmony."

The Princesses were still somewhat worried, but yet this mission was a necessity. They wished Twilight, her friends, and Spike the best of luck, and told them that if any more reports came in from Fillydelphia, they would be the first to know about them while they were en-route to the city. Twilight and the others then said goodbye to the Princesses, and headed as fast as they could to the Canterlot Train Station, where they catch the next train to Fillydelphia. Normally, this trip would have taken 4 hours at the least, however, because all rail traffic to Fillydelphia was temporarily suspended under the circumstances, a special train was waiting to take the 7 of them to the city faster than normal. The time of the trip was shaved down to a mere 2 hours. As soon as they boarded, the train was on its way, and Twilight, her friends, and Spike, all ventured off towards the unknown.

Author's Note

And, that was Chapter 3.

Not only was there so much packed into this chapter, but it's also the longest chapter yet at 12,035 words. And now that First Contact has been made, and the Texas is just offshore of Fillydelphia, 2 warning shots have been fired; one from an Equestrian shore battery, and the other from a 5in gun on the Texas. Now an uneasy standoff has begun, a standoff which Twilight, the rest of the Mane 6, and Spike hope to resolve, and resolve peacefully. Who are these newcomers to Equestria, and what do they want? Where has the Texas ended up, and why were they being shot at? What will happen when Twilight and the rest arrive in Fillydelphia? Will they be able to break the stalemate? Will any more guns, Equestrian or on the Texas be fired again? And what could possibly happen next? Well, you all know the drill, stay tuned and I'll tell you!

In the meantime, as always, comments, feedback, questions, as well as spreading the word about this story are always appreciated, and I'll see you all again in Chapter 4!

ScarFox out for now!