Me and my crew had been lurking around a battleship, our submarine's tower just above the water's surface as we readied the torpedoes. I stood atop the tower, looking out at the ship, before suddenly I saw the barrels light up, followed swiftly by a shell whizzing past me. I dropped my binoculars and instantly opened the hatch, climbing inside.

"They're firing! Flood the tanks! dive, dive, dive!" I yell out to my crew as I shut the hatch above me

"Yes, Ma'am!" I hear from Light Stem as she turned the knob to bring us deeper, "Down to periscope depth."

"Hey Mesmer, I think I can shoot 'em!" Brightstar exclaimed as she looked through said periscope at the ship.

"That's Captain Mesmer to you, private," I corrected, "fire upon the CLS Hammerhead!"

"Yes, ma'am!" rang out from both Brightstar and Night Stem, the former of which trained the scope on her, and the latter which pressed the big red 'torpedo' button. Our sub briefly shook from the launching of the torpedo.

"Torpedo away, captain!" Night Stem saluted me proudly as Brightstar continued to look through the periscope, counting downwards.

"Five seconds, four, three, two, one!"

———————————————————————————————————————

The cardboard cutout of a boat fell over as it was hit with a tennis ball.

"Confirmed hit!" Brightstar says as she looks through a similarly cardboard periscope. "Victory!" She throws her hooves up, falling onto her back and knocking over one of the boxes making up our sub, giggling, and the rest of us do the same.

"Alright girls, time to wrap it up," Pathfinder says as he starts picking up the pieces of the mighty ERNS Conquerer, "We've got to get you four to school."

"Awwww…" All of us simultaneously express our disappointment as we proceed to help with the disassembly of our warship.

“Well hey, we can always put her back together tonight!” Night Stem reassured, putting some smiles back on our faces as we finished up putting away all the sub’s parts.

Our trip to school was rather uneventful. Not much happened, though I noticed that Night and Light Stem seemed a bit… off. They said something about Ms. Marigold and their parents, but I didn’t really catch anything more. Upon arrival we were met by a rather excited-looking orange mare, beckoning us in.

“Come, come, school is starting soon!” She said. School didn’t properly start for another ten minutes. Night and Light looked a bit more confused still, but didn’t have any time to consider anything as Ms. Marigold pulled us all inside. Most of the other kids had already been rounded up by Ms. Marigold, seated at their desks, confused by the rush. My friends went to their desks, but I was pulled aside by Ms. Marigold.

“I have something special planned for today,” She said, excitement in her voice, “a special lesson, if you will. One on leadership and royalty.” She zoned out momentarily, smiling lazily to herself before snapping back to reality. I think about it for a few moments before realizing what she meant, and give her a mischievous smile and nod, delighting her even further. “Let me just get the other students and we’ll begin. Head to your desk, please.”

“Sure,” I reply simply as I take my leave, sitting down at my desk next to Brightstar. I give her a little nudge, “this is going to be fun,” I tease, much to her interest. “You’ll see soon enough.” There’s a final shuffling of hooves into the classroom, Ms. Marigold rolled in a projector as the students took their seats, confused murmuring filling the room. She placed a reel of film into it and approached the front of the room.

“Good morning, students! Today we have a very special lesson on Equestrian history, specifically Equestrian royalty. Now, I’m sure we all know who rules Equestria,” Ms. Marigold explains, “but have you ever thought about if somebody else ruled? How would things change?” Confused murmuring proceeded to fill the classroom, snippets of ‘Discord,’ and ‘Cris-uh-lis.’

“Wouldn’t that be bad?” A blue pegasus asked.

“Well, yes and no. Discord would be a bad option for a ruler, but I believe the very best option is right here with us,” MS Marigold proceeds to turn the projector on, displaying a big spiral on the board, “Mesmera, my queen, would you please come forward?” Filled glee, I get up from my desk and swagger towards the front of the room, looking at all the mesmerized fillies and colts. Upon reaching the front of the room, I turn around, taking my base form again in a burst of flame and spreading my wings,

“Thank you, Ms. Marigold,” I acknowledged, “and thank you all for being here, not that you had much of a choice, really. You may continue now, Ms. Marigold.”

“Yes, my queen. What you see before you is who should truly lead equestria,” I flare out my wings a little more in response, “Mesmera is capable of great things, of showing people what it means to obey, and how nice it feels. I’m honored to have had the opportunity to share this to you myself.” As Ms. Marigold continued to preach about my royal status, I looked out upon the crowd of blank faces. It was almost weird seeing Light Stem with a blank sheet of paper in front of her. Well she certainly is drawing what’s on her mind~ I thought with a giggle. Even Hammerhead and Jackhammer were completely focussed on Ms. Marigold’s ‘lesson’ on obedience. I suddenly felt an inexplicable feeling of anxiety, which faded after a few seconds. It was probably nothing.

Author's Note

Hey, I'm really sorry I've been gone so long. Lots of things have been happening, school starting back up, social drama within my friend group, and I had to basically rewrite the chapter. I additionally have always been worrying that this might end up transitioning from what it should be into what is effectively a hypno fetish fic, and this is one of those scenes. I probably should focus more on those scenes rather than just glossing over them, and I'll try to do that and to be a bit more consistent with my writing. I hope you all enjoy.