Chapter 1
February 3rd, 1008
It was the day of the speech. A massive crowd gathered in Sunset before the capital to listen to the newly elected president's speech that they were apparently going to give. It had been decided before the elections were held that one would be given by whoever won the election.
Out of the two most likely candidates to win the election, Gladmane was the one who won. He had some special kind of ability to give speeches despite not having the cutie mark for one. He was able to rally many ponies across the country with the speeches though, despite a lot of griffons disliking him due to some of his promises he had made to build a wall along the Wingbardy and Talouse borders.
Outside of that, Gladmane was obviously a candidate for a weakened government that valued the economy over most, if not anything.
Kingfisher, who had been the only other likely candidate, had lost. He wasn’t that big on the speeches, either giving too few or too small of ones, which is why many believed he lost the election. It’s hard to win if no creature knows who you are.
He was more of an isolationist who wanted to better everycreature in New Mareland. He didn’t want to weaken the government like Gladmane though.
Kingfisher was attending the speech at the capital in the VIP section though, as Gladmane gave it.
Jet Set was also there. He was especially needed as he was the one who was hoofing over the position to Gladmane and giving up his role as Governor-General for it to be replaced by the new position as president.
He had run for the position as well but was instructed personally by Canterlot to not put effort in, which was a rumor that spread that was never dispelled by either him or the Equestrian officials who had worked in Sunset along side him. He didn’t win by a long shot. He was appointed by Equestria in the first place so many creatures didn’t see why they should vote for somepony that wasn’t a New Mareland native nor running with a clean slate from foreign influence.
There had been a few others who tried to campaign but they were running on the backing of support for Stalliongrad and other such countries. The mass majority of creatures in New Mareland had no reason to support such an ideology though.
But the other parties could all but listen now as they all watched the first president stand in front of them.
Gladmane stood on the podium, looking before the crowd of 600,000 before him, who were silent as they awaited him to speak. The crowd was bigger than his biggest rally he had in New Manehattan a few months before where 200,000 or so creatures came to listen.
Those numbers dwarfed the amount that were listening to the inauguration through the radio. It was the most publicized event in the history of New Mareland as nearly 3.5 million listened to the broadcast throughout the country. Who knows how many outside of it.
Stefan was one though. He was out of the country sailing the ocean currently on a cargo job where he wouldn’t be in the country for a few weeks.
Stefan sat in the ship dining hall as he listened to the radio closely as Gladmane was in the middle of his speech. Stefan was the only one in there at the time.
“Mothers and fillies held under by poverty and fathers unable to provide during this depressed time, schools funded by us but being pocketed by the administrations running them which prevents our future generations from succeeding, and the northern and eastern griffons causing worry unneeded in today's time. Today, that stops, here and now.”
There was a pause in the speech and static came through before Gladmane resumed.
“We are our own country now and the pain of its people is solely our pain now. Your dreams are our dreams and your success is our success. We share one home and one destiny together. The oath of office, I take today, is an oath of allegiance to all New Marelanders. For decades we’ve relied on Equestrian support to help us through troubling times, but in recent times have we seen empires collapse and prove that subjects to others at the end are always on their own. After Equestria left us to our own economic downfal–”
Gaila turned off the radio while Stefan was in the middle of listening to the speech and said, “So this is where you’ve been. You know we’ve got to work on the water pumps righ- Why am I even asking, of course you know…” Gaila sighed and pointed to the exit of the dining room, “You’ll be able to read the speech in the paper once we get to Rila. We all would listen but we’ve got work.”
Stefan looked defeated, he thought he had checked the surrounding floor of the ship before listening to the radio, “This is an important part of history! The best time to be a part of it is now you know. The paper won’t get the same effect across.”
Gaila squinted her eyes at Stefan and continued to point her hoof at the door, “The rest are at the bilge already. Get going.”
Stefan couldn’t get his way out of it so he had to follow her orders. He quickly left the room and took off down to the bottom floor of the ship. Gaila followed him until they reached the engine room where they stayed to monitor the gauges.
Moonlight Poppy sat among the others behind Gladmane as he gave his speech. She wasn’t all that interested in the speech though. She had personally voted for Kingfisher herself. She didn’t care much about the economic plans Gladmane said he was going to implement and cared much more about Kingfisher's plans to boost the military in a defensive direction rather than a political front that Gladmane seemed like he would push.
She still had to be at attention and at least show like she didn’t care during the inauguration, not that she didn’t plan on it. Her role hadn’t changed much during the break off from Equestria as she supported the creatures and fellow officers of the country more than the president and Canterlot.
This had been what the citizens wanted and so she was going to honor them and their choice, which she was excited to do for such a historical event.
Her thoughts were interrupted though when she picked up on what Gladmane had just said during the speech.
“At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to New Mareland, and through our loyalty to our country, we will discover our loyalty to each other. We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements, but always pursue solidarity. When New Mareland becomes united, we will be unbreachable. We will be protected by the great creatures of our military.”
As Gladmane continued on with his speech, she thought on that part and broke into a smile from her ‘formal’ demeanor.
Maybe Gladmane would put more thought into the military after all. It wasn’t like he was bound to his speeches he made during his campaigning. No law yet at least. It wasn’t like Gladmane was a bad choice. He was just more likely to push the country in a direction to get them out of the current depression they were in and push them into economic wealth though whatever plans he did have. More money meant more funding for the military anyways.
She finally realized she would start paying a little more attention and listened to the speech properly. She was the General of the Army, she could always just talk with Gladmane if she needed to get something done with the military.
“--Together, we will make New Mareland strong. We will make New Mareland wealthy. We will make New Mareland proud. We will make New Mareland safe, and yes, together, we will make New Mareland great. Thank you!”
Gladmane finished the speech and the crowd erupted in noise. Everycreature seated behind Gladmane also broke out in noise, though not like the crowd, they simply all gave a few stomps with their hooves before stopping. They had to follow a few rules while in the VIP section, which meant they had to be silent during the inauguration. Not like anycreature from that small outburst would be lectured for it, even Moonlight Poppy had joined in for the short burst.
February 3rd, 1008
The ongoings of the outside world were of no importance to the ponies in Equestria. Very few events that affected the country were barely known about in the major cities, let alone smaller villages and towns. The only event that every creature knew about was Luna’s return.
Even with a country where nearly everycreature in it only cared about the local baker getting sick, there was still a government that paid attention to the events that happened internally, and those externally.
While hopefully everycreature in the government knew about New Mareland’s current separation, not a lot realized that today was the inauguration for their newly elected president.
Dotted Line was the pony in charge of keeping all munitions accounted for in the Equestrian military. They were in Canterlot, in one of the military buildings, listening to the radio along with quite a few military officers who were silent so they could hear it.
“We will make New Mareland safe, and yes, together, we will make New Mareland great. Thank you!” Gladmane finished off before the radio started blasting the sound of the crowd.
There was a silence before the ponies that sat around the radio as they listened to the jumbled noise coming from the radio.
The silence from them was only broken as one of the officers slouched a bit. “They were our only forefront into Griffus.” General Whiplash said.
General Fast Clip chipped in, “Luna hasn’t honored their declaration yet. It means nothing to us.”
“Luna ain’t going to be stopping it from happening.” Whiplash said, “Celestia gave her the task of dealing with them as her first major foreign relations work. Celestia was just trying to get her sister back into the work of things, even if it cost us New Mareland.”
“In what way is it worth losing that though? Couldn’t she have let Luna deal with the buffalos instead for ‘foreign relations’” Colonel Mistist rest asked with air quotes, “That ended up being a simple task.”
Whiplash said, “It didn’t help she was also dealing with the thestral reforms she wanted to get into action when Celestia threw the workload onto her. It seemed like it was going to be the only thing Luna worked on for the next year, now it’s been delayed with this whole mess.”
Dotted Line asked, “Besides a few stockpiles of supplies and a few thousand soldiers, what big strategic purpose was there to New Mareland?”
“What purpose? Economically, we can import various things from the Riverlands by having it go through New Mareland. If they keep going down this route we’re going to have increased import cost of products from the southern and western parts of Griffus, along with the few trade routes that come in from Zebrica through those islands around that, whatever place— Uhh— Republic of Aster? The se- Whatever one.” Coco Pommel chimed in.
Whiplash added in, “They’re a viable place for our trade, yes– But we also can keep our boats stored there. We also funded their entire navy outside a few destroyers they were able to build themselves. Very few countries outside of us even have aircraft carriers. We can’t be letting them take off with that. We supply all the engineers as is to work the engines. Those engines are classified, I remind you, and based on this Gladmane fella, who knows what he might agree to.”
Mistist spoke up, “We have a lot of vested interest in New Mareland, whether it’s military or economic gain. Plus, Celestia will never agree to such a thing, nor could we rally it, but we’ll never gain another front into Griffus with this loss without outright war. The amount of money and negotiation that would come from having to deal with New Mareland as a independent country will be a hassle.”
Dotted Line sat in their chair as the conversations between all the generals broke out about New Mareland. It was obvious that none of them had truly had any proper meetings to discuss the loss of them, that or this was very much a big topic that just always resulted in such a mess. If only she had stayed quiet with her question.
September 28th, 1011
With the swift fall of the towns of Fairflanks and Acornage, along with the subpar industry to fuel a war, the Equestrian government starts pulling every card they can think of. They send out requests of help to every ally they can think of, the Crystal Empire, the buffalos, Puerto Caballo, even Stalliongrad and New Mareland.
The first three accepted the war and came to the aid of Equestria while Stalliongrad only sent its surplus equipment they didn’t need anymore. New Mareland refused every request so far to aid them.
The requests always started out as the same, either by some pony in the government trying to make a deal with New Mareland to receive specific shipments of goods to even one of the Equestrian Admirals sending a request directly to New Mareland themselves asking for the aircraft carrier they gave them back.
Everything resulted in a payment request that was outside of reasonable value though, even if the payments were in the forms of loans or higher than market value but delayed until the funds could be properly achieved and paid for in one go.
That quickly became the norm for the ponies at Canterlot though, even if it had only been four days since the war began.
Dotted Line knew this as well as she had been hearing about the responses ally countries gave in regards to the war. She wasn’t in a position where it mattered to her as she only dealt with arms and munitions within Equestria after having been tasked by Luna herself.
Celestia had tasked Luna with being in charge of getting the military in order so she herself could deal with everything else.
Even with her experience of dealing with such matters though, Dotted Line was overwhelmed by the word, or at least was for the first three days. Well, everypony in Equestria was overwhelmed with work, aside from the fouls– No, even fouls were doing work, at least on orders from their parents who were only trying to lessen the burden of the entire situation crashing down on them.
There were a few times in Dotted Line's life that came close to the amount of stress and work she was having to deal with now, but it wasn’t anything that would stop her in her hoofs from getting things done.
It also helped that it was the first organized day of the war for Canterlot as they were finally able to get themselves into a good workflow.
Dotted Line had papers, documents, folders, letters, and books, as well as quite a few pieces of paper that were half written as she looked through everything before her, organizing and finding what information was needed for every which thing that needed to be cared for. Some of it being related to each other, some of the stuff not.
It didn’t help that some of her assistance kept coming in throughout the days, many, many times, hoofing over different documents and the such to her that required her attention or were meant for her.
The next assistant that came in was no different. They simply came in and gave a quick report on what they had for Dotted Line as they placed the document down on the desk for her, “We found this document while sorting through the old cabinets to organize and figure out what we have. It’s a stockpile of supplies we forgot in New Mareland.”
The assistant continued as Dotted line took a quick glance at the documents, “It’s mostly just fuel and explosives, but I figured I should get them to you, not up to any of us as is to deal with– Uhh,” The assistant took a pause and cleared their throat for effect, “‘Foreign’ problems.”
Dotted Line only took a quick glance at the dates on the page before looking up at the assistant and saying, “New Mareland?” She rested a hoof on the papers and continued, “The paper says we last took stock of this stuff in 1007. That was four years ago, no doubt they took it for themselves.” She shook her head and placed the paper at the top of a stack, “Thank you anyways. I’ll look at it anyways, maybe it’ll be the first leeway into getting some trade open with New Mareland.”
“You can get back to your normal work now.” Dotted Line said.
The assistant stood around for a second before asking, “Do you really think it’d be worth the time though? It’s not like it’s much at the end of the day.”
Dotted Line looked back at the assistant and said, “I-” She thought for a second before taking the document she had just placed and took out a piece of blank paper and started to write on it, “I’ll just have the request sent in then, I won’t even look into it. It probably isn’t that worth it anyways.”
She then quickly finished writing her letter, signed it and then stamped it with her department's logo, sealed it up and took the original documents and handed them to the assistant who had waited around.
“Here, get these to foreign affairs and they’ll have it sorted. From there it’s up to New Mareland themselves on what they do.” Dotted Line said.
The worker took the documents and said, “Yes Mam.” They then turned around and headed out of the office.
Dotted Line got back to the current papers she had been working on before interrupted, though it’d only be a few more minutes before she got interrupted by another pony who they would deal with, same as they had been for the past few days.
October, 1011
It was a busy day at the Ministry of External Affairs office building in Sunset. Ever since the Changeling invasion of Equestria, Canterlot had given up on all forms of direct communication and normal negotiations they had been doing in regards to trying to convince New Mareland to stay a colony, but also continue the formalization of their own recognition of New Mareland’s independence.
With the start of the invasion, the New Mareland parliament had announced to all countries that cared to listen about Equestria’s failure to formalize the recognizance of New Mareland due to their ongoing war and decided that they would now finally ignore all Equestria’s cries for New Mareland to continue staying a colony state and would go full force into being their own country.
They had stated that Equestria was in no position to stop them from making these decisions due to their lack of ability to prevent them with their current situation.
This wasn’t that much of a required action though, as since 1008, the country had already created trade partners with surrounding countries, who all had formally recognized New Mareland’s independence, and the dissolvement of all remaining Equestrian government made offices and positions from within the country.
The only remaining tie that Equestria truly had was Jet Set, who had gained a position within parliament, though it was one he had to earn himself. There had also been talks about having a proper Equestrian Embassy setup within Sunset but those were all but thrown out the window with the onset of the war.
Despite this, the ponies in Canterlot kept sending requests for this and that.
For Keaton, it was just another busy day.
He had just arrived at the office building where he knew he would have another pile of papers awaiting him from Equestria. He was tasked with going through all Equestria, Stalliongrad, and Puerto Caballo papers that had been received over the night.
Keaton finally sat down at his desk, had a cup of coffee at the ready to help him power through the morning and got started.
Surprisingly, the first requests Keaton worked on came from Stalliongrad in regards to the delivery of some supplies that were on their way to New Manehattan that would arrive in a few days.
The details for the request weren’t detailed though, which probably had something to do with the request going to somepony in the military with a rank of general.
The military wasn’t something Keaton kept up with though, nor did he have much knowledge on it.
After working for an hour, Keaton finally came across the first interesting request. Another from Equestria but this time regarding something about munitions and the need for it to be sent to the Ministry of Defense for some type of trade attempt or something.
Keaton wasn’t there to figure out what documents were really about, mostly just figuring out where they were to be sent off to, so he placed the documents in a stack that was labeled ‘Ministry of Defense,’ where another worker could pick them up and take them off to the correct office building in Sunset.
October, 1011
Ranulph finally returned back to the Ministry of Defense’s building in Sunset by midday that day from his return trip from New Manehattan. He had at the city’s military base where he joined a meeting with a bunch of military commanders and military high command for the monthly meeting regarding various issues involving the country.
Ranulph seated himself at his desk upon entering his office and saw that there were documents that awaited him like always upon his return to his office. He took the time to arrange the documents in the normal fashion he always did, putting unread ones on the right side of the desk and putting ones properly dealt with on the left.
After organizing himself properly, he brought the first document from the top of the stack to his right in front of himself and started to look over it.
It was the detailed numbers on Port Arbor’s garrison numbers. It made sense. He had been gone for a few days and these reports always came in around the beginning of the month. All he would have to do is write a few notes about it and then organize it away for documentation.
It was the next document that threw him off though as he started to read over it.
It was the document that had come from Equestria’s government, specifically a pony called Dotted Line. There wasn’t anything out of the ordinary as he read it, it was just a simple request for a bunch of munitions that they had left behind after their split from Equestria.
“They forgot a few warehouses of ammunition and now they want it back?” Ranulph said out loud. He looked up, expecting somepony to respond back to that before realizing he was alone in the room.
That didn’t last long as an assistant came in from outside the room and asked if he had needed something, which Ranulph said no to, but he did say, “Just stay in here, I’ll need you to take this somewhere in a moment. He then looked back down at the document and finished reading it.
Ranulph sighed and looked up at the assistant and said, “Munitions! They forgot their own munitions!”
The assistant looked at him and asked, “Sir?”
He ran a hoof over his head and stretched, “This isn’t what I need right now… Wingbardy is already taking up most of my stress as is, I don’t need Equestria coming back as a stress factor.”
He stared at the documents that were before him and exhaled, “Fine! Fine. They really won’t leave us alone until we do something to help them will they… it’s just so- Stupid.” Ranulph leaned back and looked up at the ceiling and closed his eyes and rested his mine for a moment.
After a few seconds Ranulph said, “Just wait one more minute, I’ll have this for you in a moment.”
Ranulph quickly looked back over the document and then signed off on it before getting out some paper and writing a letter. After finishing the letter, he attached it to the documents he had received and called the assistant over so he could hoof it over to them.
“Here.” Ranulph said, waiting for the assistant to take them, “I need this delivered to Sour Sweet. She’ll be able to sort this mess out.” The assistant finally took the documents, “I need to focus on more important problems right now, not some war we’re not a part of.”
The assistant held the documents and asked, “Sour Sweet? Where exactly are they so I can have it sent there?”
“Sour Sweet,” Ranulph repeated, “They’re in New Manehattan right now with General Garden helping organize some new building projects— Actually, it needs to stop by New Hoofington first so the folk there can see if they’ve got any information to help with the problem, so send it out there first, they’ll be able to get it sent to New Manehattan.”
The assistant nodded and left the office room to go get the documents and letter sent out.
Ranulph relaxed for a moment and finally decided to light up his pipe, so he got out his Hoovesplain tobacco and lit up the pipe. He watched out the window behind him for a moment before he turned back to his desk and got back to looking over everything else that remained.
October, 1011
So far the day was miserable, ok well, at least for some, for others, it was a wonderful day for relaxation and a day for doing nothing.
For Sour Sweet though, it was a day of relaxation.
The heavy rains outside currently delayed her departure to Canmarea, where she was being given special permission to view the sites that were being used to build new radar facilities, mostly to protect against the northern griffons, not that they posed much threat compared to Wingbardy.
But with the rain, her three day trip up north would be cut a day short. She wasn’t needed for the first day though, which was the day she would tour the radar sites with some other VIP guests that were going as well, which were mostly ponies from the tech and material companies they were representing.They were the main reason for the delay as they were the ones who wore the fancy suites and ties that couldn’t get dirty.
That would ultimately bite them in the ass when they would learn they couldn’t stay any longer than the three days the trip was to last, so they’d all have to take personal time off during the trip to get the tour. The rest of the time would be dealing with the boring business meetings and talks they all had with the military.
Though thankfully it was a good day to miss as the documents that had been sent from Sunset had finally arrived. They had made their stop in New Hoofington first, where they were looked over, copied, and then sent on towards Sour Sweet.
After she received the documents, she went to her room she was staying in at the city's military base and looked over the letter that had accompanied the documents.
“This document is a stupid request but I personally think that the only way we’ll get Equestria off our flanks for helping them is by just agreeing to this. Now it’s a long shot but it’s annoying to keep receiving these requests from them and just want them to stop, ignoring them no longer works for me personally.
Just do whatever you need to do and if Celestia keeps wanting these sent over, then I’ll use whatever power I can to get every request from Equestria shredded to bits by the first creature that sees them so they stop being a problem.”
-Ranulph, Ministry of Defense
It was a short letter and after reading it, Sour Sweet realized she wasn’t in for a good read of whatever was ahead, so before she got any further, she got herself as comfortable as possible before reading on.
It was a good thing that she had gotten herself comfortable before she read the document as her brain had melted by the time she finished reading it.
The letter now made sense.
Sour Sweet personally didn’t read a lot of the requests that came in from Equestria but this one had topped it so far.
She had to take a moment to process everything once she finished going over it and eventually collected herself.
The first thing she did was dress herself in some clothing to protect herself from the rain and then finally picked up all the documents she had and left her room, leaving the building she was at and made her way over to the base’s communication station where she was heading so she could send out a phone call.
The distance wasn’t far thankfully, but she still went at a quick pace to get to the building and made it there in under a minute.
She was thankfully greeted right away by a guard at the entrance of the building and didn’t have to fumble around with getting inside herself, though once inside she did have to show proper credentials before making it any further into the building.
After talking to a few ponies inside, she finally got herself setup with a phone in a private room where she made a call to a specific number and waited. All she could do now was hope that the receiving end picked up.
There was only a few seconds of waiting before the other end was connected.
October, 1011
A pony walked into the dining hall and looked around the room for a moment as they tried to spot the pony they were in search of.
It only took a few seconds before they spotted their target and quickly shuffled their way over to the table that the pony was at and immediately went to attention once there and blurted out, “Field Marshal! There’s a line for you coming in from New Manehattan. It’s directly for you.”
The pony that delivered the message was a low ranking officer and they continued to stand at attention before the field marshal before him.
Moonlight Poppy sighed and set down her cup of tea and then looked at the officer and asked, “Is it needed right away? Is it all that important?” She then used a hoof and pointed at the table she sat at and added, “I am in the middle of a card game right now with your fellow commanding officers.”
Moonlight was at the end of a table that had a bunch of other high ranking ponies, all of which outranked the messenger. They all held a hoof full of cards in their magic in front of them.
“The caller is currently on the line waiting. It’s coming from a Sour Sweet, they say it’s in regard to a issue that came up regarding Equestria.” The officer said.
Moonlight looked between all of the ponies at her table and sighed before looking over at the officer, “Take my spot then.” She placed her cards down on the table, facedown before getting up and doing a quick stretch.
“But Mam, I ha-” The officer tried to say but was quickly interrupted
Moonlight pointed her hoof down at her spot and said, “We were nearing half an hour for this game. I have to much time invested in it to abandon it. Unless whatever task you were doing was keeping the country from collapsing inward, you’re going to take my spot.”
Moonlight finally lowered her hoof and stood up straight before she took off from the table, leaving the officer behind with his superiors, all of whom are ponies he would never otherwise be able to sit with.
Moonlight made her way to the communications building and situated herself in the room with the call that awaited her.
Moonlight held the phone up to her ear and asked, “Alright Sour, it’s Moonlight, what is it? What could possibly Equestria have that’s more important than a good card game?”
“They have a request.” Sour Sweet said before pausing.
She was about to speak up but Moonlight spoke up, “This isn’t a problem for us. Have it sent to Gladmane and everypony at Sunset. How did a request even get this far?”
Sour Sweet answered, “It was sent from the Ministry of Defense themselves. It’s for two ships worth of supplies that belong to them.” Sour put emphasis on belong, “It’s a bunch of stuff they left behind when we split. It’s all in New Hoofington and it hasn’t been attended to since 1008, which we only found out after the documents went through Hoofington before getting to me.”
Moonlight was silent for a moment as she processed what had just been said
Moonlight spoke up finally, breaking the silence between them, “I- You kno- Ok, listen.” Moonlight leaned her head against the wall and clicked her tongue, “Sunset agreed to this? Right? That’s what I’m hearing?”
“Yes.” Sour said in a monotone voice.
“Ok. Ok. Ok. Uhh, I’ll need you to head over to New Hoofington then. I’ll talk to Gladmane about this myself. I’ll have General Starfall meet you in New Hoofington. I’ll tell them the gist of it, but you’ll have to get them informed once you meet with her.”
“New Hoofington? I can’t go there, it might not be the best idea. I have to go up to Canmarea to help with the radar locations that are being built up there.” Sour said.
Moonlight sighed, “Ok, keep to your schedule then. I’ll send word to one of the Admirals in New Manehattan and have them sent to your place instead then. Sour, you have all the documents for this correct?”
“All of the documents I received are accounted for, yes. They arrived earlier today and I just finished going over them waiting for the rain to let up and then that’s when I decided to get in contact with you.”
“Ok.” Moonlight said, “Get them compiled and sent to Gladmane for me. It'll be easier to talk to him about this if we have all the papers. It’ll take me a moment to get back to Sunset though, so if you get those sent today, they should be there when I arrive.”
Before Sour could say anything, Moonlight asked, “So is there anything else I need to know about?”
Sour said, “Nope, that’s it. I’ll get them copied and sent right after this, so don’t worry about that. Sorry for bothering you with this mess Moonlight.”
Sour then hung up from her end and left Moonlight to her own.
Moonlight took a deep breath and sighed, “Why- Just why? We gain nothing from working with Equestria…”
October 8th, 1011
A group of ponies stood before one of the entrances to one of the warehouses that housed Equestria’s supplies. A few of them were looking about, watching the trucks being loaded up with the crates and barrels of munitions.
There was a mix of trucks that came and went, most of them were trucks belonging to the military, but there were a few civilian trucks in the mix as well that had been rented out to help with the transportation by the military.
Soldiers stood around throughout the place, guarding it or just walking about doing their best to stay out of the way while other soldiers and hired workers helped move and load everything else.
There was constant movement going on at the complex and it would be really easy for anycreature to accidentally be run over if they weren’t paying attention.
Another pony stepped out of the open side door, into the crowd of ponies just outside of it and said, “Some of it’s old, dust coated the tops of stuff, there was even a barrel that had a big hole in it from rusting open. Who knows how long it was like that.” General Starfall looked down at a report she had before looking back up, “This isn’t safe, we shouldn’t even be transporting it to the harbor.”
“How did no creature know about any of this? No reported trespassers, no– Not anycreature in Sunset, the military, not even those here in New Hoofington.” General Sevens looked down at a notebook they had and said, “There’s way too much stuff here. Benzole, oil, explosive compounds.”
Starfall looked around at the trees that surrounded the compound and pointed a hoof at them, “Well for one, we’re deep enough in the woods that you can’t see this place without accidentally stumbling across it, plus it’s not like anypony from the nearby rail would see it either, they wouldn’t be able to see from the hill they’re elevated on with the tops of the trees in the way.” Starfall paused for a moment before asking, “Right?”
Officer Daley said, “I doubt I’d notice a place this far in the woods through a bunch of barren trees blocking the view myself if I was on a train ride myself. It’s not like you normally take a train ride when you’re in the mood to search for a hidden place anyways.”
Starfall quickly spoke up, “Actually, never mind that thought, I just remembered it’s one of the older rails, that’s north right? If it is, the only rail up there should be going directly into Talonote, who we haven’t traded with since like what? 1008?”
Admiral Rider was also with the group, he had been the one assigned by the field marshal to help with the entire operation, “Maybe towards the end of the year I’d say, though there was never much movement between the two cities before so it’d make sense nocreature saw it…”
Immediately an idea clicked in the Admiral’s head and he said, “We should just use the stuff here and blow up that rail system and say we needed to rebuild a large section due to it being damaged, instead of you know, making it our liability until it’s loaded on our ship?”
“Listen, I know none of us like this, but Moonlight was unable to convince Gladmane about the situation, it’s the first deal he’s been able to find that we can benefit from. Equestria’s paying for everything, including all this work we’re doing to transport it to the harbor, plus on top of the actual payment for it back.” Starfall said, “It’s a cemented deal they have.”
“Doesn’t some of parliament have ties with the companies we hired to help load it all up? I remember seeing the names of parliament members on a list showing who owned stock in certain companies.” Officer Nena said.
Starfall shook their head and said, “At this point we’re already being paid, whatever members of the government that are making a bit off this is beyond whatever we need to worry about, we just gotta get this stockpile moved.”
Daley said, “Stockpile? Would you even call it a stockpile? It was clearly abandoned. It’s not like they needed it until now.” Daley let out a chuckle and said, “But when they needed it back, they came crawling to us for help.” He shook his head, “That’s just–”
Starfall pointed a hoof towards the exit of the compound and said, “Complaining about it isn’t going to get us anywhere, if you want to make a complaint, send it to Sunset after we send it all off, which I must remind you, will be happening in two days.”
Sevens then spoke up and asked, “Why not just ignore the dumb flank of Sunset and use it o–”
Starfall gave a hard glance at Sevens as they had started to speak up, which made them immediately quiet down, though the questions didn’t stop.
“Just–”
Starfall cleared her throat loud enough so the entire group heard it, “Admiral. Complaints go up, not sideways.”
Starfall then sighed before taking out a pocket watch and looking at it, “Ok, Admiral, you’re needed at the dockyard here shortly, so if you would,” Starfall pointed a hoof at the nearby car, “No use complaining about anything either. You need to finish up the paperwork out there.”
Starfall then looked at one of the officers, “Nena, you go with him as well. Major Fieldsbury is at the harbor as well, overseeing the entire ground operation currently happening out there. They're also helping guard the loading area where we’re keeping everything stored at until the boat arrives.”
Thankfully the group was quiet now with their questions and complaints, which allowed Starfall to keep talking, “With that, I’m leaving General Sevens in charge, they’ll stay here at the compound and then I need to get going to Sunset myself to turn in all these reports we have. If no pony else has anything to bitch about, then let’s get going.”
Starfall then shoved her legs together and gave a salute to the group, who all in turn gave one back before Starfall dropped her hoof and turned to go catch a separate car than the one the admiral was taking.
After a few minutes of the two groups leaving, General Sevens stood around and watched the compound for a moment before being interrupted by Daley, “Yeah… you’re not going to be seeing me putting my hooves on any of the stuff here.”
There was a chuckle from Sevens, “If you do, just don’t blow yourself up, the last thing we need is one of the generals dying in a freak accident with Wingbardy breathing down our manes.”
“So what’s stopping us from just sending it off to our own stockpiles?” Daley asked.
Sevens sighed, “You heard Starfall, complaints go u–” Sevens looked at Daley and then crunched up her face as she realized he was an officer, “Complaints go up through the correct chain of command, not directly to the top.”
Sevens then looked back out at the compound before saying, “Welp, time to get back to the bullshit.”
General Starfall’s car was right in front of the car that was taking Admiral Rider and Nena back to the harbor. They were driving through the forest still as they had only just left the compound with the warehouses.
Admiral Rider was sitting in the passenger seat of the car and he watched the dust get kicked up from the car in front.
Nena sat in the back of the car and relaxed as much as she could. Thankfully, it was just them and the driver in the car and the admiral had taken shotgun.
It would be a while before they finally arrived at the city of New Hoofington, and then more time before the harbor.
Nena was relaxed, but bored, so she asked, “Can’t you get the other admirals to back you up? Use your boats to keep them from taking the supplies if you’re so against it?”
The admiral laughed, “That’d be no different than treason. We can’t just defy what the folk in Sunset want. We’re not a military regime.”
“The Freeside islands could probably use it. It’s not that well defended against a push from Talonote.” Nena said.
“All we can do is listen to what Starfall says. Moonlight put her in charge of all this as is.” Rider quickly stretched his hooves before he looked over at the driver and then back out the front window, “Big sister.”
“You have an older sister? What do they have to do with this?” Nena asked.
Before the admiral said anything else, the driver of the car quickly tapped one of their hooves on the dashboard twice before going back to watching the road.
Nena had been oblivious to what happened, but the admiral wasn’t.
Rider finally said, “Yeah, she’s working in New Manehattan currently. She works for one of the minor parties that runs in the local government there. She– She can help.”
“Help with what? I don’t follow Admiral.” Nena said.
“It’s hard to explain… Wingbardy. We all know them. How do you think we would defend ourselves against them?” Rider asked.
“I- That’s a loaded question sir. I- We could stall them if they were to invade.” Nena answered.
“Why not meet them at the border?” Rider said.
“We would be stretched thin.” Nena answered.
“And who can you blame for that?” Rider asked.
Nena thought for a moment, “It only got worse after Gladmane was elected…”
Rider was quiet for a few seconds after Nena gave her answer before finally asking, “How would you fix it?”
Nena thought again before answering, “Divert more money to the military… They’re bringing in a lot of money through the casino tax as is and they’re just pocketing it for themselves by using it on family–” Nena quickly stopped herself before she went on a tangent.
“Divert more money to us.” Nena answered again.
“Remember my sister? She could help us– Through funding programs their party plans on implementing in New Manehattan. All they have to do is win the election that’s coming up.” Rider said.
“Oh- I don’t live in New Manehattan though sir. I wouldn’--” Nena was cut off.
“You don’t have to worry about that, all you have to do is show your support.” Rider paused for a moment, “They can also help you get a vote in throug–”
“Sir! That would undermin–”
“Gladmane!” Rider yelled out, “He’s undermining the entire country for profit…”
“Sir…?”
“He’s doing whatever he can to keep himself at the top. So is parliament. It’s as you said, they have ties to the companies they hired to help with this whole mess. They don’t care about us.”
“...”
“The moment Wingbardy makes a move, they’re taking the first exit out and leaving us.” Rider said.
“But they have nowhere safe to go…” Nena said.
The admiral didn’t say anything as they watched the car in front of them take a turn down a road, there was an airfield in the distance in the direction. The car with the three continued on though.
“There’s a reason why Gladmane passed that Open Bank Act. He and some of those idiots in parliament will use it as bargaining to get safe passage past Wingbardy- Or whoever gets in their way. Taking Aquileia’s gold and giving it to them. Everything they’ve done is to future proof themselves into retirement if things go down. They win regardless of what happens to us.” Rider said.
“Why–” Nena was about to talk.
“84th Ing. Drive, 9876.” Rider said.
The driver of the car moved their hoof to the sidearm he carried, but the movement was thankfully hidden from the view of Nena.
Rider continued on before Nena asked about it, “After all the supplies are sent off, I can get you a ride to New Manehattan where you can stop by that address and meet with the group. They would be able to inform you more than I can about everything.”
“You up for that?” Rider asked.
Nena was hesitant to answer but asked, “What’s the party called?”
Rider smiled and gave the simple answer, “MARESOC.”
October 9th, 1011
The waters were calm, at least for a cargo ship. The waters never got bad in the New Manehattan channel. The only times the water was bad was during a storm, but it had been a nice sunny day the entire day and the sun was starting to set.
Captain Cobalt Bucks was 30 kilometers away from the port of New Hoofington and was making good time. He had just come from the port of New Manehattan after his ship had unloaded everything it had brought back from Skyfall.
His crew was supposed to be given a small break after the job but he had been told by the higher ups of the company that they were supposed to head to New Hoofington port to do a job for the government. It was normal to do jobs for them, but not without the usual shore break, which worried him a bit as it never meant anything good.
He had been instructed to skip out refueling in New Manehattan as well so he could make it there sooner as well.
Everything was running smoothly with the SS Dubbo though. The engine was running in top notch condition and there was only one other cargo ship in view. It was following them behind and was of a smaller size.
The crew was fed a nice meal to reward them for the sudden job. They really valued their shore time.
Moral was also being helped by the fact that not much work was required. Nothing was broken, or breaking, and they didn’t have to worry about any cargo at the moment.
Stefan was leaning against the wall listening to the engine run. He was near the engine room and could hear it vibrate through his head whenever he leaned against the wall. He was taking a quick break with two other ponies. Everypony else on the ship was either watching gauges or relaxing.
“No no no no! That Skyfall pony was asking me! SHE! SHE ASKED! You think I would just give up on that chance? Sure as hell no way I did. That’s where I was when we were in Skyfall.” Roel said.
“Gods damn you’re lucky Ro. Me and Stefan were trying the entire night at the bar we were at, but the only damn creatures that kept coming in were griffons. I don’t fancy myself one so I was out of luck. Stefan was just trying to drink the entire night if I honestly had to guess. I don’t think he was there for a one nighter.” Ignaas said.
“I agreed to go drinking you duffus, not go with you to get it on with some random pony. You gotta remember I got my own mare back in Manehattan. After this job to Equestria and our return back, I’m going to be taking a relaxing vacation with her. We’re going to spend the entire time relaxing, probably in a forest retreat somewhere.” Stefan said.
“Listen, Stef.” Roel said, putting a hoof on his shoulder, “You’re a cargo sailor. You’re out on the ocean for months sometimes. Ain’t no way in tartarus does she actually want a relationship with you, she’s there for your money. Do yourself a favor and just break off with her so you’re free like us to do whatever when you’re at all the foreign ports, have some fun in the cities or at the bars.”
Roel shook his head, “If you really want something with her, you’ll have to quit the job. If you’re still wanting to work for the trade though, you could always become a dock worker, they’re always in need of more workers. That or port workers. Help dredge ports or whatever.”
“We’ve known each other since we were foals! Heck, our parents probably had us playing together before we could even remember it. She isn’t there for the money, she’s there for me.” Stefan said.
“Months at a time alone… Separated from the one she loves. The one who’s traveling the world and seeing new cities constantly. Hanging out with the lads and having fun.” Ignass rambled on, “You don’t even know what she’s doing. She could be cheating on you while you’re out for all you know!” Ignaas added.
Stefan sighed and shook his head frustrated, “Look, alright, it ain’t like that, ok, listen, she’s too busy working for that radio company, or whatever it was. She doesn’t have the time to worry about finding somecreature else. She’s too busy worrying about work and me. Trust me. Look- When we get back to New Manehattan in a month, I’ll show you, or try at least, you two will probably be too busy fooling around at the local bars as is.”
“Damn right your flank we will. The only thing on this boat are stallions or stuck up company mares. The only viable thing on this boat worth fucking as is, is the damn engine.” Roel said.
There was a silence between all three.
Ignaas looked at Roel with a disgusted face and said, “Really? The engine?” He almost facehooved himself before adding, “Wh- How- She’s too damn ugly though and has way too many problems to be worth doing anything with, at least the ponies you meet in bars just require a few good jokes and a single glass of Aquilian liquor.”
“Well, it’s because she has so many problems with her that I happen to know everything there is about her. Every last inch. Probably the only thing on this planet that I have engraved in my mind, might as well fuck it at that point you know?” Roel said, waving a hoof about trying to dismiss Ignaas.
Stefan pushed himself off the wall and let out a sigh while the two talked back and forth and said, “Well whatever reason or not for getting it on with the ship, our breaks over with, fantasize about the ship later.” Stefan then took off to get back to work.
“At least you can get back to sweet talking the engine now.” Ignaas said to Roel.
Roel shook his head, “Whatever you say dude. Its humming is probably better company than you two anyways.” Roel said while also heading off back to work.
October 10th, 1011
Captain Cobalt was looking over the details of a quickly written list of all the cargo that he would be hauling. He was inside a room at the port of New Hoofington and it was the early morning. There was a window in the room that pointed towards the dockyard where he could see where his ship was already being loaded up.
Major Fieldsbury was also in the room with Captain Cobalt, along with a representative from the Timberwolff Heavy Industries, Scrale.
Scrale had been sent in by the company to help with some special paperwork that was required for such a request, as well as to answer any of Cobalt’s questions.
Scrale was the first one to speak up after Cobalt had been staring at the list for awhile, “The job isn’t coming from the military Captain. It’s a request that’s come from Sunset themselves. They got a deal written up with Equestria after getting the support from Gladmane and the parliament. The military is just helping oversee it due to it being under their– Best way to describe it? Watch? Yeah?”
Major Fieldsbury thought about the answer, “Jurisdiction, mostly. It was technically not ours to begin with, but we’re just here until it’s all gone from port.”
“Anyways-” Scrale was about to say but got interrupted.
Cobalt was the one to interrupt, “Listen, it’s not a problem that we have to carry any of this stuff specifically, it’s just that it’s all– All of it. There’s so much. We’ve never carried so much dangerous–” Cobalt placed the list down on the table, “So much explosive materials before. It’d be better if there was a third ship to carry half the stuff we’re taking.
Maybe even extra stuff to transport to Equestria and give to them? Make up the difference fo–” Cobalt was interrupted himself.
Major Fieldsbury spoke up, “That wasn’t what Sunset agreed on. The most cost effective deal they got was two ships. Both ships will be loaded to max capacity, while yours is the larger one. They wanted it all gone now and couldn’t find any other company with a ship that’d make a profit taking whatever little remained.
We’re also trying to keep little ties to Equestria right now with their war as well. This deal is already going to make you a target, thankfully the Changeling Hive doesn’t have submarines in the Celestia sea…” He cleared his throat and trailed off. He didn’t continue though.
Scrale added in, “We’re also the only company that is willing to help. The other companies don’t operate past Haukland. The deal has been sealed, Captain. No other ship your size is coming in either for another week, but we have a date we gotta get this stuff out, tonight. For your ship at least.”
“We’ll need you to leave the moment the ship’s loaded up though. Your delay has already hindered the schedule we had planned for you.” Major Fieldsbury said.
“I ain’t saying sorry for that. There was already a ship at the only spot we could moor at when we arrived last night, so don’t blame us. If you wanted us to arrive on schedule, you should’ve kept them from coming in, but you didn’t now, did yah?” Cobalt said.
“We didn’t know it would take them so long to refuel. We thought they would unload their cargo and then leave to New Manehattan for that.” Fieldsbury said, “By the time they were hooked up for a refuel, they decided to just go for a full refill. We didn’t think they would stick around for that.”
“Should’ve had some soldiers to watch them so they kept to your schedule then.” Cobalt said.
“We’re just going to stick to the time we have now. We don’t nee–” Scrale said.
“You’re the military! You could’ve demanded them to stop!” Cobalt said.
“I didn’t have contact with the Admiral Rider at the time and I couldn’t get to General Sevens in time before they had gone through with the refill. I’m in charge of your boat, not that one. I don’t have that authority– Not enough to risk my position.” The major said.
“That boats gone now, we don’t need to worry about it now. The Dubbo’s being loaded right now Major so we’re doing fine on time.” Scrale said to the Major before looking at Cobalt, “I have the papers to do it, I’ll take over the boat if I have to Captain. The board agreed to the job, it’s happening no matter what.”
Cobalt sighed and looked back down at the cargo list.
“So Captain, if you have no questions, that will be all we need. Ok?” Scrale said.
Cobalt looked up and shook his head, “Yeah, sure. Whatever you say.” He then got up and left the room.
Captain Cobalt shifted his look out of the window to his ship and the harbormaster as he awaited an answer.
The harbormaster finally confirmed it as he finished shifting through the fuel logs he confirmed, “There’s no mistake captain. The logs say we only have about 9,900 gallons left.”
Cobalt pressed a hoof into the ground, clinched his eyes shut and breathed out slowly. He took a few deep breaths, looked at the harbormaster and was about to say something before being stopped by him.
“Captain! Listen. There isn’t much I can do about it now. The ship from last night took the majority of it when they decided on that full refill.” The harbormaster said.
Cobalt shook his head, “How does a harbor fail to have enough fuel for the vessels that come in? You know there’s no where else for us to go besides New Manehattan. The water isn’t deep enough in Summerfield for my boat to get into.”
The harbormaster said, “It happens. What do you want me to say? We’re scheduled to get our fuel stock refilled tomorrow as is. It’s enough to get you to New Manehattan and refuel there. They’re always stocked up.”
“You know what we’re transporting right? Explosive material for the military. They already freak out when you go into port with small loads, and we’re going to be at MAX CAPACITY.” Cobalt said.
“Yes, I know what you’re transporting, but it’s all you got. They told me the same things you know. You’re leaving later today so all we have left is what you’ll have to take.”
“10,000 gallons, plus what we have left, isn’t enough to get us there. We’ll be coasting into port with that much.” Cobalt said.
“They can tug you the rest of the way in.”
Cobalt gave up and just threw his hooves around for a moment, “You know what, sure, whatever. I’ll go ask the military.” He kept a hoof up for a moment as he tried to think of what to say, “And when they say no- You’ll be forced to have some fuel brought in or–”
Cobalt gave up and left the harbormaster to his thing, leaving the office. He quickly made his way out to go find where the Major was at so he could talk to him.
The major was reading a book in the room from before by themselves. The Timberwolff representative wasn’t there though.
The Major looked up from their book at Cobalt and just sighed, “Hello again captain…–”
“We have to go to New Manehattan to refuel. There isn’t enough fuel here to get us anywhere further.” Cobalt said.
The major stared at Cobalt for a moment before they slowly started to shake their head, “What? No. Why? You need fuel? Go to Summerfield port then.”
“We can’t. The military took all the funds that were planned for funding the dredging of the port up there. Because of that, my ship isn’t able to get into there for refueling.” Cobalt said, “We’ll need to either have fuel brought in then, which will happen tomorrow.”
“Captain, we have to stick to the schedule we have. You’re leaving today. There is no arguing over this point. This is orders I have to follow.” Fieldsbury said.
“So you want–” Cobalt was about to talk.
“Fuck. Alright. I don’t know.” The major sighed. He leaned against the table he was at and thought for a few seconds, “Just let me think.”
After a moment, the major said, “Ok, so… Fuel? That’s it? That’s all you need? Ok- Go to New Manehattan then. That’s it? Right? Fuel.” The major shook his head, “Just leave the moment your ship’s loaded up and get this blasted shit out of the country. Sunset should’ve just done fuck all with Equestria’s request. This is so—” The major cut himself off and stared at Cobalt for a moment.
After a second, Cobalt nodded, “Yes. All we need to do is go to New Manehattan. They have enough fuel for us to get out to Aquilia.”
“Yeah. Alright, do it. Just go there, get the fuel, and leave.” The major shook his head, “How is this my problem… This is something the Admiral should be dealing with but nopony knows where he is currently. It’s so frustrating.”
Cobalt was hesitant to ask but did, “What about the General?”
“Nah, this is to– I ain’t bothering them with it. It’s not like they’ll magically make a bunch of fuel come in sooner. Schedule. We’re keeping to it. That’s what they told me.” The major said.
The major then looked at Cobalt for a few seconds before asking, “That it?”
Cobalt answered, “That’s it.”
The major then sighed and then went back to his book, ignoring Cobalt. Cobalt took that as his que to leave and did.
