The Great War

December 15th, 1012 SE by the Equestrian Calendar.

Bright Spark, wife of the President of Trotomia, which was one of the nations under Equestrian protection, was sitting in her room, reading a letter from her husband. With a smile on her pale yellow features, she picked up a quill in her magic aura and began writing a letter in reply.

Darling,

The goodwill visit to Neighlize went very well. Our gifts were received well and the ambassadors were very optimistic. I’m certain they will uphold their trading agreements and all that, even in these uncertain times.
My cabin here on the Onerous is very spacious and cozy, so no need to worry about my comfort. Before you know it, I’ll be back with you and we’ll be going about our usual, boring business together.
Even with all these beautiful decorations and wonderful foods and all that, I find it hard to enjoy without you.

She went on to talk about her voyage, the sights, and wrapped it up with,

I love you and miss you deeply,

Bright Spark

With her magic, she folded up the letter, put it in an envelope, and then trotted down the corridor to the main area.
In the wide, spacious room, there was a small band playing jazzy music, and many Ponies and other creatures gathered around, chattering away.
Bright Spark trotted across the smooth, tile floor and rang the bell at the help desk.

An Earth Mare walked over, and Bright Spark handed her the letter, saying, “Please ensure this gets on the next mail carrier tomorrow.”

The Earth mare bowed and picked up the letter in her teeth, carefully putting it with the rest of the mail behind the counter.
Once she was certain the letter was safe, Bright Spark turned and looked around the room for her companions. In a corner, she saw three of them playing a card game, and her eyes lit up happily.

“Agua! Florita! Nebula!” She called as she cantered over to them.

The three mares looked up and greeted her with wide smiles, and quickly pulled up a chair for her.

“After this round you can join, Spark!”

“Gracias, I could use something fun right about now.”

Meanwhile…

The Hanjari was one of the most advanced ships in the world. This class of submarines had been introduced but two decades earlier, and they were killing machines armed with torpedoes and a cannon on deck, so it would not be defenseless when it was forced to surface. Normally, their pass through the Boprian Straits, which was within sight of the Imperial Palace of Coltstantinople, would be quiet. Sure, the Ippeians likely knew that the ship was sailing through their waters, but so long as no one did anything, nothing would happen.

The problem, however, was that it would not be the case tonight. An overzealous Rear Admiral had given orders to intercept Minotaur smugglers at all costs. The Hanjari had been trailing this ship through the straits. The target: an unarmed merchant with no flag. So long as the crossing was made at night --and no Imperial warship was too close--nocreature would know that it was a torpedo that sunk her. It could safely be attributed to some sort of catastrophic failure of the engines.

“Give me a firing solution on the merchant.” The captain spoke.

“She’s an average, class-A merchant ship,” The ensign replied, “One torpedo to the mid aft should sink her.”

“Good, flood the tube and start countdown.” The Captain was not too happy with this mission. Still, orders were orders.

The ensign obeyed, flipping several switches and setting a countdown timer.
Through the many cogs and pistons steam hissed, and soon one of the torpedo tubes was armed and ready to fire.

“Firing in three… two… one.”

With a flip of a single switch, the torpedo was launched into the deep, where it zoomed straight into the completely unarmed, and unprepared Onerous.

**BOOM**

The missile exploded on impact, bursting into the boiler room and flooding it within seconds.
Of course, such an explosion rocked the entire ship, and Bright Spark and her friends were thrown from their seats.

“What’s going on?” She gasped, picking herself up and hearing the alarms blaring all around her.

The Captain had not been at the bridge in that moment. Being nearby, he could only reply, “I… “ He then saw the fire, and the gaping hole on one side of the ship. All over the ship, screams echoed, and the smell of smoke soon wafted up from lower decks.

“CAPTAIN! The lifeboats are ready! But we need to talk! We think we’ve been attacked!” One of the shipmates panted as he darted over to the captain, “What do we do?”

“Send boats first on the Starboard side, and let’s hope that whoever attacked us has not been able to go around the ship.” The Onerous began to tilt slowly as more and more water flooded into the gaping hole on the port side.

The shipmate nodded and charged back up to the nearest intercom station, sending the message out.

“ALL HANDS ON DECK. PASSENGERS PLEASE FILE OUT TO STARBOARD LIFEBOATS. STARBOARD LIFEBOATS, PREPARE TO SHIP OUT!”

Bright Spark and her friends followed the sea of terrified creatures up to the deck, and soon were on some lifeboats on the starboard side.
Though she was panicking, Bright Spark did her best to remain calm and reassure her friends.
Unfortunately, the only thing she could hear above the shouts and cries of fear was the sound of her heart beating in her ears.

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil…” some voice called out, trying to comfort others nearby as they were all herded onto lifeboats.

In another moment, the first row of lifeboats was dropped into the water, and some deckhands were on them, trying to row them away from the ship as fast as possible.

Meanwhile…

“We’re done here,” Said the captain of the Hanjari. “Set course out of these straits.”

“Uh… Captain, we have a no survivors order,” The first mate said with a grim look.

It took all of the Captain’s self-control not to start cursing their superior officers at that. Did they not know that such an action would destroy their cover? Sure, out in the open seas, everycreature and their mothers knew what was actually going on, but here? In sight of Coltstantinople…

“Sink the first three lifeboats, we don’t have enough torpedos to sink every last one of them.” Surfacing, in the Boprian straits, opening fire on a merchant vessel there… that would be suicide, and the Captain was not going to do that.

The first mate nodded to the torpedo team, and three more were fired.
The unsuspecting creatures were watching the Onerous slowly tilt over, gradually sinking into the sea.
In another moment, their lifeboats exploded before they had a moment to register anything else.
Bright Spark herself was completely obliterated.

Back on the ship, the first mate of the Onerous gasped, “CAPTAIN...look…”

“How DARE they attack lifeboats!” Another crewmember shouted.

“WHO is attacking!?” Somepony else demanded.

All around, civilians and crewmates shouted and screamed in shock and fear.

Back on the Hanjari, the crew were intercepting the radio transmissions aboard the Onerous.
The Zebra in charge of listening froze in place and his ears folded down in fear.

“C-Captain, uhhh, you better hear this!”

“What is it?” The Captain asked, his face still in a stony expression.

The Zebra flipped the switch, letting everyone else hear it.

“Mayday! Mayday! Unknown submarines in the area! Avoid this ship, repeat, avoid this ship!
We are the Onerous, Trotomian civilian cruiser, class B.
We’ve been hit in our engine room by a torpedo, and three of our lifeboats sunk as well.
We’re sinking, but the unseen enemy could be nearby.
Mayday! Warning! Avoid this ship, repeat, avoid this ship!
But, please, if anyone can send help for the last few survivors, please!
Submarines in the area, repeat, submarines in the area!”

The panicked words repeated a few times until static took over as the Onerous’electrical wiring was waterlogged. On the Hanjari, the Zebra crew grimaced and gulped, realizing that ship was a completely innocent party.

“Damn them all to Tartarus,” The Captain muttered, speaking about High Command, “These foals just got us all killed…” Taking a deep breath and composing himself he finally barked his orders. “Helmsman! Get us out of here.”

On the same night, but in a different part of the seas, a different Zebrican vessel, the Invincible, was watching the waters. Into the blackened seas came an unmarked vessel, putting the crew on high alert.

“Captain, we’ve hailed them, but they won’t answer.”

The Invincible was one of the newer Armored cruisers, armed with a uniform caliber of heavy cannons and turbine engines. With no news from the ships that were around the Straits, the Invincible was uncertain how to proceed.

“The air is still. Fire a warning shot, at your will,” Ordered the Captain.

The ensign nodded, and the Invincible prepared to fire.
In another moment, they blasted out a warning shot with a canon, lighting up the dark sky and narrowly missing the unidentified vessel.
Moments of silence pass over the waters, and then the other ship pulled closer to view.

“Captain! We can see the markers now! It’s called the Basileon.”

“Basileon.. BASILEON!?” The First Mate shouted, and then did an epic facehoof, “We’re sunk!”

Indeed, she was one of Ippeia’s finest naval cruisers, and she returned fire. Into the darkened night sky came a volley of rockets that slammed into the Invincible’s hull, ripping her right open.
Nearby, the Lioness of Mkara saw the fire and headed toward the Invincible. The Lioness was also a sturdy Zebrican vessel, but in the fire that broke out between the Zebricans and the Ippeians, there was no contest, and soon both Zebrican ships sank beneath the waves.

December 17th, off the Konlyan coast, Zebrican ships would sink three Konlyan cargo ships. After that, the Zebrican vessels let loose, taking down more and more Konlyan vessels, all being innocent parties mistaken for Minotaur smugglers.

The fire that would burn the world was kindled.