Ponies, cannons, and war

“So you’re saying Chesapeake can use these ‘Wisdom Cubes’ to recreate her armaments as if they were to be fitted to conventional warships?” Morning Storm asked.

“That’s correct. Although we lack ships capable of carrying the 14-inch cannons in the navy or even firing them without severely damaging their own hulls if we were to mount them on our largest ocean liners, we can still use them as coastal artillery until we can build such ships. Furthermore Chesapeake can use the other cubes to recreate the rest of her armaments that we can reverse engineer to refit onto existing ships. And with the new cannons and ship specifications from the books she provided we can design ships capable of fighting the Morgana!” Twilight surmised excitedly.

After nearly bringing down Twilight’s tower, and possibly a good chunk of Canterlot, with a pair of guns weighing nearly 180,000 pounds each, and that wasn’t even factoring the weight of the turret armor, Twilight had began taking all sorts of measurements ranging from the mundane to the magical that I could not hope to understand except that she found the guns were completely mundane, nothing abnormally magical about them except for how they came to in the first place. Meanwhile I thought about what I learned from Luna while we watched my memory of a youtube video about the development of ironclads in the Royal Navy in my dream…that was a weird thought. Specifically, I had learned about the state of the Equestrian Navy and that they operated wooden ships of the line alongside ironclads eerily similar to HMS Warrior and screw driven sloops. That…that did not inspire a lot of confidence. I would essentially have to share half a century of naval development with them before I went the way of Hood…wasn’t looking forward to that. With just a handful of books and my own half-baked memories, it was going to be a daunting task, but with actual examples to reverse engineer? This could work. After gathering as much as she could Twilight had decided that she and I would report back to Celestia to inform her of the development while Moon Dancer would report to the School of Magic and Sunburst and Starlight would stay with the guns to ensure nothing happened to them. The two of us had just teleported in on a meeting between Celestia and Morning Storm.

“That’s wonderful news Twilight.” Celestia praised her before turning towards me. “Since you're more familiar with these cannons than us, what would you recommend?”

“Twilight’s right about using the 14-inch guns as coastal artillery for now although if I do recreate my 3 and 6 inch guns I’d build 14-inch and 6-inch coastal guns augmented with my 3-inch guns since the latter two are quick-firing guns and the 6-inch is capable of penetrating most cruisers and setting fire to the rest while the 3-inch guns are capable of engaging airborne targets.” I answered easily, memories of playing Rule The Waves 2 and 3 bearing in mind. Of playing as Germany and baiting either the French or Russian fleets into the range of 11-inch coastal batteries and again as Great Britain defending the English coast from French raiders in the Channel with 13-inch coastal artillery.

“And what about conventional ships? If you can recreate the rest of your cannons and our artillery industry could reverse engineer them, could we refit them onto our ships?” Morning Storm asked, to which I shook my head.

“Even if you could, they’d still be too weak to fight and too slow to run away. They’re very obviously vulnerable to whatever the Morgana could send out. And if you could requisition merchant ships like the British ‘subvented cruisers’ in Jane’s Fighting Ships they’d be just as useless as frontline units, they wouldn’t have the armor protection of a true warship. I’d mostly suggest converting your ships into other types of auxiliary ships like repair ships or training ships, otherwise I’d just scrap the lot of them.” I said, giving my honest opinion on that subject.

“And what about designing our own ships? The Bureau of Construction and Repairs and the Bureau of Ordnance have been studying your books thoroughly. Surely you have given it some thought if you’re so quick to dismiss our own.” Celestia asked while Morning Storm looked down in frustration.

“Yeah considering the types of guns I could recreate your best bet is some sort of torpedo boat or torpedo boat destroyer and a 6,000 to 8,000 ton cruiser. From easy to design and quick to build, a torpedo boat of about 500 to 900 tons that could be built quickly and in large numbers, armed with one or two 3-inch guns one forward of the bridge and one aft along with one or two torpedo launchers amidships and a top speed of 30 knots. The cruiser should be capable of at most 23 knots, armed with either a pair of 6-inch guns in twin turrets in a AY position or half a dozen 6-inch guns with the other four guns mounted on the wings, probably in casemates, along with four or eight 3-inch guns along the sides amidships, and either be a protected cruiser possessing three inches of deck armor that slopes on the sides or a light armored cruiser with 3 inches of belt and deck armor.” I rattled off what I’d put together in Rule The Waves with the exception of the torpedo boat’s speed to match my own. Honestly? After looking through Jane’s Fighting Ships my designs didn’t seem that out of place although they displaced more. On the other hand... “Or you could upscale my 3-inch gun to 4 inches and build some Wickes/Clemson class destroyers or upscale to 4.7 inches and build British destroyers and some Arethusa or Town class cruisers from Machines of War.” I finished, referring to the booklet composed of pages from the original book and Weapons of World War 2. I did not need/want to mention that us humans had two world wars.

“What about the 14-inch cannons? We can’t build any ships that use them without years of construction, but if we used the battleships in Jane’s Fighting Ships as a basis we could build a class of battleships within a year if our dockyards tripled their employee count and we stockpiled material and spent a great deal of prefabrication. We would still need time to reverse engineer the cannons, downscale them and design the ships, of course.” Morning Storm asked, frustrated. I thought about it before answering.

“Since you’re going to have to adjust the designs to accommodate ponies anyways, I suggest looking at British and Japanese designs since Brittania ruled the waves during the turn of the century and Japan ordered its early battleships from British shipyards. Specifically you’d have to reduce the caliber from 14-inches to 13.5-inches, and probably reduce the barrel length, and install a dozen 6-inch guns in casemates and eight 3-inch guns in high angle mounts alongside the superstructure. An armor belt of 9 inches, 3 inches of deck armor and a conning tower protected by 12 inches of armor would be great. A top speed of 18 knots would be nice, and…” I paused and considered what I was going to say next, everyone leaning closer to hear what I was going to say. “Easily achieved if you built in fuel oil sprayers to spray oil onto the coal to increase burn rate and used steam turbines instead of vertical triple expansion engines. And I can not stress this enough, for the love of god do not install cage masts!”

“Interesting. I and Morning Storm will have a meeting to discuss your design ideas with the Bureau of Construction and Repairs and the Bureau of Ordnance. If that is all then I believe I know what our next course of action is.” Celestia said with a glance at Morning Storm who nodded back.

“Princess Celestia?” Twilight and I looked between the two.

“I have just received a message from Manehattan about a peculiar pony found among the crew of the Snowy Mountains…the merchant ship owned by one Balance Account whose family and crew you saved.” Celestia clarified upon seeing my confused look at the name Snowy Mountains. I hadn’t even given the thing a second thought since the pirates. “She does not appear on the crew or passenger lists and the pirates claim to not know her. More interestingly…she claims to be Snowy Mountains, the ship itself.” She stated to my and Twilight’s shock.

“What!? But how? If the Snowy Mountains, the ship, had its own spirit then why did she only show up now? And what does that imply?” Twilight ranted while I thought about how the spirit came to be.

Kancolle and Azur Lane had players build ships while Victory Belles rescued ship spirits from the Morgana and it was mostly in Kancolle fics where the ships were summoned from god knows where. Was her ship scrapped or sunk thus releasing the spirit? Or was she a Belle, a ship spirit that manifested aboard her ship and warded off the Morgana’s mists?

“I do not know, and according to Snowy Mountains even she doesn’t know how or why she came to be. The only thing she knows is that she came to be during Chesapeake’s battle with the Morgana during her journey to Manehattan. Any attempts to have her sent to Canterlot have been futile as she involuntarily teleports back to her hull before making it halfway through Manehattan despite being an earth pony. Thus I wanted to send the two of you to Manehattan to talk with Snowy Mountains and, if possible, determine how and why she came to be. Furthermore, I want you two to accompany the Clearwave, under the command of Captain Summer Rain, to Trottingham in order to warn the ponies there of the Morgana and evacuate civilians to the mainland.” Celestia stated.

“You want to evacuate Trottingham?” Twilight asked, stunned to which Celestia nodded.

“Canterlot itself does not possess an artillery foundry or a steel mill sufficient enough to produce the steel necessary to build the new steel navy which we need to defend against the Morgana. And seeing as Chesapeake needs the other cubes to recreate her armaments it’s only natural that the turret will be shipped to Manehattan via railway. The two of you will board the train to Manehattan so that the turret can be reverse engineered by experts in the artillery and steel industries along with the rest of Chesapeake’s armaments. Then you will meet Snowy Mountains and Captain Summer Rain in Manehattan to discuss Snowy Mountains current existence and travel to Trottingham to warn the Trottingham guard and evacuate ponies to Manehattan.” Celestia explained.

“Of course Princess Celestia.” Twilight bowed her head.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Bright blue eyes stared at the ocean, their owner draped over the side of a pier. White curls of hair fell down towards the water, little droplets falling from the tips. A small smile and a laugh joined them. The mare’s hoove reached out and gently drew circles in the waves. Her bright smile was reflected back at her, even as the water distorted it. She was always more at home in, or at least around, the water. Being on land felt profoundly unnatural. It probably always would. A drydock was one thing, actually walking around was...weird. Frightening sometimes. There was none of the cold that water gave. None of the control that pushing her engines gave her. She was at the mercy of whomever came across her, much as anyone else was.

And so, she stayed near the water whenever possible. An ocean liner would always want to be on the water. Carrying passengers and cargo to and fro.

She sang softly, her head nodding side to side. Her blue eyes chasing her reflection in the depths.