Ponies, cannons, and war

Thankfully Celestia came along with us, along with Morning Storm, to Twilight’s tower where the turret was. The researchers from the School of Magic had gotten there before us and they were not happy about losing out on the chance to study alien technology. They were already in the midst of scanning the turret and taking samples of the metal when we showed up and Celestia stated that the turret would be transferred to Manehattan for further research. Without Celestia’s intervention I thought the turret would never make it out of the tower.

With Celestia’s help, Twilight and I made it to the train station with the turret and Wisdom Cube from the castle just before the train had arrived. The School of Magic would be keeping their cube to study, but I wasn’t sure what else I could materialize besides my guns and torpedoes so I only need three cubes. Maybe I could recreate my boilers?

In anycase, it took an hour to load the turret and then it was a four and a half hour train ride to Manehattan. Thankfully the train attendants served me and Twilight a lunch of stuffed bell peppers and duchess potatoes, which was delicious! To add to my delight Twilight was too preoccupied with reading the preliminary results that the researchers had gotten from the turret to interrogate me like she had back in Canterlot.

By the time we made it to Manehattan it was dinner time, so while the Manehattan guard offloaded the turret and transported it to the Manehattan Naval Cannon Factory I and Twilight were taken to dinner. By the time the turret made it to the foundry it was midnight and the two of us were checked into a hotel for the night. The next day we would finally use up the other wisdom cubes and meet with Snowy Mountains and Captain Summer Rain.

“Good morning Princess Twilight, Miss Chesapeake.” Summer Rain saluted us while Balance Account bowed along with a mare, slightly hiding behind him, with a curly white mane style and bright blue eyes as we walked up to the group.

The meeting with the artillery foundry and steel mill experts went smoothly. The artillery guys stared slack jawed at the 14-inch guns while the steelworkers were going over the notes the School of Magic made with Twilight. The steelworkers were astounded that the turret armor was composed of single plates of steel of varying thicknesses. The idea to convert the front surface of a steel plate to high carbon steel was one that had been floating around for a while, but never put to action since iron armor was sufficient to stop cannonballs fired from pirate ships. Some older members thought that charcoal would do the trick while the younger members argued that carbon-bearing gasses would be more efficient. I also managed to recreate my 3-inch and 6-inch guns alongside a 21-inch torpedo and a Babcock and Wilcox boiler before we left to meet Summer Rain at the harbor.

“At ease, Captain. I take it this is the pony claiming to be Snowy Mountains?” Twilight looked between the mare and the ship behind the group.

I did the same before glancing back at the mare and seeing something that caught my eye. It might have been a mirage, but as I squinted at it I could make out the outline of a ship around her. Not a warship mind you but a merchant ship.

I didn’t know much about merchant shipping, but I knew enough to say that neither the ship nor the image around the mare were certainly modern cargo ships. And that was a compliment considering such ships looked like massive floating boxes shaped in a general boat-like manner. Instead my uninformed mind immediately went to RMS Titanic, except the actual ship wasn’t so massive. It was barely larger than the nearby Clearwave, the ship part of me guessing about 13,000 tons. What was interesting about the two were the cranes attached to their masts. I could guess that the cranes were for hauling large amounts of cargo, most likely foodstuffs considering what I remembered Balance Account telling me while we were heading towards Manehattan, but honestly Snowy Mountains looked more like an old smaller ocean liner than an older cargo ship.

“That’s right, may I introduce you to the spirit of the steamship Snowy Mountains.” Balance Account gestured to the mare behind him.

"Indeed. I've heard a fair bit about you, although I’m not sure what to make of it.” Twilight sent an evaluating look at the mare, Snowy Mountains.

“Eh, I believe it. Especially considering I can see her hull.” I commented nonchalantly, to everyone’s surprise.

“What do you mean you can see her hull? It’s right there on the water, everyone can see it.” Twilight pointed out the ship beyond the trio, to which I shook my head.

“No, I mean I can see a faint outline of a ship around her.” I pointed out, to which Snowy Mountains nodded.

“It’s actually the same with me, I mean looking at Chesapeake. She’s kind of big and scary looking.” Snowy Mountains admitted, pausing before stepping around Balance Account and in between him and me. “I don’t remember much from my time as just a ship. Mostly impressions, but I remember the first time Balance Account stepped onto my bridge. He said I’ll be well taken care of and that in return he wished for me to do the same. That was eight years ago. The last thing I remember was you threatening to kill the pirates and shooting at me. While I’m glad that you got them to give up without hurting any pony in the process, I did not like the fact that you risked hitting me and injuring my crew to do so.” She was now staring at me resolutely. If you had hurt a single member of my crew I would never forgive you.”

…

Ok, I was feeling a bit of a dichotomy here. On one hand, a merchant ship was threatening a battlecruiser. Big whoop, the battlecruiser wins hands down, easy. On the other hand, I was being threatened by a pony a tad bit smaller than me for risking the safety of her crew. Worse off, I couldn’t dispute her claim. It was one thing for a crack sure team to take a potshot with radar guided guns, it was another for an inexperienced crew to do the same without radar.

Thankfully for me Balance Account interrupted that issue with a slight cough.

“Right, don’t worry Snowy. I’m sure Miss Chesapeake knew what she was doing and, if nothing else, she still towed Clearwave and Summer Rain’s crew to help us. I’m sure I don’t have to remind you that at 18 knots Captain Summer Rain wouldn’t have been able to catch up to you.” Balance Account pointed out, slightly chasting Snowy Mountains who had deflated slightly and sent him a guilty expression.

“As entertaining as it is to see an ocean liner getting chewed out by her own captain, I think we should get down to business.” Our attention was directed back towards Summer Rain. “I don’t know what the Princesses are hoping to find out from Snowy Mountains, but I do know that I want to requisition Snowy Mountains for the evacuation of Trottingham. I know Admiral Water Drops has asked around for volunteers and only three merchant captains have volunteered to aid the evacuation. With Snowy Mountains we should be able to evacuate about 10,000 ponies in one run.”

“You’re evacuating Trottingham?” Balance Account asked, looking between Summer Rain and me and Twilight.

“We are, Princess Celestia wants to warn the Trottingham guard of the Morgana and evacuate civilians to the mainland. Considering what they did here in Manehattan I’m starting to agree with Celestia’s decision.” Twilight glanced at a pile of rubble with a frown.

“And considering Snowy Mountains is a Belle, capable of warding off the Morgana’s mist, it just makes sense to bring her in…what?” I looked around as everyone stared at me.

“What did you call me?” Snowy Mountains tilted her head at me.

“What do you mean ‘ward off the Morgana’s mist’?” Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh yeah, well as far was I know there’s like three types of kanmusu. Unless Snowy Mountains can operate her own hull without crew then that makes her a Belle. As a Belle she can ward off the effects of the Morgana’s mist for her crew and not much else.” I pointed out only to see Twilight’s eye start twitching.

“You mean to tell me that you could have told us that we could have negated the Morgana’s own ability to negate pony magic with our own ‘Belles’ when we first met?” Twilight asked in a way that was eerily starting to remind me of Lesson Zero.

“I didn’t even know that Belles were a thing here.” I held up my hands…hoofs in defense, without falling flat on my face. “I assumed any other kanmusu would be like me, i.e. spirits of warships from centuries ago. I hadn’t even seen Clearwave’s Belle, assuming she even has one. How was I supposed to know that a ship could have a Bell? It’s not like I could summon or manifest or awaken one anyway, I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”

“Then I’ll do it.”

“Huh?” Thankfully Twilight was distracted by Snowy Mountains non sequitur.

“I’ll help with the evacuation.” Snowy Mountains clarified with a resolute expression that, thankfully, wasn’t aimed at me.

The figure casts its gaze at the fleet assembled before it. With the ships as a benchmark anypony could see that the figure was alarmingly tall, easily twice the height of Princess Celestia. Just as frightening was the fact that its form was a mockery of a centaur.

Four large legs the size of tree trunks connected to an equally massive torso that possessed a fiery, glowing mouth large enough to swallow a pony whole and teeth the size of a pony’s head sturdy enough to grind any creature into a gory paste. Its slim upper torso and slender arms were bony by comparison and its pale white skin and clothing contrasted with the large jet black lower mouth torso and black mask. The mask completely hid away the figure’s face and possessed knife-like fangs and five glowing red lights that failed to contain the dark ethereal hair that flowed out behind the it’s head. A circle of gun turrets sprawled around its feminine form linked together by thick, spiked chains that looped around its upper arms and connected directly to a heavy metal choker completed the look.

Most creatures would flee in terror upon its gaze. Those who saw it, those who survived, would describe it as a demon. Its creators classified it a princess.

So dubbed the Unknown Princess.

She snapped her fingers, bone-white digits extending into black-clawed nails, and a multitude of cubes sprang to life. Among the field of blue cubes were five black cubes.

She did not know why her creators directed her kind to test such pathetic beings. However she would happily show them into the coming new age when the time came. And the kansen would suffer for it! What she had planned was a mercy. Now, the kansen’s suffering will be prolonged. Those foolish ponies will watch as she processes the kansen into an appropriate form for this new age before they themselves are ENLIGHTENED. And then she shall show them how the world truly is, WITH THE KANSEN’S SCREAMING FLESH!

The princess began to laugh as dark energy swirled down from above, a whirlpool of black and red and sparks began to crackle around the fleet.

The ponies were in trouble now. It could feel…

The princess stopped laughing and looked around before staring at the fleet confused.

What is…

A massive wrench tears through the darkness.