Author's Note

Fashionably Late here, and I'll just mention that a number of chapters were merged into this one for coherency's sake. Figured I'd do that now since few, if any, people have commented on the chapters that make up this one. Next chapter will be showing up in October. Either that or a Halloween omake with the next chapter in November. Anyhow, hope ya'll enjoy the chapter and leave behind a comment. Can't improve without your support and can't respond to criticism otherwise.

Chapter 18: Battle of Trottingham

All I remember was this inky black void, that I was talking to someone who asked me if I was satisfied with what I’d done in my life, if I was willing to let things end there. I wasn’t, and it asked if I wanted to see the surface again, to sail the seas. That, I did want. And it said it could help me with that, if I wouldn’t mind doing one thing. It wouldn’t ask me anything more after that.

I said yes.

I can’t remember what happened afterwards, just that I went back to that place. I don’t know how long, just that something happened.

A massive wrench tears through the darkness.

I might have pondered that a bit more if I hadn't noticed something else while I was blinking away the sleep. I was lying on my side. Normally, I sleep on my back. A bit odd, but nothing that couldn't just be brushed off with a simple explanation of having moved during the night. Or that I had just fallen asleep in a different position than normal. It's happened before. Then I noticed my bed wasn't my bed. It was a little bit too soft. And it was moving. And it was wet.

I sat up, immediately awake. At that point I was hit with the horizon, the shifting waves beneath me, and the white clouds drifting lazily across the sky on a bright sunny day. My brain screeched to a halt, trying to make heads or tails of what I was seeing.

What am I doing out here? Where's my room? Where's my bed? I distinctly remember going to bed last night? How the hell did I get out to the middle of the ocean?

Then I realized, I'm in the middle of the ocean!

I bolted to my feet in a panic, fully expecting to suddenly plunge into the water. Instead I fell flat on my face, but I wasn’t sinking. I was floating on water.

I rolled onto my side and sat up. Then I noticed that my nose was much longer than I remembered. I reached up to touch it and was treated to the sight of a horse’s hoof with a strange metallic circle.

Alright, this is officially still a dream. I would have pinched myself in the arm if I could but I wasn’t exactly sure how to do that with a horse’s hoof, so I went with the next best thing.

I punched myself in the face.

"AA-HAOOWWWWW!!!" I yelled, clutching my face where I'd just punched myself. Motherfucker that hurt.

And I was still in the middle of the ocean. Well, fuck.

Okay, so what happens now? I figure that I'll probably only be allowed to leave the dream once it reaches its conclusion. So do I just start walking? What do I start walking towards? I mean, it's not like I have any landmarks to go off of. All I see is open ocean. So do I just pick a direction, start walking and just hope for the best then? I'm not really a fan of these ideas. What if I pick the wrong direction and just keep walking until I collapse from exhaustion?

I glanced to the side and saw what looked like a gun turret, holding a pair of big guns. And there were two of these turrets, each on the end of heavy-duty mechanical braces that circled back to… me? And the turrets were mirrored on the other side. They looked like they were attached to a backpack or saddlebag of some kind but I didn't feel any weight on me at all.

A few pieces started slotting together. The weightless gun turrets that look like they got yanked off a cruiser? The ability to pull a Jesus on water? The boat rudder heels/gauntlets?

A glance downward revealed that yes, I had a sex change.

"Oh god no…" I groaned, my face falling into my hoofs. "I'm a boat."

I was a shipgirl now. I was out in the middle of the ocean, presumably many miles out from any sort of help. Abyssals and/or Sirens were sure to be an issue. I'm pretty sure this is some kind of nightmare born of too much anime, and too much research on WWII stuff.

So what do I actually do now?

After that little freakout and trying to figure out how to walk/sail, I decided to do some gunnery practice. Call it a gut feeling, but I don't think I was alone out here, and I don't think that whatever's out here with me is friendly. Besides, I don't really know how to use these, and I kinda want to figure it out.

Ranging Table for 8-inch/55-caliber gun

I swear, it took me hours to get through that part. Not just the tables for the heavy cruiser guns I was packing, but for the combined secondary and anti-air battery I was packing, 5-inch/25-caliber guns, and two triple deck 21 inch torpedoes. I didn't like how comparatively light my AA-battery was at four guns or the fact I was even carrying torpedoes, but that would be a problem for later.

It took me about two hours to memorize all this shit. I imagine that this would have taken longer to do normally, so I assume that my shipgirl-ness was involved somehow.

I eventually hit the closer targets I'd originally set at five, ten, and fifteen kilometers, they were easy enough once I had the right range. Took a few salvoes to get the shell to actually hit the fairly small target sure but eventually I hit them. Once I had the range I could fire at least 3 rounds a minute, maybe more if I got more practice in.

With a huff, I turned and gave up on evening gunnery practice, heading off at cruising speed. I left feeling rather frustrated about my performance. Admittedly, I had no idea how well I really did with the gunnery. For all I knew, I was basically a gunnery savant. But that score against largely imobile and non-maneuvering targets? I doubted it.

I stewed for a bit in my own frustrations as I sailed. At least I did until the sun went down and everything turned pitch black. At that point, frustration gave way to fear. Part of me wanted to turn on my searchlights, but I knew I had to keep them off. Otherwise, I'd turn myself into a beacon in a twelve mile radius.

So I kept them off, jumping a little in my skin at every errant wave.

Morning did not bring me relief. Not really. Now, sure, I wasn't under attack. But I was still on edge, checking my surroundings.

[We've got a storm coming in boss.] One of my lookouts suddenly reported.

Sure enough, up ahead was a large black cloud hanging over the horizon. The sky underneath it looked dark and hazy, likely the sign of rainfall. I caught the flashes of lightning. A few moments later, I heard the long drawn-out rumble of thunder. My shoulders sank and I let out a low grumble. I was gonna have to deal with that.

"How long until it hits us?" I asked.

[I don't know. Probably another hour and it'll be on top of us.] The lookout responded.

"Goody." I grumbled.

As I sailed, the cloud got closer and closer, growing larger and larger until it covered the whole horizon. And from the way the winds picked up and the water got choppier even before the storm arrived it was going to be a rough one. The rumble of thunder and flashes of lightning didn't help either. And I was fully exposed. I guess I just had to hope that my shipgirlness would help me survive any direct lightning strikes. Otherwise, if the Abyssals didn't kill me, then Mother Nature would instead.

And sure enough, about an hour later, I caught the edge of the storm. Rain fell around me like a curtain, drenching me and pasting my hair to my body. The whipping wind made even the relatively warm day feel like it was the middle of fall back home. I was cold and wet and I hated it.

There was so much rain falling down that I couldn't actually see much further than ten kilometers at best. Which, for most people in their everyday life, would be great. But for me, being part heavy cruiser? It was basically equivalent to Velma dropping her glasses. The odds of me actually finding anything out here was slim to none. So you can imagine my surprise when I saw a large shape come into view. It was land. And there was a lot of it.

"Oh thank god…" I sighed in relief as I changed course.

As I approached though, my heart sank. I could see buildings that wouldn’t look out of place in a Harry Potter movie, and they weren't in the best shape. In fact, many of them looked like they were in pieces. Getting even closer, I could see some of them had seemingly burst open from the inside.

I hadn’t seen any Abyssals yet, but they had to have been here. These had been peoples' homes. The Abyssals hadn't cared. They'd just bombed the hell out of it until there was nothing left but ruined slabs of concrete and rebar. Coming ashore and walking through it, it was even worse. The whole place felt hollow. How many people had lived in this complex? How many families? How many people died here when the bombs and shells came?

Staring up at the bombed out buildings as I walked, I couldn't help but wonder at how many people had made it out. Who did they mourn? Who did they wish were still with them? Would a child grow up missing a mom or a dad on their birthday? Would a parent not get to see their child grow up, with only a few pictures from happier times to remember them by?

I walked into what looked to be a grocery store. It was partly intact, if rough around the edges.

Most of the main building's windows were shattered. Walking inside, I saw shelves packed with various products, most likely well past their sell-by dates. The refrigerators at the back were dead, anything inside having either melted or expired by now.

I pulled a map off of a stand on the cashier's counter and pulled it open. I looked over the names of locations and streets. One of them stuck out to me, both because it was in large, bold letters, but also because it sounded like a parody of Nottingham.

Trottingham.

I closed the map and pulled out another. It was even more egregious than the last one, with more parody names like Manehattan, Fillydelphia, and Baltimare. Either the owner liked this particular brand of joke shop maps or I’ve been isekai’d into a horse world. I glanced at the shelves again, particularly at the remaining products. It would explain why the owner’s sold hay burgers and hay fries.

I feel like that should have shocked me more. But my brain just felt numb. I felt…detached. All I could do was file away that information in my head and close the map.

I left that store and kept walking. I didn't have any idea where I was going. I just wandered, eyes tracing over the remains of people's homes and businesses. It felt like a couple of hours of wandering before I noticed that the rain had calmed slightly. Maybe the storm was passing?

I looked up to see a swirling mass of black clouds overhead. There were flashes of lightning up there, but it seemed… off somehow. The rumble of thunder didn't quite reach the ground. The clouds were also moving fast. Very fast. They seemed to be swirling around a central point not too far off. But that point didn't seem to move, and it wasn't an eye in the storm either.

This storm didn't seem natural.

Shit, I'd just walked into an Abyssal stronghold hadn't I? I should probably try to get the hell out of here. But I didn't know where I was, and for all I knew, I could be surrounded by now. I had to get a good view of the surroundings first. There was an old bombed-out apartment block that was just a little bit taller than the rest nearby. It'd have to do.

Entering the building, I made my way to the stairs. I managed to get up two flights before I ran into a problem. The stairs had fallen out about halfway up. I considered trying to jump the gap, but I wasn't confident I'd be able to jump that distance. And I wasn't sure I'd survive the fall to the flight below. Well…I probably would, but I wasn't eager to find out how much it'd hurt. So I was going to have to find another way up. Maybe there was another staircase on the opposite side of the building. I wasn't sure what building codes were like here, but I think apartment buildings need to have multiple exits and staircases in case of fire.

So I went down the nearest hallway to the otherside of the building, braving scattered clothes and objects from when people rushed to leave. Some of the doors were wide open. I ignored them, in case I ended up finding a family of skeletons in there. I eventually made it to the other side of the building, finding an intact flight of stairs. I slowly made my way up until I made it to the access door to the roof. It was locked. So I did what made sense at the time.

I punched the door out of frustration.

I expected to just have my hoof bounce off it ineffectually. Instead, there was a loud crack as the door was torn off its hinges and crashed to the roof outside. I stumbled out after it, struggling to keep my balance. Okay, either I'm way stronger than I used to be, or that door frame wasn't well built or rotten.

But I was out on the roof now, and had a commanding view of the surrounding area. And also of the Abyssals clustering in the middle of the bay. I ducked down behind the wall at the edge of the roof, hoping they hadn't spotted me. A regular person might not have, but well, if I could see out to thirty kilometers on a decent day, so could they. I slowly raised my head over the wall, trying to get a good view of what the Abyssals had.

More than I could deal with was the short answer.

Eighteen destroyers, actual full sized destroyers and not Abyssal whale monsters, were lined up in three columns of six, probably in classes considering there was a column of American four stackers, another column of British V/W destroyers and a model I did not recognize. There was also some sort of pre-dreadnought battleship with a pair of large lifting frames amidships, a crane ship and in between the two was a larger and longer ship that had to displace over three times as much as the pre-dreadnought. All three of which were anchored at the mouth of the bay behind the columns of destroyers. Like the pre-dreadnought the largest ship had one gun turret, but the guns were pointed directly at its rearmost mast and there was plenty of wasted stern space. This was a sizable force and I'd basically just stumbled straight onto it. You can imagine what that did to my heart rate as I realized just how many torpedoes they could put down in the water. Even a fraction of what was here would be enough to put me down permanently.

And then I noticed why.

A figure sitting like royalty on a massive block of steel as if it were a throne. With sixteen guns in eight turrets, the middle four turrets sitting side-by-side the figure being massive, and a pair of cranes, the center of the storm was arrayed almost perfectly over where she sat, overlooking the bay. I couldn't tell what exactly she was, but just laying eyes on her, I could feel this…presence. There's really no other way to describe it. Every time I laid eyes on her, something unnerving would run up my spine.

That was an Installation. Joury was still out if it was a Siren considering the ships or an Abyssal considering I couldn’t remember the latter deploying Installations.

Now I know why the storm felt off.

Before I could even think of leaving, a ship broke through the storm. Considering the tall lattice masts it had to be American and with those twin turrets, that had to be 14 inches, it looked like a New York class battleship. Any thoughts of it being an addition to the fleet died when it fired eight(?) shells at the larger ship.

Then, all hell broke loose.

My bow crashed through the towering waves, burying itself in freezing water and splashing up a salty plume clear back to my A-turret. The long, slender lines of my hull made me an exceptionally fast warship, but it apparently came at the cost of lousy sea keeping in foul weather.

And I was sailing into some of the roughest seas never before seen this far south in the Celestial Sea.

"Gahhhh…." I let out a pathetic rumble, if I had hands I would have them clutching at my stomach as I climbed up a wave trough. I felt my bow clear the water for a second, felt the freezing air scouring against my anti-fouling paint. Then I crested the wave with a mighty crash, sending salt and surf high into the air.

But at least I had thirty-five thousand five hundred tons to keep myself steady, but the rest of the convoy? They’d be bouncing around like toys in Discord's bathtub. As such, I was sent ahead to survey the unnatural weather phenomenon that was apparently encompassing Trottingham after the week long trip.

Naturally, this is about the point where the universe decided to shit all over me.

I finally made it to the center of the storm and entered a bay, only to run into a lot of destroyers and a trio of larger ships, one of which had a tripod mast. A design feature fitted to Edwardian era warships, specifically dreadnought battleships and battlecruisers. I did the only thing I could think of doing, I fired on the larger ship.

Then, all hell broke loose.

I bracketed the larger ship although two of my shells struck the bridge of the pre-dread by its side. Then, suddenly, the larger ship and the crane ship by its side glowed a blinding blue light that immediately dissipated, leaving behind a dreadnought battleship with a pair of superimposed turrets and a Kearsarge class battleship. My torpedoes were launched at the newly formed dreadnought before my secondaries started firing on the destroyers.

The enemy battleships, despite the light show, fired before the destroyers did, throwing up large columns of water all around me. The destroyers quickly responded afterwards, 4 and 4.7 inch guns pinging off my armor just as my 6 inch guns were scoring hits on the stationary ships and at ten kilometers I could see their torpedo tubes rotating towards me, waiting to release their deadly loads.

That's about when the radio crackled to life.

“Hello there.” Eight shells struck the dreadnought amidships just as dust kicked up on an apartment building behind the trio of battleships.

Note to self, don’t fire on land. Good thing to know, granted, but it totally ruined my badass entrance as I had to wait for the dust to clear up before I could fire again. I also tipped off the Abyssals/Sirens that I was here, which was a helluva lot more important. Okay, time to make it to the water and focus fire on the battleships, at least for now. They've got the most firepower out here, if I can take them out or soften them up it will go a long way to getting the Abyssals/Sirens to fuck right off, and get me to civilization faster.

Back down the-

"Who dis?!" Somebody spoke through the radio.

"Uh…hi?" I replied, running down the access just as something, probably a shell, hit the roof I was just on, the building vibrating violently.

"I ask again, who are you?!"

"The cruiser you're here to pick up?" I answered just as I made it to ground level.

“Cruiser? I was supposed to evacuate Trottingham!” The new girl cut back.

"Yeah well, somebody told you wrong. I’m the only one here.” Even though I knew nobody could see, I shrugged.

There was silence for a second. Good, now I get to shoot. I was after the battleships in a heartbeat, going at full flank speed and banking into a tight right turn towards the bay.

"Fine, I can't get to you so you're gonna have to fight on your own until I can break through." I could hear the cannon shots from her end of the line.

Leaping into the bay I fired at the Installation that was firing at random apartment complexes behind it with every gun I had and launched half of my torpedoes at the pre-dreadnought. If I could keep the battleships between me and the Installation either the Installation wouldn’t fire on its allies or, more likely, it might hit the battleships.

Speaking of battleships, it looks like my torpedoes hit the mark as geysers erupted along the pre-dreadnought’s flank. It started sinking only moments later.

A destroyer column, seemingly realizing their fuckup, executed the tightest one-eighty degree turn I've ever seen anybody pull off and booked it back towards me.

I locked my guns on one of the enemy destroyers and pulled the trigger, managing to score a few hits. Without any dust to obscure my vision and at such close range I essentially started shotgunning destroyers with my main guns while the secondaries were tagging them. With destroyers catching fire and drifting in random directions before sinking one by one I took a glance at the dreadnought and holy shit that’s a lot of guns! I immediately launched the rest of my torpedoes at the seven turret battleship. And just in time too, as the turrets were slowly rotating towards me and were just about locked on me when my torpedoes struck it amidships, splitting the damn thing in half.

I blinked, staring at the cruiser that just sunk a pre-dreadnought battleship, a dreadnought battleship and a division of destroyers in about 5 minutes. 5 minutes! If it weren’t for the twin turrets and lack of an accent and maid uniform I’d have thought that I was staring at a ponified Sheffield from Azur Lane. In that amount of time my secondaries had finished off the other two-thirds of the destroyers and my main battery had traded shots with the dreadnought before a stray shot of mine penetrated the Kearsarge’s forward 13-inch turret and caused an explosion that had to have reached its magazine. More kills sure, but destroyers didn’t have heavy armor protection and they were pretty much sitting ducks.

“Hey!” At 10 kilometers I decided to speak through my radio. "Chesapeake to unidentified cruiser. I say, what ship is that?"

"Nice to meetcha Chesy!” The shipgirl/mare replied cheerfully. “You can call me Fort Kickass!"

I stared deadpanned at her just as all of the sunken enemy ships began to fade right before my eyes, leaving behind me, the cruiser and an Installation!

“I’m not calling you that!” I shouted as I shot at the Installation that was aiming at the cruiser.

"You don't like it?" The shipgirl said in the midst of dodging the Installation’s attack.

“There’s no way in hell any nation would name a ship “Fort Kickass!” I shot back as she returned fire on the Installation. Against our combined firepower the Installation quickly folded, quite literally, before exploding. It’s death dispersing the storm, revealing the…ruins of Trottingham and my convoy off in the distance.

“How 'bout you guys just call me Blue for now?" The shipgirl must have also seen the convoy and decided they were friendly, or she didn’t have the range.

“...I’d only let it slide if you were Japanese.” I muttered exasperated.

“...there’s actually a Japan here?”

We ended up doubling back to the convoy so I could tow Clearwave at 15 knots…again. I swear, it only happened three times now but I now have the image of me carrying Clearwave like a toy poodle or something stuck in my brain. In the meantime the two of us went over anything and everything, nothing left out so long as we could remember. Including the bit about being in a TV show about colorful ponies and Friendship with a capital F.

“That’s freaky.” She, Fredericksburg, noted as we passed by some Wisdom Cubes.

I was kinda peeved that she had such an easy time coming up with a name while I spent days being unnamed and had to be in…advised to take on a name by Spitfire.

Anyway, the sight of Trottingham was not a pretty one. Wooden networks of jetties and piers were shattered, the boats that once made it their home were a series of hulked out, burned wrecks. The buildings and houses showed similar signs of burning, in addition to craters made from shellfire. Of the inhabitants, there was no sign. For better or worse.

There wasn’t much for us to do to secure Trottingham once the Morgana were sunk. So, while the crew of the Clearwave offloaded Twilight to the, least likely to collapse, hospital and searched the city and neighboring forest for survivors, me and Fredericksburg started ‘fishing’ for Wisdom Cubes. With eighteen total destroyers and three different classes of battleships we collected 21 Wisdom Cubes in total. Having finished up and not seeing any signs of more Morgana we decided to return to shore for lunch. All in all, not a bad day. The only thing that would make things better would be if Twilight woke up.

A voice, if you could call a horrible maelstrom and an earthquake put together as a voice, asked me something. I said no because the way it asked made me think it wanted my younger sister. It seemed really angry at that. It came back later and just grabbed me. And then…

A massive wrench tears through the darkness.

“Big sis!”

My eyes snapped open and I shot up into a sitting position.

“What?” I stared at a small pony with black hair, gray eyes and a bunch of small guns and three sets of torpedo tubes that were attached to a saddlebag that was staring at me with tears in its eyes.

“Sis?” It-she-asked.

“...is that you?” I asked to which she nodded before launching herself at me. “Oof! Shush, everything will be okay.” That tackle confirmed two things for me at that moment. That I wasn’t dreaming and I needed to comfort my sister as she cried out. I held her in one arm and stroked her hair with the other, all while hiding my frown. Why can’t I remember her name? Her name was…why can’t I remember?

“I can’t remember.” I heard her mutter in my shoulder.

“What can’t you remember?” I asked as gently as possible.

“I can’t remember our names.” She whispered.

I felt a chill go down my spine. She couldn’t remember our names? My name…what was it?

I took a breath before letting it out. That didn’t matter. What mattered was figuring out where we were. I took a look around and grimaced. Other than a city in the distance, we were alone in the water.

I looked down and sucked in a startled gasp. We were sitting atop a body of clear water, but despite how clear it was I couldn’t see the bottom. As stressful as it was, it didn’t distract me from the fact that I couldn’t find my legs. There was just a tangle of pony legs down there.

“We’re ponies now.” She leaned out of my hug and gestured towards the water. With us separated, I could now see my reflection. Or at least, see a pony with blonde hair, blue eyes and the same saddlebag/gun thing staring back at me.

“Heh, ponies don’t walk on water or have guns.” I pointed out. At her despondent expression, I sighed. “Look, we can't just stay out here. We should head to the city over there.” I pointed towards the city that honestly looked like it had seen better days. At her still despondent expression I decided to invoke the one show she enjoyed that I honestly was starting to outgrow. “Maybe we’re in My Little Pony and that’s Canterlot over there.” I joked, knowing that Canterlot was on a mountain.

That perked her up.

“You think we’re in MLP? Maybe, the Equestria Girls spinoff did establish that humans become ponies in Equestria, but that can’t be Canterlot.” She muttered a bit about the spinoff before glaring at me.

“Sure it is. It’s got that fairytale aesthetic down and everything.” I waved towards the city and the ships that I just noticed. Four of them kinda reminded me of mini Titanics, a fifth looked like a sailing ship while the last two…just disappeared. Wait.

“Just because it looks like a fairytale city doesn’t make it Canterlot!” She was now pouting at me.

“Then maybe we’re in Harry Potter land?” I shot her a teasing grin before looking back towards the city. Those last two ships that disappeared didn’t look like the remaining five ships in harbor. They looked more like warships.

“Oh! We’re not in Harry Potter land and that’s not Canterlot! I’ll show you!” Before I could start doubting myself she tried to walk towards the city.

Key word tried.

Unbeknownst to the sisters their antics were spotted by one Spy Glass, after he picked up his spyglass after initially mistaking the two for Morgana ships.

“Captain! Two kan…mouse…kan…mussel…shipmares! Two shipmares about 15 kilometers from harbor!” Spy Glass reported loudly, handing over his spyglass once Captain Summer Rain made her way towards him.

After a few seconds of staring out to sea, Summer Rain turned towards her crew.

“Orange Drop! Snowstorm! Get Chesapeake and her friend. Tell them that we have company.”

The day after Twilight and Chesapeake left Canterlot princess Celestia sent a letter to Spike asking him to have Twilight’s friends come to Canterlot. With Twilight’s months-long assignments and the threat on Equestria’s coast it was only right to inform them of what Twilight was doing. Perhaps Twilight could send them a letter shortly after her return from Trottingham.

"I wonder what's going on."

"I dunno Fluttershy.” Applejack shrugged. “Whatever it was though, it was serious enough that Princess Celestia asked for Twilight and all of us to come immediately."

"Yeah!" Rainbow Dash agreed. "Otherwise we wouldn't have to have been here so quickly, and so early in the morning too!"

"Rainbow Dash, darling, 8:30am isn't as early as you think that it is."

Rainbow Dash scoffed, but before she could say anything further, the group reached the throne room, and the guards let them pass. Once they were all inside, they hurried to the thrones at the very front of the room, and the Princesses, and Starlight, came down to greet them.

"Princess Celestia, Princess Luna." The girls bowed before the princesses.

"So what's going on?" Before Rarity could tell off Rainbow Dash for her breach in decorum, Starlight let out a sigh and looked at the princesses.

“Mind letting me explain?” At their nods Starlight looked back towards the girls and told them of what had happened.

“Alien ships from another world?”

“Manehattan’s been attacked!”

“Twilight’s heading to Trottingham!?”

“Reality is an illusion!”

“Ignoring what Pinkie Pie said, yes.” Starlight confirmed.

“Are you sure it’s okay for Twilight to be sailing to Trottingham with those…monster ships out there?” Fluttershy squeaked from behind her mane curtain.

“Rest assured girls, Twilight does not sail to Trottingham alone.” Celestia explained in an attempt to calm them.

“Indeed, she sails aboard the ironclad Clearwave, the crew have already encountered the Morgana and survived.” Luna added.

“See Fluttershy? Twilight’s in good hooves. I’m sure the ponies with her are working with a full bushel.”

“Bha ha ha ha ha ha! There’s something wrong with their bloody ships today!” I hollered after the third battlecruiser went up in a fireball.

The meeting with the new ship girls had gone well despite me hollering at them with my PA system. I blame hunger for that one, turn me into a bit…grouch, yes a grouch. We’d barely got through introductions, with the girls naturally not remembering their names, when suddenly a mist rolled in and brought Orange Drop and Snowstorm crashing into the sea. We barely got them out of the water when a pair of ships popped out of the thick mist some 20 kilometers away, one of the two firing blindly. Naturally, Fredericksburg and I began firing back while the new girls carried the limp pegasi back to Trottingham.

The larger ship turned to port while the smaller of the two closed the distance. Once the larger ship showed her six gun broadside we could make out another ship of the same, if not similar, class as the first making the same turn. With a pair of wing turrets, another AY pair and three funnels I’d immediately identified her as either an Invincible or Indefatigable class battlecruiser.

The smaller ship, that was now firing at Fredericksburg at 19 kilometers, also had a pair of wing turrets alongside its superstructure along with a single twin turret forward of the bridge. As I was mirroring the battlecruiser, and Fredericksburg was falling back to cover the destroyers, I caught a glimpse of the ship’s funnels. The funnel amidships possessed a pair of cranes and another pair of twin turrets were in between that funnel and the rear tower. If playing Ultimate Admiral taught me anything then that funnel was of german design, and considering the hexagonal arrangement of the turrets my mind immediately went to Germany’s Nassau class of battleships. Obviously it was an armored cruiser and the only armored cruiser I could think of with a hexagonal turret arrangement, that could also keep up with the Invincibles, would be SMS Blücher, the last armored cruiser built by the German Empire.

Just as I was thinking that, the Invincible class battlecruiser I had just shot at suddenly turned to starboard, perhaps trying to throw off my aim. I already had the range, so it was easy for my crew to correct for the course change. It was only a minute or two later that it exploded after another salvo of mine struck the forecastle and forward turret. Smoke and flames gushed from the forward part of the ship and I thought I could see bits and pieces of the ship fly up into the air. My surprise didn’t last long as the other three Invincibles were making their presence known.

I turned back to mirror the second Invincible that was now passing its sinking sister. My crew barely had to correct themselves before I was straddling her. She was trying to close the distance with me and I was more than happy to oblige, my 6-inch secondaries had a range of 19 kilometers in their casemates. My main guns hit her once amidships and then again…in the forward magazines. There was an explosion and the ship broke in two before another explosion shook its aft and it began to roll over and sink.

I quickly shifted toward the third Invincible and let loose another salvo once my fairies had their calculations.

Thus, my maniacal laughter.

Splash!

And now Blücher was chasing and shooting at me. Aren’t I popular today?

Splash!

Too popular, I decided as I glanced at Blücher. I couldn’t see any discernible damage to her as a curtain of spray fell on her. She had a higher rate of fire than the last Invincible and also a more comprehensive armor scheme. It was still better to focus fire on the last Invincible before shifting fire to Blücher. Barring the Deutschland class Panzerschiffe, German ships were built tough.

Splash!

Another salvo from me and the last Invincible went up in flames. Apparently there wasn’t a lucky ship amongst them. Hopefully I could deal with Blücher before I could take too many hits.

Splash!

“Fredericksburg, what’s the status of Blucher?” I hollered from my wireless system as I looked at the armored cruiser. I still couldn’t see any damage to her.

“Blucher? Wait, it’s German?”

“Yeah.”

“Well it's no wonder it won’t sink. Should I split off and hit it from its portside?”

Resisting an urge to facepalm, I put a salvo on the armored cruiser. A curtain of sea spray covered the ship. Apparently, she was a lucky one.

“Don’t bother. She’s got wing turrets, so you’ll just give those something to shoot at. Stay on this side and keep firing.” I replied before launching another salvo. It hit, but it didn’t seem to do anything. This was going to take a while.

Summer Rain stared slack-jawed at the battle unfolding before her. Ordinarily she wouldn’t have been able to see through sea mists while using her telescope, but the mists generated by Morgana were anything but ordinary. Thus she was given the honor of watching the two unidentified shipmares carry Orange Drop and Snowstorm away from the battle while Chesapeake effortlessly sank four Morgana ships in ten minutes whilst the fifth attempted to land a hit on her. It was a stark contrast to watching her first fight against the Morgana and, with the battle of Manehattan and the fight against the Spee, painted her as a force of nature. Thankfully, a force of nature on their side.

“Captain Summer Rain.”

Summer Rain glanced towards the speaker, only to snap a salute at the newly awakened Princess of Friendship

“Princess Twilight! You're awake. Why?” Summer Rain paused when Twilight held up her hoof.

“What’s going on? Is it more Morgana?” Twilight asked the Captain, to which Summer Rain nodded before explaining.

“Yes. They appeared shortly after Chesapeake, another shipmare, and Orange Drop and Snowstorm met up with two more unidentified shipmares. The unidentified shipmares are evacuating Orange Drop and Snowstorm after they crashed into the sea and Chesapeake has already sunk four of the five Morgana ships.”

“And Trottingham?”

“It’s been abandoned, the inhabitants might have evacuated further inland. We were in the midst of sending scouts to find any traces of them when lookouts reported the unidentified shipmares 15 kilometers from harbor.”

“Good, good. How’s Chesapeake doing?”

“Why won’t you fucking die!?” I shouted at the flaming armored cruiser that was listing badly to port and still firing her rearmost turret at Fredericksburg.

A volley of eight 14-inch armor piercing shells and three torpedoes slammed into the Morgana.

Explosions raced along its flank as torpedoes blew gashes in the hull, even as my volley gutted the Morgana from the inside, lighting off magazines, bursting boilers, and sending flaming coal arcing through the sky.

“Finally! Fredericksburg! Let’s get some lunch!”

“...well, that was a thing.”

“That was awesome! She was like-” I tuned out my sister as she began making gun noises to focus on the mare/ship/pony thing that sunk four ships.

Sis wanted to look back to watch the fighting and because of tiny little ponies that called themselves fairies we did while sailing towards the city without having to worry about crashing into something. No wonder ship nerds were always going on about battleships. They were an awesome sight.