Chapters Chapter 1: Where am I? What's going on? And why am I a pony with cannons? Chapter 10: Repairs and Canterlot Chapter 13: A new captain, evacuation plan and research projects Chapter 2: Sea trails and an ambush Chapter 3: Meeting the natives and repairs Chapter 4: Replenishment and pirates Chapter 5: Round 2, fight! Chapter 6: Attack on Manehattan Chapter 7: Battle of Manehattan Chapter 8: Battle of Manehattan aftermath Chapter 9: Explanations and a demonstration Chapter 11: Dreaming of princesses Chapter 12: Exams Chapter 14: Science! Chapter 15: Planning Chapter 16: Back to Manehattan Chapter 17: Sink the panzerschiffe Omake 1: 1000th views, 1 interview Chapter 18: Battle of Trottingham Chapter 19: Rumble in Bronclyn Chapter 20: Rumble in Bronclyn aftermath Chapter 21: One battleship for delivery Omake 1.5: Pinkie breaks the wall Chapter 22: A, new, reason to fight Chapter 23: The Pink one and the Moon princess Omake 2: Battle of the North Celestial, Mirror, Sea Chapter 24: Shakedown cruise Chapter 25: Misinformed, mistaken, misled Chapter 26: Meanwhile, in Vanhoover Chapter 27: Clear Moon, a conference and it's not butter Chapter 28: A pearl at harbor View Online
Chapter 1: Where am I? What's going on? And why am I a pony with cannons?
Author's Note
Hello, hello! This Fashionably Late! Finally posting a story from somewhere for some reason! First ever story and it's a MLP crossover with Kantai Collection, ~~and who know what else~~. Huh, thought I was going to post a MLP/Pokemon crossover, but I'm stuck on transitioning and that story is not going to be published for a long time while this story has a 2nd chapter in the works. Hoping to publish that within a week...or a month. Thank god I didn't start with a MLP/Kingdom Hearts crossover, even if that would have been the start of a cinematic universe. Now, enough with my rambling and let's start the show.
Chapter 1: Where am I? What's going on? And why am I a pony with cannons?
I like routine, perhaps a bit too much. From what I can remember I’d always wake up in bed and just lay there for a bit. Sometimes I’d try and get some more rest, sometimes I’d just stare at the ceiling or look around my room and think, sometimes I’d…probably shouldn’t mention that. Point is that I have a routine and I don’t like it when routine is thrown into disarray. I’d get angry at having it disrupted and confused and worried about what was going to happen and what I was supposed to do.
Why am I bringing this up?
Well, imagine being woken up to something that sounded like an explosion, having your head thrown up and opening up your eyes directly into the sun and having a curtain of cold water douse you.
Yeah, needless to say I was awake, pissed and panicking.
And, after shaking my head to get rid of the water and dancing white spots in my vision while being mindful of my glasses, taking a look around did not help.
Once again, why?
Well, that was because I was in the middle of nowhere. No, not just the middle of nowhere. I was in the middle of the fucking ocean! Am I crazy!?
…
Wait, I wasn’t sinking?
…
A look downward confirmed that I was standing on water. Like Jesus or Naruto. It was like being in a bouncy castle. The waves calmly bounce up and down as if someone nearby were jumping on the floor. It was almost relaxing how the waves were flowing around my hooves.…wait what?
…
I have hooves!? What happened to my hands, and why can’t I feel my toes!?
“Ok, if there was ever a time not to be calm, this is it!”
…
“Ok, ok, just stay calm, or keep the panicking to a minimum. Take stock of the situation.” After trying to reassure myself, I raised my right hand, hoof I mean, to my head for a better look at it. I can see that it was covered in brown fur...or was it tanned? Rosy? Either way it looked like it was about the same, or if not similar, color/shade as my old human skin. Like if somebody turned my hand into a hood and covered the rest of the arm in fur. Oh, and there was a strange metal…gauntlet? Boot? Yeah, boot, I’m going with “boot” since I’m going to be walking with it. A metal boot that was grey on the top and bright red on the bottom, battleship gray and antifouling red said a small cheerful voice in my head. Looking at the bottom of the boot also showed that my hoofprint was almost a perfect circle. My left leg was almost identical save for my old silver(?) watch. I looked down at my legs…hindlegs to see whether or not they were the same as my forehooves and I could see that my hindlegs also had the same/similar armor and…either my…pipe was well hidden or life/the world/the universe/whatever decided that since I wasn’t using it that I clearly didn’t need it anymore.
…
I don’t know how to feel about that one. First I’ve been turned into a horse…pony…thing and now I’m missing a key piece of equipment that I would have liked to use at least once in my life! Wait, now I know what I feel about that one. I’m getting upset!
…
“Ok, calm down, calm down.” Maybe it was hidden really well. I wasn’t an expert in…whatever you call someone who cares for horses…ponies, I am going to refer to myself as a pony since my lisp/accent makes it sound like I’m saying a different word that sounds similar and I’m still not sure if I’m a stallion or a mare.
…
Finally looking over my shoulder to look at my back, where a weight had been since I woke up, I saw my…rigging? Was “rigging” the right term? Bah, it’s rigging. My rigging manifested like a pair of saddlebags, or at least I was assuming it was a pair set considering I could only see one set of two gun turrets in a superfiring position off my right side, starboard repeated the second resigned voice, at the moment alongside some casemate mounted guns and a pair of, what I had to believe to be, anti-aircraft guns. On my back was a massive yet squat construct of blocky metal that had to be my conning tower, and something behind the tower that was tall and lean. It was hard to get a good look at it without having to break my neck to do so. Instead, I looked to my left, port shouted that second voice, and saw an identical set of superimposed turrets, casemate and anti-aircraft guns and…
“Oh dear lord, was that a cage mast!?”
…
Yep…yeah, that is a cage mast…
…
“What!? Why!?” Why was it a cage mast? Why did I have a cage mast? Oh god, that must mean that it was a cage mast behind the conning tower…
…
Ok, so that was the bad news. The good news, and I was grasping at straws here, was that since I knew a tiny bit about early 20th century naval history, which was either the reason I was stuck in this situation or just a minor and happy coincidence, I could identify the type of ship I was, and right now the biggest clue I had was those fucking cage masts!
…
Ahem. As I was thinking, those cage masts must mean that I was a 1910s American dreadnought battleship since no other navy used that style of mast…except maybe the American battleships built for Argentina. What were their names? Rivadavia class? Either way, most other navies used either tripod masts or some other design that I can’t think of right now and American battleships built during the 1930s did not have cage masts. Can’t be a pre-dreadnought or an armored cruiser, the superimposed turrets were a dead give away. Can’t be a heavy or light cruiser either, most used three gun turrets while those that did mount two gun turrets didn’t have the right number of them, the Omahas resembled armored cruisers with only two twin gun turrets, the Atlanta class had three superimposed turrets forward of the bridge with a matching set aft and the Pensacolas mounted a mixed battery of two twin and two triple gun turrets. So, that must make me either a South Carolina, Colorado or a New York and the fifth turret was behind my head.
“Hey!”
Ok, now I know that I’m actually hearing things. Looking off in the direction that sound came from led to me staring at a chubby little doll-like creature with an oversized head for its body standing on a platform connected to my conning tower. Right over my shoulder.
“Gah!”
Ok, I could have reacted better than jerking off to the side and sending the “doll” tumbling into the side of my neck, but I scare easily. And it’s not like she was sent into the water. Small miracles, right?
“Hey!”
While at first I was going to entertain the idea of talking to the “doll” like it was my dog or cat, the fact that I literally understood it…her say “I’m your captain” tossed that idea aside. Because this was not a doll, but what I had to assume was a fairy. And considering I was currently walking on water with enough firepower to erase a town from existence, I had to be a shipgirl…er mare…
“So, does that mean you know what sort of battleship I am?
That…that wasn’t the captain.
“Who was that?”
How many of them are there?
“What did she say?”
…wait.
“I’ve got 14 inch guns?”
…what?
“Hey!”
Unexpectedly another fairy appeared beside my captain, startling me.
[I mean no disrespect, but we need to find a friendly port to pull into. We are short on fuel and do not know where we are. It might be a good idea to try and solve both issues soon.]
…before falling flat on my face.
“As soon as I figure out walking.”
“Captain’s log…”
…
[...I’m not sure.] The deputy-captain admitted after a long pause.
…
Ok, this is odd. I mean, being turned into a pony/ship thing and left in the middle of the ocean was odd enough, but having a crew manning what seemed to be a battlecruiser that never existed…or atleast was never built by a nation that never fielded battlecruisers in the first place know more about Japanese battlecruisers enough to know the differences between two of them and not know anything, or at least not enough to prove otherwise, about battleships from the nation that designed the ship they were on in the first place? That was strange…or maybe they already crossed that line sometime ago…
[Excuse me.]
That…that was the recording officer.
“Yes?”
Gah!
“Are you still recording this!?”
…
[We have forty-eight rounds.] She repeated confidently.
“And that’s the problem.”
…
That seemed to catch their attention.
[..do you think we’ll be attacked?]
…
[...ok, I’ll get some targets.] The captain responded momentarily.
Chapter 10: Repairs and Canterlot
Author's Note
Fashionably Late here, and we got to Canterlot after ten chapters and the protagonist gets a name! I know I said I showed off my cards in chapter 8's Author's Note, but I hadn't written the chapter yet and I decided to change my mind midway through writing it. So, can I play the 'I have altered the deal' card? In any case, I decided to have another look at the original six frigates and found another name that, while it wasn't a one to one comparison, was interesting enough. Anyway, if you enjoy the story please leave a comment. Have fun.
Chapter 10: Repairs and Canterlot
I was bored. Turns out that I had a few more hours of repair time before I was finished. After finishing the demonstration and spouting off some half baked declaration of protection I had asked to finish my repairs at the behest of my chief engineering officer. Who was a fiery redhead fairy…who knew?
I didn’t even have the option to sleep or be rendered unconscious like last time. No electronics meant watching a movie and/or listening to music was off the table. Reading was out since I didn’t want to chance dropping my books into the bath and I had my fairies combing through my personal library for anything useful. Most of which was manga and comics with the occasional game guide. They only found another three books that were useful, Fighting Techniques of Naval Warfare, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II, and Machines of War. Promising, but my own brief look through the books revealed that I would have to have my fairies duplicate the first book in order to correct some minor issues, like how the British Invincible class of battlecruisers were erroneously stated to have a dozen 12 inch guns compared to the ten 12 inch guns on Dreadnought when in reality the Invincibles had eight 12 inch guns or how SMS Blücher was designated as a battlecruiser when, as far as I could remember, the Germans were under no illusions about her capability when compared to the Invincibles and the armored cruiser simply served with the battlecruiser squadron. The last two books were being skimmed over for relevant information, the whole situation was bad enough without me having to share information about flamethrowers.
Ding
Although I apparently did have the option of taking a nap, my eyes snapping open as I looked at a line of blinking zeros that shortly disappeared. A quick chat with my bridge crew and engineering confirmed that I was back to combat readiness although logistics was, politely, suggesting that I replenish my stocks. With nothing else to do I crawled out of the tub and wiped myself down with a towel before opening the door and revealing half a dozen armored ponies in the hallway.
“Ma’am! Have you finished your healing?” Asked an earth pony wearing some fancy armor.
“Er, yeah. Thanks for asking.” I replied nervously.
“We were ordered to bring you to Princess Luna at your earliest convenience.” The pony nodded at one of the guards, said guard saluting before turning and galloping off.
“If those are your orders then ok.” I replied with a shrug, the lead guard nodding before turning to the other ponies and ordering them to form up around me before we all started to make our way off the ship.
Before we could walk off the gangway a voice called out and I turned to see Summer Rain galloping up to us.
“Thanks for waiting. I wanted to say thank you, thank you for helping us bring those pirates to justice and save the hostages, thank you for fighting off those ships that attacked us and thank you for saving Manehattan. I don’t know what we can do to fight against the Morgana, but I know you won’t have to face them alone, this I swear.” The crew of the Clearwave cheered and stomped their hooves in agreement with Summer Rain.
“You…you’re welcome. It’s been an honor sailing with you.” I started weakly before looking Summer Rain in the face and bowing to her. “I just want to say thanks myself. Thank you for picking me up and letting me repair and giving me lunch. If you hadn’t been there I don’t…I don’t think I could have fought off the Morgana cruisers a second time.” I declared, standing back up and gave her a small smile. “I’m happy to have sailed with you, your crew and the Clearwave. I hope we can sail the waves soon enough.”
“…Ponies!...Attention! Salute!” Summer Rain ordered almost breathlessly, the entire crew of the Clearwave following her commands without a moment’s hesitation. On each and everyone of their faces was conviction and resolve. Their display reminded me why I choose not to wear contacts.
I tried to copy their salute, nearly toppling in the process before righting myself. We held that position for a moment before dropping our hooves and I turned back in the direction of the gangplank with the guards keeping pace around me. I didn’t say goodbye, didn’t even bother to. I didn’t want to say goodbye.
The guards were silent as we walked through the base, a few minutes later we were standing at an open field. A nearly open field I amended upon spotting princess Luna discussing something quietly with a group of ponies along with a trio of chariots attended by a group of pegasi, one of the chariots containing a pair of boxes that was secured to the chariot by rope. I didn’t have to guess what was happening for long as Princess Luna noticed our approach and turned to greet me.
“Ah, it's good to see you up and free from your wounds.” The Diarch greeted me. “My sister and I have already considered how exactly we wish to make use of your strength. To that end, I would like to ask you to accompany me back to Canterlot where we can continue to plan for these Morgana.” Luna gestured with one of her wings to the waiting chariots, the pegasi beside them stopping what I just realized were preparations for takeoff.
“Ok, but can I ask what is in the box?” I asked while glancing at the boxes.
Honestly I was a bit worried about her declaration. They already considered how to use my strength and I was being sent to Canterlot? I mean, it would be nice to see the pristine capital atop a mountain, but that was the problem. It was atop a mountain at the center of the country. How was I, a battlecruiser, supposed to fight a naval war on the east coast from atop a mountain? Even if there was a canal leading from Canterlot to Manehattan or one of the other east coast cities it would take me a while to sail that distance, I figured.
Heck, they’ve never even met a ship mare, as far as I know. Sure I just gave them a demonstration, but that was only the tip of the iceberg! I still needed to explain that my abilities were locked in, unless I could undergo a refit. I was hoping that I could undergo one. I needed/wanted a refit similar to what the Standard-type battleships went through, although a 3 knot increase in speed similar to the Kongous would be appreciated. 5 inch AA guns, catapults and floatplanes, anti-torpedo bulges and the removal of my underwater torpedo tubes and replacing those damn cage masts with a more robust bridge structure and some fire-control directors and radar. Sigh, that’s the dream.
“Ah, the boxes.” Luna turned towards the box with a calculating look, snapping me out of my thoughts. “Inside them are artifacts scavenged from the ships that shelled Manehattan. Some of which were pieces of disturbing caricatures of my and my sister’s little ponies, mechanical in nature. There were also shining blue cubes that we’re splitting between Canterlot and Manehattan for research.” She explained.
Shining blue cubes? A certain game and anime immediately came to mind, and now I was giving the boxes an appraising look.
“Now let us depart!” Luna declared in a booming voice, the pegasi who had been watching our conversation jumping to attention before beginning to scurry about in order to finish preparing the chariots. I was quickly ushered onto one of the chariots. Looking over the sides and behind myself had me concerned on how open the damn thing was, but I just confined myself to the experience. They had to be the best in the business and so I didn't need to worry about my safety right? Besides, I’ve been on airplanes before, this was fine right?
…
…
Uh…
I nearly stumbled before being caught by Luna.
"Just take it easy. I've got you." Luna reassured me.
“Uh…dizzy.” I groaned for a moment as the horizon seemed to waver a little, head swimming. The fact that I was leaning against Princess Luna, co-ruler of Equestria and the mare responsible for raising and lowering the moon did not register as not vomiting fuel oil and sprawling on the ground was more important.
“Come, let us head inside the castle. Perhaps the kitchen can serve something to calm your stomach.” Luna led me past towers of white stone and precisely trimmed trees, bushes, and flowers and into a picture perfect fairytale castle. Which again, did not register as I just wanted to lie down.
“Welcome back dear sister, I trust your flight was…uneventful?” I finally registered Celestia, sitting at a table with a stack of documents nearly as tall as the alicorn herself and a yellow mare with an orange mane wearing a military uniform sitting across from her. A cart with an assortment of food and a pair of tea and coffee pots sat nearby.
“Not entirely, sadly our intention to use the Wonderbolts to rush her to the defense of the Morgana’s intended target will have to be shelved.” Luna said as she guided me to an open seat between the princess and the yellow mare, who I was starting to recognize as Spitfire, captain of the Wonderbolts.
“Uh, I don’t think ship mares and flying go hand in hand.” I groaned as Celestia passed me a tea cup filled with a sweat smelling drink. I didn’t even feel the heat emanating from the cup before taking a sip. Hm, flowery, oh, fruity, me likey. I drained the cup before setting it down on a saucer.
“Hm, that is the second time you’ve mentioned ship mares. What do you mean by that?” Celestia asked, filling my tea cup with more tea before taking a bite out of a sponge cake cut into strips with a jam filling.
“Oh, well back home…” I took another gulp of my tea, on one hand to compose my thoughts on the other hand I had no impulse control when it came to my drinks. “There are stories of strange beings attacking shipping lanes and wreaking havoc on countries that are dependent on imports. The only ones who can stop them are kanmusu, I think it translates to ship girl or fleet girl, but considering I’m a pony right now and everybody’s referred to me as female then I think ship mare applies here. Anyhow, the kanmusu are the spirits of ships given human, or again pony, form to fight against those strange beings.”
“What?” Spitfire blurted out, staring at me like I’d gone nuts…which I wouldn’t have argued against on day one.
“From our understanding of her situation.” Celestia began, getting Spitfire’s attention. “This mare is from another world populated by creatures never before seen in Equestria. They are called humans and by her own admission any that would travel to this world would be transformed into a pony.” She explained succinctly, in a way that I couldn’t.
I may be a coward by nature, but I liked talking. Probably because I didn’t get many chances to do so. I’d talk a mile a minute and stumble through my words, having to repeat myself again.
“Okay, so she’s an alien. Got it. So what’s her name, and what does she mean about ‘being referred to as female’ thing?” Everybody was looking at me now.
“I can’t remember my name and…I used to be a guy.” I admitted, gulping down another cup. When did I get a refill?
“Woah woah, time out. You used to be a guy?” At my nod, Spitfire whistled. “That must be an adjustment huh?”
“I’m just trying to ignore it.” I replied, getting another refill.
“And you can’t remember your name?” Spitfire pressed on. At my nod she continued. “Then why don’t you make up a name for yourself, right now.”
“I can’t just make up a name on the spot. The US never commissioned any battlecruisers and human names don’t make for good pony names like Alfred Thayer Mahan.” I replied to everyone’s confusion. I sighed. “The country I came from is called the United States of America and the US is one of many nicknames for it. Battlecruisers are a ship type that I happen to be and the US never managed to build any of us, or atleast never built any of us as a battlecruiser. And finally Mahan was a US naval officer, historian, and possibly the most important American strategist of the nineteenth century.” I finished with another drink. How much tea does that pot still have?
“Excuses excuses. Just make up a name right here, right now!” Spitfire stomped her hoof on the table, earning herself a look from the princesses.
“Ok ok, jeez.” I leaned back and thought quickly.
The Alaskas were out, they were officially ‘large’ cruisers and I wasn’t going to call myself Philippines. Lexington and Saratoga were commissioned as aircraft carriers, Ranger was reused for an interwar carrier, naming myself after my country left a bad taste in my mouth and was a challenge to the sea which was just bad luck, and there was only one USS Constitution and she was one of the first six frigates built for the us navy and was one of, if not the ,world's oldest commissioned naval warship still afloat. She wasn’t some unwanted battlecruiser design that got herself ambushed at night by some cruisers. Her sides were made of iron for crying out loud! …one of six frigates huh? Wasn’t there a US frigate that was pressed into British service? I mean, I’m not being forced into Equestrian service, but if an angry yellow pony is glaring at me and demanding that I name myself right now…
“Chesapeake!” I blurted out.
“Chase A Peak?” Spitfire sounded out to which I shook my head.
“Chesapeake. She was one of the first US frigates built for the US navy and she was pressed into British service. Uh, Great Britain was the country my country fought against to earn our independence.” I explained.
“Well jeez. When you put it that way it sounds like we’re the bad guys.” Spitfire rolled her eyes and leaned back away from me.
“Nevertheless, we can officially call that matter resolved." Luna resolved. “Back to the matter at hoof, captain Summer Rain has stated that your knowledge of the Morgana was limited, but during your announcement in Manehattan Harbor you extended your proclamation to include the sirens and abyssals. Are we to assume that you know of the sirens that Starwhirl banished and possess knowledge of the sirens' attempt to invade Equestria?” She asked initially to my confusion before I understood what she meant.
“While yes, I know about the sirens Starswhirl banished to the mirror world, they aren’t what I meant. I was talking about another group of strange beings that are like the Morgana…and if those cubes you recovered from the Brandenburgs are what I think they are then they might be relevant.” I said, hoping that Luna would show me what was inside the box.
Luna took one glance at Celestia who nodded her assent before putting the case on top of the table and opening it, revealing three blue cubes that shined and twinkled like stars. It was breathtaking honestly and sadly confirmed that the sirens might be involved. Ships from the freaking future that should not be in Equestria considering the two belonged in different franchises and we’d seen future Equestria in G5 and…ok, maybe there was some issues there that could use some fixing now, but did we really need to imply time travel!? That stuff got really confusing real fast!
“Well?” Luna brought me out of my funk. I nodded.
“Yeah, it’s siren technology.” I confirmed before taking a gulp from the neverending tea pot.
“What does it do?” Spitfire leaned over the table, nearly laying her head on the table.
“Oh so, so much. Despite being a black box, the Wisdom Cube is mostly used to create kanmusu similar to me. Actually, considering my shipself only existed as a paper design and the damn things can bring to life USS Constellation, a ship that was laid down but never launched in the first place, that might explain my ship half, but not the human half.” I muttered the last half angrily to myself before realizing I had an audience. “Anyway, Wisdom Cubes have so much power that you could create just about anything from kanmusu, ship equipment, mass produced ships, pocket dimensions, and on the other hand destroy cities and even whole countries.” The second I finished everyone was alarmed and Spitfire tore her head away from the cube.
“You mean those things could destroy Equestria!?” Spitfire yelled, shocked.
“If misused then yeah I guess.” I shrugged despite the newly formed tension.
“In that case I will have to send a warning to Manehattan stressing the utmost importance of caution. In the meantime, I can think of a hoof-full of ponies perfect for studying dangerous objects.” Celestia said with a smile before taking a sip of tea.
View Online
Chapter 13: A new captain, evacuation plan and research projects
“Wow, and here I thought no other pony could eat more than Soarin after a show.” Spitfire uttered after I finished an entire tray of lasagna.
“Yeah, it’s a thing with us shipmares. We go out onto the water at flank speed and shoot off our guns and as soon as we’re back we’ve got to replenish our fuel tanks and munitions by eating a crap ton of food. I’m worse off since I’m a capital ship.” At Spitfire’s confusion I gave a simplified answer. “I displace more than 20,000 tons and have big 14 inch guns. The only thing I’m missing is heavy armor.”
“Missing…heavy armor? What are you talking about? Doesn’t that cutiemark of yours say that you displace almost four times as much as our frigates and your armor is almost half their displacement?” Spitfire looked at me incredulously.
“I’m talking about armor thickness. 8 inches of belt armor is on par with the Kongos and the British ‘splendid cats’ generally speaking but the Germans were starting with a little over 9.5 inches of belt armor and ending with almost a foot of belt armor while Hood did have a foot of belt armor.” I explained to her continued shock.
“A foot of armor? And here I thought your 8 inches was thick.” Spitfire continued to stare at me while I, and someone else, choked on something while thinking ‘phrasing!’ before draining a glass of juice and talking about the battleships.
“And we’ve only been talking about battlecruisers. The Standard-type of battleships my country was building at the time started with 13.5 inches of armor and ended with 16 inches on the Colorados.” I resumed my feast while Spitfire’s jaw dropped to the table, whispering 16 inches.
“I see.” The motherly voice of Celestia wafted through the air, Spitfire and I turned towards the door to see Princess Celestia and a whole lot of ponies that I recognized from the show. On Celestia’s left side were: Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship, Starlight Glimmer, one of the most powerful unicorns in-universe who figured out how to mess with time travel, and Flash Magnus, one of six legendary ponies who created the Tree of Harmony. On Celestia’s right were: Cadance, Princess of Love and ruler of the Crystal Empire, Shining Armor, former captain of the Canterlot Royal Guard and co-ruler of the Crystal Empire and Sunburst…I want to say magic adviser(?).
And they were all staring at me like I was crazy. How long were they standing there?
“Captain Spitfire, Chesapeake, I trust the training exercise went well?” Celestia walked over to us along with her entourage while Spitfire briefly stood up to bow before summing up her thoughts.
“Well enough. Assuming the Morgana are just as tough as Chesapeake here, then any boarding party we send out is not going to be able to subdue them, and that’s assuming we figure out how to negate their ability to disable us. And while I’m no navy mare, I’m fairly sure that none of our ships are going to survive an encounter with even one of them.” Spitfire informed grimly.
“That is indeed troubling news.” The Princess replied as she glanced down before looking over Twilight and smiling. “But before I hear the results of the training, I believe that it would be best if we sat down for lunch and brought my guests up to speed on the situation.”
“Up to speed on what situation Princess? Is this related to what you wrote on the scroll?” Twilight asked, her nervousness returning in force at the now serious expression on her teacher's face.
“Yes, that is correct.” Celestia took a breath. What followed next was a round of introductions and a summary of the last few days, starting with my appearance in the middle of the Celestial Sea and ending with Celestia’s plan from breakfast. It left everybody in silent contemplation, although Twilight was gawking at me with her mouth open.
Finally Twilight closed her mouth.
“Bwuh?” And let it drop to the table again.
“Yes, that is a fairly accurate summation of most of our reactions to hearing Chesapeake’s explanation.” Princess Celestia replied as I shot her a disbelieving look.
“And that’s why I was summoned to Canterlot, right?” Flash Magnus spoke up before I could run my mouth. “You need somepony who not only has experience in the Royal Legion, but also with fighting these sorts of threats to Equestria?”
“That is correct.” Celestia nodded before continuing. “Despite the…increasingly growing number of possible Equestria-ending situations you remain as the most experienced member we have. Thus I can think of no other pony better suited to serving as the captain of the Royal Guard than you or Shining Armor, if you choose to accept the position.”
“Heh, as if you have to ask. Once a soldier always a soldier.” Flash Magnus declared.
“Wait, wait. I just…I don’t…” Twilight stuttered before pausing, taking a deep breath to calm down, before continuing. “I understand that there’s evil beings approaching Equestria.”She didn’t understand, not one bit, but she was already mentally writing up a whole list of questions to ask Chesapeake after lunch so she could put aside her confusion on that front for now. “But there’s one thing I don’t get. Why? Why do these Morgana ponies want to hurt and kill innocent ponies? We didn’t do anything to them right? So why?” Twilight couldn’t help but ask.
I could only blink owlishly at Twilight before putting my head on my hoof and thinking about it for a second or two while everyone else looked toward me.
“Honestly?” I sighed. “The stories barely mentioned why the Abyssals and my world’s versions of the Sirens attacked. The Abyssals, if they were commanded by something called the ‘Abyss’ then all we knew of it was that it was some sort of alien being or force that humanity could not understand, while the Abyssals themselves, particularly the demons and princesses, were kanmusu like myself, just twisted, corrupted, came be wrong and sought revenge on humanity for one reason or another. The Sirens meanwhile only sought power and through their conflict with humanity could they achieve that power. But the Morgana?” At that point I focused my gaze at Twilight, who sucked in a startled breath. “I have no idea what they are, what they want or why they are attacking, if they even have a reason to do so. All I know is that they ambushed me the first night I was sailing in this world and shot me up, setting me on fire and knocking out a few of my guns. The only thing they said that night was ‘somebody is always watching, always’. The next time we met? They just disabled the ship that was friendly enough to help me towards land and the merchant ship that was just saved from pirates. I’m not even sure if they even knew I was onboard or if they were just attacking because Clearwave wasn’t one of their own ships.” I took a drink to stop myself from rambling and to let everyone else digest what I just said.
“If that’s the case then.” Shining Armor got everyone’s attention before continuing. “Then I assume that in case the coasts have to be evacuated then they might be evacuated to the Crystal Empire considering we don’t border the Celestial Sea of the Luna Ocean, is that right Princess Celestia.”
“That is correct, although I’m hoping that it won’t be the case.” Celestia admitted with a sigh.
“Princess? I don’t mean to be rude, but I just have to ask.” It was Starlight’s turn to speak up now, apparently. “Why did you just ask Twilight, me and Sunburst to come here? Shouldn’t the rest of the girls be joining Twilight so they can use the Elements if these Morgana are so evil?” Starlight couldn’t help but ask.
“Perhaps I will call upon the Elements in time, but for now I have three tasks I wish to entrust to you, Sunburst and my former student. Three research tasks to be specific.” Princess Celestia started, Twilight and Sunburst sitting as straight as they could at the thought of a new subject to study, one given to them by Princess Celestia no less! “Firstly, this ability of Morgana to negate pony magic must be overcome if we are ever to have a chance to protect our nation and to fight alongside Chesapeake. And I can think of no pony who I would want to be part of the team researching this ability other than the Element of Magic, her former student and the Crystal Empire crystaller.” The Princess started to explain, and despite her unease over the whole situation Twilight and Sunburst couldn’t help but feel excited at the prospect of a new research project. “Second, we’ve recovered artifacts from the ships and according to Chesapeake these ‘Wisdom Cubes’ are objects of great power with the power of creation and destruction. I want all of you to study them and ensure that we do not destroy ourselves by misusing them. Last, but not least of all, you are to find a way to send Chesapeak back to her home world. This too, is a task I would entrust to each and every one of you.” The Solar Diarch concluded, her final words drawing a surprised look from me.
“Woah woah woah woah. While I appreciate the gesture Princess, maybe we should focus on the Morgana problem first before trying to send me back home. It’s not going to do me any good if I end up sinking because everyone else was too focused on sending me back instead of figuring out how the Wisdom Cubes work. Besides, maybe they shouldn’t be taking on more than they can chew, yeah?” I said, Celestia smiling knowingly at me.
“Thank you for your concern, but you do not need to worry over Twilight's health. If anything, having three magical projects at once will merely provide even more motivation to my former student here while I’m sure Sunburst can keep up with her and Starlight can keep them under control.” The Princess explained as she glanced at her Twilight, Celestia’s smile only growing as she did so. “In fact, I believe we have already lost her, right Twilight?”
And with those words, the gathered ponies turned their attention to Twilight, who was long gone by now. Her thoughts already turned to the many avenues of magic she could begin looking into in order to start her new project.
“Besides, I’m sure you will have other issues to worry about.” Celestia brought up a tea cup to her mouth, coincidentally hiding a growing grin.
“Like what?” I couldn’t help but feel worried to see that grin.
Chapter 2: Sea trails and an ambush
It didn’t take long to get the targets, but it did take longer to set them up at ranges in kilometers. After asking for and receiving the ranging tables for the various weapons I had aboard, I decided to set up targets at intervals of five kilometers starting at five kilometers and ending at thirty.
I was surprised that my secondaries consisted of six inch guns. I always thought that five inches were the standard amongst American capital ships, but considering I was a Lexington design that might have been par for the course. What was concerning was my three inch anti-aircraft guns…all four of them.
Yeah…so, in order of threat level, submarines were still threat number one. Outside of outrunning one or ramming into/shooting up one stupid enough to surface, my options were nonexistent. Threat number two was obviously going to be aircraft. One bad hit from a bomb could wipe out half of my AA and even a single torpedo hit could slow me down considerably. After that…
I shuddered.
The surface threat was the only one I could reliably counter whether they were ships or installations. And to do that I would need to actually hit them. Thus, gunnery practice.
Aiming my guns took some time to figure out. Simply willing my guns to aim at the target saw them slowly aim at the target. Willing them to rotate faster had them do so and actually pass over the target requiring the guns to readjust. Same with willing them to elevate and depress. So I could designate targets, that was good. I could rotate the guns faster and elevate and depress them just as fast, but I couldn’t aim the damn things. That was bad. I mean, I wasn’t a bad shot from what I remember from back in highschool when I was in Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps. The problem was I wasn’t looking down an iron sight, but firing from the hip essentially and I didn't have a crosshairs to rely on. And even if I did my first instinct was always to aim down sights. This wasn’t a video game. I’d have to rely on my gunners to calculate the angles and actually hit anything. Same for my casemates and AA, though I wasn’t going to be including them in the trials. They should be quick firing guns, thus they don’t need to wait for the splashes in order to hit something either dumb enough to get into my range or slow enough that they couldn’t escape. Though if they were that slow…
Ok ok, I can bitch and moan all I want, but right now I need to focus and actually fire the damn things.
“Ok, let’s do this.” Remembering a certain excitable Royal Navy battlecruiser I pointed my right fore hoove at the target.
“Ready, aim…fire!”
Click.
…
What?
Click.
…
“Did I not load the guns?”
[Eh, you didn’t say to load the guns.] Responded the captain sheepishly.
“...just load the guns already.” I said feeling like an idiot.
[Ok!] She exclaimed while ignoring my sense of self-pity.
Well looks like I didn’t have to manually load the guns…just had to tell the crew to load them. Hope that didn’t become a problem down the line.
As the last gun breach closed and the guns were armed, I once again aimed them at the closest target. It was a guaranteed hit, or at least I’d straddle it. I knew the range and speed and heading were a non-issue. I braced myself, keeping my knees bent to absorb the recoil while I “aimed” at the target with my right hoof.
“Ready, aim…fire!”
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
An explosion of smoke, flame and cordite fumes rocked my world. Waves from the air pressure crashed against my shins. The loud, roaring crack set my ears ringing, barely drowning out the sound of my shells crashing into the sea five kilometers away creating eight colossal pillars of seawater erupting into the sky. It was…spectacular.
"Holy shit…" That…that was an experience. The force, the level of violence, that resulted from firing my guns I could feel deep in my bones. That was better than sex…not that I actually had any experience with that.
It almost made me forget about missing the target.
The huge columns of water had dispersed, revealing the target bobbing peacefully in the water.
“What the fuck?” How the heck did I miss? How could I miss? It was five kilometers in front of me. Point blank. That should have been easy. I double-checked the angles of my guns versus the ranging tables. I should have at least bracketed it at 5 kilometers. Right?
…right?
I looked at the target and tried to estimate the range. It didn’t look like five kilometers to me. It looked more like six kilometers. Had I messed up the distances when I'd been setting out the targets?
[No you didn’t.] Sighed the deputy-captain.
“What? Then what happened?”
[The target drifted while we were loading the guns.] She replied matter of factly.
…
“...it drifted?”
[Yes, the current moved the target downrange while we loaded the guns.] The captain chimed in.
…
…huh, don’t that beat all? I didn’t think the target would move for some reason. Probably a holdover from JROTC.
Well, let's try that again. I reset. I took the range, heading and speed, compensated for the wind, and let my guns set themselves at their loading angles while my crew got to work. This time, I had’em fire split salvoes. A and B turrets fire first, X and Y turrets track the splashes, adjusting as necessary, and fire their salvo. This way I didn’t have to wait for a minute and a-half for all of my guns to load.
A minute and a-half to load my guns…that was a problem. I mean, I could deal some damage sure, but that required me to actually hit the target. And without radar that meant estimating the enemy’s range and guessing where they were going to be and using my misses to make better and better guesses until I hit something. And when I have to take longer to reset for my next shots, it makes it harder for me to get my shots on target.
Until I got my hands…hooves on some radar I needed to increase my rate of fire and that meant my crew would be doing a lot of drills during the day. And that did not mean that I was going to have my crew store more ammunition in the turrets than necessary or ripping off the safety doors! I was not going to go down like Queen Mary if I could help it!
The rest of gunnery practice went well enough, I suppose. I only managed half the targets before I ran out of training ammo and I wasn’t going to waste actual ammo on target practice. Not when I didn’t know when my next resupply was and definitely not when I didn’t know whether or not I was in enemy territory.
The sun was starting to go down and I was still no closer to finding a friendly port, land or even a friendly ship. I grew more worried as it got darker. I even thought about turning on my searchlight, but I kept them off and allowed my crew to turn on the navigational lights. I mean, despite not knowing where I was I could very well not be in enemy territory and I was just worrying, that happens a lot.
In fact, I could be in friendly/neutral waters and a friendly little merchant vessel would see me and tell me where I was and lead me back to port and we would all have frosty chocolate milkshakes!
Ahahahahaha…ha…
Frightening thing happen in the dark~
I like the night. I mean, what’s not to like? Can’t blind yourself gazing into the moon and it’s fun looking at the stars and finding the constellations if ya can. Although I’d barely recognized Polaris, the north star, and I wasn’t seeing it, or any other star, in this overcast which had rolled in shortly after the moonrise.
And something something something, all the world will love the night and pay no mind to that garish sun, however that quote goes, Shakespeare was it?
But the dark?
Yeah, one of the curses of a brain that never shuts up is that despite having an imagination ruined by TV, I tend to invent things that go bump in the dark that shouldn’t really be there. Or maybe it’s because of internet horror that I imagine killer animatronics hiding behind the door frame, in my closet or outside my window. But I wasn’t at home and thinking about The Joy of Creation, I was at sea thinking about being ambushed by literal ghost/zombie ships from the abyss.
The fact that the worst parts of my imagination might be right just make things worse. I hate it, I hate it so much.
The captain tried to comfort me, numerous times in fact. But when you saw the person trying to reassure you that everything was fine was the size of your hand/hoof and shaking like a leaf and looking like they're about to puke from the nerves? Yeah, that didn’t feel at all reassuring and was just making us feel worse.
I just ignored it, or tried to, and focused on keeping my eyes and ears open for anything, any potential threat. Or hopefully a friendly merchant vessel that would point me to port. Or better yet, land, sweet sweet land. Then I could just find a patch of grass and sleep till morning. Have some berries and nuts in the morning, that would be great.
BANG! Flash!
I turned my head to see where the sound came from when my vision went white. I threw up my hand/hoove in front of my eyes to block out the light. Then I heard the sharp boom again.
Naval cannons.
My stomach dropped at the thought as shells fell around me. I was bracketed, columns of water exploding around me. Alarms began to sound in my head, announcing general quarters to the crew. My heart hammered in my chest as they rushed to their battlestations.
As my vision adjusted to the light, searchlights I didn’t even know I had came on and illuminated the origin of the searchlight that was currently illuminating me. I found myself staring at a misshapen mockery of a warship.
It was covered in blackened, pitted, chitinous armor plating and looked to be falling apart, yet somehow managed to not to. My heart lurched in my chest.
So that's what an abyssal looked like up close, a part of me thought. That’s not an abyssal, another part of me thought. Fire back I thought.
I tried to get a good firing solution as I accelerated to flank speed. My gun crews worked furiously to get my weapons loaded. Too slowly it seemed, as the enemy got off their second shot before I could return fire. Tracking the muzzle flashes, I realized quickly that there were more than one of them out there. More of my searchlights lanced out into the night as more water was kicked up around me. I let out a cry of pain as two shells hammered into my side. Damage control sprung into action, assessing the damage. It was minor, thank god. Didn't change that it hurt more than I'd like it too.
My searchlights found five more of them. I was facing half a dozen Abyssals(?) and there was only one of me, and they were far too close for my liking.
Still, that meant that they were in range of my secondaries, and they were a lot faster to load and fire than my main guns.
“Fire at will! Shoot at whatever you can hit! Weapon's free people!”
I erupted in gunfire as my secondary battery opened fire. Most of the shots missed, but the crew was already loading the guns as fast as they could. The enemy responded with more shots that stung. One that scraped the back of my knee hurt worse than the others, and I nearly stumbled.
We traded shot for shot for a few minutes. I kept my face low, trying to not get shot in the face. I was getting hammered even as my secondaries were starting to score some hits. DamCon reported a fire had broken out on one of my decks, and I felt a burning sensation start to form in my left hip. One of my casemates got knocked out.
The breaches on my main battery guns slammed shut, loaded and ready. I took sight of the closest target, and started trying to get a bead on it. I aimed my guns, laying them so that the shells would arc into the target.
I pulled the trigger.
I missed, or rather I straddled the enemy heavy cruiser. How I knew that I wasn’t sure, and I had bigger things to worry about. My crew hurriedly loaded my main battery as my secondaries furiously fired. They were scoring hits on what I could only guess was a light cruiser. Apparently not appreciating being on fire it peeled off.
I staggered under the next onslaught. The burning sensation was spreading up my hip to my ribs and down my hind hoof. Another burning sensation started on my left shoulder. Another fire. DamCon was already on it, but they were getting overwhelmed as my crew kept trying to fire back at the enemy. A heavier broadside, likely from one of the heavies, knocked out two more of my secondary guns.
I was losing the fight. I needed to find some way to get out of here. Gain some distance. Otherwise I'll suffer a death by a thousand cuts. But the Abyssals(?) were already matching my speed. If I turn away, they'd just follow me. I need some way to try and keep them from following after me.
[We have torpedoes! Let's use them!] Shouted a fairy.
“Do it! Do it now!” I shouted back. I didn’t know whether or not they would work. I just wanted them gone before they caught fire. The pair of twin torpedo tubes rotated until they were pointing in the general direction of the Abyssals before, with a series of pneumatic hisses, four torpedoes were dropped into the water. They streaked into the night, vanishing into the inky blackness of the water.
I let loose one more salvo from my main guns and turned to run, secondaries still blazing as new shells were lifted up into the turrets.
Only one shell managed to hit the heavy cruiser. No discernable damage.
A column of water exploded in front of the heavy cruiser and the rest began turning away, rapidly changing their course. I guess my torpedoes took some time to reach em. They'd given me breathing room and broken up any accurate fire from my enemy.
I booked it.
The Abyssals(?), once they were clear of my torps, turned and followed after me. And to my mounting horror, four were catching up. I turned and fired back once my guns were loaded. Unfortunately, the sudden maneuvers made my shot go long and to the right by a wide margin. Once again, I cursed my slow reload rate and vowed to get some radar for myself. Even if I had to rip it off an abyssal myself.
They returned fire. Their first shots missed, their aim also thrown off by the recent maneuvers, but they'd eventually walk their guns onto my position again. They had the higher rate of fire, they could afford to. If I maneuvered, I could maybe keep them from gaining an accurate shot. But that would also mean that I'd throw off my own aim, at least for my main battery. My secondaries could maybe acquire a shot, but they weren’t doing enough damage.
But if I didn't… death by a thousand cuts.
I decided it was better to dodge. As much as I wanted to send them back to where they came from, I didn’t want to be dragged back with them. I moved, shifting my weight around, going into hard turns and sudden reversals at random. The only guiding principle was to not get too close to the Abyssals.
I returned fire with my secondaries and - whenever they were loaded - my main battery. As expected my shots tended to go wide. Even the accuracy of my secondaries had degraded considerably. But the Abyssals were having trouble too. Their shots went wide, barring a few lucky shots that bounced off my armor.
Eventually, my secondaries had a repeat performance and forced another light cruiser back.
The remaining cruisers fell silent as they turned away, abandoning its comrade which now lies motionless on the water, burning. I shut off my searchlights and sailed away, slipping away into the darkness.
Before I lost sight of the cruiser my radio crackled to life.
“Somebody is always watching, always.”
Chapter 3: Meeting the natives and repairs
“Ship’s log number 2, day 2. I’m tired, hurt and hungry…yesterday I had gunnery trails and they went well…well enough, I only got through half the targets before running out of training ammo. Last night I was attacked…ambushed really. I think they shot a star shell before blinding me with their searchlights. They got the first shot in, I think. They certainly kept shooting afterwards. Shot after shot and what did I do? I missed my first shot and they just kept shooting. My secondaries and torpedoes did most of the work…my freaking torpedoes did more work to stop them than my main battery did. I want radar…I need radar. I would’ve had a better time hitting them, hell I might have seen them coming long before they attacked. I need that refit yesterday. I need to get rid of my cage masts, I need radar and I want to be faster. I don’t care that no American ships got faster after their refit. I need to be faster. Kongou and her sisters got another three knots after their second refit, so why can’t I!?”
I was ranting. I didn’t care that I was ranting. Last night was a disaster, last night was hell. I didn’t get any sleep last night. I was too paranoid to do so. I wanted to keep steaming at flank speed, get away as fast as I could from them. Engineering shot that down hard. Didn’t want to push the power plant for so long and so hard. And my captain reminded me that my fuel stores wouldn’t last for so long under peak conditions.
And now that it was morning?
“Somebody is always watching, always.”
I wasn’t relieved. Instead I was left scanning the water for torpedoes, the horizon for Morgana ships, and the skies for their planes.
Morgana
That’s what I was fighting last night. Not some zombie/ghost ship from the abyss seeking revenge against humanity. Not some delusional time traveling shipgirls from the future wanting to fight alien kaiju from deep beneath the earth.
Morgana
A fleet of warships controlled by strange mechanical women who mercilessly attack anything and anyone caught within their mists. And I know jackshit about them.
I don’t know if I’d fare better against eldritch abominations. I don’t know if I could handle time traveling cryptics. But at least I’d have an idea on what I was dealing with. With the Morgana? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Stupid, so very stupid.
I was supposed to be a kanmusu, a shipgirl. I was supposed to be fighting zombie/ghost ship eldritch abominations that, for the most part, were nothing more than mindless monsters. I’m not a belle, I didn’t just manifest aboard a ship to protect my crew from gas.
I am the ship.
I don’t know if I can do this. I had to do this. I mean, what was the alternative? Lay down and die? No, I had to keep going. Just…just keep…going.
Just keep swimming, just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.
Summer Rain smiled as she stared off at the horizon from the bow of her ship, Clearwave. The Princesses’ sun was shining, they had an excellent wind blowing directly into their sails, and had seen neither hide nor hair of any pirate ship, creature from the deep, or even a Pegasus or Griffon attempting to fly across the sea who needed a place to rest. It was a beautiful day.
They were four weeks into their month-long assignment to protect the trade route to the Griffish Isles from Fillydelphia. A route that, while normally peaceful, did occasionally attract a pirate ship looking for a quick bit. She had heard that the kingdom of Griffons had fallen on hard times recently and therefore it was entirely possible that the Equestria Navy would see an increase in piracy over the next few years. Even extending the patrol all the way to the shores of Griffonstone in order to protect Equestrian lives.
With a heavy sigh, Summer Rain turned away from the railing to see her first mate waiting at attention.
“Anything to report Mr. Squall?”
“Nothing of any note ma’am. There have been no sightings of any vessels within our A.O. We are currently still on schedule for the final portion of our patrol.” Squall reported as they trotted towards the aft of the ship, Whitecap nodding in reply to each pony they passed that stopped to salute her.
“Very good. If there’s nothing else, I will retire to my cabin for a time. Squall, you have the conn.” Squall saluted in response.
“Yes ma’am! I have the-.”
“Captain! You're gonna wanna come up here!” A voice interrupted from up above them, the two ponies exchanging a surprised look before galloping up the stairs to the helm. Both ponies skidded to a halt next to a thoroughly shocked looking earth pony.
“Report! What is it?” Summer Rain ordered, hoping that the sternness in her voice would knock the sailor out of their stupor. Unfortunately, the earth pony’s jaw remained lowered as they turned to stare at the captain.
“I…I’m not sure Captain. I think it's best if you see it for yourself.” The earth pony, aptly named Spy Glass, admitted as he hoofed over his telescope, the ponies who had gathered to see what was happening murmuring in unease as Summer Rain took the offered spyglass. “Its at about two o'clock, ma'am. Moving westward.”
Closing an eye, Summer Rain peered through the telescope in order to try and find just what exactly had so startled the poor stallion, the captain's vision adjusting to the view. And after a few seconds of staring out to sea, her own jaw fell just as wide as Spy Glass’s.
“Oh, Taco Bell, Taco Bell, product placement with Taco Bell. Enchirito, Nacho, Burrito!”
I might be starting to lose it. Well at least I made it to day two. I could really go for Taco Bell’s baja blast though. And their two or three taco meal, maybe add in some of those cinnamon twists.
Actually now that I think about it, I’m going to need a lot more than just three tacos, cinnamon twists and a large soda to feel full aren’t I? In the anime, shipgirls eat a lot of food. I seem to recall Akagi and Yamato eating so much food that they had a human sized rice cooker on standby…and they still ran out of rice… Welp, as a battlecruiser I shouldn’t need as much food as those two, right?
Still, that would make eating and replenishment a tad difficult now wouldn’t it? Wait, eating and replenishment are the same thing…well that just means replenishment and repairs now does it? I mean, how do I even repair myself? Do I just jump into a tub and a magical timer will tell me how long I’m supposed to soak for? Or do I need a dedicated dockyard for that? I hope it’s not the latter. I don’t even know how to build one of those, I’d probably have to summon a repair ship for that. And I don’t even know how to summon a ship in the first place!
Ok, ok, one thing at a time. First thing is to find land. I find land, I find a coast and I find a coast then I can find a city and if I find a city I find a port.
Oh yeah, it’s all coming together.
“Are you ok, miss?”
“Gah!” And in my moment of absent mindedness I let myself get ambushed again.
In the span of a heartbeat I dove away from where I had been trotting and turned my guns towards the enemy.
…
Or I had turned my guns towards a pair of pegasi hovering above the waves staring at me.
…
Huh, well don’t that beat all?
A pair of pretty pegasi. Actually, if the bulk of the orange one was anything to go by then at least one of them was actually a stallion. The slim, lithe one with the snow white mane was probably a mare.
Either way, they didn’t look like sunken eyed abyssals, mechanical Morgana or even…well actually the white one did kinda remind him of a siren, just without the tentacle cannons.
Still, considering they haven’t started shooting at me yet, I’ll play ball for now.
“Sorry about that, I kinda had a bad time last night. Could ya repeat that again?” I asked standing straight while keeping my guns trained in their general direction.
It seemed to work, more or less. I got their attention, but they were still leery of my guns. Either they knew what my guns were or they just didn’t like something strange pointed at them.
“Dear Celestia! What happened to you? You look like you got into a fight with a dragon!” Exclaimed the mare, and it was a mare considering the voice, as she stared at the bruises and burns from last night’s engagement.
“It was worse…” Before I could go on any further I paused when what she said just sank in.
Dear Celestia…
As in Princess Celestia. As in Twilight Sparkle’s teacher. Twilight Sparkle, the element of magic, one of six main characters of the show My Little Pony Friendship is Magic.
I was in MLP!
That…that…huh, that would explain the whole pony thing. The spin off Equestria Girls had a pair of portals connecting Equestria to a mirror world with humans in it and while one of those portals was created by Starswirl the bearded to travel to that world, thus the whole pony-human transformation would be built in, the other one was a natural portal, or at least not purposely designed and thus the transformation thing was…normal? Bah, I shouldn’t even be thinking about this, it’s not like I had a degree in quantum physics.
I mean, I was wondering about that but I decided that figuring out how to walk, finding land and learning to use my guns were more important yesterday. Last night…
Anyway, I was in a world full of colorful equines who dealt with a world ending threat every other…season? I mean, there was Nightmare Moon in season 1, Discord, Queen Chrysalis and the changelings in season 2, King Sombra in season 3, Tirek in season 4, Starlight Glimmer in season 5, and finally Queen Chrysalis and the changelings in season 6. No no nevermind, it was every freaking season. And that wasn’t including the “friendship problems” that could spoil into bigger problems like Nightmare Moon part 2 because Celestia and Luna hadn’t learned their lesson the first time and needed Starlight to force them into spending a day in each other's shoes.
And here I was fighting Morgana last night! Oh god, Equestria is not ready for this!
“Miss, are you okay?” The orange stallion repeated his earlier question.
“Yeah, it looks worse than it is.”
“My name is Orange Drop and this is Snowstorm.” He gestured toward the white pegasus. “Our captain sent us to see if you needed any assistance. Our ship, the Clearwave, is doubling back to our location right now. If you need any medical aid we’ll be more than happy to provide it for you back on the Clearwave.”
“I see.” This…this could work. “I’m actually lost right now. Do you happen to have a map on you?”
“No ma’am. I don’t have a map on me, but our ship does. If you’d like to follow us back we can provide you safe passage back to Equestria.”
“Yeah sure, I’d like that.”
“Pony off the port side! Fast approaching! She’s easily making sixteen knots!” Shouted Spy Glass.
Summer Rain along with most of Clearwave’s medical staff waited as four unicorns lowered the gangplank into the water and kept it steady so that they could bring the marooned pony aboard. Snowstorm had reported that Orange Drop convinced the mysterious mare to return to the ship with him and that they should prepare for her to embark. Summer Rain nodded at the pegasus and issued orders to that effect within seconds.
Despite how surreal it was to see a mare skate across the waves as if it were an ice rink, Summer Rain had a duty to help any pony in need and immediately ordered Orange Drop and Snowstorm to the air and see if the pony needed any aid. After giving it a minute of thought she concluded that it had been a unicorn she had seen using magic to skate on water. A unicorn who had to be a passenger on a merchant ship that either got carried away with using her magic to skate on water that she lost track of her ship, was knocked off her ship by a rogue wave, or had just escaped from a rogue pirate ship and was desperately sailing towards Equestrian shores.
“Permission to come aboard!” Shouted an unknown mare’s voice.
Considering Orange Drop had just flown over the railings, Summer Rain could only assume their guest had arrived, but instead of rushing up the ramp as expected the stranger had requested permission to come aboard instead.
“Permission granted.” She shouted back.
From the looks of strain on the unicorns’ faces their mystery mare started walking up the ramp.
As the mystery mare walked up the gangway, Summer Rain saw a tall thin tower of metal pipes criss-crossing every which way rising up with every step the mare took. The next thing she saw were four large metal blocks by the mare’s side that, alarmingly, housed eight long thin cannons that were on top of facsimiles of a ship’s bow and stern embroidered with even more cannons. How a unicorn could carry such large cumbersome “saddlebags”, Summer Rain didn’t know.
The mare herself, stepping onto the top of the ramp, was plain by comparison. Rosy coat, brown mane and equally brown eyes hidden behind a pair of glasses completed the look. The only thing unusual about the mare, beyond her “saddlebags” was the absence of a horn that Summer Rain assumed was the secret to the mare’s ability to skate on water.
That was cemented the moment the mare stepped aboard and the saddlebags disappeared in a bright white light.
Magic? But how? She’s not a unicorn, so how did she cast a spell? Who is she?
“Hello there. I am Captain Summer Rain, may I ask for your name?”
My name?
What…what was my name?
It must have shown on my face since the mare, Summer Rain, looked concerned.
“Are you alright?”
No, no I wasn’t. I’ve been transformed into a pony ship thing, stranded in the middle of nowhere and ambushed at night by an unknowable enemy. And now I find out that I didn’t even know my name. I could remember other things about my life as a human, but not my name. And it wasn’t like I could take on the name of the ship I was. It was a paper ship, it didn’t have a name, and it wasn’t like I could come up with one on the spot. No, I was not alright.
“I…I can’t remember.” I finally admitted.
“You can’t remember?” She asked, confused.
“I can’t remember my name.”
“...do you remember why or how you were skating on water?” She asked, concerned as her crew began murmuring amongst themselves.
“Skating on water?”
“I and one of my spotters spotted you skating on water.”
Oh, she meant sailing.
“I was trying to sail towards land.” I said ignoring the how part of that explanation.
“Do you know how long you were sailing?”
“Since yesterday.”
“Do you remember anything before yesterday?”
“I don’t…I don’t know or remember why I was in the middle of the ocean.” I replied.
“And did you have those…burns and bruises then?” She asked haltingly.
“...”
“I understand if you don’t remember how you got them. Do you want our doctors to look over your injuries?”
“No, no. I’m good. I just want to take a bath and get something to eat.” I tried to change the subject.
I did not want to explain having been shot up by Morgana and what they were yet.
“...if you’re sure?” At my nod she relented. “Snowstorm, I want you to take her to medical and inform them our guest wants a bath.”
“Ma’am, are you sure you want to take a bath right now? It could aggravate injuries that we don’t know about.” A stallion wearing a doctor’s coat asked worriedly.
“Yes, yes I do. Now could I get some privacy here?” I asked tiredly.
The stallion made to interject before Snowstorm shoved him out the room.
“Look, if she wants to take a bath after sailing for a day then she should. Besides, the captain gave the ok.” Looking over at me she nodded. “Enjoy your bath! Just holler if you need anything!”
And with that I was left alone with a tub of warm water.
“This better work.” I said as I stepped into the tub and laid down completely, leaving only my head exposed.
It was rather relaxing, I thought. Hadn’t taken a bath in a long time, it was always a shower that was probably hotter than necessary. Except when I was in the Philippines and the water tanks hadn’t been installed. So many cold showers…
Shortly after that thought, the crystal clear water started glowing a green light and my body really warmed up. A series of numbers appeared at the end of the tub across from my face and started counting down.
“I’m going to be here for half an hour if ya don’t mind!” I hollered at Snowstorm as the timer started ticking down from 25 minutes and 30 seconds.
Chapter 4: Replenishment and pirates
Half an hour later, saw me a new…mare…yeah, it was going to take some time before I get used to that…assuming I ever do.
Anyhow it took 25 minutes and 30 seconds to repair the damage and about 3 minutes to dry off, or at least not track water everywhere.
After that there was only one thing on my mind. Food! I haven’t eaten since…actually, I don’t remember when I ate. How far deep does this amnesia hole go? In anycase, I haven’t eaten since yesterday, and I wasn’t sure how I got this far without tripping on myself in a hunger induced coma. Must be a shipgirl thing.
And so, opening the door I saw Snowstorm talking to Summer Rain, the latter of whom noticed me.
“I hope you enjoyed your bath.” She said, interrupting Snowstorm.
“Yeah, it was just what I needed.” I replied with a small smile.
“Hey! What happened to your injuries?” Snowstorm pointed at where said injuries were.
“I said I needed a bath and I needed a bath.” I shrugged.
“Now Snowstorm, there’s no reason to badger her. She’s been out at sea for a day. Let’s head to the mess hall and get something to eat.” Summer Rain said, turning to walk to the mess while giving Snowstorm a look.
We got to the mess hall without any interruptions. But the second Summer Rain opened the door, some ponies turned to watch the newcomers and became silent as they saw us. Others ponies who noticed the new found silence turned to find the reason why and shortly became silent themselves. Within moments the mess hall was silent.
…
…awkward…
I did my best to ignore the silent staring until we got in line, and then the line stepped aside for us three. And while that would be a good thing since that gets me closer to eating, the problem is…I don’t know how to pick things up with my hoofs! Curse you lack of opposable thumbs!
“Oh! It’s jackfruit curry day!” Snowstorm exclaimed happily.
“Jackfruit…curry?” That…did I hear that right?
Taking a look at where she was looking, I did see something that looked like curry, not that I had curry in the first place. Once in a while ma would make curry and I would be disappointed since it was Filipino curry and not Japanese style curry. I was a picky eater.
Watching the captain pickup her tray with her hoof gave me a headache as I saw her bending her right hoof in a way that should not have been possible back home. Snowstorm just picked up her tray with her wings, lucky. With no options left, I just took the tray in my mouth and pulled it back far enough that I could put my right hoof underneath it and balance walking on three hooves while holding up the tray. Fortunately, no pony paid me any mind.
The captain led me and Snowstorm to one of the few tables, ponies finally starting to go back to their own meals as Summer Rain led us to a table towards the center of the mess hall. A table that had a familiar face.
“Hey, Orange! Mind if we sit next to you?” Snowstorm asked loudly.
“Captain. Snowstorm. Ma’am.” Orange Drop nodded at us curtly.
“Mou, you could be a bit nicer, you know.” Groaned Snowstorm as we all sat down at the table…like dogs…again, gonna need to get used to that.
Thankfully the trio occupied themselves by talking about inane topics while I stared at the curry with the occasional glance around.
A good chunk of unicorns were using magic to move utensils, some pegasi were using their wings as giant fingers to do the same and a few earth ponies pulled the same trick Summer Rain had done to hold her tray. The rest, mostly earth ponies, were sticking their muzzles into their food like animals.
Welp, I haven’t eaten in a day and it’s not like I’m trying to appear elegant and mysterious, I decided. Leaning down, I took a bite of the curry.
…
Huh, tastes just like chicken.
“...wow…I didn’t even know anypony could...eat that much curry…” Snowstorm uttered in a daze.
“So much curry…” Orange Drop gazed listlessly into the distance.
“That was some good curry.” I decided.
“Anything to report Mr Squall?” Summer Rain asked, hoping to steer the conversation away from curry.
“No captain. Despite our detour, we will still reach Fillydelphia within three days.” Squall stated, unaware of what transpired in the mess hall.
I’m…not even sure how much I’d eaten down there. I’m not even sorry about that. I don’t remember the last time I’d eaten and I had spent last night getting shot at. I deserve some comfort food after that.
After having eaten my fill in the mess hall, Summer Rain had led us above deck for some fresh air.
“Ma’am?” Summer Rain turned to look at me.
“Yes?”
“So long as you don’t intentionally interfere with my crew you may explore the ship while under the supervision of Orange Drop and Snowstorm. Is that all right?”
“Sure, sure. That’s fine by me. By the way, are those funnels?” I couldn’t help but ask, staring at some of the smallest funnels I’ve ever seen. I didn’t give them much thought when boarding, they were dwarfed by the masts.
“Yes they are. We don’t just use them to maneuver into harbor. If the wind dies out then we use the propeller to travel before having our pegasi create a tailwind.” Summer Rain explained
Huh, that’s…interesting, the pegasi creating a tailwind. I mean it makes some amount of sense. A third of the population has wings strong enough to generate lift, why not have some of’em crew ships and create a wind for the sails when necessary. It looks like Equestria wasn’t completely at the whims of the wind, even without steam.
“Alright then.” Summer Rain turned towards the crew. “All hooves! Attention! All Pegasi are to change shifts in order to conserve energy! I wan-!”
“Pegasus approaching off the stern!” Reported the crow mast’s lookout.
Summer Rain froze for a second, before her blood ran cold as she registered the words. Pegasi did not fly out this far to sea without a reason, good or bad.
“Orange Drop! Fly out and aid the Pegasus in landing! Mr. Squall! Get the medics up here right now! All pegasi, pause all wind production for now until the situation is understood! Everypony else, clear a landing zone for the Pegasus and somepony get some water!” Summer Rain ordered, the ponies of the Clearwave rushing to follow her orders.
Five minutes later, Orange Drop guided an exhausted Pegasus down onto the ship, said pony falling to his hooves. Summer Rain rushed over, her crew making a path for her, as she knelt down next to the barely conscious pony. “What happened? Why are you out here all by yourself?” She questioned, the Pegasus barely opening one weary blue eye to regard the Captain.
“Griffon pirates…attacked my ship…flew half a day…to find help.” The pony stuttered breathlessly. “My wife and daughter…the crew…please…help…them.” The pony barely managed to finish, exhaustion kicking.
Summer Rain’s mind raced as the ship's medics rushed in to administer first aid. If what he said was true, then these griffons had captured a merchant ship and was taking the ponies as hostages, or worse. They could be anywhere between fifty to one hundred miles out from their current location considering how far the average pegasus could fly unencumbered, and they had quite the head start assuming their destination was the Griffonstone coast. Worryingly their coal stocks would run out quickly and without a tailwind in their part of the sea and the fact that most merchant ships were steam ships capable of speeds far in excess of what Clearwave could do she would have to rely on her pegasi. Finally, if she pushed her crew too hard to catch up, they would be in no position to apprehend the culprits…With all that in mind, the Captain of the Clearwave saw no reasonable way for them to save this pony’s family or the crew of his ship.
“Helmspony! Turn us back around!”
Not that it mattered. They were mares and stallions of the Equestrian Navy, and by Celestia they would give it their all to save the ponies.
“Pegasi, I know I’ve been pushing you hard today, but there are lives on the line if we don’t manage to catch up to these criminals in time! I need all pegasi who can still feel their wings to get up there and get us moving!”
“I can bring you to these griffons.”
I asked Snowstorm why a pegasus would be flying around here. Shipwreck or pirates, she said. Prodding further told me that the pirates here also used wooden sailing ships although some attached large gasbags turning them into airships. Typically, pirate airships would suddenly drop in on merchant shipping while sailing ships would, usually when crewed by griffons, ambush merchant ships at night.
I heard the pegasus like everyone else. His family and ship’s crew were taken hostage. I had no idea what would happen to them, but considering the mood aboard Clearwave it couldn’t be good. My world’s history also had bad things to say about pirates.
And a part of me wanted nothing to do with this.
So why? Why did I speak up? Why did I want to help some nameless pony?
I was a coward by nature. I didn’t know this pony, I was an uninvolved observer.
And yet, didn’t I have the power to do something?
I was a shipmare, the physical manifestation of a warship. I was a warship, a battlecruiser! The Invincibles, the first battlecruisers, were designed to hunt down slower and weaker armed armored cruisers and protect commerce from raiders.
And pirates only had a sailing ship!
I didn’t even need my guns to sink em. My ship self, if built, could just ram 'em and take no damage while I could probably just smash through their ship’s hull like the Hulk or Kool-Aid Man! Oh yeah!
“...Spy Glass said you were sailing at 16 knots, could you make that while towing Clearwave?” Summer Rain asked conflicted.
“Easily, how fast could I tow Clearwave without ripping her apart?” I asked with a grin.
“...I’m not sure, maybe 20 knots, but if you can tow Clearwave at 16 knots then it’ll greatly help us find the pirates.”
“Then I can do that. Just tie a rope between me and Clearwave and I’ll bring you to the pirates.”
"...ok.” Summer Rain bowed her head at me. “If you can find these pirates then Equestria is in your debt. Snowstorm! Get us a tow line.”
This was it, do or die.
As soon as the line was hooked up between me and Clearwave I leapt off over the Clearwave’s bow. My rigging rematerialized in a bright white light across my back and sides. I smiled at the familiar weight and the fact the tow line remained attached to me.
Bouncing off the water, I turned my head to look up at Clearwave’s railing and saw Summer Rain, Orange Drop and Snowstorm leaning over the edge of the bow with their jaws dropped.
“I will be beginning the turn now. You should yourselves ready for acceleration, and give me a heading!” Having hollered my piece, I began to accelerate to 20 knots and in no time at all the tow line went slack.
I was pulling Clearwave.
It didn’t take long to finish my turn and tow Clearwave in the direction the pegasus had flown from. Soon afterwards Snowstorm flew up towards me with a dumbfounded look.
“Reporting in Ma’am! I have a possible heading.” She pointed off at the horizon and gave me a heading.
“Good.” I changed course. “Return to the ship and tell everyone to get ready.” To my surprise she shook her head in denial.
“Sorry, but I’ve been ordered to stay by your side from here on out until we sight the griffons. Plus, everypony is already prepared for the fight so they don't need me to tell them...uh, with all respect, ma'am.”
“Ok then.” And so, I sailed in silence while she flew with me.
…
God I wished I had some floatplanes and radar.
Half an hour later and the pegasus regained consciousness and gave us some more details.
Apparently an airship crewed by griffons had gotten the jump on the merchant ship and threatened to open fire on the merchant ship. At cannon range the ponies agreed to the pirates' terms and were locked up in the pirates’ brig while some of the cargo was transferred to the airship. Weighed down by the pony crew and new found loot the pirate ship was being towed by the merchant ship towards Griffonstone. The night of the pegasus’ escape the pirates got a bit “rowdy”, accidentally setting off the gunpowder inside their ship and starting a fire from the inside, and in the confusion he managed to escape.
Not even two hours later, we found a merchant ship that wasn’t flying any colors.
Boom!
A column of water exploded between us and them.
That…that came from the merchant ship, oh look! Griffons flying out of the ship wielding swords.
“It’s them.” Snowstorm let out an un-pony like growl.
“What do you guys have to stop them?” I asked, not at all worried that they had cannons aboard, that shot was nowhere near us.
“Normally we’d just use our cannons on them, but since they have hostages onboard us pegasi would have to subdue them.” Snowstorm said coldly.
“I see. Please tell the pegasi to refrain from attacking. I’ll try and scare them into surrendering first and if they don’t…” I trailed off as Snowstorm nodded and left back towards the ship after saluting.
While it was clear that the two ships were out of range of their respective guns, the pirates were well within mine.
After confirming an idea with my fairies, I took a deep breath and projected my voice from my PA system towards the pirates.
“Attention griffon assholes! Stand down and surrender or die a horrible death!”
…
…and it looked like they weren’t going to surrender considering the jeers, insults and…huh so the bird was also a thing here.
“Well then, gunnery crews put a salvo off their bow and stern. We don’t want to sink them, just put the fear of me in them.” I ordered, readying myself for a full broadside. After a second and a half, the shells were loaded and a targeting solution was made. I just had to smile.
“Ready aim…fire!” I shouted pointing my right hoof at em.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
And like day one I could feel that in my bones. That was never going to get old.
In a single moment the seas around the pirate ship exploded as eight plumes of water, each one easily dwarfing the merchant vessel, shot into the air and soaked everyone nearby.
The silence afterwards was so complete that I couldn’t even hear the waves lapping against my hooves. No one was moving. Not the pirates, not the crew of the Clearwave, nor even myself.
…at least my aim was getting better.
“I ain’t gonna miss a second time!” I assured them and before I could even remember why I was bracketing them the flying griffons threw down their swords and produced white flags from who knows where and started having them frantically.
A cheer erupted from the Clearwave as the ship slowly passed by my right. Looking up I could see a good chunk of the crew leaning over the railing cheering for me. Even Summer Rain was there saluting me silently with a smile across her muzzle.
A salute I was happy to return.
…although a part of me was disappointed they didn’t put up a fight.
Chapter 5: Round 2, fight!
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. Chapter 6: Attack on Manehattan
At the stroke of midnight, a soft westerly breeze billowed in from the sea. Luna’s moon was quickly hidden behind a cover of clouds from the Manehattan fleet. The fleet silhouetted against the lights of Manehattan.
Captain Stark Contrast stood and listened to the wind whistling through Sorcery’s rigging alone. His flagship's clean and ordered deck was a welcome respite from her sweltering belowdecks cabins, and he would take this chance to air out his quarters. He leaned out over the sea, looking east towards the kingdom of griffons.
Word had only gotten to Equestria that Griffonstone had fallen on hard times and it sickened him. Odds were that the griffons would refuse any aid from Equestria and would instead turn to criminal activities. It would fall on the Equestrian Navy to bring law and order to the Celestial Sea. This in addition to providing aid to the hippogriffs meant that the navy would be soon stretched thin.
As is the Equestrian Navy totalled 12 ships of the line with a theoretical 100 cannon carrying capacity, 60 armored frigates, 108 highly maneuverable screw sloops and various other auxiliary ships. The Manehattan fleet itself was centered around the ships of the line ENS Sorcery and ENS Hope and supported by 10 frigates and 18 sloops.
...- . -. --- -- -....- .---- / .-. . .--. --- .-. - / .... .- .-. -... --- .-. / .. -. ..-. .. .-.. - .-. .- - . -.. / . -. . -- -.-- / ..-. .-.. . . - / ... .--. --- - - . -.. / .---- ..--- / ... .... .. .--. ... / ..- -. -.- -. --- .-- -. / -.-. .-.. .- ... ... / -.-. --- -. -.. .. - .. --- -. / --. .-. . . -.
.-. . / --- .--. . .-. .- - .. --- -. / -.-. --- -. ..-. .. .-. -- / --- .--. . .-. .- - .. --- -. / -- .- -. . .... .- - - .- -.
-.-. .- .-.. .- -- .. - -.-- / -.. .. ...- .. ... .. --- -. / .---- / -.-. --- -. - .- -.-. -
BANG! Flash!
Captain Stark Contrast threw up a hoof to block out the lights that had suddenly spawned above the fleet. A second later more lights flooded in from the open sea, illuminating the fleet. The sharp boom sound began repeating like the clack of a steam train punctuated by flashes of lights. Any thought of a surprise fireworks display faded when columns of water shot out from around the fleet and the sound of breaking wood was heard.
Confusion gave way to mounting horror.
His ships, his fleet, the Manhattan fleet, and Manehattan and Equestria itself was under attack.
Warning sirens in the naval base began wailing and ponies rushed to and fro. Sorcery was in chaos as Stark Contrast attempted to coordinate a response to the attack. The fact that it was nighttime bottlenecked communications, those who were sent out to deliver reports were getting lost in the dark and were either late in reporting, reported to the wrong ship or not at all. A number of ships, including Sorcery, quickly had steam raised to engage the enemy fleet and keep it from reaching shore. Of those that didn’t, most were either sinking in harbor or set ablaze, Sorcery’s sister Hope was unfortunately among those currently on fire.
From his place at the helm he could barely see the shapes of the ships firing upon his fleet. What he could see only served to confuse him. Focusing on a grouping of cannon fire revealed a short, slender figure that combined with the flashes of four cannons meant that it was an unrated ship, either a brig or a cutter. Further analysis of some of the other ships revealed that they shared the same design. Confoundingly he could not make out the masts on the ships let alone the sails nor understand how such lightly armed ships could fire so many shells or outrange the entire fleet.
Whatever flags they flew he could not see. It aggravated him that he could not identify his attackers. Griffonstone did not have a navy and it seemed improbable that a group of pirates would come together and attack any Equestrian coastal city let alone Manehattan which stationed one of three permanent fleets in the Celestial Sea. It was the Storm King invasion all over again.
Stark Contrast shook his head.
The Royal Guard did nothing when Canterlot was invaded by the Storm King’s forces, but the Equestrian Navy will not allow this fleet of criminal scum to set one hoof on Equestrian soil.
-.-. .- .-.. .- -- .. - -.-- / -.. .. ...- .. ... .. --- -. / .---- / -... .-.. .. - --.. -.- .-. .. . --.
Stark Contrast watched as the burning frigate, Morning Sun, drifted off to port as another frigate, Moonwatch, was engulfed in explosions, a victim of concentrated fire. He pounded his hoof against the railing. Brave ponies were dying out there and here he was waiting to get into range.
What good was having more cannons than the entire enemy fleet when they fire faster and outranged you? How did anypony consistently manage to hit a moving ship at 7000 meters? Who was attacking him?
Mutters erupted across the ship, his officers sending furtive glances at each other. A glare silenced them all. He had enough trouble with commanding already without mutinous whispers worming their way through his staff. It only took a second for them to return to their duties, but he held his gaze for a while longer to make sure none of the others got ideas.
If they didn't do something soon the entire fleet would fall apart and then any chance of success would be well and truly gone.
There was a bang as a shell punched a hole in the deck and cloying smoke filled surrounded the ship. Stark Contrast coughed hard as he got a lungful of the heavy fumes. His age was not helping with this, but adrenaline soon took hold.
Off to port Mountain View took a massive hit and gouts of flame erupted from her casemates as she lit up. Her burning hull kept moving forward, but it was clear that the frigate was finished as her bow began sliding deeper and deeper into the waves. The flash of light left spots dancing across his sight, but even above all the noise he could hear the crew gasp at the sight of longtime friends possibly dying.
He swept the horizon, mind churning over the scattered reports layered with the scattered flashes of firing guns. The view gave him a rudimentary picture of how the battle was playing out, and he had an idea of how to continue.
-.-. .- .-.. .- -- .. - -.-- / -.. .. ...- .. ... .. --- -. / .---- / . -. . -- -.-- / ..-. .-.. . . - / -.. . ... - .-. --- -.-- . -..
.-. . / -.-. --- -. ..-. .. .-. -- / -.-. --- -- -- . -. -.-. . / .--. .... .- ... . / ..--- / -... --- -- -... .- .-. -.. -- . -. -
Author's Note
Fashionably Late here, and its been a week. Might as well post something...that took more time than I thought would take...oh well. Morse code translations for those on mobile.
VENOM-1 REPORT HARBOR INFILTRATED ENEMY FLEET SPOTTED 12 SHIPS UNKNOWN CLASS CONDITION GREEN
TRE OPERATION CONFIRM OPERATION MANEHATTAN
CALAMITY DIVISION 1 CONTACT
CALAMITY DIVISION 1 BLITZKRIEG
CALAMITY DIVISION 1 ENEMY FLEET DESTROYED
TRE CONFIRM COMMENCE PHASE 2 BOMBARDMENT
Chapter 7: Battle of Manehattan
Author's Note
Fashionably Late here, and apparently Creativity wanted to me to do some work on this story instead of the Pokémon one. After days of banging my head against that wall and receiving a headache or two for it, why not? Still no princesses yet, so expect the next chapter in a month or two. Although the long wait times could also be because of 90 degree weather around here, the heat is getting to me especially since I've got no central A/C unit. Been thinking of freezing a bottle of water and cuddling with it. Wish I could do that with a yuki-onna instead. Hope ya'll enjoy the chapter.
Chapter 7: Battle of Manehattan
So remember how I said I like routine? Well that’s still true as I slowly open up my eyes.
And stared into the golden eyes of a pony with a snow white mane.
“You’re awake!”
…
“AH!” I jolted back, upending a tub of water. “Demon pony!” I exclaimed from under the now empty tub.
“Demon pony where!?” I heard the demon pony yell out.
…
“AH!”
“AH!” Yelled out another voice.
From under the tub I could hear various crashing sounds.
“What’s going on!?” Shouted a new voice.
“Orange!?” That was the demon pony.
“Snowstorm, why is the doctor shaking in the corner and where is the ‘mystery’ mare?” Asked this ‘Orange’ guy.
…
Snowstorm?
The snow white mare immediately came to mind. The mare that I turned my guns on. The mare that asked if I picked a fight with a dragon. The mare that let me enjoy my bath/repair in peace.
…
Bath/repair? My guns?
And that quickly reminded me that I was currently part ship and I’d been sailing for a while, tested out my guns, got ambushed at night and figured out that I was in MLP.
…
Oh yeah, now it’s all coming back.
I had lunch and then helped catch a group of pirates and then we were attacked by Morgana, probably the same group from last night…how long was I out?
It was then that I realized my tub was gone and I had three ponies staring at me.
“Are you ok?” Snowstorm asked worriedly.
“Yeah, yeah I’m fine. Just forgot where I was for a moment.” I replied standing up.
“Oh thank Celestia.” Snowstorm sighed.
“What exactly happened here?” Orange Drop asked again.
…um…
“I may have freaked out when I saw Snowstorm up in my face.” I nervously answered as Snowstorm nervously laughed while Orange Drop glared at her.
“Why were you staring at her?”
Growl.
We all froze as a loud rumbling sounded out in the room.
What?
Growl.
Ok, now I felt that one.
Everyone turned to look at me as my stomach rumbled angrily again.
“Uh…I missed dinner?”
Orange Drop managed to get me to the captain’s quarters by promising me lunch while we talked to Summer Rain.
Honestly we didn’t do much talking when I was more busy stuffing my face with food. I think Orange Drop forgot, or tried to repress the memory, that I had traumatized everybody yesterday by stuffing my face with curry. And trying to get between me and the food earned a rather impressive growl from me if I do say so myself. Heck, I even managed to pick up a glass of apple juice with my hoof, no fingers necessary.
Yelp, at least it gave me some time to figure out how I was going to sell my story. I mean, in a world of magical talking ponies where friendship was literal magic , I was unsure how they would take the whole warships helmed by mechanical women/mares that attack anyone and anything that was caught in their mists. I mean, sure there’s seeing is believing, but that still left me.
I was essentially an alien trapped in an equally alien body. Moreso, I’ve seen bits and pieces of the cartoon. How was I supposed to keep the fact that I know things that some random being shouldn’t know a secret? If I were talking to the princesses, specifically Twilight, I could just be upfront about it, but with some random pony captain? Better to leave out the interdimensional explanation until I get to the princesses.
“So, you want to know about the Morgana?” I asked after taking a sip of apple juice.
“You're finally full?” Snowstorm looked at the stack of plates a shell shocked server was balancing out the door.
“For now.” She turned to stare at me. “I’ll need to eat again after I finish healing.”
“And do you require our medical assistance?” Orange Drop started.
“No, no I’ll not require medical assistance.”
“The Morgana.” We all turned towards Summer Rain. “What are they?”
“To be completely honest, I’m not sure myself.” That earned me disbelieving looks.
“Just as you don’t remember your name.”
“Orange Drop!” Snowstorm gaped at him.
“I apologize, but it seems entirely too convenient. We rescue a wounded mare from the sea and we’re then attacked by an unknown fleet of ships? There’s something suspicious about this.”
“Orange Drop.” We turned back to Summer Rain. “That mare we rescued also helped us capture a group of pirates who hijacked a merchant ship full of hostages without hurting anyone. She also fought off those same ships when we were rendered helpless and she was wounded for doing so. I think she has clearly earned our trust, has she not?” She sternly looked at Orange Drop.
“Yes, captain. I apologize for speaking out.”
“Good, now could you please continue.” Summer Rain directed the conversation back to me.
“Well, I’m not completely sure what the Morgana are, I do know that they seek to claim the seas and anybody unfortunate to be in their mists will be attacked.”
“Were they the ones that attacked you before we found you?” Snowstorm cautiously asked.
“Yeah, they pretty much ambushed me that night.” I admitted.
“They attacked you at night?” Snowstorm was aghast.
“How? How could they have attacked you at night?” Questioned Orange Drop, who was glared at by Snowstorm.
“Radar.” I shrugged.
“What’s radar?” Summer Rain sounded out.
“It’s a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance and direction of objects.” I said offhandedly. “It can detect and track a lot of things, in this case ships.”
“And Morgana have this…radar?” Summer Rain questioned.
“That’s what I figured, considering they knew well enough that I was there and fired off a star shell and illuminated me with searchlights.”.
“Star shell?” Snowstorm tilted her head.
“They’re like fireworks except they last a lot longer and burn much brighter.” I shrugged again as I thought about that night. “It was like a miniature sun had just popped out of nowhere.”
The room was silent as everyone thought about what I had just said.
“And…you’re sure you don’t know why they’ll attack everypony at sea?” Summer Rain tried to get a bit more out of me.
“Sorry, but that’s the truth. I don’t know the reason for their attacks, just that they’ll attack anyone regardless of race or creed.”
“This is ridiculous!” Shouted Orange Drop. “If the Morgana are as big a threat as you make them out to be then shouldn’t we have heard about them before we had set out.”
Whatever Summer Rain was going to say was interrupted by a knock at the door.
“Yes, what is it?” Summer Rain turned her glare at Orange Drop to stare firmly at the door.
“Captain, we’re seeing smoke from the west.”
We went up top and to my surprise I could see land. Thinking about it, I remembered that while Clearwave was supposed to reach Fillydelphia in three days, the destination had changed to Manehattan because of the pirates that attacked a merchant ship. It would have only taken a day to reach Manehattan, meaning that I was seeing Manehattan off in the distance and I had been out for about a day.
I’d finally found land and I was not happy about it.
I could see buildings, apartment complexes really, 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 may have joked about Equestria being in danger every season, but it was never this bad. A city had never been so ravaged in the show. Nightmare Moon only had a day (or was it a night?) to run rampant before being blasted by a friendship laser and Discord had just as much time before everything he had done was reset. Queen Chrysalis attacked Canterlot in her intro episode and was blown away before the day ended while, in a later episode, she pretty much took over Equestria before being overthrown. King Sombra was focused around the Crystal Empire and Tirek was sneaky about his plan until getting to Canterlot and gunning for Twilight in Ponyville before the two had a Dragonball-esque fight in the middle of nowhere. Starlight Glimmer had her own little village and messed with the time space continuum when Twilight ruined her scheme.
The only thing I could think of that would have done that much damage was the Parasprites and even then I had my doubts considering they infested Fillydelphia and not Manehattan, unless the crew decided to head to Fillydelphia instead and I had slept for three days. Even then , the damage was inconsistent when compared to the Parasprites' more uniform bite marks.
That line of thinking was put aside when I noticed a puff of smoke appear in front of the city and then immediately squashed when I saw more Morgana ships, still shooting.
“By the Princesses!” Summer Rain cried out, ripping her head away from the telescope in her hoofs. She immediately turned towards her crew. “I want every pegasus behind the sail! Make sure that all pirates and civilians are off this ship and the lines between us and the merchant ship are cut! Manehattan is under attack by those Morgana ships! General quarters!”
I ignored the scrambling crew as I tried to identify the Morgana.
There were at least three Morgana ships that were steaming along the coast, south to north, and perhaps more ships that were screening them from attack from Manehattan. The designs were…odd, to say the least. While the last batch of Morgan were some sort of modern-esque cruiser design on par with British cruisers on account of the superimposed twin turret arrangement and torpedo tubes, what I saw wasn’t giving me that impression. Instead it looked…older and dare I say cramped.
Regardless I focused on the turrets and found…one…two…two turrets?
[Three turrets. Look behind the aft funnel between the superstructure.] I heard my deputy-captain point out.
I looked at the place she pointed out and found the third turret she was talking about.
Odd. You’d think the Morgana ships would have three superimposed turrets, in which case they would have used an ABY turret arrangement that the Americans used during the 30’s and freaking Yamato and Musashi plus Italy’s last batch of battleships. Or an AXY arrangement found on the Fubuki class destroyers, an arrangement I didn’t understand until playing Ultimate Admiral Age of Dreadnought where balancing weight was a major concern of mine for the destroyers. But an AQY arrangement? I couldn’t think of any ship designs like that, but if it were just an AY turret arrangement my mind immediately went to…pre-dreadnought battleships?
[The ships are Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm class battleships.] My captain called out.
Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm class battleships?
[Displacement 10,040 tons. Guns: four 28 cm 40 cal, two 28 cm 35 cal, six 10.5 cm eight 8.7 cm six torpedo tubes. Speed: 16.5 to 17.2 knots. Armor: The belt is…assuming it’s comparable to Japanese designs then it's either 9 inches of Krupp, 11.5 inches of Harvey nickel or 13.5 inches of Harvey armor. Deck: 3 to 4.5 inches depending on armor type.] My recording officer/secretary rattled off before initially pausing at the armor.
‘How and where are you getting that information?’ I thought.
[Oh, I got it from the book the captain brought in.] My secretary cheerily said.
[And where did the captain get that book?] My deputy-captain asked in a way which I imagined her looking at the captain while tapping her foot against the floor.
[...I got it from the flag cabin.] She admitted reluctantly.
[What!? That isn’t your room! That room is for admirals!…or rather the ship herself.] My deputy-captain pointed out.
…
Wait, I get a room for myself on…in myself?
[Essentially.] The deputy-captain responded.
So…if that was my room then that means that’s my book you're reading.
[I…believe so.] She replied haltingly.
Can I see this book?
[Ok!] My captain replied right before my deputy-captain let out a quick indignant ‘hey!’ as she materialized right before me, holding the book in her right front hoof.
“Wha! Who or what is that and where did it come from?” Someone asked as I took the coin-sized book out of my captain’s ‘hands’ and watched as it expanded to a ‘pony’ sized book before my captain returned to her post, dematerializing in front of me and whoever saw that.
“Oh, she’s my fairy captain.” I responded absentmindedly as I read the title of the oddly familiar white and blue book.
JANE’S FIGHTING SHIPS 1900 (facsimile edition)
This…this is my book, from back home.
I quickly skimmed through a bookmarked section about armor thickness before getting to the section about the Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm, Brandenburg, Weissenburg and Woerth.
…
Those weren’t Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm class battleships, they were Brandenburg class pre-dreadnought battleships!
I couldn’t help but cackle loudly, startling several ponies running by me.
“Ma’am?” Snowstorm looked at me concerned.
“Sorry it’s just…I recognize them.” I said, handing the book over to her while taking another look at the ancient battleships.
And I do mean ancient. Those things were around one hundred years before I was even born and my ship half was designed in 1915, long after those things were unfit for frontline duty.
This…this wasn’t even a fair fight, and the odds were, finally, in my favor!
I may have been designed in response to Kongou but as a battlecruiser the goal was to outrun any ship with similar armament to me and chase down any ship with lesser armament, I was intended to hunt slower and older ships.
And the Brandenburgs fit that to a T!
I had more guns than them and their guns were a smaller caliber than mine. They probably didn’t even have the range of my secondary battery, they were that short of a barrel. I could outrun them easily, easily for days while they could only maintain flank speed for about an hour. And my armor was better designed for engagements at range where I could rain plunging fire on them while they could ineffectually return fire that would inevitably fall short of me while either charging me or trying to outrun me, which would be impossible.
With that, one thing was certain.
I was all but guaranteed to sink these things and the only way I wouldn’t was if the universe decided to punish me for my hubris.
With that thought, I jumped off the side of Clearwave and summoned my rigging. Charging the Brandenburgs at flank to get them within secondary range before they could notice, I was going to save Manehattan from them and take out a lot of misplaced frustration on them.
…
Man, I wish I could play Thunderstruck right now.
…
Thunder!
On the other end of this spectrum, the city of Manehattan was effectively a ghost town. Civilians that hadn’t fled the city by road or by train were laid out on the streets, few were desperately trying to crawl away, others were eerily silent. The Manehattan guard previously dug in and prepared for an invasion were equally laid out.
Meanwhile, Captain Stark Contrast could only stare out at the sea that bore his princess’s name, at the hateful ships that were shelling Manehattan, the city he was sworn to protect. The Manehattan fleet had ceased to exist last night after the attack. The attack had lasted for hours before the attackers had left after they had sunk the fleet and damaged the harbor and drydock facilities. At the princess’s first light, when it became obvious the attack had ended hours ago, messengers were sent to Canterlot to inform the princess of what had occurred while repair work had begun.
At 0900 hours smoke had appeared over the horizon line shortly followed by a flotilla of ships. Unlike the merchant ships of the Equestrian merchant fleet these ships were low to the waterline, colored grey and did not possess the eye pleasing lines of ocean liners. Their purpose became clear when two cannons became visible on the larger ship.
The city had been put on lock down. Coastal defense batteries first installed when piracy was rampant centuries ago were readied in preparation. Defensive lines were prepared and messengers sent to warn the princess in Canterlot.
And like last night they could only do nothing as the fleet of six ships turned to starboard, revealing even more cannons, and fired upon the city outside their range . In the clear daytime they could finally see what their range was, or at least their effective firing range. Whereas Equestrian cannons, both coastal and naval, had a range of 5.6 kilometers the enemy could fire at 11 kilometers , almost twice the range.
At that point the only thing they could do was send out their pegasi to board the ships and engage the crews, ending the attack. But Stark Contrast and his colleagues were forced to watch as the ships released a mist that slowly spread towards Manehattan. One by one, the pegasi ordered into battle fell from the sky. The mist eventually enshrouded Manehattan, choking the city.
Their only hope now rested on the princesses and the Elements of Harmony.
"Sir, look!" A nameless enlisted member attempted to point towards the ships. Eight flaming tracers raced through the air, barreling towards the ships like Wonderbolts.
Contrast swore he saw a figure in what he assumed to be the bridge do a double-take, the whole ship seemed to recoil in horror just before eight shells slammed amidships.
For a brief second, nothing happened. The shells burrowed through the deck of the ship.
Then it happened. Explosions ripped the ship open from the inside, splitting it in-half as magazines and boiler-rooms exploded, spewing flaming ordnance, burning coal, and flying shrapnel in a massive cloud over the burning oil-slick that was once an untouchable warship.
The cavalry had arrived.
Chapter 8: Battle of Manehattan aftermath
I plowed through the waves, my screws tearing through the water as I sprinted forward. My turbines were sadly not at flank speed due to lingering damage from yesterday, but at 27 knots I was still faster than the Brandenburgs.
“Yeah! Oh my god, I think I detonated its magazine!” I hollered.
[They might try to make for open ocean! If they disengage we'll never catch them again.] My captain cried out.
The remaining Brandenburgs started letting loose more smoke and picked up some speed, main guns slowly yet surely rotating towards me while the casemated secondaries opened fire on me. And shooting far too low into the water, nowhere near me while my own secondaries had penetrated an exposed cruiser and set it on fire. I didn’t know what it was and I didn’t even need to know what it was. It didn’t have the range to hit me and it was on fire and sinking.
“Right, like they could escape from me.” I snorted at the thought of any of them running past me.
[All it would take is for the fleet to split up and keep you in between them while they launch torpedoes.] My deputy-captain advised.
By this time the deputy-captain’s words were starting to come to fruition. The Brandenburgs were turning towards me while the protected/light cruisers were steaming past them, probably trying to hit my starboard. As if any of that mattered.
The cruisers were probably just as old as the Brandenburgs. I could barely make out their absolutely tiny short barreled pop guns that couldn’t be larger than 4 inches. I could see a pair of skinny funnels and two towers that wouldn’t look out of place as a sailing ship’s mast. At times I thought I could see a ram bow on the two. Not one of them made more than about 21 knots.
I rolled my eyes as my secondaries made quick work of the cruisers. My main guns reloaded and I shot A and B turrets at the lead Brandenburg and had X and Y turrets track the shells.
“Right, like the cruisers were anything to write home about.” I muttered as I scored hits on the lead Brandenburg’s superstructure before letting loose with X and Y turrets.
The damn thing kept coming while I let loose my secondaries on the trailing Brandenburg once all the cruisers were on fire and sinking.
Captain Stark Contrast stared slack-jawed at the battle unfolding before him. Ships that he had feared were sinking within minutes. The ship fighting on their behalf was a force of nature.
Although the mist was starting to clear, the smoke from the burning wrecks were now obscuring his view of the ship. What he could see frightened him. Its silhouette could just be made out in the misty smoke, and it was sailing toward Manehattan, unconcerned of the fire from the, now, last remaining ship.
One more volley and the ship that had just shelled Manehattan ceased to exist as its keel was cracked in half. Secondary explosions raced down the rapidly-sinking wreck as ammo stacked outside the magazines torched off, churning the water to froth as it sank beneath the wave.
"Hot DAMN!" yelled somepony with a thick Appleloosa accent.
Stark Contrast smiled as his strength returned to him, before dropping his jaw at the sight of the ship. Long and lean, the ship cut through the water easily. He picked out four long thin cannons attached to two big rectangular boxes of steel, one box surely above and behind the foremost one. Behind the two was a squat metal building and behind that was a tall thin tower of metal pipes criss-crossing every which way.
One or two of the others whistled. There wasn't anything on there they could identify as a sail but the ship was sailing uncaring of the wind direction. For just a moment, he thought he saw something else not a ship but a pony figure, tiny against the water. Stark Contrast blinked and the mental impression was gone, replaced by the impossible ship once more, but there was a ghostly, ethereal quality to the vessel, like it should have been enshrouded in a fog bank or glimpsed somewhere distant, slipping past the horizon, not laid bare for all to see.
Suddenly, the ship turned to starboard and out toward the open sea, revealing a broadside of casemated cannons and a matching set of metal boxes with cannons.
“Where is it going?” That same Appleloosa pony asked.
Looking further in the distance Stark Contrast could see a pair of wooden sailing ships, both flying the Equestrian flag.
“It’s sailing towards a pair of our ships.” He said when in between heartbeats, the ship just wasn't there. Stark Contrast stared, trying to make out some sign. The ship couldn't have just vanished, could it?
“See? Nothing to worry about.” I waved off my fairies concerns as I walked up the ramp back onto Clearwave.
And was stared at by everyone.
Waving off Clearwave’s crew wasn’t going to be as easy.
Growl.
Or maybe it would be that easy as my stomach growled loudly enough that everyone could hear, and I swore that my stomach shook Clearwave. A path to the lower decks and the cafeteria quickly opened up. With no need for an invitation I walked towards the stairs and down into the lower decks and to where I remembered the cafeteria was. I was expecting a pleasant lunch after curb stomping a pre-dreadnought battleship division and some glorified light cruisers.
I heard Summer Rain barking orders up top before a bunch of other ponies raced past me towards the cafeteria. I was shortly joined by Orange Drop and Snowstorm, the latter of which was holding onto a book.
A familiar white and blue book.
“Is that my book?” I couldn’t help but blurt out as we entered the cafeteria, the sounds of cooking coming from the kitchen.
“Yeah, you just hoofed it to me before you jumped overboard and fought those ships. You…you said you recognized them.” She said worriedly as we took a seat at one of many empty tables. She sat the book down on the table before gently sliding it towards me.
“Well yeah. Of course I’d recognize them, they’re in the book after all.” I said flippantly, rotating the book towards me and opening it to Brandenburg's page.
“I thought you said you didn’t know what the Morgana are?” Orange Drop insinuated as I rotated the book and slid it towards them.
“And that’s still true. I don’t know what the Morgana are exactly. I just know that they’re ships helmed by strange mechanical beings that’ll attack anything and anyone in their mists.” I replied as they looked over the technical data.
“They’re crewed by mechanical beings?” Snowstorm asked as she took hold of the book.
Celestia stared at the bombed out buildings of Manehattan, a mask of calmness hiding her inner turmoil. A few hours ago she had been in the middle of a dispute between a pair of nobles when a member of the Royal Guard burst through the door carrying a scroll with a seal on it, for royal eyes only. After ensuring that the wax seal on the scroll was legitimate, Celestia unfurled the parchment and read through its contents her expression growing more concerned with each word. She had yet to finish the report when she ordered the meeting adjourned and the guards stationed outside the chamber to summon both her sister Luna and Chief of Navy Operations Morning Storm for an emergency meeting. Not an hour later all three along with a number of the royal guard were flying out on chariots bound for Manehattan when they encountered another messenger halfway to their destination with another scroll that painted a far dire picture.
The first letter had stated that at midnight the Manehattan fleet had been attacked by an unidentified fleet of ships. The enemy fleet then proceeded to damage the harbor and drydock facilities before the attackers had left sometime before morning. While the fleet could be rebuilt and harbor and drydock facilities repaired, what concerned Celestia was the casualties that were being tallied up.
The second letter was far more distressing. The entire fleet had been lost and one hundred and fifty casualties had been tallied. Moreover a fleet of ships had been spotted at about 0900 hours armed with cannons. While it could have been that the force was on a reconnaissance mission to assess the damage, a single look at the remains of a bombed-out carriage showed that the fleet had more nefarious intentions.
Landing with a dull thud outside Naval Station Manehattan, Celestia held up her hoof in order to forestall the inevitable wave of bowing. “Please, my little ponies, focus on your tasks. We need to speak to Admiral Water Drops and all available captains. Where can we find them?”
“Yes Ma’am. Admiral Water Drops is in meeting room A with the Manehattan captains. I can lead you to them.” One of the sailors answered, leading princesses Celestia and Luna and Morning Storm inside the base. After walking through a series of hallways the group eventually stopped in front of a door. The sailor knocked and announced the presence of the princesses and the Chief of Naval Operations before opening the door for the group.
Inside the room was a table with ten ponies on each side. At the head of the table was a light blue mare with a white main and lime green eyes, eyes that featured heavy bags underneath them. The table had ten chairs left empty.
“Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Chief of Naval Operations Morning Storm.” The mare greeted, Celestia almost flinching at the sorrow present in her voice but pressing forward regardless.
“Admiral Water Drops. Before we continue I must ask what the sailor who led us here meant when he specified that you were with the captains from Manehattan?” Celestia asked.
“Your highness we had just received a ship from Fillydelphia that had captured a pirate crew. Instead of returning to Fillydelphia, its captain, Summer Rain, decided to sail here to offload the pirates, the civilians they took hostage and their ship. She should be here shortly.” Water Drops replied.
Celestia nodded at that before turning to Morning Storm.
“Chief of Naval Operations, the floor is yours.” While Celestia doubted that anypony in Equestria would not follow her or her sister’s orders purely out of respect for what they represented, technically the sisters only had direct control over the Royal Guard, as such it was up to the Chief of Naval Operations to take charge of the situation.
Morning Storm nodded before turning her attention to the now saluting admiral, a stern look now on her face.
“Understood. Admiral Water Drops, please begin from the beginning. Your letter mentioned that the Manehattan fleet was attacked at midnight. Is this correct?” Morning Storm began, Water Drops nodding in confirmation.
Sadly, no new information regarding the attack last night was brought to light.
The recent spotting report however.
“The enemy fleet shelled Manehattan at a distance of 11 kilometers. The smaller ships fired their cannons more rapidly than the larger ships, far quicker than even our cannons. The larger ships fired six of their larger cannons that had to be affixed to a rotating platform. We attempted to send out our pegasi to board the ships, but when the pegasi were over the water the ships emitted a mist that disabled our pegasi and choked out the city.” Water Drops explained, getting to a crux that distressed Celestia.
“Are you saying that this mist drained everypony’s magic?” Luna jumped to the point.
Water Drops shook her head.
“I’m not sure. Unlike…unlike the time Lord Tirek drained everypony’s magic, no pony ended up an empty eyed shell and we still had our cutie marks.” Water Drops admitted.
Water Drops then got to the battle between the fleet and the unknown ship.
“It was like the ships that were shelling Manehattan, but bigger, maybe three times as large as the enemy flagship. I think the only ships we have just as large were some of the newer ocean liners. It had four cannons, but the range. It outranged the enemy, they couldn’t touch the ship. It made short work of the smaller ships before devastating the final two ships. Then it turned towards the open sea and our ship from Fillydelphia and vanished.”
It was then there was a knock at the door.
“Captain Summer Rain, reporting in.” The door swung open to reveal a mare with light blue eyes and mane.
“Captain Summer Rain.” Morning Storm sighed. “We’ve just discussed the ships that shelled Manehattan and the ship that sank them. It was last seen sailing towards your ship. Do you have anything to add to the report?” She asked Summer Rain, who blinked in confusion.
“What ship? What sank the ships shelling Manehattan was a mare wearing saddlebags fashioned to look like a ship’s bow and stern lined with an assortment of cannons.” Summer Rain said to everypony’s confusion.
Chapter 9: Explanations and a demonstration
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. Chapter 11: Dreaming of princesses
I opened the door and greeted the black eyed grey skinned alien. I welcomed him in and we sat down for tea at the living room table. His flying saucer had crashed into my roof.
“This is very strange.” A voice said and I turned around to see Luna, standing behind me, looking around the house before focusing on me. “Even for dreams.”
I stared at her for a moment. “Princess Luna?”
“I thought we could continue to discuss war plans while you slept although I will admit to being curious, of what a human might dream of. If your dream even differed from normal ponies.” Luna flicked her ears.
…what?
“I’m dreaming?” I asked turning back to take a look for myself and OH MY GOD! I leapt away from the table in fright at the horrifically realistic sight of the alien.
“Jesus, Allah, Buddha! Why is that thing so realistically ugly!?” I cried out and to my shock the alien responded with a series of angry sounding gibberish.
“Apologies, it is my presence that enhances the dream imagery.” Luna explained as the alien stood up, walked to the door and slammed it shut on the way out. A second later we could hear weird beeping noises as the saucer flew down to our level outside a window and the alien flipped me off from inside his ship, behind the glass dome, before flying away.
…
That was weird.
“So…why am I not human here?” I asked, still stunned by the event.
“Usually, the mind takes the form of the body. If you focus, you might be able to change back in your dream.” Luna spoke, seemingly amused by the exchange.
I thought about it before making a face.
“Bleh. As much as I miss being human , I don’t miss my original form.” I stated, to Luna’s surprise before music started playing to my surprise .
When we're human again
Only human again
“What’s going on?” I asked as we watched animated household objects singing, a scene I recognized from Disney’s animated version of Beauty and the Beast.
“I normally establish control in a pony’s nightmares to ensure no harm befalls them, however since this is a normal dream I see no reason to needlessly do so unless necessary. Right now you are in control regardless if you realize it or not.” Luna explained as we saw a tender moment between Belle and the Beast, the moment within the song where Belle helps the Beast read Romeo and Juliet.
Aw, that’s a nice scene, a moment where the two bond over a common interest. We decided to remain silent as the rest of the musical played out before us. Afterwards Luna turned towards me.
“As interesting as that was, it is still imperative that we plan for the Morgana and the sirens.” Luna stated in all seriousness.
“I know, it’s just that I don’t know what the Morgana or the sirens want and they aren’t from this world. The best way to fight them off, I think, is to modernize the Equestrian navy, maybe even using the Wisdom Cubes to do so. I can’t just keep fighting them off forever, especially if they decide to send out larger fleets centered around either super-dreadnought battleships or fast battleships and aircraft carriers. I’m not Goeben.” I pointed out.
“While it is a shame that we lack understanding of our enemies' motivations, that does not mean we will just lie down and suffer the injustice of having our little ponies harmed. We will modernize the Equestrian navy to aid you in the upcoming battles ahead, but what form this new navy will take is a mystery that will take months, if not years to resolve. As of now, we do not understand these Wisdom Cubes and the potential danger in their use is far too great to risk. Nevertheless, know that you have our support.” Luna tried to assuage me while I thought about the points she made, specifically the form the Equestria navy would take. If only I could show them my world’s history of ironclad development.
…wait a minute.
If I can control the dream and if Luna is enhancing the imagery, then couldn’t I just show her that?
“I think I have an idea.” I said as a flatscreen TV appeared at the end of the facsimile of my living room, missing the labyrinth of junk that had accumulated over the years.
I walked over to the couch and picked up the remote, turning on the TV in the process.
“A movie screen? Interesting that you haven’t also summoned a movie projector.” Luna commented, also taking a seat on the couch.
“Huh? Movie projector? Humanity has, mostly, outgrown the need for movie projectors.” I said while selecting a certain red and white application before typing out the phrase ‘ironclad development’.
No country of Equis had ever explored The Unknown. Not the griffons and certainly not the ponies, both of whom laid directly south of the massive body of water. Any who tried would have to contend with fields of icebergs larger than the skyscrapers that dotted Manehattan’s skyline, bone chilling rains, and howling winds that would tear sails, rip wood asunder and toss pegasi, griffons and dragons alike indistinguishable from rag dolls.
And yet, within the eye of a storm far greater than the likes created by the wendigos sat a concrete harbor entrance attached to a pitch black building covered in glowing red lines. Despite the freezing cold temperatures of the surrounding strom, a figure remained vigilant in an environment any other creature without aid would freeze in. Its eyes kept watch over the harbor entrance.
It was thoughtful. Since its creation in this world it tallied two losses to one victory. The cruiser squadron sent forth to handle the anomaly had been sunk while Calamity Division had achieved total victory, only to have BatDiv 1 sunk by the anomaly. Whatever form the anomaly took was fast and powerful, clearly superior to the floating antiques sent to test the ponies. With the spotting report from Venom, it was obvious what form the anomaly took.
It and its sisters were under orders to test Equis and remain hidden while doing so. To probe and force them to adapt or die. The kansen was a minor setback, a mountain standing before the waves. One against many, unchanging while the waves shifted and changed forms. One form stood out amongst many.
A cube appeared.
Thousands of tons of steel poured into shipyards. Shaped, placed together, and welded into one. In just a few hours the hulls of ships would be built. Then in the following hours those hollow hulls would be filled. Boilers, pipes, beams all under the invisible guidance of the cube.
Within days, new ships would be built, arranged into squadrons in a week and rearranged into proper fleets in the weeks to follow. One such fleet led by a mighty vessel, another by splendid cats, another by four mountains and a few scouts for good measure. A fleet led by monarchs would be tasked specifically to divide the ponies from the griffons.
Why not? Its sisters were taking their time and it had unlimited resources to complete its task. It could afford to play for a little while longer.
Ventis Secundis and indestructible diamonds. What lovely phrases.
Knock knock knock
“Good morning, Lady Chesapeake. May I enter?” A mare called out.
…
Groan…
I needed a few seconds, maybe a minute or two, to psyche myself up before answering.
…
“Yeah…sure.” I groaned out, loud enough for the guard to open the door.
“I’m Feather Duster and in addition to coming to deliver an invitation to dine with the Princesses this morning, I’ve also been assigned as your personal attendant for the duration of your stay here at Canterlot Castle. It’s nice to meet you!” She spoke in a chipper way.
…
“Lady Chesapeake?”
…
“Are they serving coffee?” I opened up an eye and saw blur. A second later, I had my glasses on and saw a cream colored pegasus mare in a maid outfit looking at me.
…
Sure, why not?
“Yes, the kitchen is serving coffee and the most delicious pancakes in Canterlot!” She grinned, a twinkle in her eyes.
…
“Fine.” I threw open the covers and tried to roll up into a sitting position.
Thud
“Lady Chesapeake!”
Keyword, tried.
“Ow.”
An hour later I emerged from my room looking like a brand-new mare, according to Feather Duster after she finished my mane and coat. An oddly pleasant experience considering whenever I tried combing my hair when it grew out I’d inevitably find a knot in there that caused me pain when I tried to pull at it. She thankfully stayed in the room while I used the toilet and showered in the bathroom, still trying to ignore the whole new body thing.
Turns out Feather Duster was something of a chatterbox who loved meeting interesting new ponies and other creatures that came to negotiate with Equestria. And it turns out that I had just missed the Storm King invasion. Eh, I would have left a lot of collateral damage and a bloody mess with my cannons and that shit gets disturbing. I’ve seen people play Cleanup Detail and inevitably somebody has to wash the blood off the ceiling. How did it get there!?
Feather Duster quickly fell silent as we reached the royal dining hall to which a pair of guards opened the door after saluting me.
Within I saw both the royal sisters already at the surprisingly long table for just the two of them. Celestia was taking a bite out of a beautifully made stack of pancakes while Luna looked like she wanted nothing more than to pass out but kept herself awake through sheer force of will. The two rulers of the realm turned their attention to the door opening and smiled at the sight of me.
“Ah Chesapeake, good morning. We would be honored if you would join us." Celestia greeted me as I took a spot at the table. "Was your rest peaceful?”
“Well enough I suppose. Sorry for keeping you waiting.” A plate of absolutely delicious smelling pancakes stacked comically high was placed in front of me along with a carafe of coffee while an almost equally large stack was placed in front of Celestia and Luna.
“It is fine, we finished moving our respective celestial bodies not an hour ago. You only missed our conversation about the…video?” At my nod Luna continued. “Videos on the development of the ironclad in the Royal Navy. A truly novel and educational endeavor that could aid Equestria in modernizing.” Her magic enveloped her silverware, the lunar mare eyeing her own pancakes with a very un-pony like glint in her eye. “But now that you have joined us, we may begin discussing the preparations for the future.” She continued the mood turning serious for a moment before she grinned slightly. “After we begin our respective meals of course…”
“Of course.” I reached out for my own silverware, still unwilling to question how my hooves were able to hold such utensils without opposable thumbs, sliced off a bit of pancake, and took a bite.
…
“Now then, the first problem we must discuss is the means with which we shall deliver you to the future fields of battle.” I blinked, focusing on Luna as she put aside her meal for a moment. “Our original intention had been to use pegasi scouts to determine just where our foes intend to strike and, upon gleaming such insights into their intentions, we would use the Wonderbolts to rush you to the defense of their intended target.” Luna explained before smiling at my inevitable grimace. “Of course, after yesterday, we have begun to make other plans for ensuring you can arrive in a timely manner.”
I sighed.
“I knew ship mares and flying didn’t go hand in hand.” I grumbled.
“Which is why we will be discussing an alternative solution with graduates and members of the School for Gifted Unicorns in order to devise a teleportation-based means of travel for you to make use of.” Celestia added in between bites of her breakfast the white alicorn consuming her pancakes even faster than me, reminding me of Akagi and Yamato’s meal in the anime. I couldn’t help but look around for a human sized rice cooker as Celestia kept talking. “We are also setting the groundwork for when we will inform Equestria of the coming conflict in addition to summoning dignitaries from our surrounding nations to ensure that all species are prepared for what is to come. Which is why until our preparations are complete we believe that our best course of action is to familiarize as many ponies with the specifications of the Morgana by having them review copies of your book, and observe the pony with the closest approximation of their abilities, mainly you yourself. This knowledge will then be spread across Equestria so that local captains will know how to recognize their enemy and our shipyards can construct ships to fight them. So long as you are willing to share such information with us, of course.” The solar Diarch asked.
“Sure, that’s fine by me. I even had my crew create copies of not only Jane’s Fighting Ships but other books that I thought would be useful.” I agreed instantly, summoning copies of Jane’s Fighting Ships, a duplicate of Fighting Techniques of Naval Warfare, a booklet that had the histories and design specifications from the two books about weapons and, surprisingly enough, a copy of The Influence of Sea Power Upon History. I didn’t even know I had a physical copy of that book. “I’m just glad you're not going to make me the flagship. Last time that happened, Hood blew up and took all but three of her crew down with her and Bismarck was hunted down before getting torpedoed and shot up by a whole lot of angry Brits. I can’t play the role of Goeben forever.”
“That’s…wonderful. Although I did not understand the names you used I do understand what you meant. I want to reiterate that Equestria will not force you to fight the Morgana alone. We will do whatever it takes to aid you in our time of need.” Celestia took a copy of each book while Luna took her copies. I still had the originals and was planning on the crew keeping another dozen spares just in case.
“It will take time before Equestria is on a wartime footing, even if we aren’t technically at war.” At my confusion Luna explained. “Unless the Morgana step forward and establish diplomatic relations or even show themselves to be sentient or possess a structured hierarchy then declaring war on them would be like declaring war on timberwolves. Would they recognize what it means to be in a state of war? Would they even be capable of negotiating a peace or a surrender? Until they come forward and show such capability we can’t declare war on the Morgana. What we can do is put Equestria under a state of emergency to put through policies aimed towards defeating the Morgana without certain…princes trying to block them.”
“Now Luna, you know that Blueblood was only scared of you.” Celestia gently put her fork down as Luna glared angrily in the distance.
“And I sought to assuage his fears of the Nightmare, only for that foal to start a petition to banish me back to the moon!” Luna turned to glare at Celestia.
“No pony is getting banished to the moon. I had hoped that I made it clear after the Galla.” Thankfully the door slammed open before I could continue to listen in on this noodle incident.
“Hey Chesapeake! Hope you're ready to go through basic training!” Unfortunately it was Spitfire who just barged in. Who then walked over and, somehow, began dragging me towards the door. At least my stocks were full.
“Oh, by the way I have summoned my most faithful former student, her former student and the royal crystaller to Canterlot to begin researching the Wisdom Cubes.” Celestia explained just as Spitfire dragged me past the door.
“Yes, along with a certain pony to command the Royal Guard.” Luna’s statement was the last thing I heard before the doors closed.
At least I get to meet Twilight Sparkle if I survive.
…
Why am I more scared of Spitfire than I am of Morgana battleships?
Not even half an hour later, Spitfire and I reached the shore of Lake Canterlot, I didn’t even know Canterlot even had a lake . A small oval track had been hastily put together along with various medical tools and implements, as well as barbells and exercise machines. I had just barely managed to give her a copy of Jane’s Fighting Ships when I asked what the plan was as we passed guards, wonderbolts and ponies in lab coats.
Spitfire wanted to know what would happen if an actual pony went toe to toe, or rather hoof to hoof, with a Morgana and she, and the researchers brought in from the School of Magic, had me lifting weights first. That ended when I steadily climbed my way up to lifting twelve hundred pounds before they couldn’t fit anymore and the researchers gave up. I didn’t have much time to contemplate it as Spitfire set me up on the track to see how far and fast I got. According to her and a researcher with my timesheet, I could apparently beat trained professional runners, neat.
It was the blood test that wielded some interesting results. The blood itself wasn’t anything to note with the naked eye. It was the needle that snapped off my skin when an accompanying nurse tried to take another blood sample while I was talking to the doctor that was interesting. Turns out I had a form of invulnerability, or at the very least I can make my skin far tougher. It was selective with the default being on unless I was aware that what was about to happen, like a needle, was harmless. I was just glad that I could walk away with all my hooves still attached.
Then a researcher asked about my rigging.
And I summoned it for them.
The ground cracked beneath my hooves.
Curious, I jumped and everything seemed to shudder slightly when I landed and the cracks spread slightly.
More testing was done.
The result was a fairly good understanding of what I could and couldn't do, physically speaking.
To start I had two modes/forms/functions/settings (The researchers couldn't agree on the terminology). Rigging on, rigging off.
Rigging off left me more or less as an extremely capable and fit earth pony with two exceptions. The first was strength. I had an estimated one hundred horsepower I could push through any muscle in my body. Enough to lift approximately three hundred tons. The second was in how tough I was. The researchers’ calculations based on some further testing suggested no melee weapon could penetrate my skin. But anything magically enchanted? Theoretically unlikely. I was not eager to let someone stab me again for testing purposes, once was enough.
Beyond that I was well within pony performance levels, top ten percent. I wasn’t Sonic Rainboom levels of fast of course.
It was when the rigging came out things got a bit insane. As best we could tell I had my full engine power to push through any muscle in my body, 56,300 horsepower. One of the researchers caught a glance of my cutie mark and upon closer examination found that it was my design plan which did confirm their findings. I could quite literally lift anything! Not that I was going out of my way to find out what I couldn’t carry, but that was beside the point. The point being I was absurdly strong.
The second thing was again my toughness. We'd run a couple careful tests, and a blow that had bruised me before now didn't even hurt. Considering I could feel my armor belt, our working hypothesis was that I had full protection equivalent to my hull. Which, according to what the researchers could read, was 6-8 inches thick. From what I could remember was about equal to Kongo at her thickest, but if I had all or nothing armor like the Standards then mine was better designed. Still not enough to convince me to go toe to toe with Hood.
My eyesight also got a nice upgrade. I could make out a fly at two miles, and as far as I could tell I had visual clarity on par with my optics, with or without my glasses. As if that wasn't enough, thanks to my lookouts, I quite literally had eyes, be it those of my fairies, in the back of my head. It wasn't quite 360 vision, but more like a general awareness of all of my surroundings. Now I wondered how it would work through aircraft and radar.
After ‘second breakfast’, which meant I ate a large chunk of the food forcing a wonderbolt to make a donut run, I had distributed my book duplicates and found myself on the lake, finally.
Simply put: I was the ship and I already knew that. I could stand on the water and hit my flank speed of 30 knots. I had my guns which after some target practice shot more accurately than the muzzle loaders and breech loaders shipped over from the naval yard and hit harder, punching through the 4.5 inches of iron armor that protected all of Equestria’s armored frigates, a steel plate of the same thickness and experimental compounds of steel backed by either iron or a more elastic steel plate while the Equestrian cannons had trouble penetrating the iron armor let alone the other armor types. All my weapons functioned as they should. I was, quite literally, a battlecruiser in pony form. This test was more for the researchers and guards then it was for me.
It was then that the royal guard and wonderbolts began their testing.
Needless to say, I was not amused.
Not a single airborne pony was able to even make me move even an inch through their strikes, no matter what tricks they tried. Though their constant fluttering about and hoof-strikes did eventually start to annoy me, leaving me itching to try out my anti-air weapons, all four of them. One pegasi had even resorted to hitting me with a bolt of lighting, but besides for leaving my fur standing out straight left no mark.
The earth pony fight turned into a form of tug of war, since they couldn’t do much to me, what with me being out on the water and therefore out of range of their attacks. Although to call it tug of war was a joke considering that I didn’t bother to pull at all after the first attempt resulted in the guy taking a dunk in the water. The guy gave it the old college try before collapsing to the ground exhausted. Assuming the Morgana had similar capabilities then a boarding party had no hope of subduing the Morgana controlling the ship, if they could break through the mist and whatever AA capabilities they had. Best that any such boarding party could do is set explosives on them.
The gathered unicorns attempted to use a number of other spells against me, from spells designed to confuse me to ones that attempted to force me down, but no matter what they attempted, no spell managed much beyond annoying me. In the end the unicorns failed to find a single spell that could affect me in any meaningful way. One unicorn had proposed that transmogrification magic might be effective in halting Morganas and had suggested testing such spells against me, but Spitfire put her hoof down on the suggestion before I could refuse to have my atoms rearranged, especially since I wasn't certain their spells would put me back together as a ship, as a pony, or even as a human. Even their shield spells were useless, no one could block a 1,400 pound armor piercing shell.
At lunch time the researchers, royal guard and wonderbolts gathered their equipment and left to prepare their findings to their departments. At the very least Spitfire offered to lead me back to the dining room to meet up with Princess Celestia. Yay.
For the one hundred and seventy fifth time since she received Princess Celestia’s letter, Twilight Sparkle had to force herself to calm down by performing her breathing exercise…not that it helped at all. The purple alicorn tried her best to not stare at the slowly approaching view of Canterlot outside the train’s window that was starting to look less like the majestic capital it was and instead more like the entrance to Tartarus.
“The princess sure knows how to drive you nuts.” Starlight Glimmer commented off handedly while rereading the letter that had Twilight in a tizzy. It was a scroll with the royal seal stamped upon it, meaning that it was an official correspondence from the princess herself. The contents of said missive had nothing to calm down the panicking alicorn. An official summons to Canterlot by way of train with a ticket included, and no mention of why they were being called to the capitol. The only thing mentioned were issues that the princess wanted them to solve.
“Starlight! How can you be so calm!? This is obviously a summons for a super-secret special practical magical test! Oh no! I haven’t prepared at all!” Twilight said despite having spent the entire night studying every branch of magic she could get her hooves on and reviewing her various emergency checklists.
“Because we can just go ask the Princess why she summoned us.” Starlight pointed out as the train pulled into Canterlot station.
“But what if she wants to test us on friendship? I haven’t reviewed my old friendship letters in twenty-eight hours! What if she asks me about one of my lessons? Or what if she wants to test me on one of the more obscure spells? Like Astral projection or coordinate based teleportation arrays! Oh no, this is bad, so very bad!” Twilight continued to spiral downward into near complete panic as the two made their way into the castle.
Starlight simply rolled her eyes at the alicorn’s antics before taking in the tense atmosphere of the castle. At this rate, nothing Starlight could do would reassure the alicorn and frankly the visible increase in guards was starting to worry her.
“Oh!” Starlight’s attention snapped back to Twilight who had bumped into a familiar pegasus.
“Whoa. You okay?” The pegasus asked, pulling Twilight back onto her hooves.
“Thanks, Flash… Magnus?” Twilight replied surprised.
“What are you doing here?” Starlight couldn’t help but ask.
“After you guys got us out of Limbo I went looking for work for a pony who wanted experience in the Royal Legion. Princess Celestia just sent me a message to discuss my position.” Flash Magnus looked around before continuing. “From the looks of it, I doubt Princess Celestia is making me a drill sergeant. Call it a hunch.”
“That’s odd. We just got a letter from Princess Celestia to resolve an issue. Do you think the two might be related?” Starlight asked before Twilight could do so as the group walked to the throne room.
“Maybe, although I wonder why she’s only summoning us instead of all of the Elements and the Pillars.” Flash Magnus wondered as the group was told that Princess Celestia was currently preoccupied with meeting her advisors. The solar Diarch had left a message for the three that they should await Princess Celestia in the alicorn’s private dining room for lunch. The group had just turned around a corner when Twilight saw a sight to raise her spirits.
“Shiny! Cadance!” Twilight greeted as she approached the two and Sunburst, the group turning to look at her and her companions.
“Twilight!” The Princess of Love shouted out as she pranced forward, Twilight mirroring her excitement as she too rushed up to the group.
“Cadance!” Twilight returned as she smiled widely as she began to bounce up and down, with Cadance mirroring her movements. “Sunshine, Sunshine, ladybugs awake. Clap your hooves, and do a little shake.”
“Sunburst, what are you doing here?” Choosing to ignore Twilight and Cadance’s reunion, Starlight focused on her own reunion with Sunburst.
“Oh, Princess Celestia sent me a message about a research project that she wanted me for.” Sunburst replied before yawning.
“And she wanted to see us about a potential threat to Equestria.” Shining Armor stated, revealing the reason for the tension in the castle.
“Threat? What threat?” Twilight asked, glancing between Shining Armor and Cadance.
“Oh good, I was hoping that Cadance, Shining Armor and Sunburst would arrive quickly.” The melodic voice of Twilight's teacher echoed from down the hall, the Princess of Friendship turning and seeing the Solar Princess and her attendant approaching.
“Princess Celestia! It’s so nice to see you!” Twilight greeted as she cantered over to the Princess and nuzzled against her foreleg, the Princess returning the embrace with one of her wings. “We came as soon as Spike handed me your scroll, but what threat is Shiny talking about? Has Tirek escaped from Tartarus? Or has Queen Chrysalis returned?”
“No, my dear friend. A new, previously entirely unknown threat is encroaching upon our nation. A threat that has already attacked…” Celestia, a grave expression upon her face, started to explain, only to be interrupted by an unnaturally loud growling noise.
…
“Sorry, I missed breakfast.” Sunburst blushed sheepishly.
“Not to worry. We can continue our explanation once we sit down for lunch with our resident expert.” Celestia led the group to her and Luna’s private dining room.
“Expert? What expert?” Twilight couldn’t help but ask as they finally reached the dining room door.
“The only pony who has any idea of the threat that we face and the only one who has actually fought them.” Celestia explained, the door creaking open.
“What exactly does this cube do?” Starlight asked as Moon Dancer read through Jane’s Fighting Ships and the eight pages focused on the Mikasa and USS Texas from Machines of War while Twilight and Sunburst raced around us, gathering books and tools around Twilight’s old tower home all the way back from episode one. Turns out Moon Dancer was a part of the group that was developing a ‘teleportation-based means’ of travel for me to make use of and she was using Twilight’s tower to help with research. She was more than happy to let Twilight run her experiments on the Wisdom Cubes in the tower and to help out Twilight with those experiments, especially when she found out that Twilight and co were dealing with alien technology and books.
It’s been two days since Celestia dropped the bombshell on me, that I would have to deliver a public speech to all of Canterlot alongside the princesses. Just because I like talking, or rather monologuing, did not mean I wanted to get into public speaking. Did the phrase ‘I am a coward!’ mean nothing here?
Apparently Celestia would be sending out their fastest fliers, i.e. the Wonderbolts, after lunch with her, her friends and me with all the information I had provided about the Morgan to be spread to all corners of Equestria with copies of Jane’s Fighting Ships delivered to the admirals with instructions to duplicate and distribute them amongst their forces. During lunch, Twilight had Celestia send a scroll to her dragon assistant/surrogate brother/son Spike stating that she would be staying in Canterlot for longer than she originally planned while Starlight would be returning briefly to bring over some books and equipment. Starlight would then explain the situation to their friends and that Spike would need to watch over the castle. Cadance, Shining Armor, and Sunburst would return to the Crystal Empire so that the former two could prepare for a possible evacuation of Equestria’s coastline to the Crystal Empire while Sunburst would be preparing for a long stay in Canterlot. Flash Magnus would have to stay after lunch to prepare the necessary paperwork for his position as captain of the Canterlot Guard.
I spent the rest of that day preparing for the speech with some help from Feather Duster and my fairies. I didn’t turn in for the night until after midnight and I spent most of it tossing and turning in bed, so if Luna wanted to have another chat in my dreams then she was out of luck. Celestia apparently worked fast since the speech was held shortly before lunch and what had to be all of Canterlot had gathered before the balcony on which the princesses and I would deliver the news of what was to come.
And honestly?
I got through it and put it behind me. I honestly would have said I tried to forget it, but that implied I had to consciously decide to do so. I was going to forget about it because I just found it so stressful.
Celestia spoke solemnly of those who would be soon assaulting the shores of Equestria. Of the dangers Morgana posed to their shores, and much to my surprise, even mentioned their ability to nullify pony magic. I thought the crowd would break out into a panic before Luna took over.
It was Luna who calmed down the crowd. She was the one to speak of how the Equestrian military was already preparing their shores for attacks, and how strategies were being formulated to combat their tactics. And then she introduced me as ‘a champion that had come to Equestria’s aid from shores far beyond’. That through my knowledge of their enemy, through my courage at being willing to stand against a foe for a nation not my own, and my unmatched strength, Equestria would endure, nay, defeat these foes
I honestly wanted to say that was all a crock of shit, but it was my turn to start talking. And so I did, despite the impulse to turn tail and run. At this point in time, only one day after the speech, I already forgot what I told them. The only thing I remembered was that I finished off that speech with the same, cocksure, oath from Manehattan.
After that the Princesses and I had lunch, and Twilight had shown up to say that cursory testing had been done on the cubes and they were, if not inert, then stable enough that one cube was transferred to the School of Magic and another was transferred to her old tower while one cube remained in the castle for safe keeping. Unfortunately for me, the princesses had let slip that I was in possession of books from another world, never before seen by Twilight. That led to a whole rabbit hole with Twilight demanding I give her the books and so I did. The rest of my day ended up being spent in a library being questioned by Twilight on the books. She read them at such a frightening speed and the questions were near endless that they started blending together. I barely managed to escape for dinner. After that, I ended up passing out for the night.
Which led me to today with breakfast with the princesses before Twilight teleported in and after the briefest of talks with Celestia teleported out with me in tow. I ended up collapsing to the floor, teleporting man. Two out of five, would not recommend. I had a few minutes to compose myself before Starlight asked me that question.
“Probably a lot of things I hadn’t thought possible considering it can manifest the thoughts, desires and ideas of humanity, but the main thing is creating kanmusu like myself and mass-produced or dummy ships and weapons and equipment.” I replied once I got my legs under myself.
“And it does all of that…how exactly?” Starlight asked as she neared the blue cube atop the circular table placed in the middle of the tower.
“I dunno know. I guess that since it’s essentially a cube of raw power it converts all that energy into matter. The thing is sufficiently advanced technology that is indistinguishable from magic as far as I’m concerned, and since it’s magic I’m unable to explain it.” I replied, also getting close to the cube.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Moon Dancer looked up at me, eyebrow raised, only for Twilight to speak up.
“Oh, Chesapeake comes from a world devoid of magic and her current appearance is due to the ambient magic of Equestria.” Twilight offhandedly mentioned while hovering by a bookcase with a book floating in front of her face.
“Her current appearance? You mean she isn’t a pony?” Moon Dancer was now looking at me intrigued.
“Right, before she came to this world she was a human. From my understanding, humans are great apes characterized by their hairlessness, bipedalism, and high intelligence.” Twilight answered.
“Huh.” Moon Dancer took a glance at the recreations of the photos depicting Mikasa’s pilot house. “Would explain the architecture, the doors look like they were designed for skinnier minotaurs or thin adolescent dragons.” She commented out loud.
“Ok, so if Wisdom Cubes can ‘manifest the thoughts, desires and ideas of humanity’ then does that mean only you can use them since you're human, or at least were human?” Starlight pointed out while switching her attention from the cube to me.
“Maybe.” I replied while admiring the shiny blue cube that was reminding me of energon from G1 Transformers. A highly efficient, clean energy source that is easy to generate and store. I was wondering if that crossover was canon, and/or I could actually meet Optimus Prime…not the live action one.
“Then why don’t we have you try to use the cube?” We all looked at Starlight. “What? We’re pretty much stumped at this point since we don’t know anything about the cubes in the first place. Might as well see if Chesapeake can get it to do something at least.”
“That’s reckless! Is she usually like this?” Moon Dancer cried out.
“True and yes, but she has a point.” Twilight glided down to the floor by me and Starlight. “We’ve made no progress in understanding the cubes while the Morgana are still out there. We simply don’t know where and when they’ll strike. If Chesapeake can use the cubes to recreate the weapons the Morgana uses, we can reverse engineer them and build ships powerful enough to assist her in defending Equestria.”
“So…you want me to use it?” I asked, to which Twilight nodded her head before summoning a shield around us and the cube before teleporting herself and Starlight out of the shield.
“There’s not much else we can do at this point. If anything goes wrong we can teleport you outside the shield and ensure that nothing else happens.” Twilight answered to which Sunburst joined in to strengthen the shield while Starlight prepared a teleportation spell.
…
Wait, did they just leave me in a shield with what’s potentially a bomb that could threaten northern Russia?
Concerned I looked back towards the innocuous looking cube and swallowed.
Well…I’ve had a good run, right?
As I felt my veins freeze over I slowly but surely touched the cube with my hoove. When nothing happened I held the cube in my hoof and thought about the ‘manifest the thoughts, desires and ideas of humanity’ shtick. I closed my eyes and tried to visualize my desires.
Battlecruiser turned fast battleship Kongo. Not the blonde saber wielding version from Azur Lane. The British-born returnee from Kancolle. A hyperactive and cheerful character nuttier than a box of peanuts who was wiser than her appearance and actions suggested, having participated in two world wars before being unceremoniously torpedoed by a submarine.
…
I opened up my eyes and looked around.
…
Nope, nothing, nada.
I closed my eyes and tried again.
Benson-class destroyer Laffey. A destroyer that raked Hiei’s superstructure with gunfire, badly wounding Admiral Abe and killing his chief of staff. Her close quarter, almost berserker like last stand earned her a Presidential Unit Citation post sinking.
I took a quick glance around.
Still nothing.
I sighed before focusing on my armament.
14-inch/50-caliber guns. Before I knew it the specifications of the gun came to my mind. Barrel length, caliber, elevation, rate of fire, effective and maximum firing range, it was all there. Suddenly I could see a white glow against my eyelids. A quick look revealed that the cube was glowing brighter.
Pop
Suddenly I was right by Starlight as she and everyone else stared at the cube worriedly.
“What did you do!?” I wasn’t sure whether it was Twilight or Starlight asking me as I couldn’t wrench my eyes away from the cube.
“I don’t know! I just thought about my guns.” I replied as the glow got brighter and brighter until it blinded us.
When the cube blinded us we heard two sounds. Shattering glass and the heavy boom of metal hitting the floor.
In an instant the glow was gone and when we were able to look our mouths dropped to the floor.
Sitting right in front of us, in the middle of the room, was a massive turret that housed a pair of guns.
“What is that thing!?” Twilight yelled out as she and Sunburst staggered about from having their shields destroyed by the hunk of metal.
“Oh, that’s my gun turret.” I replied nonchalantly as I began circling the turret. I mean, damn. Pictures of Texas’s turrets do not do it justice, even if they were shorter caliber guns than the ones I mounted. Pretty impressive.
“That’s your gun turret!” Moon Dancer was looking between me and the gun turret. “I’ve seen the photographs of your rigging and there’s a big difference between the two!”
“Hm.” I thought about it before summoning my own rigging in a flash of light. Oh goody, I still have all of my guns.
“Hey!”
And I’m missing forty eight 14-inch shells apparently, which might explain why I’m feeling a tad bit peckish.
“It looks like I just made a pair of 14-inch/50-caliber guns in a twin turret and all it cost was a Wisdom Cube and forty eight rounds of munitions. Does anyone wanna order a sandwich?”
“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.
Chapter 16: Back to Manehattan
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.
Chapter 17: Sink the panzerschiffe
“Ship’s log number 3, Trottingham evacuation operation day 3…bleh.” I glanced around the homogeneously blue seas from my place by the railing. The northern Celestial Sea waves were calm, but not glassy-smooth, the skies overhead was a picturesque blue dotted with fluffy white clouds. If a plane were out on patrol there was absolutely no way of hiding from it and a chance of not noticing it.
[Bleh? Is that your official report?] Asked my deputy-captain.
I took a second, glancing down the line of merchant ships behind Clearwave.
“Yeah, considering we’ve seen absolutely nothing since leaving Manehattan.” I replied bored.
As soon as I, Twilight, Summer Rain, Balance Account, and Snowy Mountains finished our little pow-wow preparations to set sail was shortly completed and we headed out to sea. If it was just the merchant ships sailing an average of 15 knots then we would have gotten to Trottingham in about a week. Factor in a day or two for the evacuation and another week of sailing and we’d be done in a fortnight and a day or two. Unfortunately Clearwave could only do 13 knots under wind and 14 knots under steam but for only for a short amount of time before her engines literally shook themselves apart and, to add salt to the wound, she couldn’t even store enough coal to make the journey solely on steampower. So, at an average of 10 knots the trip would take 12 days to get to Trottingham, maybe a week for the evacuation and another 12 days to return to Manehattan we’d be gone for about a month.
“Who were you talking to?” Snowstorm asked from behind me.
If I were an extravert I’d at least have the crew of the Clearwave to talk to. Twilight was on Snowy Mountains, the ship, to inter…quest…talk with Snowy Mountains, the spirit, to find out how she manifested and see if she could manifest other ships. Unfortunately I was an introvert and having Snowstorm and Orange Drop hovering over me was honestly starting to grate on my nerves. I liked my privacy.
“I’m talking to my fairies.” I answered bored.
“Your fairies?” Orange Drop raised his eyebrow.
“Yeah, they're my crew. They man my guns and torpedo tubes and make sure everythings working.” I held out my hoof and manifested a fairy before them.
“Hey!”
“I think I saw her when we were preparing to fight in Manehattan, but I didn't actually get a good look at her.” Snowstorm poked at the fairy I was holding out.
“Hey!” She swatted away Snowstorm’s hoof and glared petulantly at her before disappearing back into my hull.
“Do the princesses know of them?” Orange Drop asked with a look of disbelief on his face.
“Maybe? I’m not trying to hide them from the princesses, but after Twilight’s interrogation, I mean interrogation, I have no idea what I told them.” I tried to word it better, but I ended up being honest in my view of Twilight’s little questioning session. So many questions.
Whatever the two were going to say was lost on me when a fairy of mine, probably a lookout, started rattling off numbers, directions and a name.
[60 degrees to starboard, distance 30,000 meters the ship approaching is Admiral Spee!]
“Admiral Spee?” I looked out at the direction and saw a black dot that, after seeing through my lookout's eyes, turned into a ship with a triple turret forward of its bridge that was turning to starboard to show its broadsides to us, its turrets probably aiming in our direction.
“Who’s Admiral Spee?” The two ponies were now looking over the railing, squinting off in the distance.
“Hey!” A fairy of mine manifested on the railing, holding a pair of binoculars for the two.
[It’s approaching us at a speed of 20 knots.] Spoke a cowardly voice, whom I’d later learn was my Chief Navigator/Navigation Officer.
“A German admiral that got a cruiser named after him.” I commented offhandedly as I could now see its forward turret was indeed aimed in our direction.
“A cruiser? Is it a Morgana ship?” Snowstorm asked while looking through the newly enlarged binoculars.
As if to answer her question the cruiser fired off its forward turret. At 30 kilometers it would take seconds to hit us.
“It fired its guns! It can hit us from 30,000 meters!?” Orange Drop shouted out loud, apparently attracting everyone’s attention.
“What’s going on?” Summer Rain called out as the noise from the crew was quickly silenced.
“We’ve just been shot at by a Morgana ship 30,000 meters on our starboard!” Snowstorm shot back, rushing over to her to hand over the binoculars.
“Turn 180 degrees, full rudder! Full speed!” Summer Rain ordered immediately as soon as she saw the cruiser through her newly purloined binoculars.
SPLASH!
Clearwave only just started her turn as the first shells impacted the water off her portside, the shells going wide.
Taking that as my invitation, I jumped off Clearwave’s side, summoned my rigging before landing on the water and launched greetings from my primaries.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
[Spee has begun accelerating.] That same lookout reported.
It’s pursuing us, and it was more than capable of gunning down Clearwave and the merchants.
I could see my salvo bracket Spee just as it returned fire.
[Spee: standard water displacement 12,000 tons. Maximum speed 28.5 knots. 28 cm main armaments. Six cannons. Eight 15 cm secondary armaments. Eight torpedo tubes. 160 mm thick hull. The maximum range of its main armament is about 36,000 meters with a 300 kilo shell and possible firing rate of 2.5 rounds a minute.] My recording officer/secretary rattled off just as another salvo landed around me.
That was an issue. Sure I had the larger guns and more of them, but once again I was facing an opponent that had a higher rate of fire than me, and this time? It could actually penetrate my main belt. Between the two of us I still had the high ground. Greater firepower and armor protection coupled with a higher design speed.
The only other issue being that I had to protect the ships that were now behind me. I swear there had to be some ancient Chinese or martial arts proverb. Something about having to fight two people at once, except I couldn’t just shoot the other guy.
Best thing I could do right now is charge the pocket battleship and let my secondaries rain hellfire on it before its main guns hit something important.
SPLASH!
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Another salvo landed around me and I shortly returned fire. I’m beginning to suspect that I’ve so far been lucky that none of the ships I’ve fought against had radar guided guns yet. Hopefully I could finish this before the torpedoes came out.
[Princess Twilight is approaching the Graf Spee!]
It took me a second to process the lookout’s words before I felt a deep chill run through my body. What was she doing!? Suddenly Twilight’s voice boomed from her place above no man’s land.
“Attention approaching vessel. This is Princess Twilight Sparkle, thereby ordering you to cease fire and to identify yourself. Continuing on your present course will result in your sinking.” She declared as I and Graf Spee continued our course.
My primary guns reloaded and my secondary guns were finally in range, but Graf Spee hadn’t fired back yet. Curious, I held my fire and took a closer look at Graf Spee. Suddenly four things happened.
First, one of Graf Spee’s 8.8 cm/3.5 inch guns rotated and elevated before firing.
Second, Twilight was obscured by a flash of light before being surrounded by a cloud of smoke.
Third, Twilight dropping to the sea like a sack of potatoes.
Fourth, an unnatural silence as I processed what just happened.
[Princess Twilight fell into the sea!]
It stopped to fire at Twilight. It fired at Twilight. Twilight Sparkle, a mare who not only prophesied the return of Nightmare Moon and saved the world from eternal darkness but also saved Celestia’s sister Luna. Twilight Sparkle, a mare who, through the power of friendship, not only sealed away a god of chaos but turned him to the side of good. It stopped firing at her just so it could take a shot at Twilight. It wasn't even some freak accident. That gun was deliberately fired at Twilight.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
BANG! BANG!
SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH!
Shells were raining down on me and I began chasing the splashes. Big guns like that aim to bracket their targets. I’d run for the one place it wasn’t aiming at.
I blinked, just as I flicked my stern barely dodging an incoming shell.
Run? Why was I running? I displaced more than Graf Spee, had larger and more main guns than Graf Spee, thicker armor and a higher design speed. I should have crippled Graf Spee before we got into secondary range. I should have sunk her by now. I should have…
I slowed down to 25 knots and took aim at Graf Spee. At that speed I shouldn’t be suffering from vibrations that would throw off my aim. At 23 km I shouldn’t even miss as shells continued to land around me. I should have finished her before...
My eight 14-inch/50-caliber guns thundered as one, hurling armor-piercing shells at the pocket battleship. The Morgana tried a last-minute turn to dodge the shells racing through the air. My shells crashed home, slamming through the Morgana’s armor and feedwater tanks like they weren't even there, their armor-piercing caps keeping them dead straight as they punched though inches of armor steel like it was so much soggy tissue paper. One round found its mark in the rear magazine, touching off an explosion that lifted the entire aft section of the pocket battleship out of the water with an eruption of burning decking and twisted metal shrapnel.
A millisecond later, another of my 14 inch shells exploded inside the front-most magazine, tearing everything forward of the pocket battleship's monolithic tower mast clean off. Yet another shell connected with the stern-mounted secondary magazines. The pocket battleship's hull plates blew out like some seagoing giant had simply stepped on it. All that remained was a slick of burning oil and a few chunks of debris smaller than my hoove.
I stared at the fires before turning to where the allied ships were and spotted Snowstorm and Orange Drop hovering above a patch of sea.
“P-Princess Twilight…I…” Snowstorm tried to say, but trailed off as Orange Drop began picking something up from the water.
“She's still alive."
I let out a soundless gasp. I thought…
“We'll get her stabilized." Snowstorm said, her voice straining in hope as she helped Orange Drop lift Twilight out of the water.
The two took Twilight back to Clearwave as I followed slowly behind.
True to their word, they managed to stabilize Twilight shortly after we boarded Clearwave. Unfortunately, Twilight was still unconscious and would probably need a stay at Trottingham’s hospital if she remained unconscious. As such, we needed to get to Trottingham immediately.
I volunteered to tow Clearwave at 15 knots while the merchants matched my speed. At our new rate of travel we would reach Trottingham in a week, putting our journey at ten days. Snowstorm offered to keep me company during the day, but I refused under the grounds that if another Morgana attacked then she might get caught up in its mists or under cannon fire. Besides, I decided to take the time to study the ships in my books and she would only serve to distract me.
I could not let that happen again. The Duetschland class cruisers may be about twenty years my juniors, but I still outclassed it by leaps and bounds. I…I need that refit. I will never stop bitching about it until after I get that refit. Could I be refitted? I had to say yes for their/my sake.
Omake 1: 1000th views, 1 interview
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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.
Chapter 19: Rumble in Bronclyn
It's a sound I'm familiar with. The sound of gunfire, the rapid pop of three inch guns and thunder of capital grade naval rifles.
From what I can make out, the sortieing ships got jumped the moment they left harbor. An eerie calm engulfed the harbor.
In the distance, flashes of orange flame. Smoke begins to rise high into the air.
I found myself aboard my forward tripod mast, alone and with an unobstructed view of everything forward of my hull.
Lightning, a sickly shade of blue, splits the air.
The shelling has reached the base now. Flashes of gunfire illuminate jet black shapes coming up the river.
The fur on my hoofs stand on end.
Fur? Hoofs?
A thought comes unbidden to my mind.
I recognize this place.
It’s Brooklyn.
Brooklyn, the borough, is burning.
The people I was meant to protect were dying.
My radio remains silent.
I can't reach anyone.
Tears begin to stream down my cheeks.
There's nothing I can do. Despite my crew being missing I could feel my guns operating in mutiny of my, now, frantic and desperate attempts to stop them.
“Think of what they did to you!”
A voice comes in through the radio. Each syllable is grotesque, like nails on a chalkboard.
Visions flash through my mind.
The fleet at anchor, fire and smoke everywhere.
Bombs falling from the sky, torpedoes in the water.
Agonizing pain, then nothing.
My corpse was salvaged for material.
My remains a memorial to failure.
Politicians sermonizing in front of my grave.
“You were wronged. You were made to suffer. You can end the suffering!”
I found I'd collapsed to the deck. On shaky hooves, I regain my footing, only to watch as one of the black ships falls in behind me. It's… wrong. Almost indescribably so. The surfaces have an almost obsidian-like sheen. Thick, oily smoke pours from her funnel. Blue light glows from behind her portholes.
No.
“You can do what you were built to do, fulfill your purpose!”
The… cruiser, I think, trains her guns to port. The almost-innumerable barrels, along with her two, tall masts and three funnels give the impression of a porcupine. Unbidden, a memory comes to mind. A memory of a city of the former Ottoman empire and the two other ships that were sent to enforce the interests of Italy and Greece. An Italian battleship and Greek armored cruiser.
Then, her bow gun fires. I watch helplessly as the shell bores into the upper floor of a downtown apartment building, debris cascading down into the streets.
No!
“All you have to do is give in to despair. Close your eyes. Rest.”
There's a scratching at the back of my head.
“NO!” I call out instinctually.
“You can talk?”
“What you’re doing is murder!”
“It’s necessary.”
“I’ll… I’ll stop you!”
“You are welcome to try.”
I can almost hear the smug sneer over the radio.
I sharply inhale, before deflating.
What can I do?
…
Unless…
“My purpose… is to defend.” I say, slowly becoming more confident.
“Oh?”
“I will defend the people I was built to protect. Though I have a question for you. Who are you? I have met Georgios Averof and you are not Georgios Averof or her sisters in the Regia Marina.”
“I have nothing more to say to you.”
I begin to concentrate on the scratching at the back of my head.
The cruiser's guns turn towards me.
I begin to feel, more than hear a humming. It builds to a crescendo.
The cruiser fires.
There's a glow in the corners of my vision.
The shell strikes.
BONG!
My whole hull vibrates like a bell.
Everything goes white.
The light fades.
With a gasp, I wake up.
My muzzle was pressed into the water.
Legs shaking, I climb to my hooves as if I were standing on my deck despite the rolling waves.
I’m alive? And a pony? But I’m not just a pony. I can feel myself as I used to be too, as a ship. Not like I’d been feeling while trapped in that prison. I feel as good as the day after I was modernized.
I whip around, only to find a pair of gun turrets, my number 3 and 4 gun turrets, suspended by some sort of robotic… arm… thing. It's attached to some kind of saddlebag-esqe device that appears similar to my own superstructure, and seems to be affixed to my sides and back. From its sides bristle a veritable forest of five-inch barrels, and from its back extend a pair of metal plates which bend around my hips, producing a reasonable facsimile of my prow.
Looking around, I quickly identify the fake Georgios Averof located not thousands but hundreds of yards away, guns aimed towards the borough.
I let out a breath I didn't even realize I was holding.
The borough is on fire.
My friends, my sister , are not with me.
The water below my stern starts to boil as my screws begin cavitating.
I am the thirty-ninth battleship of the United States. Second of the Pennsylvania class, and third of my name, I am Arizona.
I begin to move forward.
I will defend the borough.
I will defend my home .
I will find my friends and sister.
I will do my duty .
"Fire!" I command.
Time seems to slow as, for the first time, USS Arizona fired her guns in anger.
A gout of fire jets from the muzzle of the central barrel. Exactly 200 milliseconds later, the left gun responds, and after 200 more, so does the right.
The enemy cruiser doesn't even have the time to process what's happening to it.
Twelve fourteen-inch armor piercing shells strike her on the waterline.
Twelve fourteen-inch armor piercing shells tear into her internals.
Twelve fourteen-inch armor piercing shells burst, sending hot splinters scything across her engineering spaces.
Three puffs of white steam escape her funnels.
The gun breeches drop down to their loading angles, steam rising from the soaked deck where it was heated by the fireballs.
"All secondary mounts, weapons free! Target that cruiser, fire as you bear!"
A veritable avalanche of shells come crashing down on the enemy ship. Within half a minute, the enemy cruiser is already visibly down by the bow.
My main guns thunder again.
The cruiser is afire, its guns silent, and visibly listing.
Also, I've reached the channel.
I don't know what I'll find on the other side, but I won’t back down.
After all, I'm a battleship. And so far, I haven’t seen hide nor hair of any aircraft.
All I have to do is keep moving forward.
It's as I proceed past the entrance that the voice of a port-side lookout rings in my ear.
"Ma'am, enemy ship spotted! Bearing 265, less than three thousand yards! Scout cruiser!"
"What?" Turning my head in that direction I saw that my lookout was not mistaken in the slightest. From a marina, hidden from view behind a storehouse, a single four-stack cruiser is charging out.
“Searchlights, Illuminate that target! All mounts, sink that cruiser!"
With a meaty thunk, both of my port-side searchlights snap to life. The luminous beams fall on the chitinous flanks of the cruiser, the light playing on the semi-reflective surface.
Before I can even react further, my side rings as the cruiser’s shells bounce off my belt. A few seconds later my port-side secondaries join in. A funnel of violence forms between our hulls as a significant portion of the air between us is replaced with hot steel.
In short order, the cruiser is a burning hulk, not requiring further attention.
"Conn, lookout: Torpedo in the water!"
Of course she had torpedoes.
Okay. I was still accelerating, so hopefully they'll pass aft.
Though, I can't be sure.
"All hands, torpedo incoming, brace for shock!" I spit.
A few long seconds pass. I scan the water.
Did we dodge?
Clang.
THOOM!
A great pillar of water shoots up, about a third of the way between turret 4 and my stern.
I cry out, pain shooting up the outside of my left thigh.
The warhead struck just above my shaft.
I don't… think I feel any flooding?
I turn my gaze inward. By some miracle, the seals on my port outboard shaft held, and the only lingering damage I can feel is the now-exposed void spaces rapidly flooding, and two fuel oil bunkers slowly leaking.
Okay, okay. We're still in this fight.
There's a twinge in the back of my mind as my spotters spot a new contact, approaching slowly, from the south. I task my anti-aircraft directors with tracking the unknown flying contact.
It’s… a pony. A flying pony in gold armor.
…
I chuckle.
“I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.”
Well, regardless of where I am, I’m not going to let innocent people, or ponies, be slaughtered for no reason.
I’ll admit that it's been a while since I've been in Brooklyn Navy Yard but it’s still eerie how much this place lines up with where I was built. That’s not even mentioning the dozen-or-so ships sunk at their moorings.
A pair of wooden sailing ships were moored together at a single pier. The first was bottomed out, her casemated guns almost level with the churning waters around. The second, meanwhile, had thick plumes of black smoke pouring from her hull, and enough of a list that I could see her deck.
Then there was a pair of ocean liners whose hulls look like plastic models that had a run-in with a tumble drier.
I… I just can’t look any longer.
And It's probably for the best that I don't as yet another of the black ships comes charging in, moving extremely quickly.
Unlike the others, though, this one is a different beast. Low, sleek lines betray her speed. A twin turret forward, two were en echelon amidships and either another twin turret aft or a superfiring pair. Twin stout funnels spit black smoke between twin spotting tops held aloft by twin pole masts.
A battlecruiser.
"Spot 1, start a plot on that ship!" I immediately called out. "All guns, match pointers, and engage!"
Before my own guns make it on target, though, my enemy's thunder.
Water sprays up all around me.
A pang of pain, an impact on my belt.
“You! Why have you joined them!?”
For a few moments, I considered replying.
Just as I move to key the microphone, though, I think better of it. After all, I have a better idea.
Bzzt Bzzt Bzzt-KATHOOM!
My salvo alarm buzzes, before my guns speak.
I'd learned long ago that, when I talk, it's easy to ignore me.
But when my fourteen-inch-forty-five-caliber rifles talk? People listen.
In just a heartbeat or two, the twelve shells cover the four thousand yards between me and my enemy, impacting with a yellow flash and a spray of water.
“Just think about how the humans are using you.”
No, no. Don't reply. Don't give her anything.
A couple of the still-moored warships begin engaging… with their old short barreled cannons. Their rounds doing nothing but bouncing off the battlecruiser’s belt or bursting off her superstructure.
Eight more shots crash in. Two land short, bumping harmlessly against my shell plating after expending all their energy in the water. A third deflects against the face armor of turret 1. A spray of spall inside does wound several sailors on the right-hand gun, but none severely. The final shell, though, bursts through one of my casemated five inch guns, detonating the ready locker for the gun, and igniting a fire on my deck. As the smoke clears, I feel a pit form in my stomach as a warm wetness begins to form inside.
The gun crew had been cut down, almost to a man.
Red forms in the corners of my vision.
“You!” I snarl at the offending vessel.
“If you don’t join us now you're going to die!”
“You killed my crew.” I spit, venom dripping from my words. “I won’t forgive you!”
There's a flash of red which seems to illuminate the water around me.
The Bitch is rattling off some other nonsense now, but, well…
Didn't ask, don't care.
My guns thunder, and I note there's a fairly significant fire burning amidships.
Before I can give the matter any more thought, though, I'm ripped from my reverie by a massive explosion blooming from the enemy capital ship. Chunks of rent metal and debris begins splashing into the water all around, as a great jet of fire is shot up high into the air, above any building.
On shore, I see faint orange glinting as glass falls, reflecting the fires.
Huh, must have set off her magazine.
As she slips beneath the waves, it's like a fog is lifted from my mind.
Chapter 20: Rumble in Bronclyn aftermath
Just as the first golden rays of dawn begin to bloom out to sea, I behold the devastation which occurred on the waters here.
Atop the light chop, bob innumerable shards of debris. Wood, cork, foam. Whatever pieces of a ship, when shredded down to pieces no more than a foot in any dimension which might still float can be seen here. And the bodies… There were so many bodies.
I shake my head, attempting to rid myself of that vision. Off in the distance, in open waters, was a single steam corvette, battered, broken, but still nevertheless alive floats motionless in the water. Another of those damnable enemy ships circle her, pumping half-hearted tertiary shot after half-hearted shot into her.
Looked like an Andrea Doria class battleship, before the reconstruction.
“Leave her alone!”
The battleship lethargically turned its guns to bear on me.
My own, though, are faster. I fire, all twelve shells of my salvo striking true upon her flank.
After two more salvos the final battleship, who offered a few sporadic return shots which didn't do much damage at all, was quickly consigned to Davy Jones's locker.
The action didn't last for more than a couple minutes. If its design was adopted from the Andrea Doria or the earlier Conte di Cavour class battleships, and the information in Brassey's Naval Annual was right, then its armor belt wouldn’t have been able to withstand hits from my fourteen inch guns.
On the horizon to the northeast, there's a formation of about a dozen ships. Looks like transports, and a few light escorts. They're retreating, but I could probably run down the transports…
No.
I'm needed here. There's people, ponies, in the water, and I don't think they'd survive long enough for me to go gallivanting off, and… whatever those ships had planned isn't happening anymore. That's the important part.
Nobody else needs to die today.
I cut my engines and went about throwing every life preserver I can at the ponies in the water. I can't help but notice that in the process each one seemed to grow until they were normal sized. As I go about rigging up my life boats, I look over to the battered hull of the only other vessel floating within eyeshot.
“Captain Stark Contrast, can you tell me just where in Tartarus our torpedo boats are?”
“Admiral Water Drops, our torpedo boats had just returned after an extensive training session southeast of Manehattan just before sunset. They were not in a position to detect or engage the enemy fleet, especially at night.” Stark Contrast tone was measured, though with a boiling rage just below the surface. “They’re taking on coal as of this moment and the order to raise steam has been given. They simply don’t have the endurance needed for both training and patrol duties. We need those cruisers.”
“And they won’t be ready until the steel plates have been delivered in two months and the decision is made on whether or not the new cruisers will be using steam turbines that need to be precisely machined or cheaper and easier to build triple expansion engines that the merchant fleet have been, apparently, using for decades.”
Silence gripped the room. Not only because none of the captains wished to back-talk the Admiral, but because she was right. It wasn’t fully realized that the time to produce each armour plate, from the casting of the ingot to the completion of the plate ready for fitting onto the ships, was three months, irrespective of size, and very many plates, totalling over 6000 tons of armour, were required for the new ships. Furthermore, steam turbine engines required very precise manufacturing techniques to machine their complicated reduction gears, and the companies capable of producing them were unprepared for the numbers that the Equestrian navy required. Therefore, a triple expansion steam engine was in competition to power the new ships because it was cheaper and easier to build in the numbers required for the navy, and because more companies could manufacture it.
Before Water Drops could continue a staffer burst into the room. "Ma’am." The young stallion forced out in between pants. "News from Bronclyn."
All present share a worried look, any offense taken at the intrusion gone. The attack on Bronclyn was, by all accounts, still ongoing.
“What is it?” Admiral Water Drops spoke for everyone.
“The enemy… has been repelled.” The staffer, still breathing heavily, snatched a piece of paper from his uniform pocket, brandishing it like a sword. “A royal guard reported sighting a shipmare engaging the enemy ships.”
Water Drops quickly took the sheet and read it. Dashes and dots followed by a translation. Obviously the message had been sent via the newly developed electrical telegraph system that had recently been developed in Manehattan. She ignored the intrusive thought to request that more of the sets and telephones be acquired for the navy along with seeing about making them wireless for shipboard operation. The princesses made sure to increase naval spending over the hemming and hawing of Canterlot’s elite.
“Captain Stark Contrast. Find her.”
“Yes Ma’am.”
“So, what you’re telling me, is that you are the reincarnation of a United States Navy battleship. That is what you’re asking me to believe?”
"Got it in one, sir.”
“So, let's say you’re who you say you are. What do you want me to do about it?”
"I intend to tow your ship to the shipyard. That way, if those… things-" Despite my best efforts, I spit that last word out with enough venom to kill a cow. "-elect to come back, you need not worry about your command being shot out from under you."
"That sounds… acceptable." The Captain, a grizzled old bearded stallion by the name of Sea Salt, reported seemingly after some deliberation. "I'll send a pegasus to inform you when we're ready to accept the tow.
It took five minutes for Sea Salt’s men to rig up a tow and only a minute of deliberation to decide to wrap the line around my neck. Considering the state of the burough I decided to forego setting up a proper tow in favor of bringing Sea Salt’s ship, Highwind, to the drydock. It also didn’t help that I didn’t have any escorts to patrol for enemy submarines, if the enemy even had any in operation.
It wasn’t too much longer before we were entering the channel. Casting my eyes over to the shipyard, I saw, to my great satisfaction, a pair of ambulances on the pierside, lights flashing. In addition, there was about a dozen ponies milling around, though I can't exactly make out uniforms from this distance.
Luckily for my own sanity, there's a small crew waiting by the quayside, and so I drop the tow, allowing Highwind to coast to a stop, now safely within the breakwater, and ready to accept the mooring lines as Sea Salt’s crew throws them down, one by one.
Within a second of Highwind coming to a stop, the gangplank touches concrete, and the survivors begin filing down. Most walk on their own, while some require a shipmate under… foreleg.
I found one of the ladders present to facilitate ascent in case of a fall into the harbor or maintenance work under a hull and climbed up in a way that was distinctly human despite my lack of hands.
Down on the dock, two men wearing uniforms bearing HM3 insignia begin directing each patient to different areas.
"Ma'am." One of the corpsmen acknowledges me with a nod. "Is this everyone?"
I nod. "Yes, sir." I say, as an injured sailor was taken.
"They're doing pretty good, considering." He observes. "A couple fractures, lacerations."
“They're who I managed to pick out of the water." I look back to the now-dispersed group, as the few medics present begin to treat the worst-wounded. "I think the guys who got hurt worse… didn't make it that far."
"Ah." The corpsman says, realization crossing his eyes as a grimace creases his lips. "It's just- I was downtown when the shooting started, and it was… bad. I guess I was hoping for something to go right."
"Downtown got hit? How bad?" I ask, suddenly much more interested.
"There weren't many ponies out because of how early it was, but there's a bunch of collapsed buildings. Last I heard, ponies were getting pulled out, and there's a Royal Guard team coming down from Neighark."
Shit.
"I… think I need to go help." I say, confidence growing as the sentence continues.
I spin on my heel, just barely catching the corpsman looking towards me and staring slack-jawed at my guns.
"Petty officer." I annunciate, grabbing all the attention back for myself.
"Y-Yes, ma'am." The corpsman stutters, midway through regaining his senses.
"Will you require any further assistance from me?" I ask.
"N- no, ma'am." He stated, eyes locked straight forward.
"In that case, I will be taking my leave. Thank you for all your help, corpsman." I state, before turning on my heel, and walking the three steps to the water, and then over the side of the quay.
I found myself on the water, waves lapping upon my heels.
With a thought, I find my turbines revving, any myself steaming out from the dock.
Alone again, I finally find myself with a chance to figure out just what happened.
I was… I was trapped aboard my own hull as it fired on the city, talked with an ersatz Georgios Averof that shot me, and woke up as a pony with a facsimile of my guns and hull. Then I fired back against that cruiser, a scout cruiser that might have been British in design and an early German battlecruiser. I fought against an Italian battleship and brought in a ship crewed by talking ponies.
An otherwise fantastical dream, save for one crucial detail.
The screams of aircraft, the howl falling ordinance, and the tortured ends of my crew.
"Hey hey hey, hey?"
"Gah!" I exclaim, the new sound coming from within inches of my ear.
I whip around, looking for the source of the sound, until my eyes lock with a pair of small, beady, purple ones belonging to some sort of creature, standing on my shoulder.
"Bwah?" I burst, even louder than last time. I recoiled so hard I almost lost my footing.
The figure on my left shoulder is forced to take my collar by the fistful to prevent from falling to the water below.
"Hey hey hey heyhey?" The… creature snarls, summoning whatever vitriol it can, despite it's… proportions.
I take the advantage to look the newcomer up and down. It's... no. She is, perhaps, four inches tall, though about a quarter of that amount is due to her massive head. As for clothing, she's clad in a khaki flight-suit, with a large flying helmet, and goggles perched atop her large head.
Unbidden, a name comes to the forefront of my mind. I mean, I am a ship, after all. Whatever sparkly magic that's going on, I do still need a crew at the end of the day, right? At least, I assume so, right?
"Umm, sorry, Lieutenant. You, uhh, kind of surprised me, is all."
The creature, she, I suppose, harrumphed, continuing to give me a nasty look.
"You, uhh, wanted to tell me something?" I ask.
This seems to snap her from her reverie.
“Yeah! I wanted to tell you that the Kingfishers were ready to launch, and ask if you wanted a scout in the air!”
A scout, huh? Ignoring that I got all that despite hearing nothing but ‘Hey’, that's… not the worst idea I've ever heard of. An eye in the sky could pinpoint areas of significant damage, and maybe spot the enemy, if it tried another swing.
"I say, do it, Lieutenant. Do you know how long until you sortie?"
"About fifteen minutes, ma’am."
"I can work with that."
As I pass the remains of the cruiser that decided it was a good place to ambush me, I'm informed that the scout is finally ready to launch.
I'm alerted to a buzzing noise, the floatplane sitting on the catapult on the quarterdeck, its engine rumbling.
There's a resounding ‘Bang’, and a great deal of smoke begins wafting around.
I flinch.
...Oh yeah, I forgot my catapults were powered by a black powder charge. It's been a minute since I've done that.
The plane, for its part, starts a rather steep left turn to keep over the water, before beginning the process of laboriously clawing for altitude.
Though, I can't help but notice that in the process, it seems to… grow? I guess? Until it was normal-sized.
You know, what? I've seen and experienced so much weird stuff over the past hour or so, I'm not even going to question it. I just tack it on the end of the rapidly-growing "List of Things I Need To Figure Out Later".
Chapter 21: One battleship for delivery
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. Omake 1.5: Pinkie breaks the wall
Author's Note
Fashionably Late, and in honor of the 1.5k views when I was working on the omake! 1.6k views is good, but now the title is ruined. The thing was I began this omake after hitting another wall with the latest chapter. Ironically I got through the problematic issue of why Arizona would be fighting for Equestria, but then I have no idea where to go and I’m back at square one with the trip back to Manehattan or the train scene with Rarity and Applejack. So enjoy this omake which goes into that a bit.
Omake 1.5: Pinkie breaks the wall
“Where’s our screentime!?”
“Gah!”
I fell backward, toppling my chair as a pink figure leapt out of the computer screen.
“Princess Bubblegum?”
“No silly! She’s from another fandom! I’m Pinkie Pie!” The pink skinned girl tumbled out of my computer screen and flopped over my desk.
“Well what are you doing here? ...also why are you human?” I asked as I realized she was laying on her back while wearing a pink frilly short skirt and- avert your gaze eunuch!
“Duh. I just asked about me and my friends’ screen time and this is a bonus chapter.” She sat up and began kicking her legs playfully.
I sighed and looked back towards Pinkie and blue and white were peeking- focus!
“Rarity and Applejack are supposed to get a scene in a train bound for Manehattan while Fluttershy stays in Ponyville.” I admitted whilst trying to focus on her face.
“And what about me?”
“Can you sense when people enter Equestria from other worlds?” I raised an eyebrow at the pouting Pinkie Pie.
“Only if you want me to.”
“Fine.” I flatly responded to what would otherwise be a saucy statement if it weren’t for the innocently hopeful smile and the squeaky toy effect.
“Yay! Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!”
The next thing I knew I was being crushed in Pinkie’s arms as she hopped up and down and I could feel something soft and warm pressed against me. What’s going on?
“You’re being hugged, Fashi.”
“Fashi?”
Somehow I managed to break out of Pinkie’s crushing embrace, or she decided to let go, and catch my breath as I looked at her weirdly.
“Yeah, silly Billy. It’s your nickname.” She said as if it explained everything.
“Could you not give me a nickname that sounds like fascism?” I asked as I set my chair back up and took a look at my monitor.
Erg, I think I’ll continue writing later after my neck wasn’t aching. Probably should get lunch then.
“How about Latey?” Pinkie asked as I made my way past her and out the door.
“Sure.” I glanced down the hallway and back towards her.
I’m surprised the animals hadn’t made their appearance yet.
“So why are Applejack, Rarity and I on a train to Manehattan?” She asked as we walked down the hallway towards the kitchen.
“Applejack is going to check on her family in Manehattan, Rarity to check on her shop and you are going to hold a ‘Welcome to Equestria’ party for Arizona and/or Chesapeake.”
“So when’s the next chapter coming out then?”
“Who knows? I’ve currently hit a dead end, again.” I sighed at the thought as we entered the kitchen. The last time that happened…
“You introduced Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and me so you could recap the last few chapters and do a Gilligan cut to Chesapeake laughing like crazy and quoting David Beatty.” I stopped to look at Pinkie as she finished my train of thought.
Just remember the mantra. It’s Pinkie Pie, don’t question it. It’s Pinkie Pie, don’t question it.
“Eeyup.” I answered, throwing open the refrigerator door and taking a look inside. Oh! Rice pudding! “It’s probably going to end up as another Gilligan cut with the convoy being attacked by something.” I reached for the pudding only to pause as a hand rested, firmly, on my shoulder.
I turned my head only to see a wide-eyed Pinkie Pie smiling at me.
“You’re not going to shoot Twilight again, are you?”
“No! Of course not!” I said a tad bit too quickly at the last thing I’d ever see!
“Okie dokie!” Pinkie leaned back with a genuine smile on her face.
Oh thank god. I thought I was going to die there.
“So what’s going to happen then?”
“I was thinking of having a submarine encounter to justify the new destroyers, maybe have one of the big-gun submarines shoot Chesapeak. Surcouf is obvious choice, but I like the British M class for having the 12-inch gun instead of the 8-inch guns on Surcouf.” I blurt out before quickly turning back to grab the rice pudding.
“Submarines?” I managed to grab the pack of pudding just as Pinkie Pie asked.
“That’s… idea one.” I say as I turn to see her holding a bowl of… is that pears conde with chocolate sauce?
“Then what’s idea two?” She asks as she takes a spoonful of vanilla icecream and chocolate covered pears.
“Surface raiders. Either the Scharnhorst class or Bismarck and Prinz Eugen. Either way, Chesapeake is… in for a bad time.” I say as she takes a bite of the dessert and shivers in… delight. “Idea three is to have torpedo boats, destroyers and World War One German bombers attack the convoy like in Belated Battleships.” I finish as I place the pack on the counter and fish out a spoon and one of the pudding cups.
“So which is it?”
“I don’t know.” I say as I remove the lid from the cup and quickly gobble a spoonful of pudding. “It’s either option one, I mean two, with the German ships blowing up Chesapeake and more papership ships showing up and saving the day or just the German bombers and maybe Rainbow Dash rams into one and disrupts the others with a Sonic Rainboom.”
“Why’s Rainbow there?” I turn back to… find Pinkie Pie covered in chocolate sauce… What?
“I don’t expect the girls’ AA guns to be enough to fend off a formation of bombers, even with Twilight’s magic beams. So having Rainbow Dash do a Rainboom to ram the leading plane and disrupt the rest works for me. Besides.” I pause as she starts… licking chocolate sauce off of her. …again, why? “It’s Rainbow Dash. Do you really think that she’d leave Twilight hanging?”
“Oh! I like that!”
“Besides, the bombers would direct everyone’s attention to a landbase in operation somewhere on the coast of the north Celestial Sea.” Having had enough of Pinkie’s antics I decide it’s time to go back to writing.
“Or an ice carrier.”
Or an ice carrier.
Chapter 22: A, new, reason to fight
Author's Note
Fashionably Late here and I’m just gonna post the chapter now instead of waiting for some ‘peak hours’ tomorrow. Initially I was worried about Arizona’s motivation for siding with the Equestrians long term. It’s one thing to oppose a bombardment of civilians it’s another to fight a war on-behalf of a foreign nation. So... maybe I botched that maybe I didn’t. And then... Pinkie Pie. Honestly, I’m going to need next chapter to properly deal with her, and that’s going to take even more time. Still, four or five chapters this month has to be a christmas miracle. If ya enjoy it then leave a comment... and probably some advice to writing Pinkie Pie... Please?
Chapter 22: A, new, reason to fight
"She's here, ma’am."
"Send her in."
The guard nods, stepping aside and gesturing to the door handle.
Here goes nothing. I twist the doorknob, pushing open the door, which emits an ominous squeak.
Sunlight streamed through the windows, illuminating a large office. A large wooden, mostly empty, bookshelf lines one wall along with a potted plant in the corner. On the opposite wall was a line of pictures, each one depicting a warship at port. The larger two depicted wooden ships of the line whilst the rest show a combination of wooden sailing ships and early ironclads. At the center of the room laid a desk buried in paperwork and a heavily used typewriter.
And behind that typewriter sat a light blue mare midway to rising to her hoofs.
I snap-to on reflex, though my hoof begins to fall after a few seconds.
"I, uhh, don't actually know if I should be saluting, ma’am. I'm not exactly a part of your navy nor do our countries recognize one another, I think.”
"I won't exactly stand on procedure. I doubt it exists for this, anyway." She says as a small smile creases her lips as she returns the salute. "Though, if you wouldn't mind introducing yourself?"
I transitioned to a parade rest.
“I am the second ship of the Pennsylvania class battleships Arizona, hull number BB-39.”
"And do you mind if I ask how that works? Are you a spirit, or…" Admiral Water Drops trailed off.
I frowned as I thought about it.
“Before the events of last night, I was a battleship.” At Water Drops uncomprehending stare I continued to elaborate. “I was one of thirty-nine battleships built for the United States Navy, the fourth of the American Standards and the first to be de… destroyed as a result of enemy action.”
“So, you were some kind of ship before? And you were destroyed? Does that mean that you were…”
“Dead? Yes.” I confirmed before staring off into the distance. “My memories are… different from before. I'm not sure I can really explain it, really. The last thing I, actually, remember is the roar of aircraft, the howl of falling ordinance, and… my crew… burning to death… inside my hulk."
I couldn’t keep my voice from wavering as I continued. Or keep from flinching as Water Drops stared at me in horror and pity. I… I needed to nip this in the bud now.
“I wasn’t really alive back then, even before dying. It's all vague impressions and feelings. Not something as concrete as my memory is now. I didn’t feel anything from sailing across the waters. I… I knew that Pennsylvania was my sister back then, but I didn’t love her as I do now or… at least I miss her.” I had to take a breath. “I only have vague recollections of my time at the bottom of Pearl Harbor. My superstructure was salvaged with my guns from Turret two being straightened, relined, and installed on Nevada. My submerged hull was made into a memorial to commemorate the events of the attack. And, somehow, I know that the war has been over for a while and that only I and Oklahoma and Utah were… complete losses. My sister, Pennsylvania, and the other battleships survived.”
"I'm sorry." Water Drops sighed, taking a step back, and gazing down at one of the desk drawers. "That's… a matter for another day, I think." She motions to a chair on my side of the desk as she grabs his own. "If you'd have a seat, Miss Arizona."
I comply, plopping down into the chair.
"First, let me ask you, how much do you know about what happened last night?”
I left nothing out that I couldn't recollect. Including the part where I was another one of those ships shooting at Bronclyn, trapped aboard my own hull with my guns operating in mutiny of my own frantic and desperate attempts to stop them.
"That's quite the claim." Water Drops noted.
"I know." I said, nodding. "I don't… I don't know how I even got there or why I was aboard my hull which should still be at Pearl. I’m not even sure how getting shot turned me into this.” I gestured at all of my pony things.
“And that formation that retreated after you fought back, what do you think it was?”
“It looked like some transports, and a light escort. If I’m being honest, it looked like an invasion force.” I could see the blood dream from her face.
She opened her mouth to respond, but no words came out.
Silence pervaded the room for what felt like a very long time.
"I won't lie to you. We're up against a wall, here."
Water Drops swallowed, and took a deep breath, and looked down at the desk before continuing.
"This is… it's worse than the Storm King, that's for sure. After Princess Luna’s return it's been one disaster after another." Her eyes came back up to meet mine. "We need help, Arizona. If you can replicate what you did here, even once… it would be invaluable to Equestria. Would you accept a commission?" She asks, extending her hoof.
I sigh, gazing at the floor. I start speaking, almost before I even realize, voice soft.
"I was launched in nineteen-fifteen. My designers envisioned me as part of the Standard-type battleships, a series of thirteen battleships across five classes capable of operating together as a tactical unit. To achieve victory in the decisive battle of annihilation between two fleets as the way to win command of the seas. But that's not how things turned out." I look up, feeling a subtle wetness growing in the corners of my eyes. “I and the rest of our task force were attacked at port not by battleships but by aircraft launched from Japan’s aircraft carriers. We never saw them coming, we thought we were safe. We were wrong. I could do nothing as they dropped bombs on us and I was killed when one of their bombs penetrated my forward magazines and detonated. While my sister and the rest of the Standards were being repaired, our aircraft carriers fought the decisive battle and won. When Pennsylvania and the others were repaired they were no longer the heart of the fleet, carriers were.” I paused for emphasis.
“Even if I could be sent back, there’s nothing back there for me. I died before Japan declared war, and in the end we still won. My sister, Pennsylvania, and the rest of the Standards gave their all and were decommissioned after the war, either scrapped or expended as targets. Carriers were the new queens of the seas. What you are offering me is the opportunity to not only prove myself but to fulfill, for the first time ever, the purpose I was given. It's... meaningful to a point that I don't know if I can even express it to a non-ship spirit." I look the Admiral directly in the eyes, and grasp her hoof. "So I'd have to be literally insane to turn you down, ma’am."
The admiral seems slightly taken aback by my speech, before smiling broadly.
Standing orders were to assist in the defence of Manehattan. To that end I was to remain on base, and at all times be prepared to sortie within fifteen minutes. As long as I abided by these two restrictions, I could consider myself at liberty. Wealthy Guardian would be accompanying me until the communication issue was sorted.
"So, where to, ma'am?"
"Chow. I'd prefer a top-up before a fight and I took a torpedo hit, so I'll need some yard time before I do a crossing. And you don't have to 'ma'am' me, I feel bad enough that you're having to follow me around already."
"Of course, ma'am." Wealthy Guardian replies, a grin growing across his face.
I roll my eyes.
Lieutenant junior grade.
Water Drops couldn’t rely on the normal procedures to deal with the Morgana, the name that the ship mare Chesapeake coined, and there wasn’t any protocol for us ship mares. So she was going to need me as a liaison between her and any other ship mares that fall into her command. Someone who could relate to them on a personal level. And even if I and Chesapeake were the only ones here then she would still need us to ID the enemy and outline their capabilities. If Water Drops hadn’t needed approval then she would have made me Lieutenant Commander on the spot for defending Bronclyn and fighting their war. As is, despite having served in the navy for my entire life, I still felt unqualified. Time-in-grade I did not have.
"Though, if that's the case, what do you want me to call you?"
"When we're off the clock, Ari is fine."
"Ari, huh? I get that it’s a nickname, but what sort of name is Arizona? What does it mean?”
“I’m not sure. I’m named after the state of Arizona, but I never thought about the origin of the name itself. Why do you ask?”
“Because I’ve never heard of a name like that. Even amongst the other races like dragons, griffons and the recently returned hippogriffs. I don’t think even a science-fiction writer could come up with the name Arizona. No offence.”
“To be honest? If names like Water Drops and Wealthy Guardian are common here, then I think American and pony names are simply incompatible. No offence.”
Wealthy Guardian snorted.
“Touche. Anyway, mess is right up… here…"
He trails off as the building comes into view. Every single window on the large two-story concrete building is missing and several chunks are taken out of the facade. Through the windows, I can see a section of collapsed roof in the interior.
Outside, two MPs stand guard, currently in a discussion with a couple of angry-looking ratings.
"Okay, new plan. How do you feel about an on-base restaurant?”
Mercifully, the restaurant was open. There were a few shell holes in the parking lot, along with the remains of a few carriages which were unlucky enough to find themselves in the firing line. The neighboring pizza place, too, was a victim of the battle, considering only about half of its roof is still standing.
However, judging by the line of agitated-looking sailors and contractors extending out the front door, and down the sidewalk, we aren't the only ones with this idea.
"Buck." Wealthy Guardian states, more than remarks.
"I'd suggest we go somewhere else, but considering that the only other places we’ve seen have been shelled in I think we should just wait here."
"Great. Well, let's get to it, then." He says, beginning to walk to the end of the line.
"Any ideas for how to pass the time?"
"Hmm…" The stallion thinks for a moment.
In the end we decided to trade stories. I started with my earliest memory, my launch. So many people were there to see me, the mayor of New York City, the governor of Arizona, and even several other warships, including Florida, Utah, Wyoming, Arkansas, New York, and Texas. A sea of faces, all focused on me, with each face full of hope.
A stray thought had crossed my mind now, exactly how many had I disappointed.
Wealthy Guardian had shared a story about a unicorn aboard a corvette who was craving some warm food after his watch station on the aft weather deck. Needless to say I wasn’t expecting that story to end with the Wonderbolts, an elite squadron of pegasi, being called to investigate a three-mile wide contact that descended from space.
I hadn’t expected to enter the restaurant with a tremendous BOOM either.
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Chapter 23: The Pink one and the Moon princess
The room was brought to a stunned silence as a tremendous BOOM shook the restaurant.
I looked over at the source of the noise and saw a pink pony with a mane and tail that reminded me of pink cotton candy, with an ear-to-ear grin, gripping the string of a short barrelled cannon. Streamers hung from every spot where a streamer could hang and glitter softly wafted from the ceiling. A huge banner stretched over the bar, reading “WELCOME TO EQUESTRIA!” A huge cake adorned one table, the glitter somehow avoiding it. A poster was on the wall, labelled Pin the tail on the Pony. A ribbon sliced to resemble a pony’s tail hung beside it.
“PARTY TIME!” She yelled before zipping around and handing out slices of cake to the nearest ponies. I think I heard her say, “You’re doing a good job, keep it up.” I couldn’t see whom she was speaking to if she had.
I had so many questions. Where did she get that cannon and how did she get it inside the base? Why did she make that banner and who was it for? How was she moving so fast? Where did she put that cannon?
"Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie!”
In an instant the pink pony was in my face before backing away and handing me and Wealthy Guardian plates with a slice of cake each. We could only take the plates before she continued talking.
“It's a welcome to Equestria party! My Pinkie Sense has been acting up for over a month like I was supposed to welcome ponies to Ponyville, but that couldn’t be right since we haven’t had any new ponies since Starlight Glimmer and this was like super strong . But , then Princess Celestia told us about Chesapeake and I was like ‘Reality is an illusion!’ and I realized that I was supposed to give Chesapeake a party and then my Pinkie Sense got even stronger like I was supposed to give other ponies a welcome to Equestria party and when it got like super duper stronger I just knew that I had to take a train to Manehattan with Rarity and Applejack and give that pony a party! And so here I am! So what do you think!?”
"Well, thanks. I do feel welcome. Thank you for going to all the trouble."
The mare, Pinkie Pie, giggled before reaching into her mane and producing another slice of cake.
What?
“Who was that?” I asked an equally shell-shocked Wealthy Guardian after Pinkie Pie bounced away to deliver the slice of cake.
“Pinkie Pie. I think I’ve heard of her somewhere.” Wealthy Guardian, mindful of the plate, rubbed his chin before we walked over to an empty table.
“That’s because she’s a bearer of an Element of Harmony, laughter apparently.” Answered a stallion sitting at a table behind us, a Master Chief if his uniform was to go by.
“Wait, she’s an Element Bearer?” Wealthy Guardian stared at the Master Chief before staring at Pinkie Pie… who was juggling while riding a unicycle.
“What’s an Element Bearer?” Now the two stallions were looking at me.
“Has she been living under a rock?”
“Another world apparently.” Wealthy Guardian answered before focusing on me. “The Elements of Harmony are six very powerful magical artifacts that can only be used by ponies who exemplify the ideal each individual element represents. When all six are used together, they are a very powerful force."
“I… see.”
I don’t, not really.
Deciding that the Elements of Harmony weren’t as important as re-supply, I took a bite out of my slice of cake.
Chocolate raspberry mousse cake.
So good.
That's about all I can think of as I tuck into my third hayburger, twelve salad and fourth slice of cake, the other occupants warily eyeing the growing pile of dishes strewn around me.
"You're… uhh, hungry, aren't you?" Wealthy Guardian observes.
"Mhm." I agree, between bites.
A few more long moments pass.
"Have you ever thought about… slowing down?" He tries again.
"Do you know how much a carriage weighs?"
He's taken aback by the non-sequitur.
"I… don't really know? About eighteen hundred pounds or so?"
I narrow my eyes.
"And do you know how much a Mark 8 Armor-piercing shell weighs?"
"Uhh, no, ma'am."
"One of them weighs one thousand four hundred and two pounds. And I fired forty-eight of them in my last engagement plus a third of my secondary armament. Trust me, you're lucky this is all I'm eating."
With that, there are no further protests as I continue to wolf down my food. Whether that's due to everyone's curiosity being sated, or just nobody being brave enough to interrupt me, I can't really say.
I also don't care. I'm just hungry.
Two boxes of french fries later, and after a detour to the Marina to pick up my now-landed Kingfisher, Wealthy Guardian showed me to an empty room in the Bachelor Officers Quarters.
He left me alone for the rest of the night, leaving me with the direction that he'd "Be back at 0800 tomorrow".
Glancing over at the bedside clock, I'm shocked to see that it's reached 22:00. I collapse onto the bed, and let the veil of sleep take me.
“I just hope that tomorrow is less eventful than today.” I mutter as my eyes slowly slide shut.
"West Virginia is burning!"
"Who's attacking us?!"
"Meatballs on the wings! It's the Japs!"
"What?! That isn't..."
Arizona's eyes snapped open. The battleship jumped to her feet, frantically scanning the horizon. Her ears were ringing with the panicked radio traffic, as she looked out at the harbor. At the burning harbor, smoke rising into the air from both Ford Island and...and...
"No...no no no..."
And from her friends. Almost smack-dab in the center of Battleship Row, she had the best seat in the house as the other girls burned. West Virginia...thick black smoke poured from the girl, her hull alight with angry red flames. The smoke did nothing to hide the source of these flames, pure white aircraft flitting across the sky. That coloration did not lend them an angelic appearance however. No, it only served to contrast against the dark black bombs and torpedoes some carried, and the red circles all were marked with.
The Rising Sun of Japan.
"Oklahoma was hit! We're taking on water!"
"I...I can't feel my legs..."
The voice of Oklahoma's Captain and the girl herself merged in Arizona’s ears, the battleship bringing her hands to her head. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to banish the voice of her friend. Banish the pain and anguish, as Oklahoma's hull began to lean to her side.
"This can't be happening. This can't be happening..." Arizona got out, her voice shaking.
But everywhere she looked, she saw nothing but flames and diving aircraft. Men ran, swam, tried to get away. But Arizona could see them gunned down by the Japanese aircraft. No mercy was shown, no quarter given. Anything that moved was a target, and even things that didn't move. Ships caught fire, or took hits from torpedoes that impossibly worked in the shallow harbor.
"Bastards, fight fair!" Cali's angry voice echoed over the airwaves, as a handful of her anti-aircraft guns returned fire.
It did little good. Even in the target heavy environment they were in, only one or two Japanese aircraft began smoking. Nothing more. And Cali's anger soon turned to pain, as torpedoes slammed into her side. Arizona felt tears come to her eyes, feeling like the hits had been to her. And there was nothing she could do but watch, as more and more hits slammed into her California.
Watch, as Tennessee took a bomb hit, shrapnel spraying over West Virginia. Watch as Oklahoma continued to roll over onto her side. Arizona couldn't turn away, even as this happened in front of her. Even as she cursed her inability to do anything but watch, her own guns silent. Her crew...where were...
"Utah!"
Arizona’s head snapped around at the anguished cry from Pennsylvania, in time to see a gout of flame and debris shoot into the sky. Despite being moored on the opposite side of Ford Island from Battleship Row, Arizona could see. She could see better than any of her crew, as Utah burned. The battleship fell to her knees, as she saw Utah’s hull lift out of the water, her bow shattered in fire. Utah settled back in the harbor, flames roaring over her hull. Her masts fell forward, the girl's bow ruined by the explosion. There hadn't even been a warning, a pained shout. Nothing. She was there one second and...
"I can't believe...Utah..." Arizona held a hand to her heart, tears flowing freely. "Why? She was a target ship… she couldn’t fight. Why did they…?"
"Enemy bombers!"
Before Arizona could finish her sentence, she was thrown to her deck, having been flung from her mainmast by a bomb detonating against her anti-torpedo bulkhead. She could feel another striking her port rear 5-inch AA gun just as a fire started in her Captain’s pantry from an earlier bomb hit that had ricocheted off the face of Turret IV and penetrated the deck. A quick glance upward revealed a fourth, and final, bomb falling straight towards Turret II. If it penetrated the armored deck, just near her magazine, then…
"I'm sorry...I'm so sorry..."
Arizona’s eyes slid shut once again, just as…
“Thou need not fear the nightmare! For the depths shall not claim thee so long as thou dwell within my domain!” A regal voice called out from seemingly every direction at once before Arizona’s eyes snapped open.
The bomb, instead of penetrating her deck, had shattered like fine china. The ships, the planes, the harbor, everything was dissolving into nothing like fog in the morning sun. In its place, she now found her hull in the center of a moonlit ocean. The waves blowing in a nearly imperceptible wind, creating a soothing sound that combined with the beautiful moon hanging overhead created quite the peaceful atmosphere.
But despite the reassurance that it had all been a dream, and the newly returned knowledge of her new existence and just where she had fallen asleep, Arizona couldn't stop the tears. She could still hear Cassin and Downes scream as they burned. Watch them… clinging to one another as they died. Each trying to comfort the other. As such Arizona found herself sprawled out on her deck trying to get her bearings.
“Calm thyself, for no harm shall befall thee from thy own subconscious so long as We are present. Thou are safe, my… little pony?” the voice from before continued before trailing off in… confusion?
Arizona, after taking several calming breaths, slowly rose back to her… hooves and turned to see just what her subconscious mind had conjured now. There, standing on her deck, was a tall pony with a noble bearing. Her fur was a dark blue color quite similar to the night sky above and it meshed well with the set of silver hoof coverings and black armor across her barrel depicting a crescent moon along with an equally black crown upon her head.
But by far the most surprising aspect of this mental conjuration of her was both the pony’s mane, which looked to be composed of the night sky, and her eyes which, beyond the clear intelligence held within, watched Arizona with a look of surprised compassion that gave the ship mare pause. For she could think of no real reason her mind would create such a being that would look upon her in such a way.
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Omake 2: Battle of the North Celestial, Mirror, Sea
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. Chapter 24: Shakedown cruise
Author's Note
Fashionably Late here, and although Luna’s intro to Ari is gonna be short ya’ll can have a longer chapter of more testing before we finally get back to that convoy... hopefully. In the meantime, I’ll be updating the Q and A blog with what the original plan was before Arizona made her appearance and who else we can expect. Plan is still to modernize the Equestrian Navy, but three months before the armor plates can be delivered along with however long before the battleships can be delivered is a tad bit long to be relying on half a dozen ship mares. Remember to comment if ya wanna ask questions, cause I don’t mind answering.
Chapter 24: Shakedown cruise
Arizona froze at the sight of the mare, her eyes widening in surprise. She immediately focused on the mare’s horn and wings. Wealthy Guardian’s explanation of Equestria included a lesson on the three main pony tribes plus the five princesses. Five mares that possessed the strength of an Earth pony, the wings and flight ability of a Pegasus, and the horn and magic ability of a Unicorn. All that and three of the five held as much political power as the former Kaiser had before the Great War.
By Wealthy Guardian’s description, the alicorn in front of her had to be Princess Luna. The one who could apparently control the moon, assuming the mare standing on her deck and gazing at her forward turrets was real. A pony that, even with the description she had been given, was far too detailed to be a simple image conjured by Arizona’s subconscious. Which was why Arizona paused to actually consider the situation before her.
Before Arizona could decide on a course of action the sound of a trumpet began to play from somewhere in the distance. It was then, almost as if due to the call of said horn, that the landscape around the two mares began to fade.
Reveille.
“What! Nay! Thou cannot awaken now! Not when I have yet to discharge my duties!” Princess Luna shouted as she began to gallop forward, though Arizona noticed that she didn’t seem to be getting any closer as their surroundings began to fade and dissolve like running paint.
“…!” She shouted something else, but the sound of the trumpet was so loud at this point that Arizona couldn’t make out a single word. And just like that, Arizona’s surroundings faded into nothing, Arizona shutting her eyes in unease at the blackness surrounding her.
Only to open her eyes a second later to find herself laying on her side in her quarters, a pony fairy standing only a few inches from her muzzle with a trumpet in its hoof and a grin on its face.
I sat up in bed, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.
Rising to my feet, I see that my chronometer reads 0630.
I stumble into the en-suite bathroom. Looking at myself in the mirror, I realize I'd fallen asleep on the bed with a thin layer of dust clinging to my fur, presumably leftover from my rescue work yesterday. If I'd known about that, I would have showered last night!
So, it's settled, then. I'll shower.
I enter the shower and, once the water starts flowing, I immediately see what my crew liked about hot showers. It's… not quite like being in a drizzle in the tropics, but it's still soothing nonetheless. I think I'll stay here for a bit.
A rapping at my door snaps me back to reality.
"One moment!" I yell, slamming the water valve closed, and leaping from the shower. Snatching a towel from the wall-mounted rail, I run it over my body and hair, though the latter continues dripping onto the tiled floor. I sweep through the room, picking up everything that's mine, and depositing it in my holds.
Hoofs shaking as I affix my cap, I stumble to the front door, opening it once I'm decent.
The door creaks open to reveal the visage of Wealthy Guardian, whose eyes widen. "M-ma'am, I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"
"No, I just lost track of time, that's all." I state whilst fixing my hair.
"I… see." Wealthy says, taking a moment to scratch his head, before indicating with a nod to follow. "So anyway, ma'am, as I'm sure you can imagine, yesterday was… busy, for a lot of people."
I snort. "It was a long day for me, and I spent it fighting for the first time, rescuing ponies and eating." I followed Wealthy out of the building and onto the street.
A smile creases Wealthy’s lips for but one moment before he quashes it. "And there's a lot of fires to put out at the moment. The battles and invasion attempts, even if we don't know what we're fighting, we're at least preparing for. Figuring out what's going on with you, and… the other spirits… it's a little outside the Navy's wheelhouse, or at least so I've been told."
I sigh thoughtfully.
"So, they want to stick me in a lab somewhere and study me?"
Now, it's Wealthy’s turn to laugh. "Frankly, I don't think they could, even if they wanted to. What the problem is, is that Canterlot hasn’t told the navy what you're capable of and they kind of need to know that, if you're going to be utilized correctly."
Wealthy blanches, seemingly not realizing how that sounded until he said it out loud. I choose to ignore it.
“What do you mean Canterlot hasn’t told the navy what I’m capable of?”
“Supposedly, a month ago Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns ran some tests on the ship mare Chesapeake along with taking samples from a gun turret she manifested, somehow, but they haven’t released their findings to the navy.”
“Strange, you’d think they would have released that information by now.”
“And that’s why we’re heading to the boat ramp so you can have a shakedown cruise. The first order of business is a timed run to Naval Weapons Station Bronclyn. Do you know the way?” Wealthy gestured forward to the marina.
“That’s down the coast, south-west right.”
"That's the one." Wealthy nodded. "Ballpark, one hour of steaming at ten knots. How long would it take you at flank?”
"Half an hour, assuming that I can hit my designed speed of twenty-one knots. I took some below-water damage last engagement, and I need to make sure it's fixed before I really give it the beans." I state, not quite as confidently as I'd have liked.
"Well, do what you can. I'll be making note of your time of departure, and the guys at the other end will do the same for your arrival. Consider it the beginning of your shakedown."
I grin, despite myself. "About time I get to stretch my legs."
We walk in silence for a while, until we reach the concrete incline, descending into the tranquil waters below.
Trepidatiously, I descend towards the water. One pace before I reach the surface, I pause for a moment, before something pushes me to take the last step onto the surface.
I was half-expecting for my hoof to pierce the surface, but to my mild shock that did not happen. Rather, when I put my weight on it, it held fast, feeling not unlike stepping on a sandy beach, or maybe a springy trampoline. When my other hooves joined my first, I found myself drifting slowly away from shore.
That's… interesting.
"Ahead one-third, rudder hard to starboard." I automatically order, and I feel as my body begins complying. It takes me… embarrassingly long to get turned around within the confines of the marina, but before long, I shoot Wealthy Guardian a smile.
Wealthy, for his part, gives me a three-count, before sending me off by miming the dropping of a race flag.
I order my engines to Flank, and begin to pull away, saluting Wealthy in farewell as I go.
As I motor out into the channel, I watch as my pit log climbs.
10kt
15kt
20kt
21.5kt
As I come up to speed, I feel as my stern begins to sink in the water, waves lapping over my stern decking as I continue.
On my starboard-side, the beaches begin passing me by. On land, there's a few, camera-armed individuals ashore seemingly making note of my progress. I don't know if they can see me, but I offer a wave in response.
Can't hurt, I suppose.
I proceed further, a quick call down to my Chief Engineer confirms that all my machinery is running normally, and my fuel use is within projections.
I pass under a bridge as I approach the pier.
As I near, a group of about a half-dozen figures standing atop the wharf come into relief.
I spy a rusted ladder hung into the lapping waves, approach it, and clamber up to the surface.
"...and time!" One of the figures, wearing a labcoat, observes whilst studying his watch. "The time is now 0700, which makes it…"
"Thirty minutes, or an average speed of 21 knots." I provide. "The turns slowed me down a touch. Max straight line speed was 21.5 knots, according to my pit log."
"Thank you."
The pier descends into silence as he writes away on a notepad hovering in front of his face.
As he’s writing, I glance around and catch a glimpse of two silver stars on a nearby stallion’'s epaulettes.
"Sir!" I snap-to. "My apologies, I didn't realize-"
He waves me down, as the lab coat continues to scribble.
"There's really no need for that; we're short on time as it is. As for introductions, I'm Rear Admiral East Sea, CO of Bronclyn Naval Base. To my left is a group of researchers led by Professor Prancer, who teaches Physics, and Professor Dasher, a material science researcher.”
He pauses for a moment, before turning back to the academics. "I, uhh, did get that right, right?"
The two lab coated ponies, the one still writing and another wearing thick-rimmed glances, shrug.
“And to my right, here, is Sergeant Major Avery Jobs, his marines are pulling security, as well as lending their expertise for a couple of tests."
The Marine grunts in recognition, and I nod in greeting.
"We'd best be starting. If you'd follow, everyone?"
I'm led down the pier, ashore, and past an S-curve in the road leading inland. As I round the bend, I'm greeted by what I first believed to be a roadblock, but quickly recognize as a hastily-thrown together firing line when I see the targets spread out further down the road.
The scientists directed me to stand exactly in the spot where all the equipment was pointed, and I got to work. They started having me dismiss, summon, and re-summon my rigging a few times, as well as fairies pop in and out. A couple minutes later I was aiming one of my Browning .50 caliber machine guns at a metal chariot, blackened with soot and pockmarked with holes; clearly a range target.
Rata-tat-tat!
The gun emits a rapid three-round burst, the recoil knocking me several steps back. I regain my footing, return to the firing line, lean further in, and let rip again.
Rata-tat-tat! Rata-tat-tat! This time, I'm able to watch as the tracers zip across the couple-hundred intervening yards, sparking in and on the burnt-out chariot.
My attention is also grasped by sparks below me. I look down to see my feet sliding across the road, leaving a pair of shallow gouges in their wake.
“I don't think I can go much bigger than that. I'm having trouble keeping on top of the recoil without water to absorb it.” I blanch, kicking a few spent .50 cal casings away.
“We saw, ma'am.” One of the scientists reports. “Would you be comfortable firing a secondary gun?”
I sigh heavily.
“I'll do my best. Is everything rolling? I get the feeling this is happening only once.”
“We're… ready, ma'am.”
“Alright, here goes nothing.” I say, aiming one of my 5-inch/51 caliber guns at the swiss-cheesed chariot.
I inhale, grimace and fire.
Everything goes white.
"Gahg." I murmur, stirring as I shield my still-closed eyes from the light.
"Well that beats the Tartarus out of a pupillary response." An unfamiliar voice drolly notes.
My eyes flutter open as I slowly take stock of my surroundings. I'm lying on my back in… some sort of shallow crater. Was I attacked?
A Corpsman, who had previously been examining me, scooches back to give me space.
"D- damage report." I groan out, stations beginning to sound off on the sound-powered circuits.
Before long, responses come pouring in.
Pretty nasty shock damage, it sounds like. I had a few boilers get snuffed out, with the engineers currently performing inspections to determine if re-lighting them is safe. There's reports of equipment breaking free, most worryingly a couple of main gun shells which broke their lashings, and which the powder monkeys are currently in the process of par-buckling back into place.
Additionally, there's reports of leaking pipes throughout my hull. Multiple high-pressure steam leaks are being addressed in Engineering, a potable water line is leaking into the radio shack, and the forward head on first deck is currently leaking black water into the steward's quarters.
I grunt, rising to a sitting position. "Anyone get the plate of that truck that hit me?" I quip.
There's a few scattered, half-hearted laughs from a now-much larger group, surrounding me at a respectful distance, though my eyes are still too bleary to recognize anything beyond the shapes of ponies.
"How are you feeling?" A sincere voice I now recognize as belonging to the corpsman speaks softly from my side. "I tried getting your vitals, and you were breathing, but I couldn't find a pulse anywhere."
"That's probably because I have boilers, not a heart, doc." I chuckle, only slightly forced. "I took a knock, and it will be a bit before DC has me back up to 100%." I shoot a strained smile, though it fades after a few moments. "What, uhh, happened, anyway? The last thing I remember is firing, and then…"
Sergeant Major Jobs clears his throat, stepping forward. "Ma'am, after you fired, you were thrown backward approximately ten feet. When you landed, you did… that, to the road." He indicates the spidering cracks in the road surrounding the shallow depression I find myself in with a hoof. "And we found we couldn't move you. The plan was to try to bring in a crane, but, well, your MarDet seems to have taken issue with that, ma'am."
Blinking a few more times, the shapes of about two-dozen olive drab-clad figures arrayed in unprepared defensive positions surround me.
"Ah." I observe.
Though, there's still this weird noise. It's so faint, I can barely hear, but I still look around to try to locate the source. Is it… over there?
Yeah, sounds like it. But what is it?
Oh.
And is that-
Yes. Yes it is.
I see one of my Marines apoplectically laying into Rear Admiral East Sea, knife hand fully engaged.
A Gunners Mate is trying to shoo away the "Buckin' fairy", as she puts it.
My Marine is too far away to make out her rank insignia, but knowing their merry band of misfits, I have a good idea of who the wayward individual might be.
"Gunney!" I snap, causing the diminutive NCO to jump about a foot into the air, before landing at attention. "He didn't know what would happen, leave him be! Now back aboard, all of you! We'll handle this later." I add, darkly.
The Marines begin ducking back aboard, though much to my displeasure, their route leads them up my flank.
I grumble as I shakily rise to my feet, the stragglers climbing up my leg like a rope before disappearing. I approached the Rear Admiral.
"Sorry, sir." I open, coming to a stop a respectful distance away. "The impact knocked out the bridge crew-" I say, pointing to my head. "And it seems my MarDet, without anyone to give orders to the contrary, assumed I was under attack. I didn't realize that they would, or even could, do that, but now that I know, I can prevent it in the future. It won't happen again."
He looks me up and down, seemingly scrutinizing my reaction.
"Good." He says simply. I let out a breath that I didn't realize I was holding.
"But-" He raises a hoof, cutting off a response of my own before it left my throat. "Your… gunnery sergeant, was it?" He cocks his head, to which I nod. "Well, she did have a point, no matter how much I disagree with the expression of it."
My expression softens. "Sir?"
"Even putting aside the… moral considerations, you're a unique asset." He states, as if that explains everything. "I shouldn't have allowed such dangerous experiments to be carried out."
"That may be, sir, I believe there was more planned? Let's get to it." I prompt.
"...yes, let's." He affirms.
With a quickness, I'm led down the road, as a few of the gathered academic types begin swarming in to document the aftermath of the incident. As we walk, though, the deep baritone of Sergeant Major Jobs speaks softly behind me.
"In case you were curious, ma'am, you did hit your shot." He says, pointing out to the range target, the chariot rendered into a thousand metal shards scattered around the range.
"Just remind me to never piss you off." He monotones, before shooting me a toothy grin.
I snort. "And you haven't even seen the big guns yet."
Chapter 25: Misinformed, mistaken, misled
A week. It took a week to find the residents of Trottingham, who evacuated to the cities of Shetland and Neighingham further inland, in order to bring them back to Trottingham and then process the woman and children who would be boarding the convoy bound for Manehattan. Despite the two cities being further inland, thus safe from the Morgana’s guns, the reason the women and children of Trottingham were being sent to Equestria proper was due to the fact that a growing amount of the Griffish Isles foodstuffs was being imported from Equestria. With the Morgan contesting the Celestial Sea the evacuation was being held to prevent the isles from starving while under siege from the Morgana. Shetland and Neighingham were already in the process of instituting a ration system and organizing a militia to fight off a possible naval invasion.
I didn’t think that was necessary until some of the residents of Trottingham and Clearwave’s pegasi pointed out some Morgana activity nearby Trottingham’s coastline. There were a few rudimentary structures-slabs of Morgana metal in the form of hangars full of materials-along with drums, piles of metal, ammunition and spare Morgana parts.
A terrible thought occurred to me and Fredericksburg when Snowstorm confirmed that the deforestation was in a mostly straight, flat line.
They were building a runway .
I didn’t have my hopes up. A battlecruiser, heavy cruiser and two destroyers was not a winning combination. Sure it was better than trying to solo a never ending horde of Morgana, but it was still giving me Force Z and Operation Ten-go vibes. Add in the fact that the Morgana were trying to bring in aircraft to Trottingham and my dread deepend. Even if more shipmares were to appear on our side and/or Equestrian shipbuilding had ramped up production, it wouldn’t matter if we lost control of the skies to Morgana aircraft. Hopefully there’d be some good news once we got back to Manehattan.
Naturally me, Frederick, and the destroyers, the newly named lead ship Castle and younger sister ship Thorn, were responsible for helping provide escort. Of course, Castle wasn’t eager to let her younger sister fight in a war, but I left that to Twilight. Couldn’t expect every human turned kanmusu to be so eager to fight zombie ghost ships I suppose. Hopefully we would get back to Manehattan without anyone getting shot at. While I was eager to start bullying Morgana heavy and light cruisers I wasn’t crazy enough to go out looking to fight Morgana capital ships more advanced than a pre-dreadnought.
Sure Hiei was crippled by shell hits from American cruisers, but I was designed to counter Kongo and her sisters. I’ve got all or nothing armor, my magazines were hidden away under my citadel. Morgana heavy and light cruisers and destroyers couldn’t penetrate my citadel and so long as I maintained distance from them then they couldn’t aim for my superstructure and other critical areas, like my rudder and propellers. I would be invincible! …as in powerful, not HMS Invincible who blew up at Jutland or the ersatz Invincible/Indefatigable class battlecruisers I and Frederick had shot up a fortnight ago.
Thankfully the trip back to Manehattan had been smooth sailing, no Panzerschiffes like last time or battleships/battlecruisers or whatever people wanted to call the 1930s Scharnhorst class. If there was a submarine lurking around then there wasn’t much I or anyone could do without sonar. Just another few hours and I’d finally be able to see Manehattan’s skyline.
“Chesapeake!”
I glanced upwards to a worried Snowstorm, her panicked cry snapping me back to reality.
“One of our pegasi patrols spotted a heavy mist rolling in from the north along with two large silhouettes within the mist. Another hour and it’ll be on top of us. Captain Summer Rain wants you to stop towing Clearwave and position yourself on our starboard along with Frederick.”
“Got it.” At my response she saluted and flew back towards Clearwave.
I immediately dropped the towing line and quickly linked up with a grim faced Frederick.
“You think it’s them?” She asked whilst trying to spot the mist that was over the horizon.
“Probably, last time a mist rolled in and disabled Clearwave’s crew. Then they attacked.” I replied.
“What can we expect then?”
“Just about anything really, although it’s mostly been cruisers.”
We sailed in silence as the mist slowly arrived. 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 within the mist didn't help either. If the last two times I had fought Morgana in the mists had told me anything then this wasn’t going to be good. Just what did the Morgana bring this time?
I saw a pair of sharp pointed bows just as I heard the sharp reports of naval cannons before I registered a dozen muzzle flashes. I and Frederick were bracketed by shells, columns of water being thrown up around us. The Morgana pair immediately began to turn to starboard, they’re intent to unleash broadsides on us was not lost.
Not even a minute passed before I and Frederick returned fire. Then, pandemonium. To my horror and shame, whatever ships those Morgana were they were quick to return fire and were quickly matching Frederick in rate of fire.
A veritable wall of steel was slamming into us.
I spotted the shell milliseconds before it struck my face.
Unbeknown to Chesapeake, the members of Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns sent to study her were not trained in naval architecture. Thus, they had made an error in reading her primary design proposal that served as Chesapeake’s cutie mark. Whilst they assumed that her armor belt was six to eight inches thick, those numbers were from the line regarding Chesapeake’s draft or depth below the water line. Had they closely looked at the line and number below or the number on the shaded portion below her uptake protection then they would have come to the correct conclusion that Chesapeake’s armor belt was five inches thick. Three inches less than the Kongo’s at their thickest.
Chesapeake’s belt had never been meant to stop shell fire that heavy and it tore straight through, leaving a gaping wound, after shearing off a 5-inch gun, ammunition from a ready locker started to burn soon after. Continuing its relentless descent, the shell ripped through machinery spaces, leaving a ghastly trail of destruction. Fortunately, the shell failed to detonate, the only small mercy that kept Chesapeake alive. Another round blew her glasses off her face as it ripped the mainmast into nothing more than a memory of violent departure and broken metal, splinters of glass tearing across her nose and cheeks, though fortunately none went into her eyes. Another pair struck her superimposed turrets. One near B turret’s gunport and the other near X turret's barbette. A violent explosion blew the X turret apart as loaded powder was cooked off. One of the barrels was hurled so violently by the blast into the air that it crashed down halfway to Clearwave’s position. An 11” shell ripped the top half of her bow off in a messy burst of shredded armor and anchor chain.
Floundered, with a massive hole in her bottom, the cruiser slowed, beginning to tilt as water poured into her hull.
Twelve shells had been fired and half of them found their mark.
Chesapeake was dimly aware of her surroundings. Of the list to one side and of the loss in power as she slowly drifted out of formation in a blazing wreck. But then there was nothing but darkness.
Not far aft of the dark-haired cruiser, Frederick saw the smoke begin to rise, Chesapeake’s rigging shattered and on fire. Gritting her teeth, Frederick came up alongside the badly battered cruiser. Damage control crews raced across her decks, hoses readied, joining Chesapeake’s own fairies in battling the roaring fire before it reached a magazine.
“Castle! Thorn! Get over her and torpedo the Morgana!” She snapped, authority crackling in her voice.
Even as she burned, Chesapeake’s guns didn't stop firing. Her 5-inch guns laced the water with shells that hammered the lead Morgana’s superstructure and a pair of 4.1 inch guns with catastrophic violence as one of her shells slashed through the gun shields. Chesapeake’s remaining main guns, A and B turrets, thundered their own defiance at the Morgana. One shell managed to disable the lead Morgana’s A turret whilst another destroyed the main armament fire-control station, and knocked out the radar. Frederick, after unleashing her torpedoes, doubled back towards Chesapeake and fought to keep the burning cruiser upright.
A six inch shell slammed into her forward superstructure, exploding and scattering debris across her forward turrets, but though blood streamed down her cheek Frederick didn't make so much as a squeak. Instead, mouth set in a grim line, the cruiser kept up her fire, relentlessly hammering at the lead Morgana. Another shot slammed against her belt, cratering it but not penetrating, and a 11" shell tore her aft mast in two, leaving it to topple perilously against her smokestack before finally tumbling into the water, nearly pulling part of her lines with it. Salvo after salvo bellowed from her guns. A secondary was torn off the side of the ship, a backblast shaking the black-armored vessel as a six inch shell detonated in the barrel.
Castle and Thorn, having zoomed past the convoy, quickly launched their own torpedoes from their own three triple torpedo launchers. The Morgana, fearing the torpedo attack, turned back into the mist and flee the field. But not before a torpedo struck the lead Morgana, just near the rear gun turret.
They had driven off the enemy.
But at a cost.
When the Clearwave’s convoy, battered and slowed by wounds sustained from the battle, finally reached the shelter of Naval Base Manehattan, evening was falling, nearly a month since the first violent revelation of the existence of another power upon the Celestial Sea. The sun was low in the sky, highlighting the gentle drizzle, and as they stood sheltered under umbrellas by the pier, two princesses, two senior naval officers and a battleship stared at the transformation wrought upon her by battle damage from her last encounter with the Morgana hours before. The spectacle of her little flotilla had been arresting as well, the proud but battered sight of an antiquated heavy cruiser following sedately behind the Coast Guard cutter Washing leading the way into the harbor accompanied by a pair of destroyers before disappearing into the haze of the rain, somehow fading away just as the Chesapeake had done during her demonstration. Some trick of the light, the weather, or the special magic of the sea, and they were but a pair of fillies and a wounded mare climbing up the ladders arrayed near the edge of the dock, advancing closer even as the ship's crew and the dock workers tied Clearwave and the merchant ships up alongside and prepared for the wounded to be unloaded first.
Medical personnel and drafted assistants were beginning to disembark from the Clearwave, moving those too wounded to leave under their own power on gurneys. The walking wounded were behind them, with several being helped along the ramp. A commotion drew the eyes of the princess and ship mares. A slender, dark-haired shape was just visible under the sheet draped over her, face nearly lost behind the oxygen mask fastened over her mouth and nose, eyes closed. As she was gently transferred to a gurney to be loaded into an ambulance for transit to the Manehattan Naval Hospital, she never stirred, a complete contrast to the other wounded, who were awake and looking around, some animated or even chatting with the people moving them. Even when someone stumbled on the slick ground, the dark-haired woman didn't move, and Castle put a sympathetic hoof on Thorn’s shoulder as the destroyer pawed the ground at the sight and curled her lip like she wanted to tear into them, frowning deeply.
Chapter 26: Meanwhile, in Vanhoover
Doing his best to shelter from the heavy rain in the narrow overhang, Seabed took a pull of his cigarette, letting it out. In the rain and wind, it was impossible to see the smoke. He shouldn't be out here, not in this sea state, but it wasn't as if it was a fire risk. Not in this weather, and the chiefs wouldn't let him smoke in the ship anyway.
This whole mission was a crock of bull anyway. The "Ghost of Anvil Island" they were out here chasing? Just more bull, like whatever nonsense they were peddling over at Manehattan. Someone swears a filly hauled her out of the water, walking on it. Or a ghost ship. It was all nonsense. He took another drag, feeling it enter his lungs.
I should really quit, his inner voice reflected. It sounded annoyingly like his younger sister. Shaking his head, he took one last drag, leaning over the railing to flick it into the ocean.
Seabed never saw the wave that the ship rode up, jostling him on the rain-slick deck so he lost his balance. Not then and not after. He was too busy falling into the water, screaming.
By the time a frantic crewmate got the hatch open his screams were gone, the stallion out of sight in the ironclad’s wake.
The filly was sitting on the steps of the automated lighthouse, in what little shelter from the rain she could find, on the breakwater of an island nibbling on a protein bar she'd found discarded unopened. The idea that someone would just throw away perfectly good food was perverse. But it seemed like people… ponies here weren't starving. That was good, certainly, even if nothing seemed to make any sense anymore. Like what she was even doing here, sitting on the steps of a lighthouse eating a scavenged protein bar.
What was a protein bar, anyway? She could read the words but food like this didn't even exist the last she properly recalled. She was more used to rice, fish and pumpkins.
Then she jerked her head up abruptly. Doing her best to keep out of the pounding rain, she had a poncho hauled up over her head to keep her hair dry. Then it was shucked off, thrown somewhere else entirely as she rose to her feet, the electrifying call of a man overboard driving her toward the water. Instead of stopping at the safety railing, she thrust her… hoof out, vaulting over and thrusting off with an easy strength, snowy white hair fluttering behind her in the darkness.
Contrary to what should have happened, she came down in a four-point landing on the water, standing there for a moment as the waves lapped at the heavy rudder-like boots she was wearing. Then the filly broke into a sprint, a heavy metal frame seeming to congeal out of the misty spray itself in her wake. A four-tubed torpedo launcher was rotated to the side on her back while to each flank, articulated metallic holders jutted out, each one mounting a heavy-looking turret. The filly didn't seem to notice the weight, though, slipping into a gliding, skating stride as she picked up speed, cutting her course to starboard to slash past a ferry, her passage rocking the shallow-bottomed boat even as it was trying to turn to assist the search and leaving confusion in her wake.
For her part, the filly didn't want to get involved, she'd been content enough there on her breakwater with her protein bar, and she didn't really mind the rain, but you didn't leave a man in the water. And the name… the name of the ship he'd fallen from? That was impossible… and equally impossible to ignore.
With the weather, sending pegasi to search for the missing stallion was ill-advised at best, and the swells and rain were reflecting searchlights everywhere. There were civilian ships out there, too, bumbling around. The filly mostly ignored them, keeping a watch on her surface search radar and for lights to avoid a collision. She knew where he was going, knew which way the current would pull him. Every now and again, a ship caught sight of something - another ship, low and lean - but they wrote the sighting off as a bad spotting as she went about her business, lookouts and her own silvery-grey eyes peeled for any sign of him.
‘There!’ She thought, seeing him struggling to keep his head above water. She cut power to her screws and changed course, coming up on him from behind.
Seabed never saw what hit him the second time, either. One second, he was nearly drowning, fighting desperately to keep his head above water only to get whacked back under in the midnight swell. A sudden roaring from behind filled him with terror - a steamship, alright, but they weren't going to rescue him. They were going to plow him under. He started screaming in terror, more water coming into his lungs. The next moment, strong, incongruously small hoofs seized him and hauled him up out of the water like he was a cat, his boots slapped by the next wave. Instinctively, Seabed kicked backward, twisting, still trying to swim, only for his hoof to slam into what felt like plate steel.
A feminine-sounding "Oof!" greeted him and the person holding him shook him.
"Stop struggling!" She ordered sharply before wrestling him onto her back and applying steam to her screws. "Just stay still, you'll be easier to carry if you don't fight it."
"W-w-who are you?" Seabed demanded, spitting up water. "Some kind of ghost?"
The filly considered that as she angled her course southeast, heading for the pier at Van… hoover.
"...yes."
Seabed wasn't reassured by the answer, struggling even more in the ghost filly’s grip before she tightened her grip, ordering him to stop again, and he went limp, as much from sheer terror as willful compliance.
‘They have a clinic at Vanhoover, at least according to the paper, and the search is off to port. Easier to get him to safety than at Anvil Island.’
Clearing her thoughts, she announced over the wireless telegraph used to coordinate the search.
"I have the missing man. Taking him to the docks at Vanhoover for treatment." Ignoring the confusion and consternation she'd caused, the filly just applied steam to her screws. "How did you fall in the water?"
Seabed stared at what he could see, a metal box atop a metal arm of sorts. Then it swiveled, revealing miniature cannons aiming at him! No, over him. They were elevated too far to be aimed at him, but what seemed like a pair of little lights gleamed at him. What would a ghost need with cannons? And why was his mind swearing he was surrounded by sailors, hauled somewhere safe inside a ship? Finally, he answered.
"I-I got swept overboard." The mute silence suggested that wasn't good enough and he added, shame-faced. "I was taking a smoke." The sailors he couldn't see, and his mind insisted were right there, glowered at him.
Apparently it didn't impress the ghost filly much, either.
"Those things will kill you." She commented, her voice's very flatness an indictment of his stupidity.
"You sound like my sister." Seabed griped, too far gone in the impossibility to bother denying it. He spit out a bit of saltwater after the spray from a particularly high wave smacked him.
"You should listen to her." The filly answered him, unimpressed and apparently unconcerned with the waves. "I wish my sisters were here to give me good advice."
Seabed stared at the box-like thing looking back at him. Those lights, they had to be eyes. Could ghosts be haunted? "Ghosts have sisters?" He asked numbly.
She ignored him, lowering her speed and coasting through the water as she spotted the long structure jutting out into the water, looking southward. As she came nearer, the filly angled east, heading for the docks, spotlights scanning over the land as she looked for the right place to go.
Doctor Proctor stood next to the ambulance he'd driven down to the pier, summoned at the direction of the harbormaster. He hadn't had much to tell him, just that someone, over Vanhoover’s recently developed wireless telegraph, had reported hauling an EN sailor out of the water and was heading for the docks. The lighting was anything but good as he covered his eyes, looking out into the rainy darkness before a spotlight scanned up the docks. It was impossible to see what was behind it beyond a vague impression of a ship that seemed to vanish into the rain.
"Did you see that?"
Staring out in the darkness, getting soaked through, Nurse Heartgold started to answer him before she pointed.
"There! In the water! There's something moving down there!"
The pair hustled to the side of the pier as the strange figure came closer. In the pier's lights, they could see the shape of a stallion, hefted aboard what looked like some sort of metal contraption. The two paramedics hauled the stallion up. He was dressed in an absolutely soaked sailor's fatigues, dragging him toward the ambulance.
As Proctor busied himself getting the fellow up into the back of the ambulance, Heartgold started to follow before a sound behind her caught her attention. Someone else had clambered up the ladder. Her limbs were ghostly pale in the rainy night, more white fluttering around her head as she moved, but darkness seemed to consume part of her torso before she stepped properly into the streetlight and it glistened like wet steel.
She brushed back her wet, snowy mane with a hoof as pale as death before the two of them locked eyes for a moment. Finally, though, Heartgold reached out, grabbing the filly’s foreleg. Heartgold wracked her brain trying to figure out why the filly was out at sea. The water was anything but freezing.
"Come on, let's get out of the rain!" She called, trying to pull the tall, slender, willowy filly along.
"I should go…" She said, her voice faint and uncertain, a curious accent for such a young face.
"You should get somewhere dry, we all should." Heartgold countered, tugging harder.
This time the filly followed along, staring at the ambulance as if she didn't quite know what to make of it. Having made up her mind, though, she clambered into the passenger seat when Heargold pointed her forward.
"Put on the belt." She said, pointing at the belt as Proctor attached himself to the reins of the ambulance.
For a moment, she just blinked, not comprehending the instruction, then noticed Heartgold had one on and repeated the motion. It was like she'd never seen such a thing before but she managed to snap it shut after a few tries.
It wasn't far to the clinic in the dark, rainy streets and neither one felt like talking. No one else was about, not at this hour, in this weather, but the windows were bright when Itou threw the ambulance into park next to the emergency entrance of the tiny little urgent care clinic. The sailor didn't seem like he was still in mortal danger, still better to get him dried up and examine him rather than drive all the way to the naval base and have one of their own find something like internal bleeding.
However slight she looked, the filly was clearly strong, and she kept the waterlogged sailor from falling when he slipped, whether on the wet pavement or at the sight of her Proctor wasn't sure.
“I'll get him inside. You see to her.” He said to Heartgold.
"Yeah, sure thing." Heartgold jerked her head. "Come on, let's… get you out of that thing." She glanced at what looked for all the world like a steel corset and was that a cape on her back?!
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Chapter 27: Clear Moon, a conference and it's not butter
The filly stared at her blankly.
"But it's… it's my uniform…" She protested a bit.
She's in shock, or something, Heartgold decided.
"Look, let's just dry off, okay sweetie? And maybe get you something to eat, you must be tired after hauling him here." The filly shrugged a little, then nodded, shaking her head and wringing out some of the water.
She didn't seem as waterlogged as she should have been, swimming in this mess, but she didn't seem to really object to drying off either, and Heartgold decided it was good enough. Leading the filly into the staff area, she hauled out a towel.
"Here. There's an exam room over there you can use to dry off and change."
The filly took the towel and headed out. When she returned, she had the towel neatly folded and her cape was just as neat, carried between the steel slabs of her corset. Folded almost too neatly, like it had been done with military precision.
Heartgold had dried her mane off and shed her damp uniform jacket, leaving it hanging up, before she eyed the filly. She was willowy and slender, tallish for her apparent age. Her snowy white mane, blue-gray eyes, and pale fur, while a lovely combination, were not immediately recognizable. The microwave dinged and Heartgold hauled out the soup, an onion soup heavy in croutons and melted cheese. The filly looked like she needed the calories.
"C'mere. Let's get some food in you. What's your name?"
Before the filly could answer, Proctor stuck his head in. "The sailor's out of it. Doc Bonesaw’s looking over him now. He's swearing the filly’s some kind of ghost or something, that she carried him here walking on the water." He laughed, shaking his head. The filly looked at him, her blue eyes crinkling slightly before she looked down at the bowl. "Hey. Good work getting him here, by the way. His ship's on its way to pick him up. The captain wants to thank us all personally."
"Ship? I… I don't recognize him." The filly murmured so softly the two paramedics couldn't make out the words. The idea of meeting the captain was a mixed blessing. On the one hand, he was the captain. On the other hand… well, she'd been called crazy or chased or even called a filthy changeling parasite enough the past two days. Having someone in the Navy do it would just be the final cruelty.
Heartgold smiled at her reassuringly.
"So what's your name?" She asked again, scooting closer.
"Suzutsuki." The filly replied immediately, taking the spoon from Heartgold and digging in. "Arigato! I haven't had a hot meal in…" She shook her head, unable to even be certain. The two paramedics traded looks of concern.
“What sort of name is Suzutsuki?” Proctor asked, frowning at the unfamiliar name and terminology.
Pausing before she took the next spoonful of soup she replied, “It translates to Clear Moon.”
"Like the ship?"
That seemed right, so Suzutsuki nodded, devouring her soup.
"Arigato." The white-haired filly said before wolfing down another bite. "May I have some more? I'm… pretty hungry." She admitted, looking shame-faced at the admission.
"Have you been eating?" Heartgold asked cautiously.
"What I can find." Suzutsuki admitted. "I… I don't really know where I am. I think this is Vanhoover, but… the names are different…"
Since Heartgold seemed to have built a rapport, Proctor slipped out, giving her a nod, and busied himself answering the people who'd come in. His partner leaned forward a little, frowning at the way the strange filly was so eagerly consuming her soup, before she went to the staff room and retrieved some cookies, tossing the plastic packet to Suzutsuki.
"Here, eat up. I'm Heartgold, by the way."
The filly caught them reflexively, then stared.
"Are these… are these for me, Heartgold-san?" She asked, unable to believe it.
"You pulled a stallion out of the water and got him all the way here to Vanhoover, Suzutsuki." Heartgold said, using the name she introduced herself as. It made the filly’s cheeks redden but she smiled. "The least you deserve is a good meal or three."
"Domo arigato!" Suzutsuki cried in delight, tearing at the plastic before she ate the first one.
They were nothing special, not to Heartgold’s experience, but the filly ate them carefully, clearly savoring the experience, and the certainty that this poor filly had been underfed, probably on the streets, hardened. Well, that's over with.
We'll see to it she gets some help, even if I have to take her home with me the paramedic promised herself.
Suzutsuki was halfway through the packet when another stallion, older than Proctor, looked inside. "Heartgold." He said, nodding politely, then looked at the filly eating cookies before he stepped over. He was wearing a lab coat and a friendly smile. "Hello there, miss. Are you feeling okay?"
"I'm undamaged." Suzutsuki reported, straightening up. "And I've got cookies." She smiled cheerfully, offering him one.
Introductions were quickly made between the four ship mares and the Equestrian natives, although there was a pregnant pause as the three former humans digested the fact that one of the most famous battleships in American history now stood among them. None of the three seemed to breathe as the newly returned Arizona sized up the three paperships. In that time, Princess Luna made sure to properly introduce herself to Arizona and explain her duties to the battleship, specifically her duty to watch over ponies’ dreams.
Once everyone was seated in meeting room A, Princess Celestia wasted no time in starting the conference.
“Twilight, Captain Summer Rain, how goes the evacuation of Trottingham?”
The two mares glanced at one another before Summer Rain took the lead.
“It could certainly have gone better. The convoy encountered a Morgana cruiser en route to the Griffish Isles and about fifteen nautical miles away from the Isles we encountered a heavy storm centered around Trottingham. Chesapeake was detached to investigate and engaged several Morgana ships alongside the cruiser Fredericksburg.” Here Summer Rain gestured towards Frederick.
And so, Frederick left nothing out that she couldn't recollect. Including the bit about having lived a life prior to becoming a ship. A claim that Castle and Thorn repeated themselves, and got a raised eyebrow from Arizona.
"That's quite the claim." Arizona noted.
"I know." Fredrick said, nodding. "I don't…I don't know if maybe something happened during my return. Maybe my brain made it up to fill in the blanks. Maybe it's real, and it needed me to fill in for what my ship half lacked. All I know is that I have memories of a previous life in my head."
"This… must've been quite an adjustment." Arizona commented, motioning towards her.
“Regardless, you’ve yet to tell us how the evacuation has proceeded and how Chesapeake received her injuries.” Luna eventually interrupted, drawing everyone from the paperships’ origins. “It is to my understanding that Trottingham’s population is approximately two-hundred and sixty thousand ponies. Such a number could not have been successfully evacuated in a single operation with three merchant vessels.”
“Yes ma’am, sorry ma’am. We’ve only managed to evacuate ten thousand ponies from Trottingham after finding them in the surrounding area and nearby cities of Shetland and Neighingham. They’re instituting a ration system and organizing a militia to fight off a possible naval invasion. They should have enough supplies for another two or three months while we prepare to continue the evacuation.”
“We’ll need to requisition merchant ships in order to accelerate the evacuation without having to risk a food riot or further attacks from the Morgana.” Luna decided, with Celestia agreeing a moment later.
“Chesapeake should be ready for the operation in two days.” At the princess’ and battleship’s look of shock, Summer Rain could only ruefully grin. “She’s certainly tougher than she looks, despite her thinner armor in comparison to the Scharnhorsts.”
“The Scharnhorsts?”
“KMS Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. They’re the Morgan ships that ambushed us en route back to Manehattan in a heavy mist that came in from the north. Those two ships were the ones that engaged Chesapeake and Fredricksburg.” Summer Rain admitted whilst pulling out one of the many booklets that Chesapeake had prepared, opening it up to the relevant page.
“Hm, thirteen inches of belt armor. Is a five inch difference truly significant?” Celestia asked to which Twilight finally spoke up.
“Actually, that’s something that a member of Captain Summer Rain’s crew, one Snowstorm, brought up. When I mentioned Chesapeake’s armor thickness when she was put into a bathtub to heal, Snowstorm took it upon herself to… look at Chesapeake’s cutie mark to confirm herself.” Twilight couldn’t help the light blush that came from watching a mare stare at another mare’s cutie mark. “Anyhow, she’s determined that Chesapeake’s armor thickness is five inches and the eight-six number is from her draft.”
“Really? But the School for Gifted Unicorns reported her armor thickness as between eight to six inches.”
“Permission to speak ma’am?” At the princesses' nod, Summer Rain continued. “The School for Gifted Unicorns are not trained in naval architecture. It is possible that they had made a mistake in reading the design on her cutie mark. Snowstorm was more than happy to write down Chesapeake’s specifications.” Summer Rain took out a piece of paper and gave it to the princesses, admiral and battleship.
“Five inches of belt armor, barely more than our current ironclads even though it’s made of steel. Is her armor truly that thin, or is it that the Scharnhorst is overly armored?” Luna asked rhetorically, though Arizona chose to answer.
“It looks like Chesapeake is an early Lexington class battlecruiser, designed in response to Japan’s Kongo class battlecruisers and in conjunction with the Tennessee class battleships. Considering the actual Lexingtons had an armor belt of five to seven inches and speed and firepower were prioritized over armor protection, I’m pretty sure Chesapeake’s armor belt is five inches instead of eight inches. As for her armor thickness in relation to other battleships and battlecruisers by the time I was… sunk, Chesapeake’s armor is woefully thin.” Arizona answered.
“It’s still thicker than the new cruisers in construction, and she should have a greater operational range than the new torpedo boats, even disregarding the fact that she can board Clearwave.” Speaking up for the first time, Admiral Water Drops continued once she had everyone’s attention. “I believe that we should rotate Chesapeake and the new ship mares to patrol duty while Arizona escorts the evacuation convoy. They should be able to cover Manehattan, Bronclyn to the south and Canterbury up north. Arizona, meanwhile, should be able to fend off the Scharnhorst battleships considering the two broke off after suffering from minor damage.”
“What about the rest of Equestria’s coastline? Even at thirty knots it will still take Chesapeake a day to reach Fillydelphia or Baltimare. Not to mention Las Pegasus and Vanhoover on the west coast?” Twilight interjected.
“While every single attack so far has been from the Celestial Sea dockyards in Vanhoover, Las Pegasus, Baltimare, Fillydelphia, and Manehattan have already constructed two dozen torpedo boats each with another two dozen to be built and completed within the month. Meanwhile the armor for the new protected cruisers will be delivered in two months time. Effort is being made to relocate civilians from the coasts to reception areas with available housing.” Celestia tried to assuage Twilight’s concerns, though Twilight still looked slightly concerned.
They really were stretched too thin.
“I can’t believe this is really happening.”
“I can’t believe we’re going to have to fight.”
“I can’t believe it’s not butter.” A rich masculine voice crooned.
Castle jumped, spun around and came face-to-face with a taxidermist’s sink trap.
Chapter 28: A pearl at harbor
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. 