In Contrast to War

“Target sighted! Fire four torpedoes, blast the buckers!” barked Captain Winter Loch, hearing the order echo throughout the submarine until a minute later the attack was on its way. The submarine then desperately turned away from its head-on course with the destroyer, and began to dive as quickly as its ballasts could filter in the sea water.

Moment’s later the shock-waves from dropped depth charges rocked the hull, again and again, practically deafening the crew until they safely moved away from the threat posed by their foe.

“Captain! We’re out of position with the rest of the fleet, they’re telling us to pull back!” a feminine voice yelled up the ladder to Captain Winter. It was Ida Sunbeam, their peach-coated radio operator.

“Don’t get that shiny blue tail of yours in a twist, Ida! That Equestrian convoy needs our aid! We cannot abandon them; return to your station comrade!” Winter replied in the most confident manner he could. He didn’t want to make it obvious that Ida was more correct than she realised, the depth charges were far too close for comfort and had already picked off some of the other submarines in their group. Taking his hat off the floor and quickly stroking his beard to straighten it out, he let out a stressed sigh as he returned his gaze to the periscope.

Even underwater it was clear that their risky action bore fruit; the target of their torpedo strike was already dipping further and further into the depths. A few minutes passed, giving the crew a moment to recover, and once Winter felt they had suitably repositioned they rose to the surface once more to find their next target.

The morning sun illuminated the grim scene unfolding in the middle of the Pegasi Gulf, its pleasant rays obscured by the rising smoke from the Equestrian convoy with their last target adding to the bleak view. The Changeling raiding fleet was engaging the Equestrian escort ships, but they were out-numbered and this allowed one of the more nimble Changeling vessels to slip through and strike at the convoy itself, had Winter and his crew not intervened.

The sky wasn’t clear either, among the raiders was a single aircraft carrier sending out birds to protect their fleet from the Equestrian planes responding to the battle from the coast and to attack the convoy ships directly. Winter and the other submarines he was with weren’t safe either, they were on their way north to conduct raids of their own, but they were not expecting a fight and the enemy aircraft caught sight of them before they were in any position to attack.

Seeing the threat the Carrier posed to the battle's success, Winter scanned the water for any hint of the carrier’s position. He looked to the left, to the right and even to the sky in what capacity he could to locate it.

He was getting nervous being on the surface for so long, but just a moment before he planned to signal another dive and relocate he saw it. Positioned almost directly between them and the searing summer sun, behind the waves of heat rising to meet the sky, was the Changeling carrier sending off another wave of planes. Freshly armed and ready to cause problems for them and their allies.

“Let’s make our torpedoes count, comrades! Load the full six and await my command!” Winter barked once more, and once more the orders were echoed.

As the submarine turned to the west and began its dive, a Changeling pilot made an attempt to destroy them with a burst of machine gun fire raining from above. The shots rang against the hull with some finding their way through the metal walls that protected them, with a vaguely feminine scream making its way through the submarine. “What’s the damage!? Are we okay!?” Winter yelled down to whoever could hear him.

“We’re patching the damage, Captain! But they hit our radio, Ida is dazed but okay!” the submarine’s cook, a yellow-coated giant of a pony named Butter Ball, replied.

The mood inside the submarine was tense as it glided underneath the battle, weaving like a snake in the water to avoid passing directly under any ship on the surface. Whenever a piece of sinking debris would hit the hull it would cause at least one of the nearby crew members to flinch, but nobody made a sound. The crew were well aware that the enemy knew there were submarines in the battle and that they would be checking their sonar radars constantly, and without a radio, there was no guarantee that allied ships would know to ignore them.

Nobody dared to even whisper.

They waited and waited, every minute felt like ten as everyone on-board readied themselves for the moment they would rise from the sea. Many wondered if they would be lucky enough to survive a third resurface, not knowing that their Captain planned on targeting one of the most protected ships in the enemy fleet.

Winter himself was filled with a grim determination as he guided his vessel onward, in his eyes the issue wasn’t in lining up a shot it was getting away; any damage they take could be fatal and there was no way to know who’d see them once they surfaced. He had to make this count. Everybody on board had to play their roles perfectly or they’d likely join the wrecks at the bottom of the sea.

Everyone knew the time had come once the ballast tanks began to drain, the faint sound of the submarine pushing the water aside as it rushed to the surface accompanied the action, and within moments the submarine was once again on the surface facing the aircraft carrier's left side. Winter quickly brought their prey into view and screamed, “Launch the torpedoes and reload all chambers!” in hopes the order wouldn’t even need to be echoed.

Almost as soon as the order was given, the six torpedoes were on their way to the enemy vessel. Winter watched with a mix of fear and anticipation as the enemy carrier attempted to evade but a pair of explosions highlighted the result, they were not lucky enough to catch them completely unaware but they were lucky enough to score 2 hits of the 6 they fired, one hit the side of the carrier and one directly hit the rear, damaging the ships propellers.

All reason in his mind told him to dive, but a golden opportunity had been laid in front of him. The carrier could no longer dodge, and his crew had been reloading as the first attack travelled.

Winter centred his aim and then practically dove to the ladder hatch and yelled, “Hit them with all six! Faster, faster!” and the submarine erupted into yells of encouragement, going straight to the torpedo bay and pushing them to finish their work with haste. Seconds later the torpedoes were away and the Changelings response to their bravery arrived precisely on the moment the last pair of torpedoes left their chambers.

Shots rang against the hull as the submarine moved to hide beneath the waves once more. Winter could only hope it was worth it, almost relaxing as the waves finally consumed their vessel and the thoughts of escape dared to enter his mind.

But one Changeling Pilot had other ideas, ever since he heard enemy submarines were active he had been holding on to a payload on depth charges just for them. He had already been banged up by anti-air attacks, and was returning to the carrier for repairs when the first 2 explosions caught his attention.

It didn’t take him long to spot the trail coming from the submarine’s movement and to bring his plane on a direct course to the submarine that was attacking his friends, he was too far to stop the last volley the submarine unleashed but he would make sure they regretted it.

The pilot found himself cursing the sun itself as its shimmering reflection in the water obscured his target; as he flew over the retreating submarine’s path he used every ounce of talent he had to try and guarantee his charges would hit their mark.

Every hope of a safe retreat was shattered once the bombs rang against the hull, the pilot was only slightly off but it was enough to crack into the hull in the section opposite the engine room, causing problems with the propellers and sending Winter into a wall with the force, knocking him unconscious.

The crew jumped into action, lifting themselves off the floor and regaining their balance to seal the section off and protect the submarine from completely flooding, trapping the engine crew in the back to contend with the engine problems.

As everyone scrambled to assess damages and make sure nobody was seriously injured the executive officer, a pale green coated Pegasus called Maxim Greysky, climbed up into the viewport room to check on Winter. He found him completely out cold and unresponsive to his attempts at waking him up, after examining the room to make sure there was no risk of a breach occurring and then made his way back down the ladder.

He called out for a report of the damages to the submarine, and every one painted a dire picture. Aside from the hull breach and the engine crew being stranded in their own section trying to keep the propellers from falling apart, the hull was creaking with strain from the water pressure and some of the crew were injured by rivets flying out like bullets when the bombs were hitting them. They would not be able to stay submerged for long in these conditions, and with the battle still raging above there was no telling what would happen when they were forced to surface.

With no way to communicate with the engine room there was no telling how long they could keep limping through the sea, they could only hope it was long enough to make it to relative safety. Every time the engine stopped, panic rose amongst the crew until the engine chugged back to life. Maxim did his best to keep morale up, but everyone knew it was only a matter of time before the engines died and Up was the only place they’d be able to go.

The hull continued to sing its painful tune with some of the injured crew occasionally singing with it.

The engine would stop, and start, and stop, and start. The stress and anticipation diluted the passage of time and made their journey through Tartarus as long as possible but soon the submarine couldn't take the stress any more. With a loud ping, another bolt flew from its socket and the hull began to sing a louder, more desperate tune.

“Empty the ballasts! Its now or never! C’mon!” Maxim cried out, scrambling the crew to work as he climbed back into the viewport. He watched from the windows as they rose, listened as the hull threatened to break at any moment, and bit his lip in anticipation.

Would they make it? Would they appear among enemies, or friends? Would they even be recognised as friends? The questions were enough to drive him mad.

And when the merciful moment of their surfacing came he raced to climb out of the submarine to surrender, or try to signal whoever they were about to meet to not shoot them or try to blow them up. Once his head finally stuck out the submarine's top hatch, he saw a destroyer passing them by mere meters away.

Maxim looked up towards the deck to see a dozen ponies looking down at him with curiosity and surprise, he was about to yell to them that they were friendly but even before he could some of the destroyer’s crew began to salute him as they raced by towards their destination.

He took in his surroundings once more, behind the submarine was the battle they had left. By some miracle they had made it a few miles away from the nearest ship in combat, with no concept of time they had travelled far further than they needed to.

They were completely surrounded by a fleet of Equestrian ships racing to the battle. Maxim began to ponder why the Equestrian’s were so quick to deem them friendly even before he showed his face. His thoughts were quickly answered when the sound of the bright red flag of Stalliongrad fluttering at the front of the submarine took his attention.

With an exhausted smile forming on his face, he climbed back down the ladder and began informing the crew that all they had to do now was reach land without sinking. With the worst out of the way, many of the crew began to let out sighs of relief and even a little laughter as Maxim made his way out of the submarine to finally wind down and get some air.

He didn’t get much time alone as the hatch into the sub slammed open and Captain Winter excitedly made his way down to the deck towards Maxim.

With a hearty laugh Winter shared a hug with Maxim, “Those ugly little flank kissers didn’t see that coming, did they my friend!” he said with an excited look on his face.

“Its a shame you slept through half of it.” Maxim said as the hug was released.

“A nap I won’t forget anytime soon.” He said with a smile as he rubbed the side of his head, recoiling a little when he made contact with the painful part of his head, a small amount of blood trickling downwards through his deep blue coat and somewhat staining his brown mane. Maxim quickly asked if he was okay, but was waved away by Winter.

The sound of the engine stopping caught their attention, it didn’t sound like a stall this time. Both watched as a pair of the engineers, recently freed from their engine room prison, climbed out of the sub and flew their way to the back to finally get a safe look at the damage the propellers took.

“I’m sure they’re glad to be spending such a nice day wet and frustrated.” Maxim stated with a chuckle, gazing towards the inviting glow of the Equestrian coast. “How are the injured?”

“They will be fine, comrade. They’ll be glad for the excuse to visit their families and friends after this, just in time for the summer festivals too.” Winter replied as he flicked his hat to dry it before continuing with his own question. “What about you, Maks? Your family doing okay?”

“They’ll be a glad to hear I survived this, I’m sure. With the sub looking like this I’m somewhat hopeful I have time to visit them and see my little colt after so long-” Maxim was cut off by yet another loud clang coming from the entry hatch.

“Ah! You see, Ida? I told you our senior officer’s were casually taking in the sun while we baked inside.” Butter exclaimed in a humorous way as his size forced him to squeeze out the hatch with Ida following after to join Winter and Maxim on the deck.

“And you didn’t bring any food, Comrade Butter?” Maxim teased.

“I thought about that, I did. But some little changeling sobaka put a couple giant holes through my stove.” Butter explained.

“And they managed to hit the only other important thing in the sub, our one bag of semechki.” Ida said slyly as she playfully nudged Butter with her shoulder.

“Us starving to death aside, what was that?” Winter asked upon seeing Ida’s playful mood.

“Butter, tell them how scared you were that I was going to die.” Ida teased.

Butter awkwardly shuffled away from Ida, deliberately looking away from the group before somewhat mumbling the words, “Eh, four out of ten.”

“Four!? You screamed like a mare!” Ida shouted, planting a playful hoof smack to Butter’s shoulder as Winter and Maxim watched with amusement written across their faces. “Well what’s a ten?”

“Clowns.” Butter replied under his breath as he turned to look at the group. He was met with Ida’s baffled expression, Maxim barely containing his own laughter and Winter stroking his beard with a grin saying more about his mistake than words could. Butter’s gaze darted between all 3 of his comrades as he scrambled some meagre defence. “C-Come on, have you seen a clown? They’re terrifying!”

“Clowns? Over my death?” Ida asked, readying herself to pounce if Butter’s next words were not satisfactory.

“Okay, okay I’ll give you a five, how’s that?” Butter replied, and like clockwork Ida launched herself at him. Wrapping her hooves around him for grip and then moving to violently rub his light brown mane.

Everyone was glad to still be alive, perhaps even more willing to express their feelings in Ida and Butter’s case, but as Winter looked at the distant coastline once more his smile slowly faded as he began to feel guilty.

He had nearly gotten himself and everyone in his charge killed, and he didn’t even know if it was worth it. He pondered his last moments of consciousness; picturing the scene unfold once more to try and find any way to convince himself that his last volley of torpedoes hit their mark, but there was no way for him to know. He had been so focussed on escape at the time.

He was brought out of his reminiscing by a tap to the shoulder from Maxim, holding a somewhat concerned expression. Realising he needn’t worry so much, his smile quickly returned as he gave Maxim a quick shrug before returning to the impromptu social gathering on his deck.

Roughly two hours passed as some of the other crew members joined them and their celebration when the situation below was more stable, with exception to the engineers who were working tirelessly to keep their engine chugging along. They had already informed Winter that they couldn’t be sure how much longer the engine could keep going, so while the others laughed and made what merry they could, he took his binoculars and scanned the coastline.

After a few moments he began to chuckle, “Some ponies, I swear.”

“What? What is it?” Maxim asked. Having the binoculars offered to him, he took a look at the coastline himself.
What he saw put a smile on his face. Sun-shaped balloon’s, colourful decorations, little colt’s and fillies running back and fourth playing in the sand and a few stalls with light smoke trails rising from them. The beach was host to a summer celebration. “Doesn’t look so bad, Captain. It must be a nice distraction, good for the little ones too.” he told Winter in amusement, as he handed the binoculars back.

Winter laughed in return, “That’s true. Though I hope its open-invitation, that’s going to have to be our landing spot.” He quickly called over a pair of his crew, ordering them to make the turn towards the beach, making it clear they should aim away from the centre where the merrymaker’s are.

“Its quite a contrast. Hours ago we were tempting fate, and just over there are ponies happily enjoying the day.” Maxim commented.

“I remember the time when the food crisis was finally coming to an end. I practically dragged my son and his family to a beach just like that. Watching the little ones run around without a care in the world was one of the most peaceful feelings.” Winter sighed, letting a brief pause settle between him and Maxim as they watched the beach get closer. “I think Comrade Vasiliy brought us into this war for ponies like them.”

Both were suddenly pushed to the side as Butter Ball forced his way between them, Maxim’s wings flaring up at almost falling over the side, “Of course that’s why! We can’t show ‘em how good our food is if they’re all wrapped up in cocoons! And with what the bugs let us get away with back there its no wonder the war’s going our way!” he shouted, inciting a few cheers behind them.

“If that slop you’ve been feeding us is what you call food, the Equestrian’s should be more afraid of you than the bugs!” Ida’s voice called out among the crowd, prompting Butter to swing back around and start marching back towards the crowd with ‘You didn’t just say that’ written all over his face.

It didn’t take much longer for them to become the star of the show to the merrymakers on the beach. Once it became clear they were going to land on the beach the first ones to the shore were the colt’s and fillies, joined soon after by the adults trying to keep them from going anywhere near the place the submarine was going to land.

To make sure they had enough speed to stay on the land the engines were sped up right before they hit the sand, the crew that lacked wings had all braced themselves beforehand while the few that didn’t just took flight momentarily. The sound of whirring and screeching emanated from the rear of the submarine for only a few moments before a loud snap signalled the failure of one propeller, with the second still spinning until they had safely made land.

“Hah! That’s my girl! Didn’t quit out on us even at the end.” Winter roared with a couple hoof-stomps on the hull beneath him.

Within moments of the submarine coming to a halt he heard a dozen little hooves splashing through the water, reminding himself to reign in his language, he turned to the little ponies as they came to a stop and started gawking at the submarine. “Look out! A pack of little sharks have come to get us!” Winter called out, with Butter and some of the crew joining in with playfully playing scared as the young ponies smiled up at them and laughed.

And then the next harrowing battle began.

“Can we see inside?” asked a purple filly.

“You have some funny hats.” said the biggest colt in the group, wearing a small cone party hat with little suns all over it.

“Why are there holes all over it?” asked the cyan coated colt.

“Look at that big hole up there!” yelled a filly, pointing her hoof towards a hole that nearly sank the submarine.

“Woooow, how did they not sink?” questioned the green filly as she gawked at the crack in the submarine.

“Where are you from? I wanna know!” asked another filly.

“I hope we’re allowed to go in.” a colt said to his friend as they both vibrated with excitement.

“Do you wanna join our party?” a pink filly asked politely, visually more reserved than the others.

“Some of them look hurt…” one filly commented before nearly being pushed face first into the water by another, less worried yellow colt.

“Do you like sunflowers, you like them right?” yelled the yellow colt in question.

“Let us see! Let us see!” asked a particularly lively colt, hopping with excitement as he asked.

“Ah, I’m sorry little ones. Our sub is a little too dangerous for you at the moment.” Winter told them, prompting the group to pout and audibly ‘Awww’ in disappointment.

“But! Which of you asked us to join your big celebration?” Winter asked excitedly, quickly seeing a little hoof raise up with a few hops for emphasis. “You had a great idea, we’d all love to join in. Go ask your parents for us, yes?”

And off the group ran, all collectively going to their elders who had thus far refrained from entering the water. They were held back from returning, but a couple of pegasi from the beach crowd flew over to see what was going on.

After explaining their situation to the pair of pegasi and making a request for both medical aid for the injured and a place where they could inform their allies of their situation, they were offered a place at the faire if anyone on board wanted to participate while they waited as a gesture of thanks. The pair of pegasi then briefly flew back to the beach before splitting up and flying in two directions further inland.

The crew were more than ready to step their hoofs onto land after the events earlier in the day, and soon after they had arrived at the beach the faire saw Stalliongradian Navy uniforms mixing in with the much more appropriate summer clothing and decorations of the Equestrians.

Only minutes after they arrived a loud gasp came from the beach tent that handled all the cooking, causing many of the ponies near it to turn their heads. “Noooo… what horror have I just witnessed!?” Butter exclaimed as he quickly moved around the counter they had set up and slid a tray with a fair amount of potato peels on it towards himself. “My Grandma would smack me with her rolling pin if she caught me throwing these away like that! Here, let me show you something!” Butter said with excitement as he began looking through all the food produce they had with them.

“These peels are not waste, no, they are a wonderful snack and an even better meal! They are washed, yes?” Butter asked the cook, who replied with a quick nod. “Good! Cut up an onion and some garlic into small pieces for me while I get a pan ready.” And so the two quickly took to their tasks, and once an onion was cut and the pan was lubricated with a little butter, the bigger Butter continued his lesson.

“First, we warm up the onion until its a little brown.” Butter’s slid the cut-up onion neatly into the pain, tossing it around for a minute until it met his first requirement.

“Next, we add in our fabulous little peels and toss them around too! Just to let the flavours mix.” he said, enthusiastically tossing the contents of the pan some more.

“And now, we add these well cut garlic bits in with a bit of salt and pepper for good measure…” Once the last of his ingredients were in Butter continued moving and tossing the ingredients about for a couple minutes more, once he was satisfied he sat a large plate down on the counter and neatly placed the contents of the pan on it.

“Aaaand, done! The perfect snack for a hot summer’s day like this, approved by dear old Grandma!” Butter proudly announced while gesturing to the crowd that had formed to come and taste it, of the initial group who did their surprised faces left Butter beaming with pride as more went over to give it a try.

Winter, Maxim and Ida simply watched Butter’s antics with amusement.

“You know the big guy won’t be happy if we don’t go over there, right?” Ida stated happily.

“Don’t remind me of the last time I skipped a meal, what a mess that was.” Maxim quickly replied, a pained loom on his face.

“Go ahead, both of you. Enjoy this summer faire while you can, I have to check on who’s left in the sub.” Winter said, giving Ida and Maxim a nod as he turned and began making his way back to the submarine. He found himself thinking on the absurdity of this day alone as he walked, they were truly lucky to have left the equivalent of Tartarus and end up in the most cheerful place imaginable.

His thoughts were interrupted by the approach of 3 pegasi in Equestrian Navy uniforms.

“Was this the rogue submarine we heard reports about earlier?” The lead pegasi asked.

“Sure sounds like us, the one that took a jab at the carrier?” Winter replied, turning his gaze to the sorry state of the submarine just a short distance away. “Bucker’s nearly got us for that one, as you can see.”

The 3 pegasi looked at each other and then gave Winter a quick salute. “If that was what you call a jab Captain, I would like to see you give it your all next time. That carrier is at the bottom of the ocean.” Another pegasi said.

“We have medical aid right behind us, and a radio truck is on its way as well. It might be a while though.” The third chimed in.

Winter turned his gaze towards the faire to see his crew enjoying their time, then back to his scarred submarine as it laid motionless in the sand and finally up to the still vibrant red flag swaying gently in the wind as a smile formed on his face once more.

Captain Winter Loch turned to his pegasi friends and said, “You colts seem interested enough, let me tell you a tale about the submarine that swam through Tartarus so they wouldn’t miss the local summer faire.” with the fullest intent on fluffing up the tale to make up for the part he missed.