Beneath a Sea of Blood

Chapters

Once Upon A Time...
Bullies
Doormat
Graduation Day
The Briefing
Setting Off
Intrusions

Once Upon A Time...

Author's Note

*This story takes place in an era analogous to the Second World War, with corresponding levels of technology, albiet with some liberties taken for story purposes.

*All characters are unguligrade anthros. (Example)

*When needed, the names and/or classes of certain ships will be linked to show the real-life vessel it is based on.

*The 'Blood' saga is a single story told from three different perspectives; this book covers the first.

Once Upon A Time...

“Fear evil like fire. Don’t let it touch your heart, even if it seems just or righteous. No matter what the circumstances, don’t let it come into you. Evil is always evil”
John Sergieff

***

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled together and created harmony for all the land. The eldest used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn; the younger brought out the moon to begin the night. But as time went on, the younger sister became resentful, for the ponies relished and played in the day her elder sister brought forth, but shunned and slept through her beautiful night. One fateful day, the bitterness in the younger sister's heart transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness: Nightmare Moon, who vowed to shroud the land in eternal night.

Reluctantly, the elder sister harnessed the most powerful magic known to ponydom—the Elements of Harmony—and with it defeated her younger sister, permanently banishing her in the moon. And for a thousand years, Equestria knew peace.

But that peace was not to last.

With the help of her devoted followers, Nightmare Moon managed to escape her prison and declare war on all ponykind. For over a century, the forces of the sun fought for freedom, peace, and harmony, while the forces of the night battled for dominion, control, and power.

Though the forces of the sun held Nightmare Moon at bay for a time, their numbers were gradually depleted through countless campaigns and disastrous defeats. Many feared that, should Nightmare Moon launch one final, overwhelming assault, they would be crushed, and nighttime eternal would begin.

They were right to be afraid.

Bullies

The moon’s cold light shined through the windows of the bus as it passed through another small town by the coast. From his seat at the back of the bus, Emerald Seas paid no heed to the light as he pulled out his pocket watch and checked the time. It was Eight PM, and barring any blown tires or road closures, the bus would arrive in Baltimare in about half an hour.

Slipping the watch back into the breast pocket of his suit, Emerald looked over the bus in search of something to distract him. There wasn’t much: all of the other passengers were at the front, mostly older ponies more interested in reaching their destination than engaging in idle chit chat. The bus driver was older as well, probably staying in the job long past retirement as a way to contribute what little he could to the war effort.

Perhaps, Emerald thought, the driver believed that on one of his drives, he’d carry the pony fated to defeat Nightmare Moon.

Beyond the bus, there wasn’t much to see, especially now as they entered a dense forest that would serve as the backdrop for the remainder of their journey: just a long, lonely road covered in cracks and surrounded by bushes and thick vegetation. While the headlights of the bus allowed the driver to see a far distance ahead, Emerald could see much further: as a thestral, his night vision was three times greater than that of non-thestral ponies. Perhaps, he figured, he could keep himself occupied by looking ahead to spot any deer, broken down cars, or other obstacles and call them out before the driver would see them.

There was movement behind the driver’s seat; two elderly mares sitting there were whispering to each other.

“What do we do if he tries something?” one of the mares asked.

“There’s more than enough of us; we could overpower him.”

“But what if he uses dark magic?!”

“Don’t be dumb. There’s three unicorns here; they’ll be able to stop him.”

The older of the two mares bit her lip. “Damn these batponies. Why can’t they just leave us alone and stick to their own kind? We’d all be better off without them!”

Her companion nodded, unable to resist the temptation to sneak a glance at Emerald.

She was surprised to see him staring back at her, his sensitive ears pivoted in their direction.

Without a word, the pony turned back to the front of the bus. Her companion looked back and realized that their every word had been heard, but she didn’t care. She met Emerald’s gaze, as if daring him to make a scene. Then she, too, turned away.

Emerald just stared at the two a moment longer, then leaned back in his seat.

The other ponies on the bus tried to pretend that nothing had happened.

***

The bus pulled into Baltimare’s main station a half hour later, where the passengers eagerly disembarked. Emerald was last, waiting until everyone was off before gathering his suitcase and leaving, the bus taking off the moment his hooves touched the sidewalk.

The streets around the bus stop were bustling as hundreds of ponies walked about. Though he had never been to Baltimare before, Emerald knew where to go and joined their numbers as he headed down the sidewalk, following the route he had memorized from a city map the day before.

There were no other thestrals on the streets as Emerald hurried along, ignoring the suspicious gazes of the ponies surrounding him.

Ten minutes passed before Emerald reached a large park. Dense and thick with bushes, trees, and vegetation, he hurried down the footpath, grateful that there were fewer ponies here. But even so, he remained on high alert: experience had taught him that bushes and vegetation provided plenty of places for troublemakers and bigoted ruffians to hide, especially this late at night.

It wasn’t long before towering stone walls rose from the grass, marking the boundary of Equestria’s main naval academy. Though there were numerous schools and training centers set up to take in recruits who wanted to enlist in Equestria’s navy, this was the largest and most prestigious, having gained a reputation for producing the best officers and captains. But the way inside was barred by a large, well-armored gate; as an important training base, security here was tight, and no one could just stroll inside as they pleased.

Emerald approached the guard station situation on the left side of the gate. The officer inside barely held his head aloft upon a rested arm, clearly struggling to stay awake. “Hello,” Emerald said. “Can you please direct me to the recruiting office?”

The officer hadn’t expected to see any thestrals during his shift, and he studied Emerald for a few moments. Emerald had no doubt the officer was wondering if he was an agent of Nightmare Moon seeking to infiltrate the navy and inflict untold damage on the brave souls fighting to keep the lunar empress’ forces at bay. (There was little doubt in Emerald’s mind that the officer—like the mares on the bus, and the patrons on the streets—viewed him with contempt; after all, thestrals were creatures of the night, and were unwaveringly loyal to Nightmare Moon.

The officer finally pointed wordlessly to a small door embedded on the far side of the wall on the opposite side of the gate.

“Thank you.”

Ignoring the guard’s stares, Emerald made his way to the indicated door. Opening it, he entered into a recruiting office filled with banners, flags, posters, pamphlets, and brochures, all designed to present the navy in the best possible light, each making life as sea look exciting and fun for anyone who wanted to join up with their friends and go on adventures while serving their country.

There was a suspicious lack of warnings about the hazards any would-be enlistee would face out on the open seas.

There were numerous desks where officers talked with interested recruits. Going to the nearest empty desk, Emerald nodded to the recruiter behind it. “Hello. I’d like to enlist in the Navy, please.”

Like the officer in the guard post, the recruiter was surprised to see a thestral. He was silent for a few moments before gesturing for Emerald to take a seat, which he did.

Taking a pen, the officer pulled up a blank recruitment sheet. “Name?”

“Emerald Seas.”

The recruiter wrote the name down. “Age?”

“Twenty.”

More scribbling. “Family?”

“None.”

“What happened to them?”

“They’re dead.”

A pause, and the recruiter wrote more notes. Emerald thought to ask if the recruiter was wondering if his family had joined up with Nightmare Moon as almost all thestrals did, but decided against it.

“May I see some identification, please?”

Emerald presented his government-issued ID card. The recruiter took it and studied it, taking his sweet time in examining every letter, number, and mark upon the plastic backing.

Emerald waited.

Nearby, another recruiter took a pony’s card, looked it over for a moment, then gave it back.

Emerald’s recruiter turned the card over, studied the back, then finally gave it back and checked a mark on the form. “What division do you want to enter?”

“The submarine service.”

“Any particular reason?”

“My father was a submarine captain. I’d like to follow in his hoofsteps.”

“Was he a thestral?”

“Yes.”

If the recruiter had any snide remarks or suspicious comments, he kept them to himself as he wrote down more information, stamped the form, and tore off a ticket from a nearby reel. “Basic training begins tomorrow at 0800 hours. Arrive here at 0730, present this ticket, and an officer will direct you where to go.”

He gave Emerald the ticket. “Welcome to the navy, Emerald Seas.”

***

Being recruited wasn’t the ecstatic experience Emerald had hoped it would be. While he hadn’t expected to be overflowing with happiness upon being accepted, or that he’d feel a surge of patriotism swelling up within him at taking the most important step of his life, it would have been pleasant to feel something, at least.

He wondered if his father had felt the same way when he had started his own journey so long ago.

With his ticket in hand, Emerald looked up to the moon, cold and pale as bone in the night sky. I’m coming for you, tyrant, he thought.

Putting the ticket into his wallet, Emerald retraced his steps back through the park, keeping to the well-lit pathway. He needed to find a room for the night, and his research had revealed the presence of a nearby hotel that tolerated thestrals. If he hurried, he could—

Emerald stopped. He thought he had heard something in the nearby bushes and quietly listened, his heartbeat racing as his ears swiveled about.

Nothing.

When he felt safe enough to move once more, Emerald started back down the pathway.

The sound came again.

Freezing, Emerald looked around, his body tense and ready to bolt. But no aggressor leapt out at him, nor was there any rustling from the nearby bushes that would suggest someone trying to conceal themselves. Instead, he heard voices. They were distant, muted, and hard to hear, but Emerald could tell they weren’t friendly.

Emerald looked around; there were no police in sight, let alone anyone he could turn to for help. The safest thing to do was to get the hell out of here as fast as he could… and yet, there were other noises mixed with the voices that reminded him of something: someone being bullied, mugged, or worse.

It was a sound Emerald knew all too well.

Stashing his suitcase in a nearby bush, Emerald slipped through the shrubbery, sticking to the shadows as he silently hurried towards the sounds. He didn’t need to go far before a large statue came into view with several ponies clad in cadet uniforms gathered at its base, encircling a lone figure standing in their midst.

“That’s right, fruitsucker,” one of the ponies growled, “keep quiet and you won’t get hurt.”

Emerald instinctively went still, a subconscious scowl forming on his face.

“Me and the boys saw you coming out of the recruitment office last night,” another pony said. “You really think you can come in here and work with us? With our kind?”

A third pony spoke up. “You’re here to spy on us for Nightmare Moon!”

“Oh yeah,” a female voice spat back. “She sent me here to find out how dangerous you all are.”

“And what are you gonna tell her?”

“That if Equestria’s navy is full of morons like you, she has nothing to worry about.”

Flesh hit flesh, and the figure fell against the statue with a thud.

This wasn’t Emerald’s fight. He hadn’t been discovered by the bullies; it’d be easy to sneak back through the bushes, return to the path, and just walk away. He had no stake in this, and plenty to lose if he interfered. Part of him wanted to: childhood experience had taught him that trying to stop bullies always ended painfully… but if his father were here, and if he were watching, he would be disgusted to see his son leave an innocent to get hurt, especially if they were another thestral.

Biting his lip, Emerald turned and looked back towards the path, hoping beyond hope to see some police walking past. There were none.

“You’ve got a big mouth,” the group’s leader said. “And big fangs, too… What do you say, guys?”

Emerald heard something metallic being pulled from a pocket.

“You think a de-fanged fruitsucker’s dangerous?”

The others chuckled.

There was no time to run for help; he had to interfere. The problem was that there were ten cadets at the statue: if Emerald charged in and started swinging, he might catch a few of them off guard and get a few lucky hits in, but he would definitely be overwhelmed by sheer numbers. And when the authorities would eventually get involved, they would give more weight to the words of the cadets, who would no doubt say that two crazed thestrals attacked them for no reason. Talking to the cadets to try and diffuse the situation wouldn’t work either; Emerald knew all too well that bullies never listened to reason when they were in the mood for blood. He couldn’t threaten them, for he had nothing to back up any threat or show of force.

A direct confrontation was obviously out, which meant Emerald was left with only one course of action: divide and conquer.

Looking down, Emerald saw numerous pebbles and small rocks on the grass next to his hooves; none were large enough to cause injury beyond a momentary sting, but that was good; he’d toss one pebble, then dart around and hit another bully from a different angle. They’d break up to try and find who was attacking them, and give Emerald enough time to dart in, grab their victim, and dash to safety.

Taking a pebble, Emerald took aim. He’d have just one chance to pull this off—

His ear twitched at the sound of hoofsteps, this time behind him.

Spinning to face the sound of the approaching steps, Emerald instinctively ducked deeper into the shadows. He squinted, peering through the bushes. There was a small group of uniformed ponies walking down the path: five heavily-armed military police ponies surrounding what looked like a high-ranking officer. The officer was dressed in the white, crisp, clean uniform of an admiral, with fancy shoulder boards and numerous awards decorating his left breast pocket.

An… admiral? Emerald couldn’t believe his luck. Instinctively, Emerald thought to run towards the admiral, but immediately shelved the idea; if he squealed on those cadets, they would see him, remember him, and – assuming they weren’t expelled outright – they would take every opportunity to make Emerald’s time at the academy a living hell.

That left one option. Taking his pebble – and dumbfounded that he was really doing this – Emerald tossed it.

The pebble hit the admiral in the side; though it wasn’t enough to even sting him, the admiral felt the impact and instinctively turned around to spot his assailant. The MPs stopped too, instinctively raising their weapons.

“Admiral?” one asked. “What’s wrong?”

The admiral didn’t answer. He started towards the bushes.

“Admiral—”

Emerald stayed low and went perfectly still as the admiral and his escorts walked past him, and, as Emerald hoped, spotted the cadets.

“What’s going on here?”

The cadets turned to the newcomer, no doubt ready to snap at the interloper to mind their own business. Of course, once they saw who had spoken, their sneers and furrowed brows gave way to panic as they instinctively snapped to attention.

Their leader was very quick to hide a pair of pliers behind his back.

The admiral scowled. “I said, what is going on here?”

None of the cadets spoke, knowing that there was nothing they could say that would make them look good.

One of the cadets was shoved aside as their victim staggered out. She was a thestral like Emerald, dressed in dress pants and a thick, turtleneck sweater that had drops of blood on it from her bloody nose and cuts on her face. But she didn’t seem to mind; she was giddy at realizing the opportunity before her.

“Were these cadets harassing you, ma’am?” the admiral asked.

“Oh yeah,” the thestral said, “and this one—” she snatched the pliers from the hands of the cadets’ leader. “—wanted to pull my fangs out.” She walked over and handed the pliers to the admiral, who looked them over, then glared at the cadets.

“Officers,” the admiral said, “take these cadets to the brig.”

Three of the MPs approached the cadets and pulled them away from the mare. None of the cadets resisted, realizing that they may have just ruined their careers. Their leader, in particular, looked as if he wanted to die.

With the cadets and the MPs gone, the admiral and his remaining escorts turned their attention back to the thestral. “Rest assured, ma’am, these cadets will be punished for this,” the admiral said. “Would you be willing to offer an official testimony for the record?”

“With pleasure.”

“Very well.” The admiral paused, then spoke again without facing his intended audience. “Would the individual who hit me with that pebble please show yourself?”

A cold shiver of dread washed over his body as Emerald realized he had somehow been spotted. There was nothing to be gained by trying to call the admiral’s bluff—if it even was one—so he rose from the bushes and stepped forward, and prepared to accept his fate.

The two remaining MPs – shocked that they had walked past someone in the bushes without realizing he was there – hastily raised their guns, only for the admiral to grab hold and lower them. He was surprised to see another thestral and looked him over, noticing that while his suit had leaves and twigs on it, there were no bruises or blood streaking down his cheeks.

“Were those cadets harassing you?” the admiral asked.

“No, sir,” Emerald responded, unsure if he should stand at attention, salute, or even breathe.

“I assume you wanted to help your companion. Why not just come over and alert me?”

“Trying to stop the cadets myself would have been unwise,” Emerald said, his heart pounding. “I was outnumbered and would probably have been injured. The cadets wouldn’t have dared attack you though, and by remaining hidden, I ensured that they didn’t know who I was, and thus avoided any retaliation by them later on.”

The female thestral was impressed.

The admiral was silent as he studied Emerald.

“What’s your name?” The admiral asked.

“Emerald Seas.”

“Did you come here to apply to the academy?”

“Yes, Sir. I begin training tomorrow.”

“Any aspirations?”

“I’d like to become a submarine captain, sir.”

One of the admiral’s eyebrows raised itself ever so slightly. “I see… Now, normally I would escort this lady to the infirmary myself, but I am urgently needed elsewhere. Please take her there.” He adjusted his cap. “I look forward to seeing you two tomorrow.”

Without another word, the admiral headed back through the bushes, his escorts quickly following him.

Emerald simply stood, dumbfounded at the interaction that had just transpired. As far as first impressions with a high ranking officer went, that certainly could have been worse. Much worse. He caught movement out of the corner of his eye, breaking his trance—the female thestral mare was walking up to Emerald.

“You know, if you tossed a rock at that guy, you just technically assaulted an admiral. And not just any admiral, but the top dog. The big one. The head honcho.”

Emerald simply stared at her, puzzled.

The lady laughed. “Did you not seriously recognize him? That was Shining Armor, Fleet Admiral of Equestria’s navy!”

The color drained from Emerald’s face. “You… you’re serious?”

“Boy, you’re not all that bright, are you? I mean, you are if you were able to think all that through, but I thought you would have recognized him.”

Emerald wasn’t laughing. His companion was right: he had technically attacked the commander of Equestria’s navy. In any other situation, he would have been shot on sight or even sent to prison for decades, if not life, due to his species.

“Hey, no need to get so worked up,” The female thestral said, realizing how badly Emerald was taking her revelation. “He understood why you did it. In fact, I think you impressed him. So not only did you assault a fleet admiral, you impressed him by doing so. No one in the world can claim that!” She clapped Emerald on the shoulder. “Just wait until you tell your grandkids about that!”

“Well…” Emerald pondered,. “I guess you’re right.”

“I am right.” She wiped some blood from her snout.

“We’d better get you to the infirmary,” Emerald said.

“Oh, this? It’s nothing; I’ve been through worse.” She pointed to a long-healed scar next to her mouth. “That’s from a guy who wanted to extend my smile. Got plenty more I can show you when we’re not in class.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, if we’re both going to enlist in the navy, we’ll have to stick together, being batponies and all. Safety in numbers, you know?”

Emerald nodded; he couldn’t argue against that. And if word of the encounter spread through the base – which it inevitably would – there were bound to be retaliatory attacks by the more impetuous cadets. Staying with a fellow thestral would help reduce the chance of being jumped on the way to classes or when heading back to the barracks at the end of the day.

“And because you came to my rescue here, I look forward to returning the favor someday. Speaking of which, thanks for being my knight in shining armor.” The thestral chuckled. “You know, in addition to the actual Shining Armor.”

“It was the least I could do.”

The thestral smiled as she extended her hand. “I’m Diamond Waters, by the way.”

Emerald took her hand. “Emerald Seas. Pleased to meet you.”

Diamond shook, her grip strong and firm. “Pleased to meet you, Emerald."

Doormat

Emerald hurried down the cramped hall, tightening his captain’s jacket around himself as he instinctively ducked through the hatch and entered the submarine’s bridge.

”Captain on the bridge!” The comms officer called out upon Emerald’s entrance.

The senior officers, and other bridge crew present glanced his way, then turned their focus back to their stations as Emerald went to Steel Wheel, his first officer.

“What’s our status?” Emerald asked.

“We’ve got a fleet ahead of us, at least ten ships,.” Steel said.

“Convoy or assault?”

“Sonar suggests an assault fleet.”

“Alright; rise to periscope death.”

“We’re already there, sir.”

“Good; up periscope.”

With a barely-audible hiss, the sub’s periscope viewer descended from the ceiling. Flipping the handles into place, Emerald pressed his eyes to the lenses and took a look at the ships in the distance.

“Assault fleet,” Emerald announced. “Aircraft carrier and a battleship. Four cruisers and four destroyers for escort.”

“Orders, sir?”

Emerald considered his options. The battleship and aircraft carrier were tempting targets, sending even one to the bottom was a considerable blow to Nightmare Moon’s maritime capabilities; it was also well known that the tyrant loved her battleships, and the thought of her throwing a hissy fit at learning that one was now scrap metal on the ocean floor made Emerald smile… but the carrier was a more valuable target. The planes it carried could fly further than any shell hurled from a turret, and the bombs and torpedoes they carried were a serious threat to any vessel.

“Sir?” Steel asked.

“We’re going for the carrier.” Even without pulling away from the eyepiece, Emerald could feel his crew tensing up. “Fire a quick spread from the forward tubes at the carrier, turn around, fire another spread from the aft tubes towards any escorts, then dive as deep as we can. Battlestations.”

“Aye. All hands, battlestations.”

No alarms blared, but Emerald could feel his ship coming to life around him as the crew readied themselves, the senior officers relaying orders to the engine and torpedo rooms while staying as quiet as possible, years of training and practice allowing each of them to work together with the efficiency of a well-oiled machine.

“All engines, slow to one third,” Emerald said.

“All engines, one third, aye,” the pony at the speaking tubes said, then relayed the orders back to the engine room.

The subtle vibration beneath Emerald’s boots came to a near-stop.

Blinking to clear his vision, Emerald tapped a button on the side of the periscope, using the computing machine to calculate the distance, time, and angle to target.

“Torpedo room reports torpedo ready,” Steel Wheel said.

Now came the hardest part: Waiting for the fleet to get into position. Emerald’s submarine had been lucky to detect the fleet and be in the optimum position to attack. They just had to wait for the fleet to continue on, unaware that they were-—

“Conn, sonar; new contact!” Vinyl Scratch said from her station. “Bearing one eight zero!”

Emerald spun, turning the periscope until he was facing to the aft of the sub… but nothing was there. No ships, no planes, nothing but empty sea.

“Sonar, re-check readings. Make sure we—”

“Conn! Torpedoes in the water, torpedoes in the water! Three astern!”

Instinct and training took over as Emerald snapped the handles into place and sent the periscope viewer back up. “Emergency dive!”

“Diving!” Steel Wheel said.

The control room tilted as the sub headed down at its steepest angle, the ballast operators having ejected all ballast while the engine crew sent the engines into overdrive. Staying quiet had been thrown out in favor of going down as quickly as possible.

“Sonar!” Emerald yelled. “Time to impact?!”

“Fifteen seconds!”

Emerald gripped the nearest console. “Hard to starboard!”

“Hard to starboard, aye!”

The engines roared, trying to push them all into the sea’s dark embrace.

“Ten seconds to impact!” Vinyl said. “Five seconds!”

Emerald tightened his grip. They could still get clear; he knew how fast this sub could go, and—

There was a thunderous bang, and the control room shook. Water sprayed in from burst pipes in the bulkheads, drenching everyone as the lights went out. And in those few seconds, as he was hit by the bone-chilling cold of the water, Emerald had just one thought—

They had failed.

The water’s roar became overpowering, drowning everything out…

And then it stopped.

The lights snapped back on as the submarine leveled out. With a clang, the conning tower hatch opened, and someone climbed down.

“Congratulations, Captain,” Shining Armor said as he stepped onto the deck. “Your submarine has been destroyed, and everyone under your command is now dead.”

Emerald couldn’t bear to look the admiral in the eyes. “Yes, sir.”

“Tell me what happened.”

Taking a moment to bury his anger and his shame, Emerald replayed the attack in his mind, noting each individual detail and order he had given, all while trying to shut out the anger and disappointment from his fellow students at screwing this up.

“We were attacked from behind by an enemy submarine that had been tracking us,” Emerald said. “It likely fired one torpedo to make us panic and dive, and then fired three more at a deeper depth to hit us as we dived, spreading them apart to account for us going to port or starboard, and accounting for our speed in an emergency dive.”

The admiral nodded. “That’s exactly what happened. And now that you’ve been sunk, you’ll know to keep a closer eye on your sonar in your next engagement… as will your sonar operator.”

Wishing that she could become invisible, Vinyl Scratch slouched in her chair, trying not to draw attention to herself.

Shining surveyed the miserable, water-soaked students around him. “You’ve heard this before, and you’ll hear it again: the more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle. The more you fail here, the more you learn. The more you learn, the better you get. And the better you get, the better you will be when you all finally go to sea. Do not be ashamed of failure; be grateful for it. Now, dry off, clean up, and we’ll do another run tomorrow morning. Dismissed.”

Shining Armor headed back up the ladder, leaving everyone to get up from their stations, wipe the water from their manes, and silently make their way to the exit. Only Emerald remained where he was, not looking at anyone or anything, his body shaking.

With a bang audible to everyone in the room, he slammed a fist into the console.

***

As was customary for all aspiring submarine captains, Emerald waited until all of his fellow students left the simulator before he walked across the gangplank and stepped onto solid ground, leaving the training submarine to lie within its cradle of pumps and gears that allowed it to move about and simulate being at sea with perfect accuracy. His clothes had aired out to the point that he was now just damp instead of wet, and Emerald wanted to head straight for the showers and let the hot water wash away the gunk and grime on his skin and in his soul, but one of his fellow cadets had waited for him.

“Let me guess,” Emerald said with a flat voice. “You’re the one who sank me.”

Diamond beamed.

“One day, Diamond,” Emerald said, “you’re going to be the one getting drenched.”

“In your dreams”

Emerald didn’t answer.

“Hey, it’s like the admiral says: Don’t be ashamed of failure. One day, you’ll be… almost as good as me! Now, come on, I’ll get you some ice cream to cheer you up.”

“I’m not in the mood,” Emerald said.

“Which is exactly why you need a pick-me-up. Besides, are you really going to pass up on free ice cream?”

***

Being Equestria’s biggest naval academy, Baltimare’s naval base was busy twenty four hours a day with students going to and from classes; ships coming and going on various missions and exercises; and administrative staff attending various meetings and briefings. In such a sea of hurried activity, there were still a few places one could find refuge from the demands of the navy if one knew where to look; one of them being the academy’s ice cream parlor. Also standing as one of the few places on the grounds that served to bring everyone together regardless of rank or status, the parlor was always bustling with activity, making it all the more surprising for it to be largely empty as Emerald and Diamond approached it.

“Well, this is your lucky day,” Diamond said as she opened the door and went inside. “Now, I know you want to drown your sorrows, but let’s just settle for a single scoop, not a tub, okay?” She went to the self-serve counter and got herself two scoops.

“Didn’t you just say one scoop only?”

“For you. Me? I’m celebrating another win.” Chuckling, Diamond patted her well-toned chest as she handed her bits to the clerk behind the counter. “That’s something the higher-ups should say in all those recruitment ads: PT and training burns off ice cream faster than you can eat it!”

Emerald said nothing as he got a single scoop of cotton candy ice cream and joined Diamond at a booth near the windows. Taking his spoon, he started to eat.

“Man, that loss must have really gotten to you,” Diamond said. “You’re usually never this quiet.”

“Just disappointed, that’s all,” Emerald said.

“I think it’s more than that,” Diamond said. “You do a good job of hiding it, but I see how much you hate to lose. I think everyone else sees it, too, and it’s been getting worse these past few months.” She took a big bite of her ice cream. “Don’t worry; finals are still a year away. Plenty of time for you to catch up to me.”

“Being too confident will come back to bite you,” Emerald pointed out.

“Yeah, but remember, submarine warfare is a game of deception, and that includes acting cocky to lure your opponent into a false sense of complacency. Make them think you’re rash, and the moment they lower their guard… pow! Torpedo right up the bow.”

Emerald took a spoonful of his ice cream, savoring the taste, focusing his attention on the flavorful, delicious sweetness as the cream melted on his tongue. “It’s not that I want to be better than you,” he said. “Or anyone else.”

Diamond listened, puzzled.

“Did I ever tell you who my father was?” Emerald asked.

Diamond shook her head.

“Steel Prow.”

“No way… really?! The Steel Prow? Greatest submarine captain Equestria’s ever seen?!”

Emerald nodded.

“Holy shit, Emerald… so that’s why you joined the navy? To make him proud?”

“Something like that.” Emerald took another scoop of his ice cream. “You know, I never wanted to join the navy when I was growing up. Dad was always out on patrol; I saw how worried Mom was, how she got grey hairs in her mane decades before she should have. I didn’t want her to worry about me if I went out there.”

“Then why’d you change your mind?”

The door opened as four cadets came in and went to the counter. As they got their scoops, they looked over to Emerald and Diamond, none bothering to hide their disgust.

“I couldn’t just sit around and do nothing,” Emerald said, ignoring the cadets. “I had to do my part to help win the war, no matter what others thought of me.”

The cadets took a seat a few booths away. Emerald could feel their eyes boring into him, but he once again ignored them.

“I was hoping some of Dad’s greatness could rub off on me… but it hasn’t. He was at the top of his class within months, more so than you. I’m nowhere close to where he was.”

“You’re never going to be him,” Diamond said. “You shouldn’t even try.” She took a scoop of her own ice cream. “What about your mom?” Diamond asked. “I mean, she’s gotta be worried about you now.”

Emerald didn’t answer.

“Emerald?”

“She’s not worried about me,” Emerald said, his low tone warning Diamond that he didn’t want to talk about her.

The two ate their ice cream, both waiting for the awkward energy to dissipate.

“So,” Emerald said. “How many do you think are going to make it?”

“Make it?”

“Graduate from our class.”

“Oh, everyone. But if you’re talking about captains… Well, there’ll be me, obviously. A few others. You’ll be in there, no doubt. Everyone else should be good sailors. But you need to work on controlling your anger; the higher ups and everyone else don’t want a captain who loses his temper.”

Something hit Emerald in the forehead. He flinched, then calmed down at realizing it was just a plastic spoon. He brushed it aside.

“Hey!” Diamond turned to face the other cadets. “What’s your problem?!”

The cadets ignored her.

“I said, what’s your problem?!”

“Diamond, leave it,” Emerald said. He picked up the spoon and tossed it in a nearby trash can.

“You’re just going to take it?”

Emerald looked to the cadets, recognizing their cold, malevolent stares; countless bullies from school had watched him from afar with that same gaze, silently promising him that they were going to make his life a living hell the moment no one else was looking.

“Remember what we were taught: pick your battles wisely.”

“So you’re just going to let them win?”

“It was a spoon. It’s not worth getting so worked up over. Now, come on. Let’s just finish this outside.”

Diamond clearly wasn’t having any of it, as she shoved her own bowl to the side, got up, and stormed towards the others. “Hey, dirtbags,” she said. “You didn’t answer me earlier, so I’ll ask again: You got a problem?”

The four ignored her as they continued to eat.

“I think you do,” Diamond said, spreading her wings. “You’re afraid we’re gonna yell, ‘Hail the night!’ and try to suck your blood, don’t you? That we’ll—”

One of the cadets tossed his ice cream into Diamond’s face, got up, and headed for the door laughing. The other three did the same, shoving Diamond aside, knocking her to the floor.

Shaking, Diamond leapt to her feet wiping the ice cream from her muzzle. Emerald recognized the look on her face, immediately realizing what she intended to do.

“Diamond! Don’t—”

Grabbing the last cadet, Diamond threw him into a booth. Instantly, the other three ran back inside and tackled Diamond, ramming her into a table, knocking it, the accompanying chairs, and everyone to the floor, where they pummeled her, silently slamming their fists into her face.

In an instant, it was like Emerald was a child again: back in elementary school, the victim of another bully thinking they could harass and hurt a thestral and get away with it, knowing that they almost certainly would. But it wasn’t happening to him this time, but his friend—his only real friend in the entire academy. Back then, Emerald would have given anything to have someone come and save him. Nobody ever did, but now he could try to be the hero he never had.

“Stop it!” Emerald ran to the group, grabbed the cadet closest to him, yanking him off. “Don’t—”

A fist slammed into his snout, and Emerald staggered back, tripping on a chair and landing hard on the tiled floor. Blood dripped down his mouth and onto his uniform, but there was no shock, nor stunned silence at the realization that he had been hit. Instead, Emerald got back to his hooves, horrified at the sight of the cadets hammering Diamond again and again, their fists wet with blood.

There would be no stopping them, Emerald realized. Their anger and hate had taken over, and it could not be reasoned with. He had to do the one thing he had feared being forced to do, otherwise Diamond could be crippled, or even killed.

Grabbing the nearest chair, Emerald reared back and brought it down on the back of the pony who had punched him. The cadet yelled, stumbling away from Diamond, the blinding pain forcing him to stop his attack.

Emerald’s plan had worked. Unfortunately, it had worked too well, for the other three spun to face him.

Emerald only had time to thrust his makeshift weapon forward like a spear as the cadets charged. The chair hit the closest cadet, who seized and ripped it from his hands, then swung the chair in an attempt to hit him in the head. Ducking, Emerald countered with a punch to his attacker’s gut, only to reel from a hit from behind, dazing him. More hits landed, fists and chairs smashing into him, and he knew he had succeeded in his plan—their focus was on him, not Diamond.

He collapsed to the ground, blinded from the pain.

Something loud pierced through the air in the distance: a shrill, shrieking blast. Then there were sounds of yelling and shouting, followed by more shrill blasts. Through his blurred vision, Emerald saw his attackers be yanked away from him by officers dressed in military police uniforms. Another officer approached, kneeling beside Emerald, yelling… something. Emerald couldn’t make out what he was saying; his brain was too flooded with pain to interpret sounds. Thankfully, he could still see (barely), so he watched as two officers dragged Diamond to her hooves and out of the store, even as she fought to break free and claw at the cadets with her bloody hands.

***

“And you’re sure of that?”

“Yes, sir,” Emerald said. “Diamond went to confront the others. She…” He stopped, waiting for his headache to subside. “Sorry.”

“Take your time.”

When the pain faded enough, Emerald continued. “She asked what their problem was, and they threw their ice cream on her before trying to leave.”

“Then she attacked them.”

Emerald knew what telling the truth would do to Diamond’s career, but he had no choice. “Yes,” he said, “but they ganged up on her.”

Making a note of that, the MP continued. “One of the cadets said you attacked him.”

“I did. If the group kept attacking Diamond, they would either cripple or kill her, and I had to stop them.”

“I see… once you’ve recovered, we’ll need to cast a truth spell on you to confirm your account is accurate.”

“I understand.”

With one final note, the MP put his notepad into a pocket. “Thank you for your time, Mr. Seas.” He left the infirmary, leaving Emerald to lie back in his chair and gulp down another pain pill.

The door opened again as someone entered. Emerald opened his mouth to say that, no, he wasn’t ready for the spell yet, and for the caster to come back later, but his visitor wasn’t another military police officer. Scrambling, Emerald instinctively tried to stand up and give a salute.

“At ease, cadet,” Shining Armor said.

Relieved, Emerald sat back down.

“Care to explain what happened?”

Wishing that the pain pill would work faster, Emerald spent the next ten minutes explaining everything that transpired in the ice cream parlor, the admiral quietly listening without saying a word. When he finished, Emerald patiently waited as Shining Armor contemplated the story.

After a moment, Emerald decided to break the silence. “I am willing to submit to a truth spell.”

“Oh, I have no doubt that you’re telling the truth,” Shining said. “If it’s any consolation, the cadets who attacked you and Diamond will be charged with assault and expelled.”

It was of some consolation, yes, but Emerald could not shake a feeling of dread at the likelihood those cadets would somehow find a way back into the navy, then hunt him down for revenge. Justice for thestrals? That just didn’t happen. Not in Emerald’s experience, no matter what even the great Shining Armor may suggest. And speaking of justice…

“What about Diamond?” Emerald was certain that she would face a similar fate as well, though without any recourse.

Shining Armor sighed. “She is to be commended for standing up to bigots… but we can’t ignore the fact that she started the fight.”

“Is she going to be expelled?”

“No.”

Emerald sighed.

“But she will spend the next two months in the brig, and another five on probation,” Shining said, “and I will put you in for a commendation for trying to protect her, especially at such great risk to yourself.”

Emerald blankly stared at the wall, unsure how to take this all in. He didn’t want attention, but telling Shining Armor “no”? Non-thestrals simply didn’t understand what being put in the spotlight did to thestrals—you might as well paint a target on our backs. Yet, Shining Armor was different. Maybe he would understand his plight. Emerald had to decline, even if it jeopardized his chance for command. He inhaled and exhaled a deep breath, then sat up as straight as his battered body would allow.

“Permission to speak freely, Sir.”

“Of course.”

“I appreciate what you want to do, but I’d rather not be recognized for this,” Emerald said. “It’ll just put a target on my back.”

“Emerald, you’re working to become a submarine captain,” Shining said. “You are going to be noticed one way or another. You will have to get used to that.”

Emerald nodded, trying his best to hide his disappointment.

Sensing that his words didn’t have the encouraging effect he was going for, the admiral tried another way. “I’m aware that, as a thestral, you face a higher level of scrutiny than other cadets. I don’t know how much mistreatment you’ve endured in your life, Emerald, but the fact that you are going to become a captain and no one has tried to stop you shows that not everyone objects to you and Diamond being here.”

He came closer to the bed. “You’ve proven to me that you are a trustworthy and dependable captain. If the worst comes to worse, I will vouch for you against anyone who questions your capability.”

Shocked and surprised, Emerald found himself unable to answer; the admiral had never said anything like that to him.

“For now, just focus on getting better,” Shining said. “Take the rest of the day off, and check in with a nurse tomorrow morning. If she clears you, I look forward to seeing you back at the simulator.”

Then, with a salute, Shining Armor left, leaving a surprised Emerald to watch him go.

***

Like every naval installation, the Baltimare Naval Base had a detention center for personnel who committed crimes, caused a ruckus, or who had too much to drink off-hours and needed a place to sleep it off. Emerald was proud that he had never been to the building since enlisting, as he had fought hard to maintain a spotless disciplinary record, never giving anyone around him any excuse to call the MPs to haul him away for starting a fight, throwing a punch, or a myriad of other things that could end his career. But that didn’t ease the anxiety he felt as he walked up to the structure.

The brig was a large, imposing structure of grey, weathered concrete, with only a single door for personnel to go through. Doing so himself, Emerald wasn’t surprised to see that the waiting room was as dismal as the exterior with a polished concrete floor, drab concrete walls, and hard plastic seats to sit in. Only a few blue stripes on the walls provided any color or cheer as he went to the check-in area.

“Emerald Seas to visit Diamond Waters,” Emerald told the receptionist behind the reinforced glass.

The bored receptionist filled out the requisite paperwork for visitors, took Emerald’s personal belongings, and dispatched a large, muscular guard to guide him through the security checkpoints. One he was through, Emerald was then escorted into one of the prison’s two main wings, but instead of heading into a normal cell block, he was guided down a locked stairwell to the building’s high-security wing: a windowless place without even a splash of color on the walls, lit only by lights embedded in the ceiling. All the cells were empty, save for one at the end of the hall.

Sighing, Emerald looked at the guard, who simply stared wordlessly back, and made his way over and stood in front of the cell door. “Hello, Diamond.”

Diamond—now dressed in the tan uniform of an inmate instead of the vivid blue of a cadet—got off her bunk and went to the barred door.

Behind Emerald, the guard retreated a short distance away to give the two some privacy, while remaining just close enough to intervene should something nefarious happen.

“How are you doing?” Emerald asked.

Diamond let out a forced half-laugh. “Oh, I’m stuck in this cell inside a windowless building of concrete with nothing to do but stare at the walls, eat bread, drink water, and walk around in an enclosed courtyard for twenty minutes a day. Other than that, I’m just peachy.”

“I spoke with the admiral yesterday,” Emerald said, glad to see that Diamond’s sense of humor was still intact. “He said that the cadets who attacked you are going to be expelled.”

She smiled. “Well, that’s great.”

“You’ll also be glad to hear that you’re not going to be expelled.”

“Even better!”

“You’re lucky you weren’t.”

“Probably, but I’m too valuable for the higher-ups to kick me to the curb. I’m the best captain they’ve got here. They get rid of me, and who are they going to turn to, then? Fancy Comet? You?” She stopped herself. “No offense, by the way.”

Emerald shrugged. “None taken.”

“Point is, I’m too good. I’m too valuable. That’s my ace-in-the-hole, and the higher ups know it.”

“Did you have that in mind when you attacked those cadets?”

Diamond just smiled.

Aware that the guard was watching them, and that she didn’t have much in the way of patience, Emerald decided that he needed to move this along. “Well, I’ll come visit you when I can,” he said.

“Eh, don’t worry about me,” Diamond waved away his comment. “I can take care of myself. I’ve done my fair share of overnight stays in jails.”

“This is a little longer than overnight.”

“A night, two months, what’s the difference? Besides, now that I’m here, you’ll have the chance to actually win some of those simulations now.”

Emerald wasn’t impressed. “Maybe, but I won’t learn much going against people at my level. I need to be tested by those who are better.”

Diamond grinned. “Oh, don’t worry: I’ll keep putting you through your paces once I get out. But since you’re the only one who’s paid me a visit here, I’ll give you a little hint to help get you ready: If you want to win, you’ve got to do the unexpected. You gotta startle your opponent so much that it’ll buy you the second or two you need to act… Not gonna help you when you face me in the finals, though.”

“Oh, we’ll see. Still another year before that comes along.”

Reaching through the bars, Diamond patted Emerald on the shoulders. “You just keep telling yourself that... and calm down, missy. I’m just petting him.”

The guard had started towards the two when Diamond reached through the bars of her cell. Realizing that this could get ugly fast, Emerald raised his hand to indicate that everything was okay. The guard stopped, but didn’t retreat like she had before.

“Of course, the real hard part comes after we graduate,” Diamond said.

“We knew we were going to face combat when we enlisted,” Emerald pointed out.

“No, not that,” Diamond said. “I’m talking about everyone else: I’m betting half of the academy thinks we’re just biding our time until we can steal a sub and sail straight off to Nightmare Moon. Those losers in the shop thought so.” Diamond motioned to the guard. “You’re thinking that, too, right?”

The guard didn’t respond.

“You’re not helping yourself by antagonizing her,” Emerald said.

“But she’s thinking about it. I know she is. Everyone in this place is thinking it: all the other inmates get cushy cells with windows and daylight. Me? I get the worst cell in the place with nothing but electric lights.”

“Maybe it’s because thestrals favor darkness,” Emerald said.

“Don’t kid yourself, Emerald; nobody likes batponies, so they buried me down there. I’ve had it happen at every other jail I’ve been in.”

“That’s not true,” Emerald said. “If everyone hated us, we wouldn’t have gotten as far as we have. The admiral thinks highly of us.”

Diamond was silent.

“We’re showing them we can be trusted,” Emerald said. “We’re proving it.”

“But how long are we gonna have to do that? Until we graduate? Until we complete our first mission? Our tenth? Our twentieth?”

“Then that’s their problem,” Emerald said. “Not ours.”

Diamond stopped. “Why do you do it, Emerald?” she asked, and for once she wasn’t joking or making a snide observation.

“Do what?”

“Put up with all this? Let these ponies walk all over you?”

“Because I know that if I lose control even once, I’ll be written off.”

“But you’re a doormat! You—”

“I was violent back in grade school,” Emerald said. “I learned really quickly that fighting back led to expulsions, and I learned that most ponies don’t give us second chances. I learned that I had to always be the better one.”

“Really? You know what I learned on the streets? That everyone’s going to walk all over you unless you fight back. And guess what? I survived; I even made it here.”

Emerald tapped one of the bars. “And now you’re in here.”

“And I would do it all again before I let some bigot walk all over me.”

Emerald rubbed his face.

“What? Can’t stand the truth?”

“I’m worried that this temper of yours is going to get you into serious trouble one day.”

“It might,” Diamond admitted. “But I’ll pull through as I always have, and as I always will. You? I don’t think you could. The world walks all over you, and you let it. Bullies in school, then bullies on the base, and the bullies in the parlor.”

“I fought them,” Emerald pointed out.

“Yeah, after they beat me up. If you had helped me out and had my back, we could have made them leave before things got ugly. But no; you let them get their way. And if you don’t change, next time they’ll beat you within an inch of your life, and I won’t be there to help you.”

Going back to her bunk, Diamond lay down, her back turned to Emerald.

Emerald stood there for a few moments longer before sighing and turning away. He started towards the exit, letting the guard take the lead, the only sound in the cell block being the raps of her boots on the floor.

As they reached the entrance back to the entry hall, the guard glanced back at Emerald. She didn’t say anything, but Emerald knew she was wondering what he thought of Diamond’s words.

He didn’t meet the guard’s gaze—or anyone else’s—as he left the building.

Graduation Day

In all the time Emerald Seas had known Shining Armor, the admiral had never been one for displays of emotion beyond proud smiles, unreadable stares, or frowns of disapproval directed towards particularly dumb decisions made by bone-headed students. When graduation day came, Emerald had figured that the admiral would allow himself to smile, nod, and then politely step back to let his students have their celebrations. Yet, as Shining Armor now walked across the stage, dressed in his finest uniform, Emerald was surprised to see that the Admiral was beaming. Sparing a moment to look at his fellow graduates, Emerald saw that all of them were as surprised as he was.

Reaching the podium, Shining Armor took his spot and waited until the applause from all those in attendance died down. “Three years ago, I stood here to welcome you all to this academy,” he said, looking out across the sea of white uniforms and graduation caps, all lit by the amber glow of the setting sun. “I warned you about the endless drills, thousands of hours of study, and thousands of hours in practice in simulators that would see you be drenched, thrown about, and sunk so many times that you would lose count… not to mention waking up at 0500 every morning by particularly loud drill instructors.”

A few chuckles broke the crowd’s silence.

“These have been a difficult three years,” Shining continued, “but you all persevered. Through your own efforts, you have grown from unprepared rookies into fully qualified sailors, lieutenants, and captains. Our nation needs those who are ready and willing to defend our home from the lunar tyrant, and I know that all of you will carry that burden with honor, pride, and distinction.” His smile grew. “Therefore, it is my great honor and privilege to proclaim all of you ready for the seas, as the graduating class of 1095!”

With a thunderous cheer, the ponies around Emerald leapt to their hooves, hurling their caps into the air. And though the tradition had sounded silly to Emerald in the months leading up to this moment, he finally understood the euphoria he had heard so much about.

Gripping his cap, Emerald hurled it up into the sky, joining the hundreds of other caps and streamers fired from nearby party cannons, all accompanied by the naval band playing the official theme of Equestria’s navy. And though Emerald had heard it many, many times throughout the years, the music had never sounded sweeter.

***

When the cheers were over, and tossed caps retrieved, Equestria’s newest generation of seafaring ponies dispersed to celebrate their achievement. Most headed for the base’s biggest bar; numerous MPs were already stationed outside, as the bar’s operators knew how rowdy celebrations could get. In minutes, the party was already in full-swing: musicians were on stage, bartenders were handing out drinks left and right, and a few already-overwhelmed servers were practically hurling finger food into the crowds.

Diamond forced her way towards the bar, being none-too-gentle in her quest to get a drink, as Emerald trailed behind her. When she finally made it and procured the last remaining stool, she reached back and pulled Emerald over like a fisherpony yanking in her catch.

“Can you believe it, Emerald?! We did it!” Grabbing a large mug, she had it filled and chugged down the whole thing in one gulp. “No more tests! No more exams! No more late-night cramming!” Diamond banged the mug back onto the counter, waiting for the bartender to fill it.

“Don’t you think that’s a bit much?!” Emerald shouted above the music and the partying.

“You know me: I can outdrink anyone here on base!”

“Doesn’t mean you have to prove it!”

Chuckling, Diamond took her refilled mug and downed it.

With a frustrated groan, Emerald turned to look over the bar, searching for some of his classmates. If Steel Wheel was here, he might be able to persuade Diamond to keep her drinking to a minimum. Failing that, there were a few other level-headed types who could…

Emerald frowned; he recognized almost everyone here, but a few of his fellow captains were missing. He knew that they had been looking forward to this party for weeks, yet were now nowhere to be seen. Come to think of it, he hadn’t noticed them when walking away from the graduation area…

“Diamond?”

She didn’t hear him over the ruckus from the crowd.

“Diamond!”

With her third mug now filled, Diamond took another chug. If given the chance, she would continue to down mug after mug; Emerald had seen his friend outdrink even the most hardened captains and personnel who sought solace in the bottle after a hard patrol. With their first assignments beginning tomorrow, it wouldn’t do for her to show up sloshed and with a headache; the higher ups expected and allowed partying to mark one’s graduation, but wouldn’t tolerate being late or hungover when it was time to actually go to war.

The other captains could wait; Emerald realized that saving his friend from herself was more important. “Tell you what!” He yelled. “Why don’t we go get some ice cream?”

“And miss all the fun here?!”

“I’m sure there’ll be quite a crowd at the shop, too! And I heard whispers that, for one night only, they’re willing to sprinkle some booze over your ice cream.” That was a lie, but Diamond perked up at the thought.

“Sweet and boozy? What in tartarus are we waiting for?!”

The stool almost fell to the floor as Diamond dropped her mug, leapt off, and headed for the exit, once again aggressively shoving other graduates aside. Emerald hurried after her, hoping that his fellow graduates were either too sloshed or too happy to care about being pushed around.

Finally bursting through the door and stepping back outside, Emerald noticed that things were just as busy outside the tavern as they were inside it. All those who hadn’t been able to get inside were celebrating on the lawn and sidewalk: dancing, singing, playing impromptu games with their fellow graduates, and otherwise cutting loose after three years of nonstop study. Amidst all the chaos and celebration, quite a few of the MPs chose to eye Diamond and Emerald as they left the tavern. Out of caution, Emerald placed a hand on Diamond’s shoulder, to signal that she was in his care, and to indicate that he was the more responsible of the two. It seemed to work, as no one moved to intercept them.

“So, Captain…” Diamond chuckled, “what are you looking forward to most about getting your own ship?”

“Doing my part to bring this war to an end.”

“What about the glory, the honor, the medals?”

“I’ll take the war ending sooner rather than later.”

“Amen to that.” Diamond grinned. “Me? I’m looking forward to my enemies learning to fear my name. When they hear I’m on patrol, they’ll be scrambling over each other to surrender first. And when we become part of a wolfpack, I’ll make sure they don’t come after you.”

Now it was Emerald who smiled. “You mean you want to show off.”

“Yeah. But someone has to keep an eye on you. After all, you’ve looked out for me; it’s only fair that I return the favor.”

The distant cheers of graduates in nearby barracks drifted through the air.

“How are you doing?” Emerald asked.

“You mean, am I drunk? No.”

“Looked like you were trying to be.”

“Alright, maybe a little.”

“Why?”

“Well… this is a big step, you know. Leaving the safety of the simulators, going out there to the big, blue sea, where a mistake can kill you and everyone under your command.”

“That was more likely to happen in our open-sea trials.”

Diamond’s grin faded. “Yeah. But nobody was shooting at us, either.”

They kept walking.

“Do you think we’re ready, Emerald?” Diamond asked. “I mean… this is Nightmare Moon we’re talking about. Not even Celestia can beat her, and she’s been trying for over a century.” Looking around, as if afraid others would hear her, Diamond lowered her voice. “You ever think that maybe she can’t be beaten?”

“She’s not a god,” Emerald said. “She’s a pony. A powerful one, but not invincible.”

“So you’re not scared of her?”

“I didn’t say that.”

The sounds of the party back at the tavern had faded, only to be swiftly replaced by the sound of celebrations at the ice cream parlor. It wasn’t as crowded as the tavern, but that suited Emerald just fine; unlike Diamond and his fellow graduates, he wanted to mark his own graduation with something quieter, more intimate, and—

“Emerald? Can I ask you a question?”

“Of course.”

“A serious one.”

Emerald stopped.

Looking around, wanting no one else to be nearby, Diamond leaned in close. “Do you really think we can do this?”

“Of course we can. We’ve trained, studied, and—”

“No, no, not that. I mean, do you think we can defeat Nightmare Moon?”

“Why are you asking—”

Diamond grabbed him by the shoulders. “Do you think we can?”

Emerald was surprised at Diamond’s tone. He couldn’t remember the last time she had ever been this serious.

Diamond waited for his answer.

“Yes,” Emerald said. “Yes, I believe we can... Diamond, what’s wrong?”

She didn’t answer.

“If something’s wrong, you can tell me.”

Diamond looked around again, then gestured for Emerald to follow him into some nearby bushes.

“Diamond, what—”

Fed up, Diamond grabbed Emerald and dragged him into the leaves. “I think there are spies on base,” she whispered. “Spies from Nightmare Moon.”

“What—”

Diamond pressed her hand to Emerald’s mouth, silencing him. “I overheard some of the higher-ups earlier this week when I was getting something from the office: they think some of our classmates are actually agents of Moon, working to try and identify the most promising students so they could kill them.”

Emerald pulled Diamond’s hand away. “Diamond, that’s—”

“Did you notice how a few of them vanished after the graduation ceremony? How they weren’t at the party?”

Emerald nodded. “I did; Stormy Seas was looking forward to the party, but I haven’t seen him… Maybe they wanted to go meet with their families? And if they were trying to kill anyone, why didn’t they do it earlier?”

“Because they want to act when everyone’s guard is down!” Diamond shook her head. “Emerald, I didn’t want to believe this. I know it sounds insane, I really do, but what if it’s real? What if… what if they’re going after you?”

“Why would they?”

“Because you’re a captain. You’re someone who could do some real damage, and would be hard to replace if you’re taken out.”

“I doubt that; there’ll be more captains in next year’s class.”

Diamond didn’t find that funny in the slightest. “Don’t kid yourself; you’re Emerald Seas, son of the legendary submarine captain. You might as well wear a shirt with a target on it. And you’re also a batpony; that’s reason enough for these spies — if they exist — to hate you: a fruitsucker who chose Celestia instead of their god.”

Bringing up his hands, Emerald tried to calm things down. “But you’re more skilled than I am. You’re a more capable captain and can do more damage out there; you’d be a more tempting target.”

“Maybe. But our kind hates it when one of our own betrays our god…” Diamond bit her lip. “Emerald… You… you wouldn’t defect to Nightmare Moon would you?”

“What? Diamond, what are you—”

“Would you?”

Emerald scowled without realizing it. “Never.”

Diamond studied Emerald, her eyes narrowing. It was almost as if she was trying to look into his soul and discover if he was telling the truth.

Emerald locked eyes with hers, matching her gaze.

Satisfied, Diamond sighed, and broke her stare to look around. “Okay… Look, we need to do something. Now, I have a plan, but I can’t do it without your help.”

It would have been easy to tell Diamond that she was crazy, or that she had misheard the higher-ups. Even if she had heard the truth, then those higher-ups would have already moved against any suspected spies; it didn’t make sense that they would wait this long before doing so… but there was the possibility that Diamond was right about all this. Hot-headed she was, impulsive, and often reckless, but being a liar was not one of her flaws. She had never lied to him or given Emerald any reason to doubt anything she told him.

“Assuming you didn’t mishear anything,” Emerald said, “what do you want to do?”

Relieved, Diamond checked to make sure they were still alone. “If I wanted to kill someone and make a quick escape, I’d do it near the docks: I’ll head down there, take a look, and if I find someone, I go alert security.”

“No; we should go to the admiral,” Emerald said. “Let him know about this. He can—”

“There’s no time!” Diamond said. “The sooner we act, the better.”

“Diamond, if there are spies down there, we need soldiers down there, not unarmed graduates.

Diamond bit her lip, her temper threatening to flare up, but she managed to get it under control. “Okay… How about this? I’ll make it a quick in and out. Five minutes, tops. If I’m not back by then, you go alert the Admiral and tell him everything I’ve told you.”

“If the higher-ups think there’s a chance there are spies around, he would know.”

“And if his star pupil goes missing, that gives him a pretty good reason to act.”

Emerald’s gut was telling him to ignore Diamond and go straight to the Admiral. This was something to entrust to a high-ranking official, not a fellow captain. If something was happening in the dark, shining dozens of lights on it instead of just one was the smarter solution.

Diamond waited for Emerald’s answer, but she was impatient; angry, even.

“Alright, alright,” Emerald said. “But five minutes only. No more.”

Pleased, Diamond bought up her watch. “Let’s sync our watches. Once we start, you wait in the ice cream shop. There’s plenty of ponies in there, so no one’s likely to take you out there.”

Nodding, Emerald brought up his watch. “Just be careful, okay?”

Diamond smiled. “I will. Now, here we go. Three.. two… one… go.”

The two clicked their timers.

Without a word, Diamond turned and hurried from the bushes, jogging towards the massive warehouses in the distance.

***

When Emerald opened the door to the ice cream shop, he was hit by a wall of small talk, music, and spoons clinking against metal bowls. Thankfully, it wasn’t as loud as the tavern as he made his way in and took a seat next to a window.

He checked his watch—a minute had passed since Diamond had hurried off.

All the other students were partying, talking among themselves, having fun, and celebrating the end of their time at the academy. Emerald wasn’t the type to join in on their fun, being more content to watch from a distance, his gaze going from one student to the next.

Did anyone here have any loyalties to Nightmare Moon? Emerald wondered. Did they secretly admire her, wanting to join her cause? Had they been approached by her spies and sweet-talked into defecting? No, that couldn’t be… He knew these ponies. He had worked with them for three years and knew each of them personally. Could any spy keep up their facade for that long without making a mistake? Implausible… but, he hated to admit, not impossible.

Unaware of Emerald’s gaze, the other students got refills of ice cream and soda, determined to gorge themselves on as many sweets as possible.

Emerald shook his head; he couldn’t think like this. He knew these ponies, and he knew, knew in his heart that all of them despised Nightmare Moon and relished the thought of taking her down. They wouldn’t turn to her, wouldn’t help her, and would fight to the end against the lunar tyrant, and nothing would change his mind about that.

Turning away, Emerald rubbed his face, ashamed that he was actually thinking like this.

“Enjoying yourself, Captain?”

Looking up, Emerald saw that Steel Wheel had come over to the table. “I thought you’d be at the tavern with the others,” Emerald said.

“Alcohol’s not my thing,” Steel said.

“You prefer sugar to alcohol?”

“Yep.”

Steel gestured to the empty table. “Why don’t you have any?”

“I’ve got a lot on my mind.”

“Any worries you have can wait until tomorrow.”

Emerald shook his head. “No. They can’t.”

Concerned, Steel took a seat across from Emerald. “What’s got you so troubled that it leaves you in a sour mood on graduation day?”

Emerald really wasn’t in the mood for company, but turning his soon-to-be-formal executive officer away would only raise suspicion. Steel Wheel had spent countless hours working under Emerald in the simulator and had gotten to know his leadership style well, along with his moods and personality tics, which included whenever he was holding something back.

“Steel… have you ever noticed anything… suspicious around here?”

Steel frowned. “Like what?”

Could Steel be trusted? The two had worked together for so long, and Emerald knew his XO as well as Steel knew him. And in all that time, Steel had never shown any indication of being on Nightmare Moon’s side, or even thinking of doing so.

Emerald leaned in close. “Has anyone approached you about defecting to Nightmare Moon?”

Steel didn’t respond.

“I’ve heard that some of Nightmare Moon’s agents have infiltrated the school,” Emerald said. He kept his voice low. “Apparently, they’re going to kill anyone from our class who could be a threat to her.”

Steel didn’t speak, but Emerald saw him stiffen ever-so-slightly.

Emerald checked his watch; four minutes to go.

“What’s with the watch?”

“Diamond was the one who heard about these spies,” Emerald said. “She figured out where they’d try to make their escape and went to see if she’s right.” He tapped the glass surface of his watch. “If she didn’t come back in five minutes, she asked me to go find the admiral and let him know what’s going on.”

“Can you trust her?”

“Yes.”

Steel considered what he had just heard. “How much time is left?”

Emerald checked. “About four minutes.”

“And where did Diamond go?”

“The docks. She figured that if any spies were going to escape the base, that’s where they’d go.”

“Makes sense… but why now?”

“She thinks that they’d act tonight when everyone’s guard is down. We’d be much less likely to keep our eyes open for anything suspicious.”

“And have you seen anything that suggests she’s right?”

“Some of the captains vanished when the ceremony was over.”

“Yeah, I noticed that, too. Didn’t think anything of it.” Though he was still skeptical, Emerald could tell Steel was starting to realize that this plan – crazy as it was – could really be happening.

Emerald checked his watch again.

“How long?” Steel asked.

“About three minutes.”

Neither of them spoke, their eyes fixed on the watch.

Around them, their fellow students continued to talk, some brave souls going back for thirds, and a few foolhardy ones going back for fifths. None of them were aware of what Steel and Emerald were doing, still too high on joy and satisfaction to care even if they had noticed. Let the two sourpusses be unhappy while they partied and enjoyed the night.

The watch continued its countdown.

“One minute,” Emerald said.

Steel was still. Without moving his head, he was looking at the other students surrounding them; Emerald could tell he was wondering if anyone in here was really a spy.

Thirty seconds to go.

Emerald glanced out the window; the moon was extra-bright tonight, bathing the entire base in its cold brilliance.

Even here, Emerald thought, behind all these walls and defenses, Nightmare Moon was still trying to destroy him.

Ten seconds.

Emerald held his breath.

Five… four… three… two… one…

The countdown finished.

Two students cheered as a third chugged down two scoops of ice cream and immediately regretted it as brain freeze kicked in.

Looking out the windows, Emerald looked over the campus for any sign of something amiss. From the parlor, he had a clear view of the administration building, several warehouses near the harbor, and the wide, grassy lawns that separated them. But there was no sign of anything that was wrong. Aside from the talking and distant cheers from the tavern, it was a normal, quiet night.

Emerald rose from his seat.

“Where are you going?” Steel asked.

“To find the admiral.”

“You think he’s really going to believe this?”

“I don’t know,” Emerald admitted. “But I have to—”

The windows of the ice cream shop shattered as a shockwave slammed into the shop, hurling Emerald to the floor, his head smacking against the tile, sending a sharp, stabbing pain through his skull. The pain was so intense that he instinctively grabbed his head, unable to suppress the shriek of agony that tore itself from his throat.

More sounds filtered through the ringing in his ears, muffled and hard to hear: blood-curdling screams and the wailing of the dying.

Blinking, Emerald looked around, but his vision was blurred by the intense pain; he couldn’t make anything out except for smears of red, orange, and black. Still hissing from the pain, he pressed a palm to the floor to push himself up, only to stop as his hand was cut by something. He blinked again and realized that the floor was covered in shards of glass.

“Emerald?!”

Who… who was that? Steel… It was Steel Wheel.

“Emerald! Help me!”

Years of drills and training kicked in, and Emerald fought through the pain. He had to help Steel Wheel, and he couldn’t do it while lying on the ground. There was an overturned table nearby; he grabbed hold and pulled himself off the ground, glass shards crunching beneath his dress shoes. Emerald didn’t hear or feel them as he looked around, horrified at the carnage before him.

The interior of the ice cream shop had been blown apart: tables, chairs, students, and ice cream equipment all lay together in a tangled mess upon the floor, with the screams and groans of the wounded drowning out all other noises. A few cadets were howling in agony as they clawed at the shards of glass that had pierced their sides, their arms, and their eyes.

For a moment Emerald was too stunned to move. Then, remembering Steel, he turned and found his friend pinned under another table; his cheek, neck, and right shoulder pierced by dozens of glass slivers.

Rushing to his aid, Emerald grabbed the table and lifted it, allowing Steel to pull himself out. Once he was clear, Emerald let go, the table falling to the floor with a loud thud.

“What the hell was that?!” Steel yelled.

“What?!”

“I said, what happened?!” Steel yelled again, seemingly unaware of the glass that now pierced his body, but Emerald had no answers for him. Still numb with pain, he couldn’t make sense of it all; one moment he had been standing, and the next he was in pain on the floor.

Turning, Emerald looked outside and, in one heart-stopping moment, realized what had happened: Through the smoke and haze drifting through the air, half of the administration building now lay in ruins, ablaze in a fiery inferno as ponies fled from the structure, some collapsing, asphyxiating from the fumes, others falling and flailing as they burned alive. Other buildings were badly damaged too, blown apart by the concussive force of the explosion that burst out almost half a mile. In the distance, Emerald took note that the massive warehouses next to the docks were gone, their crumpled remains engulfed in a fire raging so brightly that it illuminated the entire base with flickering light.

Without thinking, Emerald leapt through the remains of the window and ran towards the warehouses, his own pain replaced by fear; Steel Wheel was yelling something behind him, but Emerald didn’t listen, for a single, all-consuming thought consumed him:

Diamond was somewhere in that inferno.

Crossing the lawn and darting past chunks of flaming debris, Emerald finally reached the warehouses, but his desperate sprint was halted by a wave of heat so intense that Emerald had no choice but to withdraw.

“Diamond!” He yelled. “Diamond!”

There was no reply, not that anyone would be able to hear him; his yells were swallowed up by the roar of the fire and screams of burning ponies falling to the grass as their skin melted off. Emerald tried again to get closer to the blaze, but the fire was simply too hot; if he tried going any further, his clothes would catch fire, and he would suffer the same fate as those poor ponies at the Administration building. Despite all logic pounding at him to step away, his friend – his only real friend – was somewhere inside that inferno. He had to give it his all.

With one last, desperate act, Emerald bolted toward the inferno again, only for his sense of personal preservation to kick in and drive him back—no amount of bravado or adrenaline would save his skin from the deadly heat or scorching flame.

“DIAMOND!”

His scream joined the sickening chorus of the screams from dying ponies, the wailing sirens of emergency vehicles, and the cackling roar of fire engulfing the base as embers and ash drifted up into the night sky, silhouetted from the light of the moon.

The Briefing

It had been three days since the destruction of the base’s docks and surrounding buildings, but the badly-damaged administrative headquarters bustled with ponies rushing in and out, some on official business, others working or orchestrate repairs. As Emerald walked up to the main entryway, he hardly noticed the crowds; they blurred together in a sea of uniforms that he absentmindedly navigated with little conscious thought, the sounds of boots, hooves, and anxious small-talk all a muffled and indistinct background noise.

As he drew closer to the doors, Emerald adjusted his uniform to try and make himself more presentable. He felt no pride as he buttoned up his jacket and straightened his hat; that was all done absentmindedly, his muscle memory honed from the previous ten thousand times he had adjusted his uniform. Instinct was the only thing that had kept Emerald going these past three days allowing the minutiae of minor tasks to run on autopilot, leaving his conscious attention to focus on the present moment and what was in front of him, giving no thought to the future, and especially not to the past.

Instinct was shielding him from the pain of losing his only true friend.

Reaching the building’s doors, Emerald passed through them wordlessly and stood silently as security blanketed him with their anti-changeling and weapon detection spells, taking twice as long with him as they would with other… ordinary ponies. When they finished, Emerald approached the reception counter, where overworked secretaries struggled to keep up with seemingly endless paperwork, and a persistent flow of personnel needing direction to their intended destination.

“Emerald Seas reporting as ordered,” Emerald told the nearest secretary.

“Who are you seeing?” the secretary asked without looking up.

“I wasn’t told.”

The secretary briefly glanced up at Emerald with a deadpan expression, pursed his lips, and let out a tired sigh. Quickly flipping through a planner, he scanned what looked to be a list of appointments for various officials. “Floor five, Room 101,” he said, immediately dismissing Emerald as he shifted to the next task that demanded his attention.

Leaving the counter, Emerald once again navigated through a shifting crowd of hundreds of ponies as he traversed the wide staircase. Emerging on the fifth floor, he made his way to his assigned room, finding it set within an alcove and guarded by four heavily-armed soldiers.

Emerald approached one of the guards. “Emerald Seas reporting for an eleven AM appointment,” he stated flatly.

Two of the soldiers kept their gazes on Emerald with their weapons held at the ready as the third checked a clipboard, comparing a photo of Emerald held upon it with the pony standing before her. The fourth soldier cast several spells to check Emerald for hidden weapons, enchantments, or to see if he was a changeling.

Emerald didn’t react to the four soldiers. It occurred to him that they would shoot him if they found any reason to do so. It also occurred to Emerald that he didn’t care.

The unicorn finished her spells. “He’s clean,” she said. Behind her, the soldier with the clipboard nodded, satisfied that Emerald was who he said he was. With that, the guards parted as the door was unlocked.

Without a word, Emerald entered the meeting room. It sported no decorations, windows, or vents; its walls were painted a simple, pale grey. At its center sat a table with no drawers, with two chairs at either end, and all three securely bolted to the floor so they couldn’t be moved or tampered with.

The door was closed behind Emerald and locked. As soon as the lock slipped into place all sound from outside died. It was so quiet that all Emerald could hear was his own breathing.

He took a seat at one end of the table and waited.

Not even one minute passed before the lock was undone, and the door opened once more. Two more soldiers entered, even more heavily armed and armored than the four posted outside. Similar to the others, they also scanned Emerald for weapons and to confirm that he was indeed a genuine pony, then took up posts in opposite corners of the room as a third pony entered the room. Unlike them, though, she was dressed not in combat gear, but in an outfit almost identical to Shining Armor’s dress uniform, though without any medals or distinctions, even though she had far more than he.

Despite his apathy, Emerald immediately realized who now appeared before him, and instinctively stood, snapped to attention, and saluted.

Princess Cadance looked Emerald over as she adjusted her tie. “At ease,” she said. “Emerald Seas, I am Princess Cadance, Secretary of Defense.” She extended a hand. Emerald took it, and was surprised at how strong her grip was. It was the grip of a warrior, not a princess who spent her days spreading love, sunshine, and rainbows everywhere she went.

Releasing her grip, Cadance gestured back at the chair Emerald had previously occupied. “Please, take a seat.”

Emerald did so, wondering why Shining Armor's wife—and one of the highest-ranking individuals in Equestria’s government—wanted to speak with him. Once he sat down, Cadance followed suit, sitting in the chair across the table and waved a hand, indicating for the guards to leave. They did so, locking the door behind them as they went.

Casting a spell to activate a silencing shield around them both, Cadance crossed her hands. “My condolences on what you’ve had to go through these past few days,” she said.

Emerald nodded. He didn’t tell her how it felt like a part of his very soul had been cut out, but assumed that the princess could guess as much.

“Tell me what you know about what happened,” Cadance asked.

“There was an explosion at the fuel depot, which destroyed the dockside warehouses and damaged most of the base,” Emerald said. “According to gossip and rumors, it was no accident, but an act of sabotage and an assassination mission. My friend… Diamond Waters... believed that agents of Nightmare Moon were targeting captains and other high-ranking officers of my class. I don’t know how many have died, but… I’ve heard rumors that Admiral Shining Armor is either dead, or taken somewhere secure after being seriously injured. Considering the silence from my superiors, I’m guessing it’s the former.”

Cadance’s face trembled, but only for a moment.

So that was it, Emerald realized, his heart sinking even more. The admiral was gone; another friend taken by Nightmare Moon. Two friends—his only real, true friends—gone in just one night.

Once again, he was alone in the world. Surrounded by peers, maybe, and co-workers, but no friends, and no family.

“I’m… I’m sorry, your Highness.”

“Thank you,” Cadance said. How she could hold herself together, Emerald could only wonder. Then, Cadance’s brows narrowed, but not in anger. “What I am about to tell you is top secret and is not to leave this room. Is that understood?”

Emerald nodded. “Yes, Ma’am.”

Satisfied, Cadance reached into her jacket, took out a set of blueprints, and unrolled them onto the table. “Do you recognize this submarine, Captain?”

Emerald pulled the blueprints closer, and studied them. He recognized the design and shape to be that of a Gato-class submarine; having trained on one so many times, he’d recognize the design anywhere, even scribbled by a child with crayons on a restaurant napkin. But something about this one was different—the hull was bigger, the weapons were of a higher caliber, and the conning tower atop the deck was taller as well.

“It looks like a Gato-class,” Emerald said, “but it’s been modified.”

“Correct. This is a Nautilus-class submarine.”

“I’ve never heard of it.”

“Because its very existence is a secret at the highest level. Only a hundred individuals know it exists, and now you’re one of them.” Cadance let that sink in for a moment before continuing. “It is outfitted with numerous experimental technologies, and is the most advanced submarine in our fleet: able to dive twice as deep and cruise twice as fast as a Gato, has near perfect soundproofing abilities, and is outfitted with guided torpedoes.”

“Guided, Ma’am?”

“They use specialized magnetic equipment to home in on the metal hulls of ships. Still experimental, but tests have been promising. We intended to use the Nautilus as a ‘special projects’ submarine to hunt down and destroy entire fleets and carry out dangerous black ops. In the right hands, the Nautilus is a fleet killer. One was moved to this base and, due to her outstanding test scores, Diamond Waters was to take command and embark on a patrol after graduation.”

Emerald realized where this was going.

“The night the explosion took place, the Nautilus went missing. Several guards were stationed to protect the warehouse where it was stored; only one survived. He confirmed that the explosions were the result of saboteurs.”

“Did they happen to see who they were?” Emerald asked.

“The guard couldn’t identify most of them, but from their age, and the way they were dressed, he had enough reason to believe they were agents of Nightmare Moon who had infiltrated the base to destroy our fuel supplies, assassinate graduating captains, and kidnap Shining Armor.”

Emerald twitched in surprise. “Wait, you mean he’s not dead?”

Cadance shook her head. “The guard saw him being dragged onto the Nautilus before it departed.”

Shining Armor was alive! The numbness enveloping Emerald broke for just a moment. “Do we know where he is?!”

“We do. As a precaution, he always has a very powerful tracking spell cast on him.” Cadance pulled out a map of Equus and tapped the northern wastes, far away from Equestria’s mainland. “Although we can’t pinpoint his exact location, we have narrowed it to within a ten mile radius in this area. We don’t know of any bases there, or if he’s being held on a ship, but it’s likely Nightmare Moon’s forces are interrogating him.”

Emerald had grown fond of the admiral over the years, and realizing that he was alive managed to break the hold that melancholy and grief had on him. Yet, something about all this wasn’t adding up.

“Why are you sharing this with me, Ma’am?” Emerald asked.

“Because you’re being recruited to lead a rescue mission.”

“Me?”

“All but one of the other captains in your class died in the explosion, or shortly afterwards in the confusion. Stormy Seas survived, but is in critical condition and won’t be ready for duty for at least another month. You are the last surviving captain we have.”

“But aren’t there other—”

“Yes, we have other captains… but nowhere near as many as we should.”

“What? I… I don’t understand, ma’am.”

Cadance sighed. “Have you not found it odd that we’re turning cadets into captains immediately upon graduating, instead of promoting more experienced sailors?”

“No; I thought we just thought the navy wanted to speed up training.”

“You’re correct, Captain. We need more captains for our fleet, and we need them badly. Nightmare Moon’s forces are churning out more ships than we can sink, and they’ve become very good at anti-submarine warfare. Our ranks have been depleted faster than we can replenish them. We don’t have a lot of experienced officers left.”

Emerald stared at her. “Ma’am, I… I didn’t—”

“Know? We’re trying to keep that information under wraps for morale. Equestrians can’t know that our submarine program is operating at a fraction of what it should be. At the moment we have—at most—twenty five submarines when we should have two hundred. All of our other captains are on assignment elsewhere and we can’t pull them away. You, Emerald, are the only captain we have who can take this assignment.”

Emerald’s head swam; things were that bad? Nobody had ever told him during his years at the academy that Equestrian’s submarine force was in serious trouble. Shining Armor had to have known, but he clearly kept it secret; was that why he had put Emerald, Diamond, and all the other captains through so many training simulations, sometimes a dozen in a week? To try and give them the best chance they had when they went out into the open sea? And now this… to be given a secret mission just days after he had graduated, but also a mission that would have enormous consequences if it failed.

Breathing deep, Emerald tried to calm himself. Such a burden would weigh heavily on even the most seasoned captain—one that had actually faced combat—but for a green captain who had never even fired a torpedo in anger? It all felt overwhelming…

And yet… if his father was here, he would accept the assignment without question. No matter how overwhelmed he would have been, or how scared he may have felt, his father absolutely would have accepted this responsibility. Emerald could do no less.

With another deep breath, Emerald gathered himself. “Very well, ma’am.”

Cadance didn’t smile or nod in approval. She didn’t even seem pleased.

“Ma’am?”

“There is one other reason we are recruiting you, Emerald,” Cadance said, regretting what she had to say. “I said that the guard who survived the explosion didn’t recognize most of the saboteurs. But he did recognize one.”

“Who was it?”

Cadance pulled out a rolled-up piece of paper and unfurled it. There was a photo on it, a photo of someone that Emerald knew very well.

In an instant, Emerald’s world froze. He stared at the photo, his heart skipping a beat, and feeling as if a giant hand had grabbed his insides and crushed them with a single, horrific squeeze.

This… this couldn’t be. It had… it had to be a mistake. It couldn’t be true! It couldn’t be!

“Diamond Waters was seen with the saboteurs,” Cadance said. “She guided them to the warehouse and helped them slay the guards. She was last seen getting onto the Nautilus before it sailed out.”

Emerald stared blankly at the photo.

“Our investigation is still ongoing,” Cadance said, knowing how difficult it was for Emerald to hear this, “but it appears that Diamond Waters was working for Nightmare Moon all along. We believe that her mission was to integrate herself with your class, kill anyone who could prove useful in our war effort, and steal that submarine.”

Emerald just stared at the picture.

“You must know, Emerald, that you are also a target of this investigation,” Cadance continued. “At this time, we don’t believe you were involved with her plot, or that you aided her… but if you did, telling the truth now would make things easier for you.”

Emerald didn’t answer her.

“Emerald?”

He was silent.

“Emerald,” Cadance said, raising her voice ever so slightly. “Did you know anything about what she was planning?”

Emerald finally looked up at her. “No,” he said. “She… The night all this happened, she told me she thought there was a plot to kill graduating captains and went out to investigate.”

“She didn’t try to recruit you?”

Emerald tried to recall any details of what Diamond had said; the last conversation they had was fuzzy in his memory, something not helped by the sudden realization that she had betrayed not only him, but her class, her friends, and even her nation.

“Emerald?”

“I’m… I’m thinking, ma’am,” Emerald said, holding up a hand. “She… she did ask me if I thought we could defeat Nightmare Moon. She… I’m sorry, I’m…”

“Take your time,” Cadance said.

It was quiet in the room for a few minutes as Emerald tried to gather himself.

“Maybe… maybe she was trying to see if I would join Nightmare Moon,” Emerald said at last. “And when she realized that I wouldn’t, she decided to spare me.”

Cadance pondered Emerald’s words.

“Why… Why would she do that?” Emerald asked. “Why me?”

“I don’t know,” Cadance said. “Fondness for you, perhaps? What I do know is that Diamond Waters has betrayed our nation. Judging from our medical examinations of your deceased classmates, they were almost all killed just before the explosion – including a few found near the depot – and it’s likely that Diamond helped with that. And seeing as she helped steal the Nautilus, it’s also likely that after the ship has been studied by Nightmare Moon’s engineers, she will use it against our ships. Emerald, I cannot overstate this enough—that submarine is capable of sending entire fleets to the bottom. She could single-handedly turn the tide of the war against us, and that’s before Nightmare Moon’s forces could reverse-engineer the ship and deploy it en masse. No matter the cost, and no matter what we must sacrifice, we cannot let that happen.”

Something came to Emerald—a thought he wanted to deny, but he knew, deep down, what Cadance was going to tell him.

“You… you want me to kill her.”

Cadance said nothing.

Emerald’s gut went colder than polar ice. “Ma’am, I—”

“You trained with her,” Cadance said. “You know her strategies, her tactics; you are the only one who can possibly hope to match her.”

Emerald shook his head. “I went against her hundreds of times in simulators. I never beat her; not once.”

“I am aware of that. But circumstances have forced our hand. Your mission is twofold: You will take a strike team to recover Shining Armor. If… recovering him is impossible, then you are to use a cold fission torpedo to ensure the enemy cannot corrupt or brainwash him to serve their cause.

“Cold fission?”

“A highly experimental torpedo. You don’t need to understand the process behind it, only that this weapon is extremely difficult to manufacture and has enough firepower to annihilate an entire fleet in one shot. We currently have only one, and thank the gods it wasn’t on the Nautilus.

“Once the admiral has been recovered,” Cadance continued, “you are to drop him off at the nearest safe port, then proceed to track down the Nautilus, destroy it, and eliminate Diamond Waters. The second ship in the Nautilus class is being finalized as we speak; you are now its captain. Once this meeting is complete, you will be transported to the base where the submarine is kept, and depart tomorrow morning. Is that understood?”

Emerald rubbed his eyes, emotionally exhausted.

“Captain?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Emerald said.

Cadance softened her tone. “If I could, Captain, I would give you a few days to prepare yourself for this mission. But time is not on our side.” Gathering the blueprints and the photos, Cadance stood. “Good luck, Captain. Dismissed.” She saluted, and Emerald did the same. Then, with nothing further to say, she bid a quick exit.

No sooner had Cadance walked through the door than two new soldiers entered the room. “Captain?” one asked. “Come with us, please.”

Standing, Emerald followed them. They guided him through the building and out the front doors, where a jeep was waiting for them. Once they had climbed aboard, the driver immediately set off; whether she knew exactly what was going on, or just that time was of the essence, she drove faster than she should have.

Emerald sat in the back, staring straight ahead. One of the guards looked over and almost engaged in some idle small talk, but recognized the look of someone who was overwhelmed by what they had been told, and was struggling to process it. To try and talk with someone else would take more energy than they had to spare.

Leaving Emerald alone, the guard looked to the road ahead, on the lookout for any threats, his hands tight around his rifle, wondering just what his charge had been told that had sent him into silent melancholy.

Setting Off

Emerald was used to waking up before the crack of dawn: many a drill, surprise inspection, and critical exam had taken place before the rising of the sun, hardwiring his brain to wake up at the same time every morning—0400 hours. But on this particular morning, Emerald was awake long before his alarm clock alerted him of his standard waking hour.

Without so much as a grunt, groan, or sigh, Emerald got out of bed and went to the clock, its incessant buzzing inching it closer to the dresser edge, bringing it perilously close to tumbling down onto the worn, cheaply carpeted floor. With a twist of the knob, Emerald turned it off and rubbed his eyes.

Thunder rumbled outside as rain poured down the window.

Opening the closet, Emerald pulled a drawer open and looked at the captain’s uniform lying inside. It was brand new, never worn, the fabric still having that new-uniform smell, and it was his. He had worked so hard, studied for so long, and done everything to earn the privilege of wearing this uniform… and yet, Emerald felt nothing as he pulled it out and put it on.

The rain came down harder, so much so that it could be heard hitting the roof of the officer’s quarters. Emerald didn’t notice; he had been listening to the rain all night as he lay in bed and stared at the ceiling until he tuned the sound out.

Emerald had tried to sleep, but after three hours had gone by, he had realized that he wasn’t going to doze off. His father had spoken of the nervousness he got the night before heading off on his first patrol, and Emerald had experienced the same thing, his brain racing out of control as it darted between everything that could go wrong during the mission, every way a submarine could be detected, blown up, malfunction, and otherwise fail. On one hand, Emerald was grateful for that, as it allowed him to concoct solutions for each problem, or how best to avoid them… but he still would have preferred being able to sleep.

But then his brain had switched gears, abandoning the “problem then solution” loop and going to something more painful… the knowledge that Diamond was somewhere out there, probably in the very waters that he himself was going to sail into.

His classmate, his companion, his friend… she was out there, but not as his backup or to lend aid if he was attacked by an enemy fleet.

There was a knock on the door. “Captain?”

Jumping, Emerald quickly calmed down. Cinching his waterproof long coat shut, he put on his cap, picked up his duffel bag, and peered through the peephole. Satisfied, he opened it to find four guards waiting for him.

“Ready, sir?” one of them asked.

Emerald responded by wordlessly leaving the room and closing the door behind him. Taking the hint, the guards closed ranks around him and started down the hall.

***

The sun still hadn’t risen as the truck forced its way through the howling wind and pouring rain toward one of the base’s warehouses. Ponies maneuvered pallets of industrial supplies in and out of the building, doing their best to ignore the rain soaking their clothes as the truck passed through a loading bay and traveled deeper inside, going between stacked pallets until coming to a stop far away from the warehouse’s few windows. The doors opened and the guards jumped out, guns still at the ready.

Emerald hopped out of the truck. Wasting no time to get him out of sight as quickly as possible, the guards herded him into the warehouse’s office. It was a typical, boring room with little in the way of decorations or personality, the walls plain and nondescript. There was no one inside to bother the group as the guards closed the door and lowered the blinds.

Satisfied that they were hidden from any prying eyes, another guard approached a bookshelf and pushed it aside, revealing a well hidden door built into the wall. Emerald and his escorts quickly entered and descended a lengthy staircase until they reached a large, concrete tunnel. They walked through, passing by sealed doors and locked supply rooms. This was a secret launching facility, built to allow submarines to come and go without being seen by Nightmare Moon’s spies. Buried three stories beneath reinforced concrete and steel, it was one of the most well-protected facilities on base.

Emerald and his group reached a large set of double doors, these ones guarded by four more heavily armed guards. They scanned everyone present to make sure they weren’t changelings, and only after each spell registered a negative response, and their credentials carefully inspected, were Emerald and his escorts allowed through.

The hanger on the other side of the doors was a heavily reinforced structure of concrete, well-used and expansive. Resting comfortably in the center of its vast interior, was Emerald’s new charge: sister to the stolen Nautilus, the Seawolf proudly and patiently awaited the arrival of her captain. Though Emerald had studied the blueprints to familiarize himself with his new command, it was breathtaking to actually see it with his own eyes. If the Gato-class submarines were akin to the typical, well-armed and well-rounded soldier, then Seawolf was their commando counterpart: Bigger, stronger, and more intimidating in every way, from the taller conning tower to the thicker, bigger hull, and the freshly painted steel that had yet to be worn down by the sea.

Ponies in worker coveralls were loading torpedoes, food, and supplies into the submarine, though from how many empty frames and pallets were being wheeled away, it seemed like they were almost done. Emerald had clearly been expected, for the submarine’s crew were already standing in formation on the dock, and as Emerald and his escorts approached, they all snapped to attention.

One familiar pony walked up. “Captain. Welcome.”

Emerald shook Steel Wheel’s hand. “Wounds healing up?”

Steel gestured to the cuts he had, all of which had been stitched shut. “Nothing I can’t handle.” He frowned at seeing the deep bags beneath Emerald’s eyes. “Didn’t sleep well?”

“No.”

“No one would blame you.” Steel gestured towards the sub. “There’s some sleeping pills on board you can use once we get under way.”

Nodding, Emerald turned his attention to the crew. Most of them he knew, for they were his classmates. Or, Emerald realized, had been; they were now they were his to command and lead, as well as protect and bring safely home. But there were a few ponies he didn’t recognize: they had probably been brought in from other crews to lend expertise and experience.

Four ponies in particular caught his attention—standing off to the side of the rest of the crew, they were older, well-muscled, and possessed a silent intensity that told Emerald they were used to operating by themselves.

“These commandos will be joining us for the mission,” Steel said motioning to the four in question. He didn’t elaborate on why; their mission objective was on a need-to-know basis for security reasons, and there was no reason to say it out loud.

Emerald went to the pony he guessed was the leader of this group. He extended his hand. “Welcome aboard.”

The pony made no effort to take it.

Steel frowned. “Your commanding officer offered you his hand.”

The commando grasped Emerald’s hand, gave it one shake, then let go. It was mechanical, passionless, and bereft of warmth.

These four were going to be trouble, Emerald realized. But he would deal with that later; there were far more pressing matters to attend to. “Steel,” he asked, “what remains to be loaded?”

“Only a few torpedoes. Once they’re aboard, we can depart.”

“Good. Let’s get everyone aboard and get the engines warmed up.”

Nodding, Steel turned to the crew. “Attention! We will be departing as soon as our last supplies are loaded. All personnel to their stations; engineering, get the engines going and get us ready to move out. Dismissed.”

The crew broke ranks and hurried across the gangplanks onto Seawolf’s deck, where they then clambered up the conning tower and vanished inside. The commandos followed behind them, leaving only Steel and Emerald remaining on the dock.

“After you, sir,” Steel said.

“A captain is the last one aboard his ship and the last one off,” Emerald said.

Nodding, Steel crossed the gangplank and entered the sub. Emerald started to follow him, but paused. He looked down to the concrete floor beneath his boots.

This was the last time he might ever stand on land.

Pushing the thought aside, Emerald walked across the gangplank, stepped onto his submarine, climbed the ladder onto the conning tower, and headed down the ladder leading into the ship, closing the hatch behind him.

Reaching the bottom of the ladder, Emerald stepped off into the ship’s command room; it was nearly identical to the simulator and the sub he had commanded for open-sea tests, though it was a bit roomier with a little more open space to walk around in. A civilian would still find it horribly cramped, and the claustrophobic would certainly have a panic attack: despite being larger than other subs, it was still stuffed full of pipes, tubes, wheels, knobs, levers, and consoles utilizing every possible inch of space.

The bridge crew were already settling into their stations; Emerald took special note of Vinyl Scratch at the radio station, adjusting her headphones and her equipment to make sure everything was calibrated. Though he had become familiar with her presence over the past few years at the academy, it wasn’t until now that he realized just how strange it was to see a career DJ give up her passion to now serve as a radio operator aboard a submarine.

His thoughts broadened to the crew at large—former farmers, clerks, taxi drivers, businessponies… desperate times call for desperate measures. Yet here they all were, everyone part of a well-oiled machine. Despite most lacking real combat experience, each one knew their role and how to execute it, ensuring that the submarine—their new home—operated at peak efficiency.

The floor rumbled beneath Emerald’s boots as the unseen engines came to life, breaking him from his train of thought.

“Engine room reports ready,” Steel said as he came over.

“And the torpedoes?”

“Last ones are being tied down now.”

“Good. Let’s get underway.” Going to his station, Emerald took the microphone. “Attention all hands, this is the captain speaking: we are about to depart. Prepare yourselves accordingly. That is all.” He hung up and turned to the helm. “Helm, all engines back one-third. Once cleared of the pen, execute a 180-degree turn and prepare to dive.”

The helmspony nodded. “Engines back one-third, 180-degree turn, prep for dive, aye, sir.”

The submarine moved backwards. Though there were no portholes, the sonar provided all the information needed for the helmsman to safely maneuver. Once the ship had cleared its berth and reversed a safe distance away, the helmsman turned the ship’s wheel to execute a 180 degree turn.

There was a very distant, muted rumble that Emerald guessed was the gear mechanism for a set of blast doors opening up below and forward the sub, granting them access to the underwater tunnel that connected the submarine pen to the ocean.

“Way ahead is clear, Captain,” the sonar operator said.

“Dive to enter the access tunnel, and resume ahead one-third,” Emerald said.

“Diving, ahead one-third, aye,” the helmspony said.

The hum of the engines increased as the ship started forward, moving gradually enough that no one felt the need to grab onto something to steady themselves. Then there was a very slow, gentle drop, as if they were all on an elevator that was taking its time as it descended.

Glancing over at the sonar station, Emerald saw a giant circle of pings surrounding the Seawolf; they had entered the tunnel successfully, but the thought gave him no comfort. If anything, it made Emerald nervous: there were no scenarios in the simulator or in any textbook about submarines entering underwater passages like this one. If an accident happened, they wouldn’t be able to release ballast and commence an emergency ascent.

The crew around Emerald were breathing deeply; Steel was calm and composed. Most of the others were gripping their desks, railings, anything they could hang on to.

“End of the tunnel approaching,” the sonar operator said a few minutes later, shattering the silence that had unknowingly gripped the bridge. Then, “We’re through.” She looked to Emerald. “We’re in open seas, Captain.”

Trying not to smile in relief, Emerald nodded. “Helm, come to course zero one five. Dive to one hundred feet. Full speed.”

“Course zero one five, depth one zero zero, full speed, aye,” the helmspony said.

As the submarine turned, and the hum of the engine grew, Emerald knew that he could hand command of Seawolf over to Steel Wheel, retire to his room, and take a sleeping pill to get some much needed rest, but that could wait a bit longer. As this was a classified mission of the highest order, no one outside of himself, Steel Wheel, and the other senior officers had been told what was going on. Everyone else was in the dark. Emerald decided now was the time to rectify that.

Taking his microphone, Emerald activated the ship-wide announcement system. “Attention all hands, this is the captain speaking. I’m aware that none of you were told what our mission is before we departed port. A few days ago, Equestria’s intelligence community learned that Admiral Shining Armor did not die in the attack on our base, as many thought. We learned that he is alive, kidnapped during that attack by… by Diamond Waters.“

Everyone on the bridge turned to Emerald.

“For those of you who are new to our crew, Diamond was a former classmate of ours. It had been assumed that she had died in the attack, but she did not: Intelligence has learned that not only did she survive, but she defected to Nightmare Moon.”

The sound of the engines was the only thing heard on the bridge.

“Our mission is to find the Admiral, rescue him, and bring him home. Our destination is approximately three weeks away at full speed; as stealth is our highest priority during this mission, we will remain submerged for most of our journey and maintain complete radio silence. So settle in, focus on your duties, and we’ll get there before you know it. That is all.”

Hanging up the microphone, Emerald flicked off the intercom. Around him, the bridge crew were looking at each other. The confidence and determination to carry out their mission was gone; now there was shock, fear, and anger. Everyone here had worked and trained with Diamond; like Emerald they had thought she had been lost during the attack on the base.

Now, like Emerald, they had to come to terms with a comrade who had betrayed them all.

***

Being larger than a Gato-class submarine meant that Seawolf’s interior was more spacious, and as Emerald opened the door to his quarters, he was pleased to see that the same luxury applied to his room. Unlike a captain’s cabin on a Gato, his was large enough so that he could actually walk around if he wanted, or have a meeting with up to three guests. Opening the locker, he unzipped his duffel and put away his clothes. Fishing out the few personal belongings stuffed at the bottom of the bag, he made a half-hearted attempt to give his quarters a bit more warmth: a couple family photos, and a few of his favorite books that he could read when he was off duty.

Emerald finished with a small adjustment to the photo he had placed on a small shelf next to the cabin’s sink mirror. He paused to study the photo. It was several years old by now, the frame worn. His father’s perfectly preserved smile beamed at him from the captured memory.

The image conjured thoughts and feelings of a long past time when he listened to his stories as a young colt. What would his father say to him now? Emerald believed that he’d be proud of his son getting his own command, and commend him on his bravery to head out a mission this important whether he felt ready or not.

Emerald still didn’t feel ready.

There was a knock at the door.

“Come in,” Emerald said.

The door opened, and Steel Wheel came in.

“Has everyone settled in?” Emerald asked.

“Everything’s going smoothly,” Steel said. “Everyone’s present and accounted for. Copper Cog’s completing his assessment of the engines and other systems, but he doesn’t think he’ll find anything wrong.”

“Good. And the radio?”

“Modified so that we can receive transmissions, but nothing goes out.”

“Excellent.”

“Though, fi I may say so, there’s a lot of frayed nerves about Diamond.”

Emerald sighed. “I guessed as much. How’s everyone taking it?”

“A lot of anger. A lot of grief. Not going to be easy to get over it.”

It was silent in the cabin.

Trying to change the mood, Steel looked around at Emerald’s spacious quarters. “Looks like you lucked out, Captain.”

“Don’t kid yourself, Steel,” Emerald said. “It’s a closet. A big closet, but still a closet.”

“I’m the one with the closet.”

The two chuckled, both grateful that the mood was better, even if only by a little.

“What about the commandos?” Emerald asked. “Have they settled in?”

“They were the first ones to get their gear in order; their leader’s waiting outside.”

“Bring him in.”

With a nod, Steel stepped aside and gestured to their unseen guest.

The commando leader entered the cabin, ducking to get through the door frame and closing the cabin hatch behind him. He was the big, strong pony who had initially refused to shake Emerald’s hand back in the hangar. His blank, unreadable face hadn’t changed, and Emerald doubted that he had decided to change his opinions since their initial interaction. Even though the pony’s face remained an enigma, Emerald suspected that beneath the stoicism he was being judged. He would need to choose his words and actions carefully to avoid giving off an impression of weakness.

“What’s your name?” Emerald asked.

“Silent Knife, sir.”

“I hope you don’t find conditions too cramped, Knife,” Emerald said, deciding to try and start things off with a bit of dry humor.

“My men and I are used to it.”

“Good… I take it you all were briefed about the mission?”

Knife nodded.

“I’m glad to hear that. Do you need anything while we’re underway?”

“No, sir.”

Emerald nodded. Silent Knife, while not as openly disrespectful as he had been in their first conversation, demonstrated that he also wasn’t going to be open or forthcoming when dealing with his new commanding officer. Perhaps taking this to the next step would help. “Silent Knife, let’s get something out in the open: I’m a thestral; judging from how you’ve treated me, I’m guessing that both you and your team don’t trust my kind.”

Silent Knife’s expression didn’t so much as twitch.

“I’m guessing something happened between you and a thestral in the past.”

“One of our team was a thestral,” Silent Knife said. “We thought we could trust her with our lives. She betrayed us on a mission and defected to Nightmare Moon. I lost half my team because of her.”

Emerald mused over the information. “I see.”

It didn’t seem possible, but Knife’s face seemed to harden even further.

“We do not have to like each other,” Emerald said. “I don’t expect you to become a friend. All I ask is that we focus on the mission, complete it, and then we can go our separate ways when it’s over. Is that acceptable to you and your team?”

Knife’s eyes met Emerald’s gaze. “If you serve Equestria, sir, then you have nothing to fear from us.”

“And if I don’t?”

Knife was silent.

Emerald knew precisely what type of message that silence meant. “Then you’ll make sure I’m no longer a threat.”

It wasn’t easy to surprise a pony trained to calmly assassinate high profile targets—whether up close with a knife to the throat or at a distance with a bullet through the eye—and to sabotage factories at the cost of dozens of civilian lives, all in the name of letting Equestrians sleep soundly in their beds, but there was no mistaking the momentary surprise Emerald saw in Knife’s face. It was only there for a half-second before he recomposed himself, but it happened all the same.

Emerald contemplated what to do next—being so forthcoming had been risky, but it appeared to have paid off. Should he try going just a little bit further? No… best to end things here and accept the minor victory he had achieved.

“If you or your team require anything, ask Steel Wheel. Dismissed.”

Nodding, Knife turned and left, closing the hatch behind him.

Emerald let out a long gasp and leaned against the hull.

“That was… bold,” Steel said, impressed. “Especially considering who you were talking to.”

“I learned long ago that when you’re facing a bigot, show them you’re not going to be a doormat,” Emerald said. “With that in mind, how do you think that went?”

“About as well as could be expected.”

“Your impressions?”

“He doesn’t like or trust you... but he and his team will do their job.”

“What do you know about them?”

“They were hand-picked by Princess Cadance herself. They’re the best of the best.”

“Good… and what about the rest of the crew?”

“Our classmates know you and trust you,” Steel said. “But the newcomers seem hesitant. Cautious. They’re not comfortable being under the command of a thestral. But if they see you’re capable and competent, they’ll warm up.”

Emerald nodded. He hoped so. The last thing he needed was to be deep inside enemy territory and with a crew that didn’t trust him when it mattered most.

“Sir,” Steel said, “Now that we’re underway, you should get some rest.” He held out his hand, revealing two pills on his palm.

“No, no, I’m fine,” Emerald said, waving Steel off. “If everyone else can get up at an ungodly hour to set off at an even more ungodly hour, then so can I.”

“But you can’t lead if you’re exhausted. They’ll see that, and it’ll reflect badly on you.”

“And it won’t reflect badly on me if their captain is taking a nap minutes after the mission has started?”

Steel extended his hand a little further. “I’ll tell them you were up all night reading briefings and intelligence reports.”

Emerald knew he shouldn’t take the pills; he needed to be in the control room, or walking around the sub, showing his crew that he was interested in their welfare and wanted to know the newcomers who hadn’t worked with him… but Steel was right. If he was yawning every thirty seconds as he visited compartment after compartment, his crew would notice that. If he wanted to make good first impressions, he needed to do it when fully awake and fully rested.

Sighing, he took the pills.

"I’ll send someone to check on you in a few hours,” Steel said. Then, without waiting for a reply, he nodded, left, and closed the hatch behind him.

Getting a glass of water, Emerald gulped down the pills. He discarded his long coat, then his dress uniform; sleeping in it would be bad form—waking up with it wrinkled and saggy would also be a bad look for him. It was a good thing it all came off so quickly and easily, as the pills were rapidly kicking in—Emerald felt a heavy, welcoming drowsiness dragging him down into forced sleep. He barely made it to his bunk to haphazardly lie down before his eyes closed, before darkness consumed him.

In a final moment of defiance before he drifted away, an intrusive thought flashed in his mind: this would be the last time he’d get a chance to truly rest. He was still on the honeymoon phase with his crew, and from here on out, he’d have to prove himself each and every day. An easy enough task with those who had worked with him… but not so much with those who saw him as a threat and a traitor.

The thought echoed through Emerald’s mind as he fell into darkness, and the sweet embrace of sleep finally overtook him.

Intrusions

Emerald sat on the porch of his home, anxiously looking down the street towards the intersection at the end of the block. Any minute now, a taxi would turn onto their street, drive past all the old houses, and pull up to the curb. The door would open, and a familiar face would emerge, smiling at seeing Emerald again.

Grinning, Emerald almost bounced up and down in excitement, confident that the taxi was going to appear any second now. He just had to hold on a little bit longer.

But the taxi didn’t come.

Clenching his hands, Emerald tried to be patient. His parents said he needed to learn how to be patient, no matter how hard it was. But Emerald didn’t want to be patient; he needed that taxi to show up now! Not an hour from now, or by the end of the day, but now!

The distant sound of an engine caught his ear. A car was coming!

Leaping up, Emerald now began bouncing up and down, his wings giving him a boost each time he hopped. He was finally here! He was—

A car pulled into the intersection, but it wasn’t the yellow and black of a taxi, but the white, black, and red of a police car.

Emerald immediately stopped bouncing. His smile vanished. Though it was daytime, Emerald’s excellent eyesight let him see the two officers inside the car, both scanning the neighborhood, scowling as they did so. They reminded Emerald of the bullies at school who walked around the playground at lunch, searching for someone they could beat up and take their bits.

The officer in the passenger seat looked over, locking eyes with Emerald.

Stiffening, but remembering what his parents had taught him, Emerald immediately put on a friendly smile and waved. “Whenever the police show up,” his mommy told him, “wave, smile, and look as kind and non-threatening as you can. Don’t give the police any reason to stop you or suspect that you’ve done anything wrong.”

The officer watching Emerald didn’t wave back. He simply glared, probably debating whether or not Emerald was up to no good.

Emerald’s heart hammered in his chest, and he hoped the officer couldn’t see him sweating.

Shaking his head, the officer turned his attention back towards the road, waving to his partner to speed up, and the patrol car continued on.

Gasping, Emerald dropped his smile and sat back down, burying his face in his hands. With any luck, there wouldn’t be any more police cars for the rest of the day, though a sinking feeling at the back of his mind reminded him that at least three, probably more, usually drove past before the day ended. The police always came through this part of the city, even when there was nothing going on.

“Who are you waiting for?”

Emerald jumped, spinning as instinct made him leap across the porch, only to tumble and fall on his rump. But as he looked back, his panic faded; It was only Diamond.

“Sorry,” Diamond said, stretching her arms out. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“It’s… it’s okay,” Emerald said. He got back on his hooves. “I didn’t know you were coming by.”

“Neither did I; this was a last minute thing.” Diamond looked out towards the intersection. “So, who are you waiting for?”

“I’m waiting for my daddy,” Emerald said as he sat back down.

Diamond smiled. “Oh. Where is he?”

“He’s been out at sea,” Emerald said. “He’s driving a submarine and blowing up bad guys!”

Diamond’s smile wavered.

“What’s wrong?” Emerald asked.

“Aw, nothing.” Diamond scratched the side of her mouth. “Just an itch.”

Emerald looked down the street. “You should stay here,” he said. “The police are around. If they see you walking around by yourself, they’ll stop you.”

“Why?”

Emerald sighed. “They’re mean.”

“Have they stopped you?”

Emerald nodded.

“Why?”

“I don’t wanna talk about it.”

“Okay. You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” She sat beside Emerald, the aged, warped deck creaking beneath her weight. “Is this your house?”

Emerald nodded. “Yeah.”

“Where’s your mom?”

A hand pointed to the door.

“And she won’t mind you talking with me?”

“Nope,” Emerald said. “She says us bats have to stick together.”

Diamond smiled. “Your mom’s right.”

The two watched the street for a while. It was late afternoon, and there was no one else out. A soft breeze carried pieces of trash and discarded, moldy newspapers across the cracked pavement.

“So,” Diamond said, breaking the stillness, “is your daddy coming home today?”

“Yeah!” Emerald said.

“Then why aren’t you and your mom down at the docks waiting for him?”

“We don’t have enough gas for the car,” Emerald admitted. “And we can’t spare the money for a taxi.”

“What about the bus?”

Emerald shook his head. “Mommy says it’s too dangerous.”

“Why?”

“Because of all the bad ponies.”

Diamond mulled over his words. “They harass you, don’t they?” she asked.

Emerald nodded.

“That’s not very nice of them.”

Emerald nodded again. Diamond was right about that.

“It’s not right, you know,” Diamond said. “We have as much a right to live in peace like they do.”

“That’s what Mommy says.”

“And what about your father? What does he say about that?”

“The same.”

“Does he get harassed, too?”

Emerald nodded.

“Despite being in the navy?”

“Yeah.”

“And he still serves Equestria?”

Emerald nodded again.

“Why?”

“Daddy says we have to be better than the ponies who hate us,” Emerald said. “And that they don’t hate us; not really.”

Diamond scoffed. “I find that hard to believe.”

“He said that they’re scared,” Emerald said. “They’re scared of Nightmare Moon and what she may do to us if she wins the war, so they take that anger out on us.” Emerald looked at Diamond. “He says that if there was no Nightmare Moon, we’d probably all get along just fine.”

Emerald could see that Diamond was surprised at that answer. Maybe no one had ever told her that before. But then again, maybe she didn’t have a daddy like he did who could tell her these things. “What does your daddy say?” he asked.

“I don’t have a daddy.”

“You don’t?”

Diamond shook her head. “He died when I was really young. So did my mom.”

“You don’t have a mommy or a daddy?”

“No.”

Emerald got up and hugged Diamond, stretching up as far as he could, just barely managing to wrap his arms around her neck. “I’m sorry. Everyone should have a mommy or a daddy.”

It was a few moments before Diamond got over her surprise at the unexpected hug. “Well, I’ve managed so far.” She gently disentangled herself. “But thanks.”

A thought came to Emerald. “Maybe Mommy and Daddy could adopt you!”

Diamond chuckled. “I don’t know about—”

“Yeah, you’re old, but they’d—”

“Old? I’m only twenty five.”

Emerald shrugged. “Okay, you’re not super-old like Grandma was, but still old!”

“And how old are you?”

With a big grin, Emerald held up both hands and six fingers.

“Wow, six. That’s so young!” Diamond smiled, ruffling Emerald’s hair. “You’re very lucky to have a mommy and a daddy who love you.”

“They do! Especially daddy!”

“I bet.”

Reaching into her jacket, Diamond brought out a small toy submarine. “Is this the kind of submarine your daddy drives?”

“Pilots.”

“Oh, right. Pilots. But is it like this one?”

“Yeah!”

“Hmm… Hey, Emerald, why don’t we play a game to pass the time?”

“Sure!”

“Great! First, you take this.” She handed Emerald the submarine, which he happily took. “Now, I want you to pretend that he’s on a mission, but not just any mission: a very special, very secret mission. Can you do that for me?”

“Yeah!”

“Good! Now, close your eyes, and imagine him onboard that sub there.”

Emerald did so. This was fun! He was going to be a captain like Daddy! He’d be so proud of him!

“Now, here’s the mission,” Diamond said. “A very important, very powerful admiral has been kidnapped, and your father has to go rescue him on a remote island that’s far, far away. How do you think he would do that?”

Emerald’s smile faltered.

“Emerald? You okay?”

Emerald didn’t feel okay; in fact, his tummy felt queasy, like something was wrong. His mommy had called it a… uh, oh yeah: a gut feeling. She said that he always needed to pay attention to it, because even though it didn’t feel nice, it was important: his body was trying to warn him about nearby danger.

“Emerald?”

“I… I don’t want to play this game,” Emerald said.

“But it’s important! Your daddy can’t abandon the admiral; he has to save him! I want to know how he’d do it.”

Emerald opened his eyes and looked at Diamond; she was smiling, but he instantly realized that it wasn’t a real smile: it was a fake smile, the kind he put on whenever the police came by.

His gut felt worse and worse.

“What is he going to do, Emerald?” Diamond asked. “How are you going to rescue the admiral?”

“Me?”

“I mean... I mean your father.” Biting her lip, Diamond immediately brought back her fake smile. “How is he going to rescue the admiral?”

“I…” Emerald scooted away. “I don’t want to play anymore.”

“Come on, Emerald. I’m your friend. I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Mom?” Emerald called out.

“No, no, there’s no need to call your—”

“Mom!”

“Stop that!” Diamond shouted.

“Mom!”

“Tell me, Emerald!” Diamond yelled. She shot up, towering over Emerald. “What are you going to do to save the admiral?!”

Tripping, Emerald fell backwards, screaming…

… and then he wasn’t falling. He was shooting upwards, still screaming as he wildly flailed, hands trying to grab something, anything to defend himself. He touched something thick, grabbed hold, and threw it.

The book flew across the cabin, hit a wall, and tumbled to the floor.

Gasping, Emerald looked around. Diamond was gone. The porch was gone. The street, the old trees, the old homes… all of it was gone. The only things before him were the steel walls of his cabin, the wood of his small locker, and the faint glow from the red light in the ceiling.

A bang and a spin made Emerald jump again as the door was yanked open and Steel Wheel ran in, two commandos at his side. “Sir!?”

Rubbing his face, Emerald wiped away the sweat from his brow. A nightmare… that’s all it was.

“Sir?”

“I’m fine,” Emerald said. “Just a nightmare. That’s all.”

Silver and the guards hesitated.

“I’m fine,” Emerald said again, gesturing with a hand that the three didn’t need to worry. To further reassure them, he decided to change the focus of the discussion. “What time is it?”

“Zero six hundred hours,” Steel said.

Six AM… not the answer that Emerald wanted to hear. He didn’t need to get up for a few more hours, and getting some more sleep was what he wanted more than anything right now… but he knew it was wishful thinking. His heart was still pounding, and it’d be a long while before all the adrenaline pumped itself out of his system. Plus, trying to sleep in sheets drenched with sweat was a disgusting proposition.

Sighing, Emerald pulled off his blankets and sat up.

“Sir,” Silver said, “you—”

“I’m not going to get any more sleep,” Emerald said. “Might as well do my rounds.”

***

Two weeks had passed since the Nautilus had set sail, and the crew had settled into a normal routine. As the sub sailed beneath the surface at flank speed, they would dutifully carry out their daily tasks: checking the torpedoes, monitoring the engines, sleeping, reading, and generally keeping themselves occupied. For the first few days the knowledge of where they were going and the importance of the mission kept everyone on edge, but it wasn’t long before monotony and boredom settled in.

Emerald, knowing that this would happen, had figured that walking through the various departments, checking in and chatting with everyone was a good course of action. This served two purposes: to show the crew that he cared about their welfare, and, more importantly, to build up a rapport with them. He wanted to show his crew that he wasn’t secretly an agent of Nightmare Moon sailing them to her kingdom, but a captain who didn’t hold up inside his cabin or the bridge and only talk to his sailors when something was wrong

For those Emerald had trained with, the process was easy: they knew him well enough from their shared studies back at the academy, and even those who only knew him casually quickly got the idea that he wasn’t someone looking to stab them in the back.

For those crew members who never knew Emerald at the academy, though, the process was harder. Despite engaging in conversation, sharing meals, and doing what he could to make their work easier, Emerald sensed that they still distrusted him and were wary of his intentions. From the way they looked at him when he entered the cramped mess hall, to how Emerald heard them whispering behind his back whenever he left a compartment, he realized that it would take a lot of work to get through to them.

That was, he worried, if he even could.

Leaving his cabin, Emerald tucked his coat tighter around him and pulled his well-worn cap down further onto his head. All was quiet at this early hour, save for the distant hum of the engines, as he turned left and headed down the narrow hallway through officer’s country—the area of the sub reserved for her executive officers. There were a few signs of life, though: the click-clack of typewriter keys being pressed could be heard from the Yeoman’s office as reports were typed up and filed away, and a faint snore emerged from one of the cabins. Passing by the wardroom, Emerald peered inside and found it to be empty. He made a mental note that the dark green cushions could use a bit of cleaning, and continued on.

Reaching the hatch that went into the forward torpedo room, Emerald ducked as he went through, instinctively flattening his wings against his back, the claw-tips going low so as to not catch the frame. As no torpedoes had been fired during the voyage thus far, the forward torpedo room was filled with the underwater missiles, jammed together against the walls, with bunks squeezed in between them. A few sailors were currently on duty, with the rest lying down and reading to occupy their free time. But as Emerald entered, everyone immediately came to attention, only to relax when Emerald waved his hand, signaling for them to carry on.

Looking things over, Emerald saw nothing out of place or anything that needed tending to. But as his father had once told him, a good captain always listens to the sailors when it came to identifying things that needed attention. Looking over the sailors, Emerald focused on Crystal Beau, who was currently going over one of the new guided torpedoes the ship had been given for this mission. Crystal was one of the ponies who hadn’t trained with Emerald at the academy, and conversations with him throughout the voyage had revealed him to be the nervous type, especially around authority figures.

Going over, Emerald addressed him. “Anything wrong with the torpedo?”

Gulping, Crystal shook his head. “No, sir. I’m just doing some routine maintenance.”

“And trying to pass the time?”

A chuckle. “That, too.”

“Found anything?”

Crystal shook his head. “Everything seems to be okay.”

“It seems okay, or it is okay?”

Another gulp. “It is, sir.”

“Good.” Emerald looked around. “And the rest of the compartment?”

“Tubes are loaded and ready to fire,” Crystal said. His nervousness was on full display, perhaps thinking he was being tested. “All the other machinery is in working order, and there’s nothing that needs to be fixed.” He gave an awkward smile. “If there was anything wrong, we’d let you know.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Emerald said. “Well, I’ll leave everything to you and the others. Carry on.”

Crystal nodded, relieved that the talk was over, and doubly so that he hadn’t been reprimanded or otherwise done anything wrong.

WIth his inspection complete, Emerald turned and left the compartment, passing by the shower and ducking once again through the hatch, then heading down the corridor back through officer’s country and into the control room. Everything was quiet there; all the crew present were focused on their tasks, keeping a watchful eye on their gauges and readouts, though Emerald could see a few telltale signs of fatigue. Over at the radio station, Beauty Brass rubbed her eyes as she adjusted her headphones and turned a dial. At the sonar station, Vinyl Scratch was diligently watching her screen, but her eyes were growing heavy, and she was struggling to keep them up. And at the main console, Steel Wheel was doing his absolute best to remain alert and focused. He was doing a good job of it, too, though Emerald could still make out a few twitches around his eyes as he continuously fought against building fatigue.

Going over to Vinyl, Emerald tapped her on the shoulder and asked, “Anything showing up?”

“No sir,” Vinyl said, adjusting her headset. “Everything’s quiet. Not a ship or sub in sight.” She grinned. “Got the whole ocean all to ourselves.”

“If only… you think you can stay awake until the shift change?”

“Yeah, no problem.”

“You sure?” Emerald asked.

“If I don’t, and we get a destroyer bearing down on us, I’ll never hear the end of it.”

Chuckling, Emerald turned to the radio station. “Anything on the airwaves?”

Beauty Brass didn’t hear him.

Going over, Emerald tapped his radio operator on the shoulder. She stiffened and immediately turned, yanking off her headphones. “Sorry, sir.”

“As I was asking,” Emerald said, “Was there anything over the radio?”

Beauty sighed. “Just some more of Opaline’s propaganda.”

Everyone in the control room turned and scowled. Even Steel Wheel forgot about his fatigue long enough to frown.

Gesturing for the headphones, Emerald took hold and brought them up, listening to the tiny voice coming through.

“… a moment to consider if this war is worth fighting. Celestia claims to work for all ponykind, but ask yourself why she’s lying. If she is as benevolent as she says she is, why did she imprison her own sister in the Moon if Luna simply wanted more ponies to appreciate her beautiful night? Was Celestia really so benevolent when she entombed her own flesh and blood in the moon? No! Your leader is a tyrant who tolerates no dissent, and only cares about her own power, silencing anyone who refuses to bow down and worship her!

“But Nightmare Moon is different. She knows Celestia’s tyranny first hand, and she knows what it’s like to lose everything for taking a stand against oppression. But she has returned to free you all from Celestia’s yoke. To anyone listening to my words, heed me: Join Nightmare Moon and help overthrow a tyrant! Anyone who defects to any of our ships, our soldiers, or our forces, will be welcomed as an equal and given all the training and equipment they need to help—”

Emerald pulled the headphones away, and the confident, arrogant, and prideful voice became a barely audible squeak.

“The same shit?” Vinyl asked.

“Afraid so. Just on a different day.” As Nightmare Moon’s fleet admiral, Opaline was in charge of the tyrant’s fleets, but she also doubled as the voice of her propaganda program. The admiral certainly had the charisma for it, Emerald had to admit. The arrogance and pride, too; she was so convinced that Moon’s victory was inevitable and that she’d be well-rewarded for her part in making it happen.

Emerald, like all submarine captains who had come before him, hoped that one day he’d get the chance to fire a few torpedoes into her flagship and send the self-righteous prick to the bottom of the sea. With any luck, the gods would grant him his chance.

Emerald handed the headphones back to Beauty Brass. “As much as it hurts, Beauty, I want you to listen to her. See if she gives any hint about any superweapons or an ace up Nightmare Moon’s sleeve.”

Resigned to having to listen to auditory garbage, Beauty put her headphones back on, trying to contain her disgust as the message continued.

Satisfied that everything in the control room was well in hand, Emerald headed aft, going through the galley. It was quiet at the moment, with the cook working hard preparing breakfast for the shift change in an hour. The chef glanced at him and offered some coffee, which Emerald accepted. The drink tasted like mass-produced, barely-flavored water, but it was better than nothing, helping Emerald perk up a bit.

Heading further back into the crew quarters, Emerald found the bunks filled with sleeping sailors, with only a few lying awake and reading, studying, or doing any number of other activities to try and relax; one sailor was carving a small model of a submarine out of a hunk of wood. He had been working on it ever since the Nautilus had left port, and it had gone from a solid block to something that, given another week, would be good enough to display in a museum somewhere.

A few sailors noticed Emerald, but he gestured for them to remain where they were; there was no need to interrupt their precious free time, and Emerald didn’t want to wake those who were still asleep with whispered chitchat, no matter how quiet it may be, so he continued on through to the engine rooms.

Emerald was pleased to find that the engines were running smooth, humming from the power crystals contained within. While the other submarines in Equestria’s fleet ran on diesel and reserved all magic crystals for use as shields, the Nautilus had state-of-the-art engines that could run smoothly and continuously without turning the compartments into a hellish inferno of heat and noise. The crew back here were hard at work on their assigned tasks, but appeared to be in a good mood, which meant there were no problems to report. At the far end of the chamber, their leader, Copper Cog, currently busied himself looking inside an open hatch on one of the giant engines. As the chief engineer, it was his job to make sure the Nautilus’ engines remained functional at all times. While Emerald was the ship’s brains, Copper was its heart, and without him and his crew, the ship would quickly grind to a halt.

Turning a wrench with his enormous, well-muscled arms, Copper glanced over and spotted Emerald. Closing the hatch, he wiped his hands on his permanently-greased jumpsuit and headed over. He didn’t bother saluting or snapping to attention at the arrival of a superior officer, one of the few onboard who could do so and get away with it.

“What brings you to my neck of the woods, captain?”

“Just checking on how things are going,” Emerald said.

“Well, you’ve got nothing to worry about here.” Copper slapped one of the engines, instinctively keeping his fingers clear of the pistons. “Everything’s in tip-top shape, the gears are greased, and we’ve got enough fuel in the tanks to get us to this island of yours and back.”

“And no problems with the engines?”

“These things are a dream,” Copper said. “Fewer moving parts, almost no noise, and so much easier to maintain; I might be the first engineer in the family not to go stone deaf by age 50.”

“And there’s nothing else to report?”

“As I said yesterday, and the day before that, nope.” Copper smiled. “If anything needs your attention, captain, rest assured I’ll let you know immediately.” Shaking his head with an amused chuckle, Copper said, “I know you’re trying to keep everyone in good spirits, captain, but there is such a thing as being too pushy, you know.”

Emerald considered Copper’s words. “How about every other day?” he asked.

Now it was Copper who thought things over. “I can see that working. Let’s go with that.”

“Then every other day, it is.” With a nod to Copper, and then another to the other sailors, Emerald left.

There were no issues or problems in the maneuvering room, and the rear torpedo room was the same as its forward counterpart: torpedoes loaded in the tubes, the others crammed against the walls with bunks built around them, and a crew who were keeping everything running smoothly. Thus, satisfied that his ship was in tip-top shape, Emerald made his way back to the control room, where Steel Wheel stood at the main control panel. Still on duty, he, too, was growing tired from a long night. Still, as Emerald approached, he perked up.

“Everything good, captain?”

“Well, we’re not going to sink,” Emerald said. He went over to the map table and studied the long, red line that had been slowly growing throughout the course of the mission. “This been updated?”

“It will be at noon.”

A glance at the clock showed that it was seven AM. The change in shifts would be starting, the halls soon filled with tired ponies either just waking up, or who wanted to climb into still-warm bunks after a long shift to sleep.

“I think we can get our position a bit early,” Emerald said. “What’s our depth?”

The dive plane operator, Sans Smirk, looked over. “Two zero zero feet, captain.”

Emerald then turned his attention to Vinyl. “Sonar, any contacts?”

Vinyl listened. “None, sir.”

“Good. Dive control, take us up to periscope death.”

Sans nodded as he turned his wheel. “Aye, captain. Ascending to six zero feet.”

A few minutes later, the Nautilus leveled off. As the slow, upwards movement came to a stop, Emerald headed to the periscope. “Down periscope.” It descended, and he took a look through the lens: the ocean was calm, giving him near-unlimited visibility as he scanned the area, wanting to ensure there were no ships on the horizon or any planes in the sky.

“Well, sir?” Steel asked.

“Nobody in sight,” Emerald said. “I think we can give everyone a bit of fresh air.” He stepped back and snapped the handles back into place. “Up scope. Helm, surface the ship.”

“Surfacing, aye.”

As the ship started up once more, Emerald took the microphone. “Attention all hands, this is the captain speaking: We’re going to take advantage of the good weather to give everyone a chance to enjoy some fresh air. If they so desire, every shift can go up on deck for thirty minutes each. That is all.”

Once more, the Nautilus leveled out. Tucking his coat around him, Steel headed up the ladder through the conning tower. Frigid sea water came down the ladder a few moments later and splashed onto the polished green floor, accompanied by the brutally cold morning air. Compared to the stuffy odor of muggy recycled air, it was a welcome reprieve.

“We all clear up there, Steel?” Emerald called up.

“All clear, sir.”

Nodding, Emerald looked back and saw a group of sailors standing outside the hatchway leading to the control room. One of them, the seemingly self-appointed ambassador to the group, stuck his head inside. “Permission to enter, Captain?”

“Permission granted.” Emerald stepped back, gesturing to the ladder. “Come on up.”

Pleased, the group hurried in, each sailor ascending the ladder as quickly as they could, knowing that they only had a short time to enjoy the fresh air. When the last sailor had climbed up, Emerald tightened his own coat around himself, pulled on his insulated gloves, and started up the ladder.

After spending so much time sealed inside the Nautilus breathing the scrubbed air, Emerald had almost forgotten what it was like to breathe fresh air. As it hit his face, and he inhaled the deepest lungful he could, before choking in a coughing fit as the icy wind agitated his lungs. But while it was painful, it also felt good.

Closing his eyes, Emerald took in another deep breath, pushing past the sting, and smiled.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of this,” Silver said as he walked up to Emerald. “Dad said he never did,” Emerald said.

The sounds of a commotion down on the forward deck made Emerald open his eyes; many of the crew were excitedly stretching and jumping up and down, revelling in the cold ocean air washing over them like a shower as they stretched and moved in ways the cramped interior of a submarine wouldn’t allow. Others instead basked in the sight of the sun rising into the sky, casting a warm orange glow over the waters and sky.

“Glad to see they’re enjoying themselves,” Steel said.

“They deserve it,” Emerald said, “after being cooped up like they have.”

“Are you still worried they won’t accept you?”

“What do you think?” Emerald asked, hoping Steel had a good answer.

“Some of them still have doubts,” Steel said, “but they see you trying to earn their trust, and I think they appreciate that. But the real test will be when we get into battle. They’ll want someone who won’t defect to the enemy at the first opportunity.

Below, the crew quieted down, now content to just watch the sunrise.

“Are you feeling any better, captain?” Steel asked.

“Well, after what you told me, yes.”

“I wasn’t referring to that, sir.”

Emerald barely managed to suppress a groan when he realized what Steel was referring to. “You mean that nightmare.”

“Yeah.”

Emerald wanted to just enjoy the sunrise, but knew that his XO was only following his training; as second in command, it was his job to make sure his captain wasn’t compromised or at risk of becoming so.

“I’m better,” he said.

“Care to say what it was about?” Steel asked. “And don’t bother saying it was nothing; everyone in the control room heard you shout.”

Emerald considered how much to reveal. “I was a little kid again,” he said. “I’m at home, sitting on our porch, waiting for my dad to come back from his latest patrol. And then Diamond comes up. I didn’t think anything of it, or find it strange that she was an adult and I was still a child. She’s friendly at first, talkative… but then she asks how my father would save an admiral who had been kidnapped and taken to a hidden base.”

Any enjoyment Steel had at being out in the open evaporated.

“When she realized I wasn’t going to tell her, she got angry,” Emerald said. “I think I realized, subconsciously, that something was wrong. I got scared, and then I woke up.”

Steel mulled over what Emerald said. “Doesn’t sound like any regular nightmare to me,” he said. “Sounds like she was really there, in your mind.”

Emerald reluctantly nodded. He had guessed the same thing when doing his rounds belowdecks, but had pushed the thought aside to focus on his crew. But now that his second in command had come to the same conclusion, the awful implications were becoming more clear to both of them.

“I’ve read about this happening before,” Steel said. “Nightmare Moon using her powers to infiltrate the minds of her enemies when they’re at their most vulnerable… Sir, that means…”

“That Nightmare Moon knows what we’re doing,” Emerald said.

The two didn’t speak for a moment. Below, the crew continued to enjoy the fresh air, unaware of the discussion taking place above them.

“Nightmare Moon must have allowed Diamond to infiltrate my dreams,” Emerald said. “Send in someone I’m familiar with and try to convince me to lower my guard without realizing it.”

“We’ll have Doc Top use a zebra potion on you,” Steel said. “Ensure that you don’t have any dreams from this point on. I’ll have him give me one, and the other senior staff.”

“Zebra potions won’t work against Alicorn magic,” Emerald said.

“But it might slow her down,” Steel pointed out. “Give you more time to realize something’s wrong and fight back.”

Emerald couldn’t argue with that. He hoped it wouldn’t come to that; Diamond had gotten dangerously close to tricking him into revealing their plans. Knowing that she had failed would make Diamond try for a more subtle approach the next time she tried, and in the dream realm, she would have all the advantages, and Emerald would have none. Even when his dream had turned into a nightmare, he still hadn’t realized he had been dreaming.

“Captain,” Steel said, his voice quiet and hard to hear above the hum of the engines, “You know what this means… The enemy’s going to be ready for us”

“I know.”

“That’ll make rescuing the Admiral that much harder.”

Emerald looked out to the horizon. “Yes… but we still have an advantage. They don’t know when we’re coming, or what we plan to do. If we can get to that island without being detected, we have a chance.”

“A small chance.”

“But still a chance.”

Steel sighed as he, too, looked out towards the sun. “You really think we can pull this off?”

Tightening his cap on his head, Emerald nodded. “We have to.”