The Lunar Empire

Flagship Ultionis

February 20, 1133

Fleet Admiral Stormwind

Between 11:30 and 2:15 a.m.

There was a knocking on my door. "Come in." I said. The knocking stopped, and a Pegasus trotted in.

"Our ships are almost in position, sir. The mission will begin soon."

I looked away from my desk. "Good. Can you review our objectives again?" I asked. The pony nodded and pulled out a small piece of paper.

"As soon as all warships are in a position around the blockade, a flare will be fired from land. When this happens, all ships and land crews are ordered to fire long guns at the Celestial fleet..." he said.

I thought back to the events of four weeks ago. Three Celestial warships had left the blockade in favor of attacking the port, wanting to find and kill General Dark Thunder and his friend, Ace Graymane. However, Ace was on a ship bound for Cervidas and Dark had stationed himself on a seafort, causing one of the ships to be sent to the bottom and forcing the other two out of action. It wasn't all in vain, however; Celestial landing groups had burned down half the city and taken around two hundred of its inhabitants with it. Not only that, some of the shoreline cannons had gone missing.

After the attack, General Dark came up with a plan to remove the Celestial fleet from Astrum, as well as destroy their naval bases and port cities. It was a three-part, long term plan: Step one was to surround the blockade and prevent any ships from escaping. Step two was to bombard the Celestial fleet with heavy long guns, then have some Frigates move in when the fleet was no longer combat capable. Step three involved the Lunar fleet moving along Equestria's southern coastline and destroying or capturing any naval base, ports and surviving ships, the assault ending at Baltimare. The main goal was to remove the Celestial naval supremacy, as well as cut off the flow of imported weapons and supplies, which could easily cripple their army, as the iron mines had started to run dry in Equestria.

However, their Navy currently had about fifty Ships-of-the-Line, not to mention unknown amounts of smaller craft back at the port city of Manehattan. It could also be assumed that the locals in the city wouldn't hesitate to arm their leisure ships with a ballista or two and try to attack a hostile fleet.

The Lunar Empire Navy, on the other hoof, consisted of eight Frigates, seven Destroyers, six Cruisers, a few patrol craft, a single Battleship, and the Ultionis, totaling around thirty ships, just over half the Celestial force. There was an equalizer, though; the vast majority of the Lunar ships were equipped with sixty-four pound long guns, each having far more range than the ballistae still used by their ships.

"...you are permitted to fire at any ship, but a boat attempting to escape, as well as the Ships-of-the-Line Glorious and Ark, are all high-priority targets." the messenger said, finishing the paper. "Is there anything else you need, sir?" he asked.

"No, thank you. I'll be on the deck in a minute." I replied. He nodded again and stepped out of the room. I stared at the blank piece of paper on my desk. It was supposed to be a letter to a mare I had met in one of the northern cities, explaining why I had suddenly moved from one end of the Empire to another in a matter of days. The paper remained blank due to a mixture of not wanting to tell the truth and a lack of being able to make believable lies unless I was drunker than a sailor back from a year long term; unfortunately, she appeared during one of my drunk days and now thought I was a rich playwright from another country.

I got up from the table and walked over to the door, picking up a spyglass on the way out. I opened and trotted out the door, closing it behind me. It was so dark that I could just barely make out the silhouettes of the deck guns and crew members, the latter being deathly still. The only audible noise was caused by waves gently pushing against the hull of the Ultionis, which also gave the ship a soft, rocking motion.

I raised the spyglass to my eye and looked out to where I thought another one of our ships was. After straining my eyes for all eternity, I could just barely make out the word Consequence. It was a fitting name; having to fight that Battleship would be a proper result of taking innocent lives.

The ship was slowly having the suspense of the upcoming battle built up. Despite being a Flagship, the Ultionis didn't have any sort of way to accurately tell time, causing the likely few minutes we had left to wait for feel like an eternity. I fidgeted with my hooves, then the spyglass, trying anything I could to get my mind off the wait.

My actions came to fruition when I saw a dull blue flare rise above the city of Astrum, signaling to begin the attack. The ponies immediately moved to the long guns (which had been loaded and aimed almost an hour earlier) and fired. The barrels spat heat and smoke, causing the ship to briefly tremble. It felt like the boat was moving from the force of the cannons alone.

I heard the firing of other cannons, and not soon after, the low rumbling of the larger, one hundred twenty-eight pound cannons that were ashore. A large fire erupted on a Celestial ship, betraying their position. Cannons focused fire on the unfortunate ship, causing it to sink no more than a few moments later. The loss of a target prompted the gunners to find a new one. Some of the smaller Celestial patrol boats tried to make a run for it, causing the majority to be lit up by flares and subsequently attacked by our own Monitors.

After loosing some of their strongest craft, the enemy fleet tried to spread out, allowing the cannons to pick them off. However, it also allowed some of the ships to escape the action and either run away or get close to use their ballistae. One such ship happened upon the Ultionis, and managed to get off a full broadside firing before being noticed. "Hey, let's move a bit faster. I want to see what the rowers can do." I said. A pony stepped below deck. Not long after, our Flagship started moving noticeably faster, and all it took was a simple turn to ram the smaller vessel. It listed briefly before splitting in half and sinking.

The fight appeared to be going pretty bad for the Celestial fleet. By now, at least a third of their ships were either sunk or dead in the water, and most the others had taken at least medium damage. One even had its masts torn off and was hopelessly outnumbered and under assault from the Consequence. The enemy Monitor took a direct hit and listed until it looked like it was standing on one side; another direct hit tore through the hull, causing it to sink at an even faster rate.

The enemy ships were now bunched up in small groups, firing as one ship onto single targets. I watched as they shot right into the waterline of one of our Frigates, causing it to list uncontrollably. In the center of all this, there appeared to be a Celestial Flagship holding out by itself. It had four decks and seemed to have taken very little damage. A Lunar Monitor got too close and was ripped to pieces by the Flagship's ballistae. Not long after, a Cruiser rammed into the side, causing massive damage to the hull. The ship was quickly struck with dozens of ballistae, causing fatal damage at the waterline.

"All guns, fire on their Flagship!" I yelled over the cannons. The massive weapons turned and fired, scoring hits on the Celestial ship. It stopped attacking the now-listing Cruiser and turned to face us. The Ultionis fired bow chasers, some of which took out rigging and masts.

The Flagship fired ballistae in return, punching holes in the deck. I moved behind a crate just as an especially large bolt slammed into where I had been standing a moment ago. The cannons fired again, tearing out sections of the hull. By now, there was less than fifty yards between the two ships.

One of the cannons fired a large canister into one of the holes, which quickly exploded within. I could hear the screams of wounded ponies over the sound of our guns. Some of the remaining Lunar Frigates and Cruisers had circled around and were firing right into the stern. This time, the ballistae didn't return fire. The ships were practically on top of each other now.

I almost gasped as we passed the Flagship; it had taken much more damage than I thought. I looked at the bow, trying to find out what the name of the ship was. The ship was named the Summer's Eve, but the bow had taken so many hits from chase guns that it was almost unreadable. There were some small fires on the inside of the ship, likely from a heatshot fired from ashore. Most of the ballistae had been destroyed, but that wasn't the reason the ship had stopped fighting. Most of the crew appeared to be dead or wounded so badly they couldn't fight. A few moved around the ship, and an even smaller group pointed at me and shouted. One even tried to fire a bow, only to have it snap in his hooves.

"Sir, we fire on your command." a pony behind me said.

"Don't fire."

"Sir?"

"Did I stutter? Don't fire. Have a Frigate come over here and tow it back to the port. We can make use of this ship."

"As you wish."

A pony stepped out from the shadows on the lower deck of the Summer's Eve. He was a Fleet Admiral, guessing by his attire. I watched him look up, and an expression of confusion, then surprise prompted me to take a closer look. He had a short, light blue mane and tail; his coat was a shade of gold. Some minor scratches and bruises covered parts of his body. Stargazer?

A Frigate pulled up alongside the Celestial ship and a crew member threw out a few thick ropes to the deck. A pony came down from the top and spoke with Stargazer. He nodded and looked back up at me as two ponies went up to the top deck and began wrapping the ropes around anything stable enough to be pulled by.

Stargazer stared at me with gratitude. He knew that I didn't have to take him prisoner.

By now, the remains of the Celestial fleet were in turmoil. The capture of their leader's ship had turned their sluggish retreat into a rout. A select few enemy vessels had escaped, but they wouldn't pose any sort of threat. Any remaining ships were being hunted down by Destroyer or Frigate pairs while Cruisers plundered any ship that was dead in the water or not fighting back. The Consequence patrolled around the main kill-zone, sinking any ship it found. A few of the Celestial ships had raised a white flag, which was the best idea considering that now half of their original force had been annihilated.

"Sir! We have a letter from General Dark Thunder!" said a smaller Unicorn as he trotted over to me.

"Go ahead and read it." I replied.

"General Dark wants you to set up a perimeter around the harbor and for the Ultionis to return to port. It says he needs to discuss the events of the battle with you immediately."

"Very well. Let's turn this crate around. Wouldn't want to keep Dark waiting."

"So, none of your ships confirmed sinking, or even seeing the Ark and the Glorious?" the General asked. Upon landing, we had followed the rest of the crew to the local tavern. Some of the ponies were already re-telling the events of the battle to the others sitting at their table, while others sat silent.

"Unfortunately, no." I said, taking a sip of my ale. "Of course, it was - and still is - very hard to see outside. There is a chance that it simply crashed into another ship and sank."

"I see... Do we have an idea of what ships were lost?" Dark asked.

"At the time, no. I did see one of our Cruisers and a Monitor sink due to concentrated fire from the Celestial Flagship, but there were likely many more." I replied. Some of the ponies behind me laughed as one of their friends passed out and ran head-first into a table. I turned around just in time to see the table flip over and land on top of the drunk pony.

"Speaking of the Flagship, I heard that you refused to fire on it at close range. Why is that?"

I thought for a moment. Why didn't I fire? Stargazer is supposed to be my enemy. "I didn't fire because the ship was already dead. It would have been a waste of ammunition. Besides, we could find some sort of important document regarding Celestia's plans on board."

"That makes sense. We currently have Fleet Admiral Stargazer in our custody. Do you know anything about him?"

"We both went to the same Naval Academy before the Changling War, and we served together when things started going bad. When it ended, we went our separate ways. Didn't even know he was still alive until I saw him on that ship; he had a tendency to start fights." I replied. "I'm sorry, but that's really all I know. We weren't exactly friends."

"Okay. I'll be leaving now, there are some matters I need to attend to regarding why those ships attacked us in the first place. Captain Wavebreaker hasn't been too cooperative, even after I threatened to use his ship as a fireboat." Dark said, standing up from his chair.

I heard a pony behind me begin to talk in an almost perfect impression of Stargazer, if he was drunk. "Dear Lunar Empire, we regret being Celestial bastards. We regret attacking your port. And we most definitely regret that the Lunar Navy just sunk our raggedy-ass fleet!"

The entire tavern was filled with laughter as every sailor inside shouted in agreement. The Lunar ships would all be counted, rearmed and repaired at sunrise, and the next day the fleet would begin sailing west to take out the remains of the blockade and to hit Manehattan. I paid for my drink and began a slow trot back to the Ultionis to get a bit of sleep before my work would resume in the morning.

The Flagship hadn't taken a lot of damage, but ballista spears and even a few arrows stuck out all over the hull. In a few places, there would be broken wood or a small hole; whatever kind of merchant ship it was before, it must have been a strong one.

I boarded the ship and moved into my quarters. I picked up some of the paper that had fallen off during the battle and placed it on my desk. Nothing else seemed to be out of line. Satisfied, I pulled myself into bed and began thinking. The sudden appearance of Stargazer wasn't something I had expected, but as long as he couldn't command his forces the Lunar Navy would have no trouble fighting the Celestials.