Everything hurt. Gina couldn’t have said specifically what caused her the most agony, if anything. The ache went deep—into every cell, every tissue. Every few dragging steps she wondered if maybe she could curl up under the scorching sun and let it take her for good.
But however much she might want to give up and let herself die, she didn’t stop. If she gave up now, what was left of two nations might destroy each other. That damned volcano might have its final victory after all.
“You sure you don’t want to try flying again?” Isabel asked, her voice nervous and probing. “Just for a few feet. Just in case.”
Gina turned to glare at her, and for once she didn’t temper her anger. “I’m sure I can’t fly, Isabel. And I’m not leaving you.” For entirely self-serving reasons too—the pony was almost unscathed, and as good for carrying cargo as ponies ever were. Gina had filled every container she could with water and given Isabel most of it to carry. She wasn’t an earth pony, but she still bore the load without complaint.
In some ways, the terrain could’ve been worse. As they walked, the land became dryer, with only sparse shrubs and other debris. This was no swamp, ready to submerge them both in mud and drown them in unseen pitfalls.
Instead, they would bake alive. Perhaps the last two witnesses to an act of war.
“So… let’s talk,” Isabel said, after another few miles. It must be afternoon now. Gina felt as dry as birdseed, but she didn’t ask for water. It would be a long time before they reached another river. “Our plan. We have all this time, we must have a plan.”
“Okay,” Gina said. But she wasn’t really feeling it. The truth was, no matter how important her duty had always been, it was hard to be passionate about a doomed mission. Gideon had been on a stolen pony airship. That meant they would probably be reaching New Scythia about now with their treacherous report.
The emperor would take a day to consider what to do, but it would all be pretense. It wouldn’t be about whether to go to war, but planning how to fight it. He would see how inevitable Equestria’s response would be.
“So, Vengeance is going to do everything they can to subvert a possible peace process. They might kill the messengers, or maybe fake denials and proclamations from the emperor.”
“They’d really do that?” Isabel asked. She didn’t sound like she was curious so much as she was trying to keep Gina going.
Gina’s brain hurt too much to be thankful for it. Everything did, right down to her non-functional wings. If I don’t get to a doctor soon they might not heal properly. I’ll be paralyzed for the rest of my life.
But what did that matter if Accipio invaded Equestria and everyone starved?
“Well, they attacked me. That’s essentially the same thing. There’s no way Gideon would just do that out of the blue. Probably Santiago told him to look for an opportunity for something like this. They don’t call them Vengeance for nothing. I bet he’s still trying to get revenge for his father. Killing Velar isn’t enough. He’s trying to destroy everything that Gaius ever built.”
“Velar isn’t dead,” the pony said, her voice coming almost by reflex. “The Equestrians took him for treatment.” It didn’t sound argumentative—it sounded religious.
Gina’s eyes widened, and for a few seconds it seemed the haze had lifted a little. “Why do you care?” It was too bitter—Isabel didn’t deserve the anger from her.
And the unicorn sounded hurt now. Ponies just weren’t as tough as birds, even ponies that grew up in civilization. “Because he’s strong, and he’s good. He’s honorable. Unity wouldn’t let him die when the world needs him so badly.”
Gina didn’t reply for some time. She dragged her legs through the hardened ground, raising a little cloud of dust as she went. It wasn’t quite sandy here, more like the broken ground of somewhere that had been fertile a generation or so ago. But it was all dry now, and there was no sign of civilization. Even what passed for pony society was absent here.
“That prayer you were saying when I woke up. When you thought I wasn’t listening. That was for him, wasn’t it?”
Isabel looked away. Her ears flattened, her scent embarrassed. “Some of it. Some was for you.”
Gina had learned a great deal about slaves in her time officiating the law, but the hodgepodge religions of each culture had never been one of them. She knew the zebras still had their own tribal gods, and the minotaurs had given themselves over completely to Unity. They had their own temples, their own priestly orders—like simpler imitations of the true faith. But the enslaved ponies weren’t quite either one. They seemed to believe whatever was convenient at the time. Even Isabel.
“I’ve never seen any bird survive a gut wound like that, Isabel,” she said. Using the same voice she might’ve used to tell a fledgling that they wouldn’t ever be able to cast spells like a pony. “I know a bit of medicine. The contents of the intestine leaks into the chest cavity, and the whole thing goes septic. Organs start to rot. It’s an agonizing way to die, and there’s not a damn thing we can do about it. Except for the Old Magic.”
“Which he refused,” the unicorn added, sounding only a little defensive. “Because he was too good to trade lives. And he won’t need to. Unity won’t let him die. The ponies will save him.”
Gina couldn’t help but argue. After everything she’d seen—with as hopeless as the future looked ahead of them, she had less and less reason to be optimistic. “If he’d taken the lives that offered themselves for him, Virtue wouldn’t have looked so weak. Maybe Santiago would’ve waited a few years to try whatever treason he’s plotting. What if Unity doesn’t save him? The law permits slaves to volunteer for a spell like that. Maybe he could’ve had enough Virtue to raking follow it.”
Isabel stopped walking, an actual glare forming on her face for a few seconds. “It wouldn’t have been wrong for him to follow the law,” she said. Her voice suddenly seemed small. Almost as though she were afraid to tell Gina what she was thinking. But then she looked around—at the wasteland all around them—and she said it anyway. “Most citizens follow the law and no more. They’re afraid of it. Afraid of birds like you coming to take their wealth and power away. But then there’s Velar. He doesn’t do what he does because he’s afraid of punishment, he does it because it’s the right thing to do. He didn’t take one of his slaves to save him because then he wouldn’t be Velar. He was only hurt in the first place because he went out into a duel to help a slave.”
Suddenly Gina understood. Isabel’s defense, her faith in his survival, everything. “You didn’t come up with this yourself.”
It wasn’t a question. The unicorn shook her head. “Lots of ponies were talking about it. Pierre from the palace, he was the one who actually volunteered the information. One of the heir’s teachers… language instructor, I think. But the prince sent him back to his family. And Pierre told his wife, and she told…”
“I get it,” Gina sighed. Maybe I shouldn’t. But she was in far too much pain for good judgement. “Velar fought, you know. He’s killed more birds than most. He helped destroy house Purity. We had plenty of virtue too. More than clan Virtue ever had. If Purity was on the throne right now, there wouldn’t even be a question about invasion. And birds would still respect the law. Maybe Unity wouldn’t have punished us with Mons Ignis in the first place.”
It was Isabel’s turn for a bitter laugh. “Of course, mistress.” That stung even more than an argument would have. I know better than you, but you’re protected from it because of your position.
Gina shook her head once. “I’m sorry to question you, Isabel. I don’t have anything against the heir, if that’s what’s bothering you. I don’t mean to take your hope away. Maybe the ponies really can do medical miracles like they claim.” Or maybe they’re just going to put him somewhere no one can see and then use the Old Magic themselves. The prince would be too delirious with illness to really notice by then.
But Gina was beginning to realize that she didn’t actually know the Equestrians as well as she hoped she did. Her one brief visit in childhood had done little to prepare her for the potential war on the horizon. Their males could be just as brave (and stupid) as birds.
But a few ships of sailors couldn’t defeat the most skilled and ruthless killers in all Accipio.
They walked in silence again for a long time, long enough for both of them to cool down.
Gina stopped when the sun was getting low, unable to drag her hooves for much longer.
Besides, this seemed like a great campsite. A little wood of trees clustered around a dry riverbed, many of which were turning yellow or brown from lack of water. Those that weren’t already dead would be soon.
“Get as many of the greenest leaves you can,” Gina said, settling onto a clear patch of ground to rest. “We’re going to make a signal fire right before sunset. Maybe one of our patrols will see it.”
“Gideon might see it and turn around,” Isabel offered, but she went to work anyway. The pony labored without complaint, and soon enough they had a gigantic bonfire.
It was already plenty warm without it, so they kept it far away—just outside the boundaries of the wood, in fact. Any closer and Gina feared it might just set the whole thing ablaze, and earn them accusations of ecological sabotage along with the long list of real war crimes.
I wonder if we’ve crossed into Accipian territory yet. Is this still Equestria? She couldn’t remember exactly where the ship had been on the map in relation to the border. Certainly it had to be close by now. After as long as they’d walked…
They shared a few strips of dried fruit stolen from an Equestrian ration, then curled up together in the gloom. Ponies and birds were both social sleepers, after all. At least the civilized ones were.
It was pitch black when Gina finally awoke, her ears full of the sound of engines. She felt stiff, and her bad wing felt like it might tear right off her back. But she forced herself to stand, looking around the clearing.
She barely even noticed the pony shapes—dark-furred creatures that carried no lights and hardly even moved. But there were a few scraps of moonlight streaming down from around them, enough to outline the batlike wings, the dark purple armor, the rifles pointed at her.
“You’re awake,” said one of the ponies, emerging from the gloom to stand beside her. His weapon was undrawn on his back, but close enough for him to reach it quickly if he needed to. “Good. Captain wants you aboard yesterday.”
“We’ll need…” Isabel sounded half-asleep, but was apparently waking quickly. “Transport up. Gina can’t fly, I don’t have wings, I…”
“We can tell,” said another pony voice. A female, high and squeaky. But all these ponies were a little like that. “Outrigger is on its way down. Just stay there and don’t give us a reason to shoot you.”
The little boat touched down a few moments later, landing in the clearing beside their now-dead fire. The bats led them aboard, pointing weapons the whole way. Gina had apparently gotten worse during the night, because her limbs were so stiff they barely worked. At least she managed not to provoke the ponies to shoot her.
Then up they went, as the tiny airship lifted towards something far larger high above, something made from dark metal and with the obvious outlines of guns bristling along its edges. Its outline was strange to her, though she could tell at a glance it was at least the equal to a destroyer. Unity the whole thing is made of metal. How do they keep it in the sky?
Their captors seemed to see her staring. “Hold still,” ordered a gruff voice. “You’re going to be blindfolded. Do not resist.”
“They’re blind enough already,” said a tiny voice from the other side of the boat. “You know how griffons are in the dark.”
“How everypony is,” added someone else.
“Orders are orders,” said the first voice. “You’re going straight to the captain. Accipio has a lot to answer for.”
“That’s perfect,” Gina said, without hesitation. “Because your captain is exactly the one we want to see. We need his help—both our nations might depend on it.”
Assuming their captain doesn't instantly choke to death on his/her own saliva, this should be interesting. Looking forward to more.
Hopefully nothing too bad happens in the future. *goes knock on wood*
Sounds like these bats have guns. Perhaps Luna's been far more proactive in preparing for the possibility of war than we've been shown?
Are these really Equestrian ponies? They have guns and everything...
Oh damn
The duo are pretty beat up.
Im still dying to learn more about how Gilda is fairing. How would her prideful nature work alongside a somewhat sexist culture? What is Vengeance really after at this moment? Surely they are keeping their cards close to their chest. Griffonstone seems to be operating as a fully fledged independent city state. I wonder how Celestia is taking that
I think I might appreciate this chapter more if it came 5 or 10 chapters earlier. As it stands I'm just waiting for the equestrians to turn into idiots so they can be dutifully slaughtered. This story has a long, uphill battle ahead of it if it wants me to care about what's going on.
Not completely sure about griffon anatomy, but It's probably abdominal cavity.
Gina doesn't have hooves.
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I have a nasty suspicion that Gilda was either killed to keep her quiet, or she's locked in a dark room somewhere where no one will find her. I'm hoping that's not the case, but the possibility is there.
A LEGITIMATE GLIMMER OF HOPE! God, those are friggin rare in this story.
Yessss, finally we get to see Equestria in action. Maybe not shooty bang bang action, but proactive nonetheless (which at this stage is arguably even better)! I wonder if those rifles are purely technological like the gryphon's or magical? Aethershot rifles would be cool. And steel airships? Those have got to be magic powered. I wonder if they look something like this?
i.imgur.com/DjkKS0L.jpg
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It'd be nice to see that someone in Equestria assumed betrayal/prepared for war.
Ah, our first glimpse of genuine Equestrian soldiers! Nice to see the ponies have a few tricks up their metaphorical sleeves, too.
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I hope Gilda is alright
Her character is what got me into MLP to begin with
I'm legit worried for her O_O
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I've been very concerned for her for a while too, yeah. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if she's six feet under, but I hope she isn't. Even worse, I hope she isn't siding with Vengeance on this unconditionally.
Hahahahahahaha! The Griffons are in for a surprise if the if Equestria is fielding the equivalent of the first iron clad ships. If I'm remembering my civil war history correctly the first two that fought had the cannonball just bounce off the armor plating.
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They then ran out of ammo, and got swamped by high tide ;3
But yes, you are correct the first two Ironclad ships that were fielded were completely impervious to cannon shot.
On the upside, what looks like competent Equestrian soldiers.
On the downside, they're bat ponies (naturally) and they have guns instead of something pony-specific.
Looks like we're finally getting to see the fully professional Equestrian military, hopefully that will give the different feeling to this story that it has been needing. Interesting that this was the first metal clad airship either Isabel or Gina has seen, that's yet another indication of a significant tech difference between the two countries.
Because of course the people by whom honesty has been consistently extolled as the highest virtue are going to betray their way of life and start releasing lies in the name of the emperor when it's convenient for the plot.
Because of course the unicorn who has until now had nothing but contempt for the "barbaric" Equestrians now suddenly has complete faith in their ability to do what griffons cannot.
And why are both Isabel and Gina referring to Velas as a prince? It's been thoroughly established that he has no title because griffon society places no stock in empty titles. He is merely the son of the emperor, nothing more.
So in the event of Accipian civil war, the slave rebellion will be pro-establishment (at least the ponies, and while Velar lives). Won't that be a kick in the nuts? It might even tip off the Equestrians that the situation might be a little more nuanced than they are giving it credit for.
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Separating them on the ground is hardly a priority. No promises have been made.
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Might depend on what each side promises its slaves, though. Not that I would expect Vengeance to stick to any promises... then again, the members of Virtue have subverted their promises regarding slaves massively too. I wouldn't even trust Purity if Gina is anything to go by, at the very least not until I know what her thoughts regarding other species' right to freedom are. She might be nice to Isabel but still believe any non-griffons are naturally meant for the shackles.
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You make what would ordinarily be good points but we're talking about religious fervor here. That might not be enough singlehandedly but I'd think it's certainly enough to tip the scales. And although both sides keep slaves, the other side is much more known for grossly mistreating slaves (or so it appeared to me as a reader).
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You have a good point.
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The griffons in general have not been shown to be particularly good at keeping their word, and House Vengeance in particular has been fairly well established as traitorous, double-dealing and prone to backstabbing. They say they stick to that virtue, they say that a lot, but saying and doing are different things.
The impression I got was that Isabel genuinely wants Velar to live, largely out of the correct impression that he actually gives a rat's ass about slaves and their lives, and is become desperate enough in her hope that he'll survive that she's turned to trusting in Equestrian medicine to save him, since there's no other option for it now.
This I do agree with. It was quite jarring to hear them suddenly call Velar a prince when the story went out of its way to point out that he holds no actual title.
I like how this chapter shows something else about the ponies. Isabel basicly keep going regardless of what she is told or what happens, showing of just how durable the ponies can be. I mean sure, Gina is very wounded, but they both just survived a crash. The fact that Isabel seems to have little problems speaks volumes.
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I think starscribe has already stated that the weapons in this fic are more advanced than just using cannon balls. I believe he made a comment somewhere that griffons used weapons with magazines. I think i also saw repeating rifles being mentioned somewhere, but can't remember.
If I were to guess, then I would say late 19 century weapon technology.
Then again, if the ponies have armored ships and the griffons just wooden (mostly) ships, then that allready skips the balance alot. Then again, makes sense. The griffons with no real magic would make it very difficult to get a fully metal ship to actually fly. After all, it takes a lot more to get something to fly in the air than just float on the water. The equestrians have magic, they could potentaially have no such problem.
Wow so Equestria's got up to date in armament and surpassed in armor. This would be interesting. It may be the first war Equestrian win with out Alicorn battle. Or it wouldn't be war at all.
I'm actually a little confused about the timeline going on here. Did we take a step back in time when we went to Gina, or is this happening after the stuff with Velar?
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Gina and Isabel gathering the griffons from griffonstone, velar and starlight chatting it up in Canterlot, and the mane six trying to find a new location for the griffons in the Frozen North are all happening at the same time, which from what I can understand is a week or so after Velar got shot and Celestia cutting off New Appicio.
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Starscribe is really good with worldbuilding; sadly, in his stories characters tend to act according with the needs of the plot, rather than their own defined personalities.
Sorry if it sounds harsh, but that's my interpretation.
I thought I should explain why I'm down voting this story.
First, I want to say that I thought that Starscribe usually writes well. He did a great job of making a morally unambiguous system (slavery) usually presented in monolithic, black and white terms by other works of fiction (and increasingly nonfiction) as being morally ambiguous as a source of conflict and drama. In some ways the presentation is sophisticated and realistic. For example, people tend to forget (or never learn) that, in real life history, slaves often supported slavery because they couldn't imagine a world so different that slavery wasn't a part of it. How this is presented ranges from realistic to awkward, and some of the facets of the fictional version here might not actually be true slavery (and societies where these thins existed, historically, usually keep them very specifically separated for reasons of social standing). In some ways, it might be better described as indentured servitude or serfdom. In our modern world these are usually recognized as slavery with extra steps, so its a minor point.
The story is also built around world-building, which is fantastic, but sometimes that world doesn't make sense, usually for want of details. I was among those who had a false impression of flintlock-era gun technology because of that; and the idea that the entire world is conquered by a single empire except for Equestria makes for a deeply strange world when that global empire has nowhere to go to. It is also strange that Equestians can't recognize Bessemer vessels when they themselves build steel-intensive structures like skyscrapers and hydroelectric dams. Worse, Bessemer steel, until fairly late in its heyday, produced brittle, poor quality metal that would be unsuitable for firearms and especially cannons.
It is hard to believe, in a very suspension-of-disbelief straining sort of way, that an unarmed griffin ship could capture two Equestrian vessels and seize a third under the circumstances presented, especially with no pony-side survivors. I've come to expect this sort of thing from Starscribe, to be honest; the author has a tendency to push ahead the plot despite descriptions and characterizations, rather than presenting the plot as deriving from them. It's been justified by claiming that griffins are never truly unarmed, that he griffins on this particular airship were elite warriors, and that the equestrians were not.
In terms of armament, the griffins have two 'weapons:' beaks and talons. I suspect that beaks, despite being obviously of the hooked, flesh-ripping variety found on raptors. Those beaks, are, biologically, for eating, not killing. Raptors subdue prey with their talons, by strangulation. Beaks are actually fairly weak, structurally, and using them means placing their sensitive eyes, breathing holes, and brain dangerously close to their opponent. Claws, of both the feline and raptor variety, are for gripping. Gripping prey, or the ground, or a tree branch -- gripping. Not slashing or stabbing. They could be sharpened, but even if every one was razor sharp, all you've got is a handful of short x-acto knives that you can never, ever put down or use to block steel weapons without probably loosing a few digits. And now that griffin is supposed to fight against real knives, swords, bows, and other reaching weapons?
Elite warriors like Navy SEALS and army rangers don't win fights because they're really good at fighting. They win fights because they were really good at choosing when and where and how to fight. Special ops groups are all about surprise and stealth and surgical force. They have specialized training, yes, but that only goes so far. If these griffins had been actual elites, they wouldn't have fight in a situation with exactly zero surprise against superior numbers in a place chosen by their opponents white badly outgunned. Remember, pegasi have weather control and flight (and the griffins probably do too) and earth ponies come with, at a minimum, hard horseshoes and hooves to hit with; but unicorns have telekinesis, light, mind control, magic lasers, shields, and teleportation, among other useful combat abilities. Elite soldiers would have fought in another time and place. They would have the toughness and discipline to adsorb a few insults and blows to their egos.
Remember that black-ops fighters get killed, too. Even the best can fall when they loose their advantage. Operation Red Wings didn't happen like it did because being the best-trained soldiers conferred invincibility.
More important is something I tried to ignore it, but it just really bugs me. It's the coal-bunker chapter, and especially the author's comments about it. There's an aspect to it that I just can't quite let go of. None of what I've said so far is anything that can't be forgiven -- especially since we never saw what really happened. I kept thinking that maybe it would be explained better, but instead we get the author saying that (and this is the part that really bothers me) that the ponies lost because they were the Coast Guard.
I'll admit to not being terribly familiar with the coast guard equivalents in other nations, but in the US, the Coast Guard is NOT A PUSHOVER SERVICE. The US Coast Guard is the 12th most heavily armed naval force in the world, ahead of most navies. They are probably also the single most combat-active military service anywhere. The Coast Guard has fought in basically every US conflict and war except the American Revolution. They get deployed overseas to places like Iraq. They also fight, even in peacetime, against well-armed drug smugglers, human traffickers, and other criminals. And I do mean fight, as in combat, with machine guns and cannon on both sides, on a daily basis. Their ranks have included two astronauts and a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient. It is difficult to imagine a more experienced, better-trained military force. They even have a special operations group, the Coast Guard DOGS.
The Cost Guard is a substantial and considerable military force with a long and impressive combat history, and claiming that they aren't a serious threat is both absurd and kind of a slap in the face to a group of veterans who deserve more respect than that. It bothers me that Starscribe thinks of them as pushovers who can't handle themselves in a fight. Maybe ponies are different, but the ships these griffons encountered were obviously patrolling the Accipio-Equestrian border for griffon vessels, pirates, and smugglers, and this would not likely have been their first fight. The ponies knew that this could be a lot of trouble; they knew that these were griffins, and they possessed basically every tactical advantage here. In an equivalent real-life scenario, with the US Coast Guard surrounding a smaller force of foreign black-ops soldiers, I would bet heavily on the Coast Guard. They might suffer badly for that victory, but I just can't see them loosing.
I'm not saying that Starscribe should necessarily change the story (and as a commission he likely can't). I just think that he ought to avoid thoughtlessly belittling combat veterans (or anyone else for that matter) in the comments, and maybe he could describe his world a little better earlier on to be less jarring for later events.
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Some of the criticisms here make sense although the one that seems to not hold much weight is the correlation between real life aspects and those of a fantastical world with this one in particular. I see your point that the coast guard of Equestria should be more competent whereas this is something I would argue the exact opposite for. As far as the equestrian military is concerned these are ponies we have to reference to having any form of combat experience at all which makes sense. Equestria is pretty isolated in terms of geography. Their neighbours are crystal ponies who's continued existence is fueled by love. We can see the particular ineptitude of the Equestrian military just from canon sources alone. Canterlot was invaded twice successfully which is where I would imagine the princesses to concentrate their land's most capable defenders. I can understand why the gryphons were so easily able to accomplish their victory. Their opponents were untested whereas the gryphons seem to have a culture based partly around the glorification of violence.
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Which raises the question, in story, about how Equestria is the only kingdom not controlled by gryphons.
In canon, Equestria has no enemy nations, so it makes sense (to some degree) its army is small and poorly trained. Here, ponies are the neighbours of an expansionist, pro-slavery empire who has tried to take over their land several times in the past.
How can Celestia afford not to have a top notch efficient, well funded army?
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Well, the Monitor ran out of ammo after having done a fair amount of damage to the Virginia. The Virginia's captain gave up shooting because her guns weren't doing much. The end result was a tactical stalemate and a solid strategic win for the Union, (a single Monitor meant an ironclad ram¹ couldn't break a blockade, two would make an attempt suicide).
1: Of which the Virginia was the CSA's largest.
I still find it weird that Prince/not-prince had this much consiousness during multiple surgeries.
I remember from my eye surgery that I was barely conscious I was being pumped air from a point on. Anesthesia us pretty tough. Plus being conscious during surgery is very rare and it's a very, VERY traumatic experience. "I have no mouth and I must scream" is a good analogy.