In other circumstances, Starlight Glimmer probably would’ve greatly enjoyed this day. After all her time traveling with Velar, after listening to all his petty superiority and unwarranted confidence, there was some cosmic justice in seeing his face when they wandered into Canterlot Drydock C. If only she’d managed to get a camera in there, she could’ve hung that up on her wall.
But there wasn’t really time to enjoy the moment. If the world ended, she wouldn’t have a wall left to hang it on.
Princess Luna took them into the elevator, then straight down to the bridge. Ponies in naval uniforms were already at their stations, calling out pre-flight checks that must be meaningful to them but might as well be Prench to Starlight.
Princess Luna took them near the back, where a blue table of crystal rose up from the ship itself. Starlight had seen its like many times before—it was like the Cutie Map, reverse engineered from the one that had appeared in the same magic as Twilight’s castle. True, this one couldn’t detect esoteric interpersonal problems a nation away—or indeed anything past ten miles or so. But considering the scale of most naval conflicts, that was more than enough.
The city appeared in the magical projection, along with the solid bubble of its shield. There would be no keeping that magic away from Velar’s knowledge, then. But the princess obviously knew what she was doing. More than me. This conflict is partially my fault. Maybe Velar was right, and her ignorance had preserved the peace a little longer. Or maybe that was just more bluster. She didn’t really know anymore.
“You see the odds arrayed against us,” Princess Luna said. She gestured at the projection, and the three warships hovering in the air just outside. From the look of the rubble at the bottom of the mountain, there had been at least four to start with. I wonder how many tried to ram the shield.
Even cannon fire appeared on the projection, little flashes of orange and red that briefly brightened the shield where they struck, forming little cracks that healed almost as soon as they appeared. But Canterlot knew better than most cities that no shield was invulnerable. Cannons would get through it sooner than changelings physically ramming it would.
“I do,” Velar said, walking around the table and staring at the three ships. “These two are Falchions, they’re our largest class of ship. Mostly bombers and troop carriers. This one is a destroyer, I’m guessing she’s the escort.” He squinted at the little projection, eyes still wide. “What kind of magic is this? I knew ponies could produce illusions, but this. Is this showing us the real world, or just a guess? Unity, how easy are these to make? If we had these on every ship, we’d never lose a battle…”
A pony approached them—a unicorn with gold knots on her shoulders. The captain then. “Princess, preflight checks are complete and we are ready to deploy.” She narrowed her eyes, glaring at Velar. “Are you sure this prisoner doesn’t belong in the brig? He’s already seen much more than we wanted the griffons to know.”
“When this day is over, Captain Blason, the griffons will have seen most of our secrets. Unless we want to keep them in drydock and use the merchant marine through this war, we have to accept that reality.” She smiled then, though there was no humor in it. “Besides, Prince Velar is our hostage. If the situation escalates, nothing will force us to return him.”
The unicorn saluted, expression souring. “Very good, ma’am.”
“Take us out. Order the rest of the fleet to hold position above the palace. We won’t breach the shield until my word.”
“Aye!” She turned away, and began giving instructions to the ponies throughout the room. Glowing crystal controls practically lit themselves on fire with magic, while the low hum of a powerful engine somewhere far away shook Starlight through her hooves.
I don’t belong on a warship.
“Prince Velar,” the princess said again, a little more respectfully. “Why are these warships attacking our capital? I don’t know the patrol-routes from memory, but I’m guessing that they may’ve had to do some damage to get here. Pony blood has already been spilled, and they’re here to spill more of it.” Her smile transformed into a leer, mane becoming blacker until only a few faint specks of stars remained. “Do those ships really have the gall to think they could force a surrender by bombing Canterlot?”
Velar paced around the model again. He stared at the ships, looking at the smallest aspects like the guns and little flags. Starlight Glimmer couldn’t really make sense of what they were seeing at this level—she didn’t have the knowledge to fight a war. But Velar obviously did. As he inspected, the Stalwart Stratus slowly rose up through the caverns, following the path of glowing lights along the walls. Starlight was especially grateful she wasn’t the pony at the helm.
“These ships are Vengeance and Victory,” Velar eventually said. “Those are just empire flags, but I recognize the wood. Only Victory uses ash for their ships. They were the only house without a navy, so they didn’t have to worry about…” He trailed off. “Right, you don’t care about that.”
Captain Blason joined them at the table a moment later. She stood on Luna’s other side, though she remained attentive to her crew. But so long as they were just navigating through the tunnels, there wasn’t much for her to do.
Princess Luna’s expression remained neutral, though there was disdain in her voice, obvious to the crew close enough to overhear. “Let’s just say you can save trying to persuade us that your father hasn’t invaded us after the invasion is over. We can investigate these ships, we can interrogate the survivors. But don’t waste our time trying to convince me of that while pony lives are still at risk.”
Velar nodded curtly. He managed not to wet himself in the process, which seemed impressive enough. Starlight had seen ponies run in terror from Luna when she spoke like that. “Very well. Skipping all that, Vengeance believed the weakest possible estimates about pony strength. Before my injury, we had just discovered disturbing information that the agriculture infrastructure in Kios was still almost nonexistent. That suggests to me they were using their gold on something else. We know what, now.”
“This is obviously a trap,” Princess Luna said, a little louder. “Four ships cut their way to Canterlot. But in the process the merchant marine has been recalled and the navy is being deployed. They are hundreds of miles into Equestrian territory and cut off from escape. What insanity is this? Even if they thought our ships were unarmed, they must’ve known this was doomed. A trained weather-team could blow them out of the sky with a storm, or unicorns could burn their ships, or…”
“They could be that stupid,” Captain Blason said. “Birds always think they’re stronger than everyone else. And maybe they are, until they meet an earth pony, or a bison. But claws don’t help you much in a stampede.”
For a griffon, Prince Velar was doing a remarkable job not rising to remarks that Starlight would expect to enrage the birds of Accipio. Where was this discipline when the Wayfarer got taken down? If only the others were more like him.
“When we spoke,” Starlight began. “On the way here. You said they were probably targeting our princesses.”
Luna’s eyes fixed on him, but she didn’t interrupt.
Velar nodded. “I still think that’s likely. A serious attack on Canterlot is a bad strategic move, and there isn’t enough ordinance or soldiers on two bombers to take the city. And if I wanted to win a prolonged war with Equestria, I’d leave your seat of power alone. You bomb the houses of your citizen class, and they’ll be clamoring for war, voting for more military spending… you leave the city alone, and you have an indolent ruling class and a huge resource drain from its population as refugees flee here. So either Vengeance is even more ignorant of strategy than I thought, or they aren’t really aiming for the city.” His eyes finally settled on Luna. Or… almost. He didn’t seem able to meet her eyes for very long.
You and me both, Velar.
Sunlight suddenly poured in through the bridge windows. The whole thing was stained purple from the shield, like twilight but far brighter. Starlight could make out the outlines of three other ships gathered near the palace. The Stalwart Stratus would be the last to arrive.
“Whatever they’re planning, I think it would begin and end with assassinating you, Princess. And your sister. If you aren’t fighting for Equestria, our odds would be better than they have been in the past, cannons or no cannons. I don’t know what they’re planning on this time that we haven’t already tried.”
Captain Blason stared at Velar, her mouth hanging open. “Princess, you’re going to let a monster talk like that? After everything they’ve done to Equestria…”
Princess Luna shrugged one wing. “Velar is giving us the truth. Would you prefer he lie so his words are more palatable?”
“Of course not, Princess. Forgive me.” She stepped away, wandering back to her command chair.
“Many weapons have been used against us,” Princess Luna continued. “I am skeptical that anything they have would be different.”
They were headed straight for the griffon ships. Velar winced a little as cannon fire hit the shield between him and the enemy vessels, seeming to follow their ship specifically. Told you telling them about me wouldn’t work. But now seemed like a bad time to gloat about it.
The cannons firing at them weren’t of the old sort, either. That destroyer was firing another broadside every twenty seconds or so. Three times as fast as the muzzle-loaders he was used to. You didn’t just smuggle in old guns. You brought the designs for new ones and started there. The Impervious Triumph had guns like that, but not many simple destroyers. At least not when he’d been in command. I guess Vengeance figured out how to mass produce all those little gears.
Worse, the shield was cracking. The little damage he’d seen on the projection was now longer than a building, and getting wider. Cracks spread along the outside like a massive glacier thawing in spring. The enemy seemed to see it too, because the carriers had turned to broadside the shield as well. Each one only had four guns to a side, and they didn’t fire as often, but that was still more damage than the shield could take.
“What should we do, Princess?” asked the captain. “I don’t think we should stay here. They’re sighting us through the shield.”
Princess Luna didn’t hesitate, striding right past Velar to stand beside the captain. “Radio my command to the fleet. When that shield goes, their targets are those larger ships. I want them destroyed before Canterlot can be bombed. The destroyer is far more dangerous to us than Canterlot. Us and the Lavender Spirit will target the one on the left. The Hurricane and Lilac Sky, on the right.”
As she spoke, a pony near one of the many controls held something dark up to his mouth, muttering almost word for word what the princess was saying. Velar had never seen anything like it, but from the way he kept reacting, it seemed to him like he was hearing someone in response.
Great purply chunks of the shield began crumbling away from the point of impact, fading away to sparkles as they got further and further down.
She relaxed. “Captain Blason, this is your vessel. Accomplish my orders however you see fit.”
Blason saluted, then turned her back on them. It looked to Starlight as though she’d completely forgotten they were there. Even Velar, the one she hadn’t even wanted on her ship. “Helmspony, sound the altitude alarm and climb forty-five degrees. Pinpoint, forget about broadsides, we’ll use the sunbeam. Open the collectors. Let’s singe their wings.”
Another barrage of cannon fire rumbled in front of them, and the shield finally collapsed. Huge segments went tumbling down towards the city, and a few cannonballs soared around them, smacking into the stone far below.