When running a tugboat company, you have to be prepared to take on any job, no matter how dangerous. By far the most dangerous contract was the munitions contract for the navy, which involved the loading and unloading of large quantities of explosives. One dark, foggy day, Ocean Flow had just towed in the naval tramper Lord Torch. Normally this was a safe routine, but the seas had been rough and the weather bad. As if that wasn't bad enough, she had to deal with the insufferable 'General' Seaspray. I always laughed at that, as the fool didn't seem to realise that a General commands land troops, not ships.
"Ho there!" Seaspray called, as he came to a stop. "Attention! What are you doing here?"
"Finishing up my work," Ocean Flow replied, her voice full of calm annoyance. She found him especially irritating; being a former naval tug herself, she felt he was giving the navy a bad name. "I need to be on my way."
"Oh no you don't!" Seaspray snapped. "You're under navy jurisdiction, and that means that you stay during the inspection!"
"I ceased to be under navy jurisdiction when I got my discharge papers, darling," Ocean Flow replied, as she fired up her boiler. "I am under jurisdiction, the jurisdiction of Captain Novo, and a little wakewasher like you doesn't exactly scare me. If you'd acted like this when I was in the navy, they'd have sent you to the bottom." And she sailed away, with Seaspray shouting after her.
"No wonder the navy used to be in such bad shape, with insubordinate and disobediant tugs like you! You deserve to be-"
Ocean Flow tuned him out as she made her way towards the coaling plant. On the way, she met Mistmane, who was struggling with some bouys. "I find that Seaspray insufferable," she said. "He seems to put orders before basic common sense. It is important to obey orders, but it's equally important to not be stupid."
"He's constantly bossing me about," Mistmane replied. "Keep those bouys in line, he shouts. It's not as if I haven't done this a million times before. Report to me when your finished, he says. No, because I don't work for you. You're too old for this work, he demands." She glanced over to the loading operations. "They're loading fuel and munitions onto the same ship at the same time. If something goes wrong, the resulting explosion would make the Indefatigable look like a firecracker."
"I'd love to stay and chat, but my bunker's rather low and I need to refuel," Ocean Flow said. As she sailed off, Seaspray moved into her position and began shouting at Mistmane.
"KEEP IT MOVING! KEEP THOSE BOUYS IN LINE!"
"What do you think I'm doing?" Mistmane replied, when he was well out of earshot. "We should work together, not fight each other. Never fought like this back in the East."
The last vessel that Seaspray bothered was the fire department vessel, Spitfire. Painted yellow with two tone orange lining, she was ex Navy herself, and certainly was not one to be bossed about.
"You there, yellow thing!" shouted Seaspray. "Collect some barges and move to the exercise area!"
Spitfire looked at him coldly. "I'm waiting for orders to move off to the old dock. And don't shout when you're right next to another vessel."
"You insubordinate little thing," Seaspray said. "Those orders are cancelled! Move off now! Fire practice on the double!"
Spitfire rolled her eyes. "Yes, sir," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. She couldn't stand tugs like that, and in her time in the navy she'd often have to bring tugs like that into line.
At the Hippogriffia Tugboat Company wharf, we had just received a new job, and I didn't like the look of it at all. I stepped outside to fill the tugs in. "Listen up, everybody!" I called. "We've got servicing contracts for naval vessels to fulfill. Mistmane is currently laying marker bouys to denote the routes you need to take. No shortcuts, use the official entryways! The navy tends to get cross when its official routes aren't used."
"Don't we all know it," Sky Beak sighed.
"We're handling munitions," I continued. "Before you start grumbling, consider yourselves lucky. The Storm Fleet are handling the explosives, so keep well clear. Remember Sky Beak, no high wakes today."
"I don't make high wakes!" Sky Beak protested.
"Garbage for you, then," I said.
"I daresay I am not looking forward to having to work with Seaspray," Blueblood complained. "He's an absolute bossyboots, always pushing others around."
"You can do the garbage, then," I suggested.
Blueblood scowled as the dockside erupted into laughter. "That is not funny, and would ruin my image."
"Car floats, then," I sighed, feeling a headache coming on from dealing with him. "Don't argue, just go."
Blueblood steamed off as Skystar spoke up. "Captain Novo?" she asked. "Blueblood's been causing us trouble for a while now. Can we move him on?"
"Stow it," I said. "This is serious, so start taking it seriously. Skystar, go and collect Shelly. She's just been refitted at the drydock and repainted, so she should be ready to use in the exercise!"
"Yes ma'am!" Skystar replied, and steamed off into the bay.
"Silverstream, I need you to collect Cherry Jubilee. They've just finished work on the bridge and she needs taking home!"
"Aye aye, Captain!" Silverstream replied, and steamed off into the harbour.
"Big Mac! You handle the girder barges from the steelworks, and then get back here on the double."
Meanwhile, the Storm Fleet had taken up position at the explosives plant, and the last of their barges were being loaded. The work was extremely dangerous, but also extremely profitable. Tempest Shadow had been put in charge, and was overseeing Aria and Sonata.
"Listen up!" she said. "Sonata, you lead off first. Move slow, and make sure to give others a wide berth. If anybody gets too close, you-"
"Blow them up!" Sonata replied.
"With your horn, not your load, dummy," Tempest snapped. "Move off now, and ignore any nonsense from Seaspray. If he gives you different orders, tell him your orders are to deliver explosives to Lord Torch and refer him to me."
Aria looked over as Sonata moved off. "Seaspray instructed us to obey orders. What happens when two sets of orders conflict?"
"You obey mine," Tempest told her, bluntly. "Now you follow on. Fly the danger flags and keep it slow." Tempest followed a few seconds later.
Seasprary was looking for something to order about. He sailed towards Skystar as she was entering the waterway with Shelly. "Get out of the way! You're obstructing my path!"
"You chose to sail over to me!" Skystar protested. "There was no need to move this way."
"Are you talking back to me!" Seaspray snapped.
"Yes, I am talking back to you because you are an idiot," Skystar said flatly. "You moved over here specifically to cause trouble."
"If you were in the navy I would have you scrapped for this insubordination," Seaspray snarled. "I am in charge here. If I order you to jump, you jump! If I order you to go somewhere, you do it! That barge has been requisitioned for navy purposes, and if I want to scrape it I will. Now move out, and get to the docks as soon as possible!"
As Seaspray steamed off, he intentionall scraped Shelly.
"Hey! You scraped Shelly on purpose!" Skystar called.
"No giving barges names!" Seaspray snapped. "Now get moving!"
Night fell, and the difficult task of moving explosives from the barges to the tramper was underway. Dock lights helped the main dock crane, Braeburn, move the cargo into the ship's hold. The Storm Fleet had moored off, apart from Tempest, who was understandably nervous. "I'll be glad to be rid of this lot," she said. "One last slipup means disaster."
Suddenly, Seaspray's whistle echoed through the harbour. "Oh no, here we go."
"Oi, you lot!" Seaspray bellowed. "Purple one! Move that barge, now! Mine's priority!"
"You shouldn't move a barge that's being unloaded," Mistmane told him.
"I don't recall asking for your opinion, old timer," Seaspray said. "Somebody should hurry up and preserve you before it's too late!"
Aria and Sonata began laughing, but a single glare from Tempest silenced them. "Mistmane's right; never move a barge that's being unloaded."
"Well then," Seaspray snorted, "we'll see about that. Dock crane! Unload my barge, that's an order."
Braeburn, a yellow crane with dark orange lining, looked over at him. "Ah don't take orders from you," he said. "And besides, you should always end a request with 'please'?"
"Obey orders!" Seaspray snapped.
"Tell me, did anybody ever say no to you when you were in the Academy?" Tempest sneered, causing laughter. Minutes later, Skystar arrived with her fuel barge.
"What's going on here?" she asked. "I'm due in next!"
"I'm priority! The navy's orders take priority over Captain Nobles-"
"NOVO!" everybody else shouted.
"-So get out of my way!" Seaspray demanded, and steamed forward.
"Stop! That barge is still-!"
Seaspray crashed into Tempest's barge, causing a fuel barrel to tip over and ignite.
"-Unsafe."
Tempest looked at Seaspray with angry eyes. "You idiot," she snapped. "Look what you've done!"
That evening, I had retired home early so I could spend some time with Kainos, as it was our wedding anniversary. We stood on the balcony of our waterside home together, looking out towards the open ocean.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Kainos said.
"It's part of why I chose to live here," I replied, still looking out to sea.
"It may be," he smiled, "but it's not as beautiful as you."
Just as we leaned in for a kiss, there was a sudden flash of red in the distance, and a loud bang followed it.
"What the?" I said, and looked over. Suddenly, several more explosions rocked the area.
"What's going on?" Kainos asked.
I wasted no time in running for the stairs. "The dock's on fire!" I shouted. "That's right where they're loading the tramper!"
"Get clear!" Tempest shouted. "That barge is loaded to the brim with explosives, so get out of there!"
"Stay put!" Seaspray ordered. "I give the orders around here, not you!"
Just then, another barge erupted into flames.
"Get back!" Braeburn shouted. "All ships, clear the area NOW!"
"Skystar, drop your barge and back up!" Mistmane called.
"I would, but Seaspray here is blocking the way!" Skystar replied.
Seasprary had gone suspiciously quiet in every sense of the word.
"His propellor's jammed!" Aria shouted, as she backed up. "Serves him right!"
Skystar attached a line to Seaspray and began to pull as the flames got ever closer and the explosions continued to rock the port. Eventually, the line to Seaspray's barge broke free and the two tugs were clear.
"Where are you taking me?" Seaspray demanded. "I give the or-"
"Can you please shut up?" Mistmane asked. "Leave the tugs that actually know what they're doing to fix this mess that you made."
Warning sirens sounded all across the dockside as the tramper caught fire, and flames hit Braeburn's dock.
"Braeburn, your dock is going up!" Tempest shouted.
Braeburn began to adjust his arm. "Stay still!" he shouted. "Ah'll take the brunt of the blast and let you get clear!"
Seconds later, his platform tipped over, and the massive crane fell sideways and onto a barge.
"That was too close," Skystar whispered, as the flames continued to spread.
"He's fallen sideways and blocked the worst of the fire," Tempest noted. "We need to wait for help."
"I'm certain that the fire crew heard that," Mistmane said. "We need to wait for Spitfire to arrive."
"That won't help much," Aria said. "Look at the state of the tramper!"
Seconds later, a piercing scream echoed across the harbour as Lord Torch was ripped apart in a series of deafening explosions.
At the same time, Blueblood was towing Thorax and Pharynx the railway barges past my home. I flagged him down.
"Is somebody having a party?" asked Thorax.
"If there was a party going on, I would have been invited," said Blueblood.
"Maybe a tug like you wasn't their clientele," Pharynx joked.
"Blueblood, moor those barges there immediately!" I ordered. "We need to get to the scene of the fire immediately!"
"Novo, please, don't do anything stupid!" Kainos begged.
"I will come back," I said. "But my tugs are in danger, and I must help them."
"Then I'm coming with you," Kainos said, and hopped onboard Blueblood. As the railroad tug set off towards the fire, Spitfire passed with several firefighting barges, followed by Silverstream with another set of barges.
As we got closer, it was like we were sailing into Tartarus itself. The sky was black with smoke, and the water was full of burning fuel and wood. Shards of metal and bits of tramper had rained down on the dockside and triggered more fires, and further explosions were continuing to tear through the harbour.
Skystar suddenly noticed where the flames were going. "Look!" she shouted. "Apple Bloom's right in the line of the flames!" She indicated to a yellow and red tank engine currently sat on the dockside.
"We need to warn her!" Mistmane shouted, and started blasting her whistle. All the tugs were soon blasting whistles and sounding horns, and sure enough Apple Bloom started moving- only just in time. Several fuel drums around her exploded, and her heavy load not only meant she was struggling to accelerate but that her wheels kept slipping.
Apple Bloom got clear seconds before the fuelling station exploded in flames, igniting the water that was now drenched in diesel. The flames ran to Shelly the fuel barge, which had been forgotten in the confusion.
"That isn't good," Mistmane said. "The barge is on fire."
"And fully loaded!" Skystar cried. "I need to move it out of the way, or the fire will become a hundred times worse!"
"Don't do it!" Mistmane shouted. "If it explodes, you'll go with it!"
Sky Beak had just dropped off Chrysalis at the garbage dump when both of them noticed the fire. "Whatever is that?" Sky Beak asked.
"Don't you know?" Chrysalis asked. "Red sky at night, sailor's delight."
"The sun went down hours ago," Sky Beak said. "And that's north, not west! THERE'S A FIRE!"
Skystar was fully aware of the fire as she moved into position next to the barge. The flames and heat scorched her paint and began to melt her frames, but she attached a line regardless and started to tow it out to sea.
Spitfire and the rest of the crew arrived moments later, myself included. I was always aware the situation was bad, but I hadn't reckoned with it being the apocalyptic type of bad.
"It's about time you got here!" Mistmane called.
"Nice to see you too," Spitfire replied. "Tempest, Aria, Sonata, keep back! Who's responsible for this mess?"
"Seaspray over there," Mistmane said. "You won't get anything out of him, I'm afraid. He's in shock."
"Right," Spitfire replied. "Silverstream, move these barges into position and start the pumps! Novo, Kainos, coordinate the barge positions! What's on fire?"
Even more explosions rocked the quayside.
"It may be quicker to list the things that aren't on fire!" Kainos exclaimed, as Silverstream moved her barges into position.
Sky Beak emerged from the fog. "Good to see you," Spitfire ordered. "Get into position and start dousing the flames!"
"Yes ma'am!" Sky Beak shouted, as he fired up his firefighting gear to put the fires out.
"The fuel storage building's on fire!" Silverstream shouted. "I can't-"
The building was torn to pieces in a massive explosion.
"IS THERE ANYTHING HERE THAT WON'T EXPLODE?!"
"Sky Beak, Silverstream, fall back!" Spitfire ordered. "We can't put the fires out; we have to stop them from spreading any further!"
The fires had completely consumed the dockside, and the heat was so intense I had to cover my face to protect myself. Smoke and ash was in the air, and I saw Kainos coughing badly from the soot.
"What about the oil barge?" asked Spitfire.
As if to answer her question, there was another massive explosion out at sea. It took us a few seconds to figure out who had been working it.
Silverstream started to scream. "SKYSTAR!"
But it was too late to think about that. The last of the fuel depots on the quayside ignited, and in that very second exploded. Over 1,000 gallons of fuel erupted into flames and created a mushroom cloud the size of a megaspell.
Both myself and Kainos dived onto Blueblood's deck as the heat washed over us, and the flames consumed the entire area, buildings burning and collapsing as their foundations gave way.
"Look at this mess," I said. "That's a lot of damage." If you hadn't known there was a dockside there beforehand, you'd have had no idea what buildings had been standing there.
"True," said Spitfire, "but the fire didn't spread to the city. Well done, everybody."
The next morning, the dockside was still smouldering. Most of the tugs sat in shocked silence at what they had just witnessed. All except little Silverstream, who sobbed uncontrollably.
"Skystar," she whimpered. "She's gone."
Mistmane did her best to comfort the distraught tugboat. "We shall mourn her. But we shall also celebrate her life and her bravery, as without her actions, the accident would have been a lot worse."
Suddenly, a familiar whistle sounded nearby, and a scorched and thoroughly battered Skystar emerged. She was battered, but very much alive.
Silverstream's eyes widened. "Skystar!" she cried. "You're alive!" Her tears of sorrow turned to tears of joy. "But how?"
"I started backing up just in time," Skystar replied. "Had I been just a few seconds later, I'd have had it."
"I shall see to it that the City honours you for your bravery," I said, stepping over as close I could. "And that's not the only good news. Braeburn is alive."
The entire dockyard erupted in cheers and whistles and horns.
"He landed on the barge with his face out of the water," I explained. "And after a refit at the salvage yards, he'll be back to work."
Gallus arrived to take the still stunned Seaspray away. "Well, what a mess," he said. "I brought in a switcher, and took out a twitcher." And he dragged the tugboat away.
"That was the strangest wedding anniversary we've had," Kainos noted.
Once they were gone, I turned to the assembled tugs. "I hope we have all learned a valuable lesson today," I said. "Orders may be orders, but they must never come before common sense or using your brain- two things that Seaspray clearly lacked. The accident was caused by short temper and a few poorly chosen words, and if everybody had kept their head, the accident would never have happened. Never play with fire; if you don't respect it, it will destroy you, your surroundings, and your friends."