//------------------------------//
// Enterprising Mares 
// Story: Short Hand 
// by Andrew Joshua Talon 
//------------------------------//

As military advisor to the Diarchs, I did have to go to Canterlot on a monthly basis to meet with generals and bigwigs and the Princesses themselves about national security matters. And if I was being honest, most of what I contributed wasn't anything really revolutionary. Hell, I got all of it out of numerous books on military theory, politics, and history I had been able to find from the Human archives. Everything from Sun Tzu's Art of War to Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan's Naval Strategy. The meetings were fairly informal, mostly discussions over threats to Equestria and talking about possibilities on defending against them. These ranged from the possibility of a revived Abbysian Kingdom suddenly becoming expansionist, to the Waimanu Empire unfreezing Emperor Charlatan and trying to freeze the world again.

The Waimanu were, by the way, sapient penguins with ice magics. Who were basically Nazis who wanted to kill off all life on the planet that wasn't penguin.

No, I'm not kidding.

I'd make my recommendations and we'd hash it out. The commander of the Equestrian Royal Navy, Admiral Corsair, was probably the most open minded of the ponies I talked to. She was fair and very interested in the naval traditions of Earth, and being a former navy brat I was able to tell her a lot. Turns out Luna had founded the Navy, so she may have made it clear she was fond of me.

General Hardtack, commander of the Equestrian Royal Army, was a bit more guarded and suspicious, but he did appreciate the fact that I saved Equestria and was from a "warrior race", in his terms. I got to learn a lot of Earth pony history I hadn't heard, including how innovative they were when it came to technology. He wasn't exactly friendly, but he wasn't hostile either.

The Air Marshall of Equestria, General Typhoon, and the Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor, were a bit difficult but in different ways. General Typhoon was of the opinion that weather control was all Equestria needed, and looked down on the other branches-Especially the Navy for having a lot of non-pegasi flying. He didn't take a lot of my suggestions seriously, though he did take plenty of human material on air war for himself.

Shining Armor was polite and listened to what I had to say, but he was also very stubborn. His opinion was that the Royal Guard functioned just fine and innovation was largely unneeded for its role. Though he was, again, polite about it and pointed out reasons why the Guard operated the way it did, he could come off as just plain hardheaded. I was the one who got close to losing my temper a lot, and the fact he was able to be perfectly calm just got my goat.

I had to keep reminding myself, I'm just an advisor. But the fact that I was making decisions that might save or doom this world had a habit of weighing heavily on me.

It was after such a tiring discussion I found myself out on a balcony, looking over Canterlot and breathing in the clean air. The sun shone down brightly, and ponies went to and fro far below me.

I closed my eyes and just let go, relaxing as much as I could. It was then I felt Princess Luna bump up against me. I managed not to yelp, but I did give her a glare over my shoulder. She smiled apologetically.

"My apologies, Shepherd," she said. "But I have a surprise for you."

I immediately began looking around for Pinkie Pie. You never knew when she might spring her trap.

"A different sort of surprise, Shepherd," Luna said gently. She wrapped a wing around me, and teleported us.

Now, about teleporting: It's REALLY not very fun to go through. It feels like everything that's big gets small and everything small gets big, so when you come out of it you're feeling quite a lot of vertigo and motion sickness. Thankfully not enough to make me throw up, but God it was annoying. I shook it off though, and Luna gave me a proud smile as we stood in a large, dark room.

And by large, I mean large. I couldn't even see the ceiling far above us!

"Um... So, where's the surprise?" I asked. I tapped my foot-We were standing on a thick wooden platform of some sort. One that extended out after into the darkness.

"You're standing on it," Luna said with a pleased grin. The platform began to shake and rumble. The darkened roof opened above us, letting in blinding sunlight. I covered my eyes with my arm as the wind howled, and the massive platform shook like a localized earthquake!

I finally lowered my arm as I felt the breeze of outside... And my jaw dropped.

It wasn't just a large, flat platform. There was a tall superstructure far from me. A hauntingly familiar superstructure that I'd seen in a hundred books about World War II. I took unsteady steps as the great vessel continued to rise into the sky, and I looked around the long flight deck.

"Many things have ended up in Equestria from other worlds, Shepherd! And this vessel was easily one of the largest such things!" Luna explained loudly, the breeze having no effect on her voice. "My sister stored it in an underground cave near the Badlands until she could decide what to do with it, under magical preservation! And now that I have returned, I learned what this ship was!"

She grinned, almost savagely. I could finally see crewmembers, ponies going about the deck of the great carrier and manning (horsing?) the upper decks.

"A fighting ship! So I have decided that she will fight again-Under the Equestrian Flag! Our navy has needed modernization quite badly, so I provided it! With most of the help from your species!" She walked up alongside me, and beamed.

"But in honor of your people, her name is the same! I believe it holds some meaning to humans?"

There on the side of the aircraft carrier island was a number: 6. And painted on her great flightdeck, further back, I could make out CV-6 in large, white letters etched into the wood. I slowly turned to Luna, my jaw halfway to the planet's core.

"You're telling me," I began loudly over the rushing wind, "that you found the USS Enterprise and turned her into a flying aircraft carrier?!"

Luna nodded.

"That is precisely what we did, Shepherd!"

Holy fucking shit. I didn't know whether to have a fangasm or pass out.

So I did both.

These damn ponies will be the end of me one day...