//------------------------------//
// Chapter 12 
// Story: The Detective Turned Smuggler 
// by Lamasioux 
//------------------------------//

April 1st, 1010 

The first wave was the indication that they were far enough into the storm. 

“Have the turret stop firing! If they still want to chase us, they’ll have to brace the storm as well.” Lauri said. 

By the time Lauri had finished saying that, the water that was still dripping from the bridge’s windows and draining from the front deck had nearly been cleared away. 

“Have full focus on navigating the ship and have all damage control and engineers checking everything. Can’t have something breaking from a rogue wave like that once we are in the middle of this storm.” Lauri said. 

Right then, one of the deer in the bridge flicked on the lights for it and lit it up, allowing the deer inside to see better as they made their way deeper into the clouded storm. 

Or it was until Lauri quickly said, “No! Stop! Keep the lights off. I don’t want to risk having those Changelings see the lights if we lose them. In fact, have all windows covered and make sure we keep lights to the minimum. Let’s try and stay dark.” 

The deer who had then turned on the light quickly went back to turn them off. Another deer started to talk on the intercom and issued the order to everydeer. 

“The best chance we get and only once. There is no second chance…” Lauri muttered to himself. He then spoke back up and said, “What’s the current size of the storm?” 

“From what I can tell, if we go through it, one hour at our current speed, but we’re going to slow down with all the waves.” 

“Good enough for me. We just have to get through and I think we’ll make it.” Lauri said. 

After Lauri finished, the first notable tilt of the ship from the storm happened as the ship rose up on a small wave before crashing down into the trough. 



 

“What do we do with them?” Kiran asked. 

“We’ll drop them over the side and into the ocean is what. They’re sailors. Died a sailors death so they deserve a sailors funeral.” Cyrillus said. 

“You could’ve said it nice. Made it sound like they’re dead weight.” Gareth said. 

“They kind of are though.” Kiran mumbled. 

“What the fuck did you just say?!” Mitja yelled out at Kiran, “Don’t fucking downplay them! They’re dead and you’re disrespecting them!” 

Gareth quickly tried to calm Mitja down, getting in between him and Kiran to help prevent any further aggression, “Woah, woah, woah! No need to be getting hostile like that.” Gareth couldn’t do anything but sigh at what he heard himself though and turned to face Kiran and said, “Don’t downplay it though. A lot of us knew them. Imagine if one of us started to disrespect the death of one of your engineer buds.” 

“I-” Kiran got out. 

“Our objective is to escape to Equestria. They’re dead and are truly dead weight. We already stripped half the ship for speed, might as well ask command on what to do with them.” Cyrillus said. 

Kiran and Mitja both looked over at Cyrillus and glared at him. 

“Woah, guys, I’m just saying. What? Do you want to take them with us to Equestria and bury them there? We’re not returning to Olenia. None of us are.” Gareth said. 

“Two of them were drafted. Their home isn’t the ocean or Equestria. No way am I agreeing to letting them retire to the ocean.” Mitja said. 

“As I said, we should just ask command.” Cyrillus said again. 

“There’s no way they’d have the time to decide on what to do! They’re too busy getting us through this fucking storm! We left with them already! Plus, with the turret firing off, the weight loss from that should be enough to keep them!” Mitja said. 

Kiran then chimed in and said, “Alright! Listen! Fuck! We’ll just ask Command. Just- No reason to keep worrying about it at this point. They’ve died and that’s it. Jus-” Kiran pointed at Cyrillus and said, “Go, do it. Just fucking ask…” Kiran then looked back over at the four bodies of the deer who had been on the AA gun when it was hit. 

Each one of them was covered over the head, while the rest of their body was exposed to whoever saw it. Mingled, destroyed, torn, missing. That’s what they looked like. One of the deer on the far right of the four was the most recognizable, the rest, not so much. 

Cyrillus left the room, went to one of the phones in the ship and called into the bridge, where he explained the current situation with the bodies before asking what they were to do with the bodies. 

There was a silence before they answered. 

“The Admiral says to go get the queen and show her the four. Only quickly. We’re in rough waters now so we want her somewhere safe during the storm.” 

“Understood.” Cyrillus said before hanging up the phone. He then went to the room where the queen was. All the deer on the ship knew what room she was using. Word had spread fast. 

Cyrillus knocked on the door, waited a second, and saw Nathan after he had opened the door, “Orders from the Admiral.” He said, “He wants the queen to say a word for the four who died.” 

Nathan nodded and let Cyrillus come in. 

Cyrillus quickly saluted Velvet before saying, “Mam. The Admiral wants you to go say a quick word for the four who died when we were hit. They were outside manning one of the AA guns.” 

Velvet blinked at the sudden intrusion of the new deer, but quickly realized what they were doing before they started talking. Once Cyrillus finished, Velvet gave him a smile before standing up, naturally adjusting herself for the sway of the ocean, and said, “It’s ok…” She looked down, “I understand. I’ll do it, but not because of Lauri’s orders… I also didn’t know the crew was feeling bad about it.” 

Cyrillus blinked before saying, “Wait? We’re not feeling bad about it. They were only doing their job is all.” 

“It’s easy to tell it has a toll on you at least.” Velvet said to Cyrillus. 

Cyrillus went silent after what Velvet said, before saying, “Well, they want it done quickly though. They want you to stay here to be safe while we travel through the storm outside.” Cyrillus then turned around and left the room, waiting outside of it for Velvet. 

Velvet quickly followed behind, with Torsti quickly getting on his hooves and following behind her, with Nathan being last of all of them. No reason for him to stay behind if neither Velvet nor Torsti were there. 

“Where are we going too exactly?” Torsti asked. 

“One of the rooms that was emptied out when it was stripped. Near the AA turret they were on. It’s safe.” Cyrillus said, “It’s not much further.” 

Cyrillus then stopped at the door to the room the bodies had been in and turned around to face the three, “They’re in here, but they are bloodied up so, just warning.” Cyrillus said that with a depressed tone, as if having the tree see them was their true death. He then turned back around and entered the room, allowing the rest to join. 

Velvet was the first to walk in, with Torsti right behind her. Nathan peeked his head for a second, seeing the bodies right away and quickly going back into the hallway where he stayed. 

Velvet looked down at the four bodies with wide eyes. It took her a second to realize what she was exactly looking at. She naturally retracted at the site, clutching her eyes closed for a second before she opened them again slowly and slowly got herself comfortable with the sight. 

Torsti looked at the bodies as well, but he didn’t have the same reaction as Velvet did. He had seen his fair share of bodies during his time working as a police officer, but he still looked away from them, focusing on the other three deer who had been in the room. 

Kiran, Gareth, and Mitja had saluted Velvet when she stepped hoof in the room. They hadn’t been told that Velvet herself would be coming by to check on them. They quickly stopped saluting when they noticed that Velvet had taken no notice of their presence. 

The bodies themselves had some more sheets thrown over them, sacks, bedding, whatever they had at their disposal to cover them better. 

“I- I don’t know what I’m supposed to say for them… Or you, or anyone on the ship.” Velvet said quietly, “I’ve never seen it like this before. All- Broken and…” Velvet trailed off and didn’t finish. What she did was raise her hoofs together and gave a quick prayer. It only lasted a few seconds before she dropped her hoof and looked up at the three sailors who were staring at her in awe, “Thank you. I- Admiral Lauri can’t promise you a good life once we’re in Equestria, but thank you for what you all are doing.” She tried to give a faint smile to them. 

Velvet didn’t stick around to force one though as she then turned around, walked past Torsti and Cyrillus and left the room. 

Torsti watched her leave, before turning to look at the other three, who were just as confused looking as he was, before he realized he had to catch back up with her. Cyrillus stayed in the room and watched them leave. 

Once Velvet and the two others had left, he turned back to look at the three, where there was a silence among all four before Kiran said, “Sorry about what I said about dead weight.” 

Mitja looked over at Kiran, but he didn’t say anything, all while his gaze left Kiran and drifted to the four dead deer. 

“Admiral wants us to keep their bodies for now, but we’ll have to send them off once we’re through the storm.” Cyrillus said. 

“I guess that’s that.” One of the other three said.