//------------------------------// // The Lead up to Golden Morning. // Story: My Little Pony Destroyers are Magic. // by CommonDash //------------------------------// 1971 at an undisclosed Italian naval base. A gate opens up.  Out of it steps a young woman in her twenties and a pale girl with curly hair in her mid to late teens. “Contessa, are you sure this is necessary?” The woman asks.  “Yes, this is step 468, in the path leading to the savior of the world not hating us and humanity.” Contessa says.  “So what are we doing here then?” The woman asks. “Acquiring the USS Taylor, it is listed down to be Cannibalized for parts. However the survival of mankind is more important than letting the Italians scrap the ship.” Contessa says.  “Fine, Door!” The woman shouts as the massive destroyer disappears from the water. “Step 469, go back to the future.” Contessa says almost robotically. “Wait, we time traveled?” ==================== 1988 on an undisclosed earth in a dry dock. “Step 763.” Contessa says looking at the ship engineers work on the destroyer. “So you’re having it retrofitted with a nuclear reactor, a VLS system, and having the anti air replaced by a CIWS system?”  “Yes! The path says it must be state of the art. later paths have it being retrofitted by a tinker even though the radar and Sonar are getting an upgrade.” Contessa replies.  “I still think this is a bit much, however, the Italian navy scrapped a lot of the ships leased to them… I mean this ship in front of us had 23 battle stars and they were gonna scrap it. They scrapped so many historic ships.” A man says.  “23? That’s actually impressive considering the USS Enterprise had 20.” A woman says.  “Yeah Rebecca, it got 15 in WW2, 2 in Korea, and 6 in Vietnam.” The man says.  ===================== 2007 in a production plant in Canada. “Path 888.” Contessa says.  Alarms are blaring as the light flashes red. “Dragon! I’ve come to bargain!” Contessa shouts now in her late 30s.  “Who are you? How did you get in here?” A young woman’s voice says over the intercom.  “I’ve brought you Saint's head. I need a favor.” Contessa says.  “What?” Dragon asks. “Well, I’ve found your Debug console. I’m willing to hand it over so you can fix the stuff the madman saint has done to you. However, I've got a job I need you to do.” Contessa says.  “Okay… if I can do it I’ll do it.” Dragon says.  “I’ve found a United States Destroyer from WW2 and I need you to do your tinker magic to it.”  Contessa answers the unasked question. ======================= June 19th, 2013. “It’s done! I’ve just got 2 steps left on the path!” Contessa announces.  “That’s actually rather impressive. What was done to it? Structurally it looks the same however the numbers tell me it could tank an anti-ship nuke.” Kurt says.  “Well, Dragon threw her best into it… I mean I don’t know what half this stuff is.” Contessa says looking at a piece of paper.  Definitely not because she can’t read, yep.  “Let me.” Curt says, grabbing the paper. “The main 5” batteries were replaced with… 5 MAC turrets?  Okay then, well the armor belt was replaced with… Titanium A armor, high-grade Titanium-50. The 40 millimeter Bofers were replaced with 20 shrunken down M810 Helix point defense guns. Miniaturized with the help of Armsmaster? The CIWS system just had a software and hardware upgrade that I can understand. The nuclear reactor has seen a massive overhaul and with the re-engineering it puts out 40 times more power with less decay of the nuclear material… How in the hell did she manage that! And finally, there was an anti-grav engine installed allowing the ship to hover at about 20 meters up…  Okay! I give up! I mean you gave Dragon years to do this stuff but this is insane!” Kurt shouts.  “It’ll keep our savior from becoming our enemy so it’s worth it.” Contessa says.  The rest of cauldron goes into a frenzy getting ready for the doomsday to come. ==================== July 24th, 2013. Much of Earth Bet is destroyed by the fight.  However humanity won! Kelphri ascended and killed the false god. “Path 999.” Contessa says, leveling her gun at the girl in front of her. “Sorry Taylor, the truth is. The game was rigged from the start. Gate!” Contessa shouts as a Gate opens up just in front of Kelphri.  The girl only just manages to turn around as there are two loud bangs everyone watches as the bullets go through Kelphri’s chitin mask before going through her head.  “Path 1000 now! Gate!” Contessa shouts again as the massive newly retrofitted destroyer throws the new portal directly into Taylor knocking them both into the gate behind her. ================== Out in the middle of an ocean. A black and dull silver earth pony wakes up. To anyone watching she appears to be standing on water. “Hey!”  “My head is killing me… what do you mean I took two armor piercing rounds to the bridge Captain? Wait Captain!?” Taylor shouts trying to stand up on two legs and is failing. “Wait? Where are my arms!?” Taylor shouts quickly looking down and sees  her reflection in the clear blue ocean. “I’m a horse!” Taylor shouts in panic. “Wait! Where are all my insects! Why are they inside a massive boat!” Taylor screams panicking as she starts to hyperventilate.  “Hey!”  “What do you mean I’m a Destroyer / Cruiser! I’m clearly a Horse Captain! Wait, are my insects talking to me!” Taylor shouts struggling for air.  “Hey!” The voice shouts back. “Try to remember what exactly! It’s not like I was!” Taylor shouts before she’s interrupted again. “Hey!”  “T-task force 18… Guadalcanal… Why do I have memories of World War 2!” Taylor shouts as she sways dangerously.  “T-to much…” Taylor mutters.  Suddenly the mare starts seizing before falling back over onto the ocean surface. Floating there in the open sea.