//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 // Story: Equestria: World War II // by The Unseen //------------------------------// 30TH AUGUST 1939 -----------------------------------------------------------------------CANTERLOT------------------------------------------------------------------------ It was now around 4:00am in Equestria. Celestia and Luna were asleep in their bedrooms, tired after the negotiations the previous day. She was sleeping very well, having a lovely dream, when suddenly, she felt like she was pulled up in the air, and the next second, she was standing in an ethereal soft blue sky. Celestia realized she was in a different dream. "Hello? Is anyone there?" came Luna's voice. "Luna? What are you doing in my dream?" asked Celestia. "That is what I was about to ask you, 'Tia. Why are you in MY dream?" "Your dream? But this is my dream, unless you merged with yours using your dream magic." "Huh. I've been off dream duty ever since we were transported to Earth, sister. What kind of magic is this?" "I don't know, Luna, but whatever this is, it must be someone more powerful than us... it couldn't be!" "Yes, it is me, my daughters." came a new voice. One that was melodious and soothing. One that belonged to the mythical pony goddess, Faust, the mother of Celestia and Luna. She had descended from the Heavens over 2,000 years earlier, given the baby alicorns, Celestia and Luna to the locals to be taken care of, and then disappeared to Heaven once more. She had only been seen once since then, around 1,300 years earlier. Faust appeared into the light. A beautiful pale white alicorn with a golden mane, you would instantly tell she was a goddess. Considering they hadn't seen her for 1,300 years, Celestia and Luna instantly hugged their mother, crying tears of joy as they did. "Oh, mother, we thought you were... " "Dead? No, as you can see, my darling children, I am very much alive, and I couldn't see you, because I was dealing with problems in the Heavens, you see." "Oh, mother, we need to ask you about something, you see. Two days ago, something strange happened to...." "Yes, 'Tia, I know. It was I who sent Equestria and the Crystal Empire to Earth." "Bu-bu-but, why?" "I only let you stay on Equis for that long because your duties there finished some days back. From now on, Earth is your permanent home. The humans will need your help, my two daughters." "What kind of help, mother?" asked Luna. "I cannot hold this dream much longer. You have to figure it out yourself. Goodbye, my daughters. We will meet again one day, and this time, you won't need to wait so long." said Faust, as the dream began to dissolve. "Wait, mother!" shouted Celestia as the dream dissolved, leaving only Celestia and Luna alone in the dreamscape. "Sister, what did mother mean when she said the humans will need help from us?" "I don't know, Luna, but whatever it means, it means something is on the horizon, something bad, and fast." said Celestia, waking up in real life, no longer asleep, wanting to figure out what Faust's message to them meant. "Sister, let's go back to sleep. We'll think about it later. Don't fret about it right now." advised Luna. But Celestia couldn't go back to sleep, not after that message. For the rest of that night, she tossed and turned restlessly in her bed, until she got up at around 5:30am. "Alright, time to raise the....." said Celestia, instantly realizing that on Earth, the Sun and Moon weren't controlled by the two sisters. "Oh, well, better get some extra sleep then." said Celestia, going back to bed. At around 7:30am, which was later than usual, the two sisters had finished their breakfast, and were about to head to Manehattan once more, when Celestia noticed something with the Discord statue in the garden. She noticed that it was breaking open. Wait, it was back to normal now. Now that was odd. Celestia thought it was most likely a trick of the eye, probably because she couldn't sleep. The next second, she and Luna left for Manehattan. They would meet up with Cadance and Shining Armor there. Meanwhile, in the garden, Discord breathed a sigh of relief. Celestia had almost seen that the statue was cracking, and he would be free. Thank god, he had got that disguise spell up and running in time, even though he was only 63% free. It would make the statue seem as if it was still intact, until it fully shattered. Then, the spell would probably falter, and start showing it cracked, until it would finally fade around fourteen hours later. Discord made another happy laugh, while planning the seventh phase of his plan to plunge Earth into a World War. The thought of chaos always made his brain release happy endorphins. --------------------------------------------------------------------MANEHATTAN----------------------------------------------------------------------- The two ambassadors had been on the go since 5:30am, updating the folks in the US and the UK about the situation, and how it was going. They were going to go and talk to the princesses about their itinerary for the League of Nations visit, and also explain a little more about their history. Wood, in particular, had some things he wanted to admit about his nation. They had just finished their breakfast onboard the USS Colorado, when one of their sailors came in. "Sir, the princesses are here." "Alright, Rockmond, let's go, shall we?" asked Wood. "Hang on, let me wash up quickly. Don't want to smell of fish in front of the princesses." replied Rockmond, going to the sink to wash off crumbs of fries. A few minutes later, at 7:35am, they were outside, meeting up with the princesses, along with Twilight Sparkle, along with a few Royal Guards, and a white unicorn with a blue mane, and a serious expression. "Name's Shining Armor, I'm the commander of the Royal Guards, you see. Me and some of the other Guards are touring your ship with Twilight." "Yes, Celestia mentioned you would be coming. I personally won't be taking on the tour, but Buck Danny, the Captain of the USS Colorado, will be doing so, as he knows more about the ship than me." "Okay, then. Where is Captain Danny right now?" "He will be joining you in a minute. We will be meeting up with the princesses in a few minutes to discuss the League of Nations visit. Oh, there's Danny right now! Enjoy the tour, okay?" "We will, thanks for organising this, Mr. Rockmond!" "Anytime!" said Rockmond, as he and Wood went off to join the princesses. "Alright, are you all ready to take a look at an Earthly warship?" asked Danny. "Yes, we are." replied Shining Armor. "Alrighty, let's go." said Danny as he began taking the ponies towards the Colorado. Meanwhile, the two ambassadors met up with the three princesses and began talking about their itinerary. "So, we should be in Geneva for up to five days, during which we will not only attend the League of Nations meeting, we will also get you up to date on Earth's political situations, sign trade agreements, and also see about the opening of embassies." "Five days? Okay, I can clear out my schedule for that time. As for the airstrip, construction began at around 4:00am this morning, and should be finished this evening, according to your specifications." said Celestia. This impressed Rockmond and Wood, about how the ponies could successfully build things like an airstrip, in just over twelve hours, using magic. "Wow, okay, then the plane should arrive tomorrow at around 7:00am. It will be a six hour flight, but refreshments will be served on board. Once we arrive in Geneva, ground vehicles will transport us to the League of Nations headquarters, where there are multiple rooms for you to stay. Don't worry, we have briefed the caterers about your dietary requirements, so special meals will be made for you." "Oh, alright then, so I assume everything is ready then?" asked Cadance. "Yes, it is." "Oh, good, then that's the timeline for the visit, I guess?" "Well, I actually wanted to admit something about our nation. We are not that much of a nice nation, at least in our overseas colonies." said Wood. "Wait, what? Mr. Wood, what do you mean?" asked Celestia. " Our rulers in the colonies are very cruel to the natives. They torture them, and treat them as slaves, with racist feelings. They commit crimes with impunity against the native people. Efforts at resistance at usually met with brutal resistance, which usually means killing them with no remorse. I am the leader of a faction of our government that is trying to let them be independent country, and end such horrifying things. I do not support such inhuman things." The princesses were shocked by this, especially Luna. When she dropped a piece of Moon rock on the Ponysian empire, she had given them notice before doing so. Only 2,000 Ponysians died that day. But the British government doing such inhuman things, such as slavery, and racism to the natives of their overseas colonies? That went against everything they stood for. But it was good to know that Wood was on the right side. "I am deeply saddened and appalled to learn about Britain's actions in their colonies. As the ruler of a diverse and harmonious nation, I cannot fathom how anyone could treat others with such cruelty and injustice. Racism and slavery are forms of hatred that go against most of everything I stand for. I do hope your government eventually ends this practice. Wood, you are truly a good man, for trying to get your government to end this." said Celestia. "Celestia, I believe in equality in everyone, and not violence just because of different skin colors, or anything of that sort. I believe in a peaceful world, where no one is discriminated." "So do we, Wood. Hopefully, one day, that goal is achieved, and a new era, one of peace, is started on Earth." "I too hope so, your Highnesses. Anyways, we need to get going now, to give the head of the League of Nations the itinerary confirmation, so everything is planned accordingly. Have a good day!" said Wood, heading back towards the Nelson with Rockmond. "You too, Mr. Wood." said Celestia, as the princesses went back to Canterlot. -------------------------------------------------------ABOARD THE USS COLORADO-------------------------------------------------------------- While the conversation outside was beginning, Captain Danny was beginning the tour of the USS Colorado. "Alright, here we go, we are going to first see the bridge of this ship. The bridge is the place where all I and all the main officers sit, command and control the ship, and control the weapons. Take a look around, but don't touch anything!" explained Danny as they walked into the bridge. The ponies were awed by the size of the bridge, and how much instrumentation was used to control the big ship. The biggest ship ever constructed by the Equestrians was probably one-tenth the size of this large warship, and needed a crew of only around one hundred, while this ship required a crew of 1,300 humans, Danny had told them. It spoke of the complex technology in the ship. "Wow! This is just the bridge, you say? This is probably the biggest area on this ship!" exclaimed Twilight. "Actually, this is the second-biggest area. The biggest area is the engine room, which is around seven times the size of the bridge." explained Danny. "Wait, what?! How big are the engines to need a room that big?!" "They are really big, actually. It's so big that I can't even describe the size of it. You'll see when we go down to the engine room later." "Oh, I can't wait!" Shining Armor, meanwhile was asking Danny more technical questions. "I'm just wondering, how do you detect enemy ships? There doesn't seem to be any such method of that here." "Ah, but we do have such a method. We use something called radar. It sends out signals, which bounce back to the sending antenna, on hitting an object. It defines the size and shape of the object, which helps identify if it is an enemy or friendly ship, or an aircraft. It can filter out things like birds and such." "Ah, I see. But what if the radar stops working? Then how would you find out if they are friends or foes?" "We have some analogue methods as well, but those are too complicated to explain, so I'll probably explain it when we have more time. We have to continue the tour now, so shall we go?" The ponies, who had by now finishing looking at the bridge, instantly answered, "Yes, let's go!" "Alrighty then." The ponies left the ship's bridge, heading to the next stop: the crew quarters, to show them how life was like on a warship such as this one. "Welcome to the crew compartments, everyone. This is where all the ship's crewmembers sleep onboard, and here's an empty one. Take a look." The ponies were amazed at just how cramped the compartment was, yet it had two bunk beds for two sailors. "Captain Danny, where is the bathroom? There doesn't seem to be one in this compartment." asked Twilight. "The regular sailors don't have their own bathrooms in their cabins. They have common toilets and showers, while only the higher ranked sailors, like the officers and me, the Captain, have a bathroom in their own personal cabins, which are much larger than this one." "Wait, so only higher-ranked sailors like you have bathrooms in your cabins? Isn't that kind of unfair?" "Sometimes it is, but it persuades sailors to work harder to get promoted for such things." "Yes, Twily, this is a military ship, after all. This is how they get their people to work extremely hard." explained Shining Armor. "Wait a second. 'Twily'? Are you two related or something?" asked Danny. "Yeah. She's my younger sibling, can't you tell?" "Well, there's really no family resemblance between you two, so I couldn't tell that you were siblings." "That is true. Anyways, back to the main topic. This is a warship, right? What kind of weapons does it have?" "Ah. That's the next stop of this tour. We will see the ship's weapons systems next. This ship is heavily armed, believe me. Let's go." A few minutes later, they were at the first four of the ship's huge 45-caliber Mark 1 cannons. "Alright, this weapon is a 45-caliber Mark 1 cannon. Essentially, it carries a huge projectile, called a shell, and a reaction with a chemical called gunpowder causes the shell to shoot out of the cannon at high speed, and if aimed correctly, it will tear right through an enemy ship, with a large explosion, totally destroying the enemy ship." "Wow, but what will happen if the shell misses its target?" asked Twilight. "If the shell misses its target, it is unguided, so it will probably just explode in the water." "But won't that cause civilian casualties?" "Well, most of the time, we try to put aim in such a way that civilian casualties are avoided." "Oh, okay. How big is one of these shells?" "The diameter of a shell is represented by its caliber. The Mark 1 gun uses 45 caliber shells, so they are around 60 feet, 60 hooves in your units, long." "Whoa! Could you show us some of these shells?" "There are some at the area where they are loaded into the cannons. Let me show you some." A few minutes later, they were all at the base of the cannons. The ponies were surprised at the size of the sleek shaped shells, that could be loaded manually into the cannons. There were multiple smaller cannons which used smaller shells, that were also on display. Those shells were also still pretty large, surprising the ponies. The last part they saw was the engineering section, which contained the engines. "Alright, welcome to the engine room. As you can see, this is the biggest area on this ship, even bigger than the bridge. There are eight oil-fired burners which provide steam that drives four turbo-electric drives that turn the propellers of the ship and move it forwards. There is a movable metal rectangle behind the propellers called a rudder, to change the ship's direction. For instance, if the rudder moves left, the ship moves right, and if the rudder moves right, the ship turns left." "What happens if the rudder doesn't work, or the engines fail?" asked Shining Armor. "If the rudder doesn't work, then the ship will keep going around circles, but this ship has enough weapons to hold out on its own until another ship comes to tow it out. If the engines fail, then we have a whole contingency plan that I won't go into detail right now, so I don't bore you. And that, everyone, is the end of the tour. I'll escort you back to the exit. So, how did you enjoy this tour?" "We all were amazed at how much technological prowess your species have. Hopefully, with your help, both Equestria and the Crystal Empire will progress." "Hopefully it will." agreed Danny.