//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: Replenishment and pirates // Story: Ponies, cannons, and war // by Fashionably Late //------------------------------// Half an hour later, saw me a new…mare…yeah, it was going to take some time before I get used to that…assuming I ever do. Anyhow it took 25 minutes and 30 seconds to repair the damage and about 3 minutes to dry off, or at least not track water everywhere. After that there was only one thing on my mind. Food! I haven’t eaten since…actually, I don’t remember when I ate. How far deep does this amnesia hole go? In anycase, I haven’t eaten since yesterday, and I wasn’t sure how I got this far without tripping on myself in a hunger induced coma. Must be a shipgirl thing. And so, opening the door I saw Snowstorm talking to Summer Rain, the latter of whom noticed me. “I hope you enjoyed your bath.” She said, interrupting Snowstorm. “Yeah, it was just what I needed.” I replied with a small smile. “Hey! What happened to your injuries?” Snowstorm pointed at where said injuries were. “I said I needed a bath and I needed a bath.” I shrugged. “Now Snowstorm, there’s no reason to badger her. She’s been out at sea for a day. Let’s head to the mess hall and get something to eat.” Summer Rain said, turning to walk to the mess while giving Snowstorm a look. We got to the mess hall without any interruptions. But the second Summer Rain opened the door, some ponies turned to watch the newcomers and became silent as they saw us. Others ponies who noticed the new found silence turned to find the reason why and shortly became silent themselves. Within moments the mess hall was silent. … …awkward… I did my best to ignore the silent staring until we got in line, and then the line stepped aside for us three. And while that would be a good thing since that gets me closer to eating, the problem is…I don’t know how to pick things up with my hoofs! Curse you lack of opposable thumbs! “Oh! It’s jackfruit curry day!” Snowstorm exclaimed happily. “Jackfruit…curry?” That…did I hear that right? Taking a look at where she was looking, I did see something that looked like curry, not that I had curry in the first place. Once in a while ma would make curry and I would be disappointed since it was Filipino curry and not Japanese style curry. I was a picky eater. Watching the captain pickup her tray with her hoof gave me a headache as I saw her bending her right hoof in a way that should not have been possible back home. Snowstorm just picked up her tray with her wings, lucky. With no options left, I just took the tray in my mouth and pulled it back far enough that I could put my right hoof underneath it and balance walking on three hooves while holding up the tray. Fortunately, no pony paid me any mind. The captain led me and Snowstorm to one of the few tables, ponies finally starting to go back to their own meals as Summer Rain led us to a table towards the center of the mess hall. A table that had a familiar face. “Hey, Orange! Mind if we sit next to you?” Snowstorm asked loudly. “Captain. Snowstorm. Ma’am.” Orange Drop nodded at us curtly. “Mou, you could be a bit nicer, you know.” Groaned Snowstorm as we all sat down at the table…like dogs…again, gonna need to get used to that. Thankfully the trio occupied themselves by talking about inane topics while I stared at the curry with the occasional glance around. A good chunk of unicorns were using magic to move utensils, some pegasi were using their wings as giant fingers to do the same and a few earth ponies pulled the same trick Summer Rain had done to hold her tray. The rest, mostly earth ponies, were sticking their muzzles into their food like animals. Welp, I haven’t eaten in a day and it’s not like I’m trying to appear elegant and mysterious, I decided. Leaning down, I took a bite of the curry. … Huh, tastes just like chicken. “...wow…I didn’t even know anypony could...eat that much curry…” Snowstorm uttered in a daze. “So much curry…” Orange Drop gazed listlessly into the distance. “That was some good curry.” I decided. “Anything to report Mr Squall?” Summer Rain asked, hoping to steer the conversation away from curry. “No captain. Despite our detour, we will still reach Fillydelphia within three days.” Squall stated, unaware of what transpired in the mess hall. I’m…not even sure how much I’d eaten down there. I’m not even sorry about that. I don’t remember the last time I’d eaten and I had spent last night getting shot at. I deserve some comfort food after that. After having eaten my fill in the mess hall, Summer Rain had led us above deck for some fresh air. “Ma’am?” Summer Rain turned to look at me. “Yes?” “So long as you don’t intentionally interfere with my crew you may explore the ship while under the supervision of Orange Drop and Snowstorm. Is that all right?” “Sure, sure. That’s fine by me. By the way, how come you have a bunch of pegasi hovering around the sails?” “It’s standard procedure when the wind dies out. If there isn’t a tailwind then we would create one ourselves.” Snowstorm said taking pride in the pegasi’s work. Huh, that’s…interesting…and novel. I mean it makes some amount of sense. A third of the population has wings strong enough to generate lift, why not have some of’em crew ships and create a wind for the sails when necessary. “Alright then,” Summer Rain turned towards the crew. “All hooves! Attention! All Pegasi are to change shifts in order to conserve energy! I wan-!” “Pegasus approaching off the stern!” Reported the crow mast’s lookout. Summer Rain froze for a second, before her blood ran cold as she registered the words. Pegasi did not fly out this far to sea without a reason, good or bad. “Orange Drop! Fly out and aid the Pegasus in landing! Mr. Squall! Get the medics up here right now! All pegasi, pause all wind production for now until the situation is understood! Everypony else, clear a landing zone for the Pegasus and somepony get some water!” Summer Rain ordered, the ponies of the Clearwave rushing to follow her orders. Five minutes later, Orange Drop guided an exhausted Pegasus down onto the ship, said pony falling to his hooves. Summer Rain rushed over, her crew making a path for her, as she knelt down next to the barely conscious pony. “What happened? Why are you out here all by yourself?” She questioned, the Pegasus barely opening one weary blue eye to regard the Captain. “Griffon pirates…attacked my ship…flew half a day…to find help.” The pony stuttered breathlessly. “My wife and daughter…the crew…please…help…them.” The pony barely managed to finish, exhaustion kicking. Summer Rain’s mind raced as the ship's medics rushed in to administer first aid. If what he said was true, then these griffons had captured a merchant ship and was taking the ponies as hostages, or worse. They could be anywhere between fifty to one hundred miles out from their current location considering how far the average pegasus could fly unencumbered, and they had quite the head start assuming their destination was the Griffonstone coast. Worryingly there was still no wind in their part of the sea, and the fact that most merchant ships were steam ships meant they could maintain speeds far in excess of what Clearwave could do. Finally, if she pushed her crew too hard to catch up, they would be in no position to apprehend the culprits…With all that in mind, the Captain of the Clearwave saw no reasonable way for them to save this pony’s family or the crew of his ship. “Helmspony! Turn us back around!” Not that it mattered. They were mares and stallions of the Equestrian Navy, and by Celestia they would give it their all to save the ponies. “Pegasi, I know I’ve been pushing you hard today, but there are lives on the line if we don’t manage to catch up to these criminals in time! I need all pegasi who can still feel their wings to get up there and get us moving!” “I can bring you to these griffons.” I asked Snowstorm why a pegasus would be flying around here. Shipwreck or pirates, she said. Prodding further told me that the pirates here also used wooden sailing ships although some attached large gasbags turning them into airships. Typically, pirate airships would suddenly drop in on merchant shipping while sailing ships would, usually when crewed by griffons, ambush merchant ships at night. I heard the pegasus like everyone else. His family and ship’s crew were taken hostage. I had no idea what would happen to them, but considering the mood aboard Clearwave it couldn’t be good. My world’s history also had bad things to say about pirates. And a part of me wanted nothing to do with this. So why? Why did I speak up? Why did I want to help some nameless pony? I was a coward by nature. I didn’t know this pony, I was an uninvolved observer. And yet, didn’t I have the power to do something? I was a shipmare, the physical manifestation of a warship. I was a warship, a battlecruiser! The Invincibles, the first battlecruisers, were designed to hunt down slower and weaker armed armored cruisers and protect commerce from raiders. And pirates only had a sailing ship! I didn’t even need my guns to sink em. My ship self, if built, could just ram 'em and take no damage while I could probably just smash through their ship’s hull like the Hulk or Kool-Aid Man! Oh yeah! “...Spy Glass said you were sailing at 16 knots, could you make that while towing Clearwave?” Summer Rain asked conflicted. “Easily, how fast could I tow Clearwave without ripping her apart?” I asked with a grin. “...I’m not sure, maybe 20 knots, but if you can tow Clearwave at 16 knots then it’ll greatly help us find the pirates.” “Then I can do that. Just tie a rope between me and Clearwave and I’ll bring you to the pirates.” "...ok.” Summer Rain bowed her head at me. “If you can find these pirates then Equestria is in your debt. Snowstorm! Get us a tow line.” This was it, do or die. As soon as the line was hooked up between me and Clearwave I leapt off over the Clearwave’s bow. My rigging rematerialized in a bright white light across my back and sides. I smiled at the familiar weight and the fact the tow line remained attached to me. Bouncing off the water, I turned my head to look up at Clearwave’s railing and saw Summer Rain, Orange Drop and Snowstorm leaning over the edge of the bow with their jaws dropped. “I will be beginning the turn now. You should yourselves ready for acceleration, and give me a heading!” Having hollered my piece, I began to accelerate to 20 knots and in no time at all the tow line went slack. I was pulling Clearwave. It didn’t take long to finish my turn and tow Clearwave in the direction the pegasus had flown from. Soon afterwards Snowstorm flew up towards me with a dumbfounded look. “Reporting in Ma’am! I have a possible heading.” She pointed off at the horizon and gave me a heading. “Good.” I changed course. “Return to the ship and tell everyone to get ready.” To my surprise she shook her head in denial. “Sorry, but I’ve been ordered to stay by your side from here on out until we sight the griffons. Plus, everypony is already prepared for the fight so they don't need me to tell them...uh, with all respect, ma'am.” “Ok then.” And so, I sailed in silence while she flew with me. … God I wished I had some floatplanes and radar. Half an hour later and the pegasus regained consciousness and gave us some more details. Apparently an airship crewed by griffons had gotten the jump on the merchant ship and threatened to open fire on the merchant ship. At cannon range the ponies agreed to the pirates' terms and were locked up in the pirates’ brig while some of the cargo was transferred to the airship. Weighed down by the pony crew and new found loot the pirate ship was being towed by the merchant ship towards Griffonstone. The night of the pegasus’ escape the pirates got a bit “rowdy”, accidentally setting off some fireworks that were a part of the cargo inside the merchant ship starting a fire from the inside and in the confusion he managed to escape. Not even two hours later, we found a wooden sailing ship flying Equestrian colors. “Hey look. A friendly sailing ship.” Boom! A column of water exploded between us and them. That…that came from the sailing ship, oh look! Griffons flying out of the ship wielding swords. “...it’s them.” Deadpanned Snowstorm. “...what…what do you guys have to stop them?” I asked, embarrassed at my earlier remark. “Normally we’d just use our cannons on them, but since they have hostages onboard us pegasi would have to subdue them.” Snowstorm said coldly. “I see. Please tell the pegasi to refrain from attacking. I’ll try and scare them into surrendering first and if they don’t…” I trailed off as Snowstorm nodded and left back towards the ship after saluting. While it was clear that the two sailing ships were out of range of their respective guns, the pirates were well within mine. After confirming an idea with my fairies, I took a deep breath and projected my voice from my PA system towards the pirates. “Attention griffon assholes! Stand down and surrender or die a horrible death!” … …and it looked like they weren’t going to surrender considering the jeers, insults and…huh so the bird was also a thing here. “Well then, gunnery crews put a salvo off their bow and stern. We don’t want to sink them, just put the fear of me in them.” I ordered, readying myself for a full broadside. After a second and a half, the shells were loaded and a targeting solution was made. I just had to smile. “Ready aim…fire!” I shouted pointing my right hoof at em. BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! And like day one I could feel that in my bones. That was never going to get old. In a single moment the seas around the pirate ship exploded as eight plumes of water, each one easily dwarfing the wooden vessel, shot into the air and soaked everyone nearby. The silence afterwards was so complete that I couldn’t even hear the waves lapping against my hooves. No one was moving. Not the pirates, not the crew of the Clearwave, nor even myself. …at least my aim was getting better. “I ain’t gonna miss a second time!” I assured them and before I could even remember why I was bracketing them the flying griffons threw down their swords and produced white flags from who knows where and started having them frantically. A cheer erupted from the Clearwave as the ship slowly passed by my right. Looking up I could see a good chunk of the crew leaning over the railing cheering for me. Even Summer Rain was there saluting me silently with a smile across her muzzle. A salute I was happy to return. …although a part of me was disappointed they didn’t put up a fight.