//------------------------------//
// C12 - Making Waves 
// Story: The Open Sea 
// by NahB 
//------------------------------//

Cheerilee

Cheerilee paced the upper deck of the Free Mare. Twilight had never left the ship solely in her charge while at sea. While she felt capable enough, she wasn’t sure of the others’ confidence in her. This was hardly the time to be wishy-washy, however. As soon as the little vessel the shore party was using was halfway to shore, the older mare began shouting orders.

“Alright, this is it! We’re getting out of here. Applejack, get us going to Windfall Island. Sweetie Belle, I need you to get started on reinforcing the ship’s hull. Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo, are you ready?” she asked, turning to the two pegasi. They both nodded, fluttering their wings. “Good. I need you in the air the moment I ask. There’s no way of knowing how many of their ships are going to peel off towards us.”

Cheerilee turned to the rest of the crew. “Get us going as fast as we can, AJ. Fluttershy, you’re in the nest. Macintosh, Apple Bloom and Pinkie, you’re on our pair of cannons. I don’t want to use them, but we can’t risk being outnumbered. Granny,” she ordered, turning finally towards the pale green mare, “I’d like you to go below decks and make sure everything is secured.”

All the ponies in question immediately went to their duties, while Cheerilee went towards the back of the ship. She stared at the Equestrian ships, silently daring them to come after the Mare. She brushed her mane back with a hoof, nervous. She really hoped it wouldn’t come to a battle. Without their best fighter, it would be difficult to hold their own against professional soldiers.

Eyes constantly scanning the horizon, Cheerilee watched as three ships left the formation and began to track the Free Mare. She frowned, and gave a sad sigh. It was actually the best possible outcome – that only left a single ship for the shore party to deal with.

“Cheerilee?”

She turned and saw Macintosh standing behind her, giving her a soft stare. “What’s up?” she inquired of the large stallion.

“What load you want in them cannons?” He asked, clearly uncomfortable doing so. Cheerilee could understand why.

The Mare carried three types of ammunition – standard cannonballs for long-range attacks, which  they rarely used, grapeshot in emergencies to tear into enemy combatants (which they had never used), and specially splintering cannonballs that tore into hulls and caused quite a bit of damage to enemy infrastructure. They’d never had to use that type of ammo, either. Cheerilee closed her eyes and gave a sad sigh.

“The regular cannonballs. We’re going to try to stop them from here if we can. If they get close…”

She shook her head, her mane fluttering in the wind. “Load the fragmentation balls.”

Macintosh looked at her, his eyes taking on a look of understanding pity, and walked away. Cheerilee watched him a moment, then cursed herself. She couldn’t have the crew pitying her for the situation. It would only make it harder for them to accept the difficult orders she’d have to throw at them.

Turning again, she watched the trio of ships approach. She reached over and grabbed a rail, leaned forward, attempting to gain a better look. Only one of the ships had forward cannons – she guessed that the Mare’s history of being nonviolent made them send their lesser ships. Normally, that would have been fine, but because of the onset of the upcoming war, they’d been pushed into a corner.

And the Free Mare was certainly not a good ship to push into a corner. As if on cue with her thoughts, from down below came two loud ‘clunks’. Looking to her left and right, she saw that the little platforms for their cannons had been extended. The latest addition to the ship was going to prove either a great one or a poor one, as she saw Apple Bloom and Pinkie on either side aim their cannons. It was quite the ingenious piece of Magitech – Twilight had spent hours and hours while at sea trying to figure out how to get it to work.

Finally, she’d been able to figure out a way to transfer the recoil from firing the cannons into a reloading mechanism. The little platforms would take the brunt of the recoil, but that in turn would give two bits of metal on a given side power, and it would send a cannonball of whatever type to the cannon that needed reloading. That way, the only reloading the cannoneers needed to do was to replace the black powder in the cannons.

The two mares on either side of the ship looked at Cheerilee, waiting for her signal. Again, she closed her eyes and let out a sigh. This would make their escape or break it. She reopened her eyes, putting a resolute look on her face and hardening her mouth into a thin line.

“Fire at will,” she said, staring behind the ship at the Equestrian vessels, which seemed to be unfortunately faster than their own.

Almost immediately, she heard two thumps from either side of the Mare. Two black specs shot from the ship towards the trio pursuing them. The first shots both plunked harmlessly in the water.

“Sploosh,” Pinkie said loudly from her side. Looking to the port side of the ship, Cheerilee frowned at the serious-looking pink mare who was waiting for the next cannonball to reach her cannon. Ignoring Cheerilee, Pinkie aimed her next shot immediately after receiving the reload, and fired without hesitation.

Cheerilee tracked the little black ball with her eyes, and was astonished to see it hit the leading vessel head on, causing the wood to splinter inward and putting a noticeable lurch in the ship’s course.

“Ka-boom!” Pinkie sounded off, pumping a hoof into the air. A second later, a thump was heard from the starboard side as Apple Bloom sent another ball of death towards the ships trailing them. It thunked into the water, but closer to the ships than her last time.

However, after the first hit, Cheerilee saw the ship on her left’s bow open up and a cannon roll into view.

“Keep your heads down! Sweetie, put an extra jolt of energy in the stern!” Cheerilee yelled down. She hoped the young unicorn heard her.

Not a moment after she yelled, she watched a cannonball fly from that ship right towards her. She rolled to the side, hearing the whizz as it passed right where she had been.

“Sweet Celestia,” she said, getting back on her hooves. The pounding of the two cannons on their ship was becoming like a second heartbeat to her. The projectiles fired from the Free Mare were hitting the Equestrian ships more and more as Pinkie and Apple Bloom became more accurate. Cheerilee watched as the lead ship fired another shot at them, this time impacting the stern head on. A jolt ran through the ship, but the structure was undamaged.

That was certainly enough of a warning for Cheerilee. “Scoot, Dash, go! Get that cannon out of commission,” she yelled. At her words, two pegasi took off at high speed from behind her and streaked towards the ship that was shooting at them. “Temporary ceasefire, cannoneers!” She ordered, and was satisfied to hear a halt in the cannon fire from her ponies.

She watched from afar as the two pegasi worked to gum up the enemy’s cannon. She narrowed her eyes as she watched Scootaloo savagely beat back a pegasus that was trying to interfere, worried about the young mare. It was over in a moment, however, as the two of them quickly retreated back to the Free Mare.

In the distance, Torres Island was still visible. Cheerilee glanced at it, worried again about the shore party, but shook her head. “Resume firing!” She hollered. The two ponies firing from the platforms resumed their duties. A soft pitter-patter of hooves on wood behind her caused Cheerilee to turn around. A concerned-looking Sweetie Belle gave Cheerilee a tight-lipped smile in greeting, and stopped next to the older mare. Cheerilee ran a glance over the unicorn – she had certainly grown from the young filly Cheerilee had once known. The once-brash mare searching for her cutie-mark had matured into a more humble and demure pony. Her curled mane was longer and strangely reminiscent of her sister’s, and her flank was adorned with a single sharply-squiggling line, but Cheerilee still saw the little filly inside her.

“Ship’s all reinforced, Miss C,” Sweetie told her.

Cheerilee stared Sweetie Belle in the eyes. “Get prepared for a fight, Sweetie. You-“

She was interrupted by the sound of Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash landing near them. “Mission accomplished,” Dash said, nodding. “Should we prepare for close combat?”

Cheerilee nodded. “All three of you, yes. You’re going to be our best fighters here, so make yourselves count. We-“

Again, Cheerilee was cut off by hooves landing near her. However, this time, it appeared Fluttershy was the one interrupting.

“I apologize Cheerilee, but you may wish to look forward, and to the starboard,” the butter-colored mare told her. Cheerilee frowned, then looked in the said direction. What she saw shocked her – another ship was bearing down upon them.

“This is not our day…” she grumbled, running to the bow to get a slightly closer look. Staring ahead, she saw that the ship’s sails lacked any kind of markings, and the hull was adorned on one side with a blotch of red. “Or maybe it is,” she said, eyes widening. “Rainbow Dash, I need you to get over there and ask for help.”

“Uh, Cheers, I don’t think that’ll be necessary,” she responded, pointing at an approaching pegasus.

“Derpy!” Cheerilee exclaimed as a familiar blonde-maned pegasus landed on their ship. She took a moment to shake herself out, then looked around.

“Where’s Twilight?” she asked, confused.

Cheerilee shook her head, walking to the mare. “Away. I’m in charge right now.”

Derpy looked at Cheerilee and gave her a big smile.

“Cap’n thought you could use some help,” she said, fluttering her wings.

Cheerilee smiled wide and nodded. “Oh, yes we could. Tell the captain of the Thorn we’re glad to get any help we can.”

With that, the gray pegasus took off towards her ship. Cheerilee watched as the pegasus landed at the bow and paused next to a speck, becoming one herself in the distance. All at once, the ship lurched, changing its angle to try and keep up with the four ships. The ponies on the Free Mare watched as four side hatches opened up on the Thorn and the same number of cannons rolled into view. Puffs of smoke were seen as the cannonballs fired from the ship streaked towards the Equestrian ships.

All four balls impacted, stating right then and there the skill of the ponies on board the new vessel. The ship they hit immediately slowed down as it began taking quite a bit of water. After just a moment, a shot rang out as a projectile left the Free Mare. Their shot went straight at the damaged ship and tore their mast clean in half.

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo watched in awe as the severely damaged ship lagged behind and began to turn back towards the island in an attempt to get to safety. Cheerilee could almost hear Rainbow Dash’s smirk.

“That, my little fillies,” the rainbow-maned pony began, “is the power of a broadside.” She looked at Cheerilee. “You gotta convince Twi to get us more cannons, Cheers.”

Cheerilee just shook her head, amused. She walked back to the bow and saw that the ship on their port-most side was still trying to un-gum its cannon. A second burst of shots rang out, and the middle ship was pelted with two cannonballs. The Free Mare continued firing, ripping into the sails of the same ship. Eventually, it began to slow drastically as it failed to capture the wind. It too peeled off towards the island.

The final ship, finding itself outnumbered against the rogue ships, turned tail and ran as well. Cheerilee hoped that Twilight’s group had been able to hide someplace, because Torres Island was about to get real crowded, real fast.

After just a short while, their savior ship pulled up alongside them. Distinct ponies were roaming about the surface of the ship, staring as the Free Mare’s cannon platforms retreated inside the ship and closed off. “Sweetie,” Cheerilee began, not looking at the unicorn. She was pleased to notice the unicorn already passing ahead of her, placing a long plank between the ships. Cheerilee hopped onto the plank and boarded the Thorn.

Derpy gave her a smile as she hopped off onto the other ship. “Where is she?” Cheerilee asked.

“Right here,” a mare’s voice sounded out. Cheerilee looked up to see a tall earth pony with piercing light-green eyes staring at her. Her entire bearing spoke volumes in confidence and skill, and the rose behind her ear didn’t demean her look at all. “Where’s Twilight?” She asked.

Cheerilee sighed. “Well, we’ve gotten ourselves in quite a pickle, Roseluck.”

The other mare frowned. “How so?”

Cheerilee closed her eyes. They were in even more trouble now – they’d willingly accepted help from pirates during a fight with official Equestrian vessels. “Like you wouldn’t believe.”