At last, we had a base camp. We were within striking distance of King Typhoon and a real chance to free Marina, and restore the namesake to the throne and calm the seas between Equestria and Marina. The weather on the oceans had roughened to a point where going back for supplies was suicide. The storms that we were being reported had three characteristics: Windy, Waves rolling incredibly high, and lightning everywhere. The Celestia and Reignaria were commissioned to stay on the shore, as they were too valuable to lose to the roughness of the seas until King Typhoon was dethroned. It was risky not giving the other ships protecting in case of raiders from the Marina navy, but due to the rough weather, the opposing navy was simply forced to stay in port. Already, one of their major assets was gone, and in my opinion, it had a huge impact on our victory at sea.
I finally had a day to stretch my legs, and check out the sea side town of Aquarious. The town may be small, but it was not like other towns that I had been too. For example, Ponyville had the classic barnyard look with hay as roofs; Canterlot was mostly towers with golden tops with the castle in the center. Manehattan was all skycrapers, but Aquarius was made up of bubble homes that were round, and looked like bubbles, as they were made of very reflective chrome like material. The spheres were rounded, and some larger buildings looked like bubbles emerging from water. It was beautiful, but one thing that I scowled at was the flags that King Typhoon had forced the ponies in Marina to fly over their homes. We tried to remove them, but they merely reappeared magically. I continued walking around until at last, one of the residents came out to water the flowers in her garden. I trotted over to her.
“Hello,” I said to the mare as she watered her flowers.
She smiled happily and walked up towards the fence. “Hello soldier,” she said in a rather unenthusiastic way.
“Where is everypony?” I asked her.
“They are too afraid to come out of their homes,” she said looking down at the flowers with regret. “King Typhoon threatened that if this town fell because we helped you, that as soon as he slaughtered you in Atlantis, that we were next.”
I was shocked, “So why are you outside?”
The mare smiled and then handed me a small blue rose. “I have confidence that you will free our country, and for that I am grateful,” she said as she bent over the fence and kissed me on the cheek. “Good luck soldier.”
I lightly blushed, “Thank you,” I said. “Don’t worry, we will free your country, and you will not have to be afraid of King Typhoon anymore. Spread the news to your neighbors and the whole town that they can come out of their homes. They are safe now.”
“Thank you,” she said with a smile. “Might I ask what your name is?”
“Lieutenant Ace,” I said, “from the 115th Battle Group of the Equestrian Royal Guard.”
“Well Ace,” she said, “I wish you the best of luck on your vacation, but as dangerous as your fight is protecting us, please do not forget the things you hold dear. Please keep them safe.”
I smiled lightly, but then I remembered what Cloud Storm had said. The words “According to Spitfire” haunted my head as when I gave it serious thought, it was obvious on what she did. “Please excuse me,” I said looking at the mare. “It was nice talking to you.”
~~~
Arriving back at camp, I looked around for Spitfire. I was trying to keep my cool, but not give my sheer frustration away. I passed by groups of ponies that were either unloading supplies from the ships, or were finally taking a break from the rapid fire action of the war. I couldn’t believe that Spitfire would do such a dangerous thing; I mean, I understand he is one of the commanders of the 115th but I told her not to do anything rash, and to just stay put in her place, especially when we didn’t know where the stealth alicorns were. She and I were going to have a very long talk once I found her.
At last I spotted Soarin, Spitfire and Asteroid Run enjoying some time alone in the tent that they had set up. The cots had not been placed in their respective spots yet, and all of our gear had not been placed, but it was a temporary base for Charlie Company tent 9. I looked around, and noticed that Star Shine was missing. I trotted in, and took a spot on a cot that had been set up. “Where’s Star Shine?” I asked.
“Star Shine didn’t make it,” said Soarin charming in. “She was on the Solaris right at the heart of the explosion when it blew. We went back to check, but it was clear that she was nowhere to be seen. Her body washed up on the shore; but let’s just say that you didn’t want to think of her last moments before the explosion just by looking her body. Luckily for the commander that Spitfire was there huh? Celestia only knows what would have happened if Shining Armor was left alone.”
Spitfire smiled.
I lightly smiled, but it was obvious that I wasn’t happy. “Yea, lucky.”
Spitfire noticed the distraught tone in my voice, and trotted over to me. “Hey guys,” she said trying to sound relax, “can you leave us alone for a while? We need some time alone.”
“Sure thing Spitfire,” said Soarin as he began a trot out towards town with Asteroid Run following suit. Spitfire then got up and closed the flap to the tent. She then turned around and looked at me, her seriousness had returned, and she looked angrily at me. “Ok, what’s wrong?”
I got up out of the temporary cot, and trotted in front of her. “What’s wrong?” I said with my anger growing in my voice. “What’s wrong is the fact that you almost got yourself killed.”
“I was saving the commander,” she said looking at me.
“You were giving yourself a death wish, what were you thinking?”
“I was thinking of someone other than myself Ace.”
“So you were going to die for Shining Armor.”
“Yes, yes I was.”
“Why.”
“Because he’s a great leader, and no one deserves to die like that.”
I then finally calmed down getting a full spectrum of what was going on here. I then let go of my anger. Spitfire was still a little distraught. “Why does this bother you so much?” she asked.
“Because I didn’t want to lose you,” I said looking at her with deep expression in her eyes.
“Ace,” she said with a teasing look in her eyes, “I’m not a little filly anymore, I’m a grown mare.”
“A beautiful grown mare at that,” I smiled and walked up closer to her.
Spitfire smiled and wrapped her arms around me, “You’re a crazy fly boy, that’s for sure,” she smiled as she gently kissed me pushing me towards the floor. I then gently lay down on the floor with her gently on top of me as she began taking off one piece of her uniform at a time. I could only smile.
“I may be crazy,” I smiled softly, “but that’s why you love me.”
Spitfire smiled as she began to close her eyes, “One of many reasons,” she said. “Let’s just say, I love you very much, for everything about you, and that you are.” She then leaned in for slow passionate kiss, as we continued on with this sin that we are guilty of, the sin of love, but as they say, all is fair in love and war.
~~~
“Alright everypony,” said Cloud Storm unrolling a map, “We’re not on our home turf anymore, we are now at the mercy of our host King Typhoon.” He then opened up the map a tiny bit wider, and then began placing pegs to show where Aquarious was and where Atlantis was, while projecting the image he was seeing over the table so that everypony else could see it. “It is obviously way too risky to walk into Atlantis and ring the doorbell. King Typhoon will have Atlantis armed to the teeth, not to mention he will use civilians as shields. Atlantis, next to Canterlot, is one of the most populated cities in the world, as well as one of the best guarded. So here is the plan; thanks to the efforts of one of the lieutenants from Charlie Company, we have the uniforms of 15 stealth alicorns. Thanks to him, and also some intelligence from former stealth alicorns, we are able to commission 10 alicorns to go undercover and land in Atlantis’ central castle, Neptune, from there, they will stealth kill the guards, and then go for the grand prize: King Typhoon. Our goal is not to kill him, but rather to capture him, and take the crown. Once we have the crown, we will reverse the spells of the dark gems that possess the Aquarian army, and hopefully restore power to Princess Marina if all is successful. This operation will begin at dawn, two days from now. Good luck everypony, dismissed.”
“Yes Sir!”