Battleships are Magic

by totallynotabrony


Chapter 6

The Equestrian Sea
USS Wisconsin
The teak planking of the battleship’s deck was pleasant to take a stroll on. Twilight was not enjoying herself, though. The fleet was underway, but there was still so much to do. She’d come out in the sun to take a break and clear her mind before going back to planning.
An open can of Coca-Cola drifted along beside her, surrounded by the purple glow of her magic. Human food generally did not agree with the ponies, but soft drinks were a strange novelty. There was only a limited supply of Coke onboard, but the sailors seemed content to share it with them.
Captain Mittal had been very willing to talk about the ship when she’d inquired about its capabilities. It was obvious that he took pride in the vessel, and cared for it very much, usually referring to it with female pronouns.
The United States of America was made up of fifty smaller areas, the states. “Wisconsin” was the name of one of them. The country also named ships after cities, influential humans, and even sometimes animals, although usually only sea creatures.
The ship Wisconsin was arguably one of the most powerful ships in the US Navy. It had its flaws, but in terms of offensive capability, there were few ships that could match it. Mittal seemed sad that it was probably reaching the end of its life. The ship had been upgraded with new equipment several times, but it was approaching fifty years of service.
Twilight looked at one of the Mark 7 turrets on the foredeck. The three gun barrels were each as large as tree trunks. The ship had three of the turrets, for a total of nine guns. Under ideal conditions, the guns together could average one shot fired every three seconds. Twilight had been below deck to the magazine, and seen the enormous shells. She couldn’t imagine how a chemical reaction from “gunpowder” could cause something so large and heavy to move.
The ship also carried a dozen smaller guns and a few other weapons that Mittal said would be useless in this world. He called them “missiles.”
Twilight finished her drink and went back to the war room, although the sailors called it a compartment, rather than a room. They had a lot of strange terms for everything: bulkhead, hatch, rack, head.
The rough details of the battle strategy had already been mapped out with the advisors Twilight had brought along. Most were experienced soldiers, and all were known to be inteligent.
Twilight hadn't limited herself to just the think tank on board, though. Princess Luna sent a letter revealing that she’d been working on a plan that attempted to minimize dragon casualties and end the fighting as quickly as possible. She called it Shock and Awe.
The idea was to attack as hard and fast as possible, hopefully scaring the survivors enough to convince them that further fighting was hopeless. The UL would much rather take prisoners than kill.
The first target on the list was an old Zebrican seaside fortress. It had stood abandoned for several years, and was in poor condition. The zebra leaders did not have any particular wish to save it, so it would be used as an example.
When the dragons began to push into Zebrica, the old fort was occupied. It had not much value as a strategic location, but it was a place to stay. The location had been mapped, and the strike had been organized. It was only a matter of time.
It was a little difficult to organize the fleet of boats that followed in the battleship’s wake. There were no radios, but the animal sailors seemed to understand semaphore flags and Morse light. One more thing to ponder, Mittal thought. All the small boats had been warned to stay clear as Wisconsin got into position. The guns had been checked thoroughly and made ready. The gunners stood by for action.
On the bridge in the predawn darkness, Mittal could feel the tension and excitement in the air. While they did perform routine target practice, Wisconsin hadn’t fired her guns in anger since the Korean War.
Twilight Sparkle stood with him, squinting in the dim light towards shore.
“I can’t even see it,” she said.
Mittal nodded. “We’re over the horizon. They can’t see us, either.”
The sun was beginning to rise as the Pioneer UAV was launched. In the Combat Information Center, Petty Officer Lemoore’s deft fingers piloted the small plane. It was a fairly short flight, and the stone and earth fortification soon came into view. Lemoore ducked low and made a close pass over the top.
Full grown dragons were ugly as sin, he thought, unlike the cute little guy who had come aboard with the ponies. He spiraled the Pioneer to a higher altitude and indicated to Fire Control that he was ready.
The three main turrets began to swing to the side, gun barrels elevating. Each gun was made to fire shells 16 inches in diameter that weighed between 1900 and 2700 pounds. To send them on their way, 655 pounds of gunpowder was shoved into each gun with a hydraulic ram. The maximum range was slightly more than twenty nautical miles.
Fire Control completed their calculations. Small radar units to track the shells in flight were turned on in order to make corrections to subsequent shots.
Mittal gave the order, and Wisconsin fired the first shot of the war.
There was an enormous explosion and a fireball appeared right in front of the bridge windows. Twilight squeaked in surprise.
“Sorry,” said Mittal. "But I did tell you it was going to be loud." To punctuate his words, a second gun fired, ejecting another shell at high speed.
Twilight was not teased for her astonished reaction, as everyone on the bridge had their attention focused outside, where the guns began to fall into a steady rhythm of thunder.

The Zebrican Coast
By the standards of dragons who were used to living in caves, the old fort wasn’t too bad. It was almost like living in a castle.
The sun was beginning to come up, bathing the stone walls in orange light. One dragon poked his head over the side, gazing out across the water. There had been rumors of a United Lands force coming to aid the zebra fighters. It looked like that wouldn’t be today. The dragon saw nothing.
He became aware of a buzzing noise. The dragon looked around, searching for the offending insect. He swatted at the air, but the noise continued.
Glancing up, the dragon caught sight of a small speck circling in the air over the fortress. He studied it for a moment, but had never seen anything of the kind before. He decided to go ask another dragon.
He had just started to move when it seemed like the whole world exploded. The dragon was blown off the wall and knocked head over heels through the fort. Seconds later, there was another blast and one of the heavy stone walls disintegrated.
The dragon picked himself up from where he had landed, dazed and injured. He could see no source of the attack, and yet it was utterly destroying the earthworks of the fort. He stretched out his wings to flee, but a boulder thrown from one of the blast craters knocked him flat.
In less than a minute, everything within a quarter of a mile of the old fortification was pulverized. There was little evidence that a structure had existed there at all, other than scattered rubble.
Only a few dragons, those that had flown away immediately after the first shell had landed, escaped the bombardment. They arrived at other dragon strongholds with compelling stories of the sneak attack that had wiped the fortification off the map.

Author note:
This is another fairly short chapter, but what comes next is going to be fairly long. It’ll probably take me until Saturday evening.