Sunset and Celestia, who had taken a break from reading missives and memorandums, were playing chess in the princess’s cabin. The unicorn was glaring at the pieces as if they had wronged her.Across her was Celestia who smiled serenely, nearly mirroring the smile Alternia had worn as her.
“It is thy move, Sunset.”
Sunset relented and moved her rook with her magic, and promptly groaned as Celestia took it with a move from her bishop. Looking up, Sunset moaned, “How did you get so good? Your skills must be a thousand years out of date!”
“We know thee quite well,” said Celestia with a smug grin.
Sunset threw up her hooves. “That does not answer my question! Faust forbid should you and Princess Alternia get together and publish a book of riddles! Nopony would be able to solve them.”
Celestia burst out into a fit of giggles even as Sunset glared at her. That was when a pony in uniform knocked on the door to their quarters.
“Your highness, a Priority One telegram from the REINS airship, The Big Boss.”
Taking the telegram in her magic, Celestia nodded to dismiss the pony and read it silently, her eyes suddenly widening as she did so.
“Celestia?”
Celestia levitated the telegram to Sunset. “Port Royale… the pirate base… it’s been destroyed by a tsunami.”
“Tsunami? You mean a different from the one two months ago?” Sunset asked as she read the telegram.
“Yes. They suspected it might have been that one, but an autopsy on the corpses revealed that they died only about a month ago. Investigation by the REINS and the pirate activity from Port Royale indicate that they were unaffected by the first tsunami, likely because as our marine geographers have plotted out, Port Royale is in Venecia’s wave shadow,” said Celestia.
“But… wait, how was there a tsunami there a month ago and nopony got any news of it?” asked Sunset.
Celestia nodded. “A very good question. I wonder…” Sunset watched as Celestia’s eyes narrowed and her hoof tapped on the table. “I wonder if the two tsunamis and the kelpies are by any means related.”
Her eyes widening in horror, Sunset swallowed. “But if they are, then…”
“That means that the kelpies would have amassed a far greater power than we could ever anticipate, but… that doesn’t explain why we haven’t seen a second tsunami the size of the first one.”
Sunset nodded and rubbed her head with both hooves. “Yeah. By the Stars, this is so frustrating!”
The alicorn in question nodded and rose to her hooves. “Indeed, it is.” Trotting to the door, Celestia glanced at Sunset, “Walk with me.”
Mystified, Sunset followed Celestia and exited the cabin. Silently, the pair made their way up the staircases of the ship until they reached the compass platform of the Llamrei.
From the platform, Sunset could see trailing behind them the convoy that their small flotilla had joined up with. Ten Venecian merchant vessels were led by a massive fleet that had gathered to escort the ships.
Four battleships, eight cruisers, and ten destroyers ringed the convoy. The battleships were all of the Llamrei class, the same ship they now were standing upon. Sunset had learned that each one was equipped with two huge turrets of twin twelve-inch guns and bristled with smaller guns from gunports and casements; she reflected that this made them an expensive investment, but a worthwhile one in light of the attack on the Griffon destroyer.
The cruisers were likewise something Sunset was glad that Princess Alternia had ordered to be built. They had smaller guns, five inch at their largest, and no turrets, but the fact they had about thirty of these meant they were deadly to anything short of a battleship.
Finally there were the destroyers. Equestria’s destroyers were frankly quite similar to the Griffons. With long sleek lines, powerful engines, and five four point seven inch naval deck guns, they were perfectly designed to support the cruisers and patrol lonely stretches of the ocean.
All in all, it was an incredible sight of military might, but Sunset, still perturbed by Celestia’s silence, was more concerned about her friend.
“Celestia?”
The alicorn turned to level Sunset with a hardened gaze. “Sunset, as you can see, we are sailing headlong into danger.”
“I’m very aware of that, Celestia. The destroyed pirate base and the griffon destroyer have been incredibly enlightening in that respect,” Sunset said flatly.
The end of Celestia’s lip curled up just a bit in a smirk, but the alicorn forced her eyes to narrow and her lips to be pressed in a thin line.
“Sunset, please. Every ship and every pony out there has resolved to protect Equestria. We know thou art of the same disposition, but we do not wish for thee to be hurt. If thou wish us to, we can ask the REINS airship to rendezvous with us.”
Sunset frowned. “Celestia, I am a certified Equestrian Mage, not a charlatan stage performer”— Sunset shook her head — “The point is, Celestia, I can take care of myself, and you need me.”
Celestia sighed a bit ruefully. “It is because we do not wish thee to be hurt that we wish to ask thee to leave, but we shall respect thy wish.” Looking Sunset in the eye, Celestia smiled. “Thank you for staying with us.”
Sunset grinned. “You’re welcome.”
Two days later after their conversation, Sunset briefly considered if she should have taken up Celestia’s offer and gotten her civilian flank out of the Eastern Sea.
The Equestrian Fleet had been sailing at full speed when lookouts spotted something on the water, large but unidentified.
It had turned out to be a massive debris field.
As the Llamrei and her escorting ships ploughed onward, Sunset could only watch in shock as their battleship brushed past the debris. There were splinters of wood, most being flat rectangular planks used to cover the armored decks, others clearly from wood used to furnish the interior. There were also life-preservers, and the smashed ribs and ribbing of lifeboats. This was an odd contrast to the one floating collapsible rubber and metal lifeboat she saw.
On and on the debris field stretched to the horizon, covering the ocean like a great oil slick. Here was the broken trunk of a foremast and the crushed wooden frame of its crow’s nest. There was—wait…
“Celestia! This was a military fleet! Look, crossbows!” Sunset pointed with her hoof to a small group of crossbows floating handle up, their tips dragged down by their steel bows.
“And those are spears,” said Celestia, gesturing to several floating spears among a scattering of wooden planks. The alicorn grimaced. “Thou art correct Sunset. The question is whose fleet is this? We art the only Equestrian major naval formation present in these water so it is not ours.”
“Warship ahoy to port!”
Celestia and Sunset spun their heads around to head to the left side of the ship’s compass platform, brushing past the officer also on the compass platform. Their eyes narrowed, they peered into the distance.
“Woah.”
Even from this distance, the Equestrians could tell that the warship they had spotted was in bad shape. From the size, it appeared to be a cruiser, but neither Celestia or Sunset could be absolutely sure.
This was because the ship was a wreck. Most of its small calibre guns were gone, ripped from the turret mountings, except in some cases where the entire turret was gone. The ship’s three funnels were mangled, the first and last one snapped while the middle one was flattened and bent over like a defective pipe. The rear mast had been knocked down so one end dangled off into the sea, while the foremast…
The bridge and forward superstructure of the ship were simply gone, a giant hole left in its place. Celestia and Sunset were too far away to figure out the finer details, but that much was clear.
Trotting to the communication tube, Celestia opened it and called down. “Captain, can you identify the vessel?”
Smith’s voice trickled back up. “From my knowledge, your highness, it appears to be a Griffon Paladin-class cruiser. But if that’s the case, then…”
Celestia nodded, though Smith couldn’t see her. “These are the remnants of a Griffon fleet… Prepare to pull alongside the vessel and board. We need to figure out who—”
Sunset’s gasp and cry cut Celestia off. “Celestia! There are survivors!”
The griffon survivors were feeble and hungry, and most of them were wounded. One of them had managed to wave a white flag to show they were alive, but he was the exception. Even then he had a nasty cut on his head.
As the others were in no condition to talk, and had been taken on and into the Llamrei’s infirmary, Celestia, Sunset, and Captain Smith were now seated in a comfortable cabin across this particular griffon.
“Thank you, thank you so much for saving us! But please, you have to turn around!” stammered the griffon.
“Calm down; what’s your name, and your rank?” asked Smith calmly.
“Ensign George, Wireless Officer of the Griffon cruiser, Aurora. Please, you don’t understand. We have to leave these waters now!” pleaded the griffon.
“Then tell us why. Start from the beginning. Why were you in these waters in the first place?” asked Smith.
Sunset pulled out a notepad and prepared to take down notes, while Celestia just listened. The griffon was already frightened enough. She didn’t need to intimidate him more by speaking up.
George swallowed but, seeing that the ponies weren’t going to take a no for an answer, he began.
“We, that is the Griffon 2nd Fleet, were searching for the source of the tsunami and the mystery attacks. Led by Admiral Nikolas Neatbeak, we pushed into these waters, alerted by your discovery of the Griffon destroyer.”
“How many ships did you have?” asked Smith.
“Three of our newer Imperator class battleships, six of our older Admiral class battleships. Five Paladin cruisers, and five Warbeak-class destroyers. But we never stood a chance.”
Smith nodded. “Okay, what happened when you entered these waters?”
At that question, George started to shiver and he couldn’t meet Smith’s eyes. “At about 0100 hours, we got warned, by a… voice from the sea.”
Sunset looked up from her notepad, one eyebrow raised skeptically. A voice from the sea? That sounded a bit crazy, but considering that there were such sea creatures as kelpies, she supposed she shouldn’t be too close-minded.
“And what did the voice say?” asked Smith.
George swallowed and in a low, hoarse voice, that was likely an attempt to echo what he had heard, said, “Griffon fleet, you trespass into sovereign waters. Reverse course and leave. We will not ask again.”
Sovereign waters? If I’m right, the seas here are international waters, not claimed by any nation or species. Why did that voice assert they were sovereign waters? wondered Sunset.
“What did Admiral Nikolas decide to do?” asked Smith, pressing onward, his own ears perked with curiosity.
“He was awoken from his cabin, and decided to press onward. We went to general quarters, but… it didn’t help.” George bowed his head. “Then it started. Almost immediately after we decided to maintain our heading, a bank of fog rolled in, blocking out the moon. It was as thick as any fog we’d ever seen; we could barely see fifty meters ahead of us or the next ship.
“Next thing we knew, one of our propellers seized and reports came from the engine room that they were hearing some really loud pinging noises. Something from the outside had jammed something into our props. The same thing was also happening to the rest of our ships. Captain Ivan told us to turn on searchlights, but before we could do so, that was when… they appeared.”
“They?”
“The monsters. Hordes of them. They had carapaces like changelings, but they also had tentacles. Some had crab claws. They all had shark teeth, shark tails and kelp-like hair. They swarmed aboard the destroyers, ripping into our sailors. They didn’t board the big ships like the cruisers and the battleships, though, but we could do nothing as one by one our destroyers were taken over.
Smith, standing up, trotted to the trembling griffon ensign and patted his shoulder. “I know it’s difficult, but keep talking. We need to record this so that the world can know.”
George nodded and straightened up. “In a desperate attempt, some of our larger ships closed in beside the destroyers, but our weapons were useless. They were designed for naval engagements, not to counter a boarding action. Admiral Nikolas’s voice then came on the radio. He ordered the fleet to reverse course and set sail for Griffonia. But then…”
“Then what?”
George burst into a terrified babble. “I don’t know. I was in the lower decks listening to the griffon on the radio, but I know it was that monster. She must have seized the Imperator with her tentacles and dragged the battleship underwater! I could hear the steel being crushed by the pressure of the water and the hull buckle over the radio! Then the channels then filled with screams from our other ships, something about turtles and their ships hulls being smashed in! We didn’t stand a chance, and you won’t either! Please, you have to turn around! She’ll kill you all!”
Sunset was feeling lightheaded as she imagined the abject horror that the griffons must have felt as they were dragged down by some unknown monster, while Celestia grimaced. Smith appeared skeptical, though.
“Um okay. Did this monster do anything else? Say anything?” asked Smith.
Thorn nodded rapidly, his claws clamped over his eyes. “She ripped the bridge of our cruiser off with her massive tentacles! I was sitting on the bench, about to run before I could hear any more about our ships being sunk, when the ship shook and suddenly I could see the night sky, and her. That huge black carapaced monster with those black, soulless eyes! And then she spoke…”
“What did she say?” Celestia asked, leaning forward.
Swallowing, George opened a crack between his talons. “I am Empress Tethys of Aquestria, Ruler of the Eastern Seas. Should you ever attempt to violate my authority or my waters, your lives and your ships are forfeit. Leave.”
“Then she and her army of monsters just vanished, and we were all that was left.”
By that point, Sunset wanted to just leave the room and get the ships turned around at all cost. Celestia however, simply nodded and after George was escorted out of the interrogation room, Celestia turned to Sunset.
“Sunset, as part of thy mage equipment, thou art required to carry a crystal ball at all times, is that correct?” Celestia asked.
The unicorn nodded. “Yes. What do you need it for?”
“We need it to speak with our sister and to Alternia.” Celestia then turned to the pale-faced Captain Smith. “Captain, tell the rest of our vessels to go to battlestations, idle engines, and hold their position.”
Smith swallowed. “Yes, your highness.”
Afternoon, Canterlot...
“Auntie, can I ask you something?” Cyndra asked me.
I nodded, not looking up from the Equestria Daily paper I was reading and making notes on parchment. The story of the griffon destroyer being found had been published and I wanted to read the reactions to it. So far, they seemed to be disparate, confused, which was a good thing. I didn’t want the public to be drawing any conclusions yet when I and my co-rulers weren’t sure about how to go forward.
“Go ahead, Cyndra,” I said, as I sipped from the cup of tea I held in my magic.
“When are you going to get a date?”
Usually I was very good at restraining myself from making involuntary reactions, especially when drinking delicious tea, but this time I couldn’t help it. My telekinesis failed and the cup dropped. I just managed to catch it and most of the tea that had spilled over.
Glaring at my niece, I set my cup back down on my desk. “Cyndra, why are you sounding like your mother, and her sisters?”
Cyndra sighed. “What I don’t get, auntie, is why you’ve had a platoon of changelings for more than two months, some of them, particularly Harlequin, Buzz and Diamondshell, being very fine specimens of our species, and yet you haven’t even gone on a date, or expressed any romantic interest in any of them.”
I shook my head, and smiled wryly. “Firstly Cyndra, I don’t know how your mother courted your father, but for Equestrians, especially for those in high profile positions, relationships have a great effect on the participants reputations. Secondly, as you can tell, I’ve been very busy. And finally, I like the way things are between my changelings and me.”
But if I did, then why did I turn away from Cyndra and look back to my newspaper?
Cyndra opened her mouth, but just at that moment a scroll popped into existence beside me, saving me from answering whatever question she wished to ask. Catching it with my magic, I unrolled it and read.
“Who is it from?” asked Cyndra.
My eyes narrowed at the parchment. “It’s Celestia. She wants to communicate by crystal ball… That’s unusual.” I paused for a moment. “Cyndra, please get parchment and paper. I think this might be important.”
I then rose to my hooves and trotted to the chest at the foot of my bed from which I produced a polished crystal ball with a rest. Returning to my desk, I set the ball onto it, placed my hooves onto the crystal, and closed my eyes.
Crystal balls were useful in that they allowed for face to face communication, but they required quite a bit of magical coordination and power. Yes, I, Luna, and Celestia had power to spare. However, I still needed to infuse the ball with enough of my magic so the scryer, in this case, Celestia, could locate me and open a link between the balls. She also had to do the same for Luna.
Finally, after several minutes, Celestia and Luna’s features swam into view within the crystal. The curvature of the sphere distorted their images quite a bit, but I could tell one thing for certain.
Celestia was shaken, and badly so. There were no truly obvious features — she wasn’t crying or anything like that — but the slight crinkle to her eyelids and tight-set jaw were enough for me to realize something big had happened.
“Alternia, Luna, we art truly overjoyed to see thee both.”
“Celestia, what happened? Are you alright?” Luna asked. Clearly she had seen the same things I had. Behind her was her throne in the main castle hall. She must have cancelled Petitioners’ Court in order to take the message.
Celestia’s lips twitched into a tired smile before they straightened. “We art unharmed, but we cannot say the same of some others.
“Firstly, we received a message from the REINS airship The Big Boss, which was about to drop down our spy. The pirate base of Port Royale was hit by a tsunami about a month ago. We personally suspect it to be the work of kelpies.”
My eyes widened and I glanced at my niece to check if she was ready to take down what was about to be said. She was, and so I turned my attention back to the crystal sphere.
“Why do you say that, Celestia?” Luna asked.
“The localised nature of it. It only affected the pirates’ atoll. Venecia reported no waves, and given the size of the tsunami, there is no way it would not have gone unnoticed. Kelpies do have some ability to manipulate water by magic, and enough of them could have caused the tsunami,” Celestia pointed out.
“It is a possibility. Any survivors?” I asked.
“None were found on site, but that is not the worst of it.” Celestia took a deep breath and grimaced. “Griffonia’s Eastern Fleet has been destroyed.”
My eyes widened. The entire Eastern Fleet? That was half of Griffonia’s naval strength.
“How?” I demanded.
“A kelpie assault. We’re not sure how, but they used a combination of boarding and other methods I have trouble comprehending. In total, they’ve sunken nine battleships, five destroyers and four cruisers. They left only one ship, a cruiser, to tell the tale of woe and worry.”
“Can you elaborate, sister?” Luna asked.
Celestia nodded, her eyes narrowing. “There is a new leader of Aquestria, an Empress Tethys. She appears to be a massive kelpie with tentacles large enough to, according to the report of one crewmember, pull an entire battleship into the depths of the sea. This Empress Tethys has also declared her rulership over all the waters in the Eastern Seas, and threatened anybody who would violate said sovereignty with death. The delivery of this message appears to be the only reason why she left the griffon ship alive.”
“But that is unacceptable. Venecia will starve to death without access to the sea. Even if the city and its inhabitants are fully recovered, which they aren’t, there is no way they can survive!” Luna exclaimed.
“We do not believe this Empress Tethys cares about whether her demands are acceptable or not, Luna. We art certain that the earlier unprovoked attacks on the ships in the area not attacked by pirates were her doing. We wilt be very surprised if she is concerned about the well-being of the Venecians.” Grimacing, Celestia pursed her lips for a moment. “Luna, Alternia, we do not know how to fight an enemy that dwells underwater, but we think that should the goal of Empress Tethys be to starve Venecia to death.. In the meantime, we shall at least escort this final convoy to the island in order to buy time where we can seek a more permanent solution—”
“No!”
Cyndra jumped at my raised voice, while Celestia flinched, and Luna started. I didn’t care though, as leaned in to the crystal.
“You will do no such thing, Celestia. If the Griffonian fleet that sported nine battleships was so easily annihilated by Empress Tethys, we can expect the same will happen to your fleet, which is smaller, and doesn’t have as much firepower. Luna, Venecia has enough food to last for at least a month, right?”
“Yes, Alternia. I and the dogess thought it best that the island maintain a reserve in case of an emergency,” said Luna.
I nodded and turned to look at Celesta’s image. “In that case, we can supplement that with drops of food via airship if absolutely necessary, accompanied by incremental evacuation by said airships. It won’t be an ideal permanent solution, but it will buy time until we can put one into place.”
Celestia’s eyes relaxed and her brow straightened. “And what do you propose be our response to Empress Tethys’s declaration be?”
I took a moment. I had an option in consideration for a while. I wasn’t sure how feasible it was, but with the Griffon fleet’s destruction, it had become the only option.
“We send a diplomatic party to the Eastern Sea, establish contact, and negotiate a treaty.”
Luna didn’t react immediately, her features remained neutral, but Celestia’s eyes flew open and she tensed up.
“We cannot do that! What right have they to demand concessions from us when they launch unprovoked assaults on Griffon and Venecia shipping? Should we bow to them, we would be little more than cowards giving into a brute!”
Shaking my head, I addressed Celestia in a firm tone. “We should not be so quick to judge another’s species simply by first impressions, Celestia. All we know is they have attacked shipping for some reason and laid claim to these waters. If we conclude they are brutes before we truly know their reasons, we would be no better than the ponies who put a hole through my chest.”
That made Celestia hesitate for a second, her hoof rubbing her chin contemplatively. A moment later, however, she put her hoof back onto her table.
“How dost thou know we can negotiate with the kelpies safely, Alternia?” Celestia asked.
A breath of air escaped my tired lips.
“I don’t, but do we have another option?” Celestia and Luna frowned at that, but didn’t interrupt. “We know the kelpies are incredibly dangerous over water with their shapeshifting ability and their combat prowess. We don’t know their limits, nor their weaknesses. We do know that their Empress could sink a battleship. We also know that we can’t attack where they live because that’s the ocean itself.”
I glanced between my co-rulers. “Luna, Celestia, I don’t want to negotiate because I like negotiating and clean diplomatic solutions. No, at this point, we have no other option than to try for a diplomatic solution. To declare or provoke war with this species will endanger Equestria’s eastern coasts, which has some of our largest population centres, and if these kelpies can go into rivers, it is likely that places in the interior will be threatened as well.”
Celestia lips twisted into a somewhat undignified grimace. “Thou hath put forward some good reasons, but we do not think Empress Tethys has full control of Aquestria. Empress Samudra has told us that kelpies have always preyed on seaponies, and kelpies were in the minority of the population. It is unlikely that the seaponies would serve a kelpie empress.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but Luna, who had stayed quiet, listening to our arguments, spoke first.
“No, Celestia, I think Alternia is right to assume Empress Tethys will defeat Equestria in any naval engagement we attempt. Our ships are better to some degree than the griffons’, but they are built to fight ships on the surface of the ocean, and not enemies attacking from the water itself. Also, Celestia, remember that Empress Samudra told you this a thousand years ago. Things might have changed since then, and even if they haven’t, we owe it to our ponies to choose the safest course of action. We must attempt a diplomatic solution, and you must turn your convoy around and head back to Equestria.”
Luna’s word had a rather noticeable effect on her older sister, whose lips curled and eyes dropped to to the table. For several seconds Celestia remained like this, until she took a deep breath and looked back into the crystal again with a resigned, but at the same time, resolved, gaze.
“Thou art correct. We must act cautiously in this time of uncertainty, and personally, we see little way to combat the abilities of the kelpies. We shall tell our fleet and convoy to turn around, as well as relay a message to the dogess of Venecia to inform her of the situation. Additionally, I suggest we should begin research into ways to improve our fighting capability against enemies within the water.”
I smiled. Celestia was learning and learning well. She was no longer the alicorn she was during the Emergency Council.
I could tell by Luna’s relieved features that she was happy for her sister as well. “Thank you for understanding, Celestia. If you wish, I can help you write a letter. I am on better speaking terms with Dogess Sebastiana.”
“I will also inform Admiral Marenitz to get her scientists and engineers on the matter immediately,” I said.
“That would be most helpful, Alternia, sister.” Celestia glanced at me. “We assume thou would also like to handle the negotiations, Alternia?”
I swallowed. Right. About that…
“You are right. I plan to set out to see in a little more than a week, though I might have to take extra precautions. From what I’ve heard from my sisters, the kelpies like hunting and eating changelings.”
I braced myself against the table as Celestia and Luna froze for a split second as they processed what I had told them.
“Hast thou lost thy mind?”/ “Are you crazy?” Celestia and Luna exclaimed so loudly that it made me reel back from the crystal ball. That wasn’t all of it though, for as I steadied myself, Cyndra grabbed my right forehoof with a deathgrip.
“Auntie, forgive me, but have you completely gone completely mental?” screamed my niece.
I shook my head and scratched an ear to clear it. I was pretty sure I was quite myself. Really, my family and co-rulers could be such drama queens.
“Everypony, and changeling, please calm down. I’m going into the sea escorted by a battleship and a destroyer, along with a large contingent of guards and Equestrian soldiers. The ships will announce their intentions on loudspeaker every thirty minutes. Every precaution shall be taken. I have no intention of being eaten.”
Luna sighed, her saddened eyes meeting mine. “I don’t like this at all, Alternia. You are the best diplomat of the three of us, and so it may be the more pragmatic option, but we are gravely concerned about your safety.”
“We agree with thee, Luna, but…” Luna and Cyndra stared at Celestia’s image as she grimaced and rubbed her head with a hoof. “We agree with Alternia that it must be done anyway. We shall advise thee to increase thy protective guard, but for the sake of Equestria, we cannot forbid thee from making this decision.” Judging from Luna’s low moan and downcast eyes, she also had grasped the necessity of my trip. Cyndra was still holding my hoof tightly, but I no longer could feel her anger, only extreme worry.
“Thank you for understanding, Celestia, Luna. Please keep me appraised of any further developments. I need to tell my sisters about this incident. As I told you before, I will be attending a council of Changeling Queens, and the Queens will have to be informed of the destruction of the griffon fleet.”
Luna nodded in affirmation. “Understood.” She fixed Celestia with a concerned gaze. “Please be careful, Celestia.”
“We shall. Thank you for your counsel, Luna, Alternia,” said Celestia as her image began to fade. Luna’s features disappeared as well, and the crystal ball turned clear once more.
Cyndra however, was still gripping my hoof, her eyes wide and pleading.
“You’re serious about this, auntie?” Cyndra asked in a halting voice, her lower lip quivering.
I tried to smile, but I didn’t think it quite stretched across my lips. “Yes, Cyndra. I’m pretty sure you agree with Celestia and Luna that I am the best changeling for the job. I could send a diplomat, but with stakes this high, we need to put everything on the line or else any chance of peace might slip away.”
My niece opened her mouth, shut it with a grimace, opened it again, a frown on her face, but immediately closed it a split-second later.
“Damn it, I hate it when you’re right, auntie.”
I chuckled, but it was without humor, for I could not muster any. “You and me both, Cyndra.”
Middle of the night...
One privilege of having to raise the sun was that Celestia would never need to be shaken up. However, that was precisely what was happening to her right now.Two hooves were pushing her shoulder frantically.
“Celestia! Wake up! Wake up!”
Drowsily, Celestia opened her eyes, a bleary vision of Sunset Shimmer swimming in front of her.
“Sunset…. urgh… why dost thou needest me? Tis not the time to raise the sun yet,” Celestia moaned as she vainly tried to pull the blanket over herself.
“The Venecian Convoy has mutinied and shook off the fleet, Celestia!”
A cold feeling spread through Celestia’s heart even before her mind fully processed the statement. Venecian. Convoy. Mutinied. Abandoned the fleet.
“What?”
Bedsheets, blanket, pillows, and Sunset, went flying as the enraged alicorn leapt off her bed, nabbed her regalia and charged out of her room. Flying through the ship past startled crewmembers, Celestia burst into the bridge of the Llamrei, magenta eyes burning like two great bonfires.
“Captain Smith! Explain thy incompetence that has led to this!” Celestia roared.
Smith swallowed and took off his cap. He wasn’t sure if he’ll be able to keep it after this was over.
“The convoy was sailing behind us, our fleet in front, a formation designed so we could break off from them and engage any surface combatant. I think the Venecian captains must have been communicating with each other on a separate radio channel and decided to make for their island no matter what. I wasn’t up, but from what I’ve been told, I can deduce that when night fell, they turned off their running lights, and changed course. They still maintained radio contact, falsely reporting their position and speed, so the watch officer didn’t realize it until just now that there were no lights behind and when we hailed them, they did not respond to our attempts.”
“Hast thou tried to order them to return?” Celestia asked.
“We have, but they have been ignoring our hails. What shall we do, your highness?” asked Smith.
Celestia opened her mouth but shut it instantly. Her eyes wide, the alicorn found herself staring right at a dilemma. Just let the Venecians die, which she was pretty sure they would, and perhaps get back to Equestria safely. Or increase the risk that they will be attacked, and save the Venecians. Tethys’s statement had been quite vague in regards to whether any ships were allowed on the sea. Maybe she had already violated that decree, or had she? Maybe she could force the Venecians to turn around and get them all out of there before they might be attacked, but what if she couldn’t?
Her heart though, was telling her one thing. Celestia had a dark feeling in her mind that she would lose sleep no matter what decision she made, but she had no choice.
So with a heavy heart, Celestia gave her orders. “Set a pursuit course for the Venecian Convoy, all ahead full, and go to General Quarters. Send out pegasi scouts as well to see if we can locate them quicker. Once you sight them, radio them and prepare to fire a warning shot.”
Smith’s eyes widened, but he nodded. “Yes, your highness.”
Celestia sighed as she felt the ship began its turn, her lidded eyes watching as the rest of the fleet responded. All the while, she hoped, and begged, that she wasn’t sentencing the rest of her ponies to die in a futile effort to save a few.
Beneath the ocean…
“Empress Tethys, I have dire news! Another surface force is making it’s way into our waters!”
“Oh? Have they not encountered the gryphon ship I spared?”
“They made contact with the cruiser as well as a destroyer one of our teams raided a short time ago.”
“So they know full well what this invasion means for them. Anything else?”
“Our scouts report the invading ships to be a convoy of transport ships. They appear to be relief vessels bound for the island. A warfleet is not far behind…..an Equestrian one....”
“What is it?”
“Apparently the White One is personally leading the war fleet.”
“So Celestia is leading the attack this time. Can’t say I’m surprised, She doesn’t seem the pony to sit back for too long as I’ve read from Samudra’s letters with her. General, we’re going to do this attack differently. Assemble you best troops. Time to show the surface world what the sea ponies can do.”
“Yes, ma’am!”