Chapter 11: Into Equestria
Manehattan, the largest city on the eastern coast of Equestria, home of Bridleway and the Equestrian Fashion Week. Aside from being a centre of culture, the city was a major commerce centre and trading port. The docks and piers were always filled with ships from up and down the Equestrian coast and some from ports from afar.
What most Equestrians tended to forget was that Manehattan was a major military port, despite the signs of it being all over the place. Two small open batteries sporting five six inch guns each flanked the main port, and fenced off from the main commercial section was the military section of the port.
Nestled in these slipways of the island city were the iron ribbed and plated hulks of eight different warships of varying sizes. In the orange afternoon light, one could see the carts of coal on the piers, where three destroyers were moored, their bunkers of coal being re-stocked. Two armored cruisers were also in the drydocks in the far side of the port, dock workers swarming over them. Finally, to complete the intimidating tableau was a brand new battleship with flags flying and crew at the ready.
One of the two cloaked equine-shaped figures plastered to the gravelled roof on top of a tall Manehattan apartment building had her spyglass glued to this scene. The other equine, a black earth pony with dark eyes had drawn her hood over her face and her hoof over her eyes.
“Hurry up surfaceworlder. You saw what you wanted. Let us be away.”
Brinewing didn’t even glance at her companion, and only adjusted her hooked hoof slightly so she could better support her spyglass.
“Flowie, chill, I’m working here.”
The spyglass was knocked from her hoof and Brinewing found a snarling maw of jagged teeth right in front of her nose.
“I am Ebb Flow, captain of The Empress’s Abyssal Guard! If you dare call me Flowie, Ebbie, Ebs, Flows, Flower, or any mutilation of my name I will disembowel you and feast on your guts as you watch.”
Brinewing swallowed but managed a crooked grin. “Okay. Can I just call you, Flow?”
The kelpie’s eyes briefly narrowed at Brinewing, but she sighed and stepped back. “That is acceptable. May we go now?”
Shaking her head, Brinewing took her notepad and used her good hoof to jot down a few things. “Fraid not, Flow. Got to write down all this for your dear Empress or it’s off with my head.”
Flow’s white-fanged sneer could be seen even in the darkness of her hood. “If this is all the “vital information” you can come up with, then I doubt she will be keeping you for too long, pirate.”
“Oh? And why do you say that?” asked the pirate.
The kelpie had a rather smug grin on her face as she adjusted her cloak. “You know of the fate of the Griffon fleet. You know what happened to your fellow foolish pirate lords.” — Brinewing’s lip twitched at that, but she didn’t move otherwise— “You know we rule the seas.”
“True…” Brinewing then grinned as she pointed at the harbour, “But did you know the Equestrians can build one of those every ten months?”
Flow snorted, not even looking. “You mean one of the small ships? How laughable.”
“I meant the biggest one.”
To Flow’s credit, she didn’t do the take-back that Brinewing expected her to do. She merely pulled herself up next to Brinewing, her eyes glued on the battleship.
“We are talking about the same ship that has that prince inspecting the crew, is that right?” asked Flow.
Brinewing nodded, her spyglass on the perfectly chiseled features of Prince Blueblood as he walked past the uniformed crewmembers assembled on the Llamrei-class battleship. She wondered how much the Equestrians would pay for Blueblood if she took him hostage. A billion bits? That would likely set her up with a nicely outfitted ship and a good crew. Or it might even set her up with a nice home on a mountain somewhere. A while ago she would have said she wanted an island, but in recent circumstances...
“If one of those… battleships you call them, can be built in ten months, how many of the smaller ships?” asked Flow.
“If we’re talking about a destroyer, those are the ships moored by the pier over there, then I guess five months. A cruiser—see that big one next to the battleship— would take about nine months,” explained Brinewing. Glancing at the narrow-eyed Flow, Brinewing grinned. “Oh and don’t forget, the Equestrians have three ports in your Eastern Sea with similar facilities at each one. I don’t think Baltimare has a slipway as large as the one in Manehattan, but altogether, the Equestrians can crank out two battleships a year. Not sure about how many destroyers and cruisers, but probably more than that rate.”
Brinewing shrugged. “But what does that matter, you rule the seas after all…”
“Don’t mock me, surface-dweller, it takes us years to grow a Leviathan to even half the size of your ships. Years of patient care and food to raise a dragon turtle. Yet you surface-dwellers can build one of those bloated sacks of steel in less than a year?” Flow shook her head, a frown creeping onto her features. “How do you know this, anyway?”
Reaching into the folds of her cloak, Brinewing pulled out a newspaper and hoofed it to Flow. Her black eyes staring at the front page, the blinked her expression blank and scowled.
“What is this?”
This time it was Brinewing that was taken aback, her eyebrows rising as she stared at her companion cum guard cum supervisor. “Wait, you kelpies don’t know how to read Equestrian? I thought if you’d be able to speak, you’d be able to read.”
The shark-like sneer returned to Flow’s features. “No point in reading when you’re confined to the darkest abyss, pirate. All we needed were our traditions, and our words.”
“Impressive, but guess I’ll have to explain this to you then,” said Brinewing. She pointed to the column on the first page. “Basically, this is a newspaper, a document published to tell ponies about what is going on in the world. This particular section informs the audience that the Equestrian Triumvirate—don’t ask me why it's a triumvirate now, I always thought it was a monarchy until that moon princess showed up— has unveiled, in response to the incidents in the Eastern Sea, a new naval programme that plans to produce four battleships, ten cruisers, and fifteen destroyers in the next year. It also announced a new weapons and technology development program and is inviting all of Equestria’s brightest minds and inventors to attend a conference in Canterlot, hosted by the REINS—that’s the Royal Equestrian Intelligence and Naval Service.”
“And how do I know you aren’t just making this all up?” asked Flow.
A weak half-smile twitched Brinewing’s lips as the kelpie’s dark eyes reminded her of her guard’s true form. “Well, other newspapers are printing the same story and besides, if I got this wrong, it’d be off with my head right?”
Flow nodded. “True. Continue, Brinewing—” The kelpie suddenly snarled as she stared down. “Are those changelings training alongside ponies?”
Brinewing scrambled to her hooves and pointed her spyglass in the direction where the kelpie was looking at. It was the Manehattan parade fields. Gone were the ceremonial flags and gaudy armor though. Instead, two companies of ponies in dark green uniforms and steel cuirasses fought two companies of changelings in dark blue laminated chitin armor. Both sides were armed with foam practice weapons that were soaked with paint so to leave a “kill” mark on the opponent. Referees, changeling and pony, with white bands around their right forelegs, watched the match closely, pulling out the odd changeling or guard that weren’t obeying the rules.
The fighting was actually quite fierce for a practice battle and the amount of rising dust obscured Brinewing’s sight. The ponies, probably of the Manehattan Rangers if Brinewing remembered correctly, were giving as good as they got, fighting in a tight circle formation with pegasi covering their skyward flank. The changelings were responding by darting in and out, trying to pick at the formation of ponies.
The pirate couldn’t miss the two overseeing the exercise though and she swallowed. Turning to flow, she gave the spyglass to the kelpie.
“North of the field, the raised viewing platform, look at the occupants,” instructed Brinewing.
Flow frowned and looked into the spyglass, directing her gaze up to the platform. Brinewing couldn’t quite tell if the kelpie was alarmed or not, but she definitely saw her stiffen.
For Princess Luna, and a changeling queen were overseeing the war game, the two whispering to one another in hushed tones. What impressed Brinewing more was that when she had peered through the spyglass was the fact that behind the pair, the changelings and ponies in the viewing platform had also been discussing the battle as it occurred. One of these changelings was probably a queen, almost as tall as the one talking to Luna. Brinewing had lingered on that changeling for a bit longer than she should have. For while the changeling queen in question had terrible burn injuries on her left side, and was missing a leg, she wore a wondrously polished clockwork leg. Brinewing had been wondering how much she might need to buy herself one of those.
“Changelings and ponies practicing with one another… we’ve heard of their collaboration from you and your fellow pirate lords, but to think they are working together to this extent…”
“Yeah. I heard of some big changeling-pony non-aggression treaty that occurred several months ago, but I didn’t expect this. It's like the ponies and changelings are suddenly cushy with one another,” remarked Brinewing.
Flow nodded, took her eye away from the spyglass and made sure her hood was over her head. “I want a closer look at those ships.”
Brinewing shrugged and swept on her new, wide-brimmed hat with a black feather in it, which she had nicked from some fat hat seller. “Fine by me.”
Slowly crunching over gravel, the pair trotted over to the roof door and into the building. They wisely took the lift down only to the second floor, using the emergency staircase to get to the ground floor in order to leave the building unnoticed.
It was the afternoon rush hour, the busiest time of the day, so Brinewing was aware that they would attract little attention. Even if Flow had her hood drawn over her head like a spectre, the Manehattan ponies just assumed that she was a recluse.
Attempting to hide her hook leg was a bit more of a hassle. Brinewing did come up with a solution though. Opening her saddlebag, the pirate fished a set of leather sea boots, looted from the ruins of Port Royale, and put them on. Now her hooked hoof was indistinguishable from the others.
And so the pair plunged into the morning rush hour, weaving through pedestrians and traffic as Brinewing led the way to the slipways.
That was when Brinewing spotted something, or more correctly, someponies interesting.
“Oh ho ho, would you look at that,” said Brinewing, eyes wide, though not turning her head lest she attract attention to herself.
“Look at wh—” Brinewing nudged the kelpie, hard, making Flow glare at Brinewing.
“Through the corner of your eye, Flow. Don’t want them to know we’re observing them,” said Brinewing in a hushed voice.
“At what, surfaceworlder?” growled Flow.
“The Elements of Harmony!” whispered Brinewing.
Sure enough, Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and even Spike were in Manehattan, trotting through the streets as they enjoyed the sights of the city.
That got Flow interested. “The mares who defeated the nightmare princess and the chaos god?”
Brinewing nodded so rapidly, her head resembled a bobble-head for a moment. “Precisely. Think of the ransom I could get if I could capture even one of them! Three billion bits? Nah, probably that would be the price of two. But hmm, if I took Celestia’s student Twilight Sparkle…”
“An amusing line of thought, Brinewing, but impractical,” said Flow.
The pirate rolled her eyes. “A mare can dream.”
“Dream of spiriting the elements away on that ship you don't have with changeling and pony guards nearby looking for live practice? Besides, you don’t have any place to take the Elements of Harmony away to if you do take them hostage,” pointed out Flow as she watched the Elements canter down the Manehattan street.
The look Brinewing sent at Flow was not very amused at all. “And whose fault was that, Ebb Flow?”
“The fault of the pirates who went back on their agreement with our Empress,” replied Flow, smirking in what Brinewing thought was an infuriatingly self-satisfying manner.
“Well how was I supposed to know all the hooey your compatriot was spouting was actually true!” groaned Brinewing.
“Perhaps… Do you think the Equestrians will use the elements against our Empress?” asked Flow regarding the six mares who were gradually drawing away from them.
Shaking her head, Brinewing tore her eyes from the big juicy cash bags and trotted onward. “Nah. I don’t think Celestia will risk her student on the seas. Especially not after what you kelpies did to the Griffon fleet.”
Flow chuckled. “Indeed. Though perhaps… considering the opportunity we have here, maybe we should eliminate them before they become an issue.”
Suddenly, Brinewing grabbed the kelpie’s cloak with her teeth and dragged her into an alleyway. Ebb glared at Brinewing as she did so, but did nothing until the pirate spun around to face her.
“If you kill the Elements, you would have killed two time saviors of the World, not just Equestria. Every single nation, not just Equestria and Griffonia, will be after your heads. If you take that step Equestria will not hesitate to absolutely exterminate your race,” said Brinewing, her eyes narrowed.
Flow was unconvinced. “We're used to it. We've already faced one fight against extermination and won.”
“I know that, but your Empress ordered us to scout, not to escalate the war to encompass the entire world! We’re talking about more ships, more soldiers and you’ve seen how many ships they can build!”
Despite the darkness provided by Flow’s hood, Brinewing could see kelpie’s eyes narrow slightly.
“They still cannot invade us,” pointed out Flow.
“That is still a lot of enemies you can do without,” replied Brinewing.
Flow nodded. “True; perhaps it might be prudent not to escalate this war without consulting the Empress.”
Brinewing nodded. “Fine with me, now let’s move.”
Although the entry into the slipway itself was fenced off and guarded by military outposts, Brinewing and Ebb Flow found the roof of a nice condominium which allowed them to look down into the slipways.
“What ships do you see, Brinewing?” asked Flow.
Brinewing’s spyglass panned across the slipways. “Five destroyers in a row, there. Looks like they are almost ready for launch.” Flow nodded and she jotted down on the notepad Brinewing had handed her.
“I think that there’s a battleship, half completed in that slipway at the end of the line,” said Brinewing, pointing with her hooked hoof.
Flow looked up and saw it, a colossal skeleton of steel and plate that continued to ring with the bang of rivets. “I have it.”
“Good. Finally, three cruisers. They have just been laid down and… oh? That is strange.”
“What is so strange?”
Brinewing pursed her lips as she took in the keel of the ships being laid down. “Their hull shape. Sleeker than the standard Equestrian armored cruiser, and longer. Looks like they are using a new design. No hull ram. I wonder what kind of guns and weapons are they going to fit on it?”
“I wonder indeed. Can you figure that out?” asked Flow.
Brinewing considered that idea for a moment and thought about how hard it would be to break into the REINS headquarters. Faster than a pirate out of an ambush, Brinewing tossed the idea.
“Would have to get access to the Equestrian blueprints and considering I’m supposed to be dead, I think I’d rather not risk it.”
“You raise a very good point, Captain. When will the cruisers be completed?”
“By my estimate, about eleven months considering the new design.” Brinewing packed away her spyglass and dropped it into her backpack. “We’re done here. Let’s get back to your empress.”
As Brinewing waltzed toward the exit of the building though, Flow grabbed her cloak and stopped her.
“Not so fast, pirate. We’re headed to the other two ports you mentioned.”
Brinewing frowned. “Alright, how do we get there?”
“By water of course!”
Brinewing’s stomach sank as she recalled the turbulent journey she had made underwater, being dragged by kelpies at a speed that made her squirm. Oh she could breathe, thanks to some weird water magic, and her clothing and supplies were all sealed away in water-proofed sharkskin bags, but that had not been fun.
At least it hadn’t been as bad as the first time she had been dragged into the water. The feeling of those cold tentacles on her fur, wrapping around her barrel and over her wings and mouth… She did not want to repeat that experience.
“A Thousand Blistering Blue Barnacles,” muttered Brinewing.
Flow glanced at the pirate. “Those taste rather good actually. Very crunchy.”
It was now Brinewing's turn to glance at Flow. “Huh, interesting.”
Which was pretty much the only phrase Brinewing could use to describe her experience of working for the kelpies. Whatever was going to happen next, the pirate was quite sure the Eastern Seas would never be the same again.
Author’s Note: Brinewing for Pirate Queen! Vote Brinewing for Pirate Queen! Not that you have a choice in the matter.
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Are you ready kids?! I can't heeeeaar youuuuuuu!
Yut-oh ... Brinewing and Flow are really going to cause trouble. Good thing that they're shooting down the others' schemes, though it might be better if they tried and got themselves killed or captured, instead of reporting back with all that intel. And those larger, sleeker cruisers? Those could make things interesting, depending on what they are ... they might be something akin to a more primitive Alaska-class battlecruiser/superheavy cruiser; a submarine, or something else entirely.
It's an interesting chapter.
And I barely have time as it is.
And yay, Brinewing isn't dead! She was my favorite pirate.
Downside, I'm gonna have to read this again to refresh some of my memories.
Looking at the new section in chapter 4, I am really not that sympathetic to the kelpies.
If they were really concered about the effects of maritime pollution on their farms, then they should be sure to show that they actually exist, so that others will care about ruining their neighbors home.
If no one knows you exist, and no one complains about the pollution only you see, then you should start speaking out and speaking up.
The fact that the sentients of the deep sea allowed themselves to be forgotten by the public, and never enforced their old territorial treaty means that silence was taken as consent.
6872289 *shrug* the kelpies aren't intended To be sympathetic. Though I would ask you to hold that thought for a few chapters. instead, ask yourself why the kelpies were silent. Also consider some of what flow said in chapter 11, VERY VERY Carefully. There is a major clue.
Finally read the shadow dialogue in 12. There is another clue there.
Okay, so the seaponies and/or kelpies have legitimate grievances but also no bucking idea of what constitutes communication.
"We're declaring war because you ignored our warnings!"
"WHAT warnings?!"
"We anonymously massacred civilians by the tens of thousands and slaughtered relief efforts while painstakingly keeping our very existence a complete secret! That counts as a warning, right?"
*quadruple facehoof*
It's Captain Haddock!
6872289 So... essentially the Saracens?
6872358 hold that thought for a few chapters. I haven't revealed everything yet lol
It's a pity you had to make their motivations so transparent. Especially so early in the story. But this new chapter means more Brinewing. Always good in my opinion.
Sadly some people like to know everything at once and take away the fun in trying to guess. I still support the Kelpies. They will drown the ponies in a red mist to maintain what was promised and their sovereignty. No nation would allow an army to march over it's land without their consent and they possessed the power to stop it. I can respect that. And to be fairly honest it's very moderate considering what some people suggested.
I didn't have much of an issue with the information blackout on the kelpies before. I'm used to dealing with a certain degree of blindness to the exact details of motivation as a military analyst. I just figured the full story would come to light when the main characters learned about it. This is a definite improvement though, some signs of kelpies as more than just slathering monsters other than the surety of certain well respected characters that thwy could be reasoned with is nice.
Yeah, the kelpies have fair reasons to be angry at the surface world, but a token attempt to communicate after what, centuries or a millennia of isolation just makes them look like marauding psychopaths to me still, who were looking for an excuse. The bloodthirst of this kelpie character only reaffirms that notion. If they had attempted a real and sustained effort at diplomacy, there'd be no conflict as at least Equestria would seek to avoid unnecessary bloodshed and suffering for all sides.
I'm not seeing any gray here, still just black and white good vs evil. I am admittedly curious of what became of that initial communication, whether it was lost due to bureaucracy or corruption, but until I see a pony sucking the pulp out of a kelpie egg, or some similar level of brutality that matches the kelpies own, I'm not seeing anything here other than a race of monsters that needs to be diplomatically stalled just long enough for effective countermeasures to be developed.
6872289 Remember, the kelpies weren't in charge until recently. I wouldn't be surprised if the damage was affecting them more than the seaponies.
6872646
6872814 Sadly noone seems to have the patience to see how a story develops any more. They want all the answers now, not later.
I am assuming that no one died from the raids(by the kelpies) and are being held as hostages, for no reason at this point.
Oh. Looks like i was wrong. Killing a giant sea creature by way of blowing up a battleship *is* effective after all. Not exactly morally "good" to sacrifice all those sailors, but effective nonetheless. Too bad the equestrians don't know that and can't use it as a threat. Then again, port cities were shown to be vulnerable to tsunamis anyway...
6872899
Maybe they used some completely outdated form of communication and the letter is waiting to be picked up by someone who never comes.
No way, we could vote for capt Jack!
ic.pics.livejournal.com/lovepollution/747369/286957/286957_original.jpg
6872358
Sounds a bit like pre-integration changeling tactics.
At least they didn't try to blow up the world to make a new high-speed lane in space... (Tell em' thanks for all the fish!)
How 'bout no?
fairyprincessdiaries.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/go-kill-them.gif
Oh interesting
But the redition of the old chapters is a bit confusing. Do you have any document with the new changes or something?
Down with the kelpies! Let the glorious chitinous changeling hammer crush them into nothingness!
6872262
Why do you think I shelved this story after the rewrite. (I still need to finish "Elements of Discord", BTW.) Suffice it to say, it is time to plow through Chapter 12 again and get this gravy train a-rollin' again.
6881067
That's the name of a boat, silly. You mean, Black Pearl.
Hmm I wonder if there is art of the pirate queen ore if she gets killed off too fast
Kelpie: I have no issue murdering the saviors of the planet.
Pirate: it would cause a world wide war.
Kelpie: like I give a shit?
Oish, yeah. Just exterminate those heartless amoral fuckers.
9057329
I have seen many callous antagonists and characters in many many fanfics.... but those kelpies, with barely any spotlight has earned the first place...jus evil for the sake of it
Also... i smell submarines
what about just dropping a bunch of deapth charges and just wiping them out?
9710953
*sigh* i've heard this too many times, but consider that depth charges operate a depth deeeepest say in WW2... 400 feet. The ocean's depth can be measured in kilometers. Also, try blanketing the entirety of the Atlantic in depth charges without asdic/sonar and see if that works.
A battleship every 10 months... what magic do they use. Capital ships take years to build, even the HMS dreadnought, ordered to be built as fast as possible by the best shipyards in the world, took a year (to the day if I recall correctly). Two battleships a year is practically naval arms race territory.
Wow! The Authors note are perfect for a good overfew. In story there still screwed having no idea what so ever...
Nice espionage.
Also yay to not kill a former willing ally. 
Did expected her to be eaten long ago... 
With the Pirate alive i suspect the lost Venutian Queen to be alive as well. A excelent information source
Ah ha! We have a Tin Tin fan!
Though doesn't Captain Haddock say "Billions of blue blistering barnacles!?" Wow, it's been years since I last watched it, but I can still remember exactly how it sounded 😆
6872174
Me when I read that:I want to think the lyrics of the SpongeBob SquarePants theme song!
My mind:Who lives in a pirate under the sea?
Me:...I think I should take a break.
Huzzah!