Chapter 12: Into the Maelstrom
The three princesses were communicating with crystal balls again. Alternia and Celestia from their ships, Luna from Canterlot Palace.
And Celestia had decided to break out of Venecia with her fleet.
“Alternia, Luna, the resources at Venecia are not infinite and our ships are useless bottled in this harbour. We need to make it back to Equestria to at least alleviate the need to feed an extra seven and a half thousand mouths.”
“Yes, but I don’t like it,” said Alternia in a low tone. “We’ve tested the trade route with a small fishing boat, not a massive warfleet. Without any knowledge of the kelpies’ motives or as to why they’re keeping this route open, it is a dangerous proposition.”
“We do not wish to take this course of action either, Alternia, but do we have any other option?” asked Celestia.
“I don’t like it either, but Celestia has as good of a chance as any of getting away from Venecia if you take that trade route. She has my support on this,” said Luna.
Alternia sighed. “That is true. You have my support as well, Celestia, just be careful. By the way, did you ever figure out how the kelpies and seaponies had been jamming your propellers?”
Celestia nodded. “We have. The seaponies and kelpies have been feeding old anchor chains into the propellers of our ships while they are running. We are not quite sure as to how that works, but Sunset explained to me that the chain disrupted the propeller’s ability to shift water. The chains, when they caught on the rudder and propeller, had the unfortunate effect of damaging the propellers or causing them to jam. Luckily the damage is not major and the Venecians replaced them rather quickly.”
“That’s good. In that case Celestia, take care,” said Alternia.
"We will, and we love thee, Luna.”
Luna smiled. “We know that and we hope to see both of thee soon.”
As the image of the two princesses in the crystal ball faded away, Sunset arrived in Celestia’s cabin.
“Celestia?”
The alicorn turned to her friend. “Yes, Sunset?”
Sunset swallowed as she took in her friend and how furrowed her brow was. “Maybe I can come later.”
Celestia frowned. “Sunset, what is the matter with thee?”
Sunset bit her lip. “You just seem so worried as of late, Celestia. I’m not sure how the other princesses can’t see it, but—”
“We can carry out our duties, Sunset.” Celestia grimaced. “Besides, while we are not sure whether Luna saw through our facade, we know Princess Alternia did.”
“Then why—”
“Obviously because she does not wish to offend us.” A soft growl escaped Celestia’s tight lips. “What we are surprised by is why she continues to step so quietly around us in all matters, even when asserting her own points. Does she think that we would not notice her attempts to treat us like some fragile hourglass? Does she think us a fool?”
Sunset pursed her lips. “Well in our experience, Princess Alternia always has been rather… hyper-sensitive to the feelings of ponies around her and for good reason. Would you rather she outright disagree with you instead of trying to reason with you?”
Celestia’s eyes focused on some random point on the floor. The muscle in her jaw twitched as her teeth ground against each other.
“Forgive us, Sunset. We still have some… private misgivings about Alternia. We know this is foolish. She has proven herself to us and Equestria time and time again.”
Sunset’s eyes widened for a moment before she put her hoof to her chin. “Well… considering you have had to suddenly share your role as Princess with basically a complete stranger, I would be more surprised if you didn’t have any misgivings.”
Celestia nodded. “Precisely… sometimes we wonder if she truly as Equestria’s best interests at heart, or whether she prides avoiding conflict and appeasement above all else.”
The question was something Sunset herself had wondered. As much as she appreciated Princess Alternia, she was aware that conflict resolution was not always the best tactic of diplomacy.
“I suppose it's your responsibility to make sure that she doesn’t take it that far then,” said Sunset, hesitantly.
“Indeed,” said Celestia. Turning to Sunset, the alicorn smiled, more sincerely this time. “Thank you, Sunset. Is there something thou wished to tell us before thou placed our troubles on thee?”
Sunset chuckled. “Your welcome Celestia, and well… not particularly. Dogess Sebastiana just warned me and Captain Smith that the waters about two days southwest of Venecia are a bit… strange.”
Celestia frowned. “How?”
Sunset lifted a map from her saddlebag, rolled it out onto the table and pointed to a spot on the ocean. “There is a place in that area where the course of ships or flyers are simply deflected away. Anything that goes in comes out in the reversed course. It is thus impossible to map the area precisely and she has told us to be aware that we may run into it on our way to the trade route.”
“Strange… but as long as we continue to do compass checks, we should be able to adjust. Remind us to thank Dogess Sebastiana later.”
Sunset nodded. “Will do. I wonder though… what could that area be hiding?”
“A question for another day, Sunset. Perhaps one that is not so fraught with danger,” said Celestia.
Under the sea…
“Your majesty, we’ve sighted the Equestrian fleet leaving Venecia, it’s on course to the waters near Aquamaris!”
“There is also another Equestrian squadron. A group of three ships, heading toward the island as well!”
“Three ships? Hardly a force. What are they?”
“One destroyer, one battleship, and what looks like a yacht of some kind.”
“A yacht? Odd. The battleship will of course be the priority target. Is your leviathan ready, Anema?”
“Yes, your majesty. My wranglers are have him ready.”
“Excellent. Ebb, I want your Abyssal Guard in Aquamaris. If the ponies do get through, I want our best guarding the sea ponies. Speaking of which, what is the status of the deflection barrier that Samudra once maintained over Aquamaris?”
“It… it has nearly faded away, your majesty. Only she had the arcane skill to maintain it and now that she is gone…”
“Have our mages maintain the spell nexus at all cost. Lower it if necessary to preserve the spell. We can see to it after the battle.”
Damn you, Samudra. You were so wrapped up in your self-importance that you left your ponies vulnerable to your death.
“Anema, have your best wranglers direct the leviathan after the incoming battleship. The dragon turtles will stay here to guard the city. Have the home guard stand ready. I will lead them myself.”
“What if they send more ships, Empress? We can defeat them now but that leaves us on the defensive.”
“Longshore is closest to the Equestrian mainland. I’ll shall have his forces strike the cities you scouted, Ebb. Make sure to pass along that he’s to strike the shipyards and pull back.”
Evening, about 36 hours travel from Venecia…
The Equestrian fleet had set out from Venecia with all ponies at general quarters, and yet, as the hours passed and the day ended, began, and then ended again, nothing happened.
As night fell and stars filled the sky and Celestia ate dinner with Sunset, both could only wish the good luck that they had would carry on. Both of them knew however that that may not be the case.
Smith’s knock made both of them jump, but it wasn’t an urgent one, so Celestia took a deep breath and asked the captain to come in.
“Your highness! We’ve spotted something… strange.”
“Strange?” asked Celestia.
“There’s a dim glow coming from the water ahead,” explained Smith.
A frown on her features, Celestia followed Smith to the bridge.
It was exactly as Smith described, about a kilometer ahead of the fleet, was a dim green-gold glow.
“What in Tartarus... Smith, all ships to general quarters and maintain course. We need to investigate this,” said Celestia. Whatever activity that was going on in that water could not be good. Was it perhaps the cause of the tsunamis that had devastated Venecia and the pirates? Celestia shook her head to dispel her doubts. No matter, they had to figure out if this strange phenomenon was a threat or not.
And so the ships ploughed on through the night, drawing closer and closer to the glowing area of water. It also allowed the fleet to train their spotlights better on the glowing water.
It turned out that the glowing water was not simply a big glowing patch of water, but a patch of little to medium spots of varying intensities larger than the entire fleet, though all were so closely packed together that they seemed to be one big source at a distance.
Celestia turned to the ponies beside her. “Any theories?”
Smith shook his head, “I was thinking undersea volcano or some sort of sulphur plume, but there are no disturbances in the water or bubbles that indicate any kind of volcanic activity.”
“Magic?” asked Celestia, glancing expectantly at Sunset, whose horn was glowing with some kind of diagnostic spell. She also carried a thaum-meter on her forehoof.
“I don’t know, Celestia, I need more instruments. But there doesn’t appear to be any active magic activity in the area,” said Sunset, shaking her head.
“Then what in Tartarus is causing this—”
“Kelpies!”
Too much happened in that single instant for any of them to quite clearly recollect it later. Celestia’s head was initially drawn to the left by the yells of ponies on one of Llamrei’s escorting destroyers. The cause, kelpies jumping onto their deck. She didn’t even have enough time to process that as an almighty and sickening “crunch” of steel made Celestia spin to the right and gasp as the battleship Copenhagen, sunk back into the water with a splash and rapidly began to keel over. Through the corner of her eye, Celestia spied a massive shape and found herself affixed by the sight of a massive turtle-like creature, except this turtle had the toothy maw of a dragon. It was this beak that it continued to slam into the battleship Bucephalus. The warship was putting up a fight, though, as Celestia could spy through the flickering maze of searchlights the flare of smaller secondary armaments hurling lead at the enraged turtle.
All the while, yells of the signal and radio ponies on the Llamrei filled the air, as did the howls of the other ponies in the fleet.
“Something hit the Copenhagen from below and she’s taking water fast!”
“The Bucephalus is fighting… a dragon turtle!”
“The Red Hare’s propellers have been jammed!”
“We’re being boarded!”
Celestia’s eyes shot down and narrowed as a horde of kelpies jumped onto the the Llamrei. All around, Royal Guard rushed to meet them, including a small group heading to the main turret, which was traversing to bear on the dragon turtle.
The guards toted a variety of weapons, spears, axes and swords. They met the kelpies charge with a cry, but it was mostly in vain. Several earth pony guards found their weapons ripped from their hooves by sinuous kelpie tentacles. Other guards found the mark of their weapons deflected by crab claws or the hardened carapace of their opponents. And as these ponies reeled, they found the jaws of kelpies biting down on their necks or the tip of morphed talons or claws cutting their throats. More guards raced out from the ship to replace their failing fellows but they only stemmed the kelpies.
“Captain Smith, turn this fleet back to Venecia; I’m taking to the air. Sunset, keep the Llamrei safe,” ordered Celestia.
Smith saluted and raced down the compass platform ladder into the bridge. Sunset, still trembling, nodded and fired a blast of fire that forced a kelpie to duck back over the rail. Seeing her friends knew their places, Celestia bunched her legs together to leap into the air.
Which was when howls of terror coming from the bow of the ship drew her attention.
A black kelpie, taller, and more well-built than the rest, with a mane of long kelp hair and tentacles, sprung over the very tip of the Llamrei’s bow, right behind the flagstaff. It mattered not that she was unarmed, the lone guard that charged her was wrapped by tentacles that extended from her body and thrown overboard with a scream. Several other sailors and guards fired crossbow bolts at her, but they bounced off the kelpie’s thick chitin. Snarling, she lunged at them, batting the crossbows out of their hooves and sinking her teeth into the neck of one, before she charged the forward turret of the Llamrei.
To Celestia’s shock, the kelpie jumped into the air, toward the aperture between the barrel of one of the Llamrei’s twelve-inch guns and the turret housing, as if she wanted to dive into that gap. For a moment, the alicorn thought the kelpie had made a foolish mistake.
At least until the kelpie shrunk to the size of a filly and just barely slipped into the turret.
Cursing under her breath, Celestia jumped down from the compass platform to the deck of the battleship, but it was too late. She could hear the screams and pleas of mercy from within the turret.
With a bang, the door of the Llamrei’s A-turret was blown off its hinges and the monster kelpie walked out, stopping for a second before stalking toward the mass of guards that crowded around Celestia.
“Empress Tethys, I presume?” said Celestia coolly. Such power and ruthlessness, this entity had to be the kelpie queen. Not to mention, if Celestia squinted hard enough, she could see the tip of a pointy horn sticking from underneath the mass of writhing tentacles and kelp.
The black eyes slowly settled on Celestia. “Yes, I am Tethys. And you must be Celestia. Your ships have entered Aquamaris’s waters. So you must be removed.”
Celestia frowned. Aquamaris? That was the seapony capital. Did the fleet stray too close to it? Was that why they were under attack? “We did not mean to do so. Please allow us to withdraw and make for the trade route away from Venecia.”
Tethys features were unreadable, but the edges of her mouth widened as she spoke, showing rows, and rows, of sharp, pointy teeth.
“Such lies. You know that the punishment for violating the treaty between our species is death. You should know, you signed it with Samudra. I may be Empress now, but the treaty still stands.”
“We signed no such….” Celestia’s eyes widened. “Oh no…” Old memories, fragmented, scattered, but she remembered now. On a night long ago with Samudra, there was a lot of wine afterward, but that had been after she had signed, spat upon and sealed a treaty, whose exact words she could not recall. But she did remember that Aquamaris and Canterlot, had both been agreed to be off limits.
“Empress Tethys, I entreat with you. I have been asleep for the last one thousand years due to circumstances beyond my control. If the title of Empress rightfully passed from Samudra to you, you would know she would grant Equestria leniency.”
Tethys’s eyes narrowed. “Samudra did a lot of things I will not allow. Which is why I succeeded her.”
Celestia swallowed. “And just how did you succeed, Empress Samudra?”
There was a hint of a smile to Tethy’s features and her eyes seemed to squint with pride. “Ritual combat. Ages past, she granted the leaders of the kelpies a way to have our concerns voiced. And every single one eventually fell in combat to her. I didn’t.”
Taking a deep breath, Celestia tensed her muscles and got ready to summon her magic. “Then, we are at an impasse. Withdraw, Empress Tethys, or face the might of the sun.”
Tethys snorted. “It’s night, you fool.”
After a moment's hesitation, the two leaders attacked each other. Tethys lunging across the deck, her tentacles springing forward, Celestia jumping into the air, quickly firing a bolt of golden magic.
The Empress was devilishly fast however and her tentacles raised in a makeshift block and Celestia’s magic hit them instead of Tethys’s head. Yet, to Celestia’s consternation she now saw that the tentacles were armored along the top, which meant that the blast only left a small scorch mark. Not missing a beat, Tethys’s tentacles morphed suckers, which she used to seize the deck and hurtle herself toward Celestia.
Dodging the lunge, Celestia rolled right, her wings tucking to herself. Dropping, she passed just out of reach from the searching tentacles and opened her wings again before she hit the water, soaring across the dark surface at level flight.
Undaunted, Tethys landed with an echoing bang. Turning, she leaped once again arcing over the side of the ship and back into the water, disappearing into its murky depths.
Having lost sight of her opponent, Celestia lit her horn so that she could see and slowly winged over the water, her eyes scanning for signs of the Empress. All the while, she continued to fly away from the fleet battle. She knew that if she could make sure Tethys’s attention stayed on her and not the fleet, they might have some chance of surviving this.
And yet, Tethys didn’t come. Celestia waited, and waited, but the Empress didn’t attack. Confused, she scanned the battlefield and winced.
One of the Equestrian battleships, the Coppenhagen was capsized, a revealing a gaping hole in its lower hull. Another of the battleships, the Bucephalus, had also heeled over, having lost its starboard side, for lack of a better word. It had been the cause of the big “boom” Celestia had heard. The explosion though, while destroying the side of the battleship, had also taken out the dragon turtle that had rammed it, and whose carcass now floated in the water.
That was only the battleships, she could see kelpies swarming over the smaller destroyers they had brought. The armored cruisers of the fleet fared better, their guns cracking as they fired upon the massive dragon turtles. Their armor piercing shells ripping bloody holes into the fleshy shoulder and head of the turtles. But while they discouraged the turtles’ approach, they could not prevent the dragon turtles from attacking the destroyers. One of the turtles just then opened its massive beak and chomped onto a destroyer, splitting the vessel almost in half and sending screaming ponies into the water. Her heart sinking, Celestia found the only relief she could find was that the Llamrei still floated, and she could still see the burning flames of Sunset’s magic.
She didn’t quite see it, but she heard the water’s churn. Instinctively, Celestia dove forward.
It saved her life.
She could hear the deadly snap of teeth as the kelpie shot over her head. Heart pounding, Celestia flared her wings, stopping as Tethys dropped in front of her. Before she could get off a shot, the end of the Empress’s armored tentacles, snapped across her face and horn with a resounding crack.
Several hot thin lines of pain scoured itself across Celestia’s face and a wail tore itself from her lips, her concentration broken. She barely opened her eyes quickly enough to see the Empress as she dropped into the water.
Her hoof shooting to her face, Celestia drew it away to see blood on her hoofshoe, she could also taste it, flowing from her lip. Spitting it out, Celestia lit her horn again and her eyes frantically searched the black water beneath her.
She could find nothing, but she knew that the Empress was waiting to strike.
And in that moment, Celestia, the more than a millennia old alicorn ruler of Equestria, felt fear.
She couldn’t find her enemy, she couldn’t really hurt her enemy, who was hidden by the sea. She could withdraw, but with the fleet in such a condition, Tethys would just swoop in and eat them all without a problem.
No, Celestia swallowed. She had to keep holding the Empress’s attention, but she knew now more than ever the fight ahead was going to be her most perilous one yet.
As Celestia flew away, Sunset had focused on trying to hit the kelpies trying to board the Llamrei with the many fire spells she had learned at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. She started with Pheonix’s inferno, an arrow-like bolt of flame that upon contact with a kelpie let loose a blast of fire and light.
The kelpie only grunted, but from how his flailing body fell back in the water, his comrades clearly didn’t like that. Also, they instantly responded by targeting her. The only warning Sunset had were the screams of the two sailors beside her being hit by blasts of water from the ocean, likely caused by sea ponies. This was followed by two kelpies who swung over the rails onto the compass platform and lunged at her.
Sunset fled, running past several earth ponies with axes and warhammers. They tried their best to fight the kelpies in melee, but the kelpies simply danced away from the clumsy strikes and once a guard overstretched himself and missed, pounced atop of the pony and drove their teeth into their throats.
Needing to get away from the melee, Sunset instinctively teleported away to the middle of the Llamrei’s superstructure, near the base of the first funnel. Taking a deep breath, Sunset looked around and swallowed.
The fleet was in shambles. The small destroyers were being swamped by waves of kelpie boarding troops or attacked by dragon turtles. The remainder were fleeing into the protective guns of the armored cruisers. While not having the large caliber guns of the battleships, the smaller and more numerous guns of the cruisers still had a sting to pack that dissuaded the dragon turtles from directly going after them.
However, one of their battleships, the Copenhagen was now slowly rolling over. Sunset vaguely recalled that it had been slammed with something from below, and her suspicions were confirmed as the ship tilted enough to reveal a colossal hole in the bottom of its hull, as if something had bashed in part of the battleship’s keel.
The battleship Bucephalus meanwhile, was putting up a fight. As the dragon turtle continued to slam its beak into its armored belt, the battleship’s smaller deck guns and side-mounted secondaries had opened up. It now even trained its main battery on the sea monster.
Sunset found it odd though that only some of the pegasi that were part of the fleet’s complement were in the air over the Lamrei, but they seemed very wary about even nearing the dragon turtles or even hovering over their own ships.
The jet of water that shot out to swat a pegasus guard out of the sky and into the deck of the Lamrei explained that. The seaponies must have been guarding the skies to the point where their pegasi couldn’t liftoff.
Cursing, Sunset turned to look further in the distance, where the last of the Equestrian battleships, the Red Hare, was having similar troubles to those of the Llamrei. It was also being swarmed by kelpies, but Sunset couldn’t make out the details from where she was standing.
And neither did she have time to. More kelpies were swinging onto the topmost deck of the Llamrei. Officers and sergeants barked out orders, and four squads of Royal Guard with boarding pikes formed a square of sharp points, backed by two squads of unicorns and pony marines with crossbows formed a line to receive them.
Sunset joined the centre of the square and swallowed as the kelpies attacked. She added her own flame spells as bolts of crossbows and magical beams darted out, a few of them finding their mark on a kelpie.
Most of the crossbow bolts and magical beams though glanced off of or hit against the kelpies carapace. The impact itself staggered the kelpies, but they weren’t hurt and they kept charging. A kelpie that was climbing up was knocked back into the water by a magical beam, but Sunset could tell that he would be back. One or two of the crossbow bolts punctured the kelpies tentacles, finding their mark in the fleshy underside and causing red blood to drip. Not that it mattered though, the kelpies in question still had a couple left.
However, the sharp, jabbing points of pikes did stop the kelpies, and they halted at the fringes of the square, hissing as the spearpoints jabbed outward.
But even that did not last long. Sunset swallowed, hard, as several of the kelpies used their tentacles to contemptuously rip the pikes aside, while others with crab claws snipped the spearheads clean off from the shafts.
The crossbow ponies and unicorns responded by shooting the kelpies, which did cause them to stagger and step back slightly.
“It’s working!” yelled a guard.
“No! Watch out!” screamed Sunset as two kelpies, carrying a section of steel railing ripped clean from the deck, galloped to the square and heaved the whole thing at the square.
Sunset somehow managed to get a telekinetic hold on the railing and stop it, but other kelpies had gotten the same idea. Grabbing railings, capstans, even fire extinguishers, the kelpies threw them at the square. They knocked pike and crossbow ponies over like ninepins and the formation collapsed.
Untangling herself from the guard that fell across her legs, Sunset ran with the rest of the group, kelpies pursuing them.
As Sunset sidestepped guards running in to help their fellows, she could only see how problematic it was to fight these creatures up close. Multiple tentacles meant they could hit from many sides, different from any form of weapon fighting one would be used to. Many guards fell because of this, unable to efficiently parry the multi-layered attacks. Spears were next to useless as were swords.
And anytime a pegasi tried to launch him or herself into the air, they would get met with a jet of water, or sometimes even an arcane bolt to the face.
Unable to help, Sunset teleported out again of the battle on the main deck, panting as she reappeared in the bridge, to the brief surprise of Captain Smith and his crew. Some of them were barricading the entry doors to the outside with whatever furniture and wood they could find, while others were manning various stations and giving reports. Trying to catch her breath, Sunset sat down on the floor and jumped as a ear-rending torrent of water tore through the battlefield and spun her head around.
The the starboard of the Llamrei, where the Bucephalus was being attacked by the dragon turtle, now bleeding from many places, a furious plume of superheated steam and flame was shooting through the battleship’s funnels and the gash in its side.
“What happened?” gasped Sunset.
Smith’s eyes widened. “The Bucephalus’s boilers must have been flooded! When cold water contacts hot steel it basically explodes! If that sets off the magazines...”
KRACKWOOMMF
Sunset knew she would never forget the memory of that once proud ship being vaporised. Smoke engulfed the Bucephalus and metal shards and wooden fixtures spiralled through the night, while the great blast of flame in the centre of the inferno scorched the dragon turtle. Said sea monster screamed, an ear-piercing shriek as it was embedded with shrapnel from the death throes of the warship. With a last wail, the dragon turtle slipped back into the seas, likely dead, while the Bucephalus rolled over, and slipped beneath the waves.
Whatever smidgeon of hope that Sunset had was mercilessly crushed by that terrifying sight. There had been eight hundred and thirty-six lives aboard of that ship.
And then she spotted the white form of Celestia, low to the water, swerving left and right, followed by a dark wake of water. Sunset initially sighed in relief, but then froze as she realized that Celestia was being pursued.
Celestia lofted over the capsized Copenhagen, and spun around mid-air. Her horn glowing, she cast a large fireball at Tethys. The Empress simply sank into the water, the fireball impacting the sea with a hiss of steam.
Panting hard, Celestia landed on the steel hull and waited, ears straight as her horn bathed the area around her with a soft golden glow. If the Empress could come at her here, on the nearest form of land she could find, then she might have a chance.
The Empress didn’t attack directly this time, instead Celestia found tentacle like protrusions of water shooting for her from the murky sea, obviously seeking to entrap her and ensnare her.
Concentrating, Celestia unleashed another flame spell and whips of fire shot out from her horn, cancelling out the Empress’s tendrils of water. Tethys clearly wasn’t going to give up, though. The roar of water behind her spun Celestia’s head around and she gasped as a massive wave headed right for her perch atop the capsized ship.
Too late to take to the sky, Celestia braced herself behind an arcane wall, while rooting herself to the steel hull of the Copenhagen with a simple sticking spell. The wall of water smashed into the ship and her shield, nearly throwing her over as water engulfed her.
Her shield held though, and Celestia allowed herself a small smile as the last of the miniature tsunami faded away.
Until her horn nearly exploded with pain as a massive weight slammed into her barrier. Looking up, Celestia swore. Tethys, having morphed into a form three times larger than Celestia, had jumped out of the wave she had created and slammed her hooves into the shield, which now had cracks spiralling out from where the Empress had impacted it.
And it was getting worse. Before her, Tethys was growing in size, her whole body swelling to even larger dimensions as the pressure on her increased exponentially. A myriad of cracks now formed on Celestia’s shield and the ship's hull itself began to cave in, as the edges of the barrier dug into it.
Her headache growing, Celestia released her shield and teleported away.
As she re-appeared, high in the sky, away from Tethys, Celestia winced as the now monstrously huge kelpie slammed into the capsized ship. Not wasting the opportunity though, Celestia dived down and unleashed a titanic beam of golden magic at the giant kelpie.
Tethys blocked the beam, this time, with her odd fin wings at the side of her body, but the blast still threw her back several steps. Grimacing, the empress responded by whipping her tentacles up at Celestia, but alicorn quickly focused her magic and teleported, vanishing as the tentacles slashed through the air she was in. Reappearing behind Tethys, Celestia fired again, nailing the kelpie in the back, right between her fin-appendages.
Tethys grunted as the bolt of magic, more of a kinetic blast than a fire spell, slammed into her carapace and shook her massive form. Not bothering to counterattack, she jumped into the water with a great splash and disappeared. Celestia, heaving a deep breath, kept scanning the ocean, waiting for the next time the Empress would appear.
And yet, as Celestia waited, nothing happened.
Then she heard Sunset’s scream.
“Celestia! Help!”
In the darkness, Celestia couldn’t immediately identify which ship was the Llamrei, but she could hardly miss the tentacles that wrapped around the battleship’s stern. They were tilting the warship to port, while slowly yanking on the Llamrei’s B turret assembly, which slowly tore from its mounting before disappearing into the depths with a thunderous splash. Other thinner tentacles completed the nightmarish assembly, these ones grabbing anypony unlucky enough to be in range and throwing them into the kelpie-infested sea.
Horrified, Celestia tore toward the stricken battleship and lashing out with a long slash of magic that shot toward one of the tentacles. The arcane blade broke over the tentacle, taking a notch out of its armor and forced it to withdraw back into the water, but more sprang to take its place.
Needing a better shot, Celestia landed on the sloped compass platform, firing beam of magic after beam to try to keep the forest of tentacles from getting too much of a hold on the warship, or from taking more of her ponies. Even a small bolt could make the smaller tentacles release the pony they were carrying and mean the difference between life and death. She could see Sunset’s own magic supplementing hers, but even as a barrage of spells poured out from Celestia’s horn, the wave of tentacles were endless.
To make matters worse, a dark green beam of magic, likely the Empress’s, lanced right from the water near the Llamrei’s sinking starboard side, nearly hitting Celestia. It was followed by another beam that detonated against the compass platform, probably from a seapony mage. Cursing, Celestia responded with a bombardment of her own magic, several arching balls of light that peppered the water near where she had seen the magic, before she lofted into the air. It was obvious the Empress was after her and if she could just lure her away, she could protect the Llamrei.
Celestia was also aware though, that she had to do something drastic to lure Tethys away from crushing the Llamrei
The alicorn shot by the Tethys’s tentacles, focusing the one reaching for the bridge. Taking a deep breath, she fired white bolt shot from her horn and hit the tentacle, causing white electricity arch up to the massive appendage. The muscles of the tentacle spasmed for a second and it wiggled on top of the Llamrei, knocking aside lifeboats and deck guns.
Celestia still winced at that. Okay that may not work. She’d likely end up crushing the Llamrei rather than saving it. It had also taken a surprising amount of power to do that. But if she toned down the charge...
Plunging toward the water, despite all her senses telling her to stay up higher, Celestia sped past the tentacles, firing small bolts of white energy. Each hit a tentacle, shocking it slightly. It had nowhere near the effect of her first electrifying attempt, and the tentacles continued to seize onto the battleship, but then again, they weren’t meant to. Celestia just wanted to annoy the hell out of the Empress.
The tentacles didn’t react though, and for a moment, Celestia wondered if she had failed.
The giant tentacle that rose in front of her to swat her out of the water dissuaded her of that. Instinctively, Celestia snap-rolled to the left, dodging the tentacle by a hair's breadth as it slammed into the water with a splash that sprayed over the Llamrei’s starboard side.
As the alicorn recovered from her violent maneuver, she could see the waters rippling as Tethys herself, rose out of them, the horn within her wild kelp mane glowing as the great bulk of the Empress surfaced. A dark green beam of magic shot from Tethys’s horn, scything through the air toward her. The alicorn managed to see it as it approached and raised a shield to protect herself.
The beam knocked Celestia off course for a second and shot a surge of pain into Celestia’s horn. There was nothing much to the beam itself, but it had a lot of magic force behind it.
There was no time to consider the implications of this though. Jets of high-speed water and more beams of magic tailed Celestia, forcing her to fly in a serpentine pattern, which she abruptly changed as multiple tentacles of water rose in front of her. Celestia rolled left and dodged their grasp, but had to tank a hit on her shield.
To Celestia’s consternation, the jets of water were even more fierce than the magical beams themselves. The hit she took nearly slammed her into the water and her shield flickered for an instant before she poured more of her magic into it.
That’s it, she had to retaliate.
She dearly needed the magic for what she was going to do next, but Celestia also needed time. Focusing, Celestia teleported near the cruiser Praetor, away from Tethys and to her rear.
The reason why Celestia chose to do so was because a dragon turtle was attacking the cruiser, ramming its beak into the ship’s hull as the ponies on board fired their guns into its head.
Reaching deep into her magic, Celestia seized the dragon turtle with her telekinesis. The beast, still trying to snap for the cruiser, was yanked back as the alicorn hoisted the sea monster out of the water, the great scaly creature’s bulk rising inch by inch, water pouring off of its shell and hide. Celestia poured more of her magic into the telekinesis spell, a rather unpleasant heat searing at the base of her horn. Her magic draining away as she hoisted the massive beast into the air, creating an empty feeling in her stomach.
Tethys had found Celestia and was charging toward her, but as the dragon turtle rose, she drew up and halted, bracing herself.
“Take this!” Celestia growled and she threw the dragon turtle with a burst of magic, cursing to herself as her horn screamed in protest and her reserves of magic dwindled significantly.
That was nothing compared to the guttural wails of the massive beast as it whirled through the air like a demented frisbee.
Grimacing, Tethys raised a mass of tentacles in front of her. Acting in concert, they hit the flying dragon turtle with a precisely timed blow to the left.
The dragon turtle’s screams were cut off as it was deflected by the Empress’s strike and sent spiralling off. The timing of the blow wasn’t perfect, and Celestia could see Tethys wince at the strain and pain of the impact, but the dragon turtle was sent spiralling off to one side, where ploughed into the water in a plume of white foam, before sinking into the water and out of sight.
Glaring death at Celestia, several of Tethys’s tentacles, ones that had not caught the dragon turtle, lunged out, seizing a nearby Equestrian destroyer and lifting it.
Celestia felt her heart sink as she saw the open-mouthed horror of the ponies on board and their panic as they fell off of the destroyer. Some ponies simply hung on to whatever railing they were nearby, too scared to let go.
They probably should have as Tethys turned the destroyer into a gigantic javelin that soared right at Celestia, several ponies losing their grip and falling with a high-pitched scream into the water.
Celestia dodged it easily, but as her eyes took in the frozen ponies gripping onto what remained of their ship, she found her eyes transfixed, following the destroyer as it careened straight into the bow of the cruiser Praetor.
More than a quarter of the destroyer crumpled like a cardboard box, crushing the side of the cruiser’s bow before the smaller ship exploded in a conflagration that send burning wood and steel debris cascading into the air. As the smoke cleared and what remained of the destroyer’s burning hulk slid into the water, Celestia could now see a gaping hole was in the Praetor’s side and water rushing into it.
Her teeth clenched, Celestia turned back to her opponent and charged straight at her. She needed to force Tethys away from the fleet. Her horn glowing bright gold, Celestia whispered the words to a spell and drew more magic from her dwindling reserves. Holding the power she had summoned for a moment, Celestia drew as close as she dared to the stoic features of the Empress before unleashing a wave of magical fire.
For a moment, Tethys looked as if she was heaving in a gulp of air, but what she spat out was a jet of water that upon hitting the flames, made them sizzle and hiss, causing billowing cloud of steam to form.
The steam blocked Tethys from Celestia’s sight and the alicorn was forced to turn away to escape the rapidly expanding cloud of superheated vapour. Cursing, Celestia winged up, trying to get the height she needed to spot her enemy.
That was when Celestia spied Tethys’s tentacles wrapping themselves around another destroyer. An almost feral growl escaping her lips, Celestia leveled her wings and dived, hoping to stop Tethys before it was too late.
But Celestia couldn’t stop the Empress, who lifted the destroyer and hurled it at Celestia. Biting her lip, the alicorn called up her magic and seized the destroyer midair. Sweat running down her forehead, the alicorn gradually slowed the flying ship down until she could gently set it back upon the water, much to the relief of the ponies still on board. Panting hard, Celestia took back into the sky, searching for her enemy.
That was when a waterspout, a torrent of swirling water surrounded Celestia from below. So fast was the column of water created that Celestia’s attempt to escape it led her to slam right into the inside of the wall and nearly lose her balance in the air as her right wing was twisted excruciatingly across the front of her chest.
Somehow, Celestia managed to drop away from the waterspout, hovering gingerly as her weakened right wing tried to scoop the air. It hurt, but the pain as nothing compared to what she had suffered in the battle against Nightmare Moon and so she bore it. Groaning, Celestia fired her spell at the water, but though the spinning wall of sea hissed and crackled, the flames would not penetrate. Celestia then shot straight up, flying as fast as her wounded wing could carry her to the night sky at the top of the spout, which suddenly, became no more as the spout was sealed.
Trapped, the roaring sound of the waterspout deafening her ears, Celestia was completely taken by surprise when Tethys’s tentacles seized her from behind and began to constrict around her neck. Celestia tried to blast the tentacles, but one of them seized her horn and another coiled itself around her right wing and flexed.
A scream tore itself from Celestia’s throat as her right wing snapped and she fell limply into the grip of the Empress’s tentacles. Helpless, the alicorn could only watch as Tethys, who emerged from the side of the waterspout while water flowed around her like around a rock, reversed her spell and slowly drew her prey back to the water and closer to her. The waterspout collapsed and slowly sank into the sea and turning from a column of spinning water, into a black hole in the murky ocean.
A whirlpool, a gateway into the abyss.
“A worthy effort, but futile,” said Tethys.
And Celestia howled in despair as Tethys’s fangs closed around her neck and her serrated teeth sliced through her flesh and fur.
Suddenly, Celestia was surrounded by a glow of green magic and her head ripped away from Tethys’s bite. Celestia wailed as a chunk of her neck went with the fangs of the snarling Empress, who tried to lunge forward. However, the green telekinetic field pulled Celestia’s head and her body away. The tentacles still held tight though and Celestia moaned as she felt her body and broken wing shift in the grip of the Empress.
As Celestia mustered the strength to look up, she saw a black figure with a burnished silver crown, descend to her and Tethys. Coming in, the figure halted mid-air, hovering close to the Empress, but being very careful not to place herself behind the kelpie.
Alternia’s green eyes gazed into the black orbs of the Empress. “Empress Tethys, stay your hoof. On behalf of the Equestrian Triumvirate, I wish to entreat with you regarding your claim to the Eastern Oceans.”
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It was a medium sized mallet.
6800064 Really? It felt like a Gravity Hammer....
Small errors I've noticed: One, you're very inconsistent with whether or not the ships' names are italicized or not, and two:
Double "the"s in two spots.
Other than that, great chapter.
Sending reinforcements to their position!
*sends a fleet of Thunderhawk and Pelican Gunships*
Good timing there, Alternia. Engrossing battle scene, though there was one thing that bothered me.
I might have missed and/or forgotten the explanation somewhere, but I wasn't sure why Celestia didn't just raise the sun then and there. It's kind of her thing, after all, and I'm sure Luna would've forgiven her for it afterwards.
Other than that, though, thoroughly enjoyable chapter.
6800189 Considering she banished Luna for upsetting the balance of night and day, it'd be freaking hypocritical. Plus that side of the world would probably take offense to Celestia raising the sun just to show off.
6800189 Yeah, that line in particular *really* seemed like she was asking for it, so it looked weird when she didn't.
...still not seeing anything remotely sympathetic about the kelpies, though. They're just a bunch of murderous sea monsters who deserve to be wiped out. Pity that's probably impractical.
Why is it that I always find myself wanting to like Zervziel's comment?
6800202
I guess the question is whether or not having the sun up gives Celestia a power boost. The brief exchange I quoted implies that it does, in which case it is definitely not 'just showing off.' Even without a power boost, though, light still has major tactical implications (as evidenced by the visibility-induced mallet-beatings).
It's true that the diplomatic repercussions would weigh into when the power could be used, but given that Equestria has the capability, I'd think that the military/Princesses would have developed appropriate guidelines on when a bit of extra visibility is worth annoying the neighbors.
You have a point on hypocrisy; I can see how Celestia might be feeling guilty, have reservations, or might not be up to speed on the aforementioned protocols (or maybe balance has some more mystic significance than I realized). When her ponies' lives are at stake, though, I typically expect Celestia to be using every trick in her book, or at least sparing a thought to why something couldn't be used.
And as an after-action, I would expect her sisters to rather forcefully insist that 'your main battle fleet is locked in mortal struggle, with your life at stake' as an appropriate usage scenario.
OK, this leaves a very bad taste in my mouth writing this but... you've made an entire race of evil Mary Sues. Stronger than earth ponies, more magical than unicorns, and better shapeshifters than changelings? Make them fly (please tell me you're not going to make them fly) and you'll have a race that should have eradicated all life by now. Thethys' power levels notwithstanding (she's in her element, Celestia isn't, so I'm willing to take that as written), that's just not good.
6800390
These might not be your garden-variety kelpies. The Equestrians did just effectively poke a stick into their capital, after all, so it wouldn't surprise me if this encounter was basically getting bushwhacked by the Aquastria equivalent of the royal guard.
pre06.deviantart.net/ed34/th/pre/i/2011/294/2/e/empress_of_ponykind_by_evilblade5-d4diwj8.png
For the Empress!
6800390 Hold your horses... they do have weaknesses. I'm not going to tell you them until later though obviously. Because honestly, do you think that the kelpies will have much of a weakness over their own home turf aka their own water lols? i mean its like being allergic to your home environment if they didn't have the abilities to thrive where they live.
And they are not more magical then unicorns lol
Aaand now the Kelpies are 110% irredeemable rather than 100%.
6800202
Celestia banished Luna for going mad with envy (and/or, depending on the interpretation, possessed by an evil spirit) and then trying to kill her, usurp the throne, and prevent the sun from ever rising again. Using it to try and even the odds on a hilariously one-sided fight (and calling it a 'fight' at all is quite generous, Tethys was basically toying with her) against an enemy who has already directly or indirectly killed, by this point, at least tens of thousands for unknowingly violating a treaty that hasn't been enforced for centuries would have been the most common sense course of action she could have taken.
Of course that assumes that the sun would have given Celestia any kind of power up, but I have to assume it would, otherwise the only other being possibly able to take Tethys on at this point is Discord.
6800317 Another way you can look at it is she didn't see the need too. The only being to ever give Celestia pause before was when she faced Nightmare Moon. She doesn't know anything about Tethys other than really big, temperamental is an understatement and ruthless.
As it is, you are actually thinking along the right lines, though Celestia isn't Birdman. Night or day, she's just as strong.
6800390
Pulling up parts of a ship versus moving a house on multiple occasions as well as punching through rock.
The magic users were sea ponies, but feel free to ignore the fact this was a joint force attack.
This is a weird one. Bit of a yes and no. Can't say too much due to spoilers.
6800415 Well, Aquamaris is the sea pony capital, not the kelpie capital. Other than that, you're right. Celestia sailed right into Tethys's army hence the dragon turtles and the things punching holes through the bottom of battleships.
Hey I read that story, it inspired me to write one of my own. I can't wait to see what happens next.
6800109
How about an elder frost dragon (or several) with associated brood(s) and whatever other allies they have assembled over the centuries? Now there's a newly-made glacier occupying the center of the ocean, conveniently converting all of Aquamaris and the surrounding water to solid ice, crushing most within, freezing the rest, and suffocating the few who survived the other two...
Excellent, I was correct. Kelpies FTW!
Down with Samudra!
I wonder what Tethys will say.
At this point, if Alternia's plan fails, the only possible solution I can think of would be to somehow sneak the Main 6 in so they can use the Elements. They'd have to come up with a way to get them close enough, though. That could be an adventure.
At the very least, I would find it highly unbelievable that they won't at least have the Elements on standby after this. Whenever there's something that can beat Celestia, the Rainbow Friendship Cannon is at least considered, even if it isn't used.
So Celestia just freaking forgot that she signed a border treaty?
Maybe she earned getting smacked around a bit.
That said, I'll readily grant that the kelpies have a huge home field advantage, even against Celestia, and it's no cause to call them Villain Sues... but suddenly on top of that making Tethys a shapeshifter with no regard for conservation of mass is huge overkill.
6800746 Actually that ability of hers is something that's going to get more light shed on it later on so don't worry, it's not something we're forgetting.
6800508 OK, the sea-ponies are beating the unicorns at being unicorns, rather than then the kelpies, but the point still stands that they out-unicorn'd the unicorns at being unicorns. And I sure as heck didn't read about any Earth Ponies chucking bits of ship about, did you? Getting stuff easily snatched off of them, yes we saw a crap-load of that, but using any of allegedly legendary feats of strength earth ponies are supposedly capable of? Nope. Still three strikes against them of the "OC one-shotted Optimus Prime"-o-meter.
6800777 Legendary? Pinkie and her sister both showed capable of shattering rocks with their bare hoofs, a filly was capable of lifting a house and while that was admittedly freakish strength, Big Mac is never said to be freakishly strong and pulled a house.
As for out magicking unicorns, show me were the sea ponies did anything worse than nail the guards with torrents of water.
Eh. Another curlstomp "battle" . I could not find any interest in it truth be told , because from the start I just knew that they were going to be wiped out. It's like putting Krillin against anything in DBZ , everyone is just thinking "Well , let's hope he dies quickly so real progress can be made. Plus avenging his death is always a good motivating factor."
If at least they had managed one good shot in the battle (a lucky shot or something) , it would at least have been... useful ... Here the best they managed to do is kill the Sea Dragon , and that was caused by the enemy blowing up an allied ship.
As things stand , the only way for Equestria to have a chance is if you gave the enemy an easy to exploit and incredibely crippling weakness , like total paralysis when their body is in contact with sugar (allowing them to be defeated by unicorns using the power of sugar and rainbows..yay).... or if Alternia manages an alliance with one of the factions composing the enemy force (which would be in fact the recommanded route to follow , as it would allow her to have an escort for the ships , to use sabotage and spying , and to learn every weaknesses of the enemy)
As for Celestia being easily beaten well , it's not too surprising given that the Empress was in her element and near her own seat of power , but I still think that Celestia (without reaching god empress level , that would be stupidly overpowered ) shoud have been able to put up more of a fight. I mean , in the show itself we saw an empowered Twilight (three or four alicorns strong , don't remember clearly) punch a hole in a mountain (but then again , alternate universe so...) , so it would stand to reason that Celestia should at the very least be able to shoot a laser able to vaporize 10 or 20 meters of water... at the very least enough to give the Empress pause (since it would show that Celestia isn't to be underestimated ) and/or land a good shot and cause her a light wound (because she was careless and cocky).
Here I just get the feeling that Sunset (had she had wings for mobility) would have been as(if not more) effective than Celestia magically speaking.
Just my two cents
(And now I wants to eat sea products... gotta go to the market tomorrow , to enact my righfull vengeance agains sea things... delicious sea things...)
6800616 I'm an Inquisitor from the 41st Millennium that got sent to the UNSC/Covenant war, made a Combined force, then was sent into Equestria, I work with what I have at my disposal, and besides, the Adeptus Astartes would revolt if I asked Celestia to send reinforcements!
6800109 I see your dropships and raise you three Atlanti full of 150 planes each of tech 3 torpedo bombers.
Have fun
On a side note when you wrote:
I could not help but think of the sub from 20,000 leagues under the sea
mobilemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/20-000-leagues-under-the-sea-original-650x365.jpg
6801041 *Smirks* you clearly don't know who you're dealing with....
All gunships, FIRE AT WILL!
6801054 I do, they come with SAMs and are better at engaging water targets. oh did I mention that the Atlanti are subs. Lets take this to PM if you want to continue so we will not clog the comments.
6801112 sure
Here comes Alternia the Diplomancer to swoop in and save everypony from the obviously misunderstood kelpies as well as their own foolishness. Bleh. This is really the first chapter that has left nothing but a sour taste in my mouth, but for better or worse I'm still reading.
6800777
Aren't the bad guys supposed to be OP? That's kind of the whole point of a hero vs villain story, the hero has to overcome the overwhelming advantages of the bad guy.
I wasn't going to ask about power levels. I was going to ask why Celestia gets drunk and signs treaties, but then I thought about it and realized it's probably not any worse than what Congress gets up to anymore...
6801283 Thank you, very freaking much. I don't think the kelpies are THAT Op... then again I know more than anybody else, but thanks for getting it.
Though Alternia will probably not be able to overcome the bad guy the traditional beat-em-up way though :P
6801378 Actually she got drunk AFTER she signed the treaty.
6800469 Who said they're supposed to be redeemable?
The thing about the kelpies is that they are a very interesting villain... The type that is villainous, but has a rather good reason for their actions from their standpoint. It's not understandable or even justifiable to Equestria or us, but to them and their own moral code, it makes perfect, logical sense.
6801451
Not trying to be a smartass, but if they are the only ones who even think that their reasons make sense, then what makes them interesting? It will (and does) just seem like they're doing a lot of bad things for no particularly compelling reason other than because they can and because they like eating ponies/griffons/changelings/etc. In-story characters not understanding makes sense, but if even the readers won't understand then that seems like a problem.
6801440
Where did that treaty go? Is it part of the mystery book with Kelpie information?
6801501 What I meant was that they operate by their own set of cultural understandings and morality code. I can't reveal more at this point... They are interesting in how they collide with the ponies, suffice it to say.
Edit: Particularly how they contrast to ponies.
6801502 Lost during a slight altercation between Celestia and Luna. Will expand on more later.
It looks like I was actually pretty much on the mark two chapters ago. Empress Tethys has literally no concept of diplomacy beyond 'kill anything that doesn't do what I want.' The quintessential rabid dog, who resorts to violence not just when threatened, but at every opportunity and completely without warning. If Alternia can manage to reason with her, it would certainly be a feat for the ages, but I am still of the opinion that she'd have better luck with whomever is next in line for the throne.
Also, it quite suddenly struck me as odd that the Equestrians have ship cannons, but no personal firearms. Historically, most large multi-man weapons were developed by scaling up smaller arms; slings into catapults, bows into ballistae, rifles into cannons, etc. And yet, the ponies are still using spears and crossbows to repel boarders on steam-driven ironclad battleships with 16" main guns. The anachronisity of it all boggles me.
6801559
I'll take your word for it I guess. Personally though, I'm going to take a break and let a few chapters accumulate first, since the last few have left me rather irritated and at this point I just want to know what the big reveal is. I mean I think it's great that you've stuck with your vision of the story through all the comments, but it just isn't working for me right now.
6801451 Meh. They never bothered to tell anyone where their Capital was so that does not justify you being angry when someone stumbles into (or in this case over it). Then there are attacks against neutral shipping. Just wait until sunrise then-
"The use of Strategic Nuclear Weapons has been Authorized!"
One Alicorn to shove the water away and then a Solar Flare to burn away the capital.
End of War.
6801437
I mean, sure they should be strong, but (besides this one, where they basically had biological war machines) the kelpies just seemed to be stronger than the ponies outright. I think some of the readers are getting a bit bored with the repeated curbstomps, with the ponies being barely able to do much of anything (besides what it seems literally only Celestia and Sunset lasting longer than thirty seconds).
Personally, I kept wondering where all the mages and pegasi went. No aerial attacks, no fireballs (or whatever basic attack spell in this universe), throwing their own objects around (being at least competent at telekinesis is a reasonable assumption for battle wizards, I hope?), no Maud Pie style of punching objects with the power of a speeding cart (though this is honestly more headcanon, since I got annoyed at everyone focusing on magic school and pegasi training, but basically jack shit on Earth ponies), etc.
6801577
For what its worth, ponies seem to really only have single shot weapons, and loading single shot weapons when you're not a unicorn or not this guy
would be a bit difficult. Also, historically crossbows were rather comparable to the early muskets, its just that musket wielders were a lot easier to train, despite their initial poor accuracy. A few good crossbow snipers just doesn't look as good as 50 balls of lead flying all over your position.
Never should have boldly approached that strange glowy thing!
Seriously, the Kelpies are more temperamental than dragons and Gryphons combined!
Keep going! ;)
6801655 They just fought the kelpies on their own turf, in the middle of Tethys's army, right above the sea pony capital. Also this is the first time the Equestrian Navy has actually fought them so I'mma call BS on these other curbstomp battle against the ponies. The gryphons sailed into an ambush and died because that's what happen when anyone walks into a trap and the destroyer before was also ambushed. The recurring trend is the party doing the dying went somewhere they shouldn't when their foe held all the cards.
6801597 Might not be a bad idea actually. A lot of this probably makes more sense when you see it all at once as opposed to drug out over 2 week periods when you've had time to forget important details. It's even worse when you know what's happening and see how it makes sense and then reading comments where people are going all over the place with the info they have.
So let it build up a bit. I'd say....give it til chapter 15. Yes, I know, long wait, but that's when things really start falling in place.
6801759
I was starting to lean towards just waiting till the entire story was done, but chapter 15 it is then.