The Red Sun Rises: Homefront

by The Atlantean

21. The Message That Came At The Entirely Wrong Time To Give Ponies A Break

Captain Reynolds watched ponies from Baltimare bring up the gangplank. The Unicorns held the bouncy wood with their magic, while Earth ponies hauled platforms for the landward end to rest on. He smiled. The men and women of USS Ticonderoga would finally be allowed shore leave after at least a month of being stuck aboard the cruiser. Even a transit across the Pacific Ocean back on Earth took less time than that.

Across the newly-constructed pier, built to accommodate the massive American vessels, was the destroyer John Paul Jones. She’d taken surprise hits when the Changeling assault captured Bainbridge and fired on her sister ship. The high-explosive round blew a large chunk on the steel warship’s bow clean off, thankfully above the waterline. Most of the seeable damage was a burned deck and a missing portside anchor.

But most pressing of all the captain’s concerns was fuel. They had no tanker, and the Equestrians never even thought of refining the petroleum occasionally found offshore by adventurers and overzealous mining executives. It was used only in oil lamps and some experimental incendiary shells. Not that they’d work; Crimson already stated that phosphorous was much more volatile and a better substance. The two military leaders agreed that keeping the American ships running was a Baltimare civilian task but the Crystal Empire held top priority. Baltimare should be at least twenty degrees Marenheit higher than the expected high was today right now.

Reynolds carried no concern for Admiral Robinson aboard the carrier Reagan and his ability to keep his fleet running. He believed some tanker or something refilled the escorts, but unlikely as it was, the admiral had admitted to having a way to refuel his fleet. It had something to do with Atlanteans and their deal with the battleship USS Pennsylvania.

Shining Armor walked down the pier, picking his way around loose planks and ponies carrying heavy equipment. It would be a full month before either could give the other― or so they hoped. The only thing coming through from the radio was static, as if the satellite network had gone down. It was that or assume the worst.

Reynolds liked the snow-white Unicorn. The former Royal Guard’s friendly but serious personality matched his career choice quite well, as did his talent. Skill with magic shields was apparently something one could be born with and discover. Whatever the reason (out of necessity, most likely), the two shared a developing bond.

“Any news on Princess Celestia?” Shining asked as soon as he teleported aboard. Normally, walked down the pier wouldn’t make sense if one could use magic to get to the ship, but Shining liked being among working ponies. It was probably because Royal Guards didn’t seem to do much, when in fact their job required a lot more than looking nice, flying around, and casting spells. The former Captain of the Guard was tight-lipped (muzzled?) about it, so Reynolds assumed it had to do with top-secret stuff.

He was about to say something along the lines of, “Nothing yet,” but an ensign raced from the bridge.

“Captain! We received word from Reagan! They sent this,” he said, saluting the superior officers and handing a hastily-written note on a folded sheet of loose paper. If the Officer of the Deck gave the message this much importance to relay it directly to Reynolds by note instead of calling him to the bridge, it was big.

Reynolds read the note carefully. Then he read it twice more. Looking at Shining Armor, he said, “I need fuel ASAP. And Colonel Dawn should see this as well.”

Shining levitated the note and read it aloud:

Captain Charles T. Reynolds or whomever it may concern:
We have made contact with the Dominion of Apollo, north of Atlantis. They have generously used their scientific equipment to discover the result of continued disruptions throughout this world. If they cannot be remedied by the nineteenth of June 1003 the Year of Our Sun (19JUN03), translated to the same day of the year two thousand seventeen (2017) in the common human era (19JUN17), the disturbances will no longer be able to be tracked. The Dominion observatory will be destroyed on that day by a rift between Earth and Equestria.
The only way to prevent this disaster, and more to follow, is to destroy the magical Gem currently being excavated by King Sombra in the Crystal Empire. Doing this will allow the remaining Alicorns of the world to combine their power into resurrecting Princess Luna and Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria.
In the meantime, King Flawless Ice of the Dominion of Apollo has declared war upon the Crystal Empire. His forces will arrive by land and sea in the coming months. Equestrian ports must be prepared to handle the logistics of disembarking an army of three hundred thousand elites minimum and sending them to the field of battle. Queen Atlanta of Atlantis is expected to respond to this by sending her own army of two hundred thousand strong.
Princess Celestia sends her best wishes, and asks that a message reporting the status of the Alicorn filly Flurry Heart be sent so that she may alter the plan if need be.
-James A. Robinson, Rear Admiral, US Navy

They stood there in stunned silence. Finally, Shining asked for a sheet of paper so he could send Celestia the report she wanted. He was pretty glad about telling his former boss about the filly. Flurry Heart was developing fine, safe and sound in Horseton. He smirked when he noticed that the year was off, according to his daughter. Few brought it up, but the calendar year put the “0” about three years after actual defeat of Nightmare Moon, so it was botched. Apparently only the nitpickers cared about it. But the filly constantly asked to see Cadence or Shining, and the two certainly would’ve come, but just one alicorn or leader in the town was bad enough. More than that, and the meager espionage-prevention net surrounding the kid would more than likely collapse.

After he gave the waiting ensign the message to relay to the Reagan Task Force, or what was left of it, Shining walked down to the pier with Reynolds. With the amount of work and probably government-offered overtime that was about to hit these poor fellas like Hurricane Sandy, both felt a tug of sympathy for the ponies. Shit was about to hit the fan. Again.

Author's Note:

Random title name.

The break was great, but I wrote this whole chapter in less than four hours. Then again, I do that for most of them.

No, Reynolds is not homosexual. It's called FRIENDSHIP. I'm not going to stand for shippings of my characters with the show's characters of the same gender. That whole thing is utterly ridiculous (Hey, I finally didn't need spellcheck for that word!) in my mind. With that little rant out of the way, I'd like to say that writing that kind of thing is fine. Just not with my characters. Please.

Happy New Year!

Plus, the calendar-being-off thing is a reference to our calendar. Ours was supposed to have a certain birth at Year 0, but in reality, it's give or take a few years.

One final thing: Are the Domination and Atlantean armies big enough? Because I don't think so.

Comments

[Fireheart 1945]

A good chapter. Seems like the world is uniting against the common threat

No, Reynolds is not homosexual. It's called FRIENDSHIP. I'm not going to stand for shippings of my characters with the show's characters of the same gender.

Good for you, sir