My Little Destroyermen: Walker on Water

by The Atlantean

Chapter 20

In the wardroom, Ben Mallory and his two crewmates Ed Palmer and Perry Brister gratefully sipped a Coke while Matt, Gray, Garrett, Spanky, Twilight, Courtney, Sandra, Larry Dowden, and Alan Letts waited for them to rehydrate. Most of them sat, with the exception of Twilight, who leaned against the bulkhead. Sometime during their wait, Adar, Keje, Naga, and Nakja-Mur filed in, leaving their escort outside. Juan served iced tea for the Lermurians, “coffee” for the humans, and plain water for Twilight. She smiled and thanked him, as water was easiest for her to transmute. With a flick of her fingers, her drink turned into an apple cider Applejack would be proud of.

“Thank God for that, sir,” Ben said as he took another sip. “We had to feather the starboard engine to stretch our fuel. Checked Menjangan, then all the way to Alor. if you weren’t here, we would’ve been goners. Your ship, snuggled nice against the dock with her proud flag and curling smoke, oh. A sight for sore eyes, sir.”

Perry Brister, Mahan’s engineering officer, nodded agreement. “Water wouldn’t have lasted much longer, sir. Didn’t take that much to save weight. Then when we landed, somebody shot at us! Tore the wing off. Can’t fly without a wing--we barely landed as it was. If we can find what’s left of it, maybe…”

Matt looked over to Twilight. His expression told the three haggard men that she was to blame. She bobbed her head and stared at the deck.

“Excuse me, sir, but who is she?” Perry asked.

“Ma’am?” Matt prompted.

The purple woman lifted her head. “I am Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria. I didn’t realize that you were friendly, and so I… shot at your craft. With magic. You won’t find any pieces of it because my experimental shells vaporize their targets. It’s just how weaponized magic works. I can fix it, Captain, but it’ll be a strain. Crafting swords from hard magic is one thing. An entire wing with functioning hydraulics and the correct shape, fitted to match the existing plane perfectly? A month at least, if I don’t forgo my other duties here.”

“But you can do it. Will you need anything?”

“Yes. Everything you have on PBYs, I’ll need. Measurements, material lists, that sort. If we don’t know, then we’ll find out.”

“You have it. As soon as we’re done here, Mr. Mallory, give Miss Twilight what she needs.”

“Yes, sir.” Ben couldn’t help but let out a little nervousness in his voice.

“Is something wrong, Mr. Mallory?”

“Um…”

“Is it Twilight?”

“Yes, sir.”

“We’ve survived her accidents so far. You will try not to screw up, understand, Twilight? That’s the only plane we have.”

The princess waved her hand in assurance.

“Good. now, Mr. Mallory, Mr. Brister, and Mr. Palmer, exactly what happened to Mahan?”

Twilight created a small shimmering mirror in her hands, out of everyone else’s sight. She then used it as a scrying spell to search for the missing ship. Her idle ears picked up Perry Brister’s story of how some Kaufman guy ran a mutiny and accidentally shot Jim Ellis--whom Mr. Dowden often referred to as his guide for being an XO--and everything went downhill from there. They found a city called Tjilatjap, but it was completely ruined (Nakja-Mur nearly went into a frenzy at hearing that Chill-Chaap was destroyed). Kaufman led the shore party. Nobody returned, so I went ashore myself… Captain, there were piles of gnawed bones everywhere! And it wasn’t like some predators ran the poor bastards down, either-- they look like they ran into a wall of baddies!” He shivered. “Not long after, we found the PBY and got it working. Mallory and Palmer barely escaped several boats of lizard-people with the plane. They then met back up with Mahan, refueled, took on some supplies, and came looking for Walker.

“Then we found you guys,” Ed Palmer finished.

“We’ve met the Grik, too,” Matt said. “They’re pretty scary.”

Twilight bit her lip and furrowed her eyes. “No, no, no, not there, no…” she mumbled.

“Twilight?” Matt asked.

“That’s a ruined city… no, no, tiny island, no, small sheltered bay… ah, there she is.” She looked up. “Yes, Captain?”

“What are you doing?”

“Scrying. It’s a spell that allows me to look at places really far away, but I need something like a mirror to do it. Luckily, just making one out of thin air works fine. As long as you know what to look for, you can usually find anything you want.”

“Okay. And the catch is…?”

“None. That’s literally all the spell does. I assume Mahan looks like Walker?”

“You found her?”

“Well, there’s a small metal ship in a sheltered bay on the north side of the big island to the south near where my ship sunk.”

“You mean Java?”

“Yeah, if that’s the name.”

“It is. Where on the northern shore?”

She pursed her lips. “Far to the west.”

“I want updates in the mornings and evenings, and when she starts to move if you can figure it out, course and speed.”

“Got it.”

Matt stood from his chair. “In the meantime, we need to kick it into high gear. The Grik know about Mahan. If they capture her, we must sink her. Until then, our priority is to bring her here--preferably with her crew. Juan, could you fetch Mr. Alden and Lieutenant Shinya? Thank you. Twilight, I know you have a lot of duties, with your Royal Guards program, weapons testing, practice with magic, repairing the PBY, and updates on Mahan. Make sure you get some sleep during the next few weeks. Mr. Garrett, continue refining those ‘mage shots’ with Twilight when you get the chance. Other than that, keep our guns in shape.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Spanky, I want ships. Mr. Sandison shouldn’t have much to do without his torpedoes--get him on that. Nakja-Mur, I would like to expand your shipyards and build some sailing frigates. We may need them to rescue Mahan from the Grik later. Keje, Mr. McFarlane has been asking me about adding guns to Salissa. I believe it would be beneficial to have some extra firepower as well as installing a fuel tank to increase Walker’s range. What do you say?”

“Perfect. Salissa will be able to destroy Grik from afar!” Keje grinned.

Nakja-Mur was more cautious. “You want to spend even more resources to fight the Grik than we already have, over one ship?”

“Mahan is the same as Walker, sir. They’re sister ships. They have the same capabilities, including her guns. We absolutely cannot allow the Grik to take her.”

“Then we shall spend the resources.”

“That’s all. Everyone, to your tasks.”

-------------------------

Ben Mallory inched farther from the water as Twilight reached out with her magic. They were on a small beach behind Walker that Twilight had magically paved into a sandy ramp. Smoke curled lazily from the destroyer’s nearest stack, and the sounds and smells of Baalkpan wafted over from the busy market. The sky was still bright blue despite the afternoon rain coming from the south.

The PBY, encased in purplish magic, split the water as Twilight pulled it closer. It was eerily silent. Neither of its engines were running. Eventually, it washed ashore and immediately began leaking from its sodden wing-mounted stabilizers. Twilight grunted as she dragged it farther from the water, finally dropping her arms and the spell when the tail no longer floated in the bay.

She spread her wings and leapt onto the wing. Her arms shot out from her sides to keep her balance as it wobbled from her weight. Only once she was confident it wasn’t going to tip her off did she relax. She knelt where her magical round had hit, letting purple wisps flow from her fingers into the mess of jagged metal. More magic embedded itself in the body of the plane and projected a rough three-dimensional image above her. She reached for the large PBY copy and shrunk it down to fit in her palm, inspecting her work. She flipped her hand over it, and the missing chunk of wing on the actual PBY reappeared as another rough image.

“How did you do that?” he called, trying to keep the sight of her stretched uniform in the back of his mind. “I mean, I know it’s magic, but how?”

“Hologram spell. Sunset Shimmer, a friend of mine, once told me about the concept of holograms, which are three-dimensional images of objects or even people. I thought it was amazing, so I created a spell last year to make my own. And that was no small feat. Spellcrafting is really hard. Anyway, I gave her the spell after I figured it out, and she’s used it at CHS every now and then with the help of my counterpart in that world.”

“That’s crazy.”

“Yeah, I thought it was impossible at first, too. But hey, I’m the Element of Magic. If I can’t do it, good luck.”

“So, how’d you get that, uh, hologram of the missing wing to show up? You made one of the plane as it is, not how it was, right?”

“I used a mirror spell on the hologram spell.”

He blinked. “What?”

She flew down and landed on the sand with a puff. “You heard me. I used a mirror spell on a hologram spell. It’s not hard.” She flicked her finger at the magic hologram in her hand, and the missing pieces turned a different color than the rest of the image. “I can use this to find out exactly what I need to make in order to fix your PBY. Or rather, I can know what each piece looks like. I still need everything else I requested.” She strode away, leaving Ben to wonder how in hell she was going to make hydraulic cylinders from nothing.

-------------------------

“You will not succeed, Twilight Sparkle… Celestia isn’t here to save you now!” Nightmare Moon hissed.

Twilight swiftly dodged a bolt of lightning from her foe’s horn and replied with a small fireball. “Even without my closest friends, I am still more than a match against you. And my new friends will help me when I need them. The power of friendship is--”

“Spare me your lectures, Sparkle. Your worst enemy has yet to arrive, and he will destroy you. His mighty ship is larger and stronger than anything you have seen on this world, and with my help, he will have the power to destroy your puny destroyer and its crew.”

“If he’s so powerful, he shouldn’t need your help.”

“Yes, but even the strongest wills need a little push.”

Author's Note:

I don't think Ben is a fan of magic after being on the receiving end.

And as for Nightmare Moon's "friend", it isn't his will that needs a push.

Comments

[Yutah123]

“Hologram spell. Sunset Shimmer, a friend of mine, once told me about the concept of holograms, which are three-dimensional images of objects or even people. I thought it was amazing, so I created a spell last year to make my own. And that was no small feat. Spellcrafting is really hard. Anyway, I gave her the spell after I figured it out, and she’s used it at CHS every now and then with the help of my counterpart in that world.”

Yeah, Twilight would be one to take human imagination and turn it into reality with pony magic.

[HB_DS2013]

9636373 The eyesore-inducing Friendship Castle is pretty much an office she rarely stays at and the ponies are more or less friendly with each other. She's pretty much a glorified international diplomat.

[Yutah123]

9637048
Doesn't she live in the Castle of Friendship, though? And though the ponies are more or less friendly, they're not all friendly: she's been out solving problems from time to time.

Besides, there's also the School. I'd say she's doing pretty well in Princess of Friendship things, whatever those are.

... That being said, it does look like she might be moving to higher places soon.

[HedgeHo6Matt]

Thank you so much for this, is literally one of only like five Destroyermen fan fictions I found.