My Little Destroyermen: Walker on Water

by The Atlantean

Chapter 27

“Princess?”

She’s gone. The Grik took her. My own student… My friend…

“Princess, are you alright?”

Those… evil… creatures TOOK her!

Somebody banged on the door to the forward section of the deck. “You need help back there?”

“Who is it?” Twilight echoed.

“Felts. We’ve cleared this deck and the one below. All that’s left is the hold, and there’s a bunch of ‘em in there. Captain Reddy said something about prisoners…”

With the hesitant help of the Guard, Twilight climbed back to her shaking knees and opened the door. Pain shot through her shoulders, her hair was a fiery mess, and her bloodshot eyes radiated fury. Her sword dangled in her hand, dripping with Grik blood. Even her skin had changed, glowing red with the magic of uncooled rage. The rational of her mind was barely holding her together.

“Wipe them out. All of them.”

Felts took a step back. “Yes, ma’am. We’ll clear them outta the hold. Do you want to, uh, go in with us?”

“No. If I go down there now, I might send us all to Tartarus. I’ll be topside if you need me.” Her skin dimmed and her hair relaxed, but her eyes remained red. “I-I need to think.”

Felts nodded and waved over to Donaghey across the deck. He glanced at Twilight’s belt. “Can I have that grenade if you’re not using it?”

“Yeah.” She held still while he pulled her last grenade from her belt. Seconds later, she heard a BANG followed by the sound of automatic fire. Her rage pulled her towards the hatch down to the hold, but her rationale fought back. With the Guard’s help, she made her way back to the stormy main deck.

Sheet rain poured from the ever-dark sky. Thunder rumbled from somewhere to the north. Flashes of lightning outlined Salissa’s victory over the Grik boarding party and another Indiaman. Farther out to sea, Walker had begun towing its wallowing prey.

The ship lurched to starboard as a wave washed over the side and strained the anchor cable. Three feluccas struggled to hold the Indiaman in place, rowing against the mountainous tide in a desperate attempt to keep clear of the rocks that separated them and Salissa. The corvuses were no longer attached, having been replaced by Home of the Sea-type anchor cable.

Twilight plopped herself next to a medic and waited while she rubbed a viscous, gooey paste on her wounds. Lemurian polta paste had regenerative and antibacterial properties, making it perfect for field treatments, but was also somewhat intoxicating after a while. She had until it made her tipsy to calm down.

Thankfully, the deck had already been cleared by some Guards. The lost masts were no longer tied to the ship, and the yards couldn’t poke holes in the hull. The rocks still concerned her, but she couldn’t do much about that at the moment.

Wait and see… Maybe she’s still alive in the hold…

Despite everything, an overwhelming exhaustion overcame her, and she shut her eyes, rocked to sleep by the ship’s constant motion.

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“Twilight, do you recognize this?” a man asked.

Twilight groaned and opened her eyes. Her left arm was still unresponsive, but her right brushed a sopping clump of hair that had draped over her face.

“Shining Armor?”

“She’s still asleep, Felts!” That was Verun-Kanas.

So it wasn’t a bad dream. Her brother wasn’t here. She wasn’t in Equestria. Everything had actually happened.

“Where am I?” she asked.

“We’re still on the Grik ship,” Verun said. “The storm should be dying down soon.”

Twilight shook her head and rolled, crashing to the deck. She gasped in pain as her body locked up, her muscles stiff from fighting. Somebody picked her up. When she craned her head to see who, she saw it was Donaghey. She let him hold her on her feet until her head stopped spinning.

“So, uh, what did you want me to see?”

Felts held out his hand, and Twilight immediately regretted her question. He held not the scrap of leather from the “trophy room,” but an entire ripped sleeve, crusty with saltwater. Its orange cloth was barely noticeable under the damage, but it was there. Woven within the cloth, a faint magic feebly resisted nature’s effects in a losing battle.

She felt the magic recognize her and call for help. Her hand hovering over the cloth, she let a bit of magic flow into it. The crust fell away, revealing its original sunset-orange color.

“This was Sunset Shimmer’s sleeve,” she finally said. She took the cloth and held it close. “Please don’t be dead.” Tears filled her eyes and her lips wobbled. The air inaudibly crackled with magical energy for a brief second.

“Who is Sunset Shimmer, exactly?” Felts asked. “You’ve mentioned her before.”

“She’s my student… and my friend. She didn’t have to die like this.”

Verun-Kanas’s ears pricked. “Waa-kurr horn! Waa-kurr comes!”

Donaghey and Felts guided Twilight outside while Kansas led the way. Topside, they saw that the sky had brightened considerably in the past hour or so, and Walker steamed in circles, her prize towed behind her. On the prize’s lone mast, the American flag flapped in the wind above the red Grik banner. With a smile, Kansas indicated a similar situation overhead, but with Twilight’s only Equestrian flag, which was recovered from Friendship before she sank. The familiar drone of the PBY grew as the large plane rumbled in from the north, touching down on the somewhat-rough seas with all the grace and agility of a bellyflopping whale.

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Matthew Reddy searched Twilight’s target ship with his binoculars, hoping she had succeeded. Her people only had two modern weapons and six grenades to help them, whereas Walker’s party had access to several times as much for each. When he saw Twilight, Kansas, Felts, and Donaghey on the deck, he smiled.

“They did it. They’re alright!” he called to nobody in particular.

Nurse Lieutenant Sandra Tucker, standing next to him, tiredly smiled. “At least they have Twilight. Her magic is powerful.”

“She’s resourceful, I’ll give her that,” Alden said. He watched with his own binoculars. “She doesn’t look good.”

“Well, she’s probably been down in the hold.”

Alden shook his head. “No, it’s not that. She looks heartbroken. Didn’t she say something about somebody else from her world getting stuck here?”

“She did. Sunset Shimmer, I believe. We talk about her often.” Matt lowered his binoculars as realization struck. “Oh, no.”

“What’s wro--That’s really bad.” Alden frowned. “The Grik got her.”

Author's Note:

I'm going off Sunset's outfit from Forgotten Friendship, for reference.

Comments

[Yutah123]

If the plane's gonna go on scouting, it better find the Amagi. Suddenly being faced with a cruiser in a destroyer is an unenviable position.