Kotov Syndrome
(Author's note: Before the inclusion of an author's note this chapter had less than 4,000 words. This bothered me.)
This can’t be happening....this can’t be....Twilight looked around in horror as the carefully laid plan went haywire. Minutes before they had been guests on the ship -the perfectly legal ship- and were set for an uneventful week long trip to Trotterdam. That was a good plan and to be honest, that’s all Twilight wanted. But then? First Rarity came on the ship babbling nonsense like a crazypony. Then Pinkie, the deaf mare, stepped out of the wagon, took two seconds to assess the situation and sided with Rarity. So in the span of three minutes they went from a casual cruise...to enemies of the state, wanted for treason. Oh wait -yep. They were getting the cannons ready; make that sedition. As their first act as seditionists they were to charge a fifteen ship blockade, wherein each ship was probably better manned and armed...perfect.
The deck was a flurry of screaming ponies as they darted about, manning the deck guns and hauling up shot and black powder from below decks. She had to imagine they had bigger guns below deck too, and likely each of those was getting manned. Slowly her gaze turned to the ocean, looking over the blockade that loomed near them. She imagined a similar situation on each of those ships...if only they’d been a day faster.
Twilight watched as several ponies hauled up the anchor up the side of the ship, which was a monstrous metal thing. Then she turned in disbelief as the ponies on the back of the ship pulled up the kedge, which was far smaller. Like most new technology the kedge was originally invented for war. It was a smaller anchor that was dropped while the ship was moving, lowering the turn radius and spinning faster. They were especially effective for turning ships about in tight areas like coral reefs, or if you needed to bring your broadside around faster. At first Twilight was surprised to see a seafaring merchant ship have one. Pinkie’s involvement with the crew cleared that one right up.
With the ship ablaze with shouts and scurrying figures Pinkie wheeled about on the rest of the group “Twilight! I need you to shut up and listen to me, I don’t have time to argue!”
Purple eyes blinked a few times as she looked about in horror. “I...I wasn’t talking...”
Pinkie nodded approvingly as her eyes focused in on Twilight’s lips, reading them carefully. “Oh! Sorry! I was just playing the odds on that one!” Twilight’s lips tightened; cute. If they weren’t all going to die in a few minutes Pinkie would certainly get a talking to. “The most important thing to worry about now is right there!” She cried out, a pink hoof extending back to the docks. One hulking black galleon completely overshadowed the Wave Crester, and it’s crew was hard at work getting everypony back on board. The massive white sails started to unfurl and the deck crews were also manning their deck guns.
“That’s Viceroy Shadowflame’s flagship, the Vorpral! It’s faster, has more guns, has more crewmen, and they’re all military trained! If they get out of dock it won’t matter if we get past the blockade, they’ll hunt us down!” Pinkie’s cries were frantic, either compensating for her disability or underlying the importance; it was hard to say which.
Twilight looked back at the blockade ships, struggling to set up the blockade and cut them off. Quickly she looked back to the Vorpral and sighed “Do you have a plan Pinkie?”
With a sinister smile Pinkie nodded. She whirled about, turning to Rarity, “Rarity, get us all earplugs so we don’t go deaf!” Oh good! At least she was capable of learning not to do stupid things twice. Then again, Twilight figured running a blockade and attacking a flagship hadn’t exactly been on Pinkie’s resume.
With little more than a nod Pinkie’s head whipped back around to the rest of them, “The cannons below deck are side mounted, and the deck guns aren’t big enough! We need to shoot behind us with a big cannon! I’ll load, everypony get it over there!” With that, the Pink Mare leapt back into the welcome wagon and began loading gunpowder.
Suddenly each of them understood that they hadn’t had time to reinstall the cannon below deck. They had one mobile heavy cannon in a wagon on the deck in the rocky high seas. Still, it was one cannon and they weren’t going to get many shots...could one canon disable an enemy ship, even at this range? Quickly she looked about to the rest of the group which seemed to be pushing the cannon at Pinkies orders, regardless whether or not they shared her thought. Pushing ponies out of the way they managed to pull it all the way to the back.
Twilight braced her shoulder against the wagon as Rarity arrived; quickly equipping each of them with earplugs as instructed before bracing the wagon as well. “Derpy!” Pinkie’s voice yelled from inside the wagon. “I’ll load, you shoot! Get in here!”
Derpy looked to each ot them in confusion before she stuck her head in the wagon. With a rough push she captured Pinkie’s attention and yelled back “I’ve never fired a cannon before! Somepony else should do it!”
Twilight couldn’t see how Pinkie looked, but she could hear the response, “Derpy, you need to take the shot! Your extra levels will make you a better shot than anyone on this boat, even if you don’t know how to use a cannon!” What? Did she actually say that? Was now really the time for gambling their lives on this insane nonsense? “It’s loaded with a chain between two balls of iron. I need you to hit their masts okay? break enough that they won’t be able to catch us!”
Derpy jumped in the wagon and after a moment or two a resounding bang issued from the wagon. The cannon rolled into the back of the wagon, and suddenly Twilight and the rest were pushed back several feet,forcing them to grind their hooves against the wood to stop it. With that their legs pumped a few times, forcing the wagon back to the railing.
Twilight was surprised when it was Rainbow Dash’s voice they heard next “I saw it, it hit the right side of the boat! Aim higher!”
The team braced themselves against the wagon once more. As they waited Twilight watched the other ship like a hawk, she was determined to notice where this one landed. Suddenly there was a pop, then a few more as smoke clouds billowed out from the Vorpral. Several splashes in the water in front of and around the Wave Crester alerted everypony as to what was going on; the galleon was returning fire with its deck guns.
Suddenly another explosion issued forth from the wagon and Twilight saw one of the horizontal bars of a mast explode in a shower of splinters, “Top left mast hit!” She called out, hoping that Derpy could hear. Her words were cut short, unfortunately, as an unexpected cry of terror ripped out of her throat when a nearby railing exploded. Eyes cast about desperately as she saw the heavy iron ball roll off the deck and into the sea; that one was far too close.
The screaming and popping continued as they pushed the wagon back into position. Twilight stole a look at Fluttershy behind her. The yellow mare’s eyes were tearing as she looked directly down at the deck with clenched teeth, clinging to the wagon as she held it in place. “Ready! Fire!” Pinkie yelled. Hastily the young mage’s eyes returned to the Vorpral, watching the their crew load their deck guns as they tried to set sail.
Then...a bang, but this time was different. The wagon lurched backwards the same, but the Vorpral didn’t lose a mast. Several tiny plops hit around the water, and the stallions manning the deck guns screamed, several falling backwards as blood sprayed out of them. At this range Twilight could still see the red streaks from the cannoneers. It wasn’t just the Vorpral though, almost all of the windows behind the Vorpral shattered inward too. The docks! The...shops! Twilight looked on in horror...had...had the ponies on the docks dispersed? They must have gotten out of the way...right?
Twilight let go of the wagon as the muffled sound of Derpy screaming urged her. Quickly she came about the wagon and looked inside, Derpy’s imposing form towered over Pinkie angrily. “That was canister shot!” The knight screamed, “You had me spray men and women who were just doing their jobs with canister shot!” Derpy’s hooves slammed down on the wagon next to Pinkie, who was loading the next shot in unphased.
Pinkie only looked up as much as she needed to. “The deck gunner’s accuracy will go down if they have to worry about canister shot. They’re more likely to rush-”
Pinkie’s words were cut off as a hoof clocked her in the side of the face, sending her to the bottom of the wagon with a yell of pain and surprise. Derpy’s hoof followed her down, stepping on her neck as the pink mare writhed about trying to escape. “You made me kill the innocent for a tactical advantage! What about the dock workers? Are they acceptable collateral damage!” Spit flew from Derpy’s mouth as she bore down on the girl, marring her face with another vicious hoofstrike.
Twilight’s forelegs wrapped around Derpy’s upper body as she pulled the mare back. Twilight held her for about two seconds before the back of Derpy’s head bashed into the mare’s nose. The whole world stung for a moment, then the grey mare was free, angrily wrenching Twilight’s foreleg to the side.
“Derpy!” Twilight cried out “We don’t have time for this, we need those masts down! Get somepony else to load...” Twilight’s eyes sunk down to the floor of the wagon, looking over the figure of her pink friend. She was still...but her chest moved, allowing Twilight to release a breath she didn’t know she was holding “I’ll get Pinkie inside...Derpy!”
With clenched teeth Derpy let go of Twilight and jumped out of the wagon, storming off looking for anypony who knew how to load a cannon.
Twilight lowered her body down, quickly sliding the nape of her neck under Pinkie’s stomach and lifting her up onto her back. Twilight jumped out of the wagon, throwing a look in both directions. Each of her friends were crouched, trying to say as small as possible, but none of them would meet her gaze.
With that she pressed on, weaving around scurrying sailors as they frantically brought up supplies or donned their armour. Soon Twilight found her way to the captain’s cabin. With a grunt she nudged the door open and came inside, walking past Captain Anjin to deposit Pinkie on his bed. Captain Anjin pulled a strap of his breastplate taught as he looked up, “She alive?”
Twilight nodded. “Nothing...physically...that a little rest won’t cure.” She let out a sigh as she started back towards the door.
Captain Anjin nodded a few times as he secured an ornate rapier along his flank. “Say, Pinkie spent time awhile back making...I think she called them fireworks. They fly off on their own into the sky...then explode and send coloured fire everywhere. Maybe we could...you know...hit the enemy with them?”
A tired sigh escaped Twilight’s maw as she turned about. She gave Pinkie credit on knowing how to build fireworks...she probably learned just to save money on party supplies. Goddesses, if that girl could be bothered to put that mind of hers to worthy pursuits instead of mindless self indulgence...”No.” Twilight admitted “Those things are impossible to target. When their only goal is to go up they’re fine, but anything else is near impossible, your deck guns are already much more dangerous.” There was a long pause as Twilight chose her words “Why did you run the blockade?”
The good captain blinked - or winked - a few times. “Pinkie said I should.”
“That’s a good enough answer?”
“This crew’s been saved more than once by listening to her without much else to go on.” He reached out, stowing a bottle of scotch off to one side, “Although I’m pretty sure she’s doomed us this time. The ships out there don’t have the time to complete the blockade, but one or two will have time to sweep in behind us and give us a few broadsides of cannons. We’ll survive, but they’re bound to hit some sails...Honestly, I don’t like our odds.”
The mare’s eyes closed as her shoulders sagged. Of course they were going to die on this ship. What were they thinking? Taking on a viceroy? With just seven of them? Utter madness. To top it all off the young mage was going to die useless. She didn’t have any spells that helped ship to ship combat, she didn’t know how to load a cannon, she was just a student in over her head.
“Hell of a time for her to come back too. Things were looking pretty good, we even got a buyer for that oil. With winter coming, it was going to sell like crazy, we’d be living the good life in a few month’s time.” A smile crossed his face as he looked about dreamily.
Twilight stopped, one hoof still on the door. “Did you say oil?”
“Yeah, whale oil, barrels of the stuff. I wonder how much of it they’ll scavenge from our wreckage.”
Twilight wasn’t well versed in naval command. She didn’t have the arcane forces to hurl lightning or move the ocean. She did, however, understand pyrology. “Captain...I’m going to need you to get all that oil up on deck. Immediately.”
A harsh barking laugh came from the man “You aim to barter girl? Are you so insistent that I die poor as well as everything else?”
“You’re pretty much resigned to dying anyway right? What difference does it make?”
The stallion rolled his eyes. “You -are- one of Pinkie’s friend’s aren’t you? I’ll let the boys know.”
Twilight pushed her way out of the door, turning about and rushing back to the welcome wagon where her friends were bracing themselves. “What’s going on?” she asked, looking over the rest of her crouching friends.
“Not much now sugarcube!” Applejack yelled, bracing herself as the blast of the cannon pushed her back several feet. Applejack shook her head, recollecting herself before she finished. “Those chain shot things don’t go too far. Derpy took down a couple of masts, but we’ll have to switch to good ol’ fashioned cannonballs if we want to hit them at all from here.”
Twilight’s head shook quickly “Forget it, we’re coming up on the blockade soon anyway. I need you to wrap up some of your bolts. They’re bringing whale oil up and I want you to get fire bolts ready.” The ponies looked about at one another for a moment, then shrugged as Applejack broke off from the herd and moved to the front.
After a moment the first sailor rolled barrel up “Captain said to give you the whale oil?”
Twilight nodded, ushering him away as she turned back to her friends. “Girls, take the lid off, and dump it off the back of the ship.”
Everypony started to move before Rarity’s well manicured hoof cracked down on the top. “Twilight!” she cried, leaning in to look her friend dead in the eye “Do you have any idea how much a barrel of whale oil is worth?”
“Less than this ship and our lives. Do it!”
With a dejected sigh the white mare relented. Slowly she moved back as Rainbow Dash came in to pry the lid off. As each new barrel came in and subsequently went over the side, Rarity looked slightly more ill.
The purple mage moved up to the front of the ship. As she watched the two enemy ships approaching from their back left she turned her head to Captain Anjin. “How long until they’re within firing range?”
His head lowered a bit and his teeth clenched. The sound of his voice grew ever more dejected, “Their front guns will be at long range in thirty seconds or so, but I don’t think they’ll hit. When they get behind us they’ll turn hard to one side and unload all of their broadside cannons...that’ll hit.”
There was a small pause “What will they do if we move right and start to turn around?”
“They won’t expect that because it’s ridiculously suicidal. But I imagine they’d have to turn hard to starboard, turn their entire ships around to come after us. They’d still get a shot off on us whenever we decided to change direction again, and the other ships would be even closer. It’s a stupid idea.” He paused “You’re going to ask me to do it anyway?”
Twilight nodded, “The oil’s sitting on top of the water. Applejack will light it up and it’ll create a thick smokescreen. When we turn around again they won’t be able to see we’re doing it until they turn into the smokescreen,based on how the ships are moving ours is faster and more maneuverable. We should make it out of range of their long guns before they can turn back.”
“That’s a hell of a gamble miss...gods, I’m gambling my life on the plans of somepony I don’t even know the name of.”
“It’s your roll Captain Anjin, throw the dice.”
A sarcastic smile and a half chuckle exited his maw as he turned about “Hard starboard men!” Immediately the sails shifted direction and the ship started it’s turn around backwards. These stallions were way too loyal to Captain Anjin for their own good.
Quickly the purple mage bounded across the deck to Applejack who sat with several bolts heads wrapped in a wet, white cloth. Carefully the crossbowpony’s eyes flicked up from their work “Twilight, this kind of thing ain’t no good for crossbows, how many shots you gonna need?”
Twilight sighed, gesturing off the side of the boat with her head. “With any luck just one. The other two ships out there are going to turn to follow us back. They probably think we’re running scared-”
“Ain’t we?”
“Not the point.” A purple hoof gestured out towards the water “You see the line of brownish water out there? When the other ships have turned around I need you to hit it.”
Applejack didn’t respond, just gave a grim, quick nod. There wasn’t much to do for a bit. Nothing to do but sit and watch as the enemy ships turned, as expected. Twilight snapped out of her stupor as she heard a mechanical click. “Gimmie a light sugarcube.” The solemn voice of their southern sniper drawled. Twilight stamped a hoof on the ground and a spark lit up the bolt. Applejack only paused for a moment before it was launched out into the sky. She didn’t even look to see where it went, just immediately started trying to smother the flames it left on her crossbow.
Twilight watched as the tiny ball of flame flew out...and down...Suddenly, with a large whoosh, the water was set ablaze. For a moment it was merely fire dancing on the water, then, the smoke began to rise. After only a minute the enemy ships were completely blotted out by a thick wall of inky black smoke.
A moment or two past, then the sound of roaring cannons caught their ears. A few hundred meters behind them a series of splashes decimated the water. A moment later the water a hundred feet behind them was blasted with a score of cannonballs. “What are they doing!” Twilight yelled, running up to the captain.
“They’re guessing. What, you thought because they couldn’t see they wouldn’t bother trying?”
The first mate returned to the captain’s side, ignoring Twilight completely. “Captain...we can see the flashes of their cannons through the smoke and can hear their shots. We think we might be able to surprise them and hit them first, should we attack?”
The mare’s brain worked at overdrive as she thought. They were so close...but if they turned around now who knew how many stray shots they’d take? They couldn’t shoot back though, if the enemy ships saw the flash of their cannons they would...blow them away! That’s it! “No!” Twilight cried out. “We launch the fireworks off the ship! They’ll see the flash and the bang and will focus all their attention there!”
The captain’s head bobbed thoughtfully “Then we drop the kedge and pivot on the water...Stallions! Get me all the fireworks, pick out the orange and red ones, now!” His attention turned to three ponies he stopped with a wave of his hoof “You three, prepare to drop the kedge!”
The splash of cannonballs around them caused Twilight to wince. Somewhere on the ship a loud splintering noise echoed. Quickly she turned her head and saw the welcome wagon splayed out over the deck. In horror she looked around for her friends, but relaxed upon seeing them moving below deck.
The sound of cannon fire and splashing felt like it lasted far longer than it actually did. Whomever was firing those shots was really good at guessing where they were. Every few moments the waters they would have turned in were bombarded. Finally the crew made it to the deck.
The fireworks flew off the side of the deck, careening randomly ahead of them. Some hit the ocean, but others merely flew out ahead of them and exploded in multiple bouts of fiery orange light. “Now!” Twilight heard something say, and with that the kedge anchor flew into the water. The ship violently lurched sideways, pitching angrily against the sea as they sharply turned. Twilight was lifted clean off her hooves as she pitched over, hit the deck, and began violently rolling. Every time she tried to right herself it didn’t help, right up until she was thrown back first into the railing with a painful crack. A cry of anguish burst forth from her lips as she braced herself against the railing.
For a few moments the enemy’s cannons fell silent. The sound of crackling flames and roaring sea filled the air. Then the roar of cannons began once more, blasting the area they marked with their fireworks. With a cheer the ponies on deck set off more fireworks, sending the distracting burst out once more.
It didn’t take long before the ship righted itself and Twilight was able to stand once more. She was battered and bruised certainly, but she was alive. The damaged mare looked back over the stern of the ship, watching as the ships broke through their smokescreen further down. A smile crossed her face - they were only seven against an empire...but maybe they stood a chance after all.
Stats
Page generated in 0.022 seconds
Total duration
963 users online
561,812 hits today, 2,364,530 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Right off, we can read Twilight's stream of thoughts in the narrative this chapter, which is nice, but not quite the same as was happening when we followed Rarity in Ch. 11. I like this form more, to be honest. That said, you switch between that and the narrator telling us what twilight is imagining, and the stream of consciousnesses straight from Twilight. Just a bit odd.
The above said, this chapter is awesome! The naval fight brewing reads and feels like an naval battle should; slow and ponderous, and the menace bearing down on the ship. The pacing is spot on, perfect for this (while the troll battle dragged in spots).
Great thinking on the use of the portable cannon. Derpy is showing how Lawful Good she is, compared to Pinkie's clear Chaotic Neutral. I'd probably have clocked Pinkie too. Fireworks and smokescreen is an excellent tactic, and Rarity almost fainting at the wasted bits is gold. I wonder if Derpy is going to catch flak from the the Mane 6 and the crew for decking PInkie out.
And now that they've outrun Vorpal, I'm curious as to whether we'll see them run the rest of the blockade or transition to the next port or the battle of the aftermath. Though as much as I'd love to see more naval shenanigans, for the sake of the story I imagine the rest of the blockade run will be a recollection.
Nitpick:
mere -> mare, please
Stallions, not sailors? Is the Entire crew besides Pinkie male?
Just reread chapter 2 and noticed:
The big bad gamemaster is someone who knows Twilight already. Given that King Somber can't say more than 5 words and growl, the Nightmare didn't have claws, and this deep voice hates rules, that narrows down the playing field a lot
cdn.derpiboo.ru/thumbs/800/600/2012/11/11/09_36_27_296_148544__UNOPT__safe_princess_luna_princess_celestia_discord_statue_artist_scyphi
View on Derpibooru - Original source