Trial at Sea
A bell was ringing. The heads of all hippogriffs on deck shot up and turned to the call. A second later, they flew to their posts as they entered a state of emergency.
Gallus, Scythe, Lightning Dust and Pound Sterling dropped down from topsail and stood at the portside as they witnessed their first real-life military emergency. It was chaos. Hippogriffs flew across the ship left and right, some shouting orders, others going below deck and a number going above.
All the while, the boat struck by the cannonball had turned to face them and was on the move, getting slightly bigger in view as it approached them.
"All claws and hooves to their stations. Celaeno is coming!" yelled one hippogriff.
In all the commotion, that name felt off to Gallus. "Celaeno… Celaeno…" he quietly repeated it to himself, rubbing a claw under his beak as he pondered. "Why does that sound familiar?"
As Gallus tried to remember, Nicknames finally emerged on deck. As he hurried towards his post with the other ponies, he looked anxious despite never turning his sights to any of the hippogriffs on deck. It didn't help that Seaspray was close behind, whose piercing, narrow eyes focused on the pegasus.
"Hey, fellow ponies… and griffon", Nicknames coyly said, his grin loosely around his muzzle.
The other ponies immediately grew suspicious. "Okay, what did you do?" Lightning Dust questioned him with a half-lidded stare.
"…what do you mean?"
"Did ya fire a cannon a' the ship?" Pound Sterling followed.
Nicknames stared at the two with a blank face.
"Well, I didn't MEAN to hit a ship."
"Oh, Twilight, we're in trouble."
"It can't be that bad, right? I can see the ship is still there."
"An' it's sailin' t'wards us!" Pound Sterling pointed out as the other ship slowly grew larger in their line of sight.
"Not to mention the hippogriffs at alert."
Scythe's observation fell on deaf ears as Lightning Dust pushed into Nicknames' face. The two were nose to nose as she attempted to stare him down. Even though she was shorter, her stare made her more intimidating.
"Just so you know, the hippogriffs haven't been giving us good jobs because the Big G over there thinks we're gonna screw up. Now he's probably gonna kick us out of the country because of you." She jabbed him in the chest with her front hoof in frustration.
"But it was an accident!"
"Okay, hold on, hold on", Gallus interjected, breaking out of his thoughts to go between the two and push them apart. "Nicknames, a while ago, you threw up over the deck. What happened after that?"
Although mildly irritated at the embarrassing reminder, Nicknames was slightly relieved not to be angrily confronted and given a chance to have his say. He calmly nudged Gallus' arm to the side and stepped back as he began to explain.
"Well, I went to the doctor's quarters, and the bird there gave me some pills. After that, I tried to go back on deck but got lost…."
Nicknames weren't entirely sure what pills he took. Hopefully, an antihistamine to deal with nausea which didn't help as much as he wanted. The slow rocking of the ship which didn't help with his situation, made far more apparent with his weak state.
In his attempt to make it back up to the main deck, he bounced off the wooden walls from side to side as he stumbled through the galley and up the stairs. His mind was muddled. He couldn't recall if he needed to go up two flights of stairs or if he needed to go left or right.
He finally settled in a room with enough space to get his bearings. It looked like the galley where he had lunch earlier, but only partially. Instead of tables and hammocks, there were giant wool tarps.
"Hey, are you okay?"
There was also a single hippogriff in the room, who was navy blue, distinguished by the bright yellow goggles on his head. His head was tilted, uncertain and concerned at the random pony that staggered into their domain.
"Uh yeah, is this the food quarters?" asked the dazed Nicknames, "I'm trying to find my way up to the deck."
The hippogriff shook his head. "No, that's one floor above. This is the gunnery quarters," he answered before pointing to the end of the room. "If you go out that door and turn right, you'll find stairs that'll take you straight up to the deck."
"Oh, cheers, dude." Nicknames gave a subtle nod before making his way towards the door. He had opened the door when suddenly he stopped. What he heard caught up with his brain, alerting him as if one word had cleared his mind. "Wait, did you say gunnery? As in guns?" he turned back to the hippogriff and asked with intrigue.
"Yep, name's Sonicboom, gunner on duty. This is my area to make sure the ship's guns work."
This piqued Nicknames' interest, his eyebrows were raised, but he was also confused as he looked around the room again. Four huge mounds covered by tarps, cupboards, and bare wooden walls save for four large windows.
"Where are the guns? When I looked at the ship's side, I saw… twelve cannons, but this room doesn't even have twelve holes for cannons to poke out of."
"Well, this ship isn't out for battle, so it's not fully armed", Sonicboom explained as he approached a part of the ship's wall. "For these journeys, it varies. Some have half, and some have none. We don't want other ships to know how many cannons we have, so we built these wooden replicas so they think we're fully loaded."
He gripped the edge of a square wall patch and pulled it out. A black funnel-like section was taken out on the other side of the chunk. It looked like a part of a weapon, but Nicknames looked at it closer, and it was nothing of the such. Instead of metal, it was wild carved wood painted black, the nails holding it to the plank of wood looked in place.
"So… you have no cannons on this ship?" Nicknames’ ears drooped.
"Didn't say there were no cannons." Sonicboom pulled away one of the tarps, revealing a giant black iron barrel cannon on a wooden bracket with wheels.
The moment Nicknames looked at the weapon, his eyes glistened, and his jaw dropped. From his perspective, the cannon glowed with might. "Woah, it's beautiful…" he remarked as he inspected it up close, reaching out to touch it. The iron barrel felt smooth as it shimmered off the light that reached the gunnery.
Nicknames' heart was racing, wanting to know more about it.
"How big are the round shots you fire this out of?" he queried eagerly.
"We have 8-inch cast-iron balls in case of incoming attacks, around 70 kilos each", Sonicboom answered directly. "We currently have stone balls at half the weight for longer distances and test fires."
"And the chamber?"
"About enough to fill a kilo or two of gunpowder."
"Nice, you could hit something over a mile and a half away with something of this calibre.
Sonicboom raised an eyebrow, "Yeah, around that distance…" the hippogriff seemed impressed by Nicknames' understanding of the firepower, not to mention his enthusiasm. "You seem to know a thing or two about these. I guess you were taught these at the Equestrian Guard Academy?"
"Nah, just seen them in comic books. The Royal Guard Academy has only been letting us use spears so far. I need special training to even try one of these."
After hearing this factoid and checking the time, a light went off in Sonicboom's mind.
"Wanna try one now?"
Nicknames' felt his ears burn, "For real?" his heart began to race again. He turned to see Sonicboom smirk and point across the other end of the gunnery.
"In that cupboard are gunpowder cartridges and wads. Go get some. I'll help you fire your first cannon."
The disbelief Nicknames hadhad switched to glee; he gave a quick salute of approval before dashing to the cupboard to get the stuff. Sonicboom loaded the cartridge into the cannon with a cloth wad, then pierced the cartridge with a metal wire to let the gunpowder out. Both rolled out a stone ball and shoved it into the barrel.
After removing the fake cannon board from the wall and moving the real cannon in place with the barrel poking out the window, they were ready to fire. Only then did a thought faintly come from the back of Nicknames' head.
"You sure we can do this?"
"Yeah, we're due for a cannon fire around this time anyway", Sonicboom reassured Nicknames. "General Seaspray won't mind."
"What if we hit something?"
"I've been on this route thrice weekly for two years. This part of the ocean is practically a desert on water," Sonicboom answered flippantly this time as he picked up the last part needed for the job. "Hold this rope. Yank it away from the barrel when I tell you to fire."
As Nicknames held onto the rope with his teeth, they stepped away from the cannon and covered their ears. This was it, Nicknames one shot, it was now or never.
"Ready? FIRE!"
Nicknames yanked on the rope with all his might.
KABOOM!
In less than a second, the gunpowder had ignited the cannon and blasted the stone ball out to sea. Nicknames were propelled back as the mini shockwave hit him. It took a few seconds more for the sound of the blast to die down. Nicknames' face froze in wide-eyed shock, and his heart raced at the sheer power he had witnessed.
"That. Was. AWESOME!" Nicknames yelled with joy.
"I know, right? It's my favourite part of my job!"
The thrill and fun of the moment were then cut short. In the distance, the two heard the sudden sound of wood breaking.
"Uh, what was that?"
The next sound they could hear was someone rushing down the stairs and forcing the door open. General Seaspray emerged, having listened to the cannon blast and presumably what followed, showing a fixed frown. He approached Sonicboom and stood almost beak to beak, staring down at him.
"You there. Are you the gunner on duty?"
"Yes, General Seaspray, sir," Sonicboom answered as neutral and calmly as he could.
"Care to explain the cannon fire I just heard."
"Well… we fired a cannon, sir."
"Yes, I figured that." Seaspray then glanced behind Sonicboom, his eyes narrowed at the sight of Nicknames standing behind a mounted cannon. "Lightning Moniker, is it?"
"Uh, yes sir, though most just call me Nick-"
"You are supposed to be up on topsail as lookout with the other Equestrians. Why in Neptune are you down here?"
"Uh… I was sick."
His eyes narrowed. Seaspray was about to raise his voice higher at the pony, unaware that part was indeed correct. Before he could, he was stopped by a pale green hippogriff who rushed behind him with a haunted face.
"Uh, General Seaspray?"
"Yes, what is it?" Seaspray turned around and snapped. "I'm busy."
"I've been receiving radio messages from a nearby ship saying we've shot at them", the green hippogriff shakily responded, "they're not happy."
The General looked back to Sonicboom and Nicknames, witnessing their shock at the news.
"Please tell me we don't have casualties, and that nearby ship is one of ours." Seaspray calmly spoke whilst pinching his beak in frustration. He was internally assessing the damage. At best, it was friendly fire, but how to prevent the potential conflict depended on what the firing had done.
The pale green quickly read through the paper with the radio message. "Well… there are no casualties, but…" she gulped, "it's Captain Celaeno…."
"…tell the first hippogriff you find on deck to ring the bell."
"See? So just an accident, the other ship is fine, and no griff is hurt", said Nicknames, still trying to sound favourable to his unconvinced friends. "The only thing that seems bad is that the other ship is run by Captain Celaeno."
Gallus' eyes suddenly widened. "Captain… Celaeno?" recognition had dawned on him.
"You know who that is?"
"Well… Princess Twilight once told a story about when the Storm King attacked Equestria. She and her friends fled south and made her way down to Mount Aris thanks to a parrot named Captain Celaeno." Gallus explained with a low voice that almost trembled. "However, Celaeno wasn't a Navy captain. She was…"
Gallus was interrupted as the other ship stopped right next to theirs. It looked similar except with a darker wood shade and a giant hole on the side. One of the more questioning details was higher up the ship's mast. "Oi lads, why does that ship have a black flag with bones on it?" Pound Sterling asked.
"That usually means they're pira…." Scythe's answer was stopped short as he quickly realised why Gallus got worried, "Oh."
Gallus then made his answer as blunt as he could.
"Nicknames, you just fired at a pirate ship."
Four parrots jumped out from the hole in their ship and onto the deck. Two were green and strapping, one had a metal hook for a claw, and another had an eyepatch. The third was pink, rotund, and missing a chunk of its tail, while the last was a pale green, skinny man who wore a life preserver, goggles, and a metal piece on his beak.
A few hippogriffs jumped back and had claws on their weapons, ready to defend themselves as the pirates looked menacingly at the crew, except for the life-preserver one, who was laughing like a maniac.
Then things were quiet as one more parrot landed on the deck. This parrot was white and slender and, unlike the others, wore a gold-lined jacket with a gold-brimmed hat and a gold ring hanging off one of her ears. She stepped forwards, and one of her legs was replaced with an emerald sword that left piercing marks on the wooden floor and scanned the ship with her ruby eyes with a confident smile on her face.
"Well, well, I see hippogriffs, a few ponies, a griffon, and oh look, if it isn't the Big General himself…" she remarked as her eyes eventually caught and narrowed on Seaspray.
"Captain Celaeno, good to see you. Hope your voyaging has been fruitful?" Seaspray remained calm and professional, despite his frustration as he returned her stare.
"Oh, glad you asked. We were fine until our ship got a MASSIVE HOLE IN IT!"
"Yes, that is indeed a conundrum."
"Save the fancy words for Queen Novo when you explain why you fired on our ship. Last I checked, we still have her pardon after we helped defeat the Storm King. We even take jobs from her sometimes."
This detail raised a few of the ponies' eyebrows, as well as Gallus' "Wait, jobs from Queen Novo?" Aren't they pirates?" he muttered to himself. What seemed stranger still was that none of the hippogriffs seemed surprised themselves.
Overhearing, Captain Celaeno and her pirate crew briefly shifted their focus onto Gallus and his friends. "We are pirates, but legally…" the captain explained.
"We prefer the term swashbuckling privateers now", added her eyepatched crewmate. Guess they found working for Queen Novo to be better than for the Storm King after several years. Once the discrepancy was cleared up, Celaeno returned her focus to Seaspray.
"Besides, we didn't do anything to provoke you."
"Yes, well, the cannon fire was not deliberate, merely the result of an Equestrian on board," Seaspray justified as he glared at the ponies. Nicknames felt his head feel heavier with the guilt put on him. "We have cadets from Equestria's Royal Guard Academy who were all supposed to fill non-combative duties, except one decided to go astray."
"What? That's not true!" Lightning Dust called out. "He wasn't feeling well, thanks to the food we had to eat. No offence, but our ponies can't eat meat like you can."
"He threw up over the side of the deck."
"An' was sent to sick bay."
Although slightly embarrassed, Nicknames smiled as Lightning Dust, Scythe, and Pound Sterling tried to defend him.
"That may be the case, but instead of returning to his post or recovering in the resting quarters, he decided to wander into the gunnery and play around with one of the cannons like it's a toy," said Seaspray dismissively.
"I mean, that is half true…." Gallus muttered, trying to avoid eye contact with the General or his pony companions.
"Therefore, this is just another case of ponies causing mischief whenever they come. Even the griffon they brought with them couldn’t keep them in line. From now on, all cadets will be removed from the deck and confined to the crews' quarters for this voyage."
The declaration from Seaspray shocked everyone, especially the ponies. "Wot?! That ain't fair." Pound Sterling yelled out in disgust.
"Plus, that's a bit of a sweepin' statement", Captain Celaeno added, even though she found the declaration eyebrow-raising, "given it was ponies that also helped defeat the Storm King to save you a lot."
"And yet, as Major of the Sea Fleet, I witnessed the same Princess Twilight we all call heroes to try to steal our most sacred pearl, almost lost Lady Silverstream during her tenure as head of the School of Friendship and was the one who persuaded myself to hire a pony who damaged one of my finest ships. Just because they've done some good doesn't excuse the bad, this situation included."
The situation could have looked better for all of the cadets. They stood by as Seaspray chastised them and set to confine them to the resting quarters as punishment for one mistake. They were still trying to figure out what to do. Seaspray clearly had such a negative bias towards ponies that he won't reason with them. The other hippogriffs were unlikely to go against Seaspray as they stood by, avoiding even looking at the ponies. He also rebuked Captain Celaeno so quickly. It doesn't help she was a pirate too.
One other creature was standing right next to them, but he was also trying to avoid eye contact. "Hey. Feel free to help us anytime," whispered Lightning Dust towards Gallus.
"He's not wrong, though…." Gallus replied shakily.
"What side are you on?!" Lightning Dust hissed. "You want us all locked up and kicked out of the country?"
"No, but…"
"Well, talk 'im out o' it! Tell 'im he's wrong or sumthin'!"
"And risk subordination?"
Internally, Gallus was in a bind. He kept replaying his meeting with Seaspray, with daggers staring at him, warning him of being kicked out of Mount Aris if there was any trouble. That was the least that could happen. If Gallus objected and it backfired, it could be worse. He might not be able to see Silverstream again, let alone be able to reconcile with her.
But then again, the ponies standing right next to him are also his friends. He can't just do nothing and let them be walked off the plank… metaphorically. He knows as much as they do that this was not the accident that Seaspray was pretending it was, so he should stand up for what was right.
"It's no use. It's my fault anyways." Nicknames uttered, feeling the most defeated. "I shouldn't have done what the gunner told me."
Suddenly, something dawned on Gallus, a detail he had missed earlier.
"Keeping the Equestrian cadets away from causing further actions is the best course to preventing any further issues, and that's final," Seaspray stated firmly.
"No, you're wrong."
Things went silent. Seaspray's ears burned sharply and turned towards Gallus, perturbed at the assertion he had just heard the griffon made. "I beg your pardon?" he squawked back.
"I said you're wrong", Gallus reiterated, his anxiety had vanished as he narrowed his focus onto Seaspray. "Punishing all of us doesn't address the problem, let alone prevent it from happening again."
"Gallus, know your rank. If you dare defy me, you better have a good argument for it."
Gallus smirked. "Gladly. Nicknames didn't do anything wrong; he was just following orders." There was another air of silence. Hippogriffs looked at each other with confused glances. Even Nicknames needed clarification. He didn't recall being given orders.
Seaspray had a single eyebrow raised. "That must be the most ridiculous defence I've ever heard in my life, " he said bluntly.
"Is it?" Gallus quickly replied rhetorically. "Assuming your story is true, who's in more trouble? Is it the pony who fired the cannon, or you who failed to ensure the cannons were supervised by someone who knows how they work?"
Everyone on deck turned their heads back to Seaspray, who immediately went flustered.
"Preposterous!" he yelled out. "Navy regulations require all ships carrying heavy weaponry to always have a gunner on duty to ensure they're secure and ready to operate at a moment's notice."
Upon getting the new info, Gallus smirked again.
"So you know there must have been a hippogriff in the area with the cannons, one who knows how to set one up, one who's ranked higher than a cadet and as such would have authority to command a pony like Nicknames over there to fire it."
"I… suppose…" Seaspray grumbled, still irritated about being called out.
"Hey, Nicknames," Gallus turned to the pegasus pony, who raised his head, "who said you could fire a cannon?"
"Uh, it was him." With an outreached hoof, Nicknames pointed to Sonicboom, the navy-blue goggle-headed hippogriff.
"So, a gunner on duty told Nicknames to fire a cannon, almost as if it was an order. Your gunner is more responsible for firing at Celaeno's ship." Gallus argued. The other hippogriffs on the deck whispered amongst themselves, most in agreement with Gallus, but Seaspray just turned his beak up.
"An interesting theory, but gunners don't just fire cannons freely", he snobbishly rebutted. "Navy regulations stipulate that cannons can only be fired once per journey as a scheduled test fire when not engaged in combat. That's only when the line of fire is void of any ship or boat."
As such, Gallus turned back towards his friends. "Nicknames, did you or the gunner check if it was okay to fire the cannon at any point?"
Suddenly, Nicknames’ eyes widened, and he smiled. "Oh yeah, I asked," he recalled. "Sonicboom said he was due to fire one anyways, and he'd been on this route many times. He said the ocean is always clear, like a desert."
This took Seaspray by surprise. Surely his crew wouldn't break common sense protocol with some absurd excuse. He turned to Sonicboom, hoping to see some denial. Instead, he saw the navy blue hippogriff look away, scratching the back of his neck.
"YOU MEAN YOU DID A TEST FIRE WITHOUT CHECKING IF THE LINE OF FIRE WAS CLEAR?!" exclaimed Seaspray as he furiously walked up to Sonicboom until they were beak to beak.
"I mean, it was clear in previous journeys…." Sonicboom shakily excused, but it wasn't enough to avoid the trouble he was in.
"I get you've had bad times with ponies in the past. Believe me, I do, but don't blame them for stuff that's on you or your crew," said Gallus, confidently calling the General out in front of his crew. "You made that mistake once before with Rockhoof. I wouldn't make it a second time."
Seaspray turned his head to glare sharply at Gallus, the nerve to call him out like that. But Gallus stood firm and stared back. He wasn't afraid of Seaspray anymore.
"Just to say, on behalf of mi' mateys and mi'self, listening to this, I'm on the griffon's side. General, you have some issues to work on," Captain Celaeno cut in, preventing either side from arguing further. "Perhaps I'll bring them up with Queen Novo next time I see her unless you have any better ideas?"
Seaspray jumped. The Queen was the last person he wanted to be up against, and Celaeno would never bluff. If he were to argue any further, it'd look worse on him. As such, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and calmed himself.
"Captain, you can risk the journey to Mount Aris in your ship's current state and talk to Queen Novo directly. Or you can take the shorter journey with us to Ludo Isle," he begrudgingly offered. "I can make arrangements with the dockyard to repair your ship to working order free of charge if we keep this incident between us?"
Captain Celaeno smiled; she was interested in the offer. She turned back to her crewmates, and each one nodded in approval. A decent repair job at a Navy dock for free would be better than any repairs they had to pay for. Upon seeing unanimous agreement, she offered her claw to shake it. That was after she spat right on it. "Deal"
Seaspray looked repulsed, and he swallowed his pride as he firmly grabbed Celaeno's spit-covered claw and shook it. The peace agreement was made.
Whilst holding onto Seaspray's claw, Celaeno tilted her head to look at the ponies. "Oh, and the pony that fired the cannon, Nicknames, was it?" she called out.
"Yes, ma'am?" Nicknames cautiously answered.
"Great shot. You have no idea how hard it is to find a gunner who could hit a ship that far away."
Nicknames were blindsided, "Oh, thanks." He wasn't sure how serious that compliment was, but he felt relief that some creature thought he did something good for once.
As Celaeno tipped her hat, she and the rest of her crew jumped back onto their ship. They started to let down the sails and raise the anchor so they could set sail again. Meanwhile, Seaspray, after wiping his claw clean, turned back and gave an announcement to all crew on his ship.
"Attention everygriff pony and griffon. I want you all back to your posts. We'll continue the course to Ludo Isle."
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I love how Gallus was able to figure out was at fault here logically and how to fix it.
Nice chapter, two best birds in mlp having some interaction is always good : )
OBJECTION!!
11555548
hes not a dumb Gryph, he just has some confidence issues
Oh, is she now?
That's an understatement. The political ramifications alone is going to put them in plenty enough hot water, and Nicknames specifically even more so.
Ah, so that's where everything went wrong.
However, that means that this Sonicboom's probably the one who should be getting all the blame for this, because it was his idea, he was the one who instigated it, and he is the one who's in charge of making sure accidents such as this don't happen. But the real question is...will Seaspray be willing to see it that way? Or will he just automatically assign the blame for Nicknames because he's the pony who happened to be there too?
When there's time, Bluebird, we'll sit down and explain the concept of a "privateer" to ya.
Yeeeaaaah, thought so. Never mind if it's not a good time right now, Seaspray, we're sitting you down and explaining why that's all wrong RIGHT NOW.
Again, you were totally onboard with that idea at the time, Seaspray, so that one was just as much on you.
Heck, I could quibble about the others too, but this one's the most glaring.
See, this is why we don't go assuming things, particularly when handling something that's potentially lethal.
I do feel a little bad for Sonicboom though. I mean, yeah, he's still going to get the book thrown at him for this and rightly so given his arrogance, but it was also partly an honest oversight and partly him just trying to build good relations with their visiting guests--his intentions were at least good.
Ah, but good intentions aren't going to patch that hole in Celaeno's boat, nor mend the bruised political relations this needlessly caused, and somebody's gotta take the heat for this, so might as well be the creature responsible. Sorry Sonicboom, but can't exactly bail ya out of this one.
Oof, that's daring, Gallus. You could've just left it at giving Sonicboom the proper amount of blame, but you just had to go all the way and drive the point home right where it hurts the most for Seaspray on top of it all, embarrassing him in the midst of an already unflattering situation.
Still...somebody was going to have to do it eventually, so...might as well rip that band-aid off now and just get it over with.
Wha--how do you plan to keep that under wraps? Somebody still has to foot the bill for those repairs, and considering you're a government-funded vessel, Seaspray, if you do it yourself (and I don't see how you can't) then some bean-counter's going to take notice and start prying, and then you'll have that you tried to bury this on top of everything else marring your good name. I mean, good grief, stop while you're ahead and just man up to your own mistakes already!
She's got a point, too. Nicknames just might be in the wrong line of work. Might be something for him to discuss with the brass back home then, see if he can't get that special training so to exploit that skill to its full potential.
11555650
Well, not only that but he was already under extreme pressure from Seaspray to not mess up and really didn't want to do anything to tick the guy off, so up until now, he's been deliberately trying to play it safe where he could.
Fortunately, Gallus is a griffon. And like all griffons seem to be, he can't quite stop himself from speaking up and being brutally honest when needed.
11555650
That's true.
Gallus channeled his inner Phoenix Wright
and i am HERE for it
so General Seaspray how does the big helping of crow taste?
some one needs to be knocked back a rank or two till he learns to open his eye's and see every thing.
11555685
She's got a point, too. Nicknames just might be in the wrong line of work. Might be something for him to discuss with the brass back home then, see if he can't get that special training so to exploit that skill to its full potential.
Main problem with that is neither was aiming at anything at the time (there isn't even a brief passage saying they even looked out the porthole) ...
11555800
Details, details...
Actually I admit I had already thought of that too, but I still fully stand by the point, because Nicknames still clearly demonstrated an above than average knowledge and interest in it and without formal training beforehand--that was got Sonicboom's interest in him that got them both into this mess in the first place.
Never thought Nicknames would have some interest in large calibre weaponry like Sterling. Well, I hope we get more weapon talk; it's always interesting to see characters gush about stuff
What Celaeno why in the world is she attacking them
Nicknames stared at the two with a blank face.
"Well, I didn't MEAN to hit a ship."
Dude what were you thinking
And we thank you for that but that was just an accident we didn't know there was somebody out there
What
they didn't even do nothing wrong you just coming up with a lie just to save your own butt
You racist jerk
😡
Ooh I'm getting a Vibe of zootopia when Nick defended Judy
Ok wow that was a close call and I was starting to get a little bit worried so apparently what they hit was not just only a pirate it was Captain Celaeno ship and she didn't take it too kindly of this whole situation after getting hit by a cannon luckily nobody didn't get hurt but General seaspray basically jump the gun on the ponies thinking they will responsible for this which it was half true but not really but of course he didn't listen so Gallus Step Up to tell him what he thinks about the situation knowing for the fact that it was his ship and one of his crew who has a higher rank order nicknames to fire the cannon so the one who's at fault was not just only his Garner but him himself and Celaeno agreed to the situation what Gallus said and basically the general wanted to keep this to themselves and pay for the damage which she's okay with that as well but that means the ponies will not at fault and thank goodness for that but sometimes we was still not out of the woods yet or ocean whatever well I guess we'll find out next time
11555685
I especially love that he brings up that time he lost track of Silverstream. Because that incident he mentions happened while the Friendship School was closed. Silverstream wasn't even supposed to be in Equestria at all at that moment!
Kind of on-brand, though, ain't it? Blame it on someone else, if that doesn't work, brush it under the rug. Seaspray might be a noble himself, with the funds to pay out of pocket. If that's the case, it might also go some ways to explain how he got this post. Though, to be fair, he does appear to have some genuine skill, he's just letting bigotry blind him. Maybe he's also upset at how the Hippogryphs had to rely on Equestria defeating the Storm King instead? He's a military commander, that should've been his job.
Either way, Eggspray got Sea on his face.
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Who is more stupid the idiot who followed the order or the idiot who gave it?