Ponyville-class

by totallynotabrony

Chapter 3

Yokosuka, Japan

The US Seventh Fleet, based in Japan, had an area of responsibility that covered much of the Pacific. Not being a hot zone, the regular signals received were not usually very interesting. USNS Arctic has resupplied USS Kersage. USS Houston reports a large school of dophins. USS John Paul Jones requests status update on the Army-Navy game. The man sitting at the message desk sighed as he sorted through the teletype paperwork. It was his job to file reports by priority, and most were not very important.

A new report from Cushing about a suspicious fishing boat came in. It was tagged slightly above routine concern. Minutes later, however, a second transmission from the ship labeled FLASH made him sit bolt upright and grab for the phone. That tag was reserved for extremely urgent messages.

The man didn’t get the chance to use the phone very often, and did not know where it connected to. Still, he relayed the message from Cushing. “Shots fired, casualties sustained, pony involvement…”

Lieutenant Colonel Shining Armor was just sitting down to lunch when a US Naval attaché from the embassy came to find him. “Sir? There’s a phone call for you.”

The stallion looked forlornly at the menu he hadn’t opened yet. There was a reason he didn’t carry a cell phone during lunch break. It was supposed to be a break.

The man held out the phone and Shining took it, pressing it to his ear. Even during diplomatic duty on Earth, there were a surprising number of fires to put out.

“Colonel, it’s Wilmington. We’ve got a situation brewing out here in the Pacific.” Shining knew Captain Wilmington, USN was on the Seventh Fleet staff. The two had communicated before.

Shining asked, “What kind of situation?”

“Details are sketchy, but right now it looks like a group of ponies attacked a Navy ship.” It sounded like Wilmington could hardly believe it.

Shining got up from the table, thoughts of lunch abandoned. “Tell me what you know.”

The attaché quickly followed the pony as he strode out of the restaurant with the phone. In Shining’s ear, Wilmington was saying, “It started out as a routine inspection, but something happened. I’m not sure even the destroyer crew knows all the details yet. There were some casualties.”

“All right, I’m going to get a secure line to Canterlot. Get me an update when you can.” Shining gave the phone back to the attaché.

“Sir?” asked the man. “What’s happening?”

“I’m not sure, but it looks like the beginning of a big clusterbucking deal.” Shining momentarily chastised himself for letting some of his more basic Army vocabulary slip out. Hopefully the situation wasn’t serious enough to actually warrant that level of profanity yet.

Pacific Ocean, east of Japan

Minutes earlier…

Nolan watched nervously as the small boat approached. There were only six men aboard, but they were heavily armed. Smith’s orders were clear, however. Stop them from interrupting the spell at all costs.

To that end, Plan A was to deny everything and hope they left. The US ship wouldn’t be sending people over if they weren’t suspicious, though, so in the likely event that the first plan failed, they would have to fight.

The pistol in Nolan’s hand looked pitifully small compared to the weapons the Navy men were carrying. He made sure there was a cartridge in the chamber and tucked it behind his back, stepping out on deck. With him were three other men and five ponies.

The motor launch pulled up to the rail and five of the sailors clambered out of it and onto the deck of the fishing vessel. The last one stayed to secure the small boat.

“Who’s in charge here?” barked one of the visitors. Another one repeated the question in Japanese.

“That’d be me,” said a large man, stepping forward. His name was Breitel. Nolan thought he was a little bit of a hothead, but let the man take control of the situation.

“Are you in distress?” asked the sailor. The name on his uniform read Dunbar.

“Nope. We don’t need any help from you,” said Breitel.

“I’m sure you won’t mind if we take a look around,” said the Navy man. “Just a safety inspection.”

“There’s nothing wrong with our boat.” Breitel crossed his arms and glared.

“We’ve got the safety records if you’d like to look at them,” said Nolan.

“Show us where they are,” ordered the sailor, stepping forward. Breitel got in his way.

Dunbar looked him in the eye, not intimidated. “Are you blocking an official inspection?”

As the sailor stepped to the side to go around him, Breitel threw out an arm and shoved him back. The other boarders raised their weapons. The unicorn standing beside Nolan flinched, and a shower of sparks flew from his horn as he raised a defensive spell. Distracted by the light, the sailors aimed at him. Brietel took a step back, his hand out of sight behind Nolan’s back as he grabbed the other man’s gun.

Dunbar was the first man to be shot in the surprise attack, but that was quickly avenged by the sailor standing next to him, putting Brietel down. Nolan dove for cover as a couple of the unicorns blasted the sailors with spells. Bullets from both sides flew, and somewhere in the distance a machine gun begin to fire.

Without looking back, Nolan threw open a hatch and rushed down to the cargo hold. Mr. Smith looked irritated by the gunfire.

“They sent one group of six men,” gasped Nolan, panting with exertion. “The ship is right there, though. There’s no way we can run.”

Smith clenched his teeth. He glanced at the circle of ponies, still working on the spell despite the battle going on outside. After a moment, he walked over and tapped Star Show on the shoulder. The buildup of magic dissipated instantly.

★

Bryant pointed his rifle at the melee taking place aboard the fishing boat. It was too far for a sure shot, and he wasn’t willing to risk friendly fire. He watched helplessly as men he knew fought for their lives.

In the close quarters, it was over quickly. The sailor operating the small boat drew his sidearm and tried to pull his comrades to safety with the other hand. He shot one pony in the face, but was knocked overboard by a burst of magic from another.

None of the boarders were killed outright. All managed to make it off the fishing boat. As soon as the deck was clear, Bryant opened up with his rifle. Compared to the machine gun mounted solidly to the rail, his fire was probably ineffective. Still, he couldn’t stand around and do nothing.

Bryant was still pulling the trigger when the bolt locked back on an empty chamber. He hit the magazine release button and grabbed another mag from the pouch on his vest, slamming it home and slapping the bolt release. There were no more living targets on the fishing boat, however.

On the bridge, Sampson thanked his lucky stars that he had decided to wake the Commanding Officer. Commander Delgado had been observing since just before the first VBSS team had departed, so the shooting that had just taken place hadn’t happened under Sampson’s authority.

The older officer’s lips were twisted into a snarl, furious at what he had just witnessed. “Get us over there right now!” he shouted at the helmsman. “I don’t care if you ram them!”

Seconds later, a few unicorns came out on the fishing boat’s deck. They fired a couple of jets of magic at the fast-approaching warship. The SCAT men grabbed cover, save for one who raised his weapon and took aim. One of the magical attacks crushed the railing and smacked him against the bulkhead. His limp body fell forward, through the hole in the rail.

An unearthly glow surrounded the fishing boat and it suddenly vanished. There was no wake to indicate its passing, no hole in the water, nothing.

Stunned, Delgado ordered Cushing off flank speed. The boat, and the magical crew, had also disappeared from radar. There was no way to track them. They were gone.

With the enemy suddenly out of the picture, the number one priority shifted to rescue. The second VBSS team got in the other launch and began to recover the sailors in the water. The medical facilities were made ready.

The boat zipped around for hours before finally retiring to its davit aboard Cushing. The men disembarked, their faces depressed. The task had been grim.

Lieutenant Martin, deciding that helping out was more important than sleep, received the recovery team’s report and carried it to Commander Delgado.

“What is it?” asked the CO.

“I’ve got a list of casualties, sir. I believe it’s complete. There are seven: the whole first VBSS team and one from SCAT.” Martin handed the paper over for Delgado to read.

Michaels – injured

Dunbar – dead

Rockwell – dead

Alehandro – dead

Nakamura – injured

Philips – injured

Bryant – missing

Comments

[The Grey Pegasus]

I'm gonna give the random guess and say Bryant's gonna be pretty important for at least the next one or two chapters. If he makes it farther, then the whole story.

[Fernin]

Cheaty unicorn magic.

[An A10 Warthog]

1282602
I agree. It is often too OP. It needs to be like a flashbang. You know, stuns people but can't really kill.

[Kitsuneisuki]

1283819 I second this, seeing as apparently Magical Warfare spells haven't been used or developed for over a thousand years. Plus, magic is far too OP, seeing as it IS magic. I sure hope Bryant gets out alive...

[sockeye101]

I wonder if that fishing boat has an extra passenger aboard?