Ponyville-class

by totallynotabrony

Chapter 6

It was an agonizing wait. As the destroyer sliced through the waves, every man and pony aboard passed the time in distressing silence.

Lemon Slice, the pegasus, had volunteered to carry a camera aloft. Shining Armor ordered her to stay close to the ship. Anything that could take down a helicopter was not to be approached by a lone pony.

The range to target slowly counted down. Eventually, Lemon returned, lugging a huge telephoto lens. Images from the digital camera were processed as quickly as possible. They were small and grainy, but she had photographed the elusive fishing boat.

“Sir, once we close to thirteen miles, we can engage with the five-inch,” said Martin.

Commander Delgado checked the radar display. “Very well.”

The ship’s guns could fire various types of shells. Armor piercing rounds would lance straight through the old boat without actually doing much damage. Martin called the ammunition room. “Load up the guns. High explosive shells, contact fused.”

The automated fire control calculated the range and made adjustments. The forward gun barrel elevated and swung to line up with the target bearing. All the computer needed was the order to fire.

★

Shining Armor’s voice was scratchy, having been bounced through a satellite or two and gone through the dimensional communication transfer. His emotion and urgency carried over, however. “We’re closing in. I think they’re going to start shooting as soon as possible.”

From her desk in Canterlot Castle, Princess Celestia listened carefully. As leader of Equestria, she’d been kept updated on the situation in the western Pacific. “I hope you understand that capture is preferable.”

“Yes, Princess,” said Shining. “I don’t know if that’s going to happen, though. Everyone aboard the ship is angry, and I think I understand how they feel.”

Celestia sighed. “Do what you can.”

“Yes, Princess.” The soldier signed off.

Equestria used to be an isolated nation. Other countries, such as the Griffon Kingdom, had had minor squabbles with the ponies over the years, but to truly make a mess of international relations, the dimensional portals were unequaled.

Equestria wasn’t on bad terms with many people, it was just that human problems had a remarkable tendency to spread. Celestia rolled her eyes. Modern media was mostly to blame. The old days of printing presses and low volume newspapers were over. Everything was now being carefully observed and blown out of proportion. It was certainly a good thing that she had quite a bit of practice at public speaking.

Regardless of why a small renegade group had attacked a US warship, Celestia knew she should probably be preparing a statement. Because the incident had involved ponies, she would eventually be asked about her opinion on the matter.

Well, maybe there was some way to put a positive spin on it when writing the speech. The royal pony turned to the computer terminal in her office, considered it for a moment, and then grabbed a quill and parchment. Not even the magic of spell check could break a thousand-year-old habit.

★

The passageway beyond the door was fairly dark. Bryant took that to mean it was probably deserted. The man he’d captured walked ahead of him, the filly he’d rescued trailed behind.

“Which way to the open air?” whispered Bryant.

The man pointed forward, towards a set of stairs that led upwards. The sailor nodded. “You go first.”

The guard-turned-prisoner looked like he was about to protest, but thought better of it. He walked up the stairs and disappeared into the next deck. Bryant quickly charged after him, trying not to let the man out of his sight.

A bullet sparked off the metal stanchion beside his head. Bryant dropped back down the stairs, firing upwards. He jerked his hand violently, directing the young pegasus to run. As the pair of them sprinted away, Bryant fired a couple of times over his shoulder to discourage pursuit.

The passageway came to a T, and the sailor made a snap decision which direction to take. He thought quickly, trying to remember how many cartridges he had expended. Five. That left eleven in the gun. Assuming he’d counted right.

“There’s got to be another way out,” Bryant muttered. The little filly didn’t speak, too scared to do anything but run. The man had heard most pegasi didn’t gain flying skills until they were equivalent to human preteens. He had no idea what age the foal might be, but her wings didn’t look very developed.

“Can you swim?” he asked. There was no guarantee that they would be able to find any other way to get off the boat.

“I can float pretty good,” she answered.

“What’s your name?”

“Penny. What’s yours?”

“Edward Bryant. Call me Ed.”

The two of them came across a ladder that led to a shut hatch-like cover. With any luck, it would lead straight to the deck. Bryant told the pony to wait and mounted the ladder, tucking the gun in his belt to open the hatch.

In another part of the ship, Smith paced back and forth. “And what happened next?”

“I went up the ladder and managed to get away,” said the man.

Smith nodded. “All right. Come over here.”

He and the man who had been guarding the filly stepped into the cargo hold. Smith guided the guard over to the center of the circle. Star, standing unobtrusively by the table, stealthily drew the dagger out of its box.

“Do you see this?” asked Smith, pointing at the open suitcase. The glass ball glimmered with magic.

The man nodded. “It needs some kind of shed blood to reach full power, right?” His face suddenly took on a worried look.

Smith chuckled. “Do you think I’m going to use you for that?”

The man relaxed a little. “I thought that maybe after I let the pony escape…”

“Yeah, you screwed up. It’s not going to happen again, though.” Smith grabbed the dagger that Star levitated over to him and slashed the man’s throat. Blood gushed everywhere. The glowing orb flashed red with its first taste of the crimson liquid.

Smith grabbed the limp body by a foot and dragged it out of the circle. He looked at Star. “That helped, but we still need to find the others.”

The pony thought for a moment. “We can start now. I think we might have just enough stored magic to start the connection. We’ll need more to get the Nightmare fully through.”

Smith nodded appreciatively. “Get it done.”

Behind the two of them, the magical containment globe pulsed with an evil light. Previously, it had just held neutral energy. Now, maliciousness had been planted in it. It would be a perfect enticement for the Nightmare to come to Earth.

★

Shining Armor watched the tension among the men in the CIC. They were all anxiously awaiting the order to fire. The computer mulled the data over again and decided that hitting the target was feasible. Firing Solution flashed on the screen.

Even from deep within the hull of the ship, it was easy to hear the explosive report of the forward gun. Three seconds later, a new round had been loaded and it thundered once more.

Lemon Slice had again volunteered to be spotter. After strapping on a radio and donning hearing protection, the pegasus had gone up to observe the attack. From her position above the destroyer, she could faintly see the target ship on the horizon. With a borrowed pair of binoculars, the mare was barely able to pick out tall splashes as the first few shells missed the target. Still, they came remarkably close for being fired from thirteen miles away.

The fire control computer tracked the flying ordnance in midair and adjusted trajectory accordingly. The extreme distance meant that each shell had to trace a very high-reaching arc in order to land where it was supposed to. Factoring in wind and weather was also important.

Martin held his breath. It would take a few shots to zero in, but the computer was remarkably good at holding steady after that. The five-inch shells did not carry the destructive power of missiles, but there were hundreds of them on board. If necessary, Cushing would keep firing until her magazines were exhausted. The fishing boat wouldn’t escape a second time.

★

The deck above was clear. Bryant dropped down and hoisted the filly back up the ladder. He climbed it after the pony and shut the hatch behind him. There was a porthole down the way that Bryant was happy to realize was streaming in sunlight. It was not a way out, but they were getting close.

A door opened ahead and a stallion stepped out. His eyes focused on the two escaped prisoners and he opened his mouth to shout. Bryant shot him between the eyes, the gun making a far louder noise than a yell.

The sailor charged forward, hoping to catch any other hostiles off guard. A man with a shotgun appeared and Bryant began pulling the trigger. Four shots before the attacker slumped to the ground.

Bryant was reaching for the fallen attacker’s weapon when a pegasus shot towards him down the passageway. Two shots to down the pony, and one to make sure he stayed there. Penny shouted a warning an instant before Bryant was hit from behind. A wave of telekinesis sent him sprawling. He rolled, trying to get the gun up. The unicorn that had attacked him wrestled with the weapon. It fired wildly a couple of times.

The little pegasus foal leapt into action, pulling on the stallion’s tail. Bryant pointed the pistol at the distracted unicorn’s face and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. The handgun’s slide was locked back on an empty magazine and he’d failed to notice it until then.

Bryant threw the pistol at the unicorn and it glanced off his forehead. He grabbed the pony by the throat and slammed him against the wall, aiming for a protruding bolt. Whether or not it cracked the stallion’s skull, the pony went limp.

Gathering Penny in his arms, Bryant sprinted back towards the sunlight. From an open door, a rope darted in front of his feet, propelled by magic. The little foal went flying, more ropes snatching her out of the air before she could struggle.

Bryant’s hands and feet were bound tightly within seconds. A small crowd of unicorns gathered around, controlling the spells that snared him. He and Penny were carried back below decks, all their forward progress for nothing.

Bryant expected to be returned to the closest where he had regained consciousness. Instead he was taken into a large open compartment that smelled like dead fish.

In the center of the space was a small case with a shimmering red light emanating from it. A dark silhouette seemed to float in the fiery glow. It was pony-shaped and appeared to somehow have a face.

The figure turned to look at the newcomers. Its smoky, transparent body seemed incapable of leaving the vicinity of a gleaming glass ball that rested in the suitcase.

The empty eye sockets and toothless mouth only added to the being’s sinister appearance. Bryant’s mouth had gone dry. His dread only increased when it spoke. “Very good. These will do nicely.”

A man holding a knife appeared to be the one the monster was addressing. He stepped towards where Bryant and Penny lay on the deck. The filly whimpered, “That’s th-the Nightmare!”

The cloudy disembodied pony chuckled, it voice menacing. “Well, I see that my last appearance in the physical world left an impression on Equestria. They’re even teaching the foals about it.”

Bryant had no idea what was going on. It had been almost fifteen years since first contact with the ponies, and he was sure that this…thing had never showed up since then. The sailor was no expert on ponies, but something like that surely would have made the news. He muttered, “What the hell is going on?”

Comments

[themultiversewatcher]

Modern media was mostly to blame. The old days of printing presses and low volume newspapers were over. Everything was now being carefully observed and blown out of proportion.

This reminded me of a song.

[totallynotabrony]

2132918 Huh, I could have sworn this was The Eagles as a whole group. Still a nice song.

[Railroad Brony]

What class of destroyer is the Cushing?

[Railroad Brony]

philosophers-stone.co.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/So-it-begins-the-great-shitstorm-of-our-time2.jpg

[Boof Man]

2833652
I'd assume it's the standard Burke class, since that has been the only class of destroyer built since the 80's after the Oliver Hazard Perry class was removed from service.

EDIT: It wasn't, I figured that out a few chapters later.