Ponyville-class

by totallynotabrony

Chapter 8

“Damage report!” demanded Commander Delgado. He’d watched the incident on deck. It was impossible to guess what might happen next.

The reports were slow coming in. An out-of-breath Shining Armor burst into the bridge. “Commander, we have a serious problem.”

Delgado motioned for the pony to explain. The unicorn took a breath and began. “We’re not sure of the whole situation yet, but it’s very powerful magic. I’ve got Giga Watt working on it. He says that it feels evil.”

“What kind of damage can we expect?” asked the man.

Shining paused. “I would say that the best-case scenario is if it bored a hole completely through the ship and dropped into the ocean. I have no idea what this thing is, but you don’t want it aboard.”

The pony departed. Delgado called the ships engineering and structures departments to the bridge. It was difficult to explain what was going on, as he didn’t know himself. He got the point across that everyone on board should be careful and consult with their Equestrian guests. The announcement went out on the 1MC.

Below, Shining looked at the underside of the neat hole that had been punched in the destroyer’s deck. He looked down at the hole in front of him where the mysterious orb had kept going. He called out, “Do you see anything?”

Giga’s face appeared briefly though the hole at Shining’s hooves. “It turned a corner. The exit hole in this compartment is in the wall!”

Shining thought that the technical term for a wall aboard a ship was actually “bulkhead,” but didn’t argue. He turned around to go find a way to join Giga on the next deck, and heard a clatter of small hooves and large boots racing towards him.

A red pegasus filly and a sailor skidded to a halt in front of Shining. Both were soaking wet and covered in small injuries. “Colonel,” gasped the man. “Got something important to tell you.”

The young pony was also out of breath, but started speaking very quickly. “It was the Nightmare! I saw it! They were trying to bring it back to life or something. There was this magic glowing thing that it was getting power from. Is it here? Is it on the ship?”

The man put in, “I think it might have been powered by blood. This Nightmare thing seemed like it was building up energy for something. It said it wanted to invade Earth.”

Shining looked back and forth between the two of them. This was perhaps worse than anything he could have imagined. The stallion hurried back to the CIC to get a line to Canterlot. Along the way, he encountered Bedrock.

The soldier looked up as Shining passed. Seeing the worried look on his superior’s face, he asked, “Is something wrong, sir?”

Shining motioned for him to follow. He explained the situation while one of the communications men got the channel set up. Bedrock looked like he could hardly believe it. “The Nightmare? Sir, that’s…”

“Supposed to be impossible, I know.” Shining looked up as one of the sailors handed him the microphone.

From the other end, Princess Celestia asked, “What have you learned?”

Shining cringed slightly. Celestia was one of the nicer ponies he knew, but he dreaded what he had to say. “Princess…we have a serious problem.”

Deep within the ship, Giga kept picking through compartments. Petty Officer Bryant had been recruited to help with the effort, despite his fatigue. The man clearly did not want to meet the Nightmare again, however he requested a dry set of clothes and a cup of coffee, and put his game face on. A few other sailors assisted them.

The next hatch was opened and Giga peered into the dark space. With a thought, his horn glowed and bathed the area with enough light to see by. There was a hole in the deck. The glowing red nuisance had gone even deeper.

Consulting a diagram of the ship’s structure, the unicorn frowned. “There’s only one deck lower than this one. The bilge.”

Bryant nodded wearily. “Let’s go.”

The two of them, plus a cadre of sailors, found the bilge inspection hatch and cracked it open. There was water there, but that was to be expected. The bilge on nearly every ship collected moisture from various sources and had to be pumped out constantly.

At the bottom of the bilge was the keel, the strong backbone of steel that the rest of the ship was built upon. Looking down the long narrow bilge compartment, Bryant spotted a red glow. Heart pounding, he grabbed a flashlight from another man and shined it over the area.

To his relief, there was no black pony silhouette. Giga stepped forward, leading carefully with his horn. “I don’t feel any evil presence. Some evil, sure, but I don’t think the Nightmare itself is here.”

The unicorn stepped closer, observing the pulsing magic sphere. It appeared to have embedded itself in the keel. It gave an angry flash as Giga approached.

“Okay then.” The pony backed slowly away.

“What do we do?” asked Bryant.

“We have no idea what that thing is capable of,” Giga told him. “If it’s a weapon, the ship is in grave danger.”

Bryant knew that even a little damage to the keel could be fatal to a ship. “What else could it be?”

The pony shook his head. “I haven’t the faintest clue.”

Comments

[AssortedCreme]

Perhaps it's delicious candy. He should lick it to make sure.

[MaxVive]

Just wanted to say that cover image is not a US Navy guided missile cruiser. Its also not an American warship.

[totallynotabrony]

1316232
Please enlighten me.

[Soundwave G1]

It's a japanese frigate if I'm correct. Here's a picture of the actual USS Cushing.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/USS_Cushing_DD-985.jpg

[totallynotabrony]

1316276
I'm pretty sure I have a picture of a Spruance-class, if not the actual Cushing. Yes, I'm aware that those are destroyers, not cruisers. Just keep reading. I'll explain it.

[Enceledus]

MOAR!

[kingtiger666]

I think it might be one of those little balls with the lightning inside them from Spencer's.