Ponies, cannons, and war

by Fashionably Late

Chapter 3: Meeting the natives and repairs

Author's Note:

Fashionably Late here and as promised chapter 3 in only a day or two later! Chapter 4 is probably going to take longer, but I'll just double down on My Little Pokemon Silver Spoon Version. Gotta be honest, that's tougher for me to write, but it's probably the one of the two stories that's gonna be finished. Also, minor edit to chapter 1 deleting the chest armor. I'll try and promise not to pull too many re-masters. Have fun!

“Ship’s log number 2, day 2. I’m tired, hurt and hungry…yesterday I had gunnery trails and they went well…well enough, I only got through half the targets before running out of training ammo. Last night I was attacked…ambushed really. I think they shot a star shell before blinding me with their searchlights. They got the first shot in, I think. They certainly kept shooting afterwards. Shot after shot and what did I do? I missed my first shot and they just kept shooting. My secondaries and torpedoes did most of the work…my freaking torpedoes did more work to stop them than my main battery did. I want radar…I need radar. I would’ve had a better time hitting them, hell I might have seen them coming long before they attacked. I need that refit yesterday. I need to get rid of my cage masts, I need radar and I want to be faster. I don’t care that no American ships got faster after their refit. I need to be faster. Kongou and her sisters got another three knots after their second refit, so why can’t I!?”

I was ranting. I didn’t care that I was ranting. Last night was a disaster, last night was hell. I didn’t get any sleep last night. I was too paranoid to do so. I wanted to keep steaming at flank speed, get away as fast as I could from them. Engineering shot that down hard. Didn’t want to push the power plant for so long and so hard. And my captain reminded me that my fuel stores wouldn’t last for so long under peak conditions.

And now that it was morning?

“Somebody is always watching, always.”

I wasn’t relieved. Instead I was left scanning the water for torpedoes, the horizon for Morgana ships, and the skies for their planes.

Morgana

That’s what I was fighting last night. Not some zombie/ghost ship from the abyss seeking revenge against humanity. Not some delusional time traveling shipgirls from the future wanting to fight alien kaiju from deep beneath the earth.

Morgana

A fleet of warships controlled by strange mechanical women who mercilessly attack anything and anyone caught within their mists. And I know jackshit about them.

I don’t know if I’d fare better against eldritch abominations. I don’t know if I could handle time traveling cryptics. But at least I’d have an idea on what I was dealing with. With the Morgana? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Stupid, so very stupid.

I was supposed to be a kanmusu, a shipgirl. I was supposed to be fighting zombie/ghost ship eldritch abominations that, for the most part, were nothing more than mindless monsters. I’m not a belle, I didn’t just manifest aboard a ship to protect my crew from gas.

I am the ship.

I don’t know if I can do this. I had to do this. I mean, what was the alternative? Lay down and die? No, I had to keep going. Just…just keep…going.

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.

---

Summer Rain smiled as she stared off at the horizon from the bow of her ship, Clearwave. The Princesses’ sun was shining, they had an excellent wind blowing directly into their sails, and had seen neither hide nor hair of any pirate ship, creature from the deep, or even a Pegasus or Griffon attempting to fly across the sea who needed a place to rest. It was a beautiful day.

They were four weeks into their month-long assignment to protect the trade route to the Griffish Isles from Fillydelphia. A route that, while normally peaceful, did occasionally attract a pirate ship looking for a quick bit. She had heard that the kingdom of Griffons had fallen on hard times recently and therefore it was entirely possible that the Equestria Navy would see an increase in piracy over the next few years. Even extending the patrol all the way to the shores of Griffonstone in order to protect Equestrian lives.

With a heavy sigh, Summer Rain turned away from the railing to see her first mate waiting at attention.

“Anything to report Mr. Squall?”

“Nothing of any note ma’am. There have been no sightings of any vessels within our A.O. We are currently still on schedule for the final portion of our patrol.” Squall reported as they trotted towards the aft of the ship, Whitecap nodding in reply to each pony they passed that stopped to salute her.

“Very good. If there’s nothing else, I will retire to my cabin for a time. Squall, you have the conn.” Squall saluted in response.

“Yes ma’am! I have the-.”

“Captain! You're gonna wanna come up here!” A voice interrupted from up above them, the two ponies exchanging a surprised look before galloping up the stairs to the helm. Both ponies skidded to a halt next to a thoroughly shocked looking earth pony.

“Report! What is it?” Summer Rain ordered, hoping that the sternness in her voice would knock the sailor out of their stupor. Unfortunately, the earth pony’s jaw remained lowered as they turned to stare at the captain.

“I…I’m not sure Captain. I think it's best if you see it for yourself.” The earth pony, aptly named Spy Glass, admitted as he hoofed over his telescope, the ponies who had gathered to see what was happening murmuring in unease as Summer Rain took the offered spyglass. “Its at about two o'clock, ma'am. Moving westward.”

Closing an eye, Summer Rain peered through the telescope in order to try and find just what exactly had so startled the poor stallion, the captain's vision adjusting to the view. And after a few seconds of staring out to sea, her own jaw fell just as wide as Spy Glass’s.

---

“Oh, Taco Bell, Taco Bell, product placement with Taco Bell. Enchirito, Nacho, Burrito!”

I might be starting to lose it. Well at least I made it to day two. I could really go for Taco Bell’s baja blast though. And their two or three taco meal, maybe add in some of those cinnamon twists.

Actually now that I think about it, I’m going to need a lot more than just three tacos, cinnamon twists and a large soda to feel full aren’t I? In the anime, shipgirls eat a lot of food. I seem to recall Akagi and Yamato eating so much food that they had a human sized rice cooker on standby…and they still ran out of rice… Welp, as a battlecruiser I shouldn’t need as much food as those two, right?

Still, that would make eating and replenishment a tad difficult now wouldn’t it? Wait, eating and replenishment are the same thing…well that just means replenishment and repairs now does it? I mean, how do I even repair myself? Do I just jump into a tub and a magical timer will tell me how long I’m supposed to soak for? Or do I need a dedicated dockyard for that? I hope it’s not the latter. I don’t even know how to build one of those, I’d probably have to summon a repair ship for that. And I don’t even know how to summon a ship in the first place!

Ok, ok, one thing at a time. First thing is to find land. I find land, I find a coast and I find a coast then I can find a city and if I find a city I find a port.

Oh yeah, it’s all coming together.

“Are you ok, miss?”

“Gah!” And in my moment of absent mindedness I let myself get ambushed again.

In the span of a heartbeat I dove away from where I had been trotting and turned my guns towards the enemy.

…

Or I had turned my guns towards a pair of pegasi hovering above the waves staring at me.

…

Huh, well don’t that beat all?

A pair of pretty pegasi. Actually, if the bulk of the orange one was anything to go by then at least one of them was actually a stallion. The slim, lithe one with the snow white mane was probably a mare.

Either way, they didn’t look like sunken eyed abyssals, mechanical morgana or even…well actually the white one did kinda remind him of a siren, just without the tentacle cannons.

Still, considering they haven’t started shooting at me yet, I’ll play ball for now.

“Sorry about that, I kinda had a bad time last night. Could ya repeat that again?” I asked standing straight while keeping my guns trained in their general direction.

It seemed to work, more or less. I got their attention, but they were still leery of my guns. Either they knew what my guns were or they just didn’t like something strange pointed at them.

“Dear Celestia! What happened to you? You look like you got into a fight with a dragon!” Exclaimed the mare, and it was a mare considering the voice, as she stared at the bruises and burns from last night’s engagement.

“It was worse…” Before I could go on any further I paused when what she said just sank in.

Dear Celestia…

As in Princess Celestia. As in Twilight Sparkle’s teacher. Twilight Sparkle, the element of magic, one of six main characters of the show My Little Pony Friendship is Magic.

I was in MLP!

That…that…huh, that would explain the whole pony thing. The spin off Equestria Girls had a pair of portals connecting Equestria to a mirror world with humans in it and while one of those portals was created by Starswirl the bearded to travel to that world, thus the whole pony-human transformation would be built in, the other one was a natural portal, or at least not purposely designed and thus the transformation thing was…normal? Bah, I shouldn’t even be thinking about this, it’s not like I had a degree in quantum physics.

I mean, I was wondering about that but I decided that figuring out how to walk, finding land and learning to use my guns were more important yesterday. Last night…

Anyway, I was in a world full of colorful equines who dealt with a world ending threat every other…season? I mean, there was Nightmare Moon in season 1, Discord, Queen Chrysalis and the changelings in season 2, King Sombra in season 3, Tirek in season 4, Starlight Glimmer in season 5, and finally Queen Chrysalis and the changelings in season 6. No no nevermind, it was every freaking season. And that wasn’t including the “friendship problems” that could spoil into bigger problems like Nightmare Moon part 2 because Celestia and Luna hadn’t learned their lesson the first time and needed Starlight force them into spending a day in each other's shoes.

And here I was fighting Morgana last night! Oh god, Equestria is not ready for this!

“Miss, are you okay?” The orange stallion repeated his earlier question.

“Yeah, it looks worse than it is.”

“My name is Orange Drop and this is Snowstorm.” He gestured toward the white pegasus. “Our captain sent us to see if you needed any assistance. Our ship, the Clearwave, is doubling back to our location right now. If you need any medical aid we’ll be more than happy to provide it for you back on the Clearwave.”

“I see.” This…this could work. “I’m actually lost right now. Do you happen to have a map on you?”

“No ma’am. I don’t have a map on me, but our ship does. If you’d like to follow us back we can provide you safe passage back to Equestria.”

“Yeah sure, I’d like that.”

---

“Pony off the port side! Fast approaching! She’s easily making sixteen knots!” Shouted Spy Glass.

Summer Rain along with most of Clearwave’s medical staff waited as four unicorns lowered the gangplank into the water and kept it steady so that they could bring the marooned pony aboard. Snowstorm had reported that Orange Drop convinced the mysterious mare to return to the ship with him and that they should prepare for her to embark. Summer Rain nodded at the pegasus and issued orders to that effect within seconds.

Despite how surreal it was to see a mare skate across the waves as if it were an ice rink, Summer Rain had a duty to help any pony in need and immediately ordered Orange Drop and Snowstorm to the air and see if the pony needed any aid. After giving it a minute of thought she concluded that it had been a unicorn she had seen using magic to skate on water. A unicorn who had to be a passenger on a merchant ship that either got carried away with using her magic to skate on water that she lost track of her ship, was knocked off her ship by a rogue wave, or had just escaped from a rogue pirate ship and was desperately sailing towards Equestrian shores.

“Permission to come aboard!” Shouted an unknown mare’s voice.

Considering Orange Drop had just flown over the railings, Summer Rain could only assume their guest had arrived, but instead of rushing up the ramp as expected the stranger had requested permission to come aboard instead.

“Permission granted.” She shouted back.

From the looks of strain on the unicorns’ faces their mystery mare started walking up the ramp.

As the mystery mare walked up the gangway, Summer Rain saw a tall thin tower of metal pipes criss-crossing every which way rising up with every step the mare took. The next thing she saw were four large metal blocks by the mare’s side that, alarmingly, housed eight long thin cannons that were on top of facsimiles of a ship’s bow and stern embroidered with even more cannons. How a unicorn could carry such large cumbersome “saddlebags”, Summer Rain didn’t know.

The mare herself, stepping onto the top of the ramp, was plain by comparison. Rosy coat, brown mane and equally brown eyes hidden behind a pair of glasses completed the look. The only thing unusual about the mare, beyond her “saddlebags” was the absence of a horn that Summer Rain assumed was the secret to the mare’s ability to skate on water.

That was cemented the moment the mare stepped aboard and the saddlebags disappeared in a bright white light.

Magic? But how? She’s not a unicorn, so how did she cast a spell? Who is she?

“Hello there. I am Captain Summer Rain, may I ask for your name?”

---

My name?

What…what was my name?

It must have shown on my face since the mare, Summer Rain, looked concerned.

“Are you alright?”

No, no I wasn’t. I’ve been transformed into a pony ship thing, stranded in the middle of nowhere and ambushed at night by an unknowable enemy. And now I find out that I didn’t even know my name. I could remember other things about my life as a human, but not my name. And it wasn’t like I could take on the name of the ship I was. It was a paper ship, it didn’t have a name, and it wasn’t like I could come up with one on the spot. No, I was not alright.

“I…I can’t remember.” I finally admitted.

“You can’t remember?” She asked, confused.

“I can’t remember my name.”

“...do you remember why or how you were skating on water?” She asked, concerned as her crew began murmuring amongst themselves.

“Skating on water?”

“I and one of my spotters spotted you skating on water.”

Oh, she meant sailing.

“I was trying to sail towards land.” I said ignoring the how part of that explanation.

“Do you know how long you were sailing?”

“Since yesterday.”

“Do you remember anything before yesterday?”

“I don’t…I don’t know or remember why I was in the middle of the ocean.” I replied.

“And did you have those…burns and bruises then?” She asked haltingly.

“...”

“I understand if you don’t remember how you got them. Do you want our doctors to look over your injuries?”

“No, no. I’m good. I just want to take a bath and get something to eat.” I tried to change the subject.

I did not want to explain having been shot up by morgana and what they were yet.

“...if you’re sure?” At my nod she relented. “Snowstorm, I want you to take her to medical and inform them our guest wants a bath.”

---

“Ma’am, are you sure you want to take a bath right now? It could aggravate injuries that we don’t know about.” A stallion wearing a doctor’s coat asked worriedly.

“Yes, yes I do. Now could I get some privacy here?” I asked tiredly.

The stallion made to interject before Snowstorm shoved him out the room.

“Look, if she wants to take a bath after sailing for a day then she should. Besides, the captain gave the ok.” Looking over at me she nodded. “Enjoy your bath! Just holler if you need anything!”

And with that I was left alone with a tub of warm water.

“This better work.” I said as I stepped into the tub and laid down completely, leaving only my head exposed.

It was rather relaxing, I thought. Hadn’t taken a bath in a long time, it was always a shower that was probably hotter than necessary. Except when I was in the Philippines and the water tanks hadn’t been installed. So many cold showers…

Shortly after that thought, the crystal clear water started glowing a green light and my body really warmed up. A series of numbers appeared at the end of the tub across from my face and started counting down.

“I’m going to be here for half an hour if ya don’t mind!” I hollered at Snowstorm as the timer started ticking down from 25 minutes and 30 seconds.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Why not make the cover art something that’s actually from Kantai Collection?

[Fashionably Late]

11871392
If I started the story with a character from Kancolle, then sure. Yeah, I'd be tempted to make the cover art something from Kancolle, but as is no character from Kancolle has appeared yet. Only thing from Kancolle as of now is some concepts from fairies to repair. Besides, as far as I know the image is in the public domain.