> The Detective Turned Smuggler
>  by Lamasioux
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prelude
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

June 1st, 1009

The Changelings sent their declaration of war and have started their advance into Olenia defenses. Their forces are only able to hold for some weeks before the lines start to break away and be pushed back.

Prior to the declaration, Olenia had been preparing the past year in preparation for a potential war with the Changelings after seeing them ramp up their military and from Queen Chrysalis’ changes to the country.

Now that war has officially begun, only time will tell when the Changelings will win, assuming no country rushes to the aid of the ocean going deer.

    November 1st, 1009
The Olenian-Changeling War has resulted in over a little 100,000 deer and pony deaths so far, with almost half the country being under Changeling occupation. In the city of Vaverfront, the enemy line looms on the horizon to the north east.
> Chapter 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

November 26th, 1009


 


"You see, I drove all sorts of folk to the front. Always ambitious about learning something new there. Learning what they could do to end this damn war or being the hero for their group of dumb fucks. But you see, they never were able to bring something back that was useful. Whatever useless shit that was crammed into their minds in basic was forgotten pretty fast by most I bet. Only thing they ever learned in the end was how to die. Not a very useful skill for living now ain't it?"


    That quote stuck with Torsti. Work had been slow last week and most soldiers who had been to the front knew of the true situation and also had no care for spilling the truth of how bad it was. Vaverfront was the staging ground for new recruits before being driven off to the front lines not far from the outer city and Torsti had stopped by the military base on the outskirts of town to ask one of the drivers about the war. He answered quickly before shooing him away. Torsti had gotten his answer so he no longer had any reason to linger at the base unless he wanted to be thought a changeling spy, so he left. It didn’t require knowing anything else though with the distant booms of artillery going off that have grown in the past five months.

    Thankfully getting back to the inner city was fast nowadays though. Nearly all cars had been requisitioned by the military throughout the country to aid the war effort. Only few remained. The local police in Vaverfront weren’t spared in the pickings though. Torsti had requested to use one of the force's cars today for ‘work’ which was ultimately just his ride to the military base. He’d just have to make sure he scrambled some details here and there if asked what he had used it for.

    On his way back though, as he was driving through the residential area of the city, a young buck trotted out into the road, waving down Torsti in what looked like a frantic state. Torsti stopped the car on the side of the road just past the buck and started opening the door before the buck ran up.

“Sir!” The buck ran past Torsti’s door and leaned against the hood catching his breath, almost as if they had just finished their last day of basic for the Blue Antlers.

“Just catch your breath first of all you idiot.” Torsti had stepped out of the car by now and was coating himself up with his jacket that had been in the open passenger seat, all the while he kept an eye on the deer.

The buck looked frustrated at Torsti’s request but took a few breaths anyways, making each inhale bring in the crisp air, “Sir.” He said again, but more collected this time.

“First off, don’t go running off into the street like you did, if cars weren’t extinct, you could’ve been hit.” Torsti said as he stretched his back into a comfortable position in his jacket. He looked around, in search of any other unexpecting deer that might be coming up in a frantic mood, failing to do so though.

“That house sir. They’re my neighbore and I just happened to be checking up on them today to see what they had been doing last night and-- Well fuck.” The buck was pointing with a hoof at the mentioned house. His next words made his whole body shiver ontop of the cold shivering he was already experience due to lack of propper clothing, “Fucking head man.” He looked at Torsti with a scared look, “It’s gone…”

“Gone? What?” Torsti finally gotten around to closing his door as he walked around the other deer to the front of his car before stopping and staring at the house before turning around to face the deer again, “What’s your name first off?”

The deer had pushed themselves off the side of the car and looked between Torsti and the house, pointing at the house again as if it was of more importance, “But that’s more importa--” He was cut off quickly by Torsti.

“Name.”

The deer gave a stare at him only momentarily before taking a quick sigh to calm themselves knowing nothing would happen without his name, “Vesa Reijo. I’m their neighbor, as I said.” He then pointed to another house nearby and said, “That’s my house.” He said everything fast, trying to get any information the Torsti might find useful, “Anything else? My bud was just killed, can we please get to that.”

Torsti let out a sigh and turned to the neighbor's house and said, “It’s good enough for now.” He then turned back again and asked, “Alright then Vesa. Want to take me there or are you some changeling spy out to get the police force killed off?” Torsti then patted himself on the side, searching for his hidden revolver that he had hidden under his uniform and jacket.

“I-” Vesa said before cutting themselves off, “Don’t make me show you again after this.” He then walked past Torsti and motioned for the officer to follow.

The buck guided Torsti to the house, which door was open and took Torsti to an upstairs room, which door was closed and stopped. The house itself was one of the newly built houses in the city that was made during the population boom years ago as deer came in for jobs in the electrical and forestry sectors.

“Here it is, inside this room.” Vesa tapped on the door handle to the room with his hoof before moving out of the way for the officer, “I haven’t messed with anything besides opening the door once already.”

Torsti looked at Vesa as he moved away and took his spot. He put his hoof on the door handle and turned it and pushed the door open, which revealed to him a headless deer in the middle of the bedroom.

“By the gods!” Torsti instencevly said. He quickly turned back but left the door open and looked at the other deer with open eyes. His gaze then drifted away as he thought on a few things before motioning the other deer to go back downstairs, “Outside, go.” Was all Torsti said before pushing him out, whether he was moving or not. Torsti himself was also leaving, following Vesa right behind.

Once the two had made it out of the house, Torsti said, “Alright, listen.” He pointed with a hoof to the house they just left, “Don’t go in. Don’t say anything. Don’t do anything. Just,” he motioned towards the deers house they said was theirs, “Just go there and wait until I come back with more officers. I can’t believe this is an actual case.” He shook his head trying to remove the image of the headless corpse.

Torsti quickly made his way back over to the car and opened the door and plopped himself inside, closing the door and removing his jacket after a few moments of struggle and putting it back in the passenger's seat. He started to rummage around in the back for a bag, finally finding it and pulling out a notepad and pencil. He wrote down some quick notes regarding what he saw, the type of deer Vesa was and the address of both the neighbor and Vesa’s house before quickly getting out with the notepad and pencil and making his way over to Vesa’s house.

Torsti had only been a minute in his car but he quickly knocked on the door, waiting the second it took for Vesa to answer before saying, “So here’s what’s happening right now. As I said, don’t do anything, but most of importantly, make sure no one goes into your neighbors house while I’m gone. And second, what was the deer's name?”

“Nooa Lari. They were about 34 if I had to guess.” He was about to head back inside before he said, “And if you’re wondering, I just found out a few minutes before I saw you driving up. They were alive last night to my knowledge.”

Torsti was writing down what Vesa said before saying, “Alright, more questions are going to be asked once we’re back. I need to get more officers here before we can start getting deep into the investigation.” Torsti sighed and shook his head, “Damn crazy world. How’d it align to be me who had to deal with it.” He then said, “But anyways, sit tight and just make sure nothing else happens.” He then waved the deer off and headed back to the car.

Torsti got in and leaned back into his seat a bit and closed his eyes, “Gods fucking damnit.” he shook his head, looked back over at the house with the dead body in it before starting up the car and taking off down the street. His current heading was the police HQ.

Torsti pulled into the back of the HQ, leaving everything but some ID and headed inside through the back. He was met by another officer who greeted him, but only replying, “Just got a headless body case ten minutes ago. Going to be a busy fucking few days.” He didn’t stop to chat anymore and made his way to the police chief where he informed him about the situation. It didn’t take long before Torsti had gotten a few other officers up and moving back outside where Torsti and two other deer jumped into the car he had been using with four others loading into two more cars. Within ten minutes of arriving at the station, Torsti and the other six were now making their way back to the address of the incident. Torsti telling the two others with him in more detail on what had happened.

Torsti led the way and once they arrived, Torsti pulled in front of Vesa’s house on the side of the empty road, one of the other cars pulling behind with the last one driving past and turning around to park facing the opposite direction.

Torsti dressed up in his jacket again and brought his notepad and pencil again with him as he followed three of the other deer into the neighbors house.

“Nothing looks off besides the open door so far. Was it like that when you arrived?” Aulis asked. He was one of the other officers who had come.

“Yeah, open but I’ve just assumed Vesa had opened it and never closed it. Guess that’ll be one of the questions he’ll be asked.” Torsti responded. He motioned upstairs and guided Aulis and one other upstairs. The 3rd one wandering off on the first floor for whatever might’ve caught their eye.

Torsti arrived to the open doorway to the bedroom that housed the body, stopping before he could turn the corner, “Here it is.”

Aulis looked at Torsti, who nodded to him before returning it, taking a breath and walking past into the doorway themselves to get the first look of the body. After a few seconds he finally started to breath again and walked in, “Fuck.”

Mauri followed suit and walked past Torsti, joining Aulis in the room.

“Good luck boys. I’ll be off to start my questions with Vesa. I’ll be over at his house if you have anything to report.” With that, he pounded his hoof on the wall lightly as a goodbye to the other two for the moment before making his way back outside, but passing the 3rd officer who was lurking about downstairs who said,

“Looks like whoever Nooa was, they didn’t have a family of their own here. See nothing that indicates they lived with someone else.”

Torsti nodded to him before going outside again. He looked around and saw a officer outside looking around the house and two others over at Vesa’s house, talking to him at the entrance door. That’s where he made his way to.

One of the officers talking to Vesa saw Torsti walk up and said, “I’ll leave you and Lenni with this. I’m going to start helping with the other house.” With that he patted Lenni on the back with a hoof and made his way over to Nooe’s house.

“So whatcha we got Lenni?” Torsti asked.

Lenni turned and gave Torsti a smile and said, “Just getting to know Vesa here a bit more. Gave our greetings and all that.”

Torsti nodded and said, “Well now that we have enough officers for now on the scene, would you be alright with us asking some questions inside?” He motioned to Vesa’s house.

Vesa moved out of the way and pushed the door open to the house and said, “Come in. To the right I have a sitting area.” With that he moved inside and went to the right as he had said. Lenni followed behind quickly with Torsti last.

Vesa’s house was nearly identical to Nooe’s in terms of layout. Their houses must’ve been built the same day if anyone could’ve guessed.

Torsti made his way to a nearby chair, Lenni doing the same, as Vesa made himself quickly comfortable on a couch that faced the two. “So I guess there’s not much to it other than getting into it? Whole war going on and a million other problems in the city, we’ll need to get this case solved as fast as we can so we can move onto other minor things.” Torsti got his notepad in position and was at the ready to write, only awaiting any answers for any questions to be asked.

“So when did it happen?” Torsti asked right away.

Vesa pointed outside and said, “Well last night, as I was getting ready to sleep, I saw a car outside on the street in front of Nooe’s house. Dark obviously, I saw a single deer figure go into Nooe’s house last night and leave. The times that it happened exactly I don’t know, but that’s what I assume it was. A single deer. They came and then left. They were around for, fifteen minutes I’d say. Today I get around to going over there only to find his door unlocked after he never answered my knocks so I went in, worried. I know today is a day he has off so he’d be home himself like always. He’s been getting a ride to work on the city bus since the military snached up his car so I know that whoever this person was, it wasn’t someone looking to steal a car.

I go in as I said and don’t find him anywhere about on the bottom floor, so I head upstairs. Whole time I’m shouting his name for him. I then search the room on the right before I walked into the bedroom where I saw Nooe on the ground. I froze before quicking grabbing the door with a hoof and closing it on my way out. I headed downstairs quickly and outside where I panic for a few minutes before I saw your police car driving down the road. From there, it’s been however long. I watched the entire time as well. No one came by, no one left, entered. Nothing.” He ended it off with a single nod.

Both Torsti and Lenni were writing in a notepad, Lenni not being as invested in it as Torsti, watching Vesa and looking around the room.

“So you saw someone with a car come by, enter and then leave fifteen minutes later? All at night when you couldn’t see any details?” Torsti asked for confirmation.

Vesa nodded again, “Correct.” He then put a hoof to his head and rubbed around his antlers trying to think, “From what it looked like. The back of the vehicle looked like it was a military vehicle, turned from a normal car. And it looked like whoever it was had lugged out something cumbersome when leaving.”

“Something cumbersome? Say, could that be their head?” Lenni asked.

“I didn’t search the house yet and the other officers are right now. We’ll see about that once they come by to tell us anything they found.” Torsti said. “But a military vehicle? Potentially. Ok. Not much to go on since if it’s a converted one from civilian standards, there wouldn’t be much of a difference. Something still, none the less.”

Torsti took a second break from writing before asking another question, “Do you know of any reason someone would have wanted to kill Nooe-- And also, how do you know it was Nooe in the first place? Also w-- Actually stick with that question for now.”

“Oh- well, his clothing. I saw the body myself… He was wearing normal cloths he’d wear. Some that I’d seen him wear before as well. And it being his room of all places found dead. I see no reason it wouldn’t be Nooe.” Vesa answered.

“Ok ok.” Torsti said, “So what made you go by today to check again?”

“Well I never seen Nooe to have visitors before, well, not since the war at least who also had a car. He’s kept to himself mainly. Talked a few times with him in the past, visited as well but since I have no car either, easy to just walk over and chat sometimes.” Vesa answered.

“Oh, when did you last see him alive? Day he died?” Lenni asked this time.

“He’s on a difference work schedule than me so it’s feen a few days since I last saw him. Physically seen at all. But that’s a normal thing for all deer… With that, I’ll need time to remember anything he did in the past week, or what I saw him doing if you plan on asking about that. Nothing I’d kept to permanent memory without knowing he would be dying.” Vesa said.

“Alright. So--”

Torsti and Lenni kept asking question for the next ten minutes before a knock came at the door with the shout of, “Officer Aulis!”

Torsti yelled back, “Aulis, doors open, come in!”

So Aulis did. He came in, looking around a moment before seeing the three to the right and came over and said, “Sorry to interrupt but thought I’d come by and say what we found so far.”

Torsti shook his head and said, “It’s alright. We pretty much have gotten enough answers from Vesa so far.” He paused and turned to look at Vesa and Lenni and said, “Alright, thanks for the questions for now, but we got to go mindle with the other officers and figure out what it is they’ve learned so far and then cross reference anything we can that we learned between each other.” Torsti motioned for Lenni to follow before saying, “We’ll do it outside Aulis.”

The three gave their goodbyes to Vesa and made their way outside and over to the car Torsti had driven before stopping.

“What’d you find?” Torsti asked.

“Well first thing is, we got a deer with a missing head. We have a body but we have no head. We haven’t a clue where it is. Just gone.” Aulis said.

Torsti smacked his lips and looked at Vesa’s house, “Fuck me then.” He looked at Lenni and shook his head, “Well, looks like what Vesa said might be related to that. Somebody came by last night in a car that Vesa says looked to be military. Said whoever it was was inside for fifteen minutes and came out with a cumbersome object. My guess, a head. Vesa also said Nooe had a good size rack.”

Aulis nodded, listening to the information  being told, trying to make any connections he could with the whole thing. “Alright. But, so we looked at the body, found nothing to be out of place or missing and it seems like whoever this is, they cut off the head. Knifed the whole thing off. We came to the conclusion that they wrapped it good since we haven’t found any blood outside the room itself. Must’ve carried it off in a bag or who knows what. Must be that cumbersome object. It didn’t look like a head by chance?”

“Nope. Wrapped from what you said. Bastard stole a bucks head and carried it out like luggage… Sick fuck.” Lenni said.

Lenni and Aulis shook their heads before Aulis said, “Can’t tell you if the poor soul was dead or not when their head was taken off… No other notable injuries that would indicate a reason for death. Obvious signs of struggling and such, hoof marks on the ground, some stuff moved or off center, but most of the ground around our victim is covered and soaked in blood. It’ll be a bit before we can determine more. We got photos being taken of everything as well, everything written down, all that. Should have the mess cleaned up by tonight.”

Torsti nodded, “Alright. Thanks. I’ll head back with Lenni for now with our notes. See if we can get any research on this possible military car. See if anyone knows anything about it and all that.”

Torsti was putting his notes away and waved Aulis off as he went around to the drivers side of the car and got in. He waited for Lenni to join before he took off, leaving the five other officers for now. They made  their way back to the police HQ where their chance of learning anything would be best.
> Chapter 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

November 30th, 1009

Regine, the police chief, sighed.  A gruesome murder of a mid-aged deer where their head was cut off. It wasn’t a normal case for the city, but it was still one that needed to be solved and unfortunately Torsti was now the head lead detective for the case, being the one who first reported on it.

“I lay in bed every night once the city is quiet, only listening to the distant sound of explosions 20 some miles to the east. Every fucking night for the past three months now. Closer and closer and closer they get. Each day they increase just slightly more. Noticeably louder each night. Back and forth it goes. We send our artillery, they send theirs. Only theirs is what I’m worried about. That’s what you mainly hear. All night. All day. All night and all day.”

Regine took a moment and rubbed the base of his antlers.

“Torsti. I think this is the case that breaks me. Not only do will the Changelings be here in some weeks where the military will be doing urban fighting, destroying everything we’ve protect, but we also have to worry about normal living and life. Murders and headless deer on top of it. I-”

Regine sighed again. The stress was really building up on him.

Torsti said, “At least we finally have some clues on who might’ve done it. Vesa was able to get us a bit more information yesterday as well as our infestation into nearly every house on the road, plus more. Only took two full days of work and tons of questioning to find out that we truly are dealing with a military car.

Found some deer who saw a car that night driving in the direction it went, before and after the murder and with their words, we’ve confirmed the identity of the car. No clue who it belongs to yet but we did send in our info to the base. Should be getting word back if they know anything regarding it later today actually. Probably head over to find out after this.”

Torsti finished off by stretching his legs and closing his eyes momentarily to enjoy a seconds worth of rest.

“If the military ends up having anything useful, it’ll surely be able to be paired with those other killings that happened on the other side of the city. Had a few deaths in the past month similar like Nooe’s. Whoever’s doing it, they’ve been doing it recently.” Said Aulis.

“Mhmm, very much so. I’d wager either tomorrow or the next day we’ll be finding whoever this creature is. Arrest them, get their ass to Cervus for military work and move onto that spy problem the base wanted us to work on. Enjoy the rest of our days doing that before we finally evacuate the city.” Regine moaned out.

The three sitting together sat quiet for a few seconds before Torsti broke his own rest and stood up, “Whelp, enough fucking around doing nothing. I’ll enjoy my rest after this Nooe problem. I’ll head off now to get that info about the car now. Good luck you two bastards.” He then left the HQ, checked out the same car he had used the day of the incident and took off, back to the military base, this time with a reason to go.

The drive over was calmer and slower than it was days prior. Snow had started falling two days ago so everything had a thin coating fo white over it. Few car tracks littered the snowy road, so little that any detective could figure out which track belonged to what car. There wasn’t much else to do for the twenty minutes it’d take to get out of the city to the base so Torsti turned on the one-way radio the car was equipped with and flipped through the channels that were being broadcasted.

Most deer had radios, but even the police had limited radios for sending messages still. Olenia wasn’t that far developed to equip every deer with one. Any being made were being sent straight into military service for all the deer fighting currently. Losses were high still. Only the radio stations in Vaverfront, Hjortland and Cervus had known radio stations that were able to send out their voices. Even then, most deer knew they probably had some soldier nearby, making sure they weren’t spitting out something they shouldn’t. At least that was the rumor. Hard to know when nodeer’s questioning it.

“As we enter December my viking brothers and sisters know that Queen Velvet is watching over our fellow Deers at the frontlines. She of all deer are working tirelessly day and night to better our future and ensure we win this damn war those bugs started--”

*Click*

More propaganda. Even if it’s the basic truth, it’s still the same. We’re losing though. It’s something every deer knows if they pay any attention to rumors and newspaper. We in Vaverfront don’t even have to do that. All we have to do is listen and hear it. At least some stations don’t have war music being playing.

“--t gnisol drac lli yademos yal
Os sight si lla I evah ot yas.
Edicius si sselnaip
Ti sgnirb no ynam segnahc
Dna I nac ekat ro evael ti fi I esaelp.
Eht drows fo emit lliw--”

Damn Equestrian. Sometimes the stations play music for those that can understand it. Sadly Torsti can’t.

After listening to the song for a bit longer, it just sounded like other war songs, despite Torsti unable to understand it so he just turned off the radio. Silence it was.

Other than nothing interesting being on the radio, the ride went uneventful.

Once Torsti made it to the military base, he met with base security who disarmed him, checking him for anything suspicious as well as using a magic item to detect whether he was a changeling under disguise or not. He passed.

Once everything was in order. Torsti was escorted by the security to the First Lieutenant who was helping with the investigation. After talking, writing notes and being told some worthless classified information that not even the Changelings could make use of, Torsti was sent off.

“Damn fucking easy to just get in it seems.” Torsti muttered to himself once he was back in the car. He  shook his head a bit and went back off to the police HQ with his newfound information.

On the ride, Torsti went through his head of the information he just learned, trying to piece together what he could with what the department already knew. But what was best right now was to get back and share it with everydeer else.





“-- Equestrian import.” Torsti said.

“1005 model. Old but it works. FEN-289 plate. They didn’t remove it. Taken from a native pony in Seaddle two months ago. Sat in storage for a few weeks after being retrofitted to work for the military. Then they gave it out to, what I was told to say, some random deer. Anything past that they either said was classified or I was told to not tell after the lieutenant fucked up.” He shrugged it off, “Not going to mess with that so that’s the information I got from them.”

“FEN-289 then.” Regine nodded at Lenni who was on the stations only two-way radio.

“This is Officer Lenni with Chief Regine. We have information regarding the headless Nooe murders. Need all operators currently stationed to get this out to all officers involved with the case.” Lenni stopped talking and waited a few seconds to let the operators at the other stations get ready for the info.

“We are looking for a plate number FEN-289, an Equestrian Filly import, 1005 model. Military converted. We believe that it is in the hoofs of a active duty soldier. Their role is unknown to us at this time but this is currently what we have known so far. Pl--...” Lenni spoke about what to do and such, nothing worth listening to.

“Tomorrow or the day after. As I said. Once they find the car and who’s associated with it. We’ll get to action.” Regine said.

“Definitely has to be a military member. Only reason the car hasn’t been reported missing I bet.” Aulis said.

Torsti nodded along to him, not saying anything else. But he stood up and said, “Well, cars yours then. I’ll be walking home tonight. Not far so y’all don’t have to worry about me.” He said as he was wrapping himself in his jacket, already bracing for the cold outside, “Might even see our suspect car, who knows.”

Everydeer said their goodbyes as the day came to a closing. Torsti didn’t usually work at night and today wouldn’t be any different. Today he’d be going home to enjoy some nice hot chocolate. Alcohol wasn’t his thing, but that sweet chocolatey drink was. Especially since winter was rolling around.

It didn’t take Torsti more than a minute after leaving the station building before he could hear distant shelling between the crunching of snow from his hooves. Even at the end of the day, when most cities in the world would be busy with traffic from cars and creatures alike, here in Vaverfront, most deer would be found sticking inside most of their time. The lack of cars and the looming front line made many scared to be outside. Still, the occasional car would drive by that had lucked out from being thrown into a war it didn’t ask for and pedestrians that wanted to brave the quiet.

Every car that drove by, Torsti inspected. Every car he walked by he inspected. Nothing matched the car of the Nooe case. None probably would but he had to do his part.

Once Torsti reached his home, he stopped outside of it and faced the direction of distant artillery and stared up at the reddening sky. Despite being a few trots away from the door to his home, where a cold fire dying to be lit was ready to warm it’s housing, Torsti stood, letting his mind wander.

He shrugged and finally made his way inside before the passing deer deemed him insane.





Torsti poured the boiling hot chocolate into a mug, before putting the rest back near the fire to stay hot. He took his mug and placed it on the coffee-stand next to the chair and leaned back. He brought one of the many blankets that draped the other side of the chair and covered himself with one before dragging another across himself. While he waited for his freshly poured hot coco to air cool, he spent a few moments of frustrating fidgeting to get into a comfortable position covered in two blankets where he could safely drink his hot beverage.

Once snug, he began. Sip after sip did he slowly consume his hot chocolate, watching the fireplace burn away at his lacking supply of wood. The cracks and the pops of the fireplace blended well with the occasional sounds of distant booms.

The next hour he let his mind wander again and again, thinking about cases he’s solved, where involved in and active ones. He thought of the war and thought of what’ll happen to everydeer once they lose. What’ll he do when they lose. What’ll even happen. He, like many deer, weren’t thinking that far ahead though. They each just had to manage to survive the current day before worrying about the next.

But there was one thing that kept coming back to Torsti. One thing. One little small piece of information he learned during the Nooe case.

What the fuck was Operation Operation.
> Chapter 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

December 2nd, 1009

Yesterday was just a day of searching and boring paperwork. Nothing worthwhile that required Torsti’s help with. It was only when Torsti got to the station today did he find out the news.

“To!” Lenni came trotting up fast when he noticed Torsti come in. He had been working at his desk, talking to a few other officers nearby, clearly in a rush to get things done. “South Division found it. Our Nooe car. Near the residential living areas next to the harbor. They say they have enough deer themselves to go to the house in the next few hours once they have everything planned out and sorted. We can send a few from here to help though, but since it sounds like they have it handled, no one’s that keen on heading over to get sorted out with them.” Lenni then pointed to Torsti with a hoof.

“But that’s why I’m telling you. Everydeer else here at the station who was working on it knows by now. Just your late ass might find that interesting.”

Torsti reached up and held his hoof against the side of his head for a second while he took in the news. “By Velvet's word.” He shook his head and let a smile grow on his face, “Telling me because I might be the only one who’d go? Well then you’re damn wrong.”

“Wai- Wrong!” Lenni seemed quite concerned that Torsti had answered like that, but he relaxed when Torsti broke out laughing a bit.

“Ha, made you concerned for a moment there now did I?” Torsti reached over and lightly punched Lenni in the side with his hoof, “I’m definitely going over to help out. Nearly a week since this happened and it’s been all I’ve been working on. No way I’ll miss it.”

Lenni let out a sigh of relief, “Thank the gods then. I had said we’d been sending at least one deer over despite their protest.”

“Yeah, well there’s just something I want to learn about this whole case that’s been kind of bugging me. Can’t say much though, but I’m sure we’ll learn about it more once we get this fellow.” Torsti said.

After talking a bit more and getting some quick paperwork done for going over to the other station for staging, Torsti gathered his jacket and headed to the back parking lot.

He would be getting a ride from Mauri to the station. The ride over was like any ride anywhere. Talking, staring out the window, getting a few seconds of sleep before finding out you’re not tired. All that.

When they got to the south station, Mauri pulled into the back of it and let Torsti out. Torsti grabbed his bag from the back of the car and headed inside. There, he joined the group of officers who were preparing that day for the coming hour where they would be heading out to the suspect’s location. Torsti talked with the officers he’d be working with for the day, some he’s seen only, some who he hasn’t. A big city like Vaverfront where there’s over 1 million deer and ponies living requires a large police force.

The waiting finally came to an end once all the officers were called outside to prepare for the ride over. Warrants and other important papers were prepared and ready across a few officers. All that they needed to do now was make their way over.

Torsti loaded into a car with three other deer. The one in the back with him was one of two deer going who had breech-loading issued rifles. Those were rare outside the military as well. Most rifles were taken by the military within the first month of the war to help supply the influx of soldiers coming in. But just like cars, the police had more than any other deer, but they weren’t issued to them like pistols were. Torsti and every other deer going on this operation had revolvers. Those at least weren’t taken by the military as rifles were the issued weapon.

The ride over to the address was the one to the station. Occasional talking and quietness. Besides when they came to a stop a few blocks from the house. Enough to not alert whoever might be home with the convoy of police cars, even with the lack of civilian cars existing.

Torsti and the three deer inside the car all started to get out, keeping watch down the road. Torsti looked around and saw the other deer disembarking the cars, seeing them shuffle around into positions to talk with each other and prepare.

“That’s our car. Down the street, you see. House it’s right in front of. Still matching what was reported. Civilian-looking deer was seen driving it and entering the house last night.” One of the officers who had ridden with Torsti said.

Once every deer was in position for the operation, Torsti along with 7 other deer made their way up to the house through the yards of other homes. Two deer were together inside a car that drove down the street behind the group of eight as they approached the car.

A single deer drove another car behind the first.

As they came into viewing distance of the address of the house, Torsti and the others made their way up to the house, all with weapons drawn.

Once they made it to the house of the suspect, one of the other officers near the front motioned for every other deer following to halt and said, “Just stay near the wall, try not to be seen by the window.” He then tapped the closest deer near him and motioned for him to follow. The leading deer holstered their weapon and waited for the deer he had picked to do the same.

Once both of them were ready, they walked up to the front door and knocked on it loudly a few times.

All while that happened, Torsti along with two other deer found their way around the back of the house and looked around for any windows or doors whoever inside might use and waited.

At the front, the two waiting at the door were greeted to the door being ajar and a deer peeking out. After a second of viewing, the deer opened the door more, just as one of the officer deer was pushing the door open themselves.

Before the deer inside could answer, one of the officers said, “Vaverfront police. We have a warrant to search the property and building, can you please step outside for a momen-”

He was cut off by the deer inside as they quickly started to shut the door, at which both officers went for the door to push it back. A short struggle lasted before the deer inside bolted further in and left the two in the dust. The officers waiting nearby quickly started to move up to join the two at the door before gunshots started ringing out from inside the house, splinters of wood flying as they missed their targets and hit the house itself.

The two deer outside stumbled quickly to the opposite ends of the door, nearly falling as they were going for cover, but Ingolf, who bolted forward at the first sign of struggle was in the doorway themselves now and quickly look inside, gun aimed and fired twice into the building for the first rounds of return fire before also going to the left of the door for cover.

“I saw him drop!” Ingolf yelled to the swarming officers.

Ingolf quickly put himself back into position in the door, covering half his body behind the wall and looking inside with his pistol aimed towards the direction he had fired. The other deer who had bolted to the left joined behind Ingolf with their weapon ready this time, looking in and seeing the deer inside who had fallen.

All the other officers were gathering themselves before one yelled out, “Get ready to enter!”

With that everyone else who was skruffling around quickly got into position and motioned to Ingolf and the deer on the left to enter, and they did. They went straight in towards the deer who laid squirming on the ground inside with the other officers following in behind. 

A few of them went around the house to search for any other creature who might be lurking and by the time they got back around Ingolf and the others after finding the rest of the building to be clear, they had found that they had already secured the deer who’d been shot.

Torsti during that time had stayed outside for the duration of the shooting and breaching with one other officer to keep watch on the backyard. They were quickly informed by the other deer who had left them to find out what happened that the scene was secured. They made their way back to the front of the house where the two police cars had driven up, disembarked of their occupants.

From there, the situation was quickly put into control again as the officers inside rushed the cuffed deer out and to one of the police cars, where they were thrown in with three other officers before taking off. The other car quickly was taken occupant again and followed being with only two deer. Leaving the rest of the officers behind to deal with the house.

Torsti found out quickly by other officers that the suspect from inside was being taken to a hospital quickly to be treated for the gunshot wound they had received and that investigation of the house was to happen.

Torsti and a few other officers lingered outside the house for a moment afterward, talking about what had happened before two officers came out of the house and got a few of the officers to go bring up the rest of the cars they had left down the road. Torsti, along with a few other officers were given the task to start searching the house.

Torsti and the others made their way in, finding one officer still inside looking up at a wall. He saw the three deer walking in and said, “Y’all seeing this shit?” They motioned with a hoof to the wall they were facing.

The wall the officer motioned to displayed three skulls. One equipped with a good size pair of antlers and the other two void of any. All three cleaned to the bone.

“What the fuck.” Another officer said.

Torsti was dumbstruck at what he was looking at for a moment before swallowing and saying, “There’s our heads.” He finally got the urge to look away finally, feeling upset in the stomach a bit.

There was a lull of quietness between the four officers before the one who had pointed it out said, “I guess we’re going to need forensics to get here to confirm if these are the murdered individuals, but judging how we had headless corps and now have bodiless heads, I doubt it will take much work to figure it out.”

From there, the four decided to leave the three heads, the first officer taking the task of searching the room the heads were in to spare the others the glare of the dead.

Torsti was given the task to search the bedroom of the house while the other two were to search around the area the suspect had been shot. Two more officers would come in after a bit to investigate the shooting that took place and clean up the blood that was on the floor from the victim.

While in the bedroom, Torsti worked on his search for anything useful. He searched any drawers, closets, clothing he came across. The only useful thing you found so far that would be helpful with the investigation was an Olenian military uniform, which would definitely connect the suspect and the car together even more.

He was nearly done with his search, finding nothing else of immediate value until he came across a small pile of documents under the bed. Torsti pulled them out and put them atop the bed, which was freshly made, fitting to that of deer who’d been in the military.

While laying the documents out on the bed to look at them, Torsti took mind to opening one of the unmarked folders out of curiosity to see what was inside.

The first thing he sees in the chosen folder was a piece of paper that read at the top “MILITARY : TOP SECRET : CLASSIFIED”. If Torsti knew better, he would have stopped reading but the curiosity of such things would be hard for many to avoid so his eyes wandered down below, under the word was in smaller but sizable letters, “OPERATION: OPERATION”.

And it clicked.

Whoever these belonged to, which any deer could easily guess, was obviously someone in a high-ranking position for the military. Who it might be though? Whoever owned the house. The military uniform, military converted car, the occupant who lived here. It was almost as if it could all be connected.

Torsti though, despite reading enough to get himself shot by a military general if they so chose, flipped the page. Everything else on the front page was non-sense to him. But the second page housed the juicy details.

“To protect the future of the country, you, Preben Stina, are tasked with planning the potential need to evacuate Queen Velvet from the country to our harmonic neighbors down south in Equestria.”

That was the first line of the second page and Torsti had read it. He skimmed over it a few times as if trying to make an understanding of it despite it being to the point.

Torsti wasn’t able to continue as another officer walked in, breaking his concentration from the paper, which caused him to let go of the page and let it fall down.

“Nothing besides some ammo, the pistol they dropped, and the heads of our victims.” The officer stopped and looked at Torsti who still stood in front of all the documents laid out on the bed, “Seems you found something though.”

Torsti looked back down at the small mess he made on the bed and said, “I think these are military documents.” He then panned his head back to the other officer, “I believe they belong to the house. Our suspect that is. Found a uniform in the closet.”

The other officer came over to look at the files and documents on the bed, “How do you know it’s military?”

Torsti moved out of the way for the other, “I looked at one for a second.” Torsti openly admitted, “Classified and all…” It was then that he realized the mistake, but he tried to play it off and said, “Didn’t get far into it. Didn’t ready anything important thankfully.”

The officer gave Torsti a concerned look but said, “By the gods man, you need to be more careful. You could be executed for something like that.”

Torsti just gave a nod before collecting all the files into a stack again and said, “Well, just get the uniform from the closet. Nothing else of interest here. Just leave the documents here for now. I’m going to leave this shit for the local base.” After saying that he left the stack alone.

Torsti and the officer made their way downstairs and outside where other officers were loading things into the back of a car.

Torsti told a few others about the documents upstairs, which resulted in Torsti and another poor soul being left to guard the door to the bedroom while word was sent to the nearby military base of the finding.

It would take a little over an hour before an A6 military truck and officer’s car came rolling up to the house.
> Chapter 3.1 (Filler)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

December 2nd, 1009

Flutter Watch and Caramel Shell were sitting atop one of the steel beams that would be the last of the floors to the forty-one-story skyscraping being built in Vanhoover. Most of the ponies were taking their lunch break at this time and had flown down to the city floor to find their favorite shops to purchase lunch. Expect for those two.

They were both earth ponies. Good for doing manual labor but bad at doing it 41 stories high in the sky. That’s why nearly every pony was a pegasus, winged and ready to fly. Except them.

With advances in science and the industrial sector though, earth ponies weren’t as required for such tasks anymore as heavy machinery such as cranes become commonplace, but for Flutter and Cam, they were out of luck.

They had both been out of luck in finding a job, the few ponies who probably were in such positions but even now, and construction still has areas where an earth pony could excel but most employers didn’t want to run the risk of dealing with that odd poor foul who took a fall and was unable to unfold their non-existent wings to save themselves. Thankfully the two had found a site that was willing to let them work as long as they took full responsibilities for themselves in the event of falling.

That was years ago. At least for Flutter. Cam had just joined a few months ago and was given the job of working on the new 41-story office building that was being constructed a few weeks ago after complaints of lack of speed.

Flutter had been working on the building since the beginning but quickly came into contact with Cam when they showed up. The two hit it off and spent their lunch breaks every day since just chatting, as once the building had grown too tall, the journey down to the streets would take too long.

So there they sat. Flutter munching on a recreation of one of Canterlots famous pies while Cam was going to the basics and eating some apples.

The two had been mostly quiet so far during their break until Flutter had enough of that.

“You think they’re going to lose?” Flutter asked?

“Us?” Cam seemed a bit confused at the question at first before adding, “Or the deer?”

“Wait? What do you mean us? You think they’ll invade? There’s no way the Changelings would dare invade Equestria. They have no reason to. Nothing for them to gain here besides open fields and all you can eat dessert.” Flutter said. He then laughed it off and shook his head, “I mean Olenia.”

There was a silence before Cam answered, “No way. I think Celestial will come around cave into the requests I hear Luna’s been bugging her about and send support in some way. We’ve been trading partners for years with them as well. At least for us here in Vanhoover and down to Las Pegasus. Plus with them having Queen Velvet the queen now, there’s all the more reason to keep united with them and diplomacy.”

“I would think that they would’ve considered all that before half of their country was taken. Like, what if Olenia does collapse and loses to the Changelings, how would the world look at us as the bastion of harmony when we let our neighbors be slaughtered like that?” Flutter stated.

“Now that’s the thing. I don’t know. But I think Celestial and Luna are coming up with something that’ll be big. Maybe we’ll join with the Crystal Empire and smack those bugs from the side as a warning to make them stop.” Cam said.

“Sounds a lot like starting a war. Not something I’m too keen on seeing happen.” Flutter said.

“But what else will we do then? It’s not like the diplomatic protest Celestial sent in the first month of it did anything, or mean anything. The Changelings don’t even speak Equestrian. I doubt they’re even smart enough to translate it.” Cam said.

Flutter sighed and thought on the question, “I don’t know. But we shouldn’t also go to war with them. It won’t solve any problem the world has anyways. We should just wait for Celestial to make a decision and then follow it. That’s why it’s her job. She’ll figure out what’s best to do and make it happen.”

Cam fiddled their hooves together after Flutter finished.  He looked out at the direction of Olenia before he said, “Did you hear that?”

Flutter looked over at Cam and tilted their head, “Hear what?”

The city was quiet. It was rare for it to be so quiet like that but as the two listened on while looking out at the horizon above the city, the noise happened again.

Flutter swallowed as he heard it.

Cam stared into the abyss of the horizon.

The faint sounds of the Olenian-Changeling front could be heard if searched for.

Then as what sounded like a single horn from below, the sound of the city resumed, overpowering any sounds of a distant war. Almost like magic.

“Well!” Flutter said as they stretched, balancing on the steel beam, “Lunch break seems to be over. I see some of the other workers flying up now.”

Cam looked over the edge of the beam. Nothing between them and a city street besides 41-stories of height. “Huh, guess we should.”
> Chapter 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

December 2nd, 1009

The wait for the military was a while, so Torsti passed the time by talking with the other officer he was assigned to guard the bedroom door with. Unfortunately, it turned out that the two didn’t have much in common and weren’t a good fit for each other so they ended up staying quiet for the entire time. The only useful thing Torsti found out from him was his name, Olindo.

Occasionally another officer would wander up to see what was upstairs, only to be shooed away by the two. Eventually, they were just left alone once the curiosity of every officer on the scene had been fulfilled.

The hour-plus-long wait finally came to an end when a new officer came up the stairs, quickly followed by three uniformed soldiers. Torsti quickly came to realize that two were military police from the markings they bore and the third being some high-ranking military officer of some sort.

The police officer pointed at Torsti and Olindo before making their way back down to leave the five alone.

“So it seems you boys have found something that has required our attention it seems.” The military officer said.

“General Eilert. Yes. General.” Eilert said. He looked between the two before asking, “Which one is Torsti?”

Torsti looked a bit shocked that he was being asked for personally but he raised his head to get Eilert’s attention, “I am sir.”

Eilert looked at Torsti and asked, “Are you armed?”

Torsti was confused by the question but nodded, “I do sir.”

Eilert sighed and said, “Give your weapon to your bud here. Don’t be slow please.”

Torsti was once again confused by the request but he searched himself for his revolver, finding it in its normal place and taking it out and handing it over to Olindo, “Uhh--?” He didn’t really know how to respond.

Eilert then sighed, stepped out of the way, and motioned to the two military police, at which the two walked past him and towards Torsti, grabbing him from both sides and saying, “Don’t struggle. You’re currently being arrested and are going to be taken to base for some questioning.”

Torsti naturally resisted the sudden arrest but stopped himself before the two had to stop him, “What? Questioning for what?”

Eilert said to Olindo, “You can head out. We won’t be long now.” Eilert then waited for them to leave before shaking his head while looking at Torsti. He then walked past him, opening the door to the bedroom and looking around, “Are these the documents? On the bed?” He asked.

Torsti was quite a second before realizing the question had been asked to him, at which he finally responded as the two MP deer held him, “Y-” He sighed at the whole predicament he was currently in, “Yeah. They are.” He had no reason at the moment to lie or give anything but straight answers.

Eilert had made his way over to the bed, straightening the pile more before spending a few more minutes looking around the room for any other potentially hidden ones not found yet. After his search concluded, he picked up the documents under hoof and walked out of the room, asking, “That was everything? All on the bed?”

Torsti nodded his head in response. The few minutes of quietness as he heard Eilert search the room had demoralized him.

“Ok then. Take him out and load him into the truck. Once I have a word with one of the other officers outside, we’ll be heading off.” He shook his head and muttered, “Such a waste of time this was.”

Torsti wasn’t given any time to talk to any of the other officers who had been outside as the two M.P. deer rushed him to the truck, wasting no time to get him aboard and inside the covered part. He was then searched by one of the soldiers. A knife was all that they took. Everything else he had on him was kept in place. Then he was cuffed to one of the railings inside.





The ride was uncomfortable. Hard wooden benches. The constant gaze of one of the four soldiers and the bouncing of the truck. How were these in service for the military was a question for another time.

None of the soldiers in the back seemed bothered by the ride though. It seemed like something they were used to.

The view out the back was limited due to the cover only being opening in the back. No vehicle followed behind but it could easily be assumed the other military officer’s car was leading the way if it was still there.

Torsti didn’t have a clue on what he was supposed to do besides constantly adjust himself in the limited area of movement he had while cuffed. He also didn’t want to ask any of the soldier’s questions. They all seemed annoyed by the whole situation that it would be better to just leave them be.

The journey in the truck seemed like it was coming to an end though as the truck stopped for a moment before starting back up. The view out the back showed familiar surroundings. It seemed they had made it to the military base that Torsti had visited twice already in the past week.

After a few more minutes the truck stopped again, but this time after a few seconds the engine died out and went quiet.

At that, the soldiers in the back with Torsti got up, grabbing the little belongings they had brought, and started to get out. Only two remained, who uncuffed Torsti from the truck and led him out the back where he was met with only a few other uniformed deer.

They brought Torsti to one of the nearby buildings and took him inside. They quickly brought him to a room inside that had no windows and threw him in. They closed the door and locked it from the inside.

The room had a table and a few chairs for Torsti to sit at, which he would reluctantly sit at after a few minutes after determining he wouldn’t know how long he’d be in there for.

Time passes slowly after that. Having nothing to pass the time with didn’t help. All he was allowed to do was think.

 He could only prepare himself for whatever potential questions were going to be asked of him.

Torsti only went through half the questions he was able to think of before the door to the room opened up and two deer walked in. One of them was General Eilert. Eilert and the other deer both looked at Torsti to make sure he wasn’t doing some surprise attack at them before making their way to some of the few open chairs left.

Torsti had no clue what was happening, he didn’t want to interrupt whatever the two had in plan as they made themselves comfortable. The other two, were just taking their leisure time getting seated, being quiet the whole time.

Finally, though, the two looked up at Torsti again, “Ok.” Eilert said.

The other deer took out a folder and slid it onto the table in front of themselves and opened it. They took the top paper that was inside and slid it across the table to the front of Torsti and said, “Your draft papers. Sign on the line near the top.” The deer also slid a pen over for Torsti to write with.

They were really quick and to the point. No introduction or anything. Torsti tilted his head down to ready the paper, but kept his eyes on the other two for a second before finally looking down.

“Under special orders of General Eilert and Admiral Lauri Virta, you, Torsti Soini, are hereby selected to join the Olenian Armed Forces. Failure to do so will result in the execution of you for the learning of classified information regarding the safekeeping of Queen Velvet.”

It was no ordinary draft paper. Everything about the letter seemed correct to Torsti based on the few draft letters he had seen in the past 5 months but this one was special.

“The only thing you’ll learn reading that is we’re going to execute you. Now please sign it if you wish to live.” The other deer said impatiently.

Torsti choked on something he was about to say before he realized it was best to continue to stay quiet. He looked down, concentrated on the paper, and signed his name on the line. Once he was done, he placed the pen down and looked back up at the other two.

Eilert sighed with relief after Torsti signed it and the other deer reached over and slid the paper back towards himself.

Eilert then spoke up, “Torsti, you are probably wanting to know a lot right now, I thankfully won’t be telling you.” He motioned to the deer next to him and said, “Admiral Lauri Virta here will though.”

After talking, Eilert pushed himself up and said, “He’ll be informing you about everything today, but enough talking from me, I have a war to get back to.” After that, and saying nothing else, he left.

As Eilert left, Lauri watched the door close and waited a few seconds before turning back to Torsti and saying, “Your position is to be kept secret. They’re still weeding out the mess that Lieutenant made once we found out they knew about this whole ordeal. Somehow found out about it and told you.” He shook his head and moved some of the files around in the folder he had put on the table.

“Listen Tor. Everything you’ll be learning here in a bit is going to be so secret that if you tell anydeer, you, along with any deer you told will be executed this time around. A tough decision we decided on, but along with a few other things you’ll learn, are the best we came up with with the current situation we all find ourselves in.”

“But first thing first.” Lauri moved another file over to Torsti and said, “You’ll be allowed to view this during your time at the base. Memorize it to heart as you won’t get a copy once you leave, or not. They’re more of guidelines and the basics.”

Torsti looked down at the file that was slid in front of him. It was a familiar one.

“OPERATION: OPERATION” was written in big letters on the front and everything else as before.

“You don’t need to look now, but those are the files you found earlier today. They’re still for the last deer we had selected but the details are still the same regardless of who's in charge of it.”

Torsti looked back up at Lauri and opened his mouth to talk. He was stopped really quickly by the Admiral.

“The last deer, Preben Stina, he’s dead. We sent one of the soldiers who initially went to his house after that whole police operation with another officer to the hospital they sent him to. We just got word before we came in here that he died while being transported. Suffocated on his own blood it seems. Do what you want with that. He would’ve been executed by firing squad if he had lived anyways.”

Lauri shifted some papers on the desk, looking down at them, “We decided to choose you after one of your officer buds told Eilert about you learning about the documents, though it was only learned by accident. Some random deer who was just unlucky. But we decided to use that to our advantage.” 

Lauri looked back up, “We know nothing about you other than the fact that you’re an Olenian born deer. You aren’t a spy, you have no connection to Equestria, the Changelings, or anyone else. You’re cleared by the government to work as a detective in the police. You did your job to what was required. Not doing anything more or anything less. You have just the mind for us.”

“You’re going to be in charge of figuring out the way of getting the queen out of the country.” Is what Lauri stated blankly.

Lauri stared at Torsti with a look, one that begged for questions.

Torsti took in everything he was told and the first thing he asked was, “And I’m going to be killed if I don’t?”

Lauri scrunched his face at the question but answered with a sigh, “Correct.” He looked around the room for a moment before saying, “Look. We, Olenia. We’re going to lose. Everydeer in the high command of the military knows it. The only thing we’re doing at this point is stalling the Changelings while we figure out how to preserve our country. We’re trying to give it the best chance of survival and the only way we figured it out is by removing the queen from Olenia and sending her to Equestria.”

“Velvet doesn’t know this. We’ve kept this operation a secret from her this whole time. Just me, Eilert, and Einair know about it. Should know about it. We’re the ones who came up with it. No other General or Admiral knows. No deer in the air force, no one ranked below us. None of the politicians. Just us three. Now you. Any creature who learns outside of us four is supposed to know about it. Besides the few who might as I mentioned earlier.”

Lauri looked down at the documents and shook his head lightly at the mess before saying, “Tor. The army plans on falling back to the Hjortland peninsula. They have fortifications from Cervus to Hovenhamn. They’re going to put the entire front-line army on this line and let the Changelings take the rest of the country. Coastal defenses have been made around the whole peninsula as well. They’re putting untrained draftees on coastal defense from any potential naval invasion.”

“We have 17 ships in the navy left. We plan on holding enemy ships from passing into Cervus Bay or passing past the Rich Sea. 17 ships Tor.” After saying that, the Admiral leaned against the table and looked down while holding hoofs to the side of his head and continuing,  “Anything left of the air force will be aiding us in the ocean. We plan on lasting as long as possible on the peninsula…”

“We’re giving up our whole country, letting so many deer be subjected to the bugs, all to purely buy time to figure out how to preserve the country. No.” Lauri paused and took a deep breath as he personally got emotional, “We’re doing it to just save the queen from being killed.” He then went silent for a few seconds.

The few seconds were very long as Torsti listened to the Admiral speak. He was then paused from any thought processing as he started to hear the Admiral breakdown and cry.

Lauri didn’t start weeping but he kept his face looking down as he quietly cried. After a few seconds, a few tears fell down his face and dropped down onto some documents.

Torsti had no clue what he was supposed to do now. He was watching one of Olenia’s Admirals cry right in front of him. What was any deer supposed to do with someone like that crying in front of them?

Torsti just sat quietly, awkwardly though, but quietly as Lauri cried.

It finally ended after a half a minute and the admiral finally collected himself, rubbing his face on the sleeve of his army uniform.

“One week Tor. We’re abandoning most of our country in one week.”

Lauri shoved the rest of the documents towards Torsti while taking the draft letter he had sighed and put it into a pocket. He stood up himself and said, “Torsti. You will be locked here in this building until then. You won’t have any contact with anydeer for the next week. The only thing you’ll be doing is memorizing everything here if you want the best chance at this job. I’ll be coming back around throughout the next few days to tell you more. I just-” He took a deep breath, “I just need a moment for now.”

Lauri then moved to the door but stopped, not turning back but saying, “Dinner tonight is rationed sugar cubes… Most of the military's food is being moved to our fallback line. They’re saving what can’t be sent for the day before our retreat. Be sure to learn to enjoy the sugar cubes though, the food will only get worse once we fall back.”

With that, Lauri left, leaving Torsti with a pile of documents to look over and the dread of everything that was to follow.
> Chapter 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

December 3rd, 1009

Torsti was moved to a normal-looking room last night, one fitting that of what he could assume was for a military officer. It had some draws that could be locked, which he was instructed by Lauri to keep any documents he had at any time inside of when he wasn’t reading them. There were a few other normal room accommodations like a bed and dressers but it was simple. There was still no window in the newfound room.

Torsti was dazed upon waking up. Being in an unfamiliar bed for the first time typically did that to him. The first thing he noticed was Admiral Lauri was standing before him, pushing on him with a hoof as he tried to awake Tor. Once Lauri saw his efforts had worked, he stopped and walked over to the table on the other side of the room and said, “Tor!” He then waited for a response of any kind from the deer.

“I-- Uhh- What?” Torsti said as he clenched his eyes shut to prevent the brightness of the lamp from blinding him further.

“Documents. More. Everything else you’ll need to start doing your job. And paper, notes, writing utensils. Whatever else you might need to start making decisions.” Lauri said.

Torsti was slowly getting used to the lit room by not, able to keep his eyes open, but squinted, as he watched Lauri, “Hold on. Wait.” Torsti said. He rubbed his eyes and was about to ask something but Lauri spoke up before he could.

“What is it? Everything here is all you need for the next six days before we go to Hjortland. All the documents you’re being given are going to be destroyed so any time you have awake is for looking them over. Now that you’re awake--” Lauri was cut off by Torsti.

“I said wait! Fucking dammit! Just let me ask some questions for fucksake! You’re the one who just rudely woke me up…” Torsti looked at the Admiral now, his eyes finally adjusted to the light, “You can’t just kidnap me like this and force something like this on me without giving me the chance to ask some.” Torsti held his ground with his demand now, trying his best to stare down the Admiral.

“Gods dammit,” Lauri said as he held a hoof to his head in frustration. After seeing the determination of Torsti, he sighed and asked, “What do you want to know? Why is an Admiral dressed in an army uniform at a base inland? Why do we have to ration food when we have an entire city we could eat from? Why did the Changelings decide to attack our country? Why is Equestria just sitting on their asses not doing anything to help us?” 

As Lauri asked each question, he got progressively more angry and loud. He paused at the end of his questions and said, “Why does any of that matter to you! What questions do you want to ask! None of it will help you! Just sit here and accept your face!” Lauri pointed to the desk with the new documents and said, “By the queen's word, just fucking sit at the desk and look at whatever document we give you! Just look at the damn operation you’re in charge of and read its FUCKING WORDS! WORD FOR WORD! AND FOLLOW IT TO THE FUCKING LETTER!” Lauri calmed down a little after breaking and said, “That’s your fucking job. Do it or you’ll be executed. You don’t need to know anything else. That’s all you need to know. That’s all I want you to know.”

Lauri sighed and walked to the door of the room and turned to Torsti one final time and said, “So sit the fuck down and get to work.” After saying that, Lauri quickly made his way out of the room and left the shaking Torsti alone to himself.

That was Torsti’s first new day in the military, and it started off with him being left to himself, on his bed, with his thoughts to think over everything that had just been yelled at him by the Admiral.

*Click*

The door to the room was locked.





The next few days, Torsti looked over every document he had accumulated so far. Each day he’d be given more thought.

He was confined to his room, only being let out to use the bathroom. Each time he did, Admiral Lauri would have to come by to search Torsti for any hidden papers he might try to smuggle outside and to watch over the documents that hid inside his room while he was escorted by four deer.

Despite the role that Torsti had, anyone could easily see that he was pretty much being held, prisoner. One that had access to military information nonetheless.

The documents that Torsti was being given were the current front lines of the war, losses, logistics, size of the military, even foreign relation documents regarding Equestria.

In the file that was “OPERATION: OPERATION”, Torsti had learned that he was to take all information available regarding the Kingdom of Olenia in its state of war and use that to constantly come up with a changing plan on how Queen Velvet was to be taken out of the country.

The only major information that Torsti was told from Admiral Lauri was OPERATION: OPERATION would be carried out sometime between the time of the fallback to the Hjortland Peninsula and the fall of Hjortland itself.

Despite that, he had still come up with some basic plans to execute the operation, only out of fear that he would be punished or executed for not having any during the stay at the base.

The plan so far was to simply use one of the remaining navy boats to take the queen to Equestria, being that all airplanes had nearly all been destroyed, only single-seat fighters being left. It didn’t help that production of planes had been halted so more supplies for ground forces could be made.

Torsti hadn’t gotten anything beyond that as he was still taking his time to look over every document he had while also questioning everything about what led him to this point.





    December 8th, 1009

There was snow. Not a lot but a constant fall of it so it had piled up. That was what Torsti was able to figure out in the few brief moments that he had seen the outside world.

Torsti had slowly grown used to his daily schedule in the past 6 days, despite it not really being one as an unexpected rummage of the door started to take place before it finally opened.

Admiral Lauri came in and instantly said, “Torsti.” Lauri walked over to the table that had a bigger mess of papers and documents on it and started to collect them all and said, “We’re destroying everything in this room.”

Torsti hadn’t been expecting this, but he didn’t waste his time helping the Admiral collect every last document. The Admiral’s outburst his first day there was enough to make him do whatever he said now.

Lauri was ripping up all the documents and tossing them in the trash can that was in the room, making sure each one was shredded to the best he could with the speed he was going.

It only took a few minutes for the two to finish tearing up everything and throwing it in the bin before Torsti noticed something. Lauri had left the door to the room open, which he had never done before. He didn’t chance anything but looked back to the Admiral who was taking out a jar from the bag that he had brought with him and opened it, dumping the liquid that was inside into the bin with the shredded documents.

Torsti had the guts to ask what he was doing, “Admiral?”

“We’re burning this whole place to the ground.” Lauri said quickly.

He then took out a matchbox from his uniform, took out a match, lit it and tossed it into the bin, which would instantly flame up and start burning.

Torsti was shocked at what had just happened and looked worried as he looked between the bin and the Admiral, “Wait? Wait! Wait! What? What about me?”

“What about you? Grab a jacket and get moving.” Lauri said as he picked his bag up and turned around towards the door and started to leave, “Quickly now.”

Torsti didn’t move for a few seconds as he was still shocked at what the Admiral had just done, but it clicked in his head as the warmth of the fire in the bin reached him. He quickly ran over to his bed where an army uniform jacket was and grabbed it, putting it on and following the Admiral out.

Torsti had been given a change of clothes, the same that a normal deer could be seen wearing on the base. The same as the Admiral had.

“Come on Tor! God damn Changelings broke the front lines down here and are pushing quickly for the city.” Lauri said. He was in the hallway outside Torsti’s room, where there were two other deer dousing everything they could with a jerrycan.

“That’s good enough, should light the building up!” Lauri yelled out to the other two deer.

The other two quickly halted and made their way out, at which Lauri and Torsti followed.

That’s when Torsti stepped outside and saw it.

The whole base was busy. Everydeer he saw was moving about with speed to some location. Trucks were driving around, trucks were being loaded, a few buildings were already burning.

“What-” Torsti asked.

“Evacuating Tor. We’re getting the fuck out of here.” Lauri said.

Just then, the building that they had just come out of was ignited and it went up in flames. Red was all he could see inside the building from the door Torsti had come out of. It’d take a bit for the building to fully become engulfed.

“This truck Tor!” Lauri said in a distant voice.

Torsti looked around until he finally saw Lauri, who was handing his bag to a deer on the bed of the covered truck nearby, before finally coming over.

Lauri was quickly helped up into the back and the deer who had helped him was at the ready to help Torsti as he came up, which Torsti would accept.

Once in the back and getting seated, the two who had been inside the building with Torsti, had made their way into the back of the truck as well. The deer helping everyone hopped out of the back and quickly ran out of view towards the front. After only a few more seconds, the truck started up and quickly started to move.

Torsti, Admiral Lauri and three other deer were in the back. There wasn’t a lot of room though as there were bags and boxes of things in the back with them, which could only be assumed to be supplies. Leaned against a few of the boxes were a few bolt action rifles. A rare find if you weren’t in the military.

The truck Torsti was in was moving quickly, behind, out the back of the bed of the truck, there were more trucks following. More deer hurrying about around the base as they drove by and more buildings with smoke rising from them, others engulfed.

Torsti sat quietly in the back as two of the other deer started to talk between themselves. The third was making sure some boxes and bags were moved so they were better supported.

“Fun ain’t it?” Lauri asked.

“What?” Torsti asked.

“Just like that, we’re leaving. One day ahead of schedule and we’re leaving.” Lauri said.

“Just like that?” Torsti asked.

“Yeeeep.” Lauri said.

Neither said anything else. Lauri started to rummage through his bag he had brought and pulled out a notepad and pencil and started to write in it. He leaned into the corner of the bed so Torsti or the other deer couldn’t see what he was writing if they looked over.

Torsti was left with himself. He didn’t grab the clothes he had worn when he came to the base, just the basic uniform he was wearing and the jacket.

Thankfully he grabbed the jacket as the weather was only getting colder. Snow was starting to fall more as well. Double thankful though, it was a clear day today. Snow littered the ground but it wasn’t falling.

Torsti looked past the other deer to the left of him, out the back of the truck again and watched everything. He didn’t see any more deer running around, or anything that looked military-related. Just roads and some naked trees. In the distance, he saw the city of Vaverfront getting further away.

“Wait.” Torsti said as he turned to look at the Admiral, “Where are we going?”

A smile grew across Lauri’s face as the answer came to him, “Hjortland Tor! We’re going to Hjortland! We’ll drive to Heinä and then take a ferry across the bay to the closest point of Hoof Peninsula and then drive the rest of the way there. Road trip! It’s going to take a few though so I hope you didn’t forget anything!”

Torsti swallowed and looked back outside, “What about Vaverfront?”

“Probably panicking. They’re all probably trying to evacuate somewhere. Staying? Fighting? I don’t know. The sudden breakthrough the Changelings did, didn’t let us figure any of that out. Not like we planned on it. You already knew though. We would abandon everything to defend the Hjortland Peninsula. A secret that we didn’t tell anydeer though, but still. Shitty world, shitty decisions.” Lauri shrugged, “Guess yourself lucky you were drafted.”

Torsti stared out the back still, but he heard everything. He continued to watch the white landscape go past as he thought.

“Am I not u--” Torsti was asking.

“Not a word Torsti.” Lauri said. He finally finished writing in his notepad, at which he tore the page out and handed it to Torsti, “Here, switch with me.” Lauri said as he moved and made little room for Torsti to move down the bed and sit in the corner Lauri was. He then motioned to the note before leaning back and closing his eyes.

Torsti looked down at the note and started to read it.

“Don’t speak about anything.
You’re a Captain now. You will be told more at Hjortland.
Don’t do anything out of line or you’ll be executed. You know a lot.
Put this paper in my bag when done.
Enjoy the ride.”

Without hesitation, Torsti crumpled up the paper and tossed it into Lauri’s bag.

He looked around the back of the truck, Lauri looked like he had fallen asleep, the other three were calming down and also looking out the back.

Torsti was stuck at the back of the bed with four deer in front of him and a wall of supplies on the other half.

There was nothing to do now but try and not to be cold.
> Chapter 6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

December 15th, 1009

GOD'S FUCKING HELL! Torsti awoke to a sudden but quick passing pain that went through his body. He quickly became aware of what was around him and he saw Admiral Lauri Seated across from him, staring at him.

“Wake up.” Lauri said.

“What!? What’d you do!?” Torsti asked with a concerned tone.

“Punched you. You wouldn’t wake up.” Lauri said.

Torsti was holding the spot on himself that had been punched with his hoof, trying to put pressure on it to try and subdue the pain. It didn’t really work since the pain itself passed quickly.

“You didn’t have to do that- What is it? Why’d you wake me?” Torsti quickly got to the point.

“Just now arriving in the city.” Lauri said. He pointed out the back of the truck with a hoof to drag Torsti’s attention outside.

Torsti looked out the back, his eyes dilating quickly to the light and seeing an occasional building pass. Everything was covered in snow as it had been during the past week. But nothing looked special enough that he thought warranted a punch to the side.

“The outskirts?” Torsti asked.

“Far outskirts really. Just left the airfield a while ago.” Lauri said.

“The airfield? We already stopped by?” Torsti asked.

“Mhmm. Just a quick stop, unloaded a few more things, got some more fuel, and off we went. Our driver and navigator were replaced by two other deer who were already on the base. They’re taking us to the Palace where we’ll meet Einair. Other deer I mentioned a while ago.” Lauri said.

Torsti moved about, getting closer to the exit so he could look outside better. Every building he saw was either a rundown house of the past or a new one being built by the occasional deer who wanted a copious amount of property. Sadly, the houses being built looked as if they too had been abandoned.

The scenery slowly changed as they drove. Buildings being closer together and in higher quantities. Slowly and slowly the urbanization and the feel of the city became more expressive. What was surprising though was there were deer.

Torsti had grown used to the dead feeling of Vaverfront from the frontline nearby but here in Hjortland, it seemed almost as if there was no war to speak of. Bucks were playing in the snow, families out enjoying the cold.

The scarcity of cars helped with that, most deer having to walk to the nearby stores.

There was one thing obvious though, a lot of the deer that Torsti noticed out the back seemed as if they didn’t even acknowledge his truck's existence. Maybe they had grown used to military trucks driving about.

Lauri then nudged Torsti from behind and said, “Here.”

Torsti looked back and saw that the Admiral was handing him a familiar item. His police issued revolver.

“Wait? Why do you have that?” Torsti asked.

“It was handed to one of the soldiers the day you were taken in. Just kept it laying around, never got around to returning it. No deer did.” Lauri said.

“Wait, so why are you giving it to me?” Torsti said.

“Protection. You’re a Captain now, plus you’ll be in charge of a lot of secret shit. Never know when some Changeling spy is around or some defector deer.” Lauri said.

“I-” Torsti got off.

“You were a police officer.” Lauri sighed, “Listen. If you’re going to shoot me because it’ll be your chance to escape, just know the only thing that’ll happen in the end is the Changelings will win and turn you into larvae food or whatever it is they do.” Lauri shoved the holstered revolver to Torsti, “Here.”

Torsti finally took it, “Thanks then?”

The first thing Torsti did was check the cylinder of it for any bullets, which he came to find was empty.

Lauri then hoofed over a box, “Ammo.”

Torsti took the box and opened it, finding that it was the correct ammo for the revolver and loaded it. He finally took off his jacket so he could put on the holster. He then put his jacket back on to hide it and shoved what ammo was left in the box into one of the many pockets the military had decided was needed for it.

Lauri took a seat again but said, “Look out the back and see if you can see the palace.”

“The palace?” Torsti asked. He was already moving to stick his head out the back to look around, seeing in one distance some of the few skyscrapers the country had managed to build before finally seeing the top of the palace. “Seems like it’s a bit far still. Ways off.”

“Good. That means the ride will be over finally.” Lauri said. He started to rummage through one of the bags that remained and started pulling out the uniform of a navy officer, “It also means I should change finally.”

Torsti looked back and saw Lauri, “Wai- You always had a navy uniform?”

“Would’ve stuck out like a sore thumb out in Vaverfront in it so I wore an army one. Worked well I thought.” Lauri said.

“Oh… What about me?”

“Just wear what you have on. No reason to worry about it.” Lauri said.

The rest of the ride was silent between the two. They rode through the city streets with ease. The only thing that was different were the many turns they were finally having to take to get to their destination.

That was until the walls of the palace started to pass by in the back.

Lauri started to gather some of the bags in the back, handing one to Torsti and having him take charge of it.

Then the truck came to a stop. The truck stayed on as it did before a deer popped their head into the back of the bed, looked around inside and noticed the two. Lauri nodded to the deer, who then said, “Looks good.” He then popped away as quickly as he appeared.

Then the truck started to drive again after a few seconds.

“Just inspecting. The two upfront know who I am and all that. Everything sorted it seems.”

As the truck drove on, the gates of the entrance passed by. A few armed soldiers were at the gate, along with a few cars.

“Wait- I can be armed in the palace?” Torsti asked as he started to pat himself down to feel for the revolver he had hidden under his jacket.

“You’re a Captain. If anydeer worries about it, they’re probably some fresh recruit. Plus you’ll have my word and Einair’s word to back you up for justification if anydeer objects.” Lauri said, “Plus it’s hidden.”

It was only a minute more before the truck finally came to a stop again. Once again, the truck stayed and another deer popped up in the back and said, “Here’s your stop.”

With that, Lauri tossed one of the bags he had to the deer outside and made his way out of the truck as well.

Torsti followed behind, grabbing the bag he had been assigned and joined Torsti out the back.

Lauri took the bag the other deer had held. The deer saluted the two before making his way back around the truck to the driver side, where he hopped in.

Torsti was too busy looking at the newfound palace before him to watch as the truck drove off.

Before Torsti was an entrance to the palace. It wasn’t as fancy as Torsti had hoped he would find for it being one but it was good enough.

Lauri made his way to the entrance where he was quickly met by a few deer who were making their way out.

Lauri made the quick reaction of giving one of the deer a salute, who waved a hoof quickly for him to relax and said, “Admiral. Good to see you again.”

“Same for you.” Lauri said.

Lauri unloaded his bags to one of the other deer who’d come out before saying, “Inside? You just came out but it’d be nice to get a room to talk in right away.”

Torsti wasn’t greeted by a deer who would offer to take his bag so he just had to carry it himself as he followed Lauri in. Lauri and the other deer were taken to a room inside the palace that turned out to be more of a lounge area.

As Lauri and the deer he had saluted sat down, Lauri said, “We’ll need some privacy now, just leave the bags here.” He said to the other deer who were around.

Torsti was confused for a second and started to follow the other deer out before he was stopped by Lauri who said, “Not you Tor! Set that down and come sit down.”

Torsti complied and left the bag he carried with the other bags that had been left and joined Lauri and the other.

“This is five star general Einair.” Lauri said as he Torsti finally joined.

“Five… star...” Torsti said.

Einair looked at Torsti and asked, “And who’s this?”

“They’re our new Preben.” Lauri stated.

“New? What do you mean new?” Einair asked.

“Dead. Was shot in the lug and died. Damn buck ended up beheading some deer in Vaverfront and Torsti here was the detective who was unfortunate to learn about our operation during his investigation, so me and Eilert decided to draft his sorry ass and make him in charge in Preben’s place. Spent 6 days on base with him locked up before the whole Changeling push and headed here. He’s already informed on a lot, but thought it’d be nice to let him meet you, and you meet him, since he’ll be the one deciding on the escape plan for Velvet.” Lauri said in only a few breaths.

Einair held a hoof to her face and said, “You gods damn idiots. I would’ve just figured it out on my own if it turned out to be this much of a mes- You two could have sent a letter about this but nope. We had to decide to be super-secret about this in regards to never sending anything but through word-of-mouth…” Einair let out a deep sigh and looked back up at Torsti and examined him for a bit.

“Well we had to decide to do something. Couldn’t just not give up on it. Plus you’re too busy commanding the entire army. Tor’s only job at this point will be to stay in the palace and come up with a plan. He’ll have however many months you’re able to give us with this Peninsula defense you have.” Lauri said.

“Ok, listen. I didn’t know it would change that much in the time you went up there. Just-” Einair looked between Lauri and Torsti before sighing, “Ok. But if he’s informed on everything, I have no reason to talk to him. You on the other hoof.” She pointed to Lauri, “You and I do.”

Einair then looked back at Torsti and said with a smile, “If you could?” She then pointed to the door to the room.

Lauri looked at Torsti and nodded. With that Torsti took the clue that he was to leave and got off. He didn’t salute or say any goodbye. He just left as quick as he could, leaving the two to whatever privacy the general wanted.
> Chapter 7
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

    
December 15, 1009

Torsti waited around outside the room. He was spared waiting long as only after ten minutes did Admiral Lauri come out, with Einair behind him, but she stayed in the room.

“I guess farewell for now my friend.” Lauri carried one of his bags as he stopped for the moment, “I have to get a car ride over to the naval yard now to get back to doing my limited work.” He then motioned to the room, “Best go inside.”

With that, Lauri took off, talking to another deer who had been waiting outside, who followed him.

“Just need a quick word with you Torsti.” Einair said.

Torsti quickly brought his attention to Einair, “Ok.” Simple response. But with that, he walked back into the room and followed Einair to the seats. Both of them took their seats where they had been before Torsti had left.

Einair sighed and stared at Torsti for a few seconds before finally saying, “Ok, listen. Here’s what’s going to happen to you.”

Torsti leaned in, not wanting to waste her time by missing something.

“You’re going to be living here at the palace. Best place to keep you away from every outside deer. No intrusions, nothing. A room will be cleared out and that’s where you’ll be. You’ll have draws, keys, safes, and the obvious requirements to hold documents and classified files. You’ll be getting those here as well, every day. All outdated documents will be destroyed by you. Lauri will occasionally check on you, maybe even me myself, on your progress regarding whatever plan you come up with.

I should also state, your room will be locked and guarded 24/7. The only deer who’ll have a key to the room is you, Lauri, and me. Eilert won’t have one as he’s too busy with being at the front lines, preparing for the obvious. No deer is to come into the room beside us three. Lauri already told me about your gun. We’ll get you a pistol instead at some point, but know if anydeer but us come in while you’re there, you are to shoot them. Hopefully, whatever guard’s outside deals with it first. They won’t know anything themselves.

Keep everything secret. Keep everything locked up and just do your job.” Einair then stood up and said, “And one important thing. Don’t bother the queen if you see her.”





Torsti was given a tour of the palace, of at least the places that they wanted him to see. He spent a lot of the day being told procedures and the do’s and don’ts of the palace. Where he could and couldn’t go. He met with various politicians briefly who seemed to be familiar with what they were doing and other soldiers. Only high-ranking officers and palace guards.

At the end of the day, he was shown to the room he would be using, which looked like it had been gutted recently and only had the basic utilities at the moment. He of course was given a key to the room and once everydeer had left him, he was to lock the door and turn it into his place of privacy, not only for himself but for the classified documents he was to soon start receiving.

One of the interesting things he noticed about his new room was the new uniform that was laid out on his bed, a few pairs of clothing, and a military pistol.

The uniform was similar to his current one except for the rank that was sewn onto it. Two silver bars were attached to it, which he came to realize was his rank of Captain. The other clothes were basic daily wear, sleepwear and more formal clothing for whatever occasions he might need them.

He changed into the sleepwear that was provided before putting the rest of the clothing into the one closet that currently resided in the room. He put his old revolver into the closet as well, hiding it in the back of the top shelf. He tried on the new holster that came with the new pistol to get it to fit himself before he put it on the dresser next to the bed, at a hoof's reach ready to go.

He inspected the few safes in the room that were managed to be moved in that day, having a key for one and a keyring provided, he fashioned them together so that his room key and safe key were together. The other safe was a combination safe and he was to learn the codes as quickly as possible.

Once Torsti had his room inspected and familiarized for the night, he sent himself off to bed. He was going to have to get used to his new permanent bed it seemed.





December 16, 1009

Torsti awoke the next morning, or what he thought was the next morning as his room didn’t have windows, and got himself dressed in his new uniform, equipped with his new pistol, which he once again hid under his uniform and inspected the room again. Everything was the same as it had been last night. 

He finally left the room, locked the door to it and saw the guard that was outside his room, who said nothing but giving him a nod. Torsti had no clue how to tell what their rank was as he wasn’t knowledgeable on that yet. He then left for the cafeteria that he had been shown yesterday to get himself food. The guard to his room stayed even after he left.

Torsti found out that it was morning indeed and that breakfast was being served. Unfortunately, it looked like the food even here was being rationed.

Torsti got himself what he could before going to a table to sit and eat.

The cafeteria for the palace had a few deer here and there eating. Some looked like soldiers, others looked like palace staff. None of them paid Torsti any attention.

Torsti was by himself. He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to befriend any of the deer here or if he was supposed to stay to himself. It seemed that way due to the fact that he was ordered to kill anycreature inside his room. He didn’t linger around for breakfast and finished up as fast as he could.

After finishing, Torsti took to wandering around the palace as he had no documents to look at in his room at the moment. Nor was he ever told he couldn’t. The only thing he wasn’t allowed to do was leave the palace walls, which did mean he could also spend time outside.

Torsti got lost in his wandering eventually. Checking out the architecture of the place, statues, art pieces. The history of the building. It was only really now dawning on him that he was currently living inside the capital's palace.

Torsti wasn’t able to get around to checking the outside as he was stopped by a guard who informed him that Admiral Lauri was waiting for him outside his room. With that, Torsti made his way quickly back to his room, where he didn’t see Lauri, but was informed he was inside.

Torsti unlocked the door and went inside and saw Lauri, but first, having to get into the habit of doing so, locked the door again before greeting him.

“Tor. I just stopped by to hand over your first set of documents. Same stuff as before, just more up-to-date.” Lauri then quickly made his way back to the door and said, “That’s it. A quick stop to hand them over.”

Torsti wasn’t able to give any goodbye or small talk as Lauri had made his way out quickly. He closed the door and locked it from the outside.

Torsti was confused but he looked over at his new desk where he'd be spending his time and saw a few briefcases and a letter. He went over and inspected the letter that was left behind and read it.

“Make sure to lock these up when you’re done or you leave the room. There’s paper, pens, pencils. Don’t waste time.”

That was all the note said. Torsti then opened the briefcases, which were locked but had their keys conveniently left behind and saw the loot.

Piles and piles of documents. The same that he had grown used to during his time at the Vaverfront military base.

Today was going to be a busy day.





December 16, 1009

Torsti had just eaten dinner and he just got back to his room. Everything was in order. All the documents he had locked away in the safes were still there. With that, Torsti opened one of the safes he organized, took out some folders, and took them over to his desk.

They were logistic files regarding the Olenian military. Torsti readied his desk for a long night of reading and thinking.

One of the first files he read was the numbers of equipment the country had for military use. Ranging from guns, ammo, vehicles, tanks, planes, and boats. A few of the other files he had at the ready went into even more detail.

From there, he started to think, and eventually write. He was coming up with his first plans in regard to Operation: Operation.

One of the first ideas Torsti thought of doing was to simply use a plane to fly the queen out, but the same issue popped up from before, all that remained were single-seater fighters. Single engines as well. Unless every plane was spared by the time the queen’s evacuation could be carried out, maybe she could learn to fly it on her own? Maybe not, no deer would be able to help escort her. Why would any deer allow her to fly across the ocean in a clunky plane that probably wouldn’t hold up?

Second thought was to use one of the few remaining ships the navy had to take her to Equestria. The fastest one would be the best, but which one? Or maybe a cargo-- A cargo ship would be defenseless against any attacks. At least a naval ship had guns and armor.

Ask for a plane to come from Equestria to pick Velvet up or would that be too big of an involvement from Equestria with the war if they’re wanting to stay out?

Maybe a boat would be good.

Torsti started to look through everything regarding naval boats.

Only 16 boats remained. Two battlecruisers, two heavy cruisers, three light cruisers, and ten destroyers.

One of the things Torsti came to find out during his investigation into the naval documents and numbers, was that all submarines had been destroyed. Another interesting fact was that Admiral Lauri was the one in charge of submarine operations.

Torsti instantly started to connect everything. That’s why he wasn’t at a naval academy, naval base, or out on the ocean as he had no ships to command. But couldn’t he have been put in charge of other ships?

Torsti didn’t know the answer, nor did he find one in the documents he had.

After thinking about the whole situation, reading over documents more times than he should’ve, and coming up with his first basic plan, he realized it was late. A clock had been dropped off for him, which he had to bring into the room himself. Torsti then cleaned up all the documents, papers, and writings he had done and locked them away in their secured safes before putting himself to bed.

He at least had his first plan down. A basic one, but it was a start.
> Chapter 8
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

January 1st, 1010

The past month has been a big change for Torsti. He was drafted into some secret military operation by some of the most high-ranking deer the Olenia military had and was in charge of it.

Despite being in charge of the operation in terms of its planning and now living in the Hjortland Palace, there was one problem. The weight of everything was finally settling down on him.

Next to no progress was made in terms of coming up with a plan. The most he had gotten was to requisition a naval boat for the best modifications possible for escape, but beyond that, he had done nothing else.

Torsti spent his days inside his room just looking over the ever so changing reports and classified information that was being thrown at him, all for him making constant changes to his planning, but it didn’t matter as he barely worked on it.

In his spare free time, he spent either eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner, taking the bare basic care of himself and then wandering the halls of the palace occasionally. No deer stopped him. Either they were just too used to seeing him around or they never noticed him.

Torsti was to do this until Einair, Lauri or Eilert decided to enact it, if ever. Maybe they would decide on something else. Maybe the country would be overrun before it could be carried out. Maybe they would all just give up. Torsti didn’t know, as all he had was himself most days.

That was until today as he wandered the outside of the palace.

It was the first day of the new year, early in the morning, before the sun came up. Torsti had decided to join other deer in the garden for the celebration at midnight. He was able to watch Velvet give a speech, which was broadcasted to all deer who could hear. It was the first time that he had seen her since coming to the palace. He didn’t stick around long after the celebration had ended up wandering around the outside of the palace for the rest of the night. Dazing off occasionally places he sat, but getting up and taking a look around.

Even if other deer thought it weird of him to wander the night like that, he found it really refreshing and much needed after his month's work.

“Torsti.” A voice said.

Torsti looked behind him and saw Admiral Lauri.

“Admiral?” Torsti asked.

“Is everything locked up?” Is all Lauri asked.

“...Yeah…? Torsti stated.

“Looks like you have winter clothing… Come with me. We’re going to the naval yard.” Lauri said.

“N- The naval yard?” Torsti asked.

“Mhmm. Just come. We’re going to be driven.” Lauri said as he waited for the slow Torsti.

Torsti nodded slowly before following Lauri. Lauri took him to the parking lot, where a deer waited at the entrance of, who greeted Lauri and Torsti before taking them to a car.

The three got in, Torsti got in the back while Lauri got in the passenger seat, with the other deer driving.

“What’s this all about? I thought I couldn’t leave.” Torsti said.

“You can, with me. Now hush up and enjoy the ride. There’s not much to talk about until we’re there.” Lauri said.

Torsti was about to say something else but stopped himself as the car started to move.

Torsti watched out the window after that and watched as he left the palace in the night. There weren’t many, if any lights on. They had to keep them turned off at night for Changeling air raids, but only a few had happened, but the anti-air defenses of the city were enough to keep damage nearly extinct. That’s probably why they were driving at night with the car lights on.

The light from the car reflected off the snow as they drove through the city. Torsti sank into his winter clothes as he sat in the back, leaned against the window.

Every breath the window became fogged for a moment, fading before quickly appearing again. The vibration of the car driving made him vibrate but he just sat there relaxed.

The rest of the ride seemed like it passed instantly as he was soon being told to get out, with his door being opened and having himself almost fall out but catching himself quickly.

“We’re here.” Lauri said.

Torsti got out of the car after that and stood up, looking around to see where they were. The sun was starting to shine above the horizon and everything seemed just a bit lighter. He then looked at Lauri who motioned for him to follow him.

The sea was the first obvious thing Torsti saw as he started to follow Lauri. They were walking onto the dockyard and Torsti started to look around for any ships. There was none but one and they were walking right for it.

Lauri stopped eventually, they were a distance away from the ship but the details of it could be slightly seen from where they were as the sun continued to rise.

“HOMS Sammakko. Destroyer class.” Lauri then looked over at Torsti and said, “She’s at your disposal if you follow through with your boat plan. I’ve been working with the crew to make plans that’ll get the most speed out of her. They don’t know why but I had to go through a lot of work to take out a destroyer from service for this.” Lauri then looked back at the ship.

“That’s why you brought me out here?” Torsti asked.

“I wanted you to see it yourself… We aren’t able to build any planes as our factories are either behind enemy lines or too busy making things to delay the inevitable. Our first priority is our country's defense, not evacuating the queen. She’s wanting to stay until the end herself, but we have a plan for even that. One you weren’t told about, but may as well since it won’t hurt.

We’re going to start spreading rumors of the queen planning to leave. We’ll try and push the rumors as much as possible but however the queen responds to these rumors will be another thing.” Lauri said.

Torsti stared out at the boat for a bit before asking, “What about me? What’ll happen if you take this boat plan and go through with it? My job would be done.”

“You’d still do your job. Your sole role is to be the untrained mind figuring out the plan. Maybe you’ll come up with something else. Maybe you won’t.”

There was then a pause from Lauri as his eyes drifted about on the destroyer, “You also might become the queen's personal guard. Ever since becoming queen, she hasn’t had a dedicated one. It might be an easy role though. Make sure whatever deer’s with her during her escape to Equestria doesn’t try to kill her or anything. Basically, be given priority over whatever guards she does have as they’re all trained soldiers who’ll need to fight, plus it’ll keep them from trying to kill each other… Einair’s idea.”

“So I just also happen to be chosen at random to be getting a free one-way ticket out of the country as well.” Torsti muttered.

“It seems so.” Lauri said.

“How long do you think our army will last?” Torsti asked after a few seconds.

“Month or two I’d say.” Lauri answered.

Torsti heard his answer but didn’t say anything else. He just started to walk towards the moored destroyer. Lauri watched him for a few steps before following behind him. They were both quiet. Torsti walked down the dock, getting closer to the ship. He walked all the way to the front of the boat where he turned to look at it’s bow.

Lauri stopped beside him and looked as well. After a bit, Torsti asked, “What would you do?”

“Plan’s to leave the frontal 105mm turret, gut the back one along with the torpedo tubes. Estimates on that alone would increase the max speed by half a knot. Decrease the crew size from it’s standard crew size of 325 deer, down to 200. Current numbers at least.” Lauri paused to catch his breath before continuing,

“Spend at least a month having some engineers come by to tweek the boilers the best they can get, near perfection for sustained speed. Plan out how much fuel is needed for a path to Equestria to also help cut down on weight. Current plans is to have enough fuel to putter herself into the bay of Las Pegasus. Cut down the amount of ammo there is for the remaining gun.

One set of clothing for all deer, whatever they have on. Gut the spare rooms and bunks from the reduced crew size. All deer forced to have their antlers cut and a whole bunch of other weight reduction plans. Even removing half the lights and nearly all non-water, air, and oil-tight doors. Everything. The whole ship would be gutted for speed. All for a few extra knots at max.” Lauri ended off with.

“Is that not enough?” Torsti asked.

“I don’t know.” Lauri said.

“Can you make it enough?” Torsti asked.

“We will try.” Lauri said.

“Then do it.” Torsti said.

“You sure you don’t have any secret plan that would work better?” Lauri asked.

Torsti looked over at Lauri and said, “Yeah. It’s called taking me back to the palace so I can sleep.”

Lauri looked over at Torsti, but the sun had risen enough that when he turned to look, he was blinded.
> Chapter 9
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

March 20th, 1010

The front lines held for the past three months now without breaking, but the Changeling push into it has resulted in mass death for both sides. The defensive line has been pushed from its initial line between Cervus and Hovenhamn down to Älgstad and Snöflinga.

The coastal defenses for the Hjortland Peninsula that remain under the control of Olenia have been pushed to their limits. Successful defense from any naval invasion has been warded off because of the Olenian navy.

Despite the navy’s success in defending the waters, their numbers have fallen down to 8 ships. 7 ships since HOMS Sammakko is still undergoing maintenance and modification to allow her to reach the fastest speed possible.

All deer responsible for coastal defense has been pushed to the west side of the peninsula to allow for the navy to be better protected from attacks while defending Hjortland itself.

Deer inside the palace seem more frantic? Antsy? They get to their destination as fast as they can, not stopping to admire the same-looking hallways they’re more than used to now.

Torsti, on the other hoof, was taking his time. He relaxed in his room, skimmed over documents with ease now. Only taking a quick glance at them to know their contents and what they had.

He has the entire Olenian military logistics, movements, and strength memorized, only updating his cache of knowledge with each document.

For his job though, he has made next to no changes to his plans. Torsti, Lauri, and Einair slowly began to realize that using the HOMS Sammakko had been set in stone last month when the last remainder of the Olenian air force had been destroyed, leaving the country with no capable airplanes for aerial travel.

Still, Torsti continued to work on plans. Small but it was what he was to do. Or it was until Einair herself one day came to his room.

“Torsti. You don’t need to work anymore.” Einair said.

“What?” Torsti asked.

“Correct. We’re halting your portion of the Operation.” Einair said.

“... W- Wait? What? What about me? What’ll happen to me then?” Torsti asked.

“You get to stay here in the palace until we enact the plan. You do know you’ll be going with the Queen? Right?” Einair asked.

“I- Yeah. I heard about that, I believe. Some months ago… Why are you halting my part?” Torsti asked.

“We believe we have one month left. Max. We’re not going to have a change of plans with no time left. We already have everything in preparation for the boat as well.” Einair said.

“Will the queen even agree to it once she learns of it?” Torsti asked.

“No deer is going to look down on her for it I believe. After her response to those rumors we spread, about how they weren’t true, morale was up throughout the military and civilians. But a lot of deer seem to be talking about it being true regardless.” Einair said.

“So--” Torsti was saying before being cut off.

“We’ll force her to go if she refuses. At this point, too much work has been put into it to just not go through with her escape, so just, just relax until then? I have no idea what the journey to Equestria will be like. Your job is done, Torsti.” Einair didn’t wait around after finishing and quickly left after that. Torsti was left alone to the news and his thoughts.

One of the first things Torsti did was just mull over every paper, report, and plans he had come up with for the remainder of the day.





March 21, 1010

Today Torsti awoke to a lazy morning. The only work he had was to destroy every document he had in his room. Outside of that, nothing. So once Torsti finished cleaning up everything, he went out for lunch.

It was the same boring food as always. Now that he had time on his hands to worry about the small things like food, he realized first hoof how bad the food shortage was. More sugar cubes. Soup that was just made out of whatever was edible after being boiled in water, and even then, it wasn’t really a soup, just calorie water. How had he not realized it had gotten this bad?

Lunch left him feeling depressed that day so he went out on a walk through the palace, making his way out to one of the gardens outside to enjoy the warming weather.

That’s where he saw something unusual.

Velvet herself was out in the garden tending to it. Only one guard was nearby, but they were at a distance.

Torsti had never seen the Velvet do something like this. He had only seen her on occasion in the past few months though, but never leisurely spending her time like this.

Torsti, having nothing to do now, decided he’d say hi for the first time.

“Velvet?” Torsti asked after walking up.

Velvet looked over at Torsti from her gardening but didn’t say anything right away.

“Uhh--” Torsti had no clue what he was supposed to say, “Oh! Captain Soini. If you were--” Torsti was then waved down by Velvet.

“Torsti. Yes, I know who you are then.” Velvet nodded.

“Wait? How? How do you know me?” Torsti asked.

“Out of every deer who works in the palace, you, along with a few others, have been here for more than a few months. I know who’s in the palace, but nothing beyond that.” Velvet then pointed at Torsti, “And especially you. None of my advisors or informants have told me what you do. And from the some months, you’ve been here, I’ve come to the conclusion that no deer knows what you do. I’ve never heard a straight theory about it, but I haven’t heard many so maybe that’s why.”

“Well…” Torsti rubbed his head, “Well I guess I don’t do anything now. My job was halted and I’ve been ordered to just stay here for the time being. Probably a boring answer to whatever theories you or any deer had about me then.” Torsti said.

“A captain who’s doing nothing?” Velvet looked at Torsti’s uniform and said, “The front lines? Shouldn’t you be there then?”

“Ah, well, no… I guess?” Torsti questioned himself, “I- Well I’m special I guess. I’m just doing what I’m told really and what I’ve last been told was to just stay here still. Not much else to.”

“Interesting.” Velvet said, “Was there something you needed? I interrupted you before.”

“Oh, I was just wondering why you were out here. I’ve never seen you tend to the gardens, or seen you do much of anything really.” Torsti said.

“Oh, well I thought it’d be nice to tend to a garden one last time before we lost.” Velvet looked back at the garden and poked some of the tools she had, “It took me nearly three days of work just to get the time to tend to one myself. Just thinking that I won’t be able to do it ever again once the Changelings take over as they’ll most likely be killing most of us.”

“I-” Torsti then had a quick thought and concluded it was safe to say, “Why don’t you just leave then? Escape the country? I heard rumors about that, I know you responded to them already but, I don’t think any deer would look down on you.”

“Most deer who’re in Changeling occupied territory probably think I’m at full blame for abandoning them for the peninsula. I only agreed to the plan after it was brought to me by the high generals, it took a lot of courage to agree, but then abandoning every deer who’s still left? I don’t think they’d ever look to me as their queen again… I just wanted to make their lives better after what my brother did.” Velvet said.

“But then the Changelings attacked. Once they did, there was nothing we could do to stop them. We weren’t ready for an invasion from a country with a superior economy.” Velvet said.

“Least I can do is stay here until the end like every other deer.” Velvet added.

Torsti listened to her complaints and noticed that she seemed like she was about to break down crying talking and took that as his cue, “I- Well- I’m sorry for interrupting. I’ll--”

“I’ve been the cause of so many deaths. I should’ve just convinced the country to summit to Changeling rule in the beginning.” Velvet said.

Torsti didn’t know what to say to that but didn’t want to ruin the queen's day more than he already had so he just awkwardly saluted her before leaving without a word. He had never really saluted another deer during his time there so he didn’t know when and who he should and shouldn’t salute.

When Torsti had gotten some distance from Velvet, he had looked back and seen that she had quickly returned to tending to the garden. It must be very therapeutic for her with everything she’s having to deal with.





April 1st, 1010

“Everything you have on yourself right now, that’s it. No other possessions. There’s no time.” Einair said.

“Wh--” Torsti was cut off.

“I’m going.” Lauri said.

Torsti looked at the Admiral.

“You’re going to go?” Einair said, staring at Lauri.

“Yes. There were plans for no Admiral to go, but I’ve decided against it. It’ll be me.” Lauri said.

“A free escape from death? Is that why?” Einair asked.

“No. All the other Admirals are on the remaining 5 boats. They’re going down with the entire navy. I’d be the last Admiral, so I’ll be in charge of the Sammakko as she escapes to Equestria. It’ll boost the crew's morale as well. 124 crew. That’s what we managed to cut her down to. They’ll be working their asses off the entire time being short-staffed, so why not join them.” Lauri said.

Einair breathed in deeply before saying, “Don’t fail then.” She then looked at Torsti and said, “You, the queen, two Equestrian translators and two Equestrian historians will be the passengers. Both translators are fluent in Equestrian. The historians have Equestrian history memorized like their life depends on it. They’ll help the queen with diplomatic decisions and everything else. You, Torsti, are her bodyguard. Don’t fail either.”

Torsti nodded but then asked, “What about once we reach Equestria?”

“Live.” Einair said.

“So when do we start? Sammakko is ready to leave once we board.” Lauri said.

And just as if it was perfectly timed, a messenger knocked on the door, was invited in, and reported to the three.

“The Changeling navy has just engaged the Olenian fleet, 40 miles from the harbor.” The messenger said.

Einair looked between Lauri and Torsti before pointing to the door that led out and said, “Go.”

Torsti and Lauri realized from her expression and tone that it was time. They both quickly got up, hurried out of the room without saying goodbyes, and quickly went to the queen’s workroom, where she was working away.
> Chapter 10
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

April 1st, 1010

Torsti and Lauri, after quickly explaining to the guards who were guarding the queen, barged into her room and slammed down a piece of paper in front of her.

“Queen Velvet, under the order of Field Marshal Einair, General Eilert, and Admiral Lauri, you are hereby being detained and escorted to the destroyer HOMS Sammakko to escape to the country of Equestria.” Lauri stated to her.

Velvet quickly stood up in her chair in protest of the sudden intrusion but got no word out as Lauri slammed his hoof onto her desk.

“By the damn fucking god's Velvet! You will comply with us! We have gutted the Sammakko for speed, we have worked on this secretly for the past seven months and have gotten verbal permission from every General, gotten nearly every politician we could find to sign this paper to give you permission to escape to Equestria! All in the past few days as well! We have worked tirelessly to give you a chance to live and rule as our queen in the future!” Lauri yelled at her. 

Lauri then pointed a hoof at Torsti, while still looking at Velvet and said, “If you refuse, we will use force to get you out of this palace, into a car that will take us to the Sammakko and force you on. I have already explained to the guards outside, so just comply with it!”

Just like magic, the guards who were outside were making their way in to see what was happening, but having already been shown the paper and informed, they only watched for now.

Velvet saw the guards and waved them down with her hoof and said, “Get these two out of here! They’re interfering with my wo--”

It wasn’t Lauri or Torsti who spoke up, but one of the guards, who yelled, “Velvet! They already showed us the paper. Even if you still disagree, we’re with them too. You shoul-- You need to go. There’s nowhere else in Olenia for you to go… We’re not stopping them.”

Velvet blinked, “What…”

Lauri looked over at Torsti again, before saying, “Velvet. We need to go now-”

And once again, another interruption, but from outside. Outside the palace. The air raid siren.

Once Torsti, Lauri, and the two guards realized what the sound was, they all just looked at Velvet.

Velvet stared back at all four. She was paralyzed with what to do. She was supposed to be rushing for the bomb shelter.

“Oh for fucks sake! Torsti! Go get a car started!” Lauri then marched his way over to Velvet and grabbed her and started to drag her quickly along out of the room.

Torsti spent no time messing around, he hoofed it out to the parking lot outside, finding the hut they kept the keys in, grabbed one to the proper car and made his way to it, and started it up. Torsti only had to wait another minute before he saw Lauri and Velvet making their way out of the palace and towards his car.

By now, the air raid sirens were blaring away, hoping to get any deer listening indoors to a safe location, besides these three.

Torsti was deafened for a moment when Lauri and Velvet opened the doors to the car and got in as well, finally being able to hear after they had closed the doors, but he waited for no signal from either to go, he just floored it and went.

Torsti realized a problem real quick as he drove away. The outer wall gate that blocked the entrance and exit of the palace was closed, but thankfully Torsti found his solution, just give the car some more gas.

Torsti never stopped the car and just drove the car straight into the center of the gate and broke through, but the gate also mangled the front of the car when he did so. Thankfully, they were all safe and so was the functionality of the car. Just cosmetic damage.

Torsti continued to drive at full speed down the road. It was easy to do as always due to the lack of, well anything.

Lauri was in the front barking orders at Torsti on when to turn though. Torsti hadn’t driven around the city himself, and the only other times he had was when he initially got to Hjortland and when he was first driven to the naval yard. The naval yard, though, was where Lauri was directing Torsti.

Velvet sat in the back of the car, terrified in her mind. After being forced outside by Lauri and some of the other guards, she now just sat in the back, with nothing but the clothing she wore, the same as Torsti and Lauri.

“Take this coming left!” Lauri said, pointing ahead with his hoof, “The damn gates open! O- Ok. Just drive through! Go go go!”

Torsti did as Lauri instructed, driving through the entrance to the dockyard. After a few more instructions from the Admiral, they finally drove up on the HOMS Sammakko, where there was a single ramp leading up to the deck from the dock.

Torsti drove right up to the ramp, where he put the car in park, got out himself and rushed over to the ramp, and started making his way up, stopping halfway up to see if the other two were following. They were.

Velvet was in front of Lauri, who followed right behind, and as all three made it up onto the boat, which started to move forward within seconds. There were deer at the mooring lines who cut the ropes away just before the ship started to move. 

The ramp that they had used started to bend before breaking off and falling down into the water between the boat and the dock, which wouldn’t do any damage.

And they were off.

Lauri was instructing Torsti and Velvet on what to do, taking them to a doorway that lead into the ship where they were also met by some crew members.

“No time, just get them to their rooms and have them hunker down. Lifejackets and everything else as planned.” Lauri said to the crew members and without saying anything else, he took off to the bridge of the boat, leaving the two behind.

Velvet, despite being rushed quickly, took a second lookout at the city behind her, before being pushed inside the ship by Torsti and the crew.

“We need you two inside. The other four are already here. I’ll show you to the rooms.” One of the sailors said.

“Don’t worry about anything. We’ll have some sailors with all of y’all to show you out if emergency calls for it.” A second sailor said.

After their quick comments, they rushed Velvet and Torsti to a room near the middle of the ship, just below deck that had some lifejackets inside and bare minimum basics for living. There, Torsti and Velvet waited with another sailor who was there to help keep watch over them as the ship left the country.





Up top, in the pilothouse, Lauri learned everything he could from the crew, those operating all the equipment throughout the ship, and those in the bridge.

“HOMS Vesikko and HOMS Ishamn have both taken damage so far. They’re all still holding off the Olenian fleet. We don’t have a big window to escape.” One officer said.

“Well let’s just focus on getting out of port first.” Lauri said, “Are the anti-air guns manned?” Lauri asked.

“Port and starboard side AA are manned, along with the 105. We have eyes on the skies for the air raid, but we haven’t seen anything yet.” Another deer said.

“What about tugboats?” Lauri asked.

“On the port side right now. Only tug we have to help us out though.” A deer said.

Lauri continued asking questions, getting told everything possible. Only after ten minutes of boarding the ship, was the HOMS Sammakko finally starting to make her way out into the open ocean.
> Chapter 11
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

April 1st, 1010 

The HOMS Sammakko rushed through the water at max speed after leaving the Hjortland port. They would have to speed by the Olenia navy which was engaged with the Changeling Navy some miles down the south shore. They would be lucky if they weren’t chased by multiple ships. 

“We have an opening out towards the east Admiral.” One of the deer said on the bridge. 

“Take us that way. We’ll try to avoid the main fleet and make our way down to the Luna Ocean before taking a straight shot to Las Pegasus.” Lauri said. 

“Radio message from the Ishamn! They say they can barely see us, but as the Changelings continue to push them, they’ll eventually see us.” Said another deer. 

“Keep us on the current route for now. We can’t get too far towards Equestria from here with all the mines and Changeling subs about. Just follow the mine maps we have and pray to the gods none of them have come loose.” Lauri then pointed to one of the deer and asked, “Keep a lookout on the storm that’s south as well. We might try and shimmy our way along the edge of it if it keeps going the direction it’s going in.” 

“Doing that might push us too close to Changeling submarines.” The deer said. 

“We’ll just go into the storm itself if that happens. We’re a single ship and we’re not in a formation. We can take whatever course through the storm.” Lauri said. 

Then there was silence throughout the bridge. No deer said anything else for another minute before the deer in charge of radio communications said, “The HOMS King Johan has been hit with a torpedo.” 



 

“Paper and pens? Do you have any?” Velvet asked the crewmember who was with them. 

“Paper and pen? I could ask, but the ship was stripped of everything pretty much.” 

“If you could.” Velvet said. 

The crew member was a bit hesitant to go since he was to stay with them, but he finally agreed and left the room to go check. 

Torsti then spoke up and asked, “What do you need to write?” 

“Letters to our country and political documents. Mainly to write my thoughts down though, the official writings will happen once we’re in Equestria.” Velvet answered. 

“Are you not worried about escaping first before doing that?” Torsti asked. 

Velvet looked at Torsti and shook her head, “I just want to take my mind off of everything I guess. I think writing would help with it and trying to multitask. I need to get my thoughts down for when I need to start with everything I’ll need to do.” 

“What is there to do? I doubt there’ll be any country left to lead in the coming month.” Torsti said. 

“I could, but I can’t just abandon every deer left in the country and all those who died and will die from the war and occupation. Plus… Well, I plan on coming back. We’ll somehow get Olenia back and get control again so… I just want to prepare for everything possible.” Velvet said. 

The crew member who had left now returned and said, “Sorry, we don’t have any paper to write on. Everything on the ship is the bare minimum.” 

Velvet looked up at the crew member who was quickly rejoining them and said, “That’s fine. Talking will have to do then.” 

Velvet then started to chat with Torsti and the crewmember. To them, they were secluded from what was happening outside of the room. 



 

“Message from the Ishamn! Three Changeling ships broke away from the engagement and are heading towards us. Two destroyers and a light cruiser.” The deer staffing the radio station said. 

“Three! Do they know what speed they’re going at?” Lauri quickly asked. 

“They’re having any remaining turrets on the King John and the Kardinaali firing at them to try and slow them down. I’ll ask about speed.” The crew member said. They quickly asked on the radio before getting a response, “They’re speeding at a constant speed of 38knots.” 

“38 knots… What’re we currently at?” Lauri asked. 

“42 knots sir!” A deer said. 

Lauri looked about in the cabin, looking out the windows and looking at each deer on the bridge before asking, “How far are the three ships?” 

The radio deer asked on the radio and another deer got on the ship's intercom and asked for some deer. 

The radio deer said, “The Ishamn says they’ll intercept us fast, but they don’t know the distance.” 

The deer who had gotten on the intercom said, “Our spotters up top say they see them. 20 kilometers. In formation as well.” 

“Formation at 38 knots? Fucking hell, they must be their newest ships… How far is the storm currently?” Lauri asked. 

“Ten kilometers away.” A deer said. 

“Is the ship prepared to go through it?” Lauri asked. 

“We can get her prepared right before we hit it. Are we going to go through it?” The deer asked, looking over at the Admiral. A few of the other deer in the bridge also looked at the Admiral awaiting to see what he’d say in response. 

Lauri looked out the window towards the storm not far away before answering, “Prepare the ship then. We’ll go straight into it.” 

A few of the deer on the bridge turned back to their stations and started to talk through their intercoms to deer somewhere else on the ship. 

From there, Lauri and other deer on the bridge continued to coordinate and send out orders to the deer throughout the ship so they could prepare for the storm. 

They had to rush though as they were quickly approaching the storm. Crewmembers were rushing onto the deck of the ship, preparing the outside, some staying inside the ships to prepare there. 

Everydeer on the bridge was monitoring everything they could, making sure everything ran smoothly. That was until one of the deer yelled out, “Incoming fire from the Changeling ships!” 

Everydeer there then looked out of the windows towards the direction of the Changeling ships before they heard the splash impact behind them. The two rounds that had been fired from the enemy had missed and overshot, nearly missing despite being 18 kilometers away. 

Without hesitation, Lauri quickly asked, “How many rounds do we have for the 105?” 

“100 rounds exactly.” A deer said. 

“Have the turret return fire until we reach the edge of the storm. That should hopefully slow them down.” Lauri said. 

“Now? They’re still 18 kilometers away.” The same deer said. 

“We’ll reach the storm in a few minutes anyways. Anything to deter them away is better than nothing.” Lauri said. 

After that, the deer talked on the intercom to some deer and after a few more seconds, the ship quickly turned its internal alert systems on to alert the crew of the current situation. The crew who were manning the 105mm turret were already at the ready. They were currently turning the turret to face the direction that the Changeling ships were in after being given information from the bridge and other various stations. 

Once the turret had turned all the way, it was only a few seconds more before the first round was fired away, vibrating the bridge. From there, the turret would fire away every so often in the same direction. None of the rounds would end up hitting any of the three ships. 

From there, the Sammakko would do her best to dodge any incoming rounds without losing speed. The whole bridge was abuzz with deer doing everything they could to keep the ship at peak performance. 

After some more minutes of work, the first raindrops started to hit the ship. It was only once Lauri saw the rain falling outside did he finally say, “Have the turret fire 7 more times than have it on standby. We’re at the edge.” Lauri then turned his attention to another deer, “What’s the progress with the outside? Is everything ready for the storm?” 

“Everything should be finished by now. Anyone on the outside deck should be heading in soon.” The deer said. 

“Ok then-” 

And just then, the first problem arose. The Sammakko had been hit by a shell on the starboard side 20mm anti-air gun. 

The shell exploded upon impact and destroyed the AA gun while damaging the deck and surrounding structure of the ship. The AA guns were in the mid-section of the destroyer, between the two smokestacks it had. 

All the deer on the bridge were quick with figuring out what had just happened, before one of the deer saw the damage themselves and said, “Starboard side AA is hit!” 

“Get damage control on that quickly. Put out any fire before we get further into the storm. That’s not something we need right now.” Lauri said. 

The deer responsible for those areas were already working on that before even being told. 

Within the ship, the deer responsible for damage control and fire control were quick to getting back out on deck to the AA gun position and as well from within the ship to assess the damage. 

“Have somedeer check on the queen as well. Make sure she’s alright.” Lauri said, “And have them report back quickly.” 



 

From within the ship, Velvet and Torsti, along with the crewmember with them, a deer quickly interrupted the three and asked about their wellbeing. 

“All is good down here.” Said Nathan, the crewmember who was with the other two, but they quickly asked, “What’s going on up top? Were we just hit?” 

“We’re currently opening fire on three Changeling ships that are trying to pursue us. Our starboard side was just hit, I don’t know where or what the damage is like, but the head chef went out to help do a quick assessment of the internal damage and look for any fire. I was called to check on you three, but I need to report back quickly.” The deer said before quickly slipping off. 

“Well, that’s reassuring.” Torsti said. 

Nathan looked at Torsti and said, “Ship was stripped down of all unneeded parts. We should be faster than any ship the Changeling navy sends.” 

“But he did just confirm we were hit.” Torsti said. 

“A single hit isn’t going to stop us. We got damage control.” Nathan said. 

“There’s nothing we can do ourselves besides let them do their job the best they can and pray.” Velvet said, “So please don’t burden them. They have too many burdens to worry about without you questioning it.” 

Torsti looked at Nathan, who stared back, before sighing lightly and going back to holding onto something. They were all holding onto something since they felt the ship get hit. 



 

“We’re about five more minutes away before we start hitting rougher water.” 

“The turret’s finished off its rounds for now.” 

“The four deer manning the AA gun are dead. The gun is destroyed but damage to the ship is minimal. Our speed shouldn’t be affected.” 

“The queen and guests are all ok still.” 

Information kept coming in to Lauri for him to make decisions on. One after another. He kept having to respond or say thank you if it wasn’t that important, but with the three pursuers, things were hectic. Thankfully for the ship, Lauri was an Admiral. He was able to not be overwhelmed by it all. 

“Have the turret return fire again. How many rounds are we at now?” Lauri asked. 

“84 shots left.” 

“Have them stay at a slower fire rate but only stop once they don’t have eyes on them from the rain.” Lauri said. 

From there the turret would resume firing on the Changeling ships once the order came back in. Incoming rounds kept coming in occasionally, none of them would thankfully hit again.
> Chapter 12
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

April 1st, 1010 

The first wave was the indication that they were far enough into the storm. 

“Have the turret stop firing! If they still want to chase us, they’ll have to brace the storm as well.” Lauri said. 

By the time Lauri had finished saying that, the water that was still dripping from the bridge’s windows and draining from the front deck had nearly been cleared away. 

“Have full focus on navigating the ship and have all damage control and engineers checking everything. Can’t have something breaking from a rogue wave like that once we are in the middle of this storm.” Lauri said. 

Right then, one of the deer in the bridge flicked on the lights for it and lit it up, allowing the deer inside to see better as they made their way deeper into the clouded storm. 

Or it was until Lauri quickly said, “No! Stop! Keep the lights off. I don’t want to risk having those Changelings see the lights if we lose them. In fact, have all windows covered and make sure we keep lights to the minimum. Let’s try and stay dark.” 

The deer who had then turned on the light quickly went back to turn them off. Another deer started to talk on the intercom and issued the order to everydeer. 

“The best chance we get and only once. There is no second chance…” Lauri muttered to himself. He then spoke back up and said, “What’s the current size of the storm?” 

“From what I can tell, if we go through it, one hour at our current speed, but we’re going to slow down with all the waves.” 

“Good enough for me. We just have to get through and I think we’ll make it.” Lauri said. 

After Lauri finished, the first notable tilt of the ship from the storm happened as the ship rose up on a small wave before crashing down into the trough. 



 

“What do we do with them?” Kiran asked. 

“We’ll drop them over the side and into the ocean is what. They’re sailors. Died a sailors death so they deserve a sailors funeral.” Cyrillus said. 

“You could’ve said it nice. Made it sound like they’re dead weight.” Gareth said. 

“They kind of are though.” Kiran mumbled. 

“What the fuck did you just say?!” Mitja yelled out at Kiran, “Don’t fucking downplay them! They’re dead and you’re disrespecting them!” 

Gareth quickly tried to calm Mitja down, getting in between him and Kiran to help prevent any further aggression, “Woah, woah, woah! No need to be getting hostile like that.” Gareth couldn’t do anything but sigh at what he heard himself though and turned to face Kiran and said, “Don’t downplay it though. A lot of us knew them. Imagine if one of us started to disrespect the death of one of your engineer buds.” 

“I-” Kiran got out. 

“Our objective is to escape to Equestria. They’re dead and are truly dead weight. We already stripped half the ship for speed, might as well ask command on what to do with them.” Cyrillus said. 

Kiran and Mitja both looked over at Cyrillus and glared at him. 

“Woah, guys, I’m just saying. What? Do you want to take them with us to Equestria and bury them there? We’re not returning to Olenia. None of us are.” Gareth said. 

“Two of them were drafted. Their home isn’t the ocean or Equestria. No way am I agreeing to letting them retire to the ocean.” Mitja said. 

“As I said, we should just ask command.” Cyrillus said again. 

“There’s no way they’d have the time to decide on what to do! They’re too busy getting us through this fucking storm! We left with them already! Plus, with the turret firing off, the weight loss from that should be enough to keep them!” Mitja said. 

Kiran then chimed in and said, “Alright! Listen! Fuck! We’ll just ask Command. Just- No reason to keep worrying about it at this point. They’ve died and that’s it. Jus-” Kiran pointed at Cyrillus and said, “Go, do it. Just fucking ask…” Kiran then looked back over at the four bodies of the deer who had been on the AA gun when it was hit. 

Each one of them was covered over the head, while the rest of their body was exposed to whoever saw it. Mingled, destroyed, torn, missing. That’s what they looked like. One of the deer on the far right of the four was the most recognizable, the rest, not so much. 

Cyrillus left the room, went to one of the phones in the ship and called into the bridge, where he explained the current situation with the bodies before asking what they were to do with the bodies. 

There was a silence before they answered. 

“The Admiral says to go get the queen and show her the four. Only quickly. We’re in rough waters now so we want her somewhere safe during the storm.” 

“Understood.” Cyrillus said before hanging up the phone. He then went to the room where the queen was. All the deer on the ship knew what room she was using. Word had spread fast. 

Cyrillus knocked on the door, waited a second, and saw Nathan after he had opened the door, “Orders from the Admiral.” He said, “He wants the queen to say a word for the four who died.” 

Nathan nodded and let Cyrillus come in. 

Cyrillus quickly saluted Velvet before saying, “Mam. The Admiral wants you to go say a quick word for the four who died when we were hit. They were outside manning one of the AA guns.” 

Velvet blinked at the sudden intrusion of the new deer, but quickly realized what they were doing before they started talking. Once Cyrillus finished, Velvet gave him a smile before standing up, naturally adjusting herself for the sway of the ocean, and said, “It’s ok…” She looked down, “I understand. I’ll do it, but not because of Lauri’s orders… I also didn’t know the crew was feeling bad about it.” 

Cyrillus blinked before saying, “Wait? We’re not feeling bad about it. They were only doing their job is all.” 

“It’s easy to tell it has a toll on you at least.” Velvet said to Cyrillus. 

Cyrillus went silent after what Velvet said, before saying, “Well, they want it done quickly though. They want you to stay here to be safe while we travel through the storm outside.” Cyrillus then turned around and left the room, waiting outside of it for Velvet. 

Velvet quickly followed behind, with Torsti quickly getting on his hooves and following behind her, with Nathan being last of all of them. No reason for him to stay behind if neither Velvet nor Torsti were there. 

“Where are we going too exactly?” Torsti asked. 

“One of the rooms that was emptied out when it was stripped. Near the AA turret they were on. It’s safe.” Cyrillus said, “It’s not much further.” 

Cyrillus then stopped at the door to the room the bodies had been in and turned around to face the three, “They’re in here, but they are bloodied up so, just warning.” Cyrillus said that with a depressed tone, as if having the tree see them was their true death. He then turned back around and entered the room, allowing the rest to join. 

Velvet was the first to walk in, with Torsti right behind her. Nathan peeked his head for a second, seeing the bodies right away and quickly going back into the hallway where he stayed. 

Velvet looked down at the four bodies with wide eyes. It took her a second to realize what she was exactly looking at. She naturally retracted at the site, clutching her eyes closed for a second before she opened them again slowly and slowly got herself comfortable with the sight. 

Torsti looked at the bodies as well, but he didn’t have the same reaction as Velvet did. He had seen his fair share of bodies during his time working as a police officer, but he still looked away from them, focusing on the other three deer who had been in the room. 

Kiran, Gareth, and Mitja had saluted Velvet when she stepped hoof in the room. They hadn’t been told that Velvet herself would be coming by to check on them. They quickly stopped saluting when they noticed that Velvet had taken no notice of their presence. 

The bodies themselves had some more sheets thrown over them, sacks, bedding, whatever they had at their disposal to cover them better. 

“I- I don’t know what I’m supposed to say for them… Or you, or anyone on the ship.” Velvet said quietly, “I’ve never seen it like this before. All- Broken and…” Velvet trailed off and didn’t finish. What she did was raise her hoofs together and gave a quick prayer. It only lasted a few seconds before she dropped her hoof and looked up at the three sailors who were staring at her in awe, “Thank you. I- Admiral Lauri can’t promise you a good life once we’re in Equestria, but thank you for what you all are doing.” She tried to give a faint smile to them. 

Velvet didn’t stick around to force one though as she then turned around, walked past Torsti and Cyrillus and left the room. 

Torsti watched her leave, before turning to look at the other three, who were just as confused looking as he was, before he realized he had to catch back up with her. Cyrillus stayed in the room and watched them leave. 

Once Velvet and the two others had left, he turned back to look at the three, where there was a silence among all four before Kiran said, “Sorry about what I said about dead weight.” 

Mitja looked over at Kiran, but he didn’t say anything, all while his gaze left Kiran and drifted to the four dead deer. 

“Admiral wants us to keep their bodies for now, but we’ll have to send them off once we’re through the storm.” Cyrillus said. 

“I guess that’s that.” One of the other three said.
> Chapter 13
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

April 1st, 1010 

The HOMS Sammakko was nearly twenty minutes into the storm now. All of the major waves the storm was making were crashing into the Sammakko as she cut through the water. Waves splashed onto her deck, hitting her sides all while rain pelted her from above. Thankfully, even the port side AA gun crew had come inside so they were safe from the weather. Is what they would’ve thought at least. 

The Sammakko kept nose-diving into the ocean occasionally after being pushed up by some waves, which slammed the whole ship. Everything was currently taking its toll on the Sammakko’s speed, slowing her down. 

On the bridge, all of the deer who were working there were doing everything they could to plot their path through. Unlike being in a formation, they were free now to take whatever course was best through. They were able to send constant orders to the engineers down below working the engines to make constant changes to the boat's direction. 

For every deer on the boat that wasn’t actively engaged with the ship's survival, they were all either getting what rest they could in the midst of the storm, or trying their best to not fall over from the tilting of the ship, which was the current situation for Velvet. 

Velvet was trying her best to not fall. She had been on boats before, but never had she gone through a storm in one, always around if one was in the path. For most of the sailors though, it was something they had experienced before to some extent. 

Repairs on the ship where it had been hit had finished by now. Any fires that might’ve been about were now extinguished, pipes and wiring were fixed and anything that was broken was working as intended again. 

View from the bridge was very limited currently. The cloud coverage, the rain, and the waves blocking the view occasionally. 

That, though, did not stop one of the deer who was on lookout in the bridge to quickly yell out, “Unknown ship to our port side stern! It seems to be three kilometers away!” 

And like that, nearly ⅓ of the deer in the bridge made their way over to the left side of the bridge, looking out of the windows and out into the ocean trying to spot it. Though they didn’t have to really try as they could see the spotlights shining from the boat. They were aimed out into the ocean, as if they were looking for something. 

One of the deer quickly said, “It’s a goddamn Changeling ship. Its outline matches one of the destroyers that were chasing us as well.” 

Lauri then chipped in and said, “Well, keep a watch on it. Double check and make sure our boat has no lights out. Let’s try and keep going through the storm while avoiding going in that direction.” Lauri was also looking out the window, thinking as he hadn’t thought the Changelings would chase them into the storm, “Fucking hells, let’s also make sure our boys are ready to man the 105 as well. Get them set up.” 

“Yes sir.” A deer said before talking on the intercom to whoever picked up on the other end. 

“They better not find us. Dumb bugs must’ve just turned on their lights… Hey! Did you see any other ships around it?” Lauri said as he walked away from the window. 

“Not yet, but I’m definitely looking, but there’s no way it’s sticking with its buds in the storm. Must be far apart or they’re alone.” A deer said. 

“Let's hope they’re alone. We don’t need to be engaged in-- Three kilometers!? Wait?” Lauri asked, “How did they catch up so fast?” 

“We’ve slowed down to 34knots due to the storm, but they should’ve slowed down a lot as well.” A deer said. 

“You said it was one of the ships that were chasing us? Do you know what class it was?” Lauri asked, “I never got a chance to see.” 

“I didn’t recognize it. It was a destroyer, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen its form before. It must be a new class.” A deer said. 

“They’re that fast in this storm. Fuck me.” Lauri said, “And what do we have? A 105 and two depth charges?” 

“And one remaining AA gun as well, but that’s it.” A deer said. 

“Let’s just hope they don’t find us then.” Lauri said. 

A single deer ended up keeping watch on the Changeling boat as they continued on. Unfortunately, it never left their sight and looked as if it was following them, which meant they were either lucky or were waiting for some unknown reason to attack. 

Despite everything going on though, down below deck, the deer were taking their turns to eat. 



 

“Just potatoes?” Kiran asked. 

“Just potatoes.” The chef said. 

“Kind of lacking for such an adventure you think?” Kiran said. 

“We don’t plan on being out here long so suck it up or leave. I’m just the one handing it out right now.” The chef said. 

Kiran took the potatoes without any more questions and moved to join Cyrillus on the floor. Nearly every table and chair had been removed. 

“I kind of regret joining this boat now if I had known the experience would be like this. Would probably rather be on the King Johan than here. At least they probably have better food.” Kiran said. 

“Can’t be worse than what the army has to eat. I heard that we got better food to help boost morale since we’re inside floating metal coffins.” Cyrillus said. 

“Maybe they could’ve given us some better food for the journey. Like, it’s a lot of stress just leaving our country like this, plus we never had any action during the time the Sammakko was being stripped and modified. Just boring exercises in a classroom every day.” Kiran sighed and went to eat some of his potato. 

“At least we get a chance to live.” Cyrillus said blankly. 

“If we make it. If we die before making it, we’re just going to get thrown overboard into the sea anyways. We or the entire ship. Like, couldn’t they have used an airplane?” Kiran asked. 

“That I don’t know. I don’t know how they work but I know the King Johan was planned to get some. I heard Equestria has floating airfields for planes as well, but have you ever seen one flying about from our side?” Cyrillus asked. 

“No, but it just seems like they could’ve used one of those instead. Or maybe a submarine if they all hadn’t been destroyed within the first few months.’ Kiran said. 

“With a submarine, they could’ve snuck by any Changeling ship or airplane flying above at least.” Cyrillus said. 

“Yeah, they could’ve, but here we are, using one of the last boats our navy has to get the queen out.” Kiran said. 

“Are you opposed to doing that?” Cyrillus asked. 

“No… Just why did it have to be our boat that would. Half our crew was sent to other boats or to the front lines if there was no more room. Just, it’s weird. I don’t know.” Kiran said. 

“Not wrong about that.” Cyrillus, “But I guess that’s not for us to decide.” 

Kiran sighed, “Yep.” 



 

“Here. Some potatoes and a few apples. It’s all we have but it should be good enough.” The head chef said after handing a plate of the mentioned food to Velvet. 

“It’s fine! Trust me! Everything you guys are doing is more than is to be asked of you. I can’t complain about the food that you offer.” Velvet said. 

The head chef nodded and finished handing the other two plates to Nathan and Torsti, “As I just said, it’s all we have, so enjoy it.” The chef then walked out of the room empty hoofed of the food he brought. 

Nathan didn’t hold himself back from digging into the food. 

“I guess as he said, all there is to do is enjoy it. Definitely won't be anything as good as what was served at the palace, and that wasn’t a lot either.” Torsti said. 

Velvet smiled and said, “That it is, but don’t let it go to waste. All we have to do is wait until we’re in Equestria before we can eat like normal again.” 

“Mhmm.” Torsti said. He watched Nathan eat the food for a second before digging in as well. It had been a tiring day so far, rushing to the boat and sitting in the same room for some hours by now. 

Velvet gave a quick prayer to herself before she started to eat herself. 

It wasn’t the most pleasant of meals as it was very bare and basic, but it truly was enough. 

None of the three talked as they sat in the room eating. Torsti and Velvet had grown accustomed to the swaying of the boat and swayed with it to keep themselves balanced. Nathan had been doing it without thought long ago. 

One thing Torsti thought of while they ate though was of all the food he’d be able to eat in Equestria. It had been months since he had anything truly stomach bursting filling and being under the safe protection of Equestria, out of the war would add a lot more to it as well. But until then, the potatoes would have to do. 



 

The waves had calmed down some. The wind was slower and the rain let up just a little. It was still hard to see that far out still. The deer on the bridge had each taken a break to get food earlier so they were all full on potato now, ready and focused on anything and everything, especially the Changeling ship. 

The Changeling boat was further away now, it still had its searchlights on as it kept looking out for the Sammakko, or whoever else it might be trying to find. The deer on the bridge kept a watch on the enemy. 

One of the things that Lauri had talked about with one of the deer during the time was the paint color of the ship. It was a darker blue color right now so they had theorized that it was helping a lot with concealing them from the enemy. Whyever the bugs were using spotlights still was unknown. 

No radio messages had been found, either the encryption of the enemy’s radio just hadn’t been broken or they weren’t sending anything. 

But none of that mattered to any of them. They were focused on surviving no matter what the enemy did so they stayed focused on their job. 

All was going well so far.
> Chapter 14
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

April 1st, 1010 

Lauri stared out the window towards the boat with a few other deer beside him who also looked on. It was the Changeling destroyer that had been searching for them, alone, some kilometers away, with its two turrets turning towards them. 

The bridge was silent for a few seconds before Lauri broke it, “This is it. Our final challenge. The final blockade to our escape to Equestria and the survival of the queen. Us and them. The only two options we have now are to either die with our ship or live.” Lauri paused again and let his words process through everydeers mind before saying in a quiet tone, “Let us prepare.” He then took a deep breath, turned around and looked at the deer on the bridge, nearly all of them were looking at him. He didn’t say anything else though. He just walked back to his normal position. 

By the time Lauri made it back where he had been, another deer said, “Incoming fire!” 

“Straight ahead now!” Lauri shouted. 

Word was sent quickly to the engineers and the boat quickly halted its turning and started to go straight. Every shell that had been fired at the Sammakko then missed. One of the shells came so close to hitting that when it hit the water, it sent water flying up onto the bridge’s windows. 

“Sending an alert to the whole ship now! We’ll be getting everydeer on station, ready for whatever.” A deer said. They unfortunately hadn’t done this moments earlier when the Changeling ship had first been seen. 

It was a miracle that neither ship saw each other before then as the Changeling destroyer had only started to have its two turrets turn towards the Sammakko a few seconds after being spotted. 

“The 105 crew is already ready. They’re rotating the turret now.” 

“Why hadn’t the alarm sounded when the ship was first spotted?” A deer asked. 

“There’s no time to worry about any mistakes now.” Lauri quickly shouted, “Just do what you think is best.” 

“Enemy ship fired again!” 

Just then, the Sammakko’s 105 turret opened fire, sending her first round towards the enemy boat. 

“Don’t have our turret stop. Tell them not to worry about ammunition. Their only concern is to hit the enemy as many times as possible.” Lauri said. 

It was the last thing he said before the enemy fire finally hit. 

Three of the shells overshot while one hit one of the antennas that were atop, destroying it. 

“All rounds missed!” A deer quickly said. 

Lauri could only think about the disadvantage they had right now against the Changeling boat. It had two turrets, both with two guns each while the Sammakko had a single turret with one gun. They didn’t know what other weaponry the enemy had and the only two other things that the Sammakko had was a single AA gun and two depth charges. 

“Turn us towards the enemy boat and take us towards them. We’re going to skim right past them to the point we see their pupils.” Lauri said to everyone on the bridge, “We’re going to blow their fucking ship in half with depth charges.” 

And like that, half the deer on the bridge turned their heads and looked at Lauri as if he was insane. 

“Wh- What?” 

“Full speed. Have the charges set for only a few feet.” Lauri added. 

“Enemy ship hit!” A deer then yelled out. 

Lauri had his eyes closed to avoid looking at anydeer before saying, “There’s no other chance at winning.” 

Then two shells suddenly hit. One hit near the side armor of the ship while the other plowed through one of the chimneys, punching a hole through it before going into the ocean. 

Lauri suddenly opened his eyes after the sudden hit and quickly slammed his hoof down, “There’s no time!” 

The deer who were still looking back at Lauri quickly sent orders throughout the ships after Lauri’s demand. The rest had turned back around to work after the ship was hit. 

Lauri stared out the window at the turret upfront as it fired off another shot before muttering, “Let’s at least kill another ship before we die…” 

“Incoming fire again!” 

“Ignore it! All I want us focused on is making sure we get those charges sent here in a few minutes.” Lauri said, “Make sure we have crew getting them ready.” 

“There’s a fire in the ship from where we were hit!” 

“You don’t need to tell me everything right now, we have procedures, follow them.” Lauri said. 

The deer who yelled that quickly got to work with monitoring more important things. 

“Enemy ship is five kilometers away. If they don’t try and run, we should pass them in four-ish minutes.” 

“Just keep us full speed, time the charges to blow right when they pass over.” Lauri said. 

“They’re going to broadside us…” Somedeer said. 



 

“Fucking five minute--” Gareth quickly turned and yelled out to Mitja, “We have five minutes to get both depth charges ready!” Gareth listened to the phone again before putting it up and quickly turning around and running with Mitja and Uriel. 

Mitja and Uriel continued on outside while Gareth stopped by a room on their way by and told the deer inside, “Bridge wants us to deploy both depth charges! We have four minutes!” There was only a half-second of hesitation from the deer before they quickly started to scramble. 

Gareth didn’t wait a second either before quickly leaving the room and following the path Mitja and Uriel had taken. It only took him a few seconds before he finally reached a door that led to the outside deck. 

The first thing Gareth noticed upon getting outside was the sound of the front turret firing. It was loud and concussive even with how far back he was, but he, like many of the other sailors, had grown used to it during the first few months of the war. 

Gareth didn’t wait around though, he quickly made his way to the back of the boat where the two depth charges were, also where Mitja and Uriel were, they were already preparing one of the charges. 

Just about as Gareth got to the two, four other deer showed up on the other side of the boat, where the other depth charge was kept. 

The boat had been stripped as best as it could while also maintaining the balance of it still to help maximize speed. 



 

“We have crew readying the charges now.” Said the deer who was looking down the boat towards the stern. 

“Wai-” Lauri quickly looked over at the deer before looking around and asking, “We need someone to tell them when to drop the charges. They don’t have any phones back there.” Lauri then quickly looked back towards the deer who had been keeping watch for the crew and said, “Go back there to tell them when to drop the charges.” 

“When do they drop?” The deer asked. 

“We only need one to hit, so stagger them by eight seconds.” Lauri then waved his hoof at the deer, “Go! Go, quick. We only have two minutes or so now.” 

The deer waited for no other instructions and left right away. 

Just then the Sammakko was hit again by two more shells, this time in the upper bow and the lower bow, neither of the hits hitting near the waterline. 

“Fourth hit on us. We’ve hit them two times.” The deer monitoring the 105 turret said. 

“Let’s hope they miss more.” Lauri whispered. 



 

Ardashir was geared up in fire uniform, leading three other deer into the fire that was ahead. They were responding for fire control to the shells that had hit the bow a few seconds ago. They were on standby for any fires like this. 

Ardashir finally met with the door that had smoke seeping through it from the damage it had taken upon being hit. He dropped the hose he had been dragging and tried his best to open the door without potentially burning himself. It didn’t work though, so one of the deer that were following handed him the crowbar they had and Ardashir used it to pry open the door, which did work. 

Upon the door opening, large amounts of smoke started to flow out into the hallway the four deer were in. 

Almost immediately, one of the deer behind him had picked up the hose as Ardashir had pried the door open, turned it on and started sending the pressurized water into the room through the opening. 

“It’s on the left side, the fire!” Ardashir said for the deer. He then moved out of the way so the deer could have full access to the door, as well as to get fresh air after being hit in the face with smoke. 

“We’re going to need to use the other door, it’s around the corner with another hose nearby!” Maarten said, “I'll stay here with Matko.” 


Ardashir agreed and took the fourth deer with him to go to the other entrance. 



 

Mitja quickly looked up and saw the enemy ship ahead, which was also heading straight towards them. 

“Oh fuckin’, they’re going to torpedo us.” Mitja shouted. 

Gareth looked up for a second towards the enemy ship but the deer running from the bridge towards them caught his eye instead. 

“Eight seconds apart! The depth charges!” The deer said. 

Uriel quickly yelled out towards the deer on the other side who were prepping the charge, “EIGHT SECONDS! WE’RE FIRST!”  

One of the deer yelled back after hearing the order, “Eight second delay! You first!” 

Uriel then looked at Mitja and Gareth and said, “Well boys, looks like we’ll be dropping first.” 



 

“They’re aiming their torpedo launchers!” The deer who was looking through binoculars yelled. 

Lauri quickly stood up and rushed over to the deer who had made the callout and took some binoculars to look as well before he pointed over at the deer who was in charge of the turret communications and said, “Tell the turret to aim for their tubes! They’re going to broadside us with torpedoes!” 

The deer quickly sent the request to the turret before giving Lauri confirmation that it was. 

Lauri then quickly looked back out of the window, watching the 105 have a delay to its firing as it took aim before it did. Lauri watched the enemy ship through binoculars to see if the round would hit. 

A direct hit. 

The first shot hit the launchers but almost immediately upon the enemy's torpedo launchers being destroyed, the Sammakko was hit in the bridge with a shell. 



 

Juma and Hla were quickly given the order to now aim for the torpedo launchers on the enemy boat. It took them a second to aim the turret after adjusting from his previous target and once they did, Juma fired the gun. 

Within the blink of an eye, they had seen if they had hit or missed, and to their surprise as they looked through the aiming sites, they hit. 

“Just like that! You fucking see that shit!” Juma yelled out. 

“We need to aim again, keep yourself collected man!” Hla spat out at Juma, who then quickly recollected himself and started aiming the turret again. 

Just then they felt the ship vibrate from being hit again. Neither of them paid any attention to it as they were almost nearing ready to fire again. 

They wouldn’t be able to aim to where they wanted to as the enemy ship was passing by so close, they couldn’t turn the turret fast enough, nor could the bow turret of the enemy ship. 



 

“It’s time! It’s time! Ready to drop them!” Gareth said quickly. 

The bows of the two ships were seconds away from passing each other. 

Gareth, Mitja and Uriel quickly started to push the depth charge over the back of the boat. The equipment to drop or throw them had been removed for weight unfortunately. 

Right before they could toss it over, the deer who had come from the bridge joined in to help and two seconds later the charge was dropped into the water. 

After seven seconds the other team also dropped theirs into the water, right as the enemy ship was passing by the midpoint of the Sammakko. 

There was nothing left for the deer to do now so they all quickly trotted back to the ship so they could get inside.  

Mitja was the second to reach one of the doors that led inside, right as the stern turret of the enemy ship fired both of its guns at the Sammakko, both hitting the area of the ship that the depth charge crew was running into. 

Gareth hadn’t made it inside when the ship was hit but he quickly stumbled backwards upon the shells hitting, falling over. 

After what seemed like minutes, Gareth stood up, looking in the direction of the enemy destroyer just as the first charge went off near its bow and as the water from the first charge reached its maximum height, the second charge went off near the stern of the ship. Both depth charges hit the destroyer. 

That though, was all a blur to Gareth as he was quickly looking back towards the Sammakko at the entrance the other deer had been using and seeing it had been blown to shreds. 



 

Lauri opened his eyes and instantly had a blank mind for a second as he collected himself trying to remember what was going on. He then felt another deer touching him, at which he looked around for them, where he saw a deer standing before him. 

“Admiral! F- Thank the gods.” The deer said. 

Lauri then got up and looked around him, seeing the bridge of the ship having a massive hole in its right side. 

“I already checked you. You’re not hurt.” The deer over Lauri said. 

“What--” Lauri was looking around still, trying to find other deer, “What about the crew? Are they ok?” Lauri finally had his footing and saw other deer, some on the ground, some standing, shaking off the hit. 

“One is dead, but three are injured. We just sent word to the medical team to come up.” The deer said. 

Lauri was walking towards the right side of the bridge to look out the hole that was there, trying to spot the enemy destroyer, “The enemy?” 

He didn’t need to wait for a reply as he saw the ship behind them, listing already. The disturbance of the water from the depth charges could still be seen. 

Lauri then saw the back of the ship smoking a bit from where the depth charge crew was at. That wasn’t his concern right now as he saw the turret on the stern of the enemy ship turning towards them. 

“We need to turn! We need our turret to fire on the enemy!” Lauri shouted. It didn’t matter though because after a few seconds, the Changeling destroyer went up in a puff of smoke upon exploding. 

The shockwave took a second to reach the bridge, at which Lauri and nearly every deer on the bridge reacted to. 



 

Gareth was trying to tend to his buds and the other deer who had been hit by shrapnel from when the shells hit but was suddenly interrupted by the exploding destroyer behind them. 

The shockwave pushed Gareth and a few other deer down, as well as making them deaf for a moment. 

They quickly got up and looked at the cloud of smoke that was above the enemy. The enemy's boat was tilting quickly now, the deck of the boat was now starting to go into the water all while the few specs of Changeling bugs were running about and floating in the water about the ship. 

Gareth was quickly interrupted from the show as a deer tapped on him to get his attention. It was one of the deer from the other depth charge crew. They were trying to motion for him to help with dragging the bodies of the other deer away from the area due to the fire that was getting bigger. 

Gareth quickly realized that and went to help, all while a few more deer had come out from the ship elsewhere and were getting a hose ready to find and attack the fire that had been reported. 



 

“Let’s get ourselves back on track! Fastest we’re able to towards Equestria! Ignore the Changeling boat.” Lauri then said to the crew on the bridge. 

A few of the deer were getting back on their stations, making sure everything was working still before sending word to the ship. 

“Damage control needs to be working at 100%. Let’s make sure none of our holes kill us.” Lauri made his way over to the injured deer and said, “I’m going to help these guys, just get us out of here.” Lauri then started to quickly assist the medical team who just now arrived with getting the injured to the medical center. 



 

Juma and Hla finished rotating the gun towards the direction of the enemy ship and saw the destruction finally. 

“There it is Hla! WE DID IT! Those sons of a bitches are fucking dead! WE FUCKING DID IT!” Juma was celebrating beyond control while Hla was sitting back relaxed after seeing it himself as well. 

“...” Hla said. 

Juma pointed at the gun and said, “WE DID IT HLA! We didn’t die!” 

Hla looked over at Juma and had a smile grow on his face as Juma’s excitement rubbed off on him, “We actually did it. I- I can’t believe it. With a single 105 we did it…” Hla slumped back and looked at the controls of the gun before shaking his head in disbelief.  

The adrenalin rush in him and Juma peaked and now started to decline after they realized what happened. The same for every deer on the boat who came to learn of what just happened would slowly relax. At least those who weren’t actively trying to make sure the ship didn’t catch fire and ran.
> Chapter 15
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

April 1st, 1010 

The Sammakko was making her way through the water a bit slower than she was as she raced out of the Hjortland port, but it was faster than nothing. It was now night and the Sammakko was running dark. 

The moonlight was enough for anydeer to walk about the deck without falling over so it helped the few deer who were out manning the last AA gun and those still doing what repairs were needed to the outside. 

All of the fires that had sprung about on the ship from the earlier engagement had been put out and now all that was needed to do was to repair what had been damaged. 

One of the major problems that came about the engagement and that persisted now was the singular hole near the water line that had been discovered some time after the Sammakko had left behind the Changeling ship. 

Repairs to the damage were going slow and not up to standard as many of the crew would have liked as they didn’t have many materials to help fix it due to the stripping of the ship. They did what repairs they could to the affected areas before using watertight doors to close off the few sections that were affected to help keep any potential water from spreading into the rest of the ship. 

Lauri now finally got the chance to personally go check up on Velvet, even though he had already had some other deer do so. 

Lauri knocked on the door to the room Velvet was in, which was opened by Nathan, who instantly recognized him and immediately let Lauri in without any words being spoken. 

Torsti was sitting against a wall with his eyes closed. Velvet was laying in the bed that the room had, asleep. 

“Tors.” Nathan said as he went over to Torsti and nudged him.  

Torsti opened his eyes wide while blinking as he tried to disorient himself from the small nap he had been taking and saw Lauri, “Oh, Lauri?” Torsti then said through a yawn, “Yeah?” 

Lauri pointed with a hoof to Velvet before saying in a quiet tone, “I just wanted to see for myself that you all were still ok.” 

Torsti gave a weak smile, “Yeah, we’re ok, it was just a stressful day so far with, the whole battle that happened and all. We could feel the ship being hit. It was something else really.” 

Lauri nodded, “It truly was something else. Took quite a few hits in fact, we’re still floating and functioning but we’ll be going a bit slower from here on.” 

“We did just leave but how long do you think it’ll take to get to Equestria?” Torsti asked. 

“Well, we should be in the North Luna Sea right now, so maybe twelve to twenty-four hours more? Rough estimate. The port of Prancisco should be to the north but they’re still too close to the Changelings.” Lauri said. 

“The ship will make it? Right?” Torsti asked. 

“To Las Pegasus? We should, but we can ditch ourselves on the Equestrian coastline if we need to. It would just be more inconvenient to do that is all, prefer a port and city that has food and supplies for all of us.” Lauri said. He then pointed again to Velvet and asked, “How’d she handle it all?” 

“Honestly, calmer than me if I were to guess. I think she was just praying for you all to get us through the fight, but she must’ve done it crazy hard since she’s knocked out now. Fell asleep about ten minutes ago.” Torsti said. 

“Good, good. The easier this ride is on for her, the better. We shouldn’t have any more action though. We’re way beyond the point that Changeling subs are.” Lauri paused as he also closed his eyes for a moment, “Well, I should be going then. The other command was wanting me to get rest tonight, so I think I’m going to head off for that.” Lauri then turned around and went for the door. 

“Well, I’m sure you need it the most. Head deer of the ship right now.” Torsti said. 

Lauri turned around at the door and looked at Torsti and said, “Torsti… I’m not fit to lead a destroyer like this. I was in charge of all our submarines. I don’t know how to properly lead a single destroyer. I-” Lauri shook his head, “I’m just winging it…” Lauri then turned back around and left. 

Torsti watched Lauri leave and then looked at Nathan. Nathan just made sure the door was closed correctly before looking back at Torsti. 

“Guess I should sleep as well. It’s not like staying up will make being hungry any better.” Torsti said. 

“Probably right about that.” Nathan then sat down back in the spot he’d been in and added, “Just so you know, at some point I’ll be switching out with another deer tonight, to let me get rest. There needs to be somedeer awake in here in case of something happening. Just warning you for when you wake up.” 

“Works with me.” Torsti said. He was getting himself positioned in a way that he was ready to get up while also being comfortable while sleeping, “Just be quiet about it so you don’t wake me up.” 

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll try.” Nathan said. 



 

April 2nd, 1010 

The night went by without any problems. The Sammakko was repaired to the best the deer were able to get her to while at sea. The sun was entirely above the horizon and the first servings of breakfast were going out. Potatoes. 

“We’re getting a radio message from the Equestrian navy.” 

That was the first thing Lauri heard from the messenger that was sent to his room. He was still in the middle of regaining consciousness from sleeping. 

“Four Equestrian ships are currently intercepting us and have sent a radio message sir.” The deer said again. 

“I heard.” Lauri then tried to wave off the deer and said, “Give me a second to wake up first.” 

“They’re currently rising above the horizon right now so they’re a ways off, but those on the bridge were asking for you, but gladly.” The deer then left Lauri to let him get ready. 

Lauri sat up on his bed and looked about his empty room and took some breathing exercises before he got the bare minimum done for his morning before leaving and going to the bridge. 

When Lauri got to the bridge, he got informed right away by what was happening. 

“The Equestrian navy is trying to figure out who we are. We haven't been able to send any reply though because of the damage we received from the battle. We have a deer trying to MORSE them right now though, but we’re too far from each other still.” 

“Just keep trying to send our reply to them, both through radio and morse code. We don’t need them opening fire on us.” Lauri said, “Do we know what class ships they’re sending towards us?” 

“Three destroyers and a heavy cruiser. They are in fact confirmed Equestrian. They’re coming from further within the Pegasi Gulf.” 

Lauri let out a sigh and then said, “Just keep on course. No way we can outrun them anyways and it’s not like we can turn back.” 



 

After ten minutes, the Sammakko got a new radio message along with morse code from the Equestrian ships. 

“We were finally able to hail them ourselves. They sent messages back asking what we’re doing after we told them we are a part of the Olenian Navy.” 

“Well, there’s nothing we can really hide from them so just tell them we’re escaping from Olenia with Queen Velvet. Tell them the truth.” Lauri said. 



 

Carroll was operating the light for sending the morse code. The deer who Lauri sent came to him and said, “Tell them we have Queen Velvet aboard and that we’re seeking refuge in Equestria.” 

Carroll didn’t argue or agree with what he was told and just went to translating the message in his head from Olenian to Equestrian before finally sending the message. 

“We bring Queen Velvet to Equestria. 
Refugees from Olenia.” 

Carroll then picked up his binoculars and pointed them in the direction of the Equestrian ships to see their return message better. While he waited for their message, he said, “Now we just got to wait for them.” 

After a minute, one of the Equestrian ships started to signal back to them. 

“We will need to board ship and check. 
We can’t let you through until then. 
We will need to inform our command.” 

After a few seconds of translating the message in his head from morse code to Equestrian, to Olenian, Carroll looked over at the deer and said, “They say they can’t let us in unless they board our ship. Rough translation.” 

“They’re able to radio us anyways. I’ll go check with the Admiral.” 



 

“So, they need to come aboard and check us first.” Lauri shook his head, “Fuc- I mean, we’re at war. They can’t just help us, it’s understandable…” Lauri looked up and said, “Ok. Let me go tell our morser what to say.” Lauri then went outside to where Carroll was. 

It took Lauri a few seconds to get to Carroll, but once he did, Carroll quickly saluted him before Lauri shook his head, “Message. I need you to focus.” 

Lauri then stared out in the direction of the Equestrian ships and said, “Tell them we agree to the boarding, but we need to get to port as our ship is damaged and low on supplies. Tell them again that we have Queen Velvet but also say that we agree to follow any secrecy they need us to follow or abide if that would help them accept us as refugees.” 

That was a whole chunk of information Carroll had to process quickly, but thankfully he was able to due to training and past experience. 

“You can board. 
We are damaged and need docking. 
Low supplies. 
Again, we bring Queen Velvet. 
We agree to follow secrecy if it helps your decision.” 

“And add that we can’t send radio messages but can receive.” Lauri quickly added right before Carroll finished. 

“Our radio won't transmit. Can receive.” 

Then they all played the waiting game. After a few minutes, the Equestrians started to morse back. It was a bunch of information they sent but Carroll was able to once again get it all. They also sent it by radio. 

“They are sending word to their command about Queen Velvet as well with finding out what they and we can do to get us to safety. They say they are also asking permission from Las Pegasus if we can dock there. It should take ten minutes before they get an answer but have said we’ll need to slow down and stop.” Carroll translated for Lauri. 

“Tell them we don’t have the fuel to stop. We’ll be running on fumes by the time we get to Las Pegasus as it is right now.” Lauri said. 

Carroll went to translating it. 

“Can’t stop. 
Won’t make it to Las Pegasus if we do.” 

The response was quick this time and only thirty seconds before a message was sent back. 

“Their fleet admiral agrees to letting us not stop, but they want us to fire our turret’s gun once to the port side and then leave it unmanned, facing that same direction.” Carroll said. 

“That works for me.” Lauri said. He then informed a deer to inform the turret crew to do as ordered and within some minutes, the bow turret was turning to the left, finding a random target in the open ocean far away before firing. 

After that, all of the crew abandoned the turret and went about elsewhere where they could be useful. 

Carroll uncovered his ears after the echo of the gun faded and then said, “The Equestrians are sending a new message.” He then watched the code before translating it, “They say they’ll be boarding us once they reach us.” 

Lauri looked back and stared out at the ocean before whispering, “We’re almost there.”
> Chapter 16
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

April 2, 1010 

Thirty minutes had passed and the Equestrian ships that had been racing towards the deer had banked in a 180 circle towards the starboard side of the Sammakko so they perfectly lined up with her from behind. The execution of the maneuver would have scored a perfect 10/10 in Equestria Games. They would have though but one destroyer decided to rush pass and get a mile lead on the Sammakko, ruining the perfect choreographed act.  

The Equestrians had sent a message about how they would follow the now leading Destroyer into the port of Las Pegasus while the other three followed from behind before the execution of the dance. 

Now that the trail of boats made their way further into the Pegasi Gulf, the one Equestrian heavy cruiser that trailed the whole convoy from behind launched a boat from her side with a dozen or so ponies on it. It would be able to rush past the convoy of boats due to the Sammakko keeping them all at a slower pace. 

The crew of the Sammakko was paying close attention to what was happening during this time and already knew what was happening and had gotten a team prepared to bring in whatever important pony the Equestrians decided to send their way. The deer were ahead of the game though when the radio and morse code message came in asking them to prepare for the incoming boarding team. 

Carroll was too busy relaying confirmation of those actions back to the three boats behind them, not being particular on who ended up receiving them as all three Eques boats were in view of his morse signal. 

A team of deer were quickly making do with preparing the starboard side of the boat with a rope ladder for when the approaching boat could unload its pony friends. The rope for the rope ladder had been left behind in the event of any overboard passengers that were lucky enough to be rescued despite Queen Velvet’s escape. 

The Equestrian boat finally neared the Sammakko, coming in from an angle towards the deployed rope ladder. A few more deer had made their way to the boarding area, including Lauri, who was readying himself to meet the Admiral that he had been told would be coming to board them, along with a few guards and other somewhat important Equestrian navy personnel. Queen Velvet and Torsti were absent from the meeting party as they were told to wait until ordered to come out, for security reasons. Torsti, as well as two other deer waited with Velvet, armed with hidden pistols, for safety. 

A Lauri and a few deer watched over the edge of the ship, down the ladder at the ponies as they carefully maneuvered about as they followed along the side of the Sammakko. It was a lot messier than the maneuver done with the big ships due to how dangerous it was for the ponies to board, one wrong slip and they could potentially fall between their own boat and the Sammakko. 

Well not for one pony that lifted themselves out of the boat before any of the other ponies were coming up and flew their way up to the meeting zone that had autonomously been decided and landed before the crew.  

The lone pegasi looked a bit scared after putting themselves before the eying deer, but they presented themselves with a quick salute to the deer before them before saying in Equestrian accented Olenian, “Seaman Cynebald of the Equestrian Navy. I’ll be translating for y’all today.”  

With that he put his hoof down and quickly looked over the edge of the Sammakko at his own crew, where he quickly realized, he would need to help one of the ponies that had already climbed up in the time he had been there. There were a few other ponies who were at the top, who were helped by the deer and after a quick few nods between the ponies and deer for the help and first time meeting. 

Cynebald didn’t translate or say anything else as none of the ponies who had joined them at the top said anything directly towards him or the deer, nor did the deer to the ponies. It was a kind of awkward few seconds before one pony looked over the edge and shouted something down to the rest below. 

After a second, another pegasi flew up and joined the rest of the ponies above, but this time, they also gave a salute to the deer before quickly turning to Cynebald and speaking to him. 

During this moment, Carroll joined the group and was listening in to what was being said but he never got a chance to translate anything as Cynebald quickly spoke out once the other deer finished. 

Cynebald pointed a hoof at the other pegasi and said, “This here is Admiral Hoover of the Los Pegasus Port Navy. They will directly be checking out your ship as well as meeting with Queen Velvet to confirm she is in fact here. If everything checks out, you will be allowed to continue into the Las Pegasus harbor where you will be met with Equestria military command upon docking.” 

Admiral Hoover looked about the group of deer who were on the deck as Cynebald translated for him but quickly spoke to him again once he finished. Cynebald was quick to translate again. 

“Admiral Hoover has asked if Queen Velvet is here. She seems to be missing from the group. Admiral Hoover says he knows what she looks like from photographs.” 

Lauri quickly walked up to Admiral Hoover and gave him a salute before turning to Cynebald and saying, “Admiral Lauri of the Olenian Navy. I’m the one here in charge of this ship, the Sammakko, and don’t worry, yes, we have Queen Velvet.” Lauri paused and turned towards another deer on the deck and said to them, “Go get Velvet and have her come out. We are fine to meet on the deck.” 

The deer Lauri spoke to nodded and quickly left to go fetch Velvet, who was waiting inside the ship not too far away. While that happened, Cynebald translated what Lauri had said to Admiral Hoover. 

During that time, one more pony joined the group atop before the boat below pulled away and kept its distance from the Sammakko. There were now five ponies on the Sammakko. 

After a few more greetings between Lauri and Hoover, Lauri waved off the extra deer so they were out of the way just in time for Velvet to arrive. 

Torsti and the other two deer with her stayed close by but let Velvet meet with the ponies. 

Velvet gave a smile to all the ponies, giving them all a simple greeting in Equestrian, she only knew the basics of the basics for now and would still require a translator. 

Despite Velvet giving her greetings and having a minute or so pass now for the ponies meeting her, they were still visibly shocked that she was in fact Queen Velvet. 

Velvet then spoke in Olenian to the ponies, speaking for longer than she should have with a translator being the barrier of communication. 

“I am Velvet, Queen of Olenia, and I thank you for giving us the chance to become refugees within Equestria. As you know, we as Olenians would have nowhere else to run to for asylum due to our country being overrun by Changeling forces, that is if you knew that had happened. Due to my country wanting to preserve Olenia itself, they have sent me with this crew to you in hopes that you take us in. We know the risk you take in doing this, but we wish that only the best outcome happens from this, letting my secret escape into Equestria stay secret and for the well being of your nation because of it. But no matter the outcome, I thank you for giving us the chance once again.”  

Cynebald translated to the best of his abilities for the other ponies and Admiral Hoover. Even though he wasn’t a daily speaker of Olenian, he was able to convey Velvet's emotions through words better than he thought. 

Hoover quickly responded to Cynebald and after speaking, Cynebald translated his message. 

“Despite the setting, it is more than a simple gift to meet you, Queen Velvet. I have sent word to my command and they will allow you into Equestria to meet with Celestial, that at least being a confirmed deal of order once we make sure you are Olenians.” Cynebald stopped for a second but Hoover spoke once again, letting Cynebald translate once again.  

“We’ll need to inspect the whole ship before we get to Las Pegasus though, you’ll also all have to be inspected with magic once you’re brought into port by our security to make sure no one is a changeling. We’ll also have more crew come aboard to watch over any ship weapons to ensure they aren’t used. This is all required as we still need to uphold national security.” 

Velvet quickly spoke out once the opportunity came about. 

“National security or not, just you giving us this opportunity is more than you should have to even do.” 

Lauri took the opportunity after Velvet’s message was translated and said, “I won’t hinder you from inspecting the ship then Admiral. She is quite damaged though so you’ll need to avoid any deer working on her during your inspection. We’re not at port yet, but once we are, I give you full authority to inspect every crew member, me and Velvet for the chance of being Changelings”  

All was translated well and Admiral Hoover spoke to a few of the other ponies before one turned and waved out at the boat they were brought on. There still remained a few more ponies on it. The boat began to make its way back closer to the Sammakko, where it unloaded a few more ponies onto the rope ladder where the ponies above helped them up once they reached the top. 

Admiral Hoover was translated again, “Well, I don’t want to keep Velvet out on the deck. You seem to be protective of her, with her wearing a lifejacket, so we’ll get on with the inspection. We do ask that you come with us Admiral Lauri, that way we can get into every part of the ship.” 

Velvet and her guards gave their goodbyes and thanks again to the ponies before going back into the ship, leaving Lauri and a few other deer with the group. They didn’t waste any time though as Lauri sent off the remaining deer besides Carroll, who he kept with him as a extra translator and started following Admiral Hoover around as he did the inspection. Lauri also provided answers to any questions that might of been brought up or shown them whatever they needed. 

The inspection took a bit of time as they toured the entirety of the Sammakko, even running into Queen Velvet again where there was a moment of conversation between the Admirals and Velvet before the tour continued. 

The tour would eventually come to a end, where Admiral Hoover stood with Lauri near the bridge where Hoover explained what would happen through the translators. 

“Me and Cynebald will be leaving, but the rest of my crew here will be staying to ensure your ship's weaponry isn't used. You have your radio operator and Carroll to translate if you or they need. We will continue to message you as we get closer to Las Pegasus through radio and morse code. At the current speed, we should expect to arrive at Las Pegasus’ Port by 04:00, two days from now, on the 4th. Besides that, I along with my Fleet welcome you to Equestria.” 

The greetings between them would finally end and Cynebald and Admiral Hoover would leave behind the non-pegasi pony as they took off and flew over to the boat that brought them, where they landed. After a few seconds, the boat turned around and headed back down the column of boats towards the heavy cruiser it came from.  

Lauri then took the ponies they had left to the two remaining weapons, the single AA gun and 105mm turret. After all was settled with them, Lauri would take a moment's break in one of the hallways where he emptied his lungs to relieve himself of stress, before finally breaking out in laughter before finishing off with a big smile on his face as he looked at Carroll, who was still with him. 

“We fucking did it.”
> Chapter 17
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

April 4th, 1010 

Beams of light gazed across the sky as the eastern sky turned orange, which in turn, shined on the floating city to the south, Las Pegasus. 

The Sammakko had made it. She was still under the power of her own engines but there were tug boats coming in from the port to help bring her in due to the reports of there being no more fuel in her tanks, they would be guiding her in the rest of the way once attached as that was normal anyways. 

The Equestrian ponies from Hoover’s fleet still guarded her weapons but the deer on board paid no mind to them. A few smaller patrol boats had also come by, informing the Sammakko by morse code, that they were bringing some ponies that would board with them to dock and set up things with their equipment. 

All but one of the destroyers that had been following the Sammakko had stayed out in the bay, their protection wasn’t needed as the docking area the Sammakko was being brought to was surrounded by more Equestrian destroyers and cruisers. 

The deer helped out the best they could by getting mooring lines ready, which had been gratefully supplied by the ponies, so they could dock. 

The process of getting into the harbor, getting dragged by the tug boats and getting in position to dock took about forty minutes, but it was finally completed. 

During the docking process and while they were brought in, ponies had lined the decks of their ships and watched as the Olenian ship was brought in. None of them had been expecting an Olenian ship to be pulled in that morning. The situation was hard to control though from keeping everypony from peeping their eyes at the event, at least from the navy. 

Thankfully though, they were in the military dockyard and it was still only six in the morning so the there wasn’t many civilians to worry about from looking in elsewhere, though any civilian who happened to be about or happened to be using the roads nearby would realize something was up as the Royal Guards and local police were brought in to block the dockyard and surrounding roads off. 

Equestrian dock workers had been getting a few boarding ramps ready to go while the Sammakko was brought in so once she was settled in, they got to work bringing the ramps to her, a few deer but mostly the ponies who had boarded earlier were helping set up things. It took them only ten minutes before they were finished and the crew of the Sammakko could soon take their first step in Equestria since their war began. 

“Well, it’s time to inform the crew and Velvet that we arrived.” Lauri said to one of his officers, “Tell them to bring anything they may have brought. I have no clue when we’ll get a chance to come back on the ship, or what will happen to us.” 

The officer quickly got onto the ship's intercom and relayed the information, “All hooves, please gather any belongings and prepare to leave the ship. We are going to be checked by Equestrian soldiers once off. They will be making sure none of us are Changelings before anything else. I repeat, all hooves prepare to leave the ship.” 

Lauri himself quickly went to get Queen Velvet to inform. She wasn’t far from the bridge. 

“Velvet.” Lauri said. He had a big smile as he began to speak, “It’s time. I hope the journey faired you well.” He then pointed with a hoove in the direction he wanted her to go. 

Velvet took a moment and gave a curtsey to Lauri and said, “And I thank you for that.” Velvet then went in the direction Lauri had directed her, Torsti followed behind and after a few seconds, they, along with Lauri stood on the deck of the Sammakko once again, viewing the harbor of Las Pegasus. 

Velvet paused and smiled as she looked out at the harbor and distant floating city, but she quickly lost the smile and went to a neutral face. Being here wasn’t what she wanted, for her or any other deer on the Sammakko. 

No deer had made their way off yet, but Velvet and Torsti were ready themselves, but before they could go on, Lauri spoke. 

“I won’t be able to go with you right now. I’m going to stay on the ship and make sure everydeer gets off. Make sure everything is in order from the officer's side before joining you. I’m sure they’re going to want to do another inspection of the ship, so this will be goodbye for now.” 

Torsti was the first to speak, “Well then Admiral. I hope all goes well on your end. I’ll be sure to stick by Velvets side the entire time, that way you or anydeer else doesn’t have to worry.” 

Lauri pointed a hoof at the organized crowd of soldiers on the pier, “Well, looks like they’re ready to go, I won’t hold you up anymore though. Good luck.” 

With that, they quickly said their goodbyes again before Torsti followed Velvet from behind as she made her way down the docking ramp. A few other deer had made their way out by now and were making their way down as well. 

During their decent down the short ramp, Torsti realized that many of the ponies waiting below were watching them closely, not because they were scared but because of Queen Velvet. 

Only a second after making the first contact upon Equestria, another deer quickly caught up behind the two and introduced themselves. 

“Sorry, I was told to quickly catch up to you. I’m your translator.” 

Velvet looked at the deer and quickly realized who it was, “Ealdraed. Yes! It would have been bad if we didn’t have ourselves a personal translator.” 

Ealdraed quickly introduced himself to Torsti, “Sorry, I’m one of Velvet's Equestrian translators. I worked with her back when she was in Equestria before becoming the queen, so I’ll be tagging along.” 

The timing was perfect with the introduction as a pony came up, wearing an Equestrian military uniform and introduced themselves. The greetings were short and Velvet spoke in Equestrian to do a basic introduction herself before the pony started speaking towards Velvet and the translator that was also with them. Both ponies seemed a bit excited when they talked. 

“This here is General Reckless. He oversees the military operations for the time being for Las Pegasus, overseeing even the navy and air force. I myself am First Sergeant Karcsi. I’ll be helping the general communicate with.” After that, Karcsi finished. 

General Reckless spoke once again but made it short. Mid speaking, the General pointed a hoof out at the organized mess of ponies further down the dock, who were conveniently blocking the only way into Equestria, other than swimming. 

“So the first thing we’ll need to do is get you three checked out.” The translator then also pointed at the ponies the general had done, “We have unicorns over there who’ll be able to check you out with magic. You, your crew and our pals we dropped off on your boat will be checked.” 

The translator finished but immediately upon finishing, General Reckless continued on. 

“So if you would kindly follow us, once this is done, we’ll be able to sort you out on where to go.” 

After Karcsi finished, General Reckless immediately turned and started walking towards the mini customs checkpoint. Torsti quickly looked at the Velvet and Ealdraed, waiting to see who would take the first step, who almost immediately was Velvet, so without any more thought put into it, Torsti followed behind. 

While they made their way up, Torsti quickly realized something and looked towards Ealdraed and said, “Hey, uhh, can you make sure you tell them that I have a pistol on me. I’m not too sure how they might feel about it.” 

Before Ealdraed could say anything, Velvet spoke up, “I’ll make sure they know they have my permission for it. You can’t be a proper body guard without it, but yes, make sure you do tell them. We don’t need to give them any surprises. 

After that, Ealdraed caught up with the other translator and General Reckless and translated their message, “So they wanted to warn you that Torsti is Velvet's bodyguard for the time being and is armed.” Ealdraed pointed at Torsti so the two, or mostly  the translator knew who he was talking about. 

Karcsi stopped for a moment after Ealdraed spoke with them and looked at Torsti, General Reckless also stopped and turned to look to see what was happening. 

Karcsi translated what he had been told and also pointed at Torsti for Reckless, “They just wanted you to know that deer has a pistol with them. They’re currently Velvet's personal guard.” 

After a second of silence, General Reckless started to speak and after a few more seconds, Karcsi nodded and turned to speak to the three. 

“General Reckless says that you can keep it, just don’t do anything to reach for it or the like. You’ll be cleared to be more free with your movements though after we check you, so just hold tight until then.” 

After that, they continued to proceed with the inspection. 

Velvet, Torsti, and Ealdraed were checked by a uniformed unicorn who had used magic to ensure none of them were Changelings. After that, they were brought through the crowd of royal guards where they met with General Reckless again, where they would chat a bit through the translators to figure out and inform each other on things while waiting for the rest of the crew to slowly trickle out of the ship and through the security. 

They didn’t wait for long though as after a bit, General Reckless would have the translator say, 

“The General wants to take you to the military base nearby where there’s more privacy from prying eyes. Regarding the current state of Olenia and the war, having word of Velvets presence in Equestria isn’t going to do well for diplomacy and politics between Equestria and Queen Chrysalis.” 

Velvet would agree but asked about what would happen to the rest of the crew and the few other personal deer brought to help with their own politics. 

“We’re going to be getting them to the military base as well, a bit slower as we set up temporary tents for them. We don’t want to impose on the city either but we just sent word through command and hopefully word reaches Celestia about the matters. Luna isn’t at Canterlot so we can’t reach her directly to get word to Celestia quicker.” 

After that, they all finally agreed to go to the base. 

Velvet and Torsti took a ride with General Reckless and Karcsi in an officers car while Ealdraed and a few other ponies took a ride in a second car. Both parties were able to make small chat, but mainly Ealdraed as they didn’t have to translate for anyone. 

The ride took quite some time though as they had to drive through the city for a portion of the time. They did take a detour of going across the river and driving through the northern fields to increase the chance of being seen, before finally crossing the river again where the base could finally be seen. 

It didn’t take much to get in, General Reckless being the highest-ranking pony in the city at the time provided much help to that. They didn’t have to drive much farther once on the base as they went to the Administration Building. There, they were taken to the lounge room where they were treated to some food. 

While they had the more than needed food after being on rations for some days, General Reckless came back and informed them on a few things. 

“Word has come in from Celestia and she wants you to go to Canterlot as soon as possible. Regarding a few other things, from the other Generals at Canterlot, they ask that your ship is sunk out in the Pegasi Gulf to avoid any Changelings from finding out about your arrival, whether they know you were aboard or not.” 

Velvet thought on that comment for a moment before she had the translators do their job. 

“Velvet says that’s ok, but to make sure to inform Admiral Lauri about the decision, along with the rest of the Sammakko crew. They lost some crew members during their escape from Hjortland. Velvet also asks that you expand on when they are to leave.” 

General Reckless was translated, “There is a train car that’s about to leave from the base’s railyard today at noon towards Canterlot. It’ll be a few days or so journey but it’ll be safer for privacy than the normal passenger trains that depart from Las Pegasus. We can arrange for a sleeping car to be added before its departure so that way you can leave today.” 

Velvet quickly starts to respond back, even pointing to one of the secondary translators and asking them to go fetch a few things. 

“Velvet says that will work for her, but says she wishes to write a few letters for the crew and Admiral Lauri in the event she isn’t able to meet them before then.” 

After that, the other translator would come back with the requested items, pen and paper for Velvet to write a few letters. She hadn’t brought anything with her, leaving any documents she had worked on during the journey with some other deer. 

Since there would still be some hours before noon, Velvet would mostly work on the letters, writing for the crew and writing a few letters in preparation for the meeting with Celestia and General Reckless. Or she at least had Ealdraed write them in Equestrian. 

After working for a bit, Admiral Lauri was brought in to the room where Velvet was and they greeted each other. 

“They plan on sinking the Sammakko to try and keep our existence to a minimum.” Velvet told him. 

“Yeah, I heard before I was brought in. You also are going to be going to Canterlot to meet Celestia as well?” Lauri said. 

“Yes, but you most likely won’t be coming with us so I’ve been writing a few letters for you and everdeer else incase I can’t say my goodbyes to them. Plus I don’t know what will happen to you all once I’m gone.” Velvet said. 

“I don’t know either, all I know is they’re setting up tents for us to stay in for our stay, I guess they haven’t figured out what to do yet.” Lauri said. 

“Well whatever they decide to do, be sure to thank them. What they’re doing is very risky… What we did was very risky. Ok?” 

“Mhmm.” 

After their conversation ended, they were informed that the rest of the crew and Lauri would stay behind on the base for a few more days while they sorted out their plans. The current plan was to send them to scatter them throughout Eastern Equestria. At least for now that was the plan. 

As time did come closer for Velvet to leave though, she did get the opportunity to go give her many thanks and goodbyes to the crew of the Sammakko that made it there, who were all busy helping set up their temporary housing solution. 

After giving some lengthy speeches to them, it was finally time for her to leave. 

General Reckless and some of the other officers had arranged for a passenger carriage car to be added to the train, along with a few royal guards and wonderbolts for some extra protection. The rest of Velvets personnel who’d be helping her with the politics of everything would also be joining them on the ride. 

Torsti also found himself boarding the train when time came to join Velvet on her journey to Canterlot. 

The last deer he said goodbye to was Admiral Lauri, where they both exchanged salutes to each other before joining Velvet in the train. 

Admiral Lauri was staying behind to help the crew as well as help prepare the Sammakko for sinking. 

And with that, the train departed, taking them along with the new prototype naval bomber that had been invented, which had to be sent to Manehatten for testing on the new prototype carrier being made due to its larger deck size compared to the converted carrier that was stationed at Las Pegasus.
> Chapter 18
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

April 6th, 1010 

Different trees. 

And the flatness. 

That was the difference Torsti noticed. 

Different trees and flat plains rolled by as the train rolled on. 

Torsti was watching out of the window of the passenger car that he was in to pass the time. 

He had been watching the passing landscape for a few hours by now, having the occasional thought. The terrain was much flatter here than Olenia. More plains, less forests, at least in this part of the country, and definitely a lot less snow, though it was April so even in Vaverfront would it be the rare occurrence of snow. 
All conversations had grinded to a halt a few hours ago as they entered the third night of the train ride. Even before it completely stopped, conversations were sparse as the prior two days had been nearly all talk.  

They all now decided to relax and enjoy the rest of the journey, getting their sleep now or passing time in their own ways. 

They were informed though that they would be arriving early the next morning, most likely before sunrise, where their part of the ride would end, while the rest of the train would continue on towards Manehattan. 

The last bit of sunlight finally faded below the western horizon. It wasn’t impossible though to see the terrain. 

Since they finally were making their way back towards populated civilization, the occasional lit house could be seen in the distance. For anyone who stayed awake though, the distant glow of city lights would slowly get closer as time went on, though not as strong as it was in Las Pegasus. 

Torsti kept himself up late, or at least up a bit longer than everyone else due to trying to fulfil his body guard duties but failed as he finally succumbed to the soothing rumble of the train as it raced along. 

From there, the train would continue on its way until it reached the railyard for Canterlot, where Torsti, along with everyone else at two in the morning, were awoken by the guards as they neared their destination. 

They were told to prepare for departure from the train as they would only get a few minutes to get off before the train took off again. Stopping with ‘classified’ cargo wasn’t the best thing to do in the capital of the country. 

There wasn’t much to prepare though since they hadn’t brought much in the first place so they took the rest of the time drinking some warm tea to help stay awake for however much time they would need to. 

Finally, though, the train started to pull into the station it was stopping at where once stopped, it let its passengers off. 

Upon leaving the train and only being off it for a few minutes, the train would start to take off again, leaving all who stepped off behind. Hopefully nothing was left on the train. 

After some conversation between each other, the Wonderbolt guards finally directed Velvet and the others off the station and towards a road. There, a few cars arrived, seemingly a bit late to the deer as they seemed a bit confused at the existence of not only the deer but other ponies who were waiting. 

After a bit of talk between each other though, things were quickly sorted and Velvet and Torsti were put into one of the cars with a wonderbolt soldier while the other guards and deer were split between two more cars. Anyone else, who would only be the royal guards and other wonderbolts, got into a military truck that was at the front of the small convoy, where without any delay, they got moving. 

Through the dead night they made their way up Canterhorn towards the palace. Cars were sparse and few and far between each other due to the time so the worry of any of them seeing or remembering the convoy would be little. 

Due to Velvet not having a translator with her due to how they were split, she wasn’t able to ask or talk to the other two ponies in the car about anything. A small mistake. 

The car ride took forty minutes before they finally arrived at the palace, where this time, a bunch of royal guards were waiting and within a few minutes of conversing between the palace guards and convoy guards, Velvet and the rest of the deer were brought inside. 

The royal guards and wonderbolts who had stayed with them for the duration of the journey didn’t stay with them as they were brought into the palace, leaving with the four car convoy they had come in on. They left the deer in the protection of the palace guards now. 

The palace guards who were escorting the deer quickly sorted out the language barrier by using one of their translators and Ealdraed to tell them all that due to it being late at night, they were to be brought to rooms where they could all sleep for the night. 

They weren’t going to be meeting with Celestia until the morning, to allow them to get whatever rest was needed first. 

After they were all sorted out between some of the rooms, they would all finally sleep under palace protection. 



 

April 7th, 1010 

10:21 A.M. 

That was the time that Torsti awoke. 

Torsti was quick to realize that the other deer he had been with weren’t around so he quickly got himself ready for the day before finding one of the palace guards, who would direct him to where everdeer else was. They were eating in the dining hall so that’s where Torsti went, or was guided to. 

Once there, he joined Velvet and the rest in eating, where he found out that once they were finished, they’d have time to rest up before they’d finally be meeting Celestia. 

After some time of eating and settling into the conversations that were happening, Torsti decided to butt in and ask Velvet a question, “So what exactly will you be talking to Celestia about?” 

“I’ll be trying to keep my demands simple for her, but I’ll really just be asking for Celestia to let us stay in the country until we’re able to go back to Olenia. However long that may be. It’ll depend on many things but we’ll go back.” Velvet answered. 

“What’ll we have to do though if we stay?” One of the other deer asked. 

“Work. Maybe not in the beginning, but the crew of the Sammakko most likely will. Our jobs would probably be on the more diplomatic side of things. Torsti’s my bodyguard, Ealdraed would translate for me and maybe help others with translation while the rest of you would help me out with any paperwork and politics if it were to ever come up, but I think really for the rest of you, after the first few weeks, it’ll come down to your own choices. But I don’t know. We’ll have to wait to see what Celestia says.” 

After that, they all finished eating and eventually made their way back to the rooms they had been using to prepare for their meeting. They would all be attending it. 

Finally, once the time had come, they all met back up and followed the royal guards who were sent to get them. 

Torsti followed behind everydeer else though as he wasn’t important to anything diplomatic, leaving Velvet and the others ahead. Even though there were royal guards everywhere, none of them nor Velvet had ever said anything about him not being able to attend. 

The small details didn’t matter though since they finally stood behind the door to the council room where they’d be meeting Celestia. After a few exchanges of words between the door guards and the escort guards, the door was opened and the deer shuffled in. 

Princess Celestia sat in one of the chairs that surrounded the table within the room, where she was found looking at papers and documents that lay in front of her. Another pony sat next to her who would end up being Celestia’s translator. 

Once the deer entered though, Celestia quickly put away all of the paperwork and moved it out of the way before finally getting up so she could greet Velvet. 

The greetings were over quickly though before Celestia quickly took a seat again, inviting the deer to join as well. Torsti didn’t join them and chose to continue standing. He just ended up finding a spot near the wall next to one of the other palace guards who were also present in the room. 

Celestia then sighed and started to speak to her translator. 

The translator nodded at the order before starting, “To get right to business, you can stay within Equestria, but due to the tensions between us and Chrysalis, you will need to isolate yourself from society to keep your presence unknown. Your presence Velvet. The rest of you can integrate into society if you wish and the navy crew. Admiral Lauri; he’ll have to join you as well. Velvet and Lauri’s presence can’t get out. 

Despite that, you will need to do your best to try and avoid being found out, or at least keep yourself from being connected to Olenia, Velvet or Lauri. It might be hard, but we have a place for you to go at least Velvet. 

Saltlickingham. It’s a small town south of Baltimare that has a population of less than 100,000. The south east of the country. You should be safe from any Changeling spy there. 

I hope you don’t object.” 

Velvet responded immediately by saying, “That work. Anything works! It’ll work... But I need to ask. Will I be able to meet with you at any point after this to ever discuss any plans involving Olenia? I don-- I’m not going to abandon her. I’ll-- We’ll be going back one day, but having a plan will be required one way or another.” Velvet had choked on a few of her words there but managed. 

Celestia finally gave her response, “Only through meeting, but as long as the Changelings exist, it will have to be in private, and only if I have the time. I’m only getting busier as of late and there’s no sign of it slowing down. I was able to make time today to meet you after getting word that you escaped.” 

Velvet relaxed a bit when she heard the response and said, “Thank you Celestia, that’s… That’s all I needed to know.” 

After that, they would continue to discuss the details and other questions that Velvet and the others would have, though they weren’t able to get all questions answered as Celestia finally stopped it. 

Celestia had more problems to deal with after getting Velvet settled. Velvet’s existence didn’t help deal with them. 

After the meeting and a bit later in the day, they were informed that they would be leaving that night to the Canterlot airbase where they would be given a plane ride to the airbase near Baltimare before finally getting a few days long car ride to Saltlickingham. 

Until then though, they could relax in the palace within their rooms, while also being able to go out and get a late dinner once the rest of the palace had in the dining hall. 

Once night came around, they would all be awoken, as they were getting the sleep they could, and were taken outside again where they had been dropped off where another convoy of cars was waiting. There, they got on the vehicles and were taken to the airfield. 

It was the middle of the night and a bit colder due to the altitude but nothing the deer weren’t able to handle. 

Once at the airfield, their ride, which was a Model 18 passenger plane that was ready to go. The only thing they needed to do was board it and they’d be off. Which they would do. 

After sitting for a bit, the plane’s engines turned on and then eventually made its way to the runway where it sat once again for a bit before finally taking off. Off they were. 

All steps had been cleared. Velvet was now on her way living safely.