“We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.” - Winston Churchill

In any humans life he has to stop and think about his future. He needs to step out of the shadows and step into the light. He needs to forget the past and live in the now. For if you live in the past, you’re destined to miss the future. And, right now, I really needed to stop and think. I’m on a futuristic Battleship, while standing side by side with a captain from the 1990’s while living in a parallel Earth that's populated by brightly colored ponies. One whom I have fallen in love with. And still, as I stand here, it boggles my mind that, even any of this could be happening, let alone could happen. But I know, deep down in my heart, this was never meant to be. But, I won’t be the one to change fate.

Yeah, if this wasn’t real, people would say i’m insane. But it is, so you tell me, whos really insane.

Anyway, as I stand side by side with Charlie, me and him both stare out at the open waters, just watching the tides roll over each other. I look at Charlies face, he has this look of emptiness, no emotion was being shown, he was just watching the waves.

“Charlie,” I said, trying to wake him up. Which it did. He shook for a seconded and his eyes fluttered, then looked at me.

“Yeah John?” He asked as he turned to look at me.

“You still have your radio?” I asked. He places his hand behind himself and pulls out a green handheld radio.

“Yeah I got it, let me guess, you wanna get back to Manehatten.” I shook my head yes. He looks at the radio, then back to me, he smiles and shakes his head. He turns his head and looks into the sky, as if he was looking for an answer, then looking back to me, he shook his head again.

“Alright, here’s the deal, we’ll tow the Missouri back to shore and dock her along with our ships.” So far the plan was good. He continued,

“Then we’ll check the ship over for serious damage, in the mean time,” He held up the radio, “Sailors report, what is your status on removing the bodies?” The radio fell silent for a second.

“All most done cap, just one more sailor.” Charlie smiled,

“Okay good, don’t throw him away, we’ll need him to find out who shot up the crew.” Charlie said.

“Aye aye captain, we’ll keep him under a blanket for now, any other orders?” Charlie tapped his chin,

“Yes, report to the bridge when you’re finished with the body.”

“Aye aye.” He slid the radio away again. "Alright lets move up to the bridge to meet our crew." I nodded and turned and began to walk away, Charlie following me.

It took us a while to climb up to the bridge, the Missouri is a big ship, it’s also confusing as hell. I just started walking up and down staircases, crossing over decks of all shapes and sizes. But while I was walking, I couldn't help but feel the ultimate power that this ship was emitting. It’s huge guns pointing to the skies, years and years of battle experience, and to top it all off, it was nearly indestructible.

But still it was a very large and confusing ship.

Walking into the wheelhouse, we located mine and Charlies and sailors after nearly ten minutes of walking around, whom all of which were either, sitting, reading documents, or doing both, while others manned the control panels.

“All right men, we gonna head on home, I want half of you to head down to the boiler room and keep the engines in check, the rest of you are gonna stay up here with me and John here. You understand me?” The sailors weren't really paying attention, but as Charlie started talking, all of the marines snapped to attention.

Charlie looked at me and placed two fingers on his ear while he said,

“John, radio the Boston, and I’ll radio the Yarnell, tell them the plan.” Reaching for my radio, I pulled it out and gave him a nod as the selected sailors passed us and moved out of the wheelhouse and onto the bridge.

“Boston, this is Captain John, can you hear me?” The radio began crackling a bit before a voice came back on.

“We read you sir, we read you loud and clear here in the COM room, what are your orders?” I stepped out of the wheelhouse and onto the bridge deck just as the last sailor left my site, while I was talking into my radio, I could hear Charlie just on the other side of the wall, talking to his ship. He was almost yelling, bad reception or something.

“Alright listen up, here’s how this is gonna go down, you and the Yarnell are going to tow us back to Manehattan harbor. Upon arrival, were gonna perform an inspection for the Missouri, while that's happening, me and Charlie are taking the Body of one of the dead sailors we found with the others, to an examination area to try and figure out how he died. After that we will return to the Missouri to split up the crews into a hybrid group of my sailors, and Chaliries sailors, so that the Mighty Mo can have a fighting chance. Did you get all of that?” The radio fell silent for a few seconds, about four seconds. Then it came back with the same voice as before.

“Aye, I got everything written down here on this notepad.” I smiled.

“Okay, good, see you soon.” I slid the radio back into my pocket again, and walked back into the wheelhouse just as Charlie turned off his radio. I returned to the control panels in front of the windows that overlooked the bow of the Mighty Mo. Charlie came up next to me and joined.

“Alright, lets get this party started, and get this ship home!” I said out loud. Charlies Sailors smiled and looked at each other as they yelled.

“Oorah!” I flinched out there outburst, it caught me off guard.

“W-what?” I said as a hand hit my shoulder.

“It means, 'Lets go'. It’s what we say in the future.” I turned around and see Charlie, with a smug look on his face. “Don’t worry old timer, you’ll get used to it.” I gave him a smug look too as I turn completely around and crossed my arms.

“Don’t worry youngster, I like it.” We laughed. But our laughter was cut short by the radio in my pocket.

“Captain, it’s the Princess can you hear me, I’m not really sure how to work this, radio.” It was Celestia, I looked at my pocket, pulled out the radio and clicked it on.

“Yes princess I hear you loud and clear, is everything alright?” I asked as Charlie went over to another section of the control panel where the majority of the marines were.

“Yes, everything is fine over on this side, have you secured the ship?”

“Yes your majesty, we have secured the ship and are ready to move, but, there is one thing.”

“What is it?” I was a little worried to tell her what we found. And the others knew, for when I looked to my right, they all turned to me slowly, with these looks ranging from,'Oh shit,' too 'Great, here we go,' . The tension in the room slowly turned from happy, the dark, very quickly.

“We found bodies, a large pile of human corpses on the decks of the ship, if you didn’t already know, we were wondering if we could rope of an an area back in Manehatten harbor so that we can perhaps look at one of the bodies closer.” The radio went dead silent, and so did everything else. The previously happy sailors looked back to their work and said nothing as I looked out the window, with a face of a emotional defeat.

“Who do the bodies belong to?” Celestia came again.

“It’s the remainder of the crew that used to belong to the Missouri.”

“I see, I will try and find an area where we can view the body in person, for right now, we need to get the Missouri back to shore.” By the time she was done talking I was outside the wheelhouse and was looking over to the other ships. I could see that the ponies and the sailors were gathered on the front deck, along with Fluttershy.

“Roger that Celestia, see you soon, and thank you.” I turned off the radio and slid it away. After slipping it away, I rose my right hand and waved to the yellow pegasus on the other ship. And she waved back.

And suddenly, my mood was lifted. Maybe it was the fact that, I just realized I was in command of this worlds more powerful ship, or it could be the fact that, through all of this, I still had Fluttershy by my side. A weak, yet powerful smiles breached the depression.

Author's Notes:

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