Triple sat in his quarters as he was getting ready for a little nap. He'd been up since sunrise before Spitfire and Tail Wind left on their mission to find Canterlot. And after the events of today, a small break from reality was something that he would gladly welcome. But as he was just about to lay down on his bed, the sound of hooves coming toward his door made him look toward it with a raised eyebrow.

"Captain!" Pin Point shouted as he ran into the room while carrying a paper in his magical grip. "Captain! I have something very urgent that needs your attention!"

"What is it, Pin?" he asked before turning to see the panicked expression on his First Officer's face. "What's going on?"

"We just got a message from the Manehattan Naval Base," he replied before laying the paper down on a table for Triple to look at. "It's about Admiral Broadside." Upon hearing that name, Triple wasted no time in reading what the message said.

To: Captain Triple Screw of San Franciscolt
From: Manehattan Naval Base

Please relay this information to Captain Shining Armor and Admiral Fire Power immediately upon receiving this. It is with much sorrow that we inform you that Admiral Broadside has been tragically murdered this afternoon. We are currently investigating this tragedy. But due to the possibility of another attack, Princess Celestia has requested that the San Franciscolt should return to Manehattan so your squadrons can patrol the skies overhead until things are settled.

"What are we going to do, sir?" Pin asked, making Triple look back up at him.

"It would seem that we have a tough decision to make."

Pin looked at him with a confused expression after hearing what he said.

"What do you mean?"

"We've been ordered to return to Manehattan so our pegasi soldiers can patrol the skies over the city."

"But what about the Mareitania?"

"Exactly," Triple replied before he started walking toward the door. "I'll need to speak to the others about this." As he opened the door, another thought came to mind. "By the way," he said before turning back to look at Pin. "Have Soarin and Fleetfoot returned with Spitfire yet?"

"Not yet, sir," he answered. "But it is starting to get dark." He pointed toward the porthole to emphasize his statement. "I'm hoping that they will return soon."

"Let's hope so," Triple replied as he and Pin exited his quarters and started walking through the corridor. "I want you to return to the bridge." He said, gaining Pin's attention again. "Keep us on the course we're on until Soarin and Fleetfoot return. Once they do...." He sighed a bit before continuing. "Be prepared to adjust course and put the engines at full ahead so we can return to Manehattan as soon as we can."

"But sir!"

"We have our orders, Pin," Triple said. "I'm sure the others in the War Room will say the same thing."

Pin sighed before nodding his head. "Yes sir," he said before turning a corner and disappearing from Triple's view.

As the lone earth pony walked down the corridor, he thought long and hard about what he could do to help both Manehattan and Mareitania. But no matter what he could come up with, it wouldn't work. Upon reaching the door leading into the War Room, Triple sighed before knocking on the metal door.

"Who is it?" Shining's voice asked from within.

"Triple Screw."

"Enter." Once he heard that, Triple pushed open the door and walked inside. The magical holographic map was still up as the ponies around the table it was being projected from continued to try figuring out the situation with Canterlot. Seeing that they put an extra chair at the table, Triple went over and sat down. "What do you have for us, Captain?" Shining asked before he turned to look at him.

"We received a message from the Manehattan Naval Base," he replied. "Admiral Broadside.... is dead." Each pony gasped simultaneously when they heard that.

"How?!" Admiral Fire Power asked. "That base is supposed to be one of the most secure facilities in all of Equestria!"

"According to eyewitnesses...." Triple continued. "He was thrown out of his office window on the 15th floor."

"And.... what exactly do they want us to do?"

"We've been requested to return to Manehattan by Princess Celestia so our pegasi soldiers can patrol the sky above the city." He then sighed after saying that.

"Is there something else that is bothering you, Captain?" Twilight asked.

"Yes," he answered. "If we go back to Manehattan, that would leave the Mareitania all alone against Canterlot if the two vessels encounter one another."

"You sent a message out to them though. Didn't you?" the young mare asked. The elder Captain just nodded in response. "Then I'm sure that the Captain of that ocean liner has already taken measures to avoid an encounter."

"But what if they still run into her?"

"I don't think that would happen," she replied before turning to look at the map. "The Equestrian Ocean is vast. The probability of those ships running into each other would be really unlikely if the Mareitania adjusts her speed or course."

"If you say so," Triple replied before the sound of hooves knocking against the metal door emanated from behind him.

"Who is it?" Shining asked.

"Lieutenants Soarin and Fleetfoot," Soarin's voice replied from the other side.

"Enter," Shining said, resulting in the metal door being pushed open again to allow the two pegasi to walk in.

"Did you manage to bring back Commander Spitfire?" Jet Stream asked.

"No," Soarin replied before lowering his head. "We looked all over the area where she and Tail Wind were at. But she was nowhere to be found." Jet sighed heavily after hearing what he said.

"Well then..." he said. "I guess we have no choice but to declare Commander Spitfire MIA." He then turned to look at Fire Power who then turned to look at Triple.

"Send a message back to the rest of the fleet back in Manehattan. Tell them that we're on our way back at full speed. And tell them to also send a search party out to look for Commander Spitfire. By air and by sea."

"Yes sir," Triple replied before slowly getting out of his seat and following Soarin and Fleetfoot out.

As Triple was on his way to send out a message to get a larger search for Spitfire under way, the Wonderbolt Commander watched as the sun slowly started dipping beneath the horizon from the small porthole in her cell. She let out a long sigh as she wished to be anywhere else than being inside the small cell aboard Canterlot. A few tears began to form in her eyes as they looked at the clear sky above the waves. But as time ticked by, she couldn't help but imagine the horror of what was to come as she imagined seeing the fourteen inch guns firing on an ocean liner. Innocent ponies were going to die. And there was nothing she could do to stop it.

She kept thinking about it until a loud clanging noise from behind her snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Supper time, prisoner," a guard's voice said as she turned around to see a crystal pony guard, or maybe a changeling in disguise, as he nudged a tray of food through a slot at the bottom of her cell door. Her stomach soon grumbled when her eyes caught sight of the food presented to her. A lone apple accompanied by some lettuce with a cup of water.

"Is that it?" she asked as she got up and made her way over to the tray.

"Be thankful that our benevolent King has told us to make sure you were fed," the guard replied before he turned and walked away.

"Benevolent King, my flank," she thought before looking down at her food. She sighed a bit before she sat down and picked up the apple with her front hooves. She examined it closely, trying to see if anything was wrong with it. But it looked like a normal apple. Her stomach growled again, demanding nourishment due to her not having eaten since before she left the San Franciscolt. Sighing heavily, she took a bite out of the apple. The taste brought a calming sense of familiarity. It tasted just like an apple from Sweet Apple Acres. But as she ate, her mind still thought about what the changelings had told her earlier.

"Whoever this Captain Blade is, he must have some nice skills if he was able to escape from the changelings before," she thought while chewing the piece of apple in her mouth. "But if his ship gets within range of these guns, there is very little chance that it'll avoid being sunk." She then swallowed before taking a sip of her water before feeling the floor beneath her tilt as Canterlot heeled over toward her port side as she turned heavily to starboard. Normally, Spitfire would've hovered in the air until the floor leveled out. But with the chains around her body keeping her wings against her sides, she slid forward until she hit the bars. Upon hitting them, she grunted in pain as she hit the iron bars head first.

"Lousy stupid bars," she quietly growled to herself as she got up. But when she turned around, she saw that her apple was missing. She raised an eyebrow before she turned back toward the bars to find her partially eaten apple outside of her cell. She sighed once again before she climbed up onto her bunk and laid down, keeping her face toward the wall.

"How are they so confident that he'll survive though?" she thought as the conversation from earlier continued flowing through her mind. "It would be a miracle if anypony will survive." As she thought about it, the last rays of light faded as the sun dipped below the horizon. A weird feeling of calm started to wash over her as the waves gently rocked the battleship. Spitfire found her eyelids becoming heavy as she has been awake since early in the morning. A small yawn escaped her lips not long after. Being a prisoner was something completely new to her. But if she was going to survive, sleep would be her escape from this nightmare of a reality that she was in.

Soon enough, her eyes finally closed as the mare drifted off into slumber.

Steel looked on from the port side bridge wing as the sun set in front of him. The Mareitania was slicing through the small waves at top speed as she was on her course for Manehattan. As the last rays of light faded, he nodded to himself before walking into the bridge. Once inside, he grabbed hold of the engine telegraph levers before pulling them back to 'half ahead'. Soon, he could feel the turbine engines begin to slow as the engineers below quickly responded to the signal. After letting go of the levers, he watched as the speed dropped from 24 knots down to around 15.

"Gonna be sailing dark," he said while turning his head to look at the pony at the helm. The stallion nodded before he turned off the lights in the small wheelhouse. After doing that, Steel made his way out to the starboard side bridge wing.

"Captain," Port's voice said from below. Hearing that, Steel looked down to see his friend on the boat deck looking up at him. "I've just finished making sure that all lights in each cabin was turned off."

"Excellent," he replied. "Hopefully that'll provide us with cover should Canterlot be near."

"I hope so too," Port said before he started climbing up the stairs leading to the bridge wing. As he did, Steel could see that he was looking as though he wanted to say something. But he wasn't sure if he could go through with it. "Sir," he continued. "There's something I've been wanting to know."

"What's that, Port?"

"Something that we might not get another opportunity to talk about," he replied before coming up beside Steel. "I know you don't really want to talk about it. But I just want to know." Steel sighed as he knew what his friend was talking about. That of course being the incident that occurred on the maiden voyage.

"Alright," he said before sighing once more. He knew that this topic wouldn't be easy to discuss. But he at least owed it to him after all this time. "After you guys were forced to abandon ship, Chrysalis tried to convince me to join her in marriage to become King of the changelings." When he heard that, the green stallion just gasped in surprise. "But I instantly refused."

"What happened after that?"

"She tried to convince me through..... other methods," he continued. "If you know what I mean."

"You mean that you and her..."

"It didn't get to that point," he replied. "Thankfully. But I still have nightmares about it some nights. All I'll say is that it didn't happen by choice." Port just stood there in silence as he was shocked by what he had heard. He saw Steel's body shiver as he guessed the ordeal was going through his mind all over again.

"I'm so sorry to hear that, Cap," he said before putting his hoof on his friend's back. "I had no idea that she would do that to you."

"It's alright, Port," he replied. "Nothing we can do about it now." Once he said that, he turned his head to look out at the water ahead. "She wanted me to be the fuel needed for a new generation of changelings. But before that happened, she wanted to show me what I could have if I chose to marry her."

"That probably wasn't the best way to convince you."

"Yeah," he replied. "Like I said. It wasn't by choice. She drugged me with some sort of drink. And when I came to, my limbs were being restrained by her magic and my... shaft was fully erect."

"Sweet... mother of Luna," Port said in a shocked tone.

"She attempted to try and show me what she was capable of doing. But when I told her that I didn't want to be her King, she stopped and got really upset. She then locked me in my cabin and blew that hole in the starboard side, hoping to send both me and Mareitania to a watery grave."

"I see," the green stallion replied. "And how exactly did Princess Celestia get involved?"

"She just so happened to be in the area on board the royal clipper," he answered. "She saw the ship listing to starboard and sensed that I was still on board. But by the time she got onto the ship, I had already escaped from the cabin I was trapped in and was trying to save my ship by keeping the water coming in at bay."

"How'd you escape?"

"When Chrysalis locked me in my cabin, she made a crucial mistake," he said before pulling his sword out of the scabbard secured to his body. "She didn't take this away from me. So I just sliced my way through the wooden door."

"Nice," he replied as Steel put the sword back into the scabbard. "So Princess Celestia helped you save the ship?" The Captain just nodded silently. "How?"

"She put up that shield you saw over the gaping hole," he replied. "Once that was up, I was able to pump out most of the water. Not all of it, but just enough to where she would remain afloat. From there, it was a challenge to get her back to Manehattan. While I steered the ship, Celestia was in Boiler Room #1. She used her magic to shovel coal into all of the boilers in the room at the same time. But with only one boiler room producing steam, we just had enough pressure for the two inner turbines to run at a low speed. Which she somehow managed as well."

"Wow," Port said in an impressed tone. "I can't believe that it only took the two of you to sail this ship back."

"Well when one of the two was an alicorn, it wasn't all that difficult. Only tough times were when I had to shovel the coal while she raised and lowered the sun. We stopped during the night though to rest. No way we could've gone non-stop back to Manehattan."

"I bet."

"And you know the rest of the story," he continued before sighing. "Huh. You know. Now that I've talked about it. I am feeling slightly better than I was before."

"Really?"

"Slightly," he repeated. "But... still better than I was before."

"Well that's good to hear, Cap," Port said before yawning. "I don't know about you. But I'm ready for some sleep."

"Yeah," Steel replied before yawning himself. "I could go for some sleep right now." He then turned and started walking back toward his cabin. "I'll see you in the morning, Port."

"Yes sir," Port replied before Steel made his way onto the bridge. He then turned and entered his cabin before closing the door behind him. Another yawn escaped from him as he unhooked the strap securing his scabbard before placing it on a table in the room. He then removed his uniform and set it aside before he took off the suit of armor that was underneath.

Once everything was taken care of, Steel climbed into his bed and laid his head down on the pillow. The waves gently rocked the ship back and forth, lulling him into a state of comfort as his eyes struggled to stay open. With one final yawn, his eyes closed before he soon fell asleep.

Due to this being in an alternate universe, what Steel mentioned in his conversation with Port is not what really happened during Mareitania's maiden voyage. If you wish to see the canon version of what happened, please read The Voyage of the Mareitania.