In the Mareitania's wireless room, a lone unicorn stallion sat and watched the hands on the clock on the wall slowly move. He yawned softly before looking at the mug of coffee on his desk.

"Only a few more days before I can sleep in a comfortable bed again," he said to himself. "Last night was terrible." After saying that, he turned to sit facing the desk and placed the headset over his ears. Expecting a quiet start to his shift, he picked up his mug and began to take a sip of the liquid within. After a gulp, his headphones began picking up a message. "Huh. Bit early for the first message," he said before grabbing a pencil and some paper with his magic.

"From.... Manehattan... Naval Base... to Mareitania," he repeated while writing down the coded signal. "Turn... back... to Mareseilles... immediately." As soon as he reread the message, the stallion's eyes shot open. Without a second thought, he got out of the chair and rushed out of the room with the message. Rushing as fast as he could, the stallion raced through the corridor before slamming against the door leading out on the deck.

The metal door swung open, hitting the metal wall loud enough to where Port could hear it on the bridge wing. He turned to see the stallion laying on the deck while rubbing his head, presumably hitting the door head first instead of opening it with his magic.

"You alright there, Sparks?" Port called out while looking at him. Upon hearing this, Sparks looked up toward his First Officer and got up before making his way over toward the stairs to the raised wing.

"I... just got... a message!" Sparks said in between gasps for air as he climbed the steps.

"From?"

"Manehattan... Naval Base!" he replied. Hearing this, Port quickly took hold of the paper and looked at what the message said.

"Are you positive this is from the Navy?" Port asked, confused by what the message told.

"Why do you ask?"

"Well. This could be a trick by Canterlot," he continued. "Maybe they detected us in the early hours of the morning and are trying to get us to come back toward them." After saying that, Port took out his binoculars and looked at the surrounding area only to see nothing but ocean.

"What should we do then?" Sparks asked.

"Go find Captain Blade," Port replied. "He should be in the mess hall. Show him the message and see what he thinks."

"Yes sir," he replied before rushing off toward the mess hall as quick as he could, making sure to use his magic to open any closed doors ahead of him.

Once he was out of sight, Port turned back to look out ahead of the liner. Keeping in mind of what the message said, he made sure to watch for anything on the horizon.

"Until I hear what Steel says, I'm not changing course," Port thought as the ship continued on at full speed.

---

"Your Majesty!" a voice outside the bridge of Canterlot cried out. "King Sombra!" This made both Sombra and Spitfire turn to look where the voice was coming from. Seconds later, a guard appeared on the bridge with a paper in his possession.

"What is it?" Sombra asked, making the guard shutter. "What is so important that you come in here without my approval?"

"Your highness," the guard said before bowing. "We've intercepted a message to the target." Once he said that, Sombra took the paper before reading it. Spitfire smirked slightly, most likely knowing what that message was.

"Thank you, Princess Luna," she said in her mind while hearing Sombra grunt with anger. He then crumpled the paper and tossed it aside.

"All engines at full ahead! Now!" he bellowed, making each guard shiver in fear before doing as ordered. Spitfire watched as Sombra walked through the doorway leading outside. "Scout!"

"Yes your majesty?" She heard a voice reply.

"I want you to go and see where the target is and what it's doing," he ordered. "Now!"

"Right away!" the voice said before she could see a changeling flying off ahead of the battleship.

"Is something wrong, Sombra?" Spitfire asked in a defiant tone, prompting him to step back on the bridge. Once he saw the sly look on his prisoner's face, Sombra gritted his teeth and walked over toward her.

"This is your doing, isn't it?" he asked as his horn began to glow. The pegasus mare's smirk remained, which only made him angrier. Soon, a red aura of magic appeared around her neck. Spitfire soon felt it getting harder to breathe as Sombra's magic slowly clenched tighter. "How? How is this possible?!" he said in a threatening tone. "Answer me!"

"Kiss.... my.... flank!" Spitfire said in between gasps for air. Sombra glared at her for several seconds before releasing his hold, sensing that killing her wouldn't do any good with the knowledge that she has. Once she felt the magic let go, Spitfire just gasped and breathed heavily.

"Be thankful of your rank, Commander," Sombra said before turning and walking outside once more. Spitfire kept breathing deep as she sensed the large ship begin to move once again. Once she saw he was out of view, her smirk emerged once more.

"You're never gonna catch that ship now, Sombra," she thought. "Might as well give up." Several minutes of silence passed as the restrained mare could only listen to the wind and waves outside through the open door. She tried to lay down as best she could, but the crystals keeping her hooves glued to the floor made any adjustment uncomfortable.

"Your majesty!" she heard a voice call out from the other side of the bridge. "Our scout is coming back!"

"That was quick," Spitfire said in her mind before the changeling she saw leave land on the wing that Sombra was on.

"Well?" Sombra's voice said. "What is that ship doing?"

"Your highness," the changeling replied. "The target seems to still be coming in our direction. It's only a matter of minutes before we'll see it from here." This statement stunned the mare in the bridge as she thought for sure that the liner would be turning away.

"Very curious," Sombra replied before he made his way back on the bridge. Turning toward the back of the room, he passed close to Spitfire, smirking back at her like she did to him. Spitfire could only stare at him until her neck wouldn't allow her to turn her head anymore. Once she heard his hooves stop, he cleared his throat. "Flood the port side torpedo tube and prepare to fire on my command,"

Hearing this made the mare's pupils shrink as she had completely forgotten that this battleship was also equipped with a torpedo tube submerged beneath the waterline on both sides. Her heart began pounding as the thought of seeing an ocean liner be torpedoed rushed through her mind.

"Why aren't they turning?" she screamed internally as Sombra walked up beside her before stopping. He looked down at the expression on her face and chuckled.

"Don't worry, Commander. I promise you'll be in for a show that you'll... never... forget."

"Smoke spotted off the port bow!" a guard called out from the bridge wing. Sombra smirked before his horn ignited in his red aura of magic. The magic soon engulfed Spitfire's body as she felt the crystals around her hooves disappear and herself soon being lifted off of the floor, unwillingly following the tyrant.

"And you, my frightened prisoner, will have a front row seat," Sombra continued before the two emerged on the port side wing. Once there, he set Spitfire down only to have her hooves encased in crystal again. Now she was staring out at the open sea before turning to look toward the smoke. She squinted her eyes to try and see what the approaching ship looked like, but it was pointless without binoculars. The ones that she had with her were lost with the saddlebags when she was hit with that enchanted shell.

As the seconds passed, the ship came closer and closer. It was easily within the firing range of the main battery, but yet looked to have no intention of turning away.

"What the buck are you doing?!" Spitfire cried out as loud as she could. "Do you not see what's here?!" But the liner just kept coming. The four red and black funnels spewing out smoke indicated that they were charging ahead at full speed. Looking on the deck, she could see the various ponies behaving as though the warship wasn't even there. This confused her as she watched the liner continue toward its demise. As she watched helplessly, Sombra walked over to the railing and chuckled before lowering his muzzle down to a voice pipe nearby.

"Launch."

---

Inside the mess hall which was originally the First Class Dining Saloon, Steel sat at a table enjoying a nice plate of freshly made pancakes. He had just finished the one that was on top before the doors to the room burst open.

"Captain!" Sparks cried out while frantically looking around before his eyes found the stallion he was looking for. Not wasting a second, he rushed over to the table.

"What is it, Sparks?" Steel asked while looking at the concerned expression on the pony in front of him.

"Sir. I... have something for you," he replied before putting the paper on the table. Seeing this, Steel picked the paper up before reading the message.

"Why did you bring this here instead of going to the bridge?"

"I did," Sparks replied. "But First Officer Port said to go see what you thought. He thinks it's some kind of trick by Canterlot to get us to turn back toward them."

"I see..." Steel said while rereading the message. But just as he opened his mouth to speak again, the room shook violently as a large explosion could be heard below toward the stern. The ship heeled abruptly over toward her starboard side before eventually bringing herself upright again. As this was happening, every pony that wasn't a pegasus slid down toward the right side of the room along with every chair and table. Those who were pegasi instinctively hovered above until the floor leveled out.

"What... in Equestria was that?" Sparks said as he slowly got up.

"Is everypony alright?" Steel called out. After receiving various confirmations, Steel got up as well but soon noticed something was wrong. The floor was now slanting toward the port side and back toward the stern. The chairs and tables all began to slide toward the other side of the room with the occasional sounds of plates and glass shattering being drowned by the ship groaning. As he looked around, he could see the lights flickering before they all faded to a dim glow. Now the only sufficient amount of light was coming from the windows and from the dome skylight above.

"I want everypony on deck! Now!" he ordered before using his horn to light the room in a bluish glow. As soon as the other ponies could see the exits, they made sure not to waste any time. Every unicorn did as Steel was doing and used their horns to light the way for the others.

Once the room was clear, Steel and Sparks exited and followed the group. With the power less than fully functional, the elevators were too risky to use. The stairs were now the only safe way to make it up to the boat deck. As they walked, various ponies were seen gathering whatever personal belongings they could carry out of their cabins and putting on life jackets. Seeing this made the red stallion feel uneasy as they made their way through.

The list to port made getting through the corridors a challenge, but the two unicorns soon made their way up to the boat deck.

"Sparks. Get to the wireless room and send out a distress signal," Steel ordered. "I don't care if the power is low. Just do it if you're able to."

"What's our position?" Sparks asked.

"I'm not sure," he replied. "But just start sending it anyways. See if there are any ships in the area that can assist. We'll get our position as quick as we can."

"Alright," the young stallion replied before rushing off toward the wireless room. Steel then quickly made his way toward the bridge, doing his best to keep his balance on the slanting deck.

"Damage report!" he called out as he reached the bridge. "What's going on?"

"Sir," Port replied. "We have a hull breach in the outer port side engine room. Boiler Room 1 is being evacuated as the port side bunker has also been compromised."

"Can we contain the flooding?"

"They're already working on that," Port replied. "The watertight doors in that part of the ship have already been closed according to what I was told from the Chief Engineer." As he listened to what was being said, Steel looked at the ship's clinometer mounted on the wall behind the helm. The needle on the instrument was indicating that Mareitania had a ten degree list to port and was slowly creeping further.

"Stop all engines!"

"Yes sir," Port replied before he quickly rushed to the engine telegraphs, moving each lever to the 'Stop' position.

"Do we have any idea what happened?"

"No clue, Cap," the green unicorn replied. "One moment everything's fine. Next thing I know, I'm losing my balance and down on the deck. When I got over to the other side, there weren't any other ships nearby." He soon began breathing heavily. Steel could see that he was beginning to panic as he was visibly shaking. "Cap. I'm... sorry," he said while standing by the last telegraph. "If I had just turned the ship around like that message said, we'd probably not be in this mess."

"It wasn't your fault, Port," Steel replied. "I was skeptical about the message too. But we don't have time to worry about what if's right now. I need you to get our position and get it to Sparks as soon as you can for the distress signal."

"Aye, sir," he said before leaving the bridge.

---

From the moment she saw the ship get struck, Spitfire's eyes were glued on it as a face of disbelief was plastered on her face. The smoke coming out from the funnels diminished tremendously while the entire ship was tilting toward the left side as the momentum it had carried it by the warship. She kept staring until the sound of her captor chuckling from behind snapped her out of the trance.

"Perfect," she heard him say as he walked by her while looking at what is going on. "Not too much. But just enough for them to not get away."

"You're sick!" Spitfire shouted while glaring at him. "Those ponies did nothing to you!"

After hearing that, he turned back to look at her with a smirk on his face. This only enraged the restrained pegasus to levels that she had never reached before. The fact that he was satisfied with attacking a ship that couldn't do anything to fight back made her blood boil.

"Trust me, my little captive," he said before turning back to look at the ship. "This is only the beginning. I intend to make Mr. Blade suffer as long as I wish before I capture him."

"What are you gonna do?" she asked. "You gonna make him surrender before blowing up his ship?"

"You misunderstand, Commander. I'm not accepting any surrender," he replied while still looking at the ship. "He won't have any say in this. Once my target sees that there's no escape, I will give him a little... surprise before unleashing the full power of this battleship." After saying that, he turned and walked back inside, leaving Spitfire to watch the scene in front of her.

---

"Captain!" Port called out as he returned from the wireless room. "I've given Sparks our position and he's transmitting now!"

"Excellent," Steel replied. "Hopefully there's some ships that can assist." He then walked over to a phone mounted on the wall before trying to get a hold of the engine room. It rang a couple of times before somepony down there picked up.

"Hello?" a voice on the other end asked. "Who is this?"

"It's Captain Blade," Steel replied. "What's the situation down there?"

"It ain't looking good down here, sir," the voice replied. "The outer port side engine room is lost. Boiler room one is flooding as well. The bunker wall gave way to the sea. Those things weren't designed to hold against water."

"Anything else?"

"We've got the watertight doors closed," the voice continued. "But with this list to port, we're having difficulties with getting the pumps working."

"Just... do what you can. And keep the electrical room dry for as long as possible. We can't afford to lose power."

"We'll do our best," the voice said. "But with the amount of water coming in, I don't know how long we can do that." After saying that, the pony on the other end hung up, prompting Steel to do the same as well. He then looked over at the clinometer. It was showing that the list has worsened to 15 degrees to port.

"Any further and we risk not being able to use the starboard lifeboats," he thought before exiting down to the port side bridge wing. "Not that we'd need all the boats anyways. There's not that many ponies on board."

---

As the situation aboard Mareitania was happening, Captain Triple Screw was busy on the bridge of the San Franciscolt plotting a course back to Manehattan. The pegasus carrier was cutting through the waves at over 26 knots. Just as soon as he finished plotting out his course, he heard a knock on the door to the chart room.

"Captain Screw?" Pin Point asked from the other side. "We've got a situation that needs your attention."

"Enter," he replied. The stallion did as instructed and opened the door to the room, holding two papers in his magic. Upon seeing them, Triple raised an eyebrow. "What are those?"

"So. We've received a message from Princess Luna. We now know where Commander Spitfire is."

"Where?"

"She's been taken prisoner," he replied. "She's on the Canterlot as we speak." Triple's pupils shrank as soon as he heard that.

"Do the others know yet?"

"Yes sir," he replied. "They're working on a plan to try and rescue her."

"Ok. Good," Triple said before looking at the other paper. "And what's the other paper?"

"We've just received a distress call from the Mareitania," Pin replied before holding it out for Triple to read. "It says they've had an explosion and are taking on water." Triple took the paper and looked it over before seeing the position on the paper. He then quickly placed it on the chart before looking at their own position.

"Did they say anything else? Are they under attack by Canterlot?"

"They didn't say, sir. But if they were, I doubt they'd be able to transmit anything. I can't see an ocean liner lasting long against a battleship."

"I suppose so," Triple replied before measuring an estimate of the distance between position. "We're roughly 200 miles away!" he exclaimed before rushing out of the room to the bridge. Once there, he immediately looked at the stallion at the helm and the ponies near the engine telegraphs. "Right hard rudder! Set course on bearing 065!" he ordered. "Engines ahead full!"

"Sir?" Pin Point asked as he came out of the chart room. "What are you doing?"

"I'll explain in a bit!" Triple replied. "But first I want every available pegasus we have on the flight deck!"

"Aye sir!" Pin replied before going over to a radio mounted on the wall nearby. He then took hold of the receiver with his magic while also pulling out a whistle from his pocket. Once the mouthpiece was in his mouth, he pushed down on the button and blew his whistle into the receiver. "Attention all pegasi flight groups. Please report to the flight deck immediately. This is not a drill. I repeat. This is not a drill. All pegasi flight groups to the flight deck immediately," he said before hanging up the receiver.

Next Chapter: Chapter Nine Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 6 Minutes