As military advisor to the Diarchs, I did have to go to Canterlot on a monthly basis to meet with generals and bigwigs and the Princesses themselves about national security matters. And if I was being honest, most of what I contributed wasn't anything really revolutionary. Hell, I got all of it out of numerous books on military theory, politics, and history I had been able to find from the Human archives. Everything from Sun Tzu's Art of War to Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan's Naval Strategy. The meetings were fairly informal, mostly discussions over threats to Equestria and talking about possibilities on defending against them. These ranged from the possibility of a revived Abbysian Kingdom suddenly becoming expansionist, to the Waimanu Empire unfreezing Emperor Charlatan and trying to freeze the world again.
The Waimanu were, by the way, sapient penguins with ice magics. Who were basically Nazis who wanted to kill off all life on the planet that wasn't penguin.
No, I'm not kidding.
I'd make my recommendations and we'd hash it out. The commander of the Equestrian Royal Navy, Admiral Corsair, was probably the most open minded of the ponies I talked to. She was fair and very interested in the naval traditions of Earth, and being a former navy brat I was able to tell her a lot. Turns out Luna had founded the Navy, so she may have made it clear she was fond of me.
General Hardtack, commander of the Equestrian Royal Army, was a bit more guarded and suspicious, but he did appreciate the fact that I saved Equestria and was from a "warrior race", in his terms. I got to learn a lot of Earth pony history I hadn't heard, including how innovative they were when it came to technology. He wasn't exactly friendly, but he wasn't hostile either.
The Air Marshall of Equestria, General Typhoon, and the Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor, were a bit difficult but in different ways. General Typhoon was of the opinion that weather control was all Equestria needed, and looked down on the other branches-Especially the Navy for having a lot of non-pegasi flying. He didn't take a lot of my suggestions seriously, though he did take plenty of human material on air war for himself.
Shining Armor was polite and listened to what I had to say, but he was also very stubborn. His opinion was that the Royal Guard functioned just fine and innovation was largely unneeded for its role. Though he was, again, polite about it and pointed out reasons why the Guard operated the way it did, he could come off as just plain hardheaded. I was the one who got close to losing my temper a lot, and the fact he was able to be perfectly calm just got my goat.
I had to keep reminding myself, I'm just an advisor. But the fact that I was making decisions that might save or doom this world had a habit of weighing heavily on me.
It was after such a tiring discussion I found myself out on a balcony, looking over Canterlot and breathing in the clean air. The sun shone down brightly, and ponies went to and fro far below me.
I closed my eyes and just let go, relaxing as much as I could. It was then I felt Princess Luna bump up against me. I managed not to yelp, but I did give her a glare over my shoulder. She smiled apologetically.
"My apologies, Shepherd," she said. "But I have a surprise for you."
I immediately began looking around for Pinkie Pie. You never knew when she might spring her trap.
"A different sort of surprise, Shepherd," Luna said gently. She wrapped a wing around me, and teleported us.
Now, about teleporting: It's REALLY not very fun to go through. It feels like everything that's big gets small and everything small gets big, so when you come out of it you're feeling quite a lot of vertigo and motion sickness. Thankfully not enough to make me throw up, but God it was annoying. I shook it off though, and Luna gave me a proud smile as we stood in a large, dark room.
And by large, I mean large. I couldn't even see the ceiling far above us!
"Um... So, where's the surprise?" I asked. I tapped my foot-We were standing on a thick wooden platform of some sort. One that extended out after into the darkness.
"You're standing on it," Luna said with a pleased grin. The platform began to shake and rumble. The darkened roof opened above us, letting in blinding sunlight. I covered my eyes with my arm as the wind howled, and the massive platform shook like a localized earthquake!
I finally lowered my arm as I felt the breeze of outside... And my jaw dropped.
It wasn't just a large, flat platform. There was a tall superstructure far from me. A hauntingly familiar superstructure that I'd seen in a hundred books about World War II. I took unsteady steps as the great vessel continued to rise into the sky, and I looked around the long flight deck.
"Many things have ended up in Equestria from other worlds, Shepherd! And this vessel was easily one of the largest such things!" Luna explained loudly, the breeze having no effect on her voice. "My sister stored it in an underground cave near the Badlands until she could decide what to do with it, under magical preservation! And now that I have returned, I learned what this ship was!"
She grinned, almost savagely. I could finally see crewmembers, ponies going about the deck of the great carrier and manning (horsing?) the upper decks.
"A fighting ship! So I have decided that she will fight again-Under the Equestrian Flag! Our navy has needed modernization quite badly, so I provided it! With most of the help from your species!" She walked up alongside me, and beamed.
"But in honor of your people, her name is the same! I believe it holds some meaning to humans?"
There on the side of the aircraft carrier island was a number: 6. And painted on her great flightdeck, further back, I could make out CV-6 in large, white letters etched into the wood. I slowly turned to Luna, my jaw halfway to the planet's core.
"You're telling me," I began loudly over the rushing wind, "that you found the USS Enterprise and turned her into a flying aircraft carrier?!"
Luna nodded.
"That is precisely what we did, Shepherd!"
Holy fucking shit. I didn't know whether to have a fangasm or pass out.
So I did both.
These damn ponies will be the end of me one day...
Ooh. Sweet!
Le me check what kind ship is th-
HOLY CELESTIA!!
Cool. Not really a naval history guy though, and I can only swallow the "helicarrier" leap since I'm a Marvel fan.
Well, I suppose it's time to boldly go where stuff is causing problems and totally wreck their shit in. Lotta ponies can take off from something that normally launched propeller planes. All the anti-aircraft cannons would turn any flying force into paste long before anything could get near it if the gunners are good enough.
I can't help but wonder if the chapter title is a reference to Enterprising Engines.
Picard: "We were away from the Enterprise for less than half an hour, Number One. Where is my ship?!?"
"Let's make sure history never forgets the name 'Enterprise... '"
yet another example of why Luna is best princess
... Wow.
A Carrier?
Luna, you magnificent bitch, I read your BOOK!
Speaking as a fellow whose grandfather was a plankowner aboard USS Bunker Hill (CV-17), and rode her from San Francisco to Okinawa and back...
. FLY Big E!
G1 got weird.
The Royal Guard being the most staunchly traditional branch of the military would certainly explain why they're still using spears. And Shining idolizing them from a young age means he's not inclined to shake things up. Makes sense to me. Plus, this seems to predate the Guard's more infamous upsets in canon history. Time will tell...
10478155
LOL love the Patton reference there
They should call it the Yamoprise to be fair, since the Yamato had the idea first.
Or just "The Argo," although I always cringe when people say "Star Blazers." Shame on Crunchyroll for not using the real title.
oooohhh myy godddd!
That is so cool!
Keep it up!
*The JDS Mirai appears on the Equestrian coast*
"Dammit, Starlight. Quit misusing time magic!"
"But Trixie was throwing a tantrum over the stuck peanut butter lid. What was I supposed to do? If she didn't get her peanut butter, she might have caused a disaster like last month with the ship full of squeeing schoolgirls being summoned and wreaking havoc by trying to give brushies to all of Canterlot."
10478263
He's listed under "Reformed Villains" on the G1 wiki I found while looking things up. That I didn't think to do so until prompted by your comment is a shame on both my houses.
Shepard should be happy it wasn't the NCC-1701 Enterprise.
A flying aircraft carrier. A flying... aircraft carrier. A... flying... aircraft carrier.
An airstrip... in the sky. So planes can land... in the sky...
A flying... aircraft carrier.
*mind blown*
10478464
Aside from the Yamato (a battleship, not a carrier, but still launches fighters) and Marvel's helicarriers, I believe SPECTRUM did it first.
Just make sure the Ponies don't make the same mistake Japan did and obsess over the decisive battle so much that they forget to build ships for everything else.
The Glorious Grey Ghost!
https://youtu.be/ZS4V2xbuJro?t=134
Yes, I know there's something wrong with me.
10478464
10478468
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Akron
Clearly this ship needs a bold captain, to bravely go where no one has gone before.
I nominate Sheppard.
10478452
Discord would never give them a moment's peace if that really existed in human history or the multiverse.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2015/10/17/1003877.jpg
My 'Murican heritage makes me excited.
Of course it's the CV-6. If there's anything that finds it's way into strange new worlds from the human one, it's an Enterprise.
I'm just going to leave this here. https://youtu.be/-FckvCQccnY
What about the crew? Carriers usually carried an extensive complement of sailors in addition to the pilots and support staff.
10481301
I now have the urge to watch Star trek 4
10483362
Just be careful around Nukelar Wessels, they can be wery dangerwis.
10484385
Its more the people in charge of the maintenance.
10481517
10484480
Probably no one came through. The real Enterprise was decommissioned in '47 and eventually scrapped in '58. We can probably assume it was sent to this time period at some point when it was sitting in the New York shipyards in limbo while people tried to figure out what to do with it.
The USS Enterprise without planes is just a really ugly flat topped Yacht. The entire purpose of a CV is to provide a launching and resupplying vehicle for warplanes. Her heaviest armament, post 1943, is her eight 5 inch guns, which are, I believe, dual purpose secondary armaments. They aren't exactly set up to fire at targets below their waterline, so at best, she's basically a long distance undergunned bombardment platform? If she was decommissioned and waiting for the scrapyards when she vanished, so all the people weren't aboard, well the first thing they remove from a decommissioned ship is her ammunition stores, for obvious safety reasons. As far as an alternative use for her primary purpose, I don't really see how deploying Pegasi from her is much of an advantage, seeing how Pegasi can deploy from and make clouds anywhere. Basically all a flying Enterprise amounts to is a large target, but it certainly looks cool.
Bear in mind I say this as a man who served on two different Nimitz class Carriers during a 10 year career in the US Navy, I love CVs to death, but realistically, with no warplanes and pilots to fly them, she's kind of toothless.
10488256
BUT it's still a giant flying airship, and they do have Pegasi. Would it be more efficient to make a cloud fortress that serves the same purpose? Probably, but it's still cool.
That's just plain hilarious. Unnecessarily awesome and hilarious.
I get so hard Command & Conquer vibes at the end. Magnificent!
There a lot if ships with the name Enterprise.
I kinda want to see where this thread goes, even as a spin-off tale.
10488256
They don't have any threat peers in this version though, and the ship can be used to transport troops and supplies. There is also a simple airplane shown in the show that one of the Apple relatives fly arriving during the apple family reunion episode. They could make those and arm them. They can also launch balloons and other balloon aircraft. Severeral things they can use this for.
In a near peer adversary facing them? Yeah, no bueno.
The comment section of this chapter says it all
Time to command the ship and conquer the enemy...
Like the Yetis or Penguins...
Best case scenario