Every so often Blueblood would stop and point out something of interest, such as the Danger Room where they train or the ‘Central Command’ area which Thunderlane was very impressed with.
According to Blueblood, Central Command was a relatively new addition to the mansion. At first glance it reminded Thunderlane of the round tables Equestrian knights used to use, a circular podium in the center of the room surrounded by a number of chairs. Four of the chairs had icons emblazoned on the back: A hammer, a shield, a flame and a hexagonal crystal.
“Why are the rest of the chairs blank?” Thunderlane asked, making a reasonable guess as to what these icons meant.
“We’re always looking for new members to improve our numbers. We have a number of what you might call ‘initiates’. If and when an initiate becomes an official member, they’ll get their own chair and can personalize it with an icon of their choosing.” Blueblood said before a smirk crossed his face. “But believe me when I say the chairs are the least interesting thing in this room.”
With that, Blueblood walked over to the circular podium and placed his hoof on a blue square on the edge of the circle. A white line appeared at the end of the square and travelled across its surface, surrounding Blueblood’s hoof with a white glow as it passed through it.
A computerized voice suddenly spoke up surprising Thunderlane.
“Hoofprint recognition confirmed. Designation: Iron Pony. Accessing database.”
Suddenly, the center of the podium started to glow and, as if from thin air, various ethereal images appeared above the podium.
Blueblood looked behind his shoulder to see an absolutely gob smacked Thunderlane before chuckling.
“Surely you understand the concept of holograms?” He asked with a smirk.
“Y-yes but…” Thunderlane mumbled. “But I thought you needed a unicorn to maintain the illusion and I never saw your horn glow.”
Blueblood nodded. “This is something similar but not quite the same as unicorn magic. When a unicorn makes a holographic image, they do so by using their magic to bend light into a specific image. This podium has an array of crystals within it enchanted with a similar spell in order to maintain a vast number of preprogrammed images.”
Blueblood theatrically gestured to the images floating in the air. “Thunderlane, I give you the Avengers’ database!”
With the initial shock gone, Thunderlane took a closer look at the floating images and recognized what they looked like.
“Folders?” He asked. “You mean this thing is just a filing cabinet?”
Blueblood nodded, his smirk never leaving his face. “It’s a filing cabinet that can access any and all files within in a moment’s notice.” To prove his point, Blueblood turned to the podium and cleared his throat. “Database: Please access Avengers’ rogue gallery.”
One of the floating translucent folders blinked for a second before opening. All of the other folders disappeared as the space above the podium was replaced with more images of different ponies’ faces.
Thunderlane immediately recognized a few of these faces as well. “Wait… That’s Obsidian Shade, The Iron Monger. And that’s Ghost Flyer and Red Skull!”
Blueblood nodded. “We’ve made a habit of keeping a dossier of each and every supervillain we come across. These dossiers also contain all current info on each villain so we can keep track of whose detained and who is active.”
The prince pony turned to the podium again. “Database, access Iron Monger’s file. Bring up current status.
Once again, the image of Obsidian Shade’s face blinked before the images were wiped away to make room for bullet list detailing everything the Avengers knew about him.
His skill and abilities, specs for the Iron Monger suit, his criminal record were all there. The computerized voice spoke again.
“Obsidian Shade, alias: Iron Monger, is currently incarcerated in the ‘Vault’ maximum security prison.”
Blueblood nodded; seemingly satisfied he managed to impress Thunderlane with such advanced technology. “Shall we continue with the tour? I saved the best for last…”
“Hold on.” Thunderlane interrupted. “Can I… ask it something?”
Blueblood raised an eyebrow but merely shrugged at the request. “If you wish.”
Thunderlane turned to podium. “Database, can you tell me the current status of the Red Skull.”
Just as before, the images were wiped away to make room for the Skull’s file.
“Red Skull, real name unknown, recently escaped from the ‘Vault’ eight months ago. His current status and location is unknown.”
Thunderlane turned to a confused Blueblood. “You… Don’t know where he is?”
Blueblood sighed. “He is an elusive character. I wouldn’t worry though, the second he slips up we will stop him.”
Thunderlane gave a fake smile but in his mind he was reeling with questions. ‘They don’t know he’s in Germaney? They probably don’t know about Hydra either. Should I tell them? Princess Luna said she didn’t want them getting involved because she didn’t want to start an incident but does that mean they don’t have a right to know?’
Before Thunderlane could come to a decision, another pony walked into the room.
“Yo, Blue.” Spitfire called out as she stepped through the door. “Caramel and I were drilling recruits in the Danger Room and, long story short, there’s a hole in the…” Spitfire stopped as she noticed Blueblood wasn’t alone.
“Um… Hello.” She said.
“Hey.” Thunderlane said.
A second or two of silence passed before the yellow pegasus turned to her fellow Avenger. “Who’s this?” She said bluntly.
Blueblood coughed into his hoof before gesturing to the lieutenant. “Spitfire, this is Thunderlane. He’s our new liaison to S.H.I.E.L.D..”
“Oh.” Spitfire’s mouth lowered slightly. “I see. I thought we informed your aunt we didn’t want a liaison.”
Blueblood grimaced a little. “You’re assuming she was giving us a choice.”
Thunderlane could feel how tense the atmosphere was getting. Spitfire clearly wanted nothing to do with S.H.I.E.L.D.. If what Luna said was true, the Avengers just didn’t trust S.H.I.E.L.D..
He decided to speak for himself in order to salvage the situation.
He cleared his throat to get Spitfire’s attention before extending his hoof towards her.
“It’s an honor to meet you.” He said. “Let me just say it is not my intention to start any trouble for you or your team. I’m only here to maintain a civil relationship between you and S.H.I.E.L.D.”
Spitfire raised an eyebrow at Thunderlane’s hoof but accepted it all the same. “I see. And just how do you plan to do that? What exactly are your duties here?” She said giving Thunderlane a scrutinizing glare.
Thunderlane gulped, suddenly gaining a strong desire to befriend the mare who could incinerate him with a thought.
“W-Well… Um… If you or any of the Avengers have any concerns with the practices of S.H.I.E.L.D., it’s my duty to alleviate those concerns by helping you better understand…”
“Oh I see.” Spitfire interrupted, giving an exaggerated smile. “Well, it just so happens I actually have a concern with S.H.I.E.L.D.”
“Oh… Well if you tell me I’m sure I can figure out something that would be mutually beneficial for both parties.” Thunderlane said, becoming more and more nervous. “What is your concern?”
“The entire organization.” Spitfire said, her frown returning full force.
Thunderlane admitted to himself that he walked right into that.
Still, he had a job to do. He was a loyal soldier of the Royal Guard.
“Ms. Spitfire. It is my duty to help you understand that S.H.I.E.L.D. is an ally against the threat of rogue meta-ponies. What specifically makes you so against the organization as a concept?”
“Specifically?” Spitfire said. “I’m sure you’ve already read this in a file but just in case: You know I used to be the captain of the Wonderbolts before I joined the Avengers, correct?”
Thunderlane nodded. “Yes, but I fail to see what the connection…”
“I know a lot of ponies like to forget this...” Spitfire interrupted “But the Wonderbolts are a part of the Equestrian military. And from my military experience…” Spitfire leaned closer to Thunderlane’s face. “Shadow-Ops, like S.H.I.E.L.D., never work out. If you have to deny a military action, it was a crappy action.”
With a huff, she turned away from Thunderlane. “Let me ask you something Mr. Liaison: What exactly would you do to ‘alleviate our concerns’?”
During Spitfire’s tirade, Thunderlane became less nervous and more annoyed. He understood the mare’s viewpoint, he really did. But to believe that a military should never keep secrets from the populace was a very naive thing to say.
“Ms. Spitfire, I can assure you that I am in contact with S.H.I.E.L.D. and can give you any non-classified information about the organization you require.”
Spitfire gave a curt laugh. “That’s rich! ‘Say S.H.I.E.L.D., what were you doing infiltrating the Griffonian government?’ ‘I’m sorry, that’s classified’ ‘The leader of the northern minotaur tribes was just assassinated! Does S.H.I.E.L.D. know anything about that?’ ‘I’m sorry, that’s classified’. Are you starting to see my problems here?”
Spitfire didn’t even wait for an answer, she merely walked back through the door she came from, leaving a very quiet Thunderlane.
Blueblood, deciding to remind Thunderlane of his existence, gave the black pegasus a pat on the back. “I must say, I’m impressed. This is usually the part where she sets you on fire but I guess she likes you.” He said.
Thunderlane gave a confused look to the amiable prince. “Why are you being so nice?” There was no malice or contempt in Thunderlane’s words. It was a simple observation.
Blueblood looked at the space where Spitfire stood seconds ago, noting that the air in the space was a bit more warm than the rest of the room. “I also have… concerns when it comes to S.H.I.E.L.D. but I’m not going to take my frustrations out on you. You have a job and you wish to do it without incident. I can respect that.”
Thunderlane nodded. “Thanks. I wish she shared that sentiment.” He said.
Blueblood grimaced slightly. “Don’t be so hard on her. This whole business with S.H.I.E.L.D. is affecting her the most.”
Thunderlane tilted his head at this. “Really? Why?”
“Because her coltfriend fully supports S.H.I.E.L.D.”
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Bullhorn considered himself lucky he didn’t suffer from claustrophobia. Almost immediately after agreeing to pilot Steel Hammer’s armor, a bunch of egg-headed techs shoved him into the armor without any thought given to his personal comfort.
Bullhorn started to wonder how practical this armor could possibly be considering the fact he couldn’t see anything but the pitch blackness from inside the helmet.
After a moment or two, Bullhorn heard a buzzing in his ear followed by the voice of Hammer himself.
“Everything all right in there?” Hammer’s voice said into Bullhorn’s ear.
“Hate to tell you this Hammer but your thingy is already broken. I can’t see anything!” Bullhorn said.
“That’s because we haven’t turned on the H.U.D. yet. We wanted to be sure we could get you into the armor without a problem before we activated all the cool stuff.”
Bullhorn huffed. He knew that he would have to delegate a lot to Hammer’s technological expertise. He wasn’t exactly the most tech-savvy pony and he knew he was only really here to act as a poster-colt.
Oh well, If it meant he could put those arrogant mutants in their place, Bullhorn would happily be Hammer’s guinea pig.
“I want to test the servos and the hydraulics. Can you move around for me? Give me as much mobility as you can.”
Bullhorn nodded and proceeded to move every inch of his body he could, flexing and stretching this way and that. The armor restricted him a little but for the most part he was surprised at how much freedom it offered.
“Good, good.” Hammer said mostly to himself. “I’m going to activate all applications. Let’s see what this baby can really do.”
And just like that, the world came to life around Bullhorn. The green sergeant was taken aback by how much vision the helmet obscured. Which is to say, not at all. He knew he was wearing a helmet, he could feel its weight on his head. But his field of vision was completely unimpaired.
Then a multitude of green lights suddenly appeared in front of him. Data and information he couldn’t even begin to understand.
“You’re most likely seeing your H.U.D. now.” Hammer said. “It contains info about the armor and your environment. Don’t worry, it’s mostly for me.”
“You? You’re seeing this too?” Bullhorn asked looking around. He found that no matter where he looked, the green words and numbers stayed right in front of him as if floating in midair.
“Yes. I’m receiving all feedback from your suits sensors right here on my terminal. I’ll be your ‘Mission Control’ so to speak.”
From within the lab overlooking the testing site where Bullhorn was at, Hammer gave a quick look through the armor’s diagnostics before giving a satisfied nod.
“Okay Bullhorn, Let’s try some target practice.”
Bullhorn jumped slightly when four targets suddenly sprung from the ground, each at a varying distance.
“Your armor is equipped with repulsor gems mounted on your shoulders. The armor is connected to your mind, all you have to do is will the gems to fire.”
Hammer tapped on a few keys on his terminal.
“Here. This should make things a bit easier.”
As Bullhorn was getting ready to blast the targets set up for him, he noticed that a glowing green targeting reticule had appeared in front of him. With a wide grin, Bullhorn set his sights on the closest target.
‘Just will the gems to fire… Okay...’
With just the slightest bit of concentration, a blast of green energy suddenly shot forward and tore the first target apart.
“Whoa! Ohohoho, I could definitely get used to this.”
With a bit more flourish than necessary, Bullhorn blasted the other three targets to smithereens in seconds.
Hammer watched the wooden carnage intently, beaming with pride. Not for the oaf Bullhorn, but for the beautiful piece of machinery he was wearing.
“That contract is as good as mine.”
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“And here we come to the last stop of our tour. I assure you, I saved the best for last.” Blueblood said as he opened the door to his favorite room in the mansion.
Thunderlane peered inside and had to catch his jaw from hitting the floor. Blueblood grinned at the pegasus’ reaction. “Thunderlane, welcome to my workshop!”
Thunderlane was completely speechless. The Central Command room was impressive for how technologically advanced it was but this…
The room was large, wide and open. Three things Blueblood required to give his inventive mind everything it needed to flourish. Various stations covered in a variety of tools whose purpose and function Thunderlane could only guess at.
It was clear Blueblood employed some degree of automation with his work as there were a number on tiny robotic helpers each performing some kind of task. But they left enough tools and materials alone for Thunderlane to know that Blueblood still handled the majority of each project personally.
But the most impressive part of this room was the arsenal of Iron Pony armors set up, side by side, in the back of the room. Each and every armor stood tall and proud next to their brothers as if greeting their creator.
Needless to say, Thunderlane immediately went straight towards the display of Iron Ponies. Blueblood couldn’t keep his proud smile of his face if he tried. “Each armor has its own unique capabilities to tackle any number of situations the Avengers could face. The MkIV is submersible for deep-sea exploration. The MkVIII uses state-of-the-art cloaking technology. The MkXV, a personal favorite of mine, was designed specifically to go toe-to-toe with the monster known as the Hulk. I call it the Hulk-Buster.”
As Blueblood pointed out his individual armors, one particular set caught Thunderlane’s attention. For one thing, it was huge. Not as big as the Hulk-Buster but definitely too big for any normal pony to wear. It was jet-black accented with steel-gray and the gems adorning it were a deep crimson color.
“What’s this armor?” Thunderlane asked.
Blueblood smile faltered slightly but didn’t leave his face.
“That’s a prototype I’ve been working on. An armor designed for maximum offense against heavily armored opponents such as the Juggernaut or the Rhino. I call it the War Machine.”
Thunderlane couldn’t explain why, but for whatever reason, the War Machine was his favorite.
“Sadly…” Blueblood sighed “I can’t get the dang thing to work. I made it too powerful, gave it too many weapons that the armor’s processing power can’t handle the subroutines. Shame too, it would have been such a powerhouse.”
Thunderlane was snapped out of admiring the black and gray armor by Blueblood’s words. That’s right, he had a mission while he was here.
“Speaking of which, I should tell you about one of my assignments while acting as your liaison.” Thunderlane said sheepishly.
Blueblood’s smile faltered as he raised an eyebrow. “Let me guess: Dear Auntie Luna wants me to give her my armor specs for S.H.I.E.L.D., correct?”
Thunderlane knew this was another ‘Spitfire’ incident waiting to happen but he held firm. “It’s not just S.H.I.E.L.D.. The entire Equestrian military would benefit from this technology.”
Blueblood’s eyes widened. “The entire military? Oh my goodness, its worse than I thought.”
Thunderlane sighed, knowing where this was going. “Your file said that you refused to offer Princess Luna the specs for your armors because you’re afraid they’ll be used as weapons. But do you not use them as weapons yourself?”
Blueblood rubbed his temple with his hoof, clearly wishing he had a martini glass right now. “Yes, the Iron Pony armors are weapons. In fact, they are the most powerful and most potent weapons in Equestria. Why on earth would I allow something so destructive to be mass-produced and put in the hands of ponies I don’t know and have no reason to trust.”
Thunderlane scoffed at this. “No reason to trust? Their sworn to the protection of Equestria, who else could you trust with that kind of firepower. Don’t you think keeping the armors to yourself is a little selfish.
At this, Blueblood became angry with the pegasus. “Selfish!? Am I a foal hoarding a toy!? NO! The Iron Pony armor and all its variants are too powerful to place in that many hoofs at once!”
Now it was Thunderlane’s turn to get angry. “Why even build all of these armors if nopony but you could use them!?”
“Because unlike the nameless, faceless guards of our military I can actually trust myself not to abuse their power. Can you honestly say to me with a straight face that there is not a single guard who wouldn’t abuse that power?”
Thunderlane was silent for second. “Any guard who would abuse their armor would be discharged immediately. We don’t tolerate any who would bring harm to civilians.”
Blueblood sighed to calm himself before offering his final rebuttal. “But only after the damage was done. Only after a civilian is harmed or worse. And that blood wouldn’t be on the foolish guard’s hooves… It would be on mine.”
Thunderlane was shocked to hear this. Blueblood wasn’t angry anymore. He seemed… ashamed.
The prince turned his back to the guard as he brought his gaze to the many sets of armor before him. Whereas before it looked as though the armors greeted him, now they seemed to glare at him.
“This is my technology, my work. If somepony is harmed by it, it would be my fault.”
Blueblood turned back to Thunderlane, all traces of annoyance towards the sergeant had vanished.
“You read my report. You know what kind of stallion I was before I joined the Avengers, before I met…” He paused as the words died in his mouth. “I barely trust myself with this power but I choose to wield it because I surround myself with ponies who can stop me from abusing my creations. And I don’t just mean the other Avengers.”
Blueblood sighed as his eyes travelled across each of his different armors. “They have a hard enough time keeping me in check. How can I expect them to keep an entire military in check?”
Thunderlane tried to come up with some other argument. Tried to say that no innocent pony could ever be harmed by a legion of guards wearing these armors.
He tried to… but he couldn’t.
Suddenly, both colts were snapped out of their stupors by the sound of hooves descending down the stairs into the workshop. As they looked towards the door, a unicorn mare with a pristine white coat and a voluptuous violet mane ran into the room stopping just a few feet in front of Blueblood.
“Blue! There you are! You have to see-Oh my word, you’re a mess darling-you have to see this!” The white unicorn said, pausing to take a breath.
“Rarity? What is it?” Blueblood said, gently taking hold of the mare’s foreleg to calm her down.
The unicorn, who Thunderlane now knew was named Rarity, pulled a newspaper from ornate saddlebag. “I didn’t know if you already knew but…” Her voice trailed off as if she couldn’t find the words, instead opting to point at a particular heading in the paper whilst she set it down on one of his workstations.
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Hammer Industries finalizes military contract with Princess Luna
Multi-billion bit corporation Hammer Industries has unveiled what promises to be the next stage in Equestrian security. Not only will the royal guard forces be bolstered by a series of automated defense robots dubbed ‘Eq-Droids’ but Steel Hammer, CEO of HI, has revealed his own personal project. A high-tech suit of armor that will empower each and every guard to super-pony levels. These new armored soldiers have been given the name ‘Titanium Ponies’.
Sergeant Bullhorn of the Royal Guard has been given the honor of showcasing the Titanium Pony armor’s capabilities to the princesses themselves during an exhibition held in the abandoned quarry north of Manehattan.
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The more Blueblood read, the angrier he became until he saw the picture at the bottom of the article. Then he was furious.
Out of curiosity, Thunderlane peeked over Rarity’s shoulder to see the picture himself and saw the ‘Titanium Pony’ that was mentioned in the article. And it wasn’t difficult to see why Blueblood was so upset.
The armor looked exactly like the Iron Pony repainted white and green.
“THEY STOLE MY TECH!!!”