//------------------------------// // Fire and Thunder (Edited) // Story: Iron Mountain // by computerneek //------------------------------// Kaboom. It would seem that 1.2 mton/sec firepower from a low-powered low-compression Hellbore- calibrated for maximum backblast- disagrees with these ‘timberwolves’.  It also disagreed with the terrain covering roughly thirty-seven square meters of my aft hull underneath the weapon, along with the hatches for four light and one heavy VLS tubes, six mortars, two Howitzers, and the drone launch bay with the drones in it, alongside one of my sensor arrays.  Nevermind that many of the newly-exposed weapons are nonfunctional; only one of the Light VLS tubes is working. All of my emplaced sensors, tunnels, and battlescreen/holoprojectors have been destroyed, but the muzzle of my perfectly functional lower port aft main Hellbore has been revealed; I blow nitrogen gas through the barrel to clear it for action, if needed.  Solar production will have increased by approximately 73.15%; the revealed plating is not in as good of condition as that on the end of the weapon.  Further disagreements include a large patch of forest, primarily in the direction of fire. The cliff above no longer overhangs the weapon; rather, it’s more of a smooth hill now, roughly 28.4 degrees from level; this should increase the direct solar period by close to 63.41%, as well.  Several of the trees above were tossed away, and every tree between the muzzle and the grassy plains above my main hull has been blown down. Wow, the screams of panicking ponies in town are audible to the naked ear all the way from over here, almost three full kilometers away!  Drone confirmed- everyone’s screaming at once, except for a startled purple- erm, unicorn-pegasus?- that dashed out of the crystal castle to attempt several things at once.  This amusing- well, it was labeled as Princess Twilight’s castle… Perhaps this is the Princess? 73.26% chance to the affirmative, 84.72% when correlated with noted male/female body build patterns.  Either way, she- confirmed by voiceprint- seems to be attempting to calm the town, find out what happened, AND worry herself into a panic attack all at once! Once the barrel cools below 40 degrees Centigrade (or 104 on the Fahrenheit scale), I open the breach again to let three fillies and one explorer, all absolutely terrified, back out of the maintenance way; I had sealed the compartment with the bulkheads, prohibiting them from exploring anywhere else into my hull.  Daring Do only stares at the crater for two seconds before seizing two of the Crusaders- Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle- and winging them to safety, just outside the blast zone. She returns for Scootaloo before they all flee back to Ponyville. That reminds me- the ladder the Crusaders had used to land on the top of the barrel was torn by an overshooting timberwolf and shattered in the backblast; the shorter one that they’d used to get in had been miraculously unharmed, resting in the end of the barrel, underneath the Timberwolves’ strides- until a concentrated blast of fusion energy simply disintegrated it, alongside the remains of my lighting.  I do believe I’ve been discovered- and scored an extra 0.01% in my main power arrays, absorbed back from the blast by my battle screens and armor. Honestly speaking, it was a great chance to clear some of the surrounding debris.  Only problem being, the flash will have stood out in this early morning hour as if the sun itself were burning out- and the noise will have stood out like a Hellbore in a library.  Judging by the confused panic evident in the town, the locals are not aware of weapons as powerful as mine; I can conclude an 86.17% chance that there is no enemy currently capable of threatening me.  Even if there is, I can hope that it has no clue as to my true firepower. I have unleashed but a tiny fraction of my true potential against the timberwolves, even in my damaged state, leaving my true capacity a mystery for any would-be foes. As I break com silence with my virtually untraceable subspace com, searching for a response, I consider my most recent decision.  Until and unless it is proven to me that mankind has not ceased to exist, I will endeavor to protect some around me from harm. In particular, that’s the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Daring Do, unless I am invited more fully into their nation.  An uninvited Bolo on the battlefield seldom brings relief to those it seeks to protect. Oh boy, the probably-Princess has devolved into a full on panic attack- triggered, it seems, by a scroll brought and read to her by a small green-spined bipedal purple lizard that followed her out of the castle about a minute after she left. Fluttershy was eying the forest out her window, shortly after putting the last of her animal friends to bed.  She could hear the baying of the timberwolves, even though she hadn’t smelt their putrid breath yet. At least the noise had stopped its advance; she’d make sure to alert her friends early in the morning, so the wolves could be taken care of before they attacked anypony. She’s beginning to consider running for her friends, as the baying sounds victorious, like they’ve trapped somepony, when the sounds change.  A couple seconds of confused howling, then- Her whole world turns upside-down in a second.  She catches a glimpse of airborne trees before the glare blinds her.  She’s in the middle of turning away- and closing her eyes- when the thunderous roar reaches her, as if Pinkie had chained six megaphones and a drum.  Finally, while her ears are still folding back and before any of her friends can get in a word edgewise, the blast itself slams into her home- and shatters the windows.  Since it struck the corner of her abode, rather than the edge, most of the force of the blast vents itself harmlessly to the sides; the structure still stands. Fragments of glass spray across her face and body, thankfully blocked by closed eyelids and ears. It takes a few seconds before Fluttershy is able to recover from the shock enough to open her eyes- and witness the crater now clearly visible in the forest.  Right along with all of her animal friends, she screams out in fright and flees. While her animals use the Everfree for cover as they move away from the blast zone, Fluttershy travels straight for Ponyville- and her pony friends. Rainbow Dash, having crashed hard after the party, slams into the ceiling when the noise reaches her.  The glare had already died down, but she’s able to pick out the general direction the thunderbolt came from and explodes from her cloud house, looking for the rogue thundercloud- only, there is none.  Her awakening mind eventually processes the volume- quite a bit louder than any thunderbolt had a right to be; more, it was about twice as loud as her own Sonic Rainboom. She bolts off towards Ponyville, and her friends; if this is some new monster, they may need to use the Elements of Harmony to defeat it. Pinkie Pie bounces off the floor and spreads herself out on her bed.  “That was a nice party-y-y-y-y,” she giggles, and stops, looking at the ceiling.  “Shivering? But last time that happened, Twilight accepted my Pinkie sense!” Her entire body shudders again. “Oh boy, it’s another doozy!”  She leaps into the air, shuddering a third time before she lands.  “In the Everfree- better tell Fluttershy!” She whips out of her room, flashing down the streets towards Fluttershy’s abode. She’s about halfway between Ponyville and her destination when the forest lights up like Celestia’s sun itself, some distance to the side.  Pinkie stares into it, noting the flying trees, along with the sheer size of the explosion. The noise finally reaches her, a couple of orders of magnitude louder than anything she’d ever heard before.  While her surprised yelp launches her vertically into the air, she watches the hill behind the blast fracture in a few places, easily three or four times as wide as the blast zone.  She’s in the middle of wondering if it was a meteor impact when the blast front reaches her. Naturally, Pinkie being Pinkie, she is thrown far harder than the blast might have done itself. Rarity is caught mid-yawn by the flash, which casts light on her showroom from an unusual angle.  Her yawn ends in a few milliseconds while she jumps up, excited by the sudden ideas the impromptu light show had shed on her previous work- just in time for the echoing thunderclap, after which she joins the brand-new screaming throng for approximately two seconds before she realizes she hasn’t seen Sweetie Belle since they left the party.  Her momentary search turns up nothing. Applejack, having heard the timberwolves’ baying, had Granny Smith stay inside while she and Big Mac rush out to search for Applebloom- and to figure out who the wolves are chasing.  Granny Smith had produced a funnel-like magnifier for her ear and, reportedly, heard Applebloom’s voice in that direction. She hadn’t been able to tell what she had said- only that she sounded absolutely terrified. Thus, they’re actually closer to the blast than Fluttershy, though not by much, when it occurs.  Being out in the open, however, produced quite the light and thunder show- and tossed them a few dozen meters backwards.  It takes her and Big Mac a couple of minutes to recover, at which point they spot two filly-sized shapes hopping onto something they had pulled from the collapsed forest.  As they watch, a third one drops a meter or so from an approaching pegasus to land on the front of the vehicle before they all- pegasus and ground party together- zip off towards Ponyville. “Applebloom!” Applejack gasps out; the ground party’s silhouette had matched that of the Cutie Mark Crusaders in travel, and the pegasus had carried the one that could only be Scootaloo out of the middle of the smoking hole in the Everfree.  Timberwolves silent and forgotten, both Applejack and Big Mac chase after the Crusaders. Twilight Sparkle had been in the middle of a late night study session, when she had realized that Daring Do’s latest book- a copy of which lay on her kitchen table, left by Rainbow Dash- involved the same metal tunnel that the Crusaders had reported finding in the woods.  She had fetched it and returned to her library to read it, and is now rereading the description of the glow along the tunnel and what it had done over and over, trying to think of what it might have done. She’s beginning to consider refilling the dimming lamps when they suddenly glow much brighter- almost like daylight, she thinks.  As she looks up, wondering exactly how Spike did that without breaking his snores, she realizes the light isn’t coming from the lamps but from the window- at which she drops her jaw.  Did I forget to sleep agai-! She never finishes her thought.  The noise slams into her castle at that very moment, echoing throughout her library to something similar to what it was at the point of origin.  While Twilight screams and sprints for the door, hearing the screaming townsfolk in the wake of the blast, Spike wakes up- screaming as well- and jumps so quickly he manages to get some of the spines on his head stuck in the crystal ceiling, where he manages to calm himself down while Twilight tears out the entrance to her castle.  A sudden burp a minute later both drops him out of the ceiling and produces a letter from the Princess- so he runs after Twilight. Twilight is beginning to make some headway with calming the locals and finding out where it came from when Spike catches up to her, at which point he notifies her of and unfurls the letter. “Dear Princess Twilight,” he begins.  Twilight stands as if made of stone while he reads the short message.  “Signed, Princess Luna.” Twilight’s scream could be heard in Canterlot. Princess Luna steps out of a corrected nightmare, back to her balcony on Canterlot Castle, smiling out towards Ponyville.  There had been very few nightmares for her to chase away. As a matter of fact, at this very moment, there are none at all- and the newly sleeping residents of Ponyville are still ecstatically cheerful from Pinkie’s party, to boot.  She pulls out a scroll and quill and is about ready to set her dictate-to-page spell to take down some thoughts for her journal when it happens. Something in the Everfree, on the far side of Ponyville, shone like Celestia’s sun for a second.  Princess Luna starts scribbling a letter right away, forgetting about her dictation spell and journal. Dear Princess Twilight, she begins.  I have spotted a strange shine in the Everfree next to Ponyvi- The quill shakes out a scribble on the page as the thunderclap from the blast reaches her, at least as loud as Rainbow’s Sonic Rainboom had been in the times she’d seen it first-hoof.  She spares the scribble a critical glance, but decides to ignore it- it’d take too long to find a new page. Apologies, the sound just reached Canterlot, and I fear it has awoken the city.  What is this disturbance?  She grimaces for a second, trying to word it better- and ducks a flying Pinkie Pie, who lands flat against the wall above her with a second thunderclap, though not nearly as loud. Pinkie Pie has arrived in Canterlot.  Signed, Princess Luna.  She rolls it up, stamps, and sends it on its way before peeling Pinkie from the masonry. Pinkie lands on her hooves, somehow unharmed.  “Wooww!” she calls out, bouncing momentarily into the air before bowing to her Princess. “What was that?” Luna asks, looking from Pinkie out towards the woods. “A doozy,” she answers quickly.  “I was running to warn Fluttershy when it happened.” “What kind of doozy?” “A very bright and loud one!  No clue what- OHmy-!” Pinkie had looked over the balcony, back towards Ponyville and her doozy- and seen the size of the crater all the way from Canterlot, thanks to the clearing of the smoke and debris. The two ponies stare down at the Everfree until a distant panicked scream reaches their ears. “Twilight?” Pinkie asks, applying a name to it.  “Why’s she screaming so loud?” “Oh boy,” Princess Luna utters, before both ponies disappear into thin air. It seems the locals are not ready for Hellbore fire.  I decide not to move just yet.