//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Call in The Fireman! // Story: Where's the Fire? // by Vin Diesels Go-Kart //------------------------------// "Alright listen up! The lamb and the false shepherd have been spotted at Fink Manufacturing." Captain Randolph shouted over the roar of the rockets. "Better get ready for a fight, because these two have been giving our boys hell today." he warned. Thomas checked his straps and gave his helmet a hard knock. He was ready for whatever came his way. As he stood on the floating dirigible, he looked out over the grand city of Columbia. He had only been in the city half a year, but the cloud dwelling utopia had made it's mark on him. He was happy to serve in Comstock's regime, and was more than willing to die for the Prophet. "Remember boys, Comstock wants Elizabeth alive, so make sure you watch your fire and take DeWitt down hard and fast." The captain turned to Thomas. "You got that Tom?" Thomas simply roared in response. "For the Prophet, for the Founders!" His helmet distorted his voice, making him sound a bit odd, but quite intimidating and for added affect, he pointed his hands upward and let off a column of flames. The rest of the group cheered along, guns raised in the air. "Alright then, let's go make Comstock proud and show gutter rats like Fitzroy why you don't mess with the regime!" Randolph declared. The airship landed on the loading docks of Jeremiah Fink's factory and the men quickly jumped off and secured the area. Some factory workers were shooed away as Thomas leaped from the ship and landed hard on the dock; leaving a scorch mark in the wood. "Okay boys lets get in there and fry this son-of-a-bitch." the Fireman commanded as he took charge of the group. The first few soldiers entered the factory and, once they announced an all clear, were quickly followed by the rest. They walked along a narrow corridor that opened up into a much larger part of the factory. The workers had been evacuated already, which was something that Thomas was relieved to see. He had listened to the radio when this all started and knew that enough civilian blood had been spilled already. "Hey look!" one of the men called out. He pointed to a women on the other side of the factory floor. The group easily identified this woman as Elizabeth. "There she is, grab her!" Thomas called out as he charged. He may have been big and bulky in his leather armor and padding, but he could run like hell on wheels. He was closing in on her fast and assumed she would cower and surrender within a few seconds, but he didn't anticipate the madness that would ensue. As he got within feet of the lamb, she opened up some sort of hole in front of the charging Fireman. He had no way to stop himself in time to avoid falling into whatever ungodly trap she had set for him. Thomas screamed as he began to fall from Columbia and into the bowls of the unknown, but the feeling of falling was quickly replaced with a hard bang as he hit something solid. All Thomas saw was blue sky before everything went black. * * * "What do ya think it is, Scootaloo?" "No idea, it looks like a giant furnace." "What's a furnace?" "It's something that you use to heat stuff up with." "You mean like an oven?" "Not exactly." Thomas couldn't open his eyes right away, but he could definitely feel quite a bit. He had a terrible headache, his back was killing him, and it felt like he might have sprained his right ankle, but he was alive in any case. The voices he heard sounded like children, so he must have landed in a residential part of Columbia. "Should we go tell somepony about it, Sweetie Belle?" "I don't know, what do you think Apple Bloom?" "Well I reckon Applejack's gonna wanna find out what this here uhh...furnace... is doin laying around." "So let's go to Sweet Apple Acres" Thomas had to stop himself from laughing. What kind of names were these children given? Surely they must be nicknames, as no sane parent would name their child Apple Bloom or Sweetie Belle. Suddenly something began to bother the Fireman. After spending six months in a floating city, he was used to the constant moving of the buildings and districts of Columbia, but now he didn't feel any such motion. It actually felt like he was on solid earth, but that couldn't be true, could it? "Hello? Who's there?" he asked in the hope of aid. "Can you get your parents? I need medical attention." The Fireman heard three distinct squeals as the startled children became aware that he was alive. "It can talk!?" "Furnaces can't talk, can they?" "None that I've ever seen." Thomas opened his eyes, which hurt at first as they adjusted to the light. Through his welder's mask he could see three horses staring back at him. This wouldn't normally be surprising to him, as he saw horses all the time, but these ones looked very strange indeed. One was even wearing a ribbon. "What in God's name...." he muttered as he tried to sit up. After training in his armor for so long, it's extra weight did little to hinder his movement, and sitting up was a fairly simple endeavor. As he did, the three fillies jumped backwards in surprise. "It can move!? Since when can furnaces move by themselves?" the white horse asked. "I'm still getting over the fact that it spoke." the orange one responded. "wh-what? By The Prophet, I must have hit my head harder than I thought." Thomas mused. "Who's The Prophet?" the yellow filly questioned. "Ghahhh!" Thomas hopped up on both feet when he realized the three horses were actually speaking; a decision he quickly regretted as a sharp pain shot through his ankle and he fell to one knee. "Jesus, that stings!" he yelled as he messaged the injury. The three horses stood by, but had backed away a few more feet. "What the hay are you mister?" the yellow one asked. Thomas looked up from his wounded ankle and studied the three creatures standing before him. He then looked beyond them and investigated the environment. The Fireman was kneeling on a dirt road with trees on either side. It didn't take long for him to figure out that he wasn't in Columbia anymore. "Where am I?" he asked, almost surprised that he was actually talking back to the ponies. "Hey, I asked you a question first!" the yellow one pointed out. Thomas tried to make sense of the situation. Did he die somehow? Perhaps this was just heaven and he was now resting in the beyond. However, he quickly dismissed this possibility as he looked at the three ponies still standing before him. Heaven consisting of talking equines; surely God wouldn't be so cruel. "Am I in America?" he asked half-heartedly. The Fireman had a feeling he wasn't. "Uhh....no. Your in Equestria Mr. Furnace." the yellow one answered. "My name's Apple Bloom. This here's Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo." she said, motioning to her friends. "What's your name?" "Thomas." he said, rubbing his ankle. Then it hit him like a ton of bricks. Elizabeth. The girl had opened up a portal that he fell right into. There had always been rumors circulating about what kind of powers she possessed, but intelligence was sketchy at best, and Comstock never gave the police or military a clear idea of what they'd be facing. "Guess she has the power to screw me over." he thought out loud. "Well Thomas, watcha doin here?" Apple Bloom asked. "Honestly I don't know. I was trapped here by someone I was trying to apprehend. Now I have no idea how to get back to where I came from." he admitted. As he thought about it, the situation got grim fast. Elizabeth probably didn't even know where she had sent him. She opened that portal in an act of surprised desperation. It was probably just a portal to any random place and he doubted she would ever try to look for him. He was truly on his own. "You could talk to Twilight. She has tons of books that might help." Scootaloo suggested excitedly. Thomas thought for a moment. This whole day had been crazy, but in the last few minutes it went to a whole new level. He wasn't in the land of men anymore and he didn't know if there was any way back, but going with these talking ponies was worth a shot if it meant getting back to Columbia; to the Prophet. Plus he didn't really have any other option. It probably wasn't wise to venture around this place by himself. "Alright. Take me to this 'Twilight'." the Fireman conceded. "Sure thing Mr. Thomas! We can just..." Scootaloo was quickly silenced by her two friends. The three huddled together, clearly trying to keep their discussion quiet. However, it wasn't difficult for Thomas to pick up on what they were saying. "Are you crazy Scootaloo? We have no idea what this thing is and you wanna just bring it into town?" Apple Bloom scolded in a whisper. "What's the big deal, it's just a furnace. I mean look at it." The group quickly glanced over at the now standing Fireman. Luckily for him his knee wasn't as badly injured as he thought. He could now put most of his weight on it with minimal pain. Scootaloo gulped as he looked their way. "Well, he does look a little scary now that I think about it." "You think?" Sweetie Belle asked sarcastically. Thomas felt like he was on the border of insanity. He knew exactly what had happened, but his mind was having a hard time wrapping itself around it all. He could understand this of course, but the resulting headache wasn't doing much for his already soar mood. The Fireman was about ready to just end this madness and off himself, but he wasn't the suicidal type. Besides, such actions were sins in the eyes of the lord, and he didn't come all this way just to wind up at Hell's flaming gates, though that did sound pretty cool. He sighed and stretched his upper body as much as he could within the confining armor. "Mr. Thomas?" The Fireman looked down to see Scootaloo tapping his shin guard. "Yes?" "Do you think it might be okay if...umm...well if you don't mind. You see, it's not that we don't trust you or anything it's just that.." she kept tripping over her words, but he understood. "I get it." he said flatly. "Tell me, am I the first human you've ever seen?" "You mean furnace?" Sweetie Belle corrected. The Fireman face-palmed and shook his head. "No, I mean human. That is what species I am. You see this?" he asked knocking on his metal helmet. "This is just armor." "Oh!" the three said in a moment of clarity. "So why not take the armor off, I mean it's kinda scary lookin." Apple Bloom admitted. "It's supposed to be scary, for intimidation value. Plus it's a burden to take on and off." Thomas spoke truthfully. He hated the time consuming task of suiting up, which he managed to get down to about ten to fifteen minutes by himself; five to eight if his fellow soldiers helped. "Okay then. Yeah we've never seen anything like you before." "Great." Thomas muttered. "Well I can wait here if you wan't to grab this Twilight character." None of the fillies got to respond due to a sudden roar emanating from the tree line. Thomas looked in that direction to see five creatures emerge from the brush. "Timberwolves!" Apple Bloom screamed. "Oh, how original." Scootaloo muttered, rolling her eyes. Another loud howl caused the ponies to cower behind Thomas as the wooden wolves identified their next potential meal. Without pause, the pack charged at the fillies and Fireman, bearing their fangs and howling ferociously. Thomas looked at the huddled ponies, then back to the charging creatures. He almost chuckled as one of his hands lit up and he formed a sizable fire grenade. The creatures were closing in fast, but the Fireman had more than enough time. He tossed the ball of flames in the wolves' path, but the snarling creatures paid it little mind. They already had their eyes set on their prey. The pyromaniac raised three fingers, which he began counting down with as the pack drew closer. When the last finger folded in, the ball of flames responded to the timberwolves as they entered its proximity. A large explosion enveloped the attacking pack as surprised yelps from the wolves were drowned out by the barrage of booms that followed. When the flames died down, nothing was left of the timberwolves but smoldering piles of ash. "Bwahahaha!" Thomas laughed gleefully. "A world inhabited by wooden animals? I might actually be in heaven after all." Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo rubbed their eyes as they tried to figure out what just happened. "Was that magic?" Sweetie Belle finally asked. Thomas looked at the three. "Yes, the magic of vigor!" he said proudly. As he said this, a louder roar was heard from beyond the trees. The Fireman charged himself up and his smoke stack whistled the melody of impending battle. The machinery and pipes that lined his body began glowing bright red as he heated himself up, and flames suddenly consumed his hands. "Is that more wooden creatures for me to expel?" he asked eagerly. "Uh...n-no." Sweetie Belle squealed as she put her head under her hooves. The other two ponies quickly followed suit. Thomas looked back at the forest with a look of confusion on his concealed face. He almost fell backward as a column of fire burst from the trees and into the sky. A large black creature flew out of the forest and into full view. "That'd be a dragon." Scootaloo pointed out before hiding in her hooves once more. The creature looked around a moment before setting its red eyes on Thomas and the three fillies. "Ah shit." the Fireman sighed as he charged up more salts. "This day just got a helluva lot worse."