//------------------------------// // 26: Demolition Man by Xzeron2000 // Story: Xenophilia: Shotglass Oneshots // by TheQuietMan //------------------------------// Demolition Man by Xzeron2000 ---------------------------- “Okay, class, today we’re going to be learning about multiplication tables, the Gemwing Wars, and...” Ms. Cherilee’s ritual speech that always started off with ‘Today, we’ll be learning...’ never interested Mach Dash. No, what interested this brash young foal would be happening later on in the afternoon.         Today was the big day.         He’d finally get out of school at around four, then sneak around to the back of the schoolhouse to meet his friends. They’d have what they needed, and he’d grin as they showed him the contraband. The group would then head out to Miss Fluttershy’s place, and do their work.         Their work? It was questionable, to say the least. One of Mach’s friends had an acquaintance that was a real explosives nut, and wanted to bring him and another mutual friend out for his first test bombing. They were doing it on Fluttershy’s property because there were several sheds that went unused which they could easily destroy with a small bomb, and because they were close enough to the Everfree to use the trees for cover.         None of this concerned Mach at all, even though it could, quite possibly, end his or one of his friends’ lives. All Mach could think about is how furious his moms would be, and how hilarious momma Twilight’s overreaction would be.         After all, how could anything go wrong?         But, then there was the wild card. Dad, for example, would be a wild card until the news was broken. Mach had confidence, though that Dad wouldn’t go completely ballistic, seeing as he’d always put on a calm face whenever Twilight’s mom visited.         Mach didn’t like it that his dad was so calm in the face of something that clearly distressed all his herd’s members to some degree. Sure, no one was physically hurt, but between seeing Twilight crying herself to sleep on the couch, Dad at her side and his birth mother taking her frustration out on some punching bags, Mach was pretty sure that his father’s inaction could only lead to problems.         In school, when Mach would discuss such things with his friends, they would look at him funny and tell him that, ‘Your dad’s just letting the mares do their job.’ When he tried to counter their argument, they’d just keep giving him funny looks until he gave up and changed the subject.         “Mach, what’s the answer to problem number five?” Cherilee’s voice broke through Mach’s daydream, his eyes snapping up to meet the teacher’s.         Quickly glancing at the board, he searched for problem number five.         Cherilee smiled at Mach as he tried to put together the answer. Even with the addition of symbols, Mach could tell that all the problem really called for was a few steps to simplify it into a simple nine times four.         “Having trouble?” Cherilee asked teasingly.         “What’s nine times four?” He countered, slightly annoyed.         “Thirty-six.” Cherilee replied, her eyes drilling into Mach’s.         “Then that’s the answer.”         Cherilee’s smile grew, and she wrote the answer on the board.         “That was record time, Mach. Nice work!” Cherilee said.         Mach heard quiet snickers from behind him, and grit his teeth in anger.         He’d show THEM who is boss someday. Just not today.         And so, the monotonous routine of class continued on until four fifteen in the afternoon. Mach had spaced out for at least half of that time, going mostly unnoticed by Cherilee. When lunch came, he and his friends found a secluded corner and rehashed the plans for later in the day before playing an impromptu game of hoofball with some of the other schoolfoals. Needless to say, Mach’s team won.         When Cherilee dismissed the rest of the class, she motioned for Mach to come up to her desk before he could leave.         Grumbling, Mach complied.         “Mach, you need to pay more attention in class. Your grades are going to start going down if you keep doing what you’re doing, and I’m concerned.”         Mach simply nodded in response.         “I’ll try to do my part, but it’s your choice in the end,” Cherilee sighed, and shuffled a stack of papers into a more organized pile on the corner of her desk. “You can go, Mach.”         Mach dashed out the schoolhouse door.         Cherilee groaned, and massaged her temples.         “That colt, I swear...”         “Hey, guys. Sorry I wasn’t here earlier, Ms. Cherilee needed to talk to me.” Mach rolled his eyes. “You need to pay more attention in class, Mach,” he said in a failed approximation of Cherilee’s voice.         His friends rolled their eyes in return.         “C’mon, Mach. Y’know you don’t have to listen to her, right? She’s just the teacher.” An earth pony colt with a grey coat, and a lime green mane spoke. “Yeah yeah, I know, Spinny.” Mach said. Mach turned to the other earth pony colt of the group, whose flaming two-tone red-with-orange-highlights mane shone brightly, even in the shade. “So, Flame, when’s that ‘friend’ of yours coming?” Mach asked the colt. “I dunno, she said she’d be here around fifteen minutes after school,” replied the colt nonchalantly. “Dude, did you say ‘she’?” Spinny smiled predatorily, a sudden interest in the fourth party making itself known. This behavior was odd for a colt, but Mach’s human influence had rubbed off on his friends. “Yeah.” The whole group froze, and Spinny’s grin faded quickly. Everyone but Flame’s eyes were bugged out. Spinny looked like he was about to jump out of his skin, and Mach was gearing up for a fight not long after. From around the corner of the schoolhouse, a white streak shot out, and over the heads of the group. Mach jumped when he felt a tickle on the back of his neck. “Nice wings. Can I call you that? Wings?” The voice said approvingly. A soft padding followed as the unnamed pony touched down behind Mach. Mach noticed an interesting clicking sound made when the newcomer spoke the word ‘can’. He shivered as he felt something run down his wings, which were held tightly to his body. Nodding vigorously, Mach attempted to become a living statue when he he felt the object leave its place on his wings. “Fera, I thought I told you not to scare em’.” Flame said, rolling his eyes when the newly named Fera chuckled from behind Mach. “She’s a gryphon? AWESOME!” Spinny emptied his lungs on the word ‘awesome’, which caused the rest of the group to cringe as his voice cracked.         “See, they took it better than you thought they would. I told you, Flame,” Fera sauntered over to the blood red earth pony, and put a foreleg around his shoulder.         Flame nodded, and brought a hoof to his chin, rubbing it conspiratorially.         “So, you got the bomb?” Flame asked Fera.         “Yep. You got balls?” Fera countered, taking her foreleg off Flame’s shoulder.         The rest of the group gave her a blank look, except for Flame, who narrowed his eyes and stuck his tongue out in response.         With Fera at their side, the group set out.         Mach took an immediate liking to Fera. She was playful, daring, not to mention skilled. When it came to explosives, he was sure that the gryphon could talk forever on the subject, considering that’s most of what she did on the trip over.         Exploring the scrub around Fluttershy’s cabin, they found a nice, secluded toolshed to blow up. Removing any debris, Fera set to work on putting the bomb together, while the colts dug earthen berms to provide further cover. After finishing, the group took stock of their work.         It had taken around an hour and a half to build barely adequate berms, and a little more than that to find a place for the tools. When Fera was finished inserting the fuse, they gathered around the front of the shed.         “One of us is going to have to light this. I would love to do it myself, but I can’t put on enough speed just running or flying, or both. There’s a twenty second fuse on this, which was shorter than I wanted since it’ll take us a while to get to the Everfree, but it’ll work if the rest of us are already there,” She stretched out her forelimbs.         “I’ll do it.” Mach said quickly. He was one of the fastest pegasi at summer flight camp, after all. Only Cosmic Flare could beat him, and beating Cosmo was a dream he would never hope to fulfill.         “Alright. All of you, go take cover. I’ll be out in a bit, gotta teach this newbie how to light a fuse.” Fera shooed the others off.         It was relatively simple to light the fuse; there was no complicated timer for the device. During her explanation, Fera got a little too close to Mach for his comfort, but he never complained.         Once it was ready, Fera headed off into the forest.         When she gave the all-clear, he prepared to light the fuse.         Tension hung in the air as he waited for the signal, and when Fera gave a high-pitched trill, he struck the match, lit the fuse, and turned tail.         With a short leap, Mach was in the air.         Only to see something he hadn’t expected. Or, rather, someone.         His father.         Walking towards the shed.         Calling his name.         Mach didn’t waste time, and dove for his father. He was outside the danger area right now, but if Mach didn’t get to him, things would be ugly.         Zooming in at an incredible speed, Mach tackled his father, and sent both of them sprawling.         “Mach, why-” His father was interrupted by the sudden explosion, and splattering of dirt.         Picking himself up, Mach went over to his father.         “Are you OK?” Mach questioned, panting.         “Woah, Mach! What was that? Did you...” Lero trailed off.         “Wings! Wings, where are you? Wings!” Fera’s voice pierced the momentary silence.         Standing up, his father brushed himself off.         “I’m here, Fera! Over here!” Mach yelled in reply.         Fera came through the bushes and tall grass, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw Mach there, unharmed.         “What the heck? Who’s this?” Fera did a doubletake at the sight of Lero.         “I’m his dad. So, was there anypony else that I should know about?” Lero turned to Mach, scowling at the recalcitrant pegasus.         “Uh, yeah, um, two other friends came with me.” Mach said, shrinking back.         Just then, the two aforementioned friends came through the scrub.         “That. Was. AWESOME!” Spinny put all his effort into ‘awesome’, which, once again, caused everyone to cringe.         When Spinny’s eyes met Lero’s, the young earth pony’s smile fell right off his face.         “That was awesome, but you didn’t have to overdo it, Spinny.” Flame said, nonchalantly walking up to Mach’s dad.         “Well, whaddaya know? Daddy’s in the house. Just to let you know, Mach, you screwed us all.” Flame’s sudden acidic tone made Mach boil with anger.         “Flame, if he was your dad, what would you’ve done? Huh? I bet you would’ve saved him, too!” Mach countered, eyes burning.         “Mach, c’mon. Fluttershy’s probably worried sick about me after that, and an argument is an unneeded waste of energy.” Lero said, his voice surprisingly level for the situation.         As they walked off, Mach could almost hear steam coming out of Flame’s ears.         “We aren’t friends anymore, Mach!” Flame yelled.         This tweaked something in Mach that had only come once before: when Twilight spent the night crying herself to sleep because of Lero’s inaction. But, it morphed before it could become a hellfire-fueled rage into tears. As they continued walking, Mach cried silently.         Lero’s attention, however was on a single tree among the few in the scrub. Deciding that this would be a good place to rest and talk with Mach, the two made for it.         As they got closer, Lero noticed something strange about the tree. Imbedded in the bark, were nails.         Lots of nails.         Lero’s life flashed before his eyes in a matter of milliseconds.         His son saved him. Had Mach not tackled him when he did, Lero would be swiss cheese.         This realization had been glossed over by Mach, who plonked down underneath the tree, and began sobbing in earnest.         Today, he’d lost one of his only friends to something stupid. Sure, he regretted it, but he couldn’t do anything about it. Thus, tears.         Lero, suddenly out of breath at the realization that he had come close to death, sat down next to Mach. When he heard small sniffling sounds, Lero’s attention turned to his son. Placing a lone hand on Mach’s shoulder, the two took a few minutes of silence to collect themselves. The first to break the silence, was, surprisingly, Mach.         “He was one of my best friends, and, and I lost him ‘cause of something stupid. Why did I have to be so stupid?” Mach looked to his hooves.         Lero was pulled out of his reverie by this sudden break in the silence. Turning to his son, he made to kneel in front of Mach. Reaching under the colt’s chin, he pulled Mach’s eyes to meet his.         “I b-bet you’re m-mad at me,” Mach sobbed once again, and attempted to look away from Lero, to which the colt’s father responded by gently coaxing his son’s muzzle back towards him.         “Son, you saved my life. I’m not mad. Now, you and your mom are the only two ponies who can claim to have saved my life.”         Mach just gave Lero a blank look, before realization dawned on his face, only to be replaced by confusion.         “You were outside the danger zone, how...” Mach trailed off when his father pointed towards the nails that his son had failed to notice earlier.         “Oh.” Was all Mach could say before he rushed at Lero, hugging him tight. Lero, in turn, swept his son into an all-encompassing hug that gave Mach a sense of security that he hadn’t felt since his early years, when his mother would cradle him.         Mach continued to weep in earnest.         The two sat there, Mach in Lero’s arms, Lero attempting to hold back tears of his own. Time seemed to pass at a snail’s pace, but the father and son eventually calmed down. By the time all was said and done, they were comfortably embracing each other.         “Someday, you’re going to be a father, Mach, and you might have to be saved by your own foals. Then, and only then, will you know what this means to me. That’s why I’m not mad.” Lero said softly, scratching behind his son’s ears.         “But that doesn’t mean I’m not concerned. Making bad choices like this, and having friends that are willing to let you make them?” Lero sighed, and ruffled Mach’s mane.         “Anyways, it’s close to dinner time, and we should get going. So, speaking of dinner, how about you help me make it?” Lero smiled warmly at his son, and pushed himself off the ground.         “That my punishment?” Mach asked sullenly.         “Yep. C’mon, Mach.” Lero made to leave, Mach in tow.                  A fitting end to a rough day, indeed.