Another week had gone by. Not much was accomplished, but it wasn’t like taking over Equestria was on the agenda. But it was as if Cole really didn’t care if he studied, but he did look at the books every now and then. All the conduit really needed was a fifty percent score. An added bonus was that some of the stuff was pretty damn easy to remember. Like the legal drinking age, the legal age to have intercourse, things like that. And some of the laws or rules were really no-brainers, like don’t harm others. Some of the stuff though, like harems- he did not want to get involved in. Oh hell no. Those were skipped and crossed-out.
It also helped that he had taken the test before, so he knew what to look out for.
But the days were getting monotonous. There was very little to do, and he couldn’t get a proper job until he got a visa or citizenship (it turned out that he could get part time jobs, but they paid absolute shit). So ultimately, his days were spent surveying the town and areas around it, studying, and avoiding the ponies in his life as much as he could. Some of them seemed to stick to him like glue. Lyra’s partner, Bonbon and him got into a bit of a catfight too, so things were shaken a little.
Honestly though, ever since that power exhibition that Twilight Sparkle set-up just around a week ago, things took a very unexpected turn.
- - - - Ponyville Pavillion, inside City Hall, six days ago...
“Why are we doing this here?” Cole asked, both eyes a bit to look around. The place looked spacious at least, and kinda pretty. “I don’t want to hurt anyone, you know.” In the back of his mind, he knew how redundant saying that was. But he almost never used his powers indoors- unless you count sewers. He could heal anybody if they got injured, after all.
“Because a lot of the ponies are curious about your powers, Cole. The word about you has spread all over Equestria.” Twilight Sparkle smiled at him. “Also, this is the largest space around here that’s indoors. It should help contain the display of your powers, so you won’t affect the weather outside. Don’t worry though, once you’re ready I’ll set a forcefield up around the viewing area. Anypony outside of it shouldn’t get hurt, unless you’re that powerful. Are you sure you have enough... um, energy, electricity... for this?” She asked.
Knowing that he ‘borrowed some energy’ from Canterlot’s power station, Cole spoke. “Yeah, oh yeah, I do.” He nodded. Looking around for a second, he spotted the ponies that filled the pavillion’s perimeter. Was he to take the center? “So, do you uh... announce me, or should I?” Cole asked as he stepped up to the center. Made him wished he had gotten his clothes washed.
“You can announce yourself, Cole.” Twilight said with a smile, walking out of the viewing area. Ponies from Canterlot, Appleoosa, Baltimare, Fillydelphia and many other places were coming through the doors to see the conduit’s display of power too.
Twilight’s horn glowed purple, before she placed the forcefield around the area. It was a perfect dome.
With a sigh, Cole said, “Alright...” He tried to get the crowd’s attention, and he was failing. The ponies kept talking, some pointing and making faces at his expense. “ALRIGHT!” He yelled, silencing the crowd with both arms snapped out to send an alpha blast around himself. The ponies quickly snapped into attention, looking at the alpha blast which made the magic shield shake. He cleared his throat to help himself speak clearly. “Now... you’re all about to see what I’m capable of. But,” he stopped there, swallowing his saliva to clear his throat. ”Don’t make me get serious with-” Even the Princesses themselves had come to see this, their eyes wide at his first ‘display’ (it was more of a necessary attention-grabbing thing). “My true power. Now, I wouldn’t do this if it weren’t for Twilight’s shield thing.” He spoke as targets of metal were set up by guards, who came in by teleporting. Cole wasn’t surprised; Kessler could teleport, after all.
“Forcefield.” Twilight corrected from behind the barrier.
“Whatever,” Cole rolled his eyes. “Now listen! Name’s Cole Macgrath. I am serious when I say that these powers are not something your uh...” He tried to find the plural. “... Pegasuses?... No, pegasi, can do. Twilight... I’m ready.” He said with slight boredom. On the inside though, this was the highlight of his day, since he was bored out of his mind.
“Alright.” Twilight replied, before she lit her horn up a bit more, which in turn increased the resistance of the forcefield. “Good luck!” She called to him.
“‘Don’t need it...” Cole muttered under his breath, before he extended his arm. “These powers are bolts.” He raised his voice to announce to the crowd, who watched intently. Especially the Princesses. Macgrath had to push back the thought that he felt like a clown in a circus.
The conduit squinted at the targets, before he sent two alpha bolts at the targets. They lit-up with blue electricity, making the crowd gasp. “Seriously, this impresses you all?” Cole sighed, shooting off a pincer bolt. The trio of bolts connected to one target, making the target get singed. Black adorned the metal where the lighting struck, giving off a small trail of smoke.
Then, Cole began to walk to the edge of the shield. He aimed, and fired two artillery bolts. Since they were longer-ranged, he had to demonstrate their full capability. The targets were holding up surprisingly well. Perhaps they were enchanted? Then, he fired off a true lightning bolt- what he liked to call the ‘magnum bolt’. The crowd let out another gasp at the light show, along with the loud explosion of thunder as it lit up the room. The target he shot was pretty much on the edge of being wrecked now.
In the crowd, a particular fashionista mare looked over to one of her friends, Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow Dash, is it even possible to control lighting like that?” Rarity whispered over to her friend curiously, obviously being in awe at the display.
“No way! This isn’t like lightning at all. Cole has the power to shoot off...” Rainbow stopped, squinting to look at her friends as she thought for a moment. “Much more uh, concentrated bolts. And he has more powerful versions? Geez...”
Cole cracked his knuckles, and prepared for one of his favorite types of bolts. The bolt stream. He raised his right arm and extended his palm. Out of his hand came a literal stream of strong, electrical bolts. In turn, the target he hit pretty much exploded after two seconds of being hammered relentlessly by around twenty thousand volts every few milliseconds. The conduit smirked as he saw the main part of the target was still intact. “Alright. Time for the good ‘ol ‘nades...” Cole chuckled to himself.
“But before that, let me show you all another one of my powers. Well, a few of them. These powers are uh... what’s the word, well, some of them are ice powers. Like this one,” He then demonstrated the most convenient of the bunch- the ice launch. He was propelled off the ground by a pillar of ice. He held his arms out, and his static thrusters activated. He managed to glide in a full circle around the viewing area before he had to roll and land. The crowd was obviously in awe at this. Afterwards, Cole lifted up his arms, and picked up the part of the target that fell off with his kinetic pulse. After that, he put it down. “Ey, Twilight?”
“Yes, Cole?” Twilight called from the other side.
“Can you uh... well, unicorns use that ‘magic’ stuff right?”
“Yes, of course they do!”
“Well can they fire anything from their horns?”
“What do you... mean? But, yes, they can. Magical blasts to be precise.”
“I want you to fire a magic blast at me.” After Cole said this, the crowd gasped. “It’s another demonstration of a power...”
So Twilight got the courage, and she looked to Celestia. After the Princess nodded, she temporarily deactivated the forcefield and walked towards Cole. “Are you sure about this...?” She asked nervously.
“Yeah, yeah, go for it.” Cole beat his chest twice, and left himself wide open.
“Well, if you insist...” Twilight’s horn lit up, and she did as he told her to. The crowd watched in awe as the magical blast was literally absorbed by a shield of frost, held together by electricity.
“This only uses one hand. I can use my other hand for other things.” Cole explained, demonstrating this by holding up his hand. The familiar blue sparks jolted around his hand.
“A shield? Interesting...” Celestia commented, squinting at the conduit.
“Alright, go back and put up the field again so I can get on with this, please?” Cole asked. Twilight nodded, and she walked back out to the viewing area. When she did this, she put-up the forcefield once more. “Okay, grenade time.” Cole vaulted his arm back, and suddenly threw a ball of explosive kinetic energy--an alpha grenade--towards a different target. The grenade exploded, causing the target to get viciously electrocuted.
He vaulted his arm back again, and threw another grenade. It looked the exact same, but when it hit the target, it stuck onto it. A sticky grenade. It exploded, and the target did too, due to the fact that he just hit it with an alpha.
Now, it was time for the only cryokinetic grenade in Cole’s arsenal. He whipped his arm back, and threw a ball of explosive ice, bound by kinetic energy. It hit the target, blew up and froze it like liquid nitrogen. The crowd’s jaws dropped at this. Even more so when Cole rushed up to the target, and swung the Amp that was on his back. The weapon crackled with blue electricity as it cracked down on the metal, crushing it into a thousand pieces.
And then, he threw his final grenade. It exploded above the target, and rained down in a bunch of smaller, sticky grenades. It blew up on two targets, but didn’t destroy them.
“Rocketman...” Cole spoke under his breath, before he said to the crowd, “These are missile powers.” The crowd looked a bit confused, but when he fired off the alpha rocket, it snapped their confusion in half. With a loud explosion.
“Now things are getting interesting...” Rainbow Dash said, smirking eagerly.
Meanwhile, Fluttershy was cowering behind the athletic pegasus, fearing for her life. It seemed that she didn’t really notice, or care about for that matter, the forcefield which shielded the crowd from injury.
As Cole whipped his arm back, he aimed at the ceiling. He fired a spiraling, out-of-control rocket. The crowd paid attention to this, but he fired a basic alpha bolt, and it redirected the rocket, which slammed down on the target of metal.
And then, he fired off another missile. Which split into three smaller ones, and stuck onto the same target. It then exploded, both the missile and the metal circle.
Immediately after, Cole shot off a speeding ice bullet, which was large. It smashed into two targets, freezing them instantly.
Cole sighed. “Now, time for blasts... ‘ey Pie, ‘bet you’re familiar with this one,” he then proceeded to send a blast out. It picked up and tossed three targets, making them float around. The crowd went ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ at the sight of the graviton blast’s effects. The targets then fell back down.
“Hehehe! I do remember that, Cole!” Pinkie Pie giggled happily. She was really enjoying the show.
“What do you mean, what happened?” Twilight asked her, almost concerned, but overall she was interested.
“I scared Cole and then he hit me with a super-cool gravity-defying blast just like that one! And I was flying and everything!” Pinkie replied.
Twilight facehoofed, as Cole performed the most basic of blasts- the alpha. It sent the targets across the floor, hitting the forcefield.
Then, Cole fired a highly-unstable ball of electrical energy. It swirled around, and latched onto a target. It then exploded, as it was a detonation blast.
Finally, Cole performed the last of his blasts. It was a cryokinetic blast- a shatter blast. He sent out a wave of sharp icicles, and then blasted them towards the target. The icicles pierced through the metal like butter, and got stuck in it.
Now, Cole had some ionic charges with him. But he didn’t use them, because he needed those charges- he didn’t want to waste them. “Alright, that’s that...” Cole said, lowering his hand. He was drained, and he looked wiped out too. He bent himself over. Using so much power at once almost made him feel sick.
Twilight put down the forcefield, and the ponies started talking amongst each other again. Cole could hear a lot of mixed emotions being thrown about, everything rebounding to him.
“They know I can hear them, right? I got enhanced...” Cole stopped a moment.
“What is it Cole?” Twilight cocked her head at the conduit.
“Uh...” He turned to look at a particular night-sky blue alicorn.
‘Guess I can listen to some music,’ The night princess thought in her mind. Her head began to bob back and forth. ‘Oh I love a rainy night!’
“Nevermind. Anyway, I... I need to drain something...” Cole’s vision began to get rather blurry, but he started for the door. Pushing his way through the crowd as he saw in doubles, he heard voices calling his name, but ignored them.
Suddenly, Twilight got in his way. “Cole! I just got an idea!”
“Yeah yeah good for you...” Cole said groggily.
“No, good for you! Since you need electricity to use your powers, why not drain a storm?” She smiled at him, but when she saw the look of confusion on his face, Twilight sighed. “The pegasi scheduled a storm this afternoon. A huge one, to compensate for the lack of weather before! It might even be a hurricane.”
“Storm?” Cole perked-up. He remembered when he had to get the Blast Core from the Vermaak- known as the Ice Gang. A major storm was going on- Cole had unlimited electricity from it. He was a walking powerhouse, even more so than he already was. He was quite literally unstoppable.
“Yes! So, what do you say?”
Cole smirked.
- - - - Three Hours Later...
The winds picked up gently. But the coming clouds of cumulonimbus to the East made the gesture that things wouldn’t be so gentle soon. Cole, on the other hand, wasn’t worried at all. “Are you sure you want to be out here? I mean, we’re going to be boarding up the doors to our homes... and windows,” Twilight advised, sitting next to the man.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine... ‘things get too hot I’ll just go into the Everfree.” Cole replied with a small sigh, eagerly looking out to the cloud-covered skies which were approaching.
“The Everfree Forest?! You do know what’s in there, right?” Twilight exclaimed in a partial demand.
Cole rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I do.” He remembered the manticore he dealt with when he first got here. Come to think of it, it wasn’t that long ago. A few weeks wasn’t really that much. “Uh... I kinda had a run-in with a manticore when I first got here. I had it under control though.”
“I see... Well if this is what you want, I need to get going.” She said, before her horn lit-up. “Be safe, Cole.” Twilight then disappeared in a flash of purple light.
The Prime Conduit closed his eyes, and merely waited. Minutes passed, and all that happened was Cole laying down on the grass. Finally, he began to feel something. The wind started to pick up, sending a small shiver down his spine from the windchill. Opening his eyes and looking back, Electric-Man saw Ponyville. It was boarded up, and nobody was to be found in the town. It was creepy, how silent it was.
But then, a flash of light and a crack of thunder snapped Cole out of it. Immediately, he began to get drenched, as a literal wall of rain poured down onto him. Quicker than the human eye was able to see it, Cole jumped up, and started to run in the opposite direction in which the storm was coming. Why was he doing this? Because rain isn’t pure water. And as he knew he couldn’t get wet, unless he had a death wish or was a masochist, so he booked it away from the storm. It was right on his tail, the Everfree was the other way. He was running like crazy, like Pinkie Pie was chasing him after he broke a Pinkie Promise. Whatever that was, because he heard it being tossed around through the weeks.
Apparently though, luck was on his side. For like a second. Up ahead, there was a farm, with a barn. It looked not to be occupied at the moment, so Cole huffed and puffed his way over to the fence, and bounded over it. Landing with a roll into a grove of apple trees, they would pose as temporary cover, if the storm got the better of him. So he continued to run through the orchard, not stopping for anything or anybody. He eventually got to the barn, but forgot what he was supposed to do; drain the storm. “Dammit... well better do it later...” He sighed, and lifted the large two-by-four which was holding the doors back from opening.
But his troubles didn’t stop there. There was a padlock on the door. With a loud groan, Cole reached for the Amp on his back, but then the rain hit him. Luckily enough, most of it didn’t hit him due to how close he was to the structure. He swung the Amp, and it broke the chain holding the padlock. ‘Hope whoever lives here doesn’t charge me for vandalism...’ He thought idly to himself, before he opened the barn doors.
And just as he did, he heard a voice. “Macgrath!” The voice was familiar- strong Southern accent. Feminine too.
‘Fuck, not her...’ Cole thought to himself, hanging his head for a second, before he turned in the direction of the voice. Sure enough, there Applejack was, poking her head out of what appeared to be an outdoor cellar.
“What’re ‘ya doin’ there!? Are y’all crazy!? Git over here Cole!” Applejack ordered.
Seeing as the cellar had a better chance of standing against the storm than the barn did, Cole listened to her, and booked it for the cellar. “Get down, get down!” He yelled, and Applejack complied as he dove into the cellar. He didn’t get hurt too bad, neither by the rain or by jumping down a flight of stone stairs. He’d likely be sore for a little while, though.
The cellar doors were shut, and Cole got to his feet. He looked around, and it was a cider cellar, complete with the residents of the farm, including a familiar trio of fillies. There was an older mare, with a white mane and tail along with a light green coat. Sitting across from her was a large, red stallion with a blonde-ish mane and tail. “Well who’s that ‘ya brought in there, Applejack?” The elderly mare asked, getting to her hooves and walking over to Cole.
“Uh... Granny Smith, this’s Cole Macgrath.” Applejack introduced the man to the mare, tapping him on the back. “He was awful close to bein’ stuck out in that storm.”
“Thanks, I guess...” The conduit felt rather awkward, given what happened earlier between him Granny Smith’s granddaughter. But he eventually sat down. Was her family as racist as the cowgirl- cowpony?
Everything was quiet, save for the beating of the rain on the cellar doors, and the talking of the fillies in the corner. Somehow, they didn’t take notice of the conduit yet. He was about to drift off, sitting up against a cider barrel.
“Say mistah Cole...”
“Hm?” Cole picked up his head. Was the old one speaking to him?
“Word has gone ‘round that yer’ gettin’ a job, ‘sthat right?” Granny Smith asked him curiously.
“Yes?” He replied. Was this small talk? Oh, she better not be offering him a job in this racist farm.
Granny Smith moved closer to him and lowered her voice. “And yer single?”
“Uh...” Cole raised both eyebrows. Wait, wait, no. Please, God, no!
“Whatcha think bout Applejack? Ain’t she a gem?”
“G-Granny, not now please.” Applejack managed to overhear the conversation, and sit between the two of them. Wait. Was she blushing?
“Well alright then...” She then went to go talk to Big Mac, the brother of Applejack.
“Sorry ‘bout her...” AJ whispered embarrassedly. Had she forgotten that they had bad blood between one another?
“No... no it’s alright.” Cole chuckled a little bit.
“Hey Applebloom? What if your sister did marry Cole? You’d get a human superhero as an uncle!” Sweetie Belle said.
“That would be AWESOME!” Scootaloo exclaimed in reply.
“Cole and mah ‘sis?” Applebloom turned to look at her sister. “Well, they do look cute together...”
‘Damn, damn you to hell, Crusaders.’
“Nopony’s marryin’ anypony now...” Big Mac said to them with a teasing grin. “AJ has to propose first...”
“Awww...” They all groaned in unison.
‘I thought you were cool, Big Mac. I swear to God, when I get back home I am going to take all the Big Macs I can eat and... Wait, this sounds like a plot to some fucked-up gay porno...’
“Sorry ‘bout this...” AJ mumbled under her breath.
“Huh?”
“Them talkin’ about me marryin’ y-”
Thunder and lightning struck outside, startling them all. Even Cole, but that was because he was suddenly embraced by a very shivering Applejack.
Things went silent again for a little bit, between the conduit and Applejack at least.
“Look at ‘em! Already huggin’ in front’a the family...” Big Mac teased, making the rest of them chuckle, save for Cole and the mare in ‘question’.
“Shameless, that’s what they is!” Granny added with a smile.
The crusaders were hugging each other out of fear, from the thunder of course.
“Look, I’m really not feeling all that good right now. I need to go drain the storm...” Cole managed to shove Applejack off of himself, gently of course.
“Drain the storm? ‘The hay are ‘ya talkin’ about?” Applejack asked.
“If you leave the doors open, you’ll see the light show.” Macgrath replied, opening the doors to the cellar and stepping outside. Immediately, he began to feel the pain from the water hitting his skin and electrifying him, but quickly he walked out. Cole started to drain the storm from the heavens above, a huge bolt of lightning hitting the conduit. One billion volts of pure electrical energy, all flowing into him. He did it once, twice, thrice, and a few more times. Now, he was ‘fully’ charged. Technically Cole had a limitless pool so long as he had a source, but storms took the cake for making him the true Electric-Man.
AJ started to look at the human just as he was walking to the cellar doors. Was he crazy? He was just running away from the storm! She stopped herself at the entrance of the cellar. The wind and rain made her hat and mane shake against her frame, forcing her to hang onto her hat. Her large eyes caught the image of one of the only beings in Equestria that could literally heresy against lighting, and say ‘Buck off, mother nature!’. Her mouth fell open a bit. “By Celestia’s mane...”
Though in the skies above, a black-robed pegasus was watching the light show from a cloud.
A camera was in the anonymous pony’s hooves. The pony seemed to be focusing on the farm specifically.
Click. Click. Click.
BONUS!!!
Back during the power display, Cole decided to show off one of his powers.
“Now behold as I reveal my hard giant-”
“Gasp!” The audience released as Cole had each of his hands lowered to his crotch area.
“-Ice pillar.” Cole brought his arms up, creating the ice structure.
“Oh thank Celestia, I thought he meant penis,” Twilight said.
“Darn. I thought he was gonna say penis!” Lyra added.
The Stupid Bonus. Seriously, prepare for either hilarity or stupidity...
“My first power...” Cole took a second to think. It would be better to use something that was not elemental or scary. Something that could help him win the crowd over. A lot of them were mares, after all. He didn’t think they would like his aggressive, manly powers. “I can bring the dead to life. With the spark of my power, I can also heal what was once dead!”
“You can?!” Twilight opened her mouth in shock, hearing him saying that he could bring the dead back. “But how?”
“Behold, something dead!” Cole moved his hands to pull down his pants.
“Sweet Celestia Mr. Macgrath! What are you doing?!” Twilight immediately moved her hooves to cover her eyes, blushing. But she still peeked at his organ. His schlong hung there in a limp. A lot of gasps were heard as mares begun to look away. A lot of the stallions started to laugh though, pointing at his member.
“Laugh while you can!” Cole grinned. He shut both eyes, channeling his electrical powers into his member. Unlike the rest of his skin, his cock turned blue and began to ‘come back to life’. Blue lightning sparks started to emit from his member as it grew longer and thicker. “Imagine the real thing with the power of a motorized dildo...” Cole smirked, waving his eyebrows suggestively.
“A hundred bits to buy Cole!” Applejack shouted out.
“He’s mine! Back off!” Lyra shouted as she jumped in front of Cole.
“Dammit Lyra...” Cole quickly frowned as mares started to converge on him.