//------------------------------// // 181. The Bronco Busters! - Part 2 // Story: Blaze the Pony Tale // by Wolven5 //------------------------------// Midnight groaned as he began to find his way out of the fog of unconsciousness. He was lying down on a flat concrete surface and the air around felt cold and windy, indicating he was no longer surrounded by closed walls. Slowly, he pulled himself to his hooves and opened his eyes to take in his surroundings. Where before he had been within the walls of Pepper Pony’s pizza parlor, he now stood high upon a skyscraper, the likes of which would fit well within Manehatten. The sky was dark and filled with murky clouds, casting dark shadows over the streets below, with the flickering streetlights and the bathing glow of the moon being the only sources of light. He could see other tall buildings all stacked next to each other for quite a while, with the only break being the roads below and a distant river under a bridge with the distant horizon lost in the darkness. He could hear ponies below despite the late seeming hour, and carts riding back and forth along the streets. He was clearly no longer in Ponyville anymore. He noticed that his vision wasn't fully clear, and something sat over the top of his head. He reached up to see what he was wearing when he discovered that his hoof was no longer bare, but instead was covered by some sort of black spandex while his hoof had on a gray-blue bands on his fetlocks. The spandex suit covered over all his legs and his body, traveling up his neck until it reached his jaw line. He felt some weight on his back and discovered that his wings were sticking out through holes of a gray-blue cape, matching the color of a gloomy cloudy overcast during the day while the underside was a rich lapis lazuli, that twinkled like the night sky. The cape seemed to connect with whatever was on his head, so Midnight turned towards one of the closer buildings nearby to see himself reflected in one of the windows. A cowl covered his head and eyes, hiding his features and seemed to intimidate. He gazed over the whole costume and noticed around his barrel was a yellow belt that seemed to carry several pouches that obviously had things contained in them, and then there was the large symbol on his chest. It was a shield symbol, matching the shield of his friend Shining Armor’s cutie-mark; it was blue outlined silver with a stylized N & S "Okay, where am I and what is with the weird outfit I'm wearing?" Midnight turned around to see that he was not the only oddly dressed pony upon the roof. Soarin, Big Mac, Thunderlane, Blueblood and Cheese Sandwich were all groggily pulling themselves to their hooves and examining the odd costumes they wore. Soarin was wearing a spandex suit of his own, however no cape was attached to him and he wore only a black headband above his eyes. The suit seemed to be colored with three stripes, one red, one blue and one yellow. His wings seemed to give off a faint neon blue. Out of all the outfits on the roof, his seemed the least over the top. Blueblood was covered head to hoof in metal, barring his head which appeared to have a retractable mask to it. Rich purple and gold plates of metal encased him within a mechanical suit with a large glowing aperture on his chest and hooves that emitted a vibrant red. The openings on his hooves were all circular, however the one on his chest had four arrow-like additions to it, looking almost like a glowing version of his compass rose cutie mark. His mane and tail were completed encased within the armored suit, leaving only his bare face free at the moment showing his clear confusion of the situation. Big Mac was wearing a slightly larger and more padded suit colored in a forest green with purple stripes along the sides. Encased his head was a padded helmet reminiscent of martial arts headgear with a green tinted visor down over his eyes. Along his hooves were a series of bulky silver bands that seemed highly magical in nature. The big farmer seemed a little unsure how to maneuver in the odd suit. Next to him was Thunderlane, whose suit looked a lot lighter in comparison. He wore a light grey and dark gold sleeveless tunic with a dark belt across his barrel that seemed to have an odd circular device attached to it. A raised hood covered most of Thunderlane’s head, save for a pair of sunglasses covering his eyes. Slung over his back was a quiver filled with an assortment of different arrows of various colors and designs, while over his shoulder sat an impress custom recurve bow, over even better looking quality than that of the royal guard. Finally Cheese Sandwich's costume seemed far less elaborate than the others. Just wearing a bright blue spandex suit that only covered his body, leaving his neck and tail bare, his hooves wore black boots, and with a simple white eye-mask, he definitely was less covered the others. Though he had a white, blue ,and black stylized E and C on his chest. The group all took a moment to look over each other's odd costumes before Thunderlane asked the million bit question on everypony’s mind. "Okay so where the hell are we, and what is going on?" Midnight stroked his chin for a moment before recalling the incident within Pepper Pony’s. "Well, we saw Twinken getting sucked into the comic in a flash of light, and as I went in after him, you guys must have gotten sucked in as well. So I guess we're dressed like the main characters of the comic, the 'Bronco Busters'." "Wait, you mean like that 'Power Ponies' thing the girls and Spike told us about, where they became the heroes of the comic book?" Soarin questioned as the others took in the situation. “If I remember, they had to play out the story to get out!” "Exactly. Since I have no idea what is supposed to happen, I think we really need to find Twinken,” Midnight stated. “If he's already read some of the comic, then he'll know who we are, what we can do, and more importantly, who the bad guy we need to stop is so we can finish the comic's story and leave." "Well Ah ain't sure what's happenin’ but tha’ looks as good a place as any t’ get started," Big Mac drew everypony's attention as he pointed to a bright beacon in the sky of two large interlocked 'B's that looked like the comic's logo. The beacon seemed to be coming from a rooftop a few blocks away and was pointed over the top of what looked like a large museum. "Well, we don't have any better leads so let’s check it out,” Midnight agreed before facing his friends. “Mac, Cheese, Blue, I hope you don't mind me carrying you over with my magic, otherwise the walk could take us a while." When they gave him to go-ahead, Midnight’s horn glowed and his magic engulfed the non-flying members of the group, who all looked a tad nervous but still trusting of Midnight, despite their instincts telling them not to part ways with the safe ground. The group all took wing and rose into the air and headed towards the casting location of the beacon. However as they flew, Midnight noticed his magic felt a little stranger than normal, especially as the moon's glow was hidden behind a large bank of clouds. Twinken was in awe and confusion, staring up at the shining interlocking Bs with an arrow pointing at the museum across the street from the building, where Twinken was. On the rooftop to be exact! After waking up, he’d found himself here, wearing a gray flat cap backwards, his horn sticking through the elastic adjuster strip, a black hoodie, and hanging around his neck was a camera while a tape recorder was attached to a belt around his barrel. After fishing through his pockets, Twinken realized he had assumed the place of the character he’d just been talking about before winding up in this place, and knew now where he was! “Somehow, I’ve become Timmy Coltson!” Twinken gathered; Timmy Coltson was a junior reporter who worked for the Trotham Tabloid, the biggest news media in the city. More importantly, he was a secret ally and supporter of the Bronco Busters, as they gave him the beacon spell to cast whenever there was trouble, and remembering the story, Twinken realized he’d arrived just after Timmy had cast the beacon spell. Gazing down at the museum the beacon was pointing at, he saw broken glass doors and had a good idea of who had just broken in. “Twinken?!” Twinken whirled around and gasped! “Holy new personas, ponies!” Twinken watched as the guys arrived, the pegasi and his brother landing while Midnight carefully placed the flightless members of their group down with his aura. “Big brother, you’re… Night Shield!” Twinken gasped as he then named each of them in turn. “Big Mac! You’ve become Micro-Ton. Thunderlane, you’re Apollomino! Blueblood, you’re the Iron Stud, Soarin, you’re Tri-quine, and Cheese! You’re Elasti-Colt! Y-you’re the… Bronco Busters!” “And… who are you supposed to be?” Soarin asked, seeing the rather mild and mannered attire Twinken wore compared to them. “Oh! Uh, I’m just… Timmy Coltson,” Twinken said, sounding disappointed, “junior reporter of the Trotham Tabloid and secret ally of the Bronco Busters. Timmy was the one who cast that beacon spell above us that led you all here!” “Well in any case, I’m just glad you’re okay,” Midnight said as he pulled Twinken into a wing-hug but didn’t notice Twinken’s somewhat disgruntled look, which didn’t escape the others’ notice. Suddenly! Cheese's hair quivered and he felt a weird sensation, "Hey! I feel some kind of tingling! Sorta like my Cheesy Sense, but... different." *KA-BLAMMO/CRASHATTER* They all startled and peered over the rooftop to see the entire entrance of the museum had been blown away, bystanders running away in fear, as out walked, slowly appearing through the dust a tall and strong earth pony stallion, his coat dismal brown-ish gray, his wicked green eyes widened in devious excitement, his cutie-mark was an ankh symbol, he wore an ornate mantle of shimmering colors that almost looked like wings enwrapping his shoulders, on his head was a nemes crown colored red, blue, green, and gold, with an eagle head figurine above his brows, he carried a staff topped with the head of a black jackal with dismal ribbons flowing around him, all the while laughing triumphantly as he declared, “Ha-ha-ha-ha! With the latest addition to my collection, I am but one step closer to transforming Trotham City into my EMPIRE, HAHAHAAA!!!” “THE PHONY PHARAOH!” “WHO SAID THAT?!” screamed the Pharaoh, looking around when the flash of Twinken’s camera accidentally gave them away as the Pharaoh threw a stink eye up at them, but then pulled his lips into an arrogant sneer. “Ah, the Bronco Busters, at last we meet! What an honor this is… for you!” “It’s official,” Soarin stated, the guys all looking at him, “we’ve assumed the roles of the Bronco Busters, and that’s obviously the baddie we gotta beat.” “That’s what my comic book said!” Twinken realized in agreement, “It said the way back to where we started is to defeat the Pharaoh!” “Bow before your new lord and master!” the Pharaoh shouted as he pointed his staff at a nearby mailbox, which became enveloped in a green aura that the Pharaoh willed towards the friends as a hurtling projectile! Thankfully he only struck the side of the building, but Blueblood exclaimed, “How did he do that? He’s clearly an earth pony!” “The Pharaoh’s been robbing museums and antique stores ever since he came to Trotham,” Twinken quickly explained. “He’s been hoarding magical artifacts to give himself his own superpowers! What he just used is the Staff of Anubis, which grants the wielder great magic!” “An apt description, little colt!” *GASP* They all looked in shock to see the Pharaoh flapping in front of them, the mantle of wings around his shoulders having spread into actual wings of shimmering colors. “It does my heart good to see some foals educated in the great civilizations long past. So you’ll find the Wings of Isis to be functional as well as fashionable! And yet... both the Wings and the Staff are but toys compared to my latest acquisition…!” The guys almost wet their hooves to see the Pharaoh’s eyes glow a harsh golden light… “DUCK AND COVER!” Twinken shouted before the Pharaoh’s eyes unleashed concentrated beams of heat! While the others managed to avoid the danger completely, Big Mac and Cheese gasped as the Pharaoh’s lasers cut off the section of the roof they were standing on, and they started to go over. “Big Mac, Cheese! Don’t panic!” Twinken shouted to them, “You’re Micro-Ton and the Elasti-Colt! Mac, you have the power to defy gravity and Cheese, you can stretch and bounce your body as though it were made of rubber!” As they fell, Big Mac and Cheese shared a nervous look that became determined. Big Mac didn’t quite understand what Twinken meant by ‘defying gravity’ but he quickly thought he wanted to do so by floating gently down… and he did! Cheese on the other hoof stretched his body somewhat before coiling it around into a spring-like shape and boinged off the ground and landed safely on his own hooves, saying, “Wow! That was fun, let’s do it again! YIPE!” Cheese bounced just in the nick of time to dodge another of the Pharaoh’s optic lasers. “How did he do that?! The staff?” Thunderlane asked. “No, the Pharaoh’s wearing the Crown of Ra!” Twinken realized as he pointed out the nemes crown the Pharaoh wore on his head. “It allows the wearer to fire beams of lasers from their eyes as hot as the sun!” The Pharaoh cackled wickedly as he fire more lasers at Cheese and Big Mac, the both of them doing their best to dodge and avoid the danger. “Soarin, get us down there!” Twinken called, “You’re Tri-quine, you can triplicate yourself into three separate selves and throw psychic feathers from your wings that turn into tele-portals to any nearby location you want!” “Uh, okay!” Soarin looked to his left and right before looking at his wing, seeing the strange electric blue glow before flicking it to his right, and they watched as a blue light zoomed out and expanded Into a tele-portal... that showed their backsides, and they turned around to see the same thing and realized Soarin had made a tele-portal to the other side of the roof. “Uh,heh,heh, sorry…” “Hmph, and I was actually worried about this bunch?” the Pharaoh scoffed, having noticed the blunder. Growling, Twinken looked to Blueblood, “Blue, you’re the Iron Stud, your battle suit grants you rocket-powered flight, energy blasts from your horn canon, and super-strength!” “Twinken, I can hardly move in this contraption,” Blueblood complained, “how do you propose I fly?” ‘Voice command accepted, initiating dragonfyre booster rockets’ said a synthesized voice from the suit, and Blueblood yelped as his face became entirely covered, a metal extension covering his horn ,and he screamed like a filly as the boosters in his hooves sent him skyward! “EEEEYYYYAAAAAAUUUUGGGHHHH……!!!” The guys all gasped in concern whereas the Pharaoh started to bust his gut at what he was seeing. “Midnight, save Blueblood!” Twinken yelled. “He’s flying too fast, I’ll never catch him!” Midnight worried. “You can fly faster than anything! You’re Night Shield, you draw your super powers by absorbing the moonlight!” Twinken edeucated him with an annoyed look. “You don’t even need your wings to fly!” Seeing the urgent and worried look of his little brother, Midnight was hesitant, but his concern for his friend outweighed it that he concentrated on the moon, feeling its gentle glow wash over him, and a power he’d never experience before! He hunkered down before taking a great leap and marveled as he flew while his wings were pressed against his barrel! He let instinct guide him as he flew after Blueblood in his haywire suit. “Twinken, what about me?” Thunderlane asked. “Judging by this bow and these arrows, I’m some kind of archer?” “Yeah, you’re Apollomino of the Arcane Arrow!” Twinken got excited, “Your magic trick arrows can do almost anything you want, but you gotta concentrate on the intended effect right before you let them fly!” "OK, I’ll give it a shot,” Thunderlane said, thinking to himself Good one, Thundy, with a light chuckled. Easier said than done however, as Thunderlane had never fired an arrow in his life! Sitting on his haunches, he held the bow in his left hoof while awkwardly drawing one of the arrows from his quiver. “By all means, Apollomino,” the Pharaoh said mockingly as his Wings of Isis kept him aloft. He conjured what looked like a target and levitated it over his plot, taunting, “Take your best shot!” Growling, Thunderlane thought, Oh, prepare to have your bubble burst, ya cheap circus act! He let the arrow fly, and everypony watched in the brief yet intense moment it streaked through the air… *SMACK/POP-POP-POP* ...and struck the target over the Pharaoh’s rear, and the arrow burst into a bunch of bubbles that popped out one by one. “Oops…” Thunderlane said sheepishly as he realized his goof. “AH-HA-HA-hahahah, oh stop!” the Pharaoh guffawed, “I’m gonna die of laughter!” “Ergh! Big Mac, knock him out of the air!” Twinken shouted down to the streets, Big Mac having taken cover behind a newspaper kiosk. “An’ how am Ah s’posed t’ do that from down here?” Big Mac pointed out. “Your powers! You can shrink down to the size of a bug or grow to the size of a giant!” As crazy as that sounded, Big Mac reminded himself this wasn’t Ponyville, and at the moment he was somepony else, in a manner of speaking. Sighing, he hurried out into the middle of the street, thinking, Think big, Mac, think big…! Everypony watched as Big Mac glowed green and his body (along with his costume) grew! Unfortunately, Big Mac had been so preoccupied, he didn’t see the neon sign hanging from the nearby buildi- *CLONK* Even the Pharaoh winced as everypony ooh’d in sympathy as Big Mac moaned in dazed stupor and staggered, struggling to keep his balance. Alas, he began to fall unconscious, while his over-sized rump fell… on Cheese! *KA-BOOMPH* “Oh no, Cheese!” Soarin winced, thinking, That's gotta hurt... “He’ll be okay," assured Twinken. "Elasti-Colt’s rubbery body makes him virtually immune to physical injury. Although… I have a feeling that’s gonna smart somewhat once we get Mac off of him.” “Well, Bronco Busters, as much as I enjoy watching you make fools of yourselves,” the Pharaoh sneered, “I’m afraid I’m gonna have to… wrap this up!” The Pharaoh raised his staff when he heard a snapshot and looked to see somepony hiding behind a nearby garbage can. Narrowing his eyes, he pointed his staff and the can was blown away to reveal a filly about Twinken’s age, with a dark lilac coat and red velvet mane, wearing a scarf and holding a camera. Seeing she’d been discovered, the filly chuckled nervously, “Uh-heh-heh, care to comment to the Trotham Tabloid?” Twinken saw her too and gasped as he recognized her. “Guys! It’s my partner- Er, well, Timmy Coltson’s partner, Blinky Bay! She’s in trouble!” “Ah, a journalist,” the Pharaoh realized with a smug look, “then you can have the honor of being the first to report history in the making when I remake Trotham City my own Empirical Dynasty!” The filly, Blinky Bay, cried out as she was enveloped in the Pharaoh’s aura, “Timmy! Bronco Busters, help!” The Pharaoh merely cackled in arrogance as he raised his staff and in a flash of light, he and Blinky were gone! “Oh no,” Twinken groaned while Soarin and Thunderlane sighed as they realized they’d been made to look like chumps, when they heard a blistering sound and looked up. Midnight and Blueblood were flying towards them, Blueblood apparently now in better control of his battle-suit, saying in a voice that made his sound almost-mechanical, “Coming in for a landing, gentlecolts!” As Blueblood and Midnight landed, Midnight regarded the scene around them, and asked, “I take it things could’ve gone better?” “You might say that,” Thunderlane said, rubbing the back of his head with his hoof and Twinken said what everypony was thinking. "We are completely screwed…"