• Published 12th Aug 2013
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Dan Vs. The Magic of Friendship(Season 1) - Barrobroadcaster



The story of a man named Dan and all his friends in Equestria.

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Zulu: Love and Loss

Edge Antares, or Wedge Antilles, had been in situations like this before. Or at least, he remembered he had, when he was human. The griffons and ponies were scrambling to retreat, falling in droves to the zebras' barrage of spears. The other squadrons were all trying to help get their wounded onboard the ships. On fire, the three griffon carriers were desperately fleeing back south. Many in his position, even among his squadron, would feel instinctively compelled to go with them.

But that was how you survived battles, not how you won wars. He knew what he really had to do.

"Six-through-twelve, go to mark six and watch our exit! Everyone else, on me NOW!" he bellowed into his headset. And without question, Rogue Squadron responded, with half of them flying high and outside to the south and the rest of them forming up at his sides. They dove low to the ground, aiming right for the zebras.

"Protons or quads?" Wes asked.

"Cable," Wedge replied, narrowing his eyes.

"Cables? But, commander, we can't take that whole-"

"We're taking one of them. Three and four have the shot, we'll cover," Wedge ordered. He narrowed his eyes at the army of black and white before them. As he'd suspected, they were all looking up, none of them expecting an attack from low and to the side. That would change, of course, the moment they struck. So it was a good thing they weren't sticking around for long.

"Three, with the cable! I'm taking the shot!"

"Get me one of them," Wedge ordered, venom in his voice. "Just get me one of them."


While Rogue Squadron went after the horde from the south side, the other side of the army was busy bringing down the All of My What. The carrier's damaged engines belched smoke and fire, desperate to propel the ship away from the zebras pulling it to the ground. Dozens of ropes were wrapped around her hull, using the ship's ring configuration to anchor their hooks and spears as they pulled in unison. The vessel almost resembled some kind of harpooned sea creature struggling to escape. The zebras chanted, a single chorus of "Harambee!" as they pulled their prey down. They weren't focused on their flank... or anything else above them, for that matter.

Magic Gear Knight rocketed above the zebras, propelled by the MY-Wing fused to her back. She flew through the zebras' ropes, causing the zebras who were pulling in teams to get whipped and launched with their own lines as they held on. As they scrambled to reform, Knight grabbed the rim of the All of My What's bow. Bracing herself on the inside of the ring, she aimed her thrusters towards the ground and carried the ship higher. The few zebras that were hanging on gradually fell off as the ship gained altitude.

"Remind me to thank Daring Do," Gust said, more relieved than words could say. "Now, put us on a direct course back for Fort Jerk and get us-*KOOOOM*. Gust and his crew were rocked as the bridge abruptly tilted and shook. The All of My Rage suddenly pitched sideways as something exploded underneath it.

"Okay... what in the hell is it NOW?" Multiple explosions began shaking the ship, vibrating from the underside all the way to the bridge at the top.

Dan, Twilight and the gang burst into the bridge. "NUGGETS! Your toilet ships are getting blasted out of the sky!" Dan bellowed.

"You think I don't know that?!"

"They're using some kind of explosives!" Twilight said. "They might even be using some of our own bombs that didn't detonate!"

"No," Blast Fuse said. "We made those bombs."

"They did their job," Blast Powder added.

"We either have to get out of range, get them to stop firing or keep the ship together until we're away," Phoenix said, another blast rocking the ship as he said so. "Could you shield the carriers, Twilight?"

She shook her head. "Not against zebras. Their spears have always been able to break shields, though we're not sure how."

"What about a Fluffle shield?" Chrys said, waving her hoof high. "We could make a fluffy repulsion shield-thingy like we did when Gust's ship tried to hit the treehouse."

Dan slid over to her. "You need some sugar to make that work, sweetheart?"

Chrys looked slyly back at him. "Make it work like magic, babe." They kissed... deeply, drawing eyes form everypony on the bridge. Even Fluffle Puff's jaw hit the deck. Gust simply removed his glasses and said, "Nice."

"Shipping! That's confirmed, we have shipping!" one of the griffons said.

"And the ship we're on is still sinking!" Twilight said. "If we're going to do this, we need to do it now!"

Dan nodded, slowly letting go of his mare friend. "Show those zebras our style of security, baby! You got this, Chrys!"

She had been waiting for what felt like several eternities to hear those words. She smiled and said, "You know I will," and held onto Twilight and Fluffle Puff. Phoenix quietly gave a pair of bits to Blast Fuse and Blast Powder for losing the bet of who would get shipped first: Spike and Rarity or Dan and Chryssie.

The three mares held each other, horns and fluff glowing with ethereal magical auras. The auras grew out of the bridge, covering every surface in warm, fuzzy light. The three carriers then suddenly became engulfed in magic pink fluff. The explosions stopped rocking the ship; the zebras' weapons were now rebounded off the walls of thick, pink puffiness.

"Hey... hey, it worked!" Spike yelled.

"Of course it worked!" Dan yelled back. "The power of love always works! Just ask Huey Lewis. Nothing can get through our puff-powered protective barriers!"

The ship's alarms began wailing. And the bridge began to tilt again.

Gust looked at a single display by the helm. "Yeah, nothing can get through- including our propulsion! The engines just shutdown!!"

"STOP THE SHIELDS! STOP THE-" The carriers began to plummet, except for the What which was still being held up by Knight. But the other two, towing each other, began to descend rapidly. They all screamed as gravity shifted and they slid and slammed into the back of the wall.

"I TAKE IT BACK!" Dan shouted. "THE POWER OF LOVE IS GOING TO KILL US! I HATE THESE TOILET SEAT SHIPS!!!"

"DEPLOY FLAPS!!" Gust yelled. "Restart the reactor! NOW!!"

Falling right out of the sky and dropping some amount of picnic supplies behind them, the ships continued to plummet. The fluff around them abruptly vanished, leaving the carriers very unprotected as they neared the surface.

"Reactor's online... engage engine, now!" The All of My Rage and All of My Yes behind it pulled up just in time, brushing the ground with their engines' thrust. Leveling out, the much-labored ships reached stable flying once again.

"Gonna... gonna have to come up with a strategy or something... for ships," Dan said, picking himself up off the floor.

"We bounced a train car last time we did that," Chrys said, rubbing her horn. "I don't think this ship could've taken the same amount of punishment, though."

"That and we need it to keep flying," Twilight added.

"Well," Spike straightened out his tail, "at least we lost the-*KAKOOOOM*" The ship was blasted again, explosives hitting the top this time. At a lower altitude, the zebras were now able to chuck their exploding spears at the ship's upper hull and bridge.

Gust spun around. The zebras were now riding each other toward their ships; the rider using both hooves to throw explosive spears while the mounted one held a shield in his muzzle. "Son of a finch... these guys don't give up!"

"Neither do we!" Dan declared. He ran up to the window.

"Please don't moon them," Phoenix said.

"They have spears, Nicky. Even I'm not gonna risk taking a rod where the sun don't shine to make a point."

A silence filled the room for just a moment. Everypony turned to Chrys, expecting her to say something.

"Well?" Twilight asked.

"What?"

"You just heard what he said," Spike said.

Chrys looked back at her accusers. "Yeah, and?"

"You... don't have anything to add?" Phoenix asked. They all looked puzzled at her.

But the changeling queen simply smiled, very satisfied. "Nah, I'm good. My baby's got this."

Twilight almost looked baffled. The only one of them that wasn't surprised was Fluffle Puff. "When did this happen?" Twilight asked herself. And she quietly thought, And when is it going to happen to me?

"HEY DOUCHEBAGS!" Dan yelled. "I bet you can't hit-" A spear flew at him but he expertly dodged and grabbed it. "HaHA! I got one of your sticks now! What're you going to do about that?!" A shield hit him in the head like a frisbee. Dan closed the window, rubbing his forehead.

"I got one of their sticks... the hard way," Dan said. "So we can like... study it now, and stuff."

"That's actually brilliant," Twilight said, as the bridge shook again.

"But it doesn't help our current situation!" Gust yelled, holding onto the helm for dear life. "We still have to find a way to get them to stop shooting us or we're going down in flames!!"

"Hey... where are the blast twins?" Phoenix asked, looking around. They were gone from the bridge. But a quick examination revealed the door to the stairwell was open.

"Thpppt!" Fluffle yelled, pointing out the window to the deck. They all joined her, lining up to see.

"HEY!" Dan yelled, "What are you guys doing?!"

"It's too dangerous out there!!" Twilight shouted.

"We know what we're doing!" the sisters yelled. Just like Chrys, Twilight and Fluffle had done moments ago, the two mares held each other. They both began to glow a golden light, almost like a miniature sun igniting on the deck of the ship. Light from the two ponies bathed every corner and crevice of the ship and began glowing brighter and brighter. When it became almost too bright to look at, they exploded.

Dan and the others, even Gust and his crew were all momentarily blinded by the flash of light. When they looked back again, there was a shining earth pony standing on the deck.

Former Enclave Demolitions Specialist
Major Summer
The Lost Officer

"Who... or what is that?" Gust asked.

"We can't maintain this form for long," the new pony said.

"You... you just freaking fused together!" Dan yelled at "her." "That's from like... Dragon Ball Z or something!"

The glowing mare smiled at him. "No... not quite." Without warning, she jumped into the air, leaping high above the bridge and landing on top of it.

"What are you guys doing?!?!" they all yelled underneath them.

"I've never seen any kind of magic like this," Twilight said.

"We're doing what we need to," she said, and jumped again.

As the gold mare flew through the sky, her fiery mane and tail blazed a trail behind her, like a rocket launching into the sky. Small flares, tiny embers and sparks scattered behind her, lighting the space between her and the carrier. She leapt above the horde of zebras and then tucked her legs in, making herself into a cannon ball and dropped towards them.

The zebras stopped firing as the new pony descended on them. Some of them looked up, thought the sun was falling to the surface. And it might as well have. Wind was sucked into the center of the mass just as soon as the mare contacted with the center of the army. An explosion, like a supernova erupted over the zebras and expanded to bath them all in boiling red fire. Shockwaves turned their weapons into splinters, then to ashes, then to particles of matter as the explosion expanded outward.

The blast hit the carriers but did not burn them. Instead, it propelled them on a cushion of force that pushed them far and away from the glowing ball of fire behind them. Dan and the others couldn't help but watch, wondering what had happened. What had become of Blast Fuse and Blast Powder? Had they sacrificed themselves to keep their friends safe?

"Lockdown all sections," Gust ordered. "We're heading home." The three carriers flew away from the large crater that had emerged in the battlefield. No matter what had happened, today had been a loss.

At the center of the crater, Blast Fuse and Blast Powder lay on their bellies, facing each other. They lifted their heads up from the ground.

"We... we did it!"

"We did..." Powdy rubbed her neck. "At let's... never do that again."

"Or at least practice before we do it next time."

"Yeah..." They looked around. The zebras seemed to have been destroyed, finally. "Now we just have to get back to Dan's base."

"Yeah... but at least we won't have to worry about the zebras," Fusey said. But then, the ground beneath them started to shake.

*Klam-klam-klam-klam-klam-klam-klam-klam*

"Oh crap."

Author's Note:

We were wanting to introduce BP and BF's fusion form last episode but could not find a way to fit it in. It is now known that the fourth Enclave "seasoned officer" is really the combination of two ponies- Blast Fuse and Blast Powder. They, along with Captain Springer, Colonel Bandwidth(who replaced Autumn from Fallout 3) and General Sharp Winter, complete the set.

The way we have it set up is that Blast Fuse and Blast Powder were involved in an explosive accident that allowed them to fuse into a single pony- an earth pony named Major Summer. We thought about making her an alicorn but I think there's enough alicorns at this point and we wanted to focus on the fact that Blast Fuse and Blast Powder's "magic" is different from alicorn/unicorn magic and is more aligned with the concepts of stability, volatility and biochemical-emotional reactions.

Originally, Major Summer was going to be a mare that became Blast Fuse and Blast Powder after an accident with explosives divided her into two different ponies BUT, we found the other option to be better after we started writing... another character that will be introduced at another point.

Blast Fuse and Blast Powder belong to Dustchu, who was kind enough to let us use them for our needs here. And yes, Dan X Chrys is confirmed in this chapter. We decided not to make a big deal out of how they got together because... even they don't really know. It just sort of happened. But now felt like a good time to let it show. Believe me though, there will still be a lot of development towards it so don't expect smooth sailing... figuratively or otherwise.

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