Scarlet Mane's Diary, Entry 3: The Big Blast of Boom

by Madame Minty

Expedition

After about fifteen minutes they saw a familiar sight on the horizon. Within five more minutes they were passing over the ferry. Amazed ponies looked from behind the ferry portholes, some of them so determined to glance at the aircraft that they foolishly stuck their heads through them just to be sprayed by the seawater. Through Nuddly's mind passed an idea of jumping onto the ferry, like in her favorite action stories. Melody, Jelly Joy and Blasting Boom were not afraid of getting a little wet and waved through the open windows. Airponies waved back and Moon accelerated again.

#

The beetle flew steady for almost an hour. Ponies started to close in to their destination. Moonbeam lowered engine's speed.

"Moonbeam to tower, approaching landing zone!"

"What tower?" Scarlet Mane wondered.

"Obviously Blasting Boom's," Nuddly Plum was quick to answer.

"Never mind," mumbled Moon and then started to carefully execute her first landing maneuver.

"Releasing undercarriage," she said as she pressed a button labelled coffee. The machinery was put into motion and its gears rattled as if doing a particularly difficult job. Suddenly, she felt a short vibration and the gears began to spin almost soundlessly and the whole aircraft started to tilt forward.

"Uh-oh."

"Did... did you just said what I think I heard?" Nuddly said with worry as Moon tried to pilot the vehicle with several levers and dozens of buttons, with slight reluctance even pressing the one labelled self-destruct she remembered to be responsible for releasing parachutes, but none of the controls worked.

"Yes! I did!" she finally screamed back, "We are going to crash!"

She tried to control the craft with magic, but as they have started to fall more and more rapidly, the airflow was so fierce she simply couldn't outmatch the forces involved. Everypony's eyes were as big as they could be. Suddenly, Nuddly felt something on her shoulder.

"Meep!" she let out and looked around. It was Scarlet, paler than usual, wordlessly poking her, then waving her front legs like with wings. "Fly?"

"Yes, fly!" Scarlet Mane shrieked with an incredibly high-pitched voice, "wi—​wings, fly!" she added, stuttering in terror and waving even faster.

They undid their safety belts and looked at Moonbeam, who was still attempting to keep the machine in the air. She gave up as she saw the massive skyscraper getting closer every moment and clutched Nuddly's leg.

At the same time they landed heavily on the dirty ground, the golden beetle smashed against the pearly wall. Ponies looked up and watched as the aircraft still worked and tried to punch through the stone structure.

"Boom's skyscrapper..." mumbled Moon.

"Your aircraft..." added Nuddly.

"Those—​those are just things," said Scarlet, still shaking. "What matters is that no one got hurt."

Small pieces of brass and stone debris fell down and cluttered the area. Unexpectedly an explosion shook the building and the machine seemed to dig itself in. Soon it disappeared inside and a monstrous boulder shot out. It flew directly at Moonbeam. Paralyzed with fear and disbelief, she just stood there as the pearly slab of stone closed in.

She awoke from the stupor and tried to jump away, however knowing it's too late already, but she felt extremely heavy, like she was made of lead. As much as she disliked magic, she had to try everything. She focused all her willpower and she could clearly feel the energy flowing within her body, but it converged in the horn so sluggishly, she would never make it. The burden was so strong she couldn't even close her eyes and was forced to watch as the distance decreases. Surprised, she noticed it's decelerating, but it kept going. Its sharp edge finally touched the right lens of her goggles. A crack appeared and its branches grew almost imperceptibly, slowly crawling along the glass, producing an unbearable creak during a moment that felt like forever.

Suddenly the sun seemed to disappear as everything got pitch black. Is this... afterlife? she thought. An immense flash of amber light illuminated the surroundings again and she saw the stone slab again, backing up gently. More and more debris started to rise from the ground, blocking the light, eventually letting only individual golden rays through.

Moonbeam was completely bedazzled by the spectacle. One of the rays shone directly into her eyes, blinding her for a second and finally making her blink. When she opened her eyes, she was together with Nuddly Plum and Scarlet Mane, still inside the aircraft, landed on the outskirts of the dirty construction site of the intact skyscraper, which seemed now even prettier than before.

#

"Felt like a rough landing," Nuddly said, "Carrie doesn't seem to be very moved, though," she added.

"Did you see that? Did. You. See that?!" Moon asked, mouth agape. She started to look around in confusion, discovering that apparently Nuddly didn't see anything and Scarlet Mane actually fell asleep. She also noticed two approaching stallions in yellow hard hats, both looked almost exactly the same with their laurel green coats, rather long wedgewood blue manes and light gray eyes, but the left one being an earth pony with a hammer cutie mark, the right one - a pegasus with a welder on his haunch. She quickly took off her goggles and untangled from her scarf and jumped out of the aircraft, not even using the step ladder. Strangers' voices woke up Scarlet at last.

"Hey, we saw something odd—​" said the left stallion, "—​and we rushed—​" added the pegasus on the right before Moon cut him off abruptly.

"Did you see the gleam?! You had to see the gleam, right? Orange! Bright! Magnificent! And, and—​" she said, stopping as she saw their irritated looks.

"Miss, the Gleam, as I gather your flying machine is called, is really nice and shiny and has nice passengers—​" pegasus said, winking at Nuddly, who giggled, "—​but this is a restricted area. Gleam can stay if you just cover it up with something, but no pony is allowed to be here for now, so let us escort you to a safe place," stallion finished, winking at Scarlet Mane, who blushed in response.

While other ponies chatted on the side and got introduced to each other, Moonbeam took a dark gray tarpaulin sheet and Nuddly's camera out of the Moongleam's trunk and put the scarves and eye protection in. As she did so, she saw that her pair of goggles still has a big crack on its right lens. She just stood there, staring at it for quite some time, until the pegasus, apparently called Chase, cleared his throat loudly.

"You should go to the viewing post if you want to watch the show later," said Buzz Graystone, the stallion.

"We must stay here and make final preparations," added Chase Graystone, the pegasus, winking at Nuddly Plum again.

Moon shook her head and followed other ponies outside the fenced area. They still had a couple more hours to said spectacle and, as planned, they began sightseeing. She couldn't stop thinking about what happened—​or maybe what didn't—​and as they passed a drinking fountain she dunked her head in the water without any warning, splashing some around and making Nuddly snicker and several passersby giving her a baffled look.

As the whole Coltisle city was built by pegasi for pegasi, it was very obvious that others didn't have it easy even to get in. Most its inhabitants flew above the trio and not many ponies were walking on the streets. The only way up the half a mile high volcanic plateau in the very middle of Horseshoe Bay, other than flying, was to arrive by boat to a small outpost, often inaccessible due to tides, then walk the Spiral Tract which encircled the whole city several times under its hundreds of small waterfalls which froze during winter, forming a tunnel that was both windy and slippery.

Not very long ago it all changed dramatically with the construction of Moonbeam's Coltisle ferry line, which could move not much slower than a cruising pegasus and was able to travel the distance from the mainland in just over two hours hours, compared to boat's day or sometimes two, without fear of crashing on the rocks. Another bit of help was from the Coltisle elevator system, which was quickly nicknamed Moonraiser which greatly pleased Moonbeam, mostly because the other alternative she saw was Sparklift. The sudden surge of new residents caused many changes in the city, including a glider rental service near the elevators.

Transport carriages drove the paved roads back and forth. Moon quickly noted every crossroad was a roundabout and in the middle there was always a series of large spherical mirrors hanging on ropes from crossed banners which in turn were attached to the buildings in a diagonal manner. It seemed that every sphere was intended for a different airway level and allowed everypony to see what's behind the corner before entering the roundabout.

Scarlet took notice of remarkably tall buildings, some of them with square, but most with hexagonal foundations, each one a spiral wrapped in clouds and made of pure white stone reminiscent of porcelain, all of them connected with aqueducting arches seemingly at random, some of which having holes that let small waterfalls form. Thin but tall walls of crystalline liquid fell into channels on each side of the pavement.

Nuddly Plum was overjoyed by the sheer number of colorful air control banners, enormous wall paintings and various posters all around. There were so many that instead of reading some her eyes just quickly jumped from one poster to another.