Equestria Threadfall

by David Silver

19 - Space Cookies

"While I appreciate Pinkie's capacity for emergency supplies." Twilight was trotting along the Pie sisters. "Do you really have enough to break apart this entire little world we're standing on?"

"No." Maud looked over her shoulder as she marched forward at her steady rate. "We will splinter and move it," she corrected. "It will still be here."

Pinkie pronked along slowly to keep pace with Maud. "Pity we can't just throw the moon at it. That'd fix it nice and fast!"

Twilight shivered from snout to tail. "That could work out very poorly. Imagine the moon infested with the thread!"

"We won't do that," calmly stated Maud before pointing at the wall. "The first one goes here." She gestured left and right as Pinkie pushed the explosives into place, ensuring it was in just the right place.

They had several more to get into precise placement to have a hope of diverting the small celestial object they were standing on.

---

With a combination of careful magical pulls and Spike's little fingers, they were spreading out the balloon to be ready for action. "So, what's the plan?" asked Spike. "If we take this thing outside, it'll get blown away, with everypony inside at the time."

Luna inclined her head. "The balloon is entirely worthless while in range of the raging storm," she agreed in more words. "We will have to skip the storm before it can be of use to us." She craned her head back to look up at the low ceiling of the place. "There's not enough room in here to have this fully inflated while we wait."

"Not even close," sighed out Spike, tapping a foot softly. "Wherever we arrive, teleporting right? We're going to have to inflate the balloon really fast..."

Luna suddenly smiled. "Spike, it is filled with this, is it not?" She pointed to the little engine that would rest beneath the great air bladder that was the main body of the balloon.

"Yeah." He jogged over and pointed at its knob. "You turn that to make it shoot more or less.... fire."

"You see where my thoughts go. You are, again, the solution to our problems." She reached out and patted him gently on the head. "When we arrive, your great breath will inflate it much faster than this engine could hope to do so. Are you up for that?"

"We don't want it too hot," he warned quickly. "If it catches on fire, then we're all in trouble." He worried his hands together, imagining them trying to sail on a flaming balloon. That would not be a good trip. "We need hot air, not actual fire-fire."

"But still quite warm," argued Luna. "Can you focus on more instead of hotter?" She inclined her head. "I am not a dragon. I do not claim mastery over the idea. How much control do you have over your production?"

Spike threw up his hands. "I never really thought about it specifically like that."

"A fine time to start." She pointed towards the outside. "You can practice a little. We all have our tricks. Do not think Twilight, or I, were simply born able to perform our magic."

Spike burst into laughter at that. "Oh, wow, no. Twilight still manages to mess up her magic sometimes." He threw a hand down, slapping a knee. "Alright, alright. If she can explode sometimes trying her best, I can at least try." He moved so that the balloon wasn't between him and the exit of the cave. "Big fire, but not hot fire... Big fire, not hot fire..." He took a slow breath, chest puffing out until he was holding far more air than was generally advisable.

He let it out in a slow puff, just blowing air until the internal mechanisms flicked into place organically and fire joined the air, but he kept his breathing even, a slow and steady fire. Luna watched the little spritz of flame. "That is a start, but I cannot imagine that is enough in the speed we require it."

Spike was too occupied to reply, instead pursing his lips to direct and feel the flow of the flames. He reached out a hand to block the fire and feel its heat. He wasn't burned, which implied he wasn't running super hot. A good thing, he quickly decided. He needed cool but still warm. Like an oven turned low? Hot enough to make a pony miserable or even in trouble if they hung out in it, but not hot enough to set the tough cloth of the balloon on fire.

So he just had to turn down the heat of his flames. Easy! Except he didn't have a knob to turn like the engine he was trying to replace. He had to experiment, flexing and twisting internally, trying to figure out his own controls. The flames suddenly stopped as he went in the wrong direction. "Oops!" he gusted, letting out the remaining air and starting to suck up a new batch.

He needed more practice.

---

Twilight flapped, a barrel held in her magic as she worked it into a small niche in the wall. "How's that look?" she called down to those below her without actually looking at them. "All good?"

"Looks good," came Maud's reply, echoing off the hard stone.

Twilight vanished, only to appear next to Pinkie and Maud, a length of wire in draped over her hoof. "So far so good."

Pinkie saluted with a sharp slap of a hoof against her forehead. "Yes, sir! Alright. I only have one more." She drew out her last barrel. "My super, duper, last ditch supplies."

"We need it." Maud turned and began walking towards the final destination. "Pinkie."

"Yeah?" She bounced along, keeping up with her sister easily.

"Thanks."

"What for?" Not that she looked upset to be being thanked by her sister.

"If you were any other pony, we would have lost." She looked over her shoulder at Pinkie. "You saved us, by being Pinkie. Thank you."

Pinkie grinned widely enough her cheeks squeaked with the effort. Twilight smiled as well, though less as extremely. "She isn't wrong, but she isn't saying the whole picture either." Both Pie sisters looked towards her as they walked. "We've all brought invaluable skills to this trip. Each and every one of us is vital. I'm glad, and honored, to be here, with you both."

Suddenly Twilight was surrounded, a Pie sister on either side and closing in. Without words, they crashed into her from either side, compressing her in warm but strong earth pony presence. She laughed almost helplessly as she found even her hooves were being held off the ground, her barrel hoisted off the ground in their grip as she was carried right along down the hallway of rough stone.

---

Spike's flame changed colors. It was a new trick, specifically altering its hue, on demand like that. But he found the right part, the right internal flex. He was breathing out slowly as fire went from green to blue to red in slow but smooth transitions. Luna clapped her forehooves together. "You're doing great! Red, we need a low red," she counseled. "Dull as you can make it. It'll still be fire, but that's low as fires go."

It felt strange to produce such flames at all. He had leeched out a lot of the magic that made his flames 'his' in the first place. Any paper thrust into that spewing little spout would just burn up, instead of being whisked away to Celestia. On the other hand, being entirely fire and not magic, it had no hope of penetrating his scales. It felt relatively cool against his fingers, but he knew, to a pony, it would be disastrously hot. He could still set them on fire with it, a chilling thought.

He let out a sudden loud gust, just breathing normally for a moment. "Alright... alright... We have temperature... Now... We need... volume..."

"Take a break." Luna set a hoof on his back, rubbing along his spine just to the right of his protrusions. "You're doing very well, Spike. Don't strain yourself before we even properly begin."

"Yeah... okay..." He sank down, flopping against the wall and working to catch his breath. "We got this..."

"We do." She leaned in, touching her nose to his forehead. "Today, you are a hero."

Spike smiled with a dash of cockiness. "Not the first time." He thumbs up at the much larger form of the princess with him. "You're doing good too, don't forget. You saved us... from the storm." He hiked a thumb towards the exit. "Twilight and I woulda been stuck out there."

"And had you not found Twilight, she would still be lost." Luna inclined her head. "We are where we need to be. I will carry us beyond the storm. You will inflate the balloon. Together, we can accomplish what neither of us could do alone."

"Yeah!" He bounced to his feet, clearly recovering from the effort of the first leg of the experimenting. "Alright. Big hot air, coming up." He took a long breath and spat out the dull red flames that had been asked for. The color only changed mildly, he was focused on the speed at which he could spit it out, going larger and smaller to try to get a hang of that control.

It was a curious thing, a new set of muscles he'd never really worked on controlling before other than 'I need all of this' or 'I only need a little of this', but he didn't need all of it, just enough to fill the balloon quickly with heat, and not more than that.

He worked.

---

The ground beneath them shuddered. Maud looked left and right. "I didn't anticipate seismic activity."

Twilight raised an ear. "Does that interfere with the plans?"

"Maybe." Maud approached a wall and tapped it softly. "If I missed seismic activity, my survey may be incomplete." Just like that, she seemed to switch back to inspection mode, following the wall slowly with a rhythmic tapping as she went.

Pinkie slowed to a walk, canting her head at Maud. "How bad are we talking? I mean, if you missed a little something?" She held up two hooves close together before bounding back to her hooves to resume walking.

"Maybe nothing." She continued along, tapping. "Or the explosion doesn't fracture the rocks we need it do, and does not change the direction of this asteroid." She looked over her shoulder even as she proceeded forward, tapping. "And we fail."

Twilight swallowed nervously. "We can't... have that. Please, continue with your survey." She put a hoof behind her head as the other three carried her forward. "No specific rush, but how long will the survey take?"

"As long as it takes," provided Maud unhelpfully, tapping her way forward.

Twilight raised the hoof that had been behind her head high. "Maud, is there a specific place that you could do this faster?" Maud looked at her silently. "I mean, this time, I'm right here." She pointed to herself. "If I can help you reach a better surveying point, would that help?"

Maud paused in her inspection and raised a hoof to her own chin, considering that a moment before she pointed down into the rock. "Deeper. The closer to the center, the better."

Pinkie tilted her head left and right. "Just not in to the rock."

"Not into the rock. Got it." Her magic spread out over the two sisters. "I'll do my best. Ready?" When both nodded, she threw them into the between space and they vanished.

---

Spike was on all fours just at the base of the balloon. "And... go!" He exhaled a perfectly balloon sized cone of dull red flames over the top of the deflating bag.

Luna nodded with satisfaction. "Just a little smaller, so you don't hit the sides," she advised. "But that is quite good. You have it, Spike."

They were ready. They just needed the rest of the team to return.

Author's Note:

This isn't a project to leave to chance. Maud goes right into investigation mode when she realizes something may have been missed. This has to work, for Equestria and the lands beyond! But they are quite close to an answer, yes?

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Comments

[Booster Spice]

Placing teh charges didnt do much, if anynthing, but all the heat Spike is throwing out caused the rock, or something in the rock, to react, maybe in discomfort, or hatching?

[Tangent]

10350299
"Oh no! The Great and Terrible P'ikthulu'chu is hatching!"

"Not... helping!"

[howard035]

This chapter made me realize: you write Spike into so many of your stories, and you always give him opportunities to grow and learn.

[David Silver]

10357298
He deserves it.