30: Bright Future
On the mountain face opposite Canterlot was something that not many ponies knew about. This was not because it was hidden from the general populace, but simply something they had never bothered to find out. Carved into the mountain, much like the city itself, was a great airship dock. Within sat the one and only Harmonious, the flagship and airborne base of operations of the Equestrian Air Force. With both a heavily reinforced balloon as the primary method of remaining airborne and a large number of downwards-facing propellers providing additional lift and stability, it was almost impossible for it to be knocked from the sky.
Captain True Sight looked at the earth ponies under his command. Due to their affinity for machinery they were trusted with the maintenance and operation of the Guard’s sole airship. The Harmonious was meant to be the first of several, but funding cuts and the general attitude of the nobility (“What’s the point of an airship without en suites?”) had left the Equestrian Air Force severely weakened.
Unlike those that would be fighting on the ground, they wore only a golden cap. Their role would not be to face the Dogs, but to rain down fire and death from above. However, given the nature of the Dogs they would likely be relegated to ferrying supplies and the wounded. Not that True Sight minded terribly, he wanted to do his part, no matter how small.
“Quit your slacking, you rock-munching idiots! We have a war to fight, and that means you do everything the moment I say it!” he yelled.
“Shove it up your tail-hole, sir!” one of the ponies shouted back.
True Sight laughed with them. “Would if I could, but we have a job to do. Odds are the guns won’t be needed, but the ship definitely will. I want the mess hall converted to a field hospital, and the supply rooms stocked with medical equipment. We won’t have ponies and griffins dying on my ship,” he finished sternly.
“So we won’t actually be fighting?” a mare at the back asked nervously.
“No, we’ll probably be too far out of range,” Sight clarified. “We are there mainly in a support capacity. Now stop standing there and get to work! I want this ship ready to take wounded in half an hour!”
“Yes sir!”
Shining Armor had called a private meeting in his office, ordering all the Knights to meet him. He hadn’t expected them to be so prompt, though, nor all of them to ready to fight.
Shining Armor looked at the fully-armoured, battle-ready Knights, his Knights. He still had a little trouble believing that the most powerful unicorns the Guard could offer were under his direct command. Unfortunately Shadow Dancer was still absent, not fully recovered from the damage unleashing the armour’s Solar Wrath had done to her. Her skills and experience would have been incredibly useful.
“I know most of you haven’t seen a real fight before, that the worst you’ve had to do is fight a bundle of straw shaped like a Dog. But we cannot afford to falter out there. The others will be looking towards us, to lead and inspire.” He sighed. “It’s a burden, but - ”
“Sir?” Blink asked, cutting him off. “Stop worrying so much.”
“It’s my job to worry,” Shining replied dourly. “We nearly lost Shadow Dancer.”
“You won’t lose any of us, sir,” Firebolt said happily, his head bobbing slightly.
“We’re the best trained force Equestria has to offer,” Frost Lance added, supporting his brother.
“I am sure we can cope,” Trixie said, smirking behind her helmet.
“That kind of overconfidence is dangerous,” Shining replied, reprimanding her. “Promise me that you will all be careful out there.”
“Of course sir,” Astral Gaze answered in his strange, flat tone. “You don’t even have to ask that of us.”
There was a sudden knock at the door, catching them all off-guard. “Who is that?”
“It’s me, Blueblood,” came the reply.
“Oh great, it’s the self-entitled rat,” Glory muttered.
“Quiet,” Shining hissed. “What do you want, Blueblood?”
“A warmer welcome, for starters,” the prince replied snidely. “I was going through some historical texts, and came across an idea I thought you might appreciate.”
“Is that so?” All the Knights were intrigued by this. None of them had really considered that Blueblood did anything except complain and spend more money than was strictly sensible.
Blueblood explained to them what he had found. When he was done, the Knights looked at him, aghast. “Pegasi used to do that?”
“I knew the Celestine Junta was brutal, but...”
Shining was the most worried. “Blueblood, are you crazy?”
“Oh please, what I’m suggesting is nothing compared to some of the Hyracotherium Republic’s weapons, or what the Kingdom of Unicornia did to prisoners of war,” Blueblood replied, sounding a little disturbed. “Believe me when I say those books are in the restricted section of the library for a good reason.”
“You’re talking about weaponising something that has seen nothing but peaceful use for centuries, Blueblood,” Shining responded, sounding a little sick.
“I understand that, but this will help us win the war, I am sure of it,” the prince said.
“Maybe you’re not that bad,” Glory said suddenly. “Better than those other nobles, at least.”
“You mean the ones Luna forcibly conscripted?” Clarion Call asked.
“Oh yeah. I will never see anything funnier than that,” she answered, trying to hold in her laughter.
“You two, be quiet,” Shining shot at them. “Gambit?”
“Tactically, it’s a brilliant decision,” she mused. “They won’t see it coming, it’ll definitely sap their morale, and it’ll inflict heavy casualties. Morally...” the mare trailed off uncomfortably. “I’d say it’s a grey area, but that’s a lie and you all know it.”
“I’ve seen what can happen when you get some on you by accident, and this is the stuff mixed for industrial use,” Field Surgery said suddenly. “I don’t even want to imagine what being hit with a weapons-grade mixture can do...”
“Actually, a little research tells me that there is barely any difference between the two. Though with today’s refining techniques...” Blueblood stood there, a hoof to his chin as he thought.
Thomas had asked the other Wastelanders to come to his room, to help him form a plan of sorts. While the other two prepared themselves, he looked at the map he had been given. “So, they’re gonna dig up, right?” Dom asked, digging through her duffel bag.
“Yeah,” Thomas muttered. “If I’m on that airship, I should be able to snipe a few...”
“Screw that,” Veronica replied loudly, messing with a screw on Greased Lightning. “Punching is the gift that keeps on giving.”
“You have a rifle, get some use out of that first,” the ghoul replied seriously.
“I am wearing a set of T-51b. Do you really think anything has a chance of getting through this?” she asked, patting herself on the chest.
“Both of you, shut up, I’m thinking. Dom, you said something before about explosives.”
“Huh? Oh, yeah.” The ghoul pulled something out of her bag and threw it at the man. “Catch.”
Thomas caught it and stared. “This is a tin can.”
“It’s what’s in the tin can,” the ghoul smirked, crossing her arms. “It makes plasma look like hot water.”
“That’s...” Veronica searched for words, gave up and looked at her. “What the hell is in that thing?”
“Quantum, Abraxo and turpentine.”
Veronica blinked. “That... doesn’t make any sense. At all.”
“I don’t question it,” Dom replied with a shrug. “I just make it work.”
“That’s the scary thing. Still, if it works,” the Scribe shrugged, “I can’t really complain.”
“Okay, Dom has explosives, I have my anti-materiel rifle, and Veronica has... punching.” Thomas added that last point uneasily.
“You also brought the Red Glare,” Veronica added.
“That’s for emergencies,” the man replied.
“Thomas, I’ve seen that thing. You used it on Fiends,” the Scribe deadpanned. “That’s like using C-4 on a bloatfly.”
“I had to send a message,” he shrugged.
“You knocked down a building and didn’t even leave enough of those idiots for the birds. Even that’s taking overkill too far.”
“I once used a Fat Man on a raider base,” the ghoul commented. “I don’t see the difference.”
Veronica looked between the two. “You... really? I give up,” she said, throwing her arms up and turning around. “You’re both nuts.”
Luna inspected the weapons in the armory. None of them suited her needs or were appealing to her. “Hmm...”
“Sister?”
The younger alicorn turned around and saw Celestia standing not far from her, next to a rack of spears. Luna turned back and rolled her eyes. “I know what you’re going to say.”
“This is a mistake, Luna,” the alabaster alicorn pleaded.
“According to the Knights, something is controlling the Dogs. If it’s what I think it is, then I am simply doing my duty,” Luna told her coldly.
“At what cost?” Celestia asked. “If it is what you think, then I may lose you again.”
“I already said that would not happen,” the younger replied. “Last time I was alone. This time I have an army at my back. Not one as large as I would like, but an army nonetheless.”
“And if you do fall, an entire generation will be extinguished.”
Luna turned, doing her best to hide her anger. “Do you have such little faith in me, sister? I am not the jealous, weak-willed mare I was a thousand years ago. I know my subjects care for me, they just don’t show it,” she trailed off awkwardly. “And in any case, our armed forces are far too inexperienced in actual battle.”
“They are well-trained,” Celestia argued.
“Training is not everything. Look at our guests. No training, but a lifetime of experience. It makes them incredible warriors. But our guard?” Luna asked with a sigh. “All they know is spars with each other and stabbing bundles of straw with pointed sticks. I worry that many of them will turn tail at the sight of their friends’ blood or be paralyzed with fear when the time to fight comes.”
“You don’t give them enough credit,” Celestia argued. “They are not as weak-willed or pacifistic as you believe. They may not have the same fire as they used to, but they will fight for what they hold dear, whether it be their home or their friends.”
“I know, but... I rarely see any evidence of such. Maybe I will be proven wrong.” Luna’s eyes roamed the weapon racks, her eyes alighting on a large mace, its head a great ball covered in evil-looking spikes. “Hmm...” she hummed in approval. “May I strike fear into the hearts of my enemies, and bring courage to the minds of my allies,” she whispered, taking the mace in her magic.
Celestia stared at her sister. “That is an old vow, sister. I have not heard it since - ”
“My banishment, yes.” Luna gauged the weight and gave it a few experimental swings. “It is far from perfect, a few enchantments should be enough,” she muttered. “I shall take this weapon with me. Between it and my magic, I will not fall.” She turned to her sister. “I promise, sister, I will return, no matter what.”
Twilight stared at her food. She was hungry, but just couldn’t muster the will to eat it. She pushed her salad away, instead looking to her friends. She had invited them to eat with her in her suite, hoping that their presence would help put her mind at ease. Unfortunately, it only managed to achieve the exact opposite.
“That was a good speech by the Princess,” Applejack commented,
“Yes, and it’s about time those horrible Dogs were put in their place,” Rarity said airily, sipping from her glass of wine.
“What do you mean?” Pinkie asked, her normally chipper tone subdued.
“Well, they took me captive,” the unicorn pointed out. “Then they took Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo!” she added vehemently.
“Just what are you sayin’, Rares?” Applejack asked cautiously.
“They are nothing but pony-enslaving, murdering, marauding brutes!” she shouted. “The world will be a much better place without them!”
“Rarity!” Twilight yelled, deciding to intervene. “Are you seriously advocating genocide!?” she asked, unable to believe one of her friends was capable of this.
“They hurt the ponies I love! They don’t deserve to live in Equestria!”
“Most of them don’t even live in Equestria, Rarity!” Twilight pointed out loudly. “And you’re sounding a lot like you never bothered with history classes,” she added.
“What do you mean?” Pinkie asked.
“Yeah, none of us are into that stuff like you,” Rainbow Dash added.
“The Kingdom of Unicornia used to utilise some of the most heinous torture devices in history,” Twilight explained. “They used them on anypony they suspected of disagreeing with the way things were run, or on prisoners of war.”
“What... kind of tortures?” Fluttershy asked timidly, hiding under her mane.
The lavender unicorn looked at her friends, trying to think of a good example. “Rainbow, your worst fear is losing the ability to fly, right?” she asked. When the pegasus nodded, she continued. “Well, imagine being forced to repeatedly live out the agony of having your wings broken and ripped from your body.”
“R-r-repeatedly?” Rainbow Dash asked, the colour draining from her as she tried to keep her lunch down. Her wings clenched to her sides fearfully.
“And earth ponies and pegasi weren’t much better. There used to be weapons that could make entire cities sink into the ground, and pegasi used to weaponise weather. Among other things,” Twilight added.
“Weaponise weather?”
“Blizzards to kill crops and freeze armies to death, torrential storms to drown entire towns and cities, hurricanes and tornadoes... Well, you get the idea,” she concluded.
“What... what was the point of that little history lesson?” Rarity asked, her fervor replaced with apprehension and disgust at what she had heard.
“As vile as the Diamond Dogs can be, ponies can be just as horrible. Even worse, if we want to,” Twilight said uneasily. “That’s why Princess Luna’s speech makes me feel so uneasy.”
“You think we’re going to become like that again?” Pinkie asked.
“My... my brother proved that it wouldn’t be that hard. And if one of the more level-headed members of the Guard can succumb that easily... I really am scared that the rest of us might follow,” Twilight answered, a note of unease entering into her voice.
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Eh, it's late, we all feel genocidal at 1am
Anyways, fun times ahead
Why is it I force myself to stay up and read these even though I need to get up at 6? My guess, the best Fallout crossover since 'It Must Be Tuesday' and 'Fallout: Equestria'.
3032403 no it's 12:16 am
Ha it's 1:35 am where I am but I don't care I always stay up late
3032475 Wrong. It's 6:37 PM. In another tone, good chapter, I might write my own Fallout based fic (Which would make it my third...) and possibly not fail harder than the impact of a Kinetic Missile from the Saga of Seven Suns book series, of which their impact force is that of a nuclear detonation.
I'm calling it now. Blueblood found a formula for rainbow napalm or something.
now please tell me we are going to see more of Thomas's companions!!!
3032588 that or rainbow acid rain. What ever it is it shall be called Agent Rainbow
You've been building up to the war for the better part of twenty chapters (as in, since back in 2012). For fuck's sake, start killing each other already!
Nice stuff and no wonder you were feeling that way towards genocide you do write about Ethan. And anyways this was late but hopefully things can get back on track. My advice = Courier, Lone Wanderer, and Scribe show all the ponies how the fighting is done.
3032845
Stop worrying so much. Now that I've got this far, the war sequence itself should be a relatively quick affair to write. Should. That is the key word, should.
3032793 Maybe weaponized tornados?
Awesome warm up, can't wait for the fight
Personally I'm hoping some/thing jumps off the airship and goes all heroic leap into the fray
I'd like to think that when Rarity said they didn't deserve to live, she was limiting herself the way Thomas does. Not that ALL diamond dogs deserve to die, just the ones who got no problem attacking innocents, kidnapping and enslaving women and children.
Yeah I know Celestia and Twilight are very much uneasy and against what's going on but I agree with Luna and (I'm surprised I'm saying this) with Blueblood too. If those dogs won't hesitate to go all out then the ponies should too. Those dogs made the soup, now they should eat it. Hell, even Blueblood himself said that this plan of his is still holding back.
3032588
YES! If Magical Happy-Land must get brutal, they will do so in the most adorable way possible! Death Rainbows from above!
PS - by the way, did Blueblood get hit on the noggin or something? Since when did he care about anything other than how good his looks in the mirror were?
3033054
Blueblood is being pragmatic. As long as Equestria stands, he gets a life of luxury and peace. He wants to keep that. Besides, nothing wrong with him doing something productive every now and then, right?
3033088 Yeah, and it also gives him a bit of actual characterization unlike his portrayal in the show which is nice.
3033088
Have you ever considered doing halo?
Oh and Master Chief or Thomas?
3033143
I'm considering a WoW crossover next. FlutterDruid turning into a bear and fucking someone over is a hilarious mental image.
Someone's been reading a Brief History of Equestria
3033146 www.memesay.com/script/timthumb.php?src=http://www.memesay.com/memes/DatAsh.jpg&h=400
did the image work?
I honestly don't see why they're all going AMAGAD NO, BAD ARMY.
I mean really, they get attacked by so many things so much.
If it wasn't for the Elements of McGuffin, Equestria would have been fucked over, idk, thrice now? And lookie here! A threat against which the Elements of McGuffin do squat! Gee, a big and stronk army sure would be useful! An army with a reputation, and the strength to keep it, like in Luna's speech is not by definition bad, honestly.
3033146
I vehemently oppose a wow crossover.
3032572 nope i was right. I'm Canadian.
3034164 I'm a Kiwi, we're morally, ethically, politically correct. It is also now 4:07 AM on the 13th of august.
3034169 well here in the city of Edmonton the time is 10:14 am. And Canada has the magestic moose and some polar bears
Part of me wants things to go the darkest way possible. It'd be so FUN!
Its easy to slip to the dark side, but its your heart and mind that always pulls you back. Just never forget what you are fighting for.
-I was trying to be poetic here-
Anyway, is Blueblood suggesting the use of weaponised "poisen joke"? That should be fun!
~Rarity is a bi-itch~
Ah, genocide: The first, last, and universal solution Spacebattles.net comes to for any problem that arises in a work of fiction. Not that Rarity's reaction doesn't have a solid historical precidence: For most of the history of the Anglosphere, that was the reaction of the general populace to most threats.
This war's been a long time coming.
Genocide? Double-U-em-Dees? KUNG-FU!
All we need for the next Fallout is a protagonist from the Southeastern US, ala Georgia. That would be wonderful if they did it well.
Shiva option FTMFW!
3034209 New Zealand is is nuclear free, enjoy your reactor meltdowns, I'll just be powering my house with the wind. Plus we have the Kiwi, the Kiwi Fruit, and some other things, including an extinct species of bird that could have been able to reliably hunt humans, if Maoris didn't slaughter everything bigger than a dog for food, and even then it'd be iffy for anything smaller.
3036950 you're thinking of japan, eh. I'm pretty sure Canada doesn't have nuclear power plants.
And admit it, you'd be pretty fucked going up one on one with a polar bear.
At least we can all rest easy knowing land sharks don't exist.
3035913 you mean the "they have scary weapons! Let's go kill the fuck out of them" approach? I've heard the United States likes that one.
3038152
Meanwhile, in Australia...
3038152 I think I'd do rather well against a polar bear, I know their one weakness, The Jandal. Also, before the europeans arrived, maoris had caused several species to go extinct, endangered dozens of others, and successfully warded off any form of foreign predators by killing and eating them. And when there weren't animals to eat, they'd eat eachother, because they weren't dumb enough. And I take that lack of land sharks as a challenge, should I ever become a biologist specialising in genetic engineering, I will try and make land sharks.
3038226 I'm sure the Australian Land Shark was killed off by the Dragodiles.
3038173 Nope, go further back, to when Americans were still "merely" British. Starts out:
"We must be friends and teach the natives about being 'civilized'." After an Indian attack: 
"We must kill them all in self-defense!" After reprisals: 
"We've gone too far!"
The same cycle can be seen in Colonial India and Africa.
3038651 NO YOU FOOL!! THAT COULD DESTROY THE WORLD!!!! D:
Edit: they were also a pain in the butt in the first "Rachet&Clank" game. (It was for the PS2)
3035689
At first I thought he was talking about weaponising Cloudsdale, but when they mentioned mixtures I started thinking rainbows. It's an interesting idea.
3040509 It can't be Worse than that species of venomous-fire breathing sentient spiders in my backyard.
Aerosol or vaporized rainbow would be as bad as OC spray or tear gas. Pressurize it in a can, add firecracker, light and chuck. Easy-peasy, pumpkin squeezy.
Fallout Three in one quote.
Genocide is a surprisingly palatable option in many cases. Making people agree with you on it is just a matter of making every alternative look or actually be even more abhorrent to either their moral compasses or their sense of self-worth and urge to protect. Genophage, or weaponized sterility, is probably the most 'moral' way to go, if you still need justifications. It's kind of surprising someone hasn't gone so far already.
3236704 In war, morale, and justified stuff, is just a blurred line. The diamond dogs are getting really vicious, and will probably be more so. And that thing Blueblood suggested made me think that something in the grey is going on. So yeah, I agree with your statement!