The Enola Gay

"May we see inside?" Celestia asked. Tibbits had hoped they wouldn't ask but he knew they would eventually. "Of corse but I will need to have some of my men secure some things before hand for safety." Tibbits said keeping his cool. "Very well." Celestia said. Tibbits now had a new task for his men, he needed one man to stand guard at each end of the bombay. If the ponies opened the hatch they would have acess to the bomb. Tibbits knew that even though the bomb was unarmed, it still posed a risk. "I don't know what their magic could do to it and frankly I DON'T want to find out." Tibbits told his men in their huddle. Two men entered the plane and stood by the hatches, guns drawn. "It's good!" Tibbits announced. One by one the ponies piled in. They seemed in awe of the hundreds of intruments in the cockpit and how they could tell everything from airspeed to altitude. "What's this little screen here?" Twilight asked from the flight engineer's seat. Tibbits walked over by her chair. "That's the radar. It can tell us where other aircraft are but it also has a bad tendancy to pick up flocks of seagulls." he said looking down at the round black screen. "Why isn't it showing anything?" Twilight asked. "Because it isn't on." Tibbits said flipping a switch. The screen came to life and a couple of green blurs appeared. "What are those?" Twilight asked. "The guards outside. This can detect objects as close as fifty feet and as far away as five miles." Tibbits said looking at the screen. "Thats amazing!" she said in awe of this technology. Tibbits saw the co-pilot demonstaiting how the controls worked to a blue pegusus in the pilot's seat. "Would you like to see a demonstation of the aircraft?" Tibbits asked the pegusus. Her eyes grew wide at this question. "YESYESYESYESYES!" she said excitedly. "Colonel Tibbits, since you are taking off anyways, would you please fly your aircraft to Canterlot for study?" Celestia asked. "Of corse. But you can't stay on board the aircraft." Tibbits replied. "And why is that?" Celestia asked, now noticing Tibbits' odd behavior. "The airplane has a maximum takeoff weight. If we exceed that the plane may stall and crash, and that wouldn't end well for alot of people." Tibbits said trying to stay relaxed. "Very well. But would you be able to carry any of these ponies?" Celestia asked waving her hoof in the direction of the six mares. "Well lets see, I'd say they're about the size of a Lab and probably around the same weight so maybe three, four at the most." Tibbits told Celestia. "Fine. Twilight, you and two of your friends stay onboard. We will meet you in Canterlot." Celestia said as she climbed out of the bomber. Twilight, two of her friends, and the men were the only ones left on the bomber. Tibbits waved for everyone to clear the props and the flight engineer started the engines. Tibbits turned the bomber and lined up with the far end of the grassy field. "Full flaps, superchargers low and latched, prop pitch full!" Tibbits called to the flight engineer. "Full flaps, superchargers are low and latched, prop pitch full!" he called back to Tibbits. "Lewis, we're gunna hold the brakes and let the engines get to max rpm then we start rolling." Tibbits told his co-pilot. Lewis mearly nodded and watched the rpm gauge. "Release brakes!" Tibbits ordered and the bomber jerked violantly forward. They were rolling and they kept getting closer to the fence on the other end of the feild. "Pull her up Paul!" came the excited cry from the navigator. "No I want her going as fast as possable when we take off!" Tibbits replied. Tibbits began to pull back on the controls and the bomber clawed towards the sky. Tibbits circled the field till he reached eight thousand feet then leveled out. "All right girls, lets see what she can do!" Tibbits yelled over the engines. The mares pupils shrank as they saw the grin on Tibbits' face. Tibbits began to turn the wheel till the bomber was at ninty degress. "Damn it Paul you know I get sick when you do aerobatics!" a voice from the waist of the plane said before he threw up. "Sorry Rob. Forgot you have a weaker stomach then your wife." Tibbits said laughing. "Kiss my ass Colonel." Rob replied before throwing up again. "So where is this Canterlot place?" Tibbits asked the girls who were now between the pilot's seats. "That place up ahead with all the towers." the blue pegusus said. "Never got the rest of you guy's names." Tibbits said looking at the pegusus and the orange pony beside her. "I'm Rainbow Dash." the pegusus said extending her hoof. Tibbits took his right hand off the control and shook her hoof then extended it to the orange mare. "Ah'm Applejack." the mare said as she shook his hand. "Nice to meet you." Tibbits said as he turned back to the windows to begin desending.

Tibbits landed the plane on a length of cobblestone road that was just long and strait enough to act as a runway. When the crew and ponies climbed out Celestia and Luna were waiting for them. "Welcome Colonel. Twilight how was the flight?" Celestia asked. "It was amazing Princess. Like nothing i've ever experienced. I never knew that a machine could fly." Twilight said excitedly. "Sounds like fun. Now Colonel could you assist out scientists in their research?" Celestia asked Tibbits. "Sure. But if they break anything I'm gunna be pissed." Tibbits said with a smirk. "Good. Luna, I want you to show the Colonel the research facility. I'll handle the other guests." Celestia said turning to her sister.Luna nodded and began leading Paul towards a large hanger like building surrounded by razor wire fences. As they got closer Tibbits could see ponies in lab coats waiting for them. "Good evening. I am Test Tube, head of research for the Princess'." the head pony said extending a hoof to Tibbits. After introductions the group entered the facility. "We have some of the most advanced devices in Equestria. We also have machines and other things that appear here from diffrent worlds." Test Tube said as they walked along. Suddenly something caught Tibbits' eye. "What's under that tarp?" Tibbits asked. "Peices of metal that were found in the woods. A tangled mess. Took us weeks to get all the parts separated. And we can't read what is writen on some of them. One peice has a rather odd mark on it" Test Tube said as he pulled the tarp off the table. Tibbits looked at the peices and saw the largest peice in the center. "German's. The mark on the big peice is German." Tibbits said as he stared at the peice. Remembering the Messershmitt fighters he had seen when he flew in Europe. "What kind of mark is it then?" Test Tube asked. "A swastika. On my planet it is a sign of the devil. The man it represents slaughtered six million innocent men, women, and children and it was often done brutally and painfully. We finally defeated that bastard after we let him run amuk for years." Tibbits said with anger starting to build in his voice. Test Tube heard this and quickly covered the peices. "Why did you let him do such things?" Luna asked. "We didn't know about it till we defeated him a few months ago. If we had know we would have fought harder to try and save more people." Tibbits said, his rage now turning to sadness. "Shall we move along? Colonel why don't we open the doors and you can bring the machine in here?" Test Tube asked. "Sounds good." Tibbits said as he turned to get the bomber.

The research ponies had seen machines before but nothing like this one that Tibbits had just parked in the center of the facility. "It's far bigger then I expected." Test Tube said as he stared at the giant silver beast that sat before him. Within minutes ponies were swarming all over the plane like bee's and a hive. Suddenly a pony approched Test Tube. "Sir, my geiger counter detected large amounts of radiation in the other side of the bulkhead." he said. "Luna, get your sister and the girls down here." Tibbits wispered. A look of fear spread across Luna's face at the Colonel's worried look. Test Tube looked at Tibbits. "Colonel, what's in the airplane?" Test Tube asked as he stepped closer to Tibbits. "When the Princess' arrive I will breif all of you on it. But for now I can't tell you." Tibbits said. As he walked over to a table near the plane he saw a pony was drawing the plane. The young stallion looked up at Tibbits who was watching him draw the bomber. "Looks good kid. You're one hell of an artist." Tibbits said as he sat down across from the pony. "Thanks. My family says it's a waste of time so I draw on my brakes here." the young stallion said as he went back to shadeing the underside of the bomber. Tibbits saw Luna enter with a slightly worried Celestia and the girls. Tibbits met them infront of the bomber. "Celestia, Luna, come with me." Tibbits said as he pointed to the Princess'. As they entered the plane they saw ponies studying the bomber's controls. "Everyone out!" Tibbits ordered. The ponies piled out and the look of worry on Celestia and Luna's faces intensified. Tibbits walked over to the bulkhead and opened the hatch to the bombay. He stepped inside, followed by the Princess'. Tibbits walked over and pulled a tarp off an object hanging from the top of the bombay. It had a narrow shape and a blunt front and was about ten feet long. "What is that?" Luna asked. "An atom bomb. What's the largest city in Equestria?" Tibbits asked Celestia. "Manehatten. It has about one million ponies there." Celestia replied. "Well this device could take a city that size and turn it to ash and rubble in seconds." Tibbits said. The Princess' looks of worry turned to horror. "Who would use such a device?" Celestia asked. "My government. They hand picked me to deliver this device on an enemy city. They say it will kill hundreds of thousands but will save millions from being killed by invadeing the enemy country." Tibbits said. "We were on our way to drop it" he continued "when we arrived here. We developed this to end the war. But they say that other countries are working on their own. We don't want that so we keep the secrets of the bomb to ourselfs." Tibbits looked down and suddenly remembered something. The bomb had been armed after takeoff back on earth. The bomb was live! "We need to breif the others on this." Tibbits said, not telling the Princess' his relization.

As they approched the others their faces turned to consern upon seeing the Princess' faces. After giving a breif description about the war on earth Tibbits told them about the bomb that would end it. "The way I see it we have two options." Tibbits said. "We either disarm it and risk detonating it by accidental static discharge in this metal building or we drop and detonate it in a remote unpopulated area." "So you are sure there is no way we can use magic to disarm it?" Twilight asked. "Posative. I have no clue what magic could do to it and I don't want to find out this close to it either." Tibbits replied. "Is there a desart in Equestria?" the Colonel asked. "Yes why?" Celestia asked. "Then it's decided." Tibbits said "We'll drop the bomb in the desart and land the bomber back here."