Ponyville

25 hours before the blasts

     Twilight and Spike were sorting books in the library when, suddenly, Spike burped a green flame and out popped a letter from princess Celestia. Spike managed to catch the letter with one hand and started to walk over to Twilight. “Hey, Twilight,” he called as he wielded the letter.

     Twilight had her head buried in the bookshelf, trying to reach a small book in the back. “Twilight,” Spike called again, with a little more force. Twilight heard Spike this time, and pulled her head out. “What is it?” she asked. Spike outstretched his arm and replied “This.” Twilight reached her hoof out and grasped the letter. “Thanks Spike,” she said with a smile. Spike felt a sensation in his heart by just seeing her smile. “If only she knew,” he thought to himself.

     Twilight unrolled the letter and began to read it to herself.

“My Most Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle

     I regret to inform you that you must attend an emergency conference in The Canterlot Castell, with other gifted unicorns like yourself. It is of critical importance that you attend; fore it is a matter of national security. I suggest that you use your teleportation spell as soon as you finish reading this. The meeting is at 11:00 AM Canterlot time. You will be informed of the details upon your arrival.

Sincerely, Princess Celestia”

     Twilight was a little shocked after she finished reading. This wasn’t like the princess at all; there must be something very wrong.

“Spike,” Twilight said with a slight quiver in her voice. “I need you to lock all the doors, windows, everything. Then shut the blinds and go to the basement. I’m going to be gone for a little while.”

“What? Why?”

“Something bad might happen, but I don’t know what it is yet.”

“T-Twilight, what did the princess tell you?”

Twilight handed Spike the letter and said “Here.” Spike quickly snatched it and began to read the letter. He had fear clearly visible on his face, yet neither of them knew what they were afraid of. It could very well be nothing. Despite this Spike told her “Go, now,” as he finished reading. Twilight looked to her clock and saw that it was 10:53. “Hey Spike,” Twilight said as she walked towards him. “I’ll be back soon. Ok.” Spike nodded, but seemed to be in some sort of daze. Twilight then hugged him and quickly kissed him on the cheek. “It’ll be ok,” she said in a comforting tone. Spike instantly snapped out of it and looked up at Twilight while trying not to blush. He barely managed to keep it all together enough to reply “ok,” but inside his heart was melting.  Spike was now sure that he didn’t like Rarity one bit and was falling hard for Twilight. She backed away from him when her horn began to glow. Then there was a bright purple flash and she was gone.

     Once Twilight had left Spike walked over to a picture of her and stared at it for several minutes. Spike slowly reached out to the picture and lifted it off the small, wooden table. He held it up in front of him, and then hugged it tightly. “I love you, Twilight. I’m sorry it took so long for me to see that,” he whispered as a teardrop rolled down his cheek.

     Twilight appeared in the middle of Canterlot Castle along with a few other unicorns. One of whom was Trixi. “Trixi?” Twilight said in a confused tone. “Twilight?” Trixi replied in the same tone. “You’re one of Celestia’s students?” Twilight asked in disbelief. “You are t-“ Trixi was cut off there by one of the royal guards “Please follow me to the briefing room.” Twilight and the others did as the guard instructed and followed him down a hallway. It was lined with large windows that flooded the long corridor with light. As they walked down the hall Twilight and Trixi kept shooting quick glances at each other. The guard then quickly came to a stop and turned towards the group. He opened a steel door at the end of the hall and outstretched his arm towards the entrance. The group of unicorns entered into the darkened room one by one. There was a large white screen at the back of the room with a long table in front of it, and at the end of the table sat a majestic Princess Celestia. Once everyone was inside, the guard shut the thick, steel door. When he did so a metallic sound emanated from the door. Twilight assumed it was the lock.

“Welcome everypony,” Princess Celestia greeted. “I wish we were all here under better circumstances, but I’m afraid not. You’re all here because you’re the best of the best in the field of magic and we need you talents to help us. On August thirteenth a maximum security facility in The Kingdom of The Griffons was attacked. All the guards across the facility were found dead.” Some of the ponies covered their mouths. “This facility held over one hundred nuclear warheads. Somehow the attackers managed to break in and steel fifteen of these weapons.” Everyone in the room gasped in horror. “We believe the group is only made of unicorns, because of the security pictures we have, and because only a unicorn can set off this type of weapon,” She then paused as her horn began to gleam and the white screen was illuminated with a picture. It was a picture of a cylindrical device with a small hole in the center, with lines running to both ends. “By placing a horn into the firing mechanism.” she continued. “This will either set it off, start a timer, or trigger some other device. If this port is glowing blue that means the bomb has been activated.” Then a second picture appeared replacing the first. It showed twelve unicorns with glowing white eyes next to a row of the weapons. “This was taken by a security camera inside the bunker. It shows what the bombs we’re after look like and what the terrorists look like as well,” she added. Then a third picture appeared showing the unicorns levitating the weapons and teleporting them somewhere else. “This was taken thirty seconds after the last picture,” Celestia commented. “And this is the final picture we have from the bunker,” she said as the screen displayed an image of a bright green-white flash encompassing all of the unicorns. “They pulled all of this off in a matter of ninety seconds. We still do not know how they managed to access these weapons, since there was a magic disrupting field in place. This means they couldn’t teleport in or out. Since this clearly isn’t the case, we believe they were using some form of new and very powerful magic in order to do this.” The princess looked back to the unicorns in the room and continued. “We believe they are part of a homegrown terrorist organization. We also believe that their motives are not driven by religion. They just simply wish to see Equestria fall.” One of the unicorns then spoke up and asked “Princes Celestia, What is the yield of the bombs?” The princess looked over to him and replied “The weapons are all five megatons.” A few ponies’’ eyes widened as others gasped. The rest remained silent, not knowing what that meant. Celestia saw this and decided to fill them in. “That means that the blast radius will be around twenty to thirty miles and fallout will probably reach out as far as three hundred miles.” The rest of the unicorns gasped. Princess Celestia then continued “This is where you come in. As of yesterday we believe these warheads have made their way into Equestria. At 9:35 PM Canterlot time, an Equestria-Griffin Kingdom border checkpoint was attacked. The guards were all found dead, as well.” Celestia’s horn lit up once more to display a white delivery truck on the screen. “There were fifteen of these delivery trucks shown crossing into Equestria. We are almost certain they have the bombs. However their targets remain unclear. So we have narrowed it down to these likely cities. Each of you is being assigned to one of them. The probable targets are as follows; Canterlot, Manehatten, Fillydelphia, Hoofington, Trottingham, New Saddle, Canterbury, Stalliongrad, Stableside, Ponyville, Detrot, Appleloosa, Hoofswell, Haliflanks, and Trampelvaina.” Twilight didn’t listen past Ponyville. She was just too fixated on that one word. But Princess Celestia was still talking. “All we know is that the bombs are probably in a large shipping crate near the downtown area of their targets.” Celestia then paused for a moment and continued. “Listen everypony, you have all been chosen to disarm these warheads. I’d trust you all with my life, and now this country is.” Princess Celestia walked over to a wooden table by the screen and lifted a few half sheets of paper off of it. “Please find your name on the cards and your city is on the back.” She said as she laid the stack of cards on to the table. The nearest pony took one card and passed it to the next. The stack soon reached Twilight. By chance her name was on top of the stack. She reached down and picked up her card. Before she flipped it she passed the stack to the next pony, but as she did so the door began to open. “Now once you have been assigned you your city please leave the room. And remember, this is all classified information. If you tell anyone it is punishable by law.” Princess Celestia added.

     Twilight stood and walked out of the room along with nearly every other pony there. As she stood in the hall she flipped the card over to see “Ponyville” in bold letters. “I guess the princess knew this one was personal for me.” She thought to herself. As the ponies stood in the hallway they began to teleport back to where they came. When the other ponies disappeared around her Twilight just stared at her little card. Oddly though she wasn’t as scared as you’d expect, she was actually rather calm about the whole matter.

     Princess Celestia walked out of the dimly lit room to see one pony in the hall. She walked over to Twilight and placed her hoof on her shoulder. “I’m sure it’ll be. These are all very smart ponies,” she said warmly. Twilight looked up at her and replied “I pray that it will all be ok.” Celestia had one last thing to say before Twilight left. “Twilight, good luck and god bless you.” “God bless you too princess.” And with that Twilight vanished in a blinding flash of purple. Neither of them knew it at the time, but that would be the last time they ever saw each other again. If they had known this they probably would have had made the most of it, but of course none of us ever know when we’re about to lose someone we care about, and always find us kicking ourselves because of it.

     Spike was lying on the ground and holding Twilight’s picture when she appeared. “I’m home Spike.” She called. Spike was scared by her sudden arrival and almost dropped the picture. Twilight looked over to see Spike holding her picture and staring at her.

“Um, Spike what are you doing?” she asked.

“Oh, I didn’t see you there Twi. This picture fell over so I was putting it back up.” He lied.

Twilight smiled and said “Oh, well thank you Spike.” Seeing her friend almost made her forget what she had just learned, and it was wonderful. But all good things must end, no matter how badly we wish they didn’t.

At that moment Spike was imagining saying “I love you so much!” but instead he said “You’re welcome Twi.” And then he remembered why she had left. “So what happened at the meeting?” he asked.

Twilight felt a little awkward having to reply “I can’t tell you. The princess wouldn’t allow it.”

“Oh,” Spike said in a slightly disappointed tone.

“Hey, I can tell you one thing though.” Twilight said to make him feel better, and because it was important. Spike looked up and was eager to know what it was.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Have you seen any white delivery trucks parked in odd places by downtown?”

Spike was confused by the very specific question and replied “Uh no. why?”

That was about the reaction she was expecting from him. “It’s very important that I know Spike. It’s about what happened at the castell.”

Spike was starting to understand the importance and how it could possibly be a danger to them, but still didn’t understand why she needed to know this. “Did someone steel something from the princess?” he thought to himself. “Well, on second thought I did see a delivery truck down the street from Pinkie’s house. It was just parked there with no one around it, at least I didn’t see anyone.”

“Spike when did you see it?!” Twilight almost screamed.

Spike jumped when Twilight yelled at him and quickly replied “A few hours ago. I was out at the store getting something from Mrs. Cake and I saw it parked in an ally.”

     Twilight’s eyes widened “Take me now!” Twilight yelled. Spike was scared by her but didn’t let her know it. He just kept quiet and started walking towards the door. Once they reached it Spike outstretched a shaking hand and opened the door. Twilight followed him and was completely unaware of his fears. If she did know she’d be very upset with herself for scaring him like that.

     Spike walked down the street to pinkie’s house and kept looking in between buildings, but couldn’t find it. “Spike,” Twilight said. “Are you sure you know where it is?” “Yes, it’s- it’s uh.” Spike replied nervously as he looked down the alley where he saw the truck. “It was just there!” he exclaimed. Twilight looked down the alley as well and as she looked all color left her face. “It should be here!” Spike yelled. “Hey, maybe it was the wrong truck,” Twilight said trying to convince Spike, and herself, that this was true. “Yeah, because you need to deliver something to a vacant building.” Twilight didn’t even notice that until Spike mentioned it. That’s when it hit her. She had found the bomb; it was in one of the old buildings.

“Spike let’s go home”

He was a little confused “Why? Isn’t this what you wanted?”

“Let’s just go.”

“Fine.”

     The two walked back home and as they did so Twilight said “When we get home I’ve got something to tell you.” Spike’s face lit up. “Please say you like me! Please say you like me! Please say you like me!” he randomly thought to himself. As they approached the path to their home Twilight noticed that the sky was getting darker. Spike kept looking up at Twilight and then away every few seconds. She must not have noticed because she never did the same or said anything about it. When they reached the door and Spike ran forward to open it. “No no no, I’ve got it,” he said cheerfully. Twilight smiled and said “Thank you Spike.” Once they were inside he closed the door and asked “So what did you want to tell me?” Spike was almost completely prepared for her to say she loved him by now, or at least that’s what he was convinced she’d say. “Well it’s about the meeting,” Twilight replied. He could feel his heart plummeting. “Oh,” he said in a very disappointed voice.

“Are you ok?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah, go on.”

“Ok, well if I tell you this you can never tell anyone else. Ok?”

Spike was now very eager to find out what it was now. “Ok,” he replied.

Twilight took in a deep breath and began to speak, rather quickly, “Spike the truck you saw has a bomb inside of it and all across Equestria other bombs just like it are getting ready to go off. Now the only reason I’m telling you this is because I need your help. And Spike if you tell anyone that I told you this I will be banished for treason. You will never see me again. Do you understand that?”

Spike was in shock after hearing all that Twilight had to say. “I’ll-I’ll never tell.” He stuttered. “Well what do we have to do?” he said very nervously. This wasn’t what he was expecting at all.

“Stop it from happening. I have to sneak in to the building and get the bomb then get back here.”

“Well what do you need me for?”

“Go to the store and get these.” Twilight walked over to her desk and picked up a quill with the glow of her horn. She quickly wrote something down and after she finished she handed it to spike.

He looked down at the note and asked “A radio? Hey wait a second. Why didn’t we just get this while we were out?”

“Did you really want to carry all of this stuff in broad daylight? We don’t know who’s a terrost and who’s not.”

Spike started to look a little scared. “Ok. Do you really think we’ll need all of this?”

“I hope not. But there are fifteen bombs and I don’t know if everypony will get them all.”

Spikes jaw dropped. “Now go,” Twilight ordered. “We don’t have much time.” “Ok,” he said while trying not to cry in fear. Spike then walked out of the library and ran into Ponyville as fast as he could.

     Twilight hurried up to her bed room and found the black suit she wore when she was trying to break into Canterlot Castell. As she put it on she couldn’t stop thinking about what she was about to do and how dangerous it was. Twilight pulled the zipper up and looked in the mirror. “Ok,” she said to herself. “Let’s do this.” And with that she left the library.

       Spike kept getting weird looks at the pharmacy when people saw him carrying about twenty bottles of potassium iodine to the register. “I hope this is enough,” he thought to himself.

     Twilight had made it to the back of the building and was about to go into the window, when she heard a noise. She was horrified because she didn’t know where it came from. She thought it may have been one of the unicorns, but she turned around to see that a rat had caused the sound. Twilight breathed a great sigh of relief at the site.

     She then reached over to an old window and lifted it. It was just wide enough for her to slide inside, and she quickly did so. The room reeked of mildew and rot. She wanted to cough, but couldn’t, it was too risky. So she suppressed it as much as she could. She looked around to see the walls were moldy and falling apart. It was horrible. Then suddenly she heard a noise. It was definitely a pony this time. Somepony was talking and it was getting closer.

     Twilight was scared to death. She had to hide but there was nowhere to hide. But then she noticed something. The walls that had rotted away reviled a few support beams. Running out of time and ideas Twilight quickly climbed up the decaying wall. The boards were slick with mold and moisture, but she had no choice, fore it was her last hope for survival. Just as her hoof reached the rafters two unicorns entered the building. As she watched them she felt something crawl across her hoof and wanted to scream, but managed not to. She hoped that was the last encounter with the six-legged kind, for the night. The two unicorns down below didn’t say anything as they walked by, thankfully they hadn’t noticed a thing. They kept on path and disappeared behind a corner. But Twilight still didn’t move, and it’s a good thing that she didn’t because they quickly came back. They came back with a large crate and something else, guns. They were apparently levitating it to another room. That’s when Twilight had an idea, but she only had one shot at it, or else she’d surly be killed. As they got closer Twilight closed her eyes and thought “It’s now or never.” She then quickly jumped down from the rafters, in a burst of bravery, and landed on the crate. The two unicorns immediately dropped it and each pulled out an automatic rifle. Twilight closed her eyes and encased herself in a bright flash, and with that her, and the crate, were gone.

     She appeared in her basement and at the moment she did so she heard a short burst of machine gun fire in the distance, which was soon followed by police sirens. She just sat there for a moment, still in disbelief of what she had just accomplished. Twilight looked down at what she’d taken and climbed off of it. Even though she assumed it was the bomb, she wanted to be sure. So with the gleam of her horn she popped the crate’s lid open with a loud creek, and there before her was a five megaton nuclear warhead. She looked at the firing mechanism and saw that it was still off. She then breathed a second, well deserved, sigh of relief.

     Spike went back to the library and dropped off what he could find, but he was having trouble finding the certain maps twilight had requested, so he was off to the store again. But unfortunately by this hour most were closed. It was rather frustrating for the young dragon. So as a last resort he decided to go to his friend’s houses. He started with Rarity, mainly because she was the closest at the moment. As he raced down the path to her house as quickly as his little legs would take him he tripped over something. He quickly stood back up to see a small rock protruding from the ground. In that moment he looked around and it looked as if Ponyville was a ghost town. It’s seemingly only inhabitant was a small, exhausted, purple dragon. No matter how much Spike liked it, his quick break didn’t last too long, and quickly he started running, full speed, in the direction of the white unicorn’s house. Soon after he started up again Rarity’s house came into view, and it’s a good thing too, Spike was dying of exhaustion. Despite this he dashed towards it and started banging on the door as loudly as a little dragon could.

     An exhausted Rarity opened the door and saw Spike standing there. Spike looked up and screamed when he saw her. She had some kind of green facial cream smeared onto her fur and with this lighting she looked like a zombie or a Frankenstein straight out of a horror movie. “Spike, it’s ok.” He then calmed down drastically after hearing her speak to him. “Now what are you doing here, at this hour?” she asked curiously. An out of breath Spike began to reply, in between the panting, “I… Need… Map... For…” He was almost about to hit the ground and faint from a lack of oxygen. His little lungs needed to be devoted to breathing, not speaking. “Come in Spike, you look like you’re about to pass out,” Rarity offered. Spike didn’t protest and followed her inside while still panting heavily.

     “Spike come sit down,” Rarity said as she brought him to the sofa. Spike did as he was asked and Rarity continued to say “Now let me get you some water ok.” Spike nodded while still trying to catch his breath. She walked into the kitchen for no longer than thirty seconds but as she approached him, with a glass of water in one hoof, she realized he had fallen asleep. She smiled a little while thinking the site was actually kind of cute and then set the glass down on a black table at the end of the sofa. The glass made a clinking noise as she placed it, but Spike was out cold. Not even an earthquake could wake him up. Rarity then walked off and returned momentarily with a blanket. She smiled while looking at the baby dragon sleep. She then gently placed the warm blanket on top of him and quietly walked back to her bedroom. Spike pulled the blanket closer to him as he dreamed, of Twilight. It was a peaceful moment for him at the end of a chaotic day, but of course it too wouldn’t last.

10 hours after the blasts

     Twilight was lightly slapping an unconscious Rainbow Dash as she prayed for her friend to awake. Tears rolled off her face as she stared at a seemingly comatose mare. “I’m sorry Rainbow,” Twilight said, as she reared back. Then with all of her strength she smacked the face of the pegasus. Rainbow Dash gasped as soon as the hoof struck her. Clinching her face in pain she exclaimed “What was that for?!” She was answered by a tight embrace from Twilight. “I’m so sorry Rainbow Dash!” She said with tears streaming down her face. “I just didn’t know what else to do. I was so scared!” Suddenly Twilight realized that she had just hugged Rainbow Dash once more. She then slowly backed away from her friend. As Twilight backed away Rainbow Dash saw the look on her face. “It’s ok,” she said assuring her that she was clean. “I washed as good as possible.” Twilight smiled and resumed her hug. “So why were you on the floor,” she asked as she finished the embrace. Rainbow Dash blushed slightly in embarrassment.

“Uh, well I’m not used to your shower and I… uh, fell.”

“You didn’t pass out because of anything else?” Twilight asked just trying to be sure this wasn’t radiation related.

“No, I’m sure Twi. I just slipped and must have smacked my head pretty good.”

Twilight became instantly worried after hearing that, but she was still much less worried about the possibility of radiation poisoning. “Just to be sure can I ask you a few questions?”

“Sure.”

“Have you had any nausea or vomiting?”

“No.”

“Any headaches?”

“Nope.”

“Do you feel tired at all?”

“Not really. I had a good nap on the floor.”

“Have you seen any flashes of light or blured vision?”

“Nope, I can see just fine.”

“How long ago were you near Canterlot?”

“Nine or eight hours ago.”

“In that case you should be fine. If you don’t have any symptoms by now you’re ok. It usually takes two to three hours for radiation poisoning to set in, if not sooner depending on your dosage. And it also sounds like you don’t have a concussion, thankfully.”

Rainbow Dash was a little blown away from Twilight’s knowledge on the subjects. “Hey Twi, how do you know so much about radiation?”

“Oh, you know. Books.”

“Oh yeah, Egghead Twilight. How could I forget?” Rainbow Dash joked.

“Yeah, well my eggheadedness paid off now didn’t it?”

“Yeah I guess so.”

“Oh I almost forgot. Which way was the wind blowing when you were near Canterlot?”

“West. Why?”

“Oh good. That means the radiation is getting blown away from us... I’ve just been really worried about that because the Canterlot bomb was the closest. Anyways, that’s probably why you don’t have any radiation sickness.”

“Oh well that’s good… Hey Twilight, can I stay here for tonight?”

“Of course you can.” Twilight said as she smiled kindly at Rainbow Dash. She understood her request perfectly fine and was a little glad that her friend was going to be staying here. After all that had happened it was nice to have more loved ones nearby. “Thank you.” Replied Rainbow Dash as she returned a smile. Twilight looked over to the clock to see the hands displaying 10:53. She then looked over to Rainbow Dash and said “Hey Spike and I should probably go to bed. It’s getting a little late.” “Oh ok,” replied Rainbow Dash. “I think I’ll catch up on a few Daring Do books before bed anyways.” Twilight stood up and began to walk away when she said “Ok, good night… ya egghead.” Rainbow Dash just rolled her eyes as she smiled slightly and stood up herself, to walk over to a bookshelf.

     Twilight was getting ready to lie down when Spike walked in. He walked over to his small bed at the foot of hers and just before he laid down Twilight asked “Hey Spike, would you like to sleep in my bed… Now that we’re together?” Spike was a little surprised by her question and, despite what he wanted to say, he replied “No, that’s ok. I’m fine sleeping here.” Twilight lifted the sheets and slid underneath. “Well, ok.” She replied. Twilight’s horn began to glow and the candle that’s light filled the room went out. “Good night Spike.” “Good night Twilight.”

     A few hours later Twilight felt the bed moving, as if someone were getting into it. She opened her eyes to see Spike positioning the sheets around him. Twilight quickly closed her eyes so that he wouldn’t notice he had awakened her. But as Spike laid his head next to hers she couldn’t help but smile. Spike looked over at her as he quit shifting in the bed and then leaned over just a little to kiss her on the forehead. “I love you, Twilight,” he said as he smiled at her. Spike slowly rolled over, while trying to be quiet, and closed his eyes. As Twilight laid next to him she felt a teardrop roll off her cheek, a tear of happiness. Despite all that had happened today she was still happy, because she had found true love. Yet she was still saddened by the loss of her friends. But, as all things in life, nothing is ever truly perfect.