A day in the life of a wartime explosives expert
The Battle of Rainbow Falls
The wind buffeted me as we flew away from the relative safety of Rainbow Falls. It was hardly past dawn. But a new day meant a new mission. Word was that the crystal empire had established a camp near by. Needless to say we could let them keep a forward base that close if we wanted to keep Rainbow Falls safe… Well as safe as any town near the battle lines can be anyway.
I’m Light Seeker. You don’t know me. Why would you? Before the war I was just a kid, well, I guess I am still that. Point is I was fresh out of school, an apprentice in the Cloudsdale machine shop. Heck, I’d just earned my cutie mark thanks to some new friends I’d met in Ponyville, called themselves the cutie mark crusaders. But that’s beside the point.
The thing is, not many pegasi take an interest in engineering. When you’re born with wings and can shape the very weather around you with your bare hooves, why would they? Probably doesn’t help that Cloudsdale isn’t exactly a city of machines either. Want to guess what kinds of machines we saw come into the Cloudsdale machine shop for repairs? Yeah… the ones from the weather factory or the fireworks launchers from the Wonder Bolts’ shows, and that was it. Guess which one I liked to work on. But more than that, I liked to make my own homemade fireworks too.
“Okay everypony, you know the drill. Protect the package until it’s delivered, then hit hard and fast!” Spitfire said.
Yeah that’s right Spitfire, the captain of the Wonder Bolts. Man I bet my Ponyville friends would be jealous that I get to fly with the Wonder Bolts, especially Scootaloo. Okay, maybe they’re like a hundred feet in front of me, and I’m just the kid who has to follow them around, but close enough. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever written them a letter since I got dragged into the whole mess.
Now that I think about it, I haven’t written home in a while either. Of course the reason I stopped writing home was when I noticed my last three letters were the same two lines. ‘Still alive. War is still hell.’ Though the last one did mention that I wasn’t going to bother writing again until I had something to say. Not sure it would even matter anymore anyway. Mom wasn’t exactly the pacifist type either, so once the guard had recruited me I’d bet she signed up on her own too, just like dad.
Oh yeah. You’re probably wondering why a colt, half the size of a full-grown pony is anywhere near the front lines of a war zone, aren’t you?
Remember that cutie mark I mentioned? I got it as a result of a rocketry experiment I did. Turns out there are maybe a few dozen ponies in all of Equestria that are comfortable handling weapons-grade explosives. So far the only other explosives experts I’ve run into have all been earth ponies, and usually former miners too.
Long story short, about a month after my dad went off to war, two members of the E.U.P. Guard came walking into the Cloudsdale machine shop looking for me. Well, us I guess, they asked my mentor if he would join the guard too. They made it fairly clear that there weren’t that many pegasus ponies who were capable of being combat engineers, and when they confirmed that I made my own fireworks they practically ordered me to come join, waved the age limit for me and everything. That’s probably why I got assigned to support the Wonder Bolts. I may be an average flyer but I’ve got wings, so at least I can follow them.
Oh man, that reminds me. You should’ve seen how mad Spitfire was when I showed up with the assignment papers. She dragged my tail all the way back to Cloudsdale, stormed right into the general’s office and chewed him out, just to confirm that I was really suppose to be her new explosives expert. Even after he conferred it she still yelled at him for sending her a kid. Sorrin told me not to take it personally and that Spitfire was still angry over the loss of Crescent. Not sure who that was, but if I was the new explosives expert I’m guessing that he was their old explosives expert. Anyway, that’s how I ended up in the E.U.P.
And that package Spitfire mentioned, that’s me. Or rather it’s the two rocket launchers strapped to my sides. I made them myself when the guards who’d recruited me asked if it was possible to weaponize a fireworks launcher. Well technically they’d asked me that first. I whipped them up right there on the spot, though I expected them to take the rocket launchers, not me. In hindsight I should have seen that one coming, I mean I made them myself and only I can make the rockets for them. Well anypony could make the rockets, but only I know the exact tolerances of these rocket launchers. So yeah, it makes since that they expected me to stay with them.
Looks like the time for idle thoughts is over. We just came around a bend and I see a crystal empire camp on the plateau up ahead. They’ve got canvas tents, that’s good. I hear the unit that travels with Sombra doesn’t even bring tents. He just uses his magic to bring these creepy looking crystals up out of the ground in the shape of tents. But last I heard he was leading a siege against Vanhoover.
We climbed some as we neared the camp. I gave the camp a quick look, but I kept my ears tuned to the Wonder Bolts ahead of me, Spitfire, Sorrin, and Rainbow Dash. Any second now Spitfire would decide what she wanted me to hit to open the attack.
Rainbow Dash… now there was a mare with an interesting story. I heard she joined the E.U.P. as soon as the war broke out. On top of that they tell me she made Wonder Bolt after just one battle. Something to do with combat valor promotions letting her skip ranks. I don’t know how much of that’s true, I mean she was already a Wonder Bolt before I got here. I’m inclined to believe it though. She had an eye patch back then. Her eye has since healed enough that there’s just a scar on the skin by the eye now, but I know for a fact that she got that one fighting for Equestria. Not sure how her ear got nicked but war does seem to be a safe bet.
“Center cart, and Command tent!” Spitfire yelled.
That’s my cue.
More or less in the middle of the camp was a supply cart, maybe wagon would have been the better description given its size. And judging from where her hoof was pointed, I’m guessing the big tent fifty yards to the left of that was the one she was calling the command tent.
Two targets. Two rocket launchers. Yeah, that’s all I’ve got. But it’s enough, besides between those and the rest of my gear I'm not sure I could fly if I had to carry much more. As I lined up the first shot I gave a quick glance at my rocket launchers. Yep, the little red lights were glowing, that means the safeties are off. I installed those after my first miss fire. Thank goodness nopony was hurt by that little mistake.
Regardless they were ready and my body was pointed at the wagon, so I pushed the button on my left side launcher. Nothing like the smell of rocket propellant in the morning, I could live without the burst of heat on the leading edge of my wings when I fire the rockets though. Not that my discomfort mattered, there were bigger problems in the world than that, and I still had a job to do.
With a flap of my wings I turned myself to point at the second target and tapped the button on the right side launcher. Another whiff of burning chemicals, another blast of heat. I timed this one better though. My wings were all the way up when that one went out, so the heat didn’t really bother me at all.
At this range it took a second, maybe a second and a half for the rockets to reach their targets. The first one hit the ground right by one of the wagon’s wheels. Nice thing about explosives, close enough is good enough. A fourth of the wagon turned into splinters instantly and the rest was still sundered by the blast. Was that a flaming cheese wheel? Must have been their food supplies. That’s too bad, I’d rather capture that stuff, here’s hoping that the archers kept their spare arrows in the same wagon.
The second rocket hit the actual command tent. I might not be a rocket launcher sniper but I’ll be danged if I’d miss a target that big even from this far away. The blast collapsed part of the tent and set the whole thing on fire. I couldn’t help but frown, I probably just killed some ponies. Enemies or not it’s not a thought I ever want to like. I’ve never seen my rockets kill anypony, and I’ve never had the courage to inspect sites like the command tent after the battles are over. Thankfully none of the adults have ever bothered to tell me how many enemy kills are attributed to me and my rocket launchers either. Let’s hope it stays that way.
As if the sound of my rockets exploding was the starter’s gun to a race, the Wonder Bolts dove. Except for Rainbow Dash, she did a slight upward loop first and gave a weird flap of her wings that whipped up a small cloud before she zipped down toward the enemy camp. I think she used to be a weather pony before the war. Not sure though, before the war I’d only really heard her name from Scootaloo, she’s the president of the Rainbow Dash fan club after all. Of course from what Scoots told me I’d have thought Rainbow was a stunt pony even better than the Wonder Bolts, so who knows.
Aside from the Wonder Bolts, eighteen other pegasus ponies in E.U.P. armor followed their lead and joined the fight. I don’t think they’re Wonder Bolts though, just enlisted ponies like me. I’m fairly sure just the three ponies that make up Spitfire’s wing are Wonder Bolts.
As for me, I landed on the cloud Miss Dash had whipped up. Now that my rockets were spent I was done fighting. I mean come on! I’m just a kid! What am I going to do? Win a hoof fight against a full-grown pony? Forgive me if I doubt that. Besides now that the opening strike was done it’s time I get back to my standard mission. So I reached into my saddlebags and pulled out my binoculars.
By now everypony was on the ground. Seems most of the crystal ponies are of the earth pony variety. That keeps the fighting on the ground. Which is fine by me. No doubt that’s why Rainbow Dash makes a cloud for me before heading in. Keeps me high and away enough that I don’t have to worry about anything. Well every once in a while an archer might take a shot at me, but they’ve never come close to hitting me. I think it’s the E.U.P. armor I’m wearing, it looks the same as all the other E.U.P. armor, so I think they think I’m small because I’m an adult and farther away than I actually am. Although it doesn’t seem like anypony is interested in shooting at me today.
As for my mission after the fighting starts, It’s simple. First I look over the immediate battlefield. Wow! Rainbow has a mean uppercut. Spitfire’s dive bomb can impress too. Oh hey, there’s three ponies in golden royal guard armor, I’d bet they’re the scouting party that found the camp and called in the air strike in the first place.
I know it may sound like I’m just being a spectator, but I’m paying just as much attention to the ground near all of our guys as I am to our actual forces. Explosives expert remember? The enemy has them too. They lay landmines, and I disarm them.
Looks like none of our guys are near any landmines, not that I was expecting to find any in the middle camp. I mean that would just be stupid to lay mines in your own camp. But now that I know for certain that my allies are safe, well safe from explosives anyway, I can try looking in more logical places. Like the northern pass, follow that and an earth pony would need maybe forty minutes to reach Rainbow Falls.
Bingo! Right there, by the northern entrance to the camp were four small mounds of recently dug dirt. Personally I’m not sure what they hoped to accomplish with them. I guess if you were busy trading punches with a crystal empire soldier you might not notice them, but to me they might as well have hung a neon sign saying ‘minefield’ over them.
Well time to get to work.
I opened my wings and leapt off the cloud, heading for the mines or the sky above them anyway. Four mines, so I reached into my right side saddlebag and pulled out four flags. I think they’re actually called lawn darts or something. They’re really big darts with small red flags on their tail end. Anyway as soon as I got close enough I started throwing them, one toward each of the mines. Doesn’t really matter if they land right next to the mines or not. Even as the darts landed the reaction was immediate, two ponies saw the red flags and quickly moved their brawl further away. Not that they were in range of the mines anyway, but the fear of explosives really seems to strike most ponies. Personally I blame their ignorance. I mean mines of that size have a kill radius of five feet tops, thirty if you take an unlucky hit from the shrapnel.
I guess the why doesn’t matter, now that I have room to work, it’s time to get to the disarming part of my job. Reaching into my left side saddlebag I pulled out a rock about the side of my hoof. Yep a rock. With it firmly pinned between my front hooves I hovered over head until I lined it up with one of the mines below, and then I dropped it. Me, I’m a good hundred and fifty feet up, no way am I in range of anything more then a minor gust of wind.
*Boom!*
Did I say disarm? Disarm, detonate when no pony was in range, don’t bother me with details. Either way it keeps our guys safe. Did I mention that I think that command really thinks dealing with explosives is more complicated than it really is? Well I do. Whatever, time to move on.
Three rocks dropped on pressure plates and three explosions later and I’d run out of ‘explosives expert’ things to do. Conveniently enough the fighting in the camp seemed to be winding down already too. The crystal empire soldiers that could still move were being stripped of their armor and tied up near the middle of the camp.
Uh oh, Spitfire has that look, the one in her eyes that says something’s wrong. I grabbed the three darts I could find quickly, two even still had their flags, Heaven knows where the last one went, but I wanted to see what was up with Spitfire, so I hurried over toward her.
Spitfire went up to a unicorn in royal guard armor.
“You got everything under control here?” she asked. From her tone of voice I’m not actually sure if it was a question or a statement, but the unicorn answered as if it had been a question.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Pegasi, move out! Back to base! Now, now, now!”
I didn’t need to be told twice, none of us did. Everypony with wings used them and took to the sky. I’m not sure what she thinks the rush is, back to base usually means we’re done for now. Not that it matters. It’s not like I magically have any more rockets, so it’s not like I’m going to be doing any fighting anyway. Still I’m not too fond of flapping my wings this hard just to keep up.
Judging from how long it took to get here, the flight back to Rainbow Falls would take five minutes. If they weren’t holding back as to not out pace the rest of us, the Wonder Bolts could probably make it in two. But for now I have nothing better to than let my mind wonder to distract myself from the increasing soreness in my wings.
Like how comfortable this uniform is. Kudos to Rarity for making my armor so perfectly in my size. How do I know Rarity made it? You know that tag on the back of the neck? Turns out on one side is materials it’s made of and on the other it says ‘Made by Rarity.’
It’s a small world. Remember those Ponyville friends I mentioned? One of them is named Sweetie Belle. She even got me to go to her sister, Rarity in Manehatten to get a special suit I needed made for my rocketry experiment… Oh sweet Celestia! What if she recognized my measurements when she made this armor? What if she told Sweetie the reason I haven’t stopped by Ponyville lately is because I’m in the E.U.P. now? I can’t let my friends worry about me like that. That’s it, I’m totally writing them a letter to let them know what’s going on and that I’m fine.
That’s odd, is that smoke coming from Rainbow Falls? It’s not exactly cold enough for ponies to be running their fireplaces.
We got high enough to get out of the canyons below the town.
Oh crud, that smoke’s too black, too think and it’s all coming from the eastern most plateau of the town. Something’s really wrong here. I flapped my wings harder. We all did, naturally the Wonder Bolts pulled away from the rest of us, but we weren’t that far behind them.
We made a beeline for the central plateau of town, other than some ponies running around in a panic everything seemed to be in order. I mean nothing was on fire here, so that’s good. More to the point I think it’s because that’s the first place Spitfire spotted somepony in gold armor.
I caught up just in time to hear Spitfire yell, “What’s going on here?!”
“Captain Spitfire! Thank Celestia you’re back! The attack began right after you left, we tried to call you back but I guess you were out of comms range. They overran the defenses at the western train tunnel. They’ve taken the train station and the whole western plateau! We’ve managed to hold the main tunnels and keep them out of the rest of the town. It wasn’t looking good, but now that you’re unit is back maybe we can push them out.”
The captain looked like she was about to give orders when another pony, this one in E.U.P. armor came running up, shouting for the captain’s attention.
“What now?”
“They just broke through the south pass! And worse! Sombra led the attack! We’re surrounded!”
That got everypony’s attention. Sombra, here? Now? My eyes went darting from one pony to another. Pegasus, pegasus, pegasus, earth pony, pegasus. In fact the only unicorn I saw was a civilian looking out at us, cowering behind her window shutters. And I’m fairly sure Spitfire was seeing the same thing as me. Namely nowhere near enough magical firepower to face the king of the crystal empire.
“What about the eastern pass?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“The train tracks to the griffin kingdom? They declared neutrality in the war, why would they help us?”
“They don’t have to. It’s just a path for the grounded ponies to get out with. We can have Trottingham send some boats to pick them up, we won’t even be in griffin territory long enough for them to send an angry letter to Canterlot.”
Spitfire looked at the ground, her front legs were trembling. I’m not sure if it was fear or anger. The defense of Rainbow Falls is her mission, she’s in charge here, so it could be either or both. She slammed her hoof to the ground with a force that scared even me. Anger, it was definitely anger.
When she finally looked back up, Spitfire said, “Give the evacuation order. We’re pulling out. Rainbow Dash! Take the kid and scout the east pass, make sure we aren’t running everypony into a trap! I want all other pegasi on the front line! Slow the enemy as much as you can! We need to buy the time for the civilians and slower ponies to get out!”
The earth pony in the royal guard armor grabbed every E.U.P. earth pony he could find and ran off, banging on doors and shouting to anypony inside to get out through the east pass. Spitfire and the other pegasi bolted into the air, some heading to the two contested battle lines right here in town.
Me? I froze. We were losing a town. Equestria had lost ground before sure, but a town? And somehow the idea that by dusk tonight the crystal empire flag would be waving over Rainbow Falls felt like a dagger in my heart.
Thankfully Rainbow Dash didn’t freeze, she wrapped a hoof around my midsection and dragged me off into the air.
“Eye’s open kid! You heard Spitfire!”
I shook it off and nodded to her. But I didn’t open my wings. Honestly I’m not sure she wanted me to. She was dragging me through the sky three times faster than I could fly on my own. She slowed down when we reached the edge of town and we started following the train tracks, but even then she was flying us twice as fast as I could go.
The speed didn’t really bother me. She was no doubt looking for troops laying in wait, ready to ambush anypony who came along. My job was clear. I search for explosive traps. But like I said, the way the enemy handled their explosives they might as well put neon signs over their minefields. So no, the speed didn’t bother me.
Then I saw them, at the first area where the ledge widened out and gave enough room away from the tracks for fleeing ponies to really make a brake for it, I saw six sticks. Yeah sticks, with no bushes or trees or any other reason for them to be there. On top of that the sticks were in pairs of two, one by the cliff face and one by the tracks.
“There!” I shouted, as I opened my wings.
Rainbow Dash felt the sudden drag and let me go. I circled around and to the widened cliff-side path. She did a quick loop, no doubt double-checking the area for enemy forces, before continuing on.
As for me I had to get within ten feet of the first set of sticks before I could see the trip line running from the cliff side stick to the one by the rail line. From this angle it was easy to see the big black thing stuck to the side of the cliff, and another by the next set and the next. Wow! That was a lot of explosives. I was definitely in danger here. My first thought was to drop my flags by the line, but this wasn’t a battlefield. Would the townsponies even pay any attention to my warning flags while they ran for their lives?
Not a chance I’m willing to take.
I flew over to the stick by the cliff wall and pulled my scissors out of my saddlebags. Biting the trip line with my teeth I used the scissors to cut the line and then carefully tied it around the lone stick. Unless somepony decided to throw themselves against the cliff wall or kick this stick lose they wouldn’t trigger the explosives now. I quickly tossed down one of my warning markers by the relevant stick and moved on to the next trip line.
It goes without saying that I had to move slowly cutting and tying off the trip lines. I wasn’t just tying a knot, I was tying a knot on a string that would kill me if I pulled too hard or gave too much slack.
I stuck another flag down and moved on. Two down one to go.
I had just landed by the last trip line when I heard it. Hooves thundering like a stampede. I was almost out of time. Reaching down I grabbed the last line and cut it.
*Click*
Oh crap… even with the roar of approaching ponies that subtle sound hit my ears like a gong. Well the good news was I wasn’t dead yet so the explosives hadn’t gone off. Moving ever so slowly I looked up to the charge on the cliff wall. Crud, one of the indicator lights on it had changed color. That’s not good.
Did I pull too hard? Give too much slack? If I did the opposite of my mistake would it go back into standby mode? Is that dial moving? Oh crud it’s a timer, and it’s moving! Maybe if I was a Wonder Bolt I could fly fast enough to just bolt and let the thing blow up behind me. But I’m not. And at this range I’d guess the most likely outcome would be the blast wave throws me into an uncontrollable spin, and the resulting avalanche squishes me before I can recover.
The timer was ticking down, the sound of hooves was getting louder. Then out of the corner of my eyes the first ponies rounded the bend. No armor, they were civilians. So much for hoping a Wonder Bolt would be leading them and could come save my sorry hide. Worse, they were running right toward me. I was out of time, and if I waited any longer they’d get caught in the avalanche too.
With all other options leading to an assured death, I decided to take my chances with the avalanche. Opening my wings, I kicked off as hard as I could, letting the trip line slip from my mouth as I did so.
*KABOOM*
The fact that I could hear ringing in my ears afterwards proved that I had, in fact, not been killed by the blast wave. The wildly spinning world proved that I was in the mother of all spinouts. And I’m sure that some of the tan blurs are the boulders coming down, about to smash me flat. On the up side the spinning also showed me that the townsponies were now backpedaling away from the danger zone, so at least I’d die alone.
The first thing to hit me felt oddly soft given the shear force of the impact and not like stone at all.
Somewhere through the ringing in my ears I heard a voice say, “I got you!”
A second later my body seemed to realize it wasn’t spinning anymore, in fact somepony had grabbed me!
Though the dizziness made it impossible to see clearly, I did managed to make out rose colored eyes through an E.U.P helmet visor.
“Hold on!” she yelled.
She didn’t have to tell me twice. I did my best to wrap my legs around the pony carrying me and tucked my wings as tight as I could as to not interfere with her flight patterns. Wait a second! Rose eyes, a familiar voice, the G-forces assaulting my body, Rainbow Dash had come back! She’d come back, snatched me out of the air and was now dodging her way through an avalanche!
Then a boulder struck Rainbow Dash square on the back, dragging us down with it. She was quick though, she rolled out from under it, maybe even completely. I can’t be sure, because we hit the ground at about that time too, and that’s when I blacked out.
* * * * * * *
When I woke up, my first thought was ‘Oh, hey. I’m not dead.’ Always a good day when you can think that.
Even looking at the ceiling I could tell I was in a hospital, Oddly enough this was probably the best I’ve ever felt waking up here. The pain wasn’t near as bad as some of my worst rocketry experiment disasters. Yeah strapping rockets to yourself to fly higher than anypony ever had before, what could go wrong? Don’t get me started there, let’s just say a lot and leave it at that.
By the time I sat up I’d noticed that the walls were made of clouds. Come to think of it the style was exactly the same as the Cloudsdale hospital. A nearby window showing me a cloud building across the street proved that Cloudsdale was exactly where I was. Guess I’ll finally have time to write that letter.
Looking the other way I found I wasn’t alone.
“Morning, kid,” Rainbow Dash said.
“You saved my life.”
“Yeah, I guess I did,” she said as if the thought hadn’t even crossed her mind before. Then she looked at me and added, “But taking out the traps like that, you save at least a dozen lives that day.”
“That day? How long was I out?”
“Three weeks.”
“THREE WEAKS?” I gasped.
Rainbow Dash burst out laughing.
“Sorry I had to say it. But it is tomorrow. Doc said you got quite the concussion. So, you okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah, how about you?”
I mean she was sitting in the bed next to me, so she had to be here for injuries too.
“As okay as I will be.”
I raised an eyebrow. What was that suppose to mean?
The last remnants of her smile faded and she said, “I almost dodged that last bolder, but almost didn’t save my wing.”
With that she opened her wings… one of them was made of metal now…
“You… You lost a wing saving me…”
She just shrugged.
“That’s war for ya. Don’t blame yourself, I blame the jerk that set the traps in the first place.”
Then she gave the artificial wing a light tap and added, “Beside it’s no big deal. I’ve already completed the training course in under two minutes with this bad boy. The only reason I’m not back out on the front line is because the doc insists that I give my body three days rest to acclimate to the new wing. That’s why I’m still stuck here. He just knows that as soon as they let me out that door I’d fly myself right back to the front.”
I didn’t say anything. How could I? Even if she was good with the artificial wing, she’d lost a limb because of me! Scootaloo’s favorite Wonder Bolt lost a wing because of me…
There’s no way I’m writing that letter now…
