Fallout: Lavender Wastelander

James had never expected the Enclave to announce themselves to the Capital Wasteland. But to do it on Galaxy News Radio? Something major had shifted within the Enclave.

A song that James had never heard before played after Three Dog’s broadcast ended. He drew in a slow, steady breath to calm his nerves.

Rather than the ragged, cough-inducing vibrations from before, a mild tickle was all that remained. A reminder that time had been bought for him, but he was still a dead man in the end.

“Dad?” Daniel asked as Twilight switched radio stations. The radio belched out a string of monotone numbers.

“The Enclave complimenting the Brotherhood of Steel is something I never expected,” James said, scratching the back of his neck. His entire body shivered as his fingers brushed against the new patch of fur. It would take some getting used to being a pony. “Is Abigail one of your friends?”

While Daniel had explained some things, a lot more was still a mystery to him.

“Yeppers,” Pinkie Pie said as she opened the door for everyone. “She somehow got to be in charge of the Enclave and changed her name to fit in with you humans.”

“And she’s honest to a fault at times,” Twilight said, leading the group out of Smith Casey's Garage. “She even legally changed her name to Abigail instead of just calling herself that.”

The ponies were an interesting people, and now he was one of them. James chided himself for spending days on end sequestered in the simulated Project Purity. There had been dozens of ponies he could have talked to. But he’d had to make sure every last detail of the purifier was perfect.

It had to be, for the good of the common people of the wasteland. Purifying the entire tidal basin near the Jefferson Memorial would provide a near limitless supply of clean drinking water to the Capital Wasteland. No more small-scale purifiers creating one or two gallons at a time, but an entire lake-sized reservoir free from the taint of radiation.

And if it could be upscaled…

“James?” Twilight’s voice broke him from his concentration. She smiled up at him. “So that’s what it looks like to be lost in thought… I said, are you ready to get back to Rivet City? I can teleport us all.”

“You can do that?” James asked. Of course she could. If ponies could turn a pre-war monster like Dr. Braun good, then anything was possible.

Twilight nodded, and her horn glowed with a lavender aura.

Static danced across James’s new fur coat, and he shuddered as every hair on his body tingled. The exterior of Smith Casey’s Garage wavered as if he were looking at it through foggy glass in the moment before he was nearly blinded by a flash of purple.

He gasped at the sight of Rivet City across the bridge.

“Whoa,” James said, turning around in the circle to make sure he saw everything correctly. They had crossed most of the Capital Wasteland in the blink of an eye.

The joy didn’t last. In the distance, a vertibird had landed atop the support scaffolding for the large pipes leading into the Jefferson Memorial. The Enclave had beaten him to Project Purity.

“Twilight, can you teleport us over there?” James asked quickly, pointing to the memorial building. “I want to see what they’re doing.”

“I’m not going to risk teleporting someplace I haven’t personally visited,” Twilight said. Her horn flashed again, and James lost all sensation of weight as a field of purple surrounded him. “Pinkie Pie, go find the others if they aren’t over there already, then come to us.”

“Roger that, cappy-tan!” Pinkie half-giggled, half-shouted before she tore off down the bridge.

“Please tell me we aren’t flying,” Daniel groaned as he too was picked up in a field of purple.

James’s stomach fell into a bottomless pit, but before he had time to lodge a complaint, Twilight spread her wings and took off.

<>~<>~<>

Twilight descended towards the Jefferson Memorial. The front of the building was walled off to support the half-dozen large pipes that ran to the water basin. However, Twilight could already see another way inside. She landed near a half-open door at the base of the Jefferson Memorial marked ‘gift shop’.

A super mutant lay sprawled out in a disheveled heap on the ground nearby, his head violently torn open from an axe wound. Another mutant lay half-fallen into a bush, his head nowhere to be seen.

She gently dropped Daniel and James onto the ground beside her, and James bent down to examine the dead mutant.

“Too clean to be made by ripper chain-knives. No plasma or laser burns, either,” James said as he prodded the stump of the headless mutant with a finger. “The Enclave didn’t make these wounds.”

Before Twilight could inquire what a chain-knife was, her ears perked at the warbling electric crack of an energy weapon firing. It echoed from somewhere deeper in the building.

“Then who are they shooting at?” Twilight asked as she drew her pistol and pushed open the door. More energy weapon shots. Twilight picked up the pace as she entered a downward-sloping tunnel.

Thankfully the massive tunnel’s roof was arched and allowed enough space to spread her wings and fly. She could see the bottom of the ramp, where four Enclave soldiers in olive-green armor crouched at an intersection, shoulders pressed firmly against the wall. One of them leaned around the corner and fired deeper into the building.

A gray-haired man in a trench coat stood next to a woman in an officer’s uniform. Both of them had their backs to the ramp. They assumed the same stance, their hands pressed into the small of their backs while standing with their feet shoulder-width apart.

“Colonel Autumn, what’s going on!?” Twilight shouted as she slowed her flight.

Twilight regretted yelling instantly as the older man and young woman both spun around, drawing pistols. Only Colonel Autumn paused mid-level, and he quickly reached out a hand and pushed the barrel of his companion’s pistol towards the floor.

“Raiders, Princess Twilight,” Colonel Autumn called up the ramp. “A whole slew of them between us and the purifier. We dare not press our attack too fiercely, lest we cause irreparable damage to this here facility. We’ve been in a standoff for close to thirty minutes now, trading shots on occasion.”

His sentence was punctuated by the soldier firing their weapon again.

“What gang?” Twilight asked as she landed in front of the Colonel. She heard Daniel and James’s hooves stomping down the ramp close behind her.

“Gang?” Colonel Autumn scoffed as if offended by the notion. “Raiders are raiders, and must therefore be dealt with accordingly.”

Twilight ground her teeth. According to the Colonel’s blunt, absolutist logic, Fluttershy and her reformed raiders were targets.

What if that’s who they’re shooting at…

Twilight’s pulse raced as she grabbed the Colonel by the shoulders.

“Colonel, tell your people to stop, you might be shooting at my friends!” Twilight cried. What if Fluttershy had already been hit?

“Very well,” Colonel Autumn said as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “But only because you are the personal friend of the president. I cannot guarantee your safety with these surface heathens. If you can get them to leave this facility in peace, I will honor the agreement and guarantee theirs. You have fifteen minutes before we resume our attack.”

That would have to do.

Twilight turned around to face Daniel and James, who had managed to catch up. She assumed they overheard most of the conversation.

“I’ll negotiate this by myself,” Twilight said. “If this isn’t Fluttershy, more than one negotiator could look suspicious.”

“Are you sure, Twilight?” Daniel asked. He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and gently squeezed. “You said it yourself it might not be her, so what if they’re just raiders?”

“Then I have you and the Enclave soldiers here as backup,” Twilight replied. “And from what I’ve seen, I have a feeling we’re dealing with the one raider gang I know of that’s crazy enough to fight super mutants in melee.”

“Deathclaw Joe’s gang?” Daniel asked with a wince.

“Yes,” Twilight replied. She gave Daniel a hug and a kiss on the cheek for good luck.

It was time to see what Deathclaw Joe’s gang was doing inside Project Purity.

<>~<>~<>

Twilight stepped around a dead super mutant as she entered the room at the end of the hallway, her hands raised in the air. She had already called into the room to let the raiders know she was coming.

She gulped as two heavily-muscled raiders aimed scrap-metal greatbows at her. The arrows were sharpened rebar fletched with duct-tape. The power of the weapons was readily apparent from the nearby super mutant pinned to the wall by a length of fletched rebar driven through his skull.

“Hello,” Twilight said almost in a whisper. “Are you with Deathclaw Joe’s gang?”

“Yeah,” one of them said. “The Deathclaw King led a group of us to clean out the freakshows camping too close to our favorite trading spot. Then those Brotherhood guys showed up.”

“Deathclaw Joe’s here?” Twilight asked, perking up. Talking to him personally rather than a representative would make negotiations easier. Deathclaw Joe respected her title of Princess. At least enough to invite her to be a guest at the Knock. “Oh, and the people behind me aren’t Brotherhood of Steel, they’re the Enclave.”

“Well, fuck me, they do exist,” The other bowman said with a dismissive chuckle. She slowly released the tension in her oversized bow. It was a few inches taller than Fluttershy. “In that case, Princess Twilight, go on ahead into the basement. Our king and the others are trying to find a way out for us that doesn't involve starting a shooting war with people in power armor.”

“You already know my name?” Twilight asked.

The bowman nodded. “Deathclaw Joe makes sure we all know who is on our side or not. You’re on the guest list.”

Twilight didn’t pick up on any tells that he was lying. Deathclaw Joe really was trying to find a way out. Dropping her hands, Twilight set off to find the giant unicorn.

<>~<>~<>

James couldn’t believe it. He was less than five feet from the one man too stubborn and loyal to the Enclave to die.

“So, Colonel Autumn, was it?” James asked cautiously. “What is it that you plan to do with this place once the raiders are gone?”

“That depends,” Colonel Autumn said as he eyed James up and down. A deep scowl crumpled his face like an old soda can. “Are you James Neeson, by any chance?”

“And if I was?” James asked. His fingers twitched, arm cocked and ready to spring to the .32 caliber revolver on his side.

“I have a letter for James Neeson from the president,” Colonel Autumn said, eyes locked on James’s ready arm as he slowly reached into one of the pockets of his greatcoat. “He was the one who built this facility.”

“You two know each other?” Daniel asked as he stepped between James and Colonel Autumn.

James nudged his son aside.

“We do,” James said. He snatched the envelope from Colonel Autumn. “You look well for a dead man.”

“Likewise,” Colonel Autumn grunted as James opened the letter. The penmanship looked like the scribbles of a dyslexic brahmin, like the writer never used their hands and instead relied on a terminal. Given that Abigail used to be a four-legged pony, it made sense she wasn’t used to having fingers.

Dear James Neeson,

I’m going to keep this short because I need to make two copies of this. I know how your prior service to the Enclave ended. I would like to apologize sincerely on the Enclave’s behalf. You have my word that I have ended all chemical and biological weapons development. I know that does not mean much. That is why I’m personally sending you citizenship papers under your assumed name of James Neeson. You acted honorably in the face of dishonorable orders.

Now, there is something we have to get squared away. Project Purity was built on the Jefferson Memorial, a federal monument on federal land.

James grit his teeth. They were going to take Project Purity away.

However, saying that the Enclave owns it because the federal government owned the building two-centuries ago would spit in the face of common decency. That is why I am asking for your permission to quarter Enclave troops on the private premises. If I read the old laws right, it’s your third amendment constitutional right to deny this, though I hope we could work together to bring clean, fresh water to the entirety of the capital wasteland.

An Enclave team will arrive shortly after the arrival of this letter to help clear the super mutants occupying the building. A copy of this letter will be carried by the commander of that team.

With regard, Abigail Jacklyn, President of the New Enclave States.

“This is a copy, where is the original?” James asked.

“Rachel Dash delivered it to your old team member, Dr. Madison Li,” Colonel Autumn stated.

“And, according to this, I could tell you and your people to leave, and you would leave?” James asked as he skimmed over the letter.

“Yes,” Colonel Autumn said with difficulty, like he had eaten something sour. “But if we stay, we can and will assist in the operation of your facility. The president has instructed me that you are to stay in charge as its director and chief scientist.”

Project Purity was going to remain his to operate as he saw fit. If the Enclave helped, vertibirds could safely transport entire pallets of water drums in their cargo holds. Far more than a pack brahmin could while pulling a trailer.

It was a bitter pill to swallow, but if the Enclave had changed, and had someone in charge making decisions that cared about people, then maybe he could work with them.

James may have despised Augustus Autumn, but he was a man who loyally followed orders.

<>~<>~<>

The basement twisted and turned as if it were a concrete and steel maze. The only way Twilight could navigate the windowless gray halls were the numerous corpses of super mutants fallen into distinct positions that she could remember whenever she had to double-back from a dead-end route.

She almost felt bad for the super mutants; they clearly stood no chance against Deathclaw Joe’s crew. Many of them had died with rebar arrows and pipe javelins spearing through their internal organs.

She rounded a bend and encountered the corpse of a female raider. Twilight stopped to inspect the body, especially when she noticed the hot-pink pony ears. The raider-turned-pony had been shot multiple times, but rather than being left where she had fallen like the super mutants, the other raiders had positioned her on her back. Her weapon—a tire-iron with a hefty blade welded to it to make a crude yet brutal hatchet—rested atop her chest, with her arms folded across it so she hugged the weapon in death.

Placed over her eyes were bottlecaps, a mimicry of burial coins. Much like the funeral rites of some gryphons, who used glittering silver coins to attract the eye of their soul-collecting magpie god of death.

Metal scraping on concrete wrenched her gaze up from the dead woman. A raider lazily dragging a fireaxe staggered down the hall towards her.

Bloodshot hazel eyes leered through a blood-soaked mop of straw-blond hair. His pearly white teeth glittered in the low light like a grinning skull. Splattered blood coated him from head to toe.

“Well, well, well,” the raider giggled. He hefted his crimson-drenched fireaxe up and over his shoulder with a one-handed swing. “You’re a long way from the palace, Princess.”

Twilight’s throat tightened. She backed away a step, hands raised.

“H-hey,” Twilight said, eyes darting for an escape route. “Just here to talk to your boss.”

The human trudged forwards, bloody boot prints left in his wake. Each footfall squelched with the sound of wet rubber.

“You can talk to me just fine,” he hissed, never blinking. His knuckles turned white as he gripped the axe. “You have a lot to answer for.”

“What? Me?” Twilight blurted. Which route would take her back? Was it two lefts and a right? Or a left and two rights? “W-what did I do?”

“Everything,” The man yelled. He slung his axe into a two handed grip and lunged.

Twilight leapt back and the gory blade sailed close enough to her face that specks of blood from the last victim flecked across her cheek. Her knee brace squealed in protest as she tried to bend her leg farther than it would go.

Twilight flailed, off balance as her injured leg hobbled her.

“You caused the portal to explode!” The man yelled as he rammed his shoulder into Twilight. She hit the ground and rolled. The axe head struck concrete where her skull had just been, sending sparks flying into her face.

“If it wasn’t for you, my wife and filly would still be alive!”

Twilight’s heart stopped as she realized that the raider had once been a normal pony.

“It was an accident!” Twilight cried back in response as she teleported behind the former pony and drew her pistol. “I messed up!”

The stallion wheeled around, the axe flashing through the air in a wild swing of screaming fury. “TELL THAT TO THEM!”

“Please,” Twilight pleaded. She didn’t want to shoot the poor stallion. “We can talk this out!”

“I’m sick and fucking tired of ponies forgiving everyone!” The stallion screamed as he reared back for another swing. “Celestia sent the raider back, and he bragged about what he did! Fucking kill me or die!”

Twilight teleported out of the way of the swing.

“Please don’t make me do this!” Twilight yelled, leveling her pistol.

“You don’t have the guts!” The stallion screamed. “I’m going to spill your—”

A cloud of electric blue surrounded the stallion’s head before it spun to face backwards with a pulpy, wet crunch of tearing ligaments. He dropped like a stone, collapsing into a heap onto the floor.

Deathclaw Joe stood over the corpse, face twisted into a scowl of fury. A fresh scar marred his cheek, and dried blood stained his hair pink on one side of his head.

“I’m sorry I had to do that,” Deathclaw Joe said, folding his wings behind him.

Twilight stood across from him, pistol still shivering in her extended grasp.

“A-a-a pony just tried to kill me,” Twilight stuttered. “I-I-I can’t.”

Deathclaw Joe stepped over the corpse and wrapped her in a wing.

“Take a deep breath,” he said far more gently than she expected could ever come from a stallion so huge. “Focus.”

Twilight inhaled deeply, then let it out slowly, her nerves calming just enough to realize there was a wing wrapping around her like a blanket.

“You’re an alicorn?” Twilight asked.

“Fluttershy ruined the surprise early,” Deathclaw Joe said with a chuckle. “I had planned to reveal my transformation tomorrow. Why are you here?”

“I know the soldiers upstairs,” Twilight said as she leaned into Deathclaw Joe. She hid her face from the corpse on the ground like she was a kid sheltering behind a parent. “They’ll let you leave peacefully.”

“Then I’m glad you came along,” Deathclaw Joe said. “I was worried we wouldn’t find a way out that didn’t involve going through them.”

“How many are down here?” Twilight asked.

“There are the five I left a few rooms ahead when I heard you shouting, and the two bodies in here. What about the two I left upstairs?”

“Alive,” Twilight said. “Somehow bows were able to keep back power armor.”

“You must have missed the mutants pinned to the wall on your way in,” Deathclaw Joe said. His deep voice reverberated in his chest. He pulled his wing away from Twilight once they were away from the bodies. “Go back upstairs. I’ll get the others. We have a fallen warrior to honor tonight.”

“And the stallion?” Twilight asked. “What about him?”

“He attacked my guest,” Deathclaw Joe said. “His corpse will feed the radroaches.”

Brutal, violent, but honorable.

Twilight had so many questions. How did he ascend? Had he transformed before or after leaving Equestria? How many ponies were following him now?

The questions would have to come later. She needed some rest.

<>~<>~<>

James slowly walked down the stairs of Rivet City’s laboratory. Dr. Madison Li was hard at work—as she always was whenever it came to anything. Her attention was split between a bubbling chemistry set, and an open textbook leaning against a stack of other books. Her hands danced from jar to jar arranged on the table in front of the chemistry set, and she occasionally lifted one and poured it into a beaker resting above a bunsen burner.

For some reason, immediately after she added a few carrot slices into the beaker, the bubbling concoction turned blue.

He tried to keep the magically reshaped boots he wore over his hooves from clanging on the stairs. Dr. Li had a temper when it came to interruptions. One he didn’t wish to incur and spoil any chance of getting his old team back together. Project Purity needed all hands on deck to restore it, and then improve it with the modifications he had built in the simulation with the help of Dr. Braun.

The Enclave team was left behind at the purifier to keep the location secure.

As he crept towards his old friend, he glanced at the book she was working from. It was practically brand new. A rare thing to find in the wasteland. He slowly worked his way around the table to get in front of her, let her notice him.

He stood in front of the table for nearly a minute before Dr. Li’s trance-like concentration finally broke.

“James?” She asked, squinting her eyes. “Why in God’s name are you a horse?”

James smiled and spread his arms wide. He was in the company of an old friend.

“Is it an improvement?” James asked playfully.

Dr. Li rolled her eyes.

“Anything would be an improvement when it comes to your face, that's for sure,” Dr. Li said with a smile tugging at her lips. “So, have you heard that the Enclave exists after all? Imagine my surprise when a cyborg pegasus claiming she was from the Secret Service came here specifically looking for us.”

She picked up a thick envelope off the table.

“I’ve already seen them at the purifier,” James said. He quickly added when he noticed her worried expression. “Don’t worry, Madison, they’re on our side… for now.”

“Do you trust them?” Dr. Li asked, lips pursed in displeasure.

“I would be a fool if I did,” James said. “But right now, they have more resources than the Brotherhood of Steel, and their leader is somehow one of the ponies. The Enclave could do a lot of good for the wasteland.”

Or a lot of evil. Their track record tended towards the latter.

“Well, if you say there is a pony leading them, then I’ll hold my judgment,” Dr. Li said as she turned off the bunsen burner. “The ponies can see in the long term. Or at least Twilight can.”

James raised a brow. While he may not have approved of Daniel and Twilight’s rapid marriage, that didn’t mean he did not approve of Twilight. So far, what scotch-fogged memories he had of Rarity’s descriptions of Twilight during their first meeting had held true. Still, he wanted to know more about his daughter-in-law.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean she filled her backpack with seeds and books from her world,” Dr. Li said. “I’m doing alchemy, if you can believe it, all from her books. And that’s not all. She didn’t just bring crop seeds. She also brought grass seeds and explained they were to help establish a new topsoil layer. If we can get the seeds to sprout, healthy grass may come back to the area, and brahmin will have more than scrubland to graze on.”

James’s jaw worked as he tried to form words.

The ponies could terraform the Capital Wasteland far beyond what his single project could manage.

Life was about to improve for everyone in the Capital Wasteland. All it would take was cooperation between the ponies, Brotherhood of Steel, and the Enclave.

<>~<>~<>

Gale Force hovered over central Manehattan, about a mile above the city so she could be easily seen. The stallion who had hired her was very specific about that part of the request.

She was ready to pass the wagon off. Pulling the heavy load from Las Pegasus to Manehattan had nearly tired her out. She’d nearly missed her deadline as well.

She reached into her saddlebags and pulled out a large green brick-like communication radio the pony had given her to call his friends to get the wagon. She held the heavy radio to the side of her head and pressed the large button on the side.

“Hello, this is Gale Force, your friend told me this was how I could tell you the package is ready. I’m flying over the residential district right now so you can see me.”

She let go of the button so she could hear the reply.

“Perfect,” a stallion’s voice said over the radio. “Synced up nicely with the other two.”

Other two?

Off in the distance towards Canterlot, Gale Force caught the briefest glimpse of a blossoming mushroom made of fire.

Before Gale Force could question what villain was invading Canterlot this month, there was a click and a whine from the cart, followed by a loud crack as one of the boxes in the back of the cart lurched.

Smoke curled out from the lid of the box. Panic struck Gale Force, and she dove towards the ground.

Once her hooves hit the pavement, she quickly unhooked herself from the wagon and flew to the cargo bed. The bathtub sized crate had stopped smoking, thankfully.

Gale Force lifted the radio to her ear and pressed the button.

“So, there may be a slight problem with your delivery, I think something in it just caught fire.”

No reply.

Gale Force idly looked around and realized that all the lights in Manehattan were off. A blackout? She groaned—just another day in Equestria.

With the delivery having tried to catch fire, the responsible thing would be to carry it to the fire ponies.

<>~<>~<>

Celestia kept her shaky legs from giving out from the balcony of Twilight’s castle, Princess Luna by her side. The growing mushroom cloud billowed ever upwards as Canterlot fell in pieces like hailstones from the mountain.

It was so fast. So instantaneous. One moment, Canterlot was there, the next… Celestia had seen soldiers in power armor launch bombs with the energy of miniature suns in simulations, but to see the scale amplified to a whole city…

The thought knocked her out of her stupor, and she found her voice.

“H-how many ponies just died!?” Celestia screamed in a primal scream of anguish that ripped at her throat.

“I don’t know,” Luna whispered, hugging a wing around her sister. “Discord has been evacuating ponies since Electrum’s warning. Ponies know how to get out of Canterlot quickly… right? We’ve been invaded enough times.”

Celestia laughed. It was a broken, hollow sound. A cold comfort that at least some of her little ponies had made it out. It didn’t change the fact that not everypony had made it out. Even the ones who’d escaped had no home to return to.

Just like her. Canterlot was her home, too.

A burst of magic flashed over Celestia’s head, and a scroll popped into being with the chime of tiny bells. Celestia caught it in her magic and unfurled the letter, yearning for even a second of reprieve.

I evacuated as many as I could. I’m the lord of chaos, not single-file lines, but I did my best. Stay safe in the living world, I’ll see you in ten years. – Discord

“He replied that fast?” Luna asked.

Celestia nodded, wiping tears from her eyes with a foreleg. Discord was the manifestation of Disharmony. Physical destruction merely inconvenienced him. Stone had been the only way to safely imprison him to keep him from returning. It was an odd feeling of relief, knowing he wasn’t gone for good.

<>~<>~<>

Wing Nut wiped sweat from his wrinkled brow as he concentrated on diagnosing the problem with Condensationator 3-B. He removed a panel on the side of the machine, exposing the greasy clockwork interior of the old cloud maker.

The darned thing had been in deferred maintenance for far too long and had finally given up the ghost during the night shift. Nopony on the night shift was old enough to know how to fix the thing. So it was his job, a day shift maintenance pony, to fix a machine that hadn’t seen preventative maintenance since Luna’s return.

The weather factory’s quotas were on the line, and he needed the extra monthly bonus everypony received for meeting them. Hearth’s Warming Eve would arrive sooner rather than later, and there were too many grand-fillies needing gifts. Maple Leaf just had her second colt. Or was it a filly?

“Don’t start thinking you’re losing it, ya old buck, then your age will really start catching up to you,” Wing Nut chuckled to himself. Seventy-three and he still pulled forty-six hours a week, then chores at the house. Retirement was for the old, and he planned to live forever.

Wing Nut frowned as his flashlight flickered and died, right on time with the lights in the building going out. Thankfully pegasi cloud buildings featured plenty of glassless windows to allow easy egress for creatures with wings, and plenty of natural light.

“Odd,” Wing Nut said, tapping his flashlight against the metal panel. The tried and true trick of percussive maintenance failed. With all light sources out, the one pony he knew who would know what was going on would be an electrician. He set his flashlight back into his toolbox.

“Guess it’s time to find the farthest distance in this factory from a broom,” Wing Nut said with a sigh. “That’s where I’ll find Voltage.”

Somepony screamed loud enough that Wing Nut jerked to attention. He whipped around to check on the commotion. Several ponies were flying by a window.

One mare held a hoof to her mouth.

“Sweet Celestia,” she cried. “Canterlot’s falling off the mountain!”

Wing Nut spread his wings in time for a white-hot flash to light up the inside of the weather factory, nearly blinding him. He quickly shielded his eyes with his foreleg.

Even with his eyes clamped shut, he could still see bright white through them, and even the foreleg covering his face to his very bones, like an x-ray image in real time.

The flash subsided, the dozen or so ponies by the window had fallen to the floor crying in pain as they rubbed their eyes and pawed around at the fluffy cloud floor with their hooves.

Wing Nut flew over to the blinded ponies, but the sight outside made him freeze like he had fallen into the Snowflakeerizer 1000’s water vat.

The Wonderbolt airfield and stadium were gone. A bright orange mushroom of fire rolled towards the sky as an ever expanding shockwave raced outwards through the middle of the city.

Clouds meant to withstand hurricane-force winds evaporated like smoke as the wall of heat and pressure raced outwards from the fiery mushroom, blowing apart every building in its path. Carriages were tossed through the sky like children’s toys.

Pegasi caught on the outer band of the heatwave fell screaming from the sky, their manes, tails, and fur coats flaming like meteors as they fell.

Wing Nut slammed his eyes shut and looked away, waiting for the end to come.

Seconds passed, then a full minute.

He opened his eyes and looked out the window once more.

The blast had lost its energy before reaching the weather factory, not even the sound of the explosion had reached them, but that didn’t save the rest of Cloudsdale. Two-thirds of the city had vanished without a trace like it was never even there. The flat top of Wonderbolt Mountain had a new caldera of cooling brimstone.

Panting, Wing Nut refocused himself on the task at hoof.

“Everypony who can hear me, follow the sound of my voice, we’re evacuating Cloudsdale.”

He didn’t hear everypony’s response as the weather machines kicked back on. Rainmaker 3a chugged and rattled, oil-like fluid leaked from the hoses feeding into the cloud-filling machine. A dark, soot-black cloud glowing faintly with an internal green hue fell out onto the still running assembly line.

Wing Nut couldn’t worry about the damaged machinery. He had ponies to save.