Tsar Bomba II

Princess Celestia
Wonderbolt Academy

Princess Celestia's chariot landed on the small runway used for the training of incoming Wonderbolts. However, today was the day of an important visit, and as such, the Academy had been cleared of trainees, moved to another location, in preparation for the arrival of the Princess.

She stepped out of the chariot as Spitfire, leader of the Wonderbolts, rushed out to greet her.

"Good morning, Your Majesty. Welcome to the Wonderbolt Academy", Spitfire said as she bowed down humbly.

The Princess nodded. "Thank you, Spitfire. I trust that everyone has been gathered for the conference?"

Spitfire stood up again after bowing. "Yes, Your Majesty. Captain and Prince Shining Armor has arrived, along with the Head of the Saddle Arabian Bomb Corps, Hoofazad Yak."

The two trotted into the main building to the mess hall, which had been converted into a conference room as soon as Princess Celestia had called the meeting shortly after the Big Bomb, as they had started calling the Tsar Bomba, was safely stored away in an undisclosed location in the Crystal Mountains.

The hall had a long table with a lot of very important ponies in the group. Prince Shining Armor sat in the seat closest to Princess Celestia. Soarin' sat at the table as well, as the second in command for the Wonderbolts. A few other assorted military leaders sat either in Royal Guard armor or in Wonderbolt uniforms. The only pony that seemed out of place was a stallion standing near a projector idly. He was very tall, though not as much as Celestia, he was taller than the average stallion.

"That must be Hoofazad Yahk" Celestia thought to herself as she and Spitfire settled into their seats.

The Princess watched as everypony stood up and bowed the second she sat down. When they sat down, she rose to her full height to address the group.

"Good afternoon, my little ponies. I gathered you all here today to discuss the newly discovered bomb we found in the San Palomino Desert. First, we will gather what we know already." She glanced at Hoofazad Yahk, and introduces him. He walks to the projector and inserts an image into the projector.

"Hello, everypony. This is a picture of the Big Bomb in storage. As you can see, it is far larger than any of the bombs that Saddle Arabia has manufactured." He slides another picture in. "However, from what we have detected, this bomb has absolutely no trace of magic inside of it. We have determined that the large size of the bomb may only be compensating for the lack of magic inside of the bomb"

Shining Armor interrupted with a question. "Excuse me, Mr. Yahk, but what do you mean exactly? Are you saying that the bomb is only as powerful as a regular bomb just because it doesn't have magic?" he asked skeptically.

Yahk replied, "Not exactly, Captain. We, that is, the bomb experts in Al Hoof believe that this bomb, while significantly more powerful than one of our regular bombs, it is not as powerful as it could be with magic."

Celestia watched the discussion continue before her as they talked about the power of the bomb. In amusement, she noticed that Shining Armor and Hoofazad Yahk seemed to develop a small rivalry in terms of what to do with the bomb. Spitfire then chimed in with her opinion.

"Shining, if this bomb doesn't have any magic, then there is no way it could be very powerful." she said indignantly.

"I can't believe this!" Shining Armor exclaimed. "Just because something doesn't have magic doesn't mean it isn't powerful! Look at our train system, we don't use magic for it, but it is still our most valued form of transportation!"

Some of the other Wonderbolts and Royal Guardsponies started to talk among themselves. Some agreed with Shining Armor, while others supported Spitfire point of view more.

Celestia finally rose to her full height, bringing a hush amongst the ponies. " I believe we all have differing opinions as to what we must do with the Big Bomb." The ponies nodded. " Therefore, I bring to you all two options."

"The first is relatively simple. The bomb will remain in storage in the Crystal Mountains. We will leave it until such time as it may be needed, perhaps in a time of war, or some other purpose."

"The second option will be slightly riskier, but it shouldn't be a big problem if we're careful. We will give it to a civilian contractor, who will use it to assist in the demolition of a large building, in case it is more powerful than we expect."

The table of ponies went into an uproar, immediately discussing the possible effects of either of the two options. Shining Armor shouted aloud in surprise, " Your Highness, you can't possibly be considering giving it to civilians!"

Celestia nodded. "I would make the necessary precautions. Like I said, it will be in a large building. That will keep the danger to civilians at a minimal. We would also clear the area by two blocks if necessary."

"Now, I believe we must make this decision binding. For that, I wish for all of you to take part in this vote for the two options that I have given."

The group of military ponies pulled out slips of paper from their saddlebags, and wrote either a 1 or a 2 on them. Hoofazak Yahk was the only nonparticipating pony in the vote, as he was a foreigner and thus unable to take part by law.

Celestia gathered the slips, and had them dumped in a small bin. Then, she used a magic spell to sort the votes through, and the answer was determined after a minute. She rose high, once again, and declared to the group.

"Option 2 has has a narrow win, with 12 out of 22 votes towards it."

Spitfire grinned smugly to Shining Armor, and said tauntingly, "I guess the Princess trusts my decision more than yours, huh, Captain?"

Shining Armor glared at her.