“You’re insane if you think you can hit something that puny with that… whatever-it-is!” Buzzy retorted, whipping out her binoculars and peering with Minty. Oh, don’t tell me those glasses of his were actually part of his augmentations! The familiar smell of ozone filled the air as Minty squeezed on the trigger with his magic, the weapon’s discharge erupting in a loud crack as a bluish bolt flew downrange, everypony’s hair standing on end afterwards. Minty shuddered, grinning widely, starting to chuckle with glee - ah, well, I guess if that’s what it’s supposed to do…
 
Buzzy kept watching through her binoculars, giggling a little herself. “Hotshot, ya missed ‘im. Gonna hit that weird striped thing instead.” She smirked, looking back at Minty, himself falling back onto his haunches in the snow and hugging his cannon, giggling. Geesh, I liked firing my new Grenade rifle, but you don’t see me sleeping with it… yet. Buzzy hovered between us, everypony turning attention to the augmented unicorn whose mane was still stuck straight up, giggling stupidly and rolling about in the snow. I glanced over at Buzzy, who was looking to me quizzically. “You seriously travel with this guy?” I shrugged idly, hearing a light breeze blowing overhead.
 
“Eh, he’s a real shocker sometimes.” Chuckling idly, my attention was quickly drawn away as the skies above illuminated with the radiance of a thousand flourescent bulbs, Time seeming to slow to a standstill in those few fleeting seconds where I threw myself, hoof over my face, into the snowy hillside. Buzzy screamed, Featherweight yelled, Minty scrambled and wound up tripping over myself, a sudden pulse of heat rushing over us and causing the snow to steam up around us. It… it couldn’t be… here? Buried so far north? What could have it been aimed at? Why didn’t it go off then?
 
Why did it go off now?
 
Carefully, I picked myself up from the snow, the dissapating fog carried by the chill wind that blew around us still, a fast ticking permeating my ears. I looked down at my pip-buck screen - the display was blurry, but coherent enough to display an alarming pulse dosage of about 8 rad per second at the peak. It faded off, myself panting heavily, Minty holding his head in pain and Featherweight curled up around Buzzy. Carefully, I turned myself around, looking towards the south, down the range, at… oh my goddesses. It was beautiful. A gigantic greenish fireball rose over a newly-forming stem, completely cutting through the clouds above and explosing a brilliant blue sky. A white skirt trailed underneath the cloud, rolling and moving, rushing towards us, myself so positively awestruck at the sight that I completely forgot about that blast wave. I leapt into the air, a stupidly massive grin on my face, beginning to laugh and holler my lungs out.
 
“A BALEFIRE BOMB! HAAAAA-YEAH! AN ACTUAL HONEST-TO-LUNA BALEFIRE BOMB!! AND I WAS HERE TO SEE IT GO OFF!!! WAAAAAH-HOOOOOEY, WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT CLOUD!? ABSOLUTELY GOREGOUS! A GODDESS-DAMNED BALEFIRE BOMB!! HA-HAAAA!!! WHOOO!” In a gleeful stupor, I flailed my hooves about, my wings keeping me aloft as the looming shockwave drew nearer and nearer. Oh, goddesses, consider my life complete, an actual balefire bomb went off and I was alive to see it happen! I didn’t even need to wait for Doc to finish with Megaspell Mary, that was an actual Balefire bomb! I kept on laughing and hollering, right up to the point where the rolling sea of snow passed underneath, the explosive roar of balefire thunder ringing out in my ears, myself flipping head-over-hooves as I was catapulted into the overturned snow. At least I didn’t land on a sharp horn this time… a balefire bomb! So awesome!!
 
A magical aura encomassed my tails and freed my head from the snow, Minty staring at myself, a drunken grin still held upon my face. He blinked a few times, adjusting his glasses and moving in closer to myself. “Earth to Twintails, Twintails, are you alright? That was… that was insane. Thank Luna nopony got hurt.” I giggled a little bit, relaxing and letting my head drop, looking at the snowy ground once more.
 
“A balefire bomb… can we do that again?” Minty let out a huff, his magic aura audibly dying out, gravity taking over once more. Hello, snow!
 
“Yeah, he’s alright…”