skbl17

It wasn't a long night. Not all of the power plants were repaired yet, but enough were to reduce the number of power outages dramatically. As restoration work was proceeding at a fast enough clip, High Voltage and her colleague turned in for the night at a nearby hotel. The yellow unicorn herself woke up at 7:00. She wasn't tired or sleepy, which was a first in a very long streak of days involving service calls, idiotic drivers who think it's fun to crash into poles and knock out power, school visits, and lectures from her bosses about "organizational inefficiencies". For once, it was nice to be able to get more than seven hours of sleep. After taking time to shower and fix up her mane, High Voltage telekinetically opened the window of her hotel room and looked outside. It was beautiful. Rolling hills, endless trees leading up to a skyline, all topped off with a gentle breeze and a magnificent sunrise. She usually didn't have time to enjoy sights like this, which made the sight all the more jaw-dropping. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" Startled, High Voltage quickly spun around and got into a defensive stance, ready to zap the living daylights out of her assailant. If six thousand volts failed to do the trick, maybe a roundhouse kick would. If not, then she'd call the police. As these thoughts were racing through her mind, High Voltage failed to actually look at her "assailant". When she looked up and saw her TPL colleague, her look of anger was quickly replaced with one of remorse. High Voltage quickly stood down and bowed in apology. "Sorry about that." "It's okay, everypony's been on edge lately. You were probably just surprised." Her colleague responded. "Thanks. Hey, check out this view; I don't think we ever took the time to take in the sights of Applelanta." "Well, we've been busy trying to help get power restored in the wake of the EMP, and our superiors would have been angry if..." High Voltage proceeded to turn her colleague's head around to face the window. "...wow, HV, that is a nice view." "Isn't it? Wait, didn't I tell you not to call me 'HV'?" High Voltage asked, as she turned on the television in the hotel room. Overnight, some television channels were able to come back online despite the EMP disabling most of the transmitter sites. Flipping through the three active channels, she didn't find anything of interest. Channel One was airing a news program about the aftermath of the EMP, the response, and other headlines. Nothing interesting, but the number of outages had fallen to 600,000 from 35,000,000, so that was good. ECT was airing a roundtable discussion, where one guest had the gall to accuse the utilities of not responding fast enough. "What were they thinking?" The panelist asked. "Did the utility companies not think that an EMP would totally destroy the generators, circuits, and power lines? Idiots! All of them, the lineponies especially. I saw a utility truck in my Detrot suburb get stuck in traffic; did they not know any...." High Voltage was about to have an aneurysm after hearing all that. She was perfectly happy, she had just taken in a great view, and now this host was insinuating that this whole event was their fault? It's too bad ECT is headquartered ten hours away in Manehattan; she would have marched on to that set and torn him a new one, both verbally and physically. "It doesn't sound like that panelist understood what was actually going on." Her colleague responded. "YOU THINK??!!"

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Radio Equestria news bulletin, 10:00pm on Monday night. A slightly static-filled broadcast comes on, with a slightly panicked newsreader speaking. Good evening everypony, I am bringing you this check of the news from our Haytona affiliate in the region of Tropicala, as our Manehattan headquarters' generators were fried in the attack. Here, we just got power back. Ahem... In the news, the national government is still investigating the source of today's attacks. First, in Applelanta, there are still no leads in the ongoing investigation into the derailment of a subway train. The derailment occurred just west of the Granite Street subway station shortly before 10:00 am local time, killing 67 and injuring an additional 98. AMTA, the local transit operator, and Applelanta Police believe that this morning's derailment was the result of sabotage. AMTA subway and commuter rail services remain suspended; there has been no word thus far on when service will resume. Meanwhile, more than 30,000,000 electric customers remain without power nationwide as a result of EMP attacks that struck major cities and power plants earlier this afternoon. Royal Grid says that the EMP attacks were focused on power plants, high-voltage transmission lines, and a few major cities. While utility crews are still feverishly working to restore electricity, fire and rescue crews are working overtime to rescue trapped ponies in subway tunnels and elevators. Most public schools, government offices, and universities are closed tomorrow due to a lack of electricity and heat. Ironically, it seems as if cities here in Tropicala are getting power restored the fastest, as outages regionwide are now down to 400,000 from 4.2 million earlier today. In Canterlot, there has been a major development in the ongoing battle surrounding air travel. The Privy Court has set preliminary hearings in the "air travel" case for Friday; the two sides in the case will present their findings and opinions on how they believe the case should turn out. At issue: whether or not the government of Cloudsdale is acting in an unconstitutional manner by banning ground air travel companies from operating to and from the city. If the Association for Free Airspace, the plaintiffs in the case, succeed, all geographic restrictions on air travel will be lifted. Princess Twilight Sparkle, the mayor of Cloudsdale, and the leader of the AFA were all unavailable for comment. However, in a taped statement, the Crown Council representative for Cloudsdale responded to the Privy Court's request: "I do hope that the Privy Court considers the arguments to be presented on Friday to justify Cloudsdale's right to supremacy over all economic affairs that concern the well-being of this city. "We do not believe that it is the time to consider commercial air travel on such a wide scale, and we certainly will not bargain with anypony who refuses to include us at the negotiating table." In international news, Saddle Arabia's king has condemned the Equestrian government for cancelling today's bilateral talks aimed at improving relations between the two countries. In a statement, he described the Equestrian government as "beating around the bush" and using today's EMP attacks as "an excuse to further stall dialogue." The Foreign Relations ministry was unavailable for comment. In stocks today, the EQEX closed down 24 points, while the COMDEX 500 closed down 20 points. In weather, Meteo Equestria has suspended all scheduled precipitation indefinitely to divert resources to maintaining the agency's weather scheduling and forecasting capability in the wake of the EMP. Expect temperatures tonight to dip into the 40s to 50s across the mainland, 5 to 14 degrees centigrade. Cloudsdale will experience heavy crosswinds, low 31, 1 below zero in centigrade. Island regions will see temperatures dip into the upper 50s to low 60s, 14 to 17 degrees centigrade. I'll hopefully be back with another bulletin in one hour.

My fastest mile time is 8:50. Not super fast or record-breaking or anything.

After narrowing my choices to electricity and water/ice, I opted for electricity. The practical uses are nearly endless, especially if you have working knowledge of electricity and magnetism. - First, electricity can help a lot with everyday pet peeves, especially in our technologically advanced world. Dead cellphone or laptop battery? You can recharge it yourself; this comes in handy if you're not near an outlet, don't have a charger, or are traveling abroad, where electric outlet standards will vary. Is it cold? You can use your electrokinetic abilities to generate heat. - Second, it's useful in emergencies. You can generate your own electricity if the power goes out. No need to wait on your local electric utility, and no need to buy a carbon-monoxide producing portable generator. No need to invest in jumper cables, you act as your own jumper cable. Buying an electric car or hybrid would make even more financial sense than it does, as you'd have unlimited range due to the fact that you can recharge your car on the spot if it runs out of electric power. - If you know a bit about electromagnetism, the possibilities are almost endless. Your next-door neighbor is pissing you off? You can just generate a electromagnetic pulse (EMP) strong enough to knock out their power and most of their electronics. If your powers are a secret, they'd never know what hit them. Are you feeling lazy and don't want to get up to pick up the phone or change the channel? You can use your own powers to do that stuff. - Cool lightning displays, of course. Just don't fry your friends, your dog, or your neighbors.

I wouldn't say I'm so much a train enthusiast as I am a transit enthusiast. I do like trains, especially the world's various subway, light rail, tram/streetcar, commuter rail, and high-speed rail systems, and I like to keep up with new lines.

College work, namely studying for a Japanese quiz I have tomorrow afternoon. But instead, I've been roleplaying on this site and fangasming over the arrival of Google Fiber.

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"You know, I still find it strange that the ponies working on the lines are better prepared than the ponies who generate the power for the lines." As she drove around the city, High Voltage had to admit that her colleague had a point. When the EMP hit, all she had to do was use her magic to jump start her utility truck's battery; everypony else used either magic or jumper cables. Meanwhile, the power plants had their generators totally busted, and the ponies at the plants couldn't fix them without outside help. The regulators will have a field day with that one. Oddly enough, the city had gone mostly quiet. The schools are closed, as are the universities. Buses are still running, but no trains. It's basically just the buses, police, paramedics, the rare personal car, and utility personnel. It's surreal, considering that this is usually the tail end of the evening rush hour. "It's pretty quiet, isn't it?" High Voltage asked her colleague. "It is. If I had to guess, the EMP busted everypony's cars, and I assume that most of them don't have jumper cables or electrokinetic abilities to jumpstart their vehicles." A short time later, the duo pulled up to the next malfunctioning transformer. Unlike the last few of them, this one looked as if it was going to blow. They had to move quick. High Voltage's partner was quicker than she was, so she telekinetically threw her the tools she needed while she opened the trunk to take out a replacement transformer. High Voltage's partner was able to quickly disconnect the malfunctioning transformer, but they had to wait a few minutes to let it cool off a bit. "Man, that was a close one. If we had waited five minutes, it would have blown up." Her partner remarked. High Voltage simply nodded. But as she hooked up the replacement transformer, a thought came to her mind. "Hey, do you think it would be a good idea to find some hotel and stay the night?" Her colleague looked at High Voltage with a perplexed look on her face. "Why do you ask? The ponies at Northfields said that the power should come back online when their generators are fixed, and much of Applelanta's distribution grid has been restored. We'll probably make it back to the Tampa Neigh area by midnight." "That's true, but our superiors never said anything about coming back. In fact, they never told us what to do if power's restored before the night is over. If we have no more work to do, but we haven't been granted clearance to return home, we have no choice but to stay. Besides, if the power comes back on, but then something happens that buckles the grid, we'd probably be called out again." High Voltage responded. "Fine, but we should probably work in shifts then. You could take the graveyard shift." "Awww, no fair." They both chuckled before driving off to find a hotel. Hopefully it wouldn't be a long night.

My welcome post. As for posts that count towards my post count, it was this post regarding an OC. Two brohoofs for that one.

My favorite subject in middle and high school was technology*. The main reason was two-fold: I have an interest in computers, and whenever the teacher wasn't in, we'd essentially get a free pass to do whatever we wanted online. Coming in second: geography. As I posted when I first came to this site, I like maps. * This includes everything from introductory computing classes to entry-level programming classes to AP Computer Science.

Dislike. Every time I see or hear about them, all I can think about is Reddit and nonsense like "m'lady" and *tips fedora*.

"So, you don't need our help?" High Voltage inquired, confused. "Our original marching orders were to come to this plant and assist you." The security pony at the gate to the Northfields Power Plant quickly answered, "The original plan was to let you Tampa Neigh Division lineponies help out at the power plant, but things are actually moving along now. We should have the generator back up and running within 24 to 36 hours. "When we notified the higher-ups in Mareami of this unicorn's work, they told us to tell you that y'all have been reassigned to actual line duty. While the EMP itself left the lines untouched, there are various circuit breakers and transformers that have tripped. The physical damage isn't bad, but you guys should head into the city. Your supervisor did say to head up to Applelanta and help, but she didn't say anything about helping out at a power plant, did she?" High Voltage assumed that what he said was correct; her supervisor didn't specifically mention a power plant in her speech. She radioed the other trucks behind her, telling them to turn around and assist utility crews in the city instead. As she began to wave goodbye to the security pony and turn her truck around, one of her colleagues asked a question that hadn't come to her mind. "But wait, HV, in the event of an emergency, aren't TPL power plants off-limits to non-employees for safety reasons?", the colleague asked. "I told you not to call me 'HV' while I'm on duty, silly! Anyway, according to the company hoofbook, it is true that sometimes, TPL will hire outside companies to assist in maintenance and restoration at power plants and dams, but they can't help out with line duty. However, hiring outside companies usually happens 48-72 hours in advance. The security pony told me that this was arranged less than 24 hours ago," the yellow unicorn replied. "It's just fine! These 'consultants' are doing a good job anyway, so what reason do we have to doubt them?" While her colleague was satisfied with her answer, one thing continued to nag at the back of her mind. The security pony said 'that unicorn'. This isn't a whole army of employees, but one unicorn...I wonder who she is, and how she can turn around an entire power plant from the verge of total shutdown to near-normal operation within the span of a few hours. Maybe I should meet her one day. High Voltage's linepony contingent soon descended on Applelanta and split up to help out local TPL crews and help get the city up and running again. Whatever thoughts she had didn't matter at this point. As she pulled up to the first malfunctioning transformer, she knew she had a job to do, and it would be foalish to let that mystery unicorn's hard work go to waste. "Let's do this." ----------- As he stepped out of a meeting with one of his fellow nobles, Prince Blueblood was...conflicted. On one hoof, he was furious that common criminals would stoop to sabotage to "cripple" an entire region of the country. It was outrageous; he needed the entire country to function to make the economy work and reduce the chance of any mistrust with the national government. If he was to have a hoof in writing the nation's future history textbooks, he needed to make himself look good. He couldn't look good if the government he was a part of was seen by historians as incompetent. On the other hoof, this attack may be exactly what he needed to prove that Equestria Forward was a national security risk and discredit that "commoner princess" entirely. A widespread power outage the likes of which Equestria never saw pre-Twilight Sparkle? Possible acts of terrorism spreading fear throughout Equestria? None of this happened on such a wide scale before Twilight's little pet program. If he could go before the Crown Council, Princess Luna, and Princess Celestia to convince them that these problems would go away if Equestria Forward was dismantled... "The commoner princess would be muzzled or, even better, forced to abdicate. I would be seen as a hero for sweeping away such a program. In fact, maybe the other princesses would let me take Twilight Sparkle's place as a co-ruler! Oh, what a fantastic day that would be!" The servants could only look on as Blueblood gleefully roamed his mansion in one of the exclusive parts of Canterlot. "Of course, I need to get an audience first. Scribe!" His personal scribe soon arrived, and with a pen and paper, began to jot down Blueblood's request. He wanted a tripartite session of the Crown Council, with every member of that body, the three princesses, and the Privy Court magistrates in attendance. As he sent the Scribe on his way to deliver the message to the princesses, the chief magistrate, and the Speaker of the Crown Council, he smiled. In his speech, he would criticize the government's response to the attacks and make Princess Twilight answer for the effects her little reforms had on society and security. The plan was perfect. Twilight Sparkle was a commoner with little experience in politics, Celestia was indifferent towards the program from day one, Luna was skeptical, and the Crown Council wouldn't be able to go against the will of their constituents, who are rightfully upset with this turn of events. In fact, nopony in any position of power would be able to justify the EMP attacks and the increase in unrest. Equestria Forward would go down in flames, the "reforms" would be reversed, and the nobility would be on top again. He would be a national hero, forever revered in history textbooks for stopping the "maniacal futurist" princess. Twilight would be sent back to that podunk town she came from, and become irrelevant as a major political force, even if she remained as a "princess". What a fantastic day it will be, indeed. ----------- The scribe went out the mansion's front gate, then travelled a few feet from the gate before she decided to read the letter again. Her boss wanted a personal audience with every major organ of the national government. She had a gut feeling that he was planning to do something to destroy Equestria Forward, but she didn't know what. However, if the letter didn't reach its destination, and Blueblood didn't get a response back, he would be very upset with her. He may be a bit of a megalomaniac, but he wasn't stupid. As much as she hated him, she didn't want to be fired from one of the cushiest jobs she's ever had. She decided to deliver the letter, but would pass it on to Princess Twilight instead of the other intended recipients. She felt that the youngest princess and likely target of Blueblood's speech needed to know what was going on, so she'd have time to prepare.

If I had to choose, my first choice would be Canada. I've always wanted to visit Canada, for starters. I'd still be close enough to family that I could make semi-regular visits, there wouldn't be much in the way of culture shock considering how closely related Canada and the United States are, and their economy is doing well. Of course, I'd have to get through Canada's fairly strict immigration process (the points system) before I could even think of moving there. After Canada, in no particular order: Norway, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Chile, Singapore, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.

Corn Flakes, as usual. I like cereal.

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