“Did you really have to do that?”
“Do what?” Zeus asks innocently.
Twilight glares at him for a second, before turning to look at the second sun, outshining Luna’s moon. “Really?”
Zeus glances upwards, and shrugs. “What?”
“You made a second sun?”
He shakes his head. “Nah, the blast will dissipate- and finish glowing- in a few minutes.”
“Did you really have to?”
“What? Can you name any one object or creature in Equestria capable of standing up to eighty simultaneous 1.3-T-ton augmented fusion warheads at close proximity, alongside the impact of four 200-gton augmented Hellrail rounds?”
“There’s that word again!”
“Word? Which one?”
“The one Daring Do used to describe that ‘Hellbore’ thing!”
“You mean fusion? Yes. Quite feisty stuff, that.”
“... and what’s a Hellrail…?”
The dark princess standing next to them, just below the cave entrance, sighs. “That won’t do any lasting damage, will it?”
Zeus shakes his head. “Nah- your planet’s magnetic field will deflect everything dangerous, long before it hits atmosphere- or the magic field, both of which would make further absorptions or deflections.”
“What about my Moon?”
“Too far away for much other than a bit of light and radiation- just like us. Athena is probably having a field day.”
I have no clue what caused this massive flare of light in the sky; whatever it is, my solar capacity has been run right up to its limit. The excess is not enough to cause damage- but I am absorbing almost thrice as much power as my fusion plant would produce at full power. The named power plant is running at its lowest, and most efficient, setting. I have tried checking emissions signatures- but the glare is too great for any kind of weapon to produce, and too inconsistent to be a new star. Supernova? I hope not- I doubt any of my ponies would survive that.
“Who’s Athena?”
“Right… You would know her as ‘Guardian’.”
“She died, though.”
“She got better. We’re good at that.”
“Impossible!”
“I did it too. Admittably, my processors weren’t quite as badly decayed as hers when I first received power here, but I did have to repair or replace almost 93.41% of my cognitive matrix- and that’s not even counting the other repairs.”
“No way!”
“You’ve seen how easily I can manufacture new comsets for you and Princess Celestia- who, by the way, appears to be waking up- right?”
“That’s easy- a simple assembly spell will do that.”
“Uh, no, actually. They’re too complicated for that kind of spell. Anyways, I can also make parts for myself the same way. So can Guardian- and while her Personality Center was offline, you told me yourself she still responded, right?”
Nod.
“Yes. Thing is, her main processors remained functional. Some part of her Damage Control facilities shared that same fate- and was able to take the nanites I left in yours and Celestia’s comsets to make some repairs. Repairs that sealed Guardian’s destiny as a restored Bolo.”
“And the eighty-first missile?”
“I didn’t think you’d notice that one. That one carries no warhead- rather, it’s a materials shipment for Guardian. She said she’s missing a few critical elements for her primary reactor.”
Tracking zeroes in on an inbound object, countergrav emissions, before it even crosses the radio horizon. I only have ballistic projectile weapons to fire at it right now- the Tanneri turrets’ weapons self-destructed when I cut into their programming, and they did not contain the appropriate elements for me to reconstruct any of my energy weapons. I have not had time- nor spare resources- for missile construction… Or VLS construction, for that matter.
Oh wait- this new object, clearly a missile, has made contact, Concordiat IFF. It’s the delivery vehicle Zeus promised me, carrying me a small supply of gold- and the trace elements I need to finish off that ‘synth fusion’ power plant, Fusion 11. Once that’s lit, literally anything is fuel- and parts. I guide it in for a harmless landing against the inside of one of my surviving armor plates, not far from my Command Deck.
“Materials shipment? What exactly did she need?”
“Mostly gold, for processor repairs- put her mind back together. She didn’t exactly specify what she needed the chromium, tellurium, or metastabilized tennessine for, though.”
“Metawhatnow?”
He waves a hoof dismissively. “Specific elements. Tennessine is artificial- and, without metastabilization, will disintegrate in just moments. Took me several hours to build the accelerator needed to produce and metastabilize it.”
“Uh… Remind me to never quiz you on chemistry.”
Princess Celestia jumps awake, lying on her back on something soft- feels like a couch.
Suddenly, a golden head with a similarly golden explosion of mane pops into her field of view. “Good evening! Zeus wants to know if you’re feeling okay?”
Speedy Thought then dodges the suddenly screaming Princess’s flailing hooves with practiced ease. “Just ‘No’ is fine!”
“PINKIE!” Celestia bellows. “A UNICORN! NO!”
“‘Fraid so,” the brown stallion states- and ignores her continued scream, looking at the ceiling. “I wonder how Discord likes that?”
Discord stares unblinkingly at the cavernous hole in the road before him. It’s hardly ten light-seconds across- but his car, one of the best in its class, can only jump nine point nine eight lightseconds. Shoot- he’d have to drive a few dozen lightyears the OTHER way and get a NEW car from the Galactic Mothership Constructors before he could go the two this way it’d take to reach Exceptional Purchase! WHY couldn’t they make an interlocking road network with multiple routes in it? Then again, why had he gotten this stinking Crushyler to begin with?
… At least he could stop by Sugarcube Corner on his way past, in a few minutes- that daisy and anvil sundae sounds good right now… unless Pinkie somehow presents him with something better.
“Maybe, maybe not,” Speedy Thought mutters. “Remember, he was planning on going to Exceptional Purchase today.”
“True,” her brother answers. “We might have disrupted the lightwave.”
“What are you looking at?” Bonbon asks, looking at the ceiling.
“Or talking about?” Night Light inserts, halfway through sliding on her earpiece.
“Discord,” the two answer in tandem. “And a little mayhem happening in deep space above Equestria right now.”
Hawkeye looks back at the ceiling. “Ooh- looks like we did disrupt it, right in front of him, too. Here he comes.”
Speedy Thought squints inexplicably up at the ceiling. “He does look a little bothered, doesn’t he? We might’ve outdone a simple consumer vehicle like his.”
“Shoot. Any ideas for the apology?”
“Well, he showed some favor for that tea...”
“And I don’t think drums will cut it this time. It’s gotta be something a little more…”
The two look at each other, figurative lightbulbs going off above their heads.
“Pinkie! Discord will show up in thirty-seven seconds, mark. He’ll need a jalapeño seed and crystallized hydrogen sundae, sprinkled with half-ton warheads and topped with an active fusion plant!” He hoofs over some supplies. “Don’t drop them.”
“Got it!” The kitchens of Sugarcube Corner become very busy very quickly.