Today's the day.
It's Monday, and everycreature knows what that means; core replacement day. I shouldn't say I've been dreading this day; just hoping it'll fly by well, I suppose. Solar Blaze, as I expected, had a happy-go-lucky attitude, seeming like she would be talking my ears off this morning. I've heard one of her peers call her a "combination of Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie" a year or so ago. Every month that goes by, that statement becomes more true.
Back on topic, though. The royal sisters and Princess Twilight Sparkle were on the TV news last night, situated in Canterlot. They were announcing to the whole kingdom our plans to expand. It had been day-time while they spoke, so it was a rerun of a previous showing.
As I entered into my usual section of the facility with Solar, I noticed quite a few things were different. The most prevalent change was that all of the units were off. The transparent coolant tubes in the back were empty, and the atmosphere was eerily devoid of any machine noise. Everycreature was positioned over at the extension platform, which looks off towards the core itself (the casing's circle window in the front, which showed the core, revealed a plain grey). It would normally boast a large beam of techno-magic being shot up into the barrier, but not today it seems.
I trotted up to my colleagues, overhearing discussion about the whole operation; who's going where, who's doing what, when we're starting, etc. Personally, it fueled my anxiety slightly further.
Solar nudged me with her foreleg. "Woah... I've never seen anythin' like that. The core looks dead." She observed the large, looming mechanism with wonder.
I nodded. "Yeah, it does. I think the shield's running on some sort of auxiliary energy, so we're alright."
"Like backup generators?"
"Something like that."
I walked deeper into the crowd, Solar following behind me. As there wasn't much to be done at the moment, my mind wandered a little, reflecting the curiosities the creatures among me had. Solar disappeared into the critter ocean during my own daydreaming. I figured she saw one of her co-worker friends and went up to say hi.
That was, until my ears caught my name being called by her voice. Looking over, I found her coming back to me, accompanied by a tall, blue-and-green scaled dragon with small, orange spikes protruding all the way down his spine and tail. Looking at me with dark brown eyes, I recognized him instantly: Jargon. I was glad to see him.
"Hey Flash," he greeted, a tinge of boredom showing through his raspy voice. I waved with my wing in response. "How've ya been?"
"Eh, nothing interesting, aside from this anyway. Yesterday was quite a doozy."
He nodded, shifting his tail around. "Oh, yeah, it was. A great one at that, eh? Finally gonna have a chance to get back to my homeland."
"Think it's changed much from before?"
"What, from rock, stone, and lava? Ha! Nah. Only the layout'll change, we'll probably have the simplest recovery too."
Honestly, he wasn't really wrong. Aside from ash and debris falling down, all the dragonlands consisted of are really those three components. And, according to dragons who came here after the strike, it's fact. It's like a (mostly) blank canvas.
Solar chimed in. "I remember readin' you guys were buildin' your capital into a huge city before everything went down."
With a sound of remembrance, Jargon confirmed that. "Yeah, we were tryin'. If that damn meteor didn't plow our planet to Tartarus, we'd have had it completed by now," He explained. "We're gonna have to clean the rubble up and start from scratch."
"Didn't you guys have smaller neighborhoods as well?" I asked.
He sighed, tapping his foot on the floor. "We did. All gone now. I doubt we'll find any leftovers aside from... wood planks. Had we finished the project, we woulda finally had some form of big societal progress."
I felt bad, quietly sympathizing for him. Jargon missed his old home; likely still not fully used to the city life of Cloudsdale, moving from what I imagine to be small towns to a bustling, floating metropolis in comparison. Especially with how weird it was to be able to stand on clouds, too. Techno-magic can really do everything when used properly.
"I... thought you guys were fine by yourselves, though." I added.
"Problem was, we were too busy hoardin' gems and treating outsiders like shit, including you ponies. I don't think being a bad neighbor is great for advancements in civilization, especially when moving away from more... primitive ideals."
My mind simmered on what to say next, a process broken by Solar. "If only we got the damn shield over to everyone else." She said.
"Everything has its limits, and so did the shield. There was nothin' y'all could do at the time. Plus, ponies were really the only ones who could understand that type of magic." Jargon reasoned.
"Yeah..." I looked at the ground.
Jargon ruffled my mane a little with his hand. "Sometimes sacrifices have'ta be made for the greater good, Flash. Not that I ever wanted a situation like this to become reality, but... it's just how it is."
A silence of agreement grew over us.
Just then, the double-door entryway all the way in the front flung open. Out of it came Rainbow Dash, accompanied by several other ponies with outfits akin to those who made the inital announcement. All ears were on her as she made her presence known.
"Mornin, everycreature," she began loud and proud, "today's the day all of Equestria's been waitin' for! Replacement day, YEAH!" She jumped into the air in a youthful joy. A rainbow trail followed her when she practically teleported from where she was to the space between us and the core. Seriously, the speed she flies at is terrifyingly fast.
Looking over to my left, Solar had a smile planted on her face, and doing small bounces in place (though, her hooves never left the ground). She really loved Dash. I do too, I'm just... not as great at showing it. I also noted Jargon listening with an indifferent, yet attentive look.
All eyes were on Dash, ears included, as she spoke. "The process'll be super easy! All we gotta do is take out the old core, and put the new fancy one in!"
She flew down onto the viewing platform, pressing a combination of buttons on the control panel in the middle of it. Hisses of steam jetted out of the core's hexagonal casing, and it began to gradually move towards me, towards all of us. A deep, reverberating hum accompanied the structure's movement, genuinely making me feel a little scared. Some of the creatures around me muttered woah's and ooh's, Solar included. A remarkable sight, definitely one I've never seen before. Dear Celestia...
The casing froze for a second upon reaching the platform, now beginning a slow descent to ground level. Some of those among us got a little curious, stepping forward, though Dash gently shoo'ed them away. Eventually, the structure finished its gradual fall, a low, echoing Ka-Chung added to the ominous atmosphere. This close, the casing was about 3 times taller than my own height.
"Feels creepy bein' so close to it, damn..." Solar muttered.
"Luna be damned..." Jargon outwardly said, some workers hearing him and briefly looking back. Reflected my thoughts, that's for sure.
Behind us, out the same entrance that Dash entered from, were two griffons wheeling in a strange device. Sitting on a table, the thing was a pure marvel of techno-magic; a cylindrical object with a shut-off grey center boasting 6 evenly-spaced tubes protruding out of it. There were four large plugs arranged in an X shape around it, and that was basically it.
This was the new core. Sleek, clean, beautifully simplistic.
Everycreature was in simultaneous amusement and wonder. It was fat futuristic battery, and I couldn't anywhere near understand the technology inside of it.
"Now that's somethin' I've only dreamed about. This is what they've been up to in secret?" Jargon openly pondered.
Before me or Solar could respond, Rainbow Dash spoke amongst our noises of curiousity. "And there it is! The brand new core - it may look cute n' small, but it's got a punch of power!"
She pressed another sequence of buttons on the control panel. This time, it unlocked the casing's see-through door, opening it vertically. It also opened the platform's gate, which extended the bridge towards the core. It was a whole chain reaction I've only ever seen done once before, when some of my colleagues had to check on the - now old - core after it began acting up (a spider somehow crawled inside of it).
"There it is, the glue keeping things together, naked and exposed," Solar commentated, a small grin still accenting her snout. "I can tell what we're puttin' in there's superglue."
"Damn well better be." I firmly, though quietly replied. My anxiety was banging at my heart like a greedy pickaxe to pure gold ore. And I wasn't shining or feeling pretty. Thing is, if this process fails, then Equestria's gonna blend in with the outside... sure, there isn't a meteor-induced shockwave to slam us into oblivion, but the climate'll go right out of control. And when that happens, everycreature in this kingdom hoping to see their native homes again will never be able to. Yeah, 'I don't wanna die' of course, but, I don't want everyone else to, either. As well as Solar and Jargon.
Dash initiated the opening of the casing's window-door. It swung vertically, and out slid the old core with a cloud of white steam.
Her expression and cadence switched to a more serious tone as she stepped aside. "It's time, everycreature. We'll only need a few of you up here, alright?"
She pointed at four random workers - two ponies in the front, a dragon in the back, and another-
Oh.
Me.
Well, if that's what fate brings unto me, so be it. I'll do my best (even if I'm just holding the tray the core sits in). I trotted towards the viewing platform along with the three other chosen few, Solar and Jargon wishing me luck. Those wishes better come true.
Dash motioned towards front two ponies in our group, which happened to include me, giving directions. "Alright, both of you hold the tray steady."
Doing so, I found myself holding the stainless-steel half-cylinder tray with my hooves, flying stationary with a fellow mare worker on the other side. I could make out Solar and Jargon in the crowd, watching me attentively. I wasn't gonna say anything, but I felt like their eyes were locking on me. Not the best remedy for my worries.
The creatures then split into two halves as the new core came rolling through, the two griffons standing aside the cart it sat in.
Dash took a deep breath; even she was saving her usually exuberant personality for later. "Okay, now... both of you down here take that core n' place it in the tray." She ordered, the dragon and pegasus taking the object in their grips.
They flew forward, my gaze steady on the duo, and gently fitted the core into its holding space. I let out a breath I didn't know I had held. Simultaneously, the mare and I gingerly slid the tray into the casing, leaving all the work that we needed to do, done. I flew back onto the platform, standing close behind Dash in case of any extra directions being given.
Pressing buttons, she made the tray move back inside the casing with the window door closing. Various clicking and whirring noises emanated from it. The window kept its lifeless grey color.
"It should be glowing green by now... what's going on?" I heard Dash mumble to herself.
The core wasn't doing anything. Dash pressed the activation button once more, and steam stretched out of the casing. Everycreature gasped.
I began to back up.
No...
The core's window glowed red. Right away, Dash desperately tried to shut everything down, but it was no use. Something was wrong, and nobody had any clue why.
A swear quietly escaped my mouth.
NO!
Fire.
A fire had begun to creep out of the cores casing, and the automatic alarms triggered for the whole facility. The crowd fell into a frenzy, my heart racing at paces that could make me faint at any moment. I managed to fish out Solar and Jargon. I tried to talk with them, but the panic had made Solar an incomprehensible mess and Jargon utterly silent, even more so than me.
Through the commotion, I heard Dash scream only one sentence, the core having transitioned into a bonfire. I'd place my bets on the cause being an unprecedented power surge.
"SOMETHINGS WRONG WITH THE CORE, RUN!!"
All three of us instinctually ran for the exit, which was helpessly piled up with workers.
Just then, the inferno that was the core had reached its climax, releasing all of the built up energy in a violent blast. All I could see among the horde was white-orange instantly sliding into my view. My ears filled with piercing explosion. I was flung backwards with a force I couldn't believe wasn't magic.
I... think I slammed into a wall, and then...
Nothing. No sight. No hearing. No feeling.
I blinked a few times, my pupils finally beginning to pick up light again after what felt like... centuries. I slowly stood up, my senses gradually crawling back to me, and took a deep breath. I was knocked out, for sure.
Before I could have a moment to look around, sharp pains stabbed into my head and legs aggressively, spreading to the rest of my body in varying degrees. Looking at my hooves, they were badly bruised; the bright yellow coat now being grossly accented with dark purple blotches. Tapping my head, the pain returned viciously, and my hoof was bloodstained. A highly bruised, injured body and bleeding head... honestly, it's a miracle none of my bones had been broken.
Well, that's me looked at. Now...
O-Oh my Celestia.
All around me, the world looked desolate. The sky was had no blue to speak of, the sun shining a depressing light far away. In the distance, the facility was completely destroyed - a black, broken, bent monolith. Burnt metal debris littered the dead grass and flora around it. Torn units sat bare, their electronic innards spewed like pony guts. Adding to the absolute horror, piles of ponies, griffons, dragons, and other creatures' corpses laid on the ground. Some were mangled out of recognition, some severely burned, others took the worst blunt force I've ever seen.
I just wanted to cry. No- I wanted to find Solar and Jargon.
No- I- I just... I want to go home.
I...
Why...
Why Celestia?
WHY DID THIS FUCKING HAPPEN?!?!