"And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him."
Princess Twilight mentally recalled the passage from a book that was very popular amongst people in the human world as she stared through the large, thick, blast-proof window in front of her and silently took in the unholy might of an atomic bomb. The atmosphere was palpable as the young princess along with Princess Luna, Lady Celestia, Secretary Raven, and a few other high-ranking officials as well as military and research personnel stood and watched quietly.
The explosion was bright. It was brighter than anything anyone in that room had ever seen before save for a few rare and powerful magical events in the past. They had taken some radioactive material, shoved it into a bomb, and loaded it with explosives and some volatile crystals to craft the deadliest piece of ordnance in existence by ripping apart quite possibly the smallest units of reality. To think that they had actually managed to capture the power of the sun and blast it into the middle of nowhere was unbelievable and shook Twilight to her core.
At that very moment, Equestria had claimed the crown of being the first ever nation to successfully create a working nuclear weapon, and no one was cheering.
And that bomb wasn't the only one. They had an a-bomb stored away somewhere ready for use while another one was waiting to be approved for production. Princess Twilight and Princess Luna simply had to sign a few papers, and Death, the Destroyer of Worlds production model no. 3 would be on it's merry way. The princess didn't want to think about that though. History was still in the process of being made via nuclear light show after all.
A few moments passed, and the bright light faded to give way to a pillar of dust and debris rocketing up into the heavens above and beginning to form what looked like a cloud shaped like a mushroom while Twilight and the others looked on and watched. As that went on, sound soon reached their location, and everyone covered their ears as a loud boom shook the entire room.
When the noise passed, the silence returned. Twilight, however, swore she could hear a mare sobbing while a stallion chuckled to himself somewhere in the room. It wasn't a very joyous chuckle though. Nevertheless, the peace gave Twilight time to finally process what in all the shimmering stars in Luna's night sky just happened.
Princess Twilight still couldn't believe it, and a lump suddenly formed in her throat as she took in the gravity of her nation's accomplishment. While it probably wouldn't result in decades of tension with another country that would threaten the whole world with nuclear annihilation like what all the human history books Sunset had given to her wrote about, the bomb still heralded the dawning of a new age where it was finally possible to wipe out an entire army or even an entire city with one or two bombs instead of a couple thousand.
It wasn't proven in an actual conflict in their world yet - and in Twilight's mind, she hoped it never would - but the young alicorn didn't have to imagine the destructiveness of such a weapon. Not even the strongest spells and magical artifacts could match its power, and somehow, Twilight knew that even Discord's chaos magic would be a little hard-pressed to cause that much destruction in such a short amount of time. She had read what the humans did to a couple of cities in one of their own wars, and it had given her more than a few sleepless nights.
Twilight was sure that seeing the bomb in action with her very own eyes would give her a whole lot more.
Time ticked by, and no one but a few scientists in the room writing down notes made a peep. Suddenly, a thought tickled the back of Princess Twilight's head. "With that kind of power, how could the Elements ever compare now?"
The princess was appalled at the thought, but her mind continued.
"What if Equestria had to use it? The Elements couldn't win the Great War, but guns and bombs did, so if another war like that starts, why not end it as quickly as possible? One and done, maybe two - all for the good of Equestria. A few tens of thousands for the lives of millions. It would be an acceptable tra- no!"
Twilight shut her eyes close and clenched her jaw. She felt utterly disgusted at herself. The princess was a mare of logic and reason, but what she had just thought was gambling with lives, and no mathematical solution for a chance of success would ever truly justify gambling with something so precious. Ever since the Great War, Twilight swore to never compromise her morals and avoid ever going down such a slippery slope like how...
Like how Celestia did.
Princess Twilight moved her gaze around the room. Everyone else was deep in thought with Luna's slightly open mouth and Celestia's catatonic thousand-yard stare. Twilight looked at Celestia in particular, and the princess remembered staring into those dark eyes filled with almost nothing but hate for the invaders of Equestria. Twilight had committed to never forgetting herself and her principles as the Princess of Friendship no matter what lest she repeat the mistakes of the past and let history rhyme once more.
Eventually, everyone left the room, and as Princess Twilight and Princess Luna were escorted to their car and the doors were closed before they drove away, Twilight felt that the magic of friendship was still as strong as ever, but splitting the atom had now presented itself as an option as much as using the Elements were. Both were forces of nature harnessed, but only one could win wars and at a heavy cost.
Princess Twilight made sure not to take too much time losing her lunch that afternoon.