In the Asteroid’s machine bay, a variety of small fighter ships and early prototypes of Equestrian-made titans stood. Mechanical weapons of war were nothing new when Celestia had returned from her long sojourn in space, and though she learned much quickly, she always found it miraculous that electronics had come to be in the way they did. How the simple idea to create a more advanced number-calculating machine had evolved so far so fast.
It was almost as if magic was being replaced by these wondrous tools when she first arrived, but she knew that was not really the case. No, magic only needed time to catch up. Working in tandem with these machines is where magic would see a resurgence. Only, she’d never expected to see it like this.
When the first titan attacked, Luna was the only one close enough to deal with it. It had come directly for the queen in her castle after all, but it still burned Celestia that she wasn’t there simply because they’d been arguing the day before. It was only made worse by the lack of understanding Celestia had of the Changeling’s new technology. This very topic, this very tragedy could’ve been avoided if Luna had just listened
It was lucky that she only damaged some of the changeling titan that attacked that fateful day. There was enough of a wreckage to study and reverse-engineer it, to refine and develop it. All that hard work, all that testing, all those nights of angry tears and plotting behind the dearest backs had led to this moment. She’d pay the changelings back with interest.
Out of all that effort came two models: The Harbinger and the Forerunner. They took every aspect of the original machine and punched the power up several degrees with Celestia’s own use of them in mind. Any normal pony would die connected to one of these things just from the mental strain of having every brain cell linked directly to the titan, but alicorns are rather durable, and the eldest was the most durable of all. With the pilot’s life of no concern no matter what forces the body inside was exposed to, it was all about how much power they could cram into it.
For the Harbinger in particular, having a hoofful of ancient artifacts lying around which could, in theory, generate untold power, was a nice bonus.
With gravity off in the machine bay, Celestia hopped toward the command console where the Harbinger was connected. “Is it ready, Digi?”
“Gah!” Digital Pen, a.k.a. ‘Digi,’ recollected himself. He was a bright young stallion who had been the robotics lead at Alicorn Electronics who Celestia hired personally to be her assistant. “Yes, ma’am. All systems are green, and the harmony matrix is functioning with no problems.”
“Very good. Keep me informed, I’m going in.” She turned to hop toward the cockpit hatch, but the yellow stallion stopped her.
“Ma’am, I know we’ve talked about this, but Mister Oxford wanted me to remind you about the maximum input the Harbinger can take. It was not cheap to build in secret, and if we are to improve the design after this test, we need to keep it, um, functional.”
Bold, for the meek Digi. Celestia thought. “Remind me what my limit is here?”
He swallowed, pulling up a terminal screen. It floated in midair like magic, displaying all the information about the Harbinger anypony could want. “Twenty megajoules. The matrix can multiply this ten times, but any more than that and the matrix will short, you’ll fry the horn, and possibly shut down the system.”
She sighed. “Only two million? I suppose it will get the job done, and I am not the one mustering twenty megajoules of energy here, but I was hoping for something a bit more flashy.”
In truth, only at her worst moment and with the power of an element of harmony in her hooves had Celestia ever managed to make that much power. The area where the blast landed took eight hundred years to finally recover. So long as she could do that to White Hive, she’d be satisfied, but she did expect more out of this multi-billion bit machine.
Digi cleared his throat. “Seeing as we’ve yet to make a conventional bomb that can come even close to that kind of targeted destruction, I would imagine it is more than sufficient for the task at hoof.”
“Alright, understood.” Thinking better on it, “How about consistent supply? Can it sustain twenty for very long?”
“Sustain!?” The young stallion rubbed at his temple. “I forget who I’m dealing with. At best, you have five seconds of that kind of output. One spell can be amplified this way. It could probably take ten for a whole minute, but I wouldn’t bet on that. I didn’t exactly run calculations for this before hoof.”
This would be a whole lot easier if I was still in tune with any of these elements. “I suppose I can make do. I’ll need you on the monitor feeding me information while the operation is underway. This isn’t just a retaliation, after all.”
She hopped through zero gravity, her wings struggling to unfurl under the life suit.
Digi pressed against the guard rail. “And what else is it, my lady?”
Celestia caught the hatch and unlocked it. “We’re sending a message, Digi. Not just to the Changelings, but the world. They all need to be reminded just how big my stick is.”
With a smile to the horrified assistant, Celestia sank into the cockpit and closed the hatch behind her.
Filled with gel for shock absorption, she attached all the cables and the harness that would keep her still while the machine was active. Then came the magic words:
“Resonate, Harbinger.”
It was like having her blood replaced with ice. Cold, sharp pain shot through every inch of her body. If she could have been killed like this, she would have. Seconds crept by as the ice began to burn and more and more of herself faded and reappeared. Muscles used to control the body had their signals diverted to the machine. The heat and the ice coalesced into one sharp stabbing needle right through her brain.
The black was calm. Quiet, serene, still. For a moment, she thought she heard the voice of the father of her children. She saw his silhouette in the distance, but knew that he couldn’t be caught for a third time.
Fire filled her veins once again and the black dispersed. The system was online. Her vision clearer and sharper, her sense of touch dulled, smell and taste muted completely, but magic at an all-time high.
“My lady? Can you hear me?” Digi called.
“Loud and clear, Digi.” It was never the most fun thing to run tests in this machine. So far, it’s killed the only pony pilot they were willing to throw at it, and only Oxford, Luna’s son, has managed to survive the neural link process long enough to use it. Quite literally hooking a brain up to a body it wasn’t meant to be in has proven a great challenge so far, and they still don’t really know how the changelings managed it the first time. However, this was only the first of many. Once the pilot system was worked through, Equestria would have an entire legion of titans to lead the coming future. And I’ll be there to see it through…
“Alright, then. Please perform the system check,” Digi requested.
“Performing system check.” The first part was to rotate the hooves. It was surprising what the brain could do when given a new limb. It was as if she’d always had mechanical hooves and the ability to spin them like a drill. All four working properly, she took four steps out of the bay to make sure the legs responded right. Next came the wings. For now, the best they could do was imitate planes and rockets with foils that folded along the sides of the titan’s torso. It still felt like her wings, but the fine control Celestia had over her feathers was entirely gone here. They worked, though, so that was what mattered. Finally, she rotated her head all the way around, a feeling she’d never get used to, and cast a simple levitation spell through the titan horn.
With the harmony matrix in place, this ‘simple’ spell was powerful enough to lift the two Forerunner prototypes on standby. Fully functional but less powerful, they were made so that other alicorns could use them, meaning Dusk and Oxford. From the weight of an average pony amplified to lift a twenty-five ton titan, the matrix was working as intended.
“All systems green, Ma’am,” Digi announced.
Celestia released her other projects. “Very good. Let the captain know I am ready to begin.”
Digi moved away from the dock to make the call, and Celestia took steps toward the launch pad. A rail had been outfitted with magnetic locks in the shape of hooves like that of a track runner’s starting blocks. As soon as the release command was given, the blocks would shoot forward like a rocket, sending the Harbinger into orbit. It would fall just into the stratosphere when she’d begin the attack. At this distance from the earth, she’d be totally undetected until the deed had been done.
The visualizer the Harbinger was equipped with was not too dissimilar to the VR headsets that ponies played games with. To make it as easy to use as possible, the heads-up display looked just like any shooter game with various programs and functions that could be activated by voice command or winking at their icons. Old as she was, it was always a delight to see her own new devices working.
The Harbinger in place, Celestia waited for the word.
“Mother.”
Not the voice of the Captain, but the boy. Maybe that image wasn’t so much an illusion after all.
“Yes, my darling?” She responded.
Dusk cleared his throat over their private line. “You are… totally prepared for what comes next, aren’t you?”
“Hell or high water. I know I worried you earlier, but please rest assured I know what I’m doing here.”
Her son paused. She knew full well that this was more than just feverish determination pushing her. The blazing sun inside wanted a vent for its anger and it was going to get it one way or another. At least, by appeasing it this way, she'd achieve one of Equestria’s strategic goals in the process.
“Very well, Mother. You have my full support.”
“Thank you, Dusk.” The private line cut and Celestia’s youngest came over the main intercom.
“All hands, prepare for launch. Operation Damocles begins in T-minus 30, 29, 28…”
Well, are you ready? It could be decades before Twilight is willing to speak to you again. Perhaps, if decades pass and we’ve made enough of a statement to turn the temperature down, she’ll change her mind. To live only for the status quo, to exist without action… I know how she feels all too well. But unlike me, she has a mother to steer her right. And with this, we’ll take the first step.
She set the thrusters to pre-boost as Dusk reached the end of his countdown.
“3, 2, 1, Harbinger, Launch!”
“Celestia, heading out!” She called for all to hear. It wasn’t so much a routine as a signal for the end.
The bay doors opened to reveal the blue world beneath the Asteroid far, far below. In a moment, the launch pad fired and enough force to destroy every organ in most creature’s bodies passed through Celestia. Thanks to the gel inside the cockpit, it wouldn’t force her body to regenerate those just yet.
Flying in freefall, Celestia’s giant extremities carelessly gave themselves to gravity. Forward and down, spiraling over the target until the exact distance she wanted was reached. Below, she could see the shape of the massive tower jutting from the Morning continent’s coast. A huge white spire as tall as the world’s highest mountain, as wide as an entire city-state, and filled to the brim with worker drones slaving away day after day building the next threat to Equestria.
Changelings made up about a third of the world’s population. After today, it will be a fourth.
The memory of that horrible day flooded Celestia’s mind.
Before she knew what was happening, a giant was tearing through Canterlot’s walls, killing ponies and soldiers alike, blasting down fighter jets and attack helicopters, stepping on tanks and crushing everything in its wake. In a matter of minutes the destruction was worse than if the city had been bombed, and the castle was next. Luna had been lucky. For the first time in centuries, she had the sense to strike first. Perhaps she realized what it could’ve done if she tried to defend herself instead. A titan was a real threat.
Celestia didn’t leave her sister’s side for weeks. She was far too old to be traumatized by something like this, but save their own fighting over a millennium ago, nothing had come close to threatening her life before. And still, she wouldn’t see reason.
A personal flaw is understandable. To double down after witnessing the worst, however… that was neglectful. When one crown falls, the other must take it up.
Finally in range, Celestia unfurled her metal wings and came to a stop directly over the tip of White Hive’s central spire.
“Asteroid, prepare for retrieval,” she called.
“Asteroid, standing by,” Dusk responded.
“Digi, be on the monitor. Make sure you get every byte of what’s about to happen recorded. I’ve already got a few tweaks I want to make to this.”
“Ma’am!”
Then, Celestia took a moment to breathe. The clear blue sky, the green land, the deep waves. Millions of changelings lived in this structure. Even ponies and other creatures who’d come to the hive for work lived here. To build a life. To make their way in the world and survive another day. It was a free democratic city, but in name only. All changelings are bound to the will of the Queen, even the exiles. With a majority in the population, she had full control of the city state.
Luna doesn’t have the resolve to do it. Twilight won’t pick up the reins. And the boys are just too young. For a task like this, an older hoof is called for.
Summoning exactly enough magic to power the spell, she breathed in. Light charged inside the Harbinger’s core, passing into the matrix and amplifying at the mechanical horn. My heart goes out to the innocents I’ve forsaken, and to the leaders who hide behind them…
Blame it on the misfortune of your birth.
Celestia breathed out.