The light that flashed across the sky could have been seen the world over. The shockwave that erupted from the center of White Hive registered as an ‘over ten’ seismic event. Everyone touching the ground on this continent to the next could feel it. The fire and light that poured from space over the exact dimensions of White Hive only lasted for one minute. In the next, White Hive was no longer there. A hole had been burned into the earth far deeper and blacker than any before.
To Celestia, she’d felt as if she’d just done some hard exercise. Nothing that a day’s rest wouldn’t recover.
She couldn’t help but giggle. The sweet relief of vengeance exacted and the horror of what she’d just done fought for a way to express themselves and the end result was confused. It bubbled over in laughter.
“Ma’am, come in! The horn is totally fried, please return to the ship immediately!”
It was Digi. Just Digi. Too busy looking at the numbers to observe the destruction. If it took just under a millennium to fix the last place she’d burned, she couldn’t imagine what it would take for this one to recover. Perhaps if she lives to see four thousand years, she might find out.
“Understood. Mission accomplished. Harbinger returning to ship.” She’d only just managed to keep the giggling out of her transmission. She feared it might be a long time before she could stop. It wouldn’t take long before Twilight and Luna figured out what happened, and it would take even less time for them to find her. Luckily, between the shielding on the Harbinger itself and the Asteroid, they wouldn’t be able to get her exact location for a few hours.
Time was ticking, and she needed to get this machine hidden fast. Twilight could still resonate with the element of harmony she used so long ago, and that could destroy the matrix Celestia had spent so long perfecting. The machine bay to the Asteroid opened out of empty sky, its reflective shielding making it totally invisible in the air. She landed all hooves easily just as if she’d been flying by herself.
Little more than a light jog. Some weight lifting or regular magic exercise. That was all it took to remove an entire enemy production facility and megacity off the face of the planet.
Just what have I created?
Digi called over the link, “Harbinger secured, Ma’am. You can disembark.”
And yet again came the fun part. She found her magic outside the machine’s control, grasped in the dark for the cables protruding from her helmet, and all at once, every sense turned to ice. Frost fizzled into foam that boiled her insides, only to die away completely into still numbness as her sensations returned.
Seeing with her own eyes again in the pitch darkness of the machine, she lit her horn for sight, found the hatch, and opened it. Light pouring into the gel of the cockpit, she unbuckled the harness and swam up and out of the machine. At the top, Dusk was waiting for her.
He offered her a hoof. “How… are you feeling?”
Celestia read a number of emotions on the boy’s face. Shock, awe, fear, confusion, horror. She took the hoof, got out of the cockpit, and hugged him. In this position, it was better not to say anything. Ten million lives in the blink of an eye. Little made her feel worse than how easy it had been. And yet, the changelings weren’t all that far from technology like this.
She removed her helmet, caressed her son’s head, then turned to her assistant. “Digi, damage report.”
The young unicorn tapped his terminal and put the holographic screen where she could see it. “The matrix is stable, no damage to anything but the magic circuits and the horn unit. Those are fried and the power you put through that thing just about melted it from the inside out.”
From where the cockpit sat at the small of the machine’s back, she looked up the neck and to the head to see that the horn was not only very melted, but still glowing red-hot from the heat she’d put through it.
“I see. Well, I want to rebuild this from scratch anyways, so it shouldn’t be too much of an inconvenience. Can’t have Luna or Twilight discovering it, and the first thing I want to work on when we get back to the island would be the neural link system. I want to make these easy for anypony to use in the event we need them to.”
Dusk coughed. “Um, Mother, is that really all you wanted to know about?”
It certainly was. However, to appease him, she did ask for the information she didn’t want to know. “And… the destruction?”
Without a word, Digi swapped to the ship’s camera. Where White Hive had been down below was nothing more than a black crater in the middle of lush green, blonde sand, and blue sea. Ten million lives.
Digi cleared his throat. “The reports currently believe that a once in a millennium earthquake struck this area. That won’t be for long, however. I’m not entirely sure what you did, but the damage was kept exclusively inside the crater where White Hive was. The surrounding villages and slums may have felt the shaking, but the damage to the land was minimal, beyond the threshold, that is.”
Just ten million lives. Celestia breathed easy, and even Dusk was relieved. A monster she may be, but not a totally heartless one. “Then all is as anticipated. To give them something to chew on before she discovers me, tell headquarters that there has been a disaster in this area, and it would do well for Equestria to send aid. In the meantime, head toward my Miyako facility.” She turned to her son, “Get your cousin to cover for me ASAP. I need about an hour to get this thing hidden away properly, and either your sister or mine is going to come for me in that time. I can deal with Luna, but Twilight cannot find me under any circumstances until the matrix is hidden, understood?”
Dusk and Digi saluted. “Ma’am!”
“Then let’s move. We’re on the clock.”