Chapter 3: Disaster Afield
Black Quill smiled as he opened his door.
“Ahh, it's you! Pandora, was it?”
I nodded.
“Nice to be remembered by someone, Professor.”
“Please, come in.”
The three of us stepped inside, and waited as he went about the lengthy process of engaging all the door's locks.
“Forgive the security; paranoia pays, I suppose. What did you three need?”
“We were wondering if there was anything you needed done,” Whitefire said, getting straight to the point. Quill frowned.
“Well, there's some sweeping that needs to be done... but given the looks on your faces, I'd say you're looking for something a little more... exciting. I know Pandora and Officer Whitefire are capable due to that little bit of policework the other day, but...” he nodded to Sky, “What of your compatriot?”
“Reliable and capable,” Whitefire assured Quill, “If you can trust me or Pandora, you can trust her.”
He nodded.
“In that case, there is something.”
He motioned for us to follow him, deeper into his lab.
“I sent the Military Council a prototype of the Titan Heart roughly a year ago; fully functional. I continued working on it, making sure it was safe, under the assumption that the prototype would simply be a proof of concept. Unfortunately, the Military Council saw fit to not only mount the device in a new war machine, but use the old blueprints to commence production of a whole new classification of mechanized destruction: Titan-class machena, monsters of iron and stone. I have not made any major changes to the Titan Heart since then, so it's comparatively safe, but I have come across some... unnerving findings in my tests.”
A moment later, we stepped into his main lab floor, and the Titan Heart was easy enough to spot. The thing towered a good twenty meters vertical; a vast ring of intricately intertwined metal pieces, massive flanges and plates of steel littering the floor around it. He gestured offhandedly to it as he rummaged through mountains of paper.
“The outer casing is off, as you can see. That's just the core. Anyway, if I can just find it here... ahh, here we go. Let me give you a brief explanation of how the Harvester Engine works. Unicorn horns can naturally produce an unusually strong field of psychic energy, which attracts magic from somewhere outside space... I'm not really sure what this realm is, though. Off topic, sorry. Psychic fields can be produced mechanically, but the trick is, they have to be projected in a very specific way to focus the magic energy into a usable state. The secret behind the Harvester Engine is simple: produce a very, very powerful psychic field in the correct configuration to focus magic, then scale it up. This has continued to work fine as Harvester Engines get bigger and bigger, but in my experiments with the Titan Heart, I've encountered some items of... particular interest.”
He lifted a specific sheet of paper, and pointed to some hastily scrawled equations.
“Some of the readings I've been taking have been... off. I've examined them very closely, and discovered something highly unnerving – there may be a maximum amount of magical energy able to be drawn through a specific point.”
He'd lost me, but Whitefire clarified.
“So... if a single Harvester Engine sucks in too much magical energy, something could happen?”
Quill nodded approvingly.
“Yes, 'something' indeed, and if my thought process is correct, that something could be dangerous on a catastrophic level. Now, I've reviewed the schematics for the first war machine I mentioned. If all goes well, the magic levels should stay beneath this event horizon, but the problem is this: if too much energy is required of a single Harvester Engine, that Engine increases the strength of its field, drawing in more magic to compensate. When the Titan Heart is running at normal levels, it's perfectly safe... but it has the capacity to exceed the event horizon.”
Then it clicked for me.
“So if the people driving this new war machine try to draw more power than the Titan Heart is putting out,” I said, half to myself, “Then they could unknowingly trigger Celestia knows what.”
“Precisely.”
Quill rooted around for a moment, then produced a sealed envelope.
“Now, here's what I need you to do. In four days, this new war machine is being demonstrated in a field close to the Buffalo border. I need you to deliver this letter to the highest ranking military officer on site; make sure he reads it. I don't care if he's just extra careful or calls off the demonstration altogether; it really doesn't matter, as long as he doesn't unwittingly cross the event horizon.”
Whitefire reached to accept the letter, but paused when Sky Blue stepped forward.
“What's the compensation?” she asked, her intense gaze settling on the Professor.
“Oh, I'm sorry, I nearly forgot. One thousand bits apiece. I take it that's sufficient?”
A slow grin spread across Whitefire's face as she accepted the letter.
“More than enough.”
“Expecting any trouble along the route?” I asked, and the Professor shook his head.
“It should be safe, but this is a demonstration of a new weapon. Their might be various unsavory types scoping the area out, planning a theft or sabotage or something along those lines. I say arm yourselves, just in case.”
I nodded.
“Fine, just pay us when we get back. Carrying less money makes us less of a target.”
Whitefire frowned.
“Shouldn't we take a little in advance?” she asked, “Sky's set for armament, but all Pandora's got is that bat and I'm saddled with a nightstick. I'd say we should at least invest in some blades, maybe firearms if we're feeling fancy.”
I glanced to White.
“I don't know about you, but buying myself a shiny new gun would just be a waste. I love the bat, I'm comfortable with the bat, and no matter how awesome another weapon is, I will always use the bat. The thing's cracked so many skulls over the years that it's dented, and it's solid oak for fuck's sake.”
Whitefire sighed in semi-serious exhaspiration.
“Fine, keep the bat. Professor, would you mind if I took three hundred bits of my cut ahead of time?”
He shook his head.
“Not a problem. Let me fetch my wallet.”
He returned a moment later, and handed Whitefire a wad of crumpled-up cash with a bit of a wince.
“Sorry it's all out of sorts, but the majority of my money is held by the bank. I keep a comparatively small private reservoir for personal use, and this reservoir often finds itself hastily stuffed into pockets.”
Whitefire just laughed and accepted the money.
“It's no issue, Professor. We're not the kind to expect freshly pressed bills.”
Then, she motioned towards the exit.
“Come on. Time's a wasting, and the fate of the world could hang upon our actions.”
I just snorted as we started for the exit.
“Don't you start the whole melodrama thing. I get enough of that in normal life.”
“Do be careful!” the Professor shouted after us as we stepped outside, the door drifting shut behind us. “No promises,” Whitefire laughed, half to herself.
“So, what now?” I asked as we came to a stop in the street outside Quill's lab, the thin coating of snow crunching beneath our hooves. Whitefire pointed up the street.
“I need a gun, and I know exactly what I'm looking for.”
A few minutes up the road, we came to a stop outside the shop window of a fancy gun store. Whitefire was staring at a particular piece; a big, chrome six-shooter with a ten inch barrel and fanciful engravings twining their way up its length.
“Been looking to get my hands on that piece of work for years,” she whispered, before stepping inside. Not even ten minutes later, she re-emerged, the beautifully shining weapon holstered at her side.
“Turns out their files are a little rusty; they skipped the background check because I was a cop,” Whitefire said with a grin, “Now come on, let's get out of here before they figure out their info's two years old.”
***
~Four Days Later~
It had been quite a hike from the train station to the testing site, flight being a bad idea due to the high concentration of twitchy military officials, but once we crested the final hill, we were greeted with a view that more than made up for the distance. A vast plain was stretched out before us, the grass glowing a rich green as the sun, warmer here in the West, held winter at bay. The sky was hidden from sight by soft, gray clouds, but it didn't do much to damage the effect. But in an area as open as this, with a clear line of sight from our position to the horizon, it was only a matter of time before we found the machine... and it was a monster. Difficult to describe it as anything other than a building with legs. The main body looked something like a church; long, straight, and tall, with a twin-peaked shingle roof and a vast smokestack towering from the front end. Stained glass windows decorated its walls, bracketing six massive legs, framed with steel and plated with iron and copper. At its feet, the collection of spectators and vehicles looked like an ant colony.
“Truly impressive,” Sky commented in a half-whisper. White seemed less taken, as she started forward and motioned us to follow.
“Stay frosty, could be anypony watching in the wings here.”
Sky loosened her knives and I adjusted my bat in its sling across my back, then we started across the plain. About an hour later, we'd passed into the small throng of officers, officials, and contractors, and not a single thing remotely approaching a threat had come to light. I had to admit, I was a little disappointed. I'd been looking forward to baptizing our little mercenary club with a good brawl, but hey, pickers can't be choosers. It was only a matter of time before we were approached by a massive Earth Pony stallion in security gear.
“Excuse me,” he said in a deep, rumbling voice, “I don't believe you three are on the list.”
White shook her head, and produced the envelope.
“No, we're not, but we've been sent here direct by Professor Black Quill himself to deliver a critical message to whoever's in charge.”
He just laughed outright, and I could feel Whitefire get angry.
“Look. Quill has just discovered that the Titan Heart is volatile. If this machine is started, it could cause an explosion big enough to level all of Equestria.”
That stopped him in his tracks. Whitefire raised an eyebrow as he stood there, dumbstruck.
“You want me to have to open this letter? I'm sure Quill could make your life plenty miserable if you make it look like this letter's been intercepted.”
“Er... no, no that's fine. Here, take these passes. They'll get you into the Titan; there's an entrance in the middle leg. Once you're inside, just turn left and keep going until you make it to the Titan's front end. General Blackhoof is in charge of the Titan for this run.”
White smiled sweetly as she accepted the three passes.
“Thank you.”
“Oh, and one last thing,” the guard said after us as we started away, “If you're bullshitting me, Blackhoof will have you shot where you stand. Just felt you deserved fair warning.”
Whitefire didn't even bother slowing down.
“Bluster all you want; doesn't make the threat any less real.”
As we approached the vast machine's foot, proximity only made it seem even bigger. From where we stood, the leg alone towered into the sky, the body and stack above that soaring even higher. If the Titan Heart could power this machine on its lonesome without a flinch... well, let's just say I was starting to get an impression of how dangerous this device could be if it... what, overloaded? He hadn't been all too clear. But then we were inside, and I had other things to think about.
“All of Equestria, huh?” I asked with a half-smile, “Well, I know I can come to you if I ever need some melodrama.”
“Hey, I wasn't going to get us in if I told him that it might possibly do something bad if it's used wrong. I might as well have told him it'll blow up if the stars are aligned. No, I'd say all of Equestria worked pretty well.”
After what felt like a thousand steps, we finally made it into the main body, stepping out onto level catwalk. As I looked around the soaring interior of the machine, I only felt smaller. The beautiful stained glass towered a hundred feet above me, shining cannons of iron and brass spaced between them, ready to pop out of hidden hatches and unleash hell. The base of the leg, a dark mass of pure metal and clockwork, continued on through the outer hallway, presumably reaching into the very heart of the machine.
“Passes?”
I started and turned to see who had spoken; it was just one of the soldiers manning the machine, a small, polite smile across his face. As I showed him the card hanging around my neck, I noticed he was a Unicorn.
“Curiosity is the answer to your question.”
I almost opened my mouth to ask which question, but he cut me off.
“I saw you looking at my horn. Since the Harvester Engine was first unveiled, I had a desperate urge to know more about it, to see it in action. Many of my compatriots view it as a way to suppress the Unicorns; I view it as a solution to a problem, and a fascinating one at that.”
His smile spread as he glanced around the tall hallway, his gaze following the curve of the wall as it traveled up to meet the vaulted ceiling.
“There is nowhere I'd rather be in the world than here. This is all so exciting; the bleeding edge. We're not just tapping into powers unknowable, we're capturing them and making them dance. Celestia's bones, I love technology.”
I shook my head.
“We may be making these powers dance, but they're not happy about it. It's not a monkey we've got on stage, it's a lion, and it's getting antsy.”
“That's why we're here,” Whitefire picked up, “We have an urgent message for General Blackhoof. I know this machine is a weapon, but it could prove far more dangerous than its designers intended.”
The soldier frowned.
“Something about the Titan Heart?”
I nodded.
“Bright lad. Why don't you lead us to the General; we can explain everything there.”
He nodded.
“Right this way.”
A few minutes of walking later, and we were on the bridge... and I nearly forgot our mission for the glory. The hall had been impressive, but it had only been a bulkhead; a tiny space between the outer shell and the armored depths of the Titan. The bridge was truly massive. It filled the Titan's entire front end, easily fifty meters wide and a hundred tall, stretching from the marbled floor to the very peaks of the twin roofs. Two enormous stained-glass portraits filled the forward wall, one of Luna, one of Celestia, a great window filling the space between them.
“Not just any building,” I whispered to myself, “This is a cathedral.”
Whitefire tapped my shoulder and brought me back to earth, pointing towards the center of the bridge. The room was laid out in a circular pattern; a scattering of consoles and workstations arranged in rings, all facing a central pedestal, where thousands of minutely detailed mechanical linkages ran through the floor, up a stand, and into a single board of switches and dials. And of course, at the controls, stood General Blackhoof. He was a monster of a pony; barely fitting in the uniform he wore, a short silver mane slicked back over his head. The soldier motioned us to move closer to the towering figure.
“General, Sir, these three ponies have an urgent message for you.”
He didn't even turn.
“Let's hear it.”
Whitefire paused, then realized she was pretty much the designated speaker and stepped forward, opening the envelope.
“Sir, this message comes from Professor Black Quill himself. He's been doing research on the Titan Heart, and has come across some troubling information: if you attempt to draw too much power, to make the Titan Heart produce more energy than it's supposed to... then it could trigger something terrible.”
“Define 'terrible'. This machine is a weapon of war, after all.”
White was taken aback, but soldiered on.
“We don't know any specifics, but we're assuming some kind of massive explosion, at least big enough to consume this machine, if not everything for some distance around it, the damage potentially extending to non-military property and ponies.”
The general held out a hoof, still not turning to face us.
“Let me see the letter.”
Whitefire handed it to him, and he spent a moment reading.
“The good professor has always had difficulty explaining his concepts to lesser minds,” the general laughed to himself, continuing, “If I'm interpreting this correctly, there is no danger so long as the Titan Heart is not overdrawn. The solution is simple: operate within normal parameters. The demonstration will continue. Thank you for your time.”
Sky glanced to White, who was trying to figure out what to say. I took the liberty of speaking for her.
“Look, General, we have no idea what this Titan Heart is capable of. If one of your crew screws up... hell, if YOU screw up, then we don't know if there'll be a teensy-tiny fizzle, or a blast that could leave this continent a smoking hole in the ocean. Your little toy could wind up destroying far more than it's supposed to.”
The general finally turned to me, and he was not happy. A full beard surrounded his snarling mouth, and bright gold eyes burned into mine.
“This is no mere toy, you insolent peasant. This is a cathedral of war; a primal force of destruction! This is death distilled into its purest form! With ten, five, hell, even one of these, Equestria could conquer the known world. We could be the masters of everything!”
“And if we fuck up, we could be the masters of nothing!” I shouted in return, “I can't speak from experience, but I've heard it's difficult to rule an empire when you and everypony else are dead!”
He was poised to shout again, but instead, simply turned away once more.
“Perhaps you need a taste of what we stand to gain. Guards, restrain them, but allow them to stay on the bridge. Escort them to the exit once the main gun's cycle is complete.”
I thought about fighting back as a few soldiers stepped up and put us in cuffs, but there were easily a few hundred ponies in the Titan, all armed, and all obeying Blackhoof's orders. No, it was best to play along. The soldier we'd met earlier was wincing where he stood off to one side, looking very nervous.
“Alright,” the general called out in his booming voice, “Everyone to your stations, we're getting underway! I need secondary cores one through four spooled up; once we're at ten percent reserve power, give the main core a jolt and announce the demonstration over the external speakers.”
The ponies scattered about the room rushed to their respective consoles, tapping keys and pulling levers. With a whoosh of steam, a panel opened in the floor, allowing a new device passage. It rose to roughly eye level, then stopped, giving me a chance to get a good look at it. From where I was standing, it looked like a collection of five gauges; one large one in the center, and eight smaller ones positioned around its outer edge. A deep rumble sounded from somewhere deep in the machine, and four of the small gauges twitched, slowly starting to rise.
“Ten percent capacity,” somepony shouted.
“Excellent!” the general said, “Somepony let everypony on the ground know they're in for a treat.”
The loudspeakers activated with a crackle.
“Mares and gentlecolts, the demonstration will commence summarily! Please give the Titan a wide berth so it has space to move. Thank you.”
Then the floor began to shake. For a moment, I thought something was wrong... then I saw the center dial start to rise. The Titan Heart had been engaged. It quieted down a moment later, but I would never forget that first shock, that moment where I first knew what it was capable of.
“Target, General?” one of the techs asked. He thought for a moment.
“Turn her twenty degrees to Starboard.”
“But, Sir... Buffalo territory's in that direction!”
“Exactly,” he said coldly.
“Wait, WHAT!?” I cried, “You're going to attack the Buffalo!? Luna's tits, they'd probably just surrender if they caught sight of this thing, you don't need to open fire!”
“Don't be silly,” the general said with a casual air, “I'm not firing a shell. None of the luddites will get hurt. But we will be getting signed surrender papers by sundown.”
“Capacity at half!” echoed through the bridge. Then, with a groan of creaking metal framework, the Titan began to move. With a clank of concealed gearing and a hiss of steam vented from dozens of pressure valves, it ponderously lifted one of its legs, then set it down with an earth-shaking boom. It took ten full minutes to turn twenty degrees at that rate... and by that point, the main gauge had long hovered at full.
“Moment of truth, mares and gentlecolts!” the general cried, “Fire the main gun!”
I started as I saw something shift in my peripheral vision, and glanced up to see what it was. A massive projector of some sort was moving from where it had rested flush with the wall, extending about halfway between the rear wall and the window, before stopping with a whine of spooling down machinery. There was a moment of silence, and I thought something had gone wrong... until the massive stained-glass window hinged open. It split down the middle along a seam I hadn't noticed, folding away from the center to the ticking of upscaled clockworks. Once the beautiful piece of art was safely out of harm's way, the projector continued its journey forward, met by telescoping supports as it began to protrude from the Titan's nose. When it finally came to rest for a second time, that's when the crazy shit started. My skin started to tingle and my fur stood on end as conduits running along the projector's sides began to glow a vibrant purple.
“Cannon at thirty percent.”
As the glow intensified, I began to hear a faint popping noise, which steadily began to grow in intensity and frequency. I squinted at the cannon, trying to figure out what was causing the sound, and started to notice tiny arcs of purple energy flickering into existence for mere moments all over its shell, almost like static on a television screen.
“Sixty percent.”
“Dunno about you,” Whitefire whispered, “But I'm backing up.”
I had no problems with that, and apparently, neither did Sky, as the three of us took a few slow steps away from the massive weapon, the outer surface of which was now alive with writing purple arcs of magical energy.
“Ninety percent! Brace to fire!”
The deck's entire crew glanced around nervously, some of them watching in awe and horror, some of them stunned still, some of them praying to their dead princesses as the cannon's shell rippled like a thing alive... then time stopped. For a moment, I wasn't sure what was happening. I felt like I was moving... falling, maybe, my eyes still filled with white from the weapon's blast. I couldn't hear – my ears and mind clogged with a deafening, high-pitched ring. Eventually, I felt myself settle, and the light and noise gradually faded, giving way to voices... and pain.
“Pandora! Pandora, can you hear me!?”
I forced my eyes open, and saw Whitefire's concerned face, backed by the light cloud cover I'd noticed earlier.
“Why is there sky...?” I mumbled, then realized I was feeling pressure, like something was sitting on me.
“You've been out for a few,” she commented, out of breath, “Long story short, Quill was right. It wasn't quite 'all of Equestria'... but it wasn't a little fucking fizzle either.”
Then she turned, facing somepony I couldn't see.
“Sky! Sky, I found her! She's over here – help me get this off her.”
Sky's face entered my narrow world view for a moment; she was pretty beat up, blood trickling from a nasty gash on her forehead, but she seemed entirely unperturbed as she and White lifted a sizable fragment of stone off my chest.
“Can you stand?” White asked hesitantly. I responded by stumbling to my feet, only to realize I was still in cuffs. Sky noticed me struggling with them, and moved around behind me.
“I found the key earlier and was able to uncuff myself. Digging myself out of the rubble first was... another story.”
The handcuffs clicked open and fell away, leaving ragged gashes around my wrists where they'd rubbed and cut while the explosion tossed me around. Speaking of which...
“Where's the Titan?” I asked, turning... and what I saw changed my world.
“Girls... what am I looking at?”
“Question of the generation,” Whitefire commented in a wry whisper. I was staring at... into... through... a hole in time and space itself. A massive ring of violet magical energy a hundred meters across framed a window into a strange and surreal world much like ours, but... simpler. The ground was pure white and perfectly flat, the sky similar. Strange structures rose in the distance, towers of gears and linkages, but not built from any metal I knew... just... white.
“I think,” Sky said quietly, “This is where magic comes from.”