Chapter 9: Eclipse
Celestia was not a pony easy to get in to see. During wartime the affairs of the Solar Court were handled entirely by lesser nobles, so Celestia's time was completely free for matters that actually mattered. Only high officers from the various branches were permitted free access, and even then only during specific hours of the day.
She was in the right place to receive an audience, the "war room" on one of the higher floors of the castle. There was an enormous map of Equestria on a table, with a large open area around it for ponies to walk around and examine the situation from many sides, and a balcony overlooking the rugged mountainous side of Canterlot. In all of Equestria's previous wars the map had been an illusion spell; these days it used a projector mounted to the ceiling and an overlay from the satellites Twilight Sparkle had put into orbit about a decade ago.
No, the problem wasn't the place, it was the time. It was nearly midnight and still Celestia was poring over the maps, turning over the information that had returned with the defeated convoy. None of it was good news. One of the human pilots was confirmed dead, along with half a dozen ponies. The other human pilot and captain Rainbow Dash were missing in the field and presumed dead. Worse, the ponies had returned with eyewitness accounts of "millions" of changeling-like creatures.
How could such a large changeling population been sustained in one place? Dragons were not well known for an overabundance of love, and their lesser servitors were scarcely capable of any real emotions these days. Changelings were potent warriors, as they had demonstrated a decade ago when they took Canterlot during Princess Cadence's wedding. If their enemy had such enormous forces, why hadn't a single changeling been reported by the survivors that had fled Los Pegasus?
No matter how she stared at the maps, watching as draconic forces advanced outward in all directions from Los Pegasus like a disgusting taint, she could not find answers. Her vast intellect had never failed to solve dilemmas of this type before. Yet since little Second Chance had arrived a decade ago, everything had changed. There were so many new variables on the table, methods of war she had never considered. Were it not for her human allies, it was easy to see how this war might lead to defeat. How could you fight an enemy who had changed all the rules?
Celestia was startled out of her thoughts by the voice of an unfamiliar pony, calling to her from across the room. "Princess, may we have a word?" There were no guards in the chamber with her, though no doubt every door had a pair. Yet the voice came from the direction of the balcony. She did not have to turn to feel the ponies waiting there, with senses that were entirely separate from the physical.
There was only one being on this planet capable of concealing her true nature from Celestia, and she had no reason to believe she had encountered her since the wedding. She felt instantly that these beings were changelings, though they were far greater than any individual drone, with a will that could exist beyond their bodies. They were both immortal, though neither had the magical strength to create bodies from nothing as Celestia and Luna did.
A decade ago, another such intelligence had arrived in Equestria, a disembodied alien consciousness that later took the name Second Chance. She had lost that particular part of herself and was no longer able to exist outside her body. These beings had not, and they also thought much more like natives of Equus than Chance had. They thought like changelings, in a swarm of two.
Celestia didn't call for the guard. It would do no good to imprison or even kill these beings, since they could leave these bodies and be entirely beyond her power if they wanted to. Yet there was also very little they could do to her. She could turn their bodies to dust with the tiniest fraction of will, if she wanted. They had to know assassinating her would be impossible.
"Why have you come?" she asked, without turning around. She wouldn't even give them the satisfaction of her eyes on whatever illusion they had crafted. No doubt they looked like ordinary ponies, or else an alarm would have been raised by now. The illusion had to be pretty impressive to make it through the city's shield. Could she capture them long enough to extract their memories of how they penetrated the city's defenses?
"We've been here since the invasion." The voice was male this time, and seemed almost eloquent. "Waiting for a moment of privacy. Now that we have it, we were hoping to have a brief conversation."
"It shouldn't take long," assured another voice, this one female but otherwise identical to the first. Twins? "Just a few minutes, and we can be out of your city."
"You aren't attempting deception. That is wise of you." Celestia turned slowly. These "ponies" that had walked into the room with her were pegasi, at least outwardly. They had powder-blue coats and bright red manes, both impossibly well styled for the flying they had just been doing. "Explain yourselves then, ambassadors." Celestia did not allow her anger to show, even now. Changelings had been responsible for the death of some ponies she was close to, perhaps even one of the Elements of Harmony. That did not mean she would give an enemy the slightest sign of weakness.
"I believe a demonstration would be simplest, Princess." The male lowered his head, gesturing toward the balcony from which he had just come. "If you don't mind." The strangers led the way out onto the balcony. It was a small area, scarcely large enough for all of them. Its presence in the castle was more of a formality of architecture than any serious commitment to having an observation point.
"We set up this demonstration in the wilderness, about thirty miles from Canterlot. There isn't a single pony anywhere close enough to be endangered by this demonstration." Contrary to the visual evidence, the pegasus offered Celestia a pair of binoculars in a faintly green magical field. "Notice the darkening of the lenses. With this magnification factor, an ordinary observer would be in serious danger of blindness. Just look off to the west, by that peak. You'll see it."
"Three... Two... One..." There was a distant rumble, so intense it seemed a minor earthquake. Celestia did not have to wonder at its source; as a brief flash lit the night, the first thing light enough to be seen through the dense goggles the Changelings had given her. The city itself would doubtless have been sheltered from the flash, since no other structures were so tall as the castle. Yet for Celestia, that meant an uninterrupted view. She watched as a column of red fire rose into the sky, trailed by a thin column of smoke to the ground like a gangly mushroom. She watched as the cloud grew, swallowing up a little forest and all that was inside. A quarter of a second later, she heard the roar like a distant animal, easily as loud as the Tower aircraft had been despite the intervening distance, and felt a sudden blast of warmer air. The rumble continued, though it was already dying away. The cloud was getting darker too, already mere embers with the darkened lenses. She lowered them, watching the distant fireball as it petered and died.
"That was a .1 kiloton nuclear explosive," said the female from beside her. "The others are a hundred times larger."
Celestia turned her head to face the changelings, her eyes practically burning with hatred. "What exactly are you saying?" The temperature around her rose several degrees, completely beyond her conscious control.
"A dozen 10 kiloton explosives have been carefully hidden in cities across Equestria, including Canterlot," the male said, somehow able to meet her eyes as he said it. That was a rare courage. "If our demands are not met, these explosives will be detonated one at a time until they are. Each is guarded by a changeling that will detonate the explosive if its location is discovered."
"The King does not wish to use these devices, nor does he expect your complete surrender. Rather, he wishes this war to be on equal terms, unlike Equestria's previous engagements."
"Does he expect we won't involve humans? Those negotiations are over; I cannot expel them now."
The male chuckled. "Hardly. The King of Equus welcomes their involvement. He does not, however, wish to see you ever take the field. You would be expected to leave Equestria immediately, to the neutral location of your choosing. There you would continue to perform your usual responsibilities involving the sun, but otherwise exercise no involvement whatever in the war."
The female continued what the male said, their two-pony swarm as effective as ever. "No spells of your creation would be permitted to leave this location, nor would anypony who ever visited you be allowed to leave. You would not be allowed to communicate strategic advice to anypony outside the location you chose or cast spells affecting any area outside your own except for your solar responsibilities."
"A violation of these terms would require the use of our nuclear arsenal. Should the terms be respected, you can have His word of honor that none of the nuclear devices will be used regardless of the direction the war is heading."
Celestia didn't believe that for an instant. So long as the invasion was going well she had no doubt these weapons wouldn't be used. Yet, if the war seemed to be going badly, and it seemed the invasion would fail anyway, what would the Father of Dragons have to lose? She didn't ask for proof the devices really were hidden in her cities, since that could only be proof of the most awful and devastating kind. So far as she could tell, these changelings were being completely honest with her. They genuinely believed what they were telling her. They also had no idea where the nuclear devices were actually hidden. If they had known, Celestia would have been able to extract that knowledge, and pass it to her most competent servants.
"May I inform my sister of this... situation?" she asked, her tone as neutral as possible. In truth she was absolutely furious, frustration nearly causing her mane to burst into flame. There was some genuine despair as well, that now no matter what happened Equestria was doomed, and there would surely be millions of casualties before this was over and decades of magical cleanup. If enough of Equestria survived to even be called the same nation when it was all over.
Yet there was hope as well. They had allies now. If they could somehow be informed of the threat, maybe they knew some way to end this hostage crisis before the war turned too far in Equestria's favor. Of course the injunction on communication was completely unenforceable. If nothing else, she could pass messages back and forth with Luna in her dreams. Her disappearance would not be a great mystery for long even if they did not allow her to send a message.
"Of course." The female inclined her head, respectfully. "We will accompany you to your chosen neutral destination, and provide an observer to insure you honor the terms of the arrangement."
Celestia turned away, sliding back into the castle so these invaders would not see the fury on her face. Still, there was already a shred of hope mixed with the despair. This was an awful turn for the war, riding on the tail of another awful turn in what had already happened with the Equestrian invasion. Still, they were not beaten. It wasn't over, and they would overcome it.
It would just take longer without her own personal intervention, that was all.
* * *
They walked.
Maybe walking wasn't quite the right word. Rainbow Dash had found Charles a long stick, and with one arm missing and one leg glued to his body rather than functioning he trundled after her, struggling to keep pace with the injured mare. This would have been embarrassing in the extreme were it not for the circumstances. But all their posturing about speed came to naught in the face of the awful events they had just experienced. There was very little conversation, with Charles painfully aware of his reserve battery draining away. Another twenty-four hours of activity or so and he wouldn't have enough energy to move anymore, not unless he could get his hands on one of the auxiliary reactors that were stored on his drone.
That was where they were going now, though he doubted they would make it there before he "died." Charles did not relish the thought of his body left here in the dirt, with no way of ever reporting his location. He might really die here, on an alien world with only a native who hated him for company. At least he would die doing the Tower's good work. Besides, he had been injured while honoring his oath. Rainbow Dash would be dead now if it wasn't for his intervention in the battle. Now instead of death by painful fall, she could die of dehydration around the time his energy reserves ran out. Wasn't charity grand?
"How do you know this is the way?" his companion asked, after an hour or two of trudging down the gradual slope onto an endlessly flat plain. The fire was gone from her voice now, and all that remained was pained resignation.
"My compass is still working," he answered, too weak to be annoyed with her question. "And I still have the map downloaded from before. I won't know for sure until sunrise... I can use the time to estimate our latitude, and compare this terrain to the satellite map."
Rainbow Dash chuckled, though her voice sounded no less weak. "Egghead stuff. You should talk to Twilight, she loves egghead stuff."
Up until now they had more or less ignored each other. But the mare sounded so completely heartbroken he couldn't bring himself to keep silent. If she were human he might've tried to hug her, one of those physical gestures that even cyberization hadn't killed. He had no idea how these equines reassured each other, and beyond that if he did anything with his one arm he would surely fall over. That didn't mean he couldn't talk to her, though. "Twilight is one of your friends?"
"Yeah." Pause. "She's only the smartest pony in Equestria. Pretty decent flier now too, after all the lessons I've given her." Her steps slowed a little, and Charles caught her glancing backward at her wings. "Guess she'll need a new flying buddy. If she doesn’t mind… going slower than walking, I’m sure fluttershy would…”
"No she won't," Charles insisted, walking close enough to strike her briefly with the edge of his walking stick. "If enough of my drone is intact, we can make you a new wing: a cybernetic wing, just as good as the old one. Then you can fly back to Equestria and tell them where I am."
There was a long silence, perhaps ten or fifteen minutes. Charles didn't bother trying to force a response, he knew better after all this time. At least the moon was full, and gave them plenty of light to navigate all the hazards of the wilderness. He was confident that if Rainbow wanted to talk, she would. He could only fight so hard to keep her talking.
He wasn't wrong. "I'm military too, stupid," Rainbow Dash croaked, eventually. "We both know that plan won't work. Even if your fake technology really can give me my wing back, there's no way we can get a rescue out here before that swarm gets here. Even your metal ships couldn't fight that many bad guys at once. Assuming they don't just kill you when they find you. Assuming we can get to your crashed metal ship before the swarm gets to us."
She was right of course, and Charles didn't argue. He had always known that even if enough machinery was intact to make a wing for Rainbow Dash, even if he could somehow retrofit enough of it with only one arm and a failing body, there wasn't a chance in hell he would ever make it out. Actually, he had secretly planned to give Rainbow Dash instructions on how to extract his Cortical Recorder before she left, and return it to his King. There would be no rescue. But to extract it, he would have to be dead first, and telling her she would have to kill him hadn't seemed like a good idea.
Rainbow Dash seemed to take his silence as assent. "I know they gave you a bracelet. It's no fair you expect me to turn into a stupid metal pony when you won't even think about turning things around." Charles had no response to this, not yet sure what the mare was telling him. She did not wait for him to argue. "If you stay, then you're dead no matter what. But if you use the spell, there's a chance you'll end up a pegasus! We could fly back together! And if you weren't, you wouldn't be any more dead then if you just waited!"
Charles glanced down at the intricate links on his wrist, spelling out strange words. They looked a little like norse runes, now that he thought about it. The same sort of symbols the Tower used as decoration everywhere but that nobody could actually read. Well, maybe his King could. Not normal people though. "I saw the unicorns levitating things. That doesn't mean I think this 'magic' can transform something fully mechanical into flesh again." He held up the arm, shaking the bracelet. "This thing is just a toy. I don't mean any disrespect to your religion, but I'm not part of it. Nothing's going to happen when I break this."
"Yeah?" Rainbow Dash stopped walking, and turned to face him. "Then break it right now!" She rolled her eyes. "I can't believe you think magic is our religion! For people able to make amazing machines, you guys are pretty stupid. And... whatever the word is, for when you say one thing but really think something else. You're doing that too!"
Charles was amazed to see such life from the blue pegasus after how dead she had seemed earlier. Still, now that she was using her energy to point out how hypocritical it was for him to deny the "magic" while simultaneously acting too afraid to use it. She was right, too. But did he have the humility to admit it? "I... did hear a rumor..." He began. "That Equestria has an official ambassador with the United Earth Federation, who used to be human." That was no proof that these primitive aliens could change machines to flesh, but it was powerful evidence of something.
"Twilight's apprentice," answered the pegasus, without the slightest hesitation. There was nothing rehearsed about it, like a careful lie. It spewed out her mouth like everything else she said, completely without rehearsal. "Another egghead. Being a pony's worked pretty well for her, though. She never complained about missing whatever those claws are you've got."
"Hands," he supplied, more out of reflex than anything. He started walking again, but there was no way to get around Rainbow. Her injuries were already stabilized, while his were still debilitating. He would have to provide her an answer before they could continue. "Fine. Tell you what; if my ship is intact enough that I can make wings for you, I'll give your magic a try. Good enough?"
Rainbow Dash considered that response for a long moment, looking at him seriously. She moved aside and resumed walking. "Fine." There was a grumble in her voice now though that hadn't been there before. "We'd go faster if you weren't limping along on two legs."
"You're not in any condition to be running either!" he reminded. "You might feel better, but that's the UBS shooting you full of painkillers. Except for your bones, you're in basically the same condition you were in before. My slow pace is good for both of us."
"Unless the swarm gets here before we get to your ship."
There was no argument with a statement like that, and Charles didn't bother. He conserved his energy, walking in silence. His eyes went frequently to the bracelet on his wrist, back to the discordant biological human that had given it to him and his king's strange attitude. He was essentially alone with his thoughts from that point on. He considered why, for instance, King Richard would have agreed to forcing the officers to wear these "magical" devices if they actually worked? Wasn't that a betrayal of what the Tower represented?
Then again, if he never intended to break Celestia's confidence, then Charles supposed King Richard would consider it a non-factor. Once they had a settlement up and running, they could easily convert any affected officers back to their proper cybernetic forms if it became necessary. It was nothing really but power that their ally would think she had, but which would ultimately mean very little.
Did he actually consider there was a real possibility he could end up (at least for a while) as one of the natives? If he did, he never would admit it to Lindsy. Well, he supposed he wouldn't admit anything to her anymore. Those flames had been hot enough that even her recorder likely hadn't survived. She had been the one to pay the price for his overconfidence. Well, his and the ponies who had organized this mission. They had both assumed their enemy had no defense against the attack, only the reasons for their assumptions had been different.
"What were those things that swarmed us back there?" Charles asked, as the sun began to rise. Without a word exchanged between them, they had both stopped to watch the sunrise over the desert. Sunlight on the red stone of this wasteland was positively beautiful, and neither cyborg nor pony could ignore it. But Charles was able to interrupt it easily enough. "Those black bug-things... nobody mentioned anything like them in the briefing."
Rainbow Dash resumed walking. She was slowing down, though. Probably running out of water. Having a bioreactor in her gut would only keep her going for so long. "They were like changelings," came the reply, after some delay. "But I've fought changelings, and they were different too. Smaller, and... more broken. Those things were sickly. Changelings are black, they don't have parts hanging off or red goo leaking out the openings. They were like someone had tried to made changelings, but got all the details wrong."
"Could they have been adolescents? Maybe these... changelings... look different from their adult forms when they're young and small."
"No." She shook her head, quite definitively. "We know what young changelings look like, and it isn't like that. But they were just as fast, just as strong... I'm glad you killed so many."
Charles smiled a little. "My pleasure. We wouldn't have lost if we had an actual fleet with us. During the war, the European Air Division had 100,000 drones and 3,000 destroyers. We would have squashed those bugs, I promise."
"Do you still have that many ships?"
He shook his head, however reluctantly. "Not since the great war ended. Maybe 1,000 working drones left... after yesterday. And destroyers are too big to fit through the Hawking Rift, even with our most generous calculations. We would have to build them here if we wanted any." He shook his head again. "By the time we finished building the war would be over."
Rainbow Dash thought about that. "What about the others, Chance's ponies. How many ships will they give us?"
"People. Not sure. They keep their military information closely guarded. Back on Earth... We thought they had maybe 5,000 fighters in the whole world, no more than 10 in any one city. No destroyers. They didn't have any aircraft on their moon colonies, since there's no atmosphere. So... Probably none, unless they build new ones for you. Luna doesn't have the metals to waste on airships, and their Earthside bunkers are too busy trying to survive to worry about the war." Charles paused as they began to climb a steeper slope. Not that he grew winded or overheated the way his companion would, but no doubt she would appreciate the break from thinking to simply breathe. She was huffing pretty heavily, but the air coming off the top was several degrees cooler than the air around them. Maybe they were nearing the end of the desert, or the sea. The latter was too good to be true. "They have the only interplanetary ships. Three, we're pretty sure. They run almost constantly between Mars and Luna exchanging metals for manufactured goods. They're way too big to use a Rift, and they can't work in atmosphere anyway. Too bad... We could bombard a city from orbit if we had one of those ships. Turn that dragon city into a crater, kill everything. Even the monsters living in the caves."
"You could do that?" This thought did not seem to reassure his companion, even when he expressed doing it to Equestria's enemy. She sounded exactly the way Charles had sounded when he had been ordered to shoot down evacuation ships.
But Charles did not get a chance to answer, because they reached the crest of the hill. There was the beginning of a forest at the base of the hill, perhaps a quarter mile away. The trees were sparse for a few miles yet, but there was more green than red and that was fantastic to look at. Even moreso was the scorching on the hard desert rock, the trails that led to the wreckage of his drone. The ground was so flat and clear here that it had done very well indeed, and looked to have sustained almost no damage from the crash.
No, that was not what made them stop and stare. They stared because there were a dozen creatures surrounding the drone, staring intently. They were human-sized and larger, with thick reptilian skin and patchwork armor on their bodies. Goblins, the same monsters that had attacked Canterlot. They were armed too, with spears and slings and even a crossbow or two. No firearms though, unlike the ones that had attacked the other night. They were poking at the drone with their spears, completely without effect, and seemed to be speaking. They were too far away to overhear though, with the breeze muffing some of the words.
Charles dropped backward over the ridge, and Rainbow Dash followed without instruction.
She glared down over the edge. "Well... this sucks."
* * *
On the surface, there was very little different about this morning from many that had come before. Princess Luna watched from the balcony in her room as her elder sister raised the sun, ending the night. Except she knew Celestia wasn't in the castle anymore. She hadn't gone far; with her world held hostage, Celestia had chosen the Castle of the Two Sisters as her place of captivity. There were a dozen changelings in that castle with her now, acting as a staff of servants, but also the most observant spies. Nothing could prevent their mental communication, but now Equestria's most powerful weapon was confined to a crumbling castle. It wasn't as though Celestia had ever really been behind Equestria's military strategy. She was always a better politician than a general.
Luna did not look forward to making the public announcement of what had happened, assuming she ought to make an announcement at all. She could ask Celestia's advice about that tomorrow. It wasn't as though ponies would think anything was wrong with the day coming exactly as scheduled. Only the hoof-full of guards that had seen her moving through the castle with that ghastly changeling entourage would have even a suspicion. No doubt those rumors would spread. Confound those changelings! They had to know what walking around in their true forms would do to morale!
It was foolish of her to think this enemy wouldn't use every possible weapon against Equestria, even the subtle ones. Especially the subtle ones.
There was one place Luna could go for comfort, and it was not back to the growing settlement of Normandy and the human military leaders. Princess Luna was no fool; she fully expected treachery from at least one of those two factions before the end. Clover's prophecy was clear on that point. It had also been clear on Celestia's kidnapping. Did that mean there was no personal choice in any of this, and all they were doing was acting out a script? Equestria would survive with humanity's help, and end up swallowed by the monolith of human culture and influence. Luna would live to see her sister and herself become the last ponies left, as everything that had made Equestria great was given away in little bites by her own ponies in their desire to be more human.
That looked all the more possible now that Luna knew there were nuclear devices hidden throughout Equestria. There was no telling how many there really were, but there had been at least one for her sister to see, and there was probably at least one more hidden in another city, probably not Canterlot. If there really was a dozen of them, then the fact their enemy hadn't used them yet meant that they wanted ponies alive, since their detonation would practically guarantee the end of the war. Or at least the end of ponies' will to fight, which might as well be the same thing. It was possible the humans would keep fighting as Equestria's liberators, for what it was worth.
Luna traveled to a small, obscure room in her own personal wing of the castle. There was no guard outside the door, nor was there any door at all. Still, she knew the spot of blank wall well, and the short teleportation to the other side that would leave her inside it. The room was brightly lit, with electrical lights in the ceiling instead of torches or glowing crystals. These were not the Equestrian bulbs that required replacement every few months, but thin bars that used less power and produced more light. They had been running for nearly six years, and showed no sign of dimming.
Of course, the silver pad in the center of the room, perhaps a meter across and a quarter of that thick, used more power than the rest of the castle combined. That was why it was kept off, except when they needed it. When Luna and Celestia needed council about human matters, it was to the one called Truth that they turned.
The object knew she was there, it always did. It began to whirr and hum, and light poured from its surface. As the seconds passed, she watched a pony take shape in the air, first as a grid of geometric lines, and then as a gradual filling-in of textures. In the end the stallion that formed there had no cutie mark, nor could he move from beneath the silver projector. Still, Luna found it more effective to communicate with him when she had a face to look at, even if in reality she was speaking with a featureless metal cube dozens of miles away.
There was a slightly hollow, tinny sound to Truth's voice, as though it were coming in over a gramophone. Luna often suspected he did that on purpose, since all the other devices that allowed him to speak with her made him sound crisp. Almost as though he knew she expected a distant recording to sound distorted, so it obliged her. "Princess." He inclined his head. "I expected you would contact me."
There was nopony else to see her in here. She let herself sit down, not worrying about image for once. It was true that Truth could record everything if he wanted to, but Luna knew she was safe here. Truth was a machine, and completely incapable of deceit. He barely even understood the concept, and was never anything to her except exactly what he was. There were no masks or hidden layers of desire with him. That was why Luna trusted him, even more than Second Chance. At least when it came to being unbiased. The pony had been shaped by her world, and too often would do anything in her power to steer them away from the Tower, even when they were better able to fill Equestria's needs.
"You did?"
"There was a radiation spike near Canterlot. Had to be close enough to see. Don't worry, the wind was blowing the other way, so ponies won't be getting cancer... And I know you refused the idea of a nuclear program or accepting nuclear weapons from humans. That meant it was an attack."
"A demonstration." Luna couldn't keep the fear and desperation from her voice. Truth was impassive, as always. He had never shown anything around her besides complete propriety. Showing her true feelings around him was the same as showing her sister. Except for the being comforted part. Holograms were bad at giving hugs. "And a threat. They claim to have more machines of death scattered and hidden throughout our cities. They have forced Celestia from the war and into seclusion, and I do not doubt they will use them to make further demands in the future. Is what they claim possible? Is this an empty threat, or could they really have more weapons like the one they used last night?"
Truth was not a pony, despite the coat of dark blue and light blue mane his image presented. He did not require time to think and collect himself. "The science behind nuclear fission is quite simple." Images appeared on the screen. A cylindrical shape transparent to her eyes. There were two halves of a sphere on either side, and dark patches behind them. "Conventional explosives are used to push two halves of fissionable material into each other." One half of the image lit up like someone had detonated a gunpowder charge, and the cylinder slid down to meet the other half. The result was a miniature explosion in the display, momentarily displacing Truth's own image. "The difficult part of constructing a nuclear device is refining the fissionable material. The most common starting point is-" An unassuming pile of stones appeared in the place of the bomb. "Uranium ore, which is common both in Equus and on Earth. The most technologically simple way is to crush it, saturate it with sulphuric acid, dry it into Uranium Oxide, heat and combine with volatile gasses to form Uranium Hexafluoride, and concentrate the U-235 while in gaseous form, then cool back into pellets. The refining process is extremely inefficient and requires enormous amounts of energy and time, and a clean laboratory environment for the later stages."
Luna listened, absorbing everything. "This process is how they made the explosives?"
"I believe so. Uranium-based explosives are limited in size and efficiency, but refining more effective fuels is technologically beyond any facility on this planet. The unfortunate advantage they have is that the refined fuel can be easily shielded by a few inches of lead. A bomb with a lead casing would be enormously heavy, but completely undetectable except at very close range."
"We can't use the satellites to find them." Luna lowered her head, defeated. "We are truly hostage in our own land."
All the images of ore and chemicals and science vanished from the screen, leaving only the transparent blue stallion. "Perhaps not. The satellites can detect trace radioactive signatures. The problem is that these signatures are quite common. Numerous processes and objects produce nuclear radiation in small amounts. If the bombs were underground and shielded with lead, the strength of the signal would only increase when in very close proximity. Fortunately, you don't have to rely on the satellites to find your bombs." Luna looked up in time to see him smile. "You're bringing in troops from both human factions, Princess. Humans just fought a nuclear war. Every single soldier has extremely sensitive radiation sensors, every ship, every machine. All you have to do is spread them out as much as possible and connect all those sensors to my network. I'll collate all the data, and tell you where the bombs are. If there are any bombs. However... There is one further concern worth mentioning."
Again, Luna did not interrupt. Truth only spoke when his words were worth hearing.
"It might take some time and effort to find the bombs, and I know you will have to carefully conceal troop movements in order to not allow the enemy to see what you're doing. Bombs can be hidden easily. The refinery that produced them, however, cannot." An image appeared on the screen, of a large building zoomed in from one of Truth's satellite cameras. It was clearly not in Equestria. The red rock made it obvious. Of course, the fact it was more a crater than a structure brought her a twinge of brief satisfaction. "It was in Typhon. They destroyed it during the attack, before they were overrun. The radiation that building is putting out into the air will poison anypony who gets too close." He smiled weakly. "At least they won't be making any more bombs."
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How very odd to threaten with hidden bombs but only demand that Celestia be removed from the war. It's as if they didn't have a dozen, but instead just the 'example' bomb and an empty threat. It's almost heartening to see this King fellow acting like a terrorist, [supposedly] putting bombs in hidden locations. It's rather human of him in a way. Why this King doesn't just detonate them is curious however and then promise not to use them no matter which way the war went as long as Celestia stayed out of it? Of course Celestia would agree to any terms-- can't really fault her for that. Curious that the King doesn't know about Luna's dream walking abilities, not that there's any way of detecting, monitoring, or blocking it.
The malformed pseudo-changelings was an interesting observation. If it were something like the Mirror Pool, the copies would be perfect. These imperfect (shoddy and hasty are better descriptions) drones must have come from somewhere. And the amount of love needed to feed such a vast swarm... A dark idea tells me they are converted ponies from a captured city. Not true changelings and not meant to survive long enough to starve. The other dark idea says they are magicly-spawed, like testtube changelings. But that's fairly high tech, compared to cobbling together a fission bomb.
A quarter second delay means the blast was about 300 meters away at most. That's not reasonable.
I expect either of the human factions will offer a MAD response plan involving ICBMs - if any Equestrian city is nuked, the humans launch a decapitation strike against every single one of the enemy nations.
By the time such a response is ready Canterlot will have been fully searched and the enemy will have lost any first-strike decapitation potential.
Truth needs to start producing universal constructors to produce autonomous killbots. A 1kg flying drone may not be a major threat, but in a swarm of 10,000 they're deadly. Doubly so if their AI is designed for swarm-wide coordinated actions.
4860778
I'm not so sure of that. It seems more to me as though they bargained based on what Celestia would feel her position was and what she'd be willing to agree to, and possibly more importantly, on some detail they know that Celestia doesn't.
Celestia's given logic behind her decision is that keeping herself out of the war moves the balance of power from "we win thoroughly" to "we win eventually". If they had made a demand that she gauged to push the balance of power to "we lose" she would have had to refuse, obviously.
So, they could either detonate whatever bombs they have and face a pissed-off Celestia with little to lose (..kind of seems like real-life Mutually-Assured-Destruction, a little bit), or they could bargain in such a way as to clear Celestia off the board, leaving her thinking Equestria still has the upper hand, but with their enemies still having some extra little plan she doesn't know about to tip the odds further.
I think if I was planning their strategy, there'd be another of those devices from the end of My Little Apprentice somewhere in the Castle of the Two Sisters, ready to be activated when she was close enough to it. The prohibition against Celestia contacting anyone on the outside, or anyone who visited her being allowed to leave would act as all the explanation necessary for why they never heard anything back from Celestia (or any visitors she got, who would of course be murdered as well).
The castle would be a reasonable guess for where she'd choose to spend her exile, and since they presumably have some way of dealing with the sun since they were willing to try to kill her that way once before, and they don't seem aware of Luna's ability to talk to her in her dreams, I can't actually think of any reason why they wouldn't try to do this.
4860778
Quite right that it does seem like the threat must be empty. The fact that they haven't used this supposed array of explosives either means that they don't have it (a likely scenario) or that they want to leave pony populations and infrastructure intact (also a possibility). Taken another way, conquering the United States would be a remarkable achievement. The most developed infrastructure in the world and the most skilled population. Also a land rich with natural resources, but we'll ignore that. If you nuked every major population center and flattened all the cites, you might "win" the country, but it would not longer be much of a victory. Just a shattered population that could no longer support themselves. You would win the territory, but if you were interested in all those other resources you would be out of luck. The real question is, if the bombs do exist, why do they want the pony population alive?
4861051
I think you're so eager to correct me that, unfortunately, you didn't pay very close attention to the text. Let's re-read together.
A quarter of a second is not reasonable, which is why I never said it took that long. Let's review this text in detail.
1. Three second wait until detonation.
2. Almost instant flash of light.
3. Celestia watches the explosion for an unspecified period of time, watching the explosion rise into the sky. She watches the explosions spread, swallowing a forest.
4. A quarter of a second after the forest is swallowed up, she hears the explosion and feels the heat.
I fear you may have been so eager to spot mistakes that you latched onto what would have been an incorrect statement if it was said about something else (detonation to hearing sound of it) and failed to notice the actual text never said that. I actually had to do some research for this chapter, and I watched a good half dozen nuclear detonations, just to be clear on what it would look and sound like to an observer. I specifically didn't use times for the total event, because such times could be used to fact-check the distance, which is a level of detail I just didn't want.
You've got some good military ideas, though. We'll see what humans have planned in the next chapter.
4861147
What a dastardly plan. It seems exactly like the sort of thing Chrysalis would think up. And you're right in thinking that the Castle of the Two Sisters was a predictable choice. Now the question: Is the enemy as smart as you are? Do they want Celestia dead? Guess we'll find out. Hah, just kidding. I already know. ^^ We won't see for awhile, but it's already been written. I will neither confirm nor deny some of the ideas you had.
The plot thickens (and I'm not talking about Rarity eating Faust knows how much icecream...
)
Maybe I'm just stupid and forgot it, but when did they explain that the bracelet did that?
Well anyways, since I didn't see anything out of place I'll just give this cha-
... ... ...DAMN IT!
*sigh* Luna used hand, thus no A+
the fact that it keeps poping up from time to time makes me feel like I should lower the grade I give a bit more than I usualy (those few time I need to) do for an error.
Does that seem fair to you?
A- (for now, will bump it up to A if you think I'm being too much of an ass over this.)
Keep up the good work
4861472
What do the bracelets do? We learned in chapter five, kinda. Discord rarely speaks plainly about anything.
I see no reason not to be harsher on the hands. Maybe a good kick will prompt me to finally get my hands in gear and start paying attention to it again. Come to think of it, I think I'll check the short story just to be sure it doesn't have any...
It doesn't! Anymore >.> Still, fixed before posting this time. ^^
4861248
It's generally safest to assume they are! It's not paranoia when there really is someone out to get you, after all...
Interesting point that I don't know if they want Celestia dead yet though. I'm looking forward to seeing how it all turns out!
4861538 Ah, Discord, that explains it...
Alright then, from now on out of place 'hands' will count as two errors instead of the normal kind.
...
...
...too dramatic?
Leaving the cities standing does provide a solid food source for the changelings. And possibly the soul eating horrors they're working for. Taking Celestia off the board is demoralizing and likely makes diplomacy more difficult, though that really seems more like an excuse to isolate her for more sinister purposes. Or more sinister porpoises, if they've recruited the Sea Ponies.
They're going to put worms in her brain! WORMS! BRAIN!
Though I'm wondering:
1) Would breaking the chain and turning into a pony regenerate his limbs? Because 'all my blood will explode out of my body' seems like a solid argument to keep that thing intact.
2) Discord is free, yes? Slap some of those radiation detectors on him and he could probably cover the cities of Equestria in minutes between the teleporting and ability to be in multiple places at once and so on.
4860778
Magically spawned would work, given that the enemy is apparently a puppet for those Things from Beyond Space & Time. I'm sure those creatures could supply the evil Elder Thing Goo to create mock changelings.
Nitpicks!
poring
her to send
This redundancy does not serve an obvious purpose.
Ah, I'm getting flashbacks to Jericho (the show, not the fic).
So who is this King of Equus/Father of Dragons?
How did Celestia know the Twins were talking about him as aopposed to, I guess, whomever is in charge of the griffons? Nitpicking, I know, but whenever these "invasion of Equestria" stories come up, I can't help but be curious about those calling the shots and how they decided this was the best option (even though in this case I get the impression those eldritch abominations are ultimately to blame, and the changelings kind of roped the dragons and griffons in).
4861248
This. THIS is why authors can be so evil. Watching their readers squirm and flail, spouting off theories and wild suggestions as if it might affect the story. Playing secrecy games of "I can neither confirm, nor deny those allegations" or even leading us all on a fruitless dead end tangent.
Oooh yes, I'm on to you now. Tinfoilhat pony agrees with me.
4861945
Very insightful, I was hoping someone would catch onto that. About the changelings, I mean. The twins made it clear that feeding themselves was at least some part of their goal in MLA. Also picked up on what's going on with Celestia. Or at least, part of it. DUN DUN DUN
As to the questions: In the broader sense, how does a spell even count the body of a synthetic? I'm of the opinion that an entirely new biological body would have to be made, so any injury would be healed in the process. Otherwise, like you said... blood everywhere.
About Discord. He's surely not sitting around doing nothing.
4863351
Nitpicks? You mean fixedpicks. >.>
4863695
The king of the dragons is the dragon who is owed the most favors, and the allegience of all the lesser beasts. As to his motivations, you can rest assured that I have thought about that, and it's a question that will have an answer by the end.
4863835
Comments do effect the development of the story, though! Sometimes I've already thought about the things people point out, and other times comments completely change the direction of the story. Both have happened.
4868472
Hey, would the Mirror Pool work for the humans and their toys? Or the inanimate objects a pony is carrying?
Because they could totally load up one guy and spawn an army. And then.. God Mode.
4868495
I'm not sure how the mirror pool works, except that in my mind the copies it makes seem to be really imperfect. Those pinkie-pies... in the same way, I don't think electronics and stuff would be functional or reliable. Pretty sure it isn't on the table for Equestria's war-plan.
4868685
Awww. Well, there goes the infinite raw materials hack.
I think I've figured out why the Changelings want Celestia out of the way.
First, they wait a day or two, to make sure that she's staying out of the way. Then a changeling takes Celestia's form, turns up in Manehatten or Baltimare or something, and takes over control of the defenses. She then claims that Luna has been replaced with a changeling...
...and, even though Luna is fully aware that the Celestia on the battlefield is a changeling, the Equestrian forces are suddenly split in two - those who believe Luna, and those who believe changeling-Celestia. It shouldn't take much nudging from that point to start a civil war in Equestria, making things easy for the invaders...
That dragons are cheating bastards! And I'm guessing the changelings were showing tumors or something from working in the Nuke factory. But I hate it when the bad guys seem to be holding all the cards and have the good guys over a barrel!
Huh, well that finally explains the how and why of Celestia going missing in the prophecy.
Step one, turn Dash synthetic. Step two, turn Charles in a pony. The usual final step is Profit!, but I'm not sure what step three is. Shipping through shared adversity?
Well, at least neither is in any short term position to puff up their respective chests about their flying skills, should give them more time for conversation.
Hey, that's a relief at least. Thank goodness for small favors.
>Uranium ore, which is common both in Equus and on Earth
I think you spelled it 'Equis' in the previous story
Even if your fake technology really can give me my wing back
what does she mean by "fake technology"???
Hmm... I think the answer would be a large scale version of rairities anti nuke spell. And it wouldn't mean any new steps. Chance has been having nightmares about what all these years? Its been 10 years. That anti nuke spell would already be in place around all Equestrian cities by now. This threat would be a non event.
I'm pretty sure that the Federation and Tower woudl for once be in complete agreement on how to address this:
"You have a dozen 10 kiloton bombs hidden in Equestrian cities? That's adorable. We have hundred 10 megaton bomb mounted on missiles in hidden locations. If even one bomb goes off the Dragon race ceases to exist anywhere on this planet. Funny thing, when you were reading up on how to make nuclear bombs, you really should have looked at the page over leaf about the problems with using them."
I like that Equestria is forcing the leaders of both factions to wear magic bracelets to ensure compliance
Honestly, their bomb threats are useless when humans can easily render such threats useless with MAD. They already have satellites up, and all they would need to do is bring ground-launched ICBM through the rift. Is any war worth the complete annihilation of both sides?