Chapter 8
Everyone had a nametag on their uniforms, which alleviated the need for Celestia to remember their names. It was also lucky that the dental group was fairly small, with few faces to memorize.
Josh helped her get settled in. He showed her where she would be sleeping, and explained a few details that she was unable to find in her online knowledge gathering.
Two dentists would be on duty at all times, working in eight-hour shifts. Josh indicated a schedule, which Celestia read carefully. She would be in the clinic during the ship’s scheduled departure.
“If nothing important is happening, I’ll cover for you so you can say goodbye to Pearl,” said Lieutenant Resen. She smiled helpfully.
“Well, I suppose Pearl Harbor does deserve some of my affection,” agreed Celestia.
Resen cocked her head. “Are you feeling okay? Your voice sounds funny.”
“I probably caught something while ashore. Bad poi, maybe.”
“Well, I hope you get better soon. Can’t have you holding us back any more than those fancy color contacts already do,” chided Resen. Alice had liked the look of herself with blue eyes. It was fortunate, because Celestia’s natural color would have drawn attention.
Celestia was looking forward to seeing the send-off the ship would receive, but a sailor fell down a ladder and chipped a tooth. He came to the clinic with blood dripping from his mouth where the jagged enamel had sliced open his lip.
While Celestia was used to staying calm during national emergencies, this felt completely different. The young man was not in danger for his life, but cleaning him up and repairing the damage seemed like a daunting task.
Inspecting the tooth, Celestia couldn't decide whether it should be repaired with filler, or was bad enough to require a cap. This was not the sort of thing you could learn over the internet. To Resen, she suggested, “Why don’t you take care of this and I’ll stop the bleeding?”
The arrangement worked out, and between the two of them they quickly had the sailor patched up. After that, however, came scheduled appointments, and by the time Celestia’s shift was over, Hawaii had disappeared over the horizon and there was nothing to see except the open ocean and the other ships in the strike group with the carrier.
Resen smoked, and while the fumes smelled terrible to Celestia, she accompanied the woman outside. They stood near the stern of the ship with the flight deck above, watching the foaming wake of the carrier pass by underneath them.
“How was your vacation?” asked Resen.
“Not bad.”
“Did you and LT Tanner get it on?”
Celestia sputtered. Resen laughed. “Sorry, the two of you were being kind of obvious. Just keep it clean while we’re aboard. We’re all professionals, right?”
Celestia nodded. “So what did you do ashore?”
“This and that. I went to CrowCon Honolulu.” She showed Celestia her lighter, which had a Maggie Pie sticker on it.
“Friendship Flap?” said Celestia, offering her hand.
Resen gasped in surprise and promptly returned the gesture, slapping Celestia’s palm. Enthusiastically, she asked, “So who’s your favorite? Twilight Raven? Shrike? Flutterpecker?”
“I don’t really have one. I haven’t watched very much of the show.” Celestia smiled. It was a remarkably bright point amid the cloud of war that hung around.
Resen finished her cigarette and turned to go. “We’ve got to talk about this more later.”
Celestia returned her friendly nod and went back to staring at the ocean. She hadn’t meant to become attached to Earth, but even in her current situation she had to admit there were some things that made her smile. Of everything she had experienced in her short time on earth, this need for fellowship was one thing humans and ponykind had in common. She stood there for a while longer, watching the ship’s wake.
The next time Celestia saw Josh, he was in the passageway near the clinic about to begin his duty shift. Celestia had been working on a solution to get home, and thought she might have an idea from her internet searches about the carrier. “Josh, I was hoping I could talk to you about the two A4W nuclear reactors that are onboard.”
“I’m not the guy you should ask. That would be someone down in the engineering department. Sorry, I have to go. Come find me later.” He gave her a smile and departed.
Celestia went in search of the reactors. She very much doubted that she could just walk up to one, and that assumption turned out to be correct. Armed Marines assigned to the ship guarded locked hatches that lead to the reactor compartment.
It was possible that Celestia could find a steam line that ran from the reactors’ secondary coolant loops, but the pipe would be heavily insulated and hard to draw energy from. Not to mention it would look suspicious to find her hanging around sensitive equipment. She had to decide on a new plan of action.
Celestia met up with Josh later that day. He asked, “Did you find what you were looking for?”
“I’m afraid not. There was no way to access the reactors.”
Josh gave her a strange look. “Why were you trying to do that?”
“I explained to you the concept of drawing energy until I had enough built up to be able to go home. I thought that getting close to the source of the power would help.”
As Celestia spoke, Josh’s face had progressively darkened. He said, “Even if you didn’t suck the whole thing in one go, you could still cause a loss in performance. That puts everyone on board at risk. You just can't do that.”
She realized exactly what he was saying, but his sudden change in mood flustered her. “Don’t you care about me going home and you getting Alice back?”
“I do. I know that you have a country to run, but I can’t justify impairing the war effort of my own. I think of you as a friend, Celestia, but I have a higher loyalty.”
The Princess closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. “I understand. If our situations were reversed I would like to believe that I would also choose the many over the individual. You have a steadfast heart and are a true friend.”
Josh sighed. “Sometimes life is terrible. I’m sorry.”
“So am I.” Celestia was reluctant to abandon her designs on accessing the reactors, but she had five thousand people to think about. They weren’t the same species, and from what she’d seen just by spending a while on the carrier some of them weren’t all that likeable. However, she couldn’t live with herself knowing that something she did put them in danger.
Celestia retired to her berth, reading the ship’s newspaper, Navy News Service dispatch, and anything else she could find to glean more information about the outside world.
Based on the carrier’s speed, they would be in position to begin launching combat operations eight days after leaving Hawaii. The ship’s only offensive weapons were the airplanes aboard. Celestia had watched a few of them taking off and landing, and the deck crews practicing the mounting of bombs and missiles. They certainly looked like impressive weapons, but surely the enemy would have something similar.
The days passed slowly. The dread of coming battle was one part of it. Not being able to see the sun was another. Celestia almost wished for something interesting to happen, although she chided herself that that was exactly the wrong thing to want during a war.
Ronald Reagan had rounded the southern tip of Japan and was steaming northward when the first call to battle stations came. Celestia was tending to a scheduled appointment at the time, and pulled her tools out of the patient’s mouth as she felt the ship heel over into a sharp turn. It was impossible to know what was going on outside, and the sailor she was attending to understood that sharp bits of metal were not a good thing to have close to sensitive areas when the possibility of attack was high.
Minutes passed. Commander Peterson, in charge of the medical facilities, walked in looking as if he’d just been roused from sleep. He was alert and serious, however, when he broke the news. “One of the screening frigates was torpedoed and broke up. The other escorts took care of the enemy submarine, but we’ve got a lot of casualties incoming. Scrivello, you’re working for the hospital until further notice.”
Celestia began putting her tools away. The sailor in the chair looked up. “This is terrible for me to say, ma’am, but I’m a little glad. I’ve never liked visiting the dentist.”
“Where are you supposed to be?” she asked.
“I’m part of jet operations, but those are shut down right now,” he answered.
“Check with your station, and if they don’t have anything for you to do, come back and help here,” Celestia ordered. She checked the time. “Your appointment isn’t over yet.”
Celestia walked into the hospital, seeing a few wounded sailors already arriving. Their injuries were quite ghastly, and they were probably the worst casualties who could still be saved. She asked one of the doctors to give her a task. The man glanced at the Dental Corps insignia on her collar. While Lieutenant Scrivello was supposed to have medical training and knowledge of anatomy, her focus was teeth, not trauma. The man said, “We have the people here that we need right now. I want you to go up to the deck and bring in arriving casualties from the helicopters.”
It was noisy and windy on the flight deck, problems compounded by several helicopters landing. A crowd of sailors were already setting up stretchers and helping their injured fellows to get down to the hospital. Celestia helped organize their efforts and lent a hand in carrying.
It helped not to think very hard about it, but the blood was hard to ignore. The horror slowly ebbed after the worst-injured were brought aboard, their wounds slacking off to mere broken bones and bruises. Celestia realized she was supposed to be off duty, and hadn’t eaten since the ordeal began. She kept going back to the deck until helicopters stopped arriving.
As she tiredly headed for her berth, Celestia reflected on things that had gone right. She hadn’t had to use any of her precious reserves of magic for self-defense or anything else. She’d even managed to add a little to it by spending so much time outside, however her clothing stopped much of the sun’s rays. That was probably a good thing because otherwise it would have been her skin that was covered in splashes of blood.
Commander Peterson stopped her in the passageway. “I saw what you did out there. I think you did a good job.”
“Thank you, sir,” she replied, embarrassed. The praise was unexpected, but welcome. Celestia was still distraught over being stuck on this strange chaotic planet, nothing could change that, but it helped to know that she’d made a difference. It didn't escape her how much like a herd the crew of the ship was. How quickly they read each other and coordinated their activities. These humans were social beings as well, how could they have advanced so far otherwise?
The next afternoon, the battle stations alarm was called again. A small North Korean ship had approached the carrier strike group, requesting to defect. While no direct attack had happened, it was best to be on the alert.
Celestia was summoned to help the medical staff transport a few of the patients in the hospital to the deck to be evacuated to shore. A utility airplane was standing by for the purpose.
Due to the close proximity of the ship that was still technically hostile, some precautions had to be taken. Celestia was more than a little surprised, however, to be issued a holster and a handgun. She doubted that a personal weapon would see much use in ship-to-ship combat.
Josh was also called to help evacuate casualties. The two of them worked side by side to help transport the injured to the airplane.
An echoing wham carried across the water, muffled by wind and distance. Everyone on deck instinctively looked up, watching in shock as a bloom of fire rose from one of the escorting ships. Smoke trails began to fly as missiles were launched.
Josh swore. “They came in pretending to surrender and then hit our cruiser!”
The supposedly defecting North Korean ship had been kept far away from Reagan because of the possibility of a double-cross. Denied the obvious prime target, perhaps they had decided to take what they could get. Celestia watched the enemy vessel explode after being hit with several retaliatory shots.
“This is bad, oh my God,” muttered Josh. “The cruiser was in charge of air defense. We can get one of the destroyers to take over but—”
“Come on, we still have a job to do,” Celestia interrupted, turning back to the airplane. Her leadership helped galvanize the others to move. “Even if the cruiser doesn’t sink, we need to be prepared to take aboard more casualties.”
They got the transport plane loaded and it taxied over to the catapults at the front of the ship to take off. Helicopters from other ships were beginning to visit the damaged escort to pick up wounded sailors. Curiously, a few other helicopters were headed the opposite direction, their host ships also turning away.
“What’s going on over there?” asked Celestia.
“Maybe they have a contact in that direction. They might be sending the helicopters to go hunt submarines.” Josh’s face looked panic-stricken. “This is bad. We’re being attacked from different directions.”
“You need to calm down,” said Celestia.
He looked at her incredulously. “I’m a dentist. I’ve never been under fire before!”
“I have, and trust me, panic won’t help.” Celestia spotted a helicopter heading their way carrying wounded sailors. “Just remember that you have a job to do.”
The aircraft landed, carrying the casualties in the worst condition. Celestia and Josh grabbed a stretcher that held a man whose forearm had been severed. He was gasping and on the verge of shock, blood leaking past a primitive tourniquet on his elbow.
Celestia placed her palm on the ragged stump. There was the smell of burning flesh, but when she drew her hand back, the wound was cauterized and the bleeding had stopped.
Josh was the only one who had seen her do it. He looked a little sick to his stomach, although it was hard to tell if that was from the blood or the burning. For Celestia, her action had been instinctive.
The two of them brought the man into the hospital and put him where they were directed. A doctor grabbed Celestia’s arm. “We need more gauze. It’s in the medical supply locker.”
She followed his pointing finger to a room attached to the hospital. Celestia had been there before while running errands for the dental clinic. The shelves that lined the walls were stacked high above her head. The ladder was at the other end of the compartment, but to save time she simply concentrated hard and levitated into the air, inspecting the shelves and finding several rolls of gauze near the top.
After leaving the supplies with the doctor, Celestia sprinted for the deck. She magically threw open a couple of hatches ahead of her to speed her progress.
A small thought gnawed at the edge of her awareness. Why are you using up so much energy? You need to get home. Celestia gritted her teeth and kept going. Here and now, this is more important.
She reached the deck just as another helicopter landed. Carrying stretchers was not easy work, and Celestia added a bit of magic to help her keep up with the muscular man she had been paired with this time. She realized that she’d subconsciously done it to increase her strength on the previous trip, as well. The sailor they carried had a splintered leg, and she applied a bit of subtle telekinesis to hold it steady and avoid making the injury worse.
When Celestia got back to the deck the third time, it was empty. She paused for a moment next to Josh, taking a breather while they waited for another helicopter. The sun was sitting on the horizon, the late afternoon giving way to evening.
One of the destroyers suddenly fired a missile. It was followed a few seconds later by another.
“Those are anti-air,” said Josh.
Celestia glanced at the darkening sky. “I don’t see anything.”
“It’s either really far away or really fast.” Josh’s eyes went wide. “A ballistic missile? I heard North Korea was working on nukes, but I didn’t think they were crazy enough to—”
He began tugging at her arm, although Celestia resisted. From what she’d read about nuclear weapons, going below decks certainly wouldn’t save them. All they could do was hope the air defense worked, and prepare to receive the next medical helicopter.
A streak of light like a meteor appeared, the incoming missile’s trajectory creating enormous closing speed as it reentered the atmosphere on course to intercept the carrier strike group.
Celestia tipped her head back, watching the weapon’s unceasing approach. Rising tendrils of smoke decorated the sky as other ships launched counterattacks. On the deck, many heads looked up, some pointed, some knelt and prayed. The smell of fear grew thick. Celestia began walking forward on the flight deck, carefully removing her contact lenses. She didn’t understand how Alice could stand them. They left a fuzzy edge on her vision, and that simply wouldn’t do for the idea she’d just had.
“What are you doing?” Josh went with her, nervously glancing between Celestia and the sky.
“I have a plan,” she answered. “I hope it works.”
“What?”
Celestia raised her arms as a blinding flash lit up the heavens. It was more pure power output than she had ever seen, with the exception of perhaps the Elements of Harmony. Bare milliseconds passed as she reached towards the energy, siphoning some of it to surround the blast in a force field bubble and draw it in before the surrounding area was torched. Her nerves hummed with the force and beneath Celestia’s trousers her cutie mark surged with color, the image of the sun flaring brilliantly.
Similar to drawing a huge gulp of air, it was nearly painful to hold so much energy inside. Celestia focused on a destination, and let it all out.
Whirling blackness surrounded her and Celestia felt like she was falling. There was a noise as if the very universe was tearing apart and she suddenly came to a halt, lying facedown. It was very quiet, even the noise of the wind had ceased. “Josh, are you alright?”
Celestia began to move. She felt lethargic after using so much magic. To her dismay, she still had fingers. The surface beneath her felt like carpet, rather than the nonskid deck of the carrier. There was an unpleasant odor of smoke in the air.
“Celestia?” The voice was nearby and sounded concerned. Could it be…
The Princess raised her head, looking towards the speaker. A midnight-blue pony was looking at her. The two of them were in a familiar room, in the castle that Celestia called home.
“Luna…Thank Harmony, I’m back!”
Author note:
Big 'ol action chapter brought to you by Dafaddah with technical consulting by shirotora
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Holy nuts, that was epic.
You better not have it end here.
EDIT: ARRRRGH! 3 MINUTES! ARE YOU SERIOUS!
I'm going to reread this chapter in the morning but from what I have seen... probably one of the most spot on characterizations of Celestia that I have seen, she would not abandoned her duty nor shirk helping others even if they are not her race. I can now see her in blood stained NWUs, dirt smudged skin doing what is needed... You need to find someone willing to put that into a picture.
The power of a nuke, awesome.
Can't wait to see what will happen next!
1483692
I myself am not capable of drawing that, but I do have something pretty epic for a couple of chapters from now.
So Celestia gets bombed, and THAT'S how she got home?
*sigh*
Wow, that is just...okay. That could be better, a LOT.
Everything else, however was good.
BTW: was this a filler only chapter?
More alt universe alt ponies... courtesy of Dafaddah I suppose? Props to him.
And let me get this straight–Celestia siphoned the energy of a nuclear missile, gaining enough energy to transport her back to Equestria, and at the same time shielding the carrier fleet. Damn.
Now, with a bit of fridge logic, I realized this:
1. Equestria has a lot of relation with Greek mythology...
2. ... and Celestia just defended the carrier fleet from an incoming missile...
3. ...which is the job of the Aegis system...
4. ..which is named after Zeus' shield.
Bringing the explanation back into a loop...What exactly does that add up to? Some hilarious coincidence plus something I can't quite figure out.
I wonder how/why those connections were made in my head... Then again, it's almost midnight here, and I'm probably just not thinking straight.
She sucked the energy out of the nuke!? Dang girl that's amazing.
1483733 Please tell me how this could be better. I value all input.
No, this wasn't just filler. Some things that happened here will come up later.
Nuke plus magic sends Celly home?
Welp, it's better than Kingdom Hearts' logic.
Very good chapter; I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes from here. I'm guessing that since we've covered all of Celestia's time on Earth, the next stop is a meeting between her and pony!Alice.
But what about the carrier group?
To be honest, I was looking forward to more Celestia on
the ship, especially sense this chapter was so good.
Also, Called it... but only to my RL friend
Edit: 1483809 I think he disliked the concept, not necessarily the execution. Though you might have been able to explain how she both contained and absorbed the blast. Perhaps by slowing down the pacing at that point.
1483809 You zoomed through the day, and spent a single paragraph on Celestia ABSORBING THE POWER OF THE ATOM.
I feel cheated.
Still looking forward to the next chapter, though.
Celestia absorbed the power of a nuke. Man that's going to have some serious repercussions on North Korea. Now just about everyone is going to attack them now.
Ah... called it. Except...
Yeah, I'm gonna pretend that didn't happen.
Anywho, looking forward to seeing what happens next.
Huh, Josh is gonna have some explaining to do with this superior officers...
I was feelin' kinda crappy. Then I read the name Flutterpecker, and I couldn't help but smile. Thanks, friend.
1483737
Maybe you're reading too much into this.
Or are you?
that was DA BOMB
i know reeeeeaaaallly bad
1483941
Have you ever considered how much energy it takes to change the physics of even a small part of a world? And all the North Korean nukes have been in the kiloton range not the megaton range of fusion bombs. See North Korean nuclear tests
1483733
It's pretty clearly not the climax of the story, and it's believable in the context of the story so far, so what's the problem? I rather liked it, it was in the middle of an attack and felt very whirlwindy.
Edit: What I mean to say is that if this were it, if it were the end of the story suddenly, it would feel a bit lackluster. It would feel too quick. But Celestia's still not a pony, Alice is still in Equestria. What happened to Josh and the Regan? There's still a lot going on.
1483872 I think she absorbed the nuke so the carrier group was saved ironically by her stealing the bombs energy.
at least that's what i'm thinking.
cheers
1484015
Give me a number, just a ballpark estimate, and a reason to believe that's even remotely what the elements of harmony actually do. The amount of energy that comes out of a nuke, even a small one, put in one place and in one time as a nuke or the elements of harmony are is only applicable for brute force because it will just pushes everything out of the way no matter what form it's in. The elements of harmony by contrast perform a sophisticated, precision act of magic(bearing in mind that "magic" does not mean "ignores physics") that has yet to show any collateral damage, even when being used improperly. If they really put out power like that, bad shit would have happened when twilight attempted to use them with her discorded friends.
1484015 Yeah, I was thinking that. The Elements also fix things, which takes a lot more energy than destroying them. Like fixing all of Equestria after Discord.
fim.413chan.net/fim/src/129923751541-MLP_I_see_what_you_d.jpg
1484117
1 - The elements of harmony are more powerful than Celestia or Luna
2 - Celestia and Luna can move the sun and moon
3 - Therefore the EoH have more power at their disposal than that needed to move the sun and the moon.
Without getting in any equivalencies of magic vs. "normal" energy physics, that is still way more energy than a piddling kiloton class nuke.
Also, maybe Celestia shifted the explosion into another dimension. Where does the energy she absorbs go? She didn't tell Josh, so we just don't know.
And Celestia rocks anyway!
Wow. That was... Awesome.
1484165
This is actually the biggest problem I have with Discord's actions. The type of additions to the world he makes (chocolate rain, fields of popcorn, etc) would require absolutely monumental amounts of energy. The way I deal with it in one of my own fics is having him actually able to change the local physics of the universe itself. I know that this is does not totally resolve the energy supply problem, but there are a whole lotta implications on the energy manipulation of having a magic based economy.
1484222
The Crony Flock now includes Celestia. She is one of US.
Oh my...
Good to see my Friendship Flock suggestion got some good air time.
Also, this better be one of those stories where it starts in the middle, goes back, and then continues from the present to the future. Because we pretty much now have most of the past and present, and I don't want it to end.
1484384 She needs a crowsona. Actually, we all need one !
1484402. 1484394
I see this going places....
1484427
>Turns out Hasbro is reading this comment string
>"Friendship Flock" appears as a spin-off show on the Hub between commercials
WHAT HAVE WE DONE
1484230
That all hinges on the assumption that Equestria's sun and moon are in any way comparable to ours... and that's an assumption that can be blown clear out of the water even if you ignore that if the objects had the same force requirements to move, they'd have to have the same mass, and thus have the same gravity, completely wrecking the premise of Equestria's geocentric system in the first place.
But before we get down to business, let's lay out the evidence from the show itself that this rant will focus on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwCvgrd0hmk#t=12m10
As you can see here, Celestia uses her magic to raise the sun, and this is important, does so with no latency. It takes the sun's light 8 minutes to reach Earth, but the absolute maximum latency in Celestia's changes allowed by that scene is 3 seconds, as that is the amount of time between her magic starting up and us seeing the sun in motion, though with it being in a new position the instant we do see it that number is realistically less than that... how much less, we can't quite say.
And don't forget, the latency for Celestia moving the sun is round-trip. In addition to the time it takes for the light to reach Equestria, you need to include the time it takes for Celestia's magic to reach the sun. Let's try out the best case scenario for your argument, that her spell travels to the sun at the speed of light: With the maximum possible latency shown by the above scene, Equestria's sun would be slightly farther away from Equestria as Earth's moon is from us(light takes 1.3 seconds to pass between the earth and moon). But remember, the latency is likely less than that, if not as instantaneous as can be perceived in the show.
Whatever Equestria's sun is, it is not a star as we understand it. No star could be anywhere near small enough to sit that close to Equestria while appearing remotely the same size as our sun, which rests at least over 300 times farther away from us than theirs does from them. And even then you have to content with how the heat and brightness received increases exponentially as you approach, which would mean a hypothetical tiny star sitting in that position would fry Equestria.
Knowing this, we can't rightly judge Celestia's power in any numerical sense, precise or rough, by the fact that she can move Equestria's sun. We simply don't know enough about what their sun actually is; only that it is not actually a star.
Did she just siphon energy from a nuke?
1484486 TL,DR.
Nah, not really. That was a very interesting rant, though.
Of course she'd absorb the nuke. That's what powers the sun, after all. She's used to it.
I like it but.... dam this story went by fast. I was seeing Celestia being interrogated by her CO for using magic and asking her wtf she did, but I guess not.
I imagined Celestia absorbing the nuke in a reverse Hadouken move with the energy flowing over her in visible golden energy rings going up from her hands. It was epic.
As for how it worked...
25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m69aepWZZT1r757rdo1_1280.png
1479596 Then I will also recommend The Hunting of the Snark. Same author, longer poem. More silliness.
sooooooo that single nuclear armed cruise missile managed to defeat the aegis defense system and all the U.S. Navy missile defense systems in a whole battlegroup? yea- no not buying it I know that this fanfiction and that it's a plot device but the chances of that actually happening are virtually nil.
good story though, keep going!
Woah woah woah! We already finished the Earth bit? Wow! I was hooked.
Well, Celestia, you got your nuclear power source all right; you just got bombed back to the Stone Age! (Well, pre-Industrial Revolution, but you know what I mean.)
Can't wait to find out what happened back on the RR.
1484825
Nukes are pretty good at getting where they're supposed to go and the lost cruiser was implied to be a critical part of their Anti-Air. It also might have been several nukes and only one made it that far.
Five Twilights for somewhat accurate scienceness
North Korea sends out Nuke!
U.S.A. sends out Celestia!
Nuke uses Explode!
Celestia uses Absorb!
It's super effective!
The enemy's Nuke fainted!
Celesia gains 2000xp!
Celestia levels up!
U.S.A. has won!
1484486
Well if she can already move a "star", then why not go ahead and move all its photons too?
After all the photons have way way less mass then a star..... THAT'S IT!!!! Celestia doesn't move the star she moves the photons!!! It's so simple it would take very little magic to change the direction of photons compared to moving the entire star. The more I think about it the more it makes since after all this theory can account for the changes in the moons phase like ours even though it would behave differently if it was a geocentric model! Maybe it's not even magic maybe it's a series of orbital mirrors. Placed ingeniously so as to make it appear she the sun and the 3 second delay is because she is slightly off on the time by the mirrors!!
Wow do I sound rediculous!
1484486
That was a pointless rant.
The original argument was about comparing the power of the Elements of Harmony to a low yield nuke.
Let's, for the sake of comparison, look at size.
The bomb used on Hiroshima created collateral damage in a radius roughly 10,000 feet from detonation.
The North Korean nuke was probably smaller, but it's hard to say by how much.
Then look at Ponyville. Is it 20,000 feet wide? I doubt it. So the 'dome' effect the elements caused when defeating discord was obviously smaller.
But now we have to return to comparisons of power. Discord is, for all intents and purposes, a 'god' of chaos.
The elements not only undid his magic, but were able to stop and imprison him.
Theoretically, nothing can stop the elements from affecting their target, while a nuke can be shielded against.
In the end, without knowing the proper conversion between magical energy and nuclear energy, it's impossible to know which is stronger.
Oh yeah, and there's one last important point...
It's a STORY, so who the buck CARES if the science, of a Parallel Earth and Equestria, is off?!
1485003
a ballistic missile sure, a cruise missile? not so much.
Even if North Korea were able to generate enough fissile material and sufficient parts to construct several nuclear cruise missiles (which is unlikely) and manage to launch them all at the carrier (also unlikely). Taking out one aegis cruiser does not comprise the ability for the remaining 11 ships in a battlegroup to detect and intercept a handful of cruise missiles.
Like I said, unrealistic, but this is a story about a talking magical pony princess from another world who has taken possession of a human's body so im willing to let this slide. From a technical route though, not the situation I would've used for Celestia to get the energy she needed to get home.