The Black Squirrel Brigade

by Lamasioux

Act 4.5 - The Birds And The Manes

Squawking loud,

Speaking proud.

What does one say,

To those who pray.

---

January 5th, 1014

Luna sat quietly, eerily quietly, in her throne in the Canterlot Castle.

The hall was clear of everything as it normally was. The only other creatures besides Luna were two Royal Moon Guards that stood at the main entrance with the door closed. They were silent and stood stoically as always. Luna didn’t pay them any attention.

Things had gone by fast since the funeral yesterday. The casket had been buried at the Canterlot graveyard, which was unsurprisingly very small. Construction of a tomb worthy of the ruler was already under the works, being carefully built around Celestia’s burial spot and the few others.

Luna had worked non-stop since then, dealing with meetings through the whole day and reading up on the many reports that were now her problem. It was a lot to be dumped on her as sudden as it came. At least with her role in the military, she had eased into the position over a few years. But right now, Luna was just taking a few minutes to enjoy some peace before a meeting with Twilight.

The entire hall was bleak. The aura that it normally had was entirely drained of all energy and it was bringing Luna’s mood down. Staring at the spot the casket had been did not help, so before she let it get to herself anymore than it was, she stood up and walked down the stairs, towards the glass stained windows that lined the entire hallway.

Immediately upon walking before the newest window, Luna stopped and admired it. It was a window that told of her efforts with thestral reforms that she poured her soul into, but it also showed the pain. The explosion she survived while in Manehattan was a big turning point of her reforms. While it would have been preferable to keep it to herself, there was no denying to anypony that she almost turned back into Nightmare Moon that day from the rage that consumed her. The efforts of all the support and allies she had gained were represented in the pane, with her ultimately succeeding through it all.

While the reforms and the situation with the thestrals wasn’t perfect yet, it was working its way there. The stigma that surrounded thestrals was being eroded away with time and soon, would cease to exist, especially with their involvement in the war. A small smile crept across Luna’s face as she realized that, but she lost it after a few moments. It had been Celestia that pushed her to work towards the reforms, the one who gave her the small push of encouragement to go through with them and now she wouldn’t be around to see the end result.

Luna lost her smile and let the thought drift away as she moved down the row of windows, looking at each story and remembering what each one represented. They each had a deeper story behind them, one that could be told for years to come, stories that might become ingrained into society itself until one day, it was only remembered as legend.

But then Luna stopped in her tracks as she came across the panel that showed the Elements of Harmony uniting against Nightmare Moon after a thousand years. Luna could only stare at the panel in awkward silence now.

Luna had worked hard since that day to rectify her past actions and do good for the world. It brought on a bit of cringe as she looked at it, but it always did. It was hard not to, despite moving past it, but after ten years, she could stomach the sight of it.

Right before Luna stepped away from the panel to move down the row, a glint of light flickered from the glass shards of Nightmare Moon, which caught Luna’s attention. Luna looked up at the glass trying to see what it had been.

Staring at it, the flickering of light moved, going between the shards of glass that made up the panel as it slowly descended down the pane. For a second, it didn’t make sense as to what it was, but the source of the light made Luna turn her head and before her, flying about in the throne room, was Philomena.

Luna stared at the bird as it flew around in circles, slowly descending downwards until it became level with the top of the thrones and flew around them for a few circles. After circling the thrones, Philomena landed at the top of Celestia’s and quickly folded up her wings and perched at the top of it. While flying around, Philomena had fire spouting from her wings, but they were smothered out as she got comfortable on top of the throne.

For the entire descent, Luna had been in awe of the phoenix, but she was quickly filled with a few questions as the bird came to a perch. How did Philomena get into the throne room? Where has she been? What was to happen to her now? Luna took a deep breath and walked back towards the stairs and up to the thrones. She stopped before Celestia’s and looked up at Philomena. Philomena looked back.

Before Luna could even ask Philomena anything, the bird unfurled her wings and glided down from the throne and onto Luna’s back where she landed. Immediately Luna could tell the phoenix was warm. Now that Philomena was right there with Luna, Luna could see the look on Philomena’s face. It was a saddened look, one that needed comforting. Luna had been around Philomena enough to know her expressions.

“Philomena…” Luna said quietly to the bird. As Luna circled around trying to get a good look at Philomena, she began snuggling down into Luna’s wings. Luna ruffled up her wings a bit to try and give the bird a good protective, but comfortable spot to rest. “What you must have gone through,” Luna finished with a soft and calmed voice.

Philomena had been under Raven’s primary care with Celestia always being busy, but Raven was always with Celestia. Putting that altogether was more than what Luna wanted to think about.

Luna slowly brought herself to the ground, laying down in a comfortable position at the top of the stairs as she let Philomena burrow deep into her wings. Luna wasn’t sure what she needed to do with the bird at the moment, but letting it rest up seemed like the best choice given the bird went right for her back.

Luna began to close her eyes as she sat on the ground and dozed off. The warmth from Philomena was a very comforting feeling, both physically and mentally, but since Philomena didn’t seem to require any care, Luna was contempt with just sitting there.

For a solid few minutes, Luna sat comfortable and relaxed with the phoenix snuggled against her until the throne room doors opened up and Twilight walked in. For how slow and easy Luna and Philomena had gotten comfortable with each other, Philomena was quick to escape from Luna’s wings and fly about the room before escaping somewhere up in the roof. Twilight watched the entire moment with fascination, but she quickly lost it and replaced her expression with sadness as she realized what the creature had been.

There was a moment of stillness between Twilight and Luna as they were at opposite ends of the hall. Twilight had lowered her gaze down to Luna after Philomena was gone and she was met with Luna’s eyes. For a second, Twilight debated leaving since it seemed like she had just interrupted something important, while Luna looked on with a neutral expression.

After a few seconds, Luna lifted her head up and looked up at the ceiling as she looked for the bird, but seeing how it was gone, Luna stood up and looked at Twilight with a simple smile.

“Twilight, it is good to see you again,” Luna said in a relaxed voice.

Twilight meandered down the hall towards the thrones and Luna while being weary of the phoenix that just left. “Was that Celestia’s phoenix?”

Luna let her smile drop as she looked back up at the ceiling, “Yes Twilight, it was.”

“What was she doing?”

“Likely returning home I presume. She just flew from a long way away,” Luna answered.

For a moment, Twilight was confused and didn’t know what Luna meant by that, which Luna caught as she looked back down, “She was with Celestia, or Raven to be precise. Somehow, she survived and returned here, from so far away. For whatever reason, she didn’t want to stick around once you showed up,” Luna answered.

Twilight looked amazed at that information and ran with it instantly, “Wait, you don’t think that there’s a ch–” Twilight stopped as Luna immediately gave her a stern look, one that forced her to stop whatever crazed theory she was about to come up with

“Twilight, it was confirmed. That's a fact. Philomena is a phoenix, a creature that, as it seems, is more immortal than us. A simple crash wasn’t going to stop her,” Luna said. Twilight sunk down at the reconfirmation. “You have to accept it. We already had the funeral, so please, honor and cherish what memories you have of her. I don’t want you going down a path of regret because you let your mind wander.”

There was a moment of silence between the two alicorns now. Luna decided to walk down the stairs to be at level ground with Twilight. Twilight still chose to stand where she was, unmoving for the moment.

The silence lasted until Luna made it to the bottom of the stairs and stopped herself, waiting there for Twilight, “But now that you are here Twilight, what was it you needed to speak to me about?”

It took Twilight a few seconds to gather herself up before she started walking towards Luna, “Well, ok,” Twilight took a deep breath before continuing, “We will need to discuss it in private, not here in front of the guards,” Twilight motioned towards the two Royal Moon Guards that stood at the throne hall’s entrance.

Luna shook her head, “We are the only ones here Twilight, and those guards swore their lives to secrecy. Nothing they hear is something they will speak about. They can be trusted.” Twilight still looked weary to continue on, so she gave Luna a concerned expression with her eyes for confirmation. Luna let out a quiet sigh before she formed a magical shield around herself and Twilight. “Is that better?”

Twilight gave the magical shield a quick look, which relaxed her. The shield gave off a bluish hue as it emitted Luna’s magic. “This works enough,” Twilight took in a deep breath as she prepared to unload whatever secret she held onto Luna, “While this isn’t the most official way to bring you up to speed on the situation, it’s convenient that I am already here to tell you about it. We’ve been working on a special weapons project called Project Manehattan.”

There was a short pause from Twilight as she relieved herself of that short dump of info before she began to grow concerned. Before her worries got to her, she carefully asked, “Do you know about it?”

Luna blinked a few times as she tried thinking about the name, but ultimately she shook her head, “I do not. Am I supposed to?”

Twilight shook her head as well, “No. Celestia forbid us from telling you. She did not want you informed about the project.”

“Then why were you worried about me knowing?” Luna asked.

“I just needed to make sure you didn’t, or did. It wouldn’t have mattered either way,” there was a short moment of hesitation from Twilight before she corrected herself, “Well, maybe it would have mattered, depending on how you learned about it.”

Luna again shook her head, “Again, I do not know about it, but what is it beyond a special weapons project if Celestia didn’t want me knowing about it?”

“Well, to give you the short answer, we’re trying to make a bomb out of crystals, and in theory, there’s a chance it might destroy the entire world.”

Luna processed what was just said before she grew confused, “And why are you making a bomb that will destroy the entire world?”

“In theory, there’s a chance. The math doesn’t say it’s possible, but the chance of it happening was so close, some of the ponies working on it have protested against finishing it,” Twilight answered.

Luna processed this reveal quickly. Going from comforting a burning bird to learning about a world ending bomb is a big leap of events. “And this is something that my sister brought forth? Is that why I was kept out of it?” Luna asked.

“Well, it was Sunset Glimmer who did. She did some research into something she learned about in the other world and then brought it forth to Cadance, who then brought it up with Sunburst. He dug into the theories even more and once he had a baseline, he brought it back up with Cadance, who then informed Celestia. From there, it branched out into its own thing. We’ve been working on it since 1009. Progress was slow then, but ever since then we’ve had schools and researchers all across Equestria and the Crystal Empire contribute to the project. It’s still an ongoing project at this time,” Twilight said.

“It sounds like it has been important. Is there any reason I was never informed about it?” Luna asked.

“Celestia didn’t want you to be worried about it. She wanted you focused on dealing with the war,” Twilight answered.

“What about before the war?” Luna asked.

“It wasn’t that big of a project before the war, plus you were occupied with your reforms,” Twilight answered, “You’ve been busy for the past seven years with things that were more important to you and Equestria. This is just- Was a small project.”

“A small project? Making something that might destroy the entire world is a small project?” Luna asked.

“It was, before the war. The current math we’ve gotten says the bomb will be big, at least in theory. We haven’t gotten around to testing it yet. Progress has been slow because we’re inventing it from the ground up, even with the information Sunset gave us. This isn’t something easy we’re doing,” Twilight gave a small nod of confirmation. “With our current pace, we should have a bomb sometime this year, and then enough crystals for two more.”

For a moment, a thought came across Luna that began making her concerned, “If you’re only able to make three, how big of a bomb are these even? Something that’s teetering on the edge of world ending isn’t something that we should be casually making.”

Twilight looked up as she began circling her head slightly to think of an answer, “Canterlot, Las Pegasus, Manehattan, Stalliongrad, Vraks, Vesalipolis. Big enough to wipe any of those cities out of existence, at least based on the current designs we have for the bombs.”

Luna looked at Twilight, and Twilight looked at Luna. Twilight was able to speak up first, trying to clarify even further, “Between every bomb dropped in the war so far, from both sides, that wouldn’t even come close to the magnitude of the bomb we’re developing, and we’re close to having three.”

Again, the two alicorns looked at each other for a moment with nothing being said. Twilight felt a little pressure building up on her as Luna failed to say anything. “In explosive strength, we think it will be between 10 and 30 kilotons of TNT. Though MARESOC never released any information about it, Aquilia was close enough to New Manehattan to know about the explosion that happened in 1011 that they believe it was 2.9 kilotons, which is the largest recorded explosion in modern history,” Twilight blinked a few seconds before correcting herself, “The largest creature made explosion.”

Luna finally let out a sigh at the mention of MARESOC. While MARESOC no longer existed, New Mareland was now under the control of Wingbardy, but that didn’t mean MARESOC’s and Big Sister’s existence wasn’t causing a problem for Luna all of a sudden. Luna shook her head as she got back on track with the current topic. “Twilight.”

Twilight looked eager to answer any question Luna threw out.

“What will happen if we use them?”

Twilight answered simply, “Win us the war.”

Luna closed her eyes and calmed herself. She let her thoughts wander for a second before she opened her eyes and looked at Twilight with a blank face, “Setup a detailed briefing regarding the project so you can bring me up to speed with it. Whatever my sister was trusting you with, I trust you to keep doing so. With the new front now open, any advantage we can get, we need to push for, and quickly. When will the first bomb be done?”

With the sudden barrage of requests from Luna, Twilight mentally took them all down and answered the first thing she could, “If we get expedited resources and funding, by July.”

“Make it work Twilight. We won’t survive without any advantage we can get,” And without asking if Twilight was done, Luna stood tall and dropped the shield that surrounded herself and Twilight. “It’s imperative that things work fast. We no longer have the advantage of time. Go.”

Twilight then took quick leave as she was prompted to, leaving no time for a goodbye for Luna.

As Twilight left, Luna watched as her sister’s student rushed off to get to work saving Equestria, and it brought a few tears to Luna’s eyes. While Luna would learn about the details of the project, it was still depressing to know that Twilight, the Princess of Friendship, was in some way helping develop a world ending bomb for the purpose of war. Luna always knew Twilight was helping develop magical technology for the war, but directly contributing to a weapon wasn’t something she expected, and it made Luna sad.

With Twilight gone, Luna carefully sat herself down in the middle of the hall as tears welled up in her eyes and poured out, but in the midst of her tears, a glimmer of light sparkled on a stained glass window, which caught Luna’s eyes. It was the panes of glass that belonged to Nightmare Moon during the fight with the Elements of Harmony.

Luna tried to dry up her tears in preparation for Philomena’s arrival again, but as the moments passed, the glimmer of light from the glass disappeared and the eyes of Nightmare Moon stared down at Luna. For a moment, the two stared eye-to-eye until Luna felt a shiver of fear run up her fur which caused her to look away and for a second, made Luna fear for the future.

But before her thoughts could get to her, Luna let her tears swell back up, but this time not for the sadness of Twilight’s situation, but for her own sister and how much she was going to miss her.