Bionic Titan: Operation Damocles

Chapters

Caviar and Cigarettes
Well Versed in Ettiquette
Gunpowder, Gelatine
Dynamite with a Laser Beam
Guaranteed to Blow Your Mind
Anytime
She's Out to Get You
She's Extraodrinarily Nice

Caviar and Cigarettes

“I will not have this argument with you again, Sister!” Luna shouted.

It had been so long since Luna had actually raised her voice toward Celestia that she was near in denial that it had even happened. Confused, she went on, “What argument, Luna? Why would we be arguing? All I came to do today was to discuss a plan of action. Why would there be a need to argue?”

The Queen’s office had always felt so foreign to Celestia. When she ruled over a thousand and two hundred years ago, the Queen went down to see her people, the people didn’t come up to her position. These polished floors, these fancy rugs, these gilded photographs: this was part of the culture that developed without her, the world that her children were born into, the world that she was not a part of. And yet, she was the only one who understood it.

Standing from her chair, Luna put her hooves on the desk. “Another plan of action, another military campaign, another targeted attack on our rivals! It’s always this! Can’t you listen to your daughter even once? We do not need to spark conflicts to keep the status quo!”

Celestia could feel the migraine coming on. “Are you not the adult in the room? Twilight still hasn’t recovered from the war for Luna City seventy years ago. She still doesn’t understand. If we do not keep up the pressure, your ‘status quo’ can never be maintained. Not that I ever understood why the ‘status quo’ was good enough for you.”

An irritated breath escaped the Moon Queen. “Very well. Perhaps 'status quo' is not the word I’m looking for. Maintaining peace should not require… sneaking destruction to bring about setbacks. We are perfectly capable of defending against anything the world can throw at us. This loss of life is unnecessary.”

Angrily, Celestia clapped. “Perfect, something we can agree on. I, too, believe the loss of Equestrian life is unnecessary! Take a moment to look at these pictures, won’t you?” She floated a series of photos of changelings unloading crates off of trucks filled with very large, unusual mechanical structures from all ports going into Black Hive on the southern continent. “Black Hive has been receiving parts of some kind from all over, a great deal of which comes from White Hive on the Morning continent. My spies–”

“Your own son who you send out on these missions like some kind of disposable agent, you mean.”

Celestia gritted her teeth. “Dusk is perfectly capable for his position. As he and his team have captured these pictures, they’ve also gotten a chance to study some of the parts going from White Hive to Black Hive. We’ve never seen anything like this before, Luna.”

Finally, Luna paused to really look at the images. Neither of them really wanted their sons to enter the government or the military, but somehow, that’s where they both ended up. The boys tended to side with Celestia more often than not though, which gave her a bit more sway when it came to decisions Luna didn’t agree with, like targeted military campaigns. Only, this one was going to be a bit more explosive if it were to work, so getting her on board was a necessity.

Confusion washed over Luna’s face as she studied the pictures. “What am I looking at here? A leg?”

Celestia studied the same photo. “That’s what I believe, but for what I can’t say. Considering the number of changelings that are carrying the thing, it must be at least seven meters long.” A single leg that long would make whatever it was connected to at least five times the size of either of the elder alicorns. If it ended up the shape of a regular pony, it could reach ten meters.

Luna rubbed at her temple. “So Chrysalis III is building a big toy. What of it?”

Celestia ran her tongue across her teeth. This is the part where all of Dusk’s charisma needed to be hers. “This, whatever it is, will not end up ‘just’ some big toy. They are building a war machine, Luna. When the little pegasus climbs up the beanstalk to find a house in the clouds, there he encounters a giant who had been stealing his family’s livelihood. The big strong monster could find, crush and eat him without a second thought. They are going to bring this fairy tale monster to life, and we are the little pegasus.”

Luna rolled her eyes. “Then why trample on the poor changelings serving their queen as opposed to simply slaying the giant when it comes? Or is there some reason that we or our armies are incapable of this?”

Celestia gaped at her sister. “You cannot be this naive!”

“We have done enough killing, Celestia! If our power is sufficient to simply defend, then we should.”

Taking a deep breath, Celestia recentered herself. “Did we, or rather, since I wasn’t on the planet at the time, you have the power to simply ‘defend’ when the Hippogriffs bombed Miyako in the 19th century?”

Luna gritted her own teeth. To this day, she regretted how she responded then. It wasn’t a retaliation in kind, it was total, overwhelming destruction. Two cities, half a million people in each. They had both been military ports, but they housed a great deal of civilians too. Frozen in an instant. Everything had been destroyed. The land had been tainted with magical radiation and the remaining ponies either died out or had been deformed by the lingering poison. It took them half a century to recover.

“The times have changed, Celestia. We have better technology now, we could prevent another disaster like that. We do not have to take the onus to create a new one.”

Celestia licked her lips. “That’s right, Luna, the times have changed, and we are not the only ones with new technology! If we do not send someone in to sabotage or destroy the pipeline to make this machine, we could be dealing with not one, but an army of giants! Do you think that the Changeling Queen doesn’t understand who she’s dealing with? Do you believe she’s dumb enough to go without testing this thing? To make sure it can’t withstand our weapons and our magic when it finally does come for us? She doesn’t have the heart that you do. She’d willingly sacrifice her people just to find out! Just like Chrysalis II before her, she will find a way to hit you where it hurts and then you will suffer the same regret you did three hundred years ago.”

Softening, Celestia put her hoof on her sister’s. “I don’t want you to go through that pain again. I came back to share your burdens with you, remember? Just approve this for me and I will take care of the problem before it comes.” She slid her mission package across with the signature line alone revealed.

Luna sighed, then took the rest of the page out to read it over. Her eyes widened. “You cannot be serious.”

I knew this would be a fight. Celestia sighed. “I am totally serious. White Hive is a problem. If it is to remain standing, we cannot leave it with a 60% changeling population or the current government must be removed.”

Luna threw the page back on the desk. “We cannot incite a revolt in White Hive! Just because we will not be the ones doing the killing does not mean the killing will not come!”

Celestia rose. “The killing will come one way or another! It cannot be prevented so long as Chrysalis controls White Hive. I’d rather that killing not come on Equestrian soil, you understand.”

Luna shook her head. “There does not need to be killing! I can stop whatever comes at us, with or without your help, and I will not be responsible for destabilizing a free city!”

“You do not know that you can stop this thing! What happens when it comes and they’ve finally reached the point where they can match our power, Luna!? Are you going to die for this nonsense you’ve committed yourself to? Just because you regret one war where you were forced to take action!?”

Luna pushed back. She took hold of Celestia’s mission package in her magic and set the corner on fire. “I would rather take my chances than throw the lives of ten million people into chaos.”

Taking a deep breath, Celestia stepped away from her sister. “Very well then. Take your chances. But when the worst comes, you get to deal with it by yourself.” Turning, she moved to leave Luna’s office.

“I am perfectly capable, Sister. I have been for a thousand years. I appreciate your advice, but please respect the authority you dropped in my lap.”

Biting her lip, Celestia didn’t respond. I’m sorry, little sister.

Well Versed in Ettiquette

To clear her head and try to talk some sense into Luna, Celestia took Oxford's private spaceship to Luna City. Though she could make the jump, even with her absurd power, it would take just about everything she had to get from the highest point in Canterlot to the moon. At this hour, Luna city was about as far as it possibly could be too. Twilight certainly picked an annoying place to live, but at this point, she was Celestia’s only hope.

Only, convincing Luna was hard, but at least possible. Convincing Twilight, on the other hoof, was a monumental task. More often than not, Twilight could convince most everyone of whatever it is she believed, yet for as much as her heart was in the right place, reality had a habit of slapping her back down to Earth.

While watching the blue planet below grow smaller from Oxford’s chambers on his Meteorite, Celestia let out a deep sigh. Already she was feeling her own words bite back at her. You get to deal with it yourself. It wasn’t in the slightest bit true; Celestia would come to her sister’s side the moment she needed anything. If there was one thing she could take from her late husband, it would be his ability to remain calm in a heated argument, something none of his children inherited either.

“Knock, knock,” Oxford said as he entered his own room.

Celestia didn’t turn to look, but waved him over with her wing.

“You’ve been staring at the world for two hours, Aunt Celestia. Is something bothering you?”

Finally turning her attention to her violet-coated nephew, she sighed. He was such a good boy. It pained her to see him steeped in the corrupt world of governance and military power. He should be down in Equestria, teaching his father’s descendants how to run an apple farm, not here helping her with campaigns.

“I said some cruel things to your mother before I left. Things I didn’t mean, you know.”

Oxford stroked his beard, a bright orange thing taken directly from his father. Between his stature and his great bulk, in spite of being such a young alicorn, he’d almost outgrown Celestia and Luna. Eventually, he might. “Well, sometimes Mother needs to hear cruel things. She’s been the Queen for a long time, and she can get her head stuck in the clouds sometimes. Were I less of a coward, I might be able to tell her, but since I am…”

Celestia put a wing over her nephew and hugged the massive stallion. “Oh, sweet boy, this isn’t your fault. Don’t stop being good to your mother, you don’t want to end up in our situation.” She motioned toward the moon.

Oxford frowned. “Our situation? It is just Twilight you’re still fighting with, right?”

It was no secret that the last war had torn Celestia’s little unit apart. Luna City was subject to a great deal of scrutiny from the rest of the world; fighting broke out everywhere about it. Luna City was an untouchable stronghold and Equestria could send warships from there to all over the world in minutes with enough power to blow entire cities off the map. The Griffons and Hippogriffs eventually lost their will to fight, but the changelings went to extremes to take down Luna City. They’d gotten too close and taken out too many ponies for Celestia to not put an end to it all. Just as Twilight and Luna were arranging peace talks that Celestia knew would give Chrysalis I the upper hoof she wanted, Celestia cut the discussion prematurely.

“Surrender, or this will only be the first of many.”

And it was the first of many. The changelings wanted vengeance for the death of their queen, which led to more death. Twilight was so set on her diplomacy that she attempted to go alone to speak with the next changeling queen, Chrysalis II. The obvious trap that it was led to her being captured and Celestia having to come rescue her. For triggering the Sun Queen’s wrath, the war came to an end, simply because they had nothing left. Twilight nor Luna have forgiven her for it, and it has been almost seventy years since then. Dusk had a very low view of his sister now, a fervent belief in his mother, and might not balk at anything she decides to do, even if she’s wrong for it.

Traumatized but unwilling to give up on her ideals, Twilight hid in Luna City, keeping enough distance between them so that no one can come see her just whenever, and she could retreat into the past where those nice clouds seemed to be just so fluffy above her head.

“It’s not that Dusk and I are fighting, it’s just that… I feel he depends on me too much. Believes in me too much. He doesn’t realize that I can make mistakes. An alicorn I may be, but I am no goddess. I just don’t think he sees it that way. Have you spoken to him recently?”

Oxford shook his head. “No ma’am. Not since he gave us the pictures from the hives a week ago, anyways. We haven’t sat down and just talked in a while. A few months, maybe.”

Celestia took hold of his hoof. “I hate to keep putting things on you, but would you make time for it sometime soon? None of us are perfect, but I don’t think I could make him see that.”

“I understand. I’ll try to arrange something within the week.”

Celestia kissed his freckled cheek. “Thank you.”

The ship’s PA system came alive. “We will arrive at Port Luna in fifteen minutes. Entering docking procedures.”

“I had better go,” Celestia announced. “Thank you for bringing me all the way here on such short notice.”

“Oh, don’t’cha worry none, Auntie.” Oxford coughed into his hoof, coloring a little. Despite keeping up his image of the strong, upright Equestrian general, that warm southern accent sometimes slips out. “I have business in the city to tend to anyways. Just give me a heads-up whenever you want to go back.”

“Of course. I love you.” She hugged her nephew one more time, found Twilight within the city, and warped.

Gunpowder, Gelatine

Dusk found his mother staring out the bridge window, overlooking the blue planet below. It was completely vacant as most of the crew had moved down to the combat bridge deeper in the ship to prepare for the upcoming operation, so she stood alone, gazing down at the target. In a few moments, they would commit the greatest atrocity the world had ever seen. Before all that comes to pass, however, he wanted to ask her a simple question.

“Ma’am?”

She turned, her ears and instincts perking up at his voice. “What is it, my darling Dusk?”

A warm smile on her loving face, her bright violet eyes with gold sprinkled along the irises, her pink-white coat, her waving dawn sky mane. The image of the mother who’d raised him. The life suit she was wearing, the helmet at her side, the thing that she was about to do, however… He’d always heard whispers and rumors of the long-forgotten Equestrian Sun Queen, but now he was about to see her for the first time in his two hundred years.

Dusk cleared his throat. “While I understand why we’re doing this, why is it that you, personally, are doing this?”

The smile died on her lips. She turned back to the window, and motioned Dusk forward. After reaching her side, she sat and Dusk followed suit. “You know, I’m quite the old mare, Dusk. From the time I was born on a planet so far away that we haven’t yet reached the technology to rediscover it, from the day Luna and I found ourselves lost in this world with creatures just so similar yet so much more primitive, to the day I found love and abandoned it all, to the time I lost that love and found it in a new form with you and your older sister, it’s been… two thousand two hundred and fifty years. You aren’t so young yourself anymore, but can you grasp the length of time Luna and I have lived through?”

Memories flashed through Dusk’s head. His childhood had never seemed so far away. Venturing into space, the wars leading to establishment of Luna City, the current turmoil surrounding titan technology. That ten percent of his life he could call his childhood was a mere one percent of hers. The war, the politics, the bloodshed. She’d had tenfold more of it than him and was at the forefront of it for an entire millennium.

Dusk shook his short black mane. “I can only imagine, ma’am.”

Celestia nodded. “Indeed. Imagination is all we have when we consider things like this. As a ruler, your imagination is the only tool you can use to perceive your opponents, to understand their movements, to figure out and intercept, then outplay or crush them. No matter where they are. Enemies foreign or domestic, and let me tell you, nothing is worse than a domestic enemy. In situations like that, you find mercy to be an illusion.”

She pointed at the target through the window. “Do you know what that is, Captain Dusk?”

Nothing could ever accustom Dusk to the Equestrian Sun Queen referring to him as her superior officer, even if it was just aboard his ship. Fighting off the icky feeling, he answered, “White Hive, the Changeling stronghold in the eastern hemisphere, ma’am.”

“That, my dear Captain,” Celetia began with the slightest tremble in her voice, “is the result of mercy. You warn them once, they come back again. You warn them a second time, more forcefully. Your own people side against you, they call you discriminatory, they bang their drums, they protest in support, and you know very well that any of them in that part of the world would be captured and sold as a slave the minute they set hoof there. You relax, you back off. And then, they come a third time.”

She let out a breath so hot that the air shimmered and steamed in front of her. In all his two hundred years, Dusk had never seen his mother this angry. More than the fear of her iron hoof was a deeper, primal fear of the eldest alicorn in the known universe.

Celestia continued, “Sometimes, looking at the world I’ve created, or perhaps, left to its own devices, gives me the strongest desire to burn it all to the ground. There’s a long history here. A love and hate relationship I’ve developed with it. When I left it all to Luna, she got her turn to feel my fatigue, but I suppose she’s just better suited for it. I get too invested, my emotions are too explosive. But don’t you think I have every right to feel this fire within me when my people are attacked? And yet, even that angers me less than Luna’s reaction to it. Twilight’s reaction to it.”

She shook her head and took a deep breath. “No plans for retaliation, superficial punishments in sanctions and budget cuts, they didn’t even bother expelling the changeling diplomats! Who is living in the mad world? Is it me, or them, Dusk?”

Unsure what to do standing in front of his raving queen, the pink-white stallion simply stated the facts. “Well, as I’m here and Oxford is covering for you, I believe our loyalties are clear, ma’am.”

Celestia scoffed and stood. “Oh, please, Dusk, don’t give me such a political answer. We are in a war that one side refuses to acknowledge, and it’s our side. If we do not show that we can wield our power, it creates the image of weakness that got us here.” She sighed. “The very image that I am responsible for.”

Feeling something like a lost boy, Dusk followed after her. “But, Mother, that wasn’t your fault, you weren’t there!”

The elder alicorn turned on him, her imposing figure dominating the space. “Exactly!” She shook her mane, the dawn sky lost in the sea of stars behind. “I’d become selfish. I gave up on everything for my own ends, and for what? You and Twilight are my blessings of course, but to have left the world you must live in to decay to this degree? If only I had been more patient, if only I hadn’t been so ruled by my own emotions, If only I had…” she shuddered, “...taken a page from my father.”

Suddenly, Dusk wondered if he shouldn’t stop his mother from going forward with this operation. He had been warned about that forbidden ‘grandfather’ before. She might genuinely not be in her right mind. This was extreme, but Dusk was willing to justify it based on the changeling’s attack on the capital last year. Their brand-new weapon, the ten-meter tall pony-like ‘titan’ machine tore through Equestria and was only stopped at the castle by Luna herself when all else had failed. They had all been rightfully angry when the official statement said it was a rogue action by a rogue scientist, knowing full well that a machine like that could’ve only been built with the full weight of several major corporations and governments behind it. But to mention the stallion who nearly wiped alicorns from existence… This was bordering madness.

He put a hoof on her. “Mother, you don’t mean that, do you?”

At the shift in her son’s tone, Celestia recomposed herself. “Of course not, I’m sorry.” She brought him into her embrace, making a mental note to take it down a bit. “Perhaps, to you, a year is still a good deal of time. But to me, this horrid anniversary might as well be yesterday. They attacked my home, they attacked my people, but worse than any of that, they attacked my family, Dusk. It's been eons since Luna was in so much danger. And it still burns me inside to this day.”

Overhead, the com system pinged the bridge. “Captain? We’re in position. We can begin Operation Damocles at your signal.”

At once, Celestia tied her mane into a bun, then donned her helmet. Secured to the life suit as it began to circulate air, the ancient mare was about to go into battle for the first time in centuries. “It’s time, Dusk. Give the signal.”

The young alicorn hesitated. There were many things about his Aunt’s policies he disagreed with. The ban on space exploration being chief among them, but her strictly deterrent approach to the arms race the world currently found itself in had kept the peace fairly comfortably for his entire lifetime. Depending on how the changelings respond to what they were about to do, this would only be the first. In the best-case scenario, this would simply force them to stand down and rebuild. In the worst case, it would be the beginning of a world war.

Yet, doing nothing but ‘keeping the peace’ had gotten them here to begin with.

“Put the Asteroid in combat mode. Prepare the Harbinger for deployment.”

Celestia leaned down and put her helmet to her son’s captain’s cap. “Thank you.” She popped her neck and prepared her magic. “They will both know as soon as it is done. If they accuse you of anything, you are to direct the blame to me. It is an overdue burden for me to bear. This is not a world you should have ever had to live in.”

Hoof to his temple, back and wings straight, Dusk saluted. “Yes, ma’am! It is an honor to work with you!”

Crushing guilt could only stand against the flames of rage for so long. “Likewise, Captain.” Then, Celestia warped.

Dynamite with a Laser Beam

In the Asteroid’s machine bay, a variety of small fighter ships and early prototypes of Equestrian-made titans stood. Mechanical weapons of war were nothing new when Celestia had returned from her long sojourn in space, and though she learned much quickly, she always found it miraculous that electronics had come to be in the way they did. How the simple idea to create a more advanced number-calculating machine had evolved so far so fast.

It was almost as if magic was being replaced by these wondrous tools when she first arrived, but she knew that was not really the case. No, magic only needed time to catch up. Working in tandem with these machines is where magic would see a resurgence. Only, she’d never expected to see it like this.

When the first titan attacked, Luna was the only one close enough to deal with it. It had come directly for the queen in her castle after all, but it still burned Celestia that she wasn’t there simply because they’d been arguing the day before. It was only made worse by the lack of understanding Celestia had of the Changeling’s new technology. This very topic, this very tragedy could’ve been avoided if Luna had just listened

It was lucky that she only damaged some of the changeling titan that attacked that fateful day. There was enough of a wreckage to study and reverse-engineer it, to refine and develop it. All that hard work, all that testing, all those nights of angry tears and plotting behind the dearest backs had led to this moment. She’d pay the changelings back with interest.

Out of all that effort came two models: The Harbinger and the Forerunner. They took every aspect of the original machine and punched the power up several degrees with Celestia’s own use of them in mind. Any normal pony would die connected to one of these things just from the mental strain of having every brain cell linked directly to the titan, but alicorns are rather durable, and the eldest was the most durable of all. With the pilot’s life of no concern no matter what forces the body inside was exposed to, it was all about how much power they could cram into it.

For the Harbinger in particular, having a hoofful of ancient artifacts lying around which could, in theory, generate untold power, was a nice bonus.

With gravity off in the machine bay, Celestia hopped toward the command console where the Harbinger was connected. “Is it ready, Digi?”

“Gah!” Digital Pen, a.k.a. ‘Digi,’ recollected himself. He was a bright young stallion who had been the robotics lead at Alicorn Electronics who Celestia hired personally to be her assistant. “Yes, ma’am. All systems are green, and the harmony matrix is functioning with no problems.”

“Very good. Keep me informed, I’m going in.” She turned to hop toward the cockpit hatch, but the yellow stallion stopped her.

“Ma’am, I know we’ve talked about this, but Mister Oxford wanted me to remind you about the maximum input the Harbinger can take. It was not cheap to build in secret, and if we are to improve the design after this test, we need to keep it, um, functional.”

Bold, for the meek Digi. Celestia thought. “Remind me what my limit is here?”

He swallowed, pulling up a terminal screen. It floated in midair like magic, displaying all the information about the Harbinger anypony could want. “Twenty megajoules. The matrix can multiply this ten times, but any more than that and the matrix will short, you’ll fry the horn, and possibly shut down the system.”

She sighed. “Only two million? I suppose it will get the job done, and I am not the one mustering twenty megajoules of energy here, but I was hoping for something a bit more flashy.”

In truth, only at her worst moment and with the power of an element of harmony in her hooves had Celestia ever managed to make that much power. The area where the blast landed took eight hundred years to finally recover. So long as she could do that to White Hive, she’d be satisfied, but she did expect more out of this multi-billion bit machine.

Digi cleared his throat. “Seeing as we’ve yet to make a conventional bomb that can come even close to that kind of targeted destruction, I would imagine it is more than sufficient for the task at hoof.”

“Alright, understood.” Thinking better on it, “How about consistent supply? Can it sustain twenty for very long?”

“Sustain!?” The young stallion rubbed at his temple. “I forget who I’m dealing with. At best, you have five seconds of that kind of output. One spell can be amplified this way. It could probably take ten for a whole minute, but I wouldn’t bet on that. I didn’t exactly run calculations for this before hoof.”

This would be a whole lot easier if I was still in tune with any of these elements. “I suppose I can make do. I’ll need you on the monitor feeding me information while the operation is underway. This isn’t just a retaliation, after all.”

She hopped through zero gravity, her wings struggling to unfurl under the life suit.

Digi pressed against the guard rail. “And what else is it, my lady?”

Celestia caught the hatch and unlocked it. “We’re sending a message, Digi. Not just to the Changelings, but the world. They all need to be reminded just how big my stick is.”

With a smile to the horrified assistant, Celestia sank into the cockpit and closed the hatch behind her.

Filled with gel for shock absorption, she attached all the cables and the harness that would keep her still while the machine was active. Then came the magic words:

“Resonate, Harbinger.”

It was like having her blood replaced with ice. Cold, sharp pain shot through every inch of her body. If she could have been killed like this, she would have. Seconds crept by as the ice began to burn and more and more of herself faded and reappeared. Muscles used to control the body had their signals diverted to the machine. The heat and the ice coalesced into one sharp stabbing needle right through her brain.

The black was calm. Quiet, serene, still. For a moment, she thought she heard the voice of the father of her children. She saw his silhouette in the distance, but knew that he couldn’t be caught for a third time.

Fire filled her veins once again and the black dispersed. The system was online. Her vision clearer and sharper, her sense of touch dulled, smell and taste muted completely, but magic at an all-time high.

“My lady? Can you hear me?” Digi called.

“Loud and clear, Digi.” It was never the most fun thing to run tests in this machine. So far, it’s killed the only pony pilot they were willing to throw at it, and only Oxford, Luna’s son, has managed to survive the neural link process long enough to use it. Quite literally hooking a brain up to a body it wasn’t meant to be in has proven a great challenge so far, and they still don’t really know how the changelings managed it the first time. However, this was only the first of many. Once the pilot system was worked through, Equestria would have an entire legion of titans to lead the coming future. And I’ll be there to see it through…

“Alright, then. Please perform the system check,” Digi requested.

“Performing system check.” The first part was to rotate the hooves. It was surprising what the brain could do when given a new limb. It was as if she’d always had mechanical hooves and the ability to spin them like a drill. All four working properly, she took four steps out of the bay to make sure the legs responded right. Next came the wings. For now, the best they could do was imitate planes and rockets with foils that folded along the sides of the titan’s torso. It still felt like her wings, but the fine control Celestia had over her feathers was entirely gone here. They worked, though, so that was what mattered. Finally, she rotated her head all the way around, a feeling she’d never get used to, and cast a simple levitation spell through the titan horn.

With the harmony matrix in place, this ‘simple’ spell was powerful enough to lift the two Forerunner prototypes on standby. Fully functional but less powerful, they were made so that other alicorns could use them, meaning Dusk and Oxford. From the weight of an average pony amplified to lift a twenty-five ton titan, the matrix was working as intended.

“All systems green, Ma’am,” Digi announced.

Celestia released her other projects. “Very good. Let the captain know I am ready to begin.”

Digi moved away from the dock to make the call, and Celestia took steps toward the launch pad. A rail had been outfitted with magnetic locks in the shape of hooves like that of a track runner’s starting blocks. As soon as the release command was given, the blocks would shoot forward like a rocket, sending the Harbinger into orbit. It would fall just into the stratosphere when she’d begin the attack. At this distance from the earth, she’d be totally undetected until the deed had been done.

The visualizer the Harbinger was equipped with was not too dissimilar to the VR headsets that ponies played games with. To make it as easy to use as possible, the heads-up display looked just like any shooter game with various programs and functions that could be activated by voice command or winking at their icons. Old as she was, it was always a delight to see her own new devices working.

The Harbinger in place, Celestia waited for the word.

“Mother.”

Not the voice of the Captain, but the boy. Maybe that image wasn’t so much an illusion after all.

“Yes, my darling?” She responded.

Dusk cleared his throat over their private line. “You are… totally prepared for what comes next, aren’t you?”

“Hell or high water. I know I worried you earlier, but please rest assured I know what I’m doing here.”

Her son paused. She knew full well that this was more than just feverish determination pushing her. The blazing sun inside wanted a vent for its anger and it was going to get it one way or another. At least, by appeasing it this way, she'd achieve one of Equestria’s strategic goals in the process.

“Very well, Mother. You have my full support.”

“Thank you, Dusk.” The private line cut and Celestia’s youngest came over the main intercom.

“All hands, prepare for launch. Operation Damocles begins in T-minus 30, 29, 28…”

Well, are you ready? It could be decades before Twilight is willing to speak to you again. Perhaps, if decades pass and we’ve made enough of a statement to turn the temperature down, she’ll change her mind. To live only for the status quo, to exist without action… I know how she feels all too well. But unlike me, she has a mother to steer her right. And with this, we’ll take the first step.

She set the thrusters to pre-boost as Dusk reached the end of his countdown.

“3, 2, 1, Harbinger, Launch!”

“Celestia, heading out!” She called for all to hear. It wasn’t so much a routine as a signal for the end.

The bay doors opened to reveal the blue world beneath the Asteroid far, far below. In a moment, the launch pad fired and enough force to destroy every organ in most creature’s bodies passed through Celestia. Thanks to the gel inside the cockpit, it wouldn’t force her body to regenerate those just yet.

Flying in freefall, Celestia’s giant extremities carelessly gave themselves to gravity. Forward and down, spiraling over the target until the exact distance she wanted was reached. Below, she could see the shape of the massive tower jutting from the Morning continent’s coast. A huge white spire as tall as the world’s highest mountain, as wide as an entire city-state, and filled to the brim with worker drones slaving away day after day building the next threat to Equestria.

Changelings made up about a third of the world’s population. After today, it will be a fourth.

The memory of that horrible day flooded Celestia’s mind.

Before she knew what was happening, a giant was tearing through Canterlot’s walls, killing ponies and soldiers alike, blasting down fighter jets and attack helicopters, stepping on tanks and crushing everything in its wake. In a matter of minutes the destruction was worse than if the city had been bombed, and the castle was next. Luna had been lucky. For the first time in centuries, she had the sense to strike first. Perhaps she realized what it could’ve done if she tried to defend herself instead. A titan was a real threat.

Celestia didn’t leave her sister’s side for weeks. She was far too old to be traumatized by something like this, but save their own fighting over a millennium ago, nothing had come close to threatening her life before. And still, she wouldn’t see reason.

A personal flaw is understandable. To double down after witnessing the worst, however… that was neglectful. When one crown falls, the other must take it up.

Finally in range, Celestia unfurled her metal wings and came to a stop directly over the tip of White Hive’s central spire.

“Asteroid, prepare for retrieval,” she called.

“Asteroid, standing by,” Dusk responded.

“Digi, be on the monitor. Make sure you get every byte of what’s about to happen recorded. I’ve already got a few tweaks I want to make to this.”

“Ma’am!”

Then, Celestia took a moment to breathe. The clear blue sky, the green land, the deep waves. Millions of changelings lived in this structure. Even ponies and other creatures who’d come to the hive for work lived here. To build a life. To make their way in the world and survive another day. It was a free democratic city, but in name only. All changelings are bound to the will of the Queen, even the exiles. With a majority in the population, she had full control of the city state.

Luna doesn’t have the resolve to do it. Twilight won’t pick up the reins. And the boys are just too young. For a task like this, an older hoof is called for.

Summoning exactly enough magic to power the spell, she breathed in. Light charged inside the Harbinger’s core, passing into the matrix and amplifying at the mechanical horn. My heart goes out to the innocents I’ve forsaken, and to the leaders who hide behind them…

Blame it on the misfortune of your birth.

Celestia breathed out.

Guaranteed to Blow Your Mind

The light that flashed across the sky could have been seen the world over. The shockwave that erupted from the center of White Hive registered as an ‘over ten’ seismic event. Everyone touching the ground on this continent to the next could feel it. The fire and light that poured from space over the exact dimensions of White Hive only lasted for one minute. In the next, White Hive was no longer there. A hole had been burned into the earth far deeper and blacker than any before.

To Celestia, she’d felt as if she’d just done some hard exercise. Nothing that a day’s rest wouldn’t recover.

She couldn’t help but giggle. The sweet relief of vengeance exacted and the horror of what she’d just done fought for a way to express themselves and the end result was confused. It bubbled over in laughter.

“Ma’am, come in! The horn is totally fried, please return to the ship immediately!”

It was Digi. Just Digi. Too busy looking at the numbers to observe the destruction. If it took just under a millennium to fix the last place she’d burned, she couldn’t imagine what it would take for this one to recover. Perhaps if she lives to see four thousand years, she might find out.

“Understood. Mission accomplished. Harbinger returning to ship.” She’d only just managed to keep the giggling out of her transmission. She feared it might be a long time before she could stop. It wouldn’t take long before Twilight and Luna figured out what happened, and it would take even less time for them to find her. Luckily, between the shielding on the Harbinger itself and the Asteroid, they wouldn’t be able to get her exact location for a few hours.

Time was ticking, and she needed to get this machine hidden fast. Twilight could still resonate with the element of harmony she used so long ago, and that could destroy the matrix Celestia had spent so long perfecting. The machine bay to the Asteroid opened out of empty sky, its reflective shielding making it totally invisible in the air. She landed all hooves easily just as if she’d been flying by herself.

Little more than a light jog. Some weight lifting or regular magic exercise. That was all it took to remove an entire enemy production facility and megacity off the face of the planet.

Just what have I created?

Digi called over the link, “Harbinger secured, Ma’am. You can disembark.”

And yet again came the fun part. She found her magic outside the machine’s control, grasped in the dark for the cables protruding from her helmet, and all at once, every sense turned to ice. Frost fizzled into foam that boiled her insides, only to die away completely into still numbness as her sensations returned.

Seeing with her own eyes again in the pitch darkness of the machine, she lit her horn for sight, found the hatch, and opened it. Light pouring into the gel of the cockpit, she unbuckled the harness and swam up and out of the machine. At the top, Dusk was waiting for her.

He offered her a hoof. “How… are you feeling?”

Celestia read a number of emotions on the boy’s face. Shock, awe, fear, confusion, horror. She took the hoof, got out of the cockpit, and hugged him. In this position, it was better not to say anything. Ten million lives in the blink of an eye. Little made her feel worse than how easy it had been. And yet, the changelings weren’t all that far from technology like this.

She removed her helmet, caressed her son’s head, then turned to her assistant. “Digi, damage report.”

The young unicorn tapped his terminal and put the holographic screen where she could see it. “The matrix is stable, no damage to anything but the magic circuits and the horn unit. Those are fried and the power you put through that thing just about melted it from the inside out.”

From where the cockpit sat at the small of the machine’s back, she looked up the neck and to the head to see that the horn was not only very melted, but still glowing red-hot from the heat she’d put through it.

“I see. Well, I want to rebuild this from scratch anyways, so it shouldn’t be too much of an inconvenience. Can’t have Luna or Twilight discovering it, and the first thing I want to work on when we get back to the island would be the neural link system. I want to make these easy for anypony to use in the event we need them to.”

Dusk coughed. “Um, Mother, is that really all you wanted to know about?”

It certainly was. However, to appease him, she did ask for the information she didn’t want to know. “And… the destruction?”

Without a word, Digi swapped to the ship’s camera. Where White Hive had been down below was nothing more than a black crater in the middle of lush green, blonde sand, and blue sea. Ten million lives.

Digi cleared his throat. “The reports currently believe that a once in a millennium earthquake struck this area. That won’t be for long, however. I’m not entirely sure what you did, but the damage was kept exclusively inside the crater where White Hive was. The surrounding villages and slums may have felt the shaking, but the damage to the land was minimal, beyond the threshold, that is.”

Just ten million lives. Celestia breathed easy, and even Dusk was relieved. A monster she may be, but not a totally heartless one. “Then all is as anticipated. To give them something to chew on before she discovers me, tell headquarters that there has been a disaster in this area, and it would do well for Equestria to send aid. In the meantime, head toward my Miyako facility.” She turned to her son, “Get your cousin to cover for me ASAP. I need about an hour to get this thing hidden away properly, and either your sister or mine is going to come for me in that time. I can deal with Luna, but Twilight cannot find me under any circumstances until the matrix is hidden, understood?”

Dusk and Digi saluted. “Ma’am!”

“Then let’s move. We’re on the clock.”

Anytime

It had only taken half an hour to get the Harbinger unequipped and the harmony matrix removed. Once that was done, Celestia’s titans were moved to the hangar on her remote Miyako lab, and she began work on the neural link system.

“What have you done!?”

She’d only been at it for ten minutes before she was discovered. Cutting it close, Oxford.

Celestia turned in her chair and crossed her legs. “You’ll have to be more specific, my darling Twilight.”

Furious, the violet alicorn marched right up to her mother, coming inches from her face. “Don’t you dare give me that! What did you do!?”

Stonewalling was only going to get her so far. There were only so many ponies who Celestia would bend for, and Twilight was one of them. The problem came in that Twilight herself wouldn’t see the problem. “In your own words, I have taken action.”

Like her bubble had been popped, Twilight’s hind legs sank out from under her. “Oh my Goddess… you really did it, didn’t you?”

If there were ever a time to teach her a lesson, now was one. “Twilight, do you know what day it is?”

It took her a moment to formulate a response. “Wha… what day? What day!? The day you killed ten million people! White Hive was a neutral territory! Why? Oh, for the love of the Goddess, why did you do this!?” She was pleading more than she was seeking answers.

Celetia exited her chair and approached her sad little girl. After two hundred years, she was bigger than most ponies, but though her form had changed, the filly inside hadn’t. “Don’t think too hard on this, my darling. Your birthday was just nine days ago.”

Seeing that she really was asking for a date, Twilight’s rattled mind found the answer. “J-January 10th? Wh-what does that have to do with anything?”

Celestia stomped a decisive hoof into the floor. “It is, everything, Twilight!”

Startled, the younger alicorn backed away.

The elder continued, “Is your memory failing you? Don’t you remember what happened a year ago today?”

Finally, it dawned on her. She didn’t want to say the words. To whisper the truth, to see the logic behind her mother’s actions. They came all the same. “The attack on Canterlot…”

“That’s right, my dear. Now stay with me here, but I’ve got another question to ask you. Do you have nightmares, Twilight?”

She sniffed, sitting up straight. “You of all ponies should know the answer to that.” The spiteful edge was coming back to her voice.

Good, she’s regaining her energy. “Indeed, because it is Mommy’s love that makes those bad dreams go away, isn’t it?”

Twilight stared at the floor angrily.

Celestia smiled. “You see the ones you’ve lost, you see the wars you’ve helped end, you see the dead in your dreams. Every sin you’ve committed, every action you regret, every little misstep and mistake, they haunt you in your sleep. You will not die, you do not age, and your memory is perfect so you never forget. It is only because your family loves you that you can sleep easily at night, isn’t that right?”

Regaining a bit of her composure, Twilight turned her burning eyes on her mother. “Even if that is true, how can you justify this… this nightmare you’ve brought upon the world!? How did you even do this? White Hive was the size of a small country and you just… in an instant… Where did all that magic come from?”

Celestia sat down next to her daughter and wrapped a wing around her. She lit her horn and brought up a terminal screen. “Let’s set the stage, shall we? The year is 2222. Two hundred and nine years ago, your father died. Two hundred and eight years ago, your brother and your cousin were born. By miracles upon miracles, Luna and I had finally achieved the dream of having a family of our own, ones that would stick with us instead of fading away after a short sixty years. I have a reason to live again. You, your brother and I play house until your sixties when your stepfather dies. We’d become lost and aimless, but we still had each other.

“In spite of my better judgment, I get involved with the government again to help Luna, and you decide to go off to space to do research in Luna City. Then the conflicts start. We go from one skirmish to another until we get into a full-blown war with Chrysalis, and finally, I have the good sense to kill her this time. You reject me. You tell me this isn’t the way. You convince Luna that there could’ve been a peaceful solution, and you try to make good on your element of friendship, but just as you said there would be peace, you find out the hard way that not everyone is willing to give peace a chance.

“You cannot force your ideals on a people unwilling to compromise, and you find yourself in a dangerous situation. You’re forced to learn a difficult lesson. And then you go hide back in Luna City, only to ever return to the surface on reunions and holidays. Are we in accord thus far?”

As she spoke, Celestia presented a slideshow of memories from the past. The lover she’d crossed the universe for, the stallion she’d left Twilight to for thirteen years, the lives they’d lived, the friends they’d outlived, the mistakes, the chaos, the death. It could have only been more accurate if she’d plucked the nightmare right out of Twilight’s head.

The poor girl had covered her face by this point. “And? What of it?”

“Well, that’s just what I’m trying to explain to you, my darling.” She leaned down and put her lips next to Twilight’s ear. “Some people need to be taught difficult lessons again, and again, and again.”

Slowly, the hooves fell from her eyes. Wide and horrified, she stared at the cold, smiling face of her mother. “Wh-what do you mean?”

The slide shifted to show the current Changeling Queen, Chrysalis the third. “This mare is responsible for creating the machine that tore through Canterlot last year. That same machine that could very well have killed Luna.”

“But you don’t know that! We can’t just go around judging people without the evidence to back it up!”

“What evidence do I need when I can use my own eyes, Twilight!?” Celestia rubbed at her temple. “Can you not see what this machine looked like? The parts it used? The materials it was made of? Luna didn’t destroy the thing, she killed the pilot! We kept it, we rebuilt it, we reverse-engineered it! We know everything down to its atomic components, Twilight! There is a point where you must put aside what you believe and look at what is in front of you!

“We were attacked in our homes, they were after your aunt’s life, your family’s life! And the damage it caused on the way…” Not entirely intentional, the image of the burning wreckage of Canterlot leading up to the castle that day filled the screen. The screaming cries of ponies dying, the lost children, the burning buildings, the monster that left it all in its wake.

“Don’t you understand what people see when you don’t retaliate for something like this?” Celestia pleaded.

“I…” Twilight did everything in her power to come up with the diplomatic answer she wanted, but she couldn’t find it.

Celestia took hold of her face and made her look into her eyes. “Weakness.”

The screen shifted to a picture of the inside of White Hive. There, an assembly line was working on pieces for some kind of large machine. Big skeletal structures that looked like the bones of some massive pony. “That ‘Mercury’ titan was only the beginning. They were building an army, and what would have come next was hundreds of these things at our doorsteps with enough power to kill you, me, and everyone you know and love.”

This seemed to be new information to Twilight. “What the… where did this come from?”

“You said it yourself, White Hive had at least ten million people in it. Don’t you think that, somewhere in that sprawling mass, they could house at least a few secret factories?”

“But that… we had treaties…”

“Words on paper mean nothing!” Celestia dismissed the screen with a wave of her hoof. “For nearly seventy years I’ve been trying to make you understand that, and not even an attack on your own family has gotten it through yet. Are they going to have to kill one of us before you understand? How many people are you going to sacrifice for your ideals before you face reality, Twilight?”

She broke from her mother’s wing and backed away. “Even if…” She had to sort her thoughts out. “Even if that’s the case, was it really necessary to wipe the whole of White Hive off the map? There were innocent people there! It wasn’t just a changeling stronghold, it was a free city!”

Celestia stood. Towering over the young mare, she stepped forward. “A free city controlled, owned, and operated by the Changeling Queen with a sixty-percent changeling population. A free city in name only. Perhaps that forty percent of its population were hostages. But in the case of hostages on another continent versus my people, my home and my family, my choice is clear.”

“No, no, no!” Twilight shook, fighting the words themselves. “I cannot believe this was the right way to do this! If it were the other way around–

“It could never be the other way around! There is no moral equivalence, Twilight, they came after us first, and they made good and well to tell us they were coming again! When people tell you who they are, believe them! This is the price of pretending to be strong in the face of weakness!” She stepped forward again, and Twilight shrank before her.

“They will not respect our strength if we do not show them how strong we are. You wanted my reason? There it is. If we are to remain free, if we are to remain alive, if we are to remain in power, then we must make the world know our power. And now? It does.”

Seeing the fear in her daughter’s eyes, Celestia leaned down, kissed her forehead, and returned to her chair. “On an unrelated note, I’ve been looking into acquiring a video game developer for a new technology I have in mind. You wouldn’t happen to know any companies that specialize in neural link virtual reality, do you?”

It was more habit than presence of mind that made Twilight respond to her mother’s question. “I… I know a few, but I don’t…” She swallowed and took a deep breath. “What is it you’re trying to do, exactly?”

Turning her head, Celestia smiled warmly. “I have a new game I want to play, but it hasn’t been invented yet. And I want everyone to be able to play with me.”

Later that day, after helping her mother find a VR company to purchase, Twilight warped to Canterlot. Her head had been a mess while she was trying to make sense of all the death and power Celestia had spoken of, but it was too much to try and merge this face of her with the mother who raised her. Violence was never out of her reach, but it was an option she hadn’t taken in front of her or Dusk in all their years. Was the attack on Canterlot really that much of a shock to her? Was she traumatized by it and this was her way of venting that anger?

Or, was she simply being honest? The brutal truth as she understands it.

Dusk wasn’t returning her calls, Oxford never gave her a straight answer when she did manage to corner him leaving his mother’s office, and nothing about this day had made sense. For most of the world, she, her brother, Oxford, and even Celestia were state secrets. Luna was the only public face with the kind of power that destroyed White Hive, and she had been on air giving a speech during the event.

A speech… about the anniversary of the attack on Canterlot. As curiosity got the best of her, Twilight approached her aunt as evening descended over Equestria.

She knocked on the door. “It’s me.”

The massive navy blue doors to the Queen’s chambers opened, and there Luna sat in her easy chair in front of the fireplace, watching some kind of drama on the screen above it. “Good evening Twilight. I just started the latest episode. Would you like to watch it with me?”

Twilight had seen a lot of dramas in this room with her Aunt. Much of her college life had been spent in this castle, and holidays and reunions were usually held here too. Two hundred years later, she was just the same as she remembered her. Only, now, Twilight was the one who had changed. “Sure. But can I ask you a question first?”

Luna’s face became grim. “About… today?”

“Yes.”

She hit pause on her screen, then turned in her chair to face Twilight fully. “Very well.”

Twilight came and sat on the couch beside her. This had been her seat since her first visit here, though the couch had changed at least a dozen times. “Did you know what was going to happen?”

“I did not.”

Twilight waited for more. When more never came, she asked. “Really? Nothing at all?”

Luna licked her lips and tented her hooves. “Twilight, you spent all your life with your mother. But I have spent most of my life with your mother. I would be lying if I said I didn’t expect something like this to happen sooner than it did.”

“So… you did know?”

“No.” Luna shook her head. “I did not. But I expected it. On my part, at least, it was a coincidence that I had a speech scheduled today. It would not be hard to imagine Celestia knew that, however.”

Twilight sighed. “So, it’s not that you knew the when, where, or what, but you knew something would happen, and you didn’t make any attempt to stop her, either, right?”

Luna sighed. “Twilight, I do not know what happened today, exactly. All I do know is that White Hive disappeared in a blast of magic so powerful that the entire world felt it, and yet the damage remained solely and exclusively in the vicinity of White Hive’s borders. Even at my worst, I do not believe I am capable of that kind of power. I don’t believe Celestia is either, but I know for certain that it was her magic. The scale of this destruction is far greater than anything I expected, but the mitigation of collateral damage is exactly what I expected. It is Celestia’s way. And so, I retain my official position. I do not know what happened or how it happened, and I was busy at the time of the event.”

She thought for a moment, playing with a curl in her mane. “But, if I had known, I don’t believe I would have tried to stop it.”

“Wha– why?”

She crossed her hooves and let her eyes sink to the floor. “Because… as old as I am, a year ago today, I was reminded that I do fear death, Twilight.” And then, as if she hadn’t said anything at all, Luna perked right back up and used her horn to bring a bowl of popcorn between them. “Now then, let us enjoy this story, shall we? It is not healthy to let your mind run wild all the time. You must allow it to rest every now and again.”

In the quiet of the Queen’s private chambers with the crackling fire and the convoluted drama on the screen, Twilight ate popcorn. At least in fiction, comedy remained in the face of tragedy.

She's Out to Get You

The next morning, Dusk found himself with very little to do. On any normal day, he served as Equestria’s Crown Investigator, the highest ranking intelligence agent the country had to offer. Find these plans, infiltrate this place, eliminate that target. He’d been doing it so long now that it even affected his daily life.

However, since the initiative that started Damocles had begun, all his attention had been devoted that way. There had been no backlog of assignments, no series of tasks that only he could accomplish, no work to be done. And that, unfortunately, gave him time to think.

“She was on vacation. She just wanted to see what a sunrise looked like from the Morning continent. She was staying in the hive.”

One.

“I’d told my cousins that place was bad news, man. Why had one of the lower floors been closed off for so long? A gas leak? Come on, guys, we can all hear the Queen’s whispers. Something was up and now that it’s gone… something was definitely up.”

Two.

“How do you think it happened? There’s no video of it anywhere, but… you guys all felt that, right? Like somebody charging a crazy spell right in front of your face, only for it to pass through like a wave in the ocean. It takes a whole day to get to White Hive from any commercial airport from Canterlot. And we felt that. Do you think it could happen here?”

Three.

Canterlot was filled with stories and theories like this. Who, what, when, where, why, how? The public didn’t have any answers to these questions, but to those who knew the answer to them all was simply ‘Celestia.’ Dusk’s own Mother.

To take some of the pain of thinking away, Dusk decided to take the Asteroid to Luna City. From the plastic-like dome that covered it to the clouds and greenery inside, it was a technical marvel to see. He didn’t visit often and of the few times he had, they were never pleasant. He’d always fought with his sister over policy and who was right or what was wrong.

It was like Equestria and the world at large were stuck in a problem that power just wouldn’t solve. No matter what the government does or who it supports, things just get worse one way or another. It always happens when the fighting has died down for too long. The last real war had been seventy years ago. Is that what’s happening? Is the world on course to whet its appetite again? Answers wouldn’t come, so Dusk decided to take a walk.

Ten million lives.

When she’d come out of the Harbinger yesterday, her face was stuck between laughing and crying. Simultaneously pleased and horrified at her own actions. Celestia was… his Mother was not the collected warrior he’d been led to believe she was. And how should that surprise him? Early Equestrian history always made note of the Sun Queen’s rage, anger, wrath. She’s just logical enough to focus the fire in the right direction, but, will she always be that way?

She’s the one who named it. ‘Damocles.’ Is this what it feels like? To sit on the chair in the lap of luxury with anything one could want, pretending to be pleased, pretending to be strong as the weight of that sword hangs above. Oh, Mother… Perhaps that’s why she named it this way. It wasn’t about dropping the sword herself, it was seeing the sword dropped. It’d just missed Aunt Luna by a hair. The fear of death returned to a pair of ancient immortals who’d seemingly forgotten it.

A rumble in his stomach finally gave Dusk the distraction he wanted. Hunger could be cured with alicorn magic, but the easier method was to simply get something to eat. Looking this way and that, he spotted a small café at the base of a large apartment complex. ‘Papillion de Luna’ nagged a faint recognition, and the smell of something sweet filling the air drew him inside.

The moment he walked in the door, he recognized four royal guards sitting at the back table in the café. He didn’t make any sudden movements. If he didn’t talk to her, she would have to start the conversation. Of course, just as she must’ve felt her mother’s magic yesterday, the presence of her brother was something she’d feel as well.

Looking up from her book in her chair at the corner of the café, Twilight gasped. “Dusk!?”

Caught. He turned slowly, putting on the smile he’d trained for years to perfect. “Oh, hey Sis. What are you doing here?” This was the last thing he’d wanted to do today.

Twilight tilted her head. “I’m here most days for breakfast. Did… did you really not know I would be here?”

He could have if he wanted to, but he didn’t even plan to come here in the first place. “No, I didn’t.”

Twilight frowned. “Why are you here, exactly? Better yet, I tried to call you yesterday and you didn’t answer.” She narrowed her eyes. “Why don’t you sit down and order something? It’s been a while. We should talk.”

A tremble ran up his spine. She would never admit it, but Twilight is much more similar to their mother than she pretends to not be. Still, Dusk shrugged it off and rolled with the punches. “Sure, Sis. I came in here to do just that anyways.”

He spoke to the strangely familiar mare behind the counter, ordered the pineapple pancakes and a butterfly mocha, then sat down beside his sister.

Dusk was not a large stallion at any point in his life. His father had died before Dusk was born, but everypony told him that his father was the same way. That didn’t make Dusk feel any better, though. His older sister would forever be bigger than he was, and Oxford was a giant by normal standards in his infancy. The smallest alicorn, the weakest alicorn, the youngest alicorn. Not that there was much competition.

This was less a meal between siblings and more a confrontation that had been a long time coming, compounded with Dusk’s worst headspace in years. There were a few things he could think of, but not much would make his day worse.

“So,” Twilight began, hiding her face behind her latte cup. “Why didn’t you answer my calls yesterday?”

And it begins. Dusk sighed. “I was preoccupied.” Specifically with moving the harmony matrix to a secure location and running another painful failure trying to get the Forerunner to work for him. Patience was never his favorite virtue.

“Doing what?” Twilight asked. “You didn’t happen to be around Mother yesterday, did you?”

He licked his lips. “Twilight, do we really need to talk about this here? We’re not alone in this café, you know.” He motioned to the guards, a hoof signal they recognized and one Twilight didn’t know. Of course, she didn’t know they were her personal guards either.

Twilight scoffed. “You know perfectly well how to speak. And those guys are here every other day, they’re alright.”

“Thanks, ma’am,” One very touched guard said. They never interact with her, and some of them still volunteer for the position. A real off-hoof compliment like ‘alright’ from their charge meant a lot to them.

She turned back to Dusk. “Yeah. Anyways. You were, weren’t you?”

“What if I was, Twilight? What if I had known the answer to every question you have before you’d even had these questions to begin with? What then?”

The elder alicorn swallowed. He knew a direct answer would catch her off guard, but he was also ready to move past this topic. The less time he spent thinking about it, the better. She sipped her drink again as the mare running the café delivered Dusk’s order.

“I…” Twilight covered her mouth. “You knew everything? From the start?”

Dusk stabbed a fork into his pancakes. “I helped plan it.” He gave her a sharp smile.

Letting out a breath, Twilight’s hoof moved to her forehead. A little piece of her soul had fallen off. “You… helped her do this, knowing full well what she was going to do?”

Ten million lives. With a thorn in his heart, Dusk ate some of his pancakes. “Of course! She’d asked for my help specifically. What is a son to do when his mother comes to him like that?”

Celestia had been keeping up a face in front of Luna. His mother was more and more stressed by the day, waiting, watching for the next one to arrive.

“We have to work, we have to be close enough to respond, we have to see everything, we need a weapon that can defend from something like that, we need a titan ourselves.”

Every day she’d say the same things over and over again, working deep into the night, sometimes not sleeping just to make progress, to solve the neural link issues, to build something that could keep her family safe when even she couldn’t.

For Dusk’s part, he took that engineering degree and put it to work for the first time in decades, trying desperately to keep up with his mother. Only, he hadn’t been enough. He could do support on the technical side and manage the production process, but the ideas and the programming came from her, and as for testing… she had to turn to Oxford. She’d asked for more than he had. He couldn’t live up to her expectations and even now, it burned him inside.

“You gave in, huh?” Twilight asked, bitterly.

Dusk clicked his tongue. “Yeah, I did. And you know what, Sis? I’d do it again, too.” Ten million lives. Ten million lives. Every single person in this city and more. All in an instant. Would you really do this again?

“Really? If she went berserk and said she was going to burn it all down to start over, would you follow her? Would you help set the fires?”

She was really harping in on this. Twilight always had a knack for pinpointing a pony’s feelings. It was just the one she could never figure out.

Dusk glared at her, somewhere between helpless and furious. “Maybe! What’s it to you? She only comes to me because you won’t let her come to you!” A dark feeling washed over him. All the years of training in espionage and deception thrown out the window to use just the right words to hurt the person in front of him most came together in a black storm that resulted in this: “I’m not the favorite.”

Twilight staggered as if a dagger had been thrust in her chest. Dusk felt as if a great stone had just been placed on his back. Worse than the inferiority, worse than the weight of his mother’s expectations, worse than all the violence and death, was the knowledge that Twilight would always be her favorite.

He agreed with Celestia. He believed all the same things she did. He worked so he could stand beside her, he lived for her sake more than anypony else, and never had her eyes truly been upon him. Something to make Twilight see, something to convince her, something to return her to Celestia’s side as she should be. Even Dusk had become a tool to that end, and he hated it.

Why is it you, and not me?

“Dusk…” Twilight didn’t have any other words to communicate with.

“It comes before nightfall, but as always, as it always has, it comes after Twilight.” Twisting the knife, adding another boulder. Now that it had come spilling out, it couldn’t be stopped. “I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to be there. I didn’t want to facilitate this. I thought she was right on principle, I’d even agreed that the solution she came up with might be the right one. But on that day, on that hour, I had a thought that maybe, just maybe, this wasn’t right. That she wasn’t right. But she consoled me, she convinced me, because what can she do if not that?

“Under her wing night and day for decades on end, pointing me in the right direction teaching me everything I needed to know to succeed, building a trust that only we could have, and still, and still, everything always came back to you. I can’t understand why she’s so obsessed with you, and I can’t understand why you can’t accept her anymore. Where is your resolve? Where is your strength? She always says that you’re the only one who can change her mind, so why don’t you? What is it you’re afraid of?”

The attack had become more directed now, less his own frustrations with himself, and more his frustrations with her, the big sister who ran away from home.

An eternity passed while Twilight tried to formulate a response. “I didn’t run away, Dusk, I…”

Dusk put his hooves on the table and leaned over. “Prove it. Give me one good reason, just one. You could do your work from anywhere in the world. There’s nothing here in particular for you, there’s no reason you couldn’t be close enough to warp to in a day, and there’s nothing stopping you from working with us instead. Nothing but her, right?”

At this point, Twilight was just trying to keep from crying. “There’s so much you just don’t know. That you can’t see. It’s blinding to be right next to the sun. Everything behind you is totally covered in darkness, and she moves to keep you from ever seeing it. The way she uses ponies, the way she treats us like objects, how easy it is for her to just… do something like yesterday.”

“Easy? Easy!? You think she made this decision, spent a year planning and working herself to death to protect everyone at this cost, easily!?”

Finally, it struck him. She didn’t make this decision easily. It tore her apart before she even did it. What am I doing here wasting my breath on Twilight when I could be there, helping her deal with the pain?

Dusk shook his head. “I don’t even know why I’m talking to you.”

Twilight broke. She sobbed, silently in her chair, hunched over and covering her face.

Dusk ate his pancakes. It had been a long time since he had the genuine article. Celestia used to make these very same pancakes for all of them when they used to live together in Underhoof. For Twilight to come here and order this same meal every day, perhaps she wasn’t totally lost just yet. He downed his latte and a wave of nostalgia hit him. This taste, this flavor. It was home. There had been a café like this in Underhoof, the iron butterfly, Papillon de Fer. That mare wasn’t just some random mare, but one of Oxford’s relatives, an Apple family member.

He sneered at his sister. “Oh, I get it now. I completely understand.”

Collecting herself a bit, Twilight responded, “Get what, Dusk? How to hurt me?”

“Of course. But that’s not what I’ve come to understand now. I’ve always known how to do that. I’m your little brother, aren’t I? It comes with the territory. No, I understand why you’re the favorite. Why she’s obsessed with you.”

Rubbing her nose, Twilight gained an edge to her voice. “Then enlighten me, second fiddle.”

A vein throbbed in his head. He sure was happy to be doing this now. “You still can’t let go. This place, this food, these ponies.” He motioned to the mare, not the guards. “She’s one of Oxford’s cousins. This is Mother’s recipe. I even remember having this same coffee back home. You’re trying to hide in the past, and everything, I mean everything, she does is to get you to live in the present. You’ve given up on the future and you won’t let go of everything that you believed even though it was proved wrong right in front of your face. It’s not that you don’t go see her because you hate her, it’s that you miss her so dearly that you’re afraid that she might change you. That’s why you keep away, just outside her reach.”

When Twilight bit her lip instead of responding, Dusk stood. He’d come to a decision. “I think you’ve helped me clear my head, Sis. Thanks for that. The next time ‘something’ happens, don’t go running off to Mother for answers. You should come to me. If I can bring you into the present, then maybe I won’t be second fiddle anymore.”

Twilight stood. “You do not mean that!”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “Then should I explain it more clearly? I’ll give you better details. A number for instance. Fifteen, twenty million maybe? We’ve just begun the planning, but why not thirty or forty!? Why worry about her burning it all down, when I might?”

The tears had returned. “Please, Dusk, don’t do this to me.”

It only made him more angry. He could feel the fire boiling inside. Perhaps this is how she felt that day. “Beg all you want. If you don’t have the strength to stop me, then I’ll do whatever I want. Because I, too, am of the sun.”

Dusk paid his tab and left, not particularly caring what his sister had been doing at the time. Crying and moping never got anyone anywhere. It certainly never got him the place he wanted in his mother’s heart. But maybe quick, explosive action might. Only, he’d been taught better than that. It couldn’t just be quick explosive action, it needed to be at the right time at the right place for the most dramatic effect.

Afterall, how can one send the right message without a big stick?

She's Extraodrinarily Nice

Her violet ears perked up. She’d been reading a new paper on nanite technology that had been posted for peer review when her mother’s presence suddenly showed up behind her. Turning slowly away from her holographic terminal, Twilight caught sight of the alabaster mare filling her living room. She swallowed. “Good morning.”

Celestia scanned the little apartment. Books everywhere, written pages gathered in loose piles here and there, terminals here and there running various programs. Canned coffee and energy drinks, both full and empty, scattered about. Paper plates and food wrappers in an overflowing trash can. Celestia knew she didn’t have many, but what little clothes Twilight did care to wear seemed to be strewn about the floor.

I should have come sooner. She hasn’t had a room this messy since she was in high school. Selecting the empty cans and finding the trash bags in the same place they always were, Celestia cleaned up after her daughter. “Good morning, my darling Twilight,” she said sadly.

Needing to find some excuse for the mess, Twilight stammered. “I-if I’d known you were coming, I–”

“Would’ve skipped town, I imagine,” Celestia remarked. The trash bag full and put by the door for later, Celestia then went on to gather the clothes. She picked up a few things that were relatively new, but stopped when she found the old jacket she made for Twilight. How time flies. It’s been almost two hundred years since I’ve seen this.

Embarrassed, Twilight combed her hair down with a hoof. She probably hadn’t woken up but less than an hour ago. “Um… you don’t have to do that.”

Celestia sent one eye to the violet alicorn, made contact with her eyes, and then continued as she was. “No, no, this is nostalgic for me. It was a simpler time when I used to do this for you. Don’t you agree?”

Twilight sighed. “It was.” Getting up from her chair, Twilight turned the lights on in the apartment and set a kettle on to make tea. Between her and her mother, the apartment was totally cleaned by the time the water was ready. It wasn’t a huge place. One bedroom, one bath, a relatively large living room and kitchen area separated by a counter. She had a couch and a TV with a coffee table and an easy chair. This too, was set up just like her childhood home. Among the many books in here, a complete collection of the novels her step-father wrote sat on their own shelf above everything else. They’d been moved recently.

“Sit with me, won’t you?” Celestia asked.

Twilight had grabbed the teacups and was coming to deliver them. Instead of sitting in her easy chair like she’d planned, she obeyed her mother and sat next to her, not really wanting to.

With a foreleg and a wing around her daughter, Celestia laid her cheek on Twilight’s head and held her. Before too long, Twilight started sniffling.

“D-did you come here for a reason?” she asked, slowly sinking into Celestia.

“Do I need one? Your birthday was nine days ago, Twilight. You won’t answer my calls, respond to my texts. The least you could do is let me know you’re alive every now and again.”

Giving into the warmth, Twilight reciprocated the hug. “I’m sorry. I’m just… so tired of the arguments. Between you, Dusk, and Oxford, it’s like I always have to be prepared for a fight every time we talk. I hate it.”

Celestia felt a very heavy iron ball in her stomach right then. Perhaps the changelings weren’t that far along on their mechanical monster. Perhaps the action needed could wait. Maybe she could cause an internal struggle in White Hive that didn’t require Luna’s approval, something on a smaller scale. Disrupt their production lines a bit, just to slow it down.

Regardless of what her original task was, now, she was going to attend to her lonely girl. “Please, Twilight, you know you can always come to me. I am not your enemy, nor will I ever be.” Letting her go, Celestia clapped her hooves. “We should go for a walk! When was the last time you saw the sun?”

Again, Twilight was a bit embarrassed. She did work for Alicorn Electronics, Equestria’s research and development company, but she’d been avoiding going to the office for the past week. It had been so bad that the mare who ran her favorite café, Orchid Shy, stopped by one day to check on her. Alicorns don’t get sick, but to stop her routine for the first time in years alarmed poor Orchid.

“It’s… been a few days, I think.”

Celestia frowned. “Did something happen?”

Twilight knew how this went, so she didn’t bother trying to hide it. “I’ve been dating a college student for a while.”

Celestia raised a brow. “You have?”

“I… had.”

“Ah.”

Twilight sniffed. “It started getting real. He wanted to take me back to Equestria to meet his parents. I tried to tell him as much as I could to push him away after that, but he just wouldn’t give up. I didn’t want to do it, but he made it clear where he wanted this to go. We’d… you know, and I… I don’t know if I loved him or not, but I couldn’t just tell him everything, and I couldn’t be the mare he wanted me to be! So…”

“So you broke it off. I’m sorry, my darling.”

And then, Twilight fell into her mother. “Is this what you went through? Is this how it happened every time? You devote months, years, decades of your life to someone only to lose them and be left alone like this over and over again? Why didn’t you warn me this is what it would be like? Why didn’t you tell me how it could go?”

Holding her tightly, Celestia sighed. “I’m sorry, my darling. It’s always like this. It feels like this, but so much worse, every single time. Sometimes, you might be betrayed. Sometimes you might be left behind. Sometimes, you might simply find yourself different ponies in his old age. And every time, every single time, it will feel this way.”

She looked desperately into her mother’s eyes through the tears. “Then how did you keep doing it? Over and over again for centuries?”

Celestia smiled softly. “Your wounds will always heal with time, and there is no end to your time. Is he totally gone? Because, if you really felt like it might be love, why not roll with it? The first time I took a husband, I was about your age.”

Twilight shook her head and rubbed at her eyes. “He wanted foals.”

Biting her lip, Celestia sighed. For all that had changed, alicorn mares were still practically barren. It had taken all the power in the world and a miracle for Twilight’s conception. She’d almost destroyed the world when it came to Dusk and Oxford. If not for Twilight, she would have. The weight of simply being in a relationship with Twilight was a lot for a stallion to bear, and if she really loved him, it’s certain that she pushed him away to keep him from it.

“Twilight, my darling–”

A wave passed through Celestia. Twilight shot up straight too. Luna had just expended a great deal of magic somewhere down on the planet.

Going into queen mode, Celestia ordered, “Turn on the news. I’m calling your brother.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Twilight turned on the wall terminal. She set it to the national news and gasped.

Canterlot was on fire. The wreckage, the destruction, the death, it was everywhere.

Celestia called Dusk from her personal terminal.

He answered immediately. “Mother!”

“Dusk? What happened?”

“Th-the machine!” Dusk said breathlessly, “They finished it! Outline is dead! My team wasn’t ready, we lost sight of it, and it headed straight for Equestria! I’d been trying to call aunt Luna, but she won’t answer. What happened? Why are you calling me?”

The camera panned until it stopped on Luna, hovering in front of the castle. She was breathing hard, staring down at something as the air in front of her still crackled with her energy. The face she was making, Celestia couldn’t remember seeing on her. It made her think back, and back, and back.

When they’d been children, in their home world. Celestia was sixteen, Luna was eleven. The world had devolved into chaos. Her mother had told her to take Luna and hide. Alicorns were being slain left and right, one after another in an attempt to stop their father from destroying the world. They’d been left in that chamber with the elements of harmony, and the scared little filly she used to be, looked up at Celestia with that same face.

“Sister, are we gonna die?”

Celestia swallowed. “Dusk, Twilight, I have to go.” She ended the call, not waiting for Dusk.

Twilight struggled for words. “Wh-what are you going to do?”

Celestia took a very long breath. “I don’t know yet. But Luna needs me. Oxford is at the port. Please tell him what’s happened and that I have left.”

Before Twilight could respond, Celestia gathered all of her magic, located Luna two hundred and forty thousand miles away, and warped.