Revengeance of a Solar Princess

By Silvertie

Prologue

The Future, Today ♦ Little Big Celestia ♦ Equestria’s Lucky Day

The test site was far removed from Equestrian population centres. No less than a whole day’s travel by hoof from the closest town of Canterlot. Getting into the underground facility was a relatively arduous affair, with security so tight it put the National Bank of Equestria to shame.

And once you were inside, the atmosphere was... discouraging. Plain concrete walls, naked bulbs to illuminate the underground complex, and a generally low ceiling. One or two pegasi invited to witness the test had already opted to get the cliff-notes version afterwards from their less-claustrophobic earth pony and unicorn colleagues. Princess Celestia was arguably the worst off, being the tallest invited guest out of everyone there. Even Abraxus the Black, a dragon, had endeavored to shrink himself down to the size of a skink for the test. Space was also an issue, roughly thirty ponies of various walks and proximities to soft living trying to fit into a space really designed for 25. Celestia technically wasn’t helping in that regard either, four of those bodies aside from her own being there because of her; as usual, her bodyguard had declined to wait outside, and the armored guardsponies refused to squash their principal.

Still, it was a test worth putting up with all this for – it was a test showcasing the power of what had been billed as “the machine that would change the face of Equestrian power forever”. The kind of machine it was definitely worth getting in on the ground level of. The kind of machine, as it turned out, that was big enough to fill an entire underground cavern which dwarfed the glass-fronted observation booth halfway up the side of the cavern that the guests were now standing in.

And it was coming from the mind of one of Equestria’s greatest inventors of the age, Doctor Tinkertoy, the orange unicorn in the lab coat who could be seen moving about at the base of the colossal artefact, tiny control panels in the side of the artificial concrete volcano. He looked up at the booth, once more at the machine next to him, and pulled out a microphone, tapping it.

“Good morning, everypony and everydragon,” Tinkertoy’s voice said, crackling out of small speakers in the observation booth. “Thank you for coming today, I thank you all for realizing just how important my latest invention is; possibly the biggest invention of our lifetimes.” Tinkertoy paused a moment. “All of our lifetimes.”

Celestia blinked slowly, and Abraxus made a small noise of amusement from atop the head of his carrier-aide, who didn’t look like he understood what was going on but seemed interested nonetheless.

“Equestria’s demand for power grows every day,” Tinkertoy said, all the way down on the floor of the cavern. “Lights to illuminate our fair cities, energy to power our forays into exotic matter research... Equestria is the number one energy provider in all of Eqqus, and we consume almost seventy percent of what we produce. Millions of bits are spent every year on our existing infrastructure, optimizing our nation’s solar panels, renovating our wind farms, and building new hydroelectric dams. And it still isn’t enough.

“Well, today,” Tinkertoy said proudly. “Today, we say good bye to power scarcity. Today, we take materials thought to be useless to all of us, and we make them work for us. Today, I will unveil one machine that produces enough power to make Equestrian General Electric’s infrastructure look like a potato battery; no offense, Princess.”

There was chucking in the observation booth, as Celestia waved a hoof good-naturedly, a smile on her face, as she motioned for Tinkertoy to continue.

“So, with your blessing, Princess,” Tinkertoy said, resting a hoof on a lever far below. “I would like to dedicate this machine to you. I present my magnum opus, the Celestia Micro!”

There was a faint clunk as the lever was thrown, and with a deep, thrumming whine, the machine rumbled into life. The thrum grew in intensity, and with a click, the lights went out, startling most of the spectators.

“Don’t worry,” Tinkertoy said over the speaker. “My assistants just cut the power lines connecting this facility to the Equestrian power grid. Behold, the power of the Celestia Micro!”

The machine, almost invisible in the darkness, changed its pitch, and suddenly, it was illuminated by countless spotlights on its surface. A moment passed, and with a snap, the lights turned back on, easily twice as bright as they had been previously, and the observation booth was filled with the stamp of applause.

“The Celestia Micro consumes no coal and no wood,” Tinkertoy declared proudly. “It merely consumes radioactive materials that we would otherwise have no use for, and requires an influx of water, waste or otherwise, to be used in a coolant system.” Tinkertoy patted the side of the machine. “And the result? Just steam, depleted, radioactively inert materials, and all the power Equestria could ever ask for. All the power anyone in Eqqus could ever ask for, even.”

The only two people in the booth not applauding at this point were also the two oldest. Abraxus and Celestia, regarding the machine with skepticism.

“What’s the catch?” Abraxus asked tersely, his voice far louder than his small body would have appeared to allow.

“No catch, Lord Abraxus,” Tinkertoy assured. “The Celestia Micro is completely safe; simple to operate, and non-polluting if it consumes the majority of radioactive materials.”

As Tinkertoy said that, the thrumming of the Celestia Micro suddenly shifted up to an alarming pitch, and everypony watching could see small warning klaxons light up far below, and the atmosphere quickly shifted from “entertained” to “concerned”.

“What’s going on, Doctor?” Celestia asked quickly.

“It is nothing,” Tinkertoy said back, just as fast. “This is unfortunately a normal occurrence for the Celestia Micro after starting up. The pipes and reactor are just warming up, which happens to look a lot like something bad and unusual to the safety protocols-”

Whatever other excuses Tinkertoy had for the warning lights were cut short by a deafening explosion, and the sound of shattering glass. Smoke and screaming flooded into the observation booth, and everyone’s ears were left ringing.

Celestia got up amidst the smoke and debris, lights flickering erratically. Around her, her bodyguard had managed to do their job in a sense; two of them were down for the count, taken out by debris that had been headed for their princess. Celestia shook her head, and got the attention of her last two guards.

“You two,” she said loudly, moving her mouth clearly so they could lip-read if they had been deafened. “Get everypony out, I will deal with the Celestia Micro.”

One of them opened his mouth to argue the point, and Celestia cut him off with a raised hoof.

“Now!”

The guards got the point, and set about carrying out their orders as Celestia made her way to the edge of the booth, regarding the Celestia Micro.

It was a shambles. A massive hole had been blown in the side of the machine, thick smoke and fire pouring out of the hole. Rubble was everywhere, not just in the booth, and far below, Celestia saw a splash of orange poking out from some of it.

She stepped forward, and out into nothing. She fell, pulled by gravity, down to the cavern floor, where she landed on all four hooves with a crack, legs bent and the stone floor fractured where she’d landed. She rose quickly, running over to the rubble pinning Tinkertoy, and putting her shoulder to the rebar-reinforced concrete chunk, pushed.

Tinkertoy screamed as the rock was rolled off his body, revealing his mangled hindquarters, and started to waver as he slipped into unconciousness.

“Stay with me!” Celestia demanded, leaning down and cradling Tinkertoy’s head. “Doctor! Look at me!”

Tinkertoy’s eyes wobbled as he tried to focus on the princess, and there was a faint, wordless nod.

“How do I stop the Celestia Micro?” Celestia asked.

“You... can...” Tinkertoy mumbled, almost inaudible under the klaxons and now clearly audible screaming of the Celestia Micro, whatever mechanisms the power plant employed going into overdrive.

“How?!” Celestia shouted.

“Emergency... shutoff,” Tinkertoy said, pointing at a console. Celestia looked, and saw smoke pouring out of the panel in question.

“No good!” Celestia shouted. “Plan B!”

“No... plan B,” Tinkertoy said quietly. “Failsafes... can’t fail...”

Celestia snorted in disgust. “Not your finest moment, Doctor,” she said flatly.

Tinkertoy didn’t respond, going limp in Celestia’s grasp as she put him back down. Celestia looked up at the hole, and quietly kicked off her gold shoes, as she spread her wings.

It was time for Plan B.

♦   ☼   ♦

Smoke billowed from what was left of the test site, numerous air vents venting the stuff into the sky. Not far from the primary entrance, a small army of medical personnel had gathered, tending to the wounds of the affected, as well as checking for any toxic damage sustained from the demonstration gone wrong. Closer to the entrance, ponies in hazmat suits were trundling in and out of the facility, and leaning over a desk as they worked out what had gone wrong.

One formerly-white princess of the sun was sitting on a stretcher as the teal doctor attending her checked her soot-blackened coat for any actual damage.

“And you’re clear,” the doctor said. “Clean bill of health. You’re very lucky.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” Celestia said, sunlight glinting off her tiara. “Has anypony else been... particularly unlucky?”

“Not overly so,” the doctor said. “Nopony has died, and the worst injury would appear to be Doctor Tinkertoy; he’s alive, but we don’t think he’ll be walking ever again, with the damage his lower spine and legs sustained, there. The fact that he’s even alive at all is probably down to you; how did you move that rock?”

“Oh, you know,” Celestia waved a hoof. “I saw my subject in danger, and I was just moved to save him, like a mother protecting her child.”

The doctor nodded. “Well, in that regard, we’re all very lucky.”

“Princess!” a muffled voice shouted, as the owner gallumphed over to them, still wearing the violently yellow hazmat suit.

“Not near the patients!” the doctor shouted.

“Sorry,” the suited pony said, face and actual sincerity inscrutable under the visor. “Princess, the report, as requested.”

“Thank you,” Celestia said, taking the offered folder and opening it.

“Long story short,” the pony said, “The main reactor chamber overheated, melted down, and started leaking. If the coolant tank hadn’t broken where and when it did, the slag would have kept on going, gotten into the reagent chambers and... well.” The hazmat pony rubbed the back of his head. “We’re ballparking the crater at a couple of miles wide, and enough radioactive material in the air to make this place a no-go area for the next hundred years, literally. Probably longer. Certainly, nopony would have survived.”

“We got very lucky, then,” Celestia said. “What caused the overheating?”

“From what we can tell, nothing out of the ordinary,” the hazmat pony said. “It just wasn’t designed to handle what it got, it was probably weakened by prior tests.” He paused. “We also can’t work out what happened to the coolant tank, though. We haven’t found anything that would have ruptured it.”

Celestia shrugged. “Must have been a stray rivet or something. Did you happen to get my shoes?”

“We’re sorry, they were unsalvageable,” the hazmat pony said. “Too radioactive, we had to leave them where they were.”

Celestia sighed, and nodded. “Very well. I shall leave the site in your capable hooves, Captain.”

“Where are you going?” the Captain asked.

“I need to make a press release,” Celestia said.

Next Chapter: Old Schooled Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 4 Minutes