//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: The History Of The Human War // by Scorched Earth //------------------------------// Dragon Age and the end of the war Dragons, normally solitary creatures, moved in force to assault southern human areas. Dragons didn't number in thousands like other sides did, however even a single dragon was enough to destroy a human division. This tied up human forces to south and stopped human advance towards Ponyville, relocated Equestrian seat of power. Interestingly enough, dragons never formed a governing body during the war and each one fought as an individual. Thus there was never official alliance between dragon packs that fought humans for Equestria. This era, dubbed Dragon Age by later historians, saw human attacks on Equestria to cease for 4 months, with winter arriving near the end causing humans to put halt to their attacks for another 3 months. This time was much needed breather for Equestria, as Royal Guard was badly depleted and allowed griffin reinforcements to arrive. It also allowed Royal Guard to do much needed training for new soldiers. Even after the end of Dragon Age numerous dragons supported Equestria, even fighting alongside Royal Guard. However, the most important discovery of this much needed peace was connection between human reaction to magic and their location on the moon: beneficial effects of the Princess Luna's magic. It is still unclear why humanity reacts positively towards Princess Luna's magic, but suffer painful “collapse of HBCF” (Human Body Containment Field, as it is called by human scientist) when placed in any other magical field, even from the background magical radiation. This discovery came when Princess Luna saw diamond dog prisoner assist human prisoner, who had suffered fracture in his suit, by closing the fracture with her hand. Files pertaining of whole study are national secret, closed for 500 years, but at the end of these tests Princess Luna was able to create an unique anti-magic field, where human could survive without his suit yet would not harm naturally magical creatures. It is still unclear why the same field, when created by Princess Celestia or unicorns, serves opposite effect, causing human to grow weaker, although not outright killing them. Perhaps humanity’s 1500 years of exile in the moon, with Nightmare Moon being trapped there for 1000 year, has caused human bodies to become more accepting towards Princess Luna's magic. Of course, without further studies, there is no proof of this. Prisoner Gambit This lead to what became to be called by humans as Prisoner Gambit. Princess Luna, casting a Human Preservation Field, as it's name became to know and then placing humans inside it and removing their mask. Humans, at first panicking for fear of dying, quickly found out that they were able to continue living inside the field. This field was even stronger during the night, as it was found. Second part of the gambit, was to earn the trust of humans and learn the reason why humanity had attacked. After 2 weeks, human prisoners consulted among themselves, eventually deciding to speak with their captors. What ponies learned shocked them greatly. 1700 years ago, humanity was dominant species of the planet, which they called Earth. Earth did not have natural magic, thus life on Earth did not develop resistance towards magic. When humanity discovered magic, it was, at first, though be to be solution for a crisis that was threatening the planet. Although fusion power provided clean power, it was not enough to fuel human goal to reach other stars in one human lifetime. Thus the first magic generator was set up on Earth, to test viability of using magic to fuel human ambitions. The test ended in a disaster. Due to unknown reasons, generator exploded and caused ever increasing amount of magical energy occurring on Earth. Human scientist found other events to start happening, such as disappearing planets and stars. Once the entire planet was covered in this magical field, Earth started to shift trough dimensions towards Equestria before finally merging with it. Humanity, at first attempting peaceful co-existence, soon found itself losing numbers to natural hazards as well as increasing attacks from numerous magical creatures, including three pony tribes. This event is known to humans as The Great Cataclysm. Human numbers fell from 10 billion to 2 billion during the shift and even more during the following years. For 200 years, humanity tried to hold it's ground before being forced to take extreme measures: an exile on the moon. Humanity had set up initial self-sufficient bases to the moon earlier, but now they would become their permanent home. Humanity left what had once been Earth. I was told that in their home system, there had been another planet that could have supported human life, but was missing in our own star system. Humanity's life on the moon was not easy. Human numbers fell from 1 billion humans surviving humans to mere 5 million humans. Numerous diseases ravaged human populace, most infamous being “Second Black Plague”, and humanity was forced to abandon ethical research conducts, to just to maintain their physical health. One of the most important goals, which thankfully was reached in 50 years, was artificial gravity that allowed humans to maintain their physical strength without artificial boosters. One might think humanity would have built a massive fleet of ships, but as it was pointed to me too, they didn't have resources. Moon isn't exactly what one one would call “resource rich”. Most of the minerals and metals humanity gained were taken from off-flying asteroids or through long and dangerous mining trips to other planets in the system. Had humanity have access to all the resource of Earth, they would have easily created unstoppable military force. However, as it was, 95% of all resource they had went just to survive one more year. The reason for human invasion was tied to the Second Cataclysm. An asteroid hit the surface of the moon. To be more specific, it hit one of the humanity's farm complexes. This lead to a critical drop in food supplies, as humanity could not easily replace its losses. It is estimated humanity had food for 15 years of rationing before they would run out of food. This lead to humans enact their desperate plan to “retake” Earth, or more specially, demagic Earth, allowing human live to survive on it. A journal from early days of The Exile describes the event as follows: “Small, confined rooms. People living, not in permanent structures, but in converter cargo ships. We, who once ruled the entire solar system, have been forced to live on these slums. Moon base was not designed for this many people. The leaders are barely maintaining control. Last week, I heard that Icarus had an uprising. It was put down violently. Another 50 000 dead. We can’t afford this rate of death. “Damn these creatures. We should kill them all. Kill them all and send off sleper ships to No... It’s not their fault... Our own hubris caused this. The surface is too lethal to live any more, we can’t even step outside the protective bunkers. The suits allowed limited movement outside, but there was always the danger. Danger of minor slip up. “Jones says that the moon will offer us better chance. That this... ‘magical radiation’ is much weaker here, enough to allow us to live. Still makes me feel weak and sick, but it’s better than melting. They are dismantling Odussey and Prometheus. They plan to use them to expand the current base. They hope that they can turn Moonbase Alpha into a proper colony. “I think it’s foolish. There aren’t enough resource. Even now, Nero is traveling to closest neighboring planet and it’s moon, to survey and mine them. This new solar system... it seems to hate us. There isn’t a place where we could settle down. At least the moon is still full of hydrogen. It will allows us to maintain fusion reactors. “Time to go. My shift will start now. May Lord watch over us all.” With the truth behind the war revealed, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna moved quickly to create a plan for peace. Prisoners were released, with information that Equestria would provide safe places for the human settlement, citing the fields the prisoners had been as a proof. In exchange, humanity would end the war. One Year Armistice For 2 months, there seemed to be no change in human actions, until message was received trough released pony prisoner: humanity was ready to negotiate in exchange of imminent farming area. Desperate to end the war, Princesses agreed. A field was created on human side of Ghastly Gorge and One Year Armistice was signed. With an year passing with neither side moving to attack, humanity was able to confirm the truth about the offer. Human leaders were unsure what to do and this referendum was held: continue the war or accept the peace offer? Referendum ended in favor of peace, with population rather accepting sure way of surviving over guessing whenever or not destruction of two most powerful creatures of the world would help. Thus second armistice was signed and peace negotiations were started. On the summer of 4th year of the war, New Zebas Peace Treaty was signed. Appleloose, Dodge City and Baltimare were seceded to humanity. Humanity, in return, agreed to pay reparations for destruction of Manehattan and leave Los Pegasus and Fillydelphia. Humanity agreed to release all it's prisoners and allow ponies to return they their old homes. In return, Equestria promised to create more zones to allow humanity to settle on the planet. Equestria also promised not to attempt capture and trial any suspected human war criminals. Reception to the peace differed. Among humans, peace was welcomed. Among ponies, peace made them realize that the first time in thousands of years, Equestria had failed to defeat its enemy. Saul Rakata describes the arrival of the news as follows: “We were anxious. Something big was about to be announced. Fuck, even ponies were listening. They had brought this big announcement radio up. Everyone could hear it. Ponies had climbed up from their trenches and we had abandoned our positions. Everyone gathered up. “Then it came. The official order to stand down. “There was peace. “No war. “Peace. “We cried the tears of joy. We laughed. We embraced each others. Some of the ponies seemed relieved. Others, they looked like they had been slapped in the face. We, on the other hand, we were just glad. No more fighting. No more fear that someone is going to rip your suit open. We could go home. We could go back to our families. Leave the place to someone else. “We didn't celebrate victory because we could stay. “We celebrated because we could return home.” The War saw death of over 1 200 000 ponies, 45 000 griffins, 125 000 humans, 15 000 zebra volunteers and 20 000 diamond dogs. Present day To this day, more than 7 million humans live on planetside, with majority still living on the moon. The Human Refuge and Diamond Dog Protectorate have maintained their alliance, now in form of a defense treaty. As for relationships between The Human Refuge and Equestria Kingdom, they are in what some ponies call “forced state of we are all friends”. Ambassador Fahrenheit said that humanity calls such situation “A Cold War”, although I do not get the meaning of the word. She said that such situations are known to human, although last such Cold War was 2000 years ago. Humanity has strained relations with Griffin Kingdom, but otherwise have little contact. Final words Finally, I wish to talk about the name of this war: The Human War. It is name assigned by us ponies and others who fought against humans. However... among humans the war is called “The Return War” and among diamond dogs, it’s called “The Great Uprising”. For better relations between our species, to promote healing and reconstruction, rather than promoting bitterness and vengeance, I urge historians on all sides to seek a better name. More neutral term. Subtle words can change the world. Why should we, through unfortunate choice of words, create more conflict? The wounds of this war run deep and will probably never fully heal. Just like a wound leaves a scar, so will this war. Yet, we should not seek to reopen a wound that has started to heal. We should seek to promote the healing process.