The day had been spent in silence. Nopony felt like talking, and the tension was thickening with every passing hour. Caughlin felt like kicking worktables just to get an outburst from them, just to ease even a bit of the frustration in the air. Thankfully Discord was still caught up with whatever it was he did, for a visit now would almost definitely elicit a nervous breakdown from somepony in the hall.
That night, she had a hasty dinner and wrote in the secrecy of her room:
To: Furhich, of the Order of Order.
I am Caughlin Mare, chairpony and head of the R&D department. We are all aware of your offer, and we considering its implications.
Personally, I do not believe that many will join. We are sympathetic, but feel that the cost is too great. Have you considered, in the event that we fail, the effects our absence will have on Equestria? You know of us, which is more than we had ever expected... surely then you must know of the good we do. Who are you, and why should we believe in what you say? More importantly, can you fill the hole we leave behind for your fellow Equestrians?
We understand that you are not agents of Discord. But we require more information about your operations e.g. intelligence, transportation, and more importantly administration before we can decide. Give us the scale of your operations. Convince us that you have the power to make our alliance work. A life is not easy to give up, after all, when it is your own - not to mention the countless others that will starve, die of disease or cold besides.
She found the artificial dragon under her bed, and tentatively waved the scroll in front of it. It watched almost boredly. Just when she was about to give it a bop on the head - maybe it had an On switch - it opened its toothless mouth and lashed out, gulping the scroll. Nothing else happened. She stared at it, and it stared back. She wondered how long would it take for a reply to come - if the letter had been sent at all. It was a rather unconvincing dragon.
There was a knock on her door. "Caughlin?" It was Whooves' voice.
"Just in time, Doctor. Come in, please."
Her student stepped in, blushing slightly. This was not the first time she had let him in, nor was there anything special about it - just a hollowed-out space, walled with smoothened rock, lit by a soft bulb, and furnished with the standard bed, desk and drawers. Perhaps it's the high blood pressure, she reasoned. Heaven knows we've all got it.
Caughlin indicated to a chair and pointed to the dragon. "Now, this thing. What do you think we should call it?"
"That's what you wanted me here for?" asked Whooves, taken aback.
"What did you want to talk about?" she asked incredulously.
"Well... I thought, you know, about the Oh-cube."
"Oh-cube? What cube?" The idea hit soon enough. "Wait, you mean the Order of... oh, Whooves, you silly filly. No, that's all right. You're your own stallion, as are the rest of us. And all of us are rational thinkers, perfectly capable of making decisions as we see fit." She gave him a tight smile. "There are two more days until the final vote, two more days before we spend the rest of our lives wondering why we chose to do what we're about to do. I'd rather save those moments."
"To spend them on naming things?"
"It's the little things in life that keep us going, Doctor," said Caughlin, shrugging. One of those little things - a small crystal, the last one old Pie had cut before his demise, lay glimmering in the corner of her sight on the desk. Lately she had spent more time staring into it. The absence of work - well, the will to - left her with little else to do. "Ponies like us don't get many little things, which is why we have to treasure them all the more."
"Never thought you to be the sentimental type," snorted Whooves. "Still..." He examined the dragon critically. "How about Stupid?"
"No!"
"Then... what about Toothful?"
"I think you're taking the whole 'sarcasm' thing a little too far, Whooves," said Caughlin, rolling her eyes. "Gummy?"
"Plain. Accurate." Whooves seemed to chew on it. "Sounds just like something you'd choose. Sure, why not?"
"So then, Gummy it is," said Caughlin, beaming. She extended a hoof and gave its eye a careless poke. To her surprise, it belched green fire, and a dirty scroll unraveled itself mid-air from the flames.
"... Caughlin?"
"Wait." She grasped the letter quickly.
Dear Caughlin Mare,
We understand your possible reluctance and fears. They are of good standing. However once again I plead our cause because your team is the conerstone in our ultimate plan.
To help persuade your members, we have attached Phase 1 of our plan. We do so at very great cost to ourselves, as Discord's discovery of this plan will certainly fail all other future plans like it. We apologize for the dense terminology and oftentimes disgraceful typography. However, for ponies of your scientific understanding, you should be able to appreciate the content and delivery of these papers, and thus understand our confidence in the chance of success of this plan. It is true that you are irreplaceable. That is why we must have you on board.
As to who we are, we are simply regular ponies who wish to bring back harmony to the world. You must know by now the difficulty Discord is experiencing in handling us, from the absence he spends away from you. Surely that, and our ability to gather intelligence regarding you should be enough to convince you of our capabilities. The other issues will be answered in good time, should you accept.
Sincerely,
Fuhrich.
Whooves stood impatiently as Caughlin scanned the plans. Impatience soon gave way to curiousity, as he watched Caughlin's eyes widen. He sidled up to her.
"Uh, Caughlin? What is that?"
"Nothing like we've ever seen before," said Caughlin softly. "I... they are either mad or brilliant, Whooves. Possibly both. But this changes everything."
Caughlin had gathered the entire department immediately after breakfast. She passed around copies of the plans, and after letting it sink in, she pressed it further: "You see, my fellow ponies, we run no risk of punishment. We can hide it in the open. If anything he'll even approve it without realizing. And you have to admit, such a project is compelling, ambitious. The concept is so radical, yet the initial calculations and theories point to success. If you do not wish to do it for the Order nor Equestria, do it for the sake of science."
Nopony had anything to say in response. She could see it in their faces; they were thinking hard, being pushed harder than any cloud mass breakdown or rapid-growth seeds. She hated to admit it, but there were some truly selfish ones in their family, who cared nothing for helping and only for discovery. The eccentrics, the curmudgeons, the heartless. The soft-hearted ones were all too willing to raise the flag of revolution, but now, with this project... The bait was too good to resist. Ponies whose only purpose in life was to discover and develop, faced with their greatest project yet. She felt a pang of guilt as she moved up for the final blow - and she had said all that about being their own pony to Whooves, too. But history would be her judge.
"Now I know I gave everypony three days to think this through. There are two left," she said quietly. "But I will now draw up the deadline to this moment, because neither we nor they have time to spare. All in favour, raise a hoof."
She raised her hoof slowly. Whooves' shot up energetically. Moments of exchanging glances went past before, with a solemn nod, everypony else raised their hoofs.
Caughlin felt an immense thrill rush up her body.
"Thank you, everypony," she said, gulping. "I can only give you my own thanks, yet someday, perhaps, the Order and all of Equestria will reward you too."
After passing on the news to the Order, they waited.
Discord arrived sooner, two days after the sending of the confirmation letter. He looked worse for the wear, with his scales dirty and his demeanor thoroughly annoyed; he almost seemed weary, and was standing on the floor instead of floating for once. He must have spent a lot of energy hunting the rebellion, to no apparent success.
"Lord Discord!" said Caughlin, bounding up to meet him. She wore an expression of positive excitement that instantly earned a scowl. "We are so glad for your return!"
"You are? Well, well," muttered Discord. "You are, are you? What is it you want?"
"Always to the point, lord Discord," said Caughlin, feeling her face ache from the wide smile she was wearing. "We have an amazing idea that we want you to see."
"Oh? That sounds new," said Discord, raising an eyebrow. Caughlin was decidedly out-of-character. But a being of chaos could not stand the lure of new things, and coupled with her unnatural enthusiasm, he swallowed it - the flash of his eyes told her that she had his interest.
"Here it is," she said, handing him a sheaf of notes. "We call it Project ALICORN."
Discord kept his expression straight as he skimmed through the notes. They were chock-full of scientific expressions and terms, rewritten and edited to complete the forged front. He would have no problem understanding them - Discord's knowledge was the foundation for theirs, after all - much less the simplified diagrams and charts. Even before he reached the end, his tail began to twitch. By the last page he was guffawing.
"This... this is amazing! It's hilarious! Not even I could have thought of this!" he exclaimed, wheezing at his cackles filled the den. "This is a joke to the highest degree, Caughlin! How on Equestria could you think of such a thing? Oh, by me!" He fell over, writhing as he laughed - just as expected. The entire project was so absurd. It was unnatural, sick even, a complete defiance of Nature.
It was chaos. Of course he would love it.
"Well, my lord," protested Caughlin, dutifully playing out her lines, "the idea is plausible. Theoretically, if we can balance the Horn, Wings and Potential found in the three classes of pony, it is possible for them to co-exist in the same body. Why, if you would allow me to explain..."
"No, no, no need for that," gasped Discord, wiping a mock tear from his eyes as he floated upright. "This is great, Caughlin. You deserve a promotion, except that you're already in the highest position possible for ponies. Why, I can't wait to see what happens. Get this done, Caughlin, with my full blessings. Why, I think I might even look forward to visiting here just to see how things are going."
"I cannot promise anything," said Caughlin. "The actual work is complex and we need to factor in many, many things. It will be slow to say the least."
"Bah, that's alright. Just do what you must. Oh, my. Alicorns, as you call them, huh. My goodness! The limitless chaos these things could wreck! Good job, everypony, and carry on, carry on! Oh, bother me. I haven't had fun in ages." With a final, maniacal laugh, Discord leapt into the air and left the den.
As Caughlin gathered up the papers, the words, etched into her mind from countless re-reads, burned fresh.
To accept the possibility of an "alicorn" one must first consider the nature of the classes of Pony: Unicorn, Pegasi and Earth.
With reference to the time-space fabric theory, each class of Pony exists and interacts within the fabric in limited manner. Pegasi possess Wings that allow them to control "light" matter such as clouds and wind; Earth ponies possess Potential in their bodies that allows them to manipulate "heavy" matter due to their strength, speed and stamina, while the horns of the Unicorns allow them to harness "magic", that is, the all-present inter-matter force, giving them a variable degree of control over both kinds of matter, as well as space and, in rare cases, time.
The presence of one defining characteristic blocks out the other two. This is largely due to Physical Limitations, that is, natural pony bodies cannot withstand the strain of using and upkeeping more than one characteristic, not to mention the incompatibility of the elements themselves. Wings and Potential are the most obvious, as they manipulate matter in different ways ("light" material by, crudely, "going with the flow", and "heavy" material by exerting force. In the same system, should one attempt to use both, they will cancel each other out before effecting a result).
To produce an "alicorn", which is a pony that possess all three characteristics (in a stable situation), one must go lengths to alter the Subject, as well as closely monitor and regulate said Subject's growth and development. The key to alicorns, we believe, lies in the horn; as the characteristic that holds the widest range of power, methods should be designed with it as the primary, supported by the greater latent control given by Wings and Potential, resulting in a pony that has heightened powers over matter.
After Discord's departure, they took Gummy out and prodded it for any new messages. With a thank-you letter came the blueprints, sketches and workings for the alicorn design. Leaving nothing to chance, Caughlin had her team double-check everything, reporting to her any improvements that could be made. There were exactly ten of them, herself included; while eight worked on Project ALICORN, two others were to keep at "beneficial" assignments, and they would rotate shifts every three days.
The work of the Order's scientists was well-planned, meticulous and thorough. The only thing they don't have is facilities, mused Caughlin. Which is where we come in... how is this different from merely being used? But there was little room for that kind of thought. It did not change the fact that they were taking part in scientific progress. The first steps in the project were largely on thaumatic fields, translating the Wings and Potential physical fields into thaumatic terms, and finding a percentage balance. These were mostly calculations and applications. Next was dealing with the issue of implanting this amalgam of Horn, Wings and Potential, as a thaumatic mass, into a host body. There were suggestions, together with argued pros and cons, but no definites - the Order scientists seemed to need answers from them, and would not accept anything less than replicable results from at least five trials. It was all theory and wandered teetotal into philosophy and theory-mongering, but it was at least interaction than remote DIY.
With Whooves at her side, trying to follow as best as he could, she began to draw up diagrams and labels to lay out a better picture of the project. The first thing that came to her mind was the use of a newborn foal, contrary to the Order's belief that fully-grown stallions would be best because they could withstand the stress of the operations. However, she felt that being able to endure was not enough; the alicorn had to be able to use her powers after all, and no other pony learnt quicker than a foal... the time cost of learning how to fly from scratch would be incredible. She couldn't imagine going through something like that, let alone completing lessons in a week to trundle off against Discord soon after.
The team spent a total of sixty-seven hours and fourty-three minutes revising the Order's drafts, and roughly triple that on generating simulations, models and other means of establishing the optimum means of execution. Many a letter had been sent back-and-forth in Caughlin's room, debating over issues and opinions. Every other night Caughlin demanded more information from Furhich, and received nothing substantial in return.
After sending what would most likely be another fruitless request, Caughlin lay wide-eyed in bed.
The Order wants an alicorn, something with amazing powers. But can an alicorn defeat Discord? she wondered, staring at the ceiling. What will we do with it then, if we win? I guess there's a lot of things an alicorn can do. Why, the greater thaumatics base the Wings and Potential provide can allow the alicorn to achieve significant levels of magic ability. They could also rob the Horn of the mental focus required to power it... no, no, Caughlin, you're on break. Get some rest, for Equestria's sake.
And why does it have to be a "he?" asked her mind in a final attempt to be heard.
Which one - Gummy or the alicorn?
Good question, Caughlin. Touché.
Well, Gummy's a 'he'. I mean, you know, because of the thi-
Um, Caughlin, hello? Derping much here?
She sighed and rolled over in her bed. Gummy choose this moment to crawl up on her mane.
"You know...I like you, Gummy, even if you are a bit silly. I think I'll keep you, officially, when this is all over."
Gummy did not say anything, but the way he curled up seemed to imply that he was perfectly all right with that.