A month later
"Welcome back Miss. I heard about the victory in Ponyville," Letter Soup said as Twilight walked in the room. He then noticed that she was not looking very "victorious".
"You know, victory used to taste sweet," Twilight commented. Letter Soup just nodded at her. He didn't know what had happened, but it was clear that something had gone wrong during the battle and she was still coming in terms with it. "Your last report said that you had finished translating several books and you think you got the basics of the human civilization down?"
"Yes," Letter Soup said, moving to a chalkboard where he had written his notes. "Well, you were right about Homo Sapiens, or humans as they called themselves, having extensive experience in the art of war. Their history could be summed up as an eternal war with small breaks," He pointed at the timeline he had written. "However, what is interesting, is that their civilization is supposed to be over 4000 years old. What interest us is the last 200 years of their existence. There is some confusion about the human home. Take a look at this map."
Twilight looked over an enlarged copy of a map that had been found in one of the books. The books had several different maps but they all retained the same basic shape, just with what she assumed were changing borders. Next to the map was the map of the known world. Two of them, while having similarities, also had some significant changes. Most obvious being the lack of Griffin Kingdoms as well as an unknown continent.
"They are quite different," Twilight noted. Letter Soup nodded his agreement.
"Quite so. What is confusing, is that if Homo Sapiens-" Twilight gave him a quick look "-I mean humans were natives to our world... why did the world suddenly change?” Letter Soup said, pointing out the larger differences. “Two thousand years is not enough for this large changes. Then we got... interesting claims about space."
"Oh?" Twilight said, giving a puzzled look.¨
"Unless we have translated these things wrong, and I am pretty sure we haven't, these beings are capable of space travel. As in, travel from one world to another, through space." Letter Soup said, excitement in his voice. "Imagine it, ability to leave our world, to look it down from the sky! Not like pegasis, mind you, but above the all that! Look it from the stars themselves! They apparently had several colonies outside the world. One major colony was on a world they called Mars"
"I remember reading the translated version of their astronomy. It does not match with ours. For one, we lack several planets these books say exist," Twilight said, once again noting the difference between Ancient text and the reality. "Then there is the night sky. It's all wrong."
"Ah, yes. Which is what I actually wanted to speak to you about," Letter Soup said. "I do not think that the humans are natives to our world. Maybe, just maybe, the last time they were here, it wasn't because they lived here."
"What if it was attempt to colonize the world?" Twilight finished the thought. "Yes, yes, it makes sense. It would explain several things. Like the sudden appearance and disappearance. Why maps are different, they are maps of a different world, their homeworld and the way they are attacking... latest intelligence reports do say that these attacks are coming from the moon."
"Perhaps there is an outpost on the moon?" Letter Soup suggested.
"I can't say. I need to have a look into this. Thank you for your time," Twilight said as she left the room, leaving Letter Soup working on this translation.
After returning to her office, Twilight began to go over the reports she had missed during her time in Ponyville, even if it was in effort to fight back the invaders. Most of the reports were just updates on progress of the departments, what projects they were running, work teams and so forth. Only few of them actually contained anything that would help her. She wondered what exactly was her duty on this project. Sure, she was told to lead the project, but the others seemed to be able to do their thing without her constantly interrupting them. They didn't need guidance.
Shaking her head, she returned to the reports, maybe her job was to collect the data and see the common threads in them? Would make sense. That was what she had been doing, after all. Most of the data was disjointed, coming from numerous teams before being collected by the department heads and relayed to her.
A knock on the door woke her from her thoughts.
"The door is open," She said. The door opened and she saw Spike entering the room. "Spike! Good to see you, but what are you doing here?"
"Well, in case you forgot the library was almost burned down,” he said. “I decided to come and see if you need help here."
Spike had changed a lot from his younger form. Twilight had read that conditions affected how fast and how dragons grew, sort of adaptive growth, but she had never seen it in action. There was that time when he had become extremely greedy, but she had waved it off back then. Then again, looking back then, she should have seen this one coming one day. Looking at Spike now, who was just a little bit taller than her, with much more developed ability to breath fire as well as legs and arms more similar to invaders, though still somewhat stubby. The claws were something Spike was trying to get used to, he wasn't sure if he could pull them back at all. She wasn't sure but she could swear she was seeing begins of a wings on his back. His snout had grown somewhat, but not enough to make him unrecognizable. Tail was longer, but surprisingly it had not in size. It seemed more like a whip.
It had been a quite surprise to everyone involved when they found him in the library, trying to protect the books in his new form. His snout and tail had been smaller, but legs and arms had almost reached their current point already. Need to quickly adapt to new situation had started a growth spurt in him, one clearly trying to adapt to deal with the invaders.
"Well, there are some reports that need to be filed, if you want you can help me," She said. Spike smiled and nodded, before taking walking to the table and pulling a chair for himself. Twilight noticed that his walk was still somewhat unsure. "Still getting used to?"
"You have a growth spurt that rearranges your body and then tell me to 'get used to'," Spike said, emphasizing his point bu stretching his clawed hand. "I am still trying to figure exactly what happened. One moment there are bunch of creatures trying to attack and next thing I know, I have this body and dead creatures in front of me," Spike paused for a moment, as if to consider something before giving a sigh. "Sorry Twi, it's just... Growth spurts should come like this. I know I am supposed to get these, at some point, but..."
"No offense taken, Spike," Twilight said. "Your body has gone through a lot of stress and changes. You just get used to it, since it doesn't seem like this is going to go away and is permanent," She placed her hoof on his shoulder. "You're still you. Everyone grows up at some point."
"Thanks Twi." Spike said, looking down at his hand. Twilight was sure that something was still bothering him.
"Spike, what's wrong?"
"Hum? I told you already, library is down for the moment." Spike said, somewhat confused.
"Not that. There is something else on your mind. Go ahead. Talk to me. You know that even if you start growing up, I a still the one that raised you." Twilight said with a smirk.
"Fine, moooooom," Spike said, before both of them laughed. After calming down, Spike became serious. "It's just... I know I am barely out of dragon infancy at this point, other dragons would barely call me a toddler honestly, at least the fully grown ups. Still... I feel like this is too soon. You know? I should still have couple decades being a total kid. You know, I know it's kinda early to think about these but..." Spike looked up "I am going to live couple of centuries after everyone else is dead. At least that much. I... I think I got used to things," He looked down and at Twilight. "You as the librarian, me as the assistant, Rarity as someone unreachable... and suddenly, growth spurts. Can't really act like a kid, especially when you are bigger than most ponies around you."
"Spike," Twilight said gently. "You worry too much too soon. It's still far in the future before any of this matters. We will all live happily and have fun. Take your time. Nobody says you need to become adult in mind and body overnight. You said it yourself. You are barely moving out of dragon infancy," Twilight paused for a moment, to let Spike to process what she had said. "You didn't grow like other dragons, in large groups of abandoned eggs. You grew up with me and others. You never had to fight for survival, that's why it's so sudden to you."
"Yeah.. I guess so. Compared to how dragons normally... 'raise' their young ones, I got lucky." Spike said with a smile.
"Besides, maybe you got a better chance at Rarity now." Twilight said nudging Spike and who chuckled.
"Yeah right, I doubt she will be that open for inter-species romance, not really... Anyway, enough depressing stuff, let's get to work." Spike said, picking up a bunch of reports. "How do you want me to file these?"
Twilight smiled at Spike. "First, divide them by their departments, then start dividing them by date and subject, then..."
Twilight explained how to catalog the reports and where to put them. She watched as Spike moved the reports and other assortment of papers around. It felt like good old times.
"So, what's so funny?" Spike asked. Twilight looked at him.
"What do you mean?"
"You were smiling." Spike said, setting down the pile he had been carrying.
"Oh..." Twilight said, blushing slightly. "It's just... it feels like good old times, you know? You, me, room full of books and other assortment of written knowledge, cataloging and organizing it." She said. Spike nodded at her speech.
"True. It's been too long since you last visited the library back in Ponyville, you have been so busy with this whole war business."
"Yes, I think so too," Twilight said. "Been lonely?"
"To degree, it's weird on it's own way. Still, ponies kept visiting me so that I would not be totally alone."
"That's good to hear."
"So, how have you been?" Spike asked, sitting down. "Enjoying your work?"
"If you ignore that failure means destruction of Equestria... I have to admit this is exciting. So much new information, so much to learn. Take a look at this." Twilight said, pulling a book out of the pile and showing it to Spike.
"So, what is this? Looks like math, but I don't know some of these markings." Spike said, flipping over the pages.
"Neither do we, but we do know the basics of it. It's math, true, but that book holds the secrets of all Ancient knowledge." Twilight said. Spike stared at her.
"A math book?"
"Yes, a math book. Most likely their greatest achievement ever: they reduced world to math," She said, a glint of excitement in her eyes. "It's really genius when you start to look over it. How to calculate how hard something hits when you throw it. Why it flies, how far it will fly, how to make something fly." She said.
"Wait, what?"
"Yes, you see, it's all math to them. They even have math for how the world moves, what causes moon to rise and fall, how much the moon weights, or the sun weights, all done by math." Twilight was positively giggly at this point, something Spike had not seen since her illfated venture into alcohol. "It all comes down to math and math, is universal language."
"Sounds... complicated."
"Oh, but it isn't!" Twilight said. "Once you got the formula down, you can do anything. Then you jsut need to apply the information you get! For example..." She stopped and pulled several charts. "This is something we did based on their studies, it only uses the most basic knowledge, but it holds. They mastered magnetic," Twilight said.
"Wait, those stones and either reject or pull metal and each others?" Spike said, leaning forward.
"YES! See, here, their weapons generate a magnetic field, into which their system inject a projectile. Then they manipulate this magnetic field using electricity, directed to different parts of the rails, which magnetize, which causes the projectile to be pulled forward and pushed from the back, achieving incredible speeds in..."
Twilight spoke in more and more excited voice as Spike tried to follow her explanation. He didn't understand half of it, he had to admit, but it was good to see Twilight enjoying something.
"Even alchemy, they turned alchemy into math! Can you imagine it? Down to smallest possible particles, they got it mapped out!"
Spike just nodded at her. To him, most of this sounded rather far-fetched, everyone knew that world didn't operate on math. You could not calculate an apple into an existence or use math to turn water into soda. Then again, maybe it was a magic thingy.
"So, humans use math as base of their magic?"
"That's the incredible part, none of this has any magic in it!," Twilight said, earning a doubtful look from Spike, "It's all natural forces being manipulated. They mastered nature itself. They do not bend reality to do things as they need, they use reality. They must have strong connection to nature, perhaps even stronger than earth ponies!"
"Yeah, right, I believe that when I see it." Spike snorted.
"I just wish we could speak with them! How much we could learn? Large number of these symbols do not look anything like ours and I can't figure out what most of them mean!", Twilight continued, ignoring Spike, "Most importantly... could they have reduced magic to math? Could they have managed to calculate and write down the formulas? Imagine what we could do if we stopped just trying things, what we could achieve if we could understand the core nature of magic! No more repeating the old spells, no more slow trial-and-error method for research, we could get theoretical parts and test them before we would move to practical parts."
"I see. Well, not really, but I guess it's important to you." Spike said, rolling his eyes.
"It is. If we could translate this system to magic, it would be a breakthrough of the millennium!" Twilight looked at Spike. "This could be what could give the victory. Once we know how to make magic work on the very basic level, on pure energy level, we could devise spells never seen before."
"Okay, that I can understand. So, what's the problem?" Spike asked and Twilight seemed deflate little.
"We don't know how to take these measurements or what all these units mean. Newton? Mol? We need to figure what these mean in Equestrian terms. We figured out what their gram is, but their version of meter is... weird. According to books, it's the length of the path traveled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299,792,458 of a second. So... how do we calculate how fast light goes? In fact, it was a surprise to learn that they consider light something that moves, instead of existing."
"Wait, light moves?", Spike asked confused. He waved his hand, "Never mind. I kind want to ask something and I don't think it's going to be a good question."
"Go ahead."
"Well, if they got this ability to use nature, to have ability to change it on the core nature like you said, through math... Why haven't they won yet?"
"That... is a good question." Twilight said, stopping for a moment.
"I mean, we saw what they did during the first hour. Why haven't they repeated that? They always appear in numbers around thousands, I think largest concentration we have so far has been about ten thousand, right?"
"And how they fight war... if they do have full orbital movement, why are they attacking from a single point? Ponyville has so far been an exception to their actions, otherwise their troops move through land. Why have they not just landed everywhere in Equestria? Even from our perspective, these tactics and strategies are amateurish." Twilight pondered.
"Are they even warlike species?" Spike asked, "Maybe they got corrupted by something and are just learning how to fight war?"
"No, it can't be that. Their history is full of infighting. I wonder... yes, it could be."
"Could be what?"
"Well, consider this. They have fought for a very long time among themselves. They are very good at killing each others," Twilight said, earning a nod from Spike, "Now, let's say you are a very good, oh let's say, clothier, like Rarity. Now, on surface, one might think you also know how to make an armor, both are essentially clothes, yes?"
"Let me think, I think I got this..." Spike said closing his eyes, "Let's see... Rarity could probably design a good armor... but she could not make it."
"Exactly."
"I still don't get it." Spike said, shrugging his shoulders.
"Of for... They are not used to this kind of warfare. I do not know what kind of warfare they are, but it's not this. They are clearly not used to taking over entire nation or fighting magic users. They are learning as well. Reason why they seem so unstoppable, is because their weaponry is so devastating. They are brute forcing their way to victory." Twilight explained.
"So, they are strong but unskilled? Aren't we too unskilled in war?"
"Yes, but we know how to fight this type of war, even if it's only theoretical. We have a frame of reference for this. They don't," Twilight said, suddenly brightening. "We can use that against them. They didn't expect us at Ponyville, they expected us to meet them in Fillydelphia. I need to tell this to the generals, they can use it when they plan their next move."
Twilight ran out of the room, before returning.
"Spike dear, could you take care of rest of this? Thanks!" She said before bolting off again. Spike shook his head.
"Well, at least she's energetic again."
Biological Department Report 2, A
Head of Department: Case Study
Subject: Human potions
We have studied several substances that humans carried with them on their suits. We found out that, they are assortment of numerous different potions are most likely used to enhance their soldiers beyond their natural abilities. We have labeled these substances #1 through #12 and for this report, I have compiled our knowledge, test results as well as my suggestions on how to use them.
First of all, Potions #1 though #8 either do not help us or are toxic to us. Whenever this is due to differing biology or lacking certain type of compound, we do not know. However, I would suggest we stay away from these potions.
However, Potions #9, #10, #11 and #12 are different Ursa Major altogether. They enhance several senses as well as provide extra edge over the humans. They are included in this report and I refer you to read the, for detailed analysis.
As for how humans use them, as we have never seen them use potions on the battlefield, these potions are directly linked to their suits. Each suit carries about one vial of each potion, though we have found cases where suits carry more than one vial, at the expense of others. These vials are connected by tubes to injection system, that administers them. How this is exactly done, we do not know. Engineering department is working on that. However, designs do support idea that underneath the suits, there are solid creatures. Only upon death (or suit breach) do these creatures liquefy. We are still working on doses on which humans use these drugs to prevent the drawbacks.
Biological Department Report 2, B
Head of Department: Case Study
Subject: Potion #9, "Berserker"
This potion, when administered to the volunteer, caused the volunteer to enter a sudden rage, during which he attacked everything in his sight. Subject was also noted to not to notice pain during his rampage, even ignoring several glass shards embedded in his legs. No other effects were noticed. Subject later expired in the infirmary, due wounds suffered during his rampage. He did not remember anything from the time.
The effect lasted for about five minutes. We assume that the rage is an side effect for not feeling the pain, but it could be other way around. We found a way to synthesize this potion using several plants from the Everfree Forest. As such, it is my recommendation that we combine this potion with Potion #11 (Ref. BDR2D) to enhance our soldiers effectiveness on the battlefield.
Biological Department Report 2, C
Head of Department: Case Study
Subject: Potion #10, "Sensor"
This potion enhances pony's sensory system to level unseen before. Subject was noted to be able to think faster, even scoring twice over his initial IQ test and noticing details otherwise not noticeable. He later appeared depressed and, excuse my unscientific term, "dumber". We are still trying to see whenever or not this is merely a temporal withdrawal or permanent effect. Subject did notice that after taking a second dose, it felt like the first time.
My suggestion is that we keep this potion reserved to scientist and front line unicorns.
Biological Department Report 2, D
Head of Department: Case Study
Subject: Potion #11, "Buck"
This potion tremendously increases pony's strength. Subject was able to even bend steel after consuming the potion. So far, we have not yet seen any drawbacks, but subject has expressed desire to get more. Whenever this is due to potion itself or due to desire to feel "Strength of 10 stallions" again, is yet to be determined. The drug is very similar to several illegal drugs being smuggled from Zebra Union and as such, we believe we can synthesize this potion from said drug.
I would suggest we combine this potion with Potion #9 (Ref. BDR2B) to enhance our soldiers effectiveness on the battlefield.
Biological Department Report 2, E
Head of Department: Case Study
Subject: Potion #12, "Steady"
This potion is somewhat a weird one. It removes the natural twitches that the body causes, enabling pony to mimic statue. We would assume they use this to steady their hands during combat, to increase accuracy. We do not, at the moment, have use for this drug and we can't synthesize it, but should engineering department develop weapons similar to those of humans, I belive this potion could be highly useful.
To: Case Study
From: Princess Celestia and Princess Luna
Subject: Potions
Denied. Get rid of them. All of them. We are not using them until we know for sure what they do. We are not gambling our subjects lives.
Engineering Department Report 3 A
Head of Department: Wrecking Wrench
Subject: Human Golems
Human Golems, as we call them... are actually not. They are merely highly sophisticated pieces of machinery. They also require a pilot. Studies of the wreckage acquired in Ponyville show that the human is strapped inside, in a harness, which actions the suit then mimics. The suit mimicry is not perfect, as we have noted, they are somewhat slow and their movement range is small.
Another interesting thing, is that these suits have obvious signs that they are not designed for combat. Instead, whatever their original use, their converted for combat. Their bulky design as well as limited movement are a testament to this. The cannon in their back is especially jarring example: It's loading system is not adequately shielded.
How these things work, is a good question. A question we might never have an answer. It does not operate on clockwork systems or any obvious mechanism. Much like the air ships we captured, these machines are full of wires and greenboards. Unless we manage to somehow read the content of these greenboards, what logic runs them, we have no idea how the machine seems to know how to mimic the actions seeing how, once again, it lacks magic to do this(For possible explanation, see EDR3B).
However, the suits are interestingly designed. Studies show that they seem to small engines over the system. These are too small to propel enough energy to make the machine to move, but, if our assumption is correct, it is enough for the environment they normally operate. What we suspect, is that these machines are actually intended for non-gravity environment. In such environment, lack of ground base movement would not be a hindering, or even matter, as the suit would actually be flying.
Engineering Department Report 3 B
Head of Department: Wrecking Wrench
Subject: Machine Spirit
This is an interesting suggestion put forward by one of my assistants and I feel it has enough merit to be put forward. As I noted, we are still figuring out how the machine knows what to do and so forth, without obvious ways for this to happen- What my assistant suggest, is that human machines have what he calls "Machine Spirit" inside them.
This "Machine Spirit" would act like an assistant, operating the system where the human can't, for example, mimicking human movement or administering correct potions in correct doses without need by human to do anything. It would explain several things. He also suggest that this "Machine Spirit" would actually live in the greenboards that human machines seem to have in abundance.
As silly as this sounds at first, seeing the human technology and how it works make me believe that he is onto something. I am going to have a separate team studying this "Machine Spirit" and if we could request its(theirs?) aid for ourselves.
However, we do have good news. The metal acquired from the golems, while we can't produce such metal, we have did manage to gleam some interesting techniques used on them. We believe, if you greenlight this project, that by next year we will have an armor capable of withstanding a shot from the human weapons at range. There are also several modifications which we believe could improve combat ability of our soldiers.
To: Wrecking Wrench
From: Princess Celestia and Princess Luna
Subject: Armor
Do it.