The Beginning
Introduction
Nearly a thousand years had passed since Nightmare Moon had returned and been beaten by the Elements of Harmony and despite the technological increase in all the major countries of Magica, a new threat has just started revealing itself to the populace.
It started simply enough, strange lights being seen in the skies over various towns and cities, some even being seen by pilots or natural fliers as they made their way between towns. Ever since the turn of the century, about 1900ANM (After Nightmare Moon), the strange sightings had gotten increasingly more common across the planet until around 1960ANM when a report was made to the Princesses of a strange flying disk that had crashed near Appleoosa on Equestria’s border with the roaming tribes of Buffalo.
Pegasi Corps personnel from the 509th Bomb Group were the first military ponies on the scene and while many news crews attempted to broach a story about an alien space ship complete with alien crew, the soldier Pegasi steadfastly denied that there was anything alien about the crash as they gathered up the wreckage. Instead, it was claimed to be an experimental observation balloon, one that was supposed to allow unicorn and earth pony overseers monitor pegasi weather teams on the same level, which also explained the ‘aliens’ of course, as they were merely normal ponies in specialised clothing for working at height.
Every piece of physical evidence of the ‘observation balloon’ along with its contents was rushed over to Wright Airfield in the North Mountains where it disappeared from public view, only to be studied by those under the Princesses’ remits.
Over thirty years later, as more and more people of the different nations travelled and mixed, reports started of UFO activity across the globe. Most scientists wrote the reports off as hype from the incident near Appleoosa being over thirty years old, however the reports grew in frequency remarkably quickly and soon both the national press and the tabloids are reporting the incidents to the world at large, stating that Magica is, in fact, not alone.
By the end of the year, in 1998ANM, the world leaders face an increasing number of claims of foal-napping or the equivalent along with reports of mutilated animals, some of them pets. In response to the reports, many of the supposed victims are quarantined and examined by military personnel as the governments clamp down on the news reports, refusing to allow any news company to publish a report of a suspected encounter.
Between that and the increase in military readiness across the world, paranoia soon seeps into the hearts of many citizens and conspiracy theories run rampant across the globe. The most common one being that the world governments have not only made contact with the aliens, they either are aliens, are under their control or are working with them. Despite the rumours, the government scientists tasked with trying to find a way to communicate with the aliens receive no response from them.
As the year reaches its midpoint, the world governments are presented with the unenviable of dealing with an outside force that seems to be intent on causing terror on a global scale. As such, many start planning for potential military action against the aggressors.
Taking the lead, the gryphons of Iolaire formed the Razor Talons as their own anti-alien combat force. Unfortunately, despite the reckless courage of the gryphons that made up the unit, and access to the best equipment available to them, the group failed to intercept a single UFO and was shut down due to lack of funding at the end of the year, after a mere five months of operation.
With the failure of the Razor Talons, members of the Magica World Governments held an emergency, clandestine summit in Treetop City at the heart of what had once been the Everfree Forest. After several hours of argument and debate, it was unanimously decided that the nations that made up the MWG would fund a multinational task force to investigate and combat the aliens while drawing as little attention to them as possible. Each nation would put forward its best pilots, soldiers, engineers and scientists to form the Extra-Terrestrial Combat Unit or X-Com.
Even as the force gathered, the UFOs grew bolder and the reports of floating lights and violent abductions grew ever more common, increasing public hysteria along with proving the impotence of the conventional military forces.
After several months of work, Equestrian ponies completed the first X-Com base under Treetop City, a group of their best manning it as Iolaire provided their best weapons and the dragons provided armour and vehicles.
Credits to Grathryn fore making this 120% more awsome.