Two months later
It had been a long day. The palace was full action, diplomats coming and leaving. Zebra Union had decided that they would not be participating in the war, citing the lack of hostilities from the humans. That was the official reason. Unofficially, they were scared of what humans would do to them if they decided that zebras were a threat. Others were not able to provide any meaningful support.
However,as a surprise to everyone, even to Princesses. The Griffin Kingdoms had declared their intention to join the war on Equestria’s side. Ponies and griffins didn't really share a good history and griffins had to cross the ocean, but neither Princesses nor generals were going to deny an offer for assistance. Twilight thought that it was most likely due to High King wanting to consolidate his power, rather than wanting to actually help Equestria. Good war should earn him the respect of the griffins. In the end, it didn't matter. As long as griffins would be there to fight, she wouldn't care.
Night had already fallen by the time Twilight decided to leave. Princess Luna had been nice enough to lend Twilight her chariots, so she could return to Ponyville for some rest. Celestia had insisted that Twilight should take few days off, to relax and unwind. At the moment,she really didn't have anything pressing to do so she had agreed. Humans had been quiet after they had taken Los Pegasus, seeming to be happy to consolidate their power rather than keep up the momentum. After several counter-attacks, Royal Guard had managed to isolate the forces in Los Pegasus.
She looked over the landscape as the two batponies(well, pegasis with glamour enchantment to be precise) pulled the chariot across the sky.
"Wait, hold!", she shouted suddenly, "Take us down, there is something there."
As the chariot flew closer to the ground, she saw it was a small group of ponies, frantically waving their hooves and shouting something. The chariot landed few meters away from them and Twilight walked up to the group. Before she could say anything, one of the ponies, a grey earth pony, spoke to her.
"Are you from Canterlot? Are we anywhere near it?" She asked. Twilight nodded in response.
"Who are you? What are you doing here in middle of nowhere during the night?"
"Praise the sun!", the earth pony said, "We are from Appleloosa. We have been traveling for two weeks now, We first traveled to Baltimare, but the creatures were there too. Then we went to Fillydelphia, but we got there just as the creatures attacked there too."
"Appleloosa?", Twilight asked, her eyes wide, "Get into the chariot. You are coming with us to Canterlot.", She said, before remembering something, "Um, unless it's too much?"
Two bat ponies shook their head and the small group piled into the chariot. Twilight counted five ponies, one unicorn stallion, two earth pony mares and one filly and one colt. As the chariot rose and turned towards the Canterlot, she turned her attention to ponies.
"So... what can you tell me about the situation in Appleloosa?" Twilight asked. The earth pony mare, who seemed to be the leader of the group, hesitated.
"She's the head of counter-intelligence project, you can trust her.". One of the bat ponies shouted. Twilight nodded and the mare seemed to relax.
"Oh, good. We first thought that this was Princess Lunas carriage and when she wasn't on it..."
"She let me borrow it for a ride, but I think my trip can wait.", Twilight said, "Please, we need to know what's the situation in Appleloosa or in any of the occupied areas to that matter. Let's start from the begin, how did you escape?"
"Um, well, they began to build these camps, to hold us. Separate camps for unicorns and rest of us. A tornado hit the camp hit Appleloosa and we escaped in the chaos."
"I see.. oh, and the creatures, they are called humans."
"Humans?” the earth pony said as if to taste the word, “Can they be stopped? They seemed to be everywhere." The mare asked, worried and looking everywhere. Twilight thought for a moment before nodding.
"Yes. They have not yet crossed Ghastly Gorge and they recently tried to assault Ponyville. Their entire army unit was destroyed there." Twilight told them. The group seemed to release a collective sigh.
"So... they can be defeated?" The filly asked. Twilight noted that she couldn't be more than 6.
"Yes. Yes they can be.", Twilight answered and turned back to the mare, "What did the humans do to you once they had taken over the area?", she asked.
"Why do you ask?"
"Because we need to know why they are here. We are pretty sure this is not the first time they are here, but why they have returned is still a major question to us."
"Well, umm..."
"They opened up the dead.", the unicorn said, "They opened them, poked around their bodies, studied them..."
"Wait, studied?" Twilight asked.
"Yes. I saw them do that. Only to dead, however. They never killed any of us prisoners. Only ones who died during the attack."
"Yes, that was... little bit weird, to say the least.", the earth pony mare continued, "It was as if they didn't know what they should do with us. They did feed us and if someone got hurt, they healed them using some strange potions and devices. I never saw them use any magic on us, but their devices were quite magical, able to fly and such."
"I see..." Twilight said, deciding not to mention that the humans couldn't use magic. "What other did the humans do?"
"Not much, really." the earth pony said, "they just picked the some of the earth, put it into a strange machine and that's about it. They did build structures for themselves, but... we really didn't see them do anything. Though... they seemed to freak out when the autumn came."
"Hmm..." Twilight said as the towers of Canterlot Castle came to view. "This will have to wait. First, we are going to take care of you, get you washed and fed as well as take care of your wounds. Members of The Project will want to talk with you later, as will Princesses, most likely."
Following morning
Twilight, flanked by two guards, walked down the hallway towards the room where the refugees from the last night were housed at the moment. She had not really slept last night, but she didn't care, she had a job to do. She knocked the door before entering. Inside the room, two fillies were eating breakfast, under supervision of two other ponies. The leader of the group, the earth pony walked towards her. She had not really paid attention to their appearance, but now she noticed that she was black with white mane, with what looked like a paper and a quill for a cutie mark.
"Good morning everyone." She said. Two ponies watching the kids greeted her, while the kids merely waved their hooves, digging into pancakes they had been given.
"Good morning to you, miss...", the earth pony said before faltering, "I don't think we introduced ourselves last night, actually. I am Scroll Keeper, he is Light Orb,” Scroll Keeper pointed towards the unicorn stallion, “She is Seed Sprout,” Scroll Keeper pointed at the other Earth Pony, “and kids are Rock Thrower and Blue Berry."
"Nice to meet you all. I am Twilight Sparkle and I have been appointed as a Director of The Project. Our job is to spearhead research into invading human technology and society, as well as trying to figure out how to end this war.", Twilight said, nodding, "I am sorry to disturb you this early in the morning, but we really need information. We have only limited knowledge what happens in the occupied areas and every grain of knowledge helps us to find out what they want."
"What does it matter what they want? They are attacking us! We should just drive them away!" Light Orb asked in anger. Twilight looked at Scroll Keeper, before turning back to Light Orb.
"I am afraid that is classified information. Sufficient to say, we want to bring this war to swift end. Knowing why we are under attack would help a lot.", She said, hoping that her words were enough, "For now, Princess Celestia wishes to meet one of you for the first debriefing. Other members of The Project are there too. Others are to stay here."
"What about foals?" Seed Sprout asked.
"We... will try to see if they have any relatives in areas we still control. Otherwise, we might end up sending them to orphanage for the duration of war or until we liberate Appleloosa and their parents."
"Okay, I will come with you." Scroll Keeper said, earning a nod from two other ponies. Twilight gestured her to follow. As the two of them walked down the hallway, Scroll Keeper turned to Twilight.
"So... what happens to rest of us?" She asked.
"I don't know. I assume you will be given some place to live in, at least for the time being.", Twilight said, "Honestly, at this point, we are more focused on ending this war."
"Oh, okay. I was just worried that we would be thrown out after this."
"Don't worry, Princesses will take care of you."
"I have been meaning to ask this but... why haven't Princesses dealt with these attackers yet? Surely they have enough power to deal with them?" Scroll Keeper asked, making Twilight close her eyes for a moment. She opened them and turned to look at Scroll Keeper.
"Yes, they could defeat entire invading army alone, but there is a catch. Even to goddesses, more power you pour into your spells, less precise it becomes and takes longer time to cast. In effect, it means that for Princesses to deal with the enemy, they would also destroy the occupied areas. They want to save ponies still trapped in them.", Twilight explained, turning to look forward again, "There is also the fear that they would try destroying our cities again..."
"Destroy?"
"You... you don't know?" Twilight asked.
"No?" Scroll Keeper said, tiling her head. Twilight stayed silent for a moment.
"Manehattan is gone. Cloudsdale is in ruins. Canterlot countryside... well, you saw those holes in the ground. Los Pegasus, the same deal. They dropped asteroids on us. I guess we should call them meteors since they actually hit the ground. That's why they managed to land. We were confused and in disarray after such attack and by the time we finally heard about Appleloose, it was too late. The force sent to take care of the situation got annihilated. Princesses fear that their involvement would cause humans to do such attacks again and they need to be ready to protect other cities."
"That's... horrible!" Scroll Keeper said, her eyes wide open.
"Yes. Why they only did it once, is something we do not know. Are incapable of repeating the act? What we know of them they should be able to do it. They should be able to strike everywhere in the world, but they don't. Why? That is something we hope to find out. With the information you have, we might be one step closer." Twilight finished as they arrived to their destination.
Twilight opened the door and lead Scroll Keeper inside. Princess Celestia was waiting for them, with Princess Luna having already retired for the day already. Case Study, Letter Soup and Wrecking Wrench were also waiting by the table that was placed in the center of the room. Two scribes were sitting by the side, next a smaller table with two parchments ready. Twilight showed Scroll Keeper her place before taking her place on the other side.
"Alright, let's get this show on the road.", Wrecking Wrench muttered. Twilight gave him a look, but didn't say anything. Celestia merely nodded to the scribes, who grabbed the quills telekinetically.
"It is good see to see that there are still ponies alive in the occupied areas.", Celestia began, "Can you tell us your name and what you were doing before the invasion?"
"I... I... Uh... My name is Scroll Keeper and uh... I used to be tax collector." Scroll Keeper said, fidgeting in her place, refusing to look at Celestia. "Can I say it's an honor to meet you in person?"
"Please, honor is mine.", Celestia said with a smile, "What can you tell us about the attack?"
"Well, um, I was in Appleloosa when the attack came. Their carriages, ships like some called them, filled the sky and released hundreds of their soldiers. These soldiers ran around the city, killing anyone who tried to escape or attack them. I can't really say how long this lasted, but eventually they began to round us up.", Scroll Keeper said, her eyes closed, "After rounding us up, they began unload their equipment from their vessels, while some vessels took off to leave somewhere else."
"The Ghastly Gorge. Yes, the site of the first battle." Celestia said with a nod.
"What sort of equipment did they unload?", Wrecking Wrench asked, leaning forward.
"I really don't know, some sort of boxed. They took the town hall as their storage, carrying of them there.", Scroll Keeper stopped for a moment, "There was this time when they took some ground and put it into their machines. Whatever the machines did seemed to have frustrated them."
"Did they say anything to you?" Letter Soup asked.
"No really... that was the scary thing. They never spoke among themselves. Only times we heard them speak was when they talked to us, but it didn't sound natural. It was, like, some sort of filter, a mechanical voice."
Case Study nodded, not saying anything. Twilight could guess what he was thinking. Did humans have natural telepathy? It was obvious that they could communicate without spoken words, but Case Study and Wrecking Wrench disagreed whenever this was part of their biology or something done with their technology.
“How did they treat you?”, Celestia asked, “Were you mistreated? Forced to work? Did they provide you with food or anything else?”, Celestia stopped for a moment before nodding to herself, “Tell us about your captivity, with your own words.”
“Well, they never really mistreated us.”, Scroll Keeper said, putting a hoof on her chin, “At least, not intentionally, I felt.”, she added after a while, “At first they kept us outside, sleeping under the stars. After a month, I think, they build this thing, a camp. It was a high wired fence and some very simply, half-tube like buildings. We were then herded into this camp where we stayed until we managed to escape.
“They, separated unicorns from us. They put them in another camp, little bit further from us. That camp was a lot more guarded, almost three times the number of guards as we had. It was like they feared them.
“The food they gave to us was what had been stored in the town before they invaded. Apparently, for some reason, they can’t eat it. They did the same thing as they did with the ground, put some of it into their machines only to get results they didn’t like. At first, they gave us too little, but after a week the mayor tried to talk to them.
“They clearly didn’t understand him, gesturing him to go away and shut up. Thankfully he didn’t give up. He tried to tell them that they needed more or they would fall sick. He showed them some of the foals and the ration they had been given, with some more added from others. After about fourth attempt to make them understand, the guards called another of these...” Scroll Keeper paused for a moment, “Humans you called them?”, she asked Twilight. Twilight nodded.
“Yes, humans, they called another human. This one spoke to the mayor. We didn’t know what it said, but mayor still tried to explain. He asked some foals and adults to come and then made a rations fit for both. He tried to explain that ponies needed at least that much to survive. The human merely looked and after a while, nodded. It turned to other humans, not saying a word but it felt like a conversation was being held.
“After that incident, we started to get bigger rations. The human occasionally came and tried to show different sized rations, with different compositions. The mayor looked over them and showed what were good and what weren’t.
“Near the harvest season, the humans pulled several of us earth ponies out, taking us to the fields. They had us do the harvest and take the food to the storages. At first we tried to explain that a lot of us didn’t know how to do it.
“Thankfully, this time they understood us quickly and us go and ask who owned the fields and how they were supposed to be harvested. They didn’t let unicorns near the fields, no matter what, but with the help from the farmers we managed to get most of the harvest collected.
“When the autumn came and the leafs began to fall, it seemed like these humans started to panic. They were already wary of the natural events, like rain or a strong wind. They came to us and started shouting. We didn’t know what they wanted. The mayor tried to calm them down, with little success.
“We managed to escape when a tornado hit Appleloosa. Humans run from it, trying to get away. At first, it seemed like they were going to leave us to die, until one of them came back and unlocked the gates. I don’t know what the human said to us, but I think it tried to tell us to escape. After the tornado had passed, they began to round us up. About twenty of us managed to escape. We were later caught up by patrol and lost four ponies to them, two captured and two dead. Six more were lost in Baltimore.
“Once we got to Fillydelphia, humans had just arrived. Five of us decided to try to escape to Canterlot. Others... others were too tired. They said it would be pointless, that the invaders would be everywhere. That Equestria had already fallen. We refused to accept that.
“We tried to hide ourselves from the humans. They seemed to be everywhere in Fillydelphia. We almost got caught once, but managed to escape from the patrol. After that... well, you know rest of the story. Miss Sparkle found us and brought us here.”
Scroll Keeper fell silent as her tale concluded. The group remained silent as they digested the story that had been told to them.
“It seems your claim of them being ruthless, but not evil is true.”, Case Study said eventually, turning to Twilight, “Seems like they are taking care of the local pony population, despite their... well, ruthless method of waging war.”
“It gives us hope that this war can be ended without having to throw away lives of our subjects needlessly.”, Celestia said, “They have a goal, but that goal does not seem to be acquiring slaves or genocide. So what is it? Is it land they are after?”
“Could be. You said they were testing the land?”, Case Study asked Scoll Keeper.Scroll keeper nodded, “If I were to guess, they are looking for food, but the soil is not suitable for them. Whatever they are trying to grow, won’t be able to grow in the land.”
“Food? This war for food?” Scroll Keeper asked.
“We do not know.” Twilight said, giving Case Study a glare.
“That’s... stupidest idea I have ever heard. Why not talk?” Scroll Keeper asked.
“That is the question we are trying to figure out. It is unlikely to be just food they want. After all, the world is a big place and there is a lot of inhabited. There would be plenty of room for them.” Twilight said before mentally kicking herself.
“We need to discuss among ourselves. Guards will lead to back to your room. Thank you for your time.” Celestia said. Scroll Keeper nodded and bowed, before following guards who lead her out. After she had left and the group was sure she was far enough, Celestia turned to heads of the Project.
“Food?” She asked.
“Just an idea.”, Case Study said, shrugging his shoulders, “Or is resources? We can eat their food, as tasteless as it is. However, why can’t they eat ours? There is something, in the air and in the soil, that prevents them from eating it. However, if it was valuable resources and minerals, I would expect them to locate them first and then strike. It sounds like they have attacked first and then checked if whatever they are after is here.”
“Well, at least there are some good news. They are not here on a war of extermination. If they were, why take care of the prisoners?” Letter Soup said, “Not to mention, they allowed prisoners to carry out the harvest, clearly to feed them.”
“It is indeed good to hear that they are not actively harming ponies,” Celestia said, nodding, “I noticed something she said. They separated unicorns and had more guards on them. Not to mention, refusal to allow them to participate in the harvest... They fear magic. Why?”
“Maybe it’s harmful to them?” Twilight suggested. Case Study frowned.
“That... makes no sense. What sort of species would come to being that would be harmed by magic? It makes no sense. Magic is integral part of our universe. You remove magic and everything stops working.” He countered
“Then again...” Wrecking Wrench said, “Their technology has zero magic in it. How did that that author, what his name, Science Claus say once? Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic? Their technology certainly seems like it’s magic powered sometimes.”
“Yes, and their history books, the few we have, do not mention magic beyond mocking the notion of it.” Letter Soup said.
“So, they are anti-magic species?”,Twilight asked, “So, how would we win against them? If they can’t stand magic, why come here of all the places in the world? Surely, if they have capability to cross the stars they could find some other place.”
“I believe this merely reinforces our goal to learn their language,” Celestia said, “They have something they want, yet they are not... unreasonable. We need to be able to create some form of communication we could use to talk with them.”
“That is difficult for us to achieve,” Letter Soup said, dropping his head, “Their language has changed so much. It’s barely anywhere near their old language. I have seen some language drift in my work, modern ponies would not understand a word what was being said 1000 years ago, but this?” He shook his head, “You can probably identify word or two, but even that is guessing. We do not know how they pronounce the words.”
“Is that a problem?” Celestia asked.
“Quite. For example, let’s way term ‘object’. If you pronounce it as ob-ject, it means to be against something, but pronounce it ob-ject, you have, well, an object. Another is, well, chance we mishear things. For example, I have heard this few times from Griffins who are not that good in Equestria. When they mean to say ‘Blessing in disguise”, they accidentally pronounce it as “Blessing in the sky”. You notice how the small difference in pronunciation changes the result?”
Others nodded, with Wrecking Wrench and Case Study giving each other a look. Celestia remained silent for a moment before sighing.
“I need to go and take care of the court and war efforts. I trust you can deal with rest of this?”
“Yes, your Highness,” Twilight said, “You can count on us!”
Light Orb was next pony to be interviewed. He seemed to be more cautious than Scroll Keeper had been, his eyes darting everywhere in the room as he was brought in.
“Please, sit down. There is nothing to fear.” Twilight said, gesturing towards a chair. Light Orb nodded, but didn’t seem to relax. After sitting down, Twilight nodded and others and received confirmation nods from them.
“Very well, we shall start. Can you state your name and profession, as well the circumstances you were located at Appleloosa?”
“Okay. My name is Light Orb and I was visiting my grandmother. She has been ill for sometime and I wanted to be there for her,” Light Orb began, “I don’t really remember much of the attack itself. I was knocked out at some point and my memory is fuzzy. My first clear memory is that I woke up in a pile of corpses.”
“Say what?” Wrecking Wrench asked.
“A pile of corpses. They apparently confused me with one. Managed to scare of them quite badly when I stood up screaming. Thankfully, it was not carrying it’s weapon. It didn’t take long for them to surround me.
“After that, they took me to a doctor, or at least I think it was a doctor. It had doctors symbol on it’s shoulder.”
“Doctors symbol?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah, a red cross.”
“Hmm... Very well, please continue.”
“Well, after that they spend some time poking me with different things. I tried to use magic to keep them away, but that just make them angry and one of them knocked me out. Next time I woke up, I was tied down on a bed. I saw them bring in few dead ponies and... and...” Light Orb started to shake.
“It’s okay, take your time.” Twilight said, trying to sound comforting. Light Orb fell silent, taking deep breaths before continuing.
“I saw them bring the corpses in. Then... then they cut them open. Just like that. They cut them open and slowly removed organs, butting them in different containers with strange labels. I pretended to be asleep, only taking few quick peeks at them.
“After the third corpse, I decided to escape. Their focus was on the mare, I think her name was Flashy Gem. I snuck out of the room and into another. They had few more uncut corpses there, waiting to be brought. I tried to sneak out but there was a guard at the door. Fortunately, it was its back towards me, but I couldn’t get past it without exposing myself.
“Then, I heard noises. I couldn’t find any hiding place, so I laid down next to the corpses... again. I felt myself being lifted. I still didn’t dare to act. Only when I felt a blade cut into my stomach I screamed and tried to run.”
Light Orb fell silent again, taking breaths. Twilight wondered about the story that had been told. Only reason that she could think for such actions by the humans, that humans didn’t know about ponies. However, that didn’t make sense. They should have been well aware of ponies, especially since they knew where to attack. She focused back to Light Orb when he started to speak again.
“I didn’t get far. This time, the doctor injected something into me and I felt myself lose control of my limbs. I was afraid. I feel no shame admitting it. I was lifted on the table again and I feared they would just continue cutting me up.
“To my surprise, the doctor began to stitch me up. It cleaned the wound it had made and, despite not having said a word to each other, seemed to be angry at the guard that had brought me in. The guard gestured something, but I didn’t understand it.
“After the doctor was done, I was brought to other prisoners. My grandmother had survived, thank Celestia. We were treated relatively well, at least they didn’t actively hurt us. They did provide us food and if someone got hurt, some basic medication. Their medical skills, well, they weren’t as good as magic, but they worked.
“They didn’t like us unicorns. They kept us separate from the rest and under a constant guard. Some said we should try to break out, to use our magic to do so. However, most said that it would be better to obey the invaders. They had magic we had never seen and there was no point in angering them to attack us.
“I... I don’t think there is much more to tell. I assume that Scroll Keeper told you about the harvest and our escape?” Light Orb asked finally. Twilight nodded.
“Thank you for your tale. It has given us a lot to think of. We will call you later to clarify some things, but you may return to your quarters for now.” Twilight said. The guards escorted Light Orb out, before Twilight turned to others.
“Hmm, autopsies...” Case Study said, “Seems like they are equally clueless as we are. I admit, if we could I would do autopsy too.”
“Too bad they tend to liquify, making that impossible,” Letter Soup said, “Still, at least they aren’t actively killing ponies to get corpses to study. Unless others have contradicting news, well, humans have been treating captives relatively well.”
“Thank the sun for small mercies,” Twilight said.
“Indeed. We don’t need to worry that much for lives of prisoners, but I would still hate to leave them there,” Wrecking Wrench said, “But that is something generals need to figure out. Our job is to figure out these humans and provide tools to win this war.”
“I say we take a break for now. Grab lunch and then get the final testimony.” Twilight said, earning a nod from others.