1130, 25th February, 2016
The doors to Containment Chamber A3 slid open, and Dr Vahlen walked in, already tapping the details for the imminent experiment. Officer Bradford walked alongside her, and a handful of research staff followed them, along with two technicians carrying a table between them. The group dispersed upon reaching the control desk, the two chiefs of department stepping into the command space as the support staff assembled by the cell’s door.
“Officer Bradford, Doctor Vahlen,” the nearest of the two on-duty monitoring staff greeted them, “Good to see you again.”
“Doctor Vance,” Bradford replied, taking his ID tag from its place beneath his jersey and presenting it.
Dr Vahlen absently flashed hers without removing it from her coat or taking her eyes away from her data slate. “We’re ready to begin testing immediately,” she explained, swiping her finger upwards on her tablet and looking up, “the opening statements for the research report have been sent to your station.”
The technician glanced at his terminal, nodded, and confirmed the start of the experiment. The CO and the doctor exited the control booth and walked to the group assembled at the cell door. The table and a pair of chairs had already been set up inside.
Also inside, of course, was Twilight Sparkle, currently lying on the floor of the cell, her head upright but her eyes closed. Her breathing was very slow. Dr Vahlen paused when she saw this, before questioning one of the assembled aides.
The scientist shrugged. “She was sat like that when we moved the table in, Ma’am, not sure how long before that.”
“The self-repair thing again?” Officer Bradford suggested.
The head of research shook her head. “My first discussion with X-” she paused to clear her throat, “Miss Sparkle this morning indicated that yesterday’s activity was her learning English from the idle chatter of the research staff. That does imply that she is biologically sound, which would then imply that extensive use of psionic powers on her part can cause her physical exhaustion, given Incident 00-1162.”
Bradford nodded, still frowning. “So, what’s she doing?”
Dr Vahlen didn’t get to respond, as Twilight opened her eyes and looked round at them. “Oh, sorry!” she apologised, “I didn’t hear you come in!”
“Good morning, Miss Sparkle,” Dr Vahlen greeted the alicorn. She still found the use of a proper name for an alien a little odd, but then it was hardly the most unusual thing about their guest from her perspective.
“Good morning, Doctor Vahlen,” Twilight replied, “and good to meet you, Officer Bradford.”
“You too, Miss Sparkle,” Bradford replied more naturally, “we’re ready to begin the interview, if you’d like?” He offered her the nearest chair with one hand.
Twilight knew it wasn’t really her decision, but she played along, trotting up to the chair and climbing into it while the two heads of department sat on the other side of the table. Truth be told, the chair didn’t fit her very well – the seat of it wasn’t quite big enough for both her posterior and front hooves, and she couldn’t shuffle backwards to make more room due to the upright back of it. Still, it was cushioned (a wonderful feeling after sleeping on a cold steel floor for a week), and she could rest her front hooves on the table, so no real problem.
“Experiment X-014-1-G, Diplomatic Interview, interview begins,” Dr Vahlen spoke clearly as she sat down. “To start, would you prefer Miss Sparkle, Princess, or-”
“Just Twilight is fine, thank you,” the alicorn interrupted, a little embarrassed, “The princess thing is more of a technicality than anything.” Dr Vahlen nodded, and made a note on her data slate, only for Twilight to continue; “Also, since I’m sure we both have a lot of questions for one another, could I suggest that we take this in turns? You ask one, and then I ask one?”
“That seems reasonable,” Officer Bradford said with a nod, “although some of our organisation’s affairs are classified information. Obviously we have to comply with our security policy when answering.”
“That’s fine,” Twilight replied, “I’ll let you go first, if you like.”
“Thank you, Twilight,” Doctor Vahlen replied first, “I’d like to start by asking about the revised introduction you gave this morning.” She placed her data slate in the middle of the table, the completed research report open and the relevant paragraph filling the screen. “You used a few words that aren’t technically English, notably here and here,” the head of research explained, pointed to the words ‘Celestia’ and ‘Equestria’, "and a word that, while technically English, doesn't make sense in the context you gave," she said, pointing to ‘alicorn’.
Twilight nodded. “For Celestia I just worked backwards from Celestial, meaning sky-based or heavenly. The proper word works fine in Equine, but it doesn’t sound like a name in English because it’s an adjective. And yes, the dual meaning of heavenly applies to her too,” the young alicorn added, “Princess Celestia is… well, at least a thousand years old, and has the duty and power to raise the sun each morning and set it at night. Her sister Princess Luna handles the moon, by the way.”
Officer Bradford frowned in concern, while Dr Vahlen’s eyebrows shot upwards. “That… I will ask about later. Though I can’t help but wonder why you didn’t use the existing name Celeste?”
Twilight blinked. “Huh. Apparently Sergeant Murray’s never heard that one before. Well, in any case Equestria is much the same, a new word based of the original English ‘equine.’
“As for this word,” Twilight pointed out ‘alicorn’ on the data slate, “this takes a little explaining. So, in Equestria, we have three types of ponies – unicorns, pegasus ponies, and earth ponies. That’s ponies associated with the earth and nature, by the way, not ponies from this planet. Unfortunately Sergeant Murray didn’t know a better distinction that I could use.
“Anyway,” Twilight continued as she waved a hoof dismissively, “there exists a fourth type of pony, like myself, that possess the abilities of all three races. Now, the naming for this is a little clunky, because it’s denoted by simply attaching the word ‘all’ to the front of any particular pony’s original race. So I’m an all-unicorn, whereas my sister-in-law Princess Cadance would be an all-pegasus, since she was originally a pegasus.”
“And now there are four of them,” Bradford muttered, not quite quietly enough, before sighing.
Twilight heard, but didn’t respond. “However, in English it’s a little… messy, because your language is a little more drawn-out. Equine is fairly compressed by comparison, so I took the liberty of shortening the term to Alicorn. Though if it's already a word, I-”
“No need to change that," Dr Vahlen said with a shake of her head, "the word is little used as it is. But what of Princesses Celestia and Luna, how are they referred to?”
Twilight tapped a hoof to her chin. “Well, most of the time they’re referred to with a generic term – what would roughly translate to Alipony, although I’m sure I’ve read Celestia being referred to as having once been a pegasus somewhere… Anyway!” she grinned, “My turn to ask. How did I get here?”
The two XCOM personnel glanced at each other, before turning back to Twilight. “You mean you don’t know?” Officer Bradford asked.
Twilight shook her head. “As far as I know, I was walking to a friend’s house, started to feel sort of… thin. Stretched thin, like pastry trying to cover too much pie, or something. I started feeling light headed, got dizzy, and fell unconscious, and the next thing I know I’m waking up in a forest somewhere, surrounded by soldiers pointing weapons at me.” She placed her hooves flat on the table, “Anything you could tell me about the circumstances on my appearance would help out a lot.”
XCOM’s CO looked away in thought before replying, “We received an emergency report from the emergency services in Canada, about…” he checked his watch, and nodded, “almost exactly one week ago, as it happens. A lone hunter out in the forests – they stretch for hundreds of miles up there – was startled by you suddenly appearing within about thirty feet of him. From what he said, there was a loud cracking sound, and you were just there, curled up on a circle of scorched dirt.”
“Hmm,” Twilight tapped her chin again, “that sounds like a teleportation misfire, although that wouldn’t explain why I was unconscious. I wasn’t even using magic myself, either…”
“Well, according to the psion of the team we sent to recover you, you were putting out a lot of psionic energy before you woke up,” Bradford explained, “it was giving her one hell of a headache, her squad tell me.”
“That… could have been my magic acclimatising to the local standard. I’ve noticed magic works a little differently here. For a start, it’s apparently possible to attempt full-blown mind control with raw magic, judging by her actions.”
“Well, we’ve had some impressive results from the technique,” Dr Vahlen explained, “both from laboratory tests and action reports. Captain Pimenova especially has a good track record in terms of battlefield application of the ability.”
Twilight smiled. “I gave her a bit of a wake-up call when she tried it on me, then?”
“Not exactly,” Officer Bradford deadpanned, “She’s in a coma.”
The smile couldn’t have fallen from the alicorn’s face any faster. “Oh, Celestia, no,” she prayed, dread filling her voice, “is she going to recover?” Twilight suddenly sat bolt upright, her eyes wide and her pupils pinpricks. “Oh no, is Cameron-!”
“Sergeant Murray is perfectly fine, Twilight,” Dr Vahlen reassured the purple princess, “he has undergone two separate psychiatric evaluations following testing with you, and neither has shown any resultant mental trauma. Captain Pimenova’s condition is stable, although we are detecting a lot of unusual neural activity, almost as if her mind is actively-”
“Rearranging itself,” Twilight finished, lowering in her seat again, “trying to form connections to fragmented memories and knowledges. Either I accidentally erased some of her mindscape while trying to prevent her controlling me, or worse, I wrote something new in.”
Bradford raised an eyebrow. “A new memory would be worse?”
Twilight nodded. “If I wrote in some of my own knowledge, her mind will do anything to try and connect it to her memories, to make sense of it. Most knowledge is tied to the memory of learning it, and without that memory it starts trying to connect to anything relevant, which can cause problems. That’s what I was doing when you walked in, by the way,” Twilight added, “removing all of Sergeant Murray’s memories from my mind, and linking the knowledge I needed to keep into my own memories.”
“So that explains why you suggested learning English by that method last?” Dr Vahlen inquired.
Twilight shook her head, “No, I suggested that last out of respect for any subject’s privacy. It’s not really the done thing in Equestria, and I didn’t want to start a habit of doing it here. Even then, I had the safeguard that any memories of his that I temporarily acquired were tied to my memory of mindwalking with him,” Twilight’s voice became grave again, “which Captain Pimenova won’t have if she had any of my memories forced into her mind.”
“How bad could that be, exactly?” the head of research asked.
The alicorn grimaced. “Very bad. Her mind would have to try and make sense of the new memories by itself, since they won’t be automatically connected to her existing ones. In the best case, her subconscious will realise that the new memories don’t belong, and either erase them or store them in a separate connection. Worse than that, though, if I erased any of her existing memories at the same time, her mind might try to use my memories to fill in the blank spaces.”
“So she might wake up thinking she turned into a small purple unicorn for ten minutes a few years ago?” Bradford summarised.
“On the lower end of things, yes,” Twilight admitted, her voice hopeful, “and that could be fixed with simple re-education. If you were willing to use psionics, it could be resolved within a day. But,” the alicorn sighed, “I was using a lot of raw magic when I pushed her out. I couldn’t really begin to guess how much of her mind was damaged, or how many of my memories she has. She could wake up with the last eight years gone. She could wake up with nothing before last Tuesday. Worst of all, she could wake up thinking she’s me.”
There was silence at the table for a moment, which Dr Vahlen broke; “Could we possibly have a trained psion-”
“No!” Twilight shouted, before collecting herself, “Any mental contact now could interrupt her mind’s own self-repair! She might never wake up if that gets disturbed! Just…” the alicorn placed a hoof to her chest, and took a slow breath to calm herself, “Just give her time. If the mental activity you’ve witnessed is her mind starting the repair process, she’ll recover. She may not be entirely herself, but she’ll be alive, and awake. We can help her from there.”
Officer Bradford nodded appreciatively. “It’s good to know that you care about our soldiers’ wellbeing more than any of our other guests do. More than some of the soldiers, actually,” he smiled a little, before becoming serious again, “I believe it’s our turn to ask next. Doctor?” he offered, gesturing to his colleague.
Dr Vahlen nodded. “You’ve been making a distinction between your psionic abilities and those of our soldiers,” she explained, “referring to them with different terminology, after you had learned… a certain word.”
“Magic,” Twilight offered helpfully.
“…Yes. And yet before you learned that word, you referred to your own abilities as psionics, the same as we do, suggesting that they are similar enough as to be interchangeable,” Dr Vahlen said, scrolling the data slate’s screen to Twilight’s first introduction. “My question is, what is the distinction?”
Twilight nodded. “Okay, that question sort of has two answers. First of all, in Equestria magic is a real, metaphysical energy. It permeates and exists within all living creatures, no matter how big or small. It’s especially prevalent within ponies, as well as other magical creatures such as manticores, dragons and timberwolves.”
Dr Vahlen raised an eyebrow quizzically. “Dragons?”
“Yes, dragons,” Twilight replied nonchalantly, “It should start making sense in a minute. Now, magic as it exists within a creature is known a raw magic, a pure metaphysical energy that can be channelled into physical forces or energies by natural abilities or unique biology. A dragon’s fiery breath, a cockatrice’s petrifying gaze, an earth pony’s resilience and ties to nature, and a pegasus’ flight and cloud manipulation are all expressions of raw magic.”
“So you do use psionics to lift yourself,” Dr Vahlen noted, pointing at Twilight’s folded wings.
Twilight spread her wings to demonstrate them better. “Well, raw magic, yes, but the point is that it’s subconscious – none of the above, with the exception of perhaps the cloud manipulation, are things these creatures can actively decide to use or not use. A pegasus flaps their wings, and their raw magic will always empower the wing stroke.
“And then there’s unicorns,” Twilight continued, placing a hoof on her own chest, “along with a few of the more learned dragons and a handful of other creatures besides. We can channel our raw magic through our horns, and shape it into codified magic, which can have more varied effects. A dragon’s breath just converts raw magic into heat, for example, but a unicorn’s horn can turn raw magic into light, sound, movement of objects, creation of physical materials, manipulation of emotions, and more. It’s not more powerful, per se, but it opens up a lot more options. This is basically achieved by creating an array of raw magic conversions, such as heat, light, and sound, and letting them interact and amplify one another. It’s… difficult to fully explain,” Twilight frowned, “but that’s the basic idea.
“What I find interesting is that raw magic doesn’t seem to exist the same here,” the alicorn continued, “instead you have the metaphysical energy that you’ve termed psionics. Just from a preliminary study, I’ve been able to deduce that instead of being tied to life energy like raw magic, psionic energy is tied to emotional energy. That doesn’t actually mean that stronger feelings of emotion make for a better psion, by the way, but it does raise two interesting points – one, psionic energy can only exist within a sentient creature capable of feeling emotion on an advanced level, and two, psionic energy has more uses than raw magic, because it can be shaped by sheer willpower. This explains why your psions are able to achieve such results with little to no formal training.
“What really interests me, however, is that the distinction seems to stop there,” Twilight began to bring her lesson to a close, “I’m perfectly capable of channeling my own psionic energy into codified magic the same as I would raw magic. The main limit I’d experience doing so is that I can’t take psionic energy from my allies or surroundings; although I can still make use of psionic energy willingly offered by other psions, that same as your own soldiers can. Psi Inspiration, Sergeant Murray called it, I think?”
Dr Vahlen glanced at the handful of scientists sat along one edge of the cell, all taking notes with furious speed. “We haven’t seen any example of the… ‘formalisation’ of psionics you’ve been describing,” the head researcher spoke, “but I suppose it theoretically could be possible. Specimens of X-013-A and a handful of our stronger soldiers are capable of projecting psionic energy as a tangible physical force – from what you’ve said, this psionic energy could be used to create other physical energies, and then combined to have alternate effects, correct?”
“That’s correct,” Twilight hesitantly replied, “but I’m not sure whether humans could learn codified magic. A unicorn’s horn contains a specialised neural structure that humans may well lack, though I couldn’t begin to explain how it actually works, sorry.”
“Well,” Dr Vahlen admitted, “we’ve only very recently begun to understand much about how our own minds operate, and mostly from recovered data on our enemy’s… less ethical research into the subject, let’s say.”
Twilight grimaced, but nodded. Though she had already removed the specifics of the memory, Sgt Murray had been present on one of the alien base assaults XCOM had undertaken – the alicorn understood a small fraction of the horrors the aliens had committed in the name of science. “Okay, so I’ve already explained that psionics is different from raw magic, and you’ve explained that I appeared in what seemed to be a teleportation accident,” the alicorn summarised, “so my next question is, do you or the aliens you’ve been fighting have access to any dimensional travel technologies or powers?”
Dr Vahlen glanced at Officer Bradford, who simply nodded at her in response. “Yes,” the head of research answered, “the aliens seem to have an advanced communications system that operates by transmitting data through a spatially compressed sub-dimension. Reports from our final assault on the alien capital ship also suggest that they were teleporting in more combat troops during the battle, rather than waiting for them to arrive by foot.”
Twilight smiled. “Well, that helps. There’s a good chance that my being here is a result of one of those two technologies, or a combination thereof.”
“You’re saying that you believe the aliens might have summoned you here?” Officer Bradford queried, frowning. “Why?”
“I don’t know,” Twilight replied, “but Sergeant Murray believed that they were searching for powerful psionic entities. I’m certainly one of those, aside from being able to codify magic properly, but…”
“But then why were you in the middle of Canada and not on an alien ship?” Bradford finished for her. Twilight simply nodded in response.
“We aren’t likely to see any more developments on these technologies any time soon,” Dr Vahlen explained, “though my team will look into the possibilities. I take it you believe you may have travelled between universes, rather than simply across a long distance?”
Twilight smiled. “Exactly. Magic should still behave the same regardless of how far you go, in the same way as the laws of physics are always a constant. It operating differently here very heavily implies that this is a different universe,” she explained. “Now, I’ve had a little experience with alternate universes before, but that time I had a clear way home throughout my stay.”
Dr Vahlen blinked. “You’ve explored other realities before?”
Twilight nodded, and frowned a little. “Okay, this is basically going to be a whole chapter of my life. Do you mind if I take that as one of your questions?” Both humans agreed, and Twilight began to explain, “I’m not Princess Celestia’s first personal student. Before me, there was a unicorn named Sunset Shimmer…”
***
1145, 25th February, 2016
“Wait, wait, hold up,” Lt Cunningham laughed, “‘Twilight Sparkle’? What kind of a name is that?”
Sgt Murray shrugged. “Flying psionic unicorn, Yeti,” he explained simply, “Don’t ask me why she’s named what she’s named.” He stuck another forkful of roast potato into his mouth.
“Yeah, but, ‘Twilight Sparkle’? Where do you even begin with a name like that?” the heavy asked, still chuckling.
Sgt Lefevre finished chewing, swallowed, and spoke, “So, if she turns out really sarcastic and so on, you know?” He grinned. “‘Twilight Snarkle.’”
“Oh man, that the best you got?” Cunningham asked.
“Well, I don’t see you coming up with better,” the Frenchman replied.
Cunningham nodded, thinking, before a broad grin broke across his features. “Here, get this; so if she turns out to be really sneaky and stealthy? ‘Spylight Sparkle.’”
“Okay, I think our squad just hit a new low,” Sgt Marquez put his fork down, “And I still don’t get why we call Bakker ‘Congo’.”
The whole table turned to look at Captain Bakker, who thought for a moment before replying.
“‘Shylight Darkle’. Because she’s got violet hair, right?”
The whole squad groaned.
***
1147, 25th February, 2016
“…and then I brought the Element of Magic, Spike and myself back to Equestria, leaving Sunset in my Canterlot High friends’ care.” Twilight finished explaining.
“That…” Dr Vahlen began, unsure what to make on the alicorn’s tale of alternate universes, overly colourful humans, high school politics, and friendship-powered demon purging. She glanced at Officer Bradford, only to find him sat back in his chair with his arms folded, a look of utter bewilderment on his face.
“I admit,” Twilight said, looking a little embarrassed, “probably the second weirdest experience of my life.”
“Yes, well,” Dr Vahlen shook her head to clear her thoughts, “this does raise a number of questions regarding inter-dimensional travel. I understand that your world has the means to create such a portal, but how did a… civilisation,” she hesitated to call a species that the alicorn had described with such broad skin tones and lithe figures ‘human’, “with a technology level only comparable to ourselves - and no psionic potential - make a portal to link to the one in Equestria?”
Twilight sighed. “I don’t know. I’d have gone through the portal again to try and study it, but it only opens every thirty moons. And, again, I don’t know why that is either,” she said, answering the question Dr Vahlen was about to ask. “With the Mirror Portal all the way in the Crystal Empire, I can’t exactly study it at my leisure.”
“Well…” Dr Vahlen wracked her brains for something else to say, “at least we know that material travel between dimensions is not only possible, but controllable. That may become important to our own efforts.”
“It’s very important to mine,” Twilight pointed out, “I want to go home at some point.”
Bradford frowned for a moment, but then nodded. “Very well, feel free to ask your next question.”
“Okay,” Twilight said, “this alien invasion you’ve just undergone. Sergeant Murray understood the basic premise, and the global scale of things, but not their intention. Do you know why the aliens invaded, exactly?”
XCOM’s CO shook his head, “In short, no. We think they were testing us, according to transmissions from Strike One during the capital ship assault,” he explained. “Colonel Taylor, who had already used an alien device to contact the Ethereals, kept receiving psionic messages from their leader throughout the mission. Apparently they needed psionic warriors for some purpose, strong in both mental and physical combat.”
“It’s a shame we couldn’t recover the leader captive,” Dr Vahlen added, “that way we could have some clearer answers.”
Twilight frowned. “Have you asked Colonel Taylor about this?”
All assembled XCOM personnel went silent for a moment. Bradford was the first to speak again. “Taylor didn’t make it back from the mission, Miss Sparkle,” he said gravely.
Twilight's shoulders and wings drooped as the reality of the alien war hit her again. "Oh..."
“Following the alien leader’s death, the capital ship began to collapse in on itself, much like a dying star collapses into a black hole,” Dr Vahlen continued. “Strike One were ordered to evacuate, but Colonel Taylor refused, instead taking control of another alien device, and through it, the whole ship. The ship began moving upward, away from the planet, and shortly detonated. Much of the debris was disintegrated upon re-entering the atmosphere, along with… any personnel on board.”
“The strongest, bravest, most determined soldier XCOM had, in exchange for the entire Earth,” Bradford nodded solemnly, “Taylor’s sacrifice, as well as those of the other forty-two men with their names on the memorial wall, will never be forgotten.” There was a short, respectful silence, before the CO shrugged. “So, given how the Ethereals perform tests, be glad you only had to face the doctor here,” he smiled.
Dr Vahlen fixed Bradford with a hard stare as Twilight giggled. “Yes, very funny. Now, Twilight, I couldn’t help but wonder; you’re a princess, but you work for another princess?”
“Well, yes,” Twilight replied, “Princess Celestia is, in function, more like our queen than a princess, but she uses Princess to prevent her from being thought of more highly than her sister, Princess Luna. It’s been more like a diarchy than a monarchy since her return, although she had to be brought up to speed on all the social developments of the last thousand years first,” Twilight said with a tired smile.
Officer Bradford blinked. “Where did she go for a millenia?”
Twilight’s smile faltered a little, but she pressed on. “Okay, so about fifty years after Celestia and Luna first came to power…”
***
1151, 25th February, 2016
Dr Shen looked over the design before him, before looking over his glasses at the eager man in the lab coat before him.
“No, Hal,” the chief engineer spoke tiredly, before turning and walking toward the door.
“But Ray!” the younger man protested, “The efficiency of the design is a whole quarter higher than last time! With even small amounts of the Meld substance-!”
“I said no, Hal,” Dr Shen spoke again, “I can’t condone the use of our technology in this way. Your intentions are noble, but I just don’t see this,” he gestured to the blueprint on the desk, “as the solution to our problem.”
“But Dr Shen,” the scientist spoke pleadingly, straightening his own narrow glasses, “We have over twenty men out of duty! And given the Meld’s status as a cybernetic nanomachine…”
“This is the one line that the aliens crossed and we have not, Dr Emmerich,” Dr Shen replied, “that I consider the most dangerous. Psionics happens to be a latent part of our physiology, I accept that. Dr Vahlen’s genetic modification of our soldiers I can abide, given that it can be reversed. But this?” He shook his head.
“You’re refusing to help our own wounded soldiers,” Hal pointed out.
Dr Shen shrugged. “I’m refusing to condemn them to be changed, permanently changed, into war machines. Our empathy for one another is what got us through this war, Hal. I won’t be responsible for casting it aside.”
***
1158, 25th February, 2016
“…and she’s been helping rule Equestria again ever since,” Twilight finished speaking.
“You really like making friends with your enemies, don’t you?” Officer Bradford said with a smile.
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Yes, I do, even if sometimes I’d really rather not.” Bradford lifted one eyebrow, but said nothing.
Dr Vahlen, however, did speak. “These ‘Elements of Harmony’,” she began, “do they function as energy reservoirs, or…?”
“Sort of,” Twilight replied, “They contain a pool of raw magic, a very powerful one at that, along with a pre-set spell array that can reflexively adapt to harmonize whatever it’s called to act on. I’m not sure exactly how they determine what effect they ought to be producing,” she admitted, “but regardless, they can’t operate on their own. Each needs to be carried by a pony who, in some way, embodies the virtue that the Element is aligned with. Once all of them are worn by such a pony, whoever has the Element of Magic can activate them, causing the spell array within each Element to draw from the wearer’s own raw magic, as well as that of the Element.”
“So, they can’t be fired without being worn?” Bradford asked, “You need six people regardless?”
“Yes,” Twilight confirmed, “So if you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking, no, you couldn’t mount any of them on a SHIV.” She giggled at the thought of a boxy combat drone being fitted with a magic necklace.
The CO didn’t join in her laughter. “Well, if they somehow turn up here, I could think of some potential candidates to carry most of them. Magic would be a bit of an issue, but you’d probably want to handle that.”
Twilight frowned. “If that did happen, I think we’d need to test if only confirmed psions can use them. Every sentient mind has psionic potential, but not all of you are able to realise it, whereas every pegasus and earth pony can utilise their raw magic. Hmm,” she nodded, making a mental note to do so if the Elements showed up.
“You mentioned alternate effects of firing them?” Dr Vahlen prompted.
Twilight nodded and replied, “Yes, such as in Luna’s case they un-Nightmared her, whereas for Discord they petrified him. Twice, actually.”
The doctor frowned quizzically. “Discord?” she asked.
Twilight sighed. “Well, alright,” she said with a roll of her eyes, “back before Celestia and Luna came to power…”
***
1201, 25th February, 2016
With the soft click of a door opening, Jacob Jenkins entered his boss’ office. “You, err, wanted to see me, sir?” he asked nervously.
The bald head of his boss slowly lifted upward. “Ah, Jenkins,” he said, his voice barely more than a whisper, “close the door behind you, please.”
The junior accountant did so, gently pushing the solid oak panelling until the soft click was heard again. At the push of a concealed button under the polished walnut desk, a half-dozen three-inch bolts locked the door with a muffled clunk.
“Take a seat, please,” the executive offered, gesturing to a small steel and black leather chair opposite the desk from him, far smaller and less grandiose than his own full-height, cushioned oak furniture.
Jenkins anxiously walked to the chair, his polished shoes not daring to make a mark on the cream carpet covering the floor. He gripped the arms of the chair with white knuckles as he sat down.
The executive smiled. “Left arm, Jenkins,” he said, while raising his own and gripping the cuff of his sleeve.
Jenkins mimicked the action, and both men revealed their forearms, displaying a dark tattoo of circles and lines that ran up the inside of each man’s forearm.
“What is my duty, sir?” Jenkins asked, all hint of his former anxiety vanished. The act served him well, but now was not the time.
The executive smiled. “We have made contact, Jenkins,” he replied, knowing the name was false but using it regardless, “and we need a spokesman. You have always struck me as a man who can be readily relied on, when necessary.”
“What’s our stance, sir?” Jenkins asked as he nodded.
“They are desperate,” the executive explained, “as you would expect. We, meanwhile, are asking for comparatively little for assisting them. That is important, remember; we are assisting them, not the other way around. Certainly, we will need to… make sacrifices, to maintain that delusion, but we can stall no longer. Should you be successful, there will be ample reward for you, of course.”
“Yes sir,” Jenkins said, sitting up a little straighter. “Who is my contact?”
“He did not leave a name,” the executive replied, “just a place, and a time. Be there.”
***
1207, 25th February, 2016
“…and he’s been ‘reformed’ ever since,” Twilight said through gritted teeth.
“You don’t believe that?” Dr Vahlen asked.
Twilight gave her a flat look. “Well, he’s been a little more restrained since then, I suppose,” she admitted, “but considering what he did to me, to my friends…” she lowered her head and huffed.
“I’m sure anyone would have a hard time forgiving him,” Officer Bradford agreed.
“This ‘Chaos magic’ of his, is that a unique means of using his raw magic, or the same as yours, merely used more… haphazardly?” Dr Vahlen asked.
Twilight lifted her head and puzzled the thought over for a second. “Well, his magic was unaffected by my failsafe spell,” she reasoned, “but I don’t think it’s too different – I’d be able to make a more reliable one if he’d stay still long enough to let me.”
“Failsafe spell?” the head of research pressed.
Twilight nodded and grinned. “So, you’ve probably worked out that psionics can be modelled as a wave?”
“Yes, although variances in the wave don’t appear to have any effect on certain properties of the psionic power being used,” Dr Vahlen noted.
“That’s due to the metaphysical duality,” Twilight explained, “similar to wave-particle duality in light, only… not a particle. It’s complicated, but the psionic wave sort of carries the intent of the psion. Now,” she set her hooves before her on the table, and gestured with them to aid her explanation, “you already know that magic is comprised of multiple psionic waves artificially amplifying each other, right? What do you think happens if you introduce a psionic wave of equal power and frequency, at a one hundred and eighty degree difference to a psionic wave?”
“Well, naturally the two would cancel each other out,” Dr Vahlen surmised, “Although in practice-”
“In a pure psionic battle the force of will of each psion overrides the wave properties, yes,” Twilight pre-emptively agreed. “But when using magic, the intent is split between the waves equally, so they’re more vulnerable to being countered. If you introduce a counter-wave to the higher amplitude waves in the array, you can cause the whole spell to fail for much less effort than it took for your opponent to cast the spell. It’s difficult to do reactively, but general-purpose failsafe spells exist to counter some of the more common magical frequencies. Similarly, most defensive spells are built on less-commonly used frequencies, so that whoever you’re up against can’t bring down your defences with the first spell they ever learned.”
“Extraordinary,” Dr Vahlen said, her mind already whirring with the possibilities, “would it be possible to generate counter-waves artificially?”
“If you have a means of artificially creating psionic abilities already, then yes,” Twilight agreed, “but since psionic power is tied to sentience, whatever device you use has to be at least artificially self-aware.”
“That, and we haven’t encountered any aliens with actual magic, doctor,” Officer Bradford pointed out, “I doubt we could justify the expense of creating such a system, especially if it won’t protect against regular psionic attacks.”
Dr Vahlen sighed. “Well, at least if the problem arises we have some initial idea of how to properly react. Anyway, you mentioned a ‘Crystal Empire’ earlier, what-”
“No! No no no no!” Twilight said, doing her best bossy voice and holding up a hoof to silence the doctor. It didn’t hide the playful smile on her face, however. “I just answered two of your questions in a row, so I think I’m entitled to at least one of mine.”
Dr Vahlen frowned at the alicorn, before looking at Officer Bradford, who shrugged. “We did agree to those terms,” he reminded her.
Twilight’s smile broadened into a grin. “Okay, so now that we’re all back on the same page, Meld and Elerium. What are they?” she asked.
“Meld is a crystalline suspension of cybernetic nanomachines,” Dr Vahlen explained, “which, when thawed and programmed correctly, are incredibly useful in the bonding of separate bodies of flesh, as well as the rewriting of cellular DNA. Using Meld, we’ve managed to create a successful genetic modification program, which modifies soldiers who volunteer to better survive the rigours of battle. Our early attempts were focused on improving existing human physiology, but with continued study of the aliens, we have trialled some augmentations that incorporate alien DNA and body structures.”
Twilight nodded slowly. “Okay, I’m… not sure I got all of that, if I’m honest,” she explained, “biology isn’t one of my strong subjects, but it sounds like you use it to graft alien bits onto your soldiers?”
“Well, into more than onto,” Dr Vahlen admitted, “and even then they tend to be fairly minor modifications. For example, study of the X-008, commonly called a ‘Cyberdisk’, led us to the technology to implant a secondary heart into our soldiers without compromising their ability to breathe.”
“That certainly sounds like quite an achievement,” Twilight agreed, “but would you mind if I opt out?”
“Certainly,” the doctor replied, “soldiers are chosen for genetic augmentation on a strictly voluntary basis, and we would need to map your full genome before we could even begin to program the Meld.
“As for Elerium,” Dr Vahlen continued, “it’s a given name for a compound matter consisting primarily of Element 115, which is as yet unnamed, and various stabilising molecules, such as carbon. The exact balance of the compound varies depending on the purpose for which the Elerium will be used, but in short it undergoes radioactive decay at an astonishing rate, yet we theorise that it can somehow be re-energised to its pre-decayed state using slightly less energy than it gives off while decaying. Now, that would require an almost perfectly efficient system for harnessing the radioactive energy given off for the obvious effect to be capitalised on, but the aliens have managed to create a variety of systems that perform admirably, functionally giving them either an extremely high-density power store, or a non-depleting energy source, dependant on configuration.”
“…Wow,” Twilight eventually managed. “That would open up a lot of options for improving Equestria’s infrastructure, if it could be harnessed properly.”
Officer Bradford nodded. “The aliens made a few strafing runs on power plants in India in mid-July,” he explained, “trying to make the whole country go dark. We got an emergency request from the council, created an alibi, and shipped a pair of UFO power sources out to them. India now has a multi-million dollar high-capacity ‘nuclear’ power plant that supplies energy to more than a quarter of the country. It’s just a brick building with a power unit smaller than this cell sat in the middle.”
Twilight’s jaw hung loose for a moment, before she closed it again. “…I-is it clean?” she stammered out.
Dr Vahlen nodded. “Assuming you can prevent excessive radiation loss to the surroundings, which most of the alien devices manage automatically, it produces no actual waste.”
“I’m sure if we end up making contact with Equestria, we could spare one or two,” Bradford smiled slightly. “Call it a diplomatic gift.”
The young princess’ face gradually lit up as she struggled to contain her excitement. “Okay, okay, calm, need to stay calm,” she said, taking a few deep breaths, “it’s just that we’re about on the verge of having proper industrialisation like you underwent hundreds of years ago, but Princess Celestia won’t consider any system that has long-term environmental drawbacks. We seriously only have three hydroelectric dams, and two of those serve just one city. Mane-something, I’ll work that out later. There’s a royal decree preventing the use of coal in stationary power plants, and we haven’t really discovered the potential of oil like you have yet but I’m sure she won’t like that either.”
“Try biofuel crops,” the CO recommended, “Dr Shen likes those.”
Twilight nodded, made a note to research that later, and continued. “Anyway, I’m pretty sure that all answered my question. So, the Crystal Empire?” Dr Vahlen nodded. “Well, a little over a thousand years ago…”
***
1221, 25th February, 2016
Your progress has been admirable, the Ethereal stated as it floated alongside its charge, enough so that the other troops are emboldened by your presence.
The Found One looked around the bridge of the battleship critically. They don’t seem very bold, it commented.
These are grave times, the Ethereal excused the timidity of the surrounding Sectoids, and we have little reason to celebrate. Our foe grows ever stronger, but an opportunity presents itself.
Curiosity flowed from the Found One’s mind. Opportunity?
A fractured front, our enemy presents. Some among them have defected, and wish for our aid once more.
I thought you said these beasts were without redemption? the Found One was concerned.
Perhaps we have been too hasty in our judgement, the Ethereal motioned. Perhaps they were mistaken, as you were…
The Found One set its brows into a frown. I have done much that is wrong with my life, it admitted, but the betrayal these creatures performed is far beyond that. Do you really trust them?
The Ethereal took scarcely a moment to think. No, no it did not, but that was not the answer the Found One would respond best to. We hold true to our belief, that any can make better of themselves, it intoned.
The Found One’s head hung low. I have hurt those close to me. I have terrorised those I barely know. I have attacked those who sought to save me. The head raised again. How might I save myself?
The Ethereal allowed itself to be pleased. We still do not understand our enemy, and a diversion is needed.
The Found One nodded. I will not fail you, it promised.
***
1228, 25th February, 2016
“…and so we restored the Heart to its proper place, celebrated in the Crystal Faire, and were on our way back to Equestria two days later,” Twilight finished.
“So Princess Cadance does control her own nation, then,” Dr Vahlen surmised.
“Which means the only princess without a people…” Officer Bradford raised an eyebrow.
“Yes, yes,” Twilight waved a hoof dismissively, “I’m more like Duchess of Ponyville or something. At least I do something that helps people, unlike Blueblood. Celestia’s nephew, not Luna’s son, most recent heir to the throne of the ancient and no longer existent kingdom of …Unicornia, let’s call it, from before Equestria’s formation, Celestia officially adopted the entire lineage as a diplomatic move when she came into power,” Twilight quickly answered all the obvious questions.
“The princess’ power must be incredible, though, to project a shield over an entire city for such a long time,” Dr Vahlen said, the interest in her voice unmistakable.
Twilight nodded. “True, but you should’ve seen the one my brother put over Canterlot when Queen Chrysalis threatened to attack. Roughly the same size, but he kept it there for nearly a week. Both were less their own personal power and more having a large number of ponies to tap for more raw magic, the crystal ponies and royal guard respectively.”
Bradford cleared his throat. “Queen Chrysalis?” he prompted, before adding, “or did you want to ask-”
“No, don’t worry,” Twilight shook her head, “this one’s actually fairly brief. Equestria has these creatures called changelings, which are roughly the size of a pony, and can shapeshift to look like them. They cause ponies to form emotional attachments to them, or replace ponies who already have a significant other, and then use the emotional link to draw raw magic from the other pony, which they sustain themselves on. Celestia’s known about them for a few decades, but by and large they haven’t been a terrible nuisance, and the ones who invent entirely new persons to disguise themselves as she leaves alone.
“Recently, though, Queen Chrysalis organised a few thousand of them together and tried to take Canterlot. She made an anonymous written threat against Equestria, which was responded to by my brother, Shining Armour, projecting a shield over the city. Not to be outdone, she snuck in, kidnapped and replaced Cadance, and started draining Shining Armour’s magic through his love for her to bring the shield down. Along the way, she managed to insult all of my friends and generally act like a self-entitled parasite, and somehow nobody but me noticed, instead attributing her behaviour to pre-wedding stress!” Twilight was nearly shouting by the time she finished.
Officer Bradford held up a hand. “Do you need a moment?” he asked, concerned.
Twilight shook her head again. “I’m not bitter,” she said defensively, but took a deep breath to calm herself anyway. “She captured and sent me down into the makeshift dungeon she had set up, I found the real Cadance, we broke out and got to the wedding, and Chrysalis revealed herself and her entire plan in response. Celestia tried to intervene, but Chrysalis overpowered her using Shining’s raw magic, before breaking the city shield and letting her army of changelings in. My friends and I made a run for the Elements of Harmony, but were captured and brought back to the wedding hall, where Chrysalis continued gloating and taunting. So much so, in fact, that I managed to free Cadance and let her go to revive Shining entirely unhindered. Cadance gives Shining all her spare power, and together they re-cast the shield, pushing all the changelings out of the city. After that, Chrysalis and her swarm just disappeared.”
Officer Bradford frowned. “Wait, she overpowered the person who moves the sun using the magic of your brother who’s just good at shield spells?”
Twilight nodded. “Well, she caught Celestia off-guard by matching her initial attack, and like I said earlier, counter-casting reflexively is hard to do right – if Celestia over-compensated, she could have torched everyone in the room,” she explained. “Chrysalis herself was surprised that it worked.”
“Surprised?” Bradford asked, a note of confusion in his voice, “she made a plan that would put her right next to Celestia, and then revealed herself without actually knowing she could beat Celestia?”
There was a brief pause as XCOM’s Central Officer, the man responsible for overseeing every tactical mission a worldwide military organisation undertook, lowered his face into one hand. “Why not have the changelings shapeshift and sneak inside the shield like she did? Why not not warn of the attack and therefore not have a shield to contend with?” He sat up and leaned back in his chair, glaring at the ceiling light. “Who put this woman in charge?”
“Yeah, not Equestria’s proudest moment, letting her get that far,” Twilight admitted sheepishly, “Celestia was pretty torn up over that later, but I managed to talk her out of it. And hey, at least we all learned our lesson.”
“Which was?” Dr Vahlen asked.
Twilight mused for a moment. “Well, Cadance using the Crystal Heart on Sombra did flat-out make him explode. I don’t know how much control she had over that, but…”
Bradford shrugged. “Good lesson, well learned,” he voiced his opinion, before shaking his head. “Well, your turn to ask us something.”
Twilight thought for a moment. “Okay, I’ve cleared my mental list of things I needed to know, so I don’t have a lot left to ask, just things to ask for.”
Officer Bradford nodded, and cleared his throat. “I believe we can make some arrangements in that regard,” he said. “Miss Sparkle, it’s come to our attention that you, and your friends in Equestria, can do a lot of things with your magic that our psionic soldiers can’t. Things that it would be very beneficial for them to be able to do.” He placed both hands flat on the table as he spoke, “with your permission, we’d like to run some tests of a different kind, to see if there’s anything they can learn from you.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Okay,” she replied hesitantly, “what sort of tests did you have in mind?”
“It seems sensible to first assess what abilities you would consider practical to use on the battlefield,” Dr Vahlen explained, “both in terms of usability and power usage. To this end, we’d like to put you through a combat training course, under various levels of psionic inhibition to better mimic the capabilities of a less-powerful soldier.”
“We’d be extremely grateful if you could assist us in increasing our troops’ survivability, of course,” Bradford suggested.
Twilight looked first between the two humans, then around the featureless cell she had spent the last week inside, then out of the large window at the various guards outside. “Well,” she said with a grin, “I’d appreciate some better accommodations, for a start.”
“That can be easily done,” Bradford replied, “there are plenty of spare rooms in the barracks, and the guards aren’t necessary now that we’re on speaking terms. There’s still a policy regarding psionic aliens within the base which doesn’t specify hostile aliens only, so until we get that changed your magic would have to stay suppressed, but otherwise you’d mostly have the same privileges as any XCOM employee.”
Twilight frowned. “Wait, how are you going to keep my magic suppressed if I’m free to move about? I thought-”
“We’ve actually managed to find a solution to that problem recently,” Dr Vahlen interrupted, “with the opportunity to test the concept on yourself this last week, as well as an exception to the field surrounding the altered psi suit Sergeant Murray has been using for testing, we’ve been able to manufacture a working prototype of a psionic inhibitor device.” She tapped an icon on her data slate, and a diagram of a full-body soft suit filled the screen. “Our current design is worn more like clothing, but knowing that your psionic – and magical, I suppose – power is concentrated around your horn, we should be able to create a smaller device that fits more closely around it.”
Twilight mused for a moment. Equestria had a similar device, an antimagic ring to be worn around the horn by criminal or… unstable unicorns. Dr Vahlen’s device was unlikely to be as elegant as a slim band of enchanted gold, but it would at least let her get out of this cell. “That all sounds good,” she replied, “so second condition, and forgive me if I sound distrustful but I only have your side of the story regarding this war.” The young alicorn shuffled nervously in her seat as she asked, “would it be possible for me to speak to one of the other aliens you’re keeping captive, to get their point of view as well as confirm everything you’ve told me about them?”
Officer Bradford frowned, but Dr Vahlen nodded. “That shouldn’t be hard to arrange. We have a number of X-002 captives that have been pacified. They present no physical or psionic threat, and most are fully capable of speaking English. Although,” she added, “do feel free to question them more… directly, if they attempt to be evasive in their answers.” She knew full well that they would, of course – Thin Men were designed for infiltration, and that required them to stay secretive and not crack under pressure.
XCOM’s CO turned to face her. “Don’t you think the Council would object to letting a diplomatic contact talk to a hostile alien?” he asked.
Dr Vahlen mused for a moment. “The Council have never interfered in XCOM’s running before, but I agree it wouldn’t be sensible to provoke them. I’ll have Twilight’s discussion with one recorded as a cross-examination experiment to verify her non-hostility. After all,” the head of research explained, “if X-014-1 were to attempt to break containment, surely the opportune moment would be when another alien is present to support it. If you’ll excuse me,” she said while standing, “I’ll begin organising the experiment now.” With that, she turned and walked calmly out of the cell.
Bradford and Twilight sat in silence for a moment, before breaking it as one.
“Was that-” Bradford stalled.
“Did she-” Twilight stammered.
“Sarcasm?” one of the research aides asked, drawing the confused attention of both speakers, “Yeah, the doctor does that occasionally. Kinda surprised you’ve never seen it though, sir,” he nodded to Bradford.
Bradford turned back to Twilight and shrugged. “Well, is there anything you’d like to ask before we close the interview, Miss Sparkle?”
“Just one thing,” Twilight replied, “what should I be expecting from this combat training?”
Central Officer Bradford thought for a moment, chose his words, and began to explain. “Does Equestria have a game called ‘laser tag’?”