08:00, 25th February, 2016
0800, 25th February, 2016
Twilight Sparkle’s teeth tore another chunk out of the baguette hovering before them. She began to devour the sandwich anew, savouring every crunch of lettuce, delighting in the juiciness of the tomato, and relishing the sweetness of the beetroot.
Nutrient paste, it turned out, had exactly one positive aspect: it made everything else taste that much better afterwards. The sandwich could have used some buttercups, sure, but Twilight was already half-collapsed in a state of bliss; she really didn’t need this to be any more delicious.
Outside her taste nirvana, Twilight heard the door that led out of the room open. She opened her eyes, and saw a man in a purple carapace – the same as she had previously encountered, she believed – being escorted in by a pair of guards. Unlike most of the ones she had seen, these two wore bulky blue-grey jackets and matching soft caps; less real armour, more like a protective uniform. Both carried boxy instruments in a similar colour, which the young alicorn assumed were weapons.
A scientist accompanied the trio, but not one that Twilight had met before. She stepped up into the control booth as the armoured man was ushered past it, and spoke briefly to the two researchers already sat there before taking a seat herself. The man in purple, meanwhile, was walked to the entrance to her cell, where a waiting technician affixed a long cable to the reverse of his suit – the long tail-like structure she’d noted last time. Twilight quickly finished the last few bites of her sandwich in the short pause that followed; this seemed important.
The new scientist spoke into the microphone for a few seconds, before nodding to one of her companions, who flipped a switch. “X-014-1,” her words echoed a little in the chamber, “we have a fluent speaker for you to learn from. You’ll be using psionics to accelerate the process, correct?”
Twilight looked through the glass screen separating her from the researchers, trying to gauge their intentions. On the one hoof, this would help her out immensely, but Twilight couldn’t help but remember her last encounter with this man – he could overpower her, if need be. She was to learn their language, but was he to try to learn something from her in turn?
“I will, yes,” Twilight replied concisely.
“Good,” the woman replied, her eyes focused on the instruments in front of her rather than on the alicorn, “will you need the damping field alleviated?”
Twilight mused for a moment. If it were lowered enough, she would have no trouble defending herself from the man. Ask for it to be lowered too much, and they might deem it too risky to send him in at all… “Not certainly,” she spoke, “I can make the process longer, and use less power.”
“Excellent, damping field remaining at ninety-five percent,” the researcher replied, “ready to introduce subject Murray to cell A3, test beginning in five,” she began to count down.
At zero, the door to Twilight’s cell slid open, and the man in purple stepped inside. The door stayed open behind him, with the four guards outside taking up crouched stances and using the doorway for cover again.
The armoured man steeped deeper into the room, his pace even and relaxed. Twilight spoke first. “Hello,” she said, raising a hoof from the floor in a wave, “My name is Twilight Sparkle.”
“Nice to meet you again, Miss Sparkle,” the man responded, reaching the same edge of the circular section he had stopped at last time. This time, however, he lowered himself into a crouch, coming down to be at eye level with her. “I understand you want t’ learn English?”
“Yes, please,” Twilight replied with a smile, “I would like to use psionics to learn directly from your mind, if that’s okay? Obviously I’ll be sure not to-”
“Sure thing,” the man interrupted.
Twilight blinked twice, stunned. “Y-you’re perfectly accepting with that? Just laying your mind completely open?”
“Well,” the soldier spoke, before stopping with a frown on his face. He held the expression for merely a second, before shrugging and continuing, “I trust you well enough, I guess.”
Twilight blinked again. “You do?” she asked, a little touched.
The man nodded. “Sure, well, you and all the safeguards the lab boys have put in place. But hey, if you’re trying to learn something, hurting the guy you’re learning from doesn’t make any sense, right?”
Twilight thought for a moment. “That… makes sense, I suppose. Oh!” she exclaimed, sitting upright, “I don’t have your name yet, mister…?”
“Sergeant Cameron Murray,” the man replied, offering out his right hand. Twilight glanced at it for a moment, before placing her right hoof in it, and they shook.
“Well then, Mr Murray, you might want to make yourself comfortable,” Twilight continued, taking her hoof back, “this could take a while.”
Sgt Murray nodded, and sat cross legged on the floor while speaking, “Anything I can do to move things along a bit easier?”
Twilight nodded, smiling. “Thinking through what you know will help me find it better,” she explained. Sgt Murray closed his eyes and nodded, and Twilight began, a long, violet stream of psionic power twisting through the air from her horn to the man’s head.
Their conciousnesses touched for the briefest moment, before Twilight traced the nursery rhyme that the soldier was reciting back along its neural connections. There were memories and associations tied to each and every word, changing as the rhyme was thought out, but the alicorn had only to follow the few pathways that never changed. She found a few very old memories, which she left alone for the sake of the sergeant’s privacy, and a spread-out, foundation knowledge – a sort of fundamental layer upon which much of the man’s knowledge and experience was built. A quick search for a few key words later, and Twilight was certain – this was the man’s knowledge of English.
There are connections here, she directed thought at the mind around her, lots of them. Some will be synonyms, alliterations, that sort of thing. I don’t strictly speaking need to look through them, but it would help a lot. Other connections will be memories and experiences, possibly personal ones. I’ll avoid looking at those for too long, and ask you before looking into something further, okay?
Twilight felt understanding and consent emanate from the mindscape around her, allowing her to continue. Her mind focused, her spell was cast, and she began to feel every point of data she found being copied to her own mind. It was exhilarating – Twilight had never studied in this way, directly from another’s mind. The sheer speed with which she was learning, and something as complicated as a whole language at that…
Of course, many of the connections she encountered reminded her why this was considered unacceptable practice in Equestria. Even taking only glances to determine what each of them contained, Twilight picked up more than enough knowledge to blackmail the soldier for the rest of his days – that is, if she weren’t planning to run an expungement spell later to remove them.
Twilight quickly reached a word that made her pause, concerned, both for its nature and the sheer number of associations it had with more of the soldier’s knowledge.
Enemy.
Twilight brought her mental probe back to Sgt Murray’s own conscious thought, and asked what this meant, and if she could explore these connections further.
There was silence for a moment before the response came. You can, but I warn you, it’s a proper ugly business.
Twilight hesitated before returning to the word, and testing one of the connections.
She found an image, of scorched forestry, and burning earth. A handful of soldiers, wearing a different sort of armour – bulkier than what she had already seen, and much more protective-looking than the uniforms – were stood or squatted in cover, metallic rectangular weapons in their grip. One had stepped out to engage a foe further ahead, a bright red beam of light surging forward from his weapon, missing his target and melting a shard of metal sheet sticking out of the ground some way beyond.
The target itself seemed to be the focal point of the image – a hulking behemoth, in heavy green armour with glowing lines. Three-fingered hands gripped a weapon of smoother contours, a silvery grey metal with a glowing green core. Two more of the creatures were nearby, one opening fire upon the soldiers, obliterating the tree one was using for cover.
Sergeant Marquez survived, thank god, Sgt Murray’s voice echoed through his mindscape, but he were hospitalised for a week. Damn near lost his leg, too.
Twilight backed out of the scene, shaken. There had been a war, and there had been casualties. It may even still be ongoing. Steeling herself, she picked another of the connections, and followed it to the attached memory.
The same men, the same armour. The weapons were different, looking more like the ones carried by the guards escorting Sgt Murray, only in a blue to match some of their armour.
Aye, this was back before we had lasers, Murray’s voice came forth again, but at least we had the alloy armour by then. Don’t know how we’d have survived the ‘lids without it.
Many of the squad were upright, several of them firing their weapons, bursts of bright light surrounding their points. A creature had been slain mid-run, a squat, angular thing, with four pointed legs and two clawed arms. Rows of glowing spines up its back led to a flat head, sporting a vicious pair of mandibles beneath hungry, yellow eyes. A second, still living creature followed shortly behind.
Chryssalids. You hear that word get shouted, Miss Sparkle, and you turn the safety off whatever you’re firing. No amount of running or hiding will save you, and be thankful I’ve only heard what happens when they reach you, not seen it.
What was this war about, Sergeant? Twilight asked, her sense of dread rising, Who were you fighting?
There was another moment of silence in the man’s mind, before his voice came again. You might want to make yourself comfortable, Miss Sparkle. This could take a while.
***
Research Project: Subject X-014 “Sparkle.”
Date: 25th February 2016
Experiment X-014-1-F: Direct Mental Education
Personnel: Sgt C Murray
Experiment Summary
Sgt Murray transported under guard from Cell C7 to Cell A3. Security protocols for Cell A3 cleared and Sgt Murray introduced to cell, which contains X-014-1. Cell A3 is under a psionic impedance field of 95% at time of experiment, with Sgt Murray wearing a psi suit calibrated to except him from the impedance.
X-014-1 greets Sgt Murray in English. Sgt Murray returns the greeting, and states his reason for introduction to X-014-1 (being the improvement of X-014-1’s linguistic skills). X-014-1 confirms this statement’s accuracy, and asks that Sgt Murray be comfortable for what is likely to be an extended procedure. Sgt Murray sits down, and X-014-1 states that it will begin.
X-014-1 begins emitting a psionic signal measuring 18.4Vh, which seems to be directed at Sgt Murray. X-014-1 maintains this signal for a total time of one hour and eighteen minutes, in a standing posture with its eyes closed. At the indicated time, the signal ends, and X-014-1 thanks Sgt Murray for his time and says farewell. Sgt Murray is removed from Cell A3 and escorted under guard to the infirmary for a neural pattern test.
X-014-1 is asked to repeat her earlier self-identification from Experiment X-014-1-E, using any improvements in English that she now understands. X-014-1 agrees, and speaks as follows:
“My name is Twilight Sparkle. I am an alicorn. I am also a Princess of Equestria, and personal student of Princess Celestia. I bear the Element of Magic, which is one of six Elements of Harmony.”
X-014-1 is then presented with a selection of grammatically incorrect sentences, and asked to correct them each time. X-014-1 does so correctly each time, including correcting two undeliberate mistakes made by research personnel.
End of experiment and further research are announced, to which X-014-1 made a response, noted below.
Further Research
Given X-014-1’s new mastery of the English language, an interview has been arranged between X-014-1, key research personnel, and at X-014-1’s request, Central Officer Bradford. It is currently unknown how X-014-1 knows of CO Bradford, though it seems likely that it learnt of him from Sgt Murray. An inquiry will nevertheless be made to all research and security personnel who have been stationed in Chamber A3 as to whether any one of them has mentioned him. A full interview with Sgt Murray is also in planning, to determine what may have been discussed between X-014-1 and himself.
***
”Princess?” Officer Bradford blinked in confusion, “You mean to say we have a member of alien royalty in custody?”
Dr Vahlen nodded, “We have only X-014-1’s word for it, but that may well be the case. We really have no way to verify this information at present.”
There was a thoughtful silence for a moment, which Dr Shen broke. “Have we had any information, from interrogations or our psions, which suggests that the aliens have a royal caste?”
The head of research’s head shook this time. “None until now, which, alongside the numerous physiological differences we’ve observed…”
“Look at it this way, doctor,” Bradford said, moving the hand that had been holding his chin to cross his arms fully, “do we have any other connection between her and any other alien we’ve encountered?”
“Other than the timing of its appearance, no,” Dr Vahlen explained, “at this point we have to face the very real possibility that X-014-1 is not part of the alien collective we have been fighting.”
“Council policy is clear in that circumstance, doctor,” the officer explained, before quoting, “‘if an alien detainee cannot be proven to be hostile, an attempt at diplomatic contact must be made, and any following research involving the subject must have the subject’s consent.’ She’s already done that first part for us, and I’ve been watching over the combat analysis from her capture.” Bradford nodded to a nearby technician, and the screen nearest the trio changed to show the relevant footage. Bradford motioned to it as he continued, “Sparkle only fires one shot in the entire exchange, and waits to see that Captain Guseva is still alive before turning to engage the rest of the squad. Barring what happened to Captain Pimenova, I think it’s safe to say that Sparkle was acting non-harmfully.”
“Then perhaps we should try a different approach from now on,” Dr Shen spoke, “try to meet her as concerned people, rather than wary soldiers.”
“The upcoming interview should provide us with an opportunity to do so, especially since she asked for you specifically,” Dr Vahlen said with a gesture to the CO. He nodded, and the head of research glanced at her data slate. “I find it curious that she used two terms of equal standing to refer to both herself and her superior,” she added.
Officer Bradford glanced at the video again, watching Pimenova be lifted and thrown twenty feet by an invisible force, before speaking, “Let’s just hope this ‘Princess Celestia’ doesn’t show up to rescue her student.”
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Better, but I would have thought they would have just brought in a random civilian to minimize potential leaks of info.
6597871 I'm not so certain. I am pretty sure that is supposed to be a thinman, based on the ID (first capture of second observed species, which could end up being floater or thinmen in game)
If Xcom assume that Twilight was with the Ethereal ones, then this would not reveal information unknown to her, aside from perhaps more intel on Xcom. However, it would also not be considered nearly as bad Morally, and wouldn't require them to bring in a civilian, meaning a new person without security clearance, meaning they would be heavily locked down afterwards, or else someone already with said clearance, which would have the issue of possibly compromising a scientist, engineer, or whatever other personal they have around. Using a thinman is far easier and would seem less risky.
Much, much better.
A good change. I didn't think of it myself, when I read it before, but it would be rather foolish to give two prisoners essentially unmonitored communication with each other.
6597896
Aye, you don't put one enemy and one unknown in a same cage. Especially if said unknown trying to understand something by probing enemy mind. Unknown view might be.......distorted by the enemy.
Still, it would be interesting that Twilight demands to know why the humans fight against aliens that try to 'Ascend' them which later horrified by the truth of it.
6597871
It's a toss-up. They went for using a psion, which isn't as bad an idea as Twilight's mindrape of the first psion she came into contact with makes it seem. In this situation she was at a distinct disadvantage in terms of magical/mental powers: the dampening field was reducing her power by 95%, but Cameron had his amplified by his psionic armor and not dampened by the field.
In the end they were betting on Cameron being a lot safer than a random civilian, because he could protect himself.
something I have been curious about with the dampening field. it is suppressing Twilight's magic making her have to work a little harder to use it at certain levels, I imagine that the longer she tries to use magic while suppressed the stronger her magic will become similar to wearing weights while exercising
I can see the changes. It defiantly works better now.
It's good to see the clues adding up in favor of Twilight's benign nature. I guess we're due for a scene of Twilight's utopian nievity being shattered when she gets to view more scenes of aliens doing everything they can to exterminate humans with extreme prejudice? And when do the nightmares start for her after witnessing said atrocities? She's no longer in Equestria and outside Luna's protective influence.
If the the suit can be "calibrated" to not be effected by their anti-psionic field, then surely she could mimic that after learning of it from the soldier, right?
6597966
The scientists calibrated the field to give the suit an exception, but Sgt. Murray is unlikely to know the workings in sufficient depth for Twilight to deconstruct it. At least that's the impression that I get.
Twilight has now had access to someones mind that has details of the tough end of humanity. Wonder if she learnt enough on how the mind works to help built better quality AI that can be Esper immune or even attacking?
Which one is it that has the clairvoyance?
NO! No no no no no! I can't be over now! I can't have read all that has been posted already! This is so good, oh no... I don't want to wait for more. I'm so in love with this story, even if the plot didn't involve "The Found One".
Wait, Now i'm confused. I think it got rewritten, so my last post is a bit invalid. Going to need to reread again now.
Very nice. Continue the good story. Please?
6598149 methinks you're referring to another story. I can't remember it at the moment, but it was what made me go back and buy xcom.
Edit: found it, story is called Stardust.
This chapter works better I think.
Sooo when are we going to learn the difference between Magic and Psionics?
I am very disapointed. Twilight should struggle not to speak in Murray's accent.
Didn't get to read the previous chapter but I do like this one.
And they should be afraid of Celestia. Celestia = Magnifying glass, Earth = Ant. Earth has committed an act of war against Equestria. It might have been a mistake but they have tortured Twilight and need to make amends.
And if it came down to a war it would be probably be in the Equestrians favor. Shining Armor might be the prime example of a shield caster but his shield was severely weakened by Chrysalis. Even then it withstood hundreds of body slams from the drones. If we give an estimate of canterlot being around 1 mile in radius (which is very conservative since we are talking about the capitol) the surface area of the shield would be 1.75 x 10^8 square feet. Drop that down to say 10 yards and the field would be 280,000x as strong. To get through that we are talking about 11 tons of tnt. Pegasi can whip up tornadoes, and earth ponies could wear enough armor to laugh at 50 cals. It is very good that ponies are pacifistic in nature.
6598121 Just the knowledge that it can be calibrated to bypass the anti-psy field could be enough.
Humans just have to know something is possible for us to make it happen. Twilight is a smart cookie. She really knows magic and can theorize what it would take to nullify it and from there can reverse engineer the field bypass.
6598158 Sorry to burst the bubble, yes this is all there currently is. I had the very same reaction a couple of chapters back when I first found this.
i had a random thought while reading this. what if this twilight and the twilight from stardust swapped places? i think that would be a very interesting read
Well, if that last sentence doesn't scream foreshadowing I don't know what does! Great story and I can't wait to see what happens next!
6598687 One problem with your estimate. You are only accounting horizontal distance of a city on a mountainside with a castle to put Camelot to shame in size. At a certain point, you can't make the city stay even, but you can handle the weight easily. So, they built up and down. It's more like mile by mile and a half in a sphere. Guestimating the weight, assuming a starving drone is lighter than a pegasus, Shining held up against a few hundred/thousand twenty to forty pound impacts for a day at least, and the train station section was made to remove disguise magic of all types while still stopping changelings from simply rushing through. Shining is Twilight's big brother, and there is evidence genius is genetic for them in this generation. And he did that while being brainwashed, and drained of love. Shining armor is literally the best at shields there is.
Nice advantage, there; Murray's Scotch accent not bleeding into words learned via Twilight's psionic absorption.
Why didn't you just ask Twilight where she heard that name the second she uttered it? She's been forthcoming so far.
Ahhh, and that last bit of epic foreshadowing... things are quickly ramping up, methinks! The game is afoot!
6598935 That would only bump up the energy required by a order of magnitude or 2. I took the shield to be a hemisphere 1 mile in radius and the energy given to take it down was based on 500 hits of 300J which is the energy given by a boxer punching. What my point was even though Shining is the best shield maker, A trained military unicorn should at least be able to do 1/100th of what he could do and that would still be able to stop heavy bombs.
6599070 That would've been hilarious; Twilight's psychic language lesson imparting a rich Scottish brogue to her speech.
Fortunately, XCOM had long ago reverse-engineered the alien "quicksave" technology...
I totally missed the retracted chapter, but I certainly approve of the new one.
Yes! Yes! Yes! You're finally acting like proper researchers!
Aaah, now this is the usual quality I've come to know, expect and love, Ax. Well done!
Twilight's ethics are commendable. She really thought this mind-delving process through if she's even planning on purging the unnecessary and personal information she got from Murray from her memories. Very kind and respectful.
Also heh, if this is the kind of contact and development, then Celestia showing up isn't a problem. The real issue is if she comes into the stage running over everything like a runaway steed.
Finally, this fic may or may not need a few hugs in it. Just saying.
Much better. The writing quality of both was very good, but the decisions of XCOM were significantly more believable and safe in this version.
6597871
The civilian wouldn't be able to give her information on XCOM, true, but the civilian would also have several disadvantages that would make their use unacceptable.
First and foremost, as another response pointed out, the civilian would be defenseless against Twilight, whereas Murray was quite capable of at the very least locking Twilight into a mental stalemate long enough for help to intervene, possibly more since I believe the dampening field was set higher this time around than it was during their last encounter.
Second is the fact that the civilian would be an unknown variable. One of the biggest factors to keep track of in any experiment is the variables. One, and only one variable should ever be changed at any given time unless more changes are unavoidable. By using an XCOM psion, his complete mental map is already recorded in their medical logs, so any alterations, even small ones, would be easy for their scientists to pick out as long as a thorough medical scan is conducted after the interview. With a civilian they wouldn't be able to do that, and the possibility of an undetectable mental alteration occurring to one of the test subjects would be an unacceptable risk.
There are other security issues to consider that aren't directly related to the test, but those are the big ones that would come into play if they had a civilian volunteer on hand to use.
Nice seeing you aren't making X-com into a bunch of paranoid nut-jobs.
Nice work.
6599252
In a confrontation I'd expect that laser wepons would be a nastier surprise for unicorn shields-casters. After all, shields are transparent, and laser beam is a concentrated light. Shield-casters would end up with choice - keep themselves open for laser attacks, or fight blind from behind opaque shields.
In head-on battle it would be a game of who gets a drop on the other - as long as you can avoid detection, most unicorns can't do anything. Of course, it remains a question whether X-Com could produce anti-psi armor to prevent ponies from yanking their soldiers from behind cover. Still, humans have better vehicular mobility (ponies can run faster and longer, but there don't seem to be many unicorns who can teleport) and better out-of-visual-range attack capabilities. An attempt to fight in a classical "armored cohort" style would end in disaster, but small pony teams would be a pain to track.
Pegasi would have exactly two strong sides in war with humans - infantry-like numbers and weather manipulation. As far as I've seen in the show, there are not many of those who can break the sound barrier, while human fighters can do this routinely. Not to mention that pegasi wings are unprotected by design, while we can mass-produce WWII-style AA vehicles, perfectly sutied for shredding numerous lightly armored subsonic targets.
And the final argument- in a war with completely different species, biological weapons are quite less risky to use.
6598687
6594777
6599316
The retracted chapter has been uploaded to pastebin and linked in the author's comments of the replacement chapter, if you're interested. The final scene is entirely the same, if you want to save time.
6599903
Twilight's a solid Neutral or Lawful Good, she respects the spirit of the social stigmata Equestria has against her use of psionic learning, even if she's breaking the letter of it. Hugs will ensue when XCOM research staff confirm that X-014-1 does not possess any manner of concealed or inflatable sharp spines, surface contact poison glands, or allergies to humans.
Hugs will stop when they get a broom to physically separate personnel from X-014-1.
6600080
Paranoid, no, but extremely cautious, yes. The difference is how you react to empirical evidence that disagrees with you.
6600544 That's a silly statement. Hugs will not cease even with attempts to separate X-014-1 from personnel with a car jack.
6600189 I imagine that laser/shield interactions (barring sub-atomic fusion, since unicorns hopefully don't employ Holtzmann shields) would depend on whether magic shields are physical or conceptual defenses.
6597871
They used a psionic soldier, who was wearing equipment specifically to circumvent the dampener, which was blocking Twilight at 90-something %. Meaning he could have (presumably) blocked her out at any point.
6600685
Well, I really don't like conceptual magic. "Science that you haven't studied yet" is much more likeable, at least for me.
6600189
6600685
On the lasers vs shield matter, I would say the shield doesn't need to be opaque - after all, Mind Merge to a Mechtoid, and the translucent shield it gets stops lasers just fine (until it gives out, or the supporting Sectoid does...)
Most defensive shields would function by ablating energy from an incoming attack - ballistics lose kinetic energy, lasers lose light energy, and plasma loses thermal energy. The Mechtoid's psionic-enhanced shield ablates itself to achieve this, but proper magic gives better solutions (either from non-ablative shields, or ones that are more easily recharged.)
6600544
6600805 Hopefully XCOM will get Twi studying non-linear optics and she'll whip up a phase-conjugate reflector shield. "Stop shooting yourself! Stop shooting yourself!"
I'm really enjoying this story. I've always loved the, "human's think ponies are aliens" style stories though the point the humans start talking to ponies properly is where I feel the stories usually loose their charm. So far I'm still enjoying this fic but I kinda like the original version of this chapter a bit better.
6600189 I rather enjoy these sorts of discussions, as long as everypony isn't taking them seriously and getting mad. Anyway, a point about Pegasi and AA weaponry; I think Pegasi would have very little to worry about from anti-air weapons because of their size and superior agility making them damn near impossible to hit. Add to that that they don't need to refuel (yeah I know they have to eat but they can do that on the fly) and can walk and move clouds giving them a stealth advantage as well.
much yay <3 thanks
6601685
You see, classic AA-guns work by effectively creating clouds of shrapnel around the predicted position of the target. Avoiding that would be much harder than dodging a stream of bullets. Also, they are designed to track planes passing by, so they can retarget pretty fast. Wonderbolt-level fliers could dodge that, probably, but there are not that many of them, and they normally fly unarmored. Speaking of armor - I'm pretty sure modern radars can detect objects of smaller size, and metallic armor would make a nice big blip.
Weather manipulation might be dangerous for slow ground forces, but I'm pretty sure that anything above the cloud level would be fine.
So unless we go the same route as "An academic visit" and make Equestrians naturally immune to bullets, I'd say they wouldn't achieve air superiority easily.
P.S.: I wasn't the one to downvote you.
Not actually sure if she'd have introduced herself that way after learning English. Like, would she use the word magic for instance if she is using pscionic energy and they are the same thing? Would she not use the word her 'teacher' used to describe the phenomena? Magic in the English language has seriously different connotations, after all.
The power of apparently influencing the course of events by using mysterious or supernatural forces.
This is what magic is in our language. Whatever alien word they use in Equestria probably does not mean this since, to them it is an understood and studied field of what they believe is normal, which would make it most definitely not supernatural or mysterious in Equestria culture. In fact, whatever word ponies use would actually translate to psionics since Twilight recognized the energy Murray was using in an earlier chapter as her word for the 'magic' (Since her thoughts have all been in whatever language ponies speak and have only been translated for the sake of the readers).
Then we got Equestria, which is even stranger since it's a name and named don't change with the language. If my name is Bob, it's Bob everywhere I go. Since Twilight Sparkle is actually a combination of noun and verb, it makes some sense that it would have a translation (though, Sakura means cherry petal, and you don't see Japanese girls introducing themselves as such to English speakers), but Equestria is a name of a country. If I'm in France, and someone asks me where I am from, I say America.
And finally, the least likely wrong but still maybe wrong word choice: Alicorn. Auto-correct doesn't even recognize it as a real word. Technically, Twilight would only have learned this word if Murray knew it, which is doubtable in a world where MLP:FIM didn't make the word popular. How many people would call a winged pegasus an alicorn if they weren't bronies or close to one?
Well, other than that, interesting chapter.
6603080
There's a slight difference between magic and psionics that will be explained later; Twilight will explain that and her other word choices in the next chapter, during the interview.
6602810 lol I don't mind if you had downvoted me really but thanks all the same.
Anyway, yeah I see what you're saying. Classic AA weapons are more like giant shotguns than sniper rifles but it's that "predicted position of the target" part that I think would give Pegasi the advantage because they have much more range of movement than any human aircraft including helicopters. So predicting where they will be is going to be tricky. Bear in mind they are smaller than a human which makes them smaller than every manned aircraft including hand gliders
so even if they didn't have the ability to move along the X,Y,Z axis freely, make virtually instant 180 degree turns and hover in mid air they'd still be hard targets.
I think ponies would gain air supremacy more do to their more natural access to air space than having legitimate combat superiority. They can literally construct bases of operations made of clouds and generally have more flexibility in the air than human's could ever have. Imagine how effective modern super sonic jets would seem against an enemy that could throw out steel chain nets in their flight bath as easily as we could throw out tire shredders on the ground.
Of course ponies would suffer huge casualties though it's the difference between losing Infantry vs air force, STOP before any of you start smashing that downvote button and/or start typing up angry replies I mean in terms of training time and equipment not that infantry are expendable or anything like that. Infantry soldiers generally don't require any specialised training to perform their role in terms of equipment usage and can be trained on mass but jet pilots have to actually learn how to pilot their jets, which is obviously a complex process with very foreign experiences to become familiar with. Such as G loads and moving on an extra axis. Pegasi are essentially air infantry in that respect as flying is a natural part of their skill sets.
One last thing, cause I know I'm going on and on here
, I'd say weather control would be dangerous to any ground unites since that would include floods, snow and other extreme weather that has historically crippled armies in the past. That's actually why you should never attack Russia in winter. 
Air craft could potentially be vulnerable to tornados I'd say but again I'm going on and on so I'll just stop there.
6603596
I'll just point out some key things I disagree with, for brewity's sake.
If they are in free flight - yes. But if they are actually trying to achieve something, like close in on the target, or get away, or whatever? Not so much. Plus they are much more fragile than human aircraft.
...offer no protection whatsoever, and radars still might pick on those.
Why would "modern supersonic jets" resort to WWI style dogfighting? They would hit (literally before you can hear them!) and run, and pegasi fast enough to catch them would find themselves being priority targets.
That much is true. As I pointed out, infantry-like numbers would work in their favor.
I think modern APCs can outrun a tornado. Or bypass a deep snow. Plus not only weather teams gathering cloud fronts would present a 'target-rich environment', their effort would be reeeeeeeeeeally noticeable for the meteosats.
In fact, I say we have a classic MAD scenario here: ponykind's trump card are alicorns, humanity's - nukes. Neither can mount a defense against the other's all-out assault, at least not effective enough for majority of population to survive.
I'm just wondering if thou are trying to hold a schedule or if thee post as thou complete a chapter?
By the way, love the story. Only crossover stories I've ever enjoyed is this one and stardust + its sequels, see a pattern?
6604030 Just to make sure, this is just a friendly back and forth right? If this is serious then I'm out, not a subject I'm going to have an actual argument about. Not that you've said anything to make me think that, just checking.
Well I won't get into speculation about enchanted armour or whatever so I'll accept the more fragile part. I'd imagine if Pegasi where doing stuff like closing with the enemy or retreating they'd probably do so below AA fire arcs since they can safely fly at speed a couple of feet off the ground. However I do see you point.
I'm not sure about radar but I don't really know how radar works beyond the general idea of objects reflecting signals. I actually meant that such bases would be completely inaccessible to humans and theoretically undetectable as from the ground they'd just look like clouds. Technically an operating base doesn't need to be a fortress just well positioned to allow better logistical support and lines of communication. As long as it isn't located, which is the ideal IRL, it's safe.
I actually meant the Pegasi would ambush the jets from the clouds not engage them in flight. Though now that I think of it, how effective are jets against aerial targets? Against ground targets sure you won't know they're coming until after they've struck but what about something like a Pegasus in the air?
That's true, though weather control would give ponies a huge advantage in non-combat aspects such as terrain control. APCs may be able to bypass deep snow but it will still slow them down so if an army suddenly finds itself having to travers 6 foot of snow in the Sahara desert it's going to slow down a lot. And then there's indirect weather assaults like creating monsoon rain several miles away at the top of a mountain to cause massive low land flooding.
Hmmm...this is going to be contentious buuuttt...I don't think nukes would be all that effective against ponies. Now hear me out, a nuke basically creates a mini star and as we know Alicorns (two, possibly three at least) can control the Sun so yeah...
Ok that's just a bit silly but I just wanted to point it out for fun.
To bring things back to the fic for a sec; I love that Twi refers to herself as a pointy psion horse in the original. That needs to be an official XCOM classification.