Strange invaders are marching through southern Equestria. Can Twilight figure out who they are and what they want, before Equatria is burned to ashes?
Takes place in Warverse, during the war. To better understand this universe, read my other stories. Just a hint ;)
Strange invaders have come from the sky and laid siege on Equestria . As they advance, using strange machines, The Royal Guard tries desperately tries to hold them back. Yet, the enemy is unknown. Who are they? What do they want? Why are they doing this? Most importantly: Can they be defeated?
However, Equestria has just captured first subjects of their enemies and Twilight has been called to study them. Can she find answers before Equestria falls?
Current planned update schedule: 1 chapter per month. No hard date when during the month, but I try to aim for the end of the month. If I get a chapter much earlier ready, I will post it but it does not mean the next chapter will be out any earlier either.
Twilight was nervous. Princess Celestia had called her to Canterlot as soon as she could. Princess had not told her exact reasons in her letter, only that it was "of utmost importance" that she was to arrive. She hoped that nothing bad had happened. With the invasion by the strange creatures, there was always the fear of bad news.
"Twilight, it is good that you came as soon as you did." Celestia said as Twilight entered the throne room.
"Of course, Your Highness. Your letter demanded my imminent presence. How could I refuse? What is the matter?"
"You know how we have tried to figure out these strange creatures that have attacked us?" Celestia asked, despite knowing the answer. Twilight has buried herself in the library many times, trying to find any sort of reference to them.
"Yes. Unfortunately, there are no records, or at least no records have survived, that mention two-legged creatures that use technology this complicated."
"Yes. Well, I have news. You remember that crazy plan that your friend Rainbow Dash suggested?"
"Yes?"
"Well, we have results. One of their sky vessels was captured recently, alongside its occupants." Celestia said. She could see understanding dawn in Twilight's eyes.
"You have functional machine as well as live subjects." Twilight said in awe. "You could interrogate them. Study their technology, Finally learn about them." She continued.
"Yes. However... we have run into few issues." Celestia said, waving for Twilight to calm down. "First of all, we are not sure if they are... well, creatures like you, me, Zebras, Griffins and others. They can't live outside their suits and what comes out of the suit is... well, I believe my adjutant called it 'most disgusting goo I have ever seen'. We don't know what they actually look."
"Oh."
"However, we have samples of their writing, as well as several objects they brought with us. I want you in charge of team studying these objects, as well as these creatures. Try to find out what they are and what they want." Celestia left out that finding how to more efficiently kill these creatures, Twilight was still hesitant when it came to killing.
"Yes! Of course! Anything to help." Twilight said, nodding her head.
"Good. They are currently held in the dungeon. I have set a laboratory and workshop in vicinity, as well as direct access to the library. I wish you best of luck. You can meet rest of the team there. Professor Case Study should be looking over the captives at the moment."
"I shall not disappoint you, Princess." Twilight said and left the room. Once she had left, Celestia muttered under her breath.
"For good of us all, I hope so."
Twilight walked down to the dungeon, towards a new closed-off section. She saw a white unicorn with a black mane, with a stethoscope as a cutie mark, talking to guards. She walked over to them to talk.
"Hello? I am Twilight Sparkle. I am looking for professor Case Study."
"Ah, that would be me. You must be the genius Princess Celestia spoke of." The unicorn said, smiling. "I was just about to take a look at our new guest. Would you like to join us?"
"That would be great." Twilight said.
A guard nodded to his comrade and lead them down the hallway. Twilight noticed that most of the dungeon was in rather sorry state, a clear indicator that it was not used often. Most of the cells were open or clearly not locked, with layer of dust everywhere. After few twist and turns, they arrived at the more well maintained section of the dungeon.
"Here we are. These are the current holding cells for the creatures." A guard said, before leaving.
Twilight stared at the creatures in the cage. One of them stared right back, or at least she assume so. It's mask was without clear indication of eyes, apart from the T-shaped visor. Two tubes came from its face and moved to its back, where they attached to another device. It's armor was black with red rim. On its chest, it had two arrows and some text. Somehow its presence spoke that of soldier. A soldier, not a warrior. Rather than enjoying combat, Twilight somehow knew that this creature would rather not fight, but it was being compelled to fight.
"Quite interesting, aren't they?"Case Study said.
"Yes, they are interesting. Any idea what they are?"
"Well, without ability to do an autopsy, I can't say really. From what I can gather from their outward appearance, they are fully bipedal, as in they don't use their hands to balance themselves. They move completely upright and their hands are fully dedicated to manipulating objects." Case Study said. "As for what under that suit... well, I have no idea. Their flesh and organs melt when the suit is removed."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, to be honest, I am not sure yet. We are running few theories at the moment." Case Study said shaking his head. "One is that they are essentially just slimes, which are held together by the pressure inside the suits and opening the suit causes the pressure to collapse and thus kill the creature inside it, as it can no longer maintain its form."
"Hmm... I see." Twilight said. "Any chance of talking with them yet?"
"Not really. They don't respond to any of our attempts to communicate with them, whenever its through speech, gestures or anything. There is a group of linguistics trying to decipher their language, but as far as I know its not going well. You should visit them for more information."
"I think I will. Thank you for the information."
"My pleasure."
"Their language?" The blue unicorn repeated. "Well, so far we are not sure. They use similar alphabet as we do, but their language structure, as far as we have determined, seems to be closer to griffins. As for the words, well, it's weird really."
Twilight had gone and met with linguistic teams working on deciphering the invaders language. She had been directed to professor Letter Soup, a blue unicorn with a white mane and an open book for a cutie mark.
"What do you mean?" Twilight asked, looking over the notes that had been written on the wall. Numerous words were circled, connected to each other, crossed over or otherwise noted.
"Well, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. Some words sound similar to ancient Equestria, others sound closer to Griffins, then we got Catsmere, Buffalo, well, it seems like it's a weird mix of all languages known to us. Little to no connection between words."
"But you can read it?" Twilight asked. "If the words sound similar..."
"Yes, sound similar, but their meaning is loss. Compare, for example, references to the moon we have here." The unicorn pointed at the note. "We pronounce moon as, well, moon. However, this language, it's closer to ancient Equestria term Luna. However, full word is Lunea, yet, we are not sure if that is a form of the word, or the base word. We have also found references to Luna, Lunias and Lun.
"Not to mention, for some reason, common term is Luna Aeternal. It is referenced often, as well as this word, Terra. This one is interesting, since there is no frame of reference for it. There are few words similar to it, such as terrain, yet word Terra is often used in same parts as Luna Aeternal. This is interesting, as in are two concepts related or is it merely a coincidence?" The unicorn ended his explanation and Twilight nodded.
The language was, at the same time, both familiar looking, yet very alien looking. Going through the text and figuring out the rules that this new text used was going to a long process. She also noted few oddities in the text.
"What's with so many words being capitalized? Dropship for example? Too many of them are capitalized to be merely a rule for names."
"Ah, good point. We are not sure, but we think they are subjectives. We have been trying to find anything we could link between word and object."
"I see. Well, carry on." Twilight said. She still had to visit the section where they were taking apart the machine these creatures used.
"And when you press this button, the door in the back opens." The earth pony finished.
"I see." Twilight said. She was currently in front of the machine, where it was apparently controlled. A black earth pony, named Wrecking Wrench, was now showing what they had so far found out. "What makes it work?" She asked as two of them started to walk out.
"No idea. There are few things, one is this substance, that works like oil, except a lot more volatile and other is this box that will fry you if you aren't careful. No idea what they are and how they work, though."
"That's too bad. What about the smaller devices? Their weapons?"
"Well, they sure aren't going to be used by us. Precision required for actually making them fire is to great for your average unicorn to do under pressure without at least few years of training. Then there is that we have no idea how to produce these things, so we would rely on getting them from the battlefield."
"Which are often damaged or otherwise near useless." Twilight concluded.
"Aye."
"So what was this thing carrying?" Twilight asked.
"Damned if I know. I think it was doing a supply run, lots of these strange tubes and water." Wrecking Wrench took something from a shelf. "These canisters or whatever, they are insanely difficult to crack open if you don't have something to actually grasp on to them. Clearly not build for hooves. There are about six hundred of them, we cracked open about ten and they all have water."
"I see. And these other tubes?"
"Some sort of paste, Case Study says they might be food for the creatures, though I can't imagine who would want to eat that stuff. One pony tried it and said it tastes like dirt." Wrench said, shrugging. He reached for a crowbar and tried to pry one of the panels off from the ship. "Little help?"
Twilight nodded and concentrated her magic. The panel was tightly attached, but eventually gave off, revealing a mess of brightly colored wires. Both ponies looked over the wires.
"I was hoping there would something more... mechanical. Something closer to steam engine. I have no idea what all these wires do. Except that you don't want to touch them." Wrench said dropping his crowbar.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, whatever runs in them is strong enough to give you a mean electric shot. Can easily burn off your coat, if you are not careful and whatever you do, don't put them in your mouth. Poor Connect Dots, peace upon his soul, learned that the hard way."
"Oh." Twilight took few steps away from the wires. "Is there any way to make them save?"
"Well, few guys has theorized that the big humming thing is what supplies all the energy this thing uses." Wrench said, waving for few ponies to take over. "But until we figure out what it is and how to shut it down, we aren't doing much. For all we know, this thing might blow up."
"I agree. I guess I should leave you to be."
"Thank you, ma'm. I'll send you a report once we figure out something out of this thing."
Following day
Twilight was reading over the initial findings that other leads of the project had made, which was to say not much. She herself was trying to create a preliminary theory of what the creatures were, what they were motivations and ultimately, how to defeat them. However, her musings were interrupted by banging by the door.
"Come in, it's not locked." Twilight said, crushing another sketch ("Evil aliens beyond stars after water?") into a ball and throwing it into a bin. A guard entered the room and saluted.
"Apologies for the interruption, but there is a slight trouble with the prisoners."
"Trouble? What sort of trouble?" Twilight asked, motioning guard to lead the way and following.
"Well, the prisoners are refusing to eat or drink. This is a third day now, and... well, one of them died just now. We already informed professor Case Study, but we thought it would be best to inform you too." The guard said,.
"Have you tried to give them food?" Twilight said, already knowing the answer but deciding to ask anyway.
"Yes. All kinds of. Salad, flowers, vegetables, fruits, even meat. Nothing. They refuse to eat. They look like they would want to eat, but refuse anyway. Can't even force feed them, they die if you take off the suit."
"Thanks for reminding of that image..." Twilight had read initial attempts at interrogation and had to stop when the more graphical description of events had come up.
"My apologies. We are here." The guard said somewhat awkwardly. Twilight noticed that Case Study was already there, looking over the rejected food. "Find anything?" She asked.
"No. The food is perfectly fine, as far as I can see. Perhaps they digestive system can't deal with it? Poisons? Allergies? Fanaticism?" Case Study said. "Or is it those suits? What do they even eat?"
"Well, without any frame of reference we are guessing in the dark here." Twilight said. She stared at the prisoner, as if to will it to explain itself. It merely stared back, before a rumbling sound could be heard from it and it clutched it's stomach. "Well, they clearly can get hungry. But how to feed them?"
"I can't say. Was there anything in that thing of theirs?" Case Study asked. Twilight tried to bring back the inventory list that had been made of the vessels content. Then she remembered what Wrecking Wrench has said to her earlier.
"The tubes! It must be those! You two, go get , say, 4 of the strange tubes that came with the vessel. Also two of those cylindrical containers." Twilight said and watched as her orders were carried out. Soon, guards returned with the requested. "This thing is apparently non-toxic to us, but somewhat nutritious." She said.
"Hmm, perhaps they lack the ability to chew?" Case Study said, as Twilight poured some the paste on the plate and poured some of the water from the container on a glass.
The plate was pushed back into the cell, where the prisoner stared at it for a moment, before approaching. The creature was being cautious, as if suspecting that the food was poisoned. It did take little bit of the paste and pushed it against where Twilgiht guessed it's mouth was. A flicker, as if the mask had opened a small compartment and the paste was gone. However, another prison across the hallway started to scream when it noticed what was happening.
"Ne yesh'te! Es wūrǎn!" However, the prisoner who had tasted the stuff was already on the ground, convulsing. Ponies took step back and watched as the prisoner convulsed uncontrollably before stopping and no longer moving. After few minutes, a guard entered the cell and confirmed that the prisoner was dead.
"Okay, that was not what I was expecting." Twilight said, shocked.
"However, we did get a reaction..." Case study said, looking at the other prisoner, who was shaking it's head, before noticing that the ponies were now at its door. "So, how do we feed you?" Case Study asked, but the prisoner remained silent. Twilight nudged the unopened containers.
"What are these?" She asked. The prisoner just stared as them, before slumping down.
"Basta dare ikh mne". It said and gestured at the containers. Twilight and Case Study took a glance at each others, before nodding to the guards. The containers we passed into the cell, unopened.
The prisoner once again approached carefully at the containers and started to look at them. It appeared to be checking that they were not damaged. Eventually, it nodded and placed the tube at it's "mouth". Once again, it's mask flickered and seemed to clamp on the tube. The tube started to empty and eventually was dislodged from the mask. Same procedure was repeated with the cylinder.
"Hmm, I guess it's something in the air?" Case Study said.
"Well, whatever it is, as long as we have unopened containers we should be OK. Send a word to Wrecking Wrench to put all those food supplies to a safe location and make sure they are not damaged." Twilight said to the guards.
"Also, send a message to army that any supplies they capture from the aliens is to be send to us, right away." Case Study added. "We don't know how long these will last and I rather have extra than run out."
"Agreed."
Celestia sighed as she entered her room. The meeting with the generals had only brought her more bad news, the invaders were not relenting and attempts to break through had failed. She wondered where they had came from. She had never heard of this type of creatures, even with her old age.
She looked over her desk and saw a letter from Twilight Sparkle. Opening the letter, she began to read.
To Princess Celestia
I wish to thank you once again for your confidence in me and giving me this chance. I have spoken with other heads of departments and we have began our work. I have decided to largely remain uninvolved with the managment of the departments themselves, concerning myself with overall research.
Others have tried to uncover the truth behind the attackers on their own areas. I have attached their reports with this letter. I fear we do not have much yet, but we hope this will change in time.
So far, there are few theories we have come up. Three most accepted theories we are thus far:
Theory 1: Return of Ancients.
Some very ancients text speak of "Precursors" or "Demons of the Night" who were banished. This theory states that these "Ancients" are now returning. However, problem with this theory is that these Ancients are not mentioned in ancient Zebra or Pony text and all texts referring to them pre-date even Discords rule. If these truly are the Ancients, why are they attacking Equestria? Furthermore, where could they have been until now? Although we believe that this theory to be incorrect, we are still not discarding it until we can outrule possibility that references to such Ancients do not merely mean other tribes.
Theory 2: Servants of Unknown Deity
This theory states that these creatures are servants of some other power, a vanguard of sort, here to prepare for the arrival of the force they serve. However, once again, we run into problem of "why" as well as "who". Who is this deity and what does he/she/it seek? Are the creatures a separate race that serves the deity or are they parts of the deity? Why they use such technology? We consider this theory possible, but not certain, as they are yet to offer any obvious sign of worship.
Theory 3: Life from outside our world
This theory states that the creatures are not native to our world at all or serve any ranking power, but merely are another nation in manner of Equestria or Zebra Union. However, once again, we run into question of "why"? What are these aliens here for? Is it resources? If they have ability to cross the vast emptiness between stars, why are they attacking? Do they not understand concept of trade? In lack of other proofs, we consider this most likely theory. Although it sounds like a story from some story, it does offer few answers of why these creatures are so different from us, yet do not seem to fit Theory 2. It would also offer a possible explanation of their technology, as they are yet to offer signs of using casual magic. Technology could be a coping mechanism, a solution to do things we do with magic, such as flying or levitating large objects.
I will send you a new letter and reports in a month, detailing our progress. I hope we will soon start to make greater progress, as we overcome our initial difficulties.
Your student
Twilight Sparkle
Biological Department Report
Head of Department: Case Study
Subject: Aliens
We have now agreed to refer to these creatures as "aliens", using a popular term for off-world creatures. We have concluded that these creatures are not native to our world. While autopsy can not be carrier out, we have managed to gleam some insight into their nature.
First off, aliens are bipedal species and operate similar to Minotaurs or Diamond Dogs, as in their front limbs have developed into specialized grasping appendages. However, unlike Minotaurs, the aliens posses five digits instead of four. Their legs take up to 1/2 of their total length. Their feet have protrusion out of them, apparently for stabilizing the standing motion. Although creating somewhat less sturdy body structure than other such creatures, the alien body structure is surprisingly nimble, allowing wide range of movement.
These aliens seem to be pack animals. When two subjects are put into cell, they can be observed to communicate, either through some sort of telepathy or through articulation. We have come to this conclusion after repeated observations, where aliens gesture as if communicating, in acts and gestures not otherwise observe (for example, pointing something, spreading their upper limbs in wide manner).
Occasionally, whatever the aliens are communicating about, seems to heat somewhat and other alien will resort to vocal articulation. Sometimes these "shouting matches" as the guards refer to them carry on for some time, sometimes two seem to notice that they are prisoners and revert to telepathy. Whenever the telepathy is a natural ability of their species or created by their suits is still under investigation, but the unique circumstances prevent in-depth study.
Aliens, based on approximations done from their "nutriment paste" appear to be omnivores, with preference to being herbivore. Whatever these aliens eat naturally is unknown, as the only food available to us is highly processed and concentrated paste. They also require water to survive.
As detailed in experiment 11 (Which, if I may note, should not have been ended prematurely), aliens can survive up to a week without food, as long as they have access to water. However, with access to food, but no water, they can survive up to three or four days.
Aliens are unable to survive with outside contact of their suits. Even smallest exposure can lead to what we can only assume to be a painful death. Even exposure of their food to outside world leads them to become toxic to these creatures. We have been unable to pierce their suits with magic without killing the subject and as agree, after the third casualties this line of experiments has been discontinued.
We will continue our efforts of understanding these aliens nature.
Head of Biological Department
Case Study
Linguistic Department Report
Head of Department: Letter Soup
Subject: Alien language
I am afraid that I must report that we have not made much progress on subject of alien language. Although several theories have been made, we do not have a frame of reference. We do not know where to start. I am afraid that until we have a solid point from where to proceed, we will wont' be able to make any progress.
Engineering Department Report
Head of Department: Wrecking Wrench
Subject: Alien technology
Well, there is not much to say. Most of this technology is black box to us. We have managed to get basic understanding of what does what, but the question how is still open to us. Here is what we have so far managed to figure out.
The heart of the system is what be believe to be "the first engine".. This generates electricity that the rest of the machine uses. What it does with this electricity, we do not know. We do not know how this engine generates the electricity, as it lacks obvious fuel source. The machine does have other fuel sources, using highly flammable liquid similar to oil. However, these tank of fuel are not connected to the first engine, but to other engines.
How aliens have managed to create this strong connections or bolts, is beyond us. The materials used in the machine are several times stronger than the ones known to us. However, what we have managed to find out is that they are alloys created from materials available to us. Unfortunately, attempts to replicate the material have thus far failed.
As for weapons, I am afraid that they are beyond our ability to produce or use. They are clearly designed to be used by the aliens. As the weapons use magnetic field to launch the projectile in high speed, the recoil is clearly intended to be absorbed by the aliens shoulder. One of my buys tried to use his mouth and we had to take him to a doctor to relocate his jaw, not to mention we are still finding his teeth in the lab. Trigger system is too small to be used by your average unicorn and scaling this system up makes the weapon impractical, not to mention we have no way to reproduce several critical parts of the weapon.
We will continue our efforts to reproduce the alloys the aliens use, as their strength and light weight makes them ideal to replace our existing armors.
Twilight took a loot a her chalkboard, which she used to write down random ideas she had been having. Theory about aliens invading was... not looking so sane anymore. If they were after water, why invade? If the theories about space were true, there should be enough water to fill several planets. Not to mention the fact that creatures clearly had water on their own. Minerals? If so, where were the mining machines? Slaves? Nopony had been forced into slavery, in fact, these aliens had made sure that ponies would not go anywhere near their machines or any work they do.
She shook her head. She was starting to make even less sense than the conspiracy theorist. She returned to her papers and books, deciding to take another look at the "Return of Ancients" theory. So far, it was only one that had not created more problems than solved. Mainly because it had a one giant hole in it, "Who?". If she could find out who these creatures were, she could find a plausible reason for the return.
"Let's see..." She muttered to herself as the picked up Ancient Myths of Griffins and opened it from her bookmark.
And on the fourth year of reign of Holy Father Grimfeather, Lord of High Rock, Lord of Featherpeak, Lord of Mystic Forest, Protector of Four Valleys... She decided to skip the long list of tittles and King of All That Is, did The Demons of The Night rise from their slumber and haunt the nights of Free Folk. Thus, in His infinite wisdom, did The King say, "Thus shall Free Folk not fear, for the Night shall be devoted to the Rest, and the Rest shall be sacred. For such, it is King's duty to banish the demonkind." And lo and behold, did The King raise a mighty army of Palladins to challenge the demons.
The King and His Army flew to city of Demons, great towers of Iron and Rock and struck them down. As the demons fled before the power of Light, did The King proclaim: "And thus shall the day and night belong to Free Folk and may the Demons be banished into black sky", And so great was The Kings power, that massive ships raised from the ground to swallow the demons and took them into blackness of eternal night sky.
Problem with reading these texts was that she honestly could not tell what the writers had made up and what had really happened. She knew that "Holy Father Grimfeather", one of the first kings of Griffins and the founder of The First Empire of High Rock had zero magic in him. That much she knew from surviving writings of his enemies, who while vilifying him, made it clear that magic his army used came from court wizards, who were not Griffins. Grimfeathers own historic never mentioned these court magicians, always placing all glory on him. To point where his bloodline was considered holy until Alsian Slave Rebellions.
Still, there was small seed of plausibility in the story. Minotaurs had similar version, so did Catsmere. Diamond Dogs of Great Burrows also had similar stories, except in those they did not drive away "Greedy Demons" but rather stole their wealth. Still, it seemed that around certain time these was global appearance of "Night Demons" who appeared, fought with locals and left. Even the description of their cities, "Towers of Iron and Rock", was consistent.
She sighed and put down the book. She had been working on this too long, it was time to take a break. Maybe she should visit Wrecking Wrench, see if he had made any progress. Taking a turn to the newly constructed "The Vault", as the other had named it, she found herself looking down at the large underground hall.
While she agreed that the previous shelter had been rather cramped, this new one seemed... excessive. of course, that was only her opinion. Wrecking Wrench has put forth the suggestion and she had authorized it, not being sure what his team might actually need. She started walking towards his office, but saw him talking to a pegasis in the hallway in opposite direction.
"Sink that thing in lead or something. Ask unicorns, they know this stuff. I don't want any more casualties from this." Wrecking Wrench said, waving his hoof. The pegasis nodded and flew off to carry out the instructions.
"Something wrong?" Twilight asked as she walked to him.
"G'day mam. Yeah, remember that weird glowing thingy we found? Turns out everyone who had handled it are now sick and have started to develop tumors and other nasty things. Those who handled it most are in the worst condition." Wrecking Wrench said.
"Oh..." Twilight said. "Was it toxic?" She asked
"Darned if I know. Doctords said that the symptons are similar to those who venture into Great Empty without protective gear."
"Damn it. we already have too many casualties, especially after that ammo incident." Twilight said.
"Aye. We are keeping them in cool now, so no chance of them going off like that anymore." Wrecking wrench said. "Still, I am ordering that thingy quarantined." He continued "I don't know what it is and what it does, it's too dangerous to deal with. I am moving the entire First Engine away from Canterlot."
"I'll speak to Princess and have her set up some safe place for it. Maybe have separate group taking a look at with greater precautions."
"That would be the best."
"Wait." Twilight suddenly said. "The Great Empty? The massive glass desert? You mean that one? The one that has always been assumed to be failed attempt to cast a world altering spell?" Twilight asked, something clicking in her mind.
"Yeah, why so?"
"I think I just found the link I need..." She said and ran back to her office, leaving confused Wrecking Wrench behind.
Back at her office, Twilight wiped her original idea off from the chalkboard. She drew a line across the board, starting from the earlier records of world history and ending with founding of Equestria. Then she marked down each and every major disaster or conflict written down, as well as any time periods that mentioned possible Ancients. Sudden emergence of the first Zebra culture, which seemed to suddenly jump from "live in small tribes" to "build pyramids" overnight.
Soon, she could see it. Formation of The Great Empty. Griffins driving away Night Demons. Diamond Dogs stealing the wealth of Dark Ones. Sudden formation of First Kingdom of Catsmere out of numerous tribes without clear cause and effect, Sudden collapse of Ashlak civilization. It all happened within 50 year span. Something happened, but what? Ashlak left no clues. Catsmere text only mentioned "Lord Protector" uniting the tribes. So what had happened to suddenly bring this force of change into the world?
And more importantly, were these events truly connected to current events or was she grasping for straws?
She needed more information. Something, anything. She quickly started to pour over her books and reports again. There had to be something that would mention something. If even one of these cities of Iron and Rock had survived, even in ruins, maybe she could have someone study them? With luck, there could be clues in those cities. Of course, if they were considered to be demonic, they had been most likely been sealed away or destroyed. If they were sealed, they would most likely be forgotten.
She wondered why Equestria had curiously been saved from this strange assault on the world. She had found no traces of strange emergence or other events.
"Hmm... Only one with any sort of guess over whenever something happened would be someone who lived in the ancients times... and only ones alive would be Princesses." Twilight muttered. "Hmm..." She picked up a pen and paper and prepared to write down, before setting them down again. "I am an idiot. I am at Canterlot, I can just walk to them." Shaking her head, she stood up and headed to the throne room.
While originally located in the dungeon, the new research facilities had been build into the base of one of the towers, except for the Engineering Department which had been moved fully underground. The trip to the throne room didn't take long. As she was about to walk in, one of guards stopped her.
"I'm sorry, but Princesses is currently discussing the strategy with generals." The guard said, looking apologetic.
"That is okay. I can wait until they are ready."
"It should not take long, they are-" The guard was interrupted as the door opened and generals walked away, some giving her greetings and others ignoring her.
She had grown used to this already, some generals refused to believe that the study of aliens was waste of time, that "good old bashing" would solve the problem. As Wrecking Wrench has said after one of the doubting generals had visited, "Denial is strong with this one". In the end, however, if Princess told them to jump, they would merely ask "How far?"
"Well, looks it's over. You may go in." The guard said and stepped aside. Twilight thanked him and entered the room. She saw Luna and Celestia talking about the plans. She coughed to get their attention. Celestia turned to her.
"Hello, Twilight. You got something?" She asked.
"Yes. I wanted to ask you something, since there seems to little to no records of those times. About 2000 years ago, there was a chaotic era, during which many things happened. I wanted to ask about those. Did anything... strange or colossal happen in Equestria 2000 years ago?"
"Hmm, not on top my mind. Why do you ask?" Celestia said.
"Well, there seems to be have sudden appearance of 'demons' in the world and lots of other strange events. Like formation of The Great Empty, the glass desert that somehow kills all who enter it." She said, gaining a nod from Princesses "Collapse of Ashlak culture. All these happened in 50 years, all over the world, with numerous surviving cultures referring to 'demons' appearing or other creation myths starting to pop up around this time."
"Interesting, but how would it help us?" Luna asked.
"Well, you remember my Return of Ancients theory? I think I found possible link. Description of these demon cities is 'Towers of Iron and Rock'. Now, what do alien buildings in the occupied territories look like?"
"Mix of Steel and Concrete. Iron and Rock." Celestia said.
"It does seem to fit." Luna added.
"Yes, however, most likely these cities were either sealed away or destroyed. If we could find ruins of these cities, we could perhaps find some clues about these creatures." Twilight said.
"Hmm... I can't remember anything, really." Celestia said. "What about you, Luna?"
"No, neither do I. Not at least anything for sure. There was the myth of Glowing City, was there? But that happened long before us." Luna said.
"Yes, but we thought it was merely another name for Crystal Kingdom, right?" Celestia said, then a look of realization over her face. "No, wait... the original myth was that it was in north. Beyond glacier."
"Glowing City?" Twilight asked. Luna turned to Twilight.
"There was a myth of Glowing City, a city that defied the Dark and challenged it. That they defied even the Sky by reaching for it. Eventually, it was consumed by the Dark and unicorns, fearing for the Dark to expand from it, sealed it in ice. If I remember the myth correctly, it's supposed to be somewhere in the north, beyond Fortress Maximus." Luna told.
"Then if I may, I wish to launch an expedition to find this city. With luck, we could learn something from it."
1 week later
"Twilight... next time you suggest a trip, tell me where we are going." Applejack said, shaking in the cold snow. "If Ah had known we are going to White Glacier, Ah would have stayed home."
"Sorry Applejack, but you were only one that could come with me. I wanted someone I know I can trust to take care of all this other stuff." Twilight said apologetically.
Two of them had, alongside a small team, total of 24 ponies with a mix of unicorns, pegasis and earth ponies, ventured beyond Fortress Maximus, the northernmost outpost of Equestria. Nobody had really explored these regions and Twilight wondered if they had been too rash in their desire to act. 2000 years could easily hide any city in these areas, not to mention destroy it. However, they had to give it a shot. They were currently checking an area 300 kilometers from the Fortress, known as White Glacier due to it's white coloration.
"People who named this place must 'ave been really lacking in imagination, Ah mean, White Glacier? Everywhere is white here!" Applejack complained. "What's taking them flyboys so long?"
"They need to carry unicorns to see if there is anything under the ice. It's going to take some time. Though they should arrive soon." Twilight said.
"Ah just hope it ain't going to storm soon. Ya never know in these parts." Applejack said, while walking to the exit of the tent. "Well, here they come." Twilight and Applejack walked outside to meet the survey teams. 10 Pegasus/Unicorn pairs with Unicorns specializing in earth magic. They had been already been given a cup of hot chocolate.
"Anyone found anything?" Twilight asked. A chorus of negatives brought her hopes down, until one of the Unicorns spoke.
"Though we did find an entrance to cavern, cavern which seems to go deeper than our scanning spells can penetrate."
"Really?" Twilight said, receiving a nod.
"Yes. We saw something in the ice and investigated. It seemed like a some sort of tower, just the remains of the top side. We looked around and found the cave."
"What do you think Applejack." Twilight asked, turning to Applejack.
"Well, if ya story is true and Ah were trying to seal something away, Ah would tuck it somewhere deep." She said. "Ah say it's worth the shot."
"Alright, rest today, tomorrow we will head to this cavern." Twilight said, receiving a mixed chorus of hurrah and groan.
"Should be somewhere here..." An unicorn said, looking around. Above them, group of pegasis were flying, trying to see the entrance. Twilight wished they had been smart enough to give the survey teams something to mark their findings, flags or something.
"Over here!" One of the pegasis shouted, pointing underneath herself.
The group walked over there and found the remains that had been mentioned yesterday. It formed a four-sided pyramid, before stretching downwards. Twilight could not see how deep the structure went, expect that it was badly damaged in numerous locations. She guessed that another hundred years or so, they would be eroded to point where one would not be able to recognize them.
With the landmark now found, the group quickly moved towards the location of the cavern entrance, soon finding it. Unicorns cast light spells to allow them to see and the group began to descend into the cave. The cave was not very wide, only allowing two ponies side by side, but it was high enough to allow them to walk upright.
Icicles dotted the cave, which Twilight found weird. These areas should be cold enough through out the year, not allowing enough time for ice to melt and form them. There had to be something in the cave that still produced occasional wave of warm air. Unless, of course, these icicles were extremely old.
Twilight also wondered why the cave was still accessible. It should have been buried under all the ice and snow, closed up. Unless the magical wards were made to allow pilgrimage or unicorns to return to strengthen the wards? She couldn't say, not before she could confirm that this tunnel did really lead to Glowing City and Glowing City was, indeed, an Ancient city.
The tunnel was not the most straight one, though it did slowly travel downwards. There were many sharp turns, cross roads, branching tunnels. Still,strangely enough, these tunnels all seemed to lead towards the same center point. Twilight noticed that they had traveled a quite long distance downward and began to wonder exactly how long the tower had been.
In the end, after two hours of walking, they came across a sure sign that this was what they had been looking for: A half-functioning magical shield ward.
"Well, Ah think that confirms that this place has something to hide." Applejack said. "So, uh, what now?"
"Well, the spell is barely working anymore." Twilight said. "Must have taken entire month of non-stop casting to allow it to survive this far. I bet it would not even hold if someone walked against it. It does keep the tunnel open, barely, though burst of heat." She said, walking towards the shield. She placed her hoof against it and just as she had expected, shield collapsed in a flash.
"Well, that was anti-climatic." Someone said. Twilight didn't say anything, though she did agree. She had expected more. Then again, this was a 2000 year old ward. Even the best magics would deteriorate over time. Luna's prison was a testament to it. The fact that this ward had been up for 2000 years spoke greatly of those who set it up. The group continued their way. After two turns, they knew that their trip had not been in vain. They stood over a ledge looking over their target.
The Glowing City was in front of them.
Well, more specifically, what was left of it. Parts of it had collapsed, icicles had fallen over it, snow everywhere, but it was a city. A city of Iron and Rock. On closer look, it was should have been Steel and Concrete, but Twilight didn't hold ancient ponies at fault for not knowing the difference. Large buildings rose and were cut off. Highest one was still higher Canterlot castle and even that had been cut off at some point in time, with rest of it being in ruins next to it. Interestingly, none of of the towers reached the cavern ceiling, but Twilight could make out outlines of structures, frozen in the ice inside the cavern ceiling. The spell must have not reached all the way to the top of the structures for ice to form.
"Well Ah be." Applejack muttered. "So, shall we go and take look?"
"Yes, right, of course." Twilight said, breaking off from her awe.
Trip down to the ground level too little bit more time, as the pegasis flew non-fliers one by one, with Twilight and other unicorns teleporting those they could. Approaching the city, it was soon clear that text would not have survived well. The few posters that were still up were washed out and could not be read.
"Buck it, I had hoped for more." Twilight said.Applejack gave her a nudge and pointed towards a plaza.
"Take a look at that." She said. Twilight turned around and saw a monument. Then she hugged Applejack with all her might.
"Applejack you are awesome!"
It was rather simple, just a stone slap. However, it had text on it. Next to it was a smaller stone slap with some text, with another protective ward protecting two monuments. However, what made Twilight hug her friend, was a simple picture on the larger slab.
It was a picture of a pony... holding it's hoof against a hand of an alien.
"I believe this confirms the Return of the Ancients theory." One of the unicorns said. "Also, miss Sparkle, I am no doctor but I believe your friend requires some air. She is starting to turn blue." Twilight released Applejack, which earned her both laughs from others and a stern 'think next time' look from Applejack.
"Let's take a look at it." Twilight said. The group walked to the monument. Twilight studied the text. "Hmm, definitely the language of the aliens. Grammar has clearly shifted, as well as language... but I can recognize most of the words." She said after a while. "Though I still do not understand it." She walked to other side and gasped.
"Old Tongue, come over here." She said. The earth pony walked over to the other side. "It's old Equestria, isn't it? you know how to translate it, right?"
"Yes, seems like dialect spoken by pegasis... Let's see... Apologies if this sounds weird, but I am translating on fly." The earth pony said.
"Here met the Chieftain Sky Ranger and Chieftain Laina, chieftain of the Glowing City, cometh they from the Dark, forth step by... no that's wrong... to meet in peace and co-operation, for they cometh not here, yet still call it home, friend exist offer Sun damn it why couldn't these guys write in sensible sentences?" The earth pony said, shaking his head.
"In this place, Friendship offered and accepted. To celebrate, this stone stand proud.. That's the general gist of it. There seems to some more, but we should copy this all down and fully translate it."
"Hmm, if it' supposed to symbolize friendship... then perhaps the text on the other side is the same, but in alien technology?" Twilight wondered. "Makes sense. What about the smaller one?"
"Let's see,,, For friend, now gone, thy city not lost shall, protect till thy promised return. That's it. Seems like original inhabitants left but promised to return."
"Well, this was a jackpot." Applejack said. "Kinda convenient too."
"Yes, but I am not looking at gift turtle in the mouth." Twilight said. "Old Tongue, copy these text as they are, we translate them later. Make sure you get them exactly as they are. Danger Rover, you stay and here and help him. Everyone else, let's take a look around. Return here in, let's say, an hour."
Group nodded and Twilight joined Applejack as they set off to explore the city.
"So, what do you guess this place was?" Applejack asked. They had entered a building that had a strange symbol next to it, a sort of shield.
"I don't know. Let's look around." Twilight responded.
Two entered a large lobby. As with everywhere else, it was empty apart from few furnishes here and there. Snow covered one of the windows completely and one of rooms had caved in. Since there was nothing particular of interest, two continued further into the building. After several turns, they across a hallway blocked by steel bars.
"Bars? Here?" Applejack asked. "Must be something they wanted to protect in here." She tried the gate and it opened. "Can't be anything left, the door is not locked." Two continued further. They found a rows of obvious cells.
"Cells? A sort of dungeon?" Twilight wondered aloud.
"Could be. Though kinda flimsy. Look at those windows, only some weak net over them." Applejack responded.
"They might have once had glass over them and that net seems like it was once well maintained steel." Twilight looked more around, noticing something in the corner. "Hmm, what's that?"
"Ah dunno, looks like a camera. Though nothing Ah hav' ever seen. Why is it suspended like that?"
"To keep eye on the prisoners?"
"Maybe. Ah would not know."
Two returned back to hallway they had come through and took another turn. They found a large room with numerous desks and what seemed to very broken down machines.
"Incredible. Even 2000 years ago they had technology we could not imagine." Twilight said, looking over one of the boxes that had it's wiring exposed.
"Well, it hasn't aged well. Most of these are pretty obviously broken beyond repair." Applejack commented, slightly tapping one of the boxes and making it fall over and breaking into several pieces. "Yeah, Ah reckon these things have had better days."
"Well, they are 2000 year old." Twilight said, trying to open one of the closets in the room. However, she found that it was locked. "Huh. Applejack, wanna give it a try?"
"Sure thing." A quick kick to the frame and the closet opened, revealing several weapons clearly alien origin. "Well Ah be."
"These look... I don't know, both more advanced, yet at the same time less advanced that those carrier aliens these days." Twilight said, picking one of the sleek, almost cylindrical guns. "I wonder if it works..." She muttered.
She placed the gun on a table, holding it in place with her magic and trying to operate the trigger with her hoof. Applejack moved behind her and watched her attempts to get the gun work. After few tries, she managed to get her hoof in good enough position to operate the trigger. However, the trigger refused to move.
"Stuck. Should have guessed." Twilight said, leaving the gun. "Well, I guess this was some sort of outpost. Maybe militia headquarters?"
"Or maybe this is police station. Ah mean, they got cells and all." Applejack suggested.
"Why would they need these sort of weapons?" Twilight asked.
Twilight and Applejack returned to the central plaza as had been agreed. Few others had returned already and started a small fire to keep themselves warm. Four of them were setting up some accomidations by clearing out one of the more well preserved buildings from the snow.
Twilight was going to ask them about it before realizing that leaving that the cavern offered good protection against the elements, with addition of a building to keep in the heat, they could stay here for few days. Though she wished she had taken Spike with her when they left. At the moment she had no way to contact Celestia and she was dying to tell Princess about what they had found.
When the final pair arrived, she called them over for a debriefing .
"So, what have we found? Me and Applejack found some sort of military outpost, with weapons and all." Twilight began, then waited for the next one to report.
"Some sort of hospital, stripped clean. Though it's size was larger than we had expected. We theorized that these creatures might have gotten sick much easier than we do."
"Several apartments, as well as some sort of vehicle depot. All of them lacking the engine, just the frames."
"A municipal office, we think. At least it looked like it."
"A library."
That caught everyone's attention. The pegasus that had said it cleared her throat.
"We found a library, lots of books. Most of them ruined beyond use, to point where they crumbled to dust when we tried to pick them. The low temperature had prevented moss from growing, but the humidity had still ruined the paper." Twilight lowered her head at this and sighed, but the pegasus continued. "We also found a sealed vault."
"A vault?" Twilight said, once again interested.
"Yes. The vault is airtight, Trickers checked it. We found no way in it, nor did we found any cave-ins."
"Which means... if anything survived, it's in that vault." Twilight concluded. "This is great news. We must study this vault and find a way in. Preferably without damaging it."
"Take it easy, sugarcube. We got time. We are supposed to return at the end of the week, right?"
"Right, better not rush and ruin this." Twilight agreed, calming herself down. "Anyone else found anything interesting?"
"No."
"Nope."
"Second verse, same as the first."
"Depends." One of the unicorns said. "I think there is a statue of these creatures in higher parts of the city. We didn't go check it, because the time it would have taken, but I think the alien was without it's suit."
"What makes you think so?" Twilight asked.
"Well, for one thing, it didn't have helmet. I saw it from behind and it seemed like the statue was wearing what seemed like clothing. No helmet, but what looked like a mane or hair."
"Interesting. We should check that one out too." Twilight said. "We should set up a camp and prepare our equipment. Old Tongue, did you write down the text already?"
"The old equestria part, yes. I still need some time to fully transcript the alien text, since I need to copy their letters fully. As you commanded, I am being extra careful."
"Good, keep working on that. This trip turned out to be more bountiful that we had hoped for. We should check the statue today and focus on that vault tomorrow." Twilight said. "Actually, let's go check that statue right away. Lead the way. Applejack, you want to stay here or come with me?"
"Ah think Ah stay here, help others to set up the camp." Applejack responded.
"Alright, see you soon."
Twilight followed the unicorn and earth pony that had found the statue. Their trip took them through several buildings and over what seemed to be a river. There was a broken down bridge over it, but due to accumulated ice and snow, it was not needed. Crossing the river, they come to a set of stairs. Twilight could see the silhouette of the statue on top of the stairs. Trio started to climb the stairs, which went slowly as the stairs were frozen.
Eventually, they arrived at the top. The statue stood in front of them. The being was fully clothed, apart from hands. On it's head, it wore a funny looking hat. It's right hand was missing. What was weird, however, that the creature seemed to be sitting on top of a very large earth pony. A pony about a size of Celestia.
"That's... disturbing." Twilight said.
"And weird. Didn't the monument speak of friendship? Or did ancient Equestria practice slavery?" The earth pony said.
"As far as I know, no. Not to mention, look at the size of that pony. Either the creatures have grown in size and this statue is bigger than it's supposed to or earth ponies used to be much bigger." Twilight said.
"Not really, all findings indicate opposite, that modern ponies are much larger than the ancient ones." The unicorn commented. "Though look at that face. It's eyes are too small for its head."
Twilight nodded at this. The pony had too small eyes for it's head. Same went for the creature riding it. It's eyes were too small compared to it's head, not to mention the fact that head was too small for it's body. The pony had reigns on it which the creatures left arm was holding. She wondered where the right arm was.
"Let's try to see if the right arm is somewhere. Maybe it's just buried under the snow?" She suggested. The trio started to dig around the statue. After a while, Twilight found the missing arm. It was extended forward and was holding a curved sword on it. "That's weird. Why is it using a sword? I mean, we found their other weapons already."
"Maybe it's for honor of some ancient hero?" The earth pony suggested. "I mean, Princesses have entire garden full of statues."
"But if it's so, then how old is their civilization? If they once had swords and abandoned them in favor of their current weapons, yet only appeared to exist for about 50 years." Twilight asked. "Something is wrong here but I can't say what. Their civilization seems too old to be have only existed for such a short time."
"Maybe this a cycling thing? Appear every 2000 years to screw things up?"
"If so, then they have seriously diminished in this time. The limited area of their operations is a sign of this." Twilight responded. "If we these are the same creatures, then why have they not appeared all over the world? Argh, this is starting to raise more questions than it answers. Still, we did find out what they look under that armor. Let's head back to the camp."
The next day Twilight, Applejack and four others went to the library. At first, Twilight thought it looked about the size of one in Manehattan... or what had been in Manehattan. However, entering it she quickly realized how wrong she had been. The library stretched downwards several levels, with huge central shaft showing how deep the library went. Several shelves has collapsed or otherwise broken down. Twilight picked one book at random, only for it to break down in piece and it's content falling out as dust.
"Looks like these books won't help us. So where is the vault?"
"Downstairs, on the lowest level. Stairs only go to third level, after that they have collapsed all the way to the fifth level." A pegasus said. "We need to fly the rest of the way or teleport."
"Better head as down as we can with the stairs first." Twilight said.
The group moved to the stairs. However, Applejack noticed two metal doors.
"What are those doors?" She asked.
"We don't know. We couldn't get them open."
"Well, let's try again." Applejack said and walked to one of the door. She gave it a good kick, but the door remained closed. "Ouch, that one is tight." She gave it another kick, with the same results. However, Twilight noticed something.
"Wait, try to push them to sides." She suggested. Applejack gave her a confused look, but tried the suggestion. After a crack of ice, the door opened, revealing a small room.
"Huh, what's this?" Applejack said stepping inside. "There are a bunch of numbered buttons here." She said. She tried to the floor, which moved. In fact, Twilight noticed that the entire room moved as Applejack at first nudged it and then jumped up and down.
Suddenly a loud groan vibrated through the building.
"APPLEJACK! GET OUT OF THERE!" Twilight shouted. Applejack jumped out of the room as the groaning grew louder, until a loud snap was heard. The room pulled downwards, pulling a thick rope with it for while before the rope too disappeared. This was soon followed by a loud crash as the room hit the ground floor.
"Ooohkay... let's not do that again." Applejack said. Twilight walked over to the now open pit and looked down. An another room was hanging little bit lower on the side. She looked up and saw the ropes holding the room, as well as the snapped rope that had been holding the room that Applejack had been in. She also saw a pulley attached to some sort of machine.
"Looks like a system to quickly move between the levels. Though I would not use it, we just saw that these things won't-" Another loud snap and the second room pummeled downstairs. "And there wen't the last one. I guess that now that the wards are broken, these buildings are no longer held together with magic and the natural deterioration is starting to take effect. Even with the wards, the natural elements must have damaged the structures badly. Would explain why most of the towers have collapsed, yet at the same time have turned into mere piles of rubble."
"In Equestria?" Applejack asked.
"The place is going to collapse soon because we broke the wards." The pony next to Applejack translated.
"Oh-kay. So how about we stop fooling around and get to work before this building collapses on top of us?" Applejack suggested, earning nods from other ponies who were now keeping eye on the roof.
The group started their walk downstairs. The stairs moved in two-part levels, traveling to half way before turning around. The stairs were surprisingly clear of ice and snow, though they were rather steep. First two levels showed minimal damage to the structure, but on the third level the group could saw that one of the supports had failed, thus causing the fourth level stairs to collapse. A quick fly and teleportation allowed the group to descent safely.
Two ponies that found the fault originally lead the group around several bookcases. There, they entered through door into what seemed like a large storage room. It had boxes, some of them open revealing more books, as well as other objects. Strange reflecting discs, too small to be Frisbees and had a hole in middle of them. Then there were more of the strange machines, once again in different levels of disrepair. Cases that contained more of the discs, some with pictures on the disc. Twilight thought that this might be area where the aliens, or should she call them now Ancients, stored objects not publicly available.
After going three more room, they entered the final room. It was empty, except for the massive steel door. In middle of it, there was a rusted round handle, clearly for opening it. Next to the door was a plaque, but the text had washed out long time ago. It didn't really matter, since Twilight and others couldn't have read the text anyway. Twilight stepped forward towards the door.
"So... Suggestions? It's mostly likely rusted shut." She said, looking at the others.
"Ah dunno. Try turning that handle?" Applejack suggested. Twilight decided to give it a try, first turning it clockwise. It didn't budge, so she tried to turn it counter-clockwise. After a short groan, the handle snapped off. Twilight was about to blame the rust, but saw that connection point was not rusted. The frozen water had expanded, creating pressure until it had cracked the connection pole. She discarded the handle.
"Well, that went about as well as you could expect. So, how do we open it?" Applejack said dryly. Twilight looked over the vault and tapped the side wall.
"Well, we could try to go through the wall I guess." She said. "I just fear that breaking something could cause the structure become unstable."
"Yeah, Ah don't like of being buried all this concrete." Applejack said. "Actually, Ah wonder, if this thing is that rusted, maybe the locks have rusted too?"
"I don't think so." Twilight said, turning to the group. "You said this was still airtight?"
"Yes." The unicorn said. Twilight turned back to the massive door and pressed her hoof against it.
"So, I don't think this will-" Her speech was cut short as the door budged inwards with a crack of ice.
"Well that was anti-climatic." Applejack commented.
"... Never mind, help me open this thing."
Together, the group pushed the door open. Luckily, despite not being locked for some reason, it was still remained sealed, to point where a warm dry air rushed out of the vault. It was a single, relatively small room, full of boxes. Twilight carefully approached one of them and opened the lid.
It was full of books. Fully intact, well preserved books.
Twilight quickly cast a basic preservation spell over the books and the box. Other began to open other boxes, only to find more books. Around 1/4th had strange discs that were too small to be vinyls in them and 2 had machine parts, picture guide and one intact machine. Same procedure was repeated again and again, until all the books had been secured. Twilight looked over the books to see what they contained.
"Looks like this vault is for preserving books. All these books look very old." She said, flipping few pages. "Looks like some sort of history book? But I don't recognize the maps."
"This one looks like it's a book about plants." Applejack said. "Diagrams and all that." Twilight nodded at this and picked a new book. It was the same as the previous and she continued to next one.
"Another history book, but little bit different." She flipped few pages and tried to understand what she was seeing.
The picture was black and white picture. It had a group of Ancients, running towards the camera. Some of them wore similar mask as they did now, except these had two large circular eyes rather than T-shaped visor as well as only one tube, Their weapons were much more longer and less stocky than what they used now. Their helmets were round and looked more like plates than helmets. One of them was missing the mask and the helmet and was in process of falling down, a hand reaching for it's throat. It's face was not visible, but it looked like it was dying.
Another picture was also black and white and this one had soldiers with similar masks, except these lacked the tubes. Their helmets also resembled the ones used today. Soldiers were lying on some sort of trench, looking at something. Two other creatures, wearing similar masks, stood by them. She couldn't say why, but for some reason she immediately thought Diamond Dogs.
She was starting to suspect that this city and it's "friendship" with locals had either been an anomaly or a clever ruse. Most of the pictures showed different kinds of soldiers, all ready to fight. Ruined cities, obvious combat vehicles... Didn't these creatures do anything else except war? Though she did notice that pictures moved from black-and-white to sepia and eventually fully colored ones. She guessed their technology was not able to produce color images right away... or the world didn't always have colors. Which sounded stupid to her.
However, it seemed they did have great leaders. One picture showed a great number of Ancients, all without helmets or masks, standing around one Ancient. It's hand was raised in a greeting. Others were returning the greeting, some with expression that made Twilight think of joy. One could not get such respect, if one were not a great and wise leader. She put the book down and closed the lid of the box.
"Okay, let's get these out of here. I want them somewhere safe." Twilight said. "That machine and it's parts first, since it's unique among the items. Then few of those discs, then books and then rest of discs. Take them to top floor right away, near the exit. Just in case things go wrong."
Group nodded and carried first boxes out. Twilight took a parchment of paper and began to write down what they carried out and what was still in the vault. After the machine parts were out, she marked four disc boxes to be carried out. That left another 4 in. However, she wanted some of the books out too.
The building had started to groan and she noticed small cracks around the vault door. She was not sure if they had been around when they had come, but she didn't trust them. She had initially assumed that Ancients had build things to last... but it seemed like only reason the place was standing was that magic had preserved it. As groanign sound started sound louder, she started to fear. They only had about 4 book boxes out.
"Twilight? I know you are going to hate this but... We need to go. This place is not going to stand much longer." Applejack said, looking around the library. Twilight wanted to protest, but looking around she could tell that building was build to be maintained regularly. It was aesthetically impressive, but structurally not. She relented.
"Very well. Alright, take one more box with you, let's get out of here while we can." Twilight shouted. As the box was being flow out, a chunk of ceiling fell down almost hitting Twilight. "Okay... we better hurry. It's starting to look like the place is going to fall down at any moment now." She said.
She and Applejack teleported up to the stairs alongside those who didn't fly with the pegasis. After ascending one level, the rumbling sound grew louder. It was becoming increasingly obvious that building was going to collapse. Magic that had held it had disappeared alongside the protective barrier. After ascending another level, it began. On the other side of the library, part of second level collapsed upon the third level, which collapsed upon remains of fourth which also gave out.
"RUN!" Twilight shouted and the group began to climb the stairs as fast as they could, all the while more and more of the library began to collapse. Twilight saw from corner of her eye that the vault was buried, thus denying them access to rest of its content. They reached the top level and began to run towards the doors, where pegasis and few others were urging them to hurry. Just as they rushed out of the doors, the roof finally gave out and collapsed upon the rest of the library, leading to the library turning to a crater.
"That was too close." Twilight said. "At least we got few things out."
"Ah just worry about rest of this place. If magic was the only thing keeping it together.." Applejack said, nodding towards the ruins.
"Well, time to take these ones to the camp." Twilight said and the group turned to return the camp.
"Found anything interesting?" Applejack said, carrying two plates of soup with her. Twilight had focused on the books they had secured before the library had collapsed, leaving others to do their own searching. Right now, they were having a dinner.
"Not really, only thing I can understand are the pictures... and it worries me." Twilight said, setting down a book and taking the soup
"What do you mean?" Applejack asked.
"Well, I fear we lack the... mindset for this war." She said, taking careful sip before setting the soup down to cool off. "Reading these books, or more specifically, taking a look at their pictures, it seems that they are in constant state of war."
"Huh? Why would anyone keep a war going on forever?"
"That is what confuses me. The pictures only show Ancients, engage in warfare, but against who. In fact, they don't seem to show any other intelligent lifeforms, which leads to a worrisome conclusion. They have been waging an eternal civil war since the dawn of their civilization."
"That's crazy." Applejack said, her eyes open.
"Yes, but the problem is not the fact that they have this civil war, it's the implications of their combat skills." Twilight said. Applejack gave this a though before nodding.
"It's like farming. You can farm and stop and continue farming after a pause, but you will never be a good as someone who has farmed all her life." Applejack said, earning a nod from Twilight. "So you fear they have gotten so good at killing others that we can't really deal with such skilled enemies?"
"Yes. Well, technically we could win easily, by Princesses unleashing their full power on the Ancients... but that would also kill those who are still there, not to mention turning the occupied territories inhabitable."
"And if they don't, these Ancients will keep launching more devastating attacks. Damned if you do, damned if you don't." Applejack concluded.
"Well, on the bright side... there might be a chance to communicate with them." Twilight said, earning a raised eyebrow from Applejack. "They clearly do have culture beyond simple war. There are lots of art in these pictures that depict non-warfare or other violent events, as well as the art in the city itself. Then there was that plaque we found. It seems that local ponies and Ancients were friends, to a degree, before Ancients left."
"Ah guess you got a point there." Applejack said, finishing her soup. "Also, you might want to come a take look at this." Applejack said as Twilight finished her soup. Two of them headed out into the city again, until they reached the ice wall.
"So what did you want to show me?" Twilight asked. Applejack simply cleared some of the snow from the wall, taking a quick look into the ice and then gesturing Twilight to take a look. Twilight shrugged and took a look. Inside the ice, she could see faint shapes of buildings. Badly damaged, some looking barely more than irregularity in the ice, but some were still clearly buildings.
"Wow." Twilight said.
"Yup. This city is a lot bigger than we thought. Ah guess we merely found one part of it."
"No wonder the spell could last for 200 years. It didn't. It has shrunk all this time, until only this place remained. Incredible." Twilight said, peering into the ice again. "How many Ancients lived here?" She wondered aloud.
"Dunno about that, but there sure ain't any of them left here. Too many in Appleloosa, in my opinion." Applejack said. Twilight shook her head.
"Doesn't matter, in the end. We need to get these books back to Canterlot so we can analyze them. We can return here later. I think the cave is stable enough to not to collapse. Although it pains me to leave these buildings unattended, I want those books analyzed and studied soon. Maybe send another expedition here as well." She said.
2 weeks later
Dear Princess Celestia
Our expedition to find Glowing City was a success. We managed to locate the city and confirm that it's former inhabitants did share many similarities to our current enemies. As such, theory about return of the Ancients seems to be the most correct as of now.
Although we only managed to locate a limited about of books and information, I am confident that this knowledge could help us to better understand our enemies. I have attached the reports from other Heads of Department, even if they are not always encouraging.
Although professor Letter Soup says that the information is not useful to us, I disagree with him. These history books will, I am confident, offers us insight we need into the mind of Ancients and their civilization, perhaps even offer us how to end this war without further bloodshed.
As a closing statement, I suggest we send another expedition to the Glowing City to search for more information. We do not know for sure how long those buildings will survive now that the preservation spell is broken. If possible, I suggest sending a team of powerful unicorns to recreate the spell, even if a smaller scale. The buildings, and knowledge contained in them, that are frozen in the ice are a lost cause at this point.
Your faithful student
Twilight Sparkle
Engineering Department Report 2, A
Head of Department: Wrecking Wrench
Subject: Basics of Ancient technology
We had some major breakthroughs recently. Although much of the technology is still beyond our understanding, we have now found out the basic workings of the machines. Interestingly, unlike our own devices, these machines do not run on any sort of magic. No power stones, no magic conduits, no spell matrices, nothing. Instead, electricity is the key. Electric pulse of certain power at certain frequency is what makes everything happen.
"Greenboards", as the technicians call them, use this electricity to do, well, something. We assume these greenboards are used to run a logic tests, to direct the current to correct location in the machine. Once the electric pulse reaches certain point, it causes other electric pulses to go off, leading to machines to react to these pulses and so forth. It is, if you allow me to say so, a marvel of engineering. Entire system ran off from a single source. Whenever or not greenboards are "natural thinkers", as certain spell matrices we use, or "taught thinkers", as most spell matrices, is still unknown. However, we assume they are "taught thinkers" due to their non-natural nature.
As for the power sources, it still largely unknown. Due to hazardous nature of it, which we assumes come need of generating lighting without magic, studies into it's nature have been slow. Our worry is that it houses some of the most complicated machinery we have ever seen. Even more worryingly, most of this machinery is not dedicated to produce energy or divide, but quite opposite: They seem to be fail-safes, ready to dismantle the power source moment it goes wrong.
This leads to another issue we have had, the numerous cooling mechanism in the power sources. We have been keeping them on, in fear of removing them could cause something go wrong, but they are starting to fail. Our tinkering into them seems to have broken something, I am afraid. We have created artificial freezer, but we still detect occasional jumps in the temperature. This is worrying us greatly. As such, I highly recommend that the device is sealed somewhere safe, in case of catastrophic event.
Engineering Department Report 2, B
Head of Department: Wrecking Wrench
Subject: The Ancient Device and discs
The device is a small sound device. It plays whatever sound that has been stored in the discs, which are much smaller than vinyls. Furthermore, they posses much greater memory capacity, able to have over 8 hours of sound in them.
We have total of 25 discs. Discs 1-5 have some sort of speech in them, but we do not know what they are saying. Discs 6-10 are damaged, refusing to play. Discs 11-25 have music in them, raging from classical orchestral music to... I really don't know how to describe it, at first we assumed the discs were damaged, but analysis showed that the sound we hear is actual music. Some of the more youthful members of the staff seem to like it.
Device runs on batteries, using unknown substance to maintain charge. Initially we assumed the device was broken, but thankfully one of the engineers was able to realize the nature of batteries and devise a method to recharge them. We are attempting to apply this same method on other technologies we have acquired, but so far without success.
What interest us most, is that the device is lacking obvious mechanism to read the disc. We are still looking into this. Our attempt to play of the disc on our own device resulted merely in a ruined discs. System is less complex than what other devices we have acquired, but it's small size is causing us issues. The precision required to do anything is making us wary to attempt anything.
I have ordered the device to be left alone, as we have no other copies of it, as well as no knowledge to fix it or build another one.
Linguistic Department Report 2
Head of Department: Letter Soup
Subject: Translation process and content of books
Once again, I must report bad news. While the initial studies have allowed us to create a very basic understanding of the language of the Ancients, it is useless to us. Either the language spoken by the Ancients of Glowing City has died out or the language has evolved to point where it does not connect to modern day speech.
However, what little we do have managed to translate, we paint a confusing picture. Creatures never reference to other intelligent species that would have competed with them, ever. Only exception to this is a species they refer to as Homo Erectus, which seems to have been a sub-species, rather than full fledged species of it's own. The Ancients themselves see, to refer to themselves as Homo Sapiens, who are further divided among different races.
Their society seems to have been quite similar to Griffins. Both economic and military successes were highly valued. However, they also place a great value on art, but quite differently from ours. Where to us art is valued, but is available to everyone, it seems that among Homo Sapiens art had so great value, that only select few were able to acquire it. This does seem to indicate certain level of creative sterility, but I shall refrain from making a final comment yet.
They also seem to be highly competitive, to point of war being constant event in their history. However, there seems to have been cultural shift from "War as glorious" to "War is Tartarus" among them, as the depictions of war become increasingly gruesome and campaigns become smaller and smaller.
Now, more interestingly, as per report by Head of Engineering, Wrecking Wrench,(Report E2B, "The Ancient Device and discs"), we have believe that these "speeches" are actually books. A books, which have been read and then stored on a storage device. This does actually offer some interesting ideas, which would no doubt be of great interest of the entertainment industry.
To return to my point, we are very sure that the Discs 1 contains 9 books, two which are called "The History of Union Americana", "Brief Introduction to Confederación Europea" and one which tittle we have not yet translated, but is Sangre roja de Marte: Sino-Euro disputa sobre el comercio interplanetario. We have not yet recognize if there are text version of the other books or are those books lost to us. Also, we are not sure ofAmericana and Confederación Europea are names for nations, as Equestria or Catsmere do, or detonate the race, as Griffin Kingdoms and Zebra Union do
To sum up my report, the knowledge gained offers very little in relation of modern day Ancients, but offers a great insight to their past.
"Welcome back Miss. I heard about the victory in Ponyville," Letter Soup said as Twilight walked in the room. He then noticed that she was not looking very "victorious".
"You know, victory used to taste sweet," Twilight commented. Letter Soup just nodded at her. He didn't know what had happened, but it was clear that something had gone wrong during the battle and she was still coming in terms with it. "Your last report said that you had finished translating several books and you think you got the basics of the human civilization down?"
"Yes," Letter Soup said, moving to a chalkboard where he had written his notes. "Well, you were right about Homo Sapiens, or humans as they called themselves, having extensive experience in the art of war. Their history could be summed up as an eternal war with small breaks," He pointed at the timeline he had written. "However, what is interesting, is that their civilization is supposed to be over 4000 years old. What interest us is the last 200 years of their existence. There is some confusion about the human home. Take a look at this map."
Twilight looked over an enlarged copy of a map that had been found in one of the books. The books had several different maps but they all retained the same basic shape, just with what she assumed were changing borders. Next to the map was the map of the known world. Two of them, while having similarities, also had some significant changes. Most obvious being the lack of Griffin Kingdoms as well as an unknown continent.
"They are quite different," Twilight noted. Letter Soup nodded his agreement.
"Quite so. What is confusing, is that if Homo Sapiens-" Twilight gave him a quick look "-I mean humans were natives to our world... why did the world suddenly change?” Letter Soup said, pointing out the larger differences. “Two thousand years is not enough for this large changes. Then we got... interesting claims about space."
"Oh?" Twilight said, giving a puzzled look.¨
"Unless we have translated these things wrong, and I am pretty sure we haven't, these beings are capable of space travel. As in, travel from one world to another, through space." Letter Soup said, excitement in his voice. "Imagine it, ability to leave our world, to look it down from the sky! Not like pegasis, mind you, but above the all that! Look it from the stars themselves! They apparently had several colonies outside the world. One major colony was on a world they called Mars"
"I remember reading the translated version of their astronomy. It does not match with ours. For one, we lack several planets these books say exist," Twilight said, once again noting the difference between Ancient text and the reality. "Then there is the night sky. It's all wrong."
"Ah, yes. Which is what I actually wanted to speak to you about," Letter Soup said. "I do not think that the humans are natives to our world. Maybe, just maybe, the last time they were here, it wasn't because they lived here."
"What if it was attempt to colonize the world?" Twilight finished the thought. "Yes, yes, it makes sense. It would explain several things. Like the sudden appearance and disappearance. Why maps are different, they are maps of a different world, their homeworld and the way they are attacking... latest intelligence reports do say that these attacks are coming from the moon."
"Perhaps there is an outpost on the moon?" Letter Soup suggested.
"I can't say. I need to have a look into this. Thank you for your time," Twilight said as she left the room, leaving Letter Soup working on this translation.
After returning to her office, Twilight began to go over the reports she had missed during her time in Ponyville, even if it was in effort to fight back the invaders. Most of the reports were just updates on progress of the departments, what projects they were running, work teams and so forth. Only few of them actually contained anything that would help her. She wondered what exactly was her duty on this project. Sure, she was told to lead the project, but the others seemed to be able to do their thing without her constantly interrupting them. They didn't need guidance.
Shaking her head, she returned to the reports, maybe her job was to collect the data and see the common threads in them? Would make sense. That was what she had been doing, after all. Most of the data was disjointed, coming from numerous teams before being collected by the department heads and relayed to her.
A knock on the door woke her from her thoughts.
"The door is open," She said. The door opened and she saw Spike entering the room. "Spike! Good to see you, but what are you doing here?"
"Well, in case you forgot the library was almost burned down,” he said. “I decided to come and see if you need help here."
Spike had changed a lot from his younger form. Twilight had read that conditions affected how fast and how dragons grew, sort of adaptive growth, but she had never seen it in action. There was that time when he had become extremely greedy, but she had waved it off back then. Then again, looking back then, she should have seen this one coming one day. Looking at Spike now, who was just a little bit taller than her, with much more developed ability to breath fire as well as legs and arms more similar to invaders, though still somewhat stubby. The claws were something Spike was trying to get used to, he wasn't sure if he could pull them back at all. She wasn't sure but she could swear she was seeing begins of a wings on his back. His snout had grown somewhat, but not enough to make him unrecognizable. Tail was longer, but surprisingly it had not in size. It seemed more like a whip.
It had been a quite surprise to everyone involved when they found him in the library, trying to protect the books in his new form. His snout and tail had been smaller, but legs and arms had almost reached their current point already. Need to quickly adapt to new situation had started a growth spurt in him, one clearly trying to adapt to deal with the invaders.
"Well, there are some reports that need to be filed, if you want you can help me," She said. Spike smiled and nodded, before taking walking to the table and pulling a chair for himself. Twilight noticed that his walk was still somewhat unsure. "Still getting used to?"
"You have a growth spurt that rearranges your body and then tell me to 'get used to'," Spike said, emphasizing his point bu stretching his clawed hand. "I am still trying to figure exactly what happened. One moment there are bunch of creatures trying to attack and next thing I know, I have this body and dead creatures in front of me," Spike paused for a moment, as if to consider something before giving a sigh. "Sorry Twi, it's just... Growth spurts should come like this. I know I am supposed to get these, at some point, but..."
"No offense taken, Spike," Twilight said. "Your body has gone through a lot of stress and changes. You just get used to it, since it doesn't seem like this is going to go away and is permanent," She placed her hoof on his shoulder. "You're still you. Everyone grows up at some point."
"Thanks Twi." Spike said, looking down at his hand. Twilight was sure that something was still bothering him.
"Spike, what's wrong?"
"Hum? I told you already, library is down for the moment." Spike said, somewhat confused.
"Not that. There is something else on your mind. Go ahead. Talk to me. You know that even if you start growing up, I a still the one that raised you." Twilight said with a smirk.
"Fine, moooooom," Spike said, before both of them laughed. After calming down, Spike became serious. "It's just... I know I am barely out of dragon infancy at this point, other dragons would barely call me a toddler honestly, at least the fully grown ups. Still... I feel like this is too soon. You know? I should still have couple decades being a total kid. You know, I know it's kinda early to think about these but..." Spike looked up "I am going to live couple of centuries after everyone else is dead. At least that much. I... I think I got used to things," He looked down and at Twilight. "You as the librarian, me as the assistant, Rarity as someone unreachable... and suddenly, growth spurts. Can't really act like a kid, especially when you are bigger than most ponies around you."
"Spike," Twilight said gently. "You worry too much too soon. It's still far in the future before any of this matters. We will all live happily and have fun. Take your time. Nobody says you need to become adult in mind and body overnight. You said it yourself. You are barely moving out of dragon infancy," Twilight paused for a moment, to let Spike to process what she had said. "You didn't grow like other dragons, in large groups of abandoned eggs. You grew up with me and others. You never had to fight for survival, that's why it's so sudden to you."
"Yeah.. I guess so. Compared to how dragons normally... 'raise' their young ones, I got lucky." Spike said with a smile.
"Besides, maybe you got a better chance at Rarity now." Twilight said nudging Spike and who chuckled.
"Yeah right, I doubt she will be that open for inter-species romance, not really... Anyway, enough depressing stuff, let's get to work." Spike said, picking up a bunch of reports. "How do you want me to file these?"
Twilight smiled at Spike. "First, divide them by their departments, then start dividing them by date and subject, then..."
Twilight explained how to catalog the reports and where to put them. She watched as Spike moved the reports and other assortment of papers around. It felt like good old times.
"So, what's so funny?" Spike asked. Twilight looked at him.
"What do you mean?"
"You were smiling." Spike said, setting down the pile he had been carrying.
"Oh..." Twilight said, blushing slightly. "It's just... it feels like good old times, you know? You, me, room full of books and other assortment of written knowledge, cataloging and organizing it." She said. Spike nodded at her speech.
"True. It's been too long since you last visited the library back in Ponyville, you have been so busy with this whole war business."
"Yes, I think so too," Twilight said. "Been lonely?"
"To degree, it's weird on it's own way. Still, ponies kept visiting me so that I would not be totally alone."
"That's good to hear."
"So, how have you been?" Spike asked, sitting down. "Enjoying your work?"
"If you ignore that failure means destruction of Equestria... I have to admit this is exciting. So much new information, so much to learn. Take a look at this." Twilight said, pulling a book out of the pile and showing it to Spike.
"So, what is this? Looks like math, but I don't know some of these markings." Spike said, flipping over the pages.
"Neither do we, but we do know the basics of it. It's math, true, but that book holds the secrets of all Ancient knowledge." Twilight said. Spike stared at her.
"A math book?"
"Yes, a math book. Most likely their greatest achievement ever: they reduced world to math," She said, a glint of excitement in her eyes. "It's really genius when you start to look over it. How to calculate how hard something hits when you throw it. Why it flies, how far it will fly, how to make something fly." She said.
"Wait, what?"
"Yes, you see, it's all math to them. They even have math for how the world moves, what causes moon to rise and fall, how much the moon weights, or the sun weights, all done by math." Twilight was positively giggly at this point, something Spike had not seen since her illfated venture into alcohol. "It all comes down to math and math, is universal language."
"Sounds... complicated."
"Oh, but it isn't!" Twilight said. "Once you got the formula down, you can do anything. Then you jsut need to apply the information you get! For example..." She stopped and pulled several charts. "This is something we did based on their studies, it only uses the most basic knowledge, but it holds. They mastered magnetic," Twilight said.
"Wait, those stones and either reject or pull metal and each others?" Spike said, leaning forward.
"YES! See, here, their weapons generate a magnetic field, into which their system inject a projectile. Then they manipulate this magnetic field using electricity, directed to different parts of the rails, which magnetize, which causes the projectile to be pulled forward and pushed from the back, achieving incredible speeds in..."
Twilight spoke in more and more excited voice as Spike tried to follow her explanation. He didn't understand half of it, he had to admit, but it was good to see Twilight enjoying something.
"Even alchemy, they turned alchemy into math! Can you imagine it? Down to smallest possible particles, they got it mapped out!"
Spike just nodded at her. To him, most of this sounded rather far-fetched, everyone knew that world didn't operate on math. You could not calculate an apple into an existence or use math to turn water into soda. Then again, maybe it was a magic thingy.
"So, humans use math as base of their magic?"
"That's the incredible part, none of this has any magic in it!," Twilight said, earning a doubtful look from Spike, "It's all natural forces being manipulated. They mastered nature itself. They do not bend reality to do things as they need, they use reality. They must have strong connection to nature, perhaps even stronger than earth ponies!"
"Yeah, right, I believe that when I see it." Spike snorted.
"I just wish we could speak with them! How much we could learn? Large number of these symbols do not look anything like ours and I can't figure out what most of them mean!", Twilight continued, ignoring Spike, "Most importantly... could they have reduced magic to math? Could they have managed to calculate and write down the formulas? Imagine what we could do if we stopped just trying things, what we could achieve if we could understand the core nature of magic! No more repeating the old spells, no more slow trial-and-error method for research, we could get theoretical parts and test them before we would move to practical parts."
"I see. Well, not really, but I guess it's important to you." Spike said, rolling his eyes.
"It is. If we could translate this system to magic, it would be a breakthrough of the millennium!" Twilight looked at Spike. "This could be what could give the victory. Once we know how to make magic work on the very basic level, on pure energy level, we could devise spells never seen before."
"Okay, that I can understand. So, what's the problem?" Spike asked and Twilight seemed deflate little.
"We don't know how to take these measurements or what all these units mean. Newton? Mol? We need to figure what these mean in Equestrian terms. We figured out what their gram is, but their version of meter is... weird. According to books, it's the length of the path traveled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299,792,458 of a second. So... how do we calculate how fast light goes? In fact, it was a surprise to learn that they consider light something that moves, instead of existing."
"Wait, light moves?", Spike asked confused. He waved his hand, "Never mind. I kind want to ask something and I don't think it's going to be a good question."
"Go ahead."
"Well, if they got this ability to use nature, to have ability to change it on the core nature like you said, through math... Why haven't they won yet?"
"That... is a good question." Twilight said, stopping for a moment.
"I mean, we saw what they did during the first hour. Why haven't they repeated that? They always appear in numbers around thousands, I think largest concentration we have so far has been about ten thousand, right?"
"And how they fight war... if they do have full orbital movement, why are they attacking from a single point? Ponyville has so far been an exception to their actions, otherwise their troops move through land. Why have they not just landed everywhere in Equestria? Even from our perspective, these tactics and strategies are amateurish." Twilight pondered.
"Are they even warlike species?" Spike asked, "Maybe they got corrupted by something and are just learning how to fight war?"
"No, it can't be that. Their history is full of infighting. I wonder... yes, it could be."
"Could be what?"
"Well, consider this. They have fought for a very long time among themselves. They are very good at killing each others," Twilight said, earning a nod from Spike, "Now, let's say you are a very good, oh let's say, clothier, like Rarity. Now, on surface, one might think you also know how to make an armor, both are essentially clothes, yes?"
"Let me think, I think I got this..." Spike said closing his eyes, "Let's see... Rarity could probably design a good armor... but she could not make it."
"Exactly."
"I still don't get it." Spike said, shrugging his shoulders.
"Of for... They are not used to this kind of warfare. I do not know what kind of warfare they are, but it's not this. They are clearly not used to taking over entire nation or fighting magic users. They are learning as well. Reason why they seem so unstoppable, is because their weaponry is so devastating. They are brute forcing their way to victory." Twilight explained.
"So, they are strong but unskilled? Aren't we too unskilled in war?"
"Yes, but we know how to fight this type of war, even if it's only theoretical. We have a frame of reference for this. They don't," Twilight said, suddenly brightening. "We can use that against them. They didn't expect us at Ponyville, they expected us to meet them in Fillydelphia. I need to tell this to the generals, they can use it when they plan their next move."
Twilight ran out of the room, before returning.
"Spike dear, could you take care of rest of this? Thanks!" She said before bolting off again. Spike shook his head.
"Well, at least she's energetic again."
Biological Department Report 2, A
Head of Department: Case Study
Subject: Human potions
We have studied several substances that humans carried with them on their suits. We found out that, they are assortment of numerous different potions are most likely used to enhance their soldiers beyond their natural abilities. We have labeled these substances #1 through #12 and for this report, I have compiled our knowledge, test results as well as my suggestions on how to use them.
First of all, Potions #1 though #8 either do not help us or are toxic to us. Whenever this is due to differing biology or lacking certain type of compound, we do not know. However, I would suggest we stay away from these potions.
However, Potions #9, #10, #11 and #12 are different Ursa Major altogether. They enhance several senses as well as provide extra edge over the humans. They are included in this report and I refer you to read the, for detailed analysis.
As for how humans use them, as we have never seen them use potions on the battlefield, these potions are directly linked to their suits. Each suit carries about one vial of each potion, though we have found cases where suits carry more than one vial, at the expense of others. These vials are connected by tubes to injection system, that administers them. How this is exactly done, we do not know. Engineering department is working on that. However, designs do support idea that underneath the suits, there are solid creatures. Only upon death (or suit breach) do these creatures liquefy. We are still working on doses on which humans use these drugs to prevent the drawbacks.
Biological Department Report 2, B
Head of Department: Case Study
Subject: Potion #9, "Berserker"
This potion, when administered to the volunteer, caused the volunteer to enter a sudden rage, during which he attacked everything in his sight. Subject was also noted to not to notice pain during his rampage, even ignoring several glass shards embedded in his legs. No other effects were noticed. Subject later expired in the infirmary, due wounds suffered during his rampage. He did not remember anything from the time.
The effect lasted for about five minutes. We assume that the rage is an side effect for not feeling the pain, but it could be other way around. We found a way to synthesize this potion using several plants from the Everfree Forest. As such, it is my recommendation that we combine this potion with Potion #11 (Ref. BDR2D) to enhance our soldiers effectiveness on the battlefield.
Biological Department Report 2, C
Head of Department: Case Study
Subject: Potion #10, "Sensor"
This potion enhances pony's sensory system to level unseen before. Subject was noted to be able to think faster, even scoring twice over his initial IQ test and noticing details otherwise not noticeable. He later appeared depressed and, excuse my unscientific term, "dumber". We are still trying to see whenever or not this is merely a temporal withdrawal or permanent effect. Subject did notice that after taking a second dose, it felt like the first time.
My suggestion is that we keep this potion reserved to scientist and front line unicorns.
Biological Department Report 2, D
Head of Department: Case Study
Subject: Potion #11, "Buck"
This potion tremendously increases pony's strength. Subject was able to even bend steel after consuming the potion. So far, we have not yet seen any drawbacks, but subject has expressed desire to get more. Whenever this is due to potion itself or due to desire to feel "Strength of 10 stallions" again, is yet to be determined. The drug is very similar to several illegal drugs being smuggled from Zebra Union and as such, we believe we can synthesize this potion from said drug.
I would suggest we combine this potion with Potion #9 (Ref. BDR2B) to enhance our soldiers effectiveness on the battlefield.
Biological Department Report 2, E
Head of Department: Case Study
Subject: Potion #12, "Steady"
This potion is somewhat a weird one. It removes the natural twitches that the body causes, enabling pony to mimic statue. We would assume they use this to steady their hands during combat, to increase accuracy. We do not, at the moment, have use for this drug and we can't synthesize it, but should engineering department develop weapons similar to those of humans, I belive this potion could be highly useful.
To: Case Study
From: Princess Celestia and Princess Luna
Subject: Potions
Denied. Get rid of them. All of them. We are not using them until we know for sure what they do. We are not gambling our subjects lives.
Engineering Department Report 3 A
Head of Department: Wrecking Wrench
Subject: Human Golems
Human Golems, as we call them... are actually not. They are merely highly sophisticated pieces of machinery. They also require a pilot. Studies of the wreckage acquired in Ponyville show that the human is strapped inside, in a harness, which actions the suit then mimics. The suit mimicry is not perfect, as we have noted, they are somewhat slow and their movement range is small.
Another interesting thing, is that these suits have obvious signs that they are not designed for combat. Instead, whatever their original use, their converted for combat. Their bulky design as well as limited movement are a testament to this. The cannon in their back is especially jarring example: It's loading system is not adequately shielded.
How these things work, is a good question. A question we might never have an answer. It does not operate on clockwork systems or any obvious mechanism. Much like the air ships we captured, these machines are full of wires and greenboards. Unless we manage to somehow read the content of these greenboards, what logic runs them, we have no idea how the machine seems to know how to mimic the actions seeing how, once again, it lacks magic to do this(For possible explanation, see EDR3B).
However, the suits are interestingly designed. Studies show that they seem to small engines over the system. These are too small to propel enough energy to make the machine to move, but, if our assumption is correct, it is enough for the environment they normally operate. What we suspect, is that these machines are actually intended for non-gravity environment. In such environment, lack of ground base movement would not be a hindering, or even matter, as the suit would actually be flying.
Engineering Department Report 3 B
Head of Department: Wrecking Wrench
Subject: Machine Spirit
This is an interesting suggestion put forward by one of my assistants and I feel it has enough merit to be put forward. As I noted, we are still figuring out how the machine knows what to do and so forth, without obvious ways for this to happen- What my assistant suggest, is that human machines have what he calls "Machine Spirit" inside them.
This "Machine Spirit" would act like an assistant, operating the system where the human can't, for example, mimicking human movement or administering correct potions in correct doses without need by human to do anything. It would explain several things. He also suggest that this "Machine Spirit" would actually live in the greenboards that human machines seem to have in abundance.
As silly as this sounds at first, seeing the human technology and how it works make me believe that he is onto something. I am going to have a separate team studying this "Machine Spirit" and if we could request its(theirs?) aid for ourselves.
However, we do have good news. The metal acquired from the golems, while we can't produce such metal, we have did manage to gleam some interesting techniques used on them. We believe, if you greenlight this project, that by next year we will have an armor capable of withstanding a shot from the human weapons at range. There are also several modifications which we believe could improve combat ability of our soldiers.
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.