First Science Report: Moondancer
“Wretched are the gunmakers and the swordsmith for their insult to the spear, practical and civilised none would wish to fall to many ill-trained strike nor a near fatal shot. It is clear as it has always been to the unicorn that in war only magic and spears hold honour. Damn the lowly earth pony for there cancerous gun that would see them stand over there station and curse the Pegasi for the dishonour they bring upon themselves with each battle.”
-Starswirl The Bearded 347th year of the first era.
CONFIDENTIAL CLASS: SOLAR.
EYES ONLY
DESTROY IF FOUND
READING THIS DOCUMENT WITHOUT CLEARANCE IS CONSIDERED TREASON ACCORDING TO THE EQUESTRIAN ACCORD OF FOUNDING AND WILL RESULT IN EXECUTION.
Date: 03/02/13/6
Project: Xenonauts
Specialist: Moondancer
Rank: N/A
Clearance: Solar
Direct to: Commander of project Xenonauts.
Congratulations on your appointment commander, being the sixth choice for the position must be quite the honour. Let's get right too it, We are at war, at 7:44 AM an unidentified force of bipeds occupied ponyville in what I have discovered to be an opening attack for six and a half hours killing twenty six ponies and capturing ten more it has since been confirmed that the aggressors are of extraterrestrial origin and used advanced gunpowder based weapons to fend off repeated attack by our solar and luna regiments.
After a fourth attack led by Princess Twilight Sparkle was successful it became clear that highly powerful magic forces within the many ships in orbit tried to take control of the sun and moon. sadly this leaves our princesses Twilight, Luna and Celestia indisposed as they maintain their hold on the celestial bodies. It is also worth noting that none of the Elements Of Harmony where harmed in the attack and thus we suffered no great loss.Your second in command has gone to great lengths to remind us that Princess Cadance remains to lead the war effort, while the last pony I would see leading Equestria at wartime she has proven herself sharp enough to at least delegate command of the armed forces to experts in their fields, however her choice to gather the most senior commanders in a single place almost lost us the war, it did lead however to your promotion so don’t feel to bad about that.Right now we have reports of nine attacks on equestrian soil and so many strikes on our less capable neighbours that I don’t doubt that they will surrender shortly and leave us alone to fight this great threat to not only Equestria but the planet at large. The Xenonaughts Project is not however a force to fight the menace at its face, we are to perform surgical strikes to combat the threat and gather technology for me to study, there are other so called experts working under me in that regard but I doubt they can do much more than provide coffee and prattle off half remembered and poorly understood nonsense as they have been doing since I was conscripted to this position.Despite their obvious shortcomings we should do our best to acquire as many Magi and professors as we can, a team of researchers would also not go amiss in speeding up my understanding of the alien technology.Following is my first report on the threat we currently face as well as a request for my next project, while I have no doubt your capacity to tell ponies how to fight and die it is a great disappointment that under the terms of my service you also tell me how to do my job.
“To die is to spit upon your clan, see to yourself that none of you fall this day and we will all feast and be merry once this sordid business is over with, now let us go and slay the Unicorn.”
-Spitfire The Bold 347th year of the first era.
After the initial attacks on Equestrian soil I was quickly found, dragged off to this underground base and given a half furnished lab with a half witted team and told that my mind was to be used to fight this alien menace as such I have made the following reports for the Commander of the Xenonauts Project with the following request, acquire better coffee for the lab and find better scientists. reports enclosed.
Date: 03/02/13/6
Project: N/A
Specialist: Moondancer
Rank: N/A
Clearance: Solar
The reason for this invasion has been greatly debated with my team and while I found they had some valuable things to add they are all ultimately wrong, I will list what the Aggressors don’t seek to gain from attacking us in the hope that we will later be able to understand why they are seeking this fight.Hypothesis 1: Extermination of life on this planet.This does not require my genius to disregard as a reason for the attack as the Aliens could have ended all life on this world before we knew what was happening simply by redirecting one of the many asteroids in our solar system.Hypothesis 2: Stealing our ResourcesI find it hard to fathom that a spacefaring force requires any resources that this planet provides especially since the required resources in their fleet alone vastly outstrips anything we could hope to match on our world. As a sidenote to this, the prevalence of liquid water on our world is not unique in any way shape or form, water is in fact rather easy to find and even easier to make and the next time a botanist feels the need to explain to me why water is so valuable I will find a way to banish said botanist to the moon.Addendum: Why did they get a botanist to study xeno sciences?Hypothesis 3: Enslaving our kindThis Is my current working hypothesis however I feel that it is a far too simple answer considering the probing nature of the attacks, we will have to see how this war progresses.
Date: 03/02/13/6
Project: Boomstick
Specialist: Moondancer
Rank: N/A
Clearance: Solar
As an aside before we begin I would like you to find whoever names the projects and strangle them.
The weapons recovered from the invaders seem remarkably simple if rather more deadly than any in our own arsenal but they demonstrate something rather remarkable about the alien forces.They are divided, while most of the hostile forces we have faced used gunpowder based firearms and are equipped with airtight black and red armour (Nicknamed “Sapiens” by your soldiers) but there are other species identified with much more advanced weapons that I believe to be Plasma based.At any rate the Sapien gunpowder weapons could be redesigned to be used by our forces rather easily and I think I can manufacture improved designs.
Date: 03/02/13/6
Project: Sapian
Specialist: Moondancer
Rank: N/A
Clearance: Solar
Despite the fact that the most common sight on the battlefield is the Sapien Trooper we have been unable to recover any bodies due to their unusual protectiveness of each other, while most alien forces seem to have no empathy and show no regard for each other nor do they seem to be affected by the deaths of their fellows, a Sapien will do their best to recover any wounded Sapian and carry them to the safety of an escape craft or they will destroy the corpse of a fallen ally, this has made autopsy impossible, it is however interesting to note that they are a sexualy dimorphic species and with how they operate in the field we can only presume that they have a unique place within the alien hierarchy leading their own tactical operations and using equipment that they manufacture themselves.I have theorised that Sapiens are a recent addition to the Alien war machine or a mercenary force in the employ of the aggressors, recovering a Sapien alive would be a great boon to our research.The combat analysis shows that the Sapiens are long range defensive fighters who will seek to climb onto things to get the high ground, they are however more than capable of fighting in close range and they all carry deadly knives and the will to use them.
Date: 03/02/13/6
Project: Sebillian
Specialist: Moondancer
Rank: N/A
Clearance: Solar
The second most common sight on the battlefield and a rather less deadly one at that, the Sebillian is a reptile that can recover from all but fatal wounds but do not carry any projectile weapons instead using swords or their bare hands rushing into guard lines rather ineffectively.I have put this species at the bottom of the alien hierarchy and with how they are treated with disdain by the Sapien forces I find little to counter that hypothesis, we have a report of a Sapien shooting a Sebillian in the back in an engagement, a captive Sebillian would prove an interesting to interrogate.It seems clear to me why this species does not use projectile weapons, they have very poor eyesight and with oversized adrenal glands and as such they would make poor ranged combatants.
“They are over the next hill, keep your powder dry friends and this war will be over soon.”
-Ginger Bread The Kind 347th year of the first era.
Research Projects:
“Yes Commander please do tell me how to do my job”
-Moondancer
Sapian Weapon Project3 daysSapian Armour Project3 daysSebillian Armour Project2 daysAlien Biology5 daysAlien Tactics2 days