Preface: Since a lot of people don't exactly know what they will be reading until they get to it i'll make it clear: This is a mega crossover between X-Com, Mass Effect, and My Little Pony Friendship is magic, normally this would go on Fimfiction, but i doubt this has enough pony in it to allow it to get by. Also i really suggest you give this a try.

Mass Effect: The X-com Theory

Human Development Time Line. From end of Ethereal War to present date January 1st 2157.

Writer; lead chronicler Vahlen'Duyun'Shanxi "Remembrance"

2015 December 30th: The official end of the Ethereal war. The destruction of the Temple ship six months prior, and then the capture of the Cydonia base on Mars was revealed to have been a success a month earlier, the remaining alien forces having capitulated to the newly revealed X-Com, with the bulk of Ethereal forces surrendering and becoming Humanity's prisoners of war.

The immense technological leap humanity has taken is offset by the losses. Over 100,000,000 dead, over 90% civilian casualties, makes the war the deadliest in Human history to present date.

The treaty signed on the new year had made a new holiday, known simply by the name it had previously, "New Years". It is noted by cultural scientists that it was fitting both metaphorically and literally, for it was truly a new year for humanity and its prisoners, one of uncertainty and promise.

2016: After Commander Bradley's historic speech and the establishment of camps on Earth for Refugees of both sides, rebuilding began, along with a new scientific revolution. While tensions between both sides remained high, both agreed rebuilding was paramount.

2020: After the final repairs are made to Earth's industrial centers, with the help of all species, it had been decided that Humanity was ready to be one great nation. The UN was disbanded and instead The Council of Terra was erected in its place, a seat for every nation and one for every "client" species. This marked the beginning of the golden age of Man, and by extension their clients, for the next twenty years significant progress was made to colonize the solar system and learn about the basic principles of the technology now at their hands. The Terran Alliance was ready to leave home.

2032: While normally a historical oddity, it is proper to note that the cultural exchange between Ethereal forces and Humanity were one sided. Humanity's massive and aggressive cultural tendencies overwhelmed Ethereal culture, which was noted to be non existent and forgotten. Only the tribal martial relations of the Mutons, and the Ethereals' previously limited, and ironically primitive, culture were what remained, and were swiftly destroyed or integrated with the Human's own. This effectively ended notions of being separate as the Aliens were no longer considered such, they were culturally assimilated, now considered as much Human as actual Humans. With the last species riot in the tragic events of January 1st 2031 in Berlin.

August 21st 2039: A major breakthrough in the learning of the principles and use of Plasma technology is made. The first economic way of producing Elerium is created, by use of Fusion technologies. It was determined that utilizing a newly found element on Mars called "Element Zero" with a lower grade energy fuel invented by the Ethereals called Zrbite, created refined Elerium as the end result. The process is currently a closely guarded secret of the TSA and SolMine industries.

2040: It is publicly announced the finding of another Alien Installation on Mars. While Human explorers were using new technology to find Element Zero they find what they think to be a cache of the material near the southern pole. With Human and Ethereal scientists, and a platoon of X-Com combat personnel, the "Prothean Database" is discovered. While the area is noted to be over 50,000 years old, it sparks a panic among the species of Earth and the last words of the "Over One" Ethereal are remembered, that another, greater, foe shall soon face them.

As per X-Com doctrine, and in still record holding speed, the base is stripped of any useful materials, the database moved physically to the planets X-Com facility in the great canyon of Mars, where it is to this day being examined and stripped of information. The basics were revealed immediately:

The builders were called Protheans, they were an insectoid mammalian hybrid like race who had developed along a different technological tree based on mass effecting fields using Element Zero, and used great gates called Mass Relays to travel almost instantly across the galaxy. Plans for building mass relays or even the history of them were nonexistent, leading to it being assumed that the relays were not created by the Protheans.

They were soon picked up by the media and entertainment industries as bogeymen. This allowed the Council to enact what it had wanted to for some time, making military service an extension of public education with the motto, "Every Human a soldier" and sparking a significant military buildup for fighting these "Protheans".

June 25th 2045: The first Human capital ship, named after the first Human psionic, "Annette Durand" is designed and launched. Surrounded by a fleet of retrofitted battleships, the "Test Ship" was sent towards the relay said to be orbiting Pluto. The following events are well documented so shall be attached to a different [File] for convenience.

September 28th 2045: Basic Relay map is constructed. All Garden worlds are marked for immediate colonization and priority sites are indicated for X-Com Bases on each planet. This is sent with the Ethereal Battleship Redemption to be delivered through physical means as per security protocol. One further anomaly is noted. The existence of alien life in their sector of space. This is kept secret from the public when it is realized one of the planets hold many intelligent species that have equivalent technology to early Cold War era Earth, but the most developed nation is capable of advanced psionics and has a key unreplicable ingredient of MELD in their blood.

January 1st 2046: It is decided to launch a secret operation into the new species to find a way to save Humanity from its own creations of MELD enhanced soldiers. It was public knowledge at the time that MELD reserves were almost gone, and only for war veterans who had outdated Gene mods and were dependent on the substance, forcing most of them to be stuck in stasis until it could be made economically. Please view the abbreviated Codex Entry for the conflict, at the bottom of this page.

October 15th 2046: The end of the Equestrian First Contact War results in the uplifting of the Equis (Pronounced Eck-is) species'. The new influx of resources, manpower, experienced scientists and engineers, and cultural exchange was even greater than before with the Ethereal races. With the documentaries of the planet's history and other important events and persons; the most popular proves to be the Equestrian Friendship is Magic: Chronicles of the Elements. This ten season long documentary follows six young adult Equestrian females in their quest to learn about the "Magic" of friendship and protect their nation against many threats, and proved to be highly popular among Humans and the other species.

December 31st 2061: The first of the largest Human capital ships, the Unconquerable class starship named the Unconquerable is "officially" finished. The warship is made to be the Flagship of the Terran Alliance First Fleet, five kilometers in length, it is heavily armed and equipped with the best and brightest in the Alliance. The drawbacks of Elerium, Fusion, and Element Zero are negated and balanced by the combination of all three. After over 40 years of planning and construction, this monumental test of Alliance engineering is christened on New Years Day.

The ship is still currently serving to this day.

June 7th 2076: The first Alliance initiated long distance Wormhole is established. With a team of 20 Human Psionics, 10 "Unicorns", and one Elder Ethereal, the wormhole is deemed safe and hundreds more are created without incident from thousands of individuals. This has effectively made Mass Relays inferior to current transportation methods, and all secondary relays and half a dozen major gates are slated for dismantling, study, and since their metals are more resistant than Vahlenite, to be researched for capital ship manufacture.

2115: The one hundred year memorial for the Ethereal War is observed, a memorial in honor of all those who fell is erected on every Terran Alliance World, plated in Vahlenite, and inscribed on each pillar of the building, is the name of every Alliance member who has died in the line of duty, and the civilians who died in the original conflict and Equestrian First Contact are inscribed in the interior of the building. Placed before the Alliance building of every colony it acts as both memorial and defensive hard point, in case of another hostile contact.

May 19th 2119: Dr. Shen, renowned scientist, head engineer of X-Com, and beloved friend of all of Equis, dies at the age of 156. The longest lived unaugmented Human. Flags of all nations are at half mast, and leaders of all nations attend his funeral. He died peacefully in his bed, surrounded by friends and loved ones.

2120: The Terran Alliance now controls over 10,000 warships of all classes above light scout, and Earth and her allies hold over 100 garden worlds. At this point it is decided to slow expansion and allow the galactic economy to recover from the heavy militarization of the Human economy. The economic "30 year plan" is introduced by the people of Equestria, to allow for the Alliance colony worlds to fill out and grow, with further expansion suggested after the 30 year period but unconfirmed. Alliance moves to agree.

2124: The first fully sentient AI is created. After steady research and suitable defensive measures are taken, the first stable, and fully sentient Human AI is created. The AI is based off the brain of a Human, taking latent memories and sense of self and person, with designs from Cyberdisc technicians. The AI has the intelligence of a child at first and is named Hope. The internet immediately exploded saying to bow down to their new overlord, while hundreds of memes using the name as a joke were made. When informed of this years later Hope was quoted to say, "Robot invasion? You know how impractical that would be? Besides its boring without you guys."

By the same time next year the AI is as intelligent as Dr. Vahlen who referred to him as, "My progeny." Hope has had several hundred fail-safes integrated into his operating system, and is considered as mentally stable as any other Man. Testing began to create more for military and civic purposes.

November 2nd 2125: Dr. Vahlen dies of natural causes at 160 years old. She is given full X-Com honors, and the same service as Dr. Shen. As per her will, her brain is used to create a sister AI to Hope and to be used for scientific endeavors.

2130: As preplanned all colonies are made into individual funding nations and given a seat on the Council. Earth and Equis are reorganized to have only one representative for each species that now calls her home. This reformation was planned in case of outer colony rebellion, removing the possible chance of future dissent by having fair representation.

July 4th 2133: Retired Commander David Bradford dies of natural causes. All surviving great war veterans attend his burial, and all rogue faction elements are removed from stasis to attend as well. The day becomes one of grieving for all of X-Com, as their Flagship, United, and six other Unconquerable class ships fire their Fusion lances above Earth 21 times in salute of the great man. He died at the age of 168. The next Capital ship is named posthumously after him, and his name is added to the X-Com board of fallen heroes. The Princesses of Equestria personally attend his funeral as well, a sign of good will for their former enemy.

2141: Finally the basics of all Ethereal technology is uncovered. At the date of the end of the war the Ethereals spoke the names of all the scientists of the various species who partook in the discovery of a lifetime. Thousands of names were spoken and commemorated. With this done, Humanity may now finally move forward in their chosen technological path.

2145: The Sectoids and Thin Men, after tens of thousands of years of genetic manipulation, have finally made a discernible breakthrough in returning their species to their original forms. Long having relied on the other Species for basic survival by cloning, the combination of Human DNA, and DNA from worlds found in Human space, they are on the path of self reliance genetically.

This news was met with the cheer of billions of Sectoids and the newly renamed Sabilians, who were once known simply as Thin Men.

2150: After the 30 year plan, exploration was slated to continue, the fleets of ships used before having renewed purpose and are sent out once more to activate relays. After further study of the Prothean data archives, the mention of a great "Citadel" is found. Efforts are planned to focus on locating this Citadel carefully, using stealth craft to follow the path of relays. Planning is made immediately and the air was called palpable, with the danger and excitement of meeting another intelligent race in the galaxy. Thousands of protests for isolation were organized.

In preparation, mandatory enlistment times were increased to ten years, and experienced reserves were requested to join back up, and specialized ship production went underway at the Sol, Mars, Arcturus, and Equi shipyards. Increased patrol and security patterns were set in, simulation battles become increasingly frequent and more realistic, and planetary defenses were enhanced and upgraded with new "Kill-sats".

The Stasis veterans, either from the rogue faction and volunteers from the original X-Com were moved to the outer colonies and "Dreams" added to the stasis programming, to bring them up to speed on current events and equipment.

2156: Preparations finally completed, the exploration fleets are sent out to uncover the cosmos, the science committee's flagship, Enterprise leads the endeavour.

Universal Galactic Codex Edition 50

Human Culture and Technology: Humanity, after the Ethereal war as it is now known, has been greatly affected by the war. After the rebuilding of 2020, military enlistment or similar activities almost became a rite of passage, to be able to defend yourself and one's family in case of another incident with the latest and greatest technology was greatly desired. Of course at this time Earth's militaries could not support the number of recruits despite popular demand. Eventually the proposal in 2040 reverted to a similar early Roman style system of service, instead of it being a civic service it was made to be a mandatory arrangement to start from childhood to adulthood with no payment being given beyond necessities. This was very favorable, for it also gave practical training and experience, replacing the step of going to college like what was done in the 20th and early 21st century.

Another thing of note is that after the destruction of the temple ship the debris gave off radiation that is now known to induce psionic powers in Humans. Since the debris exploded across the entire planet, it means psionic powers are universal among Humans found to be at 100% of the population, even manifesting in some primates on Earth.

Other surprising side effects are MELD based Gene mods being dominant genes, making it so children would inherit their parent's Mods. Ethical, political, and other issues are not mentioned in this Entry. For more information click [Here].

Gene Mods also received great scrutiny, side effects include similar symptoms of heavy metal poisoning and insanity, similar to surviving reports of the Roman Emperor Caligula or Nero, and with horrifying similar stories of cruelty and sadism. Due to Humanity's primitive employment of the substance, without a small steady supply of MELD it would result in the MEC and Gene Trooper to suffer from this, forcing X-Com to keep a majority of combat personnel in stasis until this could be rectified. It was after the agreement with the peoples of the Planet known as Equis where they helped supply the resource and find a way to stabilize its side effects. For more information click [Here].

Technologically, Humanity has finally mastered the principles of Plasma, Fusion, and Element Zero. And have heavily enhanced Laser capabilities.

As per standard security protocol all military grade weaponry and hardware, and some civilian gear, are to have fail safes fitted to them for complete destruction and "booby trap" modules included in case hostile alien forces attempt to make use of the weaponry.

Plasma technology is a strictly military and government resource. Used in everything from power generation to advanced weaponry, it is a supremely effective infantry weapon and relatively cheap to create with current infrastructure, with the only strategic drawbacks being the balance of Element Zero to other projects. The tactical drawbacks of Plasma are its combat effectiveness in space, ranges of tens of thousands of kilometers being considered medium range, the slow movement of the weapon's projectile make it a poor long range weapon. The counterweight is that it uses heat to primarily damage targets, Prothean shields are virtually useless against it and the only way to withstand it is for thick armor plating or Vahlenite armor, making it an effective point defense and destructive short to medium range weapon combined with lasers.

Fusion technology is predominantly used for power generation and weaponry. It is a very powerful energy source, completely clean, and with several additional gene mods, safe for Humans and allied species to be around for prolonged periods of time. The tech is very powerful, and is used for the Ethereal Fusion Lance. Currently the most devastating weapon known to man, able to melt through any defense, including Vahlenite as if it were a thin metal sheet. The basic principle of the Fusion lance is to fire a plasma "warhead". Because it is a warhead made of plasma, it has very little mass, making it extremely effective against Prothean shielding tech, going straight through shields. It is very good at "Sniping" Targets. It is in essence a scaled up Plasma sniper used for ground troops, magnetically creating and guiding the electrical energy rod, or "warhead", to half the speed of light. This makes it good for long range engagements at the hundreds of thousands of Kilometers and even the millions of kilometers, where the near instantaneous nature, despite its long recharge times, make it vastly superior than any Element Zero tech.

Finally Element Zero technology is mainly used for the creation of Elerium, however it has a variety of excellent civic developments. Its ability to affect mass making it useful for citizen transportation, small arms, and railguns being its chief military contribution. Mass effect fields are a cheaper and cleaner solution for regular transportation, MECs, and SHIVS as well. It is predominantly a civilian field of technology, alongside lasers. Currently corporations like MarSec, and police forces like InterPol make use of the two technologies side by side. The mass accelerator cannons are small, cheap, and reliable. With the payload of up to a Nuclear warhead, down to the precision and strength convenient for orbital bombardment and artillery. Rate of Fire and damage per shot are well above acceptable for their monetary worth of ammunition. They have encountered problems with heavily armed and shielded test ships, but their added ability for exotic ammunition like incendiary, molten core, and electrical discharging shells make up for it, forming a well rounded weapon for both government and civilian use. However many people prefer older combustion based firearms due to the superior damage they cause compared to the grain sized projectile used by Element Zero weaponry, which barely move faster than a high velocity combustion weapon.

Psionics and MELD are the final major technological advance worth mentioning. Psionics, present in every Human, Ethereal, Sectoid, and Equestrian currently. It has become a whole branch of science on its own. Having a wide array of applications; from stable wormhole creation to mind control, the mind is literally the limit. Humans are born with a single type of Psionics beyond Universal. The four main groups are Communications, Indirect Manipulation, Direct Manipulation, and Portal Creation. But other secondary more rare groupings like Pyrokinesis, Hemokinesis, Enchantment, and more are known. Psi amps are required to make full use of latent talent however. Most are of comparable power to the original X-Com Psion Corp without an amp.

While in school and the military, Psions are psychologically conditioned to only use their powers in approved environments, and life or death situations, to help combat abuses of their power to other species. This is strongly supported and it is severe taboo to abuse one's powers outside of the approved environment.

MELD has seen widespread use in the entirety of TSA space. With it, Humanity has cured itself and its allies of many ailments like cancer, AIDS, feather flu, and other resistant diseases. Military grade mods have also become universal in all Humans, Mutons, Sectoids, Sabilians, and a large portion of military families of the Equis species; redundant organs, marrow mods, mimetic skin, bio-electricity, toxin creation, and more. The Sudham-Wolcott Genetic Heritage Act was emplaced to prevent genetic abominations, and to retain each species unique genetic diversity. It has also allowed for the formation of joint companies like the Sirta-Glimmer Heart Foundation creating amazing medical advancements like longer life spans, Medi-gel, and "Red Mist" healing poultices and hand held medi-kits.

MELD has also allowed the formation of the Cyborg Enhancement and Betterment League for persons who have given up their physical attachments for better combat effectiveness and unfortunate accidents. MECs are standard heavy combat troops that have been used since the Ethereal War. Sectoids, Mutons, Humans, and Equis species have all been found able to combine flesh and metal to make a better fighting force. These brave individuals are considered heroes wherever they go, having gone above and beyond the call of duty.

The Equestrian First contact war

The war was sadly waged in a similar, if less bloody way, then the Ethereal war. At first sending down probes to abduct the Equestrians carefully, with mental manipulation placed upon them to ensure they would not remember the experience. Unfortunately it was found to be impossible to replicate the plasma for MELD by Human means. It was at this point crisis was reached in X-Com as a rogue faction of mad soldiers decided to mount a more aggressive attack, systematically slaughtering thousands of the poor pony like Equestrians. In post war memoirs written by the soldiers and senior heads of X-Com, it was deemed that it would result in fewer deaths if they were able to control the rogue faction rather than letting them running wild with abducted scientists, trying to create an imperfect solution, or simply slaughter for the joy.

Thankfully the death toll did not reach into the millions as before. Fortunately, due to the combined effort of the Senior staff and extremely strained negotiations with the leaders of the planet, the quadruped pony like species, now known as Equestrians in Human languages, held the solution to the problem. Thanks to what they called "Magic" but is now known as a whole different tree of Psionic manipulation, they synthesized the plasma needed.

Humanity greatly shamed by their previous actions, offered the Equestrian Principality full status as Alliance citizens, and to be the first world fully integrated with Humanity. With new technology and the chance for great exploration and to meet new peoples, the Equestrians agreed, if very reluctantly.

Equestrians never had a war for over 700 years prior to their First contact, and had therefore been caught unprepared. But their adaptability and ingenuity, much like Humanity's, saw them defend with admirable resistance. And while the lost lives will forever be a black mark on Human-Equestrian relations, both species have managed to retain, at worse, strained relations.

Along with the surprising Pony like Equestrians, many other intelligent life forms were found, much to the surprise and bafflement of Human scientists, creatures eerily similar to horses, dragons, cows, zebras, griffins, and many other Earth equivalents were found. With Genetic testing it was discovered that somehow they are genetic cousins of their counterparts, resulting in furious debate even to today. Ethereal or Prothean Manipulation is the top theory.

The rogue faction, upon being cured of withdrawal, were allowed to form a penal battalion, and to go into deep stasis as punishment, to only be awaken when they are needed for war. Regrettably some senior X-Com staff, and many of the personnel who were involved in the butchery of the Equestrians, committed suicide after the conflict.

Author Notes.

Welp, this is a pain. After 6 months writing and planning, on and off beta reader friends, and on the day I decide to put up my first chapter, my power flickers on and on. But I finally did it! The start of the culmination of all my work. Chapters will be released on Fridays or on days when no one else decides to release a chapter, because its depressing to have 50 in progress stories and none of them update.

I hope you enjoy

Blood Raven