//------------------------------// // Storm // Story: The Hunter // by Steventheman //------------------------------// The lights of Manehattan broke through the beautiful night sky, drowning out the stars. The city lit up the coast of the East Equestria Ocean, a shining jewel against nature, the Statue of Harmony’s torch seemingly a beacon for the whole world. Above the city, lightning formed in the clouds above. For the few ponies still awake at this hour, it was a simple sign of an incoming thunderstorm. “Cirrus, have you seen the latest reading?” a short, fat, blonde stallion asked, a hint of worry in his voice. “This isn’t normal.” “What’s happening?” Cirrus asked, her long pink mane swinging behind her as she turned around to meet her co-worker. “We’re picking up sudden thunderstorm patterns. I got the schedules from Weather Factory a few hours ago, there’s no thunderstorm planned for at least a month!” the stallion replied. “I just looked over the city too. The lightning arcs...” “What about them, Cyclone? Tell me.” “Well...they’re neon green.” The mare’s expression fell. She turned towards her desk and fumbled for the telephone. Using her nose to dial in a number, she awaited the other end to pick up. “McFlank Air Defence Base, Weather Division command.” “This is Manehattan Station Four, we have unusual weather patterns potentially threatening national security,” Cirrus barked down the line. There was a pause and some background noise. “Describe the unusual weather pattern.” “Neon green lightning, unplanned thunderstorm conditions.” “...Holy...Visual confirmation of unusual weather pattern. This is definitely not in our schedules,” the Air Defence Force pony at the other end said. “Hold on, I’m transferring you over to Air Defence.” “Cirrus, we’re picking up things on radar!” Cyclone yelled, panicked. “It’s flying for Manehattan!” “McFlank ADB, we have unknown contact!” “Confirmed on our radar,” the base soldier confirmed. There was a long pause as she talked to another pony. “Station Four, we have scrambled the 104th Squadron.” The witch shivered in the cold night as she headed for the light. She had no idea what had happened. She was just flying above the forest, and all of a sudden, she was above the biggest amount of water she had ever seen, a green thunderstorm above her head and all around her. Her blonde hair streamed behind her as she continued her flight, gripping the broomstick beneath her with her left hand and gripping her weapon with her right, terrified of either her or her weapon ending up in the freezing water. The city drew closer and closer. The witch turned her head to observe the giant green statue. It was a horse, a giant orange torch in its hoof pointed towards the heavens. The witch stared at the city in front of her as she slowed down to observe. The city was unlike anything she had ever seen in her life - the buildings appeared to be just blocks of bricks and concrete in varying shapes, heights and sizes. There were windows lined up uniformly on every building. It was stunningly beautiful. After a few minutes of watching the lights, the witch began to ascend again. She watched the clouds intently, staring at the lightning patterns. “What the hell am I looking at here,” she said to herself. “No, seriously, what am I looking at.” After realising that there was nobody to answer her, she cruised at a decent airspeed around the city. “Flower One to all pegasi, remember the plan,” the lead pegasus ordered into his helmet-mounted radio. He looked up at the witch cruising. “Target in visual range. It’s not a pony - It’s a biped on a broomstick. On your order, control.” “Try to get it to surrender,” the controller ordered. “Affirmative,” Flower One replied. A loudspeaker activated on the side of his flight suit. “Attention unidentified aerial being, this is the Equestria Air Defence Service. You are in a no-flight zone! Cease flight and land immediately!” “I got a lock,” Flower Four warned. “Huh?” the witch turned around to the six hovering pegasi. They wore face-concealing helmets and black flightsuits, adorned with various devices and weaponry. One was hovering in a way to aim missiles at her. “Do you understand?! Land immediately or we will take action to ensure the safety of this city!” Flower One warmed up his weapons system. “I heard ya, but what the hell are you?! Seriously, I’ve seen some weird things in my life, but you’re the weirdest!” the witch pointed at one of the pegasi, lunging forwards as she did so. Flower Four yelped and fired a missile. The witch gasped before rolling in the air, grabbing her broom as she descended towards the ground. The missile flew past her, attempting to right its flight before just giving up and dropping towards the ocean. The witch noticed the offending pegasi now flying away to begin a fight. She remounted her broom and aimed the weapon at the closest ADS pegasus. She flew alongside it, before throwing a punch at the horse’s head. The pegasus recoiled from the hit, before shaking her head and flying to ram the witch. The witch performed a roll and avoided the counter-attack. “Flower Four, what in Luna’s name were you attempting?!” Flower One yelled. “I panicked!” Flower Four defended herself. The witch aimed her weapon at the pegasus in front of her, aware of a following heatseeker. “It’s behind me! Help!” Flower Six shouted. The witch fired an aerial wave of wide-flying star-shaped projectiles. The missile flew past the witch and towards the stars. The missile followed the stars and exploded next to the pegasus. The wounded soldier fell towards the Earth. “Flower Six down! Blue on Blue!” Flower One reported, turning himself around to engage the human. “Who fired that damn missile!?” The witch visually lined up three of the pegasi flying towards her from a distance, before aiming her weapon at them. The weapon drew bright white energy from the air. The witch could feel the sheer heat of the weapon’s reactor in her hands. She felt the burning in her hands, an indicator of the fate of whatever she was pointing the reactor at. “Alright, I have no idea where I am, why I’m here or why you tried to kill me. That’s okay. I have bad days too...And hey, when life gives you targets...” the witch whispered. “Give them Master Spark!” A giant beam of energy fired from the reactor. The white hot laser cut the sky in two with a loud blaring noise. The three targeted pegasi gasped before the beam contacted them, knocking them out of the sky. “Oh shoot,” Flower Two mumbled. “Flowers Three, Four and Five are down! Bandit has a TLS! Repeat! Bandit is armed with a TLS!” “A Tactical Laser?! But how!?” Flower One asked. He looked at the only remaining pegasus and sighed. “Pull back, we are outmatched!” The witch watched as the two pegasi began flying away. “Maybe you’ll think twice next time before you screw with Marisa Kirisame!” she barked at the soldiers, blowing smoke away from the Hakkero and allowing her right hand to cool in the wind. “Well, that was fun. Man, I’m thirsty after that. There better be a bar down there.” Marisa reached into her pocket and pulled out a pair of coins. "Should be enough." The Air Defence radar operator’s hooves shook. An unidentified object just shot down four out of six pegasi. One had landed in the ocean after a friendly fire incident and was considered KIA and the others had crashed at various points along the Manehattan shore, their statuses unknown. “Ma’am, the aerial object just dropped off radar. It might have landed,” the operator whispered to an officer. “Call up the MHPD. With what the report said, it won’t last long in Manehattan,” the officer ordered, walking away. “Keep monitoring the skies. If it gets worse, call me on Line 1.” Marisa walked through the streets. Every door seemed just too small for her, and every sign was written in an odd alphabet. She wondered how she could understand their spoken language if she couldn’t understand the written one - Surely they were speaking Japanese, so why weren’t any of the signs written in any writing system? She looked closely at a sign. It had no helping picture except for a horseshoe. “...Nah, I have no idea what that’s trying to imply,” Marisa said to herself, continuing down the street. “Great, how am I supposed to find a bar?” She heard rapid hoofsteps behind her, before she felt a sharp pain in her head. She fell to the ground, rolling onto her back and putting up her arms to get the attacker. “You could’ve killed me!” the witch protested, before a second baton strike struck her. The witch rolled over and jumped to her feet. She raised her fists towards the two horses in blue uniforms. “Okay, now all you’re doing is pissing me off!” Marisa kicked out at the smaller horse, dodging her desperate swings. A boot connected with her, extracting a pained yelp. The other horse swung a hoof at her, which Marisa dodged with a limbo. “I dodge raindrops for a living, I can dodge you too!” Marisa threatened. “Come on! If you’re gonna fight me, be worth my time!” The second horse delivered a buck at the witch’s stomach, doubling her over with a cough. As she looked up to begin a counter-attack, a baton strike across the face sent the witch towards the ground, unconscious and with a bleeding nose. The young unicorn MHPD officer kept the baton hovering in a telekinetic grip, shaking in terror just in case the alien got up again. “Relax, it’s down. Call up the station. There’s gotta be a reward for this!” one officer cheered. “So what is that, two counts of assault, one count of being an alien species I’ve never seen before...screw it, throw in a count of drunk and disorderly too. Nopony’s gonna care why we attacked first.” Marisa remained silent on the cold concrete path, a trickle of blood running down her blonde hair. “W-124?” a tinny loudspeaker barked. Marisa opened her eyes slowly, everything above her neck in horrible pain. The loudspeaker certainly wasn’t helping. “Shut up! Tryin’ to sleep here...” Marisa smacked her lips together and rested her head on the metal table, before realising where she was. She bolted upright and looked around, ignoring the pain in her head. A gray concrete room, a mirror on one wall with a loudspeaker above it. She attempted to get up, before looking at her arm, and realising she was handcuffed to the chair. She looked in the mirror - Black eye, bloodstains on her mouth from a nosebleed, her hat was missing - She had a bad night. “Who the hell are you?!” she asked, aggressively slamming the table with her left fist.. “W-124, we’re asking the questions here,” the loudspeaker replied. “Interview with Contained Specimen W-124, conducted by Researcher T.C, Captain S and General I. Time is 10:32 AM Canterlot Mean Time. Begin.” “What are you talkin’ about?!” “W-124, where do you come from?” “I ain’t answering anything until you tell me just what the hell’s happening!” Marisa shouted at the mirror. “And where’s my hat?!” “W-124, co-operate or we will use further measures to make you co-operate!” “Like what?” Marisa dared the interrogator. “We can start by beating you, that sound good enough? Or electrocution, or waterboarding..?” “Pfft, that all you can come up with? Be original here, come on.” “I can be original if you want!” “Please do!” “Okay. TC, calm down.” a different voice took over. “W-124, we’re the Equestrian Department of Defence. For security reasons, we can’t actually tell you our names, but if you tell us yours, we can get a good impression of you. What do you say?” “...I want my hat back,” Marisa sniffed, trying to unblock her nose of the dried blood. “And a lawyer, but the hat first.” “If you answer these questions, we will return your hat,” the voice said. “Okay, question one; what’s your name?” “Marisa.” “Huh, a pretty name,” the voice complimented. Marisa knew this game - He was trying to get on her good side. That other interrogator was just an actor, being overly violent to coerce Marisa into running towards the good guy. “Okay, Marisa, I’m S. I know this is quite strange, but if you help us, we can help you.” “I bet.” “Okay, so why did you attack members of the 104th Squadron last night?” “They shot at me first!” Marisa protested. “You reckon I was up for a fight while all that was going on was going on?” “I see. The records did say that F Four fired at you...” the good cop responded. “So what about the two members of the Manehattan Police Department. You were arrested for...” Marisa heard papers shuffling. “Two counts of police officer battery, four counts of indecent exposure, one count of illegally entering the country, and being drunk and disorderly.” Marisa couldn’t believe her ears. “Indecent exposure!? Look, even if I were drunk, which I wasn’t, I don’t start taking clothes off. I’m not that type of drunk. As for the battery, they hit me first!” “Okay, so where do you come from, Marisa? I want to address the illegal entry charge.” “Next question.” “Answer him!” the first voice cut in. “I said next question, ya dumbass!” Marisa attempted to slam the table with her right fist, but the chain prevented the movement. “Calm down. We’ll ask later,” the good cop reassured. “How did you obtain a Tactical Laser System?” “A tactical what?” “Your laser weapon. How did you get it?” “I’ve always had it. It’s my thing,” Marisa answered, deciding that if she got these stupid questions out of the way, they’d let her go home again. “Hmm...So where you come from, a TLS is common...” the bad cop wondered out loud. “TLS? F-Four? Look, I don’t know what you’re talking about, and if this is about that bank thing, that wasn’t me, that was Alice.” “Who is Alice?” the good cop asked. “Oh screw this,” Marisa stood up, taking the plastic chair with her. “My head is pounding, I have no idea where I am, you’re asking me about TSL’s and F’s and you know what, I really need a drink. You got anything?” “W-124, please sit down,” a third, gruffer voice asked. “...How many of you weirdos are there!?” Marisa demanded. “Look, I’m innocent. I haven’t stolen a thing in my life, and I definitely have not killed anybody. The only thing on my record is an acquittal for petty theft. So just get this stupid chain off me, give my hat back, give my weapons back and let me on my way.” “This is not to ascertain whether or not you have committed a crime. In fact, with the General’s permission…?” There was a pause. Marisa looked at the mirror curiously. “W-124, we are going to be somewhat more honest with you,” the third voice finally stated. “You are not of this world. Furthermore, what allowed you here has also allowed others here. Some of them are out in our country right now. We don’t know what they’re capable of, but judging by your behavior, we have deemed all of them a severe threat to national security. Currently, our military is at full alert, prepared for anything up to and including a world war.” Marisa sat back down, adjusting the chain on her wrist. “Go on.” “This interrogation was to gauge your usefulness to us. However, you have been extremely combative and you have not impressed us.” “And why exactly should I want to impress you? You’re the ones that cracked my skull open, and then tethered me to this chair in some room in the middle of nowhere.” “Because we want you to go home just as much as you want to go home,” the third voice coughed a few times. “You must work with us one hundred percent if that is to happen though.” “...Fine, what’s the deal?” Marisa asked, attempting to fold her arms. “Because I got one: You let me out of this chain, give my hat and weapons back, and I’ll go get these things for you.” “That is too risky.” “You want me to work with you? There’s the offer. Because I can always completely destroy this place and kill everyone inside. Makes no difference to me,” Marisa dismissed. In truth, killing everybody seemed too much of a chore. And the ethical ramifications of slaughtering an entire building would only make her inevitable trial before the Yama just a little bit longer and more utterly boring, if the one she met was anything to go by. “I mean, I’ve killed before.” “May I remind you that you’re at our mercy here?” the first voice growled. “May I remind you that I could spit acid? Or psychically manipulate you?” Marisa bluffed, wiggling her fingers with her left hand in a ‘puppeteer’ motion. “Face it, your scientific curiosity means you can’t do a thing to me.” “We can always find another subject. It means nothing to us,” the second voice replied. Marisa couldn’t help but grin at the fact that she had broken the ‘good cop’ act. “But why? I thought you would want the subject with a laser. I mean, I could spit acid or control your delicious brains, but you have proof that I have a laser, and I’m also one of the most brilliant human warriors who ever lived ever.” “How brilliant?” the third voice asked. “Over three-hundred confirmed kills over one hundred and fifty missions. I graduated top of my class in the Danmaku School, numerous secret raids on heavily-guarded libraries and curios stores...I punched a gorilla once…” Marisa put on a look as if she was bored recalling the list of ‘achievements,’ “I mean, you’d have to insane not to get on my good side. Good news is that I am willing to work with you, if you would just give my hat back, because you’re ruining my style!” There was a long pause as the three interrogators discussed the idea. Finally, the loudspeaker came back on. “We’ll let you out of the chain, but any sudden movements will be met with lethal force, you got it?” the first voice warned. "We're taking you to Conference Room A2." Marisa reclined in the chair and awaited the interrogators. She thought back to the fight. The statue was a horse, the enemies were horses…either this was the trippiest dream she had ever had, or her knowledge of evolutionary biology or indeed common sense was completely false. She was unwilling to concede the latter.