“I don’t think I’m on the Precursor homeworld, sir.” Said Stacker Mori, slowly making his way around the room. Everything was dark.
“Switching to night vision” Stacker said into the comm. He pressed a button on the side of his helmet. A green ray of light phases down the visor of his helmet. The inside of the visor lights up to reveal his surroundings.
“I appear to be in a laboratory on some sort.” He said, approaching a sleeping laptop on the nearby desk. “Um sir?”
“Yes, Ranger?” replied the Marshal.
“There’s a laptop in this room.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“There’s a laptop sitting on a desk in a laboratory. I am definitely not in the Precursor universe, sir.”
The comm line went silent for a few seconds before the Marshal finally replied. “I need you to do some recon, Ranger. Find out where you are. Report back to me asap.”
“Yes sir.” Mori said quietly before turning off his comm. He approached the laptop slowly. He walked around the desk to look for a logo. The laptop had a symbol of a pear with a bite taken out of it.
“Hm.” He grunted to himself and went back to the front of the desk. He reached forward and softly clicked the mousepad. The screen lit up a bright blue color to reveal a beach like wallpaper and a number of various computer icons. Mori surveyed the icons curiously, being able to pick out what one or two of the programs actually do. There was a program that looked like some variation of an internet browser while another seemed to allow access to some kind of email.
After looking around the room and finding nothing of true significance, the Ranger quietly opened the door to the main hall. He began to walk down the hall. A noise from the door to his left caused him to pause. He backed against the wall the door the noise came from was on. After a full minute of silence, Stacker reached forward and slowly opened the door.
“One, two, three....” He whispered to himself, preparing to enter the room.
“Now.” He spun around the corner, slipping into the room.
He surveyed, realizing he was in some kind of bedroom. His eyes fixated on the shape in the bed opposite the door. All he could make out from where he was standing was that whatever was under the sheets had hair and it had was roughly the size of a short human. He approached it cautiously, reaching out for the sheets. Stacker gripped the sheets lightly and began pulling them down, reaching for a waist mounted knife with his other hand.
For nearly a minute he stared dumbfounded at the sleeping figure. Stacker couldn’t comprehend what was sleeping in the bed before him. A green unicorn, sleeping in a bed, in a house. He backed away slowly and made for the door. He quickly slid outside only to be stopped in his tracks again. A small crowd of grey unicorns in some kind of armor with their horns pointed straight at him.
“What the fuck...?” Stacker whispered to himself. He slowly reached up and turned his night vision off. The moon was extremely bright in the rural sky. The unicorns all wore the same gold armor.
“Freeze!” Shouted one of the unicorns.
Stacker continued staring at the crowd, unable to move out of confusion. “.... What the fuck.”
In the back of the crowd, Stacker could see a taller looking unicorn approaching the front of the line. Its armor was purple with a gold trim and its fur was white instead of grey. The white unicorn approached Stacker, who was still dumbstruck by what he was witnessing.
“What are you?” The white unicorn asked sternly.
“.... I.... What?” Mori replied, confused.
“You’re not a pony, and you don’t look like any other race I've seen before. So tell me, what are you?”
“You’re a talking horse....” Stacker said, backing away slowly.
“Cooperate or we will be forced to arrest and interrogate you.” The unicorn said, lowering his horn and following Mori’s retreat.
“Whatever you are, you’re not arresting me.” Mori said, sounding full of himself.
The white unicorn smirked. “If you say so.”
Before Mori could retaliate, some kind of blast of yellow energy burst from the white unicorns horn, striking him square in the chest. Pain shot through his body as he stumbled to the ground. As he fell, he saw the group of unicorns begin to surround him. Before he lost consciousness, he heard the white unicorn mention a dungeon.
~
“That, thing was in my house?”
“Why are you surprised, doctor? You were the one tampering with portals. It was only a matter of time before something came through.”
“They’re not portals, captain. They’re dimensional tears. Windows, if you will.”
“Doesn’t matter. The point is, that creature is in our universe and we need to kill it.”
“Kill it? Whoah whoah whoah, wait what now? It can talk, think of what we could learn!”
“What if it’s a Terrovore, doctor? Hm? If we let it live, it could kill us all!”
“I told you already, this thing probably came from the dimension I tore into last night. Not where the Terrovores come from. Imagine our dimension is like a house, and the Terrovore dimension is two houses down.....”
The rest of the conversation faded away as Mori fell out of consciousness.
~
“Wake up, creature.” said a familiar voice. Stacker Mori felt something shoving him. He opened his eyes to see where he was and who was talking to him.
“What...?” Asked Mori.
“I said wake up.” Said the white unicorn, as Mori’s vision finally cleared.
Mori looked around. He noticed he had had his helmet removed. He was chained to a wall in a cobblestone room lit by torchlight. The white unicorn he had seen earlier was standing before him.
“I told you I would arrest you.” said the unicorn simply.
Mori looked up at the unicorn with a look of confusion. “What exactly are you?”
“I’m asking the questions.” replied the unicorn.
“Can I at least know the name of my captor?”
The unicorn paused for a moment before nodding. “My name is Shining Armor. I am the captain of the royal guard. Now that you know who I am, would you tell me who, or more appropriately, what you are?”
Mori lifted his head. “I am Ranger Stacker Mori. I am a soldier.”
Shining gave Stacker a curious look. “I meant what species are you? You’re obviously not a pony of any kind, nor any race I'm familiar with for that matter. So what are you?”
“I am a human being.” Stacker said, squinting his eyes. “And I’m guessing you’re a unicorn?”
Shining nodded. “How is it you know what I am, but I have somehow never seen anything of your kind before?”
“Unicorns are fantasy creatures where I’m from. From stories and fairy tales.” Mori replied.
“And exactly where do you come from?” Shining asked suspiciously.
“I come from a planet called ‘Earth’.”
“You’re awfully talkative for a prisoner.” Shining said, pacing back and forth. “How am I supposed to trust you?”
“You’re the one that locked me up.” Mori retorted.
“A strange creature appears due to a magical, dimensional tear anomaly. The last few times that happened, things didn’t end up well for either party.”
“What are you talking about? The only reason I’m here is because a breach, or as you call it, a dimensional tear anomaly, appeared connecting our world to this one.” Mori sneered, growing tired of the situation.
Shining Armor stared at Mori. “You never told me why you seem to be telling me anything. Surely a soldier would know not to divulge precious information to the enemy.”
“Maybe I don’t see you as an enemy.” Mori shrugged. “Or maybe I just wanted to avoid torture and gave you false information.”
Shining Armor smirked. “You’re not an orthodox soldier.”
“I wasn’t trained to be one.”
Shining Armor looked the human up and down before turning to leave. “I pray you talked because of your first reason.” He added, swinging open the dungeon entrance. “It would be a waste of a good soldier for you to be unfit for combat.”
The door slammed behind Shining Armor, leaving Mori in solitude.
~
Mori had not been kept in the dungeon alone for long before the dungeon entrance swung open again to reveal Shining Armor. “You awake?” The unicorn asked flatly, opening Mori’s cell.
Mori simply sat up and looked at Shining with a look of indifference. “Yes.”
Shining Armor looked behind him and motioned towards Mori. “Unchain him.”
Mori shifted in his sitting position as two unicorn guards approached him. “You’re letting me go?”
“Not exactly.” Shining Armor replied. “You have two more ponies to talk before we reach a verdict.”
“And who might that be?”
“The Princesses.”
~
“So this is the... human?”
Princess Celestia was standing at the podium in the council chamber, her sister by her side.
Mori surveyed the room. Guards were posted at every entrance and exit. He himself had 4 guards surrounding him. Shining Armor stood at post in front of the walkway leading up to the main podium.
“I will commend you on your security precautions.” Mori said, smirking. “Now what exactly am I doing here?”
“You can start by telling me why you are here.” Asked Princess Celestia.
Mori looked up at the white pony. “I’m guessing if I don’t, some sort of punishment will be in order?”
“We try to avoid using violence to acquire our ends, but this is a dark time for our kingdom, and desperate times can lead to desperate measures.” The Princess said. Mori could hear the authority in her voice. He could also hear that this was not an option she would enjoy making.
“You... ponies, seem to be on edge of my appearance. Why exactly is that?”
“The Princesses will be asking the questions!” Shining Armor snapped.
“Shining Armor, I understand your duties to uphold order in the throne room, but he is asking a fair question.” Celestia said calmly. She turned to the human. “Recently, a strange string of attacks have been devastating our kingdom. Enormous monsters have been appearing out of nowhere, destroying our cities and land. Me and my sister-” She motioned to the navy winged unicorn beside her. “-have been able to keep these monsters at bay, but at the great expense of many of our citizens homes.”
Mori’s expression changed to that of suspicion and confusion. “Enormous monsters...?”
The Princess nodded. “We have come to call them Terrovores. They all stand around 80 meters tall, they seem reptilian or amphibious, and seem to be bent on destroying us and our kingdom.”
Mori’s eyes shot wide open, sweat forming on him. “...You’re sure that’s what these... Terrovores.... are like?”
Princess Celestia shot him a disapproving look. “We have had to face these creatures on multiple occasions. I’m sure I know what they look like.”
Mori dropped his head, beginning to shake. Everyone on the throne room stared at him, waiting for a response. Finally, he broke the silence. “Those things that are attacking you... We call them Kaiju. Its a word from our world meaning ‘strange beast’. They almost wiped out all life on my planet around 25 years ago. The only reason I exist is because my mother went on a mission to destroy a dimensional tunnel between our world and theirs. That’s why I came here. Our military detected a dimensional tear anomaly and we were scared another kaiju attack was imminent. They sent me alone because they could only hold the tear open long and large enough for one person.”
The throne room was silent for what felt like ages. Finally, Princess Celestia spoke. “You’ve fought these things before?”
Stacker raised his head. “I have not. but the people of my world have. They created a weapon that could combat these creatures with minimal damage compared to their previous means of attack.”
The Princess raised an eyebrow. “What kind of weapon?”
Mori looked her in the eyes. “Why tell you when I could show you?”