I am the Gatekeeper.
About a year ago, I invented the Oritronic Gateway Device, allowing travel through alternate dimensions. When the government tried to take it, I was forced to destroy the device and strand myself in another dimension. While there, I learned about the fragility of the dimensional walls and have since been doing what I can to try and stop anyone who threatens them.
I was also affected by residual dimensional energy.
On my return trip, I had to repair a rip in the fabric of reality so the dimensions didn’t collapse. In that process, I was infected with radiation and lead poisoning as well as absorbing all the leaking energy around. This changed my genetic makeup enough so I can do some things most people can’t.
In fact, I think I’m the only one who can do these things.
In the year that passed, I have allied myself with a secret branch of the government that monitors all possible inter-dimensional activity. With their help, I have been able to prevent a lot of different things that could have caused trouble with the technology that I invented.
However, even with these newfound allies and abilities, there are some things I wasn’t prepared for.
4/20/2058
8:23 pm
I was making my nightly rounds when I heard the familiar sound of a Gateway opening. I glanced around from my position in the air and was able to somehow hone in on the location. I dived toward the spot, ripping a rift open to let me into the building and found myself in the middle of a laboratory.
The steel walls around were practically polished around the various machines in the large room. I could see almost everything organized, with the exception of one very large machine in the middle. I outstretched my arm, extending my mind to begin to shut down the machine when I heard a man yell at me to stop.
“This machine is a threat to the integrity of dimensional space,” I said. “Why should I let this continue to operate?”
“Because,” the man said. “It’s not an Oritronic Gateway. It’s a Metatronic one.”
I paused, keeping control over the machine. One thought, and it could be thrown into the Great Nothingness, or Void. I could end all of it right now.
But I didn’t.
The Oritronic Gateway Device was only able to access alternate dimensions. It was the easier of the matrices to build, so I tried that one first. After the events that followed, I didn’t even think about trying a Metatronic matrix.
I stared at him, frozen.
“I was told about,” he said. “The Gatekeeper, right?”
“How did you do it?” I asked.
“Why don’t you let me through and then take it back so you can take a look?” he replied.
I thought for a few seconds. There had to be shielding around the room, or the feds would have already shown up and confiscated it. But it didn’t give too much time. If he was telling the truth, then there was no reason to keep him here. A parallel dimension wouldn’t threaten dimensional integrity unless some super-powerful, ancient artifact came across and the Gateway was closed. And if he was going through, he probably knew the exact universe he was going into.
I released my hold, but stopped him briefly. “I’m going to meet you in three days’ time to give you an update on what’s going on and check in on your end,” I said. “Make sure you memorize wherever you land so you can meet me there at half-past noon in that amount of time.”
“Alright,” he said, turning back to the open portal.
“And don’t tell anyone about this,” I said. “Not unless you have no other choice. We don’t know what kind of technology will be there. They can’t know about this.”
“See you in three days,” he said. Then he stepped through.
Of course, that’s when I heard car doors shut and people coming up to the front door of the house.
I focused around the machine. Theoretically, I could shift the space around it to transport the entire device through space and into my lab. It was almost the same as when I ripped a hole in space to do the same thing.
I tore apart the space around it and watched as it disappeared into the gap in space. Quickly, I jumped through and closed it behind me.
4/22/2058
3:36 pm
“A dual-matrix core,” I said to myself. “The man was a genius.”
After keeping the device from the government, I popped it open to see how the man was able to build it with the right matrix. It only took two out of the three days I had, so I would count that as progress.
The rebuilding process was fast enough and I was able to finish putting it back together before dinner.
That’s when I had some friends come over.
Now when I say friends, I really mean the guys in the nameless, faceless government organization.
“What are you guys doing here?” I asked. “I don’t have anything that’s yours.”
“We were simply checking to make sure of that,” said one of the men in suits. “There was a device that opened a Gate between worlds that went missing. Considering we found traces of your holes around, we thought you might have taken it.”
“Now why would I do that?” I asked as innocently as I could.
“Because you would do anything that would inconvenience us,” he said. “And it’s new technology. You have a tendency to take new things to look at how their made.”
I shrugged. “If you want to search, go ahead. You’re not going to find anything.”
I walked into the kitchen and poured myself a drink. Glancing at the men in my house, I asked, “Do any of you want some?”
One of them chuckled, but the rest continued their search.
I sat down and drank.
After a little bit of waiting, they all grouped back together, each man saying the same thing.
“The house is empty.”
“I told you there wasn’t anything here for you,” I said. “Now if you wouldn’t mind, get out.”
They walked out and got into their cars. I watched as they drove off, making sure they weren’t coming back to watch me. Then I went through and checked my house for any video bugs they might have left.
It never hurts to be a little paranoid when it comes to the government.
After finding nothing unusual, I went back down to my lab and set the coordinates. It would take a few hours to properly calibrate, so I could do my nightly rounds before heading off to sleep and the machine would be ready in the morning.
4/23/2058
12:27 pm
I opened the portal. If I was going into a parallel dimension, I had to go through early so I could properly adjust to whatever body the natural inhabitants were. The chances they were human was extremely low.
I stepped through, wearing my armor and weapons in case it was a refugee camp for soldiers to find myself-
-In a nice little meadow.
I looked around a little, noticing a serious height difference. Whatever I was, I was very short. But this actually seemed like a nice place. Green grass, blue skies and homey-looking houses surrounded me. I could also see Pegasi moving clouds away from-
“What?” I said, wondering if I was really seeing that. I reached up to rub my eyes to make sure, only to find my hand was gone, replaced with a hoof. “What?!” I looked down my body, only to find more of an equine shape. “WHAT?!”
“Calm down,” said a familiar voice, chuckling at my reaction. “You’re a pony, get over it.”
“Of all the places you could have taken a field trip to,” I said, sitting down. “First things, first; I need an update from you. How are things going here?”
“Fine,” he said. “Everything is as peaceful as it could get.”
I looked around. “It would appear so,” I said. “So, the government knows you built the machine and they came looking for it. I’ll probably end up having to destroy it when I get back.”
“It served its purpose,” he said. “Maybe you could find some use for it, though.”
I chuckled. “High-end technology in my hands? That didn’t turn out so well last time.”
“Just making an offer,” he said.
I reached back to pull out a device, but only managed to knock it out of my bags with a hoof. I stared at the machine.
“It takes a while to get used to hooves,” he said, walking over and picking it up.
I stared at him.
“What?” he asked.
“How are you doing that?” I asked. “It’s a hoof! There’s nothing to grab with!”
This time, he chuckled. “Like I said,” he replied. “It takes a while to get used to hooves.”
After getting the device ready for a dimensional scan, I heard-no felt something shift. I looked around to see slight shimmers in the light and was about to pass it off as nothing when it happened.
Lights started to flash all around us. I could see things taking shape and surrounding us. I could make out a black, armor-like carapace built into their equine hides and a sickly green power emanating from their very being. Insect-like wings were on the backs and a crooked horn took up a space on their foreheads. I saw the light shimmers reveal more creatures; only these appeared to have different sources of power. Each one had some weird power coming from it, though.
I looked at the things, trying to figure out what they were. That’s when I was pummeled with beams of energy. Some of them were worse than others, like the red ones and the orange ones, but I could feel a deprecating power sucking me dry. My very will power was being drained from me as these beams hit.
The man, pony, who had come here first, was the only one who actually knew what to do. I could see him flip in the air and start attacking a few of the creatures with all hooves. I could see the creature’s armor start to give.
That’s when they all turned on him.
They stopped firing on me and started to attack him instead, not caring for their own that was right there. I could see the flashes of energy discharging and hear the impacts as well as his scream of pain.
“Get out of here!” he yelled at me, barely getting the words out. I could see a stone with some engraving on it being pulled out and a shield came up around us. “You need to go. Deadlock the entire dimension if you have to, but you can’t let them get through.”
I stood, getting my footing next to him. “I’m going to stop these things before they can pose a threat,” I said. “And you’re under my protection. I’m not leaving.”
He looked at me and gave me a small, sad smile before pushing me through the open Gateway. I stumbled back; readjusting to having two legs, and saw a stone fly past and hit the control panel. The now translucent look of this Gateway portal started to close. I pulled my legs in and launched myself at the portal.
But all I met was air.
I looked at the frame and started to move. I had to do something about this. That shield wouldn’t last forever. Nothing does.
I kicked the stone and looked down to see the engraving. It was his only hope to survive a fight against those things and he sacrificed it to get me back here. He gave his life to seal off a dimension with creatures that could shoot energy beams from their heads.
And I didn’t even know what his name was.
I quickly changed what I was doing and started to seal off the dimension. If these things were really that dangerous, I had to keep them out at any cost. I started flipping switches and hitting buttons, slowly locking down the machine. Without it, they wouldn’t be able to break in, at least not any time soon.
After a few minutes of this, I sat down and looked at the now useless machine. I had done what I could at the time, but something still didn’t feel right.
I had to find out what those things were.