//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: My Kaiju-sized Ponies // by OtterP //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle closed her eyes tightly as the Sun’s rays shone through the window. She turned her back to it, annoyed by the interruption of her sleep, and pulled the bed cover over her head. A moment later she grunted and sighed, levitating the cover off of her. She crawled out of her bed and pulled the cover over the bed, stretching it tightly over it. “Spike, it is time to wake up.” She said cheerfully, and was rewarded by tired grunt coming from the basket. The small dragon rose up, rubbing his eyes. “Already, Twilight? This early at the morning?” “As usual.” Twilight smiled. “So are there any letters for me?” “I don’t th-“ Spike started but was interrupted by a loud burp. A green flame shot out of his mouth and a scroll materialized from it. Twilight expertly caught it with her magic and levitated it in front of her. “Oh, goodie.” She giggled. “I wonder what Princess Celestia write this tim—“ Twilight said as she but then blinked. “Oh, it from Princess Luna!?” “Princess Luna? Well, that is a first.” Spike said and rapidly walked to Twilight, now almost fully awake and interested. Twilight chuckled and levitated him on her back. Then they both began to read. Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle I am writing this to you because while researching the magic mirror and old scrolls from the Canterlot archives, I stumbled upon an amazing discovery, but I feel that you are more suited to explore this discovery. As I tried old spells, the mirror opened and I stepped in. The world I visited looked much like our world, but everything in it was tiny, even the trees only just reached over the top of my hooves. On top of that, the world seems to be inhabited by tiny but intelligent beings. It was night there and I saw what appeared to be a small village at the distance judging from the lights. It was then when I heard a frightened sound from the ground and saw a tiny being. I managed to calm him down and talk to him for a while. He was young colt, although he use the word ‘boy’ to refer himself, and told me that his kind were called humans and he and his family lived there. It was then when I decided to leave as he seemed to be a little scared of me, even if I assured him that I was friendly. This is also why I think you are more equipped to visit this world if you so choose as perhaps I am not that sociable. Your Friend, Princess Luna “Oh, Spike, this is amazing!” Twilight gasped. “An entire new world and new intelligent species!” “Yeah, Twilight.” Spike said, looking at her claws and tried to estimate the space between his claws. “But Princess Luna said that they are tiny… Maybe this size.” He said, showing his claw to Twilight. “Anypony going there must be careful or they might accidentally step on someone.” “Oh, I must leave immediately. Could you take care of the library while I am gone, Spike?” Twilight said, trotting to her cabinet and levitating her saddlebags on her back. “What? You don’t want me to come?” Spike said, surprised and a little sad. “I am sorry, Spike.” Twilight walked to the small dragon and pulled him into a gentle hug. “I think it would better if I go alone first. If all goes well, I promise to take you with me next time.” She smiled softly at him. Spike looked up at her, giving her a little smile. “All right, Twilight, I will keep things in order here!” He said. === June 16, 2017, Caribbean Sea, near Puerto Rico Seahawk helicopter flew low over the ocean, its crew monitoring the instruments and keeping the heading straight. At the back of the helicopter, a single crew member looked over his shoulder to observe the ocean. From horizon to horizon there was only water visible as they were not yet near their destination. He then turned his attention back to the three civilian passengers; one woman and two men. One of the men was looking out when he felt a touch on his shoulder and heard the woman’s voice. “Did they tell you what this was all about?” She said, speaking to her microphone. They all wear a headset so that they could speak over the engine noise. He shook his head. “Nope, not a thing. I just was called by my university and said that it was something about national security and told to wait for the military.” “University? Are you a scientist too?” The woman asked curiously. The man nodded and extended his hand. “James Pearson, biologist.” He said with a smile. The woman shook his hand. “Susan Matthews, astrophysicist.” They both turned to look at the last man. “Jacob Calhoun, geologist.” He said and they all shook their hands. “Well, now that we know that we are all scientists and this is all super-secret, what do you think this is about?” Susan said, trying to start a conversation and easy her building nervousness, and she found herself to be excited a little too about their destination. “The aliens have finally landed!” James declared, grinning. Susan’s eyes widened but Jacob rolled his eyes. “In that case, you two would make sense. An astrophysicist and a biologist.” He said, extending his hand towards both of them. “But how do I fit in that scenario?” He said, matching James’ grin. James wondered a moment, until Susan said. “Maybe the alien are made of rocks?” She joked, laughing a little. Grinning even wider, James pointed his finger at Susan as they looked at each other and said in unison. “A silicate based lifeform!” Jacob rolled his eyes again but then burst into laughter. “I hope you are not serious.” He said. Susan looked out, feeling even more excited. “Whatever it is, I have a feeling it is something big.” After a while, the helicopter started to slow down and changed direction. Susan looked and saw a warship near an island. “You will be briefed on that destroyer, after that we will fly you on the island.” They heard the pilot’s voice from their headset. The passengers looked at each other and sit silently as the Seahawk set down at the aft flight deck. They were escorted inside the ship and into a room that seemed to be used for meetings. “Sit down here, the commander will be here shortly.” The sailor said and began to close the door. Susan stopped him. “Could we have something to eat and drink? This has been a fast paced day for us and--“ She started. “We will get you something, after the briefing.” He said and closed the door. “Well, they are in a hurry.” Jacob said, scratching his short beard, already sitting. Susan and James also sat down, as there was nothing else to do. They didn’t have to wait for long. The door opened and officer stepped in. “Good day. We have a lot to do, so I will be brief.” He said. “I am Commander Barnes. But first, I want to make one thing clear; until stated otherwise, whatever you will see or hear here, are strictly top secret, you are not allowed to talk about it to anyone.” He looked at the scientists and they all nodded. Barnes then lifted a suitcase on table and opened it, spreading half dozen photographs on the table. The scientists stood up and stepped in front of the table, leaning down to examine them. Susan took one in her hand. “What are those holes?” She asked. Imagined in the photographs were a number of depressions, judging from the humans standing beside them, they were about a meter or so deep and maybe ten meters in diameter. “What they are… What we think they are, are foot prints.” Barnes said, with more quiet voice than before. “What!?” Susan looked at him, stunned. “That is impossible, there are no animals that big on Earth. There never has been animal that big, even the biggest dinosa--“ James said but Barnes silenced him with a raised hand. “That is why you are here. To find out if these ‘foot prints’ are real or hoax.” Barnes said. Jacob chuckled. “Yeah… It would be pretty embarrassing for U.S. military to fall on a hoax.” “They have to be hoaxes.” James said, tossing the pictures he had in his hands back on the table. “No animal that big could even find enough food to survive. And let me guess, no-one saw that thing.” “Actually, there is a witness. An eight year old boy told his family that he had met and talked to a giant creature.” Barnes said, with a voice that revealed that he didn’t seem to believe it either. “A boy? And now it talks too. This is getting more and more ridiculous.” James said, holding his laughter. “So we are not talking about just an animal?” Susan said. “No. It is top priority to find out if these marks are real and if so, the creature is real too. Where did it come from? Where did it go? And will it come back?” Barnes explained. “Because a creature that size...” He moved his hand towards the photos. “Could pose a serious threat to the country, and to the whole world.” James took another picture in his hand and looked at, doing some mental calculations. “If we assume…” He trailed off. “That thing must be something like 100 meters tall!” “Wait a minute, when did they appear?” Susan asked, suddenly raiding her head and looking at Barnes, pointing at photographs. “Last night.” Barnes said. “The boy told that he talked with the creature only few minute before it disappeared. He found his way back to village before sunrise, and told his father about it, who happened to be a police officer. He found the marks and was able to isolate the area and alert the authorities.” “Ah, that is why this is not on every news channel on Earth.” Jacob smiled. “But…” “Yes, something as big as this won’t stay hidden long and sooner or later the word gets out, but before it does-“ Barnes explained and was cut off by Jacob. “You would like a confirmation that these marks are just a hoax, like crop circles.” “Yes, and now I believe you have a job to do.” Barnes said. “The helicopter is waiting to take you to the island.” Barnes took the photographs and instructed the sailors to escort the scientists back to the helicopter. The flight to the island took only a moment as the destroyer was floating just few kilometers from the shore. Helicopter landed and the three jumped down. As the Seahawk lifted off to return back to the ship, they were greeted by a group of four soldiers. Uh, hello there.” Susan had been first to leave the helicopter and greeted to group with a raised hand. “Staff Sergeant Miller.” The first soldier said, carrying an assault rifle on his front. “We are here to escort you, Ma’am.” “Why soldiers?” She asked. “Marines.” He answered and turned a little, pointing his finger at the huge holes on the grass. “That is why.” James whistled and walked closer, it was one thing to look at aerial photograph than to see one in front of you. The group of scientists stood there for a moment in silence as all around them the grass field was full of huge, 10 meter wide depressions. === Twilight had arrived in Canterlot with the first train and had immediately gone to meet Princess Luna. Luna had the scrolls and the mirror ready for Twilight. “Princess Luna!” She called and trotted towards her. Twilight gave her a polite bow. “I came as soon as I could, after I read your letter.” “We knew you would come.” Luna said with a gentle voice and let out a small yawn. “Excuse us, we have not yet slept.” She said and walked to the table where she had the scrolls. “This was the spell we used to open the portal. We wish you luck, young Twilight.” She said. “But we must retire for now. Please tell us everything after you have returned and Twilight…” She said, turning her head as she was heading towards the door. “Be careful out there.” “I will, Princess!” Twilight said smiling and began examining the old spells after Luna had left. “Hmm, this shouldn’t be too hard…” She muttered out loud, already immersed in her studies.” === “This has needed some serious equipment to dig…” James said, rubbing the back of his head as he walked around the depression. As the photographs had shown, each depression was about meter deep and roughly circular in shape but maybe ten meters wide. “I mean… what kind of animal would leave foot prints like this?” He said, pointing the circular shape. “There are no claw marks, no pad marks.” “So you think this was dug and filled with grass to give impression of a giant foot print?” Miller said, standing next to Susan at the edge of the depression. Jacob had jumped down in the depression and was crouching on his knees, feeling the ground. “Well, for one thing, this is not dug out.” He said, hearing the others conversation. “The ground soil is compressed, exactly like an enormous weight had pushed it down.” He said, standing up and cleaning his hands. He had to be helped from the depression by two of the Marines. “So how would have someone done this…” James said, muttering out loud. “I hate to bring you this, but could it be that these are real?” Susan said carefully, looking at the depression with her arms crossed. “But how could they be real!” James said. “There are no animals this big on Earth…” He said and paused. “You are not actually thinking that these might be… alien origin?” He said. “It is the only plausible possibility, apart from being hoaxes.” Susan said, her tone saying she was serious. === Twilight looked back and forth between different scrolls. She had memorized the spells but wanted to make sure that she got everything right, holding her growing excitement back as best she could. Finally she stepped in front the mirror and activated her magic. Her horn glowed briefly and the mirror shimmered as it activated. “Here goes nothing…” Twilight muttered quietly and smiling excitedly she stepped through the mirror. === The scientists and the Marines were all looking at the approaching helicopter. Susan sighed, she didn’t want to leave yet, but everyone had been so in hurry to prove that these marks were indeed a hoax, that it had left her feel that they had missed something. Everything in her scientific mind yelled that these had to be man-made, but still the thought that these were real wouldn’t leave. As they were all facing the destroyer and helicopter, it was the pilot and co-pilot that saw it first. For a brief second the pilot thought that it was just reflection but then the colorfully shimmering oval grew rapidly bigger and bigger, and intensified so that he couldn’t see the ground or the sea behind it. He cursed and pulled back from the control yoke and at the same time he called in the radio. The group on the ground suddenly saw the helicopter’s nose tilt up as it attempted to deaccelerate rapidly. “Knife, this is Crossbow! Watch out, behind you!” The tense voice came from radio. Immediately the Marines turned around to look back, followed by the scientists. “What the hell!?” Susan was first to speak as they stared at the giant size oval that shimmered in the all the colours of the rainbow, but her jaw dropped as a giant shape started to come from the oval. Twilight stepped through the portal and briefly looked back to see the magic portal vanish as soon as she had come through it. She looked around and begun slowly realize what she was seeing. Princess Luna hadn’t exaggerated what she had told to her. Twilight was standing on a small field and just few steps from her were something that appeared some kind of strange grass but at closer look were trees. Trees almost like in back home but tiny in size. Twilight grinned excitedly. Oh, this is going to be so interesting! She thought but was then interrupted by a strange sound. She turned her head a saw a big insect hovering not far from her, but instead of flapping its wing, it had rotating wings on top of it and it looked like it had a metallic skin. Just then Twilight heard a faint sound, and turned her head down. Her eyes widened a bit when she saw a group of tiny creatures on the ground, very close to her. Oh my… could these be the humans Luna talked about… She thought and bend her knees to get a closer look. “Uh… Greetings…” She said quietly, smiling a little at them. “Holy mother of…” Jacob gasped and they looked at the stunned silence as an enormous form came from the shimmering oval. They were so close that Susan took a step and she had to crane her neck back to look up. The creature was four legged, like Earth’s animals but this had a single horn sticking from its forehead and on its sides were a pair of wings, thought Susan found it hard to believe that something that big could fly. The creature was covered with purple fur, with a strange star shaped patch on its flank. Marines had reacted quickly and pointed their weapons at the creature. “Hold your fire!” Miller shouted even if he too was pointing at it with his weapon. “W-we need to get out of here!” James yelled, backing away from them. Susan was absolutely mesmerized by the size of the creature and looked at it from its hooves to its head. Its hooves were leaving similar marks on the ground as the depressions they had examined before, the ground giving in to its enormous weight, but it seemed to take only few steps and very carefully. Its head moved and it seemed to look at the helicopter which was still hovering nearby. Susan turned her head from James to back to the creature when it suddenly lowered her gaze and looked directly at them. It has obviously had seen them, Susan froze and started to shake as it lowered itself towards them. “Uh… Greetings…” The creature said with a voice that was obviously feminine. The group stared at her silently, no-one sure how or what to respond. “Um… Can you… Can you understand me?” She spoke again, coming down towards them and examining them curiously. “Yes, we understand you!” Susan was first to speak, not sure if she could even hear them so she nearly shouted. The creature pulled back a little, smiling widely. “Oh, this is incredible!” She said loudly, making Susan crouch a little from the loud noise. “Who… Who are you and what are you doing here?” Susan said, standing up again and she noticed that all others had backed few meters behind her. “I am sorry.” The creature said, kneeling down again to get closer. “My name is Twilight Sparkle.” To be continued...