Containment Is Magic Season 1

by Comet Diver

Discovery

Senior Researcher Grey wasn't really paying attention. This job was a joke. There was never an anomalous incident here. Did these monitoring stations even work? He doubted it. He knew why he was really here. Punishment. He disrespected another employee, and this was his punishment.

"I can take a quick nap. Nothing happens here anyway."

He placed his feet on the desk and closed his eyes.

An alarm blared out through the control centre. Grey fell back onto his head, and scrambled to his feet. How long was he asleep for? He checked his watch. Exactly two and a half hours. What was the alarm? A fire? A lockdown drill? Surely it couldn't be... it was. His station was blaring red.

"Oh crap."

He shuffled through his filing cabinet, trying to find protocol for an anomalous detection. Case files, not what he needed. He searched the next drawer down. Hostile attack guidelines. A protocol, but not the right one. He searched the last drawer. Ah! Here. He took a seat, silenced the alarm, and opened the folder.

If you are reading this file, you have detected an anomalous signal. Whatever is producing it must be secured. Follow these instructions, document findings, then report to Site-50 for debrief. Unless given permission, you are not to study the anomaly further.

1: Determine the location of the anomaly. Connect to observational satellites and use three to triangulate the anomalous signal.

2: Observe the anomaly if possible. If the anomaly seems to be autonomous, observe it's behavior to gain intel.

3: Alert containment forces. Insert all available data into deployment tool, and contact the appropriate task force.

4: Monitor the containment mission from your station. You have clearance to direct the task force, but instructions from the field commander override your orders.

5: Develop report. Your preliminary report should contain a description of the anomaly's appearance, it's abilities, and a transcript of the task force's mission.

After these instructions are completed, secure a hardcopy of the report and take the express line to Site-50. Request a meeting with the classification officer, and answer all their questions to the best of your ability.

Grey put the file down, and loaded the satellite uplink. He executed the triangulation program, and within a minute, he had a lead. Canterlot High School, on the outskirts of Canterlot City. He scanned for anomalous energies, and got two readouts. One fixed on the horse statue outside the front of the school, one moving around inside it. He picked up the phone and connected to Site-19. "Senior Researcher Grey requesting Mobile Task Force Epsilon-11 to Canterlot High School."

"Authorization code?"

"Delta. Omni. Niner."

"Affirmative. Next available squad will be deployed."

Grey connected to the team's commlink, and put on his headphones. Well, he wanted something to happen.

The task force were plainclothes, their guns concealed in their jackets. The van pulled up at the front of the school, and the team jumped out.

"Team 1 moving to the statue."

"Team 2 moving to secure site."

"Team 3 moving inside."

Grey switched from the satellite feed to an agent's helmet camera. The agent tried his best to blend in.

"So, what am I looking for?"

Grey realized that the agent was speaking to him.

"It should be to your right."

"I see the cafeteria. Going in."

Immediately, they knew something was off. Everyone's skin tone was completely unnatural, from a brilliant pink to a cool blue.

"You sure I'm only looking for one?"

"Affirmative. Check three paces to your right."

The agent complied. There was a girl. Orange skin, orange hair with red stripes. She was sitting by herself. The agent walked over.

"I'm going to talk to her."

"Roger."

"Hey."

The girl looked up at him.

"What do you want?"

"Being able to sit here would be good."

The girl slid over.

"What's your name?"

"Sunset. Sunset Shimmer. How about you?"

The agent knew his pseudonym.

"Alex. I haven't seen you before. Are you not from here?"

"Further than you'd think."

Sunset looked at her reflection in the window. The agent drew a specimen collector and quickly extracted a blood sample from her.

"OW!"

"What?"

"Something dug into my side."

The sample data came through to Grey. It seemed normal, until he saw several cells in the girl's bloodstream. They did not match any known records. That was all he needed to confirm that he had his eyes on an anomaly. He gave the agent the order to return to base. The agent looked at the girl.

"I need to go."

"Where?"

"Not important."

The agent stood up, and made his way to the exit. Out in the front of the school, team one agents had gathered around the horse statue. They had several devices measuring readings from the statue, and were talking in groups of two or three.

"What have you found?"

His comment seemed to startle the head field analyst. They turned around in a panic, but was quickly eased when they saw his faceplate.

"This statue contains high levels of dimensional instability. We think it's a portal, but it seems to have been sealed. We can only get data from this side. There has to be some way to open it."

Grey spoke up.

"We'll find it later. You need to get back to base, and I need to deliver my report."

The group all replied in affirmation. The analysts took the longest to pack up, carrying bulky equipment and endless sheets of paper. After what felt like three whole hours, they jumped inside the van, closed the back door, and drove off. Grey took off his headphones, and began to type the file.

Anomalous Object: AO-1378-WGKRVGO.
Item Description: A young woman of adolescent age bearing orange skin tone and several unidentified specimens in bloodstream. Purpose of specimens: Unknown.
Date Of Discovery: ██-██-████.
Location Of Discovery: Canterlot High School, Canterlot City, █████████.
Current Status: Under Observation.

Anomalous Object: AO-1379-YKLJAKU.
Item Description: A statue of an equine in the front garden of Canterlot High School with extreme levels of dimensional instability. Likely a portal to an alternate reality.
Date Of Discovery: ██-██-████.
Location Of Discovery: Canterlot High School, Canterlot City, █████████.
Current Status: Under Observation.

Grey finished his draft. He took a moment to relax, sending the print request. He grabbed his briefcase before heading off to the print room. The document was waiting for him. He picked it up, placed it into his briefcase, and walked to the transit hub. The express trams wasted no time. He was at Site-50 in just under 2 hours, an impressive speed. Grey’s next stop was the classification officer’s office. He took a glance at the map, and made his way across the sector, making sure to avoid Davidson, who was the reason he was at that monitoring post in the first place. Finally, he found the office, and entered the waiting room. The receptionist looked up from her computer, but didn't stop typing.

“Name for the record?”

“Senior Researcher Jacob Grey.”

“The classification officer will be with you shortly. Take a seat.”

Grey did. He wanted to get a quick nap, but it was only a thirty-minute wait before the receptionist spoke to him.

“Officer Perkins will see you now.”

Grey stood up, and walked into the office.

Author's Note:

If you're wondering why they detected readings from Sunset but not the others, it's because she's a native Equestrian. Everyone else came from this world, and only had minor signatures of Equestrian Magic due to proximity to the portal. Like Grey said at the start, these monitoring stations aren't perfect. They were only able to detect Sunset's magic because it was more potent than the rest.

Comments

[valiant souls]

Definitely seems loyal to the scp source materials. I’m excited to see where this goes.

[gapty]

The rise of EqG-SCP-crossover shall begin!

First of all, a good readable text, and looks like an interesting premise. However, I would have a few suggestions:

If you are reading this file, you have detected an anomalous signal.

Show somehow that it's a file. Use either cursive letter, have the file be as a "quote" so fimfic shows it like

this,

or use " ". It has to be shown, because the reader is thrown into the file. Same applies to any file written out.

Second, whenever a new direct speech starts, make a new paragraph. You did it with whenever a new person was speaking, but the direct speech as the end of the paragraph should be a new one.

And now about the censoring:

“Senior Researcher [REDACTED] Grey.”

I never knew that one gets [REDACTED] even when you talk

Point being: While SCP files are recognisable through being all with [REDACTED] and blacked out texts, inside your story several wouldn't make sense in-universe. Censorships are done in files, but not when someone introduces themselves or especially when someone writes a report. The report is a report, you don't redact the date or anything. The censoring is only later on done when added on the file to be shared.

"I see the cafeteria. Going in." Immediately, they knew something was off. Everyone's skin tone was completely unnatural, from a brilliant pink to a cool blue.

Why don't they contain them all? It's clearly worth researching if that is unnormal and needs to be investigated.