Prologue
“Dialogue.” = Normal speaking
‘Dialogue.’ = Thoughts
“Dialogue” = Radio
Dialogue = Written on paper or on the terminal.
It was a gray, snowy day in Ponyville. The sky was covered in thick snow clouds courtesy of the Pegasi, so it was snowing heavily outside. Not much of a surprise during the month of January. Everypony was in their houses and cottages, reading books, playing board games, and trying out the gifts they received from Hearth’s Warming Eve last year. Given that there weren’t many options, no pony could say the day was eventful, especially the small group taking shelter in the local house-tree library of Golden Oaks.
This group consisted of three mares: daredevil Rainbow Dash, timid Fluttershy, and book-loving Twilight Sparkle. There was also the baby dragon named Spike; Twilight’s number-one assistant. Together, the four friends were riding the storm out in Twilight’s library as they all decided to keep each other company. They were in the main room doing various activities, from reading to playing games.
Eventually, the quartet had scattered throughout the tree library, with Fluttershy trotting up to the front window. She was looking out the window, watching the snowflakes hit the window when she saw something on the porch. She went to Twilight, who was starting to read a new book she recently purchased.
“Um, excuse me, Twilight?” She spoke softly.
“I’m trying to read, Fluttershy,” Twilight replied, not taking her eyes off the book.
“I’m sorry, but you have a package on your doorstep.” Fluttershy continued.
The lavender unicorn looked up from her book at the pegasus mare in confusion. “A package?”
“Mmhmm.” Fluttershy nodded in affirmation.
Twilight stood up and went over to her entrance. Upon opening the door, she noticed a package lying on her doorstep. She uses her magic to brush the snow off of it and pick it up. Pulling it inside, she then closes her front door and turns where she was met with the curious rainbow maned pegasus eyeing her package closely.
“So, who’s it from, Twi?” Rainbow Dash asked after Twilight finished examining the shipping label.
“No idea. The package doesn’t have anything on it.” Twilight answered as she stepped aside to let her friends and Spike look at it themselves.
I’s true to what she said; there was no information printed on the package. No recipient name, no mailing address, no return address, not even a stamp.
“So…” Fluttershy spoke. “What’s in the box?”
“Well, why don’t we open it up and find out?” Twilight suggested before turning to her number-one assistant. “Would you like to have the honors, Spike?”
The baby dragon nodded and said, “Yes, ma’am,” before walking up to the table with a raised claw. Everypony moved out of the way to make space for him, with Rainbow Dash hovering above him. However, one of her feathers came loose and landed on the dragon’s nose. Spike scrunches his nose before loudly sneezing, unleashing a stream of green fire that set everything on the table ablaze, including the package.
The trio of ponies gasped in shock before Twilight ran over to the table to smother the fires with a thick blanket. After succeeding, the lavender mare realized that everything on the table that got caught in the flame had been reduced to ash, including…
“My new book!” She groaned upon finding the remains of her newly purchased book.
“Oops. Sorry, Twi,” Rainbow Dash apologizes as she lands right next to the burnt package with a sheepish grin. Twilight scowls at the rainbow-maned pegasus when Fluttershy speaks up again.
“What is that?” She asked, pointing to the table with her hoof. This caused Spike, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight to look back to where she was pointing.
Right where the incinerated package once stood was what looked like a large dark gray metal briefcase with gold accents. Twilight approached and noticed that its dimensions were big enough to fit three big books in a row. Strangely, the object in question did not suffer any fire damage. Even stranger was the unrecognizable emblem emblazoned upon the briefcase. The emblem is composed of an outlined circle with three arrows crossing its contour and pointing into the center and a larger circle with three protruding rectangles closing the smaller circle and arrows in a thin frame.
Twilight spots a tiny piece of paper taped to the side of the briefcase that was half burned. She peeled the note off and opened it, revealing a short message.
“What does it say, Twi?” Spike asks.
Twilight frowns at the half-burnt paper. “Unfortunately, much of the message is lost, but I can read what remains.”
—you have been granted access to the entire Foundation database. The documented we have contained, as well as our organization— can be viewed on this portable terminal.
— press the blinking POWER button to —
Our secret knowledge is now at your — hands hooves and viewing pleasure, along with those you know can be trusted. Enjoy.
The half-burnt letter’s contents had caught Twilight’s interest. ‘A case containing secret knowledge sent to me by some unknown organization?’ She thought before squeeing. “Eeee!!!”
Spike smiled as he watched the lavender unicorn hop up and down excitedly. Fluttershy gave a smaller smile while Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes with a smirk. Twilight loves knowledge, so they decided not to try to stop her from opening the case. However, she became confused when she didn’t find any books or paper within it. In fact, the briefcase had very little interior space, which was only enough for a small blue button.
‘What? There’s nothing in here but a button.’ Twilight thinks as she places a hoof on said button.
Suddenly, the case automatically opens up at a 180° angle, causing the lavender unicorn to back up away from it, and starts transforming itself. Startled by the unexpected transformation, Twilight, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Spike all watch with fascination The two halves of the briefcase shift, and the inside of the lid seems to split and reveal a screen hidden under the leather layer. While the bottom half seems to expand upwards and opens up to reveal a QWERTY keyboard used by common typewriters.
The object that used to be a case was now what looked like a big terminal. The four friends are awed by the transformation sequence as they all approach it slowly. Never in their lives have they ever seen anything like this, so they were a bit cautious. It was then Twilight noticed a blinking button on the keyboard that said ON/OFF. From her peripherals, she sees the purple claw of Spike reaching for the button. Twilight uses her hoof to swat the dragon’s claw. Spike pulls his claw away and rubs it with his other claw.
“Don’t touch anything.” Twilight warned before looking back at the terminal. “We have no idea what this thing is.”
“But… didn’t it say it had secret knowledge? What if pressing the button to turn it on is how you access it.” Spike answered as the stinging in his claw subsided.
“Yeah, Twilight. How dangerous can it be?” Rainbow asked as she stepped closer to analyze the strange terminal. She then reaches over and presses the ON button with her hoof.
“Rainbow Dash, no!” Twilight yelled as she reached out with her own hoof to stop the brash Pegasus mare. She was too late.
Several seconds later, the black screen lights up, revealing the same mysterious symbol on top of the briefcase. “Welcome to the SCP Foundation Database,” a male robotic voice says, surprising the quartet.
“Who said that?” Asked Spike.
Before anypony could respond, the voice was heard again, and this time, it sounded a bit more serious. “Operating clandestine and worldwide, the Foundation operates beyond jurisdiction, empowered and entrusted by every major national government with the task of containing anomalous objects, entities, and phenomena. Many of these anomalies pose a significant threat to global security, as well as humanity, by threatening either physical or psychological harm. All of them undermine the natural laws that the people of the world implicitly trust in.”
Twilight raises an eyebrow at that. If these anomalies were truly a threat to the world, then why hasn’t anypony known about them? And, more importantly, why was this foundation kept a secret? But something else had caught her curiosity. The voice also mentioned the word ‘humanity’. Was it referring to—
“Um… What’s an anomaly?” Fluttershy asks, prompting the lavender unicorn to answer.
“Well, Fluttershy, an anomaly is something that isn’t normal, like the Everfree Forest.” Twilight explained.
Fluttershy whimpers and shrinks back a little bit at Twilight’s answer, now feeling increasingly nervous about the terminal.
“The Foundation operates to maintain normalcy, so that the worldwide civilian population can live and go on with their daily lives without fear, mistrust, or doubt in their personal beliefs, and to maintain human independence from extraterrestrial, extradimensional, and other extranormal influence.”
“That sounds understandable,” Spike says to himself with a shrug while Twilight agrees.
“Wait,” Rainbow Dash starts. “Wouldn’t it be wise to, I don’t know, tell everypony about the anomalies?”
Twilight shakes her head. “No, Dash, you don’t understand,” the unicorn says. “It’s like this: if the ponies of Equis learn about a creature that could consume magic as a food source, panic would spread, followed by riots.”
Rainbow Dash pauses before nodding her head in understanding. Panic is the last thing anypony needs.
The terminal screen changes to snow white as the male voice continues. “Our mission is three-fold:”
The four friends see the three arrows from the strange logo appear along with the word ‘SECURE’ underneath it.
“Secure: The Foundation secures anomalies with the goal of preventing them from falling into the hands of civilian or rival agencies, through extensive observation and surveillance and by acting to intercept such anomalies at the earliest opportunity.”
The small circle appears next along with, ‘CONTAIN’.
“Contain: The Foundation contains anomalies with the goal of preventing their influence or effects from spreading, by either relocating, concealing, or dismantling such anomalies or by suppressing or preventing public dissemination of knowledge thereof.”
Finally, the larger circle with rectangles appeared. ‘PROTECT’
“Protect: The Foundation protects humanity from the effects of such anomalies as well as the anomalies themselves until such time that they are either fully understood or new theories of science can be devised based on their properties and behavior. The Foundation may also neutralize or destroy anomalies as an option of last resort, if they are determined to be too dangerous to be contained.”
“Additional information will have been provided upon your joining us in pursuit of our primary missions.”
Once the male voice has stopped speaking, the ponies and dragon are left in silence.
‘So, SCP stands for “Secure, Contain, Protect”?’ Spike asks himself before breathing a sigh of relief. ‘At first, I thought it was Snap, Crackle, and Pop.’
“Uh, girls?” Fluttershy speaks up, catching the attention of the others. “That, um… machine mentioned something about…humans.”
Rainbow Dash and Spike became confused, while realization dawns on Twilight. She remembers the message had mentioned these humans before, but had forgotten about it. “I find that very confusing.” The lavender unicorn says. “Humans are nothing more than a myth.”
“No, they’re as real as you and I.”
Everyone was silent, staring at the machine. Rainbow Dash, however, was the one who broke the silence. “Uhh… Is somepony in there listening to us?” She asks.
“Yes, there is.” The voice said. “And no, there is not a pony.”
The quartet becomes startled as a red bipedal figure popped up on the terminal’s screen. They see the figure step out of the screen and stand before them, appearing rather translucent.
“Hello,” The figure said stoically, his voice sounding less robotic. “And welcome to the SCP Database.”