When Worlds Cross: before the Storm..

It was dark... A faint light was shimmering in the room. Then a voice in the form of a whisper came into the room.

“I think I found it.”

A flash of light filled up the dark room. A lone desk with a computer and a few others items was in the room. A light brown mare came into the room, face to the darkness, and gave a wave for somepony to come in. a stallion came into the room. This colt had a dark blue coat with camo armor on top. Using his magic, he lifted his helmet up, revealing his face. He had dark green eyes with a blue and green tinted mane. He turned to the mare.

With a deep but friendly voice, he said, “Good. This is the place. Go and keep an eye out for anypony. I need to get the information.”

The light brown mare nodded and said, “Make it fast Stargazer. I have a bad feeling about this.“ Star looked back with a smile, then headed over to the desk. Looking at the desk, Star saw that there was a nameplate on it.

              Using his magic, he lifted the nameplate to get a better look. General Storm Catcher he read to himself. His eyes opened wide and under his breath he said, “Good this is his desk. i'm in the right place. I have to hurry!”

Star put down the nameplate, and moved over to the computer. Using his horn he turned on the computer. The screen came to life and the monitor’s bright light shined into his eyes. On the screen there was a logo clearly visible; “The UTE, United Tribes of Equestria.”

After the screen finished loading, flies came up on the screen. Star pulled out a small device and put it in the computer. A window opened and it read “Downloading Data.”  Along with this another box appeared and read, “Do you want to proceed?”

Star stared blankly before he decided to put his hoof on the glass. He slapped his face with his hoof, a true hoofplant. “I really need to remember that the things that work in my equestria might not work in this world.”

He looked across the desk for a mouse to use for the computer. After he located it, he used his magic to move it around. Star clicked the “Yes” option and started the download. Peering into the darkness he saw his friend, the light brown mare. Letting out a sigh he looked at the download bar, then he looked down at the screen and saw an interesting file.

“Operation Hunt? Huh what is on it?.” He wondered out loud as he opened the file.

Opening the new file he found it to be full of logs. He was about to close out of the file before a certain date from one of the logs caught his eyes. It was only a few months ago, but he let out a gasp at what he saw.

“this is the date i was in twilight castle to be her guard, and when i first enter to this world, and the first human i saw, i wonder, what have happened before everything happened ” He scanned the document and found that it had been edited recently, approximately five hours ago. He looked to the top of the document was about to read.

Star looked into the dark hall and saw his light brown friend Shadow, just waiting there. She was sitting with her ears pointed and ready to tackle anything.

‘I'm really glad I brought her with me’ Star thought with a smile.

Shadow looked to Star And asked, “Have you found the information yet?” Her light blue eyes meeting with Star’s eyes. She always had a kind of look that gave her a loyal personality.

“No, I'm still looking. I hate these things.”

“Do you need help, Star?”

“No I think I found it”.

Shadow nodded and kept her silent vigil over the darkness. Look back to the computer Star got back to work. ‘Well, lets see what happened then…’ He thought before he started to read the log on the computer.

______________________________________________________________________________

It all started at that school, Canterlot high. Thats where the Operation Hunt began. let me started from the beginning. It at all started a few weeks ago. Someone had sent us a video. At first we thought it was a joke, but then we got some crucial information from the guys down in the space agency. Something felt off though. I was on my way to a briefing for my next mission, but Tele, the head of the space agency, ran up to me. Tele was a generally younger looking man with short, dark red hair. He appeared worried and I soon found out why.

“General Storm! I’m very sorry, but I need to talk to you, it's urgent.”'

“Tele, next time just watch where you going.” I said, but by the look on his face  there was fear in his light red eyes. I could tell something had happened. “Hey Tele, are you alright? You look like you're about to faint or something.”

“I need to talk to you sir, like I said it's urgent.” as he fix his plan blue shirt

I knew this was no joke, he was never this bad when something happened. “I can't talk right now, I have a briefin-.”

Before I could finish, Tele cut me off. “I need to talk to you right now sir, something big is going on. We’re talking really huge.”

I was conflicted. I had to get to the briefing, but the worry in his voice told me something else. I had to reason with him, and thanks to my gathered skills and pure luck I was able to calm him down.  “Tele, everything's ok man. How about you go home and take a shower. Maybe rest or eat something. I’ll come get you when I finish this, alright?”

Tele brought his hand to his face and replied, “Yeah… you’re right. I do need some food and a good rest. Maybe that will help calm me down. You know where you can find me.”

With that he headed to the Space Center. I had only been there a few times, but I know there are some good food joints and a quaint place for people if they need a rest. Usually it's only used in bad times, like if a meteor is gonna hit the earth.

I looked down to my watch. I was about to be late for my briefing. “If I hurry, I may just be able to make it.” While I was walking I couldn’t help but think about what Tele was worried about. Luckily I was able to make it to the briefing on time. It was nothing but a whole bunch of legal work and honestly wasn’t worth my time.

After the briefing I headed to the Space Center. At the Space Center, I found a bunch of ‘eggheads’ waiting for me. I knew I would never escape their evil clutches so I relented and walked inside.

“Ah! General! It's good to see you, though I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced. My name is Light Hunt, but you can call me Light… or Stone… or even Light Stone!” She smiled warmly at me. She had long black hair with light brown eyes. She had a white coat on, with a grey undershirt and grey pants. On her coat there was a logo that was a picture of a stone with light shining from it.

“Light, where can I find Tele?” I ask.

“Oh, alright. Follow me then.” She said, her warm smile never dropping for a second. She soon began to lead me all around the Space Center.

At one point we passed the Orbit Overview room, or OOV for short. Inside a group of scientists were working over a huge whiteboard. The scientists in the room all wore the same outfit as Tele is. Some had their white coats on, while others chose to not have them at all. Some appeared to be wearing their casual clothes, almost as if they had ran in in a hurry. Some of the scientists looked like that haven't shaved for days. One in particular had a magnificent beard, easily reaching past his collar bone. The one with a long beard had a long cord that they plugged into the side of it. As soon as the picture connected with the whiteboard, a picture appeared, thought it was odd. It had heat signatures and energy readings all over it. At first it appeared to be a nuclear warhead, but as I got closer and looked at it, I found something that I didn’t expect. It was actually a school and it was surrounded with radiation. It was higher than anything I’ve ever seen.

One of the scientists finally noticed me. When his eyes locked onto mine he nodded and elbowed his friend beside him. At first his partner was peeved, but when he pointed to me he understood. All the talking in the room stopped and they all looked at me. I guess they didn’t know much more than I did on the strange energy surrounding the school.

“General, are you coming or not?” Light asked, her smile still somehow not failing. I swear that smile must have been drawn on or something.

“Do you not know what is happening here?”

“No I don’t. I’ve been looking at that map and I still have no idea what happened and what caused it.”

“Alright then,” I said, giving up on getting any answers on the subject. “Might as well leave it to the professionals then.”

We went back to finding Tele. We started to reach the cafeteria when I hear even more whispers. As we approached the noise got louder. Inside the cafeteria was a buzz of activity. There were scientists everywhere.

“How many groups do you have working on this?”

As I got a better look around the room I found that there were laptops, whiteboards, and other equipment all around the room.  The tables were filled with papers, diagnostics, and evaluations of what could possibly be going on. When I got inside the cafeteria all the scientists shut up and stared at me. As we walked through the cafeteria, it was filled with whispers.

“Did Tele call the General?”

“This is huge! What could possibly be going on?”

We made it to the other side of the cafeteria when we heard a yell. “GET BACK TO WORK! WE CHOSE YOU AS OUT TOP MINDS ON THIS! NOW, GET. BACK. TO. WORK!”

I turned around to try and find where the sound came from, only to see Tele. He was red with anger and looking obviously better than he had before.

As I was about to greet Tele, Light beat me to the chase.

“Tele! You’re looking better sir!” Light happily responded, her smile bearing deep into his soul.

“Thank you Light Stone, I am feeling quite better. We can than our local General for that one. He’s the one that ordered me to get a quick R and R.” Tele replied.

“It was nothing my friend. You were tired and hungry, and we both know you would not have stopped working until you dropped dead.”

We all laughed at that one, but our laughter fell short when we knew we had to get back to work.

“I can take it from here then.” Light said turning to me. “Well General, it has been a great honor to meet you sir.” She raised her hand for me to shake it. I hope we can talk again more some day.”

She answered with her never ending smile and a nod. “ I will make sure to tell Star I said ‘Hi’ for you.” Without giving me time to ask who star was, she promptly turned around and left from where we came from.

“Hey Tele, who is this ‘Star’ that Light was talking about?” I ask Tele, giving up on asking Light.

“Star? Oh yeah, Star is is one of Lights friends. Wait, she suggested one of her friends? She did saw she talked about you a lot, but I didn’t think she was serious.”

Star thought  couldn’t help but think to myself. ‘She’s talking about me? No, that could never happen.’

I soon pushed the thought out of my mind. We had work to do.

Tele brought me into his office, which just happened to be in a little side room, adjacent to the cafeteria. I had to ask him, “Tele, what exactly is going on anyway?”

“Storm, I honestly have no clue. I have never seen anything like this before, which is why I called you. I hoped that you could have any possible clues or ideas on what exactly could be going on.” His face full of worry.

“I must apologise Tele, I have no idea what's going on myself. I’ll help, but I’m not promising much.” The gears in my head started to turn as I started to think about our situation for a solution. “When and where did you get these pictures?”

“Uhhh… Let me see here…” Telle said as he looked around his office. Upon finding nothing he moved over to his computer. Turning it on and opening it up, he clicked on some randomly assorted data files. “Let's see here….. Ah! Here we are. It says it came in… two weeks ago.”

I couldn’t help but to gasp at the strange coincidence. The video we received came exactly two weeks ago as well. If both the pictures of this strange occurrence and the video both arrived at the same time, then there must be a connection.

Tele looked away from his computer, shocked at my gasping. “Whats wrong? Did you get any clues or something?” I told him about the video we had received two weeks ago. “Are you sure these two things are connected?” I nodded in confirmation. “Well what are we waiting for?! We need to get the video now! Go and get it Storm, the guys down in the video shop owe me a favor so just tell them ‘this is for Tele.’ They’ll get the point. They should be able to work on the video and look at it for us.”

“I’m on it!” I told him as I dashed out of his little office to go find the video. I ended up scaring a few people as I ran out of the cafeteria, but that didn't matter. I started to formulate a plan in my head. ‘I need to get to my car and get to the base. That's my first priority. Then I need to get the video and give it to the video guys. Whatever is on this video must tell us what is going on.

Upon reaching my car I tore the door open, hopped in, and slammed the door shut. Shuffling for my keys, I plugged them into the ignition and started to drive off.

______________________________________________________________________________

After a short drive I finally arrived at the base. I quickly jumped out, slammed my car door shut, and ran into the building.

‘If I come barreling into the building, they’ll probably throw me out. Worst case scenario I freak people out, but I would rather not take that chance’ I think to myself as I slow down to a casual walk. Inside the main lobby I found the new guard, her name was maple her long corry brown hair. was showing with her happy face. she stop me do the normal procedures. i sigh and took it.

“General! It's good to see you! Are you doing ok? You don’t look to good.” maple said her caring was unbeveled as said as I passed by.

“Yeah, I’m fine Maple. I just came to grab something and get out. I won’t take long.”

“You sure General?” I nod in confirmation. “Alright, if you say so.” said maple

‘Well that went better than expected’ I think to myself. ‘Goodness, I really need to calm down. If I keep this up people may think I’m up to something. Me being a General won’t change people’s minds if they think I’m up to something.’

I calm down my pace and walk calmly through the halls. I arrive at the data room, which is where we keep all the videos and files we receive. You never know when a prank or joke that someone sends in may just be real, useful information. I rarely have to go in there myself, but it's best to know where everything is.

I took out my card and put it to the scanner. A green light and a ‘beep’ signals the doors unlocks, along with a feminine voice coming on through the speaker. “Welcome, General Storm.”

‘Oh god, they’re here…’

As the door opens, I hear several things being pushed around. When the door opened all the way I saw trash littering the ground. It may had been a long time, but it was in just as much a disarray as it was before. The two guys in the storage room smiled awkwardly at me as I walked in. One of them was overweight with greasy brown hair that barely passed his ears. The other was tall and thin with long blonde hair. I promptly ignored both of them and moved over to the computers. After sifting through boxes and trash I found a free computer and turned it on. Not even a minute after I found the computer did they start to bother me. I don’t hate them, but whenever I’m near them they make my skin crawl.

“So sir, what brings you in this neck of the woods?”

I turned around and looked the tall and skinny one directly in the eyes. “I’m looking for a file. It’s very important, so I would rather not be bothered.” I pulled out the USB drive I keep on my, just in case I ever need it when the other one speaks up.

“Well what file is it? Maybe we can help!”

My patience began to run thin with these two. “I looking for a VERY specific and VERY important file. As I said before I would rather work on it myself and not be bothered.” I say as I start to type the password into the computer. But one of them suddenly pushed me out of the way.

“Here let us help you! We happen to be experts in this!”

I couldn’t take it anymore so I cut them off before moving them away from the computer as gently as I possibly could without letting my anger get the best of me. I wasn’t a General for nothing y’know. “I know that no one ever comes down here, but that gives you no right to be the slobs that you are. ok?” That shut them up alright. I didn’t even feel bad for a second. “Clean this mess up and then find some air freshener. It smells horrible in here. And when I mean clean, I mean clean. I will go Drill Sergeant on you boys.”

They both look at each other before shrugging and replying in unison. “Alright boss, you win. We’ll get this room cleaned up ASAP.” The larger one then started to pick up the boxes across the floor. “C’mon Blizz, let's get this over with.”

After a while of searching through the database I find what I’m looking for. I started to download the file to my USB when Blizz, the thinner of the two stooges, spoke up. “Hey General, why are you really here?

“I’m just getting a video file from a few days ago. We got some people from the lab that wanna take a look at it. Nothing too big, but they just wanna exhaust all options.” The file eventually finished downloading and I unplug the USB and shut the computer down. “Oh! By the way, I’m going to set up a guard down here to make sure you can keep this place clean.

They both visibly paled at that. “B-but General! Please don’t put a guard down here. You know how strict and aggravating they can be!”

I couldn’t help but let out a sigh, “Alright. Here's what we’re gonna do. If, and I mean IF, you can keep this place clean throughout the week then I won’t set up a guard down here. I really need to go right now though, so I’ll send someone to check on you later.” They both thanked me as I turned to leave.

I start to walk down the hall when I looked down at the USB. The possibilities of what's going on and what could possibly be on this file surged through my mind. I should have focused on where I was going because I accidentally ran into someone. We both clash to the floor and I can’t help but let a grunt of anger pass my lips.

“Owwwwww, my head” Came a feminine voice beside me.

I turn to the girl that ran into me before getting off the floor. Keeping my priorities straight, I look around to find the USB. It was just outside the door that this girl came out of, alongside a bunch of paper files and folders littering the floor. I pick up my USB before helping this teenage girl to her feet.

I couldn’t help but feel bad for running into this girl. “I’m very sorry miss, I was in a rush and I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

“It’s ok, I wasn’t looking either.”

I look at the surrounding papers before crouching down to start picking them up. “So where are you heading lil’ lady?”

“I’m going to see my father!”

“So are you here with father then?”

She nodded and said, “Yeah, my dad works in the data room just down the hall.”

‘Funny, I could have sworn they didn’t have kids.’ “So which one is your dad?”

“My dad’s name Is Blizz…”

I didn’t really know how to respond to that. “Well…. I have to get going. Sorry about running into you again.”

“Ok, bye!” She said with a smile, not unlike Light’s glowing smile.

As I walked away, I turned around to get another look at her. She was wearing a dark blue longsleeve shirt with an orange vest. She had blue jeans on and short blond hair. On her shirt was a patch with her symbol, her symbol was a…

______________________________________________________________________________

Star let out a gasp, putting a hoof up to his mouth. Shadow had heard from the hall and she hurried in.

“What happened star?”

“I-I’m fine. I was just reading something off of the computer.”

Shadow couldn’t help but look at him in confusion. “Reading? What could you possibly be reading? You’re supposed to be getting the data!”

Star moved the mouse over to the download bar, only to see that it was still downloading the data.

“See? It still isn’t done. I was just reading this to pass the time,” Star said with a huff, “It's a log file written by General Storm himself!”

“Alright fine, but why did you gasp?” Shadow asked, worried that it was something horrible.

“It was one of those symbols that the humans have. Y’know, like our cutie marks, but not on the skin.”

Shadow giggled, “A cutie mark? Really? Star, I have known you for how long now?”

Star shuffled uneasily on his feet, “A few months.”

“And exactly how many times ha-”

Shadow didn’t get to finish her sentence when Star interrupted her. “I’ve seen that cutie mark before! She’s here somewhere, somewhere in Equestria...”

The room was filled with an uneasy silence. Eventually Star looked up at Shadow and said, “I saw her on the train when I was in Ponyville. Light Stone looks almost the exact same here in Equestria, even down to her Cutie Mark. I don’t know where she is now, but I’m sure I’ve seen her. Princess Twilight told me that there should be copies of all humans, but I never found a copy of my own. There wasn’t even a copy for any of my men. It's like we’re something else, not like the other humans. It scares me.”

Shadow tried to take in this surprise information. “Hmmm… That's an… interesting theory you have. You many want to talk to Princess Twilight herself about this, excuse me one second.” Shadow turned around and looked up and down the hall, “Good, nothing there.”

Star checking on the download bar, only to see it was still downloading.

“Hey Star, is it ok if I read with you?” Shadow asked, scooting up beside Star. “That is… if you don’t mind…”

Star tried, unsuccessfully, to hide his blush. “Y-yeah, sure Shadow.”

With that they both sat together and began to read.

______________________________________________________________________________

After I finished talking to the young girl, I made my way to my car. I dove into it, and hit the gas pedal, speeding off to the Space Center. Eventually I arrived at the Space Center and I headed up to the double doors of the building. As I ran into the building I passed a few familiar faces from the scientist I had seen before. They stood stock still and just watched me run by as if I was a crazy person. I forced my way past groups of scientists who were cluttering the halls.

I made my way to Tele’s office. On my way I patted down my pocket one final time, just to make sure I had the USB drive. I couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief as I felt the familiar weight of the tiny metal computer part. After a few minutes of walking and pushing past white-coated scientists I made it to Tele’s office.

I slammed his door open and yelled, “TELE! I GOT THAT USB YOU WANTED!”

Tele shot up out of his chair, knocking it to the ground. He let out a yelp as his head hit a lamp that was sitting on his desk.

“Storm… Don’t. You. EVER! Do that again. Ohhh jeez my head hurts now thanks to you.” Tele said fuming and rubbing the back of his head where it connected with the now toppled lamp.

“Hehe, sorry about that Tele. I’m just so happy that I was able to get…this.” I said, pausing to pull out the USB and flash a smile.

Tele just looked at it dumbfounded. “Am I supposed to know what this is? It's just a USB, we all have those.” He says as he opens a desk drawer and pulls out a small chain with multiple, colored USBs or varying sizes.

“On contraire my science friend, for it is what's on this USB that is important. I got all the video files right here.”

A look of comprehension dawned on him as he remembered what he sent me out to do in the first place. “Oh yeah, alright. Just give it here, I’ll get my buddy on the phone and we’ll send it off to him. He should be able to tell us everything we need about it. Especially if it's fake or not.”

Tele picked up the receiver of the corded phone that sat on his desk. “Hello?... Yeah its me, Tele... Look, I got something I want you to look at… Its a video we recieved recently, what I want you to do it find its validity and see if you can find any useful information. We’ll look at it ourselves later… Alright thanks, bye.”

I looked to Tele and shrugged, “Well what's next?”

“Nothing. I’ll call you if we find anything, though they said it will take some time. Go do whatever it is you do Storm. I need to get back to work.”

I turn to leave but stop and look back to Tele, “Tele, promise me you won’t work yourself too hard again.” I leave before he gets a chance to answer though, don’t want him trying to argue his point again. I leave the Science Center and go about business as usual. I still can’t let go what I saw. It took a while for them to find anything, but after a few days Tele called me up to the Science Center. We had a rather long conversation about the video, but he was reluctant to give me any information about it. He told me that he already contacted and gave the information to those of higher power than me, and he just wanted to let me know that he’s taken care of everything.

The next day, Commander Long Heart called me. He told me that he wanted to see me and it was urgent. I got suited up and made my way to the Commander’s office. Upon reaching his office he told me to sit down.

“General Storm Catcher. For months you have served your rack with honor and bravery. With all your past works and this information you found for us about the school, we at the board have decided to choose you for a very important mission. This mission is a hunt for the truth, but not any truth. This truth will change not just the fate of you and I. This truth change more than even your men. This truth, shall change the fate of our entire world, along with another world. A world of which none of us have ever seen or even heard of...” now i will set an investigation on the school. but what i found, may change not only my world’s fate, but a another world too...

______________________________________________________________________________

END OF LOG 001

“End of log one?! Why would he end it there?” Star said as he turned to Shadow. “Hey, you wanna read the next log?”

They both contemplated it, and with a final nod they both opened up the next log...