An Angel in Rockville5,903 words
22: Constant's Journey6,320 words

7: Finally Moving

Since this morning, all my attempts to collect a sample from the new specimen have not succeeded. I am considering writing to a geologist about it. I will set the project aside until tomorrow.

Maud Pie put her pencil down after writing her own analysis about the mysterious rock. She had worn herself out trying to get a sample from it, which was not a regular event. She looked outside to it. "What are you?" she asked it, obviously not expecting a response. She went outside and as she rolled it to the side of her house, she smiled a little bit. It was good to have something that was new and mysterious in the rock farm. All the work she had been doing otherwise seemed repetitive now. "Well, at least other work will be much easier thanks to all that effort I put into getting a sample from you."

In the Monitor's main control room, Constant sighed with relief. "Finally!" he said, "I thought she'd never find time to leave us alone." He checked the power levels. Thankfully for Constant, there was enough power to get the Monitor out of there. He set the coordinates of the temporal disturbance. He decided to go to the location only because he felt that the time zone when the causality loop started wasn't actually required. Since it was still happening over and over again, Constant was confident that even then and there, it would let off enough temporal energy for him to fuel the Monitor. He typed in the spatial coordinates for the location of the anomaly and went to the intercom. "Jethrek, brace yourself. I'm getting us out of the rock farm now."

"I am prepared," Jethrek replied from inside his life-support container. "You may proceed."

Constant didn't know whether or not to smile about Jethrek's attitude at that moment. He kept the intercom active as he pressed the execute button on the navigation console. There was a smooth whooshing sound, and a very light quake as the Monitor quickly phased out of the rock farm. About three seconds later, the quaking stopped as the Monitor landed at the intended location.

"That was quick," Constant remarked, "and certainly smoother than I thought it would be. Jethrek, are you still alive down there?"

"Affirmative," Jethrek replied, "No damage was inflicted upon me."

"Good," Constant said, "Now, let's see where we ended up, but first..." He checked the tactical console, which he had modified to account for the fact that he had replaced the weapon system with probe launchers. "Ah, good. The chameleon circuit already changed the outer camouflage. Now to"--- He was interrupted by the lights in the room lighting up. He covered his eyes. He had gotten so used to the darkness in the room that he had forgotten that he had turned the lights off when he considered them a non-essential system due to the loss of power. "Oh, that's bright!" he exclaimed. He slowly uncovered his eyes to let himself get used to the change. "That's much better," he said, and went back to the navigation console to get his bearings.

Maud Pie ran to where she had left the mysterious rock. She swore she heard a strange noise in the vicinity, and when she saw that the rock was gone, she could only conclude that the sound had something to do with the rock disappearing. She looked around for anything that would tell her what happened and found nothing but the imprint on the ground where the rock once stood. That was enough to tell her that it wasn't a figment of her imagination. Still, she had put a lot of work into studying that rock, so if she didn't find it soon, all that work she had done studying it would have been for nothing. She rushed back inside and got her journal out.

It is now about ten minutes after I wrote my last entry. My new specimen is gone. I heard a strange sound where I had placed it and when I went back to see what happened, it was no longer there.

How the rock disappeared is beyond me. I have found no clues that would explain what happened to it, so I don't know if someone sneaked in and took it away quickly or if it just vanished into thin air. I cannot make any assumptions until I know more. However, if I do not find the rock soon, I will have no choice but to cancel the project.

Maud put her pencil down and put her hoof against her forehead. "That's it. I'm going back to Ponyville first chance I get."

Constant finally managed to get the door to the outside open and took a peek outside. The Monitor had landed in either a town or a small city. He closed the door again and looked over his navigational logs . He then started a visual scan of the town so that he could start a map. To his surprise, he had landed next to a tree. He looked outside one more time to check the shape of the outer shell. The Monitor changed it's disguise to look like an extraneous branch. "Perfect," Constant whispered to himself as he went back inside.

He went back to the lab. "Well, Jethrek, we've got power now. How's that life support generator holding up for you?"

"More efficiently than earlier," Jethrek admitted.

"Good," Constant said, nodding, "Now listen. I've prepared a few probes to send out. However, we're not exactly ready to go back in time yet. If we did now, we wouldn't have enough power to return here and now. Also, I don't plan on taking us forward through time."

"Why not the future?" Jethrek asked.

"Think about it," Constant said, "If we had knowledge of the future in this universe, and someone tried to get information about it from us, they'd know that we know and try to get it from us in any way possible."

"Better not to know than risk contaminating the timeline?" Jethrek asked.

"Now you're catching on," Constant said, smiling, "One last thing, for now. When we actually start retrieving probes, I'll need your help."

"My help?" Jethrek asked. It was obviously a raised-eyebrow reaction.

"I want to get us out of this universe sooner than later," Constant replied. "I'm sure you do too. Therefore, we should look over the recorded events together. That will quicken the search. Not by a lot, but enough."

Jethrek considered what Constant was saying. "Very well," he said at last.

Constant nodded. "I'm glad." He turned and left to get the probes he had set up.

A few minutes earlier in the library, Spike heard a slight whooshing sound. "Did you hear that?" he asked.

"Hear what, Spike?" Sweetie Belle asked

"I heard...a whooshing sound," Spike replied, "...or something."

Rainbow Dash looked out a window. "I heard it too, Spike. Hold on." She looked around, but found no sign of anything that would have made the sound Spike mentioned. "Huh. Nothing out of the ordinary," she said, "Anyway, where were we?"

"I believe we were trying to find where the...meteor was," Scootaloo replied.

"So you reclassified the mysterious object as a meteor?" Twilight asked, coming back downstairs.

Apple Bloom nodded. "We believe that it somehow bounced off the sky halfway when it was visible. That's why we didn't feel the ground shake."

Rainbow Dash looked to her. "I wouldn't be surprised if that was what happened. I've been through enough stunts to observe the effects of the wind. If the wind was blowing in just the right direction, then it is likely that it would have blown the meteor upward again."

The Cutie Mark Crusaders nodded their agreement, and they continued to discuss the subject of their project.

Constant looked outside again, worried. He had overheard a few of the things that were being said in the mysterious library he had landed near. On that note, he felt lucky that he landed somewhere where an extraneous branch wouldn't be a problem, or easily noticed for that matter. He checked the time relative to the planet, and then checked the power levels. "Still not enough for a return trip after I bury the first probe," he muttered. "If I'm going to leave this time, I'll need to do it by nightfall. That being said, I'll need to blend in..."

He recalled that somewhere in the Monitor was a supply of perception filters. He could use one to make himself look like someone else, even if the person did not exist. He went to the lab where Jethrek was, and went to a computer. "Jethrek, I'm going out to see what the culture is like. I'm going to wear a perception filter. Don't try to cause trouble while I'm out."

"I could not...'cause trouble', even if I wanted to!" Jethrek snapped, "You built this life support container to be stationary!"

"Daleks have been known to betray those they claim to help, Jethrek," Constant said, "I'm not taking any chances."

Jethrek said nothing more as Constant grabbed a perception filter band from a nearby container. He downloaded information into it and put it on his arm. He turned it on. "Jethrek, what do you see?"

"You have disguised yourself as an earth pony," Jethrek replied.

"Alright," Constant went on, "Am I apparently standing like one?"

"Yes," Jethrek replied again.

"Okay, thank you," Constant said, smiling, "Now I can go out and get an idea of what kind of people we're dealing with."

"While I stay here and do nothing, am I correct?" Jethrek asked.

"Don't worry," Constant said, "I'll be back before midnight. Not sure how close, but definitely before."

"Go," Jethrek said.

Constant put his sonic and laser screwdrivers in a satchel and went outside the Monitor. He breathed in, happy to be taking in fresh air again.

Author's Note:

No, sadly this is not the shining moment where Constant becomes a pony.

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