Constant: Time Guardian

by TimeSpawn

9: The Mission/A Big Mistake

One thousand years earlier, the Monitor re-materialized in an unpopulated area. The doors opened, and Constant stepped out, carrying out the heavy time probe. He pressed a few buttons on it, and three drill heads sprouted from the lower section of the probe. He set the probe down, and it drilled its way into the ground. "So far so good," he thought. He went back inside and got a shovel. When he came back outside, the probe had burrowed itself deep enough into the ground not to be discovered by anyone digging a large hole in the ground, assuming anyone ever did. He used the shovel to put whatever dirt had piled up back in the hole. Constant took out his radio. "Okay, Jethrek, I just deployed the first probe."

"The confirmation signal has been received," Jethrek replied, "The probe is now recording events in this time period."

"Excellent!" Constant said, "Any indication of signal degradation or sensor jamming?"

"None determined," Jethrek reported back.

"Okay," Constant said, "Our work in this time zone is done, then. We'll set up the next one about one hundred and forty three years into the future." He entered the Monitor once again and set course for the next time and location.

One hundred and forty three years later he repeated the process, being careful not to catch the attention of ponies in the area. One hundred and forty three years after that, he again repeated the process. However, this time, he received a signal from the first probe. It was ready to be replaced. Constant set a course for it's location. "Jethrek, we're taking a little detour. Probe One has already reached it's limit. We have to replace it."

"Understood," Jethrek acknowledged as Constant executed the course to the probe.

The area was once again unpopulated, so Constant sent the confirmation signal to the probe, and in about two minutes, it dug itself out of the ground. Constant picked it up and placed a new probe in it's place. He replaced the dirt once it burrowed itself in the ground. He brought the first probe inside the Monitor and went to the lab to download it's data. Once it started downloading, Constant set a course to continue deploying time probes. "Wow. Looks like the probes weren't affected by the quantum variation of this universe," Constant observed.

"Our map of this world is receiving new data," Jethrek added.

The mission continued with time probes being deployed and retrieved, and Constant found that compressing the data would make it easier to find changes in the timeline should any occur. When they finally got back to the present, Constant went back to the lab and slumped in a chair. "Well, that was easy...for the most part."

"Constant," Jethrek began.

"Yes, Jethrek?" Constant asked, turning his chair to face him.

"Are you going to keep me in this life support unit until we return to our universe?"

Constant froze at that question. He did not know what Jethrek was feeling at that moment, but he knew that anyone else in his situation would be feeling downright useless. Constant thought carefully before coming up with an answer. "I don't know," he said, "I hope not. But that all depends on you, Jethrek. I have to know that I can trust you before I make the final decision about that."

Silence filled the room as Constant checked the status of the chameleon circuit. Once again, the Monitor was disguised as the extraneous branch on the library tree he had landed on before. Checking the time, he found that he had arrived about a day and a half later than when he had left. He scanned the library for life to find that no one was present. "Good, no one could have heard us materializing into this time zone," he said.

"Constant!" Jethrek exclaimed, "Look!"

Constant looked to Jethrek first, then to the screen he was looking at. It became clear what Jethrek was surprised about. There was the grey earth pony from the rock farm. "I don't think we have to worry about her at this point," Constant said, "We're not disguised as a rock, and she has not seen my perception filter image yet." They watched as the grey earth pony opened the door of what looked like a pastry shop, to be pulled in quickly by Pinkie Pie. "Whoah," Constant said, "either she's new in town, or Pinkie Pie's just really excited to see her..."

"Pinkie Pie?" Jethrek asked, confused.

"That's the name of the pink earth pony who pulled the grey one into that...pastry shop over there," Constant explained.

"You made contact?" Jethrek asked, squinting his eye.

"Not a lot of contact," Constant replied, "The tree we're attached to is a library. The librarian looks like a mix between a unicorn and a pegasus. Her name is Twilight. I met Pinkie Pie in the library as well, and she is a strange being, let me tell you. Unless I'm mistaken, she likes to throw parties for newcomers...Very cheerful attitude...There's also a dragon named Spike, and the information that he revealed to me is worrisome."

"Why?" Jethrek asked.

"I think we were already discovered before I found you," Constant said, "Spike said that his friends saw a meteor two nights ago relative to this time zone."

"You believe that meteor was this time ship?" Jethrek asked with an expression that indicated annoyance.

"Yes," Constant said. "We'll have to be careful about how we do things here from now on."

"I agree," Jethrek stated.

"So let's"--- Constant was interrupted by a console beeping. "Oh, it looks like another probe is ready to be received," he said. He pulled up a map to find the probe's location. "Oh no," he said, "That's not good..."

"Explain," Jethrek demanded.

"The probe is near Ponyville," Constant said, "At the location labelled...Sweet Apple Acres...It's an apple orchard!"

Jethrek glared at Constant. "This will jeopardize our mission!"

"Jethrek, will you stop having such a negative attitude?!" Constant snapped. "I'll park the Monitor in the orchard at midnight, when everybody out there is asleep. From there, I can run to it's location and replace it as quickly as possible."

Jethrek looked up in doubt. "Very well, but keep that perception filter on in case they discover you."

"That was the plan in the first place, Jethrek," Constant said.

That night, at Sweet Apple Acres, the Monitor rematerialized in front of an apple tree. Constant made sure he had a probe ready in the control room. He believed that the hole which a probe left would be small enough to make it look like a large rodent had made it. He left the replacement probe in the control room as he walked out quietly. Using a control pad he had built for these occasions, he scanned the area to find the probe he was going to replace. He then looked around and saw the apples on the trees. Once again, thoughts of getting real food came to him. He shook them off and went back to work. When he found the location of the probe, he sent the confirmation signal so that the probe would ascend. Constant looked at the ground. He was relieved that the probe ended up being in an open area where the trees were not growing. Then he received a warning signal on the control pad. The probe's ascension system had jammed, so it could not finish the ascent trip. Constant groaned quietly and checked to see how far under the ground it was. "Just great," he thought to himself, "Now I'm going to have to dig it out. Could this situation get any worse?" He made sure he was standing in the right location and got the shovel off his back. He started digging. "Fate, you have not been kind to me!" he thought further, "and this is only my first life!"

What he did not know was that someone woke up inside the farmhouse. A red earth pony poked his head out a window and saw Constant pulling something out of the dirt. He was tired, but he managed to walk downstairs and sneak out toward the toolshed.

Constant had finished digging out the old probe, and he set it aside. He carried the replacement probe to where he dug the old one out and activated it. It burrowed into the ground and Constant started replacing the dirt. But halfway through the process, he saw a shadow of an earth pony behind him. "Oh no, I'm exposed!" he thought to himself. He turned around, but not fast enough to dodge the shovel which swung toward his head.

WHACK!

For the second time since he arrived in this universe, Constant was knocked out. To make matters worse, his perception filter armband was crushed by the impact on the ground. As he landed on his front side, Constant's disguise image flickered before finally disappearing, revealing his true form to the red pony, who dropped the shovel and backed off in surprise.

He approached Constant slowly and tapped him. When he got no response, he flipped Constant over to see what he looked like in front. "Not a changeling," he thought to himself, "Still, I ought'a ask Applejack to get her friend Fluttershy to find out what it is. It looks like some kind of monkey..."

Inside the Monitor, Jethrek began to suspect that Constant was in trouble. "Constant," he said, trying to get an answer through a radio signal, "Constant, where are you? Answer!" He waited for a while longer, but his patience was running out. After another half hour, he could not wait any longer. He started moving himself inside the life support tank. He bumped the transparency...

Meanwhile, the red earth pony brought Constant to a guest room in the farmhouse and lay him on the spare bed. He went outside the room and locked the door behind him. "Tomorrow we start harvesting," he thought, "I hope he didn't cause any damage..."