*** Quantum Leap facility ***
Lero paces around the room, shaking his head, “That admiral chap…” He shakes his head a couple of times, his memory is acting funky.
Gushie smiles, “Admiral Calavicci.”
Lero nods, “Yes, him. I’m glad he was able to get my herd to see me. But he said this is a time machine?”
Gushie nods, “This is a quantum accelerator, it allows for time travel.”
Lero looks at Gushie, “What year is it?”
Gushie frowns, telling a leaper the truth isn’t always a good idea, but this is outside what most of the leaps that Sam have been doing, have all been on Earth. Now it’s Earth, but not the Earth that they know. This one is occupied by colorful equines. Though Gushie is glad that it wasn’t a pony that leaped, but the lone human in that world. Though from what Al said, that is because of the creature named Discord.
“Gushie, please tell me.”
Gushie sighs, “It’s August 17th, 1999.”
Lero sits down hard, “Are you sure?”
Gushie nods.
Lero cocks his head to the side, “So, I’m actually from your future.”
This gets Gushie’s full attention, “That’s impossible!”
Lero nods his head, “I was taken from Baltimore, Maryland in 2010. And I’ve been in Equestria for about five years.”
Gushie’s eyes bulge, “I’ll have to get back to you on that.” He stands up, “Do you need anything? Food, water?”
Lero shrugs, “Some pop. Something the ponies haven’t been able to make really well is good pop.”
Gushie nods as he steps out the door, checking to make sure it locks itself behind him. He heads to the control room.
“Ziggy, is he telling the truth?”
The placid voice of the computer Sam Beckett designed answers, “He certainly believes that to be the case, though further questioning may be necessary.”
Gushie moves over to the console, checking on Al and Sam in the imaging chamber. Al and Sam are walking along train tracks along with those colorful ponies. “Ziggy, how is it going with the new data?”
Ziggy takes a moment before answering, “Gushie, the creature Discord put a lot of data into my memory banks, but he put it in a completely chaotic manner. I’ve had to parse through the data to find some coherence with the time line. He put in literally thousands of years of data into my banks.”
Gushie looks up sharply at the globe that represents the computer, “Do you have enough data storage capacity?”
Ziggy chuckles, “Oh yes Gushie. When the data was pushed in, my data capacity was nearly tripled by doing so. I must assume it’s the work of this Discord. I have more than sufficient capacity, but I estimate it will be in excess of twenty-four hours before I can actually make coherent use of that data.”
Gushie sighs, “Fine.” He looks at Lero, sitting in the waiting room, sipping on a Pepsi and reading a book, “What is going on here?”
*** Sam ***
These ponies have walking endurance that boggles his mind. They’ve been walking and chatting for hours now. Along the rail line from Ponyville to Canterlot. Lyra’s horn is continuously lit as she quarters back and forth along the rail line.
“Anything, Lyra?”
The mint green unicorn shakes her head, “I’m not really feeling anything.”
Sam looks around, they are several miles from Canterlot. They’ve walked through two tunnels during the trip. Lyra had stopped and inspected each one thoroughly. But she’s come up dry. Nothing at all.
Rainbow Dash is the worst off, she’s almost vibrating as she hovers from side to side, she can’t feel anything magically, so depending on somepony else for what’s going on is driving her completely batty.
“Rainbow, calm down.” Sam calls.
The cyan pegasus looks at him severely, “The longer I wait, the more stressed I am. You aren’t Lero. I want my Lero back!” She plops to the ground as her wings clamp to ser sides, tears start to well in her eyes.
Sam is at a loss, he kneels down and pulls the pegasus into a hug, she grabs onto him, the dam breaks, “I miss him.” She sobs.
He awkwardly pats her back, “We will find Twilight, and I’ll be able to leap out, and you can have your Lero back.”
She sniffles, “We need to find her, now.” She pulls away, whirling to Lyra, “Please Lyra, do you feel anything?”
Lyra’s eyes well with tears, “I’m not the best at detecting spells, but the most I feel is a light touch of some kind of magic that I haven’t seen before. But there’s no way I can identify it.”
Sam looks around at the hologram of his friend, “You’ve been popping around, Al. Anything?”
Al hits his comlink a few times, then presses a few buttons, “Ziggy still hasn’t parsed the database, but she’s working on it.” He looks at Sam, “It would have helped if Discord had used some order when he pushed all that data into her.”
Rainbow Dash rolls her eyes, “He’s Discord, and you want organization?”
Al looks at the comlink, then at Rainbow Dash, then he lets his hand fall to his side, “Good point.”
Sam continues walking, looking on each side of the tracks, the gravel that surrounds the ties is meticulously maintained, and then something catches his eye, “Al!” He calls as he dashes over.
Al disappears from next to the ponies and appears next to Al. He crouches down, “This looks like something.”
Rainbow Dash is almost as fast, though Lyra gallops over quickly, Sam crouches down next to Al, “I think there is something here. Look at the gravel, it’s disturbed.”
Rainbow Dash looks, “So?”
Sam points back the way they came, “The entire time we’ve been walking, the gravel has been level and clean, this looks like something landed here and rolled. And look!” He calls as he walks towards the trees, “These are horse shoe prints, a pony has been here.” He stands up and follows the vague horseshoe impressions in the ground, and after a few moments, “Looks like a cart or something, see the wheel tracks?”
Lyra looks at a few broken stems of taller flowers, and at the faint impressions in the ground, “I thought you said you were a doctor?”
Sam grins at her, “I’ve learned a few more things in my time leaping.” He stands up, “I think Twilight was taken this way.