When The Night Crawls

by Hoppa_21


Chapter 11: Token Making! Hipp, Hipp, Hurra! (Hip, Hip, Hooray!)

POV: Narrator

Location: Somewhere in the Bridge Harbor District, on a random roof
Time: 23:55

Yep. That was one hell of a day. One second people would be all over him, complimenting his masterpiece of a costume, the next he was robbed of his pretzel by this god damn Hello Kitty lookalike!

…Even though her ears seemed to be so fluffy.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts he started thinking again.

“Hm…” he mused as a plan slowly formed in his head.

With that he looked into his backpack once again, before he pulled out a slim black phone from it. He opened it, thankfully he could unlock it since a post-it on it was showing the PIN, to then scroll the list of contacts, or the lack of contacts. Only one name was displayed. And it was the name he wanted.

With a joyful grin he tipped the button to call the contact.

It didn’t take long for the recipient to pick up the phone.

“Yes?” replied a female voice from his phone. She sounded rather deadpanned, as if she had expected this call.

“One pretzel with ham and mushrooms, scalloped with cheese, please,” Kurt said with an eager pitch in his voice.

“…I’m hanging up,” replied the now slightly irritated voice.

“Stell dich nicht so an (Don’t act like that), Hello Kitty! After all the pain you caused my stomach, I’d say you owe me that much!” he said shrugging afterwards, “Besides, I need it for my token thingy. I mean, a token that can get eaten and regenerate itself? How cool is that!”

“A token? It is good to know that you are actually reading the book I provided.”

“It’s not like I have anything better to do. …Now about that pretzel?”

“Granted, seeing as you are using it for your job. But this is the only free favor I will give you, understood? The next time I expect a fair trade, which means you will have to work and visit different Equestrias and meet different Displaced to earn them.”

With that a pretzel suddenly fell into his lap from a portal that opened conveniently above him. Kurt squealed in delight and hugged the pretzel close like one would do with a long lost friend.

“Oh! I will never let you go, ever again!” he squealed in a strange pretzel fangasm.

“…Glad to see you like your, um, pretzel,” the Displacer said a bit unsure of the scene that was suddenly unfolding. It made her wonder why she actually choose this guy as her Displaced, but she figured that if he does a good enough job, it might not matter, no matter how strange or crazy he behaved.

“So, was that all?” she asked, hoping to end this conversation quickly.

At this Kurt suddenly stopped his lovely caressing of his love the pretzel, his demeanor turning completely serious. It was a stark contrast to his usual demeanor, even Essence could see that from the short time she had known him. With that she readied herself for the question. The question she knew that would be coming.

“Say…when can I go home?”

Essence sighed. Figures that he would ask that question.

“Not for a while. You were the one that agreed with my terms after all.”

“Und was ist mit meiner Familie?! (And what about my family?!)” Kurt asked aggressively, almost shouting into the phone.

“Calm down. Remember the internet access I provided you with? It is connected to your world. You can still talk to them. And you know, if you do a good enough job I might let you meet up with them as a favor.”

This seemed to do the trick and Essence was counting her lucky stars that she was providing this trump to keep her worker in line. It would be pointless to have hired him, if he refused to do his work after all.

Kurt was meanwhile mulling over her words. He wasn’t all that thrilled about the unlimited time he would be separated to the ones closest to him, but it still helped him greatly to know he could still talk to them. It made this whole deal seem more like a job abroad, and less like a job abroad of dimensions. He might actually enjoy himself with his mind eased into this idea. Just the thought of exploring a vast new world, as well as many others turned his mood quickly around.

A content smile graced his blueberry lips.

“Dann ist gut. (Alright.)”

“Glad to hear it. Best thing would be for you to get used to everything. It might seem rather overwhelming since you have gained new abilities you might want to test out. And I recommend for you to test your limits, so that you don’t jump into anything too dangerous.”

“Sheesh, alright mom, I will try to stay out of trouble,” Kurt answered sarcastically, which made Essence giggle.

“Good. Until we hear each other again.”

“Bis bald. (See you.)”

With that he clapped the device back to its closed form, before he placed it in his backpack again. After that he slumped himself on the ground, simply lying there and thinking about everything that had transpired.

This all seemed so unreal and yet exciting for him. He wouldn’t be surprised if he woke up in some alley or hospital, and this all would have been nothing more than a dream. To think he was separated so far from his people and being in a different plane of existence. It made him feel a twinge in his heart. He felt a tad homesick. But Hello Kitty made sure he could still talk to them and even promised him to let them visit, but… Will this Hello Kitty imitation really hold true to her word? She seemed a bit worried, but he wasn’t really all that great about reading other people, so she could have easily tricked him into thinking like that.

He shook himself of such morose thoughts as they were so unfitting for him and tried to concentrate back on the task at hand.

His pretzel!

*Cough* Token.

Yep. Time to craft a token! Made him actually wonder if the Dimensional Magic stuff would keep it preserved, but then again, he was talking about some really complicated matter that would clone it infinitely. And just to drive the point home, blue LEDs have the effect to stop mold from forming since it makes it ‘sleep’ and with that inactive. Point being here that Dimensional Magic should beat some blue LEDs. And if not, then shame on you Dimensional Magic!

With that he laid the pretzel on his backpack, using it as an improvised table.

“Okay. Breath in. *Inhale* Breath out. *Exhale*. Concentrate on your essence. And…”

With that he held both of his hands to the side, forming an imaginary ball with them, before chanting the magic words…

“Kame-Hame-Ha!”

And then he released the essence with one mighty completely invisible and unnoticeable burst! Undoubtedly his performance was without flaw and he would now any second feel the dimensional magic that would compel him to speak his magic!

With that he was eagerly waiting, eyes filled with glee.

And waiting.

Still waiting…

…And somehow still waiting.

“Oh, come on!”

And getting sick of waiting.

He threw his hands up in frustration as he glared down at the offending pretzel, or more like the essence that should just do as it was told. Only for him to realize something. Something he immediately checked in the book.

“Hm… Token needs direct contact for the essence to flow inside of it…”

With a slam he closed the book, before lying it aside and rubbing his temples.

“Well, that’s embarrassing,” he said good-humoredly, finding the line rather fitting as he had heard it somewhere and now wanted to use it. On a side note, he was glad that no one saw this little spectacle. No need to mark himself more as a weirdo than he has to, and he was already standing out from these ponies.

With a sigh he grabbed his pretzel in both of his hands, concentrating to let his essence seep into it. This time he could feel something flowing. It was an alien feeling, kind of like blood donation, only without the needles. He hated needles. They made him shudder as they were the most painful tool a doctor had in his opinion. So, to get back to it, it was quite nice. And yeah, blood donation is not as bad as many think. You get free drinks and the loungers were comfy to boost, or boot? Stupid foreign language! But to get back, if you were very lucky you could even get a place in the sun if the ceiling had windows, and with that start sunbathing. It was just like a vacation! Ever wanted to go to the beach, a drink in your hand while lying on a lounger? Go and donate your blood! Do something good for others, and do something good for you!

After I concluded now the blood donation advertisement to fulfill my good deed of the day, it was now time for the message to be spoken!

Yup, Kurt could feel it now. The need to talk. To say something. Something so incredibly awesome that everyone would want to summon him, the Nightcrawler! And boy had he a long message planned for his audience!

With that he started.

“Grüß Gott! Hier ist Kurt Wagner. (Hello! This is Kurt Wagner.) If you understood what I just said, then congrats! I will give you a discount on the help I will offer you! But in any case, my help will only cost you a warm meal or a bath or maybe both, so I’m not that picky. But to get back on track, since I have no idea how much this pretzel recorder can record… God, I sound like an asylum escapee. Well, it doesn’t matter! So, if you ever need the aid of the one that crawls through the night aka Nightcrawler, be sure to eat this deliciousness that is a pretzel with ham and mushrooms, scalloped with cheese. Eating it will summon me, and if the book is right, you will even get a copy of said pretzel back, curing you of hunger for the rest of your life! But to get back to the things I can do for you. I can fight, I can, like you Americans like to say hang out with you, and… everything that is…reasonable? Huh, I guess that is everything. Man sieht sich! (See ya!) P.S. I also accept cuddles if you are a furry pony. Especially if you are a ‘Flauscheohr’ (‘Fluffy Ear’).”

Thoroughly satisfied with himself and his perfectly perfect message he nodded before he threw the pretzel in the air where a portal immediately swallowed it.

Only thing that was left was for Kurt to wait to get his pretzel back. It was truly a master plan! Convince the kitten to give him his pretzel so that he would not starve! And she even fell for it!

So he waited again.

And how he waited.

And he still would not give up waiting.

All the waiting would be worth the wait for deliciousness!

And…fuck waiting.

With that Kurt stood up from his sitting position to stomp his foot down in frustration and righteous fury.

He could not really fathom what he had done wrong. He followed the book! There should be a pretzel!

Kurt glared at the heaven above, where the portal once swallowed his pretzel, hoping that the death glare might intimidate the void enough for it to spill out his food.

It is probably not necessary to say that it didn’t.

With a frustrated huff he slumped his rump back down, before he irritatedly grabbed the book to see what went wrong and if he really overlooked something.

And of course he did.

There in fine print he could read at the very bottom “Duplication of sent tokens through the void might fail at the focal point if they do consist of Displacer magic. Further duplication capability gets corrected through the void, so that other dimensionally misplaced beings have no problems in keeping the token even after use. Further information on this can be found on page 10, ‘Rules of the Void’.”

His hands clamped down on the book as he winded his arm up just before throwing it with frustration: The offending book flew in a wide arc and landed behind some air ventilation metal stuff.

“Ouch!” he heard a young scratchy voice from behind said metal stuff, making him blink and then jump in alarm.

“Who walks there?” Nightcrawler asked with a nervous edge in his voice.

All went silent and Nightcrawler took a stance.

“Come out. I know you are there, you female cat-thingy!”

“I’m not a cat!” said the voice indignantly as her head poked out of the cover. Her little wings were fluttering in frustration.

“…A chicken?”