//------------------------------// // Chapter 7_World Blink - Drafting Tracer Agents // Story: Kelly Mathews, Equestria's Landstalker // by Leafwebs //------------------------------// Chapter_7 World Blink – Drafting Tracer Agents “Now that my unpleasant transition is done with I should find myself that princess who demanded a talk with me. What a way to make a bad first impression.” Nigel quietly muttered to himself. “Oh I can be of service to you if that is your desire.” A humble voice called from behind Nigel. Turning around Nigel sees a figure dressed in robes similar to a fantasy dark mage illuminated by the glow of his staff that she can only think of one being who should match this person in relation to his current form. “Mir, you’re far from your tower home. What bring you to here to help me and thank you for your aid?” Nigel replies and politely bows. “Time is short I can send you directly to the castle of Cantorlot, but your audience with the Princess must wait. You must reach Friday with all haste.” Mir states sternly the glow of his staff changing. Nigel could feel the world warp around him and hear the beeping of the Tracer Trans-locator attached to his arm. The train station on the outskirts of Ponyville was replaced by the smooth stone walls of Cantorlot. The clinking of Nigel’s sword sheath on the wall behind him provided him just enough warning so as to not hit his head when he stumbled backwards. “Right… higher altitude equals thinner air.” Nigel wheezes light headed. “Control to Nigel what’s going on your special coordinates have just shifted by millions of miles. I’m also getting anomalous planer signals from all directions around you respond.” The voice of Patricia crackles over the radio.”I’m attempting to clean up the noise now so we can locate the source.” “How can I have be sent millions of miles off track I was sent to the castle just past the town I was last at?!” Nigel counters confused. “That’s not possible check your Trans-locator’s display you’re not even on the same planet you were a moment ago?!” Patricia insists over the radio. The uniform sound of foot falls could be heard getting louder from the level above catching both Nigel’s and Patricia’s attention. Nigel’s eyes scan the hallway off to his right and focus on a distant stairway framed by some potted bushes and just opposite a moonlight lit stained glass window. “I’ve got guard coming from the upper floor…” Nigel whispers. “You need to get out of there or past them and do it quickly. That was not noise in the signal like I first though but decay.” Patricia replies distressed. Nigel dashes toward the stairs. “Where’s the strongest signal?” “I’m configuring your Trans-locator now to home in on the anomaly!” Patricia replies frantic. “You have seven minutes before I activate the recall with or without your permission.” “Ugh… Intruder, halt now!” Shouts a night guard who just reached the landing at the bottom of the stairs and getting hit by the sprinting elf. Nigel, having barely succeeding in drawing his rapier to parry a guard’s spear; uses the consecutive attack of the guard to propel himself over and past the other guards coming down the stairs. Scrambling to avoid being tackled and pinned, Nigel gets to his feet just in time to slice a spear’s tip off as it cuts thought his tunic below his left arm just missing the body all together. “Stop that thing!” The guard with the now useless spear shouts to some pony ahead of Nigel. As all eyes turned toward a charging squad of guards now blocking Nigel’s path an unnatural waterfall of movement erases all but two and part of the castle hall from existence. Unable to stop Nigel jumps hoping to clear the likely fatal gap only to get entangled with something white that fell from above. Nigel clinging for dear life almost gets whipped loose when the white object twists around rockets six floors up suddenly. Just before they could collide with ceiling the winged white object turns suddenly again flinging Nigel off on to the floor face down. “Control to Nigel… Kelly… please respond now, I just detected a massive signal dead zone. What happened?” Patricia shouts over the radio. “Your near the anomaly’s source do what you came to do and get out, over.” “Tia, are you alright? Speak to me.” The blue alicorn gasps in panic racing to her sister. “Wha… What happened to the floor?” The white alicorn asks shocked and wide eyed. Nigel gets slowly and painfully to his knees his right shoulder and upper arm feeling numb. Opening his eyes he finds the two princesses get back to their feet, Celestia being a little shakier in her efforts near what looked like a simple bed where something mostly black atop it moved. “Hound Speaker what have you brought upon us?!” The black winged fairy shrieks as she zips at stunned elf. There were some muffled shouts from the princesses as the world around Nigel once again shifted from one place to another before his eyes. The sting of biting slap across his right cheek being the only reason he even noticed it happen this time. The elf recognized Sumac immediately as well as the nature of the anomaly as his fairy Friday doll began collecting electricity in her hands. “Nigel to control I need someone to stabilize a native of planer instability!” Nigel shouts a demand over the radio unaware of the gathering ponies. “Control to Nigel clarify the natives condition. Is it the anomaly?” Patricia asks over the radio. “Yes. Merchant type transformation was placed on native. Please hurry.” Nigel replies. “Dispatching team, stand by.” Patricia replies promptly over the radio. Snarling Sumac glares up at the still kneeling Nigel. She was breathing heavy with holes of translucency flickering in and out across her body. “Hound… You can do something about fixing me can you?” Sumac scolded glaring at Nigel and casually tossing a bolt of electricity an overly curious Pegasus guard. It was then Princess Trixie and Luna arrived to find Nigel the elf stranger who disappeared a week ago after being found during the rescue mission in Maple Village getting threatened by a small winged beast who was similar to a Breezy. “I admire that fact he is being berated for his unexplained disappearance after his equally unexplained arrival, but who is that to have him so captive?” Princess Luna quips to Trixie while keeping an angry glare focused on the unsuspecting Nigel. “Let’s find out shall we. Trixie would also appreciate an update.” Princess Trixie replies. As the princesses stalked up behind Nigel another being phases into existence just across from the fully standing elf. “David to Control I’ve arrived at the distress beacon.” Agent David transmits over the radio before turning to Nigel. “Nigel where is the native? I will need to synchronize it’s planer signal to your current signal before it gets erased as well.” “The small fairy at your feet sir, but we also need to try and restore his body too.” Nigel replies only becoming mildly aware of the swarm of ponies and guards nearby. “Eyes on me agent, worry about the royalty later. Do you have an object I can use for recreating the body? Preferably something like hair which has a DNA Template I can use.” David asks an aiming his scanner at the fairy. “Patricia’s going to love this shit. Your fairy has your old signal.” Nigel removes his back pack and opens it monetarily freezing when he sees the angry Princesses. “The claw tip!” Nigel exclaims digging threw his back pack pulling out a one and half inch broken wooden claw tip. “I’m ready to run our program toss it and your whistle to me.” David orders as Nigel flings the two objects to him. “Control beginning synch operation.” “You may precede agent, we have a lock on you.” Patricia replies. The objects under the scanners light begin to give off a dim glow followed by Nigel and the fairy Sumac. “This multi-verse shit is scary.” David mutters in awe as the fairy begins to grow changing to look like a fully articulate topiary of a wolf seven foot three inches in length from head to tail and standing just short of four foot four inches tall. As the program finishes as rush of recognition sweeps threw some of the crowd as the timber wolf Sumac assumes his original form. Somewhere near Maple Village a pack of timber wolves remembers their pack member. “Control to David and Nigel the anomaly is resolved. Report your status is everyone all right?” Patricia asks over the radio. “I’m fine control.” David replies. “Same here control. I think it worked in fixing Sumac but is the change permanent?” Nigel asks. “I won’t be certain without the time to look at the data, but Sumac’s signal is now linked to your own likely with similar restrictions.” Patricia replies. “You got back just in time too, another few minutes on that false world and you would have been erased with it. All traces of the anomalous signal are gone.” “Acknowledged Control, I’ll head back after we get debriefed.” David adds. Nigel puts his backpack back on trembling a little at gazes both princesses were giving him and the agent next to him, Princess Trixie motioning for the pair to follow. The guards at this point had gotten the crowd to return to their homes or daily routines before settling around Sumac, Nigel and David. For most part the Ponyville was like most small towns in the US only with a few more dirt roads or brick roads instead of cement or blacktop. A couple blocks from the train station the group approached what looked like a small estate building behind a garden park with a crystal tree as its center piece. As they got nearer Nigel noticed that all of the plants shared some curious crystallization in some small way. “I’m sorry if this is not a good time to ask, but can you tell us about the effect the crystal tree is having on the rest of these plants?” Nigel asks gesturing toward the garden and its center piece. “Let’s take a seat over here and we can talk about the recent events surrounding you and then we can get to the Tree of Harmony.” Princess Luna replies taking a seat at a small table on the building’s patio. “My name is David Patterson, United States CIA.” David began offering a hand for a hand shake before sitting down. “I can fill in some of your questions about those events you speak of. Firstly the reason I’m here is to help stabilize the large wood wolf after Kelly contacted us of the need to do so. As to why we were able to reach her, one of my teammates was able to hit her with a tracking dart before she was abducted and we used it to call her home.” “So does this mean she will be leaving with you? What about Sumac the Timber Wolf?” Princess Trixie asks sitting next to Luna across from Nigel and David with Sumac sitting at the end of the table. “No to both of those questions I’m sorry to say, Miss. We were only able to partially undo what was done to Kelly and by extension Sumac. Lava Gazer a unicorn from a different Equestria plane and Mike Edison a research scientist from home used some sort of strange bond to alter her artifact.” David replies. “Her trip back here confirms that her artifact will transport her between our worlds and between her bodies at set intervals that is currently beyond our control. Sumac will also be bound to the same rules.” Sumac groans softly and his ears fold back. “I would like to meet this Lava Gazer and Mike Edison. Maybe if I know what they did we can resolve this affliction sooner.” Luna adds expectantly. “That will be difficult but I could ask. Both of them are currently trying to locate the rest of their colleagues that got lost in Lava Gazer’s Equestria and it could take some time.” David replies before turning to Nigel. “How the hell did you end up on a planet several millions of miles away to find Sumac in the first place?” “Planet… You know about a planet that I know shouldn’t have existed?” Luna interjects loudly her eye twitching. “What’s the meaning of this?” “The trackers we have can send information between planes such as telling us when one of our assigned devices suddenly travels a great distance in a matter of seconds.” David replies hand up still looking at Nigel. “The wizard Mir, of the Land Stalker game; met me upon my return and transported me to castle Cantorlot to find Friday the fairy who turned out to be Sumac. When I got there I was told that I traveled further than I expected and was on another planet.” Nigel replies shaken. “I was told to hurry up in finding Friday and get out, but it didn’t take long for the guard to find me. I was almost cornered when the group in front of me that cut me off was erased along with part of the hall. It was too late to stop so I jumped the gap and hit someone. Sumac screamed something at me and I ended up back here in town.” Visible horror was upon the faces of those gathered at the table as they contemplated the meaning behind Nigel’s testimony. “We could have been erased re-synchronizing Sumac …”David muttered astonished. “It seems that when Sumac was transformed his signal was strong enough by itself to maintain that previous version of this world for all this time before disappearing.” “It’s like seeing a clone of your character in an MMO just sitting in front of you as you play during a lag spike.” Nigel remarks getting even more unnerved. “It’s not supposed to happen.” “Pondering how many times it happened will only cause us all unneeded guilt.” Luna replies with a sigh. “It was something we were not intended to be aware of.” “It does highlight a danger in fixing other Displaced. We need to be certain no one or thing that carries a ‘Merchant signal’ is left behind when attempting to rewrite their artifact.” David adds wiping away some sweet. “It could be dangerous to the response team as well as everyone in that plane Displaced or otherwise.” “Would this action be ethical?” Trixie asks with a glum expression. “That will likely be a question that the other Displaced will have to ponder as we were not given a choice. I also will not condemn your decision to do so as you did not have fore knowledge of this possibility.” Luna replies trying to sound conciliatory. “In the end it is as much the right of this Merchant’s victims to return home as it would be for the citizens of these other worlds to have a say. I just ask that you do not make this a crusade at their expense.” After a long period of silence some food and water was offered before the topic of the Tree of Harmony was brought back up. Shortly into the conversation David was ordered home and with a formal request to arrange partial compensation for lodging and supplies Nigel would need during his stay. “We could not allow Grogar or the recently freed Discord to take control of the weakened Tree of Harmony after their fight, so we decided to transplant it while the pair was busy ripping up the Everfreee. Holding multiple illusions to keep them focused on each other while helping to slowly levitate the tree to where it is now in Ponyville took all of Trixie’s strength.” Princess Trixie recalls shrugging as if the memory itself was exhausting. “Once the tree was replanted, Trixie passed out to wake up later as an alicorn.” “Grogar and Discord depleted the Everfree’s Lyline and became trapped in vine snared stone as they try to strangle the other. No pony or other is likely to attempt to bring back either with how they secretly plotted to betray each other and the loss of magic for several miles around their graves.” Princess Luna states flatly. “Grogar believed he could dominate the Spirit of Chaos and it wasn’t until Discord made for the tree that he realized his error.” “We have madmen at home too, which can make our own ingenuity a scary thing sometimes.” Nigel replies somberly. “Even without magic we have made a nice world to live in that endures the ill intentions of some. Like they say evil only triumphs when good people do nothing and hearing you story means that is a constant of the multi-verse too.” “The work is never done, but it is satisfying in its own right.” Trixie adds with a smile. “For now, how about I give you a room for the night?” Elsewhere in the ocean south of the continent of Equestria the ship Soul of Massan sails to make port in the land of ponies. “So Mir really requested we take to the seas and bring all these thing to such a far off shore.” A sailor asks of a tan skinned man with a black ponytail and mustache in a smoke gray suit. “His request is clear even if you have to accept some stuff about an oracle telling us to meet a person. Bring a twin tree child of the elder of the forest to the lands of the monarch moon so a friend of old may fulfill his solemn pledge.” The gray suited man Pockets replies. “I even was asked to bring Massan’s best farmer to help our friend prepare for this challenge, but Mir likes his puzzles to have some mystery.” The sailor goes back to his duties. “Pockets do you suspect we’ll see him?” The Gummi famer asks quietly. “Maybe…”Pockets replies looking out across the waves.