Agents of F.R.I.E.N.D.

by PeppyJoe

6. Ripples

Ponies have conducted numerous experiments on the side-effects of teleportation, particularly with regard to its role with non-unicorns. It is well-known that it tends to cause nausea and disorientation in proportional amount to the distrance traveled. The effects are less severe on unicorns, and even less on the one casting the spell, but these unpleasantries are still powerful enough that teleporting beyond a few hundred yards is out of the question for the vast majority.

With this in mind, the ponies at the F.R.I.E.N.D. base outside Rockwell later reflected that it was something of a miracle the team had survived with their insides intact.

Knight lifted herself off the battered deck and climbed to an unsteady standing position. She immediately regretted doing so, as the ongoing sandstorm battered her drenched coat and began forming a layer of mud. Shaking it off as best she could, the black mare looked around and saw three of her team members; Fancy Pants, Gilda, and Time Turner. None of them had recovered yet, so she quickly trotted—shaking off the sand coating and ducking her head as she went—to the edge of the craft inside the fenced perimeter.

"Hey!" she called out to a pair of stunned ponies staring at the scene. "Get some ponies and a ladder out here!" Her call brought them to their senses and sent them running for the command post. Knight returned to the nearest unconscious pony, Fancy Pants, and confirmed that he was still breathing. After doing so for Time Turner and Gilda as well, she called out for the two missing. "Soarin! Minuette!"

Knight moved to the starboard side and looked down, where the griffin ship had formerly been lodged. After the teleport, it had pushed away and now rested on its side, with its one remaining balloon still bobbing in wind. "Soarin! Minuette!" She heard no response.

The drop into the other craft was far too great, so she scrambled down the sloped deck once more, where a ladder had just been propped up. She hopped over the railing, slid down, and landed amid a crowd of other ponies. "There's three on deck in need of medical attention," she declared. "And two more in the other ship." She pushed past the confused faces—most of them were scientists and not well-prepared for such situations—and broke into a run around the length of the Courser to search for her missing crew.

On the deck of the Courser, Time Turner awoke to find himself being levitated. Startled by that and blinded by the sand blowing everywhere, he began flailing around and managed to break free of his carrier's magical hold. Dropping heavily to the metal plating, he shielded his face defensively against both environment and assailant.

"Easy," Toaster said. "You're back at base now; looks like you had a fun day, though."

Turner just groaned and muttered, "Where's Minuette?" Knight was wondering the same thing as she and four other ponies searched the lopsided griffin ship. Admittedly, most of the ponies were spending more time staring at the charred rend through the ship than they were searching for the missing unicorn and pegasus, but there really weren't many closed-off areas to search.

After a few minutes, it became clear that neither pony were present, and after a sudden realization and another frantic search, Knight confirmed that the Celestial Stone wasn't either. Knight sat down, nauseous and still a bit concussed. She was no longer in danger, but a third of her team was missing in action.

~ ~ ~

After what felt like an hour of flying, even with the wind against his back, Soarin all but collapsed on the beach. Minuette had remained unconscious for the entire flight, but sputtered and came to with a start when he set her roughly on the sand. She sat bolt upright and looked around, wincing immediately as she did so. Seeing the ocean before her, the dry sand beneath her, and the snowy mountainous taiga behind her, she felt entirely lost.

"Soarin?" She asked, looking at the pegasus lying supine beside her. He opened his eyes, turned his head to see her, and managed a feeble grin. "Did it work?"

He nodded. "Not sure what you did, but the ship vanished when you cast your spell. Took everyone with it but us."

"I teleported them... Hopefully back to base."

The stallion's eyes widened. "That's practically the other side of the world!"

"Nearly, yeah." Minuette paused, coughing. "I used the Stone to cast the spell. Problem is, I could either teleport myself and the Stone, or neither..." Another pause. "And you shouldn't be here either."

"I had an inkling of what you were doing and I wasn't going to let you. Didn't stop you, but keeping you from drowning seems like a close second."

They remained like that for a while, mutually exhausted and looking silently over the ocean, before Minuette struggled to her hooves. "Thanks, Soarin. Now we should probably find somepony before sundown."

"Somebird," Soarin noted as he rose too, and looked at the forest. "Here be griffins."

~ ~ ~

The barracks was packed nearly to overflowing. It cozily slept ten ponies, and sustained three times that through rotating shifts. Now almost all thirty of them were inside at once, crowding to see their wounded friends and hear their story. Considerable amounts of shouting and shoving were required to vacate the non-essential personnel, finally leaving just Toaster, a doctor, and the field team.

Among those present, Fancy Pants, Knight, and Gilda were all in bed but conscious. Only Time Turner had already been checked for injury and confirmed to have none, and had thus busied himself talking with Toaster. His fellow earth-pony engineer wore over his white coat a simple khaki lab-coat with a hood to protect the face from the environment. His mane, much like the namesake appliance on his flank, was a youthful grey.

Having just heard the tale of the events leading up to their arrival, Toaster sat back and sighed. "Of course, it makes sense... She didn't want to bring the Celestial Stone here where it could kill everypony, so she-"

"She found a way to do both," Turner cut in. "She teleported us here, and herself somewhere else."

The grey stallion stared back at him, trying to force a reassurance and finding none. After a moment, he settled on acknowledging, "If anypony could come up with a way to do that, and pull it off, it's Minuette."

Knight began coughing on the other side of the room, prompting both to turn in her direction. She was trying to sit up, despite the best efforts of the doctor. "Miss Knight, please, lie still!" The maroon earth-pony mare chided in her strange accent.

"I-" Coughing. "I'm perfectly fine. You said yourself, Prosper, the damage is healed," she rasped.

"The fractured rib and the lung it punctured are both repaired, but both are fragile. You'll feel the damage to your lung for weeks to come, and if you overexert yourself into coughing fits every hour, you'll wind up back here with the same problem."

"Acknowledged, doctor. Now step aside and let me see to my ship." Knight forced herself to her hooves and past the concerned mare. Turning to Toaster, she asked, "What's the last you heard?"

"Most of the ponies on base aren't engineers; they're doing what they can, but it'll take weeks to fix."

"That's not good enough. I need to head into town for the postal service, though... Fancy," she said, shifting her focus, "Who should I contact to bring in more workers?"

"At your service, my dear," he said with a smile as he rose to his hooves and earned a scornful look from Prosper. "Most of the original team remains in my employ, and the rest would happily return for such an estimable task. I shall accompany you to Rockwell and send the appropriate letters." At the sight of Knight's hesitant expression, he continued, "And I assure you, I hold them in as high a regard as myself; I trust each one to keep their efforts and work-site discreet."

"I'm afraid I cannot allow Miss Knight to venture away from the base unattended. If you will not remain until you are recovered, then you shall have a physician with you. On this point, I shall not hear argument."

The captain looked ready for a moment to challenge that declaration, but consented. "Fine. Let's get going, then." She turned to the two members of her team remaining behind, sighed, and nodded to each in turn. "Turner. Gilda." The former gave a farewell in return. The latter remained laying on her side, facing away, and only gave a dismissive wave with one wing as acknowledgement. Since their return, the griffin had proven thoroughly upset and had offered no reason why. Knight concluded that she, like everyone else, was feeling the loss of their two friends.

Fancy said his goodbyes as well, and moved to step outside. The doctor glanced at them, then turned and inclined her head to Turner and Toaster. "Live long," Prosper said before following the other two into the desert beyond their bunker.

The two engineers sat there for a minute, neither sure where their conversation had left nor how to pick it up. Finally, Turner frowned and remarked, "So, I still don't get it... What's her deal, anyway?"

~ ~ ~

On the other side of the country, in a castle amid a glistening city on a towering mountain, Princess Celestia held day-court. She found the tedium... well, tedious, but she also felt it was a necessary function, and she did her best to hear each of her subjects fairly and fully. This was why she had ordered her staff not to interrupt the proceedings except for something truly urgent and important, or in cases where the boredom simply became too much and she spoke the code-word.

Given the entire lack of mention of cake, it came as a surprise when a guard rushed past the line to her throne and held out a letter. "Urgent communication from the griffin king, Your Highness."

Celestia accepted it, removed the seal, and began reading.

Lady Celestia, Monarch of the Heavens,

A terrible tragedy has befallen my people today. An earthquake shook our western coasts and awoke the sea. A great wave crashed against our land, and while our larger cities were safe nestled atop the mountain-peaks, many low-lying settlements were washed away. Thousands of griffins are displaced and the region's farmland is in ruins. I have too often invoked your generosity, but circumstance dictates I do it once more; if Equestria can spare food and emergency aid materials in the coming days, I shall be further indebted and unendingly grateful.

Kindest regards,

King Gillard

Knowing she could only ever do one thing, Celestia immediately called the court to an end and returned to her chambers. Pulling out a fresh quill, inkwell, and some parchment, she began to draft two documents; a response, and an emergency order for the royal guard.

Author's Note:

Introducing some new people, establishing the setting of the Rockwell base, lining up dominoes, and getting this story back on your lists after an extra week's delay. Had too much stuff to work through, and an idea for another story that I simply had to start on.

Also! If you didn't catch it, the location is the ponification of Roswell, New Mexico, where a UFO supposedly crashed in the sixties. Not saying that has anything to do with anything, but I thought up the name years ago (and to my (dis)credit, not a single other story has used it) and it seemed the sort of place that would house a secret base.

And as always, let me know what you're thinking.

Comments

[MrAskAPirate]

"Live long," Prosper said

img.4plebs.org/boards/x/image/1372/88/1372882281799.gif

[PeppyJoe]

5596666
Gasp! My grand reveal is undone! Nah, but Minuette definitely channels some Pinkie; I see her as a very upbeat and positive character, and her magical powers tend toward extrasensory on occasion, but she's a lot less random-for-the-sake-of-it and very much her own pony. I'm not sure I see the Gilda-Applejack parallel, though.