Hello loves! My name is Lena Oxton, but you can call me “Tracer”. And this is the story of how I traveled through time and space and accidentally discovered the first intelligent alien life.
Apparently, science isn't exactly perfect. Even when it's done by the likes of Winston and his genetically enhanced brain. It's just my rotten luck that when it does screw up, it leaves me separated from Earth entirely and completely unable to fulfill my duties as an Overwatch member. But where I end up really did need more heroes.
First I end up having to deal with a war between humans and robots, then I get involved in alien crises just as crazy. Hmph, good for them the cavalry dropped in!
There I was just sitting by my lonesome with wires coming out from all over my body, especially my chronal accelerator. Winston was running some critical diagnosis on the tech that made it up; he made the machine so he’s the only one who understood it. I was getting a tad impatient; the most productive thing I could do at the moment was let my mind wander and plan out how I could beat the snot out of the next Talon merc who came after another omnic monk.
“Chronal Accelerator diagnosis complete, here is the report Winston.”
“Thank you Athena.”
While Winston sat in his tire reading all of the data on his fancy computer, I had to sit still and be a good little girl. I let out a bored sigh and rested my head on my hand, which was tricky since I had to maneuver my arm through all of the wires sticking out of the machine on my chest.
“Relax Lena, I’m almost done here.” He said.
“How can I relax when there’s ANOTHER omnic crisis going on? I shouldn’t be here I should be out there stopping this!” I almost yelled back.
“Well you need to wait until I finish this maintenance check, you wouldn’t want your Accelerator to glitch out in the middle of a firefight would you?”
“No… it’s just–”
“You wouldn’t be able to protect anyone if you kept fading in and out of time either.”
“Gah, I know!” I was getting a little frustrated by this point. “I just can’t help but feel that every second I’m sitting around not helping another innocent life gets taken away! It's like every person or omnic that dies is my responsibility…!” I massaged my temple, a headache form from getting so worked up.
Winston took a moment to look me over; I knew he was reading into me. “Lena… is there something else on your mind? Something you wish to talk about?”
I pouted and looked away from him, muttering a soft “No”. I knew he wouldn’t accept it, but I really did not want to talk about what was on my mind.
“It doesn’t take a genetically engineered, hyper-intelligent ape to know when there’s something wrong. So come on out with it, I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me.” He said.
Of course he cared, despite being a… what he said, he was able to read human emotion like one of his many, many books. Maybe that genetic engineering also gave him some kind of emotional sensor in his brain, I don’t know. Or maybe it was because the big lug had an even bigger heart.
“Well…” I said “Did you hear about what happened to Tekhartha Mondatta?”
“Yes, he was assassinated at King’s Row, why?”
“Well, I happen to know who the assassin was.” I sat up straight and look Winston dead in the eye, “It was that soulless, living weapon Widowmaker.”
“The Talons? They killed Mondatta?”
“Yup, it was them. The reason I know this is ‘cause, I was there. I saw her taking aim at Mondatta and tried to stop her.” I wasn’t able to look him in the eyes at that point, “And you know exactly how well that went…” I sighed and looked at the ground; I never felt any better about my screw up when I talked about it, despite what any experts say about it, so I tried not to tell anyone. Why Winston was some kind of exception I’ll never know. The memory of that night just kept playing over and over in my head and how different everything would be if I just hadn’t been so… so…
“Lena?” Winston called out, returning me back to reality and catching my attention.
“Sorry, I was thinking about that night and…” I sighed and looked down again “I feel like it’s my fault Mondatta was killed.”
“It’s not your fault. The Talons killed him, not you.”
“I know! But the shot that killed him, I could have stopped that if I wasn’t so careless! When we were fighting she had a clear shot right here at my chest, which was lined up perfectly with his head. If I had just taken the shot and not ran away he would never have died. There’d be no Second Omnic Crisis, no recall of Overwatch, no innocent deaths! If only I just took that shot…”
I felt pathetic each time I reminded myself of that night. I swear I can still see the smug grin on that witch’s face; like she knew what would happen the entire time.
Winston’s tone became a lot sterner after I said that, “Do not talk like that. You’re one of Overwatch’s most valued members. I don’t know what we’d do without you. I can’t tell you how much everyone would lose to the Talons had you not been there to stop them.” His face pulled that ‘scolding parent’ kind of look, the one that only he knew how to pull. “Besides, even if they didn’t get Mondatta that one time, who’s to say they wouldn’t have tried again? You know how persistent the Talons can be.”
Sometimes, I kind of hated how he was always right about things, but I knew he was trying to reassure me (I sure didn’t show it though), so I just blew a strand of hair out of my face in frustration. What Winston said still did make me feel just a little better.
Athena interrupted our discussion, “Winston I think you should see this.”
Winston returned his attention back to the computer; he read more of the diagnosis until I saw him perk up. “Ah ha! Found you~.” He sang. “Seems the calibrator’s been having a few quirks, nothing a simple reboot won’t fix.”
A calibrator reboot. I knew what that meant but still (kind of stupidly) asked, “Does that mean I’ll have to wait longer?”
And of course he answered, “Yes Lena. And don’t perform any strong manipulations of time either. No blinking or recalling. Athena, double check for any more anomalies while the calibrator reboots.”
Athena undoubtedly obliged. I unhappily groaned, and laid onto my back. I went back to letting my mind wander, to what not even I knew exactly. My eyes drifted around the room looking at all of the high tech around me. I’d likely never understand how anything in the lab worked, but I at least knew what some of them could do. Athena… well she could do a lot, more than I’d like to list. There was Winston’s prototype barrier projector on a nearby table, I remembered hearing the story about how a bug in the system saved his (and likely Overwatch’s) life. There were his other tools like his jump pack and his tesla canon beside the table; there were the servers that held all of Overwatch’s information in a room above, there was even Winston’s favorite tire swing (apes will still be apes).
And on another table were my things, two custom-made rapid-fire pulse pistols; my main tools for protecting the innocent, a few pulse bombs; for when things really get dicey… And sealed in a case behind them all was my old Slipstream pilot armour. Lookind at it made me remember the days of training and being recruited for the slipstream, and everything that happened to me afterwards. I thought about all of the work Winston did just to help me... I thought of all the fighting I had done and those whose lives I saved and those I’d taken... I thought about how it was happening all over again… Then I shook those thoughts away, not wanting to feel bad all over again.
My thoughts were interrupted when the computer started blaring warnings. I immediately sat up straight, “What’s up?” “Something has malfunctioned, I’m working on it just stay calm I can fix–”
Before he could finish I felt a painful jolt of electricity in my back, it felt like I’d just been stabbed. My reflexes kicked in and I blinked away from where I thought the source was coming from… and I instantly regretted it. My Chronal Accelerator sparked and flickered and alarms blared from all over the lab. I was officially freaking out. My heart sank when a large spark exploded in front of my face, and the accelerator made the unhealthiest sound a machine like that can make.
“Oh… that can’t be good.” I whimpered. And then all hell broke loose.
All I remember was a blinding blue flash, the feeling of being hurled back with the force of a freight train, and hearing the echo of Winston screaming out my name. It was like the feeling of recalling, just much longer, and a not quite as… comfortable of a ride. And then I blacked out.
Now I know all of that sounds pretty crazy (and believe me it sure was), but what happened to me after was downright mental. I even asked Winston if it had happened, and I took a medical exam just to make sure I wasn’t drugged or in a coma or something. But yeah, it was real; and I’m glad it was.
Hello loves! My name is Lena Oxton, but you can call me “Tracer”. And this is the story of how I traveled through time and space and accidentally discovered the first intelligent alien life.
I remember feeling blades of grass underneath me, hearing birds chirp around me, and smelling the aroma of nature around me. It would have been relaxing if not for the splitting headache and the knowledge I was absolutely not where I was supposed to be. I slowly opened my eyes, after adjusting them to the light; low and behold the beautiful blue sky was there to greet me. It was the most peaceful and cheery looking sky I’d ever seen. I half expected the sun to actually come up to me say “Morning love! Have a nice nap?”
I got up from lying on my back and looked around. My senses don’t lie; I was in some kind of creepy looking forest. I’d been in a few woods as a kid, but I’m didn’t remember if the constant feeling of something watching you was normal in that situation. “Where on Earth am I?” I asked the air. Instinctively I checked my ear… and my com system was still attached! Naturally I tried to radio Winston.
“Hello? Winston? This is Tracer here.” I knew better than to use my real name outside of Overwatch “Can you hear me? ...Hello?” Static. That was… odd. Overwatch coms are supposed to work worldwide so why weren’t they working now? Maybe it had something to do with the malfunction? I shrugged that off and pulled out my holographic GPS to find my location. Stranger still not even that was working, instead of a map or even a ‘you are here’ symbol; there was just a blank screen.
“Oh just my luck!” I grumbled “Stranded on God knows where with no coms or map. Can this day get any better?” I immediately covered my mouth and looked to my sides. I’d seen too many cartoons as a kid to know saying things like that was begging for trouble. I even checked above me for falling pianos. I laughed at myself thinking, “Stop being so silly, this isn’t a cartoon. Things like that don’t happen in real life remember?” I turned to walk in some random direction, “Saying things like ‘what could possibly go wrong’ won’t cause anything to–”
My thoughts were cut off when I came face to face with a thing I could only describe as strangely terrifying. Or terrifyingly strange. It was some kind of wolf like creature made of what looked like wood (it looked like it was wood when I saw it, there were twigs and leaves coming off of it so that’s what I assumed it was). I tried to figure out what it was. Maybe some new omnic attack dog? But that’s just absurd, why would omnics try to build attack dogs when they have much stronger weapons and robots at their disposal? Maybe some junkers’ new crazed invention? But the junkers were out in Australian outback, nowhere near any woods. Whatever this thing was it looked mean, and hungry.
“Nice doggie… Good doggie… You don’t want to hurt little ol’ me do you?” It was obvious that it did, I guess I was just taking a shot even if I knew I’d miss (metaphorically speaking). That’s when I noticed two more at its sides. They were all growling. I heard more growling behind me and looked back to see FOUR more of them. I reach for my pistols only to feel them not there. I left them on the table in the lab darn it! I wanted to blink away and run, but I looked at my accelerator to find it unlit. Considering I was not fading out of time it was clearly just recharging. My day just got infinitely better.
The one in front of me lunged and I rolled to my right, I spotted a loose branch and grabbed it when I righted myself. It didn’t feel very sturdy. Two more jumped at me, I could only dodge one so I raised my arm to block the other. It bit down on the metal plating on my lower arm, not breaking any skin. I whacked it with the branch and kneed it in the gut knocking it off, and boy did that HURT! They really were made of wood, REALLY tough wood. I bounced on one leg and tried to nurse my poor knee.
I just realized then that I had my back to a tree and had gotten myself cornered, oh and the branch snapped. Lovely. I beat on my accelerator; I was in full on panic mode. “Come on, please wake up!” No response. Things were getting desperate. One of the wolves tackled me and went for my neck; I barely managed to block it with the remaining half of the branch, catching its jaw. I struggled to fight back as it pushed, like it was trying to break through the branch just to get me. My head turned to the side, trying to look for a way out, and I couldn’t believe my eyes. Right there, right out of my reach were my pulse pistols! My saving graces were a few metres away! My view was cutoff when another wolf stepped in front of my face.
I felt my arms start to give and I actually believed that was the end. Then out of nowhere some blur raced by and knocked the wolf off my chest! Then it circled back and flew into another by my side and knocked it into a tree! It was moving so fast I could barely see what it was, all I could make out was a rainbow colored trail. I didn’t waste too much time gawking and made a beeline for my pistols. Heck there were even a few of my pulse bombs there too! I didn’t see those! As I was running to them a stray wolf flanked me from my left and lunged right at me!
Now I wouldn’t have had time to react but at that moment time slowed to a crawl. Normally people would think this is the part where life flashes before their eyes or something, but I knew exactly what that meant. The familiar hum of the accelerator rang in my ears, and I smiled. “Back in business!” I thought.
I blinked right past the bugger and he fell flat on his face, didn’t even know what happened I bet. I kicked my guns up in the air then snagged my bombs and put them in my jacket’s pocket. I caught the pistols easily, aiming them right at the bugger who tried to cut me off, he looked pretty mad. But I wasn’t scared anymore, in fact I taunted him, “Come on love! Show me what you’ve got!” waving my arms at myself for emphasis. Silly thing took the bait and ran right for me, so I blinked right past him and kicked him in his gut (this time with the bottom of my foot, Genji taught me that was a better way to kick) and he went flying. I pumped him full of pulse energy as he fell emptying my clip. I reloaded as I saw him turn to twigs just before he landed. “You messed with the wrong girl.”
My moment of victory was interrupted by the sound of fighting behind me, I finally got a look at my savior and honestly, it was the last thing I expected to see, much less be rescued by! It was literally a weird… horse (I guessed) with wings, and it was as bright blue as the sky. It had this long mane of all of the colours of the rainbow (which to this day I don’t believe is natural) and had the biggest cutest eyes! It looked like something out of a book I’d read if I was still 3 years old! If it wasn’t in the middle of fighting for its life I’d probably try to snuggle the little thing it was so cute! It held its own in a fight pretty well despite looking like something out of Candy Land. Have you ever seen anyone do a mid-flight dropkick? Let’s just say that the wolfie on the receiving end won’t be having kids ever again (if those things even could… scratch that I don’t EVER want to know).
Little Rainbow (that’s what I decided to call it) was too busy taunting the downed wolf to notice one of them was trying to jump her (I guessed it was a girl) from behind. Of course that’s when I blinked in front and gave him a face full of pulse, crumbled to twigs right there. Little Rainbow sure looked surprised to see me behind her; I just gave her a smirk and said, “What? You think I was just going to leave ‘em for yourself?” I reloaded my pistols and turned to face our remaining adversaries. I counted two, so there were three behind me, and two of us. I liked those odds, it made things interesting.
The two in front got smart and tried to tag team me, they used a pincer manoeuvre to try and cut me off, clever dogs. Too bad they were too slow, I blinked twice to get behind them and aimed each gun at both of their backs and unloaded. Chips and holes lined their back sides as they scrambled to get their footing. Little Rainbow knocked one of her dogs into one of mine.
The one still standing turned to me and rushed me in a zigzag pattern trying to throw me off, I blinked into the air and shot at it, but only landed a couple of hits. So as I fell back to the ground I reloaded and aimed at a wolf that Little Rainbow was wrestling with; the entire clip entered its back and it howled in pain. She then pushed the bugger off her and bucked into a tree, it turned to twigs on impact.
Those dogs learned fast though, because right when I landed, three behind me all jumped out from behind to catch me, and I was all out of blink charges for the moment. Blinking and shooting weren’t the only tricks up my sleeve! I tossed one of my pulse bombs and recalled putting me back in the air mid flip. I could hear the sound of the overloading pulse energy as I fell. Not a second after I landed did the satisfying sound of an explosion ring behind me, a few of their twigs landed by my feet.
That only left one mangy mutt, and he didn’t seem quite as confident after he saw his buddies just get blown up, and being outnumbered two to one. I holstered my pistols and yelled, “Alright, beat it!” while pointing in the opposite direction, Little Rainbow emphasised by aggressively snorting; the pup ran away whimpering. Why did I just let it go after it tried to kill me? Mostly because I don’t like to hurt the weak. I mean he clearly was outmatched; he wouldn’t be able to take us down if he tried! And it just wouldn’t feel right to do anything unless he was actually crazy enough to try. Plus it looked like just a young one… I’ve got too much heart to do anything to a pup.
Once it disappeared from our view, Little Rainbow flew in front of my face and started babbling away. She made motions like some kind of fighter and the some of what looked like me shooting. I guess she was just celebrating the victory, but I couldn’t understand what she was doing. I wondered if it was a method of communication… I turned on my coms automatic translator. It never works on animals (they don’t have communication patterns similar enough for any translator to recognise) but the way it was babbling and moving so… human like it almost seemed like a language. In hindsight it wasn’t the smartest decision to try and talk to an animal, and I confirmed that right away with the com's static. It made noises signifying that it was calibrating, the system first accesses a database of languages and runs through them while listen to the language to see if there’s a match, if not it registers it as an unheard language and tries to recognise vocal patterns in order to translate, but it usually didn’t take so long.
Little Rainbow was waving her hoof in my face, trying to get my attention since I was more focused on the coms’ translator then on her all while still babbling gibberish.
“Of course” I thought “it’s still just an animal, the translator will just come up as an error. I don’t why I thought this would work… it’s not like she can actually–”
“Are you even LISTENING to me?!” An unfamiliar voice said.
I jumped back, surprised to hear someone speak in the middle of my mental debates. I looked around and called out, “Hello? Who said that?”
“Me! Who else?” I looked at Little Rainbow, and she was looking quite miffed. “What’s with you? Why did you decide to just ignore me like that?” And yes, that was Little Rainbow talking. No I didn’t believe it either.
I just stood there with my mouth hanging open for a moment. “It…actually worked?! Huh, I don’t give those scientists enough credit.”
“HELLO?! Equestria to weird sonic monkey thing?” She said.
“Huh? Oh sorry! I was ...uh... just thinking to myself.” I nervously scratched the back of my head and chuckled. “To be honest I really didn’t think I’d be able to talk to you.”
“Why’s that?”
“Well the reason behind that’s filled with all of this high tech mumbo-jumbo that I don’t fully understand, and I probably wouldn’t even be allowed to talk about it if I did.”
“You ‘wouldn’t be able to talk about it?’ Why?” She got in my face for this part “Are you working for some kind of special organization?”
“Well actually yes but– ”
“I knew it! You ARE a spy! Who sent you, huh? Why are you here? What are you after?!”
Now I would have been offended, if I didn’t find the angry face she was giving e hilariously adorable. I struggled to not burst out laughing but when she said that I was a spy I lost it.
“What’s so funny?”
I made an effort to at least try to stop laughing, “Sorry, sorry… ha! It’s just nobody’s ever called me a spy before.”
“How is that funny to you?”
“Don’t you know who I am?”
“I’ve never even seen anything like you before!”
“Well, if you must know…” I blinked behind her and around her, (I like to add a WOW factor when making introductions.) “Special Agent Tracer of the Overwatch task force at your service!” I gave a little bow as I finished my sentence.
“Special Agent? …You sure you’re not a spy?”
“Positive. Would a spy come back and fight with the one who just saved them?”
She didn’t buy that, “Totally! A spy would come back and make themself look good, because if they ran away they’d look bad and wouldn’t be able to get close to who they were spying on. But since you did come back that means you look good but I know that you’d be trying to make yourself look good… which means you could be bad or good… or you could be…uhh.”
She clearly overloaded herself, and I couldn’t help but laugh some more. She did not like that one bit. “Sorry again love, you really don’t like me laughing do you?”
“I don’t like it when anypony laughs at me.”
“AnyPONY? She’s making it way to hard not to seem adorable.” I thought. I even believed she was trying to use that against me, and it worked. I felt bad for laughing. “There there, I didn’t mean to be rude.” I said, “Tell you what: if you want I’ll let you take me to your local investigator and then I can prove I’m not a spy of any sort. Deal?” I extended my arm hoping she’d shake, but I realized that she might not know what that means.
“Deal!” And she shook my hand, okay then! Signs of friendship might be a bit more universal than I anticipated. “But I’ll do you one better than some lousy investigator. I’ve got a friend who can read anypony like a book and if she says you’re legit than I’ll say you’re legit.”
“Sounds good to me! But I guess this kind of makes me your ‘captive’ doesn’t it?”
“Yeah… I guess? So you better not run off, because I will catch you!”
“Will you now?” I blinked behind her again “You sure you can keep up?” I said smugly.
Little Rainbow circled me faster than a jet; I struggled to stop myself from spinning myself. When I regained my balance I saw her lying on a tree branch just overhead with her own smug grin.
“Huh, maybe you can…” I said.
“They don’t call me ‘the fastest flier in all of Equestria for nothing.” She said.
“I really hope that isn’t your name, it’s quite the mouthful.”
“Nah, that's just what I am, that and awesome! My name’s &@#<%*(: ^@/=!”
“Huh? I’m sorry, can you say that again?” That was odd…
“I said my name’s RAINBOW DASH! Is there something wrong with your hearing?”
“No… well kind of. It’s nothing really.” That was strange, I assumed the translator would work fine… but science isn’t exactly perfect so there might me some bugs and recalibration that needs to be done. “If only Winston were here…” I thought.
“We’d better get moving” said Miss Dash “Those timberwolves aren’t the only things in these woods.”
“Is that what they’re called? Nasty little buggers…”
“Oh believe me they are!”
We both laughed and talked as we walked (well I walked, she hovered by with her wings) I was glad to be able to talk to her, both because it would help the translator grow its language library and having someone there was always a pleasure. Even if it was a little girl’s fantasy toy come to life. I was slightly worried as to why I still couldn’t reach Winston. “If they went offline because of the accident then how come they haven’t rebooted yet? And how did that accident put me in the middle of the woods?” I tried not to focus on too many questions in my head, lest I incur the Rainbow wrath upon myself. A small part of my brain put the idea in my head that I might be much further from Arkansas than I thought. (Is that the American state that old movie is in?)
Rainbow Dash was high up in the air, looking around for something. When she spotted that something I saw her wave and start to fly back down to me. It was strange; I swore I could hear a jet engine as she came down.
“They’re just over there, not much farther now!” she said.
“They?” I asked.
“My friends! The ones that are going to prove whether or not you’re actually trustworthy. Well, mostly AJ will do that but I’m sure Twi can help too…”
“So that’s their names, eh? Good to know.”
She didn’t quite like the way I said that, “Good to know, huh? Why’s that?”
I decided this was the perfect opportunity for some teasing. “Because now I can relay back to my SECRET HEADQUARTERS so they can begin their evil plan! Mwah ha ha ha!” I tried to hold the most obviously-not-at-all-evil look for as long as possible, I lasted about five seconds before I burst out laughing! Rainbow had the most bewildered look on her face too; I guessed she wasn’t a fan of my wild sense of humor. “I’m only joking!”
Rainbow rolled her eyes and smirked. “Very funny. You know I’d love to bounce jokes around with you–”
“Oh, we’re on joking terms? I thought you didn’t trust me.”
“I still don’t, well not totally.”
“What?”
“I still don’t know who or what you eve are, and with the weird time thingy going on I’d better be on the safe side.”
“Time thingy?” I actually became a bit worried, “She has to mean me. But how would a creature like her…?”
“Twilight can explain it better and definitely for longer than I can. She said it was a… um…dis-… disruption of… no that’s not it.” Dash knocked her hoof on her head trying to remember the words of her friend, but after a moment her expression brightened as she said, “Oh yeah! “A ‘distortion of time’ in the Everfree forest, whatever that is.”
I tensed up at the mentioning of time, I was almost sure that she was talking about me, and despite how nice she was for saving my life, I suddenly didn’t feel quite as safe. Whenever someone tracks my powers over time it’s usually because they want to find and do who knows what to me. Rainbow Dash sure didn’t look like any Talon creation, but I still found my hand instinctively resting on the holster for a pulse pistol. I wasn’t going to go on the offensive, but I know not to take any chances.
“That sounds… odd.” I said. I wanted to keep my cool.
“Yeah, it is. But she said it wasn’t anything major, just something she thought would be cool to check out.” She chuckled “I actually thought it was going to be boring here, like we’d just find some glowing dust or crystal or something, instead I found you.”
“Well it’s nice to know I’m a little more interesting than some glowing dust.” I joked.
“Way more interesting.” She joked back.
While we were laughing, the bushes beside us rustled grabbing our attention. I drew my pistols and Rainbow’s wings flared. I flinched when I saw the head of a horned pony pop up and say, “There you are Rainbow Dash! I thought–” The new pony’s eyes shot open when it saw me. “What… is that?!” It gasped.
Rainbow spoke first, “Hey Twilight! Where’s Applejack?” And, as if on cue anther pony’s head popped up, this one wearing a brown Stetson hat.
“I’m right here." It said, and then it spotted me too.
“So these are the friends you were talking about.” I said as I holstered my pistols.
“Girls, this is Tracer. She’s the reason I flew off.” Dash said “A pack of Timberwolves got the jump on her and if it wasn’t for little old me she’d be a goner.”
“That’s just like you Rainbow, flyin’ off to save the day and brag ‘bout it later.” Applejack said. She had a thick southern drawl like those Americans had, which made me wonder if I was in the somewhere States with some secret pony project going on.
“It’s only bragging unless you can back it up” Rainbow retorted. “But you totally should have seen it. I swooped in and POW! Knocked one in the teeth. And Tracer got these cool blasting things and was like BABABABABA! And then we were surrounded but I got them to pile on each other and it and she teleported and threw a bomb and BOOM! No more timber wolves!” Rainbow motioned each action as she said it. “It was awesome! ...But, that wasn’t too far from here so we might still be in their turf.”
“Then that means we gotta go. You might have handled yourselves then but I’d really not want to handle a whole pack of those monsters.” Applejack proclaimed. “C’mon Twi, you just gonna stand there?”
Twilight was still in a shock induced trance, I noticed that she hadn’t taken her eyes off me the entire time we talked; she probably didn’t blink either. “Uh… yeah. Let’s go.”
“Somethin’ wrong sugarcube?” Applejack asked. “Well other than… ya know.”
“I’ll… tell you once we’re out of the forest and back in $!@TY#@*.” Twilight said. They both finally walked out of the bush they were in and I finally got a good look at them.
Twilight was brilliant violet with a darker tinted and straight mane; she also had a horn on her head, Applejack was sunset orange and had a blonde mane that rested under her brown Stetson; she looked more like a regular horse without wings or a horn. “If Rainbow Dash is a pegasus, I’d wager Twilight is a unicorn. But what would that make Applejack? A ‘normal pony’? I hope there’s no caste system in place…” I thought.
“Oh hey! Before we go...” Rainbow said, she flew over to Applejack’s ear and whispered something. Her face became stern and she nodded.
Applejack walked up to me and looked me dead in the eyes, like she was an interrogator and I was the suspect. “State your name and business.”
I knew a situation like this would happen so I was mentally prepared. “My name is Tracer, and I work for the recently reinstated Overwatch organization.”
After a moment her eyebrow rose, “Tracer’s not your real name is it?”
I flinched “How’d she figure that one out?!” I thought.
“I need you to be honest with me sugarcube.” Applejack said
“No, it’s not… but I’m obligated not to mention my real name outside of fellow members of who already know of my name for the safety of myself and other Overwatch operatives.” I said confidently.
“Are you a spy?”
“No, I’m not.”
“Then what are you and what‘s this ‘Overwatch’ thing?”
That irked me, “Seriously have none of you heard of Overwatch?” All the ponies shook their heads. “Even sentient ponies should know something right? They must have at least seen the logo…” An idea popped in my head. “Hang on…” I said as I reached for my old Overwatch badge, lucky for me I still had it. “Ever see this logo before?” I asked hoping to jog some memories.
“Nope.” Applejack said. The others had similar responses. “What does it mean?”
I could not believe what I was hearing! “Not even the logo? If this really is some kind of government project to create genetically enhanced animals, they at least should have seen Overwatch’s logo. Even Winston knew when he was little, and he was in SPACE most of his childhood! Either these are the mostsecluded genetically altered ponies ever, or I’m…” My thoughts became grim.
“Ya’ll still didn’t answer my questions.” Applejack said, regaining my attention.
“Oh, sorry. This is the logo of Overwatch; we are an elite group of soldiers, scientists, doctors and more dedicated to protecting others in their time of need. I’m one of their top operatives, adventurer and former experimental pilot.”
“So you’re a soldier?”
“More like a peacekeeper of sorts.”
“And ya’ll don’t hurt anypony?”
“NoPONY, nor anyone or anything else unless it’s trying to hurt someone else.”
Applejack got in my face, leering into my eyes and not saying a word. She was sizing me up; I kept my returning stare solid as a rock. After a momentary eternity, she backed off and said, “Okay, I trust her.”
“Seriously?” I asked.
“Eeyup.” She responded.
“Awesome, then that means she’s cool to come with us?” Rainbow asked.
“Any objections Twi?” Applejack asked.
Twilight was looking at me the same way a new intern looks at the fancy computers at HQ. “None at all! Not as long as I can find out more about this ‘Overwatch’ and their scientists!” Her smile was scarily wide.
“Sure you can ask as many questions as you like, but I might not have all the answers since I’m no scientist.” I said.
I didn’t think I’d ever see childish glee as terrifying until I saw Twilight’s face after I responded. Rainbow even chuckled, “You shouldn’t have said that.”
The sound of a distant howl grabbed our attention; we all took a moment to look at each other before Applejack spoke up, “Well alright then, let’s get out of this forest before somethin’ finds us!”
We all nodded and hastily made our way out of the woods, meanwhile Twilight bombarded me with all kinds of questions, some I couldn’t answer because for security reasons, others I didn’t even understand because they used fancy scientist lingo I couldn’t wrap my head around. At one point she even asked me a question about magic, which led to a small debate about the existence of magic. “Are they serious?! The only thing I consider magic is Dr. Ziegler’s ability to revive people and even she has science to back her up!” She even demonstrated by floating a rock with her horn and teleporting around. Levitation isn’t anything new to me and I even blinked AND recalled just to show her up; it resulted in even more questions these about what I could do. Now don’t get the wrong idea, Twilight’s really nice and answering her questions isn’t a bother… there were just SO MANY.
After I while I asked my own question, “So where are we going?”
Applejack responded, “$!@TY#@*, friendliest town in all of Equestria.” My translator was still bugging.
“Where?” I asked again
“$!@TY#@*.” Rainbow Dash repeated. “Hey, you guys don’t think everypony’s going to freak out when they see Tracer do you? I mean they can be pretty jumpy.”
“If she walks into town with us they might not feel like she’s a threat. Um… no offense Tracer but nopony’s ever seen a creature like you before.”
I realized something: strange creatures, no knowledge of Overwatch or what a human looks like, this ‘Equestria’ they keep mentioning… I had a sinking feeling I was not where I first thought I was.
"You keep mentioning ‘Equestria’… what exactly is Equestria?” I asked.
All three of the stopped to look at me. “Huh?!” They asked simultaneously.
“Equestria is the kingdom we’re currently in! How could you not know that?” Twilight said.
“Kingdom? There haven’t been any kingdoms in centuries!” I said.
“What are you talking about?! What about Equestria, or Zebrica, or Saddle Arabia?” Rainbow yelled.
“No…” I said, not liking where this conversation was heading. “Have any of you ever heard of the country of Russia?” All three of them shook their heads. “What about France? The United States? England?!” All responses were negative. “This… can’t be…”
“He look we’re out!” Applejack announced. The trees finally gave way to an apple orchard a large red barn was not far from where we exited the forest. In the distance I could see a small village reminiscent of something from a medieval fantasy novel. Even further was a mountain with a large castle built on the side! “None of this should even exist!” I thought “How can there be a mountain with a castle on its side? There’s no record of that ever existing on… Earth…” The realization hit me like a bullet from Widowmaker’s rifle. “Oh my lord…” I muttered.
“Welcome to Ponyville Tracer!” Applejack announced, she then noticed my distraught face. “Something wrong sugarcube?”
Recalling allows me to travel through time and space, if only briefly, but what I experienced was more than a typical recall. My chronal accelerator malfunctioned, sending me hurtling through the fabric of the universe; I just then realized how far I went. I assumed I was in a different country, at worst on some secret government testing facility, or some maniac’s genetic playground. But once outside of the cover of the forest I could see the unfamiliar sky and landmarks that shouldn’t exist. I wasn’t on another country…
