Torchwood: Equestria
Chapter 4
An Old Friend
Ponyville
21st Century
A bright yellow mare with a pink mane and tail quickly flew towards the center of town, where overgrown creatures stood on rooftops, towering above the running and screaming ponies below. She'd never seen a spider this big before, and had no idea how it suddenly appeared in the middle of town with no real warning. Most exotic creatures originated in the everfree forest, but the mare's animal friends always knew to warn her if something dangerous ventured out of the thick woods. She considered magic as a possibility, but she knew only one pony in town who could possibly perform a spell like this, and she wouldn't do such a thing.
Regardless of the fear coursing through her at the sight of the creature, her love of animals made her more intrigued than afraid. It was like looking at a spider with a magnifying glass, every aspect of this reddish-brown spider enhanced by its size. She pondered for a moment what this creature's web might look like, quite possibly covering a space wider than her cottage.
The yellow pegasus gulped and controlled her nerves as she approached the enormous arachnid from behind, hovering in the air. "Um, Mr. giant spider," she began, her voice quiet. "I think you look amazing, and I'd love to learn more about you, but, everypony else is a little scared, so could you come with-" the mare screamed as one of the spider's large legs rose up and pummeled in to her. Her body reeled back, and her shock caused her to lose control of her wings. She fell through the air, quickly nearing the ground.
Before thudding against the grass, however, she felt hooves swoop underneath her back. Afterwards, her savior bolted upwards and away from the spider's location. The mare felt a bit dizzy from the sudden change in speed and direction, but the pony who held on to her kept a strong grip.
She opened her eyes to see a grey stallion with a gorgeous white mane, as pure of a white as one of her best friend's coat. The stallion slowed down and landed on the ground a fair distance away from the spider, setting down the rescued pegasus underneath the shade of a small tree. The mare quickly rolled over on to her hooves and stood, giving the stallion a hug. "Oh, thank you, thank you!" she said happily. "I didn't expect the spider to be so rude!"
"No problem," he replied, taken aback by the sudden embrace.
The mare broke the hug and blushed, embarrassed by her sudden outburst. "Um, I'm Fluttershy," she said. "I don't think I've seen you around before. Do you live in Ponyville?"
"I'm Wing, and no, I'm from…" Wing paused his speech. Ponyville. He'd never traveled there, but nearly everypony knew of the town home to one of Equestria's princesses. Caught up in an adrenaline rush and a desire to act fast and help, Wing forgot that moments ago he was struggling to accept the fact he'd teleported, back in time, into a new dimension, he didn't know what. At least now he knew where, and he pushed his confusion aside once more. "Canterlot," he finished.
Fluttershy smiled lightly, her cheeks turning a bit red. "Well, thank you so much. You just popped in out of nowhere."
"You have no idea how true that is."
She was about to say something else, when her eyes widened in realization. "The creatures! Twilight's not here and I'm the best with animals, I have to go help!"
She moved to run past Wing, but he halted her by pressing his hooves against her chest. "Don't worry, I've got some friends with me, and they seem to know what they're doing. They'll handle these giant creatures."
"You have more with you? Like, a rescue group?" Fluttershy responded, relaxing again. "What do you call yourselves?"
"Well, I sort of just met them, I don't think we have a name," Wing said. "Maybe if the other two can decide who's in charge they'll come up with a name for… whatever we are."
()
Jack and Ruby ran into town, staying close to edges of buildings and peeking up to look at the spider. "Could unicorn magic have done this?" Jack asked.
"Yes, but doubtful," Ruby replied. She cringed and ducked as the spider above jumped from one rooftop to another, landing with a loud thud and skidding a few feet while it regained grip. Ponies either ran completely out of the town or stared wide eyed from their windowsills. The giant fly a few blocks over began buzzing about, the size of it causing an overly loud buzz that rang in Jack and Ruby's ears. "To enlarge little bugs to a size this big would require some seriously powerful magic, it's more likely that technology did this."
"Given the circumstances of how we showed up, I'd say that's a good guess," Jack said. "Any ideas?"
"If it's just an enlarged spider, a laser blast would end its life instantly. I can get a good angle right now."
"No!" Jack held a hoof out to the rising laser pistol. "We don't know how far back in time we've gone. The time we were in before was already pretty far back from yours, I'd bet. You can't just fire a futuristic weapon out in the open. If somepony sees it..."
"Fair point," Ruby said, nodding. "I can get somewhere up high. Carefully obscure the pistol and pretend as if I'm using magic."
"Good thinking, but give me some time," Jack said. "If technology did this, the pony controlling the tech is probably around here observing the outcome. I need to find that pony; if we start killing the creatures too fast, they might make a break for it."
"Roger." Ruby turned to move away, but paused. "Keep thinking critically like that, I could let you be the one in charge." She grinned.
"But a beautiful mare with a laser pistol? Hard not to take orders."
The unicorn chuckled. "Perhaps equal partners then. Now, Captain Harkness, let's get on with it."
Ruby ran towards the giant spider, and Jack ran in the opposite direction. In front of Jack, a tan earth pony mare frantically moved about, two stallions with her. She knocked on doors and motioned for ponies to move, and each pony she spoke to complied. Those that she talked to ran for the edge of town, to join those who'd initially fled from the creatures.
One of the stallions noticed Jack, and notified the mare. She turned, and moved to block Jack's path when she saw he wasn't on his way out of the town.
"You have to leave!" the mare said, her tone urgent. "It's too dangerous to be in town right now."
"Sorry, I'm not from around here, who are you?" Jack asked.
"I'm the mayor of Ponyville," she replied. "And then I'm sorry you had to see our town look like this, but you need to get out. My unicorn assistant has sent out an urgent letter, Equestria's emergency response police will be here soon."
"Great, have them set up a perimeter around the town to keep the ponies that have escaped where they are," Jack said. The mayor was taken aback for a moment, realizing she was being instructed. "Also, have them search for any suspicious looking ponies. The culprit behind this may be carrying some sort of strange looking device, a scientific looking thing."
"And just who are you to tell the police and myself what to do?"
"My friends and I are above the emergency response police, we handle strange situations like this," Jack replied. "Trust me, we know what we're doing."
"Above the emergency… I've never heard of such a thing, what is this team of yours called?"
"I'll get to that later, gotta go!"
Jack pushed past the mayor, leaving her in confusion on whether to chase after the stallion or relay his orders to the police when they arrived. In this time of crisis, all she could think of doing was trust him now and ask questions later.
()
Wing turned to begin searching for Jack only to find the blue stallion running towards him. "Oh, here's one of them now," Wing told Fluttershy. Jack skidded to a halt in front of Wing, and Wing looked away from the immense spider still crawling on the rooftops to focus on Jack.
"Ruby has a way to take out the big bugs that should work," Jack began. He paused upon noticing the yellow mare standing quietly off to the side, her head turned away. "Captain Jack Harkness, nice to meet you." He smiled widely and reached out with a hoof to gently lift Fluttershy's foreleg and shake it in greeting. Fluttershy let out a quiet gasp, and as soon as Jack let go of her leg she raised a hoof to cover the quickly deepening shade of red on her cheeks. "That tends to happen," Jack informed Wing when he turned to see a dumbfounded expression on the grey pegasus' face. "Anyways, you and I need to search for who's behind this. Whoever caused this probably has some strange device with them, and is staying nearby to watch what happens with these giant creatures, or maybe even make more. We find the culprit, then Ruby blasts these things away."
"Oh, you're not going to hurt them, are you" Fluttershy's concern replaced her nervousness and allowed her to speak up. "They're just little bugs."
"That spider smacked you out of the sky!" Wing replied. He refused to believe Fluttershy's desire to keep the creatures safe.
"I know, but, they can't help the fact that somepony made them huge," she replied. "They're just scared."
"Scared enough and big enough to kill ponies!" Wing said.
Jack thought back to his days on Earth in his own universe, when he helped solve problems beyond the capability of the general population. He didn't have access to the same tools he did back then. No devices to clean up the mess after. No pills to make everyone forget what happened. Not even a gun, let alone hands to hold one with. He suddenly felt unprepared, however, he knew Wing, could guess at Ruby's potential, and had just enough confidence in himself to change the plan. "If we can find a way to reverse the process, we won't hurt them, miss," Jack said. Now Wing's shock was on Jack again, but he held up a hoof. "Like I said, we're looking for some sort of device, not magic. If we can find the device, perhaps we can find a way to reverse what happened. No time to argue, come on."
"Oh, thank you!" Fluttershy called out as the other two ran away. Another blush returned to her face, and despite being the only pony around now, she made an effort to hide it.
()
Las Pegasus
Twilight smiled as she stepped out into the hot sun. Despite the never-ending heat that came with a visit to the desert, she enjoyed the weather of places such as Las Pegasus and Appleoosa. Her meeting with several other political leaders in Equestria who'd traveled to meet here was now over, and she let out a sigh of relief. Being the princess of friendship didn't mean she held no duties on the side.
She walked down the road, admiring all the flickering lights and humongous advertisements for shows, paralleling the size of all the hotels. Rarity loved Canterlot and Manehattan for being fashion capitals, meanwhile, this city became the home to a grand portion of the entertainment industry. Twilight thought about seeing a show, for trips out here rarely came up, but she decided against it, wanting instead to just get home. She had a long train ride ahead of her, but would be back in a few hours.
She stopped in her tracks when a scroll appeared in front of her face, and she instinctively caught it with her magic. Opening the scroll, she recognized Celestia's handwriting, and found another sheet of paper with different handwriting underneath that.
"Princess Twilight, my dear student and friend," the note from Celestia read. "I received this message and knew that I should forward it to you. Please return to Ponyville at your fastest speed possible. I think somepony broke into the vault."
Twilight's eyes widened at the words, and she pulled the second paper up to her face to discover a request for the emergency response police. Looking at the nature of the incident, Celestia was likely correct. Somepony broke into the vault.
It would be impossible for her to teleport this far, but she could fly faster than the train. Twilight spread her wings and leaped straight up, zooming off to help her home.
()
Ponyville
Ruby cringed as she watched the giant fly land on another building, the sheer weight of the bug causing some structural damage to the shop it landed on. She had climbed up to a rooftop a fair distance away from both creatures, watching their movements and searching around for Jack. Luckily the culprit, whoever he or she was, failed to select a more camouflaged or fast acting method of terrorism. The small town, which held almost a small enough number of ponies to be called a village, appeared completely evacuated, though spectators still stood in shock and awe on the outskirts of the town. Jack was right; Ruby had no idea how far back in time she was, and what the reaction would be to a laser pistol. She needed to hide the device well when the need to use it arose.
The unicorn turned towards a new sound, one she couldn't describe. The spider had begun weaving a web, one string thick enough to stand on already connecting two buildings together. Slowly, the spider spun and weaved more string, and the scale of the web blocked the entire road. If the spider and the fly end up in a fight, the damage could start getting really serious, Ruby thought. We need to find who's behind this.
Deciding that everypony else seemed safe for now, Ruby kept her ears focused on any change from the creatures so she'd know if they moved, while turning the rest of her attention to what she thought was more crucial.
She looked all around the outskirts of town, finding many bystanders watching the giant bugs in awe and shock. She glanced at every single pony, looking for anything abnormal, only finding staring, dumbstruck faces.
Then, in response to sudden gasps and shouts, Ruby looked to her left to see a second giant fly, making its way towards a building to land on. Now three gruesome creatures invaded the area, and Ruby knew that either she needed to kill these things now and risk losing the culprit, or find him very soon.
She thought for a moment, then noticed that her field of view was limited from the building she stood on. She stood on one of the taller buildings in the town, and the high ground gave her a near complete view of the buildings and the outskirts beyond. She could see everything past the spider, down the road in the other direction, and behind the building, but the building across the street and her distance from it obscured the area past it, where she saw hints of trees, potential cover for a pony trying to hide. She examined the building, and saw no method of climbing to the roof, unlike this building where she'd used a ladder connected to the side. She ground her teeth, wishing she knew a teleportation spell, and backed up. If Jack failed to find the one behind this, she needed to, and fast. At the moment, they were lucky the creatures hadn't attacked anypony.
"This is gonna hurt," Ruby said to herself, taking deep breaths and shaking out her legs. She took another look at the spider and flies to ensure they weren't headed in her direction, then focused back on the distance she needed to cover in this leap. The edge of the roof across from her was raised slightly above the rest of the flat surface, so if she failed to make the jump completely, she had something that her hooves could easily grasp. If she failed to get close, however, only pavement or dirt waited for her below.
Ruby pushed hard with her hind legs, breaking into a full sprint. She gained as much momentum as possible, levitating her pistol at her side, and leapt into the air at the last possible moment.
Time seemed to slow as Ruby looked down at the ground, feeling her body soar through the air. She brought her gaze up and focused on her target, anxiety filling her with each inch in height that she dropped.
With a loud thud, she crashed into the side of the building, only her front hooves clearing the wall. She yelled out of agony from the impact of the hit, feeling a sharp pain in her chest, but pushed through the burning in her body and gained a grip on the raised edge. For a few moments, she simply hung there, recovering and breathing heavily, the pain in her chest flaring up with each inhale. She then ground her teeth and pulled up, getting high enough to swing a hind leg over and pull the rest of her body onto the roof, rolling on to her back. For a few moments, she merely panted, desperately hoping the pain in her chest would calm down, a wish that failed to come true. She rolled back over, the pain flaring up even more during the roll, and forced herself onto her hooves.
Stumbling to the far edge of the building, Ruby looked over, now with a clear view of some open field and trees she couldn't see before. At first she saw nothing, but she looked farther out, towards the outskirts of a forest, and when she squinted her eyes tight, looking out in the distance, she saw something against the bushes that didn't look right. A small box, made of metal. Her eyes couldn't see any more detail, however that gave her all she needed. Though she wanted to go after the culprit now, in her present condition she stood no chance. In case anypony in the outskirts managed to see her while their eyes were glued to the giant bugs partially destroying their town, she hid her laser pistol close to her face, and pointed straight up. The unicorn knew no signaling spells, but her horn glowed from levitating the pistol, so she could pretend. Ruby began firing shots straight up into the air, hopefully drawing Jack's attention before drawing the attention of the pony they hoped to catch.
()
Jack and Wing sprinted back into town, their eyes on the lookout for anything suspicious. So far the town proved to be empty, all the residents keeping what was hopefully a safe distance.
"A third one just showed up, so they can't be far," Jack said. He and Wing bound through the streets, weaving this way and that, checking every hiding place, every alley between buildings, every window. Nothing.
Wing's ears perked up upon hearing a new sound. He turned his head, seeing flashing red beams pulsing up in the air from a rooftop. He slowed himself to a halt and shouted out to Jack. "What's that?"
Jack spun himself round when he no longer saw Wing next to him, and looked towards where Wing pointed. "Ruby has something to tell us, come on!" he replied.
The pair zoomed off again, this time back from where they came, closer to the bugs. Jack ducked in between two buildings, coming around to the other side and backing up until he could see the red unicorn. She had done as he asked; he couldn't actually see the laser pistol firing, which meant if anyone happened to come by, they wouldn't either.
"Ruby!" Jack called out, waving until he received her attention. "What's up?"
"Edge of the forest behind you, looks like some sort of metal box! Probably the device!" Ruby said, ceasing fire. "I hurt myself getting on this building, so I'm stuck. I'll hit the bugs if things get too crazy."
"Gotcha, but hey, don't take out the bugs unless you have to!" Jack told her. "We're going to try and reverse the effect first!"
Ruby was surprised by the new plan, but gave no disagreement. "Let's get this pony!"
Jack made his way across the field towards the forest outside of town, and Wing followed close behind. Ruby watched them for a moment before the corner of her eye caught pegasi flying high up above. They flew in a tight formation, approaching the town fast.
One pegasus, with a black coat and bright blue mane, swooped down to the same rooftop Ruby stood on. He motioned up to the others with a hoof, and they took a new formation, heading for the bugs. "You look hurt, let me get you to safety," the stallion said, noticing Ruby's injured state.
"And who are you?" Ruby questioned.
"I'm a lieutenant in Equestria's emergency response police, you have no need to be afraid," the pegasus replied.
"Oh yeah, well I'm…" Ruby had no idea what time she was in, and struggled to think up something that would give her authority over this stallion. "…a captain," she finished, deciding to just be ambiguous. "And I'm not going anywhere."
"Please, things are too dangerous in the town. Our squad is attacking the giant creatures to try and bring them down."
"You're what?" Ruby spun away from the lieutenant to see the other pegasi moving in to hit the spider, who still worked away on its web. A couple pegasi smacked into the arachnid, knocking it off the half formed web, but the third pegasus met a leg, and was forcefully thrown to the side. Seeing more pegasi coming, the spider turned itself around and began leaving town.
"I can't believe you're that stupid," Ruby said. "Nopony was anywhere near the spider. Now it's heading for all the ponies that evacuated. Good job getting its attention."
Ponies standing on the outskirts of town screamed, running away and trampling over each other. Despite its massive size, the spider's legs made it agile. It skittered out of town, trying to avoid more pegasi attacks, its self-preservation instincts still intact. However, the change in size also changed the appearance of ponies in the spider's eye; they were no longer predators, they were prey.
"Get out of here now, if the flies come around I can handle them, you've done enough," Ruby commanded.
"We are handling the situation just fine, everypony will be safe, this crazy spider will just need more of a beating." the pegasus challenged. "My team is the best of the best, we'll be able to-"
The stallion's words halted when one of his team members swooped underneath the spider to save a mare cowering underneath. Before he flew out to safety, a spider's leg caught him and the mare, and the spider slammed both into the ground. His jaw dropped at the sight, and he just stared at his teammate and the mare, who didn't move to get up.
"Stop standing around and get your ponies out of the way!" Ruby yelled. "I'll handle this."
"Our team can't fight a creature that strong…" the stallion said, shaking his head. "We're not trained for this, we need unicorn backup. What are we going to-"
"You're going to get your team out of the way right now! I'm your unicorn backup!"
The stallion was too shocked to even ask what sort of captain Ruby was. He flew away, signaling for his team to stop, and they touched down over where the mayor and other ponies had fled to escape the charging spider.
Ruby raised her laser pistol, looking to make sure no stragglers from the response team were around to see, and quickly fired off two shots, putting the pistol back down to hide. The shots whizzed through the air at a lightning fast pace, and plunged into the spider's back. Ruby didn't need to try too hard to aim. Flesh burned, and Ruby thought back to her burnt cheek from a few hours ago, but these shots hurt the spider much more severely. Managing to hit some vital body parts, the spider collapsed, never to move again.
Ruby sunk down against the edge of the roof, pain still flaring in her chest with each breath, and she sighed in relief. The flies were yet to pay anypony any mind, so for now the situation was up to Jack.
()
The metal box-like object emitted a loud hum that Jack heard as he ran closer to the edge of the forest. He picked up speed when he saw a pony emerge from the bushes, making some adjustments to dials Jack couldn't see from this side. It was a male pegasus, with a yellow coat and green mane and tail. Jack looked at Wing and nodded his head upwards. Wing understood the message and flew out of sight.
When the pony looked up and saw Jack, he quickly stuffed his hooves into a bush, as if reaching to pull something out. Jack kept charging, then froze when the culprit pulled out a pistol type object that looked very similar to Ruby's.
Wing pummeled into the stallion from above, sending both of them to the ground. A shot fired out from the pistol, which had buttons on the sides to allow use with hooves. The shot hit no target, but the stallion kept his grip on the weapon, despite the tackle.
"Watch out Wing, that thing will kill you!" Jack yelled.
"Drop it! Now!" Wing had the stallion pinned to the ground, and the two struggled against each other's muscle. The stallion dropped the pistol, but only to more aggressively attack Wing. Both flailed with their front hooves, trying to land kicks, most missing, some hitting from each of them.
"Hold him, Wing, I'm going to look for a reverse switch!" Jack hurriedly examined the main side of the device. There was a panel displaying values Jack didn't understand, but his experience gave him insight on the basics of the machine. Energy from the machine constantly supplied the giant creatures; the change was sustained by the machine, not permanent. He quickly turned the dials down, and the incessant hum stopped. Out in the distance, the two giant flies and the dead giant spider started to shrink back to normal sizes.
"No!" the stallion shouted. He landed a powerful kick to the side of Wing's face, knocking the grey pegasus off and to the ground. While Wing was stunned, he rolled over and grabbed the pistol, raising it before Jack had time to react.
Two shots fired, both straight into Jack's chest. He screamed in agony for a split second before collapsing to the ground.
"Jack!" Wing reached out with a hoof, his mind still stunned from the punch, and struggled to get up. Before he succeeded, the other pegasus managed to spin around and sit down between Wing and Jack, front hooves holding the pistol out towards Wing's face. Though Wing was still coming to, he knew to stop moving, but his heart pounded in fear and worry. He'd just met this stallion, but at this moment felt more attached to him than any other pony in the world. A tear trickled down his face; his heart felt like it had been torn out of his chest. How could this happen? So soon after they met? How did any of this even happen? He stared past the laser pistol towards the panting stallion's face, his eyes pleading for mercy.
"See that?" the stallion said, smiling. "I just killed your buddy. I was just having a bit of fun, then you tried to screw everything up. Now you'll pay for it." The stallion chuckled. "Don't worry, we'll all be dying soon anyways."
Wing was about to clench his eyes shut, not wanting to watch the strange weapon as it ended his life, when after a loud whack, the stallion flopped over, picking up dust after crashing into the grass.
Behind the stallion, Jack stood. Eyes open, nose breathing, and no sign of any wound on his chest. "Looks like a buck with the hind legs can knock out a pony." Jack grinned.
Wing just stared. His ripped out heart wanted to reenter his body, but refused to accept that what he saw was real. Too many things beyond his comprehension already occurred today, and now, Jack stood, alive. "How… he killed you…"
Jack's smile disappeared. All the events since the flash outside his window grabbing his attention caught up to him. He just wanted to pay back Wing, give him a night he wouldn't forget, for in another time Wing paid the ultimate sacrifice on Jack's behalf when they both could have lived. Now he suddenly saw the trouble Jack put Wing through today, and his guilt returned. "I… have a lot to explain…" Jack said.
"Stop right there!" a female voice called out, taking Jack and Wing's attention. Landing in front of them was a purple mare, and Jack looked in amazement. The second new alicorn he'd met since he got here. Another princess. However, this one looked familiar. He realized it had to be the same mare he spoke to during the isolated time blend, back in the time before. Where'd she get the wings? "You are under arrest for terrorism, and breaking in to my caslte."
Jack planned to reply until he realized that this alicorn just arrived on the scene, and the picture she saw was two stallions she didn't recognize standing next to alien technology, with a third stallion unconscious on the ground. "Wait, we're not the ones you're after, it's just the knocked out one. We stopped the mayhem he was trying to cause."
"Don't play games with me," the alicorn replied. "You have no idea how much trouble you're in. There are only four ponies in Equestria that are allowed to know where that device came from. You're going to talk. A lot."
Jack sighed. "I'd really rather not tour another princess's prison cells," he said. He saw this purple mare showed no intent of backing down, and sighed. He'd have to wait to try and explain. Jack sat down, then put his front hooves up in the air.
"That won't be necessary Twilight, they're innocent."
The purple mare stopped moving closer to Jack, and looked in surprise at the new arrival. "Celestia? What are you doing here?"
"As soon as I sent you the letter saying somepony might have broken into the vault, I flew here as well. But while I'm at it, I guess I get to see an old friend, too."