Torchwood: Equestria

Chapter 10

Wake Up Call

Location Unknown

50th Century

Attached to a roaming asteroid, a small space station made a home for several dozen ponies, far out of sensor range of any planet. The station had little to offer; it was designed for getting jobs done and hiding, not providing entertainment. Even the food generators gave little flavor to what they dispensed, and the rest of the station made use of the extra power.

A shuttle craft, piloted by two male ponies, flew into communication range of the station, and sent the code signal to be granted access. A shuttle bay door on the side of the station opened up, and the shuttle carefully directed their landing, no more than a soft click of locking mechanisms echoing through the bay as they landed.

Guards stood by as the shuttle doors opened, and two earth ponies stepped out, a sealed case held up by gravity lifters floating between them. Their identifications were checked, the case was scanned, and only after the shuttle was scanned as well were the ponies allowed to leave the bay.

The two stepped out, keeping the case between them, and walked down the bright hallway. An eerie silence surrounded them that made both ponies slightly uncomfortable. It was an unnatural silence. Even in the far reaches of space, normally the low hum of engines or generators snuck into ears, creating a pleasant white noise that always pervaded the background. Here, however, generators only ran when necessary, and at the present moment, none generated power. Far out from any civilization, this was the truest silence any creature could experience.

Eventually, the two reached a set of sliding doors, locked and guarded by two more ponies. Those ponies unlocked the doors for them, and they passed through into a room with much dimmer lighting than the outside. The floor was a black carpet, the walls a dark red. There was just enough light to see in the room, and the objects inside. Directly across from the door rested a glass desk, and various glass shelves lined the walls. Behind the desk, a male unicorn sat in a chair, looking at a screen on his desk until the other ponies entered. The stallion had an orange coat, and his mane was short and dark red.

The unicorn didn't say a word, he simply nodded to acknowledge the others' presence. The two brought forth the case and gently lowered it on to the desk, deactivating the gravity lifters. The unicorn behind the desk performed the lock combination with his magic, then opened the case, discovering several sealed bags of blood.

"How fairs our friend?" the unicorn asked, his voice deep, yet smooth.

"We believe he's dead, sir," one of the ponies replied. "He obtained the required amount, then tried to continue for sport. Police caught him, and his body has gone off the grid. We know he didn't leave the planet."

"I'll confirm if he's dead when I go to sleep tonight," the unicorn said, closing the case. "That's his own fault for sticking around." His magic lifted the case behind him, and he set it down on the floor before standing up. "Thank you, gentlecolts, for bringing this to me. Your loyalty is recognized, and you may now leave. The end will come."

The two stallions placed a hoof to their chest simultaneously, and responded in unison. "There shall only be the void."

The ponies turned and left the room, and the orange unicorn sat back in his chair, letting out a sigh of content.

()

Earth

Equestria

2 months after the Manehattan incident

With the rest of her family asleep, Granny Smith decided to go out on her own after going to the fridge for a late night drink and finding no tea. The convenience store stayed open late, so she wrapped a scarf around her neck and left her farm, her old bones taking their time to get moving. This would be a long walk.

Though she left most of the walking to her younger family members now, she still enjoyed getting outside, seeing the farm as well as the rest of Ponyville. In the chilled night air, all the apple trees in their orchard rested, waiting for sunlight's return so that they could once again soak in the energy needed to keep producing their crop.

Crickets chirping in the distance was the only sound Granny Smith could hear. They played a pleasant tune, and the green earth pony started humming a tune of her own, an old favorite of hers. The moon shone brightly in the sky, giving plenty of light for her to make her way down the long dirt path into Ponyville's town center.

Eventually, her hooves moved from packed dirt to lush grass, and she walked among the buildings and shops. Everything was closed and quiet, except the convenience store out in the distance, the lights shining out through the windows.

She kept on walking, until something came bursting out in front of her from behind a building. She reeled back in surprise, and had no idea what strange creature dashed in front of her. Whatever it was, it was in a hurry, and the thing bolted past her, running off towards the other side of town.

"What the…" Granny stood dumbfounded, trying to make sense of what just happened.

"Excuse me." Granny turned her head back to find a young, handsome, dark blue stallion standing in front of her. He was panting for breath, and from the air, a light grey pegasus, also young and fit as a royal guard member, landed next to him. "Have you seen a big blue thing running on two legs, head looks kind of like a fish?" the blue stallion asked her.

"Oh, uh, I sure did, just now," Granny replied. She pointed with a hoof. "He went thatta way, sonny. What in tarnation was that thing?"

"Don't worry about it ma'am, he's a friend of ours," the blue stallion assured her. "He just likes to have us chase him sometimes." He nudged the grey pegasus, who turned and took off to head for the creature. "Have a nice evening."

The earth pony then also turned and went sprinting after whatever it was Granny Smith had seen. The mare looked on at the two ponies for a few moments, then shrugged. "Don't know why y'all are playin a chasin' game at night, could trip and hurt yourselves," she said to herself. She then continued making her way to the convenience store, still wanting some good quality tea.

()

Wing's powerful flaps through the sky were audible enough to hear from twenty feet away. He pushed himself to catch up to their 'friend', as so called by Jack. Both of them knew that was a lie.

Ahead of Wing and Jack, the clifad, whose name Torchwood discovered a couple weeks ago, ran as fast as he could. If there was any water nearby, he could escape faster than any of his pursuers would be able to follow. At the moment, however, he was vulnerable. His air lungs struggled to keep up with the rest of his body; he gasped with each breath, wishing he'd gone running on land more.

He chose to simply keep running rather than look back, not wanting to waste any time. He patted on one of his black jumpsuit pockets, relieved to feel the contents still inside.

The clifad really began believing that he was in the clear, until a flash of red light appeared out of thin air in front of him. When the flash cleared, he saw a familiar, red face. He recognized her by the scar on her cheek, but didn't look at her for long. Her magic shot out half a dozen glowing discs in between them. The clifad tried to turn away in time, but failed, and felt the full effect of the devices as they went off with a loud POP.

The devices released a blinding light, and he found himself unable to see anything but white, his ears ringing from the noise. His ears began recovering before his eyes, in time for him to hear the powerful flap of wings behind him.

Wing pummeled into the clifad's back, knocking him into the ground. "Got him down," Wing said, the message transmitting through to the still far away Torchwood members. The pegasus dragged him into a space between two nearby buildings, to draw him out of sight of any ponies who awoke at the sound of the flash bangs.

As the clifad's sight came to, he was thrust against the side of a building, and allowed to sit in a comfortable position. He raised one of his scaled hands, rubbing his head to try and ease the throbbing pain that pulsed through it.

Jack slowed his run to a walk, and turned down the alley, stopping in front of the clifad. "Good evening, Mr. Vax," he began. "Now, as I recall we had a very specific deal." He paced back and forth in front of the alien, who still rubbed his head. "You can stay in the hills far out of town, or reside in any body of water at least six feet deep while you make repairs on your ship," Jack continued. "But, this is a level five planet, just barely at that. We can't have you out in public, especially not when you're trying to kidnap a pony."

The clifad shook his head and let out a cry of anger. "I'm not asking for a lot, just one creature," he replied. "You're such an underdeveloped species, no one has ever seen you before. One would be worth millions!"

"One is too many, Mr. Vax," Jack asserted. "Now, this is your last warning. We are the authority that deals with all alien life on or around this planet. If you break our rules again, you will regret it." He stood tall in front of the slouching clifad, and Wing stood nearby, glaring down at the fish-like creature.

The clifad's anger slowly turned into a smirk. "You know, I've had enough of you," he said. "You think you know so much about what lies beyond this world. I don't have to deal with a species that hasn't even landed on their moon yet." His hand slowly climbed up his lap to a pocket near his stomach. "I bet you've never even seen one of these!"

He whipped out a small laser pistol from his pocket, quickly taking aim at Ruby, who stood a few feet behind Jack. He would have been able to charge the weapon and fire before any of the Torchwood members in front of him reacted, but he became distracted by hearing the sound of a charge before he even pressed the button. A sound from above him.

Slowly looking up, the clifad found Cazan above him, reaching down over the roof with a laser pistol in his claw, one much bigger than his own, and pointed directly at his head. "What did he mean by 'one of these', Jack?" Cazan asked.

"I think he expected us to not know what a laser pistol was," Jack shouted back. "Kind of a stupid thought. It's like he didn't hear anything I said."

The clifad gave a nervous smile, and dropped the pistol, placing his hands above his head. "Oh, that pistol's broken," he stammered. "I was just joking around, come on!"

"I bet you were." Jack turned his head back to Ruby and gave a nod. Ruby gained a magical hold of the clifad's pistol and levitated it back to her. "She's going to keep that, and I'm going to repeat myself," Jack said. He stepped closer, all the way until he was an inch away from the alien's face. "This planet may just barely be level five, but it's got an authority to deal with anything beyond its own world. That's us. You will not come out in public, you will not take a pony with you. If you come to this town again, we will know. If you try to go to any other town on this planet, we will know. If you try to teleport a pony on to your ship as you leave, we will know. And you won't like what happens."

The clifad lost his fake smile, unable to hold it up any longer. "My ship should be repaired in a week."

"Good," Jack said, backing off. "By the way, a member of our so-called 'underdeveloped' species lived on the moon for a thousand years with no space suit. Give that a try."

()

Back at headquarters, the Torchwood team bumped hoofs and claws together, celebrating another successful mission.

Jack couldn't be more pleased with the new Torchwood team. Over the past two months, they'd successfully handled everything the universe tried to throw at them. Some issues proved more challenging and dangerous than others, but Torchwood handled everything from helping a colony of sentient bugs migrating from another planet, to taking down adversaries wishing to harm the planet for profit or their own needs. The team worked well together, growing to know each other better and like each other very quickly. Of course, Jack felt close to one team member in particular. Only an absolute emergency coming from the message deliverer or Torchwood's new sensors could disrupt their usual Friday outing.

Cazan felt like a new griffon when helping out this team. Though the secret police required teamwork in a sense, there were many times and scenarios where members had to work completely alone on an operation in order to accomplish it. It's for that reason that only the youngest, most capable griffons stay on the force. Even in his older age, Cazan still kept himself in shape, and felt like a monster compared to his fellow doctors, who only worked out enough to stay healthy. On this team, his age didn't matter, and he got to relive his days of action while still practicing medicine. No mission came without some scrapes and bruises, in fact, after laughing and celebrating over the mission for a few minutes, Cazan had Wing sitting on his medical table. Wing felt some pain in his shoulder from tackling the clifad so quickly, and Cazan began examining for any serious damage.

One thing bothered Cazan slightly; he was unable to share his new medical instruments with other medical professionals. All his new tools came from Ruby. Torchwood received around one assignment a week that needed their special skills, sometimes two, or three on a busy week. The rest of the time, Ruby worked every day, sometimes from before Celestia's sun rose in the sky until after it set, on machines and devices to help. She no longer worked off of nothing but the scraps of technology left behind by others. Now, some metal shipments from Equestria's mines, as well as other various supplies, were purchased and diverted to Twilight's castle. Ruby was grateful for the large variety of training she'd received in the engineering field before she became a ship's first officer, and eventually captain of her own. If she didn't know from memory how to make something, she'd improvise on the spot.

Now, all over Equestria, sensors were buried in the ground, a secret to everyone except Torchwood, princess Twilight, and princess Celestia. These sensors detected energy readings, anything abnormal, and recorded it. These took quite some time to install, and they'd only finished a couple weeks ago, but now Torchwood could find problems and handle them before a letter even came to report. This had been her main project, but Torchwood also now carried a small variety of gadgets. Improved earpieces than the ones she'd made before, flash bangs, a liquid version of Twilight's memory wipe spell, more similar to what Jack worked with on his own world, and several different laser pistols, a new one added to their collection today. Lastly, over the past two months Ruby repaired several of the broken parts on the teleportation machine, hoping with enough time here that it could lead to a way back home.

Home now felt like a distant memory for the youngest member of the group. Wing still played along when Ruby talked to him about going home, but at this point, Wing didn't know what he wanted. His torn emotions originated from the dark blue stallion in the next room.

The first night Wing met Jack, his entire life changed. He instantly fell for Jack's charm, stayed with him that night, then teleported sixty years back in time and discovered aliens were real. Since then, he'd taken on a little bit of every role on the team, learning the basics in each area to help out. His strength from royal guard training helped greatly in many situations, and he learned the basics of both working with technology and nursing. All the while, his affection had only grown for Jack. No matter how tough the mission got, there Jack appeared, ready to solve the mystery, stop the adversary, save your life.

Jack, in the most literal way possible, was the impossibly perfect stallion to meet. When Wing met up with his friend, she'd said it herself. The only way Wing would find a pony better than a fellow guard member was if some perfect, gorgeous stallion appeared in Equestria from another dimension. He imagined how interesting it would be to tell his friend she was right. His smile, his commanding presence the moment he entered any room, his jokes that always managed to make Wing blush. He truly was perfect, and at this point, Wing didn't know how he could return home without Jack coming with him. He felt more affection towards Jack than any other pony that came before.

After Cazan assured Wing there were no issues with his shoulder, he walked out to look at the magical letter interceptor, and stared into the pink mist inside. Only one thing about Jack troubled Wing. He couldn't place a hoof on exactly what the issue was. These past two months, the same five words had played over and over in his head.

"I won't lose you again."

Again. What in the world did he mean by again? Not only could Wing not think of a time where Jack lost him, how could you lose the same pony more than once? Wing cherished every moment he spent with Jack, but he noticed… something about Jack every time they were alone. The look in his eye, the squeeze of his embrace, the sighs he let escape from his lungs. He loved the amount of affection Jack showered him with, yet at the same time, he felt Jack held back a secret from him. Jack carried a lot of pain from his past; that much Wing knew. He'd listened to stories Jack told about his own world, the events he went through, how he came to be unable to die. But every time Jack looked at him, Wing sensed that there was a story he was afraid to tell.

Wing shivered out of his mental state when a soft kiss made contact with his ear. He looked over in surprise, finding a smiling Jack Harkness next to him. "Sleep?" he suggested.

The pegasus grinned. "You bet, I'm exhausted," he replied, shrugging his thoughts off for another time. He didn't know how to approach Jack and ask about his fear, but he knew that for now it wasn't worth ruining anything they had.

Jack and Wing made their way towards the stairs leading out of headquarters, and Ruby called out. "Don't you two sleep in! I'll be up bright and early working on more projects."

Jack laughed. "Wake us if there's a crisis, and get some sleep yourself," he said back.

The two stallions let the door shut behind them, and Cazan stepped out from a quick trip into the medical room. "Ruby, is that scanner device you talked about ready yet?"

"Oh! Forgot about that," Ruby said, looking around the room for a moment. "Ah!" Her magic teleported a black device with a grip that a claw could hold. At the end of the grip the scanner equipment rested, and behind that a display screen was switched off. "Tap twice on the top to turn on the scanner. I don't know if any of the medical stuff on it still works, that's for you to find out. I just found it last week and managed to get it to turn on again. Beyond that, I don't have the medical knowledge to know how it works."

"That's fine, thank you," Cazan said, taking the device in his claw as Ruby let go of her magical hold. "I'll let you know if it works. I want to try a couple things, then I'm off to bed."

"Same," Ruby replied, yawning. "As much as I want to build more stuff, the love birds have one thing right. Sometimes you just need to sleep in."

"Indeed." Cazan yawned back, and he at last realized how tired he was. "You know what? How about we both put off our work till tomorrow? We can walk up together, and if we go to bed now, we're sure to be up before Jack and Wing come down."

Ruby took a look at her most recent project, back to Cazan, then nodded. "I like the way you think, Cazan. I think I'll just start making mistakes if I stay up. Let's go."

Both put down the things they'd get back to in the morning, and headed up through the dark, quiet castle to their rooms. They wished each other goodnight before entering their separate bedrooms, and they gladly threw themselves onto their bed for some much needed rest.

()

Location Unknown

50th Century

The orange unicorn had a thorn in the side of his plans. These preliminary attacks were merely games, ways to build up fear, have fun at other ponies' expense. The success or failure of these missions made no difference in the ultimate plan, which required more time to prepare. However, his concern came from the amount of games getting stopped on the planet he cared about most, the planet that held more importance than any other. Something, someone, or somepony was stopping his actions on Earth. There were too many failed games of his to be coincidence. He needed to find out whoever was on to him. Once he knew the culprit's location, one time would be all he needed, then there'd be no place this meddler could run.

He pressed a button on his desk, and several seconds later, a green stallion entered the room. "Accelerate our work at the hospital," he ordered the green pony. "I'm going to catch a fly."

()

Earth

Equestria

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Ruby had woken up the next morning refreshed, and still before the sunrise as she preferred. She'd made herself a small breakfast, joined in the kitchen by her fellow early bird Cazan a few minutes later. They'd both returned to work in Torchwood Headquarters, until something gave her reason to now be standing in front of Jack's bedroom door, knocking as loud as possible with her hoof.

It took a few tries, but at last Jack flung the door open, his eyes alert. Wing wasn't long in following him. "What is it?" Jack asked, urgency in his voice.

"Sensors near Phillydelphia went crazy a just a few moments ago. We've got a crisis, I'm waking you up."