Torchwood: Equestria- Parallel Loose Ends

Galaxy O, Sector 3
46th Century

“Where are you going?”

Nicole bit her lip, wanting to answer Daniel's question, but under orders not to until her mission was complete. “I can't say,” was all she said in reply.

Given a few hours to rest and prepare, Nicole called the Wanderer crew together in one of the space station's lounges. They sat in a circle on comfortable bean bags, all except Nicole enjoying a small alcoholic beverage. When she was done here, Nicole would be starting her mission, so she avoided the alcohol and went with a cup of hot tea.

“The admirals from my trial have briefed me on what they know. They might have a way of finding Ruby, and they want me to do this mission alone. It's complicated, I can understand why they only want one of us.”

“Well, if any of us can find the captain and bring her back, you can,” Rufus assured her. “I've had good captains and I've had good commanders above me, but never seemed to get both at the same time until the Wanderer.”

Daniel and Luke nodded in agreement, and Nicole thanked them for their appreciation. She stared at the spoon in her tea cup as her magic spun it, around and around, stirring for no reason but to try and calm herself. “I just hope she's alright, wherever she is.”

“You'll bring her back, commander,” Luke said, giving her a warm grin. “But hey, let us in on the story when you return, alright?”

Nicole laughed. “They said I could tell you all what happened once I get back, so I'll be sure to.”

**

Nicole hung up her uniform in her room, then made her way back down to the Secret Zone. The few hours of break had allowed all the facts she'd been told to sink in, and things started making sense. Wearing a uniform from the future into the past might have consequences; though unlikely it was best to be safe.

She entered a different room of the Secret Zone this time, this one well lit with white lights adorning the ceiling. There was no furniture, the walls and floor both a barren white. The room was usually used for training exercises or testing experiments. Now, it served as a secluded place to send a pony through time. The five admirals stood waiting with the time agent, who held some sort of device in the air with his magic.

“Commander, what I have here is a vortex manipulator,” he said upon seeing Nicole. “This will allow you to travel into the past. The numbers I asked you to memorize earlier will make sense once you see it.”

Nicole moved closer and examined the device. It was mostly black, with two rows of blue numbers lit up on one side. The vortex manipulator was designed to fit around a foreleg, much like tools and weaponry for earth ponies and pegasi.

“The first row is for spacial location,” the time agent explained. “That gets you to a certain place in the universe. The second row is for the time you arrive.” He held out the vortex manipulator towards Nicole, and she slipped it onto her left foreleg. “Now, there are more complicated features that you don't need to worry about learning, but they're still there, so don't change anything on the device unless you're coming back here. Use the memorized numbers. Once you've completed your investigation on the research facility, we're giving you a week to try and find your captain. If you don't find her, come back, and I promise that if you complete your mission successfully, we'll continue helping you track her down.”

Admiral Hura approached Nicole, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “Remember, commander, if you don't find her, this was not your fault,” she said. “You were dealing with a pony with knowledge and tech beyond any of us. Good luck.”

Nicole nodded, appreciating the words of kindness. “Thank you, Admiral,” she replied, then looked down towards the vortex manipulator, coordinates plugged in for her and ready to launch.

“I've set it for you to arrive late at night, you should have minimal interference in the facility,” the time agent told Nicole. “If you do encounter anypony, you have full authority to defend yourself.”

Nicole took a deep breath, sitting down so she could hold up her vortex manipulator and activate it with her other hoof. “How's this gonna feel?” she asked.

“It'll daze you for sure, but hopefully not too bad. Everypony responds differently.”

For a moment, her hoof shook above the button, but she steadied it, focusing on the mission. A pony bent on some sort of destruction was on the loose. He'd taken her captain. This mission would help track down Ruby, and bring this crazed stallion to justice.

With one last moment of pause, she slammed down her hoof on the vortex manipulator.

**

Earth
Phillydelphia
21st Century

Nicole's head seemed to be spinning in circles after she pressed the button. All she saw was a flash of light, blinding her as the sound of an electrical crack filled her ears. When the light and sound faded, intense dizziness overtook her as her body, and though the light was gone she still found it difficult to see, like a massive camera flash had hit her spot on. She sat down and rubbed her temple, trying to regain her senses.

Her defensive instinct managed to push through her confused state. Her ears perked up to a new noise, this one hoof steps rushing towards her. Pain still racked her head, but she tensed, hearing a young male voice shout. “It's a unicorn! She's got something on her foreleg!”

Planting down her front hooves and shifting her weight to them, Nicole pushed her hind legs off the ground, spinning around for a kick to the stallion rushing towards her. He dodged, but bumped hard into something, and she heard the sound of several glass objects falling and shattering on the floor.

Though she was coming to, it wasn't soon enough to turn around again, and the stallion grappled her from behind, locking her forelegs by curling his own around them, then pulling her to the floor. She flailed and kicked, but the stallion held fast, and her heart sank as she heard more hoof steps approaching. Why did she have to be one of the few to struggle with time travel? Her tiny moment of haziness cost her dearly. If she couldn't get out of the stallion's grip, the admirals back at the space station would be missing two officers instead of one. She had a stun spell ready to try and fight back any others, but couldn't get her horn pointed at the pony holding her down.

“You, you work with him, don't you?” the stallion below her said. “How do you disable the bomb?”

“Let me go, please, I don't know what bomb you're talking about,” she responded, hoping a plea may buy her time. Her eyes got their full use back, and she looked up to see a dark blue earth pony coming around in front of her. Her sight returning, she looked around the room, seeing what definitely looked like a research facility. The lighting was dim, and counters and shelves were scattered everywhere, all sorts of papers and equipment stacked on top of them.

“Wait, that's a...” she heard the blue stallion in front of her say as he stopped. “Don't go anywhere, she's got a vortex manipulator!”

The pony moved right up to her face, close enough for his darker blue mane to brush against her forehead as he stared at her. “Listen, you want to live? Give me that vortex manipulator right now.”

Nicole bashed her head against the stallion, sending him reeling back, then hit him with a stun spell. She tightened her abdomen, then swung her hind legs towards her head, moving into a backwards somersault and slipping free of the other pony's grasp. She regained her footing quickly, spinning around to take on the third set of hoofsteps she'd heard from behind her. Her eyes found a red unicorn mare, holding a laser pistol at her, but with eyes wide in shock. It took Nicole no time at all to recognize the pony before her, and she returned the surprised gaze.

“Ruby!”

“Nicole!”

The blue earth pony had regained his footing and come up from behind Nicole, stepping between her and her captain. “Great, you're not an enemy, there's a twist. Now give me your vortex manipulator!” He yelled directly into her face, a tone of ferocity and urgency behind his voice. Though Nicole stood in the vicinity of her captain, who looked completely unharmed, this stallion scared her.

“But who-”

“Do it!” she heard Ruby call out.

Nicole didn't know the usual attitude of the stallion in front of her, but she knew Ruby. Ruby never shouted unless something was urgent. She had no idea who the other ponies were, but if she trusted anypony, it was her captain. Without a second thought, she slid off the device and passed it over. The earth pony hastily slid it onto his hoof, adjusting the coordinates on the device.

“Fifteen seconds, if I don't leave now we all die!” Nicole heard an older voice call out. The voice came from farther back in the massive room, seeming to be an entire floor of a building with no walls to separate anything. She couldn't see where the voice came from. “What's happening?!”

“Toss it to me!” the stallion said back. From the other end of the room, Nicole watched some sort of small object arc through the air, and land in his front hooves. When she looked at it, she realized what bomb the pony who grappled her had been talking about. The stallion gripped the bomb in his mouth, then activated the vortex manipulator, disappearing.

**

“Jack!”

Wing pushed Nicole out of the way to leap towards where Jack sat moments ago, reaching out a hoof. “No!”

Ruby rushed to Wing's side and wrapped a hoof around him before he broke down. “He knows what he's doing,” Ruby assured him. “He's going to come back.”

“Could he come back to life from an explosion?” Wing replied, finding the thought impossible. “Even with his ability...”

Nicole stood back in silence, not wanting to interrupt the moment. It was clear Ruby had made some allies out of ponies from the time she got pulled back to. She was in utter disbelief that she'd found her captain the moment she traveled through time, but with the possibility that Ruby just lost somepony close to her, she held back her excitement.

“What was that thing?” Cazan asked, joining the others. Nicole now saw the source of the fourth voice to be a griffon rather than a pony. Unknown to Nicole, only moments before she arrived the griffon was on his way out of the hospital to save it from the explosion.

From behind Cazan, a large flash appeared from thin air, just like when Nicole had arrived. After the bright light dissipated, Jack appeared in the room once more. He didn't appear standing up; instead he popped into existence on his back, panting for breath.

“You're alive!” Wing instantly broke from Ruby's caress and tackled Jack, making the blue stallion burst into laughter. Wing hugged him tightly until Jack managed to roll him off, still laughing.

“Hey, you know I can't die, what's the big deal?” he said, grinning. “You were probably thinking that exploding would be an exception. While you're wrong, I don't care for getting blown up.”

Ruby beamed at Jack's success in getting rid of the bomb, now with no one harmed rather than the choice between one death or many. Out of curiosity, however, a question sat in her mind. “The bomb... what did you do with it?”

“It's very tricky to troubleshoot a vortex manipulator to bring you somewhere that would kill you,” Jack replied. “Like space, or the center of a star, or in my case, at the edge of this planet's atmosphere.” He held up his hoof, showing off the vortex manipulator. “Used to own one of these, and trust me when I say I learned from the best on how to time travel. Went way up above ground and about 300 years back to avoid too many witnesses. Let go of the bomb and came back here before I hit the ground. There might be talk of a random fiery blast in the sky, written in some old pony history book.”

Ruby shook her head and chuckled. Jack never ceased to impress her. “Well, good to have you back,” she said. “And Cazan!”

The griffon looked back at her, a smile on his face as well as the adrenaline in his system began to fade away. “Good that you never left,” she told him. “I never want to see you have to make a decision like that again.”

“And I never want to be in that position again,” Cazan replied, laughing as both Wing and Ruby came up to hug their fellow team member. All of them felt giddy and silly, their minds pushing away the horror of the past minute.

Jack stood up and approached Nicole, slipping the vortex manipulator off his foreleg and pushing it across the floor to the unicorn. “Thanks,” he said. “You just saved a life.” He held out a foreleg towards the unicorn.

Nicole blushed, and nodded, using her magic to slide the device back on to her own leg. Once back on and secure, she shook Jack's hoof with her own, silently thanking this stallion for helping keep Ruby safe. “Glad I could help,” she said.

Jack turned his head back to the hugging trio. “Hey, Ruby! Who's your time traveling friend?”

Ruby first thought Jack was making a joke, until the one happy portion of the moments before Jack took the bomb shot back into her head. “Nicole!” she shouted. She stumbled out of the hug, setting Wing and Cazan off balance for a moment, but they recovered without falling. She stared in disbelief, her friend and commander standing before her. “You're... how did you...”

“Long story,” Nicole replied with a shrug, several tears trickling down her face. She was really there. Right in front of her. A long scar on her cheek, which she'd have to ask about, but otherwise unharmed. Weeks of not even knowing whether she was alive, and now, one of the first ponies she met on her journey into the past. “We... we had no idea how to find you when you disappeared from the ship... the others will be so happy...” She sniffled, trying to fight her desire to just let loose a joyful crying fit. “Can I get in on all this hugging going on?”

Jack stood closer to Nicole than Ruby did at that moment, and pointed a hoof at himself, raising an eyebrow. “Do you mean with me? I'd be happy to-”

“Nicole, ignore this stallion as much as possible,” Ruby said, giving Jack a playful punch as she rushed past him.

“What? I was just trying to be nice!”

Ruby threw Nicole into a hug, both of them shedding some tears at the happiness of reunion. Neither spoke, they simply cherished the feeling of finding a dear friend again after so long. Wing and Cazan's hearts warmed when they calmed their own joy and looked at them, seeing that somepony from Ruby's time had come to find her.

Though Jack wanted nothing more than to celebrate their victory and Ruby's reunion, with the threat gone, there was still work to be done. “Sorry to interrupt, Nicole, was it?” he said. “But we were in the middle of a mission before you arrived, which actually brings up a confusing point... how in the world did you know Ruby would be here?”

Ruby and Nicole pulled away from each other, and realizing Nicole was new to her team members, Ruby quickly introduced Nicole as her first officer, then told Nicole the names of the other three.

“Actually... I didn't,” Nicole replied simply. “This is some impossible luck that I came here at this exact time.”

“Crazy things happen in the universe,” Jack told her. “I've seen things much, much crazier, to the point where I'd call this somewhat likely.”

“I was sent here on a mission of my own, with the chance to find my captain as payment,” Nicole explained. “Admirals from my time are working with these ponies called time agents from the future, trying to track down the pony who took Ruby off of our ship. They have bits and pieces of information on him, and found out this place was a research facility of his.”

This was promising news for the Torchwood team. Pieces were starting to come together, proving the former hunches that more than just one incident tied to this unknown orange stallion.

“Time agents, huh? I used to be one myself,” Jack mentioned. “I'll be interested to hear what information they have. Let's clear this place, then I'll show you what Ruby's been helping with while stranded in this time.”

Now certain they'd be undisturbed, the five searched the entire third floor of the hospital, inch by inch. Jack told Wing some stories about the time agency he once worked for in his own universe while they gathered paperwork together. Stacks of documents rested all over the place, and there was no point in reading in depth while still here. With a message to Twilight or Celestia, everything on this floor could be shipped to their headquarters, where the team could investigate in comfort.

Cazan explored the third floor on his own, keeping an eye out for any medical equipment he recognized. He tried discerning the contents of various vials and flasks, to no avail, and spent most of the time opening boxes and checking the contents. He passed any papers he found to Jack and Wing who were compiling all of it. He found some stoppers to seal flasks, allowing transport of them so he could study further, and also found several cases of syringes, seeming to contain the same liquids the flasks held. He hated to think of patients below this floor who possibly received injections from this insane pony.

While Ruby and Nicole caught up on time lost, more time for Ruby than for Nicole, thanks to the possibilities of time travel, the two mares found a ventilation shaft to crawl into and check for anything that might be causing the strange feeling of cold patients complained about. They reached several vertical drops, but luckily none of them extended too far down, allowing them to safely slide down into the vents of the second floor. To not wake patients, they lowered their conversation to a whisper, carefully crawling across the cold metal.

They traveled farther, seeing nothing but ordinary ventilation shafts. Grates were cut out on the bottom side of the vent above each room, and the two stopped to look down at patients each time they passed one, checking for anything abnormal. They discovered nothing of note until Ruby turned a corner at the far end of the building. Attached to the wall of the vent was a large, white hexagon, emitting a low hum.

Ruby approached with caution, motioning for Nicole to stop behind her. She reached out and waved a hoof in front of the device. Though nothing happened, she felt a breeze emanating from the device specifically rather than the vents usual flow of air.

“It's releasing some sort of clear gas,” Ruby said. “This must be what's causing the feeling of cold. Maybe the vivid dreams too.”

Not knowing of the magic lock on the bomb from earlier in the night, Nicole wrapped a magical grip around the device and tried to pull it off the vent wall. Ruby inhaled deeply in fear, but the object simply pulled off with a click, and the hum stopped.

“Well done,” Ruby complimented, letting go of her breath.

“Thanks,” Nicole replied. “Let's check the rest of the vents then stop crawling around in here.”

“Can't wait to get out, sounds like a plan,” Ruby told her first officer.

**

The main room of Torchwood headquarters once again felt cluttered, for the team confiscated every last item on the hospital's third floor and brought it back for study. The first day back, everyone just rested from the late night mission, and the day after reports came that the ventilation seemed fixed and the strange dreams had stopped. Ruby made a note to keep an eye out for any readings, smal or large, from that area, in case any hospital employees were involved and tried to start anything new. With any luck, however, the orange stallion they sought after, clearly in charge of the operation, would believe the hospital destroyed, or at least give up on it at this point. He'd receive much quicker offensive action if he tried to use that building again.

Nicole was astounded by the work Ruby and her new friends had accomplished. Growing up in a time where seeing an alien was nearly as common as seeing another pony made her never realize what life was like before pony kind was ready for the truth. She felt humbled to be assigned under Ruby's command, seeing how hard she worked. Even when stranded thousands of years out of her time, Nicole's captain still found ways to help others, putting discovery of a way back at a lower priority.

Now she sat in a chair belonging to one of the legendary elements of harmony, still spoken of in her time. She felt so young sitting next to the other Torchwood members, who already grew accustomed to time travel and other crazy phenomenon. Though existence of parallel universes had been proven long before her time, never had she heard of anyone actually crossing from one to another. That, combined with his miraculous ability to heal and revive, made her particularly curious about Jack.

The other Torchwood members sat in the chairs around Nicole, enjoying a cup of coffee as the morning sun started poking its warm light above the bottom edge of the windows. They continued talking to each other quietly, until a purple alicorn entered the room, princess Twilight Sparkle herself.

Though she'd been told not too, Nicole felt ashamed not bowing to this ancient princess as she entered the room. However, after Twilight gave her a warm, welcoming smile, she relaxed a bit, realizing that this alicorn wasn't some legend imprinted in a history book. She was a real pony.

The time had come for Nicole to share what she learned from the time agents in the future. Now aware of the capabilities Torchwood possessed, and the extensive knowledge on time travel Jack held, she trusted Ruby's judgment that sharing this information with all of Torchwood as well as the princess would not damage the time agents' mission. When all focused on her, she started her story.

“The time agents don't know the stallion's actual name, so they call him Ayumu,” Nicole began. “At first, they just thought of him as a time traveling terrorist, causing random acts of violence and chaos throughout the universe and at different points in time.”

This sounded exactly like what Torchwood dealt with involving this stallion so far. The stealing of the device from Twilight's castle, the blood draining murderer in Manehattan, and before all of that, hacking Ruby's ship and consequentially leaving Ruby stranded in the past. So far, only the coins connected incidents, and none knew if any other alien encounters so far were the fault of Ayumu or not.

“Captain Harkness, hopefully you can help with this next part, I don't really know what they're talking about,” Nicole told Jack.

“I'm sure I can make some sense of it, and just call me Jack,” Jack replied. He felt cold eyes staring at him after he made Nicole blush a bit, and turned to see Ruby and Wing glaring him down. Jack threw up his front hooves in a shrug. “All of you call me Jack, just trying to make things less formal,” he said. Wing's face turned to a smile, unable to keep his fake anger up against the blue stallion, but Ruby kept her glare. Jack shook his head. “All I do is introduce myself and everyone freaks out,” he added. “Sorry, Nicole, go on.” He placed his front hooves back down in front of him once more, turning his attention back to the unicorn.

“The time agents said that when they investigated more, there was a connection between the known places and times Ayumu visited,” Nicole went on. “Crazy amounts of time energy that would only be connected to what they call 'fixed points', or something like that. They say they know what points of time can change and what events are set, but the places and times Ayumu's been to don't seem to be fixed, even though they give off a reading that they are.”

This revelation started turning gears in Jack's head. The first place Ayumu had landed. Canterlot, while Wing was still a new royal guard officer. Then Ponyville, at the start of the 21st century. Jack visited both these places before. After this realization hit his mind, his breath grew quick as a memory came rushing back to him. On the cybership, a pony had called out for help over communication lines. An admiral... Jack thought to himself. Her name was... Jack shot a quick glance at Ruby. She'd previously met one of the most important beings in the universe. She'd called him by his name. Well, his title at least.

“Because of this, the time agents think that all these times were once connected, all part of some major universe affecting event. But somehow, without any of them knowing about it, there was a reset, and none of those events ever happened.”

Jack shook his head, the horrors of what once was coming back to him. “It can't be...” he muttered under his breath.

“They think that Ayumu is trying to bring back the events that no longer happened.”

“We have to stop him.”

Jack abruptly stood up, his reaction stronger than the others. Everyone in the room looked towards him, confused by the amount of concern that appeared on his face.

“I get that Ayumu is bad, but what's so bad about these events that got erased from time?” Ruby asked.

“You don't understand. This just got more serious than we realized,” Jack replied, moving to stand in the center of the chairs. “I've seen what happened before. If it happens again, everyone dies. I don't mean everyone on Earth, I don't mean everyone in this universe alone. Everyone. Everything that exists. It's all doomed.” Jack slowly spun while he talked, taking a moment to look at everyone in the room. He paused for a much longer duration when his eyes rested on Wing.

Wing saw that look again. The look he'd seen and failed to understand. The look of pain Jack wore on his face even though he constantly assured Wing that all was fine. Jack held the look for too long this time, and Wing knew now that he wasn't just paranoid and nervous. He needed to ask Jack for the truth.

“Wait, what do you mean everything in existence?” Nicole asked. “What happened before this reset?”

“Chaos struck across the universe,” Jack told the mare, at last averting his gaze from Wing. “Much like Ayumu is causing chaos now. Just a precursor to ultimate destruction. And if Ayumu was on your ship, you were involved in one of the major events. He's visiting places where events involved in the destruction took place. You might have been killed before the reset happened, leaving Ruby without a first officer. Maybe more on your crew died too.”

Worry among the others in the room grew as Jack spoke. Nicole felt something when Jack told her she may have died. It wasn't a memory, it was just a... feeling. Something in the pit of her stomach churned, and chills ran down her spine.

“This is Torchwood's most important mission now,” Jack said. “We have to stop this.”

“Maybe... we should take a short break from discussion, however,” Twilight said. She noticed drops of sweat trickling down from Jack's brow. His body trembled, and glances in Wing's direction continued. The news of Ayumu's likely intent brought back memories that while none of the others could remember at all, Jack had put away. He needed a moment to breath, whether he realized it or not. “Let's all cool off, take in this information, and come back in half an hour.”

Jack made no hesitation, trotting out of the room before anyone else even stood up. He turned down the hallway towards him and Wing's bedroom, and pushed through the door, disappearing behind it.

“Alright, somepony needs to check on him,” Ruby said as she got out of her chair.

“I'll do it,” Wing told her, breaking into a jog after he stood up, not wanting to leave Jack alone at a time like this.

Jack laid down on his stomach on top of the bed, front hooves draped over his neck, resting on his mane. The challenges he'd faced already with this new Torchwood team had been dangerous enough. Stopping murderers and thiefs, scouts who were searching for weak worlds their race could invade, all of Aymu's plans around this time in history. Torchwood had stopped them all, but now just four beings stood between Ayumu and the revival of events cleared away. Jack struggled to think up how any of this was possible. How did he know? Just before the reset, the Doctor had said that only those with extensive time travel experience would remember anything. But if that were the case, the time agents would have no mystery surrounding these reset events, they'd know what was coming just as much as Jack did. There had to be something else, some different reasoning determining who remembered and who didn't. Now, some of Ayumu's words from two nights ago made sense in his mind.

“They see it all when they go to sleep, then they forget the moment they wake up. Fascinating, how ignorant the universe is of the truth.”

Ayumu had told Jack he knew things that the others didn't. He knew about what happened before. All the chaos and death. However, according to Ayumu, those that didn't remember saw the events take place in their dreams. Was that his goal at the hospital? To investigate dreams? All the patients had complained, and when Jack thought back to his dream that night, it had certainly been vivid, and something about it seemed odd...

His rampaging thoughts halted at the sound of the bedroom door creaking open. Wing popped in through the door, closing it behind him and trotting to the bed, quickly climbing up and laying down next to Jack. Jack immediately nuzzled underneath Wing's neck, and Wing pushed back with force of his own, letting out a sigh.

“Sorry about back there,” Jack said. “Guess I scared everyone a little bit.”

“It's ok,” Wing told him, slowly breaking from the nuzzle. He bit his lower lip, and his eyes darted away from the blue stallion for a moment, the words he wanted to say caught in his throat. “But Jack... I need to ask you about something.”

“What is it?”

This was it. Now or never. “I saw the way you looked at me earlier...” Wing began, his words slow to come out. “Rather, I've seen the way you've looked at me for quite a while. Like you're sad, but happy at the same time. Like you know something I don't. And now, if you're right that Ayumu has been visiting times where these events took place, then one happened during my time as a member of the royal guard.”

Jack knew the direction of this conversation. He'd fought to avoid the topic for so long, not wanting to burden Wing with the knowledge he had. Wing made him so happy over the past few months; Jack had fought to keep the pegasus from learning the truth.

“Jack... how do you know who I am? You didn't just see me in the bar and decide to talk to me, did you?”

There was a long silence before Jack nodded his head, letting Wing know he assumed correctly. “I got thrown into this universe on accident the first time. Felt stranded for good until a very good friend of mine found me. We started traveling through time, trying to track down a source of evil much more powerful than Ayumu. At one point, we ended up at Canterlot Castle. Just like you said, it was your time.

“The royal guard had been infiltrated by an alien race. They killed guard members and disguised themselves as them. Their goal was to take over the castle, then the rest of your world. That's when I met you.”

Wing caught sight of Jack starting to tremble again, and placed a hoof on top of Jack's foreleg. Ever since Wing met Jack, the blue stallion had shown such confidence. Before, Wing was just a lonely, nervous new guard recruit. Jack showed him how not to be. He fought on the Torchwood team with newfound confidence, and now came the time for Wing to be the strong one in return, for all the times Jack did so for him.

“You were brand new to the guard, a young officer, cute,” Jack said, managing a slight chuckle. The contact of Wing's hoof seemed to help with the trembles. “You were losing your mind at the horror of it all, and I stepped forward and calmed you down. I promised you that once all the fighting was over, I'd buy you a drink.”

Wing feared the answer to his next question. “What happened?”

“Just before the end of the fight, one of the aliens shot out a blast at me. You didn't know I could live it... you dove in front... I watched you die. Your body landed right in front of me.”

A tear dropped from Jack's eye as he stared down at the bed. Wing welled up as well, desperately wishing he could remember any of this happening.

“When you can't die, you see a lot of others go before you,” Jack continued. “I've seen so many people come and go. Friends. People I love...” Jack sniffed as more memories he suppressed flashed in front of him. Those he didn't just seduce for the fun, those he felt a true connection to. Ianto, who died in his arms in a battle to save the children of earth, and others before him, ones he'd allowed to get close to his heart. Outside of those he loved, he witnessed countless deaths during world wars on Earth, as well as in battles far away from the planet, friends and mere acquaintances, all tearing into his heart with the knowledge that it was impossible for him to join them. “The reason I've been looking at you that way is because I couldn't stand to lose you. You died for someone who couldn't die, and I can never repay that. Not ever.”

Wing moved his hoof from a soft touch and instead wrapped the hoof around Jack's shoulder, pulling him in closer, nuzzling the top of his neck, and Jack spoke again. “Eventually, regardless of what happens, you'll die, and I'll just keep going. For how long, I don't know. I've died more times than I can count.”

Wing wished he knew how to help Jack with his pain. The terrors he must have faced went beyond anything Wing could comprehend. He only hoped that his disagreement with one point Jack made would help him. “You did repay me,” Wing said. He put his free hoof down on Jack's forelegs when he started to rise in protest, and he hugged Jack tighter with his other hoof. “I don't remember the attack on the castle... as much as that confuses me... but the Wing you met, the nervous, scared pegasus. That was me before I met you. Every day I went to work, I was so happy that I was the lowest ranking officer, because it meant I didn't have to take charge of too many ponies. I wanted to protect the princesses, but I was terrified of the thought that the castle might ever actually get attacked.

“You made me into the pony I should have been all along,” Wing told him. “The first time we had to fight, when we were sent back in time to Ponyville, I was more scared than you know. Then the other night, at the hospital, before we knew Nicole was an ally, I grappled her to the ground without a second thought. All this confidence and bravery I have now, it's because of you.”

Jack blinked away a few more tears, and nuzzled up into Wing again. His mind grew calm through Wing's soothing words. Jack knew that holding all the pain he'd felt in his lifetime inside led to breakdowns, but so far that was the only way he knew of coping. “Sorry,” he said. “I didn't know I'd react like this to the news.”

“I can't imagine how much you've seen, how much you've done,” Wing replied. “But you not being able to die doesn't make you bad. You're still good. I mean, you traveled to a completely different universe just to go on a date with a pony who wouldn't remember you promised. Come on!”

That comment got a laugh out of Jack, and he slipped a hoof of his own around Wing's shoulder. He couldn't run from memories of his past. They'd haunt him for however long the universe decided to keep him alive. But for now, he had to focus on the present, without a dreaded outlook towards the future. This pony code named Ayumu may be planning the most destructive attack on all of existence, but this universe wasn't unguarged. It had Jack Harkness, Wing, Ruby, Cazan. Time and time again, the Torchwood on the earth Jack knew stopped certain peril. This Torchwood would be ready too.