The Dimensions of Polyn

Chapter 5: Pink Acres

The ride through the portal is rough. Polyn is flung onto the ground which is muddy and soft. She struggles to get up as the guard flies into a tree. As he recovers, she shocks him with a small lightning blast. He is on his back and can't move. He tries to make eye contact with her.

“Don't even think about moving,” she commands. The staff's voice speaks from it's side compartment on the harness.

“Dimensional jump complete...searching for axis...not found...Locating Coordinates based off Central Equestria Axis. Location DX42675 added to database.”

“If you agree not to try anything, I will let you up now.” The guard nods. Slowly Polyn helps the guard to his feet.

“Look, I was only following orders. I don't have any quarrel with you. He looks around. “Strange place, do you know where we are?”

The guard looks at his surroundings. The sunlight is shinning through the trees.

“Can that staff get me home?”

“I really don't know and if I did, why would I want to go back?” The mud is starting to dry on her face. “I still haven't figured it out yet.” There is still a little hostility in her voice. The guard sighs.

“I'm not going to try anything,” he says trying to keep the peace, “I don't really want any more trouble or pain.” He notices a small squirrel that is eating out of it's hands. “This place seems nice. I might as well explore.” He takes a few steps and then turns back. “I heard what Julius said in there. The squirrel turns its head and flees into a small hollow beneath a tree. “This is definitely better than working as a sentinel, government benefits aren't what they used to be. Good luck Polyn...please don't shock me again as I leave.”

He raises his hoof to her, turns and walks into the forest. She watches him until he disappears. The world that he represents is leaving with him. The staff speaks again,

“I suggest we find shelter, it will be dark soon.”

Taking the advice of a machine she just met, Polyn treks through the forested area of this new world for a while. The air is clean and small animals are roaming around. The sun is beginning to set.

After a tiresome walk, tripping on giant roots, and fending off large bugs, The muddy, tired traveler can see the edge of the forest in the distance. As she reaches the forest boundary, there is a small wooden building in the distance. She approaches the brown and red building, it is very quaint.

There is a big red barn with a high ceiling connected to a smaller living area with long windows. On the other side of the barn are some pens with cows in them. Polyn has never seen cows before; only reading about them in history books. In this world they are alive and well. After a few minutes checking out her surroundings there is nothing and nopony around.

She spends a minute looking at the forest opening. These were real trees. They were not artificial and they had real smells. It would take some getting used to.

The big red door to the barn is unlocked. Inside there are more small pens, one with clucking chickens. As the walked around their necks rocked back and forth, it was amusing for a while, and make her chuckle.

Bales of hay are everywhere. It is getting dark and what's left of the sunlight peers through cracks in the barn wall. A small pen sits in the corner with a half opened door revealing some of it to the fading light. Without any thought to her surroundings, she plumps onto a hay stack.

A few hours pass. Polyn wakes up suddenly to the sound of the staff's beeping noise. A low wind gust accompanies it along with some footsteps outside the barn.

“I am detecting two moving objects outside the barn. Their movements are erratic.” The sun has set and a full moon can be seen through the cracks in the barn. The shuffling sounds get louder. After a few minutes the hoofsteps are right outside. Two voices can be heard outside faintly. They grow in haste and hysteria.

“Oh gosh we forgot to put the cows in the barn.”

“You know how much the Displacers like cows.”

“Come on now, git”

There is a rumbling and it's not thunder. There is some shouting as the rumbling gets closer to the barn. The staff speaks again.

“It appears the cows are being moved. You may want to hide to avoid suspicion.” Polyn closes the stall and crams herself into a small space between to two hay bales. She watches from a crack in the wooden door.

A fair haired pony enters with a blond mane tied at the end, wearing a cowboy hat. The cows are following behind her in a large clump. A small dog can be seen standing on top of the horde as it moves quickly from cow to cow. As the cows begin to fill almost every space of the barn another pony can be seen closing and locking the doors to the barn. She has a really curly mane that is fluffy like cotton candy or balloons and is entirely pink all over.

“Pinky, lock that thing good, we can't afford to lose any cows this time.”

“Are we going to hide in the attic again?”

“What about the back room?”

The hiding unicorn becomes alarmed. The two ponies and the dog begin to walk through the cows toward the pen she is hiding in. The dog begins to bark; she is able to smell Polyn's sent.

“Winona, quiet!” The blond haired pony begins to yell. “We know you are in there. Come out, now!”

Slowly the door to the room begins to open. The disheveled unicorn emerges from the door. Both ponies breathe a sigh of relief. The dog seems happy to see her too.

“Oh hi Polyn, I'm glad it's only you.”

“You nearly gave us a heart attack, we thought you were a Displacer.”

Polyn glances at the dog who is beginning to sniff her carefully.

“You're not usually here overnight,” says the blond one. “You don't bring supplies until tomorrow.” The pink one follows up by asking three questions in rapid succession.

“Is this an early delivery?”

“Are you tired? ”

“Do you want a cupcake? I have some in my secret barn door.”

They must have mistaken her for someone else. How would they know her name? She decides to just to go along with it for now.

“It's a...surprise. I had some time off so I wanted to come and visit.” She shuffles her hoofs out of nervousness. “Surprise!” The blond one seems to be a little suspicious but the pink one bursts into a frenzy.

“This is great! We can have a Polyn surprising us with a surprise...surprise party!” She is bouncing up and down, her hair getting fluffier as she goes. The other one tries to calm her down.

“Pinkie Pie, I think you should keep the bouncing under wraps, we don't want to alert the Displacers.”

“What are the Displacers,” asks Polyn. The dog jumps onto the hay behind her.

“You should tell her, Applejack,” says Pinkie Pie. “You're better at explaining things without being silly.”

Applejack went on to explain that the forest has been haunted for years. At night, during a full moon, the spirits of the dead walk from the forest across the open fields and vanish when the sun comes back up again. Many ponies are buried in a mass tomb deep in the forest. They are the graves of forest settlers who lived there for a time before they pretty much disappeared.

They were given the name Displacers by two travelers who journeyed a little too far into the forest one night. The ghost-like creatures walk from the site of their own graves and become displaced in the vast open plain.

“The cows will be attacked by the Displacers if they are not taken to a safe place,” says Applejack. “Just because they are spirits doesn't mean they can't eat the cows or even you.

“Well it's not really eating,” Pinkie Pie says. “They dematerialize you or some other funny, big word like that.” Applejack notices that it is getting close to midnight. She recommends that they head inside the house to the usual attic hiding spot.

The sky is dark with the moon shining brightly and a few assorted clouds scattered around. The three ponies and Winona head into the living room of the house from an already open side door. Applejack tells Pinkie to lock the doors and windows. She does so quickly even though she is bouncing around.

Winona leads the way up to the attic. Polyn follows her up the stairs. Halfway up Winona turns around and has a very strange look on her face.  Applejack makes her way behind the pair and notices Winona checking out their guest, suspiciously. She quickly ushers them both into the attic, Pinkie joining them soon after. The door is locked and bolted.

The attic is very spacious with a variety of farm tools and more hay. There is some house cleaner and several bags of oats along with a box that says, “Secret Recipe Cow Feed.” There are two very small windows with wooden blinds that open just enough to see out.

“From here we can get a good look at the Displacers. You might want to watch the forest boundary,” Applejack says. “Pinkie get the lights.” Polyn glances back to notice Winona still staring at her. Her look has intensified.

Outside the window the forest is swaying gently with the wind. The tops of the trees go on for what seems like forever. The thunder gently roars as the rain begins sprinkling down. At first there is nothing, but soon a shuffling sound can be heard. One pony hoof is visible followed by many. The Displacers have white glowing eyes and move very slowly. Their bodies are like a cloudy beaker in a science lab, semi transparent with a blue hue that pulsates around them. For a pack of ghostly cow eaters, they are quite beautiful.

From the small windows in the attic they quietly watch the mass of Displacers move out of the forest and into the plain. They are getting closer to the barn. Applejack knows that they usually ignore the barn. Some scary thoughts pass through her mind as a cow moo is heard from the inside of the barn.

One of the Displacers hears the cow and begins to move faster toward it.

“Oh no! Stupid cow!” Pinkie Whispers.

“We need to do something, If one cow is discovered they all will be.”

“We can't let the cows get eaten.”

“What are we going to do?”

Polyn begins to breathe faster. She doesn't want to get involved and she may risk them finding out who she really is. But she's not about to let some innocent cows get eaten, especially the first real cows she has ever seen.

“You can tell can't you?” She says to the dog. "I guess it's too late now." She whispers to herself. "I'm going down there." Polyn announces. "I can get them away from the barn. Open the door for me.” Her earlier uncertainty has faded. Applejack feels a confidence in her different from the mare she knows.

“I don't know who you are but you're not going down there.”

“This isn't a discussion.”

With her protective instincts, Polyn bursts out of the downstairs door. She runs out and gets in front of the barn just in front of a Displacer, who shuffles quickly toward her with it's shiny eyes.

“Don't even think about it!” She shouts. Now all of the Displacers have heard her and are clumping together and moving in her direction.

“I knew you were crazy but I had no idea!” The guard has returned and is running fast. He runs quickly evading the grasp of many of the creatures. He meets up with her in front of the barn.

“Can you fight, we are going to have to go on the offensive,” Polyn says looking over the approaching horde. “I'm going to create a fire tornado,”

“A fire what?”

“The wind from the tornado will suck them in and then the fire will burn them.”

“What do you need me to do?”

“Fend off as many as you can. Give me about a minute, and I'll try to take some out or at least scare them away.”

“You got it.”

She hands the guard her core knife that is in a pocket on her harness. She lights it with fire using her horn. The blade begins to glow red.

“It now has a fire attribute,” she instructs.

“I know! I'm from your world remember.” He says excited.

The very focused colt is attempting to fend them off. The staff speaks. “Due to this very volatile condition, I have instigated level 2 access and will enable magic amplification.”

“That sounds good,” Polyn answers. The staff begins to glow. Meanwhile, one of them touches the guard, burning his front leg with a blue flame. He cuts it down and brushes it off. “Polyn you'd better hurry this one up!” He glances at the black mark on his leg.

“Get Down!” she shouts.

A small gust of wind shoots out of her horn and grows. A vortex forms as the gust moves into the center of the horde sucking them in toward it. Firing a flame shot into it, It bursts into flame and grows brighter. One Displacer gets sucked in and vaporized followed by another. Polyn can hardly believe how big the tornado is.

“I think I may have overdone it!”

“We gotta go!” The guard says staggering toward her. The two head for the house struggling against the pull of the vortex. They get into the house safely but the tornado is showing no sign of stopping.

The staff activates.

“One of my other abilities is absorption. Throw me into the vortex, I will absorb the magical elemental force.”

The staff has been correct so far. Polyn has the guard hang on to her left leg so she wont get sucked in. She balances the staff on one hoof and the pull of the vortex pulls the staff toward it. The staff begins to glow with a white light as it flies onto the ground and lands below the whirling vortex. Like a funnel, the tornado gets sucked into the staff and eventually disappears. After a while the white light fades. She inspects it and finds nothing wrong. It makes a small beeping sound.

“It appears that our synchronization rate is increasing quickly, thanks to these stressful situations. It is beneficial to us, but I don't believe it is good for your mental state.”

The guard gives Polyn back the core knife.

“Thanks for letting me borrow this.” He says with a smile.