High risk missions have kinda been my thing recently. Well, ever since I became a time hopping crime-fighting force for good at least!
Even so, I don't like missions in Jolly old England. Any collateral damage hits home for me, being a local and all, and I know I'd never forgive myself if people got caught in the crossfire of a mission gone wrong.
Despite this, I knew it was serious when I was called in with a few other Overwatch agents to investigate some unusual activities in Westminster, and that I'd be taking this mission regardless of how I felt about it.
A notorious hacker had been dismantling London for a while, and some crimes had even turned violent. Must've been serious if the higher-ups called on us, right? Well, apparently, this particular hacker had been involved in a break in at watchpoint Gibralter. Yeah, that's right! They somehow snuck into Overwatch HQ and stole something!
I took the tube (or "Subway," for any yanks out there,) into Westminster, even though the other agents on the mission seemed to be taking extreme methods of transport. I'm talkin' huge carriers, complete with basket ball and football pitches! Winston says it's the "Apex of Travel Engineering!" HA! I'd rather take a proven method of transport, thanks! Apparently, we just had to wait around Lambeth bridge for the the bad guys to show up. No problem! I nipped to the pub, and dashed to the top of a nearby roof, mostly for a decent view of London, but also just in case I saw any activity relating to this notorious hacker.
I surveyed my surroundings idly. Dodgy roof, that was for sure, people had clearly been chucking stuff up there. Never understood the fuss us Brits have about not driving to the tip. Lazy, I reckon.
"Focus Everyone!"
Strike-commander Morrison was shouting into my headset, wrenching me away form my relaxed daydreaming,
"Stay focused on the mission! We'll be arriving shortly in the carrier!"
"Pfft! I'm always focused! I got this all under-"
Something caught my eye that made me decide to not finish my sentence.
I saw a small glint on an adjacent rooftop.
I brushed it off as a light of some kind, I was in London after all, but that perception was shattered when moments later I recognised the scope of a sniper rifle.
Around this time, I incurred several shots in my general direction, and promptly dashed towards a nearby wall.
"This is Tracer here, taking a bit of sniper fire lads! Wouldn't mind some h-" A bullet
ricocheted across some cheap plywood next to me,
"Can I have a hand over here guys?"
Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, all of my electronics appeared to have flatlined, despite operating fine seconds before. I grunted, and gingerly began to peak my head around the wall I was hiding behind, hoping to at least get a good look at my assailant.
I was met instantly with another bullet, this time almost hitting its mark.
Bad idea.
Under normal circumstances, I would have used my suit to jump back in time to slightly before I was pinned down here, but these weren't normal circumstances, and without any electronic input, I was stranded.
Hastily loading both my pulse pistols, I backed off further along the wall, trying to see if I could flank the shooter, or at least escape until my electrical equipment started working again. I looked down at my chest, and realised that the glowing light usually illuminating my torso had gone out. Without my chronal accelarator, I could be thrown through time at any moment, and maybe not appear back where I started for months, or even years, at a time. It was at this point that I began to panic. I rapidly turned every dial I could to get my suit working and to my dismay, no amount of button pressing seemed to revive the damaged equipment.
A voice snapped me out of this fruitless endeavour when it began to whisper in my ear:
"Pfft! You think I can't hack your suit? Please! I've seen more complex firewalls on a toaster!"
It was laced with electronic frequencies, and felt piercingly cold, yet almost joking and childlike.
I jumped back, trying in vain to activate any kind of defence mechanism I might have had on me.
Without any of my time jumping gizmos up and running, I fell to the floor, and saw a shadow looming over me. Glancing up, I noticed that something happened to be looking back at me.
The barrel of a gun.
A whir of noise and a clammer of commotion later, my suit sparked into life, and I was thrust backwards in time, arriving where I was stood just before the figure appeared. My time travel is a bit of an oddity, and only I am transported through time when I use it. Chronal Disassociation, I believe it was called. In fact, the mysterious figure who almost shot me now had no idea where I was, and I had just traveled right behind them. It was fairly easy to deduce that this was most likely the hacker I was sent to deal with.
"Ever get that feeling of de ja vu?" I mumbled to myself.
Armed with the knowledge that my suit was back online (knowing is half the battle, or so I hear,) I positioned myself in anticipation to preform a surprise attack, and then get out of there as soon as I could.
I focused on the figure, now beginning to look around for me, both my pistols poised and ready to strike, like a duo of deadly vipers.
It only took a small amount of movement coming towards me, and I fired off forty rounds in the space of a few seconds.
"Phew, I'm a bit trigger happy today!" I laughed, self aware of how I had managed to miss every shot.
I think I made my point though, as the hacker probably thought taking me on was more trouble than it was worth.
The figure slinked away back into the darkness, and I was confident my safety was assured for now. The sniper from before seemed to have vanished as quickly as they had came.
What's more, my communication equipment rebooted seconds later.
Instantly, a frenzy of voices exploded in close proximity to my ear, with several of my peers wondering if I was alright, and expressing that wonder by shouting down a headset as loud as they possibly could.
"Doin' alright lads?" I casually muttered back, "Winston, I think someone up here was able to hack my equipment, I couldn't even use my chronal accelerator! Looks like the two guys on my end pegged it! Pub anyone?"
I knew it was perhaps juvenile celebration, and that maybe I should have been thinking more carefully, yet I ambled out of cover, searching around for my teammates, disregarding the danger from the snipers' possible resurgence.
The teammates in question were inconceivably unhelpful, shouting random directions that all seemed to blend together into an incomprehensible word salad.
I became agitated,
"Oi, listen loves, I just did some propa' hard time jumping to not get shot, and I would really appreciate knowin' where to go."
Now, it might have been hard for me to co ordinate everyone to stop speaking for a second, but ultimately I got a hint of their location regardless, when slightly down the road an explosion rocked the foundations of the roof I was on.
"Never mind Loves!"
With my chronal accelerator back on, I was able to blink through time, hurling myself forward at immense speeds by messing with my time stream.
I reached the source of the explosion in a few minuets; a firefight between Overwatch agents such as myself, and three Unknown attackers.
I jumped down from a nearby building, and reconfigured my headset once again.
"Cheers loves!" I shouted, "The cavalry's here!"
I had to be cautious to an extent, I have to recharge my time travelling device after I've used it, but I still ended up zig-zagging in between teammates and enemies alike, firing at the latter as often as I could. The hacker from before seemed to have made an entrance, and appeared to be phasing in and out of reality, appearing invisible for periods of time.
"Tracer! This is Windston, I can't formulate a hypothesis as to why these criminals are attacking London, but I believe it may be linked strongly with the high Overwatch presence in the area!"
"Can't we talk about why there here after we get rid of em'?" I retorted, hastily.
Winston probably grumbled something back, but I was slightly pre occupied with a raging firefight to be paying much attention.
I leaped over a couple of the shooters, aiming to engage the hacker before she disappeared again.
"You again?" She grumbled, after seeing me almost reach her, "I think you're punching above your weight here!"
I dodged a burst form her pulse sub machine gun by dashing forwards in time before retorting,
"Punching above my weight? Listen love, taking down a standard criminal hacker isn't really-"
I looked at the woman I was bitterly engaged in a gunfight with, and noticed something strange.
Before I could put my finger on exactly what, I was forced to dodge another barrage of bullets.
I thought for a moment about why there wasn't mass panic erupting throughout the streets of London, and noticed that it seemed as if this entire district had been evacuated.
I was about to ask Winston what that was all about, when the hacker I had engaged disappeared once again, seemingly into thin air.
I turned to see how the other agents were faring, can't keep all the glory to myself, you know, and it seemed like the attacks were falling back.
The hacker and her cronies materialised briefly, fleeing in the opposite direction to the dispatched agents.
The booming voice of Strike-Commander Morrison echoed down my earpiece,
"DO NOT LET THAT HACKER GET AWAY! GET AFTER HER!"
I sighed, knowing that in all likely hood I was the only person capable of keeping up with the group due to my time jumping abilities.
"Crikey! Calm down! I'm on it!" I muttered back, blinking off in the general direction of the target.
When you can speed up and slowdown your own time, you don't often worry about getting outnumbered. I dismissed my thoughts about the fact that in a direct confrontation, I would most likely have to fight three people at once as such. Besides, London IS my own stomping ground.
Zipping down an alley at dramatically elevated speeds, I ran straight into the group of criminals I had been attempting to pursue.
I hastily fumbled for a pulse bomb, and hurled it in there general direction (I hoped it would at least stun them!)
Unfortunately, despite me diving for cover and awaiting some kind of detonation, nothing happened. In fact, I attempted to blink away from where I was, and noticed the same distinct lack of electrical equipment I and felt on the building before.
Unable to even use my pistols, even they reloaded electronically, I had little in the way of defence should any of the group come in my direction.
Which they did.
Within seconds, I was surrounded, and a tall, ominous man was demanding I put my hands in the air. Cursing my luck, I glanced around for any possible escape routes.
Seeing none, I was forced to comply. You'd be surprised how convincing three gun toting, suit hacking criminals can be when you can't defend yourself, or call for backup.
The hacker from before walked up to me, formally introducing herself.
"You are persistent, aren't you?" She growled, "No problem! You Overwatch folks are all the same! I was even able to get into your base, proof of your incompetence really, nabbed this little trinket too!"
She indicated to a chronal accelerator strapped to her waist, and I realised why she was able to disappear on demand.
"HEY!" I spat, "YOU CAN'T JUST-"
I was interrupted before I could finish berating the criminal,
"Ah, shut up. A girls gotta have the latest toys, right? I think I've had quiet enough of you, actually. The world has enough moral busybodies as it is, thanks."
I considered making a break for it, but all my exits had been cut off.
She levelled her weapon with my head, and for a moment I genuinely didn't know what to do.
Laughing to herself, she pulled up a screen on her wrist,
"You know what? Killing you would probably get a lot of attention from your Overwatch friends..."
I scornfully interrupted, "What, more than when you broke into our base?"
She raised an eyebrow,
"You can't seriously equate me borrowing some equipment from an Overwatch base to eliminating an Overwatch member! I'd never hear the end of it! Although..."
I could tell an idea had sprung into her mind simply by the way she looked at me.
I didn't like it.
"Just gonna modify your chronal accelerator slightly...."
Having already broken into my systems, past all the firewalls, it didn't take her long to simply remotely hack my accelerator again.
"Ta-ta for now," she giggled, turning away from me, "Oh, and by the way, if by some miracle you don't get lost in time without that thing working properly, come find me again."
She whistled sharply, and the two men accompanying her departed, leaving me wondering what had just transpired.
As soon as they were out of earshot, I snatched my earpiece and began frantically attempting to relay what had just happened to Winston.
I heard a sudden beeping.
Looking down, I saw the light on my accelerator alternating between blue and red.
"Really feeling that Chronal Disassociation..." I sighed.
A few moments later, the colours of the world began to blend together, and a distinct shade of blue clouded my vision.
Last time I had experienced this, I was lost in time.
"WINSTON! SHE HACKED MY CHRONAL-"
The Microphone cut out, and the world began to fade away.
I began to dematerialise, and prepared myself to be catapulted through time.
The world went black.
I semiconsciously began to stir from whatever had just transpired.
Half expecting to find myself bouncing through time, I slowly pulled myself to a sitting position.
I was sat in the middle of a street.
This wasn't London.
A ring of colour had formed around me.
My vision became clearer, and I began to work out the basic shapes.
Ponies.
I was surrounded by ponies.
Sounds began to come from all around me, and I realised that the ponies weren't just multicoloured, they were capable of speech.
I promptly thought I had lost the plot, and then remembered that I came from a world with a talking monkey from the moon who could develop high tech machinery. I did a double take, just making sure I could stand, before slowly ambling over towards the rabble of ponies that had assembled around me.
"Hiya loves! I have no clue what's going on, or where I am!"
An inventive introduction, I know, but I felt like being blunt was the only way I could get my message across,
"Anyone mind telling me where I am?"
A purple Pony stepped forward, apparently, she had donned wings and a horn. I hadn't noticed before, but most of the ponies around me were adorned with some form of wings or horns. I started to genuinely wonder what that hacker had done to my accelerator to make me end up here.
The purple pony began to speak, "Uh, are you alright?" She asked uncertainly.
"Honestly, no! Mind telling me where I am? I think I'm here by accident, love!"
This sent the purple pony into a frenzy of questions, at a faster rate than my brain could register. I idly wondered if this pony would get along with Winston. The answer was probably yes.
My eyes wondered around me, as I began to take in the scene. It hit me only seconds later, when I looked at my hands, that I didn't have hands at all, but rather hooves.
My eyes widened in panic.
I interrupted the purple pony unknowingly.
"I'm...I'm....I'm... A PONY?"
She looked genuinely taken aback, and gawped at me as if I was losing my sanity. Honestly, I was pretty darn close at this point.
Causing somewhat of a scene, it appeared more ponies began to show up.
Overwhelmed with confusion and surprise, I inadvertently fainted.
The next time I woke up, I at least wasn't out in the middle of a road, and wasn't surrounded by ponies. I took that as a good thing. Instead, I was lying comfortably on a seemingly perfect mattress.
"I could get used to this!"
The purple pony from before ambled into the room.
"Wow! You're finally awake! I've been wondering when you'd wake up! Are you alright? You seemed a bit-"
I cut her short when I accidentally blinked up into the air, my Chronal Accelerator going haywire.
"Wha- What did you just DO?
"Sorry luv'! Not used to this whole...Pony thing! I'm kinda more acquainted with being on two legs!"
My apology only seemed to heighten the curiosity of the pony before me, and I figured that indulging her in my story would probably be the best way to dodge a lengthy barrage of questions.
"Alright, look. I'm not actually a pony." I let that hang in the air a minuet, "I'm actually from London!"
Realising how little that probably meant to her, I continued on, "Okay, I'm from Earth!"
I was still met with a blank stare.
"I'm not from this...dimension!"
The message seemed to roughly resonate.
"Really? We've not had a visitor form another dimension before! I'm sure princess Celestia would be thrilled to know all about what it's like over there! By the way, im Twlight. Twilight Sparkle."
"Well, cheers for gettin' me outta' the road I guess. I'm Tracer!"
Inadvertently blinking into the nearest wall, eliciting a laugh from Twilight I attempted to get off of the bed.
"Well," Twilight said, "if you really aren't from this...dimension, then I guess I have a lot of explaining to do. I'll have to take you to the princess first! I've been meaning to showcase a new case study for a while now anyway!"
"Uhhhh, Whatever you say love!"
Author's Note
This is the first thing I've really published on Fimfiction. If you enjoyed, or hated, this story, please tell us why. I'm open to any and all feedback,
Cheers.
I thought I was completely off my rocker, and frequently tested to see if I was dreaming by pinching myself. I was met with confused looks.
"Well," I said, mostly to break the ice, "Could be worse - could be Scouse!"
Twilight eyed me precariously,
"You know, the more you talk, the more I start to believe that you really are from a completely different dimension."
"Well Love, since I am, I'm hardly surprised. Say, whatcha'' reckon you and I nip to the pub while ya show me around?" I responded.
"Pub?"
"Yeah, you know, get some alcohol! You have alcohol, right? You know, whiskey, beer, heck, I'd even take cider right now! You, uh, you have a pub, right?"
"I really feel like you need further studying!"
"Studying? That doesn't sound like fun! Tell you what, I'd murder a chippie right now, if it's all the same to you!"
It was true: I much preferred the thought of the nearest pub, or in deed fish and chip shop, to being studied, but I had a hunch that wondering off at that time would probably lead to trouble. Couple that with my Chronal Accelerator acting up, and I felt like staying with Twilight was probably the best option.
"Now, I don't want to overwhelm you with questions again, but what was it like where you come from? Filled with friendship, I bet!" Twilight enquired.
"Yeah, not exactly. Ya' see, people fight a lot where I'm from. I myself am from England, but there's a bit of a ruckus going on around there at the moment!"
She had no clue what I was talking about.
I probably should have anticipated this, or at least explained myself more clearly, but I wasn't really focused on anything that was going on, and was fairly whimsical with my answers. It bothered me that my Chronal Accelerator was on the blink (no pun intended) and I cautiously tried to see if there was anything I could do to properly fix it. I hit it a few times, trying to ensure that I didn't go randomly blinking into anything. Unfortunately my speciality was planes, and I'm talking flying them not fixing them, so I didn't really have a clue what I was doing. Not wanting to accidentally break my anchor to time, and subsequently reality, I decided against tinkering with it any further. Twilight had conjured a notepad, seemingly form nowhere, whilst I wasn't paying any attention and she had begun furiously taking notes.
"Oi!" I grumbled, "Whatcha doin' there?"
I attempted to sneak a glance at her convoluted scrawling but, as if it was an instinctive motion, the purple unicorn whisked them away.
"Nothing! Just getting some information down that might come in handy later!"
I raised an eyebrow, "Like what?"
"Well, I was just making some notes in passing about your mental state, and how it seemed to be a bit..."
"Ah, rubbish. I think i'd be better off if I didn't know. Right, this is no time for standing around! We should probably get moving!"
"Yes, I need to get you to the princess right away! I'm sure she'd be thrilled to have a new subspecies of pony in Equestria! What do you call that glowing, uh, thing around your chest anyway? It's rather distinctive! How does it work? Is it similar to a unicorn horn? It is sort of...illuminated!"
I was about to baffle twilight's mind with all the science behind my Chronal Accelerator, which I could foresee being difficult since I didn't know half of it, when she piped up again.
"I'm sure that switching dimension is pretty daunting! Maybe overloading you with questions isn't smart. Come on, I'll have to get a train ready to take you to Canterlot as soon as I can!"
I quizzically considered this for a moment,
"Canterlot? Isn't that dangerously close to Camelot? Getting the intellectual property rights for that musta' been tough! Who lived there anyway, King Arthur and the Knights of the round table?"
Twilight was observing my ramblings with a concerned face, and I could have sworn that she was secretly taking notes somehow. I shrugged, and decided to get moving to my apparent goal: the train station.
Retreating from the incredibly comfortable room, I wondered what I would do if my Chronal Accelerator broke. It wasn't like I could simply get Winston to fix it- he probably didn't have a clue where I was! In fact, I could be floating aimlessly through time all over again. I shivered. From my experience, once warping in and out of time, and living as a ghost, was enough for me.
Shoving my thoughts about Chronal Disassociation to the back of my mind, I hastily set out after Twilight.
With a flash of her horn, the door to the cottage I'd been staying in shot open.
I decided at this point that questioning the forces at work to make this possible would probably be a fruitless endeavour. I put it down to magic in my head, and we moved on. I stood for a moment in awe outside of the cottage. The vibrant colours adorning every house contrasted greatly with pretty much everywhere in England, where you'd be hard pressed to find a house that didn't boast an exterior of stone or brick.
I was so engrossed with my surroundings that I didn't notice that I been idly strolling forward. It wouldn't have mattered, if I hadn't continued to do so until I ambled into a random pony while gawping at a particular house that managed to be shaped like a cake.
"Sorry Love! Just on my way to the train station!" I looked around for Twilight, and noticed I had lost her in a wave of ponies going about there day, "Well, I was. Now I'm lost!"
"No problem! I'm sure that-" The stallion was about to finish his sentence, when he looked down at the Chronal Accelerator attached to my chest. He quickly adjusted his sentence, "Say, what's that?"
I sighed, and figured I'd be getting this a lot. I was, however, surprised by his accent.
Not the Americanised English that I had been hearing from Twilight, but a decidedly classic British tone.
He was still awaiting an answer. I obliged.
"Uh, it's complicated. Lots of science involved! Now, I just lost my guide and I'm slightly lost. Do us a favour and show us to the train station!"
Apparently, my request was lost on him, and he was much more interested in the first part of my response.
"Science you say? Well, I fancy myself a bit of a expert on science. You bumping into me might just have been a stroke of good luck! Say, could I borrow that for a bit of closer examination?"
I didn't even consider his request, "WHAT? Nope, no way! I really just want to get to the train station. Besides, if you really gotta know, if I take this off, I'd be sent on a crash course through the space time continuum, and probably will never be heard from again!"
He seemed to ponder for a minuet, "The space time continuum you say? Well, I myself have a bit of experience with-"
Twilight saved me form the increasingly agitating conversation when she finally appeared behind me, and began whisking me away from the stallion.
"Sorry!" She hurriedly said to the male pony, "she's a tourist. Doesn't have a clue what's she doing! Well, we better go!"
I maintained a confused face whilst being dragged away by the pony, this time with her not letting go of my hoof. She was mumbling something about contempt for salesmen, and before long we reached the train station. I thought that maybe we would get into the train while remaining incognito, but my Chronal Accelerator was naturally drawing some strange looks. I briefly wondered why ponies thought that having a glowing thing strapped to your chest was not considered normal, but having a glowing horn on your head was.
The wait for the train, according to Twilight, would be about half an hour. I tried, at this point, to adjust to being a pony by sitting on a nearby bench. On my way over, however, I inadvertently sped up my time stream, smashing into a nearby wall.
"Crikey! I need to get this thing sorted! That kinda hurt! If I get this thing working properly, I'm gonna recall every time something like that happens!" I muttered to myself.
Twilight had sped over to see if I was okay, and in doing so had attracted rather a crowd. Apparently, speeding up your own time stream wasn't a regular occurrence in Equestria.
"Are you alright?" She enquired, apparently panicking slightly, "Did you just teleport into that wall? What did you do? How did you do that?"
"Ugh," I responded, rubbing my head, "It's this Chronal Accelerator. I tell ya', it sure sucks when it isn't configured properly!"
"Then take it off!" Twilight stated, as if this was the obvious and sensible thing to do.
"That's not gonna happen. Look, love, I'll explain later, we should really catch our train."
The train whirred around the corner, and the voice of some announcer rung out,
"NOW ARRIVING - TRAIN DEPARTING PONYVILLE FOR CANTERLOT!"
I picked myself up, and then briefly registered the words of the announcing pony.
I chuckled to myself, "Ponyville?"
Twilight shot an accusatory look, "Yes, what's wrong with the name ponyville?"
"Well, it would be like me naming a town humanville back home, wouldn't it?"
"Just....Just get on the train!"
I did, and in doing so managed to trip up over the gap between the train and the platform. Luckily, for the first time since I had arrived in ponyville, my Chronal accelerator came off good, and I recalled to before I had misstepped.
"YES! Now I'm back in the game!"
Twilight might have heard me, but she was too busy taking notes to notice. I wondered whether they would be of any consequence, and why she was so determined to document my every move. Then again, I did just rewind time, so I suppose that may have been noteworthy.
Making a mental note to mind the gap, Ponyville should really announce that there is a gap between the train and the platform, I boarded the the train.
The first thing I noticed was that it was an improvement to the London Underground. The seats seemed unused, and every pony in the carriages I went through seemed to be chatting idly, seemingly all relaxed.
After being chauffeured to the correct seat by Twilight, I casually began to relax.
Twilight sat opposite me, and began to ask me question as soon as I had gotten comfortable.
"Right, now there's no way around it, what in Equestria does that THING on your chest do?"
I explained to Twilight that I used to be a fighter pilot, a concept that I had to explain to her for quite some time, and that piloting the Slipstream left me with Chronal Disassociation. On that note, I pondered what had happened to the aforementioned jet. After it disappeared with me in it, to my knowledge, nobody ever recovered it. It could be floating through time somewhere to this day!
Electing to then continue with my story, Twilight was interested to hear about my experience phasing in and out of time.
"You could probably travel to the past and spectate all the events that happened there! That could be invaluable if it was discovered in Equestria!" She speculated.
"It wasn't like I was picking and choosing where I went! I was just disappearing for days, dreaming about being in the past, and then re-appearing again. I couldn't even touch anything when I was back in reality! Not my finest hour, and not an experience I'm eager to re-live!"
Twilight didn't seem convinced that it was all that bad, and I carried on regardless.
"This was going on for month, right, and then my mate Winston fixed me up this! A Chronal Accelerator! Now, I can speed up my own time stream, or rewind it, whenever I want! Pretty nifty, even though the science behind it is more complecated than Brexit!"
A pony on the seat behind me turned around, entering our conversation blindly.
I recognised him, and instantly let out a groan.
"Say, it's you again! With the thing on your chest! Are you sure I can't borrow it, just to have a look at how it works?"
The British sounding pony I had bumped into earlier in the day.
"Did you follow me here? How- Why-"
"No, of course not! I am quite frankly offended that you would conceive such a concept. I was simply taking the same train to Canterlot as you! What a happy coincidence.
I looked over at Twilight pleadingly, not really knowing how to respond to this chap, and she shrugged.
"Oh, never mind! Looks like the trains arriving in Canterlot now! I have some important things to do! Allonz-y!"
Author's Note
Right, tried to atone for the pacing of the first chapter.
Cheers for all the feedback in the comments, constructive criticism is always welcomed!
