Chapter 2
“Any news?” Shadow Breeze asked, looking very nervous as they all waited to see if their friends and the Royal Guard could stop the Watcher.
“Nothing yet, I’m afraid,” Princess Celestia said, trying to sound confident, but the worry was clear on her face.
Greg stepped over to him and patted his shoulder, “It’s okay Jero, those three always come out on top.”
Shadow Breeze, a.k.a. Jeronimo, nodded to him as he glanced out the window, the rock-like ship still in the sky.
“Should we head up as well?” Grace asked, getting nods from everyone.
“There’s not enough time left to send any more teams up,” Celestia said a bit too grimly. “We can only…”
The sudden appearance of a portal by Greg caused everyone to jump.
Ominus jumped out of the portal in his human form, looking panicked. “Lance! Where’s Lance?!”
“Uh, up there?” Greg responded, taken aback by the panicking Ominus.
Ominus snapped his head to the window and grimaced. “Shit, you need to teleport him…”
Suddenly everyone jerked as a voice filled their minds.
“Times up.”
Ominus’s eyes shot open, “oh geez!” He spun around and kicked Greg backwards into the portal.
A stunned Jero started to say something but he was grabbed by the mane by Ominus and dragged roughly and quickly through the portal.
Jero fell to the ground and grabbed his head with his hand. Hand? He was surprised to find he was a human again, but he didn’t have time to worry about that.
“What the hell, Ominus?!” Greg yelled, sitting up and rubbing his chest with his hand.
Ominus rushed past them and began interacting with a holographic display in a language Jero did not understand. He muttered to himself as he pressed many different icons.
Jero walked over to Ominus and looked around, confused.
With a glance at him, Ominus sighed. “I’m sorry for suddenly grabbing you two like that, but I didn’t have time for anything else.”
“What do you mean?” Greg asked as he walked over to them.
“Well,” Ominus began as he continued to navigate through the holographic menus. “That world disappeared moments after we entered the portal.”
“What?!” Jero yelled, grabbing Ominus. “They’re all dead?!?!“
“No!” Ominus yelled back, breaking Jero’s grip and going back to working through the display. “At least not technically. Everyone in that world still exists, just not in the same way.”
“What’s that even mean?” Greg questioned in confusion.
“Exactly that,” Ominus replied. “Their souls are still there, so technically still alive. Just in limbo. Oh that’s interesting.” He leaned forward and stroked his goatee. Before they could ask he continued, “They’ve been copied and pasted to a new world.”
“Copy and pasted?” Jero parroted back with a lost look on his face.
“Yeah, basically. It looks like the Watcher made a brand new dimension, an exact replica of the original you guys are from.” He looked closer at something in front of him, “Well that’s not good. Time is sped up in this dimension, by a lot.”
Jero and Greg looked at each other, clear confusion on both of their faces.
“Got him!” Ominus yelled suddenly. “Lance, our Lance not a copy, is in this new dimension.”
“Wait, what’s that mean exactly?” Jero asked, starting to get annoyed that he’s having to ask so many questions and still not understanding what’s happening.
“Simple,” Ominus said with a smile as he began typing faster. “The Watcher was after Lance, for reasons I’m still trying to figure out. But what I do know is the Watcher needed to get Lance away from his original dimension. While also removing said dimension from existence. Luckily, he doesn’t have the authority to completely erase souls. Only collect them.”
“So what’s the plan? You go get Lance and fix everything?” Jero asked hopefully.
Ominus clucked his tongue, “Eh, it’s not that easy. I can’t actually enter this dimension, like at all. It’ll have to be someone else.”
Jero nodded along, “Okay, that sucks. So will you just go grab Grace or Vinetion? Or maybe Discord? They’d be able to take care of any problems they come across.”
“Eh…” Ominus lets out a nervous laugh. “I can’t get to any of the others, because they’re in the Watchers collection. So it’s going to fall to you two to get the job done.”
Greg laughs at this, “Up to us? You grabbed the two guys who don’t have any special powers like Lance and the others. We’re basically just normal dudes, my guy.”
“Yeah, to be honest I would have grabbed almost any of the others but you two were the lucky boys to be near me when I had to evacuate that dimension. So we’re going to make due.”
Ominus poked away at the displays before him, muttering. The two friends stood behind him awkwardly, waiting to find out anything new.
“Alright,” Ominus suddenly said after a while. “I’m not able to enter this new dimension for more than a second at a time, so I’m using a proxy to appear for a split second to leave behind some portal essences.”
“Why?” Jero asked.
“Because if I or anything associated with me stays more than a second, the Watcher will know what I’m doing. As for the portal essences, I’m currently not able to actually fully access this dimension. I can only catch glimpses of it, and when I do, I get pushed away instantly. But with every glimpse, my proxy leaves behind portal essences, which will allow me to teleport you two in once.”
“Okay,” Greg says with a nod, acting like he fully understands. “So, basically, you can’t just teleport us in directly. You need to set like anchors so that you can get us in.”
Jero and Ominus look at Greg in surprise.
“Pretty much,” Ominus said after a moment. “It’s going to be a one way trip though. Once you have Lance secured, I’ll rip you all out forcefully. That’ll alert the Watcher, but by then it won’t matter too much.”
He looks away from the display and looks to Jero. “This is important; when you’re ready to leave you’ll need to return to your entry point and wait. I’ll be able to see that part of the dimension, so I’ll know when to pull you out.”
Jero nodded in response, trying to take it all in.
“Once you two are in, I’m going to connect my time to that dimension. That way I’ll have time to prepare on my end.”
The display dinged behind him, flashing green.
“Okay, the proxy has finished spreading the essences.” He spins around and begins to type away again. “We need to move fast. It took twenty years in that dimension to spread all that essence. We don’t have the luxury to make a plan or scout out anything properly.”
“Do we get any cool gear?” Greg asked with a smirk.
“Nope, nothing of mine can enter this world longer than a second. You two are going in bare.” Ominus stood and started guiding them back to the portal.
“Uhhhhh, anything we should know? Like advice?” Jero asked, wishing they had time to talk or make a plan.
“I know nothing of this world other than it’s an exact copy of your original. Just get in there and start asking around for Lance. He’s uniquely colored, he’ll stand out for sure.”
“Okay, look for Lance and come back. That’s super easy. I’ll just find myself and use him to find Lance,” Greg remarked as he and Jero stepped onto the portal platform.
“Oh no, you two won’t have copies there,” Ominus said as he started typing away on the portal console. “Since I pulled you two out, your souls weren’t available to be copied to this dimension. So it’ll be like you two never existed there.”
“Where will we appear?” Jero asked nervously.
“I’m not sure where exactly. You two will be appearing in a large population area, so likely a city or wherever a large group of ponies are. It’s the best I can do.”
“Great, ocean here we come,” Greg said sarcastically.
Ominus sighed, clearly not liking the idea of the whole plan hinging on the shoulders of these two. “Just try and not die. And find him as fast as you can. The longer you take, the more dangerous it’ll become. If the Watcher catches you, there’s nothing I’ll be able to do from here.”
“Uh, yeah, got it,” Jero replied in a worried tone.
“You got this!” Ominus cheered as he hit a switch and the two disappeared in a flash.
“They’re going to find a way to die for sure,” Ominus said with a frown.
ooo000<^>000ooo
With a flash, the two friend’s appeared in an empty alleyway, surrounded by garbage cans and broken boxes.
Jero took in his surroundings, taking note that he and Greg were back in their pony forms. He also noticed the massive amount of sound coming from the street at the end of the alley. The sounds of talking and car honks.
“Sounds like New York City around here,” Greg pointed out, sniffing the air. “Smells like it too.”
Jero chuckles nervously as he walks towards the exit of the alley. “So easy plan. Find Lance, return here.”
“Where is here, so we don’t forget?” Greg asked as they walked out onto the sidewalk.
“Eh,” Jero looked at the buildings around them, checking the one attached to the alleyway. “Looks like our exit will be right beside the…” he cocks his head in slight confusion at the name of the building. “Uh, the Office of Equine Affairs?”
“Sounds like boring government shit,” Greg said dismissively as he started walking down the street, weaving between the ponies on the crowded sidewalk.
Jero followed, not sure what to do first, but trusting Greg to figure it out.
Greg led the pair down the sidewalk, seeming to walk like he knew exactly where they needed to go.
After a couple blocks, Jero finally had to ask, “So where are we going?”
Greg only shrugged as he continued on his path, “I dunno. I’m just looking for Lance.”
Jero let out a sigh, “Dang it Greg, walking around and just looking at ponies isn’t going to help us find Him. We need to ask around.”
“Well, where do we start then?” Greg asked, coming to a stop.
“Hmm,” Jero looked around, not used to being the one to make decisions like this. “We can start there.” He pointed to a building that had the words ‘Manehatten Police Department’ written on it.
“Perfect,” Greg began beelining towards the building followed closely by Jero.
As they neared, a poster stood out to Jero. It was a poster of a pony in black metal armor standing on a hill with the words ‘REPORT SUSPICIOUS BRONY ACTIVITY! IT'S YOUR DUTY!’.
“Suspicious Brony activity?” Jero questioned out loud, but didn’t have time to ask Greg as he had already entered the building.
Putting the poster aside in his mind, he quickly followed Greg. Upon entering the police station, he saw Greg stepping up to the receptionist.
“Hey we’ve lost a buddy of ours,” Greg said with a relaxed smile to the officer behind the desk.
The officer only sighed in response as he pulled out a little book, “Did you lose them today?”
Greg chuckles, which only causes the officers frown to deepen. “We lost him a while ago, so we’re just trying to find him. And you know, a police station is the best place to start.”
Jero watched the two speak, a weird sense of unease washing over him.
“Okay,” the officer said as he lifted a pen and held up his book. “Give me their details and we’ll start paperwork on a missing pony case.”
Greg turned to Jero and gave him a triumphant smirk before continuing. “Alright! His name is Lance Greenfield, but he might also go by Girokon.”
The officer stopped writing and eyed them suspiciously. “I see. Describe him for me.”
Greg grabs a piece of paper and a pen with his magic and starts drawing. “It’s better if I just draw him, dude. I’m no artist, but you’ll get the point.”
After a minute of drawing, Greg held up the picture for the officer. Jero raised an eyebrow when he saw the picture. It was a very well done sketch of Lance, showing off his most prominent details.
“As you can see, he’s a very unique looking dude. He’s a blue stallion with red stripes, and red and black mane. Got those crazy reptile looking eyes too. Can’t miss ‘em.”
The officer stared at the picture, then at them. “Is this a joke?”
Jero jumped in before Greg said anything that could get them in trouble. “No, sir. I know he looks weird and like we just hit random on a pony generator, but that’s actually what he looks like. We’re just trying to find him and get him back home.”
The officer stood and looked between the two of them, looking at their cutie marks as well.
“Are you two saying you’re friends of Lance Greenfield?” His eyes narrowed, “Are you two Bronies?”
“Hell yes we are!” Greg says with a laugh, thinking they were finally making progress. “So you know of him?”
The officers eyes narrow, “You two do know you just admitted to not only being unbranded, but also a national crime?”
“Wait what?” Jero asked in complete confusion.
“Don’t move!” The officer suddenly screamed, raising his hoof and pointing what looked to be a gun mounted on his foreleg at them. “You keep that horn dim!”
“Uhhhhhhh,” Greg smiled nervously as his horn flashed and the cop collapsed.
“Greg!” Jero yelled in surprise and anger.
“What?” Greg said with a raised hoof, “He was literally pointing a gun at us. I defended myself.”
“I don’t think a self defense claim works when it’s a cop making an arrest,” Jero said while face hoofing.
“He’ll be fine, just knock his ass out.” Greg poked at the officer's wrist mounted gun with his hoof. “That’s badass though, better than the shitty excuses for guns we rock back home.”
“We can’t just stand here! You just assaulted a cop! In a police station!” Jero said in a panic, bouncing from hoof to hoof.
Greg started to respond but the sounds of yelling and running hooves caused him to react. “Oh shit! Time to go, bro!”
He took off running for the door.
Jero looked down a hallway and saw a few police officers running towards them. He quickly ran after Greg and out of the police station.
“What do we do now?” Jero asked as he caught up to the fleeing Greg.
Greg was running as fast as he could, using his magic to throw the ponies ahead of them out of the way. “I guess we find a place to lay low?!”
“Jesus Christ!” Jero cursed as they sprinted past all the dazed and confused ponies.
Behind and above them were police, not catching up but keeping pace with them.