Chapter 5
The door to the room closed as Scamp stepped out, leaving the two Bronies alone. Jero waited till he heard her bedroom door close before he relaxed.
“I’m starting to think this whole thing is going to be more complicated than Ominus led us to believe,” Jero said with a frown.
“Nah, we’ll be fine. That chick is some kind of badass, so no worries, bro,” Greg said as he flipped the page in the book. “Oh shit!” Greg suddenly exclaimed.
“What?!” Jero asked with a start.
“Lance wrote a chapter from my point of view,” he smirks. “That cheeky bastard.”
Jero rolls his eyes and walks around the room, looking over all the items and notes pertaining to his world and friends.
The amount of detail was both amazing and mildly creepy, Jero just wasn’t sure how to feel about it.
“Pfft, good ol’ Louie,” Greg muttered to himself.
Jero makes his way out of the room and into the living room. He started looking over the items that adorn the walls and tables.
There were pictures of a younger Scamp standing next to a older mare at what looked to be a high school graduation, one of her on a training course covered in mud, and one of her with a group of ponies in military like gear with the caption ‘Griffon Capital, end of war ~36 A.B.’.
On another table he saw a picture of Scamp at another graduation party, this one labeled “Police Academy graduation ~38 A.B.’. And by it was a picture of Scamp and the ponies he’d just met. A banner in the picture read ‘Welcome to Echo!’, it was dated 40 A.B.
One picture stood out to him, it was a picture of Echo Team standing around the corpse of a large creature, all of them looking worse for wear. ‘Operation: Dream Catcher, end of Nightmare ~42 A.B.’.
He continued snooping around the room and found a remote controller. Curiosity got the better of him and he hit the power button.
A TV in the corner of the room flicked on, showing a news broadcast.
“Huh,” Jero said as he put the controller down and started looking through cabinets.
It didn’t occur to him that he was going through someone else’s private things, he was too interested in what he’d find to notice.
In one of the cabinets he found a few DVD’s, each labeled with dates.
He chose one at random and popped it into the DVD player that was under the TV. There was a pause as the TV switched channels and a menu appeared.
The option ‘Play’ presented itself and Jero selected it.
The screen suddenly filled with Lance’s face, causing Jero to jump slightly in surprise. This was a much older Lance than he was used to seeing.
“I’ll ask you again, Mr. Greenfield,” a rough sounding voice asked from off screen. “Tell me where you gained all this information contained in your book.”
A tired sigh escaped Lance’s mouth as he looked past the camera. “I’ve told you,” his voice gravely from age, “it’s a retelling of my life, that’s how I knew it.”
“Your book describes the Nightmare and Darkest Bleak before either were known to still exist. Furthermore, the amount of detail you put into the book is astounding. A lot of research would have gone into that.”
Lance only shook his head and didn’t respond.
The video continues with the interviewer asking Lance more questions, but Lance never responded again, just stared at the camera.
The video ended abruptly. Jero checked the other DVD’s but they were all very similar with Lance barely talking and the interviewers yelling questions at him.
“Hey did you know Lance was fucked by a horse back on Earth?” Greg suddenly asked as he walked into the room.
“He what?!” Jero asked, completely taken off guard by the question.
“I dunno, apparently Lance got fucked by a horse some time before the rapture. Never knew that,” Greg replied like that was the most normal thing in the world.
“I…” Jero worked his brain to respond. “… have no idea how to respond to that.”
“Find anything interesting in here?” Greg asked as his ADHD kicked in causing him to change subjects.
“Uhhhhh,” Jero said still reeling from the information Greg dropped on him. “Well, Scamp is like you said, some kind of badass. And Lance is old now.”
“What year is it?” Greg asked as he kept reading the book.
Jero walked over to the kitchen table where Scamp left her PDA. He tapped at it till it turned on, showing the date and time.
“45 A.B., so that puts Lance at… sixty two here, but seventy three in our time.”
“Fuckers old as fuck,” Greg chuckled. “When we get back to our world, he’s going to be a seventy three year old fuck in a twenty nine year olds body. Nice.”
Jero wasn’t sure how Lance would feel after all this, but he hoped things would at least go back to normal once they return. He misses his wife and kids. And he was sure Greg missed his as well.
ooo000<^>000ooo
Jero was jolted awake by Greg kicking his side.
“Bro look at this, we’re famous criminals now,” Greg said gesturing to the TV.
Jero sat up groggily and looked towards the TV which was broadcasting a story about the events of yesterday.
“The two unbranded Bronies took a office building hostage and threatened the hostages and police with home made bombs,” the news caster said as a video of Greg waving his ‘bomb’ around and screaming incorently played on screen.
“There were no hostages,” Greg huffed as he ate a bowl of cereal.
“The pair were able to evade capture due to negligence of the on scene SWAT team. This calls into question the current state of police operations and their hiring process.”
Jero shook his head, he may not know a lot about this world, but he could clearly see the news station had an agenda they were pushing.
The channel changed to another showing an action movie.
“Shit was getting too boring for me,” Greg said with a mouth full of cereal.
Jero glanced at the time and saw it was 6:34 AM. “Is Scamp still here?”
“Nah she left an hour or two ago,” Greg answered, turning his attention to the movie.
“What’s our plans for the day?”
Greg smirked, “Scamp said to stay here till she returned. But I’m not about that life, I’m going to put on a disguise and go check out the city.”
“Very bad idea,” Jero commented, knowing he couldn’t possibly change Greg’s mind.
“It’s a terrible idea,” Greg said as his horn flashed and he changed into a blue earth pony with a purple mane. “Gonna go with this guy. Pinkie calls it the ‘stranger in my bed’ guy.”
“Jesus,” Jero covered his face with his hooves. “I don’t need to hear that, man.”
Greg only laughed loudly at this, clearly enjoying himself.
ooo000<^>000ooo
Scamp tapped through her PDA as she sat in the slowly filling up briefing room. She’d seen her team mates, but they all looked a bit dejected at being benched.
“I heard you guys lost two high value targets,” Bognog mocked as he slid next to Dribble a few seats away. “Apparently outsmarted you guys and escaped. When was that the last time that happened? That’s right, never, so that makes you guys the first and only SWAT team to lose their targets even after fully surrounding them.”
Dribble ignored him and stared straight ahead, the anger clear on his face.
“Looks like we’re going to be getting a whole new Echo Team very soon,” Bognog mocked in a almost sinister tone.
“That’s enough, Nog,” Blitz, Alpha Teams Leader, commanded in a stern voice as he stepped up behind Bognog.
“Of course, sir,” He said with a smirk before turning and leaving.
Blitz doesn’t say anything else as he walks back to his own team.
“Everyone find a seat and plant their flank there now,” the Captain called out as he walked towards the front of the room.
All the officers in the room took their seats as the Captain reached his podium.
“Alright, nothing new on the agenda today, so let’s get started.” He began calling out teams and their positions for the day, but skipped over Echo Team.
Once he finished he looked out over the crowded room, a different look on his face. “Echo Team, you are to report to the OEA office on the fourth floor of this building.”
All eyes turned to the members of Echo Team, most smiling like they were in on some kind of joke.
“Yes, sir,” Parker says loudly.
“You’re all dismissed,” the Captain said as he took his leave.
As everyone slowly left the room, Scamp joined up with her teammates.
“The OEA office? Why?” She asked, confused as to the reasoning. Usually a benched team was confined to a desk till they were allowed out onto the field again.
“We’re getting fired,” Dew said solemnly. “I’ve heard the comments of some of the higher ups, we’re being replaced.”
This caused the members of Echo to go silent as they left the room.
“Dead ponies walkin’,” Lemongrass called out as they walked by, which caused Bravo’s Team Leader to come over and drag him away.
This didn’t help the mood of the team as they headed for the fourth floor.
It wasn’t long before they were standing outside the OEA’s office door. This office was mainly just for administration and storage since the OEA rarely had anyone stationed inside.
Parker pushed open the door, expecting to see a regular OEA employee at the desk, but what they saw instead sent shivers down their spines.
“Echo Team,” Strawell deadpanned with a straight face, his armor absent, but his black uniform still caused him to look very imposing. “Come in.”
The six ponies nervously entered the barely big enough office and stood in front of Strawell.
He looked each one of them up and down, his eyes lingering on Scamp longer than the others. “I’ve gone over all of your After Action Reports and checked all sources to confirm them. I’m here to offer my apology for my words after yesterday’s… events.”
This caught everyone off guard, as they’d never heard of Strawell apologizing for anything before.
“I’ve decided to revoke my order of benching you, and instead will be placing your team under my direct command.” He lifts an envelope and passes it to Parker. “I already have a mission for your team. We’ve traced a signal back to what we believe to be a relay station for the terrorist group ‘Luna’s Spear’.”
The mention of the name caused a stir among the members of Echo Team. Luna’s Spear were responsible for most of the attacks on pony cities over the last few years.
“This is a simple mission,” Strawell continued. “So consider it a test. If all goes well, you will be able to advance to one of my Task Forces.”
Parker looked at a loss for words, they’d gone from being fired to being offered a Tier One Operator’s position.
“Um, thank you, sir,” he said, giving a salute, followed by the rest of his team.
“Dismissed. Go ready up, I expect this mission to be done before lunch.” Strawell walked around the desk and sat down, pulling out paperwork.
Echo Team stepped out of the room and began heading for the armory.
None of them knew what to say, but the relief and eagerness was clear on all of their faces.
ooo000<^>000ooo
Greg checked his new appearance in the mirror, pleased with it.
“Not a damn pony could recognize me now,” he blew a kiss at his reflection. “Oh behave!”
He laughs at himself as he walks to the front door and opens it.
A gun was shoved into his face as he realized there were four heavily armored ponies right outside the door.
“Don’t move!” Came the static filled voice of the lead pony.