//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: TCB: Parallel Universes // by mcb893 //------------------------------// A/N Again, thanks to Robert C. for editing. If there are any spelling/grammar errors, it's his fault! August 23rd, 2004 My police Crown Vic raced down the street while I pushed the pedal to the floor. Overhead lights flashing, I reached down to the ELS controls and turned the siren on. Making a right turn onto my street, I turned the siren off and braked hard in front of my house. Leaving the lights flashing, I got out of my car and drew my gun. I ran up to the front door, only to find that it had been smashed open already. Following the training I had received in the police academy, I entered stealthily, quickly but carefully clearing the rooms one by one. A sudden scream from upstairs caused me to throw caution to the wind and run to the source. Nearing my wife’s bedroom, I could hear voices talking. “Please... he’s only two years old... let him go... please!” My wife was saying. “Don’t worry! We’re here to help you. Once he’s a pony, you two can stay together. You’ll live your lives without corruption!” I entered the room just as a rainbow coloured pegasus opened a vial of fluid and poured it down my son's throat. “Brandon!” I screamed. The pony looked over at me and smiled. “Hey, I’m Rainbow Dash! That’s Pinkie Pie! Just hold still, we’ll be done in ten seconds flat!” I pointed my gun at them. “Get out.” Rainbow looked down at my firearm, and shrugged. “Your loss!” She flew out the window, taking Pinkie with her. My wife was on the floor now, sobbing. Walking over to her, I put my hand on her shoulder. “Natalie... we need to go...” My wife looked up, tears streaming down her face. “What about our son?” SPLASH. We both looked over at the source. It was our recently converted son. He had taken a vial the pony had dropped and thrown it at us. Since he was only a baby, it fell far short. “He’s gone, Natalie. Let’s go.” Present Day As I looked at those two mares again, I considered my options. My weapon was on the ground behind me, and I couldn’t reach it. We stared at each other for about two seconds, before an apologetic grin appeared on the Rainbow mare’s face. “Heh, we didn’t think anyp- anyone else would be out here!” What? I was backing up now, trying to get my gun in reach. “So... what’re you doing out here?” she asked, oblivious. “Don’t you recognise me?” I asked quietly. Rainbow put her hoof to her chin, thinking. At that moment, I reached down and grabbed my Glock off the floor. “Where the fuck am I?” I barked, pointing it at them. Rainbow and Pinkie, surprised, were taken aback. “Wh... what?” Pinkie uttered. “Where the FUCK am I?” I yelled angrily. “You’re in Whitetail Woods, in Equestria!” Rainbow said, equally angry, “What’s your problem? What’s with the gun? What’d we do to you?” “What did you do to me?” I asked, furious, “WHAT DID YOU DO? YOU KILLED MY SON!” She looked shocked. “I... I killed your son? No way! I would never do that!” “Yeah! Dashie’s one of the best mares I know!” Pinkie added. “You ponies think that you’re ‘helping’ us, but here’s a newsflash. When you convert someone, you’re actually killing them!” “I got no idea what you’re talking about!” She replied, “We didn’t kill anypony! And what the hay do you mean, ‘convert’? Look, just put the gun down!” I paused for a moment. Starting to cool down now, letting the adrenaline exit my system, I took a good look at the two mares before me. Neither of the ponies were wearing the dreaded saddlebags that held ponification vials, and there would be no point in killing them. Very slowly, I lowered the sights of my weapon. “Okay,” Rainbow said, uncertainly, “Now, why don’t you tell us what you mean by ‘convert’ and ‘ponification’?” “Yeah, like you don’t know!” “Well, I don’t, so just tell me!” I glared at her. “Fine, I’ll humor you. Eight years ago, Equestria appears in the ocean. We trust you, let your peop- ponies into our society. Two months later, we get attacked. Ponies with vials of ‘ponification’ potion are everywhere, turning humans into evil, brainwashed ponies. My partner; he got ponified, and when I went over to help him, he attacked me! We’ve been fighting for years... we’re down to four hundred and fifty humans now. You killed them all! All seven billion!” Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie looked shocked. “Wh... What’re you talking about?” Rainbow exclaimed, “We’ve never done anything like that! Why would we... I have human friends! And I’m pretty sure there’s no such thing as ‘ponification’! I’m not sure if that’s even possible!” “Don’t deny it!” I yelled, “You broke into my house... you were the one who ponified my two year old son! In front of my wife, too,” I added, “Two years old, and we had to leave him because he was trying to kill us!” Pinkie Pie stepped forward, causing me to raise my gun again. She stopped in her tracks. “Hey,” she said, “calm down.” She took another step. I kept the gun pointed at her, trembling now with a combination of fear and fury. Shoot her, damn it, shoot her! I yelled at myself. But I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. She reached me and slowly lowered my arm, the one that was holding the gun. It’s over, I thought, I’m dead now, all because I couldn’t pull the trigger! I shut my eyes tightly, waiting for that vial potion to be forced down my throat. When nothing happened, I opened them again slowly, and I found myself staring into Pinkie’s eyes. “We’re not gonna hurt you, silly!” She said softly, “Or ponify, or convert, or that other word you used!” I looked down at her, uncomprehending. “What?” “Hey, don't worry!” Pinkie said, smiling. Suddenly, she gasped. “Oh, I have to throw you a party! Come on, let’s go back to Ponyville! You can meet Twilight there, she’s a real smarty pants, I bet she’ll know what’s going on!” I froze at that familiar name. “Twilight? Twilight... Sparkle?” “Yeah, her,” Rainbow replied. “You know her?” “She was about to kill me right before I landed here!” I exclaimed. Rainbow looked annoyed, while Pinkie looked disturbed. “I don’t believe you, you know,” Rainbow said to me, “There’s no way ponies would do anything like that!” “Dashie...” Pinkie said, “Calm down.” “Pinkie,” Dash said indignantly, “He was pointing a gun at you!” “Because he was scared, Dash!” Pinkie exclaimed. She sighed. “Dash, we should bring him to Twilight. Let’s see what she thinks.” Dash sighed as well. “Alright, fine.” I frowned. “Wait, what makes me think I’ll go with you? You don’t have any potion on you, so you could be leading me back to where you can take me without a fight!” There was silence for a couple of moments. Then, Dash spoke up. “I really shouldn't care whether you come with us or not, you know. But if we leave you out here, you won’t survive long, and I’m never going to let someone get themselves killed because they’ve got some kind of mental sickness.” She had a valid point. There was no way I was going to last out here for an extended period of time. Additionally, they would no doubt contact the authorities the moment they got back to town, and if I had to hide, there was even less chance of survival. Other than killing these two, I really didn’t have a choice, and killing them just seemed... wrong. The door to the library swung open, revealing the lavender mare I had been fighting less than an hour ago. She looked over at Rainbow and Pinkie Pie and smiled widely. “Rainbow! Pinkie!” She cried, seeming very happy to see them. “Jeez, Twi, calm down! We just saw each other a few hours ago!” Rainbow said, “Can we come in?” “Absolutely!” she replied, smiling, “Make yourselves at home!” Walking through the door, I made eye contact with the unicorn, glaring suspiciously. “Where did you find him?” She asked curiously. “Middle of Whitetail Woods,” Rainbow replied, “He was just standing there. He has this whole crazy story, too.” “Oh, really?” Twilight asked, “Sit down; let’s hear it.” I sat down, gripping my Glock tightly and watching the purple unicorn carefully. Hesitantly, I started my story. As I told it, my mind flashed back to one memory that had been seared into my head. August 23rd, 2004 “I’m a cop and I’m okay! I sleep all night, I work all day!” My partner, Jonathan Edwards, sang. I slammed my forehead on the dashboard. “Johnny?” I groaned, “Shut the hell up. Or at least sing a good song.” My partner smirked. “I put on a gun and ba-adge! And handcuff crim-in-als!” Before I could reply, the radio interrupted us. “Fifty-two twelve, respond to CIBC bank, 205 Queen Street West, fight in progress. Branch manager reports two men in a scuffle outside.” “Mark 5212 responding,” I said, picking up the radio. Edwards turned on the lights and sirens, and we made a hard U-turn. Arriving on scene, we found two men beating the hell out of each other. We rushed over and separated them. “Hey hey hey!” I yelled, “Calm it down!” We started talking to them, trying to figure out what had happened. Apparently, one of the men had just been caught in bed with the other’s wife, or something to that effect. While I was taking the guy’s statement, something caught the corner of my eye. A green earth pony was standing perfectly still on the corner of Simcoe St., when suddenly he spasmed and collapsed. My partner took notice as well. “Hey, buddy, you okay? Do you need help?” He asked, walking over. The pony looked up. “Oh, I’m fine, thank you,” the pony said, smiling. He stood up. “Actually, I’m here to help you.” Jonathan looked down at him, confused. “What?” He asked. The pony reached into his saddlebag and drew out a vial full of purple fluid. “Just drink this and you’ll be redeemed!” He said enthusiastically. My partner took a step back. “Okay, sir, I’m gonna need you to put that down.” Suddenly, the earth pony pounced on top of my partner. I reacted instantly, running forward just as the pony poured the liquid down his throat. “Police!” I screamed, grabbing the pony off of Jonathan and throwing him to the sidewalk. We scuffled for a couple of moments until I finally managed to draw my baton and whack him with it. “What the hell was the liquid?” I yelled into his face. The pony was still smiling. “Redemption,” he said simply. Before I could comprehend the meaning of that, I was grabbed from behind and tossed away. I landed hard on my back, and found myself face to face with my attacker. It was a silvery grey pegasus, but what shocked me were the remains of a black-blue police uniform. A kevlar vest was caught on his wing, a duty belt was slipping off his hind legs, and a cap was falling off of his head. Someone screamed. Rotating my head, I saw a unicorn forcing a vial of liquid down a woman’s throat. She started morphing, changing colours, and in seconds she became a brilliant magenta pony. “Hey, Sean,” my partner - former partner - said. It was the pegasus moving his lips, but his voice was Edwards’. “Just take the potion, and everything will be okay. You’ll be redeemed.” All around me, I could see ponies attacking people, turning them into ponies, those ponies attacking more people. I looked at my former friend. “I don’t know whether you’re brainwashed, or if you’ve been replaced. But I know one thing for certain; you’re not Jonathan.” The pegasus was still smiling that creepy smile plastered on all of the pony’s faces. “But I am! And soon, you’ll see too!” BANG. BANG. Two shots rang out, but it wasn’t me who fired them. I looked past the falling pegasus to see two men in the grey tactical body armor of the Emergency Task Force standing next to an ETF SUV. One of them was holding a smoking Glock 17, and I recognized him immediately as Reynolds. Shots continued to ring out as the two officers engaged the other ponies in the street. As the firing finally ceased, Reynolds ran up to me and helped me up. “Hey,” he said, “They just declared a citywide Code 0. Lethal force has been authorized; these ponies aren’t just attacking here, they’ve attacked every single US city, they hit Parliament, the Prime Minister’s office, not a single Canadian Forces base is responding to calls, dispatch stopped answering about three minutes ago... the city’s in chaos!” Putting my hand to my chest, I realised that it was wet. Sitting up, I looked down at my kevlar vest, which was now stained with a red liquid. With a start, I realised it was Jonathan’s blood. I also noticed a little red light blinking on my duty belt, and realised that it was my phone. Reaching down, I grabbed it and read the incoming message. “What is it?” Reynolds asked, “Listen, we’ve been directed to secure the airport ASAP. We need to go.” I looked up at him. “Go,” I said, “I’ll meet you there.” Getting up, I ran to the police car that I had arrived in. “Where the hell are you going?” Reynolds shouted after me. “I’ll meet you at the airport!” I shouted back. In the car, I slammed my foot down on the accelerator and looked down at my phone again. 2:14 PM From: Natalie Parnell theres someone breaking into the house My police Crown Vic raced down the street while I pushed the pedal to the floor. Overhead lights flashing, I reached down to the ELS controls and turned the siren on... Present Day “So, yeah,” I said, “That’s what happened.” Everyone in the room was silent. Then, Twilight spoke up. “Well, that’s an... interesting story, to say the least,” she said, “Do you have any proof?” I was silent for a moment. “No,” I finally said, “I don’t have any proof. But I’m not lying!” “Right,” Twilight said, “Rainbow, I think you should get a police pony. He’s obviously crazy. Delusional at the very least.” “I don’t know, Twi...” Rainbow Dash said thoughtfully, “Weren’t you blabbering about paragram universes the other day? Like, how every time a decision is made, it splits into multiple universes, or something like that? I didn’t get half the stuff you said, but I do remember you saying that every scenario anyone's ever thought of actually happened in a universe somewhere...” “Parallel universes, Dash, and while that’s true, what he’s saying is just... impossible! He’s crazy!” Twilight replied. “Why are you so against this?” I asked suspiciously, “When I came in, your first question was ‘Where did you find him?’ How did you know I was found?” The library doors opened suddenly, and everyone’s heads turned to it. Instantly, all our jaws dropped. Standing in the doorway was a second Twilight Sparkle. Anyone who guesses the city this is based in gets a cookie.