WARNING: CHAPTER IS INCOMPLETE. PLEASE READ THE AUTHOR NOTES FIRST
“Hey, Liv… are you alright?”
“… apart from a minor headache and feeling like I can barely move, I’m alright,” Olivia snarked. “It’s not like I haven’t done crazier things before, Charlie.”
She was lying on top of an air mattress Peter set up for her, blanket and all, on top of the office table. “The elder Bishop tells me that you should be resting, but I need to ask you a few things,” her partner said, leaning over her slightly. “Does the pony universe know anything about what’s going on?”
Olivia shook her head. “Nope… For all they know, those two ponies vanished into thin air, literally.”
“Is that it? Nothing else that stood out to them as odd?”
“No, not really…” Olivia shook her head again. “Then again, what’s odd to them is normal to us, I bet…”
“I can imagine,” Charlie sympathized. “Honestly, I still couldn’t believe that I was staring at a pegasus that you were talking to. But seriously, is there nothing to go on?”
For a third time, Olivia shook her head. “No… ouch…”
“What’s wrong, Liv?”
“My headaches...” she moaned. “They’re getting worse.”
“I’ll let you rest,” Charlie said as he got up. “I’m going to do some investigating into the new merger. I’ll tell you about it later.”
Charlie walked out of the office, only to run into Walter. He was holding a plate piled high with sandwiches. “Oh, leaving already?” he asked, seemingly saddened by the idea.
“Yeah… I’ve got work to do,” Charlie answered, having already gotten used to Walter’s quirks. However, as if ravenous, he eyed the plate in Walter’s hands. “What’s in those sandwiches, though?”
“Peanut butter and bacon!”
“Care to box some for me? It’s a long ride to Philadelphia,” the iron-hearted Charlie grinned.
“Philadelphia?” Walter asked. “Isn’t that where Ms. Nimoy studied?”
“Yeah, and our newest victim,” Charlie answered. “I’m going to check out his dorm room, see if there’s anything strange he was up to.”
“Then do you mind if I come along?” Walter asked, leading Peter and Astrid, who were messing with something in the back of the lab, to exchange glances.
“… Leave the pot behind.”
DREXEL UNIVERSITY
The key turned in the lock, and the door creaked open as Charlie and Walter stepped in. “Name’s Alex Laplace,” Charlie began, as Walter looked around. “Eighteen years old, computer science major like Tara Nimoy. He was studying for an exam when he transformed, right in front of his roommate. We’ve sent him to Massive Dynamic too for a quick checkup.”
Walter said nothing, as he spotted something over Alex’s closet. “He’s a brony too?!” he gasped as he picked up one of those familiar dolls, specifically the Twilight Sparkle one.
With a giddy smile, he looked over towards Charlie. “I think he and I are going to get along very well.”
“… Yeah,” Charlie lied. “You two would get along just fine.”
Walter put the toy back down. “So… why are we here again?” he asked.
“I’ve told you six times, Dr. Bishop,” Charlie reminded him. “We’re here to see if Laplace was up to anything that may have triggered his transformation.”
“Right, right…” Walter sighed, looking around the room. “Something that could have triggered his transformation…”
Charlie let Walter glance around for a bit, leaning on the door. Walter took a look at one of the desks; clearly Alex’s, as it was as clean as his side of the room. “What do you think we’re looking for?” Charlie asked, as Walter began to rifle through his stuff.
“I am looking for whatever drugs he might have,” Walter answered, closing a drawer. “College students these days tend to have some of the best hiding places.”
“About that…”
“Who knows?” Walter interrupted, looking back up at Charlie. “Whatever he’s taking might be the key to solving this.”
“You won’t find any drugs on him.”
Walter stopped. “What?” he asked, a shocked look on his face.
“Laplace swore blind he wouldn’t ever touch that stuff,” Charlie explained, “a statement his roommate backs up. He won’t even touch beer.”
“That’s noble of him…” Walter muttered to himself.
“So what do you think we’re looking for?” Charlie asked. “Some sort of machine, maybe?”
“I wouldn’t think so…” Walter admitted. “We didn’t find anything with Ms. Nimoy, anything that would have triggered it. It would have to be something related to the universes by itself, by process of elimination…”
“So do you think our universe is breaking down again?” Charlie asked. “Please tell me you won’t have to whip out that amber stuff.”
“Oh, no, no, no,” Walter shook his head with a smile. “Amber is meant only for use with vortexes, not fringe events. Even if the situation was that bad, it wouldn’t warrant the use of that infernal material.”
“Phew…” Charlie sighed. “I’d hate to get covered in that stuff.”
“It’s much worse than you can imagine,” Walter somberly explained, as if he had been in it. “At least, so I hear.”
Then he stood back up. “And no, I don’t believe our universe is breaking down.”
He began to look around some more. “What could I use to demonstrate it here…?”
Walter suddenly spotted a small notebook. “Ah!” he exclaimed, picking it up and tearing out an empty page. “Watch this.”
He pulled out a lighter, and promptly lit the paper on fire. “What’re you doing?!” Charlie panicked, taking the paper and throwing it on the ground.
He stomped it repeatedly, extinguishing the flame. “Are you trying to cause a panic?” he asked, calming down.
“Take a look at the paper,” Walter said.
Charlie lifted his ash-covered shoe. “It’s just a burned piece of paper,” Charlie noted.
“That’s the thing,” Walter explained. “If the universe was breaking down again, the paper wouldn’t burn. It would become brittle and fall apart.”
“As if it was frozen?” Charlie asked.
“Exactly. We did the opposite with osmium and liquid nitrogen; you were there, remember?”
“Yeah,” Charlie confirmed. “So the universe isn’t falling apart. What haven’t we thought of?”
He took a few tentative steps around the room. “What would cause someone to suddenly transform…?” he mulled to himself.
Meanwhile, Walter had begun rifling through Alex’s stuff again. All of his stuff had some level of order to it, and everything had its place, unlike his roommate's side of the room. He finally reached the bottom drawer, and pulled out a bag of red vines. “Ooh, my favorite!” Walter exclaimed, taking two. “I hope he won’t mind.”
“I wouldn’t, Dr. Bis-…” Charlie didn’t have a chance to finish that sentence as Walter took a bite of one. Sighing, he shook his head. “Just don’t take any more. We should stay focused on task here.”
“Yes, yes, you’re right…” he agreed, putting the rest back. “But I no longer think simply standing here will give us any answers.”
“So what do you think we do?” Charlie asked, again.
“… We should call Peter,” Walter suggested. “Perhaps they’ve figured out a way to communicate with the third universe.”
Nodding, Charlie reached for his phone, when suddenly, it rang. Picking it up, he smirked before showing Walter the caller ID; Peter Bishop. “What a coincidence,” Walter smiled.
Charlie only smiled as he accepted the call. “Agent Francis,” he said.
“Hey, Charlie, can you put me on speakerphone? You and Walter will want to hear this,” Peter asked. For some reason, the call was grainier than usual.
“Sure, one second.”
A quick tap on his smartphone’s screen, and Peter’s voice came over the speaker. “Walter, it turns out we didn’t need to do anything,” he said. “They have their own version of the transuniversal window you built. Astrid managed to make first contact using a chalkboard, and it is really freaky to be chatting with a pony version of myself.”
“So do they have any information we can use?” Charlie asked.
“So far, no. They’re asking about our own progress.”
“Peter…” Walter began. “Tell them that we have no new information for them. There is nothing here that could trigger it, and I feel that it has more to do with their universe instead of ours.”
There was silence for a few moments. Excruciating, painful, tense silence. Peter’s voice came back over the phone, breaking it like a sledgehammer to a frozen lock. “We pissed them off.”
“Great,” Charlie sighed. “These didn’t have to get harder to solve than perfect murders.”
“Now where would the fun be in that?” Walter asked with a smile.
“What fun?”
“You know, it’s fun, running around trying to figure out who blew up someone’s head using some crazy chemical,” Walter retorted, giddily.
“Only you could have so much fun with that stuff,” Charlie quietly muttered.
“Wait, we got something more,” Peter’s voice continued. “Walter-pony thinks that you may be right. There’s some sort of incident going on over there, something widespread. Maybe you should get back here, Walter. This sounds important.”
“Broyles is going to kill me for wasting so much gas…” Charlie sighed.
“Actually, Charlie, you might want to stay there,” Peter suggested. “From what he’s saying, I think there’s a soft spot forming where you’re standing.”
“A soft spot?!” Walter gawked. “Why, that’s impossible! Soft spots normally don’t form inside buildings! Really, only fringe events can occur within buildings!”
“I’m thinking this one was formed artificially.”
“Artificially?” Charlie asked. “Like hell I’m staying here, then. I’m clearing the whole block.”
“No, Charlie, don’t. You’re just going to cause a mass panic. Why don’t you go ahead and check on its status? I’m pretty sure Walter went and…”
A hissing sound filled the room, like an aerosol can being sprayed. Charlie looked up to see Walter covering the room in a thick mist with something from a silver can. Then, inexplicably, he pulled out what looked like a floodlight on a handle, and turned it on. Pink bolts were suddenly visible, as if there were two tesla coils in the room, but they were… gentle. Serene. “There’s a soft spot in here, alright,” Walter concluded. “But it’s benign. This isn’t strong enough to cause a fringe event like this.”
Charlie’s eyes, however, wandered back to the dolls on Alex’s closet. “I think I know something strong enough to do just that.”
He turned back to his phone. “Everything in every universe has a counterpart, right?”
“Yeah, why ask?”
“Do you think Walter’s toys have a counterpart in the ponies’ world?”
“What are you thinking?”
“Do you remember a case where a widow and her alternate husband nearly tore a hole in the universes with their love for each other?" Charlie asked.
"Why... yes," Walter admitted. "I still have nightmares over even considering amber for such a situation."
"What if it was Laplace liking these ponies that got him merged with his pony counterpart?"
MASSIVE DYNAMIC RESIDENCES
"Mr. Laplace, tell us about the dolls in your room."
The half-horse hybrid across the glass table sighed. His hair was both black and two tones of blue, whatever horse parts of him were blue, and he had a horn growing from his forehead. His tail was messy, and also two shades of blue. "... Are you aware of the TV show that goes with them?" he asked.
"Yeah... somewhat," Charlie unenthusiastically responded.
"Then I can save you the spiel," Alex explained. "It's really just merchandise from that show. I just like having them, that's all. Makes that drab room a little more vibrant."
"Makes sense," Charlie nodded, then leaned forward, not as if trying to sweat him, but in curiosity. "How much do you like them?"
Alex thought for a couple of seconds, scrunching his face. Inside, he wanted to admit viewing... less than tasteful pictures of ponies, and he wanted to claim that it was for research. "I write fanfiction about them, and I've tried my hand at drawing them," he explained. "I'm not like some of the more extreme bronies, who would fill their room past bursting with that kind of stuff."
Charlie caught the scrunch, but didn't pursue it. Alex wasn't downplaying himself, he knew that much. He'd seen some images of some bronies' rooms, and Alex definitely wasn't exaggerating. He'd also stumbled upon those less than tasteful pictures himself, though different ones. He was still trying to convince himself that that uncomfortable lump in his pants was his gun in his pocket. "You also created a virtual pet of one, didn't you?" Charlie asked. "Like one of those Tamagotchi things?"
"... Yeah..." Alex admitted nervously. "It was a project, and the best material I could find for it."
"Well, at least yours was family-friendly," Charlie admitted. "Can I see some of your drawings?"
"Sure," Alex agreed, getting up.
Limping a little from having to deal with both a foot and a hoof, he sat down at the computer Massive Dynamic had provided him, turning it on. "I still wonder why Massive Dynamic won't let me at least tell my parents I'm still alive," he said as the computer booted up.
"Frankly, we don't want news of your condition getting out, especially seeing as we can't predict who's next," Charlie explained. "We'd cause mass panic."
"Makes sense," Alex agreed as he opened the web browser.
Typing with one hand, he accessed a website that Drexel had clearly provided him. "All CS students get their own website and shell client," he explained. "It's really useful for data transfer."
The website quickly came up. It was extremely plain, with a bunch of links. "There's one drawing I really want to call attention to, though," Alex said.
He clicked on a link labeled "Shooting Star, attempt 2". It brought him to nothing more than a single image. The image was a crudely-drawn pony in pencil and black ink. What was shocking, though, is that it looked just like his horse parts. "Can I download that?" Charlie quickly asked.
"Sure," Alex agreed. "What are you going to do with it?"
"I've gotta show it to someone."
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Charlie quickly came storming back into the lab, carrying a piece of paper with him. "Farnsworth!" he called, scaring practically everyone in the room. Poor Gene mooed as Walter jumped mid-milking, painfully tugging at her udder. "I gotta show something to the other side!"
"Uh, sure," Astrid got up, moving back over to the chalkboard by the transuniversal window.
Charlie peered through the window. There, he saw Rootbeer, Knight, and Savior, all of them staring through their own version. Astral, on the other hand, was standing in front of a chalkboard, which messages were scrawled over. Charlie held up the drawing and told Astrid, "Ask if they know this pony."
"Give it to me," Astrid said, taking the image and holding it up to thin air, then wrote DO YOU KNOW THIS PONY? on the chalkboard behind her.
Charlie watched as, silently, Rootbeer told Astral something. Getting up off the ground, she began to write something on the board. "First time I've seen a horse fly..." Charlie admitted.
"Join the club," Astrid snarked.
Astral moved, revealing a new message; YES. HE VANISHED TOO.
“So this pony’s his alternate,” Charlie mumbled to himself.
He picked up one of Walter’s toys, a pink one, to which Walter came storming out. “Put that back, Agent Francis!” he shouted. “It took me fifteen minutes to properly position Pinkie Pie!”
“I’ll put it back,” Charlie waved him off.
He gave it to Astrid. “Ask if they have their own version of this stuff in their world,” he ordered.
Charlie went to take a look back at the screen while Astrid began to write on the chalkboard again. As Astrid finished, he saw the ponies look at each other. Savior said something, then darted off screen. “Where’d she go?” Charlie asked.
Astrid walked over, turning the window. The image moved too, but Savior was nowhere to be found. Suddenly, they heard a rising, whooshing sound. “What’s that?” Charlie asked, looking around.
“That sounds like Olivia crossing over…” Walter responded tentatively.
Suddenly, they all heard a loud splash, coming from the sensory deprivation tank. In curiosity, they all took careful steps towards it, Charlie drawing his gun. “Don’t tell me…” Walter breathed.
Charlie reached out to open the tank… and something pink burst out of it. Charlie screamed, nearly shooting whatever came out. “Hi there!” a familiar voice shouted.
Charlie couldn’t believe his eyes. In front of him was a pink, blonde-haired pony that looked surprisingly like Olivia with her hair down, floating in the air with a pair of wings.