Patch Day

by drunkenpandaren

Variation 2: IDW Crossovers

“Ray. Why is your head through the portal? Did Egon pay you twenty bucks again?”

Pulling his head out of the dimensional portal, Ray Stantz grinned. “No, but I found something that you wouldn’t believe!”

“Try me,” replied Peter Venkman as he walked over, coffee in mid sip.

“I found a land of unicorns!”

Peter paused in his sip. “Wait, what?”

“Look for yourself.” said Ray, as Peter took a glance. Through the portal was a very vivid world, brightly colored with small ponies who were literally looking at the glowing door back at them. “I was fostering first contact communications. It was a complete accident when I was tuning the machine but other than that…”

“Well, better log this one into the world list before the spooks start zooming through. Close the door, will you, Ray?”

Ray rolled his eyes before sticking his head through and saying, “Sorry, we’ll have to cut this short. Let your princess know I’m still on for tea tomorrow.”

“Let me guess,” said Peter once Ray had turned off the machine. “That was Manehatten,” he said, quoting the name with two fingers.

“How’d you know?” asked Ray.

“Lucky guess. I’m going to finish my coffee. Janine also said the interns are here.” replied Peter, walking back upstairs and tossing his spent coffee cup into the trash on the way up.

=====

“Who’s your friend, Ray?” asked Winston, a day later as he came down to deposit a ghost in a trap into the containment unit.

There, sitting across from Ray was a tall, statistique unicorn with wings, dressed in gold finery and a crown on her head. Not the oddest thing Winston had ever seen in his long years of service with the Ghostbusters. Winston, in his usual unflappable manner, went to deposit the ghost. “Ma’am.”

“Your friend is very polite,” said the winged unicorn, and Ray grinned sheepishly. The two of them had a tea set between them, and Ray nodded. “Hello, I’m Princess Celestia of Equestria.”

“Winston Zeddemore, nice to meet you ma’am.” said Winston. “You two having tea then?”

“To better facilitate talks between our people,” said Ray. “I kind of made myself human ambassador. Inadvertently.”

“It is not the first time that I have crossed worlds either,” added Celestia, taking a sip of tea from a glowing, levitating cup. “Nor will it be the last. I was surprised to hear that our Manehatten and your New York were connected however. But young Stantz explained it well.”

“She understood string theory and our multiple worlds seeding theory,” said Ray excitedly. “And they’ve yet to have a ghost problem, so it might be a New York untouched by the supernatural!”

“That’s great Ray. Well, I’ve got to get going. You two have a good tea time.” Winston chuckled as he walked upstairs. Who knew that Ray would have tea with a horse princess? Clearly no one told Ray what was impossible in the last three weeks.

=====

“Fascinating,” said Egon, impolitely scanning Celestia during Ray’s teatime with her. Tea with the horse princess had become a common factor in the basement, and soon it moved upstairs to where a place was set out for lunch. Today, Celestia had come bearing gifts; sweet cupcakes from a local bakery. Janine had brought scones with her this time as well.

Celestia was at least very amused by these proceedings as Egon continued his scans, and Ray poured them more tea. Winston had joined them, along with Janine who was taking her break. “Her dimensional signature remains stable. How many trips into the dimensions have you taken?”

“About several hundred,” replied Celestia, offering Kylie a scone which she took from her place across the way, the table not big enough to seat more than four people at a time. Fortunately there were no impending crises as time went on, and the Ghostbusters were effectively On Call. “Starswirl the Bearded and I, we brought many technologies and medicines to our world.”

“Fascinating,” said Egon, placing a blinking cauldron on her head. “How many Elder Beings did you meet in that time?”

“Two. Fortunately they had no interest in travellers from beyond the mirrors,” said Celestia, enduring the tests with aplomb.

“Egon’s just trying to make sure that nothing from your world will pop over to ours,” said Winston. “The last visitors we had were other versions of ourselves, and the ones before that was a group of mutant turtles. Both brought their troubles with them.”

“Understandable. I would want to know if a threat to Equestria was at work, which is why I accepted Ray’s invitation for tea.”

“And trouble just finds itself in any world,” chimed in a smug voice as a form popped into view. There was a subtle ka-click of a proton thrower being primed but the rest of the body followed. A mismatched being of lion, eagle, and whatever else faded into view. “There you are, Celestia! I was wondering where you got off to.”

At that, Celestia fought the urge to roll her eyes as she introduced the mismatched being to the Ghostbusters. “Everyone, Discord. Discord, the Ghostbusters.”

“OOOOOOH!” Exclaimed Discord, zooming over and winding around Egon as he took Egon’s hair off and put it on his head, earning snickers from Peter across the room. “The famous Ghostbusters! I have heard of them, what multidimensional being like myself hasn’t? Discord, being of chaos, and all things fun. How’s it look?”

“Better on you than Egon!” called out Peter from across the way as Discord replaced Egon’s hair on his head.

“What brings you here, Discord?” asked Celestia.

“Oh not much. Just your guards are wondering when you’ll return, Twilight Sparkle, that precious former student of yours wants to visit as well, and of course, there’s the little matter of making sure Luna is up to date on your shenanigans,” said Discord, reading from a scroll unraveled from his arm. “Droll stuff, you know the drill.”

“Let Twilight and Luna know I will return at the appointed time,” said Celestia. “Our visit will take another half an hour, so we do not need to rush.”

“As far as we know,” said Peter as he took one of the cupcakes from the box.

“Oh pfffh,” snorted Discord. “There’s plenty of time for things to happen in 22 minutes!”

“I’m sure.” said Celestia dryly. “I’m sure Twilight can handle it.”

“Well if you say so!” Exclaimed Discord, fading away in a twist of reality.

“Interesting,” said Egon, having trained a scanning device on Discord. “He reads like nothing I’ve ever scanned before.”

“Class 6? 7? Elder God?” asked Ray.

“Pie over E equals bacon.” Said Egon, holding up the device which showed a cooking slab of bacon.

“That’s not a reading,” said Ray.

“It is for him,” said Egon, adjusting his glasses.

“Discord is a being of chaos. But even he now works to maintain harmony, as best as possible.” Celestia sipped her tea and added, “My scientists are constructing a stable portal on our end, to house the entrance. We should have results by tomorrow. Then, Ambassador Stantz can come visit with no worry of returning home.”

“I’ve already packed a kit.” said Ray excitedly. “What else should I bring?”

“Anything in case of trouble,” said Celestia. “Our world may be safe, but I am uncertain of what the rest of the world thinks about the portal in Manehatten.”

“Ah the public opinion,” said Peter, taking a drink of his coffee. “You’re a princess right? Can’t you get the public opinion swayed?”

“Only carefully,” replied Celestia. “In any case, I believe it is time for me to return.” Getting up, Celestia bowed politely as Ray got up.

“I’ll walk you to the portal.” he said as they left.

=====

“This is more candy colored than expected,” said Winston, having volunteered to go with Ray to keep him out of trouble.

The portal had thankfully appeared in a building owned by the pony government, and as security checked in his proton pack, Ray was like a kid in a candy store, scanning everything with glee.

“Mister Zeddemore and Stantz?” asked a pony in a suit of white and gold trimmed armor. “My name is Skyflare, and I’m here to escort you to the presidential suite. The princesses await.”

“Lead the way,” said Ray as the two Ghostbusters checked in their throwers with the guard who carefully placed them to the side in secure holding areas.

The elevator was a novelty ride, as it was one of those old style ones operated by lever. But soon, the two were standing at a large set of doors. Skyflare knocked on the door and another similar guard appeared at the door before opening it fully. “Your highnesses, the Ghostbusters.”

Along with Celestia who was wearing a smile on her face and her royal gold trim, was a dark pony in blue and black, her mane speckled with stars. A third royal pony stood there, tucking a book to the side as a small purple and green lizard or dragon, scurried away with it. The third princess was lavender, with dark eyes and hair. Unlike the two, she did not wear royal vestments, but was wearing a small crown on her head.

“Welcome Ray, Winston. May I introduce my sister Princess Luna…” The dark alicorn inclined her head in respect. “And my former student, Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

Princess Twilight smiled and bowed politely. Winston and Ray did the same. “It’s really nice to finally meet all of you in your world,” said Ray politely.

“Well, now that the ice is broken, what say we show you all around?” said Celestia. “Please, come.”

At the large rooftop exit, the men looked over the skyline and Ray whistled. “Look at that. The skylines similar, but there’s notable differences! The pony architecture aside, you can see where they decided to place a building in a different area.”

“The magic that runs through the ground in Manehatten affects the location buildings went up in the 1920s,” said Twilight, walking up next to Ray. “I’ve studied your geography and there’s similarities in placement, although the layout of the buildings remain different.”

“I can see the Firehouse from here, is that supposed to be it?” asked Winston, pointing down near the edge of the town.

“Indeed,” replied Luna, stepping up next to him. “Your firehouse sits on a vast network of interdimensional energy. And it is a similar connecting location to our world. While the flow of magic diverted it to this building, we have ascertained that both are strong thaumic energy flows interconnected together.”

“Ley Lines,” said Ray. “While the headquarters are similarly charged, there’s a connecting sequence to New York.”

“As for supernatural problems, Manehatten has its local stories of course. Nothing powerful yet, but there might be a need for Ghostbusters,” said Celestia. “I would not be remiss to allowing a team to study your equipment, and build their own.”

“It’s a lot to take in, but we’ve seen weirder.” said Winston. “We’ll do what we can, princesses. The Ghostbusters haven’t backed down from a challenge yet.”

“What’s at the firehouse anyhow?” asked Ray, curious. “Does it stand empty?”

“Currently it does.” said Luna. “We can move a team in there, and the portal generator as well.”

“I’d like to see it then,’ said Ray. “If you don’t mind.”

Author's Note:

Variations 2: Posted 6/11/2017
Series: MLP FIM, Ghostbusters, IDW Comics Versions