Silver): Where Do I go From Here

Train wreck approached the office nervously. It was like all waiting rooms. Just Like a doctor, you go in terrified because that’s the doctor. You don’t want to know what the news is when you know it’s not good.

“Train Wreck Pastel to see Ambassador Watch, or Prince, I don’t know.” The stallion was clearly miserable. “I’m probably facing charges of vandalism against the Plate estate. I was involved in the circus fiasco. Fast Change said we should talk.”

Silver had known he was going to be visited, which prompted him to at least look up the basics, which turned up quite a thing! "Come in, come in!" He sat up, only to tilt his head at the curious beast that was larger than other ponies, and even himself, though he was less dwarfed than many. "Train Wreck was it? Is that the name you prefer?"

“It was the name my adopted daughter gave me, I’m told you met briefly?” the monster explained, “I took a liking to it. It means I survive… if I want to or not sometimes. For the record I’m sorry about how things went down with the Plate estate. I’m not proud of that. Carrot really could have gotten hurt. We could have just walked out…”

Silver nodded. "I'm glad you see that. We have a history, you know. I mean, Carrot Plate and me." He flashed a smile. "If she went with you of her own volition, then I don't think you're so bad, Tell me about yourself, from your viewpoint, nobody else's."

“Nobody,” Train Wreck laughed, quietly at first but then maniacally, “I know you don’t know. Diane Doesn’t know. Hell even Surprise doesn’t know. But you know the Nopony. You have to have heard about what happened with that, right?”

Silver pointed a hoof at his new guest. "I was hoping to learn about you, unless you really think I need to know Nopony to know you?" He nudged forward a bowl of chocolates with his magic. "Want some?"

“I’m a replacement.” The beast slumped in his place glumly. “I’m a replacement for somebody who should never have existed in the first place. Surprise told me you’ve seen the world she comes from?”

"I did," admitted Silver. "But I don't think she's the last one of her I saw before I left… That one…" He stopped saying things, though his blush perhaps said some things. "You're also from that… world?"

“NO!” the abomination’s lower mandibles clicked in agitation, “I never saw that nightmare! From what my wife and my daughter have told me I never want to! That’s where HE comes from. The Nopony.” Train Wreck calmed down. “I came from a world of plague. A human world where brony fantasy became a nightmare. I tried to keep it to myself, but after the circus it’s going to come out. I… there is another me. Not like in my head. He’s me, but he’s not. I don’t know if he exists at all the way you normally see it… He comes from that world… what everypony but Surprise calls a ‘dream’.”

Silver rolled a hoof. "I'm the one that dreamed it, where Surprise came from, but wherever Twilight reached and messed up? That I couldn't even start to say. This is the multiverse theory gone horribly wrong, so let's avoid that." His magic nudged the bowl again as if trying to make it more tempting. "We're here for you. You're in a lot of things. Where do you want to go from here, ideally?"

“The way you nudge the chocolates,” Train Wreck glanced about nervously, “This has happened before… with him… in a different world altogether. I wasn’t aware of it before… before he pushed me. Now I see it clearly. This has happened… with Lyra. That’s what terrifies me. Surprise found me looking for Charlie… is that who I am? I know I’m a monster. but am I destined to follow the path of the monster they brought me here to replace?”

The monster composed himself. “I am Kiki Charles Steen, I know who I am and who I was. He was Charles Kiki Madrie. He was, and will be the Nopony. And we are the same… or nearly the same person. What happened in that dream? Is that destined to play out again? Is that what I become, because if so…” The unspoken question hung pregnant in the air.

“What if a demon from hell did unspeakable things to your daughter? What if you confronted it and it held up a happy little mirror, and said ‘Hello, I’m you if things go badly enough. Say hello to your lovely wife, I’ll be back around.’ What would you do?”

Silver leaned forward a bit. "I'd remember that I once went on a mad raping spree and took an entire ship of females, gave them bastard foals, then sent their coltfriend’s home to deal with them, thinking I was somehow doing the 'right' thing." His muzzle wrinkled a little. "We can't live in could bes and should have beens."

“But that you isn’t out there anymore is it?” Train wreck sat back in thought. “You’re foals don’t wake up screaming at night afraid that this pirate raper is going to jump out from under their bed and feed their colt-friend to a chimera. And you’re not afraid to hug them and tell them it’s okay, because it’s not, because you know that was you and THAT JUST HAPPENED!” Train wreck would feel bad later about the damage to the floors of the consulate. At that moment though… nothing really mattered beyond keeping his family safe, perhaps from him.

This was, perhaps, a bit more tense than Silver tried for when greeting his fellow humans. "Let's decouple them from you. I mean, are they also a hydra? Do they look like you?"

“He’s the Nopony, he looks like whatever he… no… he doesn’t.” Train Wreck contemplated that for a moment, “He’s gone as far as he could to keep from looking like me. He tried to have me killed before he went after Diane… not because he was afraid of me. He’s not. I know that now.”

Silver nodded. "Then he's an awful person, and should be dealt with, but he's not you, and it sounds like nobody would be fooled into thinking he was you." Silver waved over Train's body. "Discord's work is pretty distinctive. Do you like it? Nice guy, but he gets ideas…"

“I was always an alien.” Train Wreck smiled for the first time. “The last time I was human me and Jake were drinking off our sorrows that Dash and Pinkamena put us on the disabled list while they went off to fight the good fight. You were in Pink’s command, Private Silver. Good to see you finally got a promotion. I guess that doesn’t really mean anything to you, or Jake… but it’s funny.”

Silver perked his ears. "Oh…" The word was small and timid. "You're from there?" That world was not forgotten to him. He shook his head violently. "Nevermind that. We're both humans, inside." He tapped his chest. "But I'm pretty dedicated to living with the ponies, and being one. You?"

“That’s what bugs me, less with you than with the ponies, but do you have to ask?”
The giant sat back and sighed. “I’ve fought by their side in an unwinnable war. I’ve dove into an inferno to save their foals. Hell, the circus, that just happened. I ran headlong into it beside their changeling princess, and I promise tomorrow, I’ll have to go to a gryphon cafe to buy a croissant. And then I face trial for vandalising the estate of… Carrot’s father. It’s okay. It’s what I expect.”

Silver rolled a hoof. "So stop saying you're an alien. You're the one who said it, not me, I'll point out." He flashed a bright smile. "You have a family, and friends. Not all the ponies like you, but so what? Think everyone likes me, hardly. I'm about to gather up some new enemies, but I'm not counting those."

“Yeah,” the ponie admitted, “But you’re a pony. Even in my Equestria, you took the transformation at the first opportunity. You have the magic, you’re an alicorn prince, not just Discord’s joke. Go back for a day or two. Let the ‘Yay I’m in pony country’ wear off and be the monster. You’re the shining knight, take just one day to be the evil dragon.”

"Challenge accepted." Silver felt over the human/pony with his magic carefully. "I can't just make you an alicorn, and you have varieties I can't quite put a finger, er, or hoof on… but looks can be deceiving. How about we try out the other's shoes for a day?"

A sly snake, tired of waiting for a treat, shot out and grabbed a chocolate. “Really, this is a thing that can be done?”

Dark chocolate, fairly plain, but of quality make at least. Silver leaned forward. "Appearance-wise, I see nothing stopping it. I couldn't, and wouldn't, try to actually change our magics, seeing as you're kind of three unknown types. Speaking of this, have you tried just asking Discord if he'd really be upset if you backed out of his plan? He's usually agreeable enough if you just talk to him."

“I have no problem with what I am.” Train Wreck smiled fully, allowing all of his snakes to smile with him. “I don’t believe in going back, In the same way I don’t believe in happy endings. Whenever anybody’s happy to see anything end, it was horrible. But if we’re going to be swapping places we should let our wives know… and you should probably learn the basic safe words. Diane’s bad with boundaries.”

Silver perked an ear. "I didn't think either of us would be… you know? I mean, we're married, both of us. This isn't permission to break that vow, though we should let them know someone will stop by wearing their husband's skin, since that would just be damn creepy to spring on someone."

“Yeah so you get it.” Train Wreck agreed cheerfully. “Gotta clear that up so one of us doesn’t have to break the other one. Good of Equestria and all. Sorry to even bring it up… but you do have a reputation…”

"Is this about my story?" Silver huffed softly. "I'm pretty damn loyal. Anyway, no rush. Talk to yours, I'll talk to mine, and we'll arrange a good day for it without things needing either of us."

Book One: The Vagabond - The End

Author's Note:

Collab ending chapter with David Silver. If somehow you haven't read his story, then go do that right now, so everypony can quit looking at you funny.

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Dravkwn

Dravkwn #1 · Jul 2nd, 2016 · · ·

Daremo

Daremo #2 · Jul 2nd, 2016 · · ·

You make a very good point about happy endings.

Would it be just as bad, in your opinion, to wish Train Wreck and his family happy new beginnings?

Not so New Brony

Not so New Brony #3 · Jul 2nd, 2016 · · ·

you’ve see

seen

Eve in my Equestria

Even

Good of equestria and all

capitalization

Interesting to see the interaction between Silver and Train Wreck and the idea of them swapping 'bodies' sounds like a rendition of the Prince and the Pauper though the two don't look anything alike. The switching of jobs is going to be more jarring for Train Wreck than Silver due to the difference in positions...then again, with Diane and Z...