//------------------------------// // Rad: Dork Side of the Moon // Story: Dan Vs. The Magic of Friendship(Season 1) // by Barrobroadcaster //------------------------------// The Moon Now Rice walked on the moon, the dusty, sandy particles of its surface lightly crunching beneath his boots. His hands were locked behind him and his eyes were firmly locked on a point just low and in front of him. The cold and incessant crunching of the lunar landscape helped focus his thoughts; they concentrated him like the methodical rhythm of machinery. He inhaled slow and deep through his nostrils, thoughts coalescing with each breath. There was no oxygen on the moon, nor was there sound for his ears to hear in space. Yet he heard and breathed, without a spacesuit or any aid. Magic was the component he had been missing, the simple wand-waving 'it now works' simplicity of the solution not making sense. Things worked because they did, because that was how the Fausticorn had intended them. Or rather, how she didn't intend them at all. Magic was just a space-filler, both figuratively and literally, for things that weren't there or that were to be added at a later point. That's what Rice had discovered; the Fausticorn had left Equestria in an unfinished state and the magic she used to create it was still present, like unused paint left on a pallet. And one day, it would run out and Equestria would be no different from its now-defunct previous sister iterations until the Director's power erased it. Or so he had been told. He crossed from the dark side of the moon into the lit side, the cold being replaced with the light warmth of the sun. Light reflected off his gauntlets and boots and would have been blinding to him if he weren't specifically keeping them out of his view. He turned his gaze upward and that was the first time he saw it: Earth. Not Equestria, but Earth. Dan's Earth. The planet looked deceptively similar to Equestria. Clouds lightly wrapped around the upper and lower hemispheres living a gap in the center. The eastern part of North America was in full view; he would be over California, Dan's homeland, soon enough. Rice had to thank Dan for one thing: Dan had exposed his lies. Not the lies he had told them, but rather the ones he had been telling himself. Rice did want revenge. Revenge on the world that was so specifically ordained, so perfected and yet had taken his son away from him. Earth didn't have the meddling of living deities, at least not those he had seen. It was fair to people. To him, it was everything Equestria could have been, but wasn't. He used to find that fairness admirable. Now, he would see it destroyed. That would make him feel better, feel something since his son's death. A point to all the coldness and suffering, a chance for him to finally move on. He believed that, anyway. Dan had shown him that revenge was viable, revenge was the future, the only way to reconcile the past. It had to be the truth. It was the only way to get over the pain. Wasn't it? "I used to think I wanted you to see," Rice said, a voice that shouldn't have been able to be heard in a vacuum. "I thought I wanted you to understand. But now, I know there is no understanding between us. There's only your world and the one you took away from me. Now... I just want you to watch." The communicator buzzed on his left gauntlet. He toggled it on. "What is it?" "Master Rice, our troops on the ground are facing formidable resistance. They're requesting reinforcements, resupply and a rethinking of their entire purpose for being there. Their words, not mine." Rice sighed. He was enjoying fantasizing about Earth slowly melting and fracturing while Celestia, Luna and possibly the Fausticorn watched. And it wasn't Equestria, so the King and Queen wouldn't care- not that they cared about much anything at all. "Have Barro vaporize whatever it is they're complaining about. And maybe them when he's done," Rice ordered. There was static before Mezzer, one of his lieutenants, came back again. "Orbital support has been thus far ineffective, sire. Dan's tactics-" "Dan?!" his head whipped towards the communicator frantically. "Dan has been contained, what do you- oh, is someone using Dan's airheaded strategies? Another of his backup plans?" "N-no, my lord." Rice felt the blood beneath his coat prickle. "Is there someone else named Dan we don't know about?" "N...not in this story, milord." "Heh... heheheh, well, I know you can't be talking about DAN Dan. That Dan has been contained. Along with all the others," Rice said, smiling in a very unstable manner. The kind of grin you'd want to back away from. "Right?" "No... sire. Dan has not been-" "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" Rice instantly teleported into the command center, ripped Mezzer from where he was standing, ripped the door to the containment vault right off its hinges and did not stop screaming and tearing things in his way apart until he reached the cell where Dan was. Where he was SUPPOSED to be. But he wasn't there. "WHHHHYYYYYY?! WHY?! WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY?????????!!!!!" "Sire..." Mezzer risked piping up, "perhaps the question you mean is, how?" "No," Rice turned to him. He grinned maliciously. "Because HOW is something you ask AFTER something has JUST happened. I'm asking WHY... as in WHY did you not tell he escaped in the first place?!" "I... sir..." "You never captured him." Rice spun around. Michael Hay was standing right in front of him, as if waiting to ask him something. "How... did you... get out?" Michael pointed behind him. "You just ripped off like, half the doors in the Stable storming through here." "Ah. Yes, that would explain that. Thank you." Rice nodded and then, for a moment, it seemed like everything was going to be okay. And then he snapped his metallic fingers and Michael disappeared. Don't worry, though; he's just back in his cell. Another snap ensured he was locked in again. Rice had to keep Michael alive if he wanted to keep Barro under control. He turned back around to the space where Dan was supposed to be. All the other ponies were statues encased in crystal. Preserved, as much as could be, not because the Director cherished them but because Rice needed them for his experiments, though that wouldn't be for much longer. Yet Dan was not among them. Even as the others had been perfectly processed, from the treacherous Lightning Claw to Chrysalis and even the pink furry one, Dan had not been teleported three months ago when Rice abducted the others. Why? "Is Dan immune to magic, somehow?" Rice asked. "If so, he may be more dangerous than we realized. Where is he now?" Mezzer, cowering by one of the statues, stepped forward. "Donquestria, s-sir. At the gates of the New Troy. Shall I order Barro to commence bombardment?" He stared at the empty space where Dan's statue should have been. "Yes. But first, get a monitor to the primary holding cell." "Milord?" "I want them to watch."