The Wheel and the Butterfly A Dan X Pinkie Pie Saga

by Justice3442


Guest Arc Dan vs SyFy: Chapter 6 Dan vs Future

       As the strange sound of a clock ticking backwards filled the air, Last Laugh walked up to Dan, who had momentarily become separated from the others.  “Can we step out of the way?” she asked sorrowfully.  “We...need to talk.”

       Confused but willing to listen, Dan followed, walking away from the others.  “So...that’s it, then?  World’s saved?  Chris is some giant star bear?  Our world becomes a human version of pony-world from the amount of magic in it?  You’re going to help us clean up, right?”

       “Actually...there won’t be anything to clean up,” she murmured softly, looking down.  “Much like most of what happened to you before Pinkie Pie arrived, it’ll be like none of this ever happened.”

       Dan scratched at his chin as he stared up at Chris’ giant form.  “Gonna be hard to explain that away into ‘normal’.  Not to mention Casa Paradiso’s relocation…”

       “That sound you’re hearing is Time beginning to rewind itself,” Last Laugh explained.  “Once it does...none of this will have happened.”

       Dan stared at Last Laugh for a time.  “...okay, I hate to be Pinkie Pie here - I’m not really built for it-”  He smirked as that got a laugh out of Last Laugh.  “-but if what you’re saying is true, there’s no reason for any of this to have happened in the first place.  The fact that it did means you aren’t telling me everything...yet.”

       Last Laugh nodded.  “What happened is...the King of TOK, the present King of the Nexus, looked at what happened and took action.  He altered the laws the Nexus currently runs on such that, so long as he’s King, something like Killi-TOK can’t be made there.  Now, a decision like that out in one of the worlds-”

       “You get multi-verse theory kicking in, and it just doesn’t happen in the present timeline, but we’ve still got the aftermath of the time travel,” Dan translated.  “Becky introduced Pinkie and I to Dragon Ball Z after hearing I uppercutted Terri-Man into space.  Jean and Elise got a bit too interested in the Cell arc for any of our comforts.”

       Last Laugh chuckled softly.  “Yeah, that’s about right.  But things like that work differently in the Nexus.  Because it’s the source of all magic for all timelines, there can only ever be one Nexus per multiverse.  So if building Killi-TOK becomes impossible in the Nexus before it was built, Killi-TOK can’t have been built in the first place...and everything that happened as a result of the time travel involving Killi-TOK is undone...except in the memory of the King of the Nexus, and anyone with a connection to the Nexus that is as strong or stronger than his.”

       “Okay, that explains why it still happened,” Dan replied, managing to follow most of it due to practice trying to follow some of Pinkie’s rants..  “But then why are you telling me all this?”

       “Because you’ll remember it too,” Last Laugh explained as the backwards ticking accelerated.  “When the ticking stops, you’ll wake up before all this happened, and it’ll be like it was a dream.  And because you aren’t in the Nexus, events around you will be shaped such that you could easily shrug it off as just your own mind imagining something crazy due to outside stimulus while in a sleep state.”  She looked away, sorrow dripping from her features.

       “So...none of the bad stuff that happened to you will have happened either, right?” Dan asked worriedly, trying to be comforting.  “Isn’t that great?”

       “For all of you, yes,” she confirmed.  “And...for the daughter you and Pinkie eventually have.  But...she won’t become me.”  She looked up sadly at Dan.  “I...I’ll never have existed.  I’m...going to be erased, along with Killi-TOK…”  Tears poured from her uncovered eye.

       Surprising himself, Dan stepped forward and pulled her into a tight embrace.  “It’s alright…” he whispered softly.  “It’s going to be okay…”

       Last Laugh began to weep openly.  “I...I don’t want to go…”

       Shuddering, Dan gently stroked her back.  “You’ll be back,” he told her comfortingly.

       Last Laugh chuckled softly through her tears.  “You’ll make a great father someday,” she whispered.  “I wish I’d had you growing up.”

       “You will,” Dan promised.  On an impulse, he leaned in close to her ear.  “I love you, my little butterfly…”

       Last Laugh sniffled as her tears dripped onto Dan’s shoulder.  “I never got to say...I love you Dad…”


Ker-PLUNK!


       Dan’s eyes slowly opened as the sound echoed in his ears.  He found himself laying back on Couchy 2, the apartment rather full with Chris, Elise, Pinkie, and Mr. Mumbles all jockeying for position around the TV as a thunderstorm raged outside.  “Why are there so many people here?” he grumbled angrily.

       “Wow, Pinkie, you weren’t kidding when you said he was out of it today,” Elise joked.

       Pinkie popped up onto the couch beside him.  “Well, since tomorrow’s our day off from the bakery, I managed to talk you into inviting some friends over here to watch some sci-fi movies that were on, but you wouldn’t let me invite anyone but Chris and Elise, and I had to talk fast to get you to say yes to Elise.”

       Dan grumbled to himself as he sat up.  “Sounds about right,” he grumbled to himself.  He glanced at the screen, and saw an animated, bubbly, reddish-blonde girl bouncing around.  “That doesn’t look like science fiction…”

       “Well, at first we were watching Terminator 2,” Chris explained, “but the storm messed with the signal and the show kept getting scrambled.  Then we switched Star Trek: First Contact, but we hit the same problem.”

       “Same when we switched to Alien vs Predator,” Elise added.  “And even with the bad Japanese giant monster movies we turned into, and the cats-with-swords animated video Pinkie tried to share with us online.  We got music, but no video.”

       “So I stuck in that new anime Becky recommended to us to enjoy given how random our life is!” Pinkie concluded happily.

       At that moment, Dan noticed the anime character on the screen was singing.

”Obliterate!
Exterminate!
Cause Il Palazzo tells me so~o~o!”

       “Right…” Dan murmured softly, sighing to himself.

       “Hey, how come your shoulder’s wet?” Pinkie asked curiously.  “We got in before it started raining.”  Reaching over, she rubbed a finger over Dan’s shirt and tasted it.  “Huh.  Salty.”

       Dan’s eyes widened, and he lay back against the couch, staring at his arms.  He then started looking around the apartment idly.

       “Something bugging you, Dan?” Chris asked curiously.

       “Just wondering where we could stick a crib,” he murmured softly.  “Figure leaving a way open is better than one being forced, so a crib’s better than a cage for us.”

       “I’m...not sure I understand,” Elise questioned quietly as Chris’ eyes widened in terror.

       “Why would we need a crib?” Pinkie asked in confusion.

       “Cause I was thinking we could toss your birth control pills,” Dan responded idly as Elise’s expression soon matched Chris’ terrified face.

       “But if I stop taking them, the icky periods come back!” Pinkie complained.

       “There’s another way to stop those,” Dan pointed out with a wide grin.  “A rather fun way.”

       “Really?” Pinkie gasped excitedly.

       Chris and Elise promptly started screaming in terror.