Cause, Effect, and Consequences

by Coltsguy

Double You Tee Eff

I barely had time to notice that the light had went away before I felt myself tackled to the ground. There was quite a bit of chatter as my vision returned to show me that I was in the middle of a pile of hugging ponies. Being the largest of the group I found myself more towards the bottom of the pile than the middle I suppose. Didn't really bother me as the leg hugging me around my torso made me feel like I was an actual part of this instead of just being an extra wheel. The moment couldn't last forever though. Pinkie, who's leg was the one wrapped around me, managed to get everyone's attention.

"Wait a sec! Something's different!"

Her declaration was accompanied by the mare grabbing at my gut- er, I guess abs would be the right term. Heh, I had abs now. Anyways she still was able to grab me and by the time everyone disengaged from the group hug they all, minus Twilight who already knew, realized what Pinkie meant as she said one more line.

"It's almost feels like I'm touching a whole different pooooohhh that's why."

"What in tarnation happened to yah?"

"You look different," Rainbow Dash said bluntly.

"We, that is Eris and I, kiiiinda got an upgrade," I said sheepishly.

"What do you mean an upgrade?" Rarity asked. "Other than you quite noticeably slimming down I mean."

"Way tah be tactful there Rarity," Applejack drawled out.

"I'm too excited about what I can do now to care. What happened though is that Eris was forced to absorb an artifact by this jerk who wanted to power up that artifact. Too bad for him that Eris had too much of a bond with me to let herself get taken away and now she's much more powerful! Not only that but she shared some of that power with me which gave me my new look, made my spells stronger, and I figured out this little trick too! Watch!"

I held my hand out to the side with my palm out and concentrated a bit. After a few moments a portal slowly expanded outward. What was on the other side surprised all of us. It was an underwater area. Fish swimming by and everything. Pinkie was the first to check it out as she dove inside which scared away the fish. She swam a little bit away before coming back through soaking wet. She then shook herself off like a dog and poofed up into a big fuzzy ball when she was done. Needless to say but the rest of us took on the water she shed despite the dry looks we were giving her.

"Whoops! Sorry!"

Applejack just took the time to stick her hoof through to test it out herself.

"What is this?" she asked softly.

"Who cares? It's awesome!"

"I know right?" I responded. "I can make portals to just about anywhere I can think of and even places I don't! Eris can even record the places I've been to so that I can go back to those specific places that might have minute differences. All kinds of possibilities have opened up for me! I bet I can even go back and forth from home without much difficulty now! This is great!"

"How in the world is all that water staying in there?" Rarity asked.

"It's a permeable membrane," Twilight responded. "It only responds to focused entry along its surface so that air, water, dirt, et cetera doesn't fall through. It's a good thing too because while he was testing it out he opened up a portal inside an active volcano," she said while smirking.

"Oh come on Twilight, after that initial shock we all had you have to admit it was pretty cool to look at."

"I... won't deny that."

"Like I said," I continued as I closed the portal after Applejack removed her hoof, "With this I don't have to worry relying on Discord, the Elements of Harmony, and all the alicorns I know of to help me go back home. I can now go back on my own! Isn't that great!?"

I was answered by silence.

"I said isn-"

I stopped talking instantly as I noticed why there was no answer. Everyone other than me had frozen in place and the world itself was shifting into black and white colors. I reached out to Twilight since she was the closest to see if I could somehow do something, but my hand phased right through her. I was understandably freaked out. I was until I noticed one individual who wasn't like that.

"Doctor?"

"Yes, it's me. Kind of an odd moment isn't it?" he asked trotting up calmly to me while also phasing through Fluttershy on his way to me.

"I'll say. But if you're here then maybe you know how to get out?"

"Well, that is the issue now isn't it? For me anyway. There's already a way out for you."

"There is? What is it?"

"I'm sorry," he said almost inaudibly. "I'm so, so sorry."

Now, I'm not entirely sure if my blood ever ran cold before that moment. It sure as hell did right then. That was in no way a good thing. Why did it happen then you might ask? Well, if you aren't either attentive or someone who watches Doctor Who then you should know this. If someone, especially the Doctor, tells you that then Bad Things are going to be happening to you.

"...How bad is it?"

"Most likely the end of your existence at minimum. You may get lucky, but I wouldn't bet on it. The odds aren't in your favor."

"Joy," I said flatly before I suddenly fell when the ground stopped existing. I stumbled a bit on landing but righted myself quickly enough. A glance around showed me an interesting sight. Does anyone remember the The Matrix Reloaded scene with Neo talking to the Architect? Well the room I was in was just like that: a round room with television screens going in a circuit around the room. The difference between that room and this room was that this room didn't have any doors or other occupants and also had three rows of high definition televisions encircling the room instead of those smaller screens. Every one of them that I looked at moved to project me like a mirror.

I stopped this as a hole opened up a fair distance away from me. I then looked on as a large white chair rose up out of the hole with a single occupant. He wore a plain white suit with a black string tie and a pair of black loafers. His face looked familiar and not because of his white hair and goatee that made him look like he belonged at Kentucky Fried Chicken. It was something else that I couldn't place for some reason.

"Hello there," he spoke in a deep southern accent. "I'm Colonel Sanders."

"The fuck?"

"Oh right. You haven't seen that. No matter It isn't important."

He waved his hand in front of his face and the goatee vanished. I instantly recognized who I was looking at then. It was me. A KFC style version of me.

"What the hell?"

"Don't worry too much," he said sticking with his accent. "I'm just using a familiar face to have a chat with you about your future."

"What future?"

"Why, your possible lack of one of course."

"Again, what the fuck?"

"Due to the sudden access to cross-dimensional travel your case has been upgraded from Category II to Category I. Direct intervention is now required to deal with the issue at hand. Qualifiers are at seventy-five percent which is better than most so you might not simply be erased."

"Dude! You've got talk to with words I understand."

"Alright then. Tomato frightened grows house have janitor gullible appropriate jury the gust facial pot notation so since nuke satellite computer unite plated business. Is that better?"

"That joke isn't as funny when I'm not the one using it."

"Of course it isn't."

"Would you please tell me what's going on?"

"See? Being polite wasn't so hard now was it? To answer your question an anomaly was detected in the My Little Pony universe in the non-standard zone. It was initially unnoticed as a case manager hasn't been issued for that realm yet. After I was dispatched I noticed the error quickly enough and sent a proxy to deal with it. Unfortunately extra interference was generated and he failed. More direct intervention was to occur until the issue seemed to resolve itself when entity Discord returned you to your home. A fading effect was put into place and the situation was declared resolved."

"You're talking about what happened when Discord pulled me to and from my world. I see. So what is going on with that?"

"Let me finish first."

"Alright, that's fair I guess."

"Thank you. The situation was reopened after another anomaly was detected with the same parameters as the first time and I was called back to work on the situation once again. After once again dispatching the proxy several extra factors came to my attention that required repair work. As you seemed to be capable of handling the situation yourself the proxy was made to observe instead to see if any additional work was needed. Until your exit from the last dimensional rift it was deemed unnecessary. However, upon your exit from the last dimensional rift changes were observed that required immediate attention. That brings us to the current situation.

"Your ability to freely travel between dimensions has been declared a danger to canonicity."

"Canonicity?"

"Indeed. You didn't just fall into any world. You were dragged into the canon universe of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Not some echo universe."

"That's what I thought I was in the whole time! So what if I am?"

"Your appearances have had consequences," he said while getting more visibly upset. "Did you think that nothing would come of the transgressions that you have committed? This is cause and effect on a universe altering scale. Changing things in an echo universe such as a fanfiction is easily explained and therefore easily repaired. Changing an actual event or story in the canon universe is highly problematic and can alter destinies in ways that would affect entire mindsets and civilizations!"

"Are you sure you’re not just being overdramatic?"

"Think for a moment! If you inserted yourself into a canon universe, one of millions of things can go wrong just with you breathing the very air! It’s the butterfly effect at its grandest! You could distract the hero in a gunfight and instead of dodging a bullet aimed at his head, he has a quarter second less reaction time and it impacts instead of looking cool to the viewers! The hero dies and suddenly people don’t believe the ending. Fans will abandon the show or worse, if it comes from a rerun their minds will have double exposure!"

"Double exposure?"

"A causality event that can cause spontaneous existence failure!"

"Really?"

"It is a very real and very dangerous event that is caused by time travel!"

"But I went through time once before and didn’t cause any problems since it was a causality loop."

"You had a second universe that allowed for a temporal offset that allowed for two different points of entry. There was also the fact of the matter that time travel works in that manner in My Little Pony. The same cannot be said of the real universe. In the real universe, a time travel event can alter events and when they are altered they fight for dominance with the original timeline of events which leads to them being cancelled out."

"And thus not existing at all,” I finished.

"Exactly," he stated while calming back down.

"So how does the Doctor get away with it?"

"The Doctor was my proxy and any effects were corrected as they occurred."

"You took over the Doctor to fix the problem?"

"The Doctor you encountered was a proxy created by myself based on the image of a pony that resided in Ponyville and that used knowledge of the Doctor from the same series to gain your trust."

"Okay that pisses me off in several ways."

"It doesn't matter any longer. As a Category I issue all damage created by you must be corrected and your story must be nullified."

"My story?"

"Of course. I suppose it won't hurt to tell you now."

"Tell me what?"

"That you're just a Mary Sue self insert character."

Comments

[Queuefka Palazzo]

You're just fucking with us now, OP.

[Not so New Brony]

Oh look, the fourth wall is breaking down. *Grabs popcorn*

[Wellwater]

Ummmmmm.

Hang on, kids, this is gonna be bumpy.

[Lucien Chance]

Gonna be honest here, this is a direction I never expected this story to go.

[Mahazkei]

Pppppfffffffttt hahahahaha!

Ow, man. You just got declared a Category 1 (Gary Stu).

Also, love the universe protection unit you have, or whatever the name is specifically. Those can be difficult, but fun if pulled off correctly.

[Coltsguy]

7627249 They have a name, but it won't come up until near the end.

[VegaSakusa]

7625482

[SuperUltimateBrony]

That ending is perfection.