Dan Vs. The Magic of Friendship(Season 1)

by Barrobroadcaster

Flashback: Another Day in Another Universe

Stable Zero- Primary Observation Room
Minutes earlier

Connections were in place. Power levels were nominal. Magical energy flowed from the twin Markers into the TARDIS, just as they should. Everything was perfect, as perfect as they could be. It would work. It had to work.

Rice stepped back and checked the figures one last time. He was still a scientist, scientists tested and then retested and made certain before proceeding. Everything came down to simple formulas. Magic had been a grey area to him but now, he was able to harness it just as easily as electricity. It just required the right tools and the right knowledge. That's all it took.

That's all it took, right?

He shook away the doubt. His heart pounded in his chest. Around him, on the observation platform were the statue forms of Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and the one called Chrys. Or, the one they called Chrys. It all seemed so simple, what the Director had told him. The entire world of Equestria was a work in progress; that's why things form other worlds had such an easy time getting here. The Fausticorn had LET the ponies have the ability to complete what she left them. That's the real reason she wasn't here.

This wasn't just another Equestria. After eons of creating, destroying and recreating in the search of perfection, they had finally found it. That's the real reason why the Fausticorn had left them all. This was as close as she could come. This was not just another version of Equestria; this was the last one.

"I'm coming, Vice. Daddy is... coming home."

He raised the remote to activate the machines connected to the TARDIS. His gauntlet trembled. Shook, as if it was a real hand trembling, which it was not. It was metal reacting to the impulses from the nerves in his foreleg which it wrapped around, a simple but advanced response to stimulation. It was programmed to respond to conscious stimulation, not unconscious impulse- he had made it to obey him, not nature, nothing else.

His finger wavered. He felt sweat bead on the side of his face.

"There's always going to be doubt."

Rice turned. He had been alone before, but that figure, that infernal man appeared again. The damn knight again. The self-described 'negotiator.'

"You're so close to the end. Why hesitate?"

Rice turned around again. "I'm not explaining myself to you."

And the Jedi appeared directly in front of him. "You already have. You've explained yourself, multiple times to me, to Dan, to everyone." The Jedi's hands were clasped behind his back. The armored figure, the black curved helmet he wore, he was outwardly calm but might as well have been an obelisk in front of him, a pillar of an obstacle.

"Get away from me. Begone, whatever the hell it is you are! You're not going to convince me to stop this." He swung at the Jedi, as he had before. He expected his hands to go right through the man, as they had before, but not this time. Rals caught his hand and held it.

Rice's hand was still shaking.

"I don't have to," the Jedi said.

He ripped his hand out of the Jedi's grasp. "What're you... what are you talking about now?"

Rals stepped away. "I'm not of this place. Equestria isn't my home, but I know of this room. It's similar to ones I've seen before. And it's from Earth."

Rice had had enough. He pressed the button. The sequence activated. The controls he'd fixed to the side of the TARDIS activated. Magic flowed into and around the device. The doors of the blue police box opened. Not to the inside of the TARDIS; that was protected by the Doctor's own security system. But the energy and power of the TARDIS, its capabilities had been harnessed around it, and now when the doors opened, they opened a doorway to the past.

Ponyville over a thousand years ago appeared in the door. The world Rice knew, more vibrant and colorful than he had ever imagined was there. He would go there and he would save his son. How, he did not know entirely, but he would create the world he wanted. He would have his son back. Together, they would return to the Golden Oakes Library and be a family again. They would have their future together.

"It works... it actually works," Rice said.

The Golden Oakes Library, his version of it, appeared in the doorway. Home.

Home.

"The Fausticorn didn't build this place. This observation platform? It's actually from Florida. It's part of the International Space Station," Rals continued.

Rice stepped forward.

"She put this place here, on the moon so she could better see her work. It gave her perspective and allowed her to be comfortable. Even gods like to feel comfortable," Rals said.

Fists balled, Rice approached the TARDIS.

"They are similar to us, after all. Well, this one in particular, at least is similar to you. She created you in her own image. So she would better understand you. And so you would be understand her."

He placed his hand on the edge of the TARDIS. It still trembled.

"And so you would understand her limitations."

Rice lifted his foot to take the first step into the past. And he stopped.

The door to the Golden Oakes Library opened in the image. His son trotted out, nearly stumbled on his prosthetic. Rice felt his heart stop. His mouth hung open but he did not breathe, did not blink. It had been so long since he saw his baby boy. Too long. He couldn't move.

"Vice..."

And then he saw himself. Not how he was now, but how he had been. A simple sandy-colored stallion, a librarian and a chancellor, a leader and inventor and discoverer of things, but most of all a very loving father. A dad.

The other Rice in the portal knelt down to help his son reattach the prosthetic hoof to his foreleg. Vice had been born with short forelegs, an unfortunate deformity and birth defect. Rice had worked hard but eventually built a set of prosthetic hooves for his son. They even horseshoes and Vice had liked picking out the colors for them.

It was hard, but he could just make out the color of the shoe he wore.

"He liked the blue ones. Blue was his favorite color- he, he liked the blue ones the best," Rice said. He blinked the tears out of his eyes, his entire face trembling. Rice hadn't even noticed he'd been crying but the tears streamed down his face and hit the cold ground.

"He did," Rals said. The Jedi appeared right behind him to place a hand on his shoulder. "You got him multiple colors at the shoe store. He picked them out himself, remember?"

"Yes," Rice said, bawling. He turned away from the portal, overcome with emotion. The memories of his son flooded him, overwhelmed him. He grabbed the Jedi's hand, smiling but crying at the same time.

"You remember the day you took him? The night before you'd-"

"I surprised him with the hooves, yes I did! I remember it- it was after dinner!" Rice said, nodding emphatically. "You should've seen how happy he was- I should've waited, he- he wanted to use them right away and he played and ran even though it was so late. I was scared, afraid they'd break or the screws would let loose but they didn't, they held up even as we galloped together and they were so much better than the ones I'd made when he was younger..."

Rals nodded. The Jedi was able to read Rice's mind and his memories, able to sense everything about him. As if a coincidence, his helmet reflected the portal behind him.

"And the next day, you let him pick out his own horseshoes. He picked out six different colors, didn't he? One for each day of school and an extra pair for Saturday."

"He did, he did!" Rice said through tears. Of sorrow or joy, a mixture of both maybe, they fell just the same. "He was so excited for the first day of school the next day, he... he..."

"He nearly fell when he trotted out the door," Rals said.

Rice nodded. "He did. I..." He sniffed, and turned back to the portal. The Rice in it helped his son re-attach the shoe to the bottom of the prosthetic. They both hugged, and Rice walked his son to school. Vice was happy, so was Rice. He was the most handsome colt Rice had ever seen in his blue horseshoes, his favorites. They were off together on Vice's first day of school for that year.

"I walked him to Mr. Cheerful's school near the edge of town. Then, I went home... to work on my next project."

"The magnetic minecart system," Rals said. "To make it easier an faster for the miners to move ore and equipment."

"Yes," Rice said. "Worked on that one for a few days. The actual solution was simple, really."

"Yes, just a rotating magnet on the front of and back of each cart. That way-"

"That way they could attach them to the other carts or repel them as necessary," Rice said, smiling.

They were silent for several moments. The Markers continued interacting with the generators and the TARDIS. The portal to the past remained stable. Together, the two strangers just watched the image of the past. Not a sound was made as images of the old Ponyville played out. Rice remained almost stunned, watching his own memories through the doorway in time.

"Do you think your son would recognize you now?"

Rice opened his mouth, but he didn't say anything. He knew what the answer was.

"Do you think you would recognize yourself?"

"I... no," Rice said.

"You could easily step through that door. But you'd change it the moment you did," Rals said. "The moment you did, you'd be creating another universe. The one you wanted, maybe."

"Yes," Rice said.

"But not yours."

Rice's felt himself breathe again.

"That's a door to the past. But the moment you change it, it stops being your past. It'll be another Vice Grip, another Rice, another world entirely. It won't change this world at all."

His fist balled. "I don't WANT this world. I want a new one, a better one where my son was never murdered."

"What about him?" Rals nodded towards the portal. "You'll be changing his world. Might even make it better. But it won't be your son. And it won't be you."

"I..." Rice stopped. His hands trembled again.

"That boy still has a chance for a few more years with his father. You sit foot in that world, it changes everything, every part of it."

"I..."

"Do you really want to rob him of that?"

The portal showed the sun setting on a beautiful Ponyville day. The town was bathed in an orange glow. It was another day in another universe. So beautiful, so picturesque. As beautiful as anything else in the past, in his memories. He knew that's where it would stay. Where it had to stay.

Rice pressed the button and the portal vanished.

"You win. I... I surrender."

An explosion rocked the base. Dan and his friends were approaching.

Comments

[Booster Spice]

The most coherent definition Ive seen for reality, is that each particle has a unique worldline amongst all other particles, and collections of similar worldlines make up the consensus of reality for each particle.

I cant remember the best story of the Golden Age I saw about the example, but it involved a lecture room of human scientists starting an experiement to send an object backwards through time, which it did repeatadly, bouncing off its twin sent forward in time in conservation, and the object hit something in the past, killing it, then another alteration, then another and another.

Eventually the experiment ended, and the totally different reality scientist communicated with their collegues, Look, there is nothing to worry about, nothing has changed.

And nothing had.

[Barrobroadcaster]

10552726
But there is dissent in the ranks. Not all are happy with the princess's decision. Perhaps Equestria has been affected as much by Dan as he has by them...

[LadyLeomon]

I stopped by to repeat my earlier Pinkie-Pie Promise to BRB to review super soon!

Apologies and blessed be Dearest Barro ^_^

[Barrobroadcaster]

10559103
Old brony project on YouTube about Phoenix Wright. I tied it into this story because it was how I became a brony in the first place, one of the reasons, anyway.

[Razzy]

Ouch.