1 - What Could Have Been
Silver shook out his form as he walked down the hallway of the castle. It had been a long day of work, but it was satisfying. He had helped see some foreign diplomats, which had been frightening, but left him feeling happy with himself. He didn't embarrass himself or Equestria, and he'd learned some things.
He was Prince Silver Watch, ambassador, and he was sublimely happy with his role in life. Things had turned out well.
Not curious anymore?
Silver blinked at the words just floating there in front of him. None of the other ponies that wandered past seemed to see them. "Text?" he whispered softly.
Ah, you do remember me! How flattering. Not that I truly thought you had forgotten me. I have a question for you.
Silver frowned gently. "What could you want to know that you don't already know."
It's not obvious? Your choices, of course. I don't like predetermining that. Life becomes so intensely boring when I do. No, you're free to choose as you wish.
Silver took a slow breath. "Right, can you wa--"
The hallway faded away. He was suddenly in his room, alone, seated on a pillow. "That... works?"
I thought it would. Now, your old life. Your human life. You do remember it, do you not?
Silver could remember his old life, but it was like a book he'd read long ago, rather than being something he'd lived. He wasn't that rattled by that. Even as a human, the life of the year before was hazy at best. He never had a strong chain of memory that some people seemed to have. "What about it?"
You likely don't realize, or maybe... you do? It's still proceeding, without you, or at least, this you.
Silver sat up, confused. "There's more than me?"
You saw it once, in the nightmare. There are countless 'you's' in the fabric of reality. No one is that particularly special. Still, I did not rip a hole in that fabric. You went for a walk, and finished the walk, and kept right on living. I simply took a copy, like a clay pressing, and placed it here, in Equestria.
Silver wasn't sure he liked where it was headed, but he was also curious.
I thought you might be. Do you want to meet him?
Silver blinked. "What?"
Meet him. I can bring him here, for a short while. You can talk, catch up.
Silver's ears danced atop his head. He wondered how he had done in the human world. Was his game still running? Did he continue writing Ponyfinder? Was he homeless on the streets? He doubted that, but who knew? Well, one person knew. Silver pointed a hoof at the floating words. "Will it hurt him or I?"
I just want to see what you talk about. Neither of you will be harmed. I won't even leave any missing time for him. Heck, he probably won't remember being here. Shame, he'd probably like visiting.
Silver gave a slow nod. "Alright... Well, sure. I don't see the harm in that. Go ahead."
Marvelous! Now wait a moment.
Silver saw a hazy image. A human was seated in a kitchen chair at a computer. He recognized the desk, but not the specific phone that was playing some kind of jrpg music beside him, or that chair. Where was his uncomfortable chair? The computer also seemed new, but the monitor, wow, that was unchanged.
Was that really David? He'd grown skinnier. "Hello?"
The human turned sharply, blinked, then grinned like a loon. "Holy shit! Is that you, Silver?"
Silver bobbed his head as he rose and stepped towards the human. He wasn't fuzzy anymore. They were perfectly real to one another. "Wow... How, you know, how are you?"
David reached out a hand with uncertainty, but Silver stepped forward and pressed his muzzle into the hand. He knew he'd want to pet a magic pony that showed up and decided to not begrudge himself. He chuckled with nervous giddiness as he scratched along a fuzzy ear. "Are you really me?"
"That question goes both ways." Silver sat on his haunches. As an alicorn, he was almost even with David, though still a bit shorter. With them both seated, it seemed to work well. "Do you know who I am then?"
"How couldn't I?" David suddenly seemed to realize something. "I shouldn't say."
Silver blinked at that. "Why not?"
"Spoilers."
Silver squinted faintly. "Seriously? Oh wait! Is the show still on?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, for sure. I watch it every week."
Silver rolled a hoof. "You can say what season you're up to, right?"
"I guess a number wouldn't hurt. 6." David rolled a hand. "I've... I mean. Alright, so I've seen pretty far ahead of what I think you're, you know, up to?"
Silver reached out a hoof and rest it flat on David's belly. "Why are you so much skinnier? Walking worked out?"
David chuckled. "You could say that, yeah. I shed about fifty pounds and kept it off. Yay for that."
Silver glanced past him and saw one of those medicine trays for holding pills for a whole week. "Why do you have one of those?"
David tensed a moment. "I... wasn't as lucky as you."
"Yeah?"
"I have multiple sclerosis. Do you know what that is?"
Silver frowned a bit with thought. "Really nasty disease, about all I remember. Are you dying?"
"Not much faster than most people." David shrugged. "But my immune system has called an APB on the lining of my nervous system, so I may end up a cripple. Isn't that ironic? Start walking, nature starts robbing you of your ability to walk." He waved over the tray. "Some of these pills are medical. Most are supplemental. You know mom, a supplement for every occasion, especially terminal illnesses."
A chill ran down Silver's spine. Had he avoided that by becoming a pony? He supposed he had. With his whole immune system and nervous system practically re-written, little catches like that would have been reset. Still, the idea that this human. Himself... "I'm sorry."
David shrugged lamely. "Thanks, but not much we can do about it." He tapped the side of Silver's horn. "Unless you can magic it away. I wouldn't object."
The idea of just reaching into David and trying to perform whole-body neurosurgery with magic sounded quite terrifying. He could kill David, or much worse.
David pat Silver on a cheek. "S'allright, I figured not. Still, fucking cool."
Silver had to smile at that. "Surprise!"
David's expression went somber. "Are you mad?"
Silver blinked at that. "Mad at what?"
David clenched a fist a moment. "Your trials. Your... journey. I..."
He faded away abruptly, leaving Silver in darkness a moment before he was back in the palace, in his room. "Text?!"
An excited squeal came from the next room before Morning Glory and Clear Twilight came scampering in with Samantha directly behind them. She came to a stop when she saw Silver. "Oh, you're back." Even as she smiled, the two foals leaped up and tackled Silver.
He couldn't help but hug them tight, flooded with gratitude for having them, and Samantha, and everything else he'd gained in Equestria.
Part of him wondered what David was getting at, in the end.
His journey? His trials? Silver was sure neither was finished. He was an alicorn, for better or worse. He had many many years to find new challenges and continue growing. "If you're not growing, you're dying," he muttered to himself even as he cuddled his foals.
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If it's a one-shot, then why does it say incomplete?
7625680 Fixed!
Even today, with networks, cameras, phones etc, not many people document even the banality of life in a relative non ephemeral manner. A diary can still be relatively easily read half, one, two centuaries hence. Twitter? Web sites?
Eventually though, everyone takes the path not taken.
I liked it.
I'll be honest. I didn't expect to see more of our prince, but this was a nice surprise!
'medicinal' maybe?
Cut off before the spoilers kick in.
Keep having to remind myself of your troubles, haven't read anything lately, how are you going with this?
something he lived - something he'd lived
countless 'you's - countless 'you's'
*****
This is all kinds of awesome, even if it is a one-off.
On the other hand, interesting stories require unpleasant things to happen to characters we love, and what kind of monster would I be to wish that upon Silver Watch and his family?
Thank you, as always!
7626019 One day at a time, right? No episodes, so it hasn't gotten -worse-, so yay on that!
7626050 Heh, MS isn't bad enough to have going on?
7626565
I — don't know what to say to that Mr. Silver. At the very least you deserve all the hugs.
7626573 I'd gladly accept a magical horny pony. I'm sure I'm far from the first author ever that got jealous over their own creation.
7626564 Good to hear, hope things keep stable for you. Doctors have confirmed for me my left ankle joint is fused solid now and can't be operated on because of possible complications due to slow healing rate of type 1 diabetes. So no more walking for me again, life just keeps getting better so it seems, all we can do is hope for longevity I spose? Sorry I'm feeling a bit of a downer at the moment.
7626622 Oof, that's rough. Keep heart! Medical science is advancing in truly amazing ways of late. I'm hoping I can just hang in there long enough for some of it to hit the market.
7626641 Don't worry, we'll stay with you, sounds dumb when I'm other side of the planet but...you know what I mean.
One bright thing, outta work but on disability pension now, so plenty free time for being here. Currently filling in knowledge gaps with reading One Step, Two Step, Three Hoof, Four Dead and found a few little typo rabbits back there that seemed to avoid myxomatosis, they need culling.
I feel very awkward nitpicking this, but...MS is not a terminal illness. It may destroy your quality of life (or not), but it does not kill you, which is the definition of a terminal illness.
7632117 Oh, for sure, on a technical standpoint. Fortunately or not, people rarely speak from a technically correct standpoint, especially regarding life-changing ailments.
You won't die. You just might wish you did.
Okay, so...we get a sort-of-but-not-quite update for Silver. Essentially an addendum to an epilogue; I can deal with that, even if it stokes rather than slakes my thirst for more of his character. When you've read so much of a character's journeys and stuck with them the entire way, any further glimpse is welcome, no matter how brief.
That said, I'm reminded of the old axiom, "write for an audience of one: yourself." I honestly feel like that's the impetus for this story. There's nothing wrong with that per se, but while I respect that this may have been at least somewhat cathartic for the author to write, it feels lacking in terms of what it offers for the audience to read. Again, that's largely because there's very little that's genuinely new here, in terms of Silver's life, his character, and his continuing adventures.
The idea of Silver going and catching up with his original self - having continued onward past their point of divergence - is somewhat interesting, mostly in terms of what it does for Silver as a character. The main thrust of the story, at least for me, is in his reactions to how his "original" self is doing now. We see Silver being smart enough to not try and magic a quick-fix for David's MS. Moreover, we also get an amusing instance of David dangling future events in front of Silver's nose, since he's seen the show and Silver hasn't. I call this "amusing" because such cryptic references to the future usually leave the audience in the dark; here, we know exactly what David is referring to, and are chuckling along with him at Silver's ignorance about the near future.
To that end, I liked what was here. However, from the point of view of David as a character, I'm less comfortable. That's largely because - viewed that way - this seems like the author's commenting on their own life, and inviting commentary on it, while "disguising" that as a narrative. I'm not trying to suggest that any sort of duplicity is going on here, but simply that writing one's self so completely into their own story - especially with regards to this already being a self-insert - seems somewhat blatant. This certainly isn't egregious, but it feels rather transparent (presuming that we don't reduce David to nothing more than a foil for Silver, as per above).
Of course, I won't mention that we already had a human-David meeting Silver a while back anyway...
But still, it was nice to see Silver again, even if only for a moment.
7632145 It just struck me that you're curious as to the going ons here, but you aren't with us in One Hallway? The Silver Verse is still going! Sure, Silver doesn't come up often, but we are learning about the world it takes place in and it's a fun ride, or so I think.
While Silver did meet 'himself' before, that was a copy fairly removed from his original self. A 'what if' David in a distorted nightmare.
As the Text said, there are a lot of him through the cosmos.
7639131 I'm still reading One Hallway; I'm just having a hard time bringing myself to comment (particularly to write those long, involved comments like I used to). Rest assured, I haven't given up on that fic - far from it.
Oh i see what you did david, that is meta david in our world which is the original world and starting point of worlds as our imaination creates more, clearly that david was you.
This was more surreal, a bit sad, and more than a little scary.
Keep going! ;)
This has a redundant typo in this typo that is this.
7704924 Fix'd
This is weird, considering the times Silver has gone back to earth before.
8087586 All canon.
8087837
No explanation? Is it a different earth? Was David there while Silver was there?
8088181 It has been heavily hinted that there are many earths, and many Equestrias.
8088203
Ok, so it is a different earth. That's all the answer i needed.