//------------------------------// // Relaxing and Moving // Story: In the Hands of a Hidden Caretaker // by Skipjumper //------------------------------// Duke sighed. It had been about an hour since they had laid down to relax, however when Duke decided he was ready to stretch his legs, this happened. “Hey Tempora?” asked Duke. “Hmm?” came her lazy reply. “Don’t you think we should get up now?” “Just a few more minutes. You're comfy!” Duke rolled his eyes as he got up, only to pushed back down by Tempora, determined not to lose her new favorite sapient pillow. “Come on, Tempy,” Duke said attempting to get up again. “Nuoooaawa…” the unicorn lazily whined half-heartedly. “Tempora, we have to get up sooner or later.” “Yes, Later. Snuggles, Now.” Duke looked at Tempora as she smiled and snuggled his arm. It was comfortable, to say the least and true to her word, she didn’t bite. “Come Tempora, I need to stretch my legs. I’ll come back in a few minutes.” “Stay. You're Comfy…” “Omfy?” the two adults looked over next to them to see a drowsy lavender foal. “Oh dear, did we wake you up, Alena?” Tempora asked the foal, to which Alena just sleepily crawled over and plopped down on duke’s chest. Tempora looked at Duke with a twinkle in her eyes. “Looks like somepony wants to sleep with their daddy!” Duke just sighed, “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to lie here for a little while longer…” As Alena got settled on her new pillow, Tempora thought of something, “Did you really mean it when you said that we were family?” Duke stayed silent for several seconds, trying to put his own thoughts together. “I think so, but I feel a bit, uncertain for lack of a better word.” Tempora nodded encouragingly as she listened. “This is all new to me, I don’t know this worlds culture, how it operates, or what ponies normally eat! Heck, my change back to my human form was a complete accident! I feel like I’ll need to transform again, and I don’t know how I did it! And another thing, I am going to take theses foals away from here, I would lose track of any kind of moral compass if I didn’t, but…” Duke’s voice raised a little and his breathing became shallow. Tempora nuzzled Duke’s arm, “Don’t worry, everypony goes through this when they get to this point in their lives. I don’t blame you feeling this way considering all that you have been through in the past day. In fact, I would imagine that you’re taking this far better then you should, keeping everything that’s happened in mind.” “And as for the scarf, it runs on an auditory command spell, just say when you want to change, and it’ll happen.” Duke looked at Tempora with a little bit of surprise. “Oh, don’t look at me like that, I can be serious when I need to be,” Tempora said with a playful huff. A tiny smile pulled the sides of Duke’s lips before disappearing. “I don’t know how to take care of children…” Duke said soberly. “Nopony does when they start, I know I didn’t...” Tempora replied. While the adults continued their conversation, Alena’s gaze had wandered over to the crystal encrusted walls. “They looked so shiny. what do they taste like?” the curious little filly thought to herself. Alena shakily got up on her hooves and walked over to a red crystal, only to be stopped by a blue aura. “Now where do you think you’re going, little missy?” Her mother asked in a caring, but firm voice. “Uwa uh da!” Alena said as she pointed over to the crystals, trying to get her point across. “The manatite crystals? You can’t play with those I’m afraid, they would burn your hooves right off if handled incorrectly.” Alena wasn’t sure what her mother had just said, but what she did understand was she couldn’t go over to the glowy things. Alena’s eyes started to water, but before she could start crying she felt something tap her nose. She turned to see the new pony with a stern look on his face. “None of that now, your mom is keeping you away from those crystals to keep you safe. Those will hurt you if you’re not careful.” The new pony’s features softened a little, “You’ll get another chance to handle them when you’re older, ok?” Alena just whimpered as she crawled back over to her mom, and the new pony. Her mom pulled her into a hug, “Hey, don’t be like that, there’s still a lot you’ll get to see today, you will find something you can mess around with, I’m sure.” Her mom said with a smile. As Duke looked at Tempora and Alena, he smiled, “Looks like kids are the same on every world.” Duke said in contentment as he gave Alena a small pat on the head, Alena giving a tiny smile as he did. Ten Minutes Later “Well… this isn’t something I thought I would be seeing today…” Duke stated. Duke was sitting next to a large, white and yellow lighthouse, which stood tall in the center of a medium sized island made of silver stone and sand. Duke stared across the of a vast ocean surrounding the island, as strange rock formations moved slowly across the dark waters. Tempora smiled as she looked over from nearby with the foals, “I know the feeling. The places in this castle never stop astonishing me… Woah now,” Tempora noticed Norah trying to sneak off to the bay. Tempora’s aura grabbed Norah before she dived into the water, “No way am I letting you jump into that mess young lady, you don’t even know how to swim yet.” Norah gave a large pout, as she started to cry. “Crying won’t get you anywhere young lady, now come on.” Tempora floated Norah back over to the group. As Norah continued to cry, Duke had an idea. “Hey, Tempora? The transformation just has to have a command to make it work, right?” Tempora nodded with a curious look, “What are you planning on doing…” Duke got up and walked about a yard or two away while rubbing his hands together, “Ok kids, ready to see a trick?” the foals looked at him with curiosity in their eyes. “Duke, what are you,” without warning Duke did a backflip. “Transform me,” Duke whispered as he was in midair. An ice blue flash of light surrounded duke and a second later the grey and ice blue maned alicorn remained in his place. Thud “Duke!” Tempora and the foals rushed over to their guest as he laid splayed out on the ground. “Tada… ow.” Duke said into the silver beach, his voice being muffled by the sand. Tempora summoned a first-aid kit with her magic as she began checking duke for any injuries. “What were you thinking?!” Tempora asked frustrated. “My original thought was to entertain the foals with a cool trick, and to help Norah to stop crying.” “Well you certainly stopped her from crying, now stop talking into the beach. Eating sand isn’t healthy.” Duke lifted his head to see Chaya nuzzling his cheek while the other foals curiously watched from a few feet away. “I’m ok Chaya, don’t worry,” Duke reassured the foal. “You don’t have any bruises, but you will be sore for a while.” Tempora put some oil on Duke’s back. “This should help with the soreness.” “Thank you Dr. Tempy,” Duke said jokingly. Tempora smirked, “I assure you, I am by no means a Doctor…” Tempora looked over to the darkened sea. “Looks like a storm is coming in, we should move to somewhere else.” “Agreed, don’t want the foals to catch a cold.” Before Duke could get up though, Havin slowly crawled on his back, nestling herself in. Tempora smiled at the scene, “Come on Papa Winters, I know just where to go next!” Duke looked over at Tempora, “Don’t call me that again, like ever…” “Make me Winters.” The blue unicorn stuck her tongue out playfully while giving him a wink. Duke just rolled his eyes as he stood up. “Sheesh, walking on four legs feels still feels weird...” Duke mumbled to himself. The group walked around the lighthouse un till the came across a pair of open doors. One led inside the lighthouse, a spiral staircase leading to the top deck. The other leading back to the castle hallways. As the group walked into the hallways it started to rain dark blue water onto the silver island. “Wow, that was nearly timed perfectly,” Duke said in surprise. “It’s just a small trick I learned when I was younger… The first time I did it perfectly, I got my mark…” Tempora commented quietly. Duke’s expression became regretful, “Sorry I brought it up. Enough about that, where to next?” Tempora perked up a little bit, “Right this way!” She led the group down the hall. As the group walked down the hall Duke noticed a few of the doors lining both sides of the hallway had gold door handles, while the majority of them had wooden or silver handles, all of which were varied in size and shape. The group walked to the end of the hallway then went up a flight of stairs and then walked down another hallway before Tempora settled on a door. “Here we are!” the dark wooden door had oriental designs carved into it from top to bottom, as well as a wooden handle. A sign on the door had the numbers 5, 8, 4, on it. Tempora opened the door to show a pathway leading into a lush amber forest. As the group walked in Duke could only marvel at the beauty. As the group continued walking down a leaf covered cobblestone path, Duke looked around the landscape to see patches of red, yellow, and orange flowers. “Tempora? Where are we going?” Duke asked. “You see that cottage up ahead?” Tempora pointed out a small cottage in the distance, “right over there.” A few minutes later, the group walked up to the front of the cottage. It was a small one-story house with a few windows. “Welcome to my humble abode.” The blue mare said as she opened the door to reveal a cozy interior, with dark brown walls, a few red couches, and an unlit stone fireplace. A painting of the ocean that the group was just at hung on the mantle of the fireplace. A few doors led to other rooms of the house, including a kitchen, and a bathroom, and two bedrooms. “One of three it seems,” Duke said as he entered, Havin looking around curiously from Duke’s back. “One of several many actually,” Tempora said sheepishly, “After a while, my adventures in this castle start getting farther and farther away from my room, so I just started making some of the more peaceful rooms into “safe rooms” I guess is the best term for them. It became a hobby of sorts.” Duke nodded his head and he laid down so Havin could get off and explore. “So, since we don’t seem to be going anywhere at the moment, I have a few questions.” “Go ahead, I’m all ears.” Tempora went over and sat on one of the couches. Duke got up from the floor and sat on the couch opposite of the one Tempora was sitting in, “You said you couldn’t leave the castle, right?” “Mhm.” Tempora nodded her head. “We’ve been on a mountainside, an island in the middle of the ocean, and, well here! what’s stopping you from leaving the castle and taking care of the foals yourself? Those doors work like portals, right?” Tempora sighed, “We haven’t left the castle…” “Come again?” Duke asked. “I’ve told you before that it's like this castle goes on forever, right? It’s bigger than you can imagine…” The foals started to sit down next to Tempora or duke on the floor in front of them while Tempora continued. “Did you notice that some of the doors in the hallways have gold handles? Only those lead to the outside world. Silver handled doors have danger behind them, and wooden handled doors don’t.” Duke looked shocked, “How many doors have you been through?” “I lost count at 75…. Hundred… and there are still millions of rooms to go! There’s a staircase where you can see all the levels of this castle, you can’t even see the top, and were on the five-hundredth floor!” Duke was silent for a moment before he asked, “Why did we come here anyway?” “This is one of, if not the safest places for the foals to stay before you have to leave with them. There is a small tree house nearby with a swing set the foals can use to play as well.” “How do you not know what an umbrella is, but you know what a swing set is?” Tempora giggled as she levitated a book from the shelf over to Duke. “I learned it from that.” Duke examined the book. It was the same color at the door to this… ‘room’ and it had the numbers 5 8 4 on the cover. “It’s from the castle’s library, every room has is in its own personal book in the library, describing in detail everything that’s in it,” Tempora explained. “Wow…” Duke opened the book and saw a picture of the flowers he had seen on the way up to the cottage. “Two months until this place is torn down?” Duke asked. “Yes…” Tempora said sadly. Duke closed the book and looked at Tempora, “Then let’s make it the best two months these foals have ever seen.”