//------------------------------//
// Greed 
// Story: The Lost Room 
// by Parakalo 
//------------------------------//

The Laws of the Fluxx of Time and Space Read Thusly:

1. The Law of Conservation of Objects: An Object is always replaced with a new Object in the event the original Object is destroyed.

2. The Law of Single-State Objectivity: An Object cannot be destroyed or Reset.

3. The Law of Universal Attraction of Objects: For the purpose of Reunification, every Object is always drawn to each other Object.

4. The Transitive and Inductive Law of Objects: Objects Fluxx in the presence of other Objects.

5. The Law of the Derivative of Objects: The Room is not an Object.

~~~~

Autumn sat on her bed and thought. She walked through the previous hour slowly, to see if she could figure out what exactly happened. She remembered being in Grandpa's study, seeing a torn and tattered piece of paper on the table, and then, after reading it, Grandpa grounded her. She didn't even understand what the paper said. Objects? Reunification? Fluxx? What did it mean? Why did Grandpa panic like he did? She visualized the odd collection of circles and lines in her mind. Whatever it meant, Grandpa obviously didn't want her to dwell on it. A knock on the door stirred her from her musings.
"Yes?"
"May I come in?" It was Grandpa Burgundy's soft voice.
"Yes, Grandpa." A tattered red pony entered, glasses hanging from the end of his nose. Grandpa always had difficulty staying clean when he was working. He sat next to her on the bed.
"I'm sorry I freaked out back there, Autumn." He put a hoof around his chestnut daughter. "I... I was afraid."
"Afraid of what. Grandpa?"
"That's not important. The important thing is that you forget what you saw and we never speak of it again."
"I don't understand. What did I read?" Burgundy looked away, trying to place his words carefully.
"Something that has to do with my studies. Something very important, and very dangerous. Promise me you'll keep what you read to yourself and speak of it to nopony." Autumn didn't understand, but she knew it was important to him.
"...I promise, Grandpa."
"That's my girl." A silence followed that made Autumn uncomfortable.
"Will you show me the magic trick again?"
"Again? Whatever for?" Autumn grinned a toothy grin.
"It always makes me laugh," She giggled.
"Alright, alright," Burgundy looked around the room, "Do you have something to catch the bottle with?"

~~~~

"Autumn? Autumn!" A furious whisper next to her stirred Autumn from her daydream. She looked around to find that everypony in the lecture hall was staring at her, including the professor. A stick was pointed rigid at a problem on the board. Autumn had to squint it seemed so far away.
"Because energy is conserved, and based on the force of gravity and the coefficient of friction on the surface of the slope, the cube would move at..." Autumn crunched some numbers in her head, "...about one-hundred sixty-five newtons to the right." Professor Ruby sighed, looking at her ornate physics problem.
"That is... correct. A prompter response next time, if you please, Miss Fairbreeze." A rush of murmuring fell over the room as Professor Ruby continued her lecture on the laws of conservation of mass and energy. The cyan pegasus next to Autumn leaned close.
"Ugh... How did you get that? I couldn't figure it out, and you took one look at it and you got it." Autumn grinned at her friend.
"Maybe if you did your homework every once in a while, Starshine, it might be a little easier."
"And miss Thunderclap's competitions? Not on your life, Autumn." They giggled amongst themselves, chatting quietly like the rest of the class.
"What are your plans after class? Prissy and Cream wanted to go out for cake at that new shop down the lane."
"Sounds like fun. I was going to the library after class to study. though." Starshine's facial expression at this was something Autumn knew very well.
"You should try getting outside more often, Autumn. You're gonna start looking like a Diamond Dog if you hole up in that cave any longer."
"Ouch. I have some work I need to do though. You go ahead without me." Starshine flumped back against her seat.
"It's not healthy, Autumn. You should be like regular mares your age."
"Since when is learning unhealthy? And if I was any more like you, I would never get any work done."

It was on that note that class concluded. The class filed out the door, Starshine and Autumn bringing up the rear. 
"If you kept head out of the clouds, you might go places," Autumn heard Professor Ruby call to them as they filed out.
"I think you need a little..." Autumn spun on her hooves and followed Starhine backwards out the door, "...imagination, Professor."
"Undoubtedly." Autumn bumped into a pony behind her and she flipped around to find an imposing beige pony with a simple black bowler hat. A comb hung in the air with a faint grey aura holding it in place.
"Sorry!" Autumn scrambled out of the way and out the door, scooping up Starshine who whooped and rolled on the floor, laughing. Professor Ruby, whose face never really seemed to show any emotion but flat disapproval, appeared unamused.
"Henry."
"Professor." He walked into the room slowly, taking the whole scene in, as if to memorize it. "You'll excuse me if I don't take off my coat."
"Of course," Professor Ruby turned from him, moving a number of erasers to erase the board.
"You must know why I am here?" He peered at the notes on her desk before they whisked into an expanding file in a drawer.
"If you are looking for the Object map, I told you in my letter I'm still looking." The unicorn named Henry shook his head.
"Tut tut, Ruby, I would hope you'd think I wouldn't come all the way out here to 'The Canterlot College of Science and Mathematics'", he said this with a demeaning tone that made Professor Ruby even more sour, "For nothing less than an Object itself." The erasers paused on the board, and for a brief moment Ruby's face showed more than plain distaste.
"If there was an Object here, we would have known long ago." Ruby continued packing up.
"Would we?" Henry moved uncomfortably close to the Professor. "My sources tell me that's not entirely true." The erasers fell to the floor with a poof of chalk dust.
"What are you talking about? I keep nothing from the Order. I know the rules, I know what happens."
"Good." Henry nodded. A quill came from his pocket, rotating lazily in midair. Ruby stopped dead at the sight of it. Her eyes darted back and forth, as if a snake had slithered onto her desk and coiled to strike in front of her.
"Everything has a price that we pay, Ruby." Henry paced slowly, the quill keeping up with him as he moved about the room. "I know you of all people know this, but you should know that if there is an Object here, if you have been keeping secrets from us... from me..." The quill slowly moved to the desk, point down, "I hope you would know," The quill began moving slowly across the desk, the faintest of scratch noises could be heard as it ruined the finish on the mahogany finish. Ruby began to sweat. Her face turned pink, beads becoming a steady flow of salt and fluid from her pores.
"P-please," Ruby did her best to maintain her composure. Her outfit drenched with sweat, she fell to her knees. Her skin became a shade of red, and then scarlet. She gasped for breath as the quill scratched the desk faster. Writhing on the floor, she trembled and gasped for air. Tears ran from her eyes and blood began to trickle from her nostrils. She desperately tried to mouth words, but all that came out was small squeaks and whimpers.
"I hope you would know that you are the price we would pay to acquire such an item." And with that, the Quill stopped, returned to Henry's breast pocket, and he disappeared from the room, leaving Ruby on the floor, wracked with pain and fear.

~~~~

"I'm telling you, he came out of nowhere!" Autumn tried to justify herself to Starshine as they laughed their way down the hall.
"Of course he did," She wiped tears from her eyes.
"It was you and me! Where did he come from?"
"How should I know? You careened into him, not me." Autumn rolled her eyes and turned to head to the library.
"See ya, Starshine."
"Bye, Autumn! Don't study yourself to death!" Autumn shook her head and laughed to herself as she trotted up the steps to the ornate library. Moving from muscle memory, she made an immediate left and headed upstairs for the private studies. Three doors down the hall and on the right, a shiny placard read "Fairbreeze" in big letters, and it was here Autumn used a key from her bag to enter.
No matter the time of day or the occasion, Autumn was always most comfortable in her grandfather's private study. It was her privilege to make use of the stock of Grandpa's closest books and the knowledge therein, and although she was an earth-pony, it was this knowledge passed down from the late Dean Burgundy Fairbreeze that got her here, and she didn't take that for granted for a second. She set her bag down in front a glass display case filled with pictures and relics from her grandfather's accomplishments. She made sure to stop and say "Hello" to his bust, which sat next to it with the most serious face she had ever seen her grandfather make. It was actually quite funny, and she laughed at it often. She relaxed into a cushy arm chair, and cracked open a textbook. She had every intention of falling asleep in this peace and quiet, so she needed it to look like there was a point where she was interested in "Pre-Pony Civilizations".

Autumn wandered the halls of linoleum and ceiling tiles. The sounds of chatter and slamming lockers could be heard around her, but she didn't register any of it. The news she heard from her principal just hours before was to thank for that. At one thirty-four that afternoon, he was hospitalized for a stroke. He had died before he reached the hospital, research notes still clutched in his hand. She couldn't even say goodbye. The one cornerstone she had to stand on had crumbled and she was alone in the world again. She---

Autumn awoke to find a second book on her lap. She looked down at it, a green and gold book that simply said Greed on the spine. She groggily looked around the room, but found no home for this lost literature. She shook her head in an attempt to stir from her half-slumber. The book, sliding off of her lap, revealed a note tucked inside:
 
When she saw her name on the top of the note, Autumn picked it up and attempted to read it. The hoof-printing was atrocious. Half of it didn't make any sense. Got away with the what? The room was what? And where is the ink pot? Putting down the note on a coffee table next to the chair, she picked up the book titled Greed and opened it. Carved into the pages was a nook of sorts, where a familiar ink bottle rested within Greed's confines. It was the ink bottle that Grandpa would do his magic trick with.
All she had to do was turn it upside down, take off the lid, and before her very eyes, the Ink Bottle began to float in the air. It moved up and up, beginning to pick up speed. Thinking quickly, Autumn stood on two hooves on the chair and leapt for it, lid still in hand. She managed to catch it and fell to the floor, making quite a thump. Brushing herself off, she eyed the bottle in her hooves curiously. 
What secrets did it contain? Surely it must be magic, the way it shoots off without warning. Perhaps it was time to get some more professional help with this. If anyone could identify this Ink Pot, it would definitely be the new dean. She has always been considered Equestria's lead in magic and magic-related studies. Putting the Ink Pot and Greed, with the note still inside, carefully in her bag, she stopped at the bust of her grandfather before heading out the door. 
"Is this what you've been studying, Grandpa?" The serious face gazed back at her, unmoving. Packed and composed, Autumn moved for the door. She opened it to find who she thought was Professor Ruby there waiting for her. Her eyes were wild, darting about the hallway like she was cornered on all sides. Her mane was literally all about her in scraggly, wet clumps. She was in a different dress than the one she was in maybe two hours ago. She was heaving, out of breath, and smelt like a gym bag.
"Professor?" She had certainly caught Autumn off-guard.
"Autumn..." she hissed the word in between gasps for air. She looked terrible. "How... are you?"
"I should ask you the same thing. Are you alright?"
"Never better," She tried to straighten out and regain her composure, "I see you enjoy using your Grandfather's study."
"Yes..." He willed it to her. It was where she felt closest to him.
"Would it be alright... if I came in?" She smiled, and that gave Autumn a worse feeling than her appearance.
"Actually, I was just leaving. I think it might be best if you went to the infirmary. You don't look so good."
"I'm... fine." She scooted closer. She was sweating profusely and was quite pink.
"You're burning up. Maybe some other time." She turned to lock the door with her key, and suddenly Ruby pressed her up against the door, covering her with sweat and uncomfortable, unnatural body heat.
"Pleeeeeeease," She whispered in her ear, "I insissst."
"You're hurting me, Professor, let me go." She tried to resist, but her thin frame was no match for the fully grown mare.
"You don't know the powers at work here, Autumn, there are forces beyond yours or my control that sssseek  to desssstroy usssss." Autumn panicked. She gave a hoof a stomp, connecting with the top of Ruby's. Using Ruby's flinch to her advantage, Autumn managed to squeeze herself out of her grip, galloping for her life.
"You don't want to go down this well!" Screeched Ruby, who had collapsed on the floor. "You can never come out of it! Believe me, you'll regret it, like your Grandfather did!" At the mention of Grandpa, Autumn paused only for a moment before fleeing into the quickening darkness.

~~~~

"Crazy." Starshine sat on her bed across from Autumn's, disbelief on her face.
"I don't know what to do. I can tell you I'm certainly not going back to physics class tomorrow."
"Well, what was your plan before Professor Ruby... attacked you?"
"I was going to go see the dean and show her the Ink Pot." Starshine nodded at the idea.
"I'm going with you."
"What? Why?" Autumn was legitimately concerned for her friend's safety.
"You and me, we're a team, Autumn. As your step-sister, and the older one no doubt, I will make it my solemn duty that you make it through this."
"I don't know if you are legally my step-sister, Starshine."
"Well, foster-sister then. Regardless, we're friends, and I want to help." She picked up a pillow, primed to throw it at her.
"Okay, okay, you've persuaded me." Autumn waved her off and yawned a big yawn. She picked up the Ink Pot, and began to let it go, catching it in her hoof to put the lid back on.
"That thing gives me the creeps." Starshine got under covers and rolled over to look at Autumn, "It seems like it might be kind of at the root of this problem." Autumn thought about what she said.
"I... I don't know how I feel about it. This was Grandpa's after all. He was all I had." Autumn set it down on the dresser, getting one last look at the photograph on her side of the dresser. The last time she saw Burgundy. "Goodnight, Grandpa."
She shut off the light. "Goodnight, Starshine."
"Goodnight, Autumn." 
After a pause, Autumn heard the clack of a picture frame in the darkness. "Goodnight, Thunderclap."