Time Ticks on

by Golden Script


4. Piece of the Past: Complicated Changes

He held me in his eagle arm for a few seconds. I became uncomfortable and squirmed my way out.

“Look, it’s great to meet you, Discord, but I just want to get back to that convention.” I told him, racking my brain for what may have caused this apparition in front of me. Did someone drug me when I was preoccupied? Or maybe I fell down and hit my head. It might have been that weird vendor, he didn’t exactly look trustworthy.

“What convention?” Asked Discord with one eyebrow raised. “I summoned a great hero that would be able to help me in a righteous task!” His paw was thrust into the air, making an epic pose.

“Well, I think you used the wrong summons, I’m no hero.” I dismissively told him.

“Oh, but you are! I summoned a bipedal creature with lenses and a long coat!” He yelled as he pointed out the coat still folded over my arm and the goggles on my head. “And you even have the vest and shirt that the picture depicted! Look at you, you’re definitely the Lord of Time!” He gestured towards all of me with a disbelieving look on his face.

“I’m no Time Lord. I can’t regenerate, I’m not a thousand years old, and I don’t have a TARDIS.” The tone my voice took on was more sarcastic than anything, but I think I still put him off a little bit.

“That’s not what I summoned at all! I attempted to bring forth a being that can control the flow of time, and you have that power.” He explained to me.

“What? How can I control time?” I asked incredulously.

“With your watch.” His paw pointed to the chain leading to my pocket.

“This thing can’t control time!” I pulled the timepiece out of the aforementioned pocket as I laughed. “It can’t even tell time reliably!” When I looked at the watch it said that it was two fifteen in the morning when, according to the sun, it’s closer to noon

“But it can manipulate time.” he pointed out like it was a well-known fact.

“How?!” I was just about done with this… thing talking to me. The fact that I was taking it seriously was only proving my lack of sanity.

“Like this.” He snatched the watch from me and pressed down on the crown. The reaction was surprising, to say the least.

The first thing I noticed was the cold. As soon as he pushed the crown down the temperature dropped to, in contrast to the sweltering heat only moments before, below zero! I rushed to put my coat back on and fold my arms to try and maintain what little heat I had left.

Then I looked around.

The grass, which was a writhing mass of green, flowing like the ocean, is now only a picture taken from an instant in time. Not even the sound of movement reached my ears, I no longer smelled the springtime air, and I felt no breeze on my skin. Everything was frozen.

When I looked back at Discord even he wasn't moving, the watch still in his paw. I went over to him, walking right up to his face. I looked right into his eyes, which were still focused on where I was before.

‘I wonder’ I thought as I looked into his unresponsive eyes.

I pried the watch from him rather easily and pressed the crown again, my face still inches from his.

Everything came rushing back, the sounds, the feels, and the sights. What had been a little over a minute for me was literally no time at all for him, which is probably why he jumped a good ten feet backward in surprise.

“I-I-I see you’ve gotten the hang of it.” there was a moment of silence and a “hick!” came from his mouth.

I promptly laughed my ass off.

“It’s not funny!” He yelled with a “hick!” to punctuate his statement.

I wiped a tear from my eye as I attempted to stop the chuckling still in my system. “Sorry, I just wasn’t expecting such a reaction from you.” I took a deep breath and looked at him, a ghost of a smile still present on my lips. “So I can do that, now.” I mumbled more to myself, but he seemed to hear it nonetheless.

“Yes, you can also speed time up, but I’ll get to that later. For now I’ll tell you why I’ve summoned you to my world.” He hiccupped again, but snapped his fingers and gave a swift nod before looking at me for a response.

“That would be good to know. What’s so bad that you need a ‘Lord of Time’ to help you fix it?” I asked, adopting the title he’d given me mere minutes ago.

“Firstly, I don’t think we’ve had proper introductions. I am the humble ruler of this land, King Discord.” He stated with a simple nod of the head, eyes closed.

This was the first time I realized I was in the presence of royalty. I racked my brain, the second time today, for the proper etiquette for meeting royalty before I realized it was a simple kneel and a “your majesty”, which is exactly what I did.

“Stand up; I’m not that kind of king.” As I slowly stood, he reconsidered his statement. “Well, I am that kind of king, but I don’t like the formalities very much. When we’re alone, please just call me Discord.”

“As you wish, King Discord.” I said, still not wanting to offend him, but not sure how friendly he wants me to get.

He deadpanned at me for a second, shook his head and said “that’ll just have to do for now.” Suddenly, his face became a visage of dead seriousness. “Back to the matter at hand: I am the king of these lands, at the moment, but there are two beings that wish to over throw me. They came to me earlier today, asking me to leave, but as you can probably guess, this isn’t exactly what I want to do, seeing as it would cause tyranny and militaristic regimentation. This is not desirable for anyone, other than the tyrant, so I gave them a proposal… a challenge, if you will. I told them to find a champion, someone that would fight for them. And I would find myself a champion. We would pit these fighters against each other and whoever’s champion is victorious would keep the kingdom.” He paused for a minute, thinking over his words carefully. “This is why I’ve summoned you.”

He kneeled in front of me, putting his arm across his chest, the other a fist in to the ground, and his head bowed. “Would you be my champion, oh mighty Lord of Time?”