• Published 30th Sep 2014
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Just Roll With It - sunnypack



Ever had your Dad marry a mythical creature? Ever just wanted a normal life? If this is you and you're not me, then this is exactly what we don't want, right?

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39 - Avarice

Chapter 39: Avarice

Discord wasn't talking to me.

It wasn't a deliberate thing, it just felt less animated than before. I knew he was upset with how things had gotten between Celestia and me, but it wasn't all my fault. No, it wasn't my fault at all! Celestia had been pushing all my buttons. I hated the way royalty acted. Like there were different people. Like there was a clear division between those of different statuses. The dependence went both ways. You lead, you carry responsibility. You have privileges, but they must be paid for. Respect is earned, not bought. These were the sort of things I believed in.

But I hated seeing this divisive barrier.

These were also the sorts of things I remembered my father telling me on the odd occasion that he was feeling philosophical. Not that there were many times when that happened, but any opportunity that I had to experience a 'normal' Dad that waxed his worldliness was one I remembered. I treasured the moments when he took my hand, and did something that defied the Powers that Be with his characteristic jaunty wave and half-impish smile.

That’s why I couldn’t understand his reasons for marrying Tempora. That’s why I didn’t really connect with the airy austerity of Tempora’s personality. I knew the instant that I saw how she reacted to Discord, that we wouldn’t really get along.

I tried, though.

To be fair, she tried as well.

And I never felt a shred of animosity to Celestia and Luna, they were children after all.

But Celestia was at a crossroads, she was balancing the structure of her upbringing against the little snippets of my ideals and beliefs. I knew that in time, there was going to be a clash. I didn’t dwell on it, and honestly I never gave it more than a passing thought.

Was it my fault that I hadn’t pushed to make my position clear? Was it my fault for not noticing Celestia’s other side? Her royal self? Did the blame really lay with me?

They might have seen me loitering at the front gate of the castle for a while, with the guards looking curiously on. I paced from one side to the other, arguing with myself before I gave up and headed back. The guards didn’t say anything, and I knew they couldn’t have known about our fight, but I felt like their eyes were judging me as I paced from one side of the gates to the other. I left them with a despondent sigh, and I could feel their phantom gazes on my back as I made my way back.

I wasn’t the one that was wrong. She was wrong. I was right. She…

It was like there were a swarm of bees in my head, all bursting and clamouring with the simmering stew of guilt and guile. It slowly dawned on me that I was trying to rationalise my actions. If I was so right I wouldn’t be justifying them to myself, would I?

I stumbled on the front steps of my house, brought rudely back to reality by the hollow thump of one of the posts that supported the verandah. With a muffled grunt and holding my eye, I realised I had trodden all the way from the castle without noticing.

Growling, I opened the door and stepped inside, trudging up the stairs and collapsing into my bed. Around me was the sights and sounds of familiar things. My room, a ceiling dotted with faded glow-in-the-dark stickers of stars and planets. A crack in the corner that used to scare me as a kid. My dead computer, strewn books and CDs that I’ve read time and time again for the nostalgia. My Dad’s dimensional device…

Wait… what?

Slowly, I got up from my bed, the pain and throbbing fading away as I more closely examined the familiar chromatic sheen partially hidden by my discarded clothing. A sock covered the dial and a trouser leg obscured the screen, but I could make out the unmistakable etching on the side that bore my Dad’s signature, like an artist’s pride.

Cautiously, I brushed off the garments and held aloft the device. It felt heavier than before, but it had been a long time since I’d actually held it. Roughly the size of a tablet, the device was deceptively simplistic for something so complicated. My Dad once mentioned something about hiding the rest of the machine in a ‘reticullar space’, but I just took the device for granted.

Now it was literally within my grasp.

I stared at the device in my hands for a long time. It was my Dad’s first invention. His Dimensional Device. My Dad was a fan of alliteration, so he named all his little gizmos with alliterative arrangements. The Super Solder Sucker, the Gifted Gabby Grabber, the Mysterious Map Montage… and so on. The Dimensional Device was what made our little travels across different universes and times possible. It was a little temperamental, but Dad had almost fixed it… until he met Tempora.

I didn’t know what had happened to it, save that my Dad knew where it was, but it had been sitting in my room, under a few clothes. Did my Dad come home and move it? No he couldn’t, not in his condition.

But the biggest question was… what was I going to do with it?

The Device wasn’t very heavy. It had small buttons on the side with an almost insultingly simple interface. I knew the home coordinates of Earth. I knew them by heart. I didn’t know what coordinates this place were, my Dad had neglected to mention them.

I thought of the few friends I had back on Earth. Surely they would have moved on? I wasn’t particularly close to them, but I hadn’t even had a chance to say goodbye. Grandma? No she rarely visited, and she didn’t like Dad.

Earth.

I felt a strange sense of longing well up in my chest.

Home.

My fingers edged towards the buttons, and I set in the coordinates I knew so well…

————

Tempora was feeling agitated, though she couldn’t understand why. Her hooves kept shifting and she couldn’t maintain a still posture for long. The last time something like this happened, Max fell under that horrid mind field.

Her hooves clattered on the floor noisily, the hoof covers producing a metallic clink as she paced around the chamber.

Clink, clink, clink.

There was a gentle knock on the door.

“My Queen, is something the matter?”

“Ah List, you haven’t seen Harmony around, have you?”

List gave an uncertain bow before answering. “Yes, the Prince approached the gate but didn’t enter into the castle. He seemed a little distressed.”

“Mmmm.”

“My Queen?”

Tempora paused halfway across the room, her hoof half-raised to take another step.

“Yes?” the alicorn queried somewhat innocuously.

From the tightening of List’s lips, Tempora already knew that ploy wasn’t working. She decided to switch to another before List could guilt-trip her into revealing more than she was comfortable with. The advisor always had a habit of breaking her composure.

“Nothing,” she continued. “Don’t mind me, List. Yes, something is bothering me, and yes I know you know that, and no, I do not want to talk about it. Yes, it concerns Harmony. No, I do not wish to talk about it. Yes, it also involves my daughters. No, I do not wish to discuss it.”

List blinked at the matriarch and then gave Tempora a humourless smile.

“Sit,” she commanded rather than offered. She pointed to the only pair of chairs in the room. “Let’s get this over with.”

With a pout Tempora realised she had just made a hay bale of a grass clipping as it were. She glanced around as if to catch out prying eyes and with a protracted sigh, sank into the chair.

List steepled her hooves and leaned back into the chair.

“Anything you would like to tell me?” The question sounded awfully like an order than a query. Her tone checked the reluctant rejoinder that Tempora had prepared. Instead, the alicorn deflated and finally told List what was plaguing her mind.

“I think Harmony and Celestia had a fight,” she finally said.

List raised an eyebrow. “That is not uncommon among siblings,” she remarked.

Tempora waved her arms as if to gesticulate her frustration into existence.

“But they’ve never had a fight!” Tempora blurted out. “I’ve never seen them so much as quibble over anything!”

List didn’t seem impressed. She crossed her fore hooves rather than steepled them. “Maybe you don’t know them as well as you think,” she said quietly, but firmly.

Tempora’s jaw dropped at the sheer audacity of List’s sentiment.

“Y-You—“ she started, but the scheduler cut her off.

“Forgive me, my Queen, but that is the crux of the matter is it not?”

Tempora pursed her lips, outwardly silent, but inwardly fuming.

List sighed. “Queen Tempora, you have a sordid blind spot for your faults. While, as a ruler, it is mostly acceptable that you can substitute your vacuity for your shortcomings with confidence and poise in the Courts, in here you are bound by a different Law.”

Tempora’s eyebrows wrinkled together as she considered her words. “The Law…?”

“The Law of Family. The Law of Parent and Child. Mother to Foal.”

Tempora shook her head. “I’m too—“

List rolled her eyes. “Forgive me for being too forward, but you are not.”

Tempora opened her mouth to retort, but realised she was addressing her scheduler. That mare knew how many minutes she had in her day. The only other mare with a firmer grasp on Time than the Queen… at least in the Courts.

Tempora heaved a defeated breath.

“What should I do?” she mumbled into her gown.

List tapped a hoof on the chair and with a smooth movement, stood up and composed herself. No longer was List the firm advisor, she was the Royal Scheduler.

“That, my Queen, is something you should decide. You are good at at being decisive. I don’t know why you would have had an issue in the first place.”

Tempora nodded, but called out as List reached the door.

“List, one more thing!”

The mare turned around.

“Thank you,” Tempora said.

List smiled a little more warmly.

“Well, I’m always here to serve the Queen,” she said, departing with a slight bow.

Tempora wandered over to the window and took a deep breath.

The sun needed setting, there would be time for a discussion, and perhaps some quality time with her own family.

—————

Discord made his way back to the house, his steps hesitant for once. Words hadn’t been spoken to the effect, but Discord could feel that for the first time since meeting the friendly human, they were at odds.

It wasn’t as if Harmony had done anything particularly wrong… and that was the crux of the matter. Why did his heart tell him that there was something oh so wrong when his head was of a different opinion?

The draconequus retraced his footsteps leading to the front porch, but paused at the edge and then hung back. The porch seemed harder to climb, though his legs had grown bigger since the first time Harmony had led him up the steps.

Holding his breath, Discord scaled the steps, shaking his head savagely and biting his lips in resolution. There wasn’t any point in being mad at Harmony, he wasn’t even sure why he had these feelings, but they were powerful and lurked in the darkness. He knew instinctively that they had to be aired out, or they would fester in the muted recesses of his heart.

He opened the door, hearing the hinges creak ominously. Even outside, Discord suddenly had the sensation that the house was empty, that there wasn’t anyone in it.

“Hello?” he called out.

There was no answer.

With careful steps, Discord made his way to Harmony’s room. The door lay shut. Discord hesitated his claw raised in a fist to knock, but then thought better of it.

Maybe he’s sleeping, he thought to himself, choosing instead to ease open the door.

Inside the room lay quiet.

“Harmony?” Discord’s quavering voice called out.

Author's Note:

Sorry, sorry for the lack of updates!

Also apologies for any mistakes. I don't English very good.

I'll get to regular updating schedule some time in the future when things settle.

Next Chapter: Is... is it over?

As always, my seasonal readers, thanks for reading!