Continuity Disrupted

by Doug Graves

141 The Penitent, Part Two

Rarity stops adjusting the dress on one of her ponnequins as her entrance bell chimes, though with the dents it suffered it has lost that merry chime she loves. She adjusts her mane as she calls, “Welcome to the Carousel Boutique! Where everything is chic, unique, and magnifique!”

Her smile gets a little more forced as Doug and Twilight Sparkle walk through the door. “Well,” she says, with a hint of regret that it isn’t a customer, “I don’t suppose you two are here to buy anything? I know the place is a mess, and I’ve been hard at work putting everything back together. Especially getting the apple stains out of the more expensive fabrics that need to be hoof-washed.”

Rarity’s gaze lands on Doug, a bit of a huff. “It’s too bad that Rainbow qualifies for more ‘quality time’ than I do, but I understand that she is the injured hero. No time to come and help out little old Rarity, I quite understand.”

“Rarity,” Doug starts patiently, a light note of condescension in his voice, “I’m sorry I’m not able to be in two places at once-”

“-There’s a way to fix that!” calls Pinkie Pie, sticking her head out of a bolt of fabric. She holds a hoof to her chin as she disappears back inside. "Actually, there are several wa-"

“-and I’ll be here to help just as soon as I can,” Doug finishes, only a slight glance of his eyes towards where Pinkie Pie’s head used to be any indication that he heard her.

Rarity waves circles in the air with her hoof. “Of course you will, darling. Like I said, I understand.” She haughtily turns back to her ponnequinn. “Of course, you’ll only get to me once you’ve helped Applejack raise that barn of a new schoolhouse. Or Trixie with the lesson plans. Or...”

“Rarity, I…” Doug snorts exasperatedly, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. “I didn’t come here to argue with you. I’m sorry I can’t put as high a priority on you as you deserve. But I’m here to see Sweetie Belle. Is she upstairs?”

“Oh, well, excuse me for thinking you cared about my predicaments.” Rarity icily turns to the stairs, shouting, “Sweetie Belle!”

“Go away!” comes the muffled response.

Rarity sniffs, wiping a dried tear from her eye. “As you can clearly hear, she doesn’t want to have anything to do with me. And as I can clearly see the same is true for you, I would like to kindly ask you to leave.”

Three longs strides bring Doug in striking distance of the white unicorn. Her head turns away, eyes closing and body tensing as she braces for impact.

It never comes.

Rarity peeks through one eye, hesitantly peering at Doug crouching next to her. One hand flexes open and closed, over and over, balling into a fist with the muscles on his entire arm bulging out. She gulps as she remembers that arm around Starlight Glimmer’s neck, flinching as his hand stretches forwards and caresses just under her jaw. A light tug pulls her limp body closer, Rarity inwardly cursing that instinct that makes her body just give in when something threatening is nearby.

“I’m sorry, Rarity,” Doug softly says as he pulls her into a tight hug. “I should have followed up with you more, made sure that you were okay.” He sighs, squeezing a little tighter. “I’ll work on that, and try not to get too caught up with any one of you. You’re all important to me, and I want to be there for each of you.”

Rarity snorts at the impossibility. “Doug, I want to believe that, but you weren’t there for me. I’m lucky that a few actually considerate pegasi were able to bring all the items that Spike took back, even if they just dumped them outside.”

“That sounds like it hurt,” Doug says, stroking the purple mane, glancing over as Twilight lays next to them, the purple unicorn quietly listening, the soft scratch of a quill as she takes notes. “But I think you’re a strong enough mare to push through that.” He pulls her in for another long hug. “Please, Rarity, tell me. What’s really wrong?”

Rarity’s eyes flick upstairs at the soft clop of hooves before burying themselves in Doug’s chest. “It’s Sweetie Belle. I tried making her favorite ice cream dish, the one with sprinkles in the shape of a smiling face. But she refused! She won’t talk to me, except to tell me that it isn’t my fault. My fault! I wasn’t there to save her when that vicious dragon ripped her from the schoolhouse! I wasn’t there when he climbed up a mountain and would have either violated her or ate her! And I wasn’t there when she nearly fell to her death!"

“No,” Doug agrees, “you weren’t there.”

“W-what?” Rarity says, confusion staining her voice. “How could you…”

“And you’re going to have to accept the fact that you won’t be there for her. Not every time. She’s an adult, and going to be doing things on her own.” Doug’s hands grow a little rough as he runs his fingers through Rarity’s coat, the unicorn tensing underneath him. “You would suffocate her if you tried to keep her close, killing her just as effectively as the rocks at the bottom of the mountain.”

“How?” Rarity demands, staring up at Doug. “How can you be so callous about this? So uncaring about the fate of your foals?”

Doug meets Rarity’s gaze, unflinching. “Because I believe that things will work out. That in spite of whatever obstacles we face, we will be able to overcome them. We might not succeed at everything, we might fail so spectacularly that we die. But the only other option is to live so passively, so without risk that I would barely call that living at all.”

“I don’t want her to die,” Rarity ekes out, pressing her head into Doug’s chest. “I don’t want to see her hurt, like Rainbow.”

“I don’t want that either,” Doug replies, stroking her neck. “I want her to live, too. And I want her life to have meaning. Whatever she decides she wants to do, I want her to be able to do it! Even if she ends up hurt like Rainbow! Would you take that away? Would you take away her ability to help because she might get hurt, or worse?”

“I don’t want that taken away from me.”

Doug, Rarity, and Twilight glance to the top of the stairs, Sweetie Belle slowly descending.

“I don’t want to live in fear.” Sweetie Belle reaches the bottom of the stairs, a small grin as she nestles among her dam’s inviting hooves. “But I am afraid, Daddy. What if, what if I am the reason that Spike went on that rampage?” She sniffs, hard. “Am I just supposed to never see him again?”

Silence lingers for a few long seconds before Doug says, “I don’t know.” His hand strokes Sweetie Belle’s mane, the young mare clearly disappointed in the answer. “Partly because I have no idea, but also, and more importantly, because that’s something that you’ll have to figure out. Even if there wasn’t some supernatural cause-”

“-Actually, it’s entirely natural,” Twilight interrupts. As everypony turns to look at her she pulls back slightly, offering a slightly forced smile. “I mean, we might be able to isolate and eliminate, or at least block, the thaumic loop that causes the Greed based growth to occur. But I have no idea what the long term ramifications are of messing with a creature’s innate thaumic functions, much less one as thaumically dependent as a dragon. There’s no telling what-”

Twilight cuts herself off as Doug coughs. “Sorry, I’m rambling.”

“The point is,” Doug says, turning back to Sweetie Belle, “that perhaps it is too early to make that kind of decision. Especially if you’re making it on incomplete information. I know you’re afraid of that outcome, and maybe other outcomes as well. And going around, figuring out the likelihood of a certain outcome, and working to minimize or maximize its chances of happening, that’s exactly what you should be doing. Not letting your fear of something happening paralyze you, or force your hand. Hoof. There are lots of things that make us afraid.”

Doug envelops Sweetie Belle and Rarity in the same hug, Twilight scooching over to join in. “I’m certainly afraid of losing you. All of you. But acting in spite of that fear, that’s courage.” He pokes Sweetie Belle in the chest. “And after seeing you up on that stage, singing your heart out? I know you have courage.”

Sweetie Belle giggles at the contact. “Thanks, Daddy.” She nuzzles Rarity next. “I know you’re afraid of losing me, and I don’t want to be lost, either. But I’m an adult now, and I need to make my own decisions.”

“That’s right, of course,” Rarity says, a long sigh at the admission. “But sometimes I just see you as my little filly.”

Sweetie Belle smiles forlornly. “I know. I like being your little filly sometimes.” She glances towards the kitchen. “Hey, maybe you can go make me that ice cream treat I liked so much?”

“Only if you ask correctly,” Rarity says, nuzzling her filly.

Sweetie Belle grins. Her voice has a bit of a southern twang to it. “Mama? If'n you’d be ever so kind, Ah would absolutely adore a Filly Clown Surprise. Made by you, of course.”

“Of course, dear,” Rarity replies, her eyes only twitching a little at Applejack’s corruption of what used to be her perfectly pristine filly. She returns quickly, a normal-sized version of the treat set in front of each of them.

“Mama?” Sweetie Belle tentatively asks, chewing the cherry nose.

“Yes, dear?” Rarity replies after swallowing her bite.

“Why didn’t you want to have a second one of me? You know, with Daddy?” Sweetie Belle peers into Rarity’s eyes, a hard look starting to become much more common on the young mare.

“Well, first off, there’s no guarantee that a sister of yours would be like you. I mean, you just have to look at Lemon and Meringue to know that even full-blooded sisters can be completely opposite.”

Sweetie Belle clears her throat, entirely too reminiscent of her sire.

“Well, we saw how much you struggled with magic, even at a young age.” Rarity sighs. “Especially at a young age. I know how important magic is to a young unicorn, and we saw your struggles, and we didn’t want any other fillies so…” Rarity trails off, searching for an appropriate word.

“Do you see me as crippled?” demands Sweetie Belle.

“Well, um, you see,” Rarity stammers, eyes glancing about and focusing on everything but her filly.

“No,” Doug forcefully states, his hand stabilizing the mare in his lap. “Not crippled. Just a unique set of skills, different from the average unicorn.”

“Different.” Sweetie Belle tastes the word on her lips, ultimately deeming it satisfactory. “I can live with different.”

Rarity turns to Doug, blue aura tugging him down for a kiss. "I've thought a lot about this. About us." She kisses him again. "And I know you'll have no trouble with this. You love seeing that little bulge in our tummies, and knowing it is one of yours." Her muzzle curls to a smirk, especially as she can see him struggling with suppressing his desire to call her out on 'little'.

"...I do," Doug eventually replies.

Rarity draws closer, her whisper loud enough for everypony to hear. “I think I can live with our second being a little different, too.”

Doug’s eyes brighten, nearly lifting the unicorn as he pulls her tight, continuing their long kiss. He finally breaks away, asking, “So, what are you going to tell Lunaris? And break off the date?”

“And give up a night on the town with the most eligible bachelor in Canterlot? I don’t think so.” Rarity’s smirk grows, though not quite evilly. More sinister, really. “Who knows what kind of trouble we’ll get into?”

Comments

[badninja]

Yes Rarity needed that call out hopefully her next foal will be quite the powerhouse when they grow up.

[chibilink]

This is a conversation long time coming. Doug's kids need to understand that while they aren't strong in the conventional sense, they're strong in some unique way, that's less magic based and more mental/psychologically based.

Which is honestly a neat thing about his kids.

[Doug Graves]

10119622
It's a conversation that's happened in bits and pieces throughout, though never quite as explicitly as here. Rainbow and Scootaloo training is probably the closest they get. Partly because it's, well, obvious; the foals can see how they struggle, especially compared to their classmates or parents. But to them? Especially if the parent's don't draw attention to it? It's just how life is.

[DarkPhoenixx]

Thanx for this great chapter, DG. I love your stories.

[PirateLord93]

Ngl, I breathed a sigh of relief when Rarity changed her mind. No matter how much she tried to justify it, I still felt it was wrong, to me it's like she was saying she's disappointed how Sweetie, her daughter, turned out cause of something neither she nor Doug has control over.

[Poparakelis]

Wow, Doug was actually a character in this chapter, and Rarity becomes a better Pony/Mother too.