CHAPTER 10 (AKA: About time)
The day was slowly closing its doors and making way for the palette of evening atmosphere dyeing the room with living autumn colours.
The soothing grandness of Discord’s shack was changing into an extreme sense of overgreatness with the aid of colourful lights, giving the shack an aura of a sonic rainboom.
The customers were slowly retreating to their everyday lives and the changeling inhabitants were getting ready for the annual nightly festivities to which the carnival in Rio could not even dream to dream of.
Back in Discord’s bedroom the royal rug gently folded into the shape of a familiar Draconequus who glanced at the two changelings with a playful intent to (not only) talk.
The funny thing about Discord is that he tends to slip into a room unexpectedly like an extra sheet of paper is slipped into a 500 page report; nobody notices it until its right in front of their snouts… unless you’re Twilight Sparkle, she always notices these kinds of things straight away.
“Well, well, look what the changeling dragged in, if it isn’t Mark… and I thought you were long dead”
“hmmm… so we know each other in the future… interesting…”
“Time travel?”
“Yep”
“The doctor?”
“Yep”
“1.21 gigawatts at 88 miles per hour?”
“What?”
“Oh, my bad, I was thinking about a different Doctor”
“Look, sorry to be bothering you right now but-“
“OH! NONSENSE! I’m always up for a little fun! And I see you met my daughter!” said the draconequus as he slithered in mid-air wrapping himself around Pacifica
“Well, you see, it’s actually about her that I’ve come to talk about… I just met her recently but… I can’t explain it but… it’s like there’s this sort of link between us, it’s almost as I could read her mind… I have no idea what the hell that is but I feel that it’s something important and I thought you might help us… you’re the oldest being I know around here…”
Discord popped his head off his neck, sat on it in a thinker’s pose scratching the block of air that should have been his goatee and began to wonder
“Well… I can think of a few ideas… I mean your fates are linked after all”
“Really? In what way?”
“I can’t tell you”
“Why not?”
“where would be the fun in that?”
Pacifica inhaled
“This is important uncle”
Mark and Discord jumped – neither of them expected Pacifica to actually say something anytime soon… or anytime at all for that matter
“I see…” began Discord “In that case maybe you should know...”
Dicord clicked his fingers, materialising a golf club and a golfing outfit on himself, hit his head with the club towards one of the four walls of the room… his head began bouncing all over the place like a ball of yarn
“Yes?” began Mark
“...that you’re related by blood” said Discord the moment his head zipped by a meter away from mark onto a random wall
“she’s a distant granddaughter of your brother” replied the draconequus’s head as it flew onto his neck and stopped dead in its tracks with a faint plastic pop as if something manufactured in china was put back in its socket.
It was all clear now, that feeling Mark felt for Pacifica, that love, it was the kind of love that one feels for a niece.
A surge of surprise overcame Mark, followed by a whole multivitamin mix of emotions, is his brother going to have kids? but this means that he will have to marry first... and what about himself for that matter, is he going to have a family, a child? a wife?
"Do I have any grandchildren here?"
"Of course you do"
“So, who am I going to marry? does this mean I’m going to be successful? How many children am I going to have? What are they going to be calle-“
“Woah, hold on there, mystery Mike, I can’t tell you some things, you know?”
“Why?”
“Let’s just say that there are some rules that even I can’t break”
“I thought you were chaos…”
“No, no, no… I’m not chaos… I’m an agent of chaos, to quote an old friend of mine and there’s only so much that I can do”
“You’re no fun…”
“Hey! That’s my line!”
Mark’s tension was suddenly replaced by the realisation of the fact that even a changeling after some time could become tired... but the Doctor! He completely forgot about him in all this madness! It’s already been over 30 minutes 2 hours ago… finding the doctor is crucial if he wants to go back…
“I don’t suppose that I could stay here for the night after I find the Doctor?”
“Oh, don’t worry he’ll find you all right… you guys can have the bed if you want, I’ll make myself comfortable somewhere else” pointed out Discord whilst he popped a huge sheet of paper out of nowhere, conjured a pair of scissors and within a few seconds of slashy madness he managed to cut and fold a giant paper sofa into the room that he opened up into a bed.
The jester jumped in the air and dangled slowly onto the paper sofa bed, much as a feather would.
Discord’s body met the sofa and a faint comical ding could be heard for a brief second, the kind you get when you pop a cherry on top of a cake you just made.
“Much better”
Mark snickered
“Good luck with the paper cuts”
“That’s why I used safety scissors” began Discord as he equipped his hand in scissors with plastic wavy edges and snipped twice with them to let Mark know that he wasn’t joking about that… for once”
Pacifica and Mark approached the strangely damp bed.
Pacifica made herself comfortable next to the bed ready to sleep.
Mark was stunned at Pacifica’s action
“Aren’t you going to sleep on the bed?”
“…”
“Suit yourself” began Mark as he flipped away the damp bedsheets only to discover what made them wet in the first place and the very reason why Pacifica refused to sleep on it… of course, this is Discord’s realm, nothing is simple here…
Instead of a bed Mark’s eyes set on what seemed to be a bubble of water floating barely above the ground with a pair of pillows drowned inside.
“Oh, I get it, a WATER BED haaahaaa…”
Mark sighed in unison with dropping his head down as he came to terms with the situation and just lay down on the floor in aid of some rest.
Today was a long day… not only Mark had his first day of business but also all this… he deserved some rest, the excitement can come later.
Mark and the gang subtly slipped into their dreams, or rather the dreams slipped into our characters… Compared to what Mark was up against today, he was disappointed in the mediocrity and forgetfulness of the dream he was having… in fact it was so boring that he just plain woke up from boredom.
It was still dark.
A red flash
1..2..3…
A bang.
2 flashes one after another
1..2..
2 bangs, one after another
Mark looked towards the open doors leading to the balcony.
Just some fireworks… apparently the festivities were going to be an all-nighter
Mark looked at the clock melting off the edge of the bed desk like a soggy pizza.
4:23 AM…
“Well, it was nice while it lasted” thought Mark.
Mark looked at Pacifica sleeping soundly and turned his glance onto where Discord should be…
Mark panicked, where could Discord be? He wouldn’t just leave them behind like that, would he?
Mark looked towards the doors leading out of the chamber.
A brief flash slapped a giant shadow of Discord leaning on shadowy rails on the doors.
Mark looked behind him towards the source of the shadow… the balcony.
There he was, leaning on the rails and… sleeping.
“Just when I thought things couldn’t get any weirder…”
Mark quietly approached Discord, trying not to wake him and had a good look at him.
Discord looked completely different when he sleeps, as if he were the exact opposite of what he normally is…
Mark could taste an ocean of emotions even deeper than the Doctor’s… the sheer amount and size of it all was terrifying…
Mark’s eyes were slowly approaching Discord’s face, ever so slowly, ever so closer…
“Yes?”
Mark’s thoughts and body were thrown off-balance as he fell onto a state of surprise and the floor.
“Sorry! I thought you were sleeping”
“Me? Sleeping?”
Discord chuckled quietly
“What’s so funny?”
“I don’t sleep anymore”
“You… don’t? Why?”
“Sleep is a privilege of the young and ignorant… I have lived too long to sleep anymore…”
“That doesn’t make sense…”
Discord gradually looked up to the braille night sky and slowly reached his arm to the sky as if trying to grab something that he already knows isn’t there
“You’re all so lucky… you live a few years and you die in ignorance… but there are others that aren’t as lucky, you know… those who are destined to live longer than we should be allowed to, know more than we should be allowed to… perhaps one day if you’re unfortunate enough to have lived as much as I, you might understand…”
Mark frowned in confusion
“…Are you OK? You’re not being your usual…” Mark randomly waved with his front hooves in the air “Discordial self…”
Discord smiled but it wasn’t a happy smile but a sardonic one… a smile of a defeated being, accepting their fate knowing that nothing can be changed ready to embrace the leftover shambles of pain that they call their life.
“You all live in your little cages, constructs that you call societies and laws but all that is irrelevant… everything cumbles eventually… even time… in the end, there is only one thing left…”
“Lemme guess… chaos?”
Discord nodded gently
“Life is unfair but only one thing is just… and that thing is chaos, it’s the one thing that keeps us all from ripping each other apart and lets us live together in happiness…”
Mark smiled at the stupidity of that statement
“That’s stupid, our society works, it’s not perfect but it’s all fine by the end of the day, I mean look here!” Mark pointed at the changeling festivities below
“Look at all those changelings! Clearly we made it through; this means that there are things that last! You’re wrong!”
“Am I?” Discord’s gaze turned towards Mark melancholically looking at him
“you’re forgetting that I’m from your future…” Discord sighed and looked on the nearby floor, then back at the changeling
“there WILL come a time when you’ll agree with me… and on that day… we shall say farewell my friend”
“F-farewell? Wait so you know how I die? I’ll become like you? What? What happens?”
As if an invisible switch was turned in Discord’s head, he returned to his usual jestery and chaotic self
“I’ve said too much already, now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some chaos to squeeze in here and there”
Discord snapped his fingers and folded like a sheet of paper until there was nothing left
Mark’s head buzzed with newer and newer questions every waking beat of his heart, the fear in the back of his brain cause by the knowledge of his imminent death and when it might happen lay there in wait for the right time.
So many questions and none can be answered despite being so close in reach…
Mark was on the edge and needed desperately for reality to pull him back in.
“Pacifica…”
Mark rushed to the changeling filly shaking her in need of attention.
Pacifica slowly rebooted into consciousness and gave Mark a dozy gaze
“?”
Mark calmed down
“S-sorry, I panicked there for a second…”
“…”
Pacifica gave an understanding look towards Mark, she didn’t know exactly what had happened but whatever it was she knew that it freaked the living daylights out of Mark, and he needed attention right now.
“Can I ask you a question Pacifica?”
“…”
“Why is Discord like that?”
“…”
“Actually this time I want you to tell me if you know, it’s important”
Pacifica nodded
“How much do you know about the legend behind hearts and hooves day?”
“Not much… all I know is that a long time ago there was a prince and princess that gave each other some love poison, couldn’t do their royal duties, then something about a dragon and years of chaos… something like that… why do you ask?”
“Because that’s when it all happened”
“What happened?”
“The legend is extremely vague about what happened but after years of nagging my uncle I managed to hear a thing or two from him about it”
“Which would be?”
“He told me that back in those times when he was still young, he was in charge of the royal guard for the pony kingdom”
“HE WAS?”
“Yes, and back then he wasn’t like he is right now, he was just like us, but then came the fateful day when the 2 ponies gave each other the love poison…”
“What then?”
“I don’t really know about this part but something must have happened that changed my uncle because he took advantage of the kingdom’s weakness and took over, starting his reign of chaos… that is all I know”
“Hmmm… that’s it?”
“As much as I know, yes… Only my uncle, Luna and Celestia know what really happened but none of them ever wanted to talk about it when I asked them and there’s nothing in the books about it apart from the same old vague story”
“Princess Luna? Celestia? What do they have to do with all this?”
“I don’t know, they wouldn’t tell me”
“You know… I think I’m gonna start looking into that, Discord told me that I’m going to change in my future into what he is right now and I don’t want that, maybe if I find out what really changed him back then, I might be able to prevent that from happening to me!”
“…”
“So, where are Luna and Celestia now?”
“…”
“Oh… well… it has been over 500 years after all…”
Mark paused for a moment of silence only to unexpectedly erupt once again
“OF COURSE! THE DOCTOR!”
“?”
“You know, time traveller, TARDIS, I’ll go back to my time and ask the princesses myself…”
“…”
“You stay here, I’ll go and look for him”
“…”
“What?”
“…”
“Hmmm… yeah, you’re right, going without a guide would be stupid… let’s go then”
Pacifica jumped onto her hooves and followed Mark outside the chamber.
“…”
“Shortcut??? You mean that before, we could have gotten to the chamber faster?”
“…”
“I’m not complaining, I’m… just…. Nevermind…”
The changelings literally swam across the rug towards a large picture of a dark empty room full of strange contraptions.
Pacifica knocked twice on the Picture
“Enter” replied a voice that made Mark’s mane stand on edge, the voice was similar to Discord’s but it was… wrong in every meaning of the word… Mark knew that whatever being said that wasn’t just evil… he was WRONG
The painting opened up, the two entered into the exact same room that was being depicted on the door but this time a strange caped being was hunching over a table ahead of them.
The figure was mumbling something.
“…”
“How can I ignore that?”
“…”
“Fine, I will…”
Pacifica grabbed Mark’s hoof and dragged him across the room towards a pony-sized jack-in-a-box.
The figure began mumbling louder
“smile? No no no… let’s slap a smile on it? No…”
“Let’s put a smile on that face?” suggested Mark
“Oooh, I like that one… yeah…”
The figure partially turned what seemed to be its head towards Mark for a brief moment, showing a vague contour of what he figured must be horrible scars of the face… those scars weren’t regular scars… they went deeper than just the body…
“Pacifica?” Began the biped
Pacifica stopped dead in her tracks yet Mark was surprised to see that she wasn’t scared
“?”
“Say hi to your uncle would you? Oh, and tell him I said thanks for showing me that pencil trick the other day…”
“…” replied Pacifica as she turned the handle on the jack-in-the-box.
A few moments later a giant puff of confetti jumped out of the box surrounding the two.
Once the colourful hurricane subsided, they were in front of the shack facing the square that was now a raging sea of black and shades of green.
“How in the world are we going to find the Doctor here? I only see changelings…”
Pacifica pointed at a tiny brown speck bobbing up and down on top of the black canvas of green.
“He’ll find us, huh...” pointed out Mark in a sarcastic tone
“?”
“No, nothing”
The duo bravely approached the front of the storm ready to jump in… as far as the living cloud is going to let them.
“Hold my hoof Pacifica and don’t let go”
“…” nodded Pacifica whilst hooking her hoof onto his
They jumped in.
An endless fog of noise and colours surrounded the two, confusing every of one of their senses.
Everything was so… much, so much colour, so much noise, so much movement, so much joy yet neither of them could taste any emotions… that was the strangest part… Mark has been with other changelings before and he knew that a changeling is unable to taste another changeling’s emotions let alone feed off it yet his instinct kept telling him to expect an amazing tornado of emotions as there were so many living beings here, all moving, all rejoicing…
The two ploughed through the changelings as they drew nearer the speck that was now easily recognisable as the doctor being thrown up in the air and back down continuously like a brown fuzzy bouncy-ball
“Oh! Hey Mark, I see you bought-“ the Doctor fell into the sea of black, and briefly flew back up
“-with you! Discord told me you met! It’s great to see that you got to meet-“ the Doctor downed once again and briefly resumed into free fall 6 meters above the air once again
“-other! so, did you manage to solve that-“
“-already?”
“Yeah, more or less, I need to get back now, I know what I need to do!”
“You sure? I mean we could stick-“
“-for a while, it’s a lot of fun you know!”
“Maybe some other time… you do have a time machine after all so it’s not like we can’t come back again”
“OK then” said the Doctor as he fall back into the murky depths and seconds later emerged from the crowd right in front of Mark, standing as nothing had ever happened in the first place
“Shall we go then?”
“…”
The three began pushing and shoving past the changelings, moving vaguely towards the direction of where the TARDIS was supposed to be.
“Wait” began Mark and turned towards Pacifica
“?”
“I know you want to go with us but it would be better that you stay here, the time where I come from isn’t too good for our kind… you’ll be safer here”
“…”
“I’s OK, I’ll be back, right Doctor?”
“Well-”
“YOU!” a loud bossy voice interrupted the conversation.
The three looked quickly towards the beholder of such a familiar voice, it was none other than queen Chrysalis herself.
The sea of changelings parted making a clear path for Queen Chrysalis to reach The two changelings and the timecolt.
Mark couldn’t believe his eyes… it was her, he was so glad to see her in such good shape (or at least in such good shape as for her current age)
Time made its mark on the queen, Her hair lost its sheen and thickness, her body became weathered by the endless years of living, yet she still had the same grace as always… it’s so good to see her again. Thought Mark
“MY QUEEN! It’s so great to see you all safe and sound and-“
A deadly blast of green blackened the ground right next to Mark, the fellow changelings next to Mark retracted in fear.
Something told Mark that he this wasn’t going to be a happy reunion
“YOU! HOW DARE YOU LIVE! YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE GONE! YOU… YOU… MONSTER!”
“What? But I-“
The queen's rickety and frail body began to ominously approach the poor changeling
“DON’T YOU TALK BACK TO ME!” screamed the furious chrysalis zapping every possible area next to mark with a clear intent to kill him but unfortunately for her and fortunately for Mark, she was too blind with age and fury to hit anything but the ground.
“I think it’s time for my favourite part” whispered the Doctor
“What part?”
“RUN!” the doctor shouted as he galloped towards the blue box of salvation.
Mark turned to Pacifica.
"Take care, I will be back, ok? I promise"
The queen was nearing dangerously close now
"..."
"I already told you, no, you are safer here with your uncle watching over you"
Mark pointed up in the distance at the balcony on which Discord was vigilantly making sure nothing happens to his precious little changeling.
Chrysalis was within srtiking distance but Mark’s primal instincts kicked in and he followed in the Timecolt’s footsteps disappearing into the blue box.
“OPEN THE DOOR!” screamed the queen trying to ram the door, unsuccessfully as the door locked as soon as it was closed and the TARDIS was set in motion.
“I’d hold on if I were you Mark!”
Mark managed to hold on to the nearest railing in the nick of time for the incredibly dangerous time travel.
Moments later the shaking and the breathing sound stopped and that fateful DONG sound could be heard signifying the end of the journey that technically never happened.
“Well, that’s that” began the Doctor
“What just happened?” Mark’s confusion took over but he was still too tired to think much, after all he didn’t sleep that much in the first place and all that just happened…
The doctor noticed something was wrong.
“Where is Pacifica?”
"She stayed behind but she will be fine, I don't know Discord well but I could taste enough of his emotions to know that there is no way in Tartarus that he will let anyone harm her, not even Our queen herself"
The pile of metallic garbage sneezed next to Mark
“Oh, you’ve GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!”
This must have been the cheesiest and most predictable “unexpected” turn of events possible, thought Mark as he shuffled away the junk ready to greet Pacifica for a second time today.
“I thought I told you to stay behind!” whipped Mark at Pacifica
“…”
“Don’t be harsh on her Mark, we were being chased and were running for our lives after all”
“No, Doctor, bring her back to her time RIGHT NOW”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that”
“WHAT?”
“Well, I was going to tell you that I can only use my TARDIS every once and then but then all that happened and… well as they where’s the time when you really need it” the Doctor gave out a brief quiet awkward laugh
Mark gave a sigh of defeat
“Well, when’s the next time you could bring her back?”
“Well… that depends, the TARDIS needs to recharge but there are no big time rifts here in this universe at all so it might take a few…”
“Days?”
“…months”
“…”
“Well of course I’m going to do that, the only problem is how am I going to explain you to the ponies in this town, plus you’re gonna need an education during that time, don’t think you’ve gotten away from learning miss”
“…”
Mark gave Pacifica an angry look.
How the hell is he going to pull all this off? What’s more, can Pacifica even change? It’s not like changelings need to do that at all in the future and Mark remembers all too well how hard it was for him to maintain his transformation for longer than an hour for his first time, let alone turn into a pony with the right body proportions… this might turn out to be one heck a problem…
“…”
“You can?”
Pacifica turned into an inconspicuous earth pony
“But how? Don’t you guys have no need for that in the future? Heck, I’d reckon it would even be against the law for you guys to transform”
“…”
“Well then how come can you change then if it’s forbidden?”
“…”
“Discord taught you? Well, he never was one to go by the rules…”
“Uhm…” gently interrupted the Doctor
“Oh, right, yeah, sorry doctor, we’ll be going now, come on Pacifica, Since you're not going anywhere I might as well show you My house and restaurant”
The two changelings politely exited the time travel machine.
Mark’s head popped back into the TARDIS
“Oh, by the way, I forgot to thank you for everything Doctor, you really did help after all”
“I’m not going to say I told you so buuuut…”
The doctor pointed his hoof at Mark
“I told you so?”
The Doctor smiled pleasantly
“Yep”
A few minutes passed as Mark gave his distant granddaughter the spare room with a few necessary items and soon Mark was tucked in his bed ready to sleep once again… funny thing time travel… he wasn’t gone for even a minute…
Mark began to think.
Something was wrong in all this; somehow Mark couldn’t see the whole picture yet again… Why would Discord teach Pacifica the art of transformation if they didn’t need it in their time? It’s as if he knew that she would travel back in time…
Pacifica, Discord, even queen Chrysalis seemed to know something that he didn’t and refuse to tell him… but he’s going to get to the bottom of this no matter what, it’s all for the sake for his kind… for a better future, the kind of future that everybody and everypony will have in over 500 years…
Mark closed his eyes.
The cogs of Mark’s fate clicked into second gear and began to slowly turn the massive cog of worldly fate.
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is it weird this is starting to remind me a little bit of Slaughterhouse 5?