Magnum Opus

The two ponies sat at the kitchen table, light beginning to stream in through the window. Rarity poured-- and took a sip-- from her steaming hot coffee, enough to burn her from her stupor. The caffeine, she hoped, would get her the rest of the way there. Another mug of Americano floated its way over to her father thanks to some shaky morning levitation.

“Your mother and I are going through a rough patch.”

Rarity paused mid-sip. Oh, so it was going to be that conversation... She was going to need a lot more coffee.

She got up and began to brew more. Looking back Rarity noticed her dad, Magnum, had fallen silent, burying his head between his hooves. It was some relief. Giving Rarity an opportunity to collect herself before delving into whatever her parents were apparently going through.

She thought back to hours earlier, how her night had also ended in bitter disappointment. Not that Magnum could possibly know that, but the wounds were evident on both of them. Saturdays were her chance to be seen and heard about town. As small as Ponyville was, there were always little soirees to attend. Drinking, chatting, dancing, music... of course nothing like the Canterlot events she'd been to. Nevertheless they were comfortable affairs. In fact, they'd become mandatory. How else was a mare her age-- an adult in her own right-- living on her own without even a hint of a coltfriend going to be viewed. Yes she had Spike, who was quite the little gentleman, but that was where it ended: a friend, nothing more. Certainly too young to give Rarity the sort of companionship she'd been searching for, though as a lady she could never admit it.

When was the last time? She wondered to herself.

With boys it was the subtle things she picked up on first. Quick glances stallions would take in her direction, trying to be discreet, but signaling interest. The dumbfounded looks on ponies as she walked around town. Where had she gone wrong? She certainly hadn’t changed her routine. An extensive makeup and hair ordeal every morning, spa days with Fluttershy, hot horn waxes... Yet for weeks now she wasn't getting results. No slack jaw greeted her when she left for the market, detours onto once ‘undesirable’ routes yielded to no catcalls. Things she thought she wouldn't miss, but her ego did: sorely. And as weeks rolled into months and months coming up on a year; she was getting desperate. Had everypony become so accustomed to her? Was there nothing enticing about her anymore? It was foolish to think that when Pinkie and Applejack invited her to go to the Haymarket Festival at the town green things would turn around from one night. But how could she say no? It was a chance to gauge herself. Show ponies that Rarity was a diamond that sparkled brilliantly, even in a collection of other gems. Of course, she should have known better.

At first Rarity could lie to herself, writing off Pinkie as just being Pinkie. Stallions always flocked to the party pony since she was constantly busy being-- for lack of a better term-- an attention whore. At any Ponyville gathering Pinkie was usually the center of attention. And of course last night was no exception, as she danced with several stallions and shook her flank at every song. The real shock only set in after the announcer asked the guests to pair off for the square dance-- a Ponyville tradition. Plenty of eligible young stallions sauntered around the ring plucking up mares for the dance. Most were a little blue collar for Rarity's liking, but she found she wasn't complaining. A cute colt spotted were she and Applejack had made their way over to the edge of the dance. He nonchalantly trotted over and bowed to the pair, eliciting a giggle from each. Rarity stepped forward to greet the young gentleman and coyly offered her hoof.

It met the air and hung there, suspended by what must have been the self-same disbelief that overcame Rarity seconds later as she watched the stallion proposition Applejack. Applejack: the farm pony. The one who'd no more than two hours before was still picking apples for cider at the festival. Who hadn't even bothered taking a shower before showing up.

Applejack politely tried to decline making excuses for why the stallion should pair off with Rarity instead, but hearing her friend come to her defense made Rarity's feelings crumple even more. She almost left the party then and there, but decided to stay and make sure her friends had a good time. Putting on the fake smile she'd worn so many times before and pretending to enjoy the rest of the evening. After all she didn’t need her friends to worry about her. Or even worse, pity her.

Still, the party couldn’t last forever and all too soon she was walking home. Alone. Again. Each weekend the trip felt longer and longer: opening the heavy door of the boutique to an empty room, dabbing off the mascara she maintained so rigorously, folding the covers over her head, and finally letting out a single sob before passing out. It was so routine, just like her excuses. She was simply playing hard to get, right? There really are no true gentlecolts anymore... But so much failure had battered her ego to the point where it prompted the question: was it her?

A long prolonged sip from her father snapped Rarity out of her pity party and back to the present. She looked over at Magnum, his illustrious white coat seemed to have dulled in the wake of the events unfolding. Fathers always seemed to communicate so much without ever having to say a word. The two simply stood silently in the kitchen, as if listening to each other's thoughts. Rarity indulged another sip of coffee. It was good. Having somepony here. Somepony she knew cared about her more than they did themselves. It made her life feel less empty. She was morbidly happy her father offered his own problems as a distraction to her own--- Almost as good as a bubble bath and a few aromatic candles.

"So..."

The words came back at her. She regretted them and closed her mouth, stopping it from hanging on that last syllable. Maybe it was best to keep everything bottled up in the limbo of silence between them. They were taking such a large step in their relationship, she wasn't sure if having this conversation was something they could come back from.

Rarity suspected a strained relationship over the last few months. She'd been taking care of Sweetie Belle more often. Rarity knew they fought on occasion, that was something that all couples did, but was it more recent as of late? She wondered what her mother would have to say about all of this. How her mother was probably the one to instigate all of this. The fact that Peal probably took Magnum's love for granted. Rarity decided she could afford to give her father the benefit of the doubt.But, in order to do that, she had to break her precious silence. Clearing her throat, she offered what support she could.

“You can stay here as long as you’d like. Really, it’s no imposition.” Magnum nodded, accepting her generosity even if he knew she lied about the situation not being an issue for her.

Magnum gripped his coffee tightly in his hooves allowing the last thing he had control over in his life burn him. Hopefully a degree worse than he'd gotten off this morning because maybe then he could stop thinking about it. Growing up, Rarity always envisioned her parents as this infallible force. Experience dictated they always knew best, regardless of logic. By now that she was an adult, he could see she knew better. He'd shifted from the bedrock their family was built on to an emotional refugee. Washed up on his daughter's doorstep wit no plan and nowhere to go.

Unfortunately, this was exactly why he wasn't about to talk about the details. And why he was so surprised by what happened next. Hooves slung around the back of his neck and he found himself pressed forward into his daughter's chest, the soft fur there still carrying the scent of the night before on it. Gripping tighter, he could feel her nuzzle his neck, and for a moment was sure that he caught a tear falling from her face. For as much of a dork or uncool or unstylish as he'd been during her upbringing, he was glad that there was still some foundation of the family they used to be.

“I love you dad.”

At least sompony did.

- - -

"Honey," Cup Cake lovingly called to the upstairs of Sugarcube Corner, "do you know where my one ribbon is?"

Carrot Cake turned over in his bed. It was Sunday. The bakery wasn't going to be open till noon. He intended to take advantage of every minute of that reprieve.

"Did you check under the crib in the twins room?" There were a hundred questions he wanted to ask, including 'which ribbon,' but decided that his response was probably the quickest way to get back to what he was doing. He was wrong.

"No, not that one. That's the one I gave to Pumpkin Cake to play with. I'm talking about the one I had the other day. You know, the nice one I wear to go out."

"The yellow one?" Carrot Cake hoofed around on the ground for his slippers. They weren't there. A ribbon and now slippers. The lost-but-not-found list grew longer.

"Red," she hollered back up to him.

---

Time seemed to stop for a few hours after that. Magnum lay on the guest bed, contemplating his situation, while Rarity started the day. There was no plan. No big romantic gesture to surely win Pearl back. Not that he deserved to. He’d betrayed her love for a one night stand. Lying there he wracked his brain for an excuse, something that would explain his sudden lapse in mental faculties, but nothing came. Well, nothing aside from the carnality that provoked him in the first place.

Magnum’s eyes drooped, sleep inviting after hours of stress and worry. He folded the sheets over his body and nuzzled the pillow trying to get comfortable. It was immediately soothing. At first he couldn’t quite figure out why. Sure the sheets were lavishly threaded and the comforter provided a warm embrace, but there was something more. Then he realized it: the smell. It smelled exactly like her. He buried his nose deep into the sheets. Although clean, he could make out that they were daintily infused with Rarity’s musk. Wanting a more pungent whiff, Magnum sat on his haunches and lowered his face to the spot Rarity had been sitting moments before, noticing maybe it was even a little damp. His snout bisected the pleats, drawing a breath. Familiarity washed over him. Rarity and Pearl produced wonderfully similar scents. A tart palate of something sour combined with earthy dieters, like the smell of a garden after a spring rain: deep and soil-y. Indecently he found his hips grinding against the bed, member erecting as blood flooded to his loins, all thanks to the resistance of the mattress. For a moment he gave in to pure bestiality and licked the spot, vividly imagining it tasted of a marehood that wasn’t his wife’s. And picturing his phallus sheathed between ass cheeks that wasn’t hers either.

No. A simple mental command reined him in. What was he doing? The image of him violating that behind tattooed with perfect blue diamond shaped cutie mark disappeared. Apparently he did need help. Thoughts like that couldn’t be healthy for sexually active stallion. Part of him said it didn’t matter. A vagina served one purpose biologically: to procreate. Who cared if it belonged to his wife or his daughter so long as there was consent? Only an arbitrary moral code dictated by pony society said otherwise.

Magnum needed to get out of the house. Those were dangerous thoughts and he wanted to keep them that way. He figured maybe going to talk to an old friend would help. After all, he had a confession he was dreading to make and the longer he waited, the worse off he would be.

“I’m going out for a while,” he casually mentioned to Rarity as he passed her array of sewing machines, each set on hemming a different dress.

Rarity didn’t have time to respond before he was already out the door.

- - -

Outside, the sun and clear sky sat diametrically opposed to Magnum’s present predicament. Ponies around him were content to wander the streets, no clear direction to their day, and with apparently nothing to worry about. It made him jealous. How unfair of Ponyville to tempt him like that. He passed a vendor selling some carrots and noted a few attractive looking mares, one with nice orange locks and a yellow coat, another with a toothpaste patterned mane, hanging around chatting it up. Not a day before he would have been content to cut whatever business he was on to hang out with the single ladies. Introduce himself, mention a few things off hoof like the planning he had done this season, ask if they wanted to get a smoothie or a bite to eat. They looked like the gardening type and he was good at identifying easy targets. He shook his head. It worried him that the obvious cause to this trouble still made such an attractive proposition. He put his head down, reluctant to ogle any other mares. Luckily, he was able to resist all the way to his destination: Sugarcube Corner.

Ding-ling, the tiny bell on the door to the bakery tingled, welcoming him in along with a bevy of delicious flavors wafting through the air.

“Hiya Mister Belle,” the pink pony on the other side of the counter said. “What can I do you for?”

The curls of her mane bounced ponderously, since she was unable to keep still waiting for Magnum’s response. “Sorry Pinkie. Not here for sweets today. Just came to see Carrot.”

“Ohhh, that’s too bad. Something tasty always helps me feel better,” she sighed, hinting at his depression. “How’s about I just give you a chocolaty muffin while you wait? It’ll be my treat!” She sang out the last notes as if to imply the muffin were a holy relic. Once that possessed such power it would indeed turn his frown upside down.

Magnum considered, and then nodded. “Sure Pinkie, that sounds great.”

She handed over the delectable and then went skipping into the back to search for Mr. Cake. After a small commotion, the banging of pots and pans, a yellow and orange stallion appeared.

“Why Magnum, what brings you out for visit today? It’s good to see you.”

Magnum hoof-bumped his old college buddy. “Likewise,” he said.

“Though I have to admit,” Carrot said, “It’s a little worrying. Cup just went to go get your wife for their girl’s day out. I figured you probably took Sweetie Belle to go fishing. Is everything alright?”

“No,” Magnum assured to his friend’s fading smile, “No it’s not.”