Imperfect Dichotomy

by Darksidedownloaded

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Other
Length: 3643

Something strange is happening to Amaranth Jewel

Something strange is happening to Amaranth Jewel.

Published 2013-08-08 17:30:01 UTC
Last updated 2013-08-08 17:30:01 UTC

What a nice morning! I can't wait to savour the day!

At the sound of the blaring alarm clock the luxurious vanilla sheets of the monolithic queen-sized bed shifted. A tiny cream hoof shot from beneath the labyrinthine folds, slowly unraveling its way to freedom. From within the mound of of expensive fabrics emerged a tiny form, an adorable cream-yellow unicorn. Long pink sheets of mane, tangled and meshed from a long uneasy night of sleep cascaded around her form, framing her yawning face. Misty crimson eyes, not quite ready to abandon the sanctum that was her dreams, turned groggily turned to face her night-stand. Almost pained in the act she attempted to reach for the jewel-encrusted noise-maker that so rudely was trying to drag her to the world of daylight. She barely managed to come within reach when suddenly, her body telling her that it wasn't quite ready to move yet, slumped back to her bed.

Amaranth Jewel, first born of the rich and renowned Canterlot house of Jewel, groaned in sheer sleep-deprived agony. Why oh why had Celestia invented mornings?

As if responding to her silent plea and apparently intend in shattering it, the elder-bark door of her bedroom swung open with a boom torturous in its intensity and energy. Any other day, which in this case included weekends and holidays, Amaranth would have jumped in surprise. Considering it was a school-day however and that she went through the same routine pretty much every day she only whimpered pathetically and tried, vainly, to retreat further into her bed. She did not unfortunately succeed.

"Morning miss Jewel! Wacky wacky! Time to get up! " Shouted White frill as if intent in offending Jewel's eardrums. The ivory coated maid strolled brazenly int the room, carrying, as always, a basket of freshly laundered linen and silk. Unabashedly the mare ignored her young mistress's grumbled pleads and whimpers, used to them as it were, and made a direct bee-line to the windows where she wasted no time in blinding Jewel with flash of light of unprecedented intensity! Okay, well, she just opened the curtains, the effect however was the same for the teenaged filly desperately trying to return back to blissful sleep. Not that White frill would allow for that, that is.

"Wake up young miss! It a wonderful day out there!" She exclaimed in that usually annoying shrill. Amaranth groaned, the maid was using her 'i want you to make up but not really cause this it too much fun' voice. Amaranth hated Mondays. "Common miss Jewel. Its a beautiful day out there! The sun is shining, the wind is breezing, the birds are twitting. Don't you want to hear the birds twitting miss Jewel?"

"MMmmmm, screw the birds." The filly bemoaned, begrudgingly turning away from the light. Or at least trying to anyway.

"My my, such language! From a honest to goodness blue-blooded noble too! The shame! The scandal!" The maid giggled trotting towards the filly. With one fluid motion the mare grabbed the bedsheets and forcefully drew them off the filly, leaving her young budding body to be exposed to the element. That is, if it wasn't already covered with a finely trimmed coat. "Come now miss Jewel. You know you have to get up. Really! Do we have to do this every morning? And for your royal information, I'll have you know that the bird twitting is quite nice today."

Apparently giving up at any further bed-time the young mare rolled over and i should note with only minor whimpering attempting to slowly crawl to a sitting position. Whipping the sleep from her eyes she turned to look at the accursed alarm-clock now at the process of being silenced by the proficient hooves of her governess. Gosh, seven o'clock already? She had so many things to prepare too! One did not simply show up at the Royal Canterlot Academy of magic without that ever so expected air of posh. Jewel closed her eyes and collapsed to her back with a sigh. Shamelessly she thrust her fore-hooves at her friend in a helpless manner.

"Pamper me." She playfully demanded, motioning for her all-but nanny to grab her extended appendages.

White frill rolled her eyes and reached towards her adolescent ward. The Jewel family's youngest could certainly a pain at times but White frill couldn't complain for that she lacked in humor, sarcastic and cynical as it tended to be. Grabbing the filly's legs she slowly dragged her off the side of the bed. Allowing for Jewel to get off the bed by herself, the maid moved towards the vanity mirror by the side, making a production out of retrieving a brush to subdue her mistress's all but offensive bedhead.

The rest was simply routine.

"...And so the fifth dogma of magic tells us that no magical phenomenon can possibly occur without some sort of price or paired side-effect, expected or unexpected. Despite all appearances to the contrary one cannot simply conjure an apple out of thin air without exerting any sort of effort! And similarly one cannot reduce said apple to nothing without some sort explosion of displacement of mass and of course magic, my dear students, like mass works under similar principles. Sure, arcane magiks can converted from one form to another, like a piece of masonry can be turned into a statue and resulting dust, but it never truly vanishes even if momentarily displaced. It all comes together to form this law. This thermodynamic law. A law of 'equivalent exchange' if you will." Concluded, Radiant Quest magically retracting his iron pointer from the blackboard. Smiling contently at his lecture's nigh flawless execution he turned confidently to regard his numerous students, spread widely as they were within the monumental wonder of architecture that was the lecture hall.

He pridefully watched as each every student studied his words carefully and silently, fervently taking notes with that utmost of discipline that one could expect from the scholars of the ancient and prestigious institute that was the Royal Canterlot Academy Of Magic. The old blue stallion that was Radiant Quest might not have been but a part-time lecturer in this proper and supreme academia, chief archivist as he was of the royal library but even these part-time lecture at said library's sister school filled him with joy at the sight of the methodical and professional future generation.

At his joy he saw one of the students raising their hoof, most probably to seek further knowledge and clarity in the subject he or she had just been lectured upon. Ah the wonders of youth! Oh to be but a foal again fresh into his first year of academia, thirsty for knowledge and recognition just as these new freshponies were! Such wonders they had in front of them, all those wonderful nights soon to be spend submerged within new undiscovered textbooks and guides within the Canterlot Library! How he envied them! These thoughts in mind he proceeded regard the student with the raised hoof, eager to both sate and spark said questioning student's curiosity, which was vivacious to be sure!

"Yes Amaranth Jewel?" Radiant quest adored all his students that was true but he would be embarrassed to admit that adored none more so than the youngest daughter of the Jewel family. She was a brilliant little gem of a understudy, twice as accomplished and intelligent as her brute of an older brother. Not that Radiant Quest would ever bad-mouth an honored and self-sacrificing guard of her highness, Celestia no! But my was she simply delightful in her outgoing curiosity and respectful demeanor.

"Thank you Professor Radiant quest!" That respect for greater wisdom that she displayed, prim and proper. "But if the respected art of magical conjuring is likened to the sculpting a statue, the why is it that no conjured object can maintain its form past a specific time? Surely a statue doesn't revert to a rock after a specified amount of time."

"Oh but it does my dear." Radiant Quest chuckled. "It just takes a long time to get there. Unlike stone however magic you see, is much more flowing and fluid than masonry. More 'elastic' if you will. If you impose a certain shape or condition to the natural magiks that pervade our world, it is quite certain that it will not be long before it retains its original flow. Many mages in fact theorize that even if a change was to be made permanent it would simply be a matter of blindingly fast exchange of magic between its natural and imposed forms giving but an illusion of permanent stability. Similar to how one those new devices, how do you call them, how moving picture shows work." One the students choose that time to pop up in response to the comment.

"Oh! Those things!" The student exclaimed. "Yeah my family took me to one of those recently. It was an expensive and inspiring experience! Those 'camera' machines are truly the work of a genius! I bet not many ponies have ever seen anything like that!" The student boasted, a smug expression affixed to his face as he looked at his fellow students. Radiant Quest however frowned at this breach of decorum.

"Yes, that is quite interesting Mister Silverblood but i would much rather that you retained proper manners within the lecture hall. A student you see, should not speak without his teacher's permission." Instantly Silverblood wilted, all but hiding behind his desk as if it could blunt the ensuing laughter of his peers. But enough with that, Radiant Quest decided, it was time to put an end to this. There was a lot of work to do back in the library after all. "Well students, that is that for the day. Class adjured and be warned, i expect those papers on the fifth dogma of magic due by next week."

Radiant quest watched contently as one by one, the students filed towards the the exit.

"Oh my gosh Amy, professor Quest is such a bore!" Glitter dust complained. By her side Amaranth Jewel stared at her friend worryingly. She honestly could never understand what could possibly be boring about a lecture in magical theory. It was literally one of the few things in life she actually found interesting. Then again, it was also one of the few things in life that she was good at. Well, that and composing musical symphonies if her piano cutie mark was to be believed. On the other-side she couldn't say she understood her Glitter Dust's obsession with fencing either but she assumed that in the end
one's hobbies were a matter of preference.

"I actually found that lecture interesting." She mumbled quietly although she was quite aware that there were few in the school that would actually agree. In fact the only ponies she knew that would have backed up her statement was the school's Twilight Sparkle fan club when they actually stopped sucking face with their text-books at least. Okay, the mare had left a mark in the school when she had gone through it and afterwards as an element of harmony but to this day Amaranth Jewel was amazed at how many times a star-struck pony could go through an entire series of autobiographies before he actually got sick of it.

"Of course you would, bookworm." Sounded a voice to the side. Neither Amaranth or Glitter were surprised to see the Gold coin's cruel silver eyes staring back at them from her own little corner of the hallways. Amaranth flinched. Gold coated pony's little clique of friends had exceptionally threatening glares today. Thankfully, the renowned school predator choose to leave the subject at that, not particularly interest in a low class prey like Amaranth herself. Instead gold coin turned back towards her little circle of vultures. The youngest of the Jewels could only be thankful that Gold coin didn't consider her as an interesting target when she had first laid eyes on her. Amaranth could loudly accept that she was neither brave nor strong and she had seen Gold coin break ponies that had been both of those things.

Next to the cream unicorn, Glitter dust seemed to silently echo her friend's thoughts, having lowered her ears the moment she had actually realized that it had been Gold coin that had addressed them. In the fencing team she might have been but even Glitter dust was reduced to hiding behind her bookworm of friend in face of those odds. Trying to appear as small as possible the pair of unicorns redoubled their speed along the hall, trying to put as much distance between them and the now chuckling group behind them.

"S-so, what's your plan for today?" Glitter dust turned to ask. "I'm kinda going along with my family to the Braveheart's charity ball in Manehatten today so we won't be able to hang around Doughnut Joe's today like we usually do. Man, its gonna be a total drag. I'm gonna have to act all proper and crap too. Can you imagine, my parents are actually gonna try and get me hitched to their kid, Vanity or whatever his name was. Heard he was a total douche too!"

"Glitter!" Amaranth exclaimed, clearly scandalized at her friend's choice of words.

"What? Its true!" Glitter responded. "You know Prince Blueblood? That jerk everybody hates but we all have to bow to because some ancient ancestor of them help to raise the princesses back when Equestria was first founded? Well guess what. This Vanity guy's been taking a page from his book. Last i heard the two were hanging out all chummy at the royal lodge the other day discussing how much Celestia loved them and competing on how much their pedicures cost."

"I'm sure it can't be that bad." Jewel tried, not really able to argue her point.

"Not that bad? Not that bad?! Did you not hear what that stallion did to the Citrus family in Manehatten last month? He almost put them out of business by straight up confiscating half their orange crops to build a new mansion. If the Citruses hadn't been family with one of the element of harmony, I think it was that apple farmer girl, giving the Princesses grounds to intervene then the whole orange market in Manehatten would have collapsed." To Amaranth's horror Glitter actual spat at the thought of the event. "Future duke of Manehatten my toned flank. I swear, the only reason why i won't deck the guy in the snotz when i see him is because my family needs an in with someone high there to stay in Canterlot. The recent gem shortage hit us gem traders really hard ya know?"

Jewel could only nod in understanding at her friend's situation. To her shame however she was inwardly happy that her family had not shared the same fate as Glitters when the gem mines of Canterlot had finally been scraped clean. Despite her family name, the Jewels where actually a family that drew its wealth from imports of priceless fabrics and countless investments that they had nurtured through their influence and connections with the Canterlot's elites. Still, it wasn't like Amaranth couldn't sympathize with her friend. In the web of political intrigue that was Canterlot's Royalty, wealth and power were everything. Unfortunately there were also things that came hand in hand. Loosing one could easily get a family kicked out of Canterlot's high society. That in mind, it was common for a familly to marry off a daughter or a son to more wealthy or famed houses. It was an unfortunate circumstance most of the time and always ended up creating many unhappy mares and stallions but repetition and social acceptance could numb one to such things.

"So the execution of my social life and future aside. What's your schedule for today?" Glitter droned on, visibly willing herself to simply forget that she was viable to marry an insufferable jerk sometime in the very near future. Not wanting to aggravate her friend any further than she already was, Jewel started mulling the question, not actually happy but accepting in complying with her friend's escapism.

"Is Crystal Rose out of bed yet?" She asked dreading the response. Her friend's reaction was instantaneous. Glitter snapped her eye forwards her face becoming a solemn mask.

"No, not yet. The doctor said that she's still too weak to move. Last i heard, they don't really know when she's gonna get better this time." Glitter had left unsaid that the doctors didn't even know if she was to improve at all. Jewel's ear's flopped instantly.

Crystal Rose slight fragile thing of a pony. She was the kindest mare either Jewel or Glitter had ever met and befriended in their lives. She was shy and a bit weak willed but she was always there for you when you needed it. Her sole dream was to become a doctor and although there were many that surpassed her in pure practical skill none in the school ever worked as hard as her in the subject of medical magic. But as stated before, Crystal rose was a fragile pony. Ten years ago she had contracted some weird disease that had left the doctors baffled. Jewel hardly knew enough medicine to understand what exactly 'Tuberculosis' was but for years it had confined the fragile filly to her room unable to leave to her constantly failing health. The doctors at some point had apparently managed to blunt the actual symptoms other disease through some form of experimental magics but even that never seemed to hold for too long. Crystal had the tendency to relapse at some point or the other for increasingly large amounts of time. Eventually, Jewel remembered the doctors saying and her head dropped, the spell would be rendered completely ineffective and Crystal would...

"I see..." The cream unicorn whispered.

"Hey girls! Check this out!" A voice suddenly sounded, breaking Jewel from her reverie. Ahead of the two friends a very familiar stallion of white coat and blue mane was precociously balancing on a single hind leg, somehow jumping up and down while simultaneously juggling four hoof-sized balls with his magic. Next to Jewel, Glitter growled.

"Buzz off Silverdweeb! We are not in mood for your stuff right now!" The fence champion shouted. Said stallion, Silveblood, was renowned for two things in the academy. His incredible skills at coordination and magical application and his unbelievably annoying tendency to show those very talents off at the worst possible of times. He really was quite adept when it came to magic, he was however very hopeless when it came to matters of timing and etiquette. From what Jewel had heard, a year ago he had apparently waltzed in at the fencing team's practice ground while the team was practicing. Going by what Glitter had told her in those many, many times she found herself in the mood to complain about him, Silverblood had proceeded to wreck the entire place in an attempt of some harebrained magical stunt that even Twilight Sparkle would have bulked at, that had involved an army of practice dummies, the entire stockpile of the fencing team's equipment and apparently Glitter dust herself. Somehow.

It was only logical that Glitter had little patience when it came to the stallion himself at the best of times, let alone when the pair was bemoaning the fate of the missing member of their group. Glitter dust simply walked pass the hopping jaggler, shoving him roughly with her flank as she moved along. Silverblood for his part slammed painfully into the ground with a cringe-worthy whiz.

"Hey! Watch it!" Jewel heard him shout as she demurely followed after her fuming friend. Looking back momentarily however Amaranth marveled at the sight of Silverblood's still unbroken telekinetic hold on the spheres. Privately Amaranth shook her head in a mixture of wonder and pity. Just imagine what this stallion could do if he actually focused in studying instead of showing off. Once they had finally removed themselves to a decent distance and Glitter had finally manged to calm down, Jewel turned to her fellow unicorn to finally respond to her question.

"Well, If Crystal is still in bed and you're gonna be missing. I guess I'm just going to be studying the night away." She paused with a sigh. "As usual."

"Come on Amy! That's not surprising at all!" Her friend complained, giving her a look.

Amaranth could only shrug in response.

The day had been pretty uneventful all things considered, Amaranth mused that very night crouched as she was over her fourth textbook of the evening. As per her words, the filly was spend the entirety of the day locked in her room, reading up on the few unread books she had left in her own private collection. It was only now as she gazed through the window at the sight of Luna's moon floating in night sky that she decided it was time to hit the hay, as layponies would say.

Slowly, the cream Pegasus closed her book, placing both it and those laying about on her study one by one to their rightful place. Yawning tellingly she lifted the candle from the table with burst of red magic and quitly trotted back to her bed. Wasting no time she crawled beneath the still perfect sheets, messing them visibly. Placing she candle on the night-stand as usual, she quenched the flame and closed her eyes, willing herself to drift to sleep.

It wasn't bad, her life, she thought as oblivion claimed her. It was troublesome and tiring at times, complicated even but it was pleasant and quiet and in the end of this day as all days, she was content.

But then...

...Then she fell asleep.