Chapter 13 B: Father and Son

The sky was black as usual with a few clouds slowly and calmly floated across the dark aerospace as the moon began to descend in the sky. An old pony in his fifties sat in front of lake. He watched as the blue water flowed passively across the rock shores with only a few white flowers that gave off a sweet scent of honey and tea to any living source next to it. This pony had a white coat, a faded blonde mane, blue eyes, and his cutie mark was three steel bars. A gloom mood was upon this old stallion as he stared at the water. Wind brushed through his mane gently as the sound of footsteps stepping on dirt and pebbles was heard next to him. He glanced to his right and saw Castigate. He was a colt frowning at him.

"Affluent." The colt spoke.

Affluent frowned looking back at the lake. Castigate sat next to him looking at the water with him. His father slowly glanced at him and saw his son in his older form.

"You're all grown up." He said calmly in an un-amused tone.

"I know...so have you, old man." Castigate said calmly.

Affluent looked back at the lake and sighed.

"Can't you see that I want to be alone?"

"I know, but I really don't care. Aren't you going to ask me why I am here?" Castigate asked glancing at Affluent.

"Why should I, if I already know why you are here?" He asked looking back at his son. "You came back here to settle some old scores. Scores in which you attempt to find so many ways in winning on it that you fail continuously trying to win against it." He said.

Castigate gritted his teeth before looking back at the lake.

"But you are wrong...I have the tools to win, old man. I have you in a tight grip where-

"I could care less what tools you have, who you're hiring or even who you are working for." His father interrupted him. "You are the same like always...a coward hiding behind others to clean up his own mess."

"I am no coward." Castigate said glaring at him.

"You can say that all you want, Castigate, but face it...you work for a mad pony who believes he is a god. Sometimes, I ask myself every time I look at the newspaper finding you in the main cover...why are you even my son? What kind of father am I to say that about his own son following a leader who will lead this country into crisis?" Affluent asked looking at the lake.

Castigate toss down a contract and a pen on top of it in front of Affluent.

"Sign your name." He demanded in an angry tone.

Affluent looked at the contract slowly before looking at his son.

"What is that?" He asked.

"That's a contract to ensure me owning your entire company and taking all of your money. If you choose not to sign it, I will ensure Lord Dark Fire to bankrupt you for good. You'll be sleeping with the rats." Castigate said smirking.

Affluent scoffed before looking back at the lake. Castigate became confused all of sudden.

"Sign the contract!" He yelled stomping his hooves.

"And what will you be doing with all of that money? Gambling?" He asked causing Castigate to frown.

He rubbed his forelegs against each other nervously.

"Figures."

"Gambling isn't much of a big deal, plus I never lose!" Castigate yelled.

"Yes...you do, everypony losses in gambling. You can win four-hundred bits or even more, but behind those cards, slots, or whatever insensitive or sensitive object you use to gamble. You are still losing your mind, your friends, your life, and your happiness. Give it up, Castigate...there's no reason for me to sign this and you know it. You might as well burn it." Affluent said as his horn glowed lifting up the contract and pressed it against his son's chest releasing his hold over it.

Castigate starts looking back at the lake frowning.

"Why can't you just sign it and be off with yourself?" He asked.

"Because my role here in this world is not done yet." He said.

"That's a load of horse..." He paused glaring at him before he looked back at the lake. "I hate you." He muttered.

"I know you do, I've always known." Affluent said closing his eyes. "I've always known this ever since your mother left."

"Heh, speaking of mom, I bet you still avoid talking to her and Trixie. They still mean nothing to you." He said looking back at the lake.

"Blue, oh Blue, oh Blue, where do you end? Do you freeze up in the winter, or do you let life play with you with their friends? Blue, you may be only a color. You may be just water. But you are our friend." Affluent said calmly opening his eyes and glancing at Castigate. "Do you know what those lines mean?"

"No, what do they have to do with mom?" Castigate asked confused.

"Your mother sung it...when you and Trixie were born. The song was the only song your mother knew to put you to sleep. What it means is that no matter how different you are from the rest of this world. I will still protect you from the dangers around you no matter where they come from. It worked pretty well when you two were still foals." He said looking at the white flowers.

Castigate sighed, looking back at the lake.

"Why did you leave her?" He asked.

"I had no choice...I...was a coward." He said causing his son to look at him shocked.

"A coward?"

Affluent looks up at the sky with signs of regret.

"She...I...was stubborn. I always believed that I could absolutely anything in this world. My ambition was my sin's fuel. She wanted me to stop my job, help others than myself. I snapped and almost hurt her. I couldn't bear to live in this world if I were lay hoof on her. So, for her own protection and for my own cowardly ways...I left her along with Trixie so I wouldn't have to go through that event again." He said frowning. "I never told her that I was sorry. I bet she is still out there alone, that her own daughter and son are both criminals in the skin of false royalty."

"Mom...she's not alone anymore." Castigate muttered.

"Speak up, I couldn't hear you." His father said looking at him confused.

"She's gone...because of you." He said glaring at Affluent. Affluent looked at him shocked before looking back at the flowers.

"W-when did this happen?" He asked.

"Not too long ago. I didn't need to ask Trixie how mom was when I read her diary. The only diary she had since she was a filly. I didn't want to bring up the subject with her, just for her sake." Castigate said pushing the contract to Affluent. "Look at the back of the contract; I copied her words down onto the back of the contract."

Affluent picked it up and started reading the written words in black ink. After twelve minutes, he set the paper back down on the ground and looked back at the flowers. "She still hates me too. I wouldn't blame her either. Cowards only deserve hate, why do you think I hated you too, son." He asked looking at him.

"I..." He stopped and looked at the flowers frowning. "I am...a coward of doubt. Weak...pathetic...a degenerate if you look at it." He started shaking his head sitting down. "I am..." He started sobbing. "I am lost and afraid." He said looking at Affluent.

"How can you be lost?" Affluent asked.

"I am searching for a purpose in life. A role that I can stick by forever until fate decides to change it, end it, or end me." He answered.

"You are depending on fate to guide you in life. Fate is no guide, it is a non-negotiable creature unseen by the very eyes were possess that controls the obstacles around us and allows us to take our own roles into play, using those obstacles that it so well possess. I don't believe in fate that much, but I do know the pretentious assists it has and the continuous tricks up its sleeves that could relinquish or destroy one or more living being's life. Maybe fate was what took her away and maybe it was fate that made me become the father you never wanted." He said.

"I have...a question?" Castigate asked.

"What is it?" Affluent responded.

"Do you..."

"No...I don't, like I said, but right now I will put in a more simple way to tell you. My role in this world is not done yet, close, but not yet. My role as a father is to raise you, just so you can survive in this world without me. Just for you to make the right choices and avoid the bad. You know...the way I look at it...fate may be responsible for you to be here talking to me. Look at me now, trying to get through my own wife's death by talking about something I don't even believe in. You are right...I am a fool." He said rubbing a small tear sliding out of his eye.

Castigate became shocked, for this was the second time he seen his own father shed a single tear.

"Thank you for telling me. Now...again...my role is not done. You are not ready yet to live in this world."

"What will it take to be ready?" Castigate asked.

"Moving on." He said.

"M-moving on?" Castigate asked looking at him confused.

"Through the blue, you need to move on. Something out there is calling for you; it wants you to find it." Affluent said before levitating the pen. He started signing his signature on the contract.

"W-what are you doing?" Castigate asked startled.

"My role is not done. Until you find that something, then, you may come back to me and tell me that you are ready to move on." He said levitating the contract to Castigate. "Now go."

"B-but...where should I go?" He asked looking at him shocked.

Affluent looked at him calmly. "Home."

With that said, Castigate saw memories flash before his eyes. Memories of the time he was a colt. The time when he was with his mother and sister. All these memories were fast, sad, happy, painful, and painless to see. The last flashback he saw was his father in his office stressed out. He was holding a quarter in his hoof looking at it saddened before placing it down on his desk.

"Dad...are you okay?"

"I'm okay...son." He spoke looking away.

"Here, take this quarter and add it along with the others in your piggy-bank." His father said tossing him a bronze coin.

As Castigate caught, he looked at it and gasped.

"This is worth six-hundred bits. Plus, this is what grandpa gave you who his father gave him." Castigate said shocked.

"I know...and so it's yours, keep it, cherish it, and remember it."

"I...I want you to have this." Castigate said running up to him before stopping and handing him a black feather. "Sorry if it isn't worth much...uh." He stopped when his father hugged him.

Castigate looked around his father's office before opening his drawlers. He founded the black feather that he gave his father. Touching it made him froze in place. When he backed his hoof away, he slowly sat down. Tears started to swell up around the sides of his eyes before sliding down his muzzle.

"You...still had it?" He asked, but he was the only one in the room. He looked to his right seeing Blue in the mirror. "Blue?"

"What are still doing here, don't you have to be looking for something?" He asked smiling softly.

Castigate looked down.

"I...I can't...I am going to fail. I am not going to win."

"Win what? This pathetic act of acceptance?" He asked annoyed. "I am shock that Dark Fire even took you into his kingdom. Or even consider you as one of his own elements."

"I am surprise too. I don't deserve this money, to be an element, or even consider being a son of a dead mother and a father who is wasting his life out there for me. I now know why he didn't had time to play with me when I was a colt, why his job was first before me, why he suffered the most before me, and...why he was regretting his decisions every time somepony came barging into his office, yelling at him for screwing up, sometimes even knocking over his stuff and destroying it. I could tell why, because he didn't want me or...Trixie and my mother to suffer like him. He can't go back, Blue. He is forever bound to that role in suffering. But again...he is suffering before me so I wouldn't suffer the most. He is taking the hits before me because I am still not ready to take them for myself. He is my father, and I was too blinded by hatred to see it." Castigate said wiping his tears away.

"So, you're blaming yourself?" Blue asked.

"I...I am, because of me. He knew I'll hate him, so he treated me bad so I wouldn't care about him when the time comes for him just as it came for my mother. You know, Blue? I could see why Trixie cared about our mother more than she did for him. Because she did the exact same thing he did to me. She suffered. Sacrifices were made in the parent's role. They were to sacrifice anything in order to see their own foal survive in this world. Even if it means having them hate them for making choices that would keep them alive. It's sad...to find out that the father or mother that you hate the most only did those terrible things just so you can survive." He said starting to tremble as tears continued to pour down his eyes.

"Do you think he still deserves to be hated now?" He asked calmly.

"...No...he doesn't." He said looking at Blue. "I...don't know how to do this dang it. Help me, Blue? I don't know how to talk anymore. I feel like my entire world shifted and toss me into space, letting me choke. Preventing any source of oxygen to enter into my body. It's killing me, and I-I'm… TOO WEAK TO DO ANYTHING!" He yelled slamming his head against the ground holding it in place crying. "I'm...SO SORRY, DAD! I DID NOT KNOW! I AM SO SORRY!"

Blue smiled before walking out of the mirror. He offered a hoof to Castigate.

"I want to move on, please, Blue...help me?" He asked looking up at him.

"Take me my hoof...and I will help you move on." He said smiling.

Castigate grabbed his hoof softly before a bright light engulfed his vision.

"I love you, Castigate. I am so proud to be your father." His father was heard crying.

"I...I am so proud to be your son, dad."

Castigate founded himself soaked by his tears looking at his father still looking at the lake calmly. He wiped away the last specs of his tears away before walking next to him and sitting down viewing the lake before him.

"I...I now understand." He said.

"You do?" His father looked at him.

"I do...and...I am sorry for hating you because of it. I was selfish. Which made me become doubtful, hating you, it was the only thing that kept me alive. It kept me doing crazy things, selling myself to games that only will make me or others suffer. Heck, I think I made innocent pony bankrupt and unable to raise his own family. I could have been a good role model for him and teach him never to gamble when you have a family and give him back his money. But that never happened. I felt like this world deserved to suffer because I did too. But now...everything's different...I feel like all that choking weight on me was lifted off my shoulders and the sad blue around me faded away into vivant colors. Dad...I am so sorry." He said looking at him saddened.

Affluent closed his eyes slowly before his horn glowed. A small jar came from the white flowers. In the jar, were two coins. The bronze and the silver.

"I kept this with me everyday hidden every time somepony came to our house just because I slipped up. This jar of yours is the reason why I stopped being a coward and learned to move on. It reminded me of you just as these flowers reminded me of your mother and just as the blue lake reminded me of Trixie. My role here...is done. You can finally now live your own life without me." He said before Castigate hugged him causing the jar to fall into the water sinking into the dark depths.

The two hugged each other tightly, happily smiling and sobbing as their most wanted moments in their life finally came. From the lake's reflection upon them, it showed Castigate as colt and his father in his twenties. Next to them was Blue smiling proudly before he slowly faded away. His job was done for Castigate and his father was finally able to spend their father and son moment...together.

*Begin Here's To You By Harry Gregson Williams Feat.a Ennio Morricone and Lisbeth Scott And Joan Baez*

-To Be Continue-