//------------------------------// // Chapter 14: Bonding and Buzzkills // Story: Ponies Meet New York // by Caddy Finz //------------------------------// "So what's this Equestria like, Vinnie?" Vincent asked me as we each enjoyed our waffles to go in his car. "Oh my God, Vincent, It's beautiful!" I answered. "It's so vibrant and colorful, the sun is out more than it is here and everypony there is so friendly! Vincent, it'd be perfect for you!" "Perfect for me? How do you figure?" "Buddy, it would help you so much with your depression and it could make it way easier for you to get off booze! You would have so much support from everypony around you! Ponyville is where I live now. It's not like the little meth lab towns like Pulaski or Fulton either! It's a tight knit community where everypony knows and loves each other!" "That...does sound pretty great if I'm honest." "Vincent...please, come with me and the girls. You can live with me at my place and I'll take care of you. You're...y-you're sick, Vincent...and I plan on helping you get better. I want to have the father and son relationship with you that you deserve. What do you say?" "No." I had to double take for a moment there as I simply couldn't believe what I had just heard Vincent say. I was shocked and confused at him just flat out declining my offer to bring him to a better place and be there for him. I needed to know why. I wasn't about to just take a flat no for an answer. One way or another, I'm going to be there for my son no matter what I may have to sacrifice. "B-but why?" I asked as my eyes started to water. "Vincent, are you saying that after all these years of wondering where you father was...after all that time and effort you spent looking for me that you don't want me in your life?" "Whoa, whoa back up a sec, man." Vincent began. "That's not what I was trying to say. I mean I don't wanna go to this equo pony land or whatever you call that place. It sounds like a little girl's dream with tea parties and cupcakes or some shit like that. That's not me. Oh and another thing. Do they have meat there?" "Well, uh...no. No we don't." "I like my steak, I like my burgers, I like my bacon and I fuckin' looove the fried chicken I got with these waffles. I'm not about to give that up." "Oh...I see. Well, I am glad to hear that you at least want me around." "Hey, I'd be willing to stay with you somewhere in New York but I'm just not planning on crossing through some whack-ass portal." "Whatever I gotta do, I'll do it. Like I said, I already let you and Jenny down over all these years and I'm never gonna let that happen again." "Jeez, of all the ways I envisioned my dad being like, I wasn't expecting you to have that kinda personality." "What do you mean?" "You're really hard on yourself. Everybody makes mistakes but you seem to beat yourself up more than you should." "If you think I'm too hard on myself, then you don't know half the shit I've done." For at least two hours, Vincent and I talked and got to know each other more in his car. I told him details about certain mob jobs I was hired to do and how badly I wished I could have gone back and erased them. He told me a lot about his life growing up and what his childhood was like. From his struggles with making friends to the day his drinking problem started, I learned just about everything there was to know about my boy's background. When it was my turn to speak again, he learned everything about my own childhood to what my father was like. I told him everything, even about the day I decided that I was going to leave the mob. We were both on a good start on getting to know each other very well. Weather he wants to come to Equestria or not though, I'm going to do my job as a father and set things right. I just hope the girls understand and take it well if I can't convince Vincent to come with us. It's true, the place would do wonders for him but I'm not about to make him do something he doesn't want to. Aside from getting him to quit drinking that is. His life depends on that and his liver's got to be in rough shape. All I know is that over time, he and I could be the family I kinda...always wanted. Who knows? Maybe he'll even start calling me "dad" someday. "So like, did you guys go around robbing and killing or uh, or what?" Vincent asked. "No, we were more organized than that." I replied. "We had rules and codes of honor. We had an agenda in mind that was more deep than spray painting brick walls with swear words. We were out to make quick cash. We pay the boss some tribute and he makes sure nobody messes with us." "Criminals who follow rules?" "Oh yeah, there were lots of them! Never kill innocent citizens with no mob ties, never kill cops, don't be late for sit-downs, two made guys had to have a third party there to introduce them. Stuff like that." "So if you're made, you can't just walk up and talk to another made guy?" "Not without a friend who knows both of you to introduce them. It was more of an etiquette thing." "Cool." "Yeah, in a way I guess I could see that. It still didn't make the things we did right but at least we didn't walk around with our pants around our knees and call ourselves 'gangstas'. Al Capone would be rolling in his grave over that." "True. So what exactly made you quit?" "Time made me quit. It was killing me to keep doing what I was doing. Usually, a mob guy doesn't think too deeply about his job, he just does it. That was always my problem. Usually if you want to quit, you can get a blessing from the don but it depends on how much of a scumbag he is and if you're made or not." "So then he tried to have you whacked?" "Yeah. He wasn't the kind of guy who'd let anybody leave on their own terms. I had to find out the hard way." "Hey, it's getting dark. How about you and I go somewhere where we can see the stars better? It always helps me clear my mind." "Uh, sure. Let's go." After pausing for a moment to finish our waffles, Vincent started his car and started driving down the street where we soon merged back onto interstate eighty-one heading North. There was never much going on North of Onondaga County and the biggest town before crossing the border into Canada was Watertown in Jefferson County. With only twenty-seven thousand living there, it's a little playground compared to Syracuse. We continued our way North and soon crossed into Oswego County. The further North we went, the smaller the towns we passed by got and it wasn't long before the interstate went from having three lanes to two. After a day of driving all the way from New York City in order to prove that Vincent and I were related to each other, we were getting tired and it was nice to have some peace and quiet for little while. It did get a little awkward just riding in silence though so Vincent decided to switch the radio on. It may not have seemed like much at first but we were just about to have our first moment of real bonding. "Hey, this is my jam!" Vincent said as Vance Joy's Riptide started playing. He immediately began singing along to it. "I was scared of dentists and the dark...I was scared of pretty girls and starting conversations..." "Alllll my friends are turning greeeeen!" I sang as I joined in. After looking each other in the eye for a brief moment, the two of us went all out and passionately sang along with a song that we both shared as our favorite. "You're the magician's assistant in their dream! Oooohhhwhoooaaawhoooaaa! And they've come unstuck!" As we continued to sing, Vincent put his arm around me and held me closer. I followed suit and put my hoof around him. This was something I nor Vincent ever felt before. Real, actual bonding as father and son...and it felt wonderful. Just when we thought our tear ducts were tapped out for the day, more tears started running down our faces. The tears of sorrow and grief we shed earlier were replaced by tears of joy. "Lady, running down to the riptide, taken away to the dark side, I wanna be your left hand maaan! I looove you when you're singing this song and I got a lump in my throat 'cause you're gonna sing the words wrong!" "Wow, will you just look at that." Vincent said as he pointed at a shooting star whizzing by. Our short journey lead us to a small town baseball park where we lay in the grass and stared at the night sky. It was a clear, warm spring night without a single cloud to block the beautiful view. Vincent told me that coming here just to gaze at the stars was something he liked to do to clear his mind and just relax. "Y'know, when I started living in Ponyville, I really found out what I was missing." I said as I stared up at the sky. "In the city there's too much light to be able to see the stars." "Hey Vinnie?" "Yeah?" "Tell me more about your friends." "Oh, dude you have no idea how glad I am that you wanna know about them. Without the girls, I'd be nothing. They made me what I am today." "Wow, man, that's...wow. Are they like family to you or something?" "You bet. I see them like I would a daughter." "That a fact? They do seem really cool and I'd be lying if I said I didn't think they were really cute." "Oh my god, aren't they just adorable?" "For fluffy little colorful ponies, yeah." We continued to stare up at the stars in silence for a while. Though we were both quiet, we were still immensely enjoying each other's company. It had been a long day so of course we were both exhausted and honestly, I wasn't opposed to the idea of falling asleep and heading back to the City in the morning. My eyelids started to get pretty heavy but it was when I heard something going on with Vincent that I decided to stay awake to deal with it. I looked over at Vincent to see him on his hands and knees heaving like he was about to throw up. As I got up to my hooves, he tossed up the waffles he had earlier. As I started to rub his back, I noticed his shirt was wet with a cold sweat. I didn't know what to think of it at first until I remembered that he hadn't drank any alcohol today. I've been keeping an eye on him the whole time and I made sure he didn't pack any booze. This could only mean one thing. He was suffering withdrawal and very badly at that. "Just breath, buddy." I said as I continued to give Vincent a back rub. "We're gonna get through this and I'm gonna be here for you the whole way." "Oh, fu-herp!" Vincent heaved. "Okay I think...I think it's all gone. We've got another problem though." "What? what's wrong?" "Look over there." Vincent pointed towards the road where a large, dark blue Ford sedan with a bright horizontal gold stripe down the side pulled onto the dirt path of the ball park. As the car came closer I jumped back into Vincent's coupe before the headlights caught me. Finally the car stopped in front of Vincent and now that it was close enough, I could see who it was. There was an emblem from the New York state flag on the door and a red light bar on top of the car. Before the driver got out, I began to talk Vincent through the situation in hopes that the state trooper would go on his way with no trouble. "Psst! Vincent!" I whispered from the car. "Just tell him you're out here to relax and clear your head and everything will be fine. Okay?" "Okay." Vincent replied. "Hey, what's going on over here, bud?" The trooper said as he got out of his car, his flashlight shining right at Vincent's face." "Oh, I was just watching the stars here, sir. Had a stressful day so I just wanted to relax." "Yeah, you sure looked relaxed with all that sweat gushing outta your pores." This shouldn't be too much of a problem. Vincent hasn't been drinking, it's not illegal to be at a ball park at night and there is no contraband in Vincent's car. Worst case scenario, he sees me and I talk my way out of the situation. Most likely he'll probably get freaked out, jump back in his car and head off to the nearest bar. The only thing I couldn't quite put my hoof on was how familiar the guy's voice sounded. "Sir, I'll be honest..." Vincent began. "I have a drinking problem and I'm trying to get clean. I've gone a while without a drink and I'm out here to take my mind off of it." "Uh huh..." The trooper said. "You here by yourself?" "Yessir." "Where's the pony, kid?" Wait, what did he just say? I know I punched a city cop the other day but how do the state police know about it? Something's not right here. I continued to listen to the exchange between Vincent and the state trooper that came to hassle him as I hid in the car. The familiar voice, the fact that he was looking for me...that voice, where have I heard that before? "With all the farms around here, you're bound to find ponies all over the place, man." Vincent retorted. "What's it to ya?" "I'll ask you again..." The trooper said before I heard the click of a holster being opened. "Where...is that fucking pony?" "Whoa, don't shoot! Uh, look man, what do you want with him?" "You want me!?" I shouted as I jumped out the window of Vincent's car. "Then come get me! I'm right here!" I wasn't about to let Vincent take heat for me so I let my instincts similar to the ones I developed towards the girls take control. If the police wanted me so badly that they have the entire state of New York looking for me then they can have me before I bring more trouble on my boy. He's had enough of it for one lifetime...or several. I just stood there frozen in the beam of the state cop's high powered flashlight. I couldn't see a whole lot with the light right in my face but I could see that he now had his service pistol pointed right at me. As a former criminal, I actually got to know a lot about laws the police are required to follow and drawing his gun on an unarmed Vincent the way he did was a clear violation of protocol. Hopefully, this guy would get busted for this misconduct and Vincent and I would be sent on our way. "Ah, the little bastard that got away." The trooper said. "I'll give you that, you were quite the worthy adversary but I always catch 'em eventually. Heheheheheh...Boo!" The trooper then placed the flashlight under his chin revealing his face. Now, unlike equines on Earth, us Equestrian ponies don't shit wherever we stand but when the guy revealed who he was, I was just about ready for a visit to the bathroom. "You!"