//------------------------------// // Act Two: Journey to the Past // Story: Friendship is Failure #14: A Hearths Warming Carol // by DakariKingMykan //------------------------------// ACT TWO Miser was thrown into the police detention, where he was to await to stand trial and await his punishment, though given what happened, everyone was practically demanding to have him thrown in the slammer for life and beaten up for the rest of his miserable days. “He hated Hearths Warming, so he decided to wreck it for everyone!” growled Twilight “I’d like to… I’D LIKE TO…!!” “Twilight, it won’t help!” cried Starlight “Miser’s gone now, he can’t hurt anyone anymore!” Twilight was still shaking with rage and hate for Hearths Warming being ruined and after all she had done, all the work she put into the festivities. “Twily, I think you need a rest.” said Shining Armor. “No, I don’t!” grumbled Twilight, but really she felt exhausted from all the work she had done, and the big shock she had. “I can’t…!” she cried “I’ve got to help… clean up the… mess and… I need to…” She nearly passed out, and Cadance caught her, “Come on, Twilight. We got to get you home.” Starlight agreed, “We’ll stay and help with the cleanup. You need to rest.” The others all agreed, even Spike wanted to Twilight to go and rest. “We’ll come with you.” said Velvet. Night Light agreed, “We don’t want the baby staying out here too long either.” Cadance and Shining Armor nodded, and soon, Twilight was brought home, to Friendship Castle, and she was tucked into her bed in a deep, deep sleep. “Poor thing…” said Shining Armor. It really broke his heart to see her sleeping in sadness. This made him madder at Miser stash than ever, but his wife calmed him down. “No more… please. I don’t think I can take it, and neither can Flurry Heart.” Shining Armor realized this, and the family decided to leave Twilight to sleep in peace while they all tried to put Flurry Heart down to bed herself. Later that night, Twilight had a terrible dream of the tree burning up again, and who was the culprit? Miser Stash; He burned the tree down and all the decorations, laughing and cackling, “Hearths Warming is useless, and now no one will celebrate it again!” Twilight watched in horrors as the flames grew brighter and brighter, and finally… …She bolted upright in bed, awakening from her nightmare. “Oh, my goodness!” she cried “I can’t stop thinking about it.” Even though she felt relieved that Miser was in jail and hopefully going to get his just desserts soon, she couldn’t help wonder, “Why would he do it? Why would he hate Hearths Warming so much that he’d want to wreck it all for everyone?” Suddenly, as if by magic, there was a bright flash of light glowing in the room, and there appeared someone who looked very familiar to Twilight. “Scootaloo…?” It looked like her, but was dressed in a white robe, and wearing a golden tiara as she levitated bodily off of Twilight’s bed. “What are you doing here? I don’t remember if I saw you at the party, but shouldn’t you be at home?” “Do not be fooled, Twilight Sparkle.” said the spirit “I am not Scootaloo. I have merely taken on a shape that would be familiar to you. I am the Ghost of Hearths Warming Then.” The Ghost of Hearths Warming Then…? Twilight felt that sounded familiar somewhere, but she was astounded, and not even sure if she was dreaming or not. Of all the many questions she could’ve asked, “Why are you here?” The Spirit flew in closer, “I am here to give you answers, and to teach you things that you are not aware of.” The Spirit then pointed at the window, which opened wide. “Come with me... the night is short, and there is much I must show you.” Twilight was starting to feel a bit nervous, “Can’t we do this some other time? I’m really tired, and I’ve had a really bad day.” “I’m sorry, but the choice is not yours.” said the Spirit, and she held out her hooves, casting a bright light over Twilight, levitating her up and out of bed, and taking her out the window and into the night. Twilight screamed, and tried to cast her own magic to break loose, but her horn would not even glow. She tried to flap her wings hard to break away, but that didn’t work either. The Spirit cautioned her, “As long as I am with you, your powers and skills do not work. You cannot resist the power of a spirit.” “Where are you taking me?” asked Twilight. “It is not WHERE I am taking you, but WHEN…” replied the Spirit, and right before Twilight’s eyes was a bright flash of light on the horizon, getting closer and brighter, and Twilight was forced to shut her eyes. “Open your eyes Twilight, and look…” said The Spirit. Twilight opened her eyes, and what she saw nearly made her speechless. It was Ponyville, but not as she remembered it. “I’ve seen this…” said Twilight “Pictures in old photo albums. This is what Ponyville looked like sixty years ago.” That’s when it dawned on her, “This is the past?!” The Spirit nodded, and Twilight was astounded. All the houses were smaller, all the buildings and shops she knew of and visited were no longer in sight as they hadn’t been built yet, and there was no sign of any of the ponies she knew or even herself, naturally. All around her, there were many young ponies just walking past her. They didn’t stop or say hello. One pony walked right at her and didn’t say excuse, but just passed right through her like thin air. “They can’t see or hear us, right?” Twilight asked. “Correct.” replied The Spirit “These are only but shadows of the past. It is Hearth’s Warming Eve, many decades ago. I have brought you here to show you something important.” She then brought Twilight to a quaint little home, brought her through the walls into a child’s bedroom. There, she saw a little yellow colt, with a dark navy blue mane, sitting at a desk and wearily studying and completing assignments. He looked as if he had been at it for endless hours, and was about to pass out from exhaustion. “Who is that, and why is he working on Hearths Warming Eve?” She suddenly got her answer when a loud voice called from downstairs, “Miser Stash, get down here now!” Twilight’s blood ran cold, not just at the sound of the voice, but to realize this colt was a young Miser Dash. Little Miser got up and out of his chair and left his bedroom to go downstairs. Twilight and the Spirit followed him into the living room, where the boy’s father was. He was a big brown stallion, with a red mane, and red mustache, and he was sitting in front of a roaring fire looking at some papers. “Yes, dad?” peeped Miser. His father looked grimly at him and turned the papers around showing Miser’s school papers, with a B-Plus and an A-Minus, only one C. “Can you explain this?” Miser was confused, “My grades are just fine. They’ve improved like you wanted.” His father bolted upright and angrily glared at him! “Well just fine isn’t fine enough! I told you to study hard and get perfect scores. How can I expect you to grow up and take over the family business someday if you don’t get perfection?” Twilight was appalled by the way the father was behaving, and The Spirit motioned to a picture on the wall above the fireplace mantle; a picture of a beautiful pink mare with a long yellow mane. “Miser was born a week before Hearths Warming, years prior to these events, but his mother died giving birth to him.” Twilight gasped softly, and the Spirit nodded “A very sad thing for a colt never to know his mother, but a sadder thing more the way his father behaves-- blaming him for his wife’s death, and being a constant slave driver, pushing him to be the best.” “Please don’t yell at me!” cried the little colt “I try my best, but it’s so hard to keep up. I get so tired! You hardly even let me have breaks.” The father seemed unmoved, “Oh, I’ll give you a break alright.” “You will?” “Yes… a break from your studies here. I didn’t want to have to do this, but, I think you need a little more motivation. So, I’m sending you to Worthwhile Academy, a boarding school!” “What?!” cried Miser. “It’s for your own good. They’ll help you improve these grades and really show you how to put effort into your studies! By the time they’re done with you, you’ll be the proper son and a credit to me!” Little Miser tried to argue, but his father wouldn’t hear of it. If anything, his father had called the academy and called them to come the very next day to take his son, not even letting him stay home to celebrate Hearths Warming. “No!” Miser cried as the big ponies in suits forcefully dragged him away, “Daddy, don’t do this to me!!” “This is for your own good!” his father argued “Don’t you come back home until you earn that right!” “Noooo… DAD!!” Then he was gone, dragged off to school, much to Twilight’s horror. “Come,” said the Spirit “There is much to see.” She led Twilight through another flash of lights, to some years later. “Where are we now?” asked Twilight. “Observe,” said The Spirit and she pointed at the big building before them, “This is very School where Miser Stash spent his childhood. Year-After-Year he did nothing but study, and work, and try as he would to improve his grades, but through it all he felt alone and betrayed by his father.” Twilight then saw the images of a little sobbing Miser Shaft, as he spent the days and nights alone. With no friends, no letter from his father, and worse, as the years went by every Hearths Warming was the same; his father never wrote to him, and never let him come home, not even for the holidays. Even as Miser’s grades improved and were perfected, just as his father wanted him to become, he would still never hear from him. Twilight felt like crying herself. “Poor little guy…” she wanted to reach out and hug him, forgetting that she couldn’t touch him and her hooves went right through him. It also didn’t help that many of the other students were mean and horrible to him. Often bullying him relentlessly-- calling him names, slipping bugs from outside into his bed while he sleep, or gluing him to his seat. “I’ve had enough of you and your ways!” growled Miser. “And what are you going to do about it?” a bully taunted “A little wimp like you isn’t even worthy of being alive! Why don’t you do the world a favor and drop dead?” Twilight remembered hearing another pony say yell that Miser when he was arrested. Before she could say anything at all, she witnessed as an infuriated Miser, behaving as anyone would have tackled the bullied to the ground and began to ram numerous hits too his face, giving him a bloody nose and making the bully actually cry. He was caught by the school staff, and even the bully was known for his bad behaviour and tolerance for his attitude notwithstanding, it was Miser who received bigger punishment. He was suspended from school, and sent home to his angry father. You can bet, his father was infuriated with what he had heard, “I told you never to come back unless I said you were worth it! Now I find out you beat up another pony!” WHAPP!! POW!! BAM!! He abused his son, kicking him around the house, “You’re dead to me! You little waste of sperm! You mistake of a living being!” “HELP ME!!!” Miser called out “SOMEPONY, PLEASE HELP ME!!” Twilight never saw such horridness and monstrosity, but then… there was a ray of hope. All the noise, all the shouting could be heard from outside and another pony, a gold colored unicorn with a soft orange mane and a cutie mark with a bank vault on it, passing by burst right in and restrained the abusive father sparing Miser from anymore abuse. The guards came, and arrested Miser’s father, deeming him unfit to raise his son anymore, and took him away. “Are you alright?” the new pony said to Miser, reaching out to him. “Don’t be afraid, my name is Golden Heart, I won’t hurt you. Come and live with me.” The guards saw this, and they knew Golden Heart very well, urged the young Miser to accept the offer, since his other option was an orphanage now that he had no other relatives. “He’s really nice.” said a guard. “Give him a chance, kid.” said another. And so, Miser Stash accepted the offer, and finally felt hope for the first time in many years.