Newfound Neighbors

by FrostTheWolf


14- Resolutions

When it comes to the holiday of New Years Eve/Day, I see the whole thing as a bit of a love-hate relationship. Personally, I love the fact that you get to leave anything shitty that happened in the previous year behind and just focus on what lies ahead. However, there were two things that I hated about it. The first being that too many people set the bar for the upcoming year really high to the point that it ends up disappointing a lot of people when it doesn’t quite meet their expectations, myself included. The other was the tradition of New Year's Resolutions, which is basically of promising yourself that you’re going to fulfill some kind of big life change for the better… only to completely forget about it or ignore it a few days later.

Personally, I don’t see the point in making promises to yourself that you will never fulfill. However, somebody should’ve told Gizmo that. I didn’t know what kind of resolution she made to herself at the time, but shortly after New Years Day, some of Ryan’s neighbors were telling us that there was a lot of commotion coming from their house. Honestly, when I first heard of this, I wasn’t sure if said commotion was from Gizmo or someone that happened to be visiting them.

Luckily, as I was outside the house to get the mail, I heard a familiar voice greet me, “Good afternoon, Sam.”

“Hello there Brisk,” I replied with a familiar smile as I used my mail key to open up the door on the mailbox for my house. “How is everything going for you and Gizmo? Is the new year treating you guys well?”

“Yeah, sort of,” the earth pony shrugged, “Things have been going well. Though, I’m a little bit concerned for Gizmo as of late.”

“Aren’t we all concerned for her to some degree?”

“Fair point,” he replied, “Yet, I’m a bit concerned that Gizmo is taking one of this world's customs a little too seriously if you get what I mean.”

“How serious are we talking about exactly?” I asked, getting the last of the mail as I locked the door on the mailbox. “Like serious in a productive manner or serious as in she might end up going overboard on whatever she’s working on?”

“The latter, I’m afraid,” as he spoke, Brisk let out a deep breath, before he looked back towards me, “Before I continue though, there’s something I want to ask you. On Earth, how exactly do New Year’s Resolutions work?”

Oh boy. I have a bad feeling of where this might be going. Still, just play along for now. “Well, that’s the thing. Many people make new year’s resolutions as a way to try and commit themselves to do better or reach a particular goal that they set for themselves. Though, the thing is, many of those same people that make new year's resolutions end up not following through on them and stopping altogether a few days or so after they started.”

“I see. So it’s much like the traditions back home,” I heard him say to himself. At first, I would be surprised by what he said and ask for some clarification. But before I could do that, Brisk had another question for me, “And it’s just one resolution per person, right?”

Hold up a minute. One resolution? What exactly gave him the idea that we did multiple resolutions? Unless… Oh no.

“I’m just going to assume that the shock on your face right now means a resounding no,” the earth pony said, “For some reason, Gizmo thought that the new year's customs on Earth were much different than the ones back home. That and I believe when she was watching that one television program when we came over to celebrate with your family, Gizmo got the idea that humans would take on multiple new year’s resolutions. Much like how someone would have more than one goal.”

“Yeah, no,” I shook my head, “Given how it’s already difficult enough for people to remember and stick to one resolution, having multiple would just be a nightmare,” then, a different thought crossed my mind as I looked back at Brisk, “Please don’t tell she actually started doing some… did she?”

“Fortunately, that’s not the case,” Well, that’s… good. I think. “However, she’s already made a list for herself and last time I checked in on her, it was a rather lengthy one.”

Okay, I take that back. That’s definitely not good. If anything, we should probably stop her before Gizmo does anything drastic. Just leaving her alone for ten minutes unsupervised is asking for trouble. Though, at the moment, there was only one particular question that came to my head, “Should I even ask what’s on that list?”

“Last I checked, some of her goals were, and I quote; make this the best home ever, explore other potential uses for inventions, make a lot of new friends and be open to trying new things,” Brisk told me, “Though, yesterday, she was talking to your dad after we came back from the Post Office.”

Ironically though, just as he said that, I heard footsteps from the garage as we turned to see that Dad was standing not that far from us. “There you are. I was wondering why it was taking so long for you to pick up the mail.”

“Sorry about that. Though, your timing is rather convenient actually,” I replied, “Brisk told me that Gizmo wanted to talk to you yesterday. What was it that you two were talking about?”

At first, it looked like he had to take some time to think to himself. Though, after a little bit, he had an answer, “Well, she was telling me that she was looking for some advice. From what I could gather, it sounded like she was trying to come up with some new ways to use her inventions. So I told her that practicing hands on was a good start and don’t be afraid when you end up breaking something. Because if you do, it ends up teaching you what not to do and you learn from the experience.”

“ … Oh dear Celestia.”

“What? Did I say something wrong?” my dad asked, before looking back at me, “What’s all this about? I was just giving her advice-”

Before he could even finish his sentence, we all heard a loud rupture come from Gizmo’s house. Next thing we knew, something that I could only describe as a missile came flying out of the garage and crashing onto the street. Even though the garage door was open at the time and whatever was launched didn’t create any massive holes, water immediately began to surge out like someone opened the floodgates at a canal. Not only that, but I could see some of the items that they stored in their garage spill out as well.

“Was that… your hot water heater tank that flew out just now?”

“Agh, somepony help! I can’t shut this off!! It’s everywhere!!”

Oh dear god, Gizmo. What the hell were you thinking?


It took a long while in order to sort out everything after Gizmo’s most recent mess. While cleaning up the whole garage after this most recent mess took a lot more time than any of us expected, we were fortunate that it didn’t end up being a whole lot worse. Not only that, but it took a while for us to try and explain to her where exactly she went wrong as well as clear up her misconceptions from before.

However, Gizmo wasn’t exactly out of the woods yet. For despite her experience with tinkering and gadgets, none of her inventions would be enough to replace a functioning water heater tank. And those did not come cheap.

“W-wait, how much are they?!”

“They usually set you back about anywhere between five hundred to even a thousand dollars,” Dad told both ponies, “Of course, there’s also the option to have a tankless heater, but your house has to meet specific qualifications.”

“Which we possibly won't meet?” Brisk asked.

“I’m not entirely sure, honestly. I know that our house doesn’t meet it, but it might be different for you guys. However, what I do know is that until you get a replacement, you guys won’t be having water for a while because if I turn it back on, it’s going to flood all over again.”

Both Gizmo and Brisk took a moment to converse among themselves, trying to figure out what the best course of action was. Though, after a few moments, Gizmo spoke up. “I-i’m really sorry about all this… though, is there a way for us to still have water in the meantime?”

I looked back to where the pipes were, before looking over to the unicorn. “Maybe? I’m not entirely sure, but the last time we had something like this happen, the plumber reconfigured the pipes to where we still had water, but it was cold. Though-”

Immediately, Gizmo’s horn lit up as she picked up some pipes that she wasn’t using and some tools. “I think that’s that can work-”

“WAIT!” I interjected, “I was trying to say that you should let a professional handle this. If you mess up, it’s going to cause more harm than good.”

“We probably still have enough bits in order to cover this,” Brisk said with a smile, “The only question though would be how soon could we get somepony out to fix it-”

That comment had my dad look back to Brisk with a raised eyebrow, “Wait a minute. How much exactly is the conversion rate of bits to-?”

“Trust me, you don’t want to know,” the earth pony quickly shot down, “Swift told us when he was here for Hearth’s Warming. And I’m telling you… you don’t want to know.”

As he said that though, I took a seat on the wet floor and looked over at the unicorn to see if she was doing alright. “Hey, Gizmo? Are you doing alright?”

“M-maybe,” she admitted, “I-I just… wanted to start off the new year right… Now look. I made another mess.”

“Hey, easy. Don’t blame yourself now,” I reassured her, “There have been a lot of times where I wanted to do what was best, but ended up making mistakes. The only thing to do is to learn from them so that you don’t repeat them. Not only that, but if something looks too difficult, we can always help you. That’s what friends are for.”

The moment I stopped speaking, Gizmo almost tackled me to the floor in a full body hug as I felt her head against my chest. “T-thank you so much, Sam. You’re a true friend.”

… Well, guess my clothes are going to smell like wet unicorn for who knows how long.

Eh, as long as Gizmo’s happy, it’s worth it.