//------------------------------// // Sins Of The Father // Story: Love, Equestria Style // by Bluecatcinema //------------------------------// "You are such a failure!" "What is wrong with you?!" "You're worthless!" "You can't do anything right." "I wish you had never been born!" Sleight woke up with a start. "That dream again..." He groaned. His new wife, Chrysalis, stirred next to him. "Sleight?" She mumbled sleepily. "What's wrong?" "Oh, nothing, dear." Sleight sighed. "Just a bad dream. Go back to sleep." "'Kay..." Chrysalis leaned back onto her pillow. Of course, it wasn't 'nothing'. Sleight had been having that same dream for several nights. The yelling, the insults... it reminded him of his unhappy childhood, and of his abusive father, Final Gambit. He had no idea why he would be having these dreams though. Everything had been going quite well for him lately. He had became king of the Changelings, married their queen, and was beloved by every Changeling around him (excluding one that was currently occupying a cell below the tower). He would understand if the nightmares had something to do with Red Eclipse (even after defeating him, Sleight was still slightly afraid of him), but his father? Sleight stifled a groan, there was no point in mulling over it now. He rolled over and went back to sleep, hoping he wouldn't have the dream again. He was wrong. The next morning, he and Chrysalis awoke together. "Good morning, my handsome king." Chrysalis purred. "Morning." Sleight yawned. "Did you not get enough sleep last night?" Chrysalis noted the bags under his eyes. "You look tired. "I'm fine, dear." Sleight declared. "You don't look fine." Chrysalis said firmly, before softening. "Sleight, I'm your wife. You can tell me what's wrong." "That's just it, Chrys." Sleight sighed. "I don't know for sure what's wrong with me." "Maybe you should talk with Wizel." Chrysalis suggested. "He's an excellent psychologist." "Well, if you think it'll help..." Sleight sighed. "I do." Chrysalis smiled. In the afternoon, Sleight got to talking with Wizel. "So, tell me about this dream." Wizel urged. His room was set up like a therapist's office, with Sleight laying back in a lounge chair while Wizel had a notepad and quill levitating aside him. "Well, there isn't much to tell really… it's just a voice, yelling things at me." Sleight declared. "What kind of things?" Wizel asked. "Very mean things. It changes every time, but it always had something to do with me being 'worthless' and a 'failure'… the funny thing is that those are things my dad used to say to me back then." Sleight mused. "Your father..." Wizel noted, scribbling it down. "Sazh told me a bit about him. What is he like?" "A total jerk." Sleight frowned. "He drank, he yelled at me, he mocked me, and kicked the crud out of me... in short, he made my life Tartarus…" "And this was after your mother died?" Wizel questioned. "Yeah… my dad never really got over that." Sleight sighed. "I guess that's when all the beatings and insults began…" "I see." Wizel nodded. "So when was the last time you spoke with him?" "Before I left home." Sleight sighed. "When my grandfather died, I just had it. I grabbed all I needed and told my father to buck off before I ran off to join the circus…and you know the rest. That was back when I was 14… about thirty years or so…" "You don't say." Wizel nodded, "Well, it is obvious what needs to be done." "It is?" Sleight asked in confusion. "Indeed. You simply must seek out your father, and confront him." Wizel declared. "Clearly, your dreams stems from your broken relationship with him, a subconscious product of all your repressed feelings towards him over the years. Talk to him, and it should be taken care of." "Me? Talk to my father?" Sleight glared. "No way. I left that drunken son of a mule thirty years ago and I never looked back." "It is the only way." Wizel declared. "Look, Sleight, you told us that the reason you and Trixie never got together was because you had fears of turning out like your father, correct?" "Yes…" Sleight muttered, the memory of his and Trixie's breakup still clear in his mind. "I know your father had hurt you, and made you doubt yourself… but if you don't do this, you will end up being dealt the same hand you were when you and Trixie broke up. You cannot truly go forward into your new future until you shuffle the deck and face your past. That is what your dreams are really saying, and they won't go away until you do this." "...Fine." Sleight sighed. "I really hate my subconscious sometimes... as well as your attempts at card metaphors…" "Excuse me for trying to relate to my patients." Wizel chuckled. As Sleight left Wizel's "office", he bumped into Sazh. "Is everything okay, Sleight?" Sazh asked. "Not exactly, little buddy." Sleight sighed. "And I have a feeling it's gonna get worse before it gets better..." "Is there anything I can do to help?" Sazh asked. "Thanks, but no." Sleight declared. "This is something I have to do myself." That night, Sleight explained things to Chrysalis. "…and according to Wizel, I have to go talk with my father." He declared. "And settle things once and for all." "Well if that is the case, then I'm coming with you." Chrysalis added. "Say what?" Sleight gaped, "I can't possibly ask you to-" "We are husband and wife." Chrysalis smiled. "We're in this together." "But what about the kingdom?" Sleight asked. "I'm sure Wizel and Sazh can watch over it for the day." Chrysalis said nonchalantly. "Besides, you may need some moral support." "...There's no way I can talk you out of this, is there?" Sleight sighed. "None at all." Chrysalis grinned. "Then let's do it." Sleight smiled. Finding his father wasn't a problem for Sleight. He was in the same old house the family had always resided in within a little town aside Baltimare, named "Horseshoe Heights". Their carriage pulled up in front of the house and the couple disembarked. As they approached the door, Sleight took note of the condition the property was in. The lawn looked dry and dead, and the house itself looked worn and in disrepair. Seeing this place in such a state brought back a couple of bad memories, and all Sleight wanted to do was to go back home to his subjects back in the Changeling Territory. However, he did not want to go through the same thing with Chrysalis as he did Trixie all those years ago, and if Wizel was correct, the only way to prevent such an event was to 'shuffle the deck'. As soon as the two arrived at the door, Sleight took a deep breath. Then, with a bit of hesitation, he knocked on the door. There was no answer. Sleight knocked harder. "Go away!" A voice from within yelled. Sleight narrowed his eyes. Already this idea was starting to turn sour. However, he refused to call it quits. Charging up his horn, he blasted the door open with a jolt of magic. "Was that really necessary?" Chrysalis admonished. "He wasn't going to answer either way." Sleight defended. The inside of the house was even more squalid then the outside. Wallpaper was peeling off the walls, the furniture was shabby and threadbare, and a large number of empty bottles littered the floor. The one item that was in fairly good condition was a portrait of A six year old Sleight with his parents. His mother had a pink coat and a royal blue mane. Sleight had clearly inherited her eyes. "What is the matter with you?!" The old stallion within growled. He had a grey coat, a dark blue mane that faded from age, a stubble beard, green eyes, and a Cutie Mark of five cards signifying a full house. "What part of 'go away' did you not under-" The stallion stopped when he realized who was standing before him. "Dad." Sleight said quietly. "Sleight." Final frowned. "It has been a while." "Not long enough." Sleight grumbled. "So, the 'Mystifying and Extraordinary Sleight of Hooves' decided to come home after all these years…" Final muttered, "Last I saw you, you told me to go buck myself." "And I remember you chucking a beer bottle at me and telling me to never come back." Sleight growled, "Even when sober, you had a bad aim." "At least I could actually throw something, you little pansy-" Final started. Chrysalis then entered the house. "Holy-!" Final stepped back, his horn sparking. "Relax, dad." Sleight rolled his eyes. "That's just my wife, Chrysalis." He turned to his wife. "Chrysalis, this is my…dad, Final Gambit." "Nice to meet you, Mr. Gambit." Chrysalis curtsied. Final remained silent before grimacing. "...You married a bug? Is this supposed to be a joke?" "Charming..." Chrysalis growled. "She's not a bug." Sleight said testily. "She's the queen of the Changelings. And since I married her, which makes me a king." "King of the bugs." Final said flatly. "…Should I say congratulations? Because that doesn't sound the least bit worthy of the compliment." "Typical." Sleight frowned. "No matter what I do, no matter what I accomplish, you always have to tear me down." "Well maybe that's because you hadn't really done anything with your life!" Final rebutted. "Oh, like you have?! Because all you ever did was get drunk off your flank and sputter colorful vocabulary and hitting stuff!" Sleight yelled. "Including me!" "Oh, here we go." Final snorted. "I'd've thought you'd've grown out of the 'whiny brat' phase by now." "Whiny brat?!" Sleight snarled. "Ever since mom died, you treated me as your emotional and physical punching bag." "Oh please, you're overexaggerating." Final scoffed. "Overexaggerating?" Sleight repeated, "Overexaggerating?! You stupid son of a-" He then threw off his jacket. "What are you doing?" Final sighed. Sleight took off his shirt, showing off different scars and bruises all over his body that had been given to him by Final over the years. "Remember this, dad?" He pointed to a small but deep cut on his side. "When you smashed that bottle on me?" He then indicated an indentation on his chest. "Or how about the time you bucked me in the chest, just for speaking out of turn? Or my personal favorite, kicking my hoof so hard, it broke! I could do this all day!" "How could you?" Chrysalis gasped. "He's your son!" "Oh, please." Final snorted. "And if you beating me wasn't bad enough, the words was just icing on a cake!" Sleight snarled, "You called me 'pack mule', 'burro', 'waste of horseshoes'... You blamed me for everything that went wrong in our cruddy life, and in turn, made me feel like nothing!" "That's because you were nothing! Ever since Conjure died, you became a whimpering foal, crying for his mommy!" Final sneered. "And if that wasn't enough, you always wasted your time with my old man, learning stupid card tricks!" "You are such a hypocrite!" Sleight roared. "When you weren't busy being an angry drunk, you blubbered like a baby! And for your information, I 'wasted' my time with grandpa, because unlike you, he was there for me!" "What is that supposed to mean?!" Final snarled. "Dad, I was a wreck when mom died!" Sleight growled, his eyes growing misty. "All I wanted was somepony to tell me that things were going to get better! That everything would be okay! But it wasn't okay! My entire childhood became a nightmare because of you!" He shoved Final back. "Me?!" Final yelled. "Yes!" Sleight barked, no longer bothering to conceal his tears. "I spent every waking hour being afraid of you, afraid that one misstep would set you off and I would end up with another scar on my body! Heck, I was too afraid to sleep at nights, thinking that you might kill me in my sleep! I only felt safe when I was with grandpa, but even then, it didn't take away the fear that you would actually kill me in drunken rage!" "Sleight…" Chrysalis whispered. "Well, I didn't exactly see you reporting me to child services or the guards!" Final grunted, "And you stuck around for a while before you got sick of me!" "That's just the thing!" Sleight shouted, coughing a bit as he wiped tears from his eyes, but to no avail as they were streaming down his face, "The only reason I stayed was because Grandpa told me that things would get better… and for six years, I kept on hoping, praying... begging that you would stop drinking, for six years, I defended you when ponies kept asking where I got that scar or why I had a limp, for six years, I laid awake crying at night, hoping that one day, you would hold me in your hooves and say you loved me, and things would be alright from now on... those are six years that I will never get back." Sleight then pulled out a familiar notebook, which Final recognized. "When Grandpa passed away, I didn't have anypony left. I had no friends… my school life was a joke…and you were still the same abusive drunk. The night after the funeral, after you spent an hour whipping me with a belt for talking with my mouth full, I knew that I wasn't going to survive four more years of abuse… so with a deck of cards, this notebook, and the clothes on my back, I finally stopped living in fear and went off and joined the circus and for once, I was happy!" Sleight declared. "Happy? You were a buckin' carny!" Final snarled. "Well, it certainly beaten hanging around you." Sleight growled, putting away his book, "But…even after I left you, you still haunted me…" "Like how?" Final huffed. "I'll have you know, dad… I actually had a marefriend before Chrysalis… Trixie Lulamoon… I loved her very much… but she wanted to start a life with me. Marriage, kids, a house on a hill… and I pushed her away, because I was afraid of becoming like you!" Sleight declared. "Like me?" Final frowned in confusion. "Yes." Sleight glared, as he then took out a smashed hipflask, destroyed by Wizel a while back, and chucked it to the ground, confusing Final further. "Ironically enough, when I came of age, I took up drinking to take the edge off of a bad day... and when Trixie asked me to leave the circus with her, all I could think of was me turning into a drunk like you, and putting her and any kid we might have had through the same living Tartarus I went through. In the end, Trixie ended up leaving me and finding another stallion… and I had hated myself… until I met Chrysalis. Thanks to her and the two greatest friends I could ask for… I finally found the happiness I've been looking for." "Oh, Sleight..." Chrysalis gave a small blush at the notion. The room went silent, as Final then growled. "So… did you really come back just to gloat how 'great' your life had become? To expect me to apologize?" "No, that's not-" Sleight defend calmly, but Final cut him off. "News flash, boy, your life is no better off than it was when you left. You are still that sniveling foal… weak and pathetic. And to think that marrying some dumb bug and becoming a 'Lord of the Flies' nutcase would change that?! Well, you got another thing coming!" Final snarled. "How can you speak that way to your own son?" Chrysalis gasped. "Because he is my son." Final declared. "And it repulsed me to think he came from my loins!" *SLAP* Sleight's eyes widened as Chrysalis's hoof smacked Final in the cheek. The older pony was caught off guard by such an attack. "You are unbelievable! When Sleight told me about you, I didn't want to believe that a father would hold such ill regards for his own foal that he was supposed to love and nurture… but now… I have never seen such ungratefulness!" Chrysalis growled. "Like you can to talk, Queenie! Who was the one who tried to take over Canterlot and the Crystal Empire?" Final sneered. "I should've known that a bug like you would settle for a loser like him!" "Why you-" Chrysalis snarled, her horn sparking. "Sleight is not a loser! He is the kindest, strongest, most caring stallion I have ever met. I am proud to be his wife, and my people are proud to have him as their king!" "That's enough, Chrys." Sleight sighed, holding up a hoof. "It's obvious that nothing's changed." Sleight gave a cold glare at Final. "You're still that same heartless, uncaring jerk you always were. I should never have come here." "And why did you come here?!" Final glared, "Because I hadn't heard diddly-squawk from you for thirty years! And then out of the blue, you blast down my door, telling me you married a Changeling and became king, and go on and on about how I messed you up! Why, Sleight?! Why now?!" Sleight was silent for a moment, before he let out a sigh. "Because I wanted to settle things." Sleight answered. "Because I still had nightmares about those dark days, and that maybe getting closure would make them go away. I just wanted to put the past behind me. And maybe, deep down, I hoped that you might've changed, become a better stallion over the years." Final's glare softened, but he then turned away. "Well, I'm sorry to have disappointed you, your majesty..." He bitterly remarked. "I am too." Sleight muttered. "Because for all it is worth, even after all you had done to me, all the crud you put me through… I could never find it in myself to hate you." Final's ears perked a bit, "I don't know why… maybe it is because you were hurting just like me, or that thing they call 'Stockholm Syndrome', I don't know… but I still love you. I hoped that there was a part of you that felt the same way…guess I was wrong." He then turned away. "Come along, Chrysalis, we're leaving." "But Sleight..." Chrysalis frowned. "Forget it." Sleight sighed, as he went towards where the door once was, using his magic to levitate the door back into place. "I've tried my best…but in the end to him, I'm nothing. I just have to accept that…" "You're wrong." "What?" Sleight turned around. Final turned around to face him, and Sleight is surprised to see that his eyes were watering. "You aren't nothing to me…" Final muttered. "You're my son…and I'm proud of you…" "Proud…for what?" Sleight asked. "Proud that you haven't turned out like me." Final declared. "You didn't become a spiteful, bitter drunk that had it out for the world for taking the one mare you loved and took it out on the foal you had with her. Unlike me, you went out into the world and did something with your life, while I wasted away here. In the end, you became a better stallion than me…" "Dad…" Sleight whispered. "Look, I don't think a half-butt apology is going to make up for everything, or anything for that matter. If I could take back all the things I did, I would. But I can't. And I doubt there is anything I can do or say to earn your forgiveness… but I will say and do this…" Before Chrysalis and Sleight could say anything, Final did something that Sleight himself would had never saw coming, even if Wizel were to spell it out in another 'prophecy'…Final hugged him. Sleight seized up, never having received such a friendly and meaningful sort of contact from his father in decades. "I love you, son…don't know if it means anything anymore…but I do." Final whispered. To Sleight, hearing those words from his father's mouth struck a chord in his mind. For once in his life, all the bad memories he had of his father, all the abuse, all the insults, everything… seemed to had faded away. They were still there… but to feel his father's loving embrace…it made things…okay. Soon, Sleight returned the embrace, hugging him tightly as the waterworks came. "That's all I ever wanted from you, dad." Sleight half-smiled, half-sobbed. Chrysalis looked on with a warm smile on her face. While she may not be Cadance, the Princess of Love, she was a Changeling, and she could sense the love coming from them. There was nothing off about it…Final Gambit, the father who abused her husband, still loved him very much…it just took a long while to get it all out there. "What do you say the three of us start over?" Final asked. "I'm good with that." Sleight smiled. "As am I." Chrysalis agreed. "Come and sit down." Final added. "We got more than a little catchin' up to do... startin' with how you wound up becoming' a king of a bunch of Changelings." "It's a long story." Sleight smiled. "I got nothin' but time." Final smiled. Sleight and Chrysalis stayed at Final's for a few hours, before deciding to head home. "Now, don't go being strangers, you hear?" Final requested. "Never again." Sleight smiled. "And try to lay off the drink, okay?" "I think I can swing that." Final grinned. "For some reason, I don't think I'll be needing it anymore." Father and son embraced in another hug. "Goodbye, son." Final smiled. "See you soon, dad." Sleight whispered. Soon, the carriage took off, and Sleight let out a long, joyous sigh. "I feel wonderful..." Sleight smiled. "Wizel was right all along. I had to face my past before I could deal with my future." "Our future, my love." Chrysalis nuzzled him. "You handled yourself with dignity back there, and I never felt prouder of you…one of the many reasons I love you." "Thanks, Chrys." Sleight smiled. "I couldn't have made it through that if it weren't for you." "Isn't that what a spouse is for?" Chrysalis hugged him. "To support and lend strength to each other?" "Sure is." Sleight agreed. "I don't think I'll have any more sleepless nights from now on." "Oh, I wouldn't be so sure about that..." Chrysalis said in a sultry tone. She punctuated her statement with a kiss. "Then again, I think sleep is over-rated." Sleight chuckled, returning the kiss with much fervor. Back in Final's house, the old stallion was gazing at the family portrait. "I got a second chance, Conjure." He smiled wistfully. "A second chance at being a father. And I'm not going to screw it up. I promise you."