Chapter 3
“Broken Hearts”
Perspective: Private
I heard the yelling downstairs and I left Uncle Eagleheart to find, huh? Aunt Hummingbird? What’s she doing here? I thought she was off in San Filicisco being a lawyer?
“That’s not important right now!” She yelled at Grandma. “When were you going to tell me about the WILL!?”
Will? Grandpa left a will?
“Whatever is going on in here?” I saw Aunt Robin come into the kitchen, Uncle Hawk right beside her. She saw Hummingbird and looked as surprised as I was. “Why, Hummingbird, what are you doing here?”
“And what’s this about Pa’s will?” Hawk asked.
“I was hoping to ask dear Mother about that.” Hummingbird said, glaring at Grandma. “When were you going to tell us?”
“I didn’t think I needed too,” Grandma replied curtly. “It was no business of any of you, your father is still alive and kicking. So there was never a need to talk about the will.”
“Just, what was in the will?” I asked, coming into view.
Hummingbird glared at me with a look that would make Discord want to turn back to stone. “You! What in Celestia’s name are you doing here!?”
“Now Humming-” Grandma began.
“Don’t you try and smooth things when they aren’t, Mother!” Hummingbird yelled, “This... colt is the reason why Sparro-”
“ENOUGH!!”
Everybody stopped to look at Twilight. Hummingbird gulped, it was probably the first time she noticed that she was in royalty’s presence.
“Now, can we all cool down for just a minute?” Twilight said, firmly.
Nopony spoke up at that.
Gosh I love her…
“Just, what was in Pa’s will Hummingbird?” Hawk asked.
Hummingbird let out a breath and replied, “After I heard what happened to father, I started trying to get his effects in order should the worst happen. Much to my surprise, he already left a will. And…” She turned to me, “the will stated that everything would pass on to Sparrow’s sons…”
“Me and Tailspin…” I said, in shock.
“This is ridiculous!” Robin yelled, “What makes these brats deserving of anything?! It’s because of them that our family was shamed! If Sparrow hadn’t been mounted by that screw-headed bas-”
“That’s enough, Robin!” Grandma said, quieting her.
“But Mo-” She tried to interrupt.
“Not a word,” Grandma said, glaring at each of her children. “I raised you all better than this. This is precisely the reason your father and I kept the will a secret. We both knew all of you would fight like children over this. The will was made long before any of us expected Sparrow’s children to return to us.”
“But, Grandma…” I said, walking to her. “You guys were poor, barely able to get by. You shouldn’t have given everything to us.”
“Oh don’t try to pretend you’re as sickeningly selfless as your mother!” Robin yelled.
“It’s still outrageous!” Hawk yelled, glaring at me. “This pinhead is completely undeserving of anything! Let alone that broken winged murderer we have playing with our children!”
….
“Shut up…”
“What did you say to me, boy?” Hawk growled.
“I said SHUT THE HELL UP!” I said, my magic grabbing the nearest chair and slamming it into his face.
“You take that back you son of a bitch!” I yelled, and I was about to pounce him when I felt Twilight’s magic hold me back. I struggled against her, but I was not going to get away anytime soon.
Hawk got up, and wiped some blood from his mouth. “This ain’t over, kid, bet on it…” He stormed outside.
Robin huffed and followed behind her brother.
Hummingbird glared at Grandma. “You see, if you had consulted me, then we could get a proper inheritance taken care of. Instead you place blind faith in oh so precious Sparrow’s children…” She then glared at me. “Who should not have been born in the first place…”
She walked outside as well.
Twilight gently set me down on the ground. She put a hoof on my shoulder, “So much for letting cooler heads prevail.”
I looked over at Grandma. “I’m, sorry…”
“For lashing out? Or calling me a bitch?” Grandma said with a bit of a smug look.
Oh… Oops...
“Were you a few years younger I’d wash that mouth out with soap,” Grandma said with a good natured laugh.
“Oh believe me, some of us have tried.” Twilight said, laughing in turn.
“In all seriousness Grandma,” I said, looking to her. “Why did you and Grandpa put us in…”
“I’ll explain it when the reunion is over, I’d rather not have more of my furniture get thrown about thank you,” Grandma replied curtly. “For now, we still have some cooking to finish.”
“You’re letting Twilight co-OW!”
After Twilight was finished kicking me in the foreleg she said, “Yes, we are doing very well thank you. Now you just enjoy the reunion, Private,” She said, sending me out the door with her magic.
Boy, they had no idea what they were in for…
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Perspective: Tailspin
Sweet Celestia, I am so glad those fillies decided to play chase with one another. I gave the excuse that I was in a wheelchair so it wouldn’t be fair, so I ended up watching. Boy, kids were a lot to handle. No wonder Private and Twilight are so tired all the time.
I wonder what all that yelling inside was about? Uncle Hawk and Aunt Robin didn’t look happy one bit. Then again, I don’t think they’ve been happy since I arrived…
Then there was that other lady..who looked like a lawyer or something…
I saw them all sitting in a circle of lawn chairs. Aunt Robin was talking to the lawyer lady, “Absolutely ludicrous, to think after all we put in to this family, Sparrow’s ghost still haunts all of us.”
Mom…?
“I think we should’ve saw this coming.” The lawyer lady said, “Sparrow was always the favorite…”
“Don’t talk like that Hummingbird,” Hawk said, was that blood on his chin? “we’ll talk to Pa and get everything sorted out. He has to see reason one way or another.”
“That pinhead boy isn’t going to get anything from this family!” Robin yelled. “Neither him or that brat of a broken bird!”
Well...she’s not very nice.
“There’s nothing we can do,” Hummingbird said, “wills are generally ironclad legally. We can’t just change it, otherwise we get accused of tampering.”
“To think, that all of this could’ve been avoided of Sparrow had just used her sense.” Robin said, fanning herself with her wing. “If that fool of a stallion hadn’t seduced her, none of this would’ve happened.”
“Hey!” I yelled, coming over. “Don’t talk about my dad like that!”
They all stopped and looked at me. I knew the look, I was a kid, so they felt they had to talk to me differently. I could hear the condescending tone before they even opened their mouths.
Hummingbird was the first to speak up, “So, you are Tailspin, correct?”
“Yeah,” I replied. “And I don’t like you talking down to my dad like that.” I crossed my forelegs to drive home a point.
“Why don’t you run along little colt,” Robin said, condescendingly, “the grownups are talking.”
“I’m not five,” I said. “I’m eleven years old thank you very much, and I also have ears.”
“Now look here you little bra-” Robin began.
“That’s enough,” Hawk said. “Let’s go talk somewhere else, we’ll figure out how to handle this…”
The three pegasi flew away. Good riddance, I can’t believe they would insult Dad like that!
Sure, Dad wasn’t there for a large part of my life, but he loved mom! He didn’t seduce her or anything like that!
Grownups! Sheesh!
“Cousy Tailspin?”
I looked over to see all my little cousins looking at me.
I sighed and put on a cheery mask, “Who want’s to play ride cousin Tailspin in his chair?”
Famous last words…
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Perspective: Private
I sat on one of the benches in the big back yard. Watching Tailspin play with the kids got my mind off everything that happened in the kitchen. I sighed, not one of my best moments.
“This seat taken?”
I looked over to see Aunt Meadowlark smiling at me.
I smiled and scooted over, “Sure, I could use the company.”
She put herself down on the bench next to me, looking at Tailspin with all the fillies. “He’s good with foals, must run in the family.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Hard to believe he was once the same age as one of those kids. They grow up so fast.”
“Indeed,” Meadowlark said with a smile. “Why, I remember a certain young colt who thought it would be a good idea to play in the pudding bowl like it was a bath.”
“Aunt Meadowlark! I was two!” I yelled, thoroughly embarrassed that she brought it up.
“You were a cute little colt, despite what everypony else said,” Meadowlark said with a laugh. “Sparrow was truly lucky to have you.”
“Maybe…”
“Now don’t you get like that.” She said, poking me in the shoulder. “Your mother loved you, and would have died twice over to save you. We can’t fix what happened before, only pick up the pieces and move on.”
“Huh, where did you hear that?” I asked.
“Oh, some colt who was trying to sound smart in front of his daddy.” She said with a grin.
Right, me.
“How is Irenius these days?” She asked.
“Just, trying to make up for lost time.” I said. “You, didn’t object to the relationship did you?”
“Well mostly I didn’t object because I was in my teenaged party girl phase.” Meadowlark said with a laugh. “But, I also believed Sparrow when she said she was in love. I would’ve gladly brought you two in had you asked...granted I probably wouldn’t have been the best guardian.”
“Well yeah, I don’t think Tailspin would have gotten much sleep with bad disco music in his ear.” I said with a laugh.
“Hey, it was in style at the time!”
“It was in style during Grandma’s time.” I said, laughing even harder.
As we both laughed however…
“Hey,” I looked around, “Where’s Aunt Robin and Uncle Hawk?”
“I don’t see Hummingbird either.” Meadowlark said, looking around.
“Where did th-
CRASH!
“That came from inside the house!” I yelled, heading towards the house interior.
I burst my way inside and heard more crashing coming from up the stairs...Grandpa’s room!
I ran up the staris three at a time, and came to find Grandpa’s room was open…
I looked inside to find, Uncle Eagle was sprawled out unconscious on the floor...and the window leading out to the street was open…
I also saw the monitor attached to Grandpa’s tubes was beeping really quickly, Grandpa was breathing way too quickly!
I shook Uncle Eagle, who I noticed now was bleeding slight on the head, a broken vase was lying next to him. “Uggh,” he groaned.
“What happened?”
“Somebody hit you on the head!” I said, “Grandpa he’s-”
Eagle got up on his hooves quickly and looked at the monitor. “Oh no…” He picked up a syringe from the ground. “Somebody pumped Tissue Plasminogen Activators into his bloodstream!”
“What?” I asked.
“It’s supposed to stop clots from forming in the blood, but when used too much it could cause a stroke! Give me the anesthetic on the chair over there!” He said quickly.
I did as he asked, and gave him the anesthetic. He used a clean syringe to take the liquid and injected it into Grandpa.
Slowly, his breathing calmed down, and he fell into a slumber. Eagle let out a breath, “I stabilized him, we were lucky…”
“What happened here?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” He said, “I was coming back from the bathroom and..” He felt the blood on the back of his head. “Somepony must’ve hit me on the head…”
“Who could’ve done this…” I asked going for the window. I looked outside around the streets of New Orneigh...when...wait...Grapes? What’s she...no...I don’t think Grapes aged that within the last few months…
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Perspective: Twilight
Huh, I wonder who’s knocking on the door so loudly. I left my project at the counter and went towards the front door. Honestly anything to keep me from blowing up the house is very welcome…
I opened the door, “Heart resid-GRAPES?!”
The chocolate brown pony raised an eyebrow in a most familiar way, but… Wait… she’s older, and she’s not a unicorn...
“Why yes, Ah AM one of tha Grapes Family. Apparently ya know some of mah kin,” she said in a distinct New Orneigh accent. “Now Ah don’ mind these here Hearts holdin’ their lil family shindig, but they promised me they’d keep tha moultin’ to their own yard. Tis only neighborly after all. Ah’ve got enough to rake up, what with tha sweetgums, an’ oleander. Ah don’ need pegasus feathers added to tha mix.”
“Wait, are you saying you saw one of the Hearts flying over your yard…?” I asked. The older mare looked me over with a critical eye.
"Did yer extra limbs rob you of your hearin', honey?” she asked in an all too familiar tone. “That's exactly what Ah said."