Hearths Warming: Scrooge

by Daxisle

Act III (Revelations) Pt II

Act III, pt II

Scrooge fought to keep the tears from coming, he'd seen plenty of pitiful displays before in his life; but nothing like this.

He'd rather watch a pony beg for a bit to buy bread a million times over than see the suffering of the Macintosh and Applejack's tears. Little Bloom was gone, one of the kindest and most innocent of ponies in the world, one who'd done no wrong and he wasnt sure was even capable of it, was lost to very creature who stood next to him.

A swift motion to his right and a letters formed in his vision.

'Macintosh Blames her death on himself, all on himself.'

Sin cringed, his assistant didn't deserve this. Mac was a good stallion, a good provider and an all around better individual than he could ever be. Macintosh shouldn't have to suffer this future, and Scrooge etched into his mind, right then and there, that he'd be giving some serious considerations to helping his sister in any way he could.

And with that settled, there was no more guilt to be faced. This was not a future set in stone, and as he conceded to the other spirit, he too conceded to this one on the little filly, Bloom.

"You've made your point." Scrooge declared, watching as the remaining Apple's walked out of the grave yard, heads low and tears still streaming to the frozen ground below. "Is there anything else you wish to show me?"

A sudden wind blew and child the stallion to the core, his vision blured as the wind whipped the snow around him, causing him to clench his eyes shut. It was intimidating how quickly a calm and quiet day could be made into a blizzard at the behest of a single question, but there was most likely a point to it.

Opening his eyes to see the Spirit walking, Sin followed closely behind, taking note of the quickly growing inches of snow he stepped over. Their walk wasn't far, only about five minutes, but even so, at least six inches of snow had accumulated as the fury of the storm ravaged the stallions uncovered face.

And just as quickly as the storm had come, so to did it stop. Scrooge looked around in utter disbelief at the suddenness of it all, but what else was to be expected in a drug induced dream? He saw the Ghost of Hearth's Warming Yet to Be standing besides a modest stone pillar and wondered over, curious as to what else he was going to be shown.

To both his shock and confusion, he saw that the grave he was being lead to was to bore the name: Sin Scrooge. Complete with his date of birth, and a small bit of snow covering his date of death.

He felt a frog in his throat and had to steel his nerves again, he knew the game, he knew he was gonna die some day and he knew the spirit was only doing this to terrorize him. But still, to see your own grave site was a lot like seeing your own dead body, there was just something about it that disturbed you, no matter how well one accepting things for what they were.

Summoning the last bit of courage he had left, Sin sat in wait for the next set of letters to come and tell him what he was supposed to feel. And waited, and waited.

Growing impatient with the spirit's lack of an explination, Scrooge inquired as to what exactly he was supposed to be acknowledging here. Though, all the spirit had done was point it's scythe to the grave once more, a small bit of the snow that marked his date of death blowing away.

"Okay? This is my grave, I understand that, in the future I'm dead. Dead ponies are typically buried and given graves. What am I supposed to do here?" He asked, his patience wearing thin.

A clap of thunder cracked as the Spirit slammed it's scythe onto his tombstone, shifting away more of the snow. Half of the numbers could be seen on the day he would die now.

'So that's it's game, huh?' Deciding to move the process along, Scrooge shifted and removed the remaining snow to expose the date.

"Huh, that's not too far off from now." Sin mused, thinking over the fact that his death was only about 9 months away. "Well, that sucks, I guess."

The sound of the Scythe falling to the ground grabbed his attention, the spirit looking between him and the grave. Apparently he was missing something because it repeatedly pointed to him and then to the grave's date of death.

Unsure of what was going on, Scrooge gently said: "Yea, that's the day I die. I'm going to die, that's pretty much a foregone conclusion for all living things." Again, the spirit pointed to the death date with an almost vicious ferver. "What? That it's going to be in a few months? Well, that's not really surprising..."

The hooded figure stopped mid point and just looked at him, just looked at him. No emotional mind play, no alternative point to be made, it just stood flabbergasted.

"I mean, I live in a crummy house with a draft and don't like to waste money to keep it heated, so cold winters can cause hypothermia. My diet consists of porridge and gruel, along with some alcohol from time to time, not exactly the pinical of nutritional recommendations. My stress is pretty much constant, so that's not good for me either. I don't like to waste money on the doctor, along with- umm what are you doing?"

The ghost was slamming its head repeatedly against his grave, obviously frustrated with the situation. Sin kinda wanted to stop it from it's masochistic onslaught, but at the same time found it rather amusing that he wasn't the only one being tortured tonight.

And that's when it finally hit him.

"Oooooohhhh, Ohh, this is supposed to scare me." He concluded in an "ah ha!" tone, his revelation halting the ghosts self mutilation. "You showed me all of this in an effort to scare me by... showing me that I would die... like everything else in the world... in order for me to change my ways?"

"Oh for the sake of my sister's sun!" The spirit bellowed, legitimately taking Scrooge by surprise. The figure loomed over him and threw down her hood, revealing that the Ghost of Hearth's Warming Future was none other than Princess Luna. "We want you to change your ways because they are bad for you!"

"Ooookayyy." Sin gave the rather irritated lunar goddess a look of uncertainty as he tried to figure out what in tartarus was going on. Since when was he ever on the princess's radar for anything? How long had she been spying on him? What did she care about his living conditions anyways? None of this made any sense.

Continuing her tirade, Luna explained with no small amount of patronizing in her voice, that his way of living wasn't one that was ideal in terms of either fulfillment for himself or ethics for those around him. He was a miserable pony that made everyone around him miserable. His family wanted to be around him but he did everything he could to avoid them, and his lack of charity ultimately lead to the death of one of the kindest young fillies the world had to offer.

"Alright, first off: I'm well aware of the choices I've made, I know I'm miserable. I've lived it every day of my life." He stated calmly. "I love money, I love to hold it, to keep it, to cradle it. Money brings me joy, spending money does not. Does that make me greedy? Yea, sure, fine, whatever. My life, my decision to make. Yea, it's caused me to live in some pretty deplorable conditions, but yet again, my life my choice. I'm well aware of this fact."

"Secondly, I don't like Neo, nor his wife. I don't hate them by any means, but they annoy me. I don't know why, but they just do. And no amount of shame and blame is going to change that, so if that is what you were hoping to accomplish tonight, than you're sadly mistaken. And finally, you want to speak to me about ethics? Have you ever been a banker, Princess? Have you EVER had money stolen from you because you thought 'hey, I'm gonna give this guy a chance', only to have your face spat in when they didn't pay up what they owed?" That's when something else dawned on him. "Hold on, are you the one keeping these ghosts as slaves? What the tatarus, Luna?"

Luna snareled and lifted the scythe. "Watch your tongue, peasant."

Scrooge quirked a brow, what did he care what she threatened him with? This was just a dream. "Peasant? Screw you." Luna's eyes widened from the blatant insult. "You come into my dream, try to terrorize me into conforming to your beliefs of charity and morality, instead of sitting down ,like a fucking adult and debating the points logically, and you're going to insult me? screw you, cow."

It took a few moments for the mask of shock to leave her face, but it melted away to a face of wrath and indignation that told Sin he might have overstepped a line. Though after a few calming breaths, the princess of the night was finally ready to debate his views with a logical and objective mind.

"You are right, we had no right to manipulate you as we did. Apparently you'd thought your choices through more than we thought, but we still believe that you are wrong to live the way that you are and think it best for you to change your ways. Not only for the good of yourself, but those to which you hold company and employ."

Sin thought it over, he could easily play the self righteous indignation card and just tell her to piss off, her actions more than warranted such a response, but he still had quite a few questions that he wanted answered. He accepted with the condition that she was to answer said questions and she agreed.

First off, why was she doing this? It had to be more than just his own happiness. Apparently his misery had attracted the fabled "winidgos", who infested the land with a brutal winter due to the growing discourse that he brought to Ponyville. Seems as though the ponies there were far more forgiving of bad debts and didn't hold one another accountable for the sake of keeping harmony and unity in the town.

Ok, fine. That was a fair point, his holding ponies accountable for their agreements had summoned demonic horses that cursed the land with snow and ice. There by destroying the apple crops and sending the town's economy into a spiraling depression. That was a disservice on his part that he would take into consideration.

Second question: If she had the power to influence ponies dreams, why would she go after him for his holding to agreements made instead of going after everypony else and teaching them the importance of keeping their words and the responsibility of financial stability? Yea, she could terrorize him, or she could tell others not to take on debt, he was just the supply, they were the demand after all.

Luna's ears went flat against her skull and she looked away, pressing her lips. To her credit, she admitted that she'd never thought about looking at the problem from that perspective before, she always saw the big bad bank as the problem, not other ponies who couldn't manage their own finances.

This caused no small amount of irritation to the banker. Of course, blame the guy who makes the offer, not the idiot who decides to take it.

Third question: Why did she pretend to care about his happiness?

"Scrooge, there is no pretending here." She said softly. "You are our little pony, and you may not think it, but you are cared for."

Sin gave her a skeptical look and nodded with a sarcastic "Right."

"Why do you believe only the worst in others? Are you truly content with the way your life is? You're cold heart hath turn to stone and dies bit by bit every day. Is this truly the life you want?"

Sin sighed. It wouldn't be correct to say that he was entirely comfortable with the way he was now. Who would be? Eating only the bare necessities and buying only what was absolutely needed to keep him alive in terms of shelter? Nopony in their right mind would answer yes. But in terms of cost vs benefit analysis, money was more important than his health, even if it meant he wouldn't be around as long to enjoy those shining towers of gold.

Fact was that those towers belong to him, he earned them, he took risks, worked hard and earned every last bit he had. In a sense, it was the very purpose of his life, and that's exactly what he had to show for it. He had regrets, sure, and looking back on his life, he wished that he could have done a few things differently. But that was the past, and the past couldn't be changed.

"Your past may not be able to change, but your future can." Luna coaxed, placing her hoof softly upon the stallions shoulder. "Life can get better for you if you will let other ponies into your heart."

Scrooge looked down at her hoof and felt a genuine sense of comfort, though it wasn't something he wanted. "I'm sorry, your highness, but I'm afraid that I have no particular interest in doing so." He stated calmly, gently removing her hoof from his shoulder.

"Why not? Do you hold issue with trusting others?"

Scrooge pressed his lips and nodded in a "so-so" manner. "Yea, I think my father abandoning me, the love of my life walking out on me, and multiple ponies stealing money from me might have caused me to develop some trust issues." He admitted, being completely honest.

"Scrooge." The princess cooed. "The ponies you could befriend are of high moral fiber. You've admitted this about Macintosh when he defended you, as well as little Bloom. Surely you can trust them not to betray you as your father had."

Again, Sin pressed his lips as he chewed the idea over in his head. The world was a cold cruel place, this was a fact of life. He'd embraced it, molded himself by the notion and reacted accordingly in everything he did. Yet, ponies like Macintosh and Bloom did exist, kind and caring ponies who didn't fit his mold of what he thought the world to be.

Though he still couldn't find it in himself to see them as anything other than annoying to be around outside of work. Even if they were good ponies, he just didn't like to socialize. Maybe it was a scar that never healed? But it was a reservation he had none the less.

"Very well." Luna sighed. "Is there nothing else I can say that would change your mind in the way you live? Have you learned anything here tonight that will influence how you will act in the future?"

"No and yes." Sin answered respectively. "There is nothing farther to discuss and I have learned a great deal here tonight. Though, this could all have gone over much more smoothly if you'd have just been upfront and honest about your intentions instead of trying to terrorize and manipulate me into becoming who you think I should be. These tactics of yours have very much put you low on my list of respect and made me less receptive of your words."

Again, sighing at her failure, the lunar princess bid the stallion farewell and hoped that he'd find a way to get past his spite of her and himself and find the happiness she knew that he was both capable of and deserving of.

Author's Note:

So, there you have it. Scrooge wasn't the bad guy as everyone makes him out to be, he was just a guy who's been taken advantage of and abandoned with obvious reasons for both trust issues and happiness issues.

He never hurt anyone, held to a code of morality, didn't steal, didn't take what wasn't his and was wrongfully vilified in the story of "A Christmas Carol" for adjusting his personality and caution in accordance with the will of the greedy people in which he did business.

His psychological terrorism was unjust as it was the world in which he lived that he molded his life around, the same would who, after scarring him, demand that he give freely of himself to it.

Hope this puts things into perspective. The final chapter will come out around Christmas time.

Comments

[i_am_the_jam]

One way to get Scrooge to change is to make him see what his eternity will be like if he continued being a sociopath. This was done in "Scrooge" (1971), and in my fanfic "Jacob Marley's Daughter", available on fanfiction.net

[Daxisle]

6364488 I'd need to review that, but I was under the impression that he'd suffer the same fate as Marley, who's future Scrooge did see and compared it to the "hell fire" of Tatarus. Eternal burning or carrying around chains for eternity... Not a hard choice, in my opinion.

[Xanderfox]

I think it severs more to show Scrooge's biggest victim was himself the whole time, While the methodology used to force Scrooge's change is questionable the truth is the character in the original story was a fearful man. Ebeneezer Scrooge chose to "play it safe" because of the tragedies of his past, he abandoned any hope of being happy to be be sure he had enough money to handle any thing that came his way, refusing to take chances because they might be mistakes or someone might hurt him, and no matter how much money he had it was never enough to assure his physical and emotional safety, so he just sought more in a vicious cycle. This makes Scrooge a tragic figure and explains the reason the visions he saw made him change, they showed him he had other things to be afraid of. Scrooge didn't make his choices to become a miser because they where logical, he made them because he let fear rule him. Fear motives Scrooge's choices in both the past and future.

[Daxisle]

6387276 they seemed pretty logical to me.

[Xanderfox]

6387508

Some one might come to similar conclusions based on logic but Ebeneezer Scrooge doesn't. The fear based reformation cause the the visits from the spirits wouldn't have worked other wise, if Scrooge had really given up on emotion then the fear based tactics would have left him unaffected, but they didn't, confronted with the truth that he would die unloved and outright resented Scrooge changed his ways. Logical fallacies for his life style are rife though out the tale(the vicious cycle I mentioned) but we have to admit it's the fear of dying unloved and unremembered that make Scrooge change in A Christmas Carol. And while I think your point is Scrooge in this version is more the victim of "pushy" people trying to spread and agenda though questionable means I can't but help find him depressing, he is in a dark pit of depression and sees no reason o even try and pull himself out in a way this Scrooge is already dead on the inside.