Family Apprciation Day: A Charles Hoofwin Story

by Spades_of_Ace

Chapter 1

“A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.”

~Joseph Campbell

As the sun set on another pleasant day at Ponyville, the citizens of the town started closing down the shops for the night until tomorrow morning. Lights from all of the shops and most of the houses flicked off as many of the ponies went to bed. All except for the one bedroom light that remained lit upstairs in a particular colt’s bedroom. Esbin had a rather saddened expression as his mother slowly poked her head inside with her warming smile on her face.

“Hello Sweetheart,” Margret said, “did you enjoy your dinner?”

“Mhmm, it was nice,” Esbin nodded but was in an unconvincing tone. Margret took notice to Esbin behavior and asked, “Is something wrong Esbin? You’re never this down on a Friday after school.”

“It’s nothing mom, I’m just a little tired that’s all,” Esbin said, trying to hid his face under his blanket while he lay in his bed.

“It’s alright sweetie you can tell me,” Margret said rubbing Esbin’s stomach over the blanket.

“Well… okay, it’s about dad,” Esbin said trying not to make eye contact with his mother.

“What does your attitude have to do with your father Esbin,” Margret asked with concern.

“Well… I just think that dad doesn’t love me,” Esbin said with a tear escaping his eye.

Margret gasped with surprise and asked, “ESBIN, what makes you think, even for a second, that your father doesn’t love you?!”

Esbin glanced from side to side for a moment before replying, “He… he… I asked him if he could come to school on Monday for Family Appreciation Day, but then he said that he wasn’t interested. And right before I left him alone I said that I loved him, and he didn’t even say I love you too, like he always does.” Esbin then buried his face into his blanket as he sobbed softly.

Margret gave a caring expression and said, “Oh Sweetheart, your father loves you very much. He might not show it sometimes, but believe me when I say that he does love you. He’s just a little more… reserved, that’s all.”

“Reserved?” Esbin asked looking up at his mother; she patted her son on the head.

“Yes, reserved. You see, work can make your father a little upset sometimes, kind of like when you have a difficult time with your homework. Sometimes he just needs to be alone when he works. I’m sure he wants to go with you to school on Family Appreciation Day, but he’s just needs to go to work around that time.”

“That would make sense,” Esbin said with a sniffle, “But that doesn’t explain why he didn’t say he loved me.”

Margret frowned for a split second to think of an answer.

“He just has his own way of saying that he loves you Esbin; he might not say it but he truly does love you.”

Esbin looked away for a moment.

“I know that but… it… it just doesn’t feel the same unless he actually says it to me.”

He soon started to sob softly again as he buried his head into his blanket to cover his face.

“I know sweetheart,” Margret said as she pulled her son closely into a hug while running a hoof through his mane, “I know.”

All the while this was happening in Esbin’s room, his father, Charles Hoofwin; stood behind the slightly ajar door, listening on the how conversation went in his son’s bed room. As much as he wanted to walk inside and tell his son Esbin that his did love him, he thought that the two ponies needed to be alone for the moment.

Charles sighed sadly and quietly walked down the hallway and into the master bedroom. Meanwhile back inside Esbin’s bedroom, Margret suddenly thought of something that might hopefully bring Esbin out of his depression.

“Do you want me to tell you a story before bed,” Margret asked with a pleasant tone of voice.

“Mhmm,” Esbin replied with a nod. Margret tried to think of a story she could tell to Esbin and quickly thought of one.

“How I ever told you the story about how I met your father,” Margret asked with an innocent smile.

“No,” Esbin said with a shake of his head and wiping away his tears.

Margret chuckled softly as she took a seat on the side of Esbin’s bed,

“Well it went like this. I was about fourteen years older than you when I first met him; I was still living in Canterlot at the time before anything else. My family and I had received an invitation to the Grand Galloping Gala hosted by Princess Celestia, including a very important guest of honor.”

Esbin’s eyes widened with gasp, “You went to the Grand Galloping Gala?!”

“I sure did honey,” Margret said with a smile.

“Anyway, we arrived a little late to the Gala, so we missed the speech given by the guest of honor; but we managed to enjoy the rest of the event. My parents went to talk to some dear friends of theirs, while I was being harassed by some of the royal guards. I tell you, the things that they said to me were certainly not worth my time. I just had to get away from them so I stepped outside into the royal garden.

“And my goodness Esbin, it was amazing. There were so many different flowers that were just so beautiful, some of them weren’t even sold in most flower shops and… oh sorry I’m rambling about flowers again. Anywho, after I took a stroll along the garden I made my way back inside into the main ball room and then… I saw the most handsome stallion I’ve seen in all my life.”

Esbin paid close attention to every single word as his mother continued talk about her story.

“Was it dad,” Esbin asked, Margret smiled down at the little colt.

“In good time, Esbin,” Margret said in a calm voice.

“He stood right beside the Princess herself as if he was a proud guard, until both our eyes met and I think both of our hearts melted. I could literally see his face light up right from where I was standing.”

“Did he ask you to dance with him,” Esbin asked with curiosity.

Margret chuckled slightly, “On the contrary, I asked him to dance with me. You probably don’t believe me; but you got shy side from you father, not me.”

“Wait a minute, dad was… shy,” Esbin asked with complete shock.

Margret nodded slightly at his question.

Esbin frowned for a second, “But… I’ve never seen dad scared before.”

“Even big ponies like your father get scared sometimes, sweetie,” Margret replied.

Margret continued, “The Princess noticed him staring at me and she whispered something into his ear and she nudged him forward up to me; and I swear to you when he was right in front of me, he looked like he was going to faint. I didn’t want to seem rude so I remembered my manners; I curtsied to him and introduced myself. He saluted to me and gave me his name, Charles Hoofwin. We talked a little bit. It was nothing special, just stuff like where we were from, what we did for a living, just simple things. Then the music band started and had been waiting to dance for a while, so I took Charles’s hoof and pulled him over to the center of the ball room and we danced in front of all of the party guests. They all look so stunned at us both dancing, and I had no idea why. It wasn’t until I asked Charles why they muttering about us.”

Margret paused for a moment to imitated Charles voice, “Well, you are dancing with the guest of honor.”

Esbin’s eyes widened at that very moment, “Dad was the guest of honor at the Grand Galloping Gala?!”

“He sure was Esbin, and if you thought he was embarrassed, you should have seen the look on my face,” Margret said with a laugh, “I wanted to run off at that moment, but Charles hung onto my hoof and I… I just felt this calming, warm feeling deep inside of me as he looked deep into my eyes.”

“We danced for quite a while after that, we whispered the sweetest things into each other’s ears that probably made both of our hearts a flutter. I don’t think either one of us wanted that night to end. After that Charles escorted me back to my home and well… things became more than a night to remember.”

“Wait, did… did you and dad kiss,” Esbin asked with curiosity increasing by the second.

Margret found herself blushing rather hard at that moment looking back at the memory. She then decided to only to the simple part of the memory instead.

She then gave a hearty sigh and said, “Yes Esbin, we did. And it was the more romantic time of my life.”

“EWW,” Esbin exclaimed while kicking his hooves playfully under his blankets. Margret let out a giggle not to seem suspicious, but on the inside she let out a sigh of relief.

“What happened after that mom,” Esbin asked enthusiastically after he stopped kicking around.

“Hmm, well the rest is history after that,” Margret said with a tap of her chin, “We saw each other for a few months, he proposed to me, we got married and then we decided to have a baby…do you know who that baby was, Sweetie?”

Esbin glanced from side to side and replied in a curious tone as he pointed a hoof to himself, “Me?”

Margret pulled Esbin into another hug and said with a laugh, “Of course it was you silly! And both of us couldn’t be any happier, trust me.” Esbin yawned with a weak, yet happy smile at his mother.

Margret smiled back at Esbin and asked while brushing her hoof through his mane, “Feeling tired honey?”

“Mhmm,” Esbin hummed with a lazy nod.

Margret got off of the side of Esbin bed and said, “Goodnight sweetheart, your father and I will see you in the morning.” She then planted a kiss on Esbin’s forehead and began to make her way doorway. She placed a hoof next to the light switch, “Now I don’t want to hear any of this nonsense of your father not loving you, okay?”

“Okay,” Esbin said in a tired voice. Margret smiled happily at her son as she flicked the lights off and closed the door behind her and started to make her way to the master bed room.

Esbin lay quietly in his bed as he stared up at the ceiling of his room, all the while he felt himself slipping into a pleasant sleep, he thought about his mother’s story.

“Wow, mom and dad were at the Grand Galloping Gala,” Esbin thought with amazement, “I can’t believe that neither one of them told me about that. My friends are never gonna believe me when it tell them that my dad was… wait.”

Esbin suddenly rose up from his bed and asked himself, “How did dad become the guest of honor at the Grand Galloping Gala?!”

He almost jumped right out of bed but realized that tomorrow was Saturday and his dad didn’t go to work until the afternoon; so he had time to at least ask him about the whole ‘Guest of Honor’ title tomorrow. Esbin lay back on the bed again and tried to contain himself about his curiosity eating away at him. He soon found himself drifting off to sleep as his eye lids slowly closed together.

Comments

[xDan]

I'm praying this isn't 2000 words of backstory for a shitty character nobody ares about. Because stories like these usually are.

[chavis54]

shut up mr dan the lurker!
anyways
good hob going on here mah friend spades. and yes I will enjoy it when you update it....I hope