Broken Family, Healed Family

by Amos Anon

I Be Showbiz

“So, what do you think?”

I look terrible. “It looks... good.”

“Oh, come on now, be honest with me. Do you like it?”

I look part emo, part gothic, and part hipster. “Um... well, I like it... a little.”

“Moto. I’m not stupid. Your expression says you hate it.”

I looked in the mirror at my reflection, Rose standing behind me. “Okay, okay, you win. I really don’t like it at all. I feel... cityfied.”

Rose chuckled. “Well, too bad, buddy. What Songbird wants Songbird gets, and she’s very specific about how her backup singers are supposed to look.”

I glared at Rose’s reflection. “If this was nonnegotiable, then why did you ask me if I liked it?”

“Because I like torturing you.”

“How much are you getting paid to do this job again?”

Rose tossed her mane over her shoulder, and smiled slyly. “None of your business.”

I sighed, and shook my head. “I guess this is what I can expect from two newbies working together.”

It was Rose’s time to frown. “What do you mean by that?”

“Well, you’re far too friendly for your own good, and I look terrible. Simple.” I turned, grinning in Rose’s direction, only to be met with a hurt look.

“Is... is that what you really think?”

“No, Rose, I was only...”

“You think that my work is sub-par? That because I’m new here that I don’t know what I’m doing?”

“Of course not! I was...”

Rose backed away from me, growing more hysterical. “I may be new here, but I’ve spent my entire equine life learning how to do this! What could you possibly know of all the pain and hardship I’ve had to endure to get to this point?”

“Rose, listen to me, I didn’t mean...”

“Well you know what? Forget it. I put my heart and soul into my work, and not once am I ever even given a simple ‘thank you’. Is that so much to ask?” Rose breathed deeply, and clamped her mouth shut, tears in the corners of her eyes.

I opened and closed my mouth, trying to find the right thing to say. Eventually, I simply hopped down from my seat in front of the mirror, and reached out to Rose for a hug. When she flinched away, I placed a hoof on Rose’s shoulder instead, and attempted to look into her eyes. The blue mare kept her eyes downcast, however, preventing my eyes from meeting hers. “Rose. I’m sorry for what I said. I meant it as a joke. I honestly didn’t think you would take it so harshly.” I finally met Rose’s eyes as she lifted her head.

Rose breathed deeply. “My entire life I felt like I didn’t fit in. When I was a filly I was bullied relentlessly when I tried explaining my origin to my classmates. They all thought I was lying, and the teachers just turned a blind eye to it. Every once in a while, when I couldn’t take it anymore I’d... blow up over some seemingly innocent comment. My mom...”

“You said her name was Charity Kindheart?”

Rose nodded, wiping away a tear. “She adopted me after she was unable to find any records of my existence in Equestria. She was unable to find my parents, so she didn’t really have a choice. She... I don’t think she ever really believed me when I told her about my human origin. Every once in a while I’d come home with a black eye or some other sort of injury, and she’d scold me for getting into another fight. She never understood...”

She spent her entire childhood unable to reconcile her origin with her new life. I can’t even imagine how hard it must have been to constantly doubt her sanity even though she was so sure that her parents were human. That’s something that my family didn’t have to deal with. “Rose, did I ever tell you about my high school days?”

Rose tearfully smiled. “We’ve only barely just met...” She sniffed, and wiped away more tears. “... why would you want to tell me about what happened to you in High School?”

I sat on my haunches, and patted the floor beside me. “I just want to tell you.”

Rose blinked. “You know, most ponies get to know each other over a cup of coffee.”

I blinked. “Oh, well I don’t drink coffee.”

“... How about tea?”

“Nope.”

“Energy drink?”

“Nuh uh.”

“... Iced tea?”

“What’s with you and caffeine?” Rose rolled her eyes, and I again patted the spot next to me. “Just sit down, alright?” Rose shook her head in exasperation, but obliged.

“When I was in High School, I was bullied too, but not in the traditional sense.”

Rose frowned, her head pulling back in confusion. “I don’t understand.”

I half-coughed, half-laughed bitterly. “You know that feeling you get when you’re absolutely sure that people are talking about you behind your back, but they never confront you directly about it?”

“You mean when you walk up to a group, and they suddenly stop talking, and stare at you?”

“Exactly. See... I was the subject of some pretty nasty rumours in high school. I don’t even know where they started; Maybe it was the fact that I was a virgin, maybe it was because I was bigger than all the other guys my age, maybe it was because I was a little bit socially inept. Whatever the reason, somehow it got out that apparently I was gay. I’m not, nor was I ever gay, but that’s what they kept saying about me. Of course, I didn’t find out what the rumours were about until after high school; All I knew was that I didn’t have too many friends, and that people always turned away from me when I tried to talk to them.” I swallowed a lump. “I was basically shunned.” I shook my head, my voice growing bitter. “I started skipping school; I didn’t want to go. Every day was full of drudgery. I didn’t even realize that I was falling into depression; There were days where I simply couldn’t gather the will to get out of bed.

“The teachers... they were either oblivious, angry at me, or simply didn’t care. One had the gall to try to lecture me about my attendance, and another tried to blame it on my recently deceased grandfather, which was utterly ridiculous. I didn’t feel sad, I just felt...”

“Empty.”

“Yeah... yeah, that was exactly it. Yes, I was sad about my Opa’s passing, but it wasn’t the first time I’d lost family members; I could cope with that. What I couldn’t cope with was the absolute passivity and indifference to my situation.” I turned to Rose, and placed a hoof over hers. “When you told me about how you were shunned because ponies didn’t understand or believe you when you told them about your human parents, it made me think about my own experiences with bullying. I’m glad you were assigned as my stylist, Rose. Even if I might not like or understand the design choices, I trust you to do the best you can.” I chuckled. “You know, I’ve never dyed my hair before?”

Rose glanced at me askance. “What? You’re serious?”

I smiled. “Yep. Never had a reason to. I liked my hair when I was a human, so I never dyed it. How ironic is it that the first time I’m ever ‘stylish’...” I emphasized my point with air quotes. “... Is when I’m a pony being prepped by another pony who used to be a human for a show with the pony version of a famous singer that I used to listen to on Earth?”

“Life is crazy, right?” Rose grinned.

I grinned in return. “Absolutely.”

“Hey Moto, can we make a deal?”

“I’m listening.”

“I’ll do the absolute best I can to become the best stylist I can for you, and in return, you become the best musician you can be?”

I placed a hoof under my chin, a slow smile stretching across my muzzle. I turned to Rose, and began horking up some spit. The mare watched me curiously as I stretched my hoof in front of my face, but her curiosity turned to disgust when I proceeded to eject the spittle from my mouth onto my hoof, which I then stretched out to her.

“OH, GROSS! GET THAT AWAY FROM ME!”

I grinned evilly. “What, never heard of the spitshake?”

“EW, NO!” I burst out into laughter, and quickly looked around for a tissue to wipe my hoof off on. “MOTO, THAT WASN’T FUNNY!”

Just then the door to the room opened, and a dour-looking Harshwhinny poked her head into the room. Seeing the commotion in the room, her dour expression quickly became an angry one.

“WHAT are you two DOING?”

Rose froze. HA! It rhymes... I’ll see myself out now. Rose attempted to regain her composure, but that was somewhat difficult with the still glistening layer of mucus on my hoof being waved in her direction.

I took the initiative, and attempted to salvage both Rose’s and my reputation. “Oh, nothing much. Just getting to know each other better.”

Harshwhinny rubbed her forehead with a hoof. “And how, pray-tell, is spitting on your hoof supposed to do that?”

“Um...” I glanced around the room, trying to find a good excuse. “I... was trying to explain biology...?”

Harshwhinny raised an eyebrow. “That was a terrible excuse. Look, just be at rehearsals in room B tomorrow, okay?” I nodded dumbly, my hoof still outstretched. Harshwhinny closed the door behind her, and Rose and I stared at each other.

“Oh, and Motodrop?” Rose and I turned to see Harshwhinny had poked her head back into the room. “I usually find that a Pinkie Promise works better than a spitshake.”

And then she was gone. Rose and I once again looked at each other, our expressions saying the exact same thing.

Did she just...?

The two of us burst into laughter, tears streaming down the sides of our faces from our mirth.

“Okay, now I need to find me a tissue before this dries on my hoof.”

---

“Wow.”

“That’s what I said.”

“You look like a cross between an emo, a gothic pony, and a hipster.”

“That’s what I said!”

Coloratura and I sat across from each other at the restaurant in the hotel. When I had first sat down across from the singer, Coloratura had almost had me kicked out of the restaurant until I’d managed to prove to her that I was exactly who I said I was. Needless to say, it had taken a lot of very uncomfortable poking and prodding on her part to be convinced.

“Wow, she really changed pretty much everything except for your cutie mark.”

“Yep. Dyed my coat, dyed my mane, and gave me a manecut. Amazing what that can do to change a pony’s looks, eh?”

“Indeed. While it isn’t really to my taste, that Songbird sure knows how to choose a distinctive look, doesn’t she?”

“Mmhmm.”

The waiter arrived with the menus, and the two of us picked out our meals. Coloratura went with a casserole. I picked fish, much to Rara’s disgust.

I wanted meat, okay?

“So... Moto, now that we know that you’re going to be staying here in Manehattan for a while, why don’t we begin to look into housing for you?”

I looked up from my meal, which Coloratura was pointedly ignoring, and cocked an eyebrow. “Fmuh?”

“Please swallow before speaking, dear.”

I grinned, and chewed for a few more seconds before swallowing. “You said something about housing?”

“Yes. As much as I enjoy staying at this hotel, I do have a place of my own, and you can’t stay here forever, either. It gets a little dear after a while.”

“Yep.”

“You seem to be in an awfully chipper mood today.” Coloratura frowned in annoyance. “Did you have to pick the fish? It’s a little... unconventional for a pony to eat that.”

I chuckled. “You’re forgetting that I wasn’t always a pony. I miss meat, and boy was I happy when I found out that pegasi sometimes eat fish.”

Rara wrinkled her nose in disgust. “It’s still gross.” She cleared her throat. “Anyways, housing. I found a few places around Manehatten that would be within your price range.” She rummaged around in her handbag, and pulled out a few sheets of paper, which she slid across to the table to me.

I placed my fork down beside my plate, and perused the stack of property listings. One after another I read through the descriptions and studied the pictures, taking note of the price listings on each one as I went. I quickly flipped my way through the stack until one of the listings caught my eye.

“Hey... that one looks different.”

Coloratura tilted her head to see the listing, and upon seeing the sheet I was looking at, she smiled.

“I thought you might like that one. It’s a little more expensive than the other ones, but it’s also a little further out of town.”

“Hmm... How close is it to shopping?”

“There’s actually a local market around the corner from there.”

I paused, and read the ad a little closer. “I like it.”

Coloratura placed it aside. “Well, then we’ll put that one on our ‘like’ list.”

We continued to peruse other listings, sorting the ones that I liked from the ones I didn’t until the clock in the restaurant struck ten. I excused myself, and headed up to my room with the stack of listings tucked under a wing.

I opened my room, and placed the stack of papers on one of the bedside tables, collapsing on the bed shortly after.

That was a long day. I’m tired. And yet, it was a good feeling.

Author's Note:

Hello again, y’all! Finally got another chapter out! I know, I know, I’m slow with uploading. Sorry. Not to worry, though. I still have plans for this story, so I’m updating as often as I can. I never let a project die, I merely put them on hold until I can get back to them at a later date. Hopefully you guys get as much of a kick out of my new ‘revised’ character as I did. I think the sunglasses make the character.

So yeah... what’s been going on in my life... well, we celebrated Thanksgiving here in Canada a few weeks ago. (lots of fantastic food, as per usual), and of course on the one day we’re supposed to be giving thanks I managed to injure my lower back, so now I have to be very careful at work so I don’t make it worse.
Anyways, who knew that having a unique perspective could inflict so much pain?

Comments

[Fluttercry12]

Going 4 the goth style i like it