Broken Family, Healed Family

by Amos Anon

Christmas with the Hillberries

Knock Knock Knock!

“Come on in!”

The squeal of door hinges could be heard as a cold draft poured into the building, though the inhabitants ignored it, instead choosing to embrace the welcome intruders.

I smiled, and stood from the table, a cup of hot chocolate held in my hands as I half-walked, half-stumbled my way to the front door of Sunset Shimmer’s house, where Ixisten and Octavia were shaking the snow off their boots, nearly falling over themselves in the process.

I sympathized. It’s hard to remember how to walk on two feet when you’ve been on hooves for the past number of months. “Ixisten!” I placed my mug down on a table by the door, and pulled my bro into a hug. I stepped back, eyeing Octavia. “So... are you two official now, then?” I grinned slyly.

“Ah, well...”

“Yes!” Octavia interrupted. “We’ve been dating for a few months now.” She attempted to nuzzle up against Ixisten, only for their noses to bang together instead, and I had to suppress a chuckle when he blushed bright red.

“Tavi, I don’t have a muzzle now, remember?” The grey-skinned woman blushed in turn, and an awkward silence passed between the two of them as the rest of us smiled blissfully.

“Well,” I stated. “I’m happy for you two.” I then leaned over to Ixisten, and whispered in his ear, “Took you long enough to ask her out.”.

Ixisten snorted, and made a half-hearted attempt at swatting me across the back of the head. “You’re one to talk. And besides... Tavi actually was the one who asked me out.”

I blinked. “Really now?” I transferred my attention to Octavia, and placed my chin on my fingers. Man, did I ever miss having these things. Fingers are so useful! “Huh. Well, I like her then.”

Ixisten rolled his eyes, and shook his head, smiling in exasperation.

“Alright, well, now everyone’s here! Ixisten, we can take your and Octavia’s stuff. You guys go ahead and put your coats in the closet there.” Panara and Otto took the many wrapped boxes of gifts, and a number of food dishes and salad bowls, relieving Ixisten and Octavia of their burdens so they could remove their winter wear.

I followed behind my parents. I haven’t seen Sunset yet. “Hey, is Sunset not joining us today?”

“Oh, she and the girls are over at Pinkie Pie’s place today, which is why she offered up her house to us.”

“Oh... You know, we could’ve celebrated at Twilight’s castle. She has plenty of space there, and I’m sure she wouldn’t have minded.”

Panara turned to me, a serious expression adorning her features. “You’re right, we could’ve, but we just wouldn’t have felt comfortable there. Not that I dislike Princess Twilight Sparkle, but I’d rather celebrate Christmas with just our immediate family and friends.” She turned, resuming her walk to the kitchen. “We had a rough year, Moto. It would be good for us to just... catch up again. Reset, in a way.”

I felt a pang of sadness at that, and swallowed. “Yeah... I can understand that.” I paused, and looked around the living room. I saw the children running around, with my siblings and their spouses conversing with one another. Percy was showing something to Ixisten on his phone, and the two were laughing.

I felt a pang of loneliness, but at the same time a sense of warmth filled my heart. We’re so blessed.

“Yeah, we’re blessed, aren’t we?” I jumped, as Otto slung an arm around my shoulder for a sort of side-hug. “We’re definitely blessed.”

“Funny, I was thinking the same thing.” I returned the hug.

“You know, if you ever find someone you think you might want to spend the rest of your life with, you’re welcome to bring them with you to our family events...”

I smirked. Subtle, Dad. “Yeah, I know.”

“What about that one girl you keep talking about... Rose?” Otto smiled innocently, but quickly grew concerned as he saw my expression fall.

“Yeah, about her... after what happened with the note and with EQG Twilight finding out about Rose’s origins, I don’t think she’d be comfortable coming to our Christmas party. She’s still pretty ticked about it, and quite frankly, I don’t blame her.” I shook my head. “I forgave you guys right away, but she...” I shrugged my shoulders helplessly. “...she kinda just... closed up. We don’t really talk all that much anymore, and I want to help, but between the practices, rehearsals and the vocal training, I haven’t really had the time to speak with her all that much recently.”

Otto frowned. “But... she’s your stylist, isn’t she? Don’t you guys speak when she’s preparing you for shows?”

I shook my head. “Apart from the rehearsals, I haven’t actually done any shows yet, so she hasn’t worked with me much. When she does work with me, she just seems to work as quickly as possible so she doesn’t have to talk to me.

“You know, I’d offer you advice, but... I don’t really know what to say. Have you spoken to Coloratura about any of this?”

I shook my head. “She’s on tour. I haven’t seen her since I moved into my own place.”

Silence fell between us, and I shuffled uncomfortably. Otto removed his arm from my shoulder, and the absence of the aforementioned limb caused the colder air of the room to make me shiver slightly.

“You know, I hadn’t really thought about it all that much, but... It seems that ever since I started this whole backup-singer thing, I haven’t really had time to connect with anyone. I guess I haven’t really noticed how lonely I am.”

Otto pulled me in for another hug, this time of the bear variety. “That’s what family is for, and that’s part of the reason why Christmas is so special to all of us. We’re all here now, and we’re all here for each other.”

“Thanks, Dad.” I needed to hear that.

“I love you, son.” He pulled away from the hug, and patted me on the shoulder. “Things have been different not having most of you around all the time. We miss you guys, too.” He chuckled. “Who would’ve thought that we’d end up working on the human version of the Apple Family farm? We’re basically doing the same thing we did in Equestria.”

“You guys haven’t started up a business of your own here?”

“I’m leaving that decision up to Percy. If he decides that he wants to start something here on this world, then I’ll be happy to support him, but our priority right now is finding a place to live. We can’t stay at Sunset’s forever.”

“Good point.” I cocked my head. “What about Karra and Eren? Where are they at right now?”

Otto turned his head to the couple, mulling my question over in his mind.

Before he could answer, however, a large BOOM shook the house. I instinctively covered my head, and crouched down, looking for any sort of cover. When nothing else happened, I opened one eye at a time, looking around at my family, who were all in a similar state to me.

Evidently, living in a war-zone for a number of years ingrains certain instincts, such as immediately ducking for cover at loud explosions.

“Is everyone alright?”

Everyone voiced their affirmative, and I slowly stood up, casting my eyes around the living room.

“What in Equestria was that?” I caught the eyes of everyone else in the room, each of us breathing heavily. The kids had immediately run to their parents, and were trembling in terror.

I walked across the floor of the living room, and pulled the curtain aside from the window. Everything outside looked... normal. I glanced at a couple walking hand-in-hand down the sidewalk, but quickly dismissed them. Hmm... Odd.

Percy raised a hand. “I’ll check downstairs. Maybe something happened with the water heater or something.”

Upon opening the door to the basement, however, smoke poured out, followed by a certain purple-skinned teenager, who seemed to be coughing up a lung. Percy stood there dumbfounded.

“T-Twilight? What are you doing here? I thought you were with Sunset and the others.”

“I...” she coughed, and waved a hand at us indicating she was alright. “I was working on a... project of sorts.” She looked away guiltily.

Percy’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “What kind of project?”

Twilight’s eyes darted about the room, poorly-hidden fear poking through her visage.

“It... It was nothing. N-Nothing important! Just me doing... sciency things. Yeah.”

I stepped forward. “Twilight. I know you well enough to know that you’re always happy to share what you’re working on.” Even if sometimes we don’t want to know. “Why are you hiding this from us? You even went so far as to give up hanging out with your friends to work on this, so it must be important, right?” More important than friendship. That’s like heresy in this world.

Twilight grew more agitated, raising her hands in tight fists. “I don’t... Ugh!” She dropped her face into her hands. We all waited as she seemed to wrestle with herself, and I almost placed a hand on her shoulder in concern, but before I could; “It was my fault.”

“...What?”

“I said...” Twilight looked me directly in the eye. “I said it was MY FAULT!”

“Your fault... your fault for what?”

Twilight began to cry, tears slowly crawling down her face. “It was my fault that Rose ended up in Equestria... and probably many more humans, too! I... It was when I used this.” She pulled out what looked like a pendant.

Wait a minute... that’s!

“It was this! I did the research! I did the calculations! It was when I decided to use this!”

My jaw dropped. “You’re saying that when you opened that pendant, and tore a hole in reality between this world and Equestria...”

“Yes! It also opened tears between Equestria and Earth!”

I breathed out heavily, my face draining of blood. “Sweet Celestia...” The room fell silent, save for the sobs and sniffling coming from Twilight.

I started as Maelstrom spoke from beside me, having stepped up while I was in the middle of contemplating Twilight's words; “But... Rose is from the 1970’s on Earth. How did she end up in Equestria 20 years ago?” He frowned, and placed his chin on his thumb and index finger.

Twilight shuddered, and raised her face, trying to wipe away her tears. Octavia quickly went over and comforted her, before glaring up at all of us.

“I think that is quite enough. If you want to grill Twilight, it will have to be AFTER she's calmed down, and willing to speak. Until then...”

What... I looked over at Ixisten, who just shrugged, equally as perplexed as me.

“Come on, Twilight.” Octavia guided Twilight toward the living room. “Let’s get you a relaxing Earl Hay. Ixisten, could you?”

Ixisten shook himself out of his confusion, and snapped into motion, quickly heading to the kitchen to pour Twilight some tea.

Heh. Earl Hay. Wait a minute... since when did Ixisten know how to make tea? I stopped Ixisten as he stepped out of the kitchen with a steaming mug in his hands. I raised an eyebrow, gesturing at the cup. He blinked, and then snorted, shaking his head.

“I like tea, okay?”

“...Since when?”

“Moto, there are a lot of things that you don’t know about me.”

Touche, mon frere. Ixisten pushed past me, and placed the cup down on the table in front of Twilight, who reached for it, and blew on it carefully.

“I guess you all want to know more about this.” Twilight raised the pendant in front of herself, allowing all of us to see it more clearly. I reached out for it.

“May I?”

Twilight hesitated, but eventually placed the pendant on my hand. I examined it, turning it over and over in my hand. I placed my finger on the release button, looking at Twilight for confirmation. When she nodded, I depressed the spring-loaded contraption, allowing the pendant to open. I quickly confirmed that it was empty, and closed it back up.

“Yep. That’s definitely the pendant. Didn’t Sunset use it to defeat you when you were in your dark form?”

Twilight blinked. “How did you... oh wait, you’re the weird one that knows everything about us.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say everything...”

“... But yes, Sunset also used the pendant to absorb the powers of her... OUR friends, and used them on herself, allowing her to overwhelm and purify my dark side.”

Percy interjected; “... You know, if we didn’t live in a land full of magical, talking horses...”

“Ponies!”

“Whatever. If we didn’t live in a land full of magical, talking PONIES, I would say that was... ridiculous.”

“I think it sounded awesome!” We all turned to Eren, who shrugged. “What?”

“Aaaanyways, you were saying, Twilight?”

Sci-Twi cleared her throat. “Yes, as I was saying, this pendant forced Equestrian magic into my body, which essentially turned me evil, or... drunk on the power... I don’t know, my memories are pretty fuzzy at that point. But basically, I became so powerful that I started tearing holes in the fabric of reality. Reality being, essentially, the space-time continuum. It stands to reason that, if I could tear holes in space and dimensions, then it’s also possible to tear holes across time.”

“That would explain why Rose ended up in Equestria when she did, and would also open up the possibility that other people may have crossed at other points in time.” Maelstrom leaned back in his seat, wiping sweat from his brow. “That’s really fascinating.”

I scratched my head. “If what you’re saying is true, then that means that people from any period of history on Earth could have crossed over into any period of history on Equestria.”

“And vice-versa. It’s also possible that ponies may have crossed over to Earth as well.”

I breathed heavily. “We need to tell Celestia and Princess Twilight about this. The ramifications of this are profound. Twilight, you essentially have changed the very history of not one, but two worlds! Everything that has happened up to this point has had your touch in it.”

Twilight’s head bowed. “I know. And I’ll never be able to forgive myself for that.”

I frowned. “What? Don’t you get it?” Twilight jerked up in confusion. “All this means is that everything that has happened up until now was meant to happen! It means that the course of this history has been set! You were supposed to fall, and in your redemption, you became a protector! That isn’t something to be sad about, it’s something to celebrate! Have you ever heard the story of the prodigal son?”

Twilight raised a brow, still focused on me. “The... prodigal son?”

Otto looked over at me. “Moto... where are you going with this?”

“Just hang with me, Dad, it’ll make sense in a minute.” I cleared my throat. “Essentially, the story is about a son who demands that his father give him his portion of the inheritance that would normally be given to him after his father’s death. The father gives the son the inheritance, and the son goes off and spends it all in wild living. He spends it all, and eventually winds up so poor that he finds himself wanting to eat pig food. He eventually returns home in guilt and shame, and you know what his father does?”

Twilight stared at me intently. “Punish him?”

I grinned. “He ran to his son, and hugged him. Then he threw a big party for the son, because he was gone, and returned. Essentially, he was forgiven.”

Twilight sucked in a breath. “You’re saying...”

“Yep. I’m saying that we don’t really care about the bad things you did. The fact that you realized the wrong you did, and apologized is what truly matters, and is worth celebrating. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t take responsibility for the things you did; after all, the son still had no wealth when he returned to his father; but there’s no reason for you to constantly wallow in your guilt.”

A sudden weight against my side surprised me, before realizing that it was Twilight hugging me, her tears staining my shirt.

“Thank you.” she mumbled. I blinked, before resting my hand on her shoulder awkwardly.

“You’re welcome.” I let her hug me for a while, before realizing that the rest of my family was watching, and turned beet red from embarrassment. “Um... Twilight? Can you, um...”

She looked up, and her purple complexion quickly turned a shade to match mine. “Sorry!”, she squeaked, and abruptly pulled away. We shuffled away from each other awkwardly, avoiding each other’s gaze. “A-Anyways, where did you hear that story?”

“It’s actually Biblical. I grew up hearing that story in Church. I’d be willing to lend you a Bible some time, if you want.”

“Sure. Yeah, I’d like that.”

---

Wrapping paper littered the living room floor of Sunset’s house; all the secret santa gifts having been opened and appreciated by everyone, and It was now time for the gag gifts. I snickered, thinking about what I’d put together this year. Ooh, they're going to like this.. A deck of cards was dealt to everyone, and one by one, a card was picked from another deck. Whenever a card someone had was called out, they would stand up and either pick a present from the pile, or trade their present for someone else’s. It was a lot of fun, and we laughed until tears ran down our faces as presents were opened, and the depths of my genius were displayed to all who were there. Twilight looked on, laughing as hard as we were, and I was happy to see her enjoying herself.

Eventually the wrapping paper was cleaned up, the presents stowed away in baskets for our travels home, and the children put to bed. The rest of us enjoyed the evening by the Christmas tree, enjoying a hard drink or two (except for Twilight, who was still underage), and nibbling on some unhealthy snacks.

A game board was laid out in front of us, and we were battling it out over Stock Trotter, which Twilight- predictably- was great at. It took a little bit of explaining, but once she got the gist of it, she completely creamed the rest of us.

I threw my hands up in the air as the commodity I had traded most of my money in for- gems- went bust... again, and groaned. We should’ve played Cabbage, or Carrots to Carrots instead.

“Moto, you’re not doing so good!”

And she rubs it in, too. “I’m better at imagination games.”

“Sure you are. Maybe you’re just a sore loser.” I glared at Ixisten’s gir- marefriend.

“Octavia, you’re doing just as bad as me. If anything, we should be commiserating.”

“Ha,”, she jeered snootily, “It’s all just a part of my plan.”

“Sure it is.”, I mumbled. Hmmm... I have 300 Trotter Bits left... I can only buy hay at the current price. I placed the last of my bits down, and grabbed the correlating number of green pieces of paper, and waited for the next roll.

“Hay, down 3. Hay is now bust.”

“OHHH, SUNNUVA!”

Author's Note:

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I missed this story, and I’ve been mulling over some amazing ideas I’ve had over the last little while, so I decided it was time to get back to work on it. I know Christmas was almost two months ago, but I still wanted to include this chapter because it wouldn’t make sense to the story to skip it. The reason for the delay? Simply put; lack of motivation. I know, I know, you all hate that, but simply put, I write chapters when I become inspired, and I simply haven’t been inspired recently. Instead I’ve been reading other fanfictions (usually 1-2 hours a day) to get a better sense of how to improve my story, and also gaining new ideas and forming my own writing style. Don’t worry, folks, I never truly give up on a project, I only put it on back burner for a while before coming back to it. It might take a few months, it might take a few years, but this story will get finished, I can guarantee that. Oh, and if you want to read the story of the prodigal son yourself, it can be found in the Bible in Luke 15:11-32. It was one of the Parables (basically a story used for teaching) told by Jesus.

Anyways, as always I suppose I have to end this with some witty thing about uniqueness... um...

I am Motodrop, and uniqueness is both a driver and a result of life experience.

Comments

[Julian San Miguel]

“It’s actually Biblical. I grew up hearing that story in Church. I’d be willing to lend you a Bible some time, if you want.”

Where did he get that?

[Amos Anon]

10044409
I assumed that the EQG world would have similar society and technology to our own world. Thus, religion.