A guiding Hand

by Postwarmonkey50

Making things right

Meanwhile, outside of Canterlot High, near the lighthouse of the beach, sat Handy Helper, holding a coffee he packed in just in case because of how it can be cold sometimes. He sat there pondering, thinking about what he said to Wallflower. The guilt began to eat at him. He made a promise to look after her, but because of his anger, he ended up hurting his sister. He groaned as he placed his head in both his hands, thinking about how he could’ve messed things up so bad between them.

He then realized that he wasn’t alone, which he then said in a hopeless tone ‘What are all of you doing here?’

For right behind him, were Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Sunset Shimmer and Twilight, along with her dog Spike. But it wasn’t just them, but both Principle Celestia and Vice-Principle Luna. All of them showing real concern for him. Though he may have taken his anger out on his sister, they could tell that the experience, of both losing his father and also his memories, even if it was temporary, can affect a person’s psyche.

‘You once talked about coming here to clear your head a lot.’ said Spike ‘It wasn’t that hard to figure out where you were.’

‘Handy…’ said Twilight as she tried to speak to him.

‘If you’ve come to yell at me for yelling at my sister, go ahead.’ said Handy ‘I deserve it. I hurt her more than I could’ve imagined. Guess I’m the bigger jerk around here, huh?’

Rarity and Applejack were the first ones to walk over to him and sat next to him on the bench.

‘Yeah, you were.’ said Applejack

‘But you have to understand.’ said Rarity ‘I know Wallflower hurt you, but the poor dear didn’t think straight when she used the stone. Even she didn’t realize the true damage it would’ve caused had you not told her about it.’

Sunset then stood in front of him on her knees as they looked at one another. ‘She was jealous because of my so called popularity.’ said Sunset ‘But I was a different person. Yes, I may have stopped being mean, but Trixie helped me realize I still wasn’t very nice to her, even when I didn’t notice. I was so focused on being with my friends, I barely paid any attention to what I was doing. If anything it was my fault that Wallflower did what she did.’

‘But you’ve changed.’ said Handy as he looked at her ‘You became a different person and you proved that every day.’

‘We know she’s a different person.’ said Principle Celestia as she stood near Handy and placed her hand on his shoulder ‘But after the Fall Formal, everyone had a hard time believing her because of her history. And after the Battle of the Bands, she saved everybody along with her friends.’

‘And after the Friendship Games,’ said Vice-Principle Luna ‘We saw how completely changed she was, even the new wardrobe to prove it. She may have changed, but like any student, she still has a lot to learn. As we all know, no one is perfect, but that doesn’t stop us from trying to prevent mistakes like this to happen again.’

‘But she should’ve just…’ said Handy before he was cut off.

‘She should’ve said something, we know.’ said Fluttershy. ‘But like me, she’s not used to being open to others. She wasn’t good at sharing her feelings or just to be herself. She was afraid to be judged differently, like Rainbow Dash once upon a time.’

‘Hey!!’ said Rainbow Dash. But then she sighed as she said ‘Okay, yeah, she’s right.’

Rainbow then got near him as she said ‘And dude, I know you were hurt and betrayed when she used the stone behind your back and didn’t want to socialize with anyone else at Camp Everfree, but you didn’t have to go all bananas like that.’

‘She’s right.’ said Twilight ‘Siblings make mistakes. And if we don’t realize those kinds of feelings or mistakes, we’ll end up regretting it for the rest of our lives.’

‘You couldn’t possibly understand.’ said Handy as he stood up and stood a few steps towards the rails, overlooking the ocean, and leaning against the rails with his hands on top of them as he looked ahead.

‘Ah understand more than you could imagine Sugarcube.’ said Applejack ‘So do everyone else.’

Rarity stood up and spoke to him first in order to reason with him.

‘Darling,’ said Rarity as she started first ‘About a year ago, Sweetie Belle wanted me to participate with her a the Sisterhood Social. I didn’t want to because I thought it was a waste of time.’

‘And you were a big dumb jerk about it by saying it was uncouth?’ said Handy as he partially looked at her.

Rarity winced, right in the feels, but she knew he was right, for he was one of the special committee that helped put the Social together.

‘Er, right.’ said Rarity ‘But in the end I realized that I only have one sister. One that looked up to me and wanted to spend time with me. I failed to realize that when we grow up, we’ll miss everything we could’ve done together. That, and Applejack reminded me of how selfish I was being. I always took but never give anything.’

She rubbed her arm as she said ‘So much for me being the generous one.’ before Applejack comforted her by gently patting her on the shoulder.

Rainbow spoke next. ‘Look, normally, Scootaloo isn’t my sister, but she looks up to me like I am. Her parents are on the other side of the world doing their jobs and she’s always staying with her aunts, who love her to pieces. But she doesn’t have any siblings that she could spend time with. Sure I was mad at her when she lied to me behind my back, but I could never hate her. Cause I made a promise to both her aunts and her parents that I would look after her. She always feels alone, but I always try to make time to spend time with her when she needed someone the most.’

Applejack spoke next as she stood near him. ‘When ah was about Apple Bloom’s age, ah wanted to prove to mah family ah wanted to run the farm too, but because of Big Mac, ah never get the chance. Because of him, ah ended up lying so much we ended up in the hospital. And Apple Bloom barely wanted to talk to me because ah was overprotective and didn’t want to give her a chance. Even made her humiliate me…’

‘Because of the whole Anon-a-miss ordeal.’ said Handy.

The others were surprised by this, as Pinkie said ‘How did you know about…?’

‘Who do you think convinced the CMC to tell all of you the truth.’ said Handy, which surprised everyone that was present.

Ignoring that and figured they would ask about it later, Applejack continued. ‘But in the end, ah realized that ah had a lot to learn. Ah wasn’t ready to do anything on mah own. Just like Big Mac realized that he should’ve given others a chance to talk and hear them out and that ah should’ve trusted Apple Bloom that she could look after herself. In the end, ah realized that ah lied to myself that ah could do things on my own and not trust Apple Bloom. But in the end, ah tried to make things right. Ah still do. We even tried to make it up to Sunset everyday because of how we treated her when we didn’t remember her.’

Fluttershy spoke next, trying her best not to be silent about this. ‘My own brother may be unbearable, and he is somewhat of an…um…’

‘Disappointment?’ asked Handy, to help her filling in the gap. She winced, but she was glad someone said it instead of herself.

‘Yes,’ said Fluttershy as she continued ‘But I care enough about my brother to help look after him. He may be immature, but he’s also the only sibling I have. Though I wished he would’ve grown up a bit. My point is, sometimes family needs to support one another, no matter how unbearable they might be.’

Celestia was the one to speak next. She let out a sigh, then spoke at her own pace. ‘As you know, my sister and I may be getting along now, but back then when we were younger, we once had a…dark moment that happened between us.’

Luna both winced and shivered at that, remembering her dark episode too. ‘But we made each other realize that despite what happened between us, we were the only family we had left.’

‘So we have to ask.’ said Rainbow Dash, whilst everyone else was thinking the same thing she was ‘Why were you mean to your sister, and defended Sunset so much?’

Handy ended up crossing his arms and looked at the other direction, for it’s not something he wants to talk about. Sunset on the other hand, had an idea.

‘You know what you guys,’ said Sunset as she took a few steps back ‘I think I forgot something back at Applejack’s truck. I’ll be right back.’

Some looked at Sunset whilst she walked away. She then winked at them, and hid around the corner. Not sure what she was up to, focused on Handy.

Handy on the other hand was oblivious to what Sunset was up to. But seeing that she was temporarily out of sight, he decided to shed some light.

‘I was trying to protect Sunset because of what she did for me.’ said Handy. ‘Did you remember when I told you about how I nearly wanted to commit suicide?’

Some were puzzled by his question, but nodded when they wanted to know more, with Sunset listening in.

‘She came to me and helped me see things from a new perspective.’ said Handy. ‘She helped me turn my life around, talked for many hours. She even comforted me. I felt safe. Happy. Happiness that I haven’t felt in years.’

He walked back and forth as he continued. ‘After that day, I chose to go back to school. But I chose CHS because of what my mom told me of how great a place would be. Over the past year that I was there, whenever the school needed repairs, I helped out in any way I could, donated what money I could from my business so that CHS would have anything they could need.’

He slowly smiled as he thought of the moments that Sunset introduced the others to her. ‘That very year, whenever they needed help, Sunset introduced all of you to me. And whenever I helped all of you I…I bonded with all of you. I felt so much love that I thought I could never gain again.’

He then said of what he did for her. ‘And in case all of you wonder, during the last Christmas holiday, when all of you thought that Sunset was Anon a miss, I looked at the website itself. I realized that it wasn’t her, it came from the Apple Family Computer. And Applejack couldn’t have used it because she was having a sleep over with you guys, and it couldn’t have been Big Mac because he slept early. Then there was only one person who could. And that was Apple Bloom.’

They were surprised that he deduced that it was Apple Bloom. ‘Then things had gotten worst when Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo got involved, as well as others who uploaded their videos and secrets on them. So I confronted them and told them of what they did was wrong. They only did all those things because all of them were jealous, but I told them that Sunset didn’t have any family or friends in this world, they were comforting her because she needed help the most. That, and not to mention that they were trying to keep Princess Twilight’s promise.’

They were surprised that he knew about Princess Twilight. ‘Wait,’ said Applejack ‘Y’all know that…?’

‘That all of you got your powers from a land of magical ponies and were helped by a pony princess who needed to stop Sunset from doing something idiotic and made things worse.’ said Handy.

Everyone was stunned by what he said, even Sunset was surprised. They then noticed that he blushed as he rubbed the back of his forehead as he said ‘Whilst I was about to fix the Wondercolt Statue that Principle Celestia and Vice-Principal Luna assigned me to fix, I accidentally fell into the portal to Equestria and met her.’

He cleared his throat, trying to focus on the present. ‘Anyway, I knew she was struggling to find her place in the world. So after I got transferred here, about a month before the Friendship Games started, I went around and used my connections to help her find an apartment so that she would find a better place to sleep in, even made sure that all her rent would be paid up until she graduates. I even went over to that sushi place in the mall and convince the manager there to help give her a job so that she could find a way to make a living, to have balance in her life.’

Now they were greatly surprised, even Sunset.

‘Whoa,’ said Rainbow as she was surprised ‘You did all that for her? Why?’

They could tell that Handy was having a hard time to let it out. Handy kept his arms crossed as he confessed.

‘All that stuff about me wanting to help CHS and the students to be happy, they’re all true. But there was one more…the real, reason.’

He was silent for a few moments, but he looked away as he said ‘I was hoping she would notice.’

Some were puzzled, as Twilight said ‘Notice what?’

However, what they didn’t miss, was the blush on his cheeks. It took them a few seconds, but all of them clicked. They were greatly surprised by what he meant. But none were more surprised than Sunset. She slowly looked away, still having that awe look on her face.

‘So wait, let me get this straight,’ said Applejack ‘You did all of that for her because…?’

‘Yeah,’ said Handy as he turned his back on them, not wanting to look at them, for they could tell he felt ashamed over his previous aggression towards his sister ‘That’s the reason.’

‘Uh, wow.’ said Rainbow as she couldn’t believe it. ‘Just…wow.’

Handy just sighed as he looked at the horizon. ‘But I really screwed up. The two of them made peace. But I was so angry that she betrayed my trust like that, what he did to her without thinking about the consequences.’

Handy walked to the nearest wall and sat against the wall, whilst still keeping his head lowered. ‘I let my anger cloud my judgment. I hurt my sister. How could I be such an idiot?’

Some were silent for a few moments, whilst he kept his head lowered as he shed a tear. He suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder, causing him to look up. He was surprise to see it was Sunset, who gave her own sympathetic smile whilst she crouched.

‘You’re not an idiot Handy.’ said Sunset as she looked at him ‘You were just hurt after your dad passed away. When I somehow helped changed it, you just wanted to protect me. I understand that, but I don’t think it was really nice of you of what you said to her.’

Handy sighed as he looked down with his eyes closed. ‘I know.’

He then looked at her again as he said ‘What do I have to do to fix things.’

‘First of all,’ said Principle Celestia as she came over and crouched next to Sunset ‘You need to go back and apologize to Wallflower. As Rarity said, she wasn’t thinking clearly of the consequences.’

‘After that,’ said Vice Principle Luna as she crouched at Sunset’s left side ‘You two should go to therapy. We know of a doctor that’ll help the two of you set things straight.’

Handy sighed as he looked at them once more ‘If it’ll mean that we can finally find peace. Then so be it. I’ll do anything to fix my mistake.’

Sunset then lightly blushed, then looked at Handy with her smile ‘After that, I’d like to see where this would go. For both of us.’

Handy was surprised as he blushed too. ‘I…I’d like that.’

Sure enough, they helped him stand up. Sure enough, the lot of them walked away from the lighthouse to return to their homes. Once they were, Handy would get a chance to apologize to his sister, and hopefully, be at peace too.

Comments

[Pete100]

‘If you’ve come to yell at me for yelling at my sister, go ahead.’ said Handy ‘I deserve it. I hurt her more than I could’ve imagined. Guess I’m the bigger jerk around here, huh?’

You deserve a lot more than that.

Sure I was mad at her when she lied to me behind my back, but I could never hate her.

When did that happen?

‘Uh, wow.’ said Rainbow as she couldn’t believe it. ‘Just…wow.’

That was almost similar to my reaction.

Handy just sighed as he looked at the horizon. ‘But I really screwed up. The two of them made peace. But I was so angry that she betrayed my trust like that, what he did to her without thinking about the consequences.’

Isn’t that what he did?