Digital_Hex
A fan-fiction by Digital_Hex
Chapter 12
"You told me that you were done with seeing him, and then I find out... this?!"
"So what do you want me to do, leave?!" she yelled back.
"I think that's an excellent idea!" the stallion shouted back. "Take that bastard child and get the Hell out of here!"
"H-Hammer, you can't be ser-" she began, voice obviously cracking in surprise to his outburst.
"I mean it, Remedy! Get out of here! I'm sure that stud from Canterlot would love to rut you a lot more than I ever will!"
"He's not from Canterlot, he's from An-"
"I DON'T CARE!" he shouted, "GET OUT! NOW! YOU WON'T PUT DIGIT THROUGH THIS, YOU HEAR!?"
"Fine!" Remedy yelled, crying as she charged through the house. She turned a corner, heading straight for the front door, and saw him sitting on the welcome mat. Saw the confusion on his face, the concern in his eyes. He met his eyes with his mother, saw her for the last time. Saw the eyes they both shared, saw the family who would lose forever.
"Good-bye, Hex," she said as she swept past him, not bothering to give him a kiss on the cheek or even a brush on the head. She charged out, her pale blue coat glistening in the fading light. Her bubblegum-pink mane swished over her dark eyes as she took one last look at the house she had called her home, the place she would never return to. She snapped out her wings, preparing to take off.
"Remedy..." the stallion from before cried, barreling past the small colt, picking him up with a hoof and holding him close.
"Wait, don't do this..." he cried, tears visible on his face.
"Oh, so now you don't want me to go!" Remedy yelled back, enraged. "Now you don't want me to do what you want! Take your son with his... stupid eyes and just leave me alone!" she cried as she leaped into the air, pumping her wings furiously.
"Remedy!" the stallion called.
"Mommy!" the young colt called as well, not fully understanding what was happening. He was too young to remember everything that happened, but he would surely be scarred for life by what had just happened.
"I fell in love with your eyes, Remedy... how could you call them stupid..." Hammer Hoof cried to himself, holding his son close to him. He looked his son right into his blacked-out eyes, a thin ring of pink in each of them.
"We'll be fine, Digit..." Hammer Hoof said before burying his face into his tiny son's shoulder.
"We'll be fine..."
"Yo, Digit!"
I snapped back to reality. A moment ago, I had just been thinking about how fun having friends might have been, the next... I dunno. Must have spaced out for a second.
"Huh? What's up?"
"Didn't you hear over the intercom? They want you at the front office!" Lug said with a little bit of a laugh.
"Oh, my bad," I said with a slight chuckle, blushing a little in embarrassment. Did I really miss that? I must have been spaced out pretty bad.
Picking up a hoof, I turned to head towards the office.
"I'll get back to you later Cross, okay?"
She nodded with a smile, causing everypony next to us to raise an eyebrow before bombarding her with a load of their own questions, mainly focusing on what I meant by that. I laughed while charging off towards the office.
"So you can see these... fields?" Hammer Hoof asked his son, a small white colt who was sitting on his father's workbench while Hammer worked on... something.
"Yeah! They're really cool!" the kid said excitedly while hopping up and down. "And look, when I touch them-"
The small foal paused to stroke a green line circling him with a hoof, creating a very soft shriek of pure noise, subtle but impressive at the same time. It lit up the workroom slightly, only for a moment.
"-they make noises! Isn't it cool!"
"It sure is, Digit," Hammer said while laughing, ruffling his son's mane with a hoof.
"It sure is..."
"Hey Hex!"
I turned to see Raindrops charging after me.
"It's Digit, but what's up?"
"You okay? You seemed a little zoned out back there, a bit..." she said slowly, looking into my eyes.
"Did I?" I said, rubbing the back of my neck. "Sorry. Just feeling a bit... off, all of a sudden. I'm sure it's nothing."
"Are you sure?" Raindrops asked again. She was honestly concerned, I could see it in her pale eyes. I must have really been throwing her off, and I hadn't even noticed.
"Yes, my little pony," I said while chuckling softly, reaching up with my own hoof to ruffle her mane, the way my dad always used to do to me. "I'm fine. Thank you, though."
"Okay..." Raindrops said, smiling softly. She was really annoying, but that moment right there, that moment let me know that beneath it all, she really did care. She really did want to help. I'd only met her today, but she was already a friend. A real friend.
A true friend...
"Whoa, dad! These are so cool!" the tiny white colt shouted in glee as he spun around, smacking his hooves together over a blue string. His headphones suddenly barked out a deep, rich booming of pure bass, clean and clear.
He spun around more, dancing between the fields that surrounded him. They were green and blue, intertwining at times and circling him always. On the colt's hooves were a pair of bands that led to small earpieces.
"I'm glad you like them, son," Hammer Hoof said. "I've been working on them for a while, they were for... a friend..." he started, eyes welling up.
"Dad?" the colt asked. "What friend?"
Hammer sighed, steadying himself. "It was an old friend... she wouldn't want them any more..."
"Oh..." the colt said, looking a little sad while visually deflating. He hated to see his father sad.
Hammer took one look at his son, then suddenly had an idea.
"But..." he began, getting his son's interest. "I found a new friend to give them to."
"You did!" the child asked, cocking his head. "Then why'd you say they're mine now?"
Hammer Hoof roared in laughter. "Because that's you, silly!" he said while bopping his son on his nose.
The colt looked up at his father, smiling widely.
"You mean it?" he asked.
"You bet it, bud. You're my best bud, my true friend, and never forget it! Okay?"
The colt ran over and tackled his dad, laughing while they wrestled on the floor.
"Okay, dad. I promise."
I stopped. Something wasn't right. I flicked my head back and forth. Why was I being called to the office all of a sudden? I'd already been there earlier, surely it wasn't anything to do with my schedule! Maybe... they had my locker? Even though they had said that they'd have it for me the next week, maybe they had it early?
I shrugged it off and continued on my way, plugging my headphones into my music player as I made my trek through the hallway, bobbing my head to a familiar song.
"Dad? Why'd mom go? Where is she now?"
Hammer Hoof looked up from his paper, scowling at his son. Hammer's day was not going very well, having had to pick up his son from school on account of him getting into a fight, and now he was asking about his mother.
Hammer sighed. He shouldn't blame the boy, it wasn't his fault.
"Why do you want to know, Digit?"
"Er..." the colt stammered before looking down. He was a small child, noticeably smaller than other colts (or even fillies) his age. Hammer raised an eyebrow.
"Digit?"
"I- er..." the colt stammered before taking a deep breath.
"The other kids at school... they said something about her..."
"What did they say, Digit?"
"... Was I the reason she left?" the colt asked, tears visible in his eyes as he locked gaze with his father. "Was it something... I did?"
Hammer Hoof took his son in his arms.
"No, no. It had nothing to do with you, Digit. It was never your fault, it's okay..." Hammer assured his son as the tears poured out of his eyes.
"They-they made fun of my eyes, they- they said it was my f-fault she left! What did I do! I-I just want mommy back!"
Hammer Hoof sighed as he looked off into the distance, remembering the letter he'd received from far away in the new lands, by the griffon kingdom. The letter that assured him that she was never coming back...
"So do I, son," Hammer said through gritted teeth, barely suppressing tears of his own.
"So do I..."
I reached the door to the office, opening it carefully while slipping in. there was nopony at the counter, so I climbed into a chair and sat down, glancing at the table. Seeing an article, I thought I noticed, I picked up a nearby paper. I instantly regretted the decision. The paper was old, so old that I was concerned why the school still had it.
The article was titled "Student in Hope Hill loses control, new anti-bullying rules being discussed by Equestrian school board".
I recognized the article. That was the article they wrote about me.
"That was it? They insulted you, and you just... snapped?"
The small colt whimpered on the floor of his house, crying. His father was still holding him from earlier, the traces of a single tear line still lingering on his cheek.
"I-I'm so sorry, dad..." the colt whispered.
"Digit," Hammer Hoof sighed, running a hoof through his own mane. This wasn't good. His son had sent three colts to the hospital simply because they'd called him a couple names! His son had never struck anypony before, but all of a sudden...
He was aware his son had been picked on for his eyes before, for only having a father with him, but it was obviously starting to be an issue now.
"Tell you what," Hammer said. His son perked up.
"Don't think you're off the hook at all," he started, "but... I suppose we could go and get you contacts first thing in the morning."
The colt cocked his head.
"Contacts?"
"Colored contacts," Hammer explained to his son. "That way nopony will make fun of your eyes anymore."
"I guess... Mom didn't like these eyes either..."
Hammer coughed slightly at the words.
"Excuse me?"
"I... I remember her saying my eyes were stupid..." the colt whimpered.
"No, Digit, your eyes- they aren't stupid, they're..." he stumbled for a word to use, a good word to describe them.
"Unique," he finally decided. "Just like you."
"You really think so?" his son asked, unimpressed but hopeful.
"You know it," Hammer said again while pulling his son into another tight hug.
"Just promise me that you'll never, ever get into another fight. Can you promise me that?"
"I promise, dad."
I snapped back to reality, looking around. I was still in the front office waiting room. I glanced down; the newspaper article I was reading had a few tear marks scattered over it. It took me wiping the edges of my eyes to realize they were mine.
"We can't just drop the news on him just like that..."
I caught the straying whisper of Mrs. Dread from behind the door to her office.
What were they talking about? Were they talking about... me? Were they discussing what they wanted to talk to me about?
Curiosity got the better of me and pulled me towards the door, which was barely cracked open.
"I love you, daddy!" the little colt said happily as the two of them, him and his father, strolled out of the eye glasses shop. The colt was wearing a brand new pair of contacts which were cast with a simple chameleon spell, making them look as though he had normal, powerful blue eyes. Just like his dad's.
"I love you too, son. Now we look just that much more alike!" Hammer bellowed, snatching his son up and tossing him onto his back, where his son cackled happily.
"Will we be together forever, dad?" he asked, hugging his father's back tightly.
"You bet'cha, son!" Hammer Hoof promised.
I pressed my ear up the the gap the door left, breathing quietly so as to be able to hear what they were saying better.
"How will we tell him, then?" Mrs. Dread said. "It's not as though he can just waltz on home, not anymore! He hardly has a home worth returning to, now!"
"Correction, he has no home at all. It was... er, damaged too far to be usable any more. We'll have to rebuild something there."
"Speaking of which, didn't you mention earlier that the city library needed to be relocated somewhere more central to town?"
"Well, at least we have that problem fixed! We can clear to rubble up and move the library there, but..."
"What do we tell him about... you know... his father...?"
I pushed open the door gently, shaking slightly. This couldn't be happening. My house, damaged bad enough to no longer be usable?! Being hesitant to tell me something?! And my dad?!
All eyes in the room suddenly shrank to pinpricks as I stood in the now open doorway. I was visibly shaking, sweating even.
"What happened to my dad?"