Acid sits on a stool at his workbench in the garbage. He has a pair of goggles over his eyes as he tinkers with a new set of metal wings for Film. He periodically stretches the wings out to see how they react to the new additions.
He sits back and sighs as he takes off his goggles. He stretches, cracking his back and legs. He lays limp in the chair as he hears the front door open. His ear twitches into the direction of the sound as he sits up. Film walks into the house with a slight frown on his face. He closes the door quietly as he starts to walk towards his room.
Avichai sits on the couch with a bottle of alcoholic apple cider. His face was in slit anger as he read the newspaper. Film walks by, trying to act as small as possible.
"Please don't ask, please don't ask," Film thinks. He starts to get happy as he almost makes it to the hallway, but the voice of his dad rings out. Stopping him in his spot.
"Are you going to walk by without saying hello?" Avichai asks with a slight slur and a bigger smile than he would normally have.
"Hello dad," Film says, putting a fake smile on and waving to him before he quickly starts to walk away, but again his dad's voice boomed out, stopping him in his step.
"It's report card day," That's all that leaves his mouth. Film understood quite well what his dad meant. Film drops his bag on the ground and pulls out the little yellow card from his bag. He walks over to his dad and hands it to him.
Film watches and waits for the potential backlash. Avichai looks over the card, his smile turning into a frown as his eyes go over the paper. "Film Chai Wheel," Avichai's face distorts into anger as he says Film's name in disgust.
Film looks down at the ground as his heart raises in his chest. "How did you manage to get a D minus in PE!" Avichai yells at Film. Film flinches from the loud sound of his father's angry voice. Acid cringes a bit when he hears his dad's angry voice.
"I-i can't do most of the stuff they can.." Film tries to explain itself. Avi sighs as he keeps reading the report card. Acid sneaks up to the corner of the hallway and peeks into the living room.
"You're doing ok," Avi says, handing back the report card. "I just wish you could take your education more seriously. Look at your brother, he's not the best at psychical stuff, but he has the mind of a twenty year old mechanic."
"I'm not like him," Film says under his breath.
"Speak up when you are talking to someone Film," Avichai says sternly.
"I'm not like him!" Film yells at his dad. Surprising his father and Acid. "I like theater! I want to be a play writer! And.." Film's confidence slowly dies as he watches his father's face get angry.
"Unless you get a cutie mark in it, then it's not what you should be focusing on!" Avichai yells at Film. Film and Acid flinch in unison. "Go to your room and do your school work. We'll call you out for dinner,"
Film turns around and starts slowly walking towards his bag with his ears against his head as Acid runs down the hallway.
"Come on, think of something to cheer him up," Acid thinks as he slides to a stop at the garage door. He sees something that makes him smile. "Perfect," Acid whispers to himself before he runs into the garage.
(Slight Time Skip)
Film opens the door to his room before closing it slowly. He then drops his bag at the door and angrily jumps on his bed.
"It's not right!" Film yells into a pillow. "Why does he have his talent and I don't! Why must I be compared to him!" Film punches his bed in anger. Tears start to flow out of his eyes as he buries his head into the pillow. The tears soaking his pillow.
He rolls over to his side, with his blurry eyes he spots something in the middle of the room he sware was not there a few seconds ago. He sits up and whips his eyes to see better. Standing in the center of the room was a portable punching bag. Taped to the side of it was a note. Film stands up and jumps off his bed. He slowly walks over to the bag as he squints to read the note.
Acid opens the door slightly, just enough for his eye to look into the room. He watches as Film reads the note, a small smile forming on Film's face.
"Dear little bro. I know you aren't strong, fast, or even close to as smart as I am. But I love you no matter what. Have this to get rid of your anger in a decent manner," Film smiles as he takes the note off and places it on his bed. Film looks at the punching bag in slit confusion. Acid watches patiently as Film looks over the bag.
"AAAHHHHH!" Film yells, punching the bag square in the center. The bag goes forward before flying back and slapping him in the face. This causes him to get angry at the bag. He stands up on two legs. His back foot slides out from under him, but he repositions himself. Film then starts punching the bag as hard as he can. Acid smiles at himself as he walks away from the door.
(Time Skip)
Acid and Film walk out of the hallway into the dining room. Glass was setting the table with food as the two brothers walked up to the table. They sit down next to each other as Avi walks in, still slightly drunk but a lot less angry than the earlier, and sits across from Acid. Film shifting uncomfortable at the sight of his father.
Film looks down at the crack in the wooden table as Glass sits down across from Film. She passes out the food with her magic. Acid picks up the fork with his magic as Film grabs his plate as potatoes and peas are placed on his plate.
Film starts eating as Acid uses his fork instead of his face. Glass passes over two pill bottles to Acid and Film as Avi gets his food. Acid grabs a pill from the bottle as Film notices his bottle. Acid puts the pill in his mouth and takes a swig of water. Film grabs his bottle and does the exact same thing as Acid just did.
The two then get back to eating as Glass starts eating her food. The family eats in silence for a while. The clicking of forks to plates and plates hitting the table ring out into the room. Glass shifts awkwardly in the silence.
"So, how was school?" Glass asked awkwardly to the brothers. Acid looks up at his mother with a smile.
"It was great, the first semester ended and I got my perfect report card back," Acid says happily before taking a bite of his potatoes. Glass smiles and a small one forms on Avi's face before Glass turns to Film.
"How was your day?" Glass asks him. He keeps his eyes pointed down at the plate as he thinks. He swallows some spit in his throat before looking up at her and speaking.
"I got a C plus in everything and got a D minus in PE.." Film says, drifting off from his sentence and waiting for her to yell. Avichai grimises as his mussels tense.
"It's ok, not all of us can be smart," Glass says, trying to raise his spirits.
"I don't understand how he failed PE," Avichai says grumpily to himself.
"Not everyone can be great at physical activities, especially him with his wings," Glass snaps back at Avichai. The stallion flinches at his wife's response. The kids go wide-eyed at her snappy response.
The group of boys look at her in shock at her normal, soft, and caring demeanor now gone. Now replaced with a sturn hard look at her husband. The shock wears off from Avichai as his face turns into anger. He grits his teeth as his face turns red. The brothers slowly started sinking into their seats till they couldn't go any further.
"There is still no way to fail PE! It's the easiest class!" Avichai yells at Glass.
"He didn't fail! He got a D minus, that's still good," Glass yells, but her voice slowly starts lowering back to normal.
"D minus is too low for a PE grade!" Avichai keeps yelling at her. The two kids slip away without either parent realizing.
(Time Skip)
"This is all my fault," Film says, face planting into his pillow. The soft cloud-like pillow muffled his voice from his brother following him to his bed. Acid sits next to him and wraps his arms around Film's body. Acid then nuzzles his cheek against the top of his brother's head.
"It's not," Acid whispers into Film's ear.
"Yes, it is," Film retorts, lifting his face from the pillow to look at his brother. Tears flowing down Film's face, his eyes already turning red. "If I was never born, I would not get a bad grade, if I didn't get a bad grade, our parents would not be fighting!" Film then pushes his face back into the pillow. "Everything would be better if I never lived," His muffled voice barely came to Acid's ears.
Acid sits there, rubbing his brother's back as he tries to think of a thing, a sentence, even a word to help him. Then, it comes to him like a flood of emotion.
"Don't say that!" Acid yells, startling Film enough to look up at Acid. Acid places his forehead against Film's and stares straight into his eyes. Film getting lost in his brother's bright orange eyes. Acid staring into Film with determination and love unlike Film had ever seen from him.
"You are my younger brother, without you, I would not have found engineering. Who would laugh at my bad puns? Who would pick me up when I fall! Who would have stood up to me back in primary school when we had the same school!" Acid asks, shouting at Film. Trying to star into his brother's soul to find any spark of light left deep in his brother. Film's mind wraps around the memoirs as he starts to feel bad about himself.
"You write great stories and amazing plays!" Acid says, pulling away and flinging a hoof in the air for emphasis. "In fact," Acid points at Film. "Tell me the new play you have been writing," Acid says with a smile before sitting there patiently like a dog. His tail swaying back and forth over the edge of the bed.
Film is taken aback by the sudden change of demeanor. "Y-you really mean it?" Film asks, sitting up. Acid knobs as a small smile forms on Film's face. He jumps off the bed and dives into one of his drawers and pulls out a little book titled Writing Passions. Film jumps back onto the bed before opening the book.
"I've been working on a new story for a bit, it's called Barriers." Film says, skimming to the first chapter of the story. Acid sits there and waits patiently for Film to start reading.
"Chapter 1, Cantorlot can be a scary place for a little pony, especially when a unicorn that seems to not have much potential at magic is transferred to Celestia's School for gifted Unicorns." Film started to read. The words slowly merge into one as an Acid listens.
Acid smiles as he sees his brother's smile slowly growing as he continues to read. The words mean nothing anymore as they blur together. Acid's eyes start to water as a flood of emotions starts to build up inside him like a dam.
After a bit, Acid jumps forward and hugs Film. Film flinches from the sudden touch as he drops the book onto the bed. Film looks at Acid in shock. Acid looks up at Film with a smile and tears rolling down his eyes before nuzzling into his brother's neck. Film relaxes and smiles before hugging back and nuzzling into the top of Acid's head.
The two stay like that, nothing but each other's embrace mattering at that moment. Neither of them are thinking about grades or their parents. They just sit there and enjoy the comfort of their other half's warm body. The tears ran down Acid's cheek and onto Film's shoulder.
"T-thank you," Acid says into Film's shoulder. Film is surprised by the gesture.
"What are you thanking me for?" Film asks in genuine confusion. "I should be thanking you," Acid pulls away and looks at Film with a big smile.
"For being the best younger bro a brother could ever ask for," Acid says as he wipes his eyes. Standing at the door watching them is Avi with a sad expression. He turns and walks away and down the hallway to the kitchen.
He grabs a small silver coin from the coffee table as he passes by before walking into the kitchen where Glass was washing dishes. Avi places the silver coin down on the counter next to Glass before taking a few steps away from it. Glass stops the water and looks between the coin and Avi in confusion. Avi looked down at the ground, ashamed to look at his wife.
"That's your drinking token," Glass says, taking the coin in her hooves.
"I want you to keep it as far away from me as possible," Avi says, still looking down at the ground. The cracks in the tile are now more interesting than ever. Glass looks at the token in her hoof and then looks back up at Avi, who had now turned and started to walk away. Glass watches as her husband slowly walks away.