A Christmas without a Claus
It was that time of year again. When even more happiness than usual was spread towards all the town.
Many ponies were setting up decorations, clouds packed with snow were placed in the sky.
Verses of 'Hearth Warming is here once again' was being sung throughout the town,
After all Hearth Warming Eve was a few days away.
Despite the coolness of winter, there was still a warmth that was being felt by most everypony around.
Featherweight was fidgeting with his camera in front of his school. He was supposed to take pictures for the annual Hearth Warming album, a tradition that has kept been since Ponyville's founding. But he did volunteered for this so he shouldn't really complain.
He put away his camera in his saddle bag, then stomped into the snow, it had clung to him as he walked through it.
The 'Cutie Mark Crusaders' ran past him.
"What do you think we ask Claus Hoof for this year?" Sweetie Bell asked Scooterloo
"Mmm ... oh stronger wheels for my scooter" Scooterloo answered
They then ran out of earshot of Featherweight, so he did not hear the rest of the conversation.
There were many things that were sure in Featherweight's mind; the sun will always rise and set (except for that one time), the Princesses will always be around, Claus Hoof will always give gifts to all the good fillies and colts.
Although, the journalistic side of him did wonder, why the stories about Claus hoof was almost never consistent. Some foals say he is an alicorn or that he has lived since the beginning of time, some say he's a unicorn who was given magic powers. Some say he's old, other say he's young.
Featherweight found himself lost in thought on his way home. Then when he came to his house those thoughts, just like the snow seemed to have drifted away. Featherweight opened the door, seeing his father Heavyweight, sweep the floor with a broom.
His father might as well have been an alternate version of Featherweight, He was a buff and bulky kind of pony. It didn't help that he had the same mane and coat color as his son. Although he didn't have the same mane style as Featherweight, instead his hair was long and braided. His cutie mark was a wrestling heavyweight champion belt.
True to his cutie mark, he was the reigning wrestling champion for ten and half years earning a spot on the Equestrian World Record. It would have been more to if he hadn't landed strangely on his front right hoof so bad, that he had it have replaced with a fake hoof, which had made him limp everywhere he went.
"Oh, hey son how was school?" He called
"Okay" Featherweight answered. He was just about to go to his room, when his dad said
"Feather, I have bad news? Your mom is not going to be here in time for Hearts Warming"
"What? Really!" Featherweight sounding completely disappointed "She's not coming back from her business trip from Chimare?"
Featherweight sadly sighed
In the evening there was a knock on the door. Maybe mom did make it this year
"MOM!" Featherweight called as he zoomed to get the door.
Opening the door his smiled dropped. Instead of his mother, he saw a mare that was kind of familiar to him. The chocolate brown pegasus mare with mustard brown colored hair picked up and nuzzled him.
"Sweet tap dancing Luna! Look at you Featherweight. The last time I saw you, you were in diapers." She said with glee
Seeing the confused look on his face.
"Oh You didn't recognize me, I'm your aunt Courtly." She closed the door.
Featherweight suddenly remembered when he asked his dad his Cutie mark story. He showed Feather pictures of 'Courtly' when they were both little. His dad said that they wrestled when they were foals and she would always win. Then he trained and beat her one day and got a cutie mark.
"You beat dad when you were small?!" Featherweight said with shock.
Courtly let out a hearty laugh "Oh, that was such a long time ago Feather. But yeah, there was time when I could out wrestle him"
Courtly then looked sourly at something behind him. Featherweight turned and saw two foals that were a bit younger than him. One a filly and other a colt, they both stood by the fireplace warming themselves.
"Twirl a Whirl, Forger! How rude! You should at least introduce yourselves to your cousin before you barge into their house" she scolded
"Sorry mom" they said in unison
"Forger" greeted the tan brown earth pony colt
"Twirl a Whirl, but you can call me Whirly" explained the silver colored pegasus filly
"Featherweight"
"Hey Courts" Heavyweight came and gave her a long hug "It has been forever hasn't it."
"Let me guess you had enough of her haven't you"
"Oh Celestia, yes" Courtly said face hoofing herself in frustration
"She still thinks I'm not good enough for her 'little colt', I swear that even if I could have rise the sun and it wouldn't be enough for her"
"So he had to go there, don't he"
"Arg, I never hear the end of it if he didn't" Courtly then said with mocking tone "You won't let me see him." "Why are you making a dear, sweet mother like me worry" She ended her rant with a deep sigh of defeat.
They put their thick winter gear away.
Featherweight found it a bit odd that Courtly and Forger both had a hammer on their cutie mark. Although Courtly's hammer looked different than Forger.
"Auntie Courtly, why does that hammer look different?"
"Oh, it's a gavel sweetie. It's something a judge uses, which is what my job is"
"But Miss Cheerilee said the Princesses usually are the judges in court"
Courtly ruffled Featherweight's hair "Yes that is true, but they are higher up, judges like me work in small local civil suits."
Featherweight didn't really understand but pretended like he did.
"Why don't you all go play, Heav and I have some catching up to do" Courtly suggested.
"Okay" the foals said in unison
So the foals decided that they would play hide and seek. Featherweight decided to hide in the kitchen pantry. He heard his dad and aunt came into the kitchen. Featherweight was not really paying attention to what they were talking about, it sounded like boring adult stuff.
That was until he heard something life changing
"...I told my kids that Claus Hoof isn't real"
It was at that moment, he felt like somepony knocked the wind out of him,
Then he heard his dad and aunt move out of the kitchen.
He had to find out more
He saw them go to the living room and sat in separate chairs in the living room.
He hid out of their sight
"What? Really?" Featherweight's dad whispered
"Well, yeah ponies lie to me all the time in court, I couldn't do the same to my kids. I decided to tell them from the get-go that he doesn't exist." Aunt Courtly explained in a whispered tone.
"Does Feather still believe?
"Yeah"
"Alright, I won't say anything"
Featherweight ears pinned to the side "It's not true"
Featherweight sadly walked from the kitchen to the dining room table
"Found you," Twirl A Whirl gleefully said
Featherweight completely ignored her and went up the stairs.
"I didn't think you would be that sad about it. You should have found a better place to hide" Twirl A Whirl called out
Featherweight went to his room in total denial. It just couldn't be possible Claus Hoof had to be real. However, doubt started to creep into him.
What else was he lied about?
Was the tooth mare still real?
Wait...
Featherweight remembered he that kept a baby tooth that had fallen out just recently. He even recalled showing his tooth to his father, he then toldFeatherweight to put his tooth under his pillow for the tooth mare.
But Featherweight saved it
Featherweight looked all over around his desk until he found it.
An experiment was in order
Featherweight then hid the tooth under the pillow
He then went down had dinner, not mentioning a word about the tooth.
Author's Note
Chimare= China
Did I just steal a character's name from Ace Investigations 2 ?
Psff What? Of course not.
But really I couldn't think of a better name for a judge character
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Would you believe that Featherweight was not my first choice for this story, it going be a random filly then I saw the Featherweight tag thought why not?
Also, the tooth fairy thing was something that did happen to me. I moved to American when I was about seven. I wasn't really told about tooth fairy until I came to the states and heard it from the other kids. So I tested it and found the tooth was not taken. It wasn't until later I found that I was supposed to tell my parents about putting a tooth there.
