Promises: These are their stories

It was flurrying one bitter January day in Southville 2019. Outside its city limits, yet still within Canterlot County, stood a secluded, massive Titanium castle on a hill. Inside resided a young woman and her babies.

Linka Santiago laid across a velvet couch watching local news from an 86” television in the apartment, er room that she shared with her husband and children.

“Loud” complained one month old Joey Santiago. The infant had thick, jet black hair with several streaks of random white across her scalp. Joey's olive skin was inherited from her father, but her eyes were her mother’s shade of sea blue. She even had a few freckles.

Joey’s twin brother, Ronaldo Santiago ll, stared at their snow hair colored mother, signaling that he was in agreement with Joey’s protest. This little boy had ice colored hair, darker ivory skin, and his father’s gorgeous caramel eyes. Even after all that Linka had encountered during these last five months, she still could not get over the sounds of her babies already speaking

Heh, it’s funny that she just blurted out my maiden name. But I can’t believe I didn’t think that Equestria’s magic would affect unborn humans that much. I am just glad they didn’t suffer any physical ailments despite being stressed and refusing to sleep for more than 12 hours after being locked in and birthed in… a small, ugly, cold windowless room for almost 48 hours.

Linka was seeing a dedicated female counselor who would visit her in the castle once a week to help her get rid of the nightmares. Zecora was able to make safe, natural remedies that would assist in somewhat alleviating her mood. The 13 year old grabbed a sheet from on top of a storage drawer that contained an unfinished crossword puzzle.

Whose idea was it to make the spelling of the word “Deer” consistent regardless of the plural? “The deer attempted to trample 17 vehicles on the highway”

“Mama!” Cried Jr. urgently.

The 13 year old youth put her paper down too look at her son. The baby was staring at the TV with fear. An exclusive report announced that a certain man in his early 30s sporting surprisingly simple clothes and a casual hairstyle…. was turning himself in. He was about to speak when Linka gasped at the recognition of his face.

It was Joshua, AKA. Silver Swirl…the man who seemed determined to experiment on her children before receiving a text from…someone that day. Links remembered how Joshua's face was full of disbelief when he read it, then it turned a ghostly shade of pale. He proceeded to remove any and all lab equipment from the room, before pulling the curtains apart and..opening the door.

Linka had to continue resting for a few hours, and the man disappeared without a word. The 13 year old went to see what the odd building’s other rooms contained. She found her cellphone in one of them, despite its SIM card being outside of it. She was able to call the police, and Rainbow Dash was accompanied by the rest of the Gang for operation “take a private jet and rescue Linka from a random island”. The young woman couldn’t think of any reason why Joshua would agree to face civil lawsuits and likely jail time for abuse of geneticist license.

On television, it was announced that his hearing would be scheduled a week from now.
When reporters asked for Joshua's logic behind his decision to turn himself in, he was vague, but said something about a very personal revelation coming to light. In the natural setting, Linka realized how light his cream-colored hair was. When the camera zoomed towards Joshua's face, his arch shaped eyebrows and roundish nose became defined. The young woman herself happened to have very similar features. “What are the odds of resembling a stranger from another dimension, but not my own father?

Lynn Sr. Had Curly brown hair, Thick smooth eyebrows and a pointy nose.

Coincidences have happened to you before, this is nothing unusual. Linka tried to remind herself.

But why was Joshua not admitting to kidnapping her? He knew that she and the rest of the gang were watching the news. Speaking of which, Linka heard loud footsteps and doors creak open.

“I don’t think that Linka should even leave the village yet! How can I let that scum retraumatize her before a month has even passed!?” Ranted Ronaldo Sr. in Frustration.

“This is not about what you think! It’s what Linka’s willing to do. She knows self-defense and is a mother now for god's sake, so she's no longer a helpless child! ” snapped Pinkpoint.

“That’s not the point! I left her and my children in your care just because I…!”

“ YOU STILL THINK I BECAME CARELESS on PURPOSE!??” Bellowed the princess before clenching her fists.

Ronaldo Sr. realized how hot the air was that was expelling from his nose. He knew it was wrong to blame the young monarch for what happened, but he could still not believe how this freaking kid knew exactly which of his buttons to push. Pinkpoint remembered how the news also mentioned that Jezebel was using her magic to reverse the man-made experimental fail’s affect on the children. It was not okay to be so negative and automatically assume that Joshua was up to no good.

******************************************************

Linka, Ron, and the others took a jet to North City. The twins were left in the care of a nanny. Linka felt mostly ok until she stepped inside the courthouse. Her palm started to sweat, and the air was suffocating due to the blasting heater.. Linka let go of Ron’s hand, and she entered the room filled with witnesses and paparazzi. When She finally made eye contact with Joshua, he gave her an “I am sorry, but please wait look.”

The judge declared that he was to pay at least 200,000 bits in damages within a month, and he was sentenced to a year of community service. After a public apology, he carefully approached Linka and Ron. The 14 year old young man stepped in front of his wife protectively and glared at the man like a dog ready to bite. Linka put her hands on his shoulder and demanded that he breathe and listen to whatever Joshua had to say.

“What I need to tell you guys is really important. It would be hard for you guys to forgive if you had to find out some other way…so let’s go somewhere where your friends can still see you, but outside the public’s ears.”

Ronaldo was about to say something, but Linka agreed right away, beating him to it. As the three went down a hall, they noticed that Applebloom could be seen outside a storage room window. She gasped when she turned around and spotted the trio. Linka and Ron gave her a “Don’t worry” look, and entered the room, with Joshua following behind them. He shut the door slowly.

“June 18, 2005” muttered the man in a soft but chilling voice.

“I don’t understand,” said Linka confused.

“When I was 17, I had already got my masters in genetics…I knew I had the potential to help change the world drastically, but I was bound by so many rules and regulations wherever I tried to work. Because of what happened to my family, I needed to find a way to make humans less fragile. That’s when I met Jezebel…” Linka and Ron raised their eyebrows. Was this the same Jezebel who was using her magic to help Dimension EQG??

She told me that she was a sorceress who was able to travel to six different dimensions for 24 hours. I didn’t believe her at first, but then she threw me across a portal, and that's when I landed in what is apparently the 63rd dimension.

“Just get to the point already,” interrupted Ronaldo Sr.

Linka elbowed him, and Joshua continued.

“I realized that it was risk-free for me to experiment with humans from another dimension. So Jezebel helped me rob donated sperm from banks, and I would alter their properties. But at that time, I also decided to freeze my own sperm since I decided to later on get sterilized at 18 years old. On the particular June day I mentioned, Jezebel went scouting and informed me of a 26 year old highly fertile woman in the United States Midwest who already birthed five children…”

Linka felt the sweat on her neck grow cold. Why..did that description match her mother Rita back in 2005??

“Anyway, I knew she was likely going to give birth to a normal healthy baby that could be compared to many of their siblings, so…when this woman went to the orthodontist for crown surgery, Jezebel forged a medical ID for me. I posed as a surgeon and declared that I discovered complications with the surgery that needed to be resolved. So then I snuck in what I thought was donor sperm to…”

“ What…was her name?” Asked Linka. She realized that whatever he was going to say would make no sense or maybe even…

“Rita Loud,” said the man in a scratchy voice hardly above a whisper.

Linka felt anger boiling inside her. This was a sick joke. She should have never paid attention to him after the hearing, much less drag her husband into this!

“That’s how you were conceived…the fact that your biological father was born in this dimension explains many things, including why your hair is white, and why…”

Linka fumed and clenched her teeth.

“Lynn Loud l is my father! It doesn’t matter that he made mistakes. I have even forgiven him for when he agreed to help my mother give my babies up for adoption, which was the reason why Ron and I had to-“

Linka stopped and bit her lip in frustration. Why did she tell him this!? She withheld this information when she was held hostage, despite Joshua trying to pry. The man looked concerned but continued.

“The point is that someone who worked for us started disagreeing with our methods of experiment, and decided it was a good idea to switch the labels from the donor sperm that we intended to use…and mine.”

No..No..No..NO!! This couldn’t be happening! He was NOT about to say that he was…

“I had intended to observe every one of these women's children that I had helped inseminate after 18 years. Jezebel eventually announced several months ago that we were now able to hide out in other dimensions for an infinite amount of time. She knew it was risky to kidnap a youth after I had already begun to do real harm in this dimension, but I insisted after realizing how peculiar the situation was.

She took some of your blood for observation, and after enough hours passed she was able to get results from the DNA. She texted me while you were in labor. That’s when I found out that-

“NO! You can’t be! Why would..!??” screeched Linka. Her head started to throb and she felt nauseous. Hot tears threatened to run down her eyes.

“I am your biological father, and twins are my grandchildren. I’ll give you legal proof if need it.”

Linkas head spun with memories as she opened the door to run towards the bathroom. It all made sense now. She knew deep down that she was different from her brothers, her half brothers in more ways that anybody knew, but no one could have suspected that she wasn't her father's daughter. Her mother Rita hardly had time for ANYTHING those days, much less a hypothetical “affair.” Linka entered the bathroom, slumped down against the wall, and cried. After 15 minutes she regained her composure.

Linka realized above anything else that she..needed her family more than ever before. The young woman's babies had absolutely no one who was related to them in this world other than Ron, the father she never knew, and herself. Links was suddenly in the mood to know everything about Joshua’s life, and what could have made him the person he is today. When she trudged down the hallway once more, Ron, her father, and the rest of the gang were patiently waiting for her at the end.

“Oh my gosh!” Cried Sweetie Belle with a look of shock and excitement. “Is it TRUE??”

“Yes, it is” Linka replied with a half-smile.

“Well, I dare say that you’ve come all this way just to be reminded of what you can’t escape” chuckled Applebloom.

Pinkpoint had a wrinkled nose, and Scooter Flame wasn't all so attentive. Pinkie Pie was crying, and Rainbow Dash just smiled.

*******************************************************

A few weeks had passed. Joshua was warmly welcomed by his grandchildren, especially Joey. The man revealed to his Linka and his.. son-in-law that he lost his parents and siblings in a car accident. The parents of Joshua's father were dead, and his mother was very distant from hers. His first foster parents were planning to adopt him at age five but changed their minds when the wife became pregnant.

Joshua kept on being shuffled to different families, some of which were emotionally or physically abusive. He feared the idea of having children before the age of 40 or so. When Joshua was 16 years old, his girlfriend fell pregnant from someone else’s baby, yet tried to pin it on him. That’s when he decided it would be best to get sterilized young. Eventually, the man earned the trust of Linka and Ronaldo Sr.

“Why did you leave your family?” Joshua asked his 14 year old son-in-law one day.

After a moment, Ron answered.

“ It’s just that…*sighs* Ok, so to start off, my mom worked as a nurse and had a good life with my dad and sister, but she didn’t really want another kid. Her birth control failed, and she was two months along with me by the time she found out. My dad was spending a lot of time working in South America, and my sister Bella’s health wasn’t really good due to her having a compromised immune system. One day my father called and revealed that some emergencies came up, so he would have to stay in Chile for another month or so. My mom started requesting adoption forms and filling them out when my dad came back after SIX MONTHS.

She was very upset, and he was NOT happy with her either for planning to give his son away after birth. One day she opened a locked box that he owned. It turned out that he got engaged to a young girl back in Chile. My mom kicked him out and did everything in her power to keep him away from me. She ended up signing the last of the documents and was about to turn them into her lawyer when my grandmother found out she had another child. She ripped up the papers and convinced her to keep me.

Fast forward thirteen years later, I had to tell her about Linka’s pregnancy. She flat out smacked my face and berated me for becoming like my father. And I was kicked out, so that’s why I had to move in with Linka and her family.”

“I am sorry you had to go through that,” Joshua replied.

“I kind of grew up feeling inferior to my sister. She was so responsible and community-driven. I had my passions, but-” he paused.

“Anyway, when I was about 11 years old, my mom realized how much of my own person I was becoming. She got the bright idea to make us move to Chicago with her parents, my uncle, aunt, and cousins for support. I heard my grandmother arguing with her one day. My mother was like, ‘You should have taken him in if you insisted against him being raised by strangers!’ And my grandma said that she didn’t have to let us live with them, but she was doing it for my sake. My mom was eager to move out after the fire though, and she was ok for a while until..you know”

The young couple and Joshua continued to watch the sky on the balcony at marvel at the February night stars.