A pony's soul is controlled by its state of mind
Author's Note
Before anyone reads the story I know im not a professional and I know there will be grammar errors and run ons left and right.
A pony's soul is controlled by its state of mind
EbonyGlow is on a fast pace home after running into his father for first time in years. Hot on his tracks the father called out "Wait! Shining slow down I just want to talk to you!" Ebony didn't respond he just kept running dipping through local neighborhoods and creeks, Ebony was determined to make it home and just go to sleep. Sleeping meant that Ebony didn't need to be awake and that time would sleep by faster. But for now he was too concerned about his father.
EbonyGlow finally cried out "Just leave me alone! I'm not ShiningLight anymore so do me a favor and BACK THE HELL OFF!" The father slowed down to a trot as Ebony disappeared into the night. EbonyGlow looked back as he saw his fathers head drop and slowly walk the other way.
Ebony was a little unsure where he was. He climbed a nearby tree and notice a small house surrounded by a stone wall and many stone objects. It was his friend's house he approached the door and gave a faint knock. "Yes? Who is it? If its about business I'm closed for today please come back tomorrow." Ebony didn't answer he just knocked again. The stallion then approached the door grabbing it tightly he yanked the door open in mad fury "I said Go AW-". Ebony curled up on the doormat shaking fearing that he was going to strike him. "Ebony its just you.... I'm sorry lad I meant no harm. Please come in grab yourself a drink and relax."
Ebony straightened up and walked into the stallions hut. "Thanks Cleaver I'm just so tired after all that running." Ebony grabbed a beer from the fridge and sat down on a nearby stone slab.
Flashback
Cleaver was a Mason and was often hired to either fix chimneys or headstones for local morgues and churches. Cleaver lost his baby sister to a serious disease in Eastern Manehatten 3 years ago, the doctors refused him from seeing her from fear of infection. He persisted on the matter and the doctors lended him a hazmat suit. Inside was the sole reason his life went downward. His sister not even out of grade school was coughing mass amounts of blood. Cleaver ran to his sister who was connected to IV lines and suction cables. Her eyes scrambled as if they were searching for something in desperation her mouth oozing vomit and blood, body looked beaten and pulverized. The doctor explained to him that she fell unconscious on a flight of stairs and had a brutal seizure. Ill prepared a teacher had grabbed held her body still trying to keep her from spazzing but little did he know that during a seizure even the lightish of touches could hurt someone dearly and her ribs had snapped on contact. When the doctors finally got to her body started to rip itself apart muscles everywhere clenched, teeth chattering, pupils dilated, bowels loosened, body functions rampant attacking the body. The doctors said they had never seen anything like this before. Everyone was panicking until a loud -THUD- was heard coming from the operating table. The filly had stopped moving she was flat-lining the doctors try to bring her back but nothing.........she was dead. During the funeral reception he refused to speak horrified by what he saw and the loss of his sister and driven him to a lost state of mind. After the burial Cleaver decided he needed some time alone and walked home. Along the walk he saw a leg sticking out of a alleyway, he rushed over to see a colt laying in a pool of his own blood.
"H-hel-help....." The black Colt cried out.
Still stricken with fear Cleaver just wanted to turn and run but when he turned he immediately turned scooped the Colt up and dashed for the local hospital. Cleaver was distracted as the Colt's breathing got slower. Cleaver reached the hospital "DOCTOR! I need a doctor somepony help!"
A doctor ran over "My Celestia... Get the emergency room up NOW! Whats the name of the patient." A nurse approached and lifted the colt off of Cleaver's back.
Cleaver watched as the nurse placed him on a bed spring and rushed him to ER "I dunno I found him on the side of the road he looked extremely beaten and cut. Almost as if he had been mugged and left to die." Cleaver left the doctor and waited for the injured colt's status.
Hours had passed finally the doctor came out and approached Cleaver. Cleaver jumped up "How is he doing doc? Is he okay?" The doctor smiled to Cleaver.
"He'll be fine if you would like you can speak with him. We cant find out much about him and he's a bit depressing I mean I would be too if I was just attacked and left too die." Cleaver was hesitant at first but agreed to follow the doctor to the Colt. The door opened a the black colt moved towards the window in a attempt to throw himself out of it. Cleaver grabbed his tail and threw him to the floor.
"What were you thinking!? Are you trying to kill yourself?" Exclaimed the white mason.
"Whats the point in living if your not even strong enough to defend your own beliefs?" The Colt said while staring at the ground.
Cleaver took in his breath "what is your name?"
The colt was hesitant at first but stated "EbonyGlow, dark poet".
"What were you defending and against who?"
Ebony just looked up and tears started to form "My existence in this god forsaken hell hole of a world!" Ebony sagged his head in shame still weeping.
Cleaver understood his pain why live when all you had is gone? Cleaver did the only thing he knew how to do and that was a quick jab across the snout. "Do you think existence is a thing that guide our lives. We all live in this world to embrace the hells of this world we call home nothing ever stopped us from being who we are from doing the things that need to be done. I just left my baby sisters funeral I watched her die......" The stallion started to tear up ".....I-I didn't.....even get to say ..good...goodbye." His body hit the floor.
"Embrace the hells of this world? How well have you've done in embracing these hells as you crash and fall into desperation like me and my existence?" Ebony said with a stern look in his eye.
"I haven't given up on life yet."
"No no you haven't........ thank you for saving me."
"No problem...... are you still gonna kill yourself?" Cleaver asked as he wiped the tears off his face.
"No..... I don't even think I was gonna jump out that window."
"Why not?" Cleaver asked as if he actually cared why.
"I'm scared of heights." The black stallion said with a chuckle in his voice."You know what screw this I'm thirsty you want to go get a beer?"
Cleaver humored by his comment agreed to the invite and later became friends with the emotionally scarred pony he saves.
Present Time
Cleaver sat next to him with a beer in his hoof. "Running? From what this time?." his head cocked staring at Ebony.
"My father...." Ebony said as he rested his drink on his leg. "I don't get it how did he find me?"
Cleaver was interested now. "Your father? Here? I thought he and your family lived in Fillydelphia?"
"They do.... but when I got off work today I passed by the train station and there he was standing there waving to me. I started walking the other way but he called out for me and I ran I didn’t have the courage to talk to him after I left the way I did. I lost him just a minute ago.”
“What happened to make you not want to talk to him?” Cleaver asked as he set down his drink.
"It happened relatively 3 years ago a month before you found me. Our family used to be such a happy bright family me, my two brothers, my father and my mother. Until my mother passed away the toll took heavy on the family especially on my father he had to raise three kids by himself. I was the oldest of my brothers so when I became old enough my father insisted that I get a job and help raise my brothers." Ebony crushed the can in his hooves spilling beer all over his lap. "I refused I already had bought a house here in Manehattan and had tickets for the next train out. My father did not like this he grabbed me and threw me in the house stating that I owed him a lifetime of servitude for him taken care of me."
Cleaver interrupted the story and said "Servitude? He's your father it was his job to look at you."
"I know that but he didn't see it that way. I voiced my opinion against him. And the next thing I heard was the crack of his hoof against my jaw. He relentlessly beat me. My brothers tried to restrain him but he just through them aside and continued his attack on me. I had enough of his beating and ran for the door, I managed to make it out but he was quick on my tail along with my brothers. My younger brother doing his last year of high school ran my father down while my baby brother who was just starting high school was catching up with me. I made it too my train and handed the conductor my ticket my brother had stopped me and gave me a hug goodbye. I told him ill be back to see him one day. When he's all grown up and strong. He gave the cutest little sniffle and watched me off. I stood on the caboose deck and watched my two brothers walk off with my very angry and irritable father. The last I heard from them was that my father was no longer allowed to look after them and that both of them rented out an apartment together."
Cleaver leaned backwards "I can understand him being angry with you but not to the point of beating on you."
"Yeah me nether I guess I never thought about how stressful it was to take care of somebody alone." EbonyGlow grabbed another beer and continued "shortly after arriving here in Manehattan I had convinced myself that I had to make myself look tough so when this group of ponies stopped me at the station and demanded I hand over my money to them I opposed and they chased me for miles. I lost them and made it to my new home. The next day I made sure my father couldn't find me so I stopped by the courthouse and changed my name."
Cleaver chocked on some beer "......Changed your name? What was it before EbonyGlow?"
Ebony chugged hard on his drink and answered "ShiningLight....."
"ShiningLight? For a dark poet?"
"I wasn't always so dark I used to be happy blind to the whole world my smile brought smiles to my friends and my family. But when mother passed I slowly got more depressed and apparently one of the girls in my class didn't like this new me and rather than let me stay in the school she rather I get expelled then finish. So she had called the S.O on me for bringing knives and drugs to school the officers so this as a lie and arrest the girl for false claims. But she just smiled and told me that she wasn't trying to get me arrest as much as she wanted the whole school to make my life hell. Soon the whole school that I was suicidal teasing me bullying me, my own friends turned against me. I graduated alone and couldn't wait to get the hell out of there." Ebony looked a Cleaver with sad eyes "I saw him before I lost him his head sobbed to the ground and he walked away looking so sad."
"I know everything you told me was horrible, but maybe he came to make amends with you. If he was just here to hurt you do you think he would have stopped chasing you?" Cleaver said as he rested his hand on Ebony's shoulder.
Ebony smiled and said "Yea maybe your right. I'm gonna go look for him."
"Want me to tag along?"
"It would help if things go south."
"It won't though. Now come on where did you see him last?"
"I last saw him in the neighborhood over." The two headed out in search of Ebony's father. They searched neighborhood after neighborhood searching with no signs of him. "Where could he have gone?"
Cleaver pointed out at the horizon near the tracks a silhouette of a grey stallion walking along the tracks. "Is that him?"
"No way to know if we don't go after him." Ebony approached the stallion. "Father?"
The stallion jumped trying not to turn his head "Shining is that you?......w-what do you want I thought you told me to leave you the hell alone?" The stallion said as his head lowered to the ground.
Ebony stood firm and straightened his voice "What is it that you wanted father? Why did you come searching for me?"
Cleaver Standing far behind Ebony as to not stir something up silently sat there and listened.
"Why because your my son isn't that reason enough!?" Ebony was not amused kicking a rock on the track. giving his father a stern look as if there is more he's not telling him. The stallion stomped his hoof "Fine your brothers told me if I came and made amends with you they would accept me back into the family."
Ebony let out a disapproving sigh "you hurt me bad back then and I don't mean physically mentally too. My own father my last parent brutally attacked me and wanted to condemn me to servitude while my brothers were forced to watch. I will never make amends with you."
Cleaver opened his mouth "Ebony are you sure-"
"Yes I am!"
The stallion was mad "Your a worthless sack of shit you left your family behind. Y'know after you left I beat the shit out of your brother he was hospitalized and it was all because he helped you. You were the cause for his pain. You know no one in the family has health insurance I had to take a loan out to pay for 'his' medical bill. Then that little shit baby brother of yours called child services and they were taken out of my care and I was placed in jail. Me I was the one under attack it should have been your brother." The stallion got in a charging stance. "I don't need your approval I just gotta kill you and tell your brothers that you attacked me and later killed yourself!"
Ebony got in a defensive stand as Cleaver hurried forward and stood next to his friend.
The stallion laughed "You think you and you little friend can stop me! I'll just have to kill you both!." He charged after the sound of a train horn signaled an oncoming train. He rushed forward charging straight at Ebony.
Both Ebony and Cleaver both turned pulled their legs in and bucked his father across his mouth throwing him back some. "Father stay back and leave I don't want us to fight." Ebony cried out hoping his father would listen. He did not he fixated himself back into another charge. Before he leaped forward he was blinded by the light of the train and as it passed by a loud shot echoed through the area. When the train had passed its wheels hit a rock on the track and it shot and killed the mad stallion.
Scared and in disbelief of what just happened Ebony approached his fathers body "dad no...... why did you do it dad? Why did you hate me so much?" Ebony sat their moaning his fathers death while Cleaver comforted him. Ebony looked down and saw something clenched in his fathers hoof. Ebony reached down and grabbed it. It was a letter from his little brother it read.
"Steelshot and are willing to forgive you father, but before we can forgive you. We need you to restore the family find ShiningLight. He is now known as EbonyGlow he lives in a house on the outer edge of Manehatten find him and make things right." The letter had a picture of the family a long time ago before the death of their mother.
Ebony and cleaver left the stallions body by the tracks and each returned to their homes. Ebony placed the picture on the fridge and headed to bed. "I think its a good time to go see my brothers..." He wrote one last poem and went to sleep.
The night path carries the darkest of souls, but the moon's light can show you the holes.
