Chapter 11: All That Remains
“You… you know Broken…?” I say stunned.
Holy shit… I… I fucking found him… oh my god I found him…
“Where is he?!” I say, sounding excited and impatient.
“Calm down kid.” The stranger says. “He’s around here somewhere. Not far.” He puffs his cigarette.
“For the past two months I have been trying to find him. Now. Where is he?” I say.
I’m not in the mood for this. If he’s here tell me where the fuck he is.
“Like I said. He’s around. Now, can you tell me why you’ve been tracking him down?” He says.
I look at him untrustingly.
“He’s my best friend.” I tell him.
Though that’s not wrong… I view him as more than a friend.
“The ponies I traveled with are his friends too.” I say. “I want to bring him back.”
“Who says he wants to go with you?” He says to me, puffing at his cancer stick.
What is this asshole getting at? Is he seriously telling me that… he might not even come with me? No. No no no no no. He’s lying… he has to be.
“I’ve been looking for him for two MONTHS.” I say to him.
“Yeah well, I’ve been traveling with him for two months.” He says to me back.
“Well I’ve been through a lot more with him than you have in two months.” I argue.
“And your point is?” He says cockily.
“My point is that-” I try to say before getting interrupted.
“Gentlecolts, please. There’s no reason to argue.” I hear a familiar voice say.
I look at the door of the saloon and I see a familiar looking stallion. He has a gray coat, black and red mane and tail, red eyes that look like they belong to a dragon and teeth sharp as knives, he was also just a bit bigger than Big Mac.
“Longtime no see, Ash.” He says to me. “You look like hell.”
I couldn’t speak, all I could do is look at him. I found him. I actually found him.
“B-Broken…?” I say, astonished. “You ARE alive…” I turn to him.
All I can do at this point is just hug him and tear up slightly.
“I’ve been looking for you for months…” I say to him, some of my tears get in his coat. “Sorry…” I wipe the tear water off his coat. He hugs me back.
“So it turns out Mr. Badass over here is a crybaby?” The strange stallion says, taking a puff.
I turn around, getting my pistol out of my holster, but by the time I face him he has a shotgun pointed right at my face.
“BoulderBlitz! That’s enough!” BrokenFlare yells. “That goes for you too Ash. There’s no need for violence.”
We still aim at each other for a second before we put our guns away.
I turn to Broken.
“It’s… so great to see you again… for a bit I almost thought you were dead…” I say.
“Yeah well… I’ve been a few places. Saved some lives. Cleared towns.” He says.
“Cleared towns?” I say, confused.
“Yeah.” He takes out his sword. “This has been my weapon since the start.” He points at BoulderBlitz. “I met him when this started and well… we’ve been traveling ever since.” He looks at me. “Boulder, could we have a minute?”
“Sure. Just don’t take too long.” He says, finishing his cigarette.
Boulder walks into the other room.
“How did you find me?” Broken asks as we sit at the bar.
“Well…” I tell him what happened up until I tell him about Fluttershy.
“She… she ate her animals?” He says, surprised.
“She had too… or she would’ve died… the only thing I can assume is that they wanted her to survive so… they let themselves get eaten so she could live…”
“Even Angel?”
“Even Angel.” I say.
I continue telling him what happened.
“And then we got to Twilight’s library…”
“You would’ve rather look for me than her?” He says, not believing what I said.
“Well… yeah. I mean, you are my best friend Broken.” I tell him.
“... Continue…” He says.
“Anyways… we got to the library and… we look inside and there was something covered up… and well… it was Spike… he was infected…”
He just stays quiet. I continue.
“Me and Rainbow Dash found Twilight and well… she said she was working on a cure…”
“A cure?!” He says, ecstatic.
“Well… it’s complicated…” I say. “She said that Canterlot was safe, but she had to wait for the word from Princess Celestia in order for us to go. But…”
“But…? What?” He says, sounding confused.
“But in the end… after the magic disappeared she-”
“Wait, the magic’s gone?” He asks.
“Yeah… all of it. Seems like the pegasi can still fly though…”
“Hmm…” He thinks. “I wonder what caused it…”
“I don’t know… but after that… we lost all of our crops that we were planting… Twilight wanted to go back and get her research on the matter… so me and her went and well… there were trotters. We killed them… but not before she…” I start tearing up.
“Before she what? Ash, what is it?” He says.
“She tried to kill me Broken…”
“What?”
“She tried to kill me…”
“No, she wouldn’t… that’s not… where is she now…?”
“Dead…”
“W-what…?”
“I killed her…” I say looking at him, tears flowing down my face. “I killed Twilight Sparkle…”
He just sits there, blown away with what I just told him.
“How…?” He says.
“Huh…?” I ask.
“How did you kill her?”
“I… I shot her in the chest with the shotgun she was going to kill me with…” I say, looking down, starting to cry.
I’m… crying? Over Twilight, the pony who tried to KILL me? How could I be crying over this? … Maybe… maybe because I was determined to find Broken so much that… I just didn’t care, but now…
Broken just has a blank look on his face as tears roll down mine.
“I-I had no choice… she would’ve killed me…” I say to him.
He looks at me, disgusted in what I’ve said.
“What?”
“You’ve changed.” He says to me.
“W-what…? I haven’t-”
“You said you just killed one of our friends.”
“Because she was trying to kill ME, Broken!” I cry.
“It doesn’t matter. You shouldn’t kill ponies.”
“So… you’re telling me, you went this entire time out here without killing a single pony?” I ask confused.
“That’s right.” He says.
“Have you actually, you know, been out there?” I ask him.
“Of course.” He says, sounding unemotional. “And I’ve helped a lot of ponies in the past two months.”
“There are bad ponies out there. You know that right?” I tell him, wiping the tears from my eyes.
“Not that I’ve seen.” He says, giving me the cold shoulder.
“Some tried to rob me just last night!” I yell. “How can you run into no bad ponies?”
He looks at me coldly.
“Did you kill them too?” He asks.
He’s giving me a dead stare.
“Y-yes…” I tell him the truth.
He looks… disappointed.
“What happened to you..?” He says.
“W-what do you mean…?”
Tears start to flow again.
“The pony I knew, would never kill ANYPONY.” He says. “For ANY reason.”
He slams his hoof down on the table and I jump.
“But I would’ve died Broken, you don’t understand.” I try to tell him.
“Oh, I know I don’t understand.” He says. “In order to get back to how the world was, we need to HELP ponies, not just kill them off.”
“Broken… these ponies… you can’t just… talk to them.” I say, trying to make him understand.
“But you can try dammit.” He says.
I stay silent for a bit.
“I can never look at you the same.” He says coldly.
N-never…? Hearing that just made my heart sink. What’s the point of being here if BrokenFlare, the pony I live for the most doesn’t even fucking like me…
I start to cry.
“What?” Broken said.
“I… I’ve spent this whole time… looking for you…” I say.
“And you found me.”
“I did…” I say, trying to hold back my feelings.
“Then let’s go back to your group.” He says, standing up.
“You wanna come with me?” I ask, astounded that he still wants to come.
“Well yeah. Might as well travel with friends.”
BoulderBlitz enters the room.
“We’re going with him?” He says coming in.
“Yes.” BrokenFlare turns to him. “I’m going to travel with the rest of my friends.”
“Alright. Then let’s not waste time.” Boulder says, holding a bag of guns.
“Wait.” I say to Broken.
I stand up and he looks back at me.
“What is it?” He says.
“... Do you hate me…?” I ask him.
He sighs.
“I can’t hate you… but I am disappointed. I never expected you to… murder anypony.” He says.
My heart at this point is drowning with pain.
“Okay… let’s go.” I say, pain in my voice. “Everyone will be happy to see you.”
I give him a weak smile, but all I get is a cold look and my smile just fades from my face.
As we walk back to the farm I get to thinking… I found him. I fucking found the stallion that I love and he doesn’t even appreciate me anymore… maybe someday he’ll like me the way I like him… maybe not. I look at him and I see the most amazing pony in all of Equestria. But from time to time I have to ask myself as I see ponies I love die and I see the ruins of the home I have made for myself… is this all that remains?
We’re halfway to the farm when I start talking to BrokenFlare, who has been silent the whole way, same goes for his buddy, BoulderBlitz.
“So…” I say awkwardly.
“How long were you guys in Ponyville?” He asks.
“Why would it matter?” I ask.
“Just tell me.” He says coldly.
Was telling him I killed Twilight really the right thing?
“I don’t know… almost two or so months.” I say, unsure. “A month and a half?”
“Ah.” He says, continuing on.
“Broken…” I say, sounding off.
“What Ash?” He says, not sounding interested.
“Do you honestly think you can go through this without killing anypony?”
He stops in his tracks and he turns around, looking the most serious I have ever seen him.
“Of course I can.” He says. “Ash, these are ponies, who before this happened were all friendly, and didn’t murder whatsoever.”
“But you haven’t seen them!” I argue. “The ponies I run into, like Twilight or the ones who tried to rob me, they tried to KILL me. They weren’t themselves. They changed. This world has changed. And you change along with it.” I say to him.
“Enough Ash!” He yells.
My heart sinks.
“Until we get to this farm you were talking about, I don’t want to discuss anything.” He says, walking off.
I stop.
“Look kid.” Boulder says. “I get you. But he’s… he’s just not ready.”
I give him a serious look and I nod.
Maybe he’s not. Maybe he never will be. But there will be a moment when he has to do what he dreads most in order to keep the ponies he cares about safe… honestly I don’t like killing. It’s just something I have to do in order for all of us to survive.
I can see the farm in the distance. And as we get closer I can see everypony outside, waiting for us. They all see Broken and start waving, as I see Apple Crumpet and Lightning just sitting at the house, talking. Which makes sense. I mean, it’s not like they knew him or anything.
We get closer to the farm and everyone starts coming toward us.
“BrokenFlare!” I hear Rarity yell as she runs up to him and hugs him.
“Hey, Rarity.” He says with a weak smile.
Everypony starts talking at once trying to get his attention, except for Scootaloo who came up to me.
“You made it back.” She says.
“Yup.” I say, looking at BrokenFlare. “I did.”
“You alright?” She asks me.
I don’t know if I should tell her… but what do I have to lose at this point?
“I’m sorry I left without saying anything.” I say.
“It’s okay. I get it. So, what happened out there?”
I hesitate.
“I… I killed somepony.” I say, quiet enough so the others don’t hear.
“What?” She says surprised.
I catch her up on what happened.
“Well… I mean you did what you had to do…” She says.
She looks at me.
“What are you going to tell the group?” She asks.
“I don’t know yet…” I say. “Especially after saying what I said…”
“What? About if you kill you leave?”
“Yeah…” I tell her.
“Look. Ash, you did what you had to.” She says to me.
I look at her. Maybe she’s right… maybe I should tell the group, better me tell them then BrokenFlare, seeing as he has a disliking of me right now, tell them. It’s gotta be me.
“You’re right.” I say. “I’m going to tell them.”
She looks at me, determined.
“I’m sure they’ll understand.”
“I sure hope so.”
I look over and see BrokenFlare going up to the house to introduce himself to Apple Crumpet and Lightning. Rainbow and Aj come over.
“Ya made it.” Applejack says to me, sounding relieved.
I still stare at him as they talk to me.
“Yeah, we’re glad you made it back.” Rainbow Dash adds. “You okay?” She asks.
“I don’t know.” I say back, still looking in his direction.
How can he just not like me after defending myself… it’s not like I did it out of enjoyment. I did it to save my life. Or is it the Twilight thing…?
Applejack shakes me.
“Ash?” She says.
“Sorry… I kinda zoned out I guess.”
“So… what’s the plan?” Rainbow asks.
“Well…” I think. “We could see if we could stay here a little longer… winter isn’t much farther. And from the sky… I don’t think it needs pegasi to make it snow anymore.”
“Yeah…” RD looks up at the sky. “Looks like they act like the clouds in the Everfree forest…”
“Ya’ll don’t think…” Aj says.
“That the Everfree forest is spreading, making the dead come back to life, the clouds move by themselves, and weather going on without ponies making it happen? I never really thought about it…” I say.
I honestly never really thought about it. The fact that it makes so much sense… but we’ll never really know.
“Well… whatever did it… they accomplished what they wanted to do…” Rainbow says.
I look at them both.
“Guys… I have to tell you something…” I say.
“What is it sugarcube?” Aj asks.
“While I was away… I… I killed a pony.”
“What?” They say at the same time.
“But you said if we killed anypony living we’d be leaving.” Applejack states, confused.
“They tried to make me give them my things. And one of them was going to attack me so… I shot them. Damn it I killed somepony…” I say, sounding heartbroken.
They stay speechless for a few minutes.
“I didn’t know what to do… and then it… just kinda happened…”
Applejack brings me into a tight hug.
“It’s okay sugarcube…” She says to me.
“Yeah, Ash. I’m sure you had no choice.” RD says.
“But I did… I could’ve just let them take my stuff… but I killed one of them… and I let the other one go. I killed his goddamn brother…” I say. “And then I just… let him go.”
“Ash. You’re okay. You did what you had to.” RD says.
“Yeah sugarcube… cmon. Let’s get you inside.” Applejack says.
As we walk up I see everypony else walk inside except Apple Crumpet.
“Well, well. You’re back.” He says. “Can me and him chat a sec?”
“Sure.” Aj replies.
“We’ll see you inside.” Rainbow says, walking in.
“I see you’re still wearing my coat.” He says, looking at the coat.
“Oh, yeah.” I say, taking it off and giving it back. “Thank you.”
He takes it, but it looks like he’s hesitating.
“Why don’t you keep it?” He says, giving it back.
“What?” I say, surprised. “I can’t do that… it was your dad’s.”
“Eh. He was kinda a piece of shit anyways. Take it. It’s yours.”
I put the jacket over my back,
“Thanks, I guess.” I say, unsure of what to actually say.
“Come on. Foods ready, and those two you brought back seem nice enough, but how long do y’all think you’ll be stayin’?” He asks.
“Well, I uh… wanted to actually talk to you about that.” I say.
“Okay?”
“Well… maybe we could just stay here for a bit?”
“How long is a bit’?” He asks.
“Till… after winter…” I say.
“After…” He says in disbelief. “No.”
“What?” I say, caught off guard.
“You said you were staying for the night, and now you wanna stay on my farm… for MONTHS?” He says.
“Well… I just kinda thought tha-”
“What? Because I gave you my father’s jacket we were friends?” He says.
I look down and think.
“Can we at least stay here for a few weeks?” I say.
He looks at me blankly.
“What did I just tell ya?” He talks like I’m an idiot.
“Look. We need to get to Canterlot.” I tell him. “Not all of us have wings, it’ll be at the least a MONTH journey to get there by hoof.”
“I’m not followin’.” He says, confused.
“I’m saying that I take a few ponies with me, while the rest stay here.” I say. “Look… if it’s all good, we’ll come back and get them and take them to Canterlot.”
“And if it’s not?” He says, tilting his head.
“Then we talk.” I say to him, looking him dead in the face.
“Deal.” He says.
We shake hooves and I leave the house. I look over at the barn and see everypony, especially Rarity, talking to Broken about where he’s been and such. I want him to go on this mission with me. I’m also planning on taking Rainbow Dash and Sky Saver along too. I would take Fluttershy… but she should stay here.
I walk over to them and Broken just goes into the barn with the others and Rarity closely follows behind. The others look at me as I come closer.
“Oh, hi Ash.” Fluttershy says. “How are you doing?”
“I really don’t know, honestly.” I say.
I look to Rainbow.
“I’m going to take a team of flyers out to check out Canterlot. I was hoping you’d come with me.” I say to her.
“Hell yeah.” She says.
Applejack chimes in. “Rainbow, do ya have to? Ah mean… what if somethin’ were ta happen?”
“Rainbow, if you wanna sta-”
“No, I’m going.” She says. She looks at Applejack. “Listen. Nothing will happen okay? I promise.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.” Aj says as she walks up to the house.
Rainbow sighs. “Well that was smooth.”
“I’m serious. You can stay.” I say to her.
“Nah, I’ll just talk to her when we get back…” She says. “So. Anypony else coming.”
“Well… could you get that kid… Sky Saver?” I say.
“Why him?” She asks.
“Well it’d be faster if we just had ponies who had the ability to fly with us so we could get there faster.” I tell her.
She nods. “What about BrokenFlare?”
I look into the barn and see him talking to his friend BoulderBlitz and Rarity. I sigh. “I have no idea… he might just say no.”
“Why would he say no?” Rainbow says confused.
“Well… him and I aren’t really doing well right now.” I tell her.
Fluttershy walks up. “I could go in his place, if you want me to…”
I look at her. “I’d prefer if you stay here… what if somepony gets hurt? We need you here.”
“O-oh… okay… I understand.” She says. “I’ll… go to the house then. See where their medical supplies are.”
She starts walking up to the house. I almost feel bad… but I know how she’d get if there was any sort of conflict. Rainbow starts going to find Sky while I go and try to convince Broken to join us. He’s probably still pissed. Hell, he will still be pissed. I just hope he comes for the group’s sake.
I walk up to him as he’s talking, he sees me and I motion him with my neck to come over to me so I can talk to him. I hear him say “excuse me.” to Rarity and BoulderBlitz.
“What?” He says emotionless towards me.
“Me and Rainbow Dash are going to go to Canterlot to see if it’s safe. And I was wondering if you’d join us?” I say to him.
“Sure.” He says.
“Really?”
“Yes. Though… I am still… nerved about what you did, I will suck it up for this. Since it’s for the good of the group.” He says roughly. “When are we leaving?”
“Right now, if Rainbow finds the kid.”
“Sky?” He says, meaning they’ve been introduced.
“Yeah, him. I don’t exactly trust him. I haven’t known him very long. This’ll help us get the chance to I guess.” I tell him.
“I trust him, but whatever you say ‘boss’” He says sarcastically.
He walks back over to the two he was talking to and I see Rarity hug him. What a bitch. I walk out of the barn and see Rainbow and Sky walking this way. All I know… is that Canterlot better be safe… otherwise. We’re fucked.
