THE TROTTING DEAD - Book Two

“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?