Problems of a Dead World

Part 4

Chapter 18: Grief

Twilight continued sobbing for several moments as her brother's body lay limp. Her chest heaved violently, breath after breath, as tears flowed from her eyes like a waterfall. Earl scanned the two of them, trying to process the fact that Shining Armor was now deceased. As small tears rolled down his own cheeks, he inched away silently, shaking his head in disbelief. Macintosh slowly lifted his chin from the top of his sister's head, a quizzical expression on his face. The red earth pony quickly realized the source of grief, and instantly his jaw fell open.

"Did Shines just...?" He asked, his voice choked and worried.

Earl continued staring at the lifeless unicorn and nodded slowly.

"No..." Macintosh said, gently pushing his sister aside and approaching the three unicorns.

The light-grey pony continued nodded, tears freely streaming down his cheeks.

"He's not dead... He's just... Not." Macintosh said, his tone slightly angrier.

The blonde-maned pony approached Shining's corpse and nudged at one of his back hooves.

"Come on, bug guy. Wake up." Mac continued.

"He's dead." Earl said quietly under his breath.

Big Mac simply continued prodding at Shining's hoof, trying desperately to wake him.

"Come on! Wake up, Shines!"

Twilight tightened the grasp on her deceased older brother, sobs still echoing throughout the treehouse. Macintosh's face soon melted into a frown as his prodding proved unsuccessful.

"Shines!" Mac shouted.

"He's dead, Mac." Earl said, his eyes shut as tight as the lids would let them.

The red earthpony made no movement, but only blinked, slowly coming to the realization. Earl sighed heavily and fell back to his haunches as Mac backed away just as he had done.

"No... No no no... NO! There's.... There's no way, Shining Armor can't be dead... It's just... Not possible!" Macintosh said frantically, trying to push the thought from his mind.

As Mac continued coming to terms, Earl slowly paced back to the dead corpse of his friend, the purple unicorn still clinging to his coat as she stained it with her shower of tears. Gently, he placed a hoof on his marefriend's shoulder in an attempt to calm her.

"I... I can't even explain how sorry-" He began.

"Don't." She said coldly, cutting him off.

Earl was taken back for a momentarily, and pulled his hoof away.

"Just don't..." Twilight said with a sniffle.

"I'm just trying to say-"

"You're sorry? You're sorry. You're sorry that you just had to go back... You just HAD to have the glory of saving your world, huh?" Twilight said, her voice shrill and angered.

The purple unicorn slowly arose from her brother's corpse, the coat under her eyes stained by tears and her mane frazzled and out of place.

"I..." Earl said, still taken back.

"Well look what you got!" Twilight shouted, causing even Macintosh to flinch.

"Babe... I'm sorry-"

"SORRY WON'T BRING HIM BACK!"

Earl shut his mouth and tensed up in fear and guilt.

"You're nothing but trouble... For me... For my friends... For Equestria."

The grey unicorn opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. She had just told him what he had been thinking ever since the truck had taken them away.

"Twi... It wasn't exactly his fault, I mean-" Macintosh started.

Twilight put a hoof in the air, silencing him immediately. Earl swallowed nervously and watched the hoof slowly come down, then directed his attention to Twilight's eyes. He watched as they twitched in fear, anger, grief, and sadness. After a moment of the purple irises starring a hole right through him, the purple unicorn started towards the door, the room silent save for the quiet clop of hoofsteps.

"Get as far away from me as you can... And don't come back." Twilight said in a cold, low tone.

As Twilight exited the room and slammed the door, Earl's mouth stayed agape, his view glued to the floor as tears continued falling from his eyes. Macintosh and Applejack exchanged nervous glances, before the orange mare stood up and trotted hurriedly to the door calling Twilight's name. After the door had shut again. Macintosh inched closer to the sobbing unicorn.

"She's just upset..." Macintosh said, trying his best to sound comforting.

"No! Fuck it... Fuck it all. She's right. It's my fault Zecora is dead," Earl said, throwing his hoof to the floor. "It's my fault the Shining is dead, and It's my fault that bastard is coming back..."

Macintosh's eyes quickly went wide.

"What?!" He asked in fear.

Earl looked up through his tears, a confused expression on his face.

"Y-Yeah... Didn't you hear Jackson?" He said, pointing towards the faintly glowing portal.

Macintosh looked to the portal, then quickly back to Earl.

"Twilight.... Couldn't stop it, so that fucker came through... She put up a force field, and he said... he was coming back. But now that forcefield is down, and Twilight hates me so-"

"When the hell was this?!"

"When you were over there with AJ.... You didn't notice?"

"When is he coming back?!"

"I... I don't know! He just said he was coming back!"

Macintosh looked to the portal once more, then back to Earl.

"OK... We.... We can deal with Twilight and... Shining later... But if he's coming back, we need to be ready for the worst." Macintosh said, trying to grasp Earl's attention as the grey unicorn continued staring at the floor.

"But Shines-" Earl said absentmindedly.

"I'll deal with that! We just need to... Get ready..." Macintosh said, glancing around the room.

"Shit..." The red earthpony said under his breath. "Get up, go downstairs, I'll be there in just a minute."

Earl nodded after a few moments of silence and wearily made his way back onto all fours, then clumsily proceeded to the door, thoughts of Twilight's outburst still gnawing at his mind. After Earl had left the room. Macintosh walked over to Shining's body. With a grimace, he heaved the dead unicorn over his back and shook his head.

"I'm sorry, brother..." Mac said, making his way out of the room.

As Macintosh exited the room and made his way down the stairs, Earl passed by Applejack, who was waiting outside of one of the various rooms of Twilight's home. The orange mare quickly caught him in her sight and stepped in front of him. Without a thought, she placed a hoof on his shoulder and smiled weakly.

"She's just upset... Hay, we all are... Shining was one of us..." She said in a motherly tone. "But'chu need to know, this wasn't your fault."

Earl shook his head and moved back in an attempt to free himself from Applejack's hoof.

"No. It is my fault. It's my fault we went back!" He said shaking his head frantically.

"It's your fault we went back, but it was an attempt in good faith." Applejack continued.

Earl continued shaking his head.

"Now come on. How in Celestia's name were you supposed to know that those humans would do that? It was their wrong doing, not yours Earl."

"But-"

"You didn't kill him. Some crazy... Thing from another world did."

"I... I know..."

"You obviously don't if you're beatin' yourself up about it."

"How can I not after what Twi just said?!" Earl said, closing his eyes tightly.

Applejack frowned and looked back to the door.

"She's just upset, sugarcube. ah'll talk to her, and when she comes back to her senses, she'll know it wasn't you." The orange earthpony continued.

Earl paused for a moment but nodded hesitantly. After a few seconds of silence, Macintosh wearily trotted towards the two, an expression of disgust and grief apparent on the red stallion's face.

"Hey... Just," Mac said, pointing to a room behind them. "Don't go in there..."

"Thanks..." Earl said weakly.

"What should we do next? Y'know, preparations and all..." Macintosh asked?

"Preparations for what?" Applejack asked, raising an eyebrow.

Earl looked to her quizzically for a moment, but sighed and looked to the floor.

"Jackson... He's coming here." He said quietly.

"Ja- How?!" Applejack asked, terrified.

"The portal is too strong to close with magic, it's got to close on it's own." Earl continued.

Applejack looked to the floor for a moment, and then allowed her eyes to dart nervously around the room.

"Well we can't just sit here and wait for him to come and kill us, We need to get everypony to safety!" Applejack said after a few moments of silence.

"You need to get to safety. I'm staying." Earl replied.

"So he can kill-?!"

"If he kills me, so be it. But he killed Shining, and he's ready to kill again. Somepony needs to stop him." Earl said briskly, cutting her off.

Applejack paused momentarily, examining the grey unicorn. He was the only pony present with a look of determination and anger. After a few seconds, she nodded.

"Let me tell Twilight... We'll get the girls together and get everypony out of the town." She said.

Earl nodded and turned towards the stairs, Macintosh following behind. The grey unicorn's ears perked up after hearing the hoofsteps, and he stopped abruptly.

"Aren't you going to get to safety?" He asked, Big Macintosh stopping as well.

Mac chuckled for a moment before looking to Earl once more.

"I ain't going anywhere."