The Life of Handsome Bowtie

"Bowtie~," a soothing voice echoed, "Bowtie~."

"Huh... Who?" I tiredly got up rubbing my eyes. Somepony was calling my name.

"Bowtie get up. It's time to go." I instinctively got up, slightly moving Silver, and walked through the shield. Silver Rock grumbled and rolled around in his sleep. "Hurry we're going to be late." I sluggishly walked through the forest. I didn't know who was calling me, but I followed the voice anyways. My vision was getting blurry. I rubbed my eyes, clearing my vision. "You made it. I'm glad you came." A mare with a golden-yellow curly mane and tail with a sky-blue coat and dark brown eyes was standing in front of me. It... It was... My mother!

"Mommy!" I ran to her. I went to hug her, but as my forelegs wrapped around her she disappeared.

"No time for hugs my sweet," she was now standing behind me, "there's some ponies that want to meet you." My father, Star Specter, materialized out of nowhere right next to my mom.

"Daddy! What are you both doing here?" I was in tears of joy. I didn't even want to know how they were still alive. I was estatic.

"There's somepony who wants to talk to you." My father pointed behind me. I turned and all the joy left my body. I felt like an empty, soulless husk. I saw a small pegasus filly with a dirty amber coat and an emerald green, greasy mane. She was one of the ponies I had to kill in The Pit. Her name is Firebloom.

"No." I said in denial.

"Why?" She said sobbingly.

"N-NO! You're not here! You're dead!" I was lying on the ground holding my head.

"Because of you." More ponies stood behind her of all different ages, shapes, genders, sizes, and species.

"You killed us." They all said in unison.

"I had no choice!" I was distraught. Tears pouring down my face

"We're dead because you!" Their voices rang in my ears. I turned around to face my parents.

"Help. Please." I looked at both my parents. Large gashes formed on their necks, dark blood pooling from the horrific wounds. They both smiled at me. "NO! This isn't happening!" I was in complete denial. The ponies behind me approached me slowly, "Stay back!" It- it wasn't my fault! I'm- I- I'm sorry!" They continued towards me. Firebloom grabbed my leg. I yelped as she began to sink into the ground taking me with her. The others grasped onto my body, clinging like leeches, dragging me into the depths of the earth. "Help me mother." I pleaded. She just stood there, her blood soaking her coat and the ground, "Father? Please." He too didn't move. "Please! Help!" My head was being dragged completely under the ground the dirt suffocating me.

"BOWTIE!!" I felt a somewhat hard smack across my face, "Snap out of it." It was Silver Rock.

"What- what happened." I rubbed my check.

"You tell me. You were freaking out in the middle of this forest."

"I- I saw them." My entire body was shaking.

"Who?" Silver asked, pulling me along back to the cave.

"My parents. The ponies I fought. All of them, yelling at me." I wasn't paying attention to Silver's questions

"What do you mean you saw them?"

"Dead," I mumbled, "all of them. It's my fault." I was having a mental break down.

"What was your fault?" We were back in the cave. I sat down, staring blankly at the wall still mumbling to myself.

"Mother. Father. Gone because I wasn't good enough. Not strong enough to protect them."

"Bowtie? You're creep'in me out." He nudged me a little.

"Firebloom. I didn't want to hurt you. I- I had no choice. It's my fault you're dead. It's my fault... My fault." I was crying again.

"Here, drink." Silver handed me a canteen of water. I didn't move, "Bowtie... come on just drink." He put the canteen in my mouth and tipped it a little. The cool water rushing into my mouth snapped me out of my break down. I gulped down the water.

"Thanks. Sorry about that."

"What was all that about?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Come on. It's just me. Nopony else is around to hear." He pouted. Damn pouts.

"Ok fine I'll tell you, but you will not tell anypony else. Got it?" I said forcefully.

"Yup."

"Cross your heart?" He crossed his heart, waiting eagerly for me to tell him what happened.

"I heard somepony calling my name, so I followed it outside. I found the source of the voice. It was my mother. Both my parents died when I was your age."

"That's terrible." He interrupted.

"Yeah. It is. Then many ponies that I had to- to." I broke down in tears again. I didn't want to tell him I killed many other ponies. He'd think I'm a monster. He nuzzled me trying to comfort me. I immediately grabbed him and hugged him. He tried to squirm free, but I wouldn't let go of him. He stopped squirming after a while and hugged back. I let go after a minute or two, "Sorry. I just don't want to talk about it." I said sniffly.

"It's ok. Just no more hugs, I don't like it."

"But you're so cute!" I wiped away some tears, chuckling slightly, "How could I not?" He blushed a little then became angry and moved to the other side of the cave. I honestly didn't know what he was angry about. Oh well. My stomach growled almost loud enough to echo throughout the cave. I went over to the food bag and opened it. There was barely anything left. There were three apples, five bananas, and two zucchinis. I decided to try a zucchini. Never had one of these before. seen 'em just never tried one, "You want something to eat?" He just huffed at me, "Oh come on you can't be mad at me for calling you cute." I spoke with a mouthful of food.

"I'm not mad." He said looking away.

"Yes you are."

"No. I'm. Not." He glared at me.

"Come on tell me what's bothering you."

"My parents."

"Oh," I responded sadly, "want to talk about it?"

"What's there to talk about? They left me end of story." Poor fella.

"There's got to be more to it than that." I persisted.

"There's NOTHING more about it!" He yelled.

"Sorry, just wanted to help." I can understand why he was pissed. A little bit. The sudden change from trying to comfort me to being angry with his parents kind of quickly escalated though.

"It's not your fault." He grumbled.

"It's fine. Your position is understandable. We're kinda alike you and I," I tried to speak reasonably, "my parents... dead. Yours. Left you."

"Don't remind me."

"Sorry, I'm just saying that I can somewhat understand." He didn't respond, "We should probably get go'in if we want to get to Dodge City anytime soon." It was already past noon.

"Kay." I lowered the magical barrier, gathered my things, and let Silver jump up onto my back. I peeked my head out of the cave swiveling it back and forth looking for creatures, nothing out of the ordinary. I trotted out and continued our journey to Dodge City. The hallucinations died down after what just recently happened there were still a few things changing colours, but at least I wasn't seeing dead ponies again. I shook my head trying to forget that event. There was a slight breeze rustling the trees. This forest always seems like a nice place, but then there are the deadly plants and animals. There was an awkward silence between Silver and I for quite some time.

"Sooo. What do you like to do?" I decided to ask.

"What's it to you?" He responded grouchily.

"Whoa just trying to make a conversation."

"What happened to being quiet?"

"We've broken that rule enough times already. I just want to know you better."

"How about you finish telling me what happened earlier." Ouch, ok fine I'll tell him.

"Kay. Right after my parents were killed I was foalnapped by the murderer. He took me to the tunnels, under the city of Canterlot, that they called The Pit. It's an arena where helpless ponies fight one on one to the death for their captors to bet on who wins and for their own amusement. I was forced to kill to survive. I wrote each of the names of the ponies I killed on my cell walls. There were so many names I had to write over them. I paid my respects to them each day," a tear escaped itself from my eye, "I was saved by Fancy Pants at the age of sixteen and brought into power. Even above that of the princess's nephew, Prince Blueblood. Then I lost it all and was forced to hide. Years passed, I got married and had a little filly, a little older than you. We lived in this forest for years, until I decided we should move into town. Then we got captured. And now I'm forced to go kill a dragon if I ever wanted to see my family again." Silver was silent for a while.

"I'm sorry." I could feel tear drops from Silver land on my back as well as my own rolling down my face.

"What for? You didn't do anything wrong." A few more tears trickled down my expressionless face, "So are you willing to tell me what's up with you?"

"Yeah. My parents were always too busy to do anything with me. They would work all day and then sleep all night. They acted as if I wasn't ever there. I felt... worthless. One day my parents said that they were going to take me for a walk. I was so happy they finally recognized me. We went on the path to this forest I was skipping happily, but then I realized my parents weren't with me. I searched for them for hours. I was lost, hungry, cold, and abandoned. I wandered the forest looking for food, finding nothing, but monsters trying to eat me. I had to run and hide everywhere I went. Then you found me." I could feel more of his tears dripping on my back

"So why don't you like hugs? If your parents neglected you I'd feel like you'd want affection."

"I don't know." He probably thinks that if somepony shows him attention they will abandon him just like his parents. "Can I have something to eat?" He sniffled.

"Sure, but we have to try to ration it. We don't have much left." I floated out one of the apples for him.

"Thanks." As we walked, we talked about our lives. I tried to keep it happy, but there was few happy memories compared to the sad ones. Silver talked about his friends at school and all the fun times they had and I talked about mine. I told him about Ember and Sundance. I told him about how Sundance and I met. He laughed when I told him she bathed me. He told me about his hobbies, mostly about his archery, which was quite interesting. By the way he told me, he could shoot an arrow in the sky and hit a moving target when the arrow came down. I told him some of mine, mostly reading and learning many, many subjects. I told him about potion making. He took quite an interest when I told him about a potion that could cure mostly anything if mixed correctly, but if mixed incorrectly, well lets just say I'd prefer to keep my spine the way it is. It's a difficult potion to make mostly because of the ingredients needed. They were either way to hard to get or they just sounded like they were made up.

"Look!" Silver propped himself on top of my head and pointed. I looked over to my left and saw a tall and broken stone building.

"Hmm. Shall we go explore?"

"Don't we have to get to Dodge City?"

"It's late, we should set up camp."

"Alright." He hopped off my back and walked with me for once.

"Oh? Decided to not be lazy for once?" I laughed a little.

"I'm not lazy." He huffed.

"Sure. That's why you sit on my back for most of the time."

"Shush your face." He responded jokingly, "your back is comfy and you know it." As we walked towards the ruins I cut down some branches so we would have some heat. Plus I wouldn't have to leave Silver alone again, yay for planning ahead. The ruins were somewhat far away. There was a large canyon separating us from the ruins. There was an old rickety wooden bride that we could cross.

"Silver wait." He was just about to cross the bridge.

"Why?"

"I don't trust that bridge. It doesn't look safe."

"Well how are we gonna cross?"

"I've got an idea," I focused my magic to form a solid magic bridge-like barrier, "there that should be sturdy."

"Should be?"

"Don't worry I'll go first." I first levitated the branches and my equipment over across the canyon.

"Why don't you just levitate us over there?" Silver asked.

"Well levitating myself is an extremely difficult thing to do. And levitating you over is kinda risky."

"Why?"

"Um, lets see how can I explain this." I mumbled, "Magic is very complicated. When I levitate an object I'm, in a way, removing the objects weight making it lighter so I can freely move it about. That's not exactly correct, but it's similar. The more an object weighs the more energy I have to put into it. As for lifting myself that's a completely different story. I don't even understand why it is so difficult to lift myself. So if I were to try to lift you I could, but there's a chance my magic will implode on itself from over exertion and then you would plummet to your death." After I tried to explain how magic worked, I propped one hoof on the barrier bridge with relative ease. Except my hooves shaking slightly. I slowly moved across the canyon and safely made it to the other side.

"Ok now it's your turn." I yelled across the canyon.

"Ok...." he said skeptically. He cautiously walked on the magical bridge. He was about half way across the bridge before a loud crack echoed through the canyon.

"Silver don't-" Before I could finish he panicked and ran. There was more cracking, then the bridge shattered. Silver jumped. I reached out with my hoof trying to catch him, but I missed. "NOO!" I screamed. I grabbed the shrieking colt with my magic. I began to sweat. I put all my strength into pulling up the colt. I just barely pulled Silver over the ledge before my magic imploded on itself. I was panting and exhausted.

"See what- did- I tell- ya." I was trying to catch my breath, “Are- you- ok?"

"Yeah that was a lot safer." He responded shakily. I took in one deep breath.

"Sorry next time you'll go first and decide how we'll cross." Silver forcibly jumped onto my back. Ok I deserved that. I didn't have much time to equip my belongings so I just floated them with us, well more like dragged because my magic was drained. I carried the grumpy, scared colt all the way over to the inside of the ruins. "This must be the old palace of the princesses," I said, "I wonder why it would be in this forest." The walls were weathered and covered in plant life. The stain glass windows barely remained whole and the marble floor was cracked and dirty. The marble pillars were really the only things still intact. Good thing too, I thought, otherwise the ceiling could collapse. Oh great now I'm going to be paranoid. Luckily I found a nice spot that had no ceiling above it. I placed the branches in the middle and stripped them of their leaves placing them in a pile for Silver to sleep on. It was the least I could do.

"What are you doing now?" Silver asked, not to nicely by the way.

"I'm trying to make you a bed so you don't have to sleep on the marble floor." He hopped off my back to test the makeshift bed.

"Comfy. Thanks."

"Does that mean you forgive me?" I said hopefully.

"Not yet," he responded, "but this is a good start."

"Better than nothin'." I made sure to tightly pack the leaves so none would travel into the fire. After that I once again lit the branches and erected a barrier. I was tired, hungry, and I missed my family. At least I had Silver for company.

"I have to go potty." Silver blurted out.

"Do I need to go with you?" I meant to keep him safe, so shut up. Whoever I'm talking to... myself I guess. So I just told myself to shut up. I'm just not going to think about this anymore.

"No. Just telling you where I'll be."

"Ok, be careful." He hastily left rounding a corner leaving my line of sight. Not like I was going to watch him. Ugh I'm doing it again. I shook my head resting it on my legs. Nothing bad is gonna happen, I thought, we’re in due of some good luck by now. I dozed off before Silver came back.