//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: To Break a Mirror // by Materious17 //------------------------------// "Will you please just talk to me?" The silence of the train ride was unsettling. Fluttershy still won't say a word to me. She is obviously mad at me but I'm clueless as to what. Was it something I said, was the apple comment too far? I've tried apologizing, but I think she was waiting for me to figure out what I'm even apologizing about. "Next stop, Baltimare Main Square 16:34." Great, I've spent the last three hours sitting next to my best friend who has completely shunned me. I'm getting nowhere in trying to figure this out... oh Celestia it just came to me. I'm despicable. That was actually easier than I thought it was going to be, now to ready up my apology and have smooth sailing from here on out. "Look, Fluttershy. I'm sorry that I'm not the most considerate pony in the world. I've tried my best to change since I've known you, but old habits are hard to break. I just wish..." "You think I'm upset about that?" Well crap, I thought I nailed that. Now that I think about it, she has been pretty tolerable about my behavior so that was probably something she didn't much care for. At least she spoke to me though. "I'm upset that I don't get to see my friends, I'm upset that I'm forced to run away with the very pony that has put me through such pain. You want to know why I'm in pain? You ran away, you ran from the citizens of Canterlot, you ran from yourself, you ran away from me! Don't get me started on the fact that for 18 months while I was being tortured for your crimes, you were living a life with your new wife who I refuse to say the name of. For the last few hours you have been digging through your confused mind trying to meaninglessly apologize for something that can't be changed and I think that is what hurts me the most." I have no idea what to say. She was correct on all of her points. I know what I did and I wasn't proud of any of them. I want to say that that part of myself is long gone, that Slate is dead and I am a completely different pony with actual values and a grasp on the meaning of friendship. I want to say that, but I can't. It will only make things even worse to just lie right now. "Thank you." That was all that I could say. Fighting with her is never something I want to do but pretending like I was just ignoring her was definitely off the table. "Now stopping at Baltimare Main Square 16:39." "That's our stop. Listen, I need to tell you something before we meet the sender of this letter. He thinks I'm his older brother. When I got my cutie mark I was an only child, having this brother means my parents have to be alive." I'm not sure how that would console her, but that thought has been what's kept me going. Even though she is mad at least she knows we need to stick together we she follows me out the train doors. The main square of Baltimare is full of ponies but not as smothering as Manehattan's. Amidst the crowds I noticed a smaller grey foal with a main cut similar to mine with a sign that says "Slate". I waved at him hoping he would drop the sign before Fluttershy caught eye of it, I wished that plan went off without a hitch. Sighing, I walk over to greet the younger fellow, the least I can do is tell him my real name. "Ohai Slate." That definitely wasn't the greeting I was expecting. His accent seems foreign but it feels homey, maybe I've just been in Manehatten for too long." "Uh, are you Pebble?" If he was Pebble I have a story to tell him, if not better to keep a low profile in the public eye. "Yessums, now listen bro, I'm not sure what you are doing running around with a obviously beaten and famished pegasus but I'm not here to judge. I'm here to take you home." Ok this kid is a little unbearable, brother or not I'm not going to listen to this any longer. "Okay, 'bro' I'm sorry to tell you this but I think you wasted your time, I don't have a home in Baltimare. I don't have a little brother and it's a very long story to explain why she is with me." "Our mum always told me you had no intentions on coming home. But she was obviously wrong, otherwise you wouldn't have even showed up." What did he just say? Rage... building. "My mother is dead how dare you try to mock her." "Woah woah woah hang on bro she isn't dead. Pop's alive and kicking as well. They told me that you ran away to find yourself in geology. I had no idea you were angry enough to consider them dead for all these years." "I don't know what you are trying to do but I don't need to stand here and be criticized by a kid. I'm getting the next train out of this hell hole, c'mon Fluttershy." "Wait Boulder, I think he is telling the truth." Damn it Fluttershy, I did not her to side with this inconsiderate foal. I especially didn't care for the fact that she used my real name. "Ah so you are Dr. Boulder, listen bro, I didn't want to come off as mean or nothin' I'm just so excited to finally meet you. At least let me tell them that you even still exist, some proof would be nice but I understand if you don't want anything to do with us." Why am I even mad, this is the greatest news of my life and my own pointless self deception is keeping it away. Of course I want to see my parents again. "*Sigh* Yes I am Boulder. Not Dr. Boulder not Boulder PhD, I'm just Boulder. I've done some terrible things in my life and I can't just keep running from them. I want to talk to my parents." "Super! Awesome! Let's go. Actually quick question, how did your parents die? Well not actually die but if your memory?" Again with the insensitivity, I can already tell his foal was my little brother so I might as well indulge a younger me. "They died in a rockslide when I was your age. I received my cutie mark that day." I can't believe that they are still alive, that memory of mine is so vivid. I couldn't have just fabricated something like that, maybe this is what my reflection has been trying to tell me. "Strange, they told me you ran away around that same time." I shouldn't have told him when, probably try to see if he has been bluffing this entire time, too late now. "Whatever, maybe I like the idea of them being dead. Makes my life a whole lot easier, I don't have to visit them you know." "Oh c'mon you gotta! I'm sorry, I won't ask no more questions about your past, I just know they will be more than happy to see you again." The home of my parents looked completely uncared for. The outside was a wreck with weeds and chipped paint and I doubt the inside was any nicer. We didn't talk at all on the way here, winding our way through the downtown hustle of Baltimare, but Fluttershy stopped scowling at me whenever our eyes met. I told her so long ago about how I got my cutie mark but to hear it may have just all been a fabrication of my mind might have her curiosity peaked as well. Or she is so angry that she is incapable of expressing it on her face. I wonder what my parents are going to be like, I remember when my mother used to help me go out and collect rocks. Nothing was every special about them but I had the urge to just collect and sort everyone I found. I also remember my father who would drop me off at school every morning and conveniently we would get back home at the same time giving me a piggy-back ride to make me feel tall like a stallion. I hope those are memories that I truly have. Pebble opened the screeching door and what I saw was a war zone. Tables flipped on their sides, stashes of food with large buckets of metal scraps in hardly hidden locations. The finish on the walls was shredded and the carpet was torn all around us. This is not what I was expecting, or at least definitely not what I remember as a foal. Pebble shouted a greeting into the seemingly abandoned house and Fluttershy looked over to me with an ounce of fear in her eyes. A shadow of a figure came out of a back room and I escorted Fluttershy behind me and backed up slowly. The grey pony, much larger than Pebble and I, and with a very scruffy mane cut and facial hair that screamed for a shave, stepped into view. The tension built until I believe he recognized me. I have always remembered his last words to me before I thought he perished but now those have been replaced with what was about to be said. I'm finally home. "Damn it Peb! Get that terrorist and his pet out of my house this instant!" Or so I thought.