//------------------------------//
// A Broken house 
// Story: The Mask of Despair and the Face of Hope 
// by Wings of Black Glass 
//------------------------------//

“Welcome home, Sable Stardust.  To what’s left of it anyways.”  I waved to the little building.
“You can’t be serious.  This is my house?”  Sable stared, with confusion and utter disbelief, at the wreck in front of him.  The once sad little house was now nothing more than a gutted out ruin.  The roof was sagging in, the walls were badly cracking, the door was lying on the ground out front, and the entire structure leaned dangerously to the side.  The willow out front resembled a used matchstick more than a tree.  “What happened?”
“I’m sorry Sable. When I saw the smoke, I tried to save it, but it was too late.  By the time I got here, it was pretty much all gone.”  Secretly I had hoped seeing it would jog his memory, possibly even help provide answers.  Sable stepped forward, looking into the blacked room and the roof.
“This is unacceptable, look at the roof.”  He frowned, disapprovingly.  “It could come down at any moment.”  Without further fanfare he wrapped the ruins of the roof in his magic, the burned wood and tiles began to fall apart as he easily ripped the roof off the building and hurled it into the hillside.  The roof crumbled into a pile of twisted beams and splinters.  “Come on, let’s see what survived.”  This display of casual power startled everypony; I did not think he had that kind of strength in him at all, let alone so soon after the accident.  Although this was not the first time that day he surprised me.  He limped towards the free-standing walls.
Together we gathered what little remained of Sable’s things out of the ashes.  There was never all that much there to begin with, and almost nothing was left, it didn’t take long.  Solemnly we piled what could generously be said to have survived the fire on a makeshift table fashioned from the front door.  His mother’s quilt was little more than the topmost edge and some threads.  His mannequin nothing but a twisted wire frame.  The clock’s structure was mostly intact, but the fragile wooden innards were just ashes, and the face was severely warped.  The battalion of toy soldiers was reduced to a sole survivor, missing its right foreleg, and I recognized it as the same one that was knocked off the shelf on our first visit.  There were also a few of the pans from his little stove, and the stove itself.  The small collection of books was charred beyond all recognition.  Although it was now somewhat scorched, the ceramic bowl was still in pretty good shape, and it was the only thing here that could be called salvageable.
Sable looked down at his miserable little pile of objects, with an expression I couldn’t truly read.  He picked up each object in turn, turning them over in front of his eyes.  I couldn’t tell if he was determining if they were worth keeping, or if he remembered something important about them.  I could only hope it was the latter.  Once he had gone through each item, he looked up, at me first and then the others.
“Do you remember any of it?”  It was Fluttershy who asked.
“Bits, pieces.  A few long nights spent working.  Disappointment?”  He sighed and looked back and his former home.  “Is this really everything I’ve got left?”  I took my own inventory; this was almost everything I had seen at his house before.  Something was missing.
“Actually, there is one more thing.”  I looked around as the others glance my way quizzically.  I spotted the glint of silver over by the tree, where I had dropped it earlier.  I lifted the mask out of the mud and brought it back, cleaning it off in the process.  Sable took it from me when I offered it to him.  “I took a look inside just after the fire, and this was the only thing that looked undamaged.”  Sable lifted it up in front of him, turning it over and around, as he had the other items.  “Do you recognize it?”
“It was a gift.  From… somepony important I think.  I remember… a magenta Pegasus?  Sereina?”  He set the mask down and looked up at the group gathered around the makeshift table, looking for somepony not there.  “Does that name mean anything to you?”  My heart dropped, the way he had spoken of her before was so tender and caring.  Now he sounded cold and dispassionate.
“No, I’ve never heard it before.”  None of them would have, Sable only spoke to me about it, and I, in turn, did not tell them.
“It’s no one you’ve mentioned to us.”  Sable sighed when Rainbow Dash and Rarity confirm they didn’t know her, the same way he used to, annoyed and tired.  I bit the urge to speak out, my previous promise still fresh in my mind, and uncertainty about how he might take the reveal about his family kept me from speaking.
“To be honest, we don’t really know all that much about your history.”  This was Applejack speaking now.  “You didn’t talk to us about your past.”
“Yes, we shared only a few conversations, we only met fairly recently.  I am so sorry.”  He nodded at Fluttershy but did not look up.  Silence fell between them for a long moment.  “What are you going to do now?”
“I…” Sable began to shake, exhaustion, the weight of his situation, or both, starting to weigh him down.  “I don’t know.”  He looked down at his hooves, quivering.  “I don’t know.”  He turned back towards the wreck of his hovel.  The last of his control left him, and he broke down, collapsing in a heap.  Tears rolled down his face; he didn’t try to hide them.  I went to his side, and sat down next to him, placing a hoof on his shoulder.  A moment later Fluttershy took her place just beside him.  Neither spoke.  That morning, had we done this; I was confident Sable would have tossed us aside or walked away, rejecting such sympathy as unwanted pity.
“I don’t know how, but we are going to fix this.”  I looked back; it was Pinkie Pie of all ponies.  “We might not have known you before, but we can know you again.”
“Pinkie is right.”  Rainbow Dash was the next to speak, her voice filling with resolve.  “You and I didn’t get along before, but we can start over, for real this time.  If there’s anything I can do to help you get your memory back, I’ll do it.  Rainbow Dash doesn’t leave a friend behind!”  Then Applejack, Rarity, Spike, Even Starlight Glimmer, one by one, all voiced agreement.  Fluttershy didn’t speak, but when Sable looked at her, she nodded deeply.  I couldn’t help but feel pride and joy towards them.  Sable was speechless, and could only smile weakly towards them.
“Don’t be afraid, Sable, Don’t give up hope.”  Sable finally looked up at me now, his neon blue eyes full of tears meeting mine.
“Thank you.”  His voice had cracked, and he looked out at his hovel’s wreck.  “After all, hope is all I’ve got.”





“So, I guess I should start making plans to help him rebuild.”
“That's very generous of you, Applejack.”
“I did offer to help, already.”
“Let us not get hung up on that detail at this time.  There’s plenty of story ahead.”