The sun began to set on Equestria, John stood on the hill above Ponyville. His dark green eyes staring out on the horizon, his black hair covered by his black leather stetson. His denim work shirt was unbuttoned and untucked revealing his sweat soaked undershirt, his stained jeans were held up by his black leather belt. A pair of steel toed boots on his feet, a frown on his face. It had been seven months since he had been brought here, the pain of being away from home still ached in his chest. it was even worse knowing he could never return, the ponies said they had needed a dozen guards and Big Macintosh to hold him down so he wouldn’t take his revolver to himself. He conveniently forgot that had happened, he just wanted to die that day.
“John.” A voice said behind him, he didn’t turn to look at who it was. He had nothing to say to them still. She was the reason he was stuck here now, he could never face her. “Applejack said I could find you here.”
“And she was right.” John said coldly, this unicorn couldn’t seem to get the hint. “Now you can go and leave me in peace.” He muttered before pulling out a cigarette and setting it into his mouth, his chrome zippo lighter was whipped out and lit the cigarette. He took a moment to eye the engraveings on it, the eagle with a quiver of arrows and an olive branch stared back at him. Beneath it were the words United States Army, he had had it since his first day in basic. It only reminded him more of how his life was gone for ever. He remembered the day he left the army, age thirty.
“John, I’m sorry how many times can I say that to you?” The pony asked, John put his lighter away and took a drag on his cigarette.
“Say it as much as you want, I don’t change a damn thing.” John’s venomous words cut deep into the pony. “I had a real nice life before all this, getting the farm back on its feet, seeing my mom turn 50, building a business for myself. Not a damn thing you can do will change that its gone, so don’t waste your breath Lyra.” John kicked a rock off the hill into the distance, Lyra winced at this. “Just leave me alone, theres nothing left for us to say to each other.” John turned, his angry face covered by a bit of stubble. Without another word he walked past the mint green unicorn, his boots kicking up small puffs of dirt.
Lyra felt a tear come to her eye, she had been so selfish that day seven months ago.
I’m finally gonna prove it! Humans do exist!” Lyra said happily, her horn glowing brightly. The spell she was reading over was just what she needed, finally after a lifetime of failures she was going to get a real live human.
“Its not going to work Lyra.” Bon-Bon said in a deadpanned expression, Lyra didn’t listen. Her smile growing increasingly scary. In a flash of immense light Lyra cast the spell, on the cieling a massive portal opened. Slowly a bipedal creature began to emerge from it causing Bon-Bon to faint and Lyra to smiled even wider.
Lyra shook her head of the memory, she didn’t need to remember anymore. All she needed to know was that John wasn’t happy about being brought from his world to Equestria and even angrier when he learned he could not go back. How he had tried to kill himself, crawled into a bottle, never smiled once. Lyra felt another tear roll down her face as she remembered it was all her fault for his suffering, Celestia had been Livid with her. Everypony was mad at her, but John, John loathed her so much there wasn’t even a word for it.
John walked down the hill in the direction of Berry Punch’s bar, a bag of bits in his hand. His revolver in its holster was gleaming in the twilight. Ponies made way for the depressed figure, his eyes set straight ahead. Each time his boot impacted the dirt it seemed to drag a bit, almost as if he was in a trance as he walked. Without acknowledging any greetings he just walked until his destination was within sight, the door’s were open as usual and there was hardly a soul inside from what John could see outside. Berry Punch eyed him as he walked, her face tried to mask the pity as best as she could. John ignored what she could not, he just walked through the door and walked to his usual seat before sitting down and removing his hat.
“Just give me the usual Berry.” John said with a emotionless tone of voice, Berry had never seen an alcoholic before John. Her usual customers were social drinkers but not alcoholics as many believed. Berry shook her head before taking a bottle of whiskey from under the bar and sliding it down to John. He caught it before it slid off the end and proceeded to open it. In one movement he had down an eighth of the bottle, Berry Punch winced at that. John took his revolver from its holster and slid it to Berry Punch. ”Probably not the best thing to have on hand while drinking.”
“Why are you doing this to yourself?” Berry Punch wanted to say, she held her tongue though as she saw John’s eyes watering a bit. The atmosphere began to return to normal, ponies ignoring John and going about their own discussions. John sat there just staring into the bottle before taking another swig from the bottle and setting it down hard on the bar. To Berry Punch it was hard to watch, the constant downward spiral that John was in made it hard for her to sleep at night. She decided it was time to do something.
“Hey, Shot Glass can you watch the bar for a few minutes?” Berry Punch asked, the grey Earth Pony in question nodded. Berry Punch walked out the door. John thought nothing of it, she was probably going to get some more supplies or something. Little did John know that Berry was actually trotting towards the library. He looked at his bottle, it was halfway gone. Shot Glass looked at him with a puzzled expression, John shrugged it off. The only thing going through his mind was his old life, how his life had been before this all happened.
”Happy Birthday Mom!” John said with a massive smile on his face, in front of him was his mom who had a big cake with fifty candles all ablaze. She smiled at him before blowing out the candles.
“John you didn’t need to do this, just having you here is enough.” His mom said with a smile o equal size to John.
“Absolutely not! Its your fiftieth mom, you should have family with you. I just wish James and Samantha could have come.” John said with a sincere apology for his brother and sisters absence. “But you know how busy things can get in the city.”
“You’re a good boy Johnny.” His mother smiled.
John felt one tear leave his eye and roll down his face onto the mahogany bar surface, he hung his head heavily at that memory. His life was going so good until that damned unicorn stole it away, words could not express his anger, his sorrow, his feeling of loss. He took a big swig from his bottle of Whiskey and blinked away a few tears. He was brought from his stupor by a pony taking a seat next to him, he looked over and saw who it was.
“Hey Twi.” He said in his defeated tone, turning back to his bottle. He felt a hoof on his shoulder, normally he would have shrugged it off but at this point he was welcome to anything.
“Hello John, is there something you want to talk about?” Twilight asked, she put a wing over his shoulder.
“No, I just need a few more bottles.” John said gesturing to his drink, he took another drink before slamming the empty bottle on the bar. “Bring me another.” John took a few bits from his pouch and tossed them on the bar.
“No, don’t bring him another.” Twilight said to Shot Glass, John glared daggers at her. “You can’t keep doing this to yourself, John. I realise its been hard for you, its been seven months since you had everything you know and love taken and I understand that but you can’t do this to yourself. It’s killing you.” John returned his look to the empty bottle.
“Maybe that’s what I need.” He said coldly, his tone was so cold it sent chills down Twilight’s back. “I don’t know what to do with myself anymore Twi. I can’t work for Applejack for the rest of my life. I can’t go onto welfare. Maybe you should have let me just off myself that day, your life wouldn’t be so damned complex if you did.” He hung his head again.
“Hey. Studies have shown that this...” Twilight gestured a hoof to the bottle. “isn’t good for you, As your friend I can’t let you keep doing this to yourself. Please just stop this.” John sighed before getting up from his seat and shrugging off Twilight’s wing. “Where are you going?”
“The Forest, Maybe I’ll feed myself to a manticore.” John said emotionlessly, Twilight felt that hit her hard. She knew he was seriously considering doing it, it scared her to think somepony she was friends with wanted to be rid of himself so badly. John walked out of the bar past Berry Punch who was carrying a crate of whiskey with her, he grabbed a bottle discretely before popping the top and taking a swig. He sat his hat back on his head and turned towards the forest, Twilight watched from the door.
“Oh Celestia what am I going to do with him?” She asked herself, almost immediately she began to trot after the lone bipedal on his way to attempt his own demise. The night was now out completely, the stars out in force. This was going to be one of those nights she would want to forget about as soon as possible.