//------------------------------// // Chapter 22, Broken // Story: Friendship is Life // by alejin //------------------------------// “I’m here; I’m here with you Alex. You don’t have to go through this alone!” Fluttershy was holding Alex against her. Her chest was covered in blood; she was trying to stop the bleeding from the wound in Alex’s chest. The rest of the mane 6, Lyra and Spike joined her. They had seen Alex hurt before, but this time something was different, they knew something inside of him had broken. It wasn’t something physical, it was something different, something inside his mind. Twilight didn’t lose any time and used her magic to try to stop the bleeding “if it doesn’t stop, it will at least slow it down!” Rarity agreed and used her magic to levitate him and carefully take him out of the arena. Suddenly, someone shouted: “HALT THERE PONIES!” The whole group looked back to see who it was. King Strong Blade from Minus followed by several Minotaur warriors were running after them. “What do you want King Strong Blade” – Princess Twilight asked. The King raised his hand and pointed at Alex, “Him! I want him! Leave the human here. He just killed a Minotaur and you know very well what the punishment for that crime is!” “King, you can’t be serious!” – She replied. “I’m very serious Princess Twilight; this is not something that can be easily ignored”. “Look, I don’t have time for this now – She stood between him and the rest of the group - my friend is dying and needs a doctor. Step aside before I…” “You dare to talk to me like that Princess? You want to protect a murderer; he just killed a living legend!” “No! He killed an insane Minotaur who wanted to kill him. All he did was to defend himself, he had no other choice!” “I will not repeat myself again, leave the human here!” A bright light blinded everypony; when it faded out, King Minus and the rest of his Minotaurs were trapped in a binding spell. Princess Celestia, Luna, Cadence and Shining Armor had casted the spell. Their horns were glowing white. “Twilight! Don’t lose any more time here! – Cadence Shouted -Take Alex to the hospital, we will deal with them; don’t let our friend die!” Twilight nodded and ran away with the rest of the group. They arrived at the hospital “I need a doctor now!” Princess Luna shouted. Nurses and doctors didn’t move, not after looking who the patient she was carrying “What is happening, aren’t you going to help my friend? A doctor found the courage he needed to speak “Princess Twilight, why do you want to help that mur… murderer? Didn’t you hear anything the hero Bright Courage said before being killed by him?” All of the medical staff nodded. Their eyes looked as if they had seen a horrific creature. Twilight could not believe this; she knew some Canterlot ponies were actually afraid of him, but not to this degree. Anyways, she wasn’t going to let him die “I WILL PRETEND I DIDN’T HEAR THAT! NOW YOU WILL HELP MY FRIEND AND THAT IS AN ORDER!” Some nurses brought a stretcher and medical equipment and started taking care of him, even though they had received an order from the Princess herself, deep in their hearts they didn’t want to help the monster. Princess Twilight spoke to the doctor once more: “If he doesn’t make it, I will personally escort you out of Equestria and don’t you dare lying to me saying that you did the best you could but it wasn’t enough; remember that the one and only Element of Honesty is by my side!” The doctor was shaking, he had never spoken with the Princess directly, and he never thought the first time doing it would be like this. He left with the rest of the doctors and prepared Alex for emergency surgery. “Why did you speak to him like that Twilight?” “Didn’t you see Rarity? All of them believed the things that crazy Minotaur said. I couldn’t risk him getting hurt by the doctors on purpose.” Several hours passed, every second felt like an hour. Rarity, Rainbow and Applejack were trying to comfort their sisters. Sweetie Bell was truly devastated; she didn’t want him to end like this. What if her brother didn’t make it? He would die thinking she hated him. Twilight and Lyra were having a conversation: “Why did this happen?” “I don’t know Princess Twilight!” “Lyra please, you can call me Twilight.” “Thank you Prin… Twilight, I can’t believe this happened. Everything started so perfect; that Minotaur thought he was doing a good thing to all of us. I just can’t believe it! Are there any news from Princess Celestia?” “She is still speaking with the other kings that came to the tournament. I think the fact that no creature has come here is a good sign.” “That is right – Lyra replied - and also the fact that Princess Luna ordered all most of the Royal Guards to guard the hospital in case any intruders wanted to do something crazy” tears started to come out of her eyes. “He will make it Lyra. He is strong; he has been through worse and there he was, coming out victorious.” “I know he is strong Twilight, it’s not his physical damage what worries me but the damage that was made to his mind. You saw him in the arena, those eyes; those were the eyes of somepony who didn’t care about dying. I am worried he thinks he is a MONSTER!” After a couple of hours more, the doctor finally came out. The whole group stood up and surrounded him “After an intense surgery, we managed to stop the bleeding and efficiently heal his wounds; he has many fractures all over his body, but time, magic and medicine will heal it… sorry, will heal him. His life is not in danger anymore… However…” his expression changed “He’ll have to stay in bed for a couple of months, I know you won’t like this but we might have to tie him up bec…” the doctor was interrupted by Twilight, she looked menacing “Princess please, we are doing it to avoid him from hurting himself in case he moves. Please don’t be mad Princess; we are doing this just to help him heal as best as possible!” (Lyra P.O.V) “Many things happened after the Coliseum Tournament, Princess Celestia and Luna spoke with King Strong Blade after the incident inside the arena and asked him to cease his accusations against Alex. All of the other Kings agreed on the fact that Bright Courage had disgraced his own reputation and had brought disgrace to the tournament by murdering an innocent pony. In order to avoid any conflicts between their kingdoms, all of the King who attended the tournament made a pact stating that this incident would be put aside and accepted that justice was made. The murderer was executed by the same blade he used to kill the innocent pony. Even after the horrendous incident, the closing ceremony took place two days later. There is no need to explain why all of the participants weren’t celebrating as expected, the Zebra known as Zaxel was declared the winner of the tournament. He didn’t want to be crowned as the champion and even dared to say Alex should have won the tournament; this caused a huge part of the crowd to start booing at him and some of them even left the place. We gave Proud Hammer the funeral he deserved, as a true Hero who gave his life for his friend. The Princesses themselves used their magic to engrave his headstone with the phrase “Friendship is Life”, as a reminder that true friendship is above life and death. I am pretty sure Alex will want to visit the place once he wakes up… The day after the funeral, the Kings returned to their homelands. Some of them, including Zaxel and Maximus Heart went to the hospital to visit Alex. It was incredible, many ponies believed somehow Alex managed to earn the respect of that Horse “He showed me about humility, he was a true champion and a hero!” those where his words, but deep down inside I believe he said that just to gain more fame. I’d like to say the ponies of Canterlot aren’t easy to manipulate but that would be a big fat lie, at least half of the city believed in Bright Courage’s story about Alex being a menace and some of them even asked Princess Celestia to end his life, claiming he was a menace to Equestria they needed to deal with him right away; what better time to do it than now that he was vulnerable. Princess Celestia’s mood wasn’t the best during this time; she took care of Alex as if he was her son. The Princesses have always come to visit him here in Ponyville. By the way, Alex was moved from Canterlot to our humble local hospital here in Ponyville, all of us agreed that moving him to a more peaceful environment would help him heal faster; sadly, he wasn’t brought here just for that, but because there were some ponies that wanted to hurt him. We couldn’t risk him from being hurt so the Princesses approved this so they brought him here and left some well trained guards to take care of him. Many ponies visit him regularly; Ditsy and her daughter are the ones that come to the hospital the most. I still remember the day they became close friends, Alex was one of the few who told her how beautiful her eyes are, and I remember how jealous Fluttershy and I were that day. Ditsy always brings a muffin for him in case he wakes up hungry; sadly, they become waste because he hasn’t opened his eyes. Fluttershy and Sweetie Bell stay in the hospital every day, the shy Pegasus spends at least two or three hours talking to him and knitting; I believe she has finished 4 or 5 scarves for him. Sweetie Bell lies down next to him, hoping she will be the first thing he sees when he wakes up. She wants to apologize to him for all the things she said and even starts to cry. Rarity wanted to keep her from visit him because it had started to affect her physically. After four weeks, Alex finally woke up. He looks weak but he is fine. We were so happy but it didn’t last long, Alexis doesn’t want to talk to anypony not even his marefriend or Spike, he just stays there lying on his bed sometimes looking at the window or the ceiling, staring into nothing. The doctors have checked on him and they agree that there is nothing wrong with his body, but he was very depressed. Pinkie Pie did her best to cheer him up or at least tried, she failed. It was the first time everypony saw Pinkie Pie fail. After a couple of weeks everypony decided to let him be “maybe he just needs some time” is what they all said. How wrong they were! To my own surprise Alex asked me some questions, not looking at me even once. He wanted to know when and where Proud Hammer was buried, what happened after the tournament, etc. It made me happy hearing him talk but still, his voice, his words seemed . . . empty. After a couple of days it was more than obvious for everypony… His spirit and his will were gone, his heart was dead. Princess Celestia tried to talk to him, no luck. As everypony else did, she decided not to push him. Princess Luna tried harder, she even tried by going into his dreams but everything she found in his dreams was darkness, she tried to cast the darkness away but it was impossible. After a several tries, she gave up. Little Spike has been doing great; he has gained a lot of reputation after the tournament. I think he has been in touch with two new friends, one from Manehatan and the other from Gryphonia. I didn’t know he was so popular, but the strangest thing is the fact that he doesn’t visit Rarity’s that much. However, it is still obvious he has a little crush on her. Besides the horrible things that have happened, our lives are as good as always, or at least as normal as they can be. Everypony went back to their daily tasks, sadly, the memories from the tournament are not as the Princesses had wanted. Twilight and her friend returned to their daily lives as well, they were still hurt by all of this; but deep inside they knew that Alex, even in his current state, wouldn’t want them to let this incident affect their lives at all. Fluttershy was the only one having problems with this, she still visits him, hoping to make Alex snap out of it. She even tried to take him with her but the medical staff stopped her on time…” (Fluttershy P.O.V. one week ago) “Please Alex, come with me. I am one of the first ponies with an invitation to see the Breezes…” “. . . . . . . . . . .” “Don’t you want to come with me?” “. . . . . . . . . . . . .” “Ok, I think I should be going…” Fluttershy stopped at a couple of inches from the door; she turned around “No! I want you to go with me and you will!” she tried to pull him out of the bed but he didn’t move an inch. After hearing all the noise, nurse Read Heart and some medical staff stopped her “Miss Fluttershy! Stop! Princess Celestia gave strict orders to keep him here safe until HE wants to leave on his own will!” “But, but I really want him to come with me! Alex please, say something!” “. . . . . . . . . . . .” “Alex, say something!! You are my boyfriend remember?! Do you care about me?” She closed her eyes “If you don’t say anything… we are done!” She started to cry. “. . . . . . . . . . .” She turned around and rushed outside the room. She didn’t notice Alex turning his head and looking at her. His lips started to move, he spoke very quietly: “. . . Finally” Lyra finished writing in her diary and went to sleep; she and the gang had agreed to visit Alex again. The next day, the whole group went to pick Fluttershy at the train station, their reunion was nice considering everything that had happened until today. On their way to the hospital, Lyra got near Fluttershy and asked: “So what’s the plan Fluttershy?” “I. . . I don’t know. . . I can’t believe I broke up with him, I’m afraid of seeing him, what am I going to do? Why did I do something so stupid?” Fluttershy started to cry. “Everything is going to be alright. Everypony knows how much you love each other. You were hurt and said things without thinking but it’s nothing love can’t fix!” “Do you think so?” “I know it Fluttershy!” Fluttershy smiled and wiped her tears off. With a new found conviction, she started to run to the hospital; she needed to tell Alex how much she loved him and that she didn’t mean any word she said during their last “conversation”. When the group arrived at the hospital, Nurse ReadHeart talked to them: “Hello everypony, coming to see Mr. Alex?” “You bet!” - Pinkie Pie answered. “Nice! Please follow me. But I warn you, he might be sleeping. He didn’t make a single noise last night after closing the door to his room. But it’s almost time for breakfast and I have the keys to his room. I hope you guys can finally make him speak again!” Everypony followed her into the room. Nurse ReadHeart opened the door very slowly… “GOOD MORNING ALEX! WE HAVE A SURPR… uh?!” The room was empty. Rainbow Dash turned to nurse RedHeart “Do you think this is funny? Where is he?!” “I don’t know Mrs. Dash. He should be here, nopony ordered to move him into another room; and besides that, he locked the door last night.” Fluttershy started to cry, she was so worried about him. She started looking for him in the adjacent rooms “Alex, where are you?!” the rest of the group started to do the same. Twilight was the only one who got inside the room, carefully looking at every corner “The door wasn’t forced open, the windows are not broken. However…” she got near the window “As I supposed, the window was open from the inside” it was clear; Alex had left the hospital by his own. Rarity entered Alex’s room “Twilight please, we need to know who took Alex away. He could be hurt or even worse!” Princess Twilight turned around while the rest of the group got into the room “Relax girls, don’t you see?” everypony was confused. Twilight showed them the evidence she found, they were to know that nopony had taken him away; however, they were still worried. “But where could he go?” – Rainbow Dash asked. “I don’t know, but we need to find him fast! He is very weak and probably is still hurt; I know, maybe he went outside to Carousel Boutique!” “That can’t be possible; we were there an hour ago” Rarity replied “Everything was normal” Twilight closed his eyes “Did you search inside his room?” “We haven’t entered in his room since we decorated it. We were waiting for him to wake up and…” Suddenly, the whole group realized “Alright, let’s go!” They ran as fast as they could to get to Rarity’s home. After getting there, they went into his room. What they found was shocking, most of the things inside his room were untouched, but his gear missing and so were most of his clothes. His weapons, Metapendant, most of his personals things weren’t there. “He definitely was here!” Pinkie Pie said “But why did he leave?” They started to wonder what his reason to leave was; deep inside, they knew the truth. They just didn’t want to accept it. Spike was the one to break the silence: “What if he just… ran away?” His words echoed in the room. Nopony wanted to believe it, but there was no other option. They started to cry. Fluttershy fell on her knees, her heart was broken. “Why did he leave?” All of them had many questions. Only one thing was certain. ALEX WAS GONE!