• Published 4th Feb 2015
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Friendship is Life - alejin



After managed to keep living, Alex is back to have more adventures in Equestria and try to find out if he wants to stay or not, welcome to Friendship is Life!.

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Chapter 20, Help you out

Author's Note:

I'm back from Colorado and ready to continue my stories, to those who read An unexpected Life, a new chapter is coming tomorrow.

I Hope you like this chapter, please comment, as always, thank you very much Zombie Garka for the excellent edition.

Sweetie Bell opened her eyes, she was at home having a delicious lunch with her parents; Scootaloo and Applebloom got inside and invited her to play with them. She turned to her parents who agreed with a smile.

The little ponies were playing at the park:

“So what is the plan girls?”

“Well, I heard Diamond Tiara will be there with her big brother Alex?”

“Brother Alex? Why does she have a brother called the same as mine?” – Sweetie Belle asked.

Applebloom and Scootaloo seemed confused.

“What are yah talking about Sweetie Bell?” Applebloom asked “Yah don’t have a big brother; well, not anymore…”

“What, what do you mean by NOT ANYMORE?”

“Don’t you remember? After the tournament, you didn’t want Alex to be your brother anymore; you said you were ashamed of being his little sister and turned your back on him!”

“What?! I, I didn’t do that!” Sweetie Belle started to feel uncomfortable “What are you talking about?”

“Oh c’mon Sweetie Belle! We were there; yah said that yourself. I still remember how broken hearted he was. Remember it took over a month for us to start talking to you again.”

“But, but… I didn’t…”

“Yeah! But who would say Diamond would take the chance make him her Big brother, I thought she was just kidding but hey! They do look cute together!”

Sweetie Belle was speechless, she couldn’t believe what they said, but somehow she did, she remembered saying those words to Alex; they were echoing inside her head. Suddenly, a group of ponies arrived at the park. Fillies and colts were around Alex who was carrying Diamond on his shoulders. Sweetie Belle noticed him and ran towards the group, she wasn’t able to come closer to him due to the other ponies standing in her way.

Alex was telling them a story:

“And I managed to knock out Maximus Heart with my knee!”

Every little pony laughed and cheered for him.

“Wow, what an amazing big brother you have Diamond! One of the four finalist of the Coliseum Tournament!” – One of them said.

“I know right!” - Diamond Tiara replied while kissing Alex on his cheek.

“Hey! What do you think you are doing?” – Sweetie Belle shouted.

Everypony including Alex looked around to find who had said that. After finding out who it was, Alex looked at her and asked “Oh, it’s you! What do you want blank flank?”

Sweetie Bell was shocked; why was her brother calling her like that?

“Big bro…”

“STOP!” Alex shouted “You know very well you can’t call me like that! I’m not your brother anymore, remember?”

Suddenly, Diamond Tiara disappeared from Alex’s shoulders, the rest of the ponies around him banished like smoke. Only Alex and Sweetie Belle were left, they were now standing on a dark place:

“I, I never said that big brother… I swear I never did!”

“Stop calling me that! You are not my sister anymore. In fact, you never were! Even though I loved you like I loved my REAL sister Angela, even though I fought, bleed and almost lost my life for you, at the end you abandoned me and threw me away like trash. I did my best Sweetie, I really did, but it wasn’t enough for you right? I lost a single stupid fight and that was enough! YOU TURNED YOUR BACK ON ME!

“No! Alex please, stop!”

He turned around and started walking into the darkness.

“I should have had left that Manticore eat you alive the day we met… I hate you!”

Sweetie Bell started to cry, her brother hated her and there was nothing she could do to about it. The darkness was surrounding her.

“DARKNESS, I COMMAND YOU TO DISSAPEAR!”

The power of Princess Luna was enough to end this nightmare. The shadows surrounding Sweetie Belle were casted away; they were replaced by a shining light. Sweetie Belle opened her eyes and found herself on a different place. A beautiful night with shinning stars.

“IS THERE SOMETHING WRONG SWEETIE BELL?”

Sweetie Belle ran towards the Princess and hugged one of her legs.

“Thank you Princess Luna, I was so scared!”

“You don’t have to be afraid, it was just a nightmare created by your emotions. Please tell me, what’s in your mind?”

Sweetie Bell started to cry again, she didn’t know what to say to Princess Luna; she felt ashamed of what she did to Alex.

“Sweetie Bell, you do realize now you did wrong?”

“Princess, how do you know?!” – Sweetie Belle asked.

“Twilight told me. Was it that bad for you to see him lose in the tournament?”

“. . . no, I just, I didn’t know how to react to it. I thought he was going to win, and when he lost his match I got so sad and angry, but I was never ashamed of being his sister. I love him so much; I should have told him that! Now he thinks I hate him! And now he surely thinks of leaving me.”

Princess Luna smiled.

“That’s not true, he still loves you a lot, but I do think you need to tell him this.”

“But what if he doesn’t want to talk to me anymore?”

“He will want to, don’t worry. My advice is that you go to the stadium, he needs you. He needs his family now.”

“Really? Why is that?”

“Because right now he is…”

“LUNA!” The princess of the night was interrupted by Celestia who entered Sweetie’s dream.

“CELESTIA, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE, YOU KNOW YOU ARE NOT USED TO ENTER TO THE DREAMSCAPE LIKE ME!”

“I KNOW, BUT YOU NEED TO WAKE UP, ALEX IS IN GREAT DANGER. BRIGHT COURAGE, HE IS GONE INSANE!”

“What do you mean sister?”

Celestia noticed Sweetie Bell standing next to Luna.

“I’LL EXPLAIN EVERYTHING ONCE YOU ARE THERE! SWEETIE BELL, DON’T GO TO THE STADIUM UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!”

Princess Celestia banished in an instant.

“Sweetie Bell, I must go and find out what’s going on!”

“Ok, I’m coming too!”

“No! My sister told you not to go there!”

“But she said my brother is in danger!”

“Sweetie Bell, listen to my sister. Don’t worry; we’ll make sure he is safe.”

Sweetie Bell woke up; she jumped out of her bed and started to run towards the stadium. She didn’t want to disobey the Princesses but her brother was in danger. She failed to support him once and she would not do it again.

“Please be ok big brother! I’m coming to help you!”


Luna woke up on her royal seat inside the stadium. She opened her eyes and couldn’t believe what was in front of her: soldiers from every kingdom were trying to break the Faker Barrier. Spike was throwing fireballs at it; Twilight, Shining Armor and Cadence were using their magic trying to break it. Fluttershy was hitting it with her hooves; she was crying and screaming like she was going to die. All of them were doing it a great effort but it was useless, the barrier didn’t even have a scratch. The Spell that was used to cast it was too powerful.

Princess Luna stopped looking at them for a second; she turned her attention to what was happening inside the barrier.

Alex and his coach, Proud Hammer had a Katana each. Alex was bleeding from his mouth, nose and forehead; all his clothes were covered with dirt and blood. Proud Hammer wasn’t doing any better; he had a black eye and was coughing blood. They were both staring at the one who was causing all this mess, Bright Courage. He was hurt but not as bad as Alex and Proud Hammer, they had managed to defend themselves. Princess Luna was shocked; she didn’t have any idea about what was happening inside the barrier. She turned her face to the left and noticed her sister sitting next to her.

“TIA! WHAT IS HAPPENING? WHY IS MR. BRIGHT COURAGE FIGHTING ALEX AND HIS COACH? WHY ARE THEY SO MESSED UP? AREN’T THEY USING FAKER WEAPONS? PLEASE ANSWER ME!”

Celestia looked a little dazed, she was feeling tired for going into the dreamscape.

“No Luna, they are not using Faker Weapons. They are having a deathmatch!”

“Celestia, what the hell is going on in there?”


(15 minutes ago…)

“Murderer? What are you talking about Mr. Courage” - Alex asked.

“Why are you acting like you don’t know? You and all of your kind are murderers!” – The Minotaur replied.

“Do you know about humans?”

“Sadly, I do know about your horrible kind.”

“But how?” – Alex was surprised. How did he know about the human race?

“You will have to earn the right to know that!”

Bright Courage drew his battle axe and charged. Alex had no other choice but to draw his Katanas and defend himself.

“Do you really think those fragile blades will protect you stupid human?!”

Bright swinged his axe pointing at Alex’s head, the human used his Katanas to successfully block the attack. Bright was shocked, the blades didn’t have a scratch at all, Alex used all of his strength to push Bright away; it was obvious the Minotaur was strong, but Alex wasn’t a weakling, Bright Courage jumped away.

Alex looked at his Katanas “I would be dead by now if it wasn’t for Proud Hammer, his work is amazing!” He said to himself.

“You look amazed kiddo!” Proud Hammer shouted “Now, this is far from over. Hand me one of those so I can help you out!”

“What? Forget it; I won’t get you involved in this!”

“Kiddo, I know you are strong, but this crazy bastard is trying to kill you. He won’t hold back, there are no rules here. YOU NEED HELP!”

Alex knew he was right, now he was fighting for his life again. There was no room for any stupid pride; He nodded and handed out one of his weapons.

Together, Alex and Proud Hammer charged towards Bright Courage, the Minotaur started to fight against both of them. He was doing pretty good considering it was a two-on-one match. Alex was more on the offense than his friend; he was the only one wearing armor after all. While fighting, Proud Hammer managed to make a small cut on one of Bright’s arms. He screamed in anger and delivered a huge hit to the pony’s face, sending him flying away. Alex tried to take advantage of this little distraction but his attack was blocked by the Battle Axe. However, he didn’t stop, he drew one of his throwing knives and aimed at Bright’s face, the Minotaur managed to step aside but the knife cut his cheek, making him bleed.

“Are you ok Proud?” – Alex shouted.

“Yeah, don’t worry! Let’s focus on finishing him!”

“No!” Alex was worried about his friend “You stay right where you are, I’ll do the rest!”

Proud Hammer stood up “Forget it kiddo! It’s you and me, deal with it!”

Alex smiled, he admired his friend. They turned around and charged again, but this time their strategy was different, Proud Hammer attacked him using his Katana while Alex took out his bow and started shooting arrows. A close and long distance combat combination, Bright Courage never saw this coming, while he was clashing his weapon with Proud Hammer, Alex managed to hit him with a couple of arrows on his ribs and back but the Minotaur just kept going “Damn, this guy is tough!” Alex said to himself.

Bright Courage knew that in order to end this fight, he would need to get rid of the pony first. When Proud Hammer swinged his katana at him, Bright Courage dropped his axe and grabbed the blade with his bare hands. Completely ignoring the pain caused by another arrow that just hit him in the arm, he kicked Proud Hammer on the stomach making him fall on his back. With one swift movement he threw the Katana away and grabbed is axe, lifting it above his head, getting ready to decapitate the Pony that was lying on the ground.

“This is the only way!” The Minotaur shouted right before feeling a horrible pain on his left side. He thought it was another arrow and looked down only to find it was Alex’s blade cutting into his skin. He got distracted for just a second, but it was enough time for Alex to punch him on his muzzle, making him lose his balance.

“Hey! I thought your war was with me, what the fuck are you trying to do? He is an innocent pony you asshole!”

Alex punched him again and then kicked him on the chest; the human was lost in his rage. He felt as if every bone in his hands would break, but it didn’t matter, he wanted to take this bastard down. A powerful hit from his knee was enough; Bright Courage was sent flying and landed heavily on the ground.

“Stupid bastard!” Alex shouted. He ran towards Proud Hammer to make sure he was okay “Hang in there old pony, it’s over!”

Proud Hammer opened his eyes and looked at his surroundings.

“Wow! I think I fainted… Alex, where is that Minotaur?”

Alex smiled “He is right there lying on the ground. I just knocked him out.” He turned his head to look at the Minotaur but all he was able to see was a big fist coming straight at him. He didn’t have time for anything; all he could do was close his eyes when the iron-fist met his stomach, Alex could hear a horrible sound coming from his internal organs, he was lifted on the air due to the force of the impact and then a powerful kick to his face sent him flying, landing at least six or seven feet from where he was standing.

Bright Courage jumped high in the air. Alex was trying to lift himself up from the floor but he noticed a shadow coming at him, he looked up at the sky but his face met Bright’s fist once again. His head bounced on the ground almost making him lose consciousness. The Minotaur kicked him on his side; Alex could hear another cracking noise. Bright Courage laughed like a mad. He stood up next to Alex and got on his knees, he then started punching Alex on the face, chest and arms. The human tried to block the attacks but it was useless, these punches were so painful.

Proud Hammer stood up and charged towards the Minotaur, he wanted to stop this punishment. Sadly, the pony was stopped and hit by an elbow that knocked him out.

The Minotaur kept punching him until he got tired and stood up. He looked down and laughed again. Alex was lying on the ground, defenseless. He was bleeding from his mouth and nose, his left eye was swollen and closed and his forehead was cut open. His arms had bruises all over; He coughed and spit some more blood, the pain on his side was intense. He gathered some strength and opened his mouth…

“. . . . Why?”

The Minotaur couldn’t understand what he said.

“…why…are you … doing…this…?”

“What you did you say?” - Bright Courage asked.

Alex rolled to his right, spitting blood and saliva. He cleared his throat and got on his knees.

“Why are you doing this? I think I earned the right to know, TELL ME!”

“If this is your last wish, I’ll tell you…” The Minotaur sat on the ground, he knew the human was unable to attack him or do anything else, at least for a while. Those punches did their job; he didn’t have anything to worry about for at least a couple of minutes.

“I hate humans, all my family does. We hate every creature who ever thought about giving your kind a chance to redeem yourselves.”

Alex couldn’t understand what he meant by that “But I. . . I didn’t do anything to you.”

“No, you didn’t, but your kind did. Have you ever heard about Starswirl the Bearded?”

“Yes… he is the one who discovered the entrance to my world.”

“And you know he used to have apprentices helping him in his researches. Do you?”

“I do; in fact, one of my friend’s ancestors was one of them, but what does this have to do with Starswirl?”

“IT HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH THIS! DO YOU THINK STARSWIRL HAD ONLY PONY ASSISTANTS?”

“ …”

Bright Courage stood up; his eyes were filled with anger “Yes! One of his assistants was a Minotaur, a brilliant one called Hope Knowledge. Even though he wasn’t a pony, he earned the right to be one of the few assistants of Starswirl. He wanted to make his homeland proud, but he, he was taken away from us by your filthy kind! The unicorn used to organize field trips to this place called “Earth” in order to investigate your world, the ponies used their magic to hide themselves but Hope Knowledge had to be extra careful. Unfortunately, on one occasion, he was discovered by humans and was captured. Starswirl and the rest did their best to help him out but they were outnumbered by savage humans carrying swords and spears so they had to flee. They took him away with them!”

At this moment, Bright Courage was shouting. He was making sure everyone inside the Coliseum could hear his story, the real reason why he was doing all of this.

“Starswirl did his best to find him, he spoke with the best wizards in order to track him down. When he finally found out where he was, he gathered a group of the best ponies to help him rescue the captured Minotaur. Do you know what they did to him? They did all kind of experiments with him in order to understand how an “animal” was able to think rationally and speak their language. When they were done with him, they threw him inside a labyrinth that would be his prison until the day he died. This place was called the Labyrinth of Crete, and you know what? Humans called him a monster! They used to send young human females to the Labyrinth as sacrifices for the Monster inside, but there was no monster; the females were raped and killed by other humans that were hiding inside the labyrinth and Hope Knowledge was blamed for their deaths!”

Alex was speechless, Greek mythology seemed to be true.

Bright Courage continued:

“After an intense battle between the real monsters and Starswirl, the ponies managed to defeat them and took Hope away with them. Away from that horrible place, once they were back on Equestria, Starswirl brought him to Minus. He was in an awful condition, I can’t and don’t want to imagine the kind of things they did to him. On his last days, he told his family everything that had happened to him. Unable to sleep or eat due to the horrors he lived and witnessed, HE KILLED HIMSELF! Our family was devastated. But that wasn’t the worst part!”

“What do you mean?”- Alex asked.

“Starswirl forced everycreature that knew about this disgrace to make a vow of silence. My family was insulted, the only thing they wanted was revenge, but that crazy unicorn said it was suicide. He insulted our pride and our strength!”

Alex was completely shocked “Starswirl wasn’t crazy, he knew how small this whole world is compared to earth…” He said to himself.

Bright Courage was clenching his fists. Everypony could see the anger on his eyes.

“WE ARE A PROUD RACE, WE ALWAYS PROTECT OUR KIND! WE DESERVED REVENGE AND IT WAS DENIED TO US. THAT’S WHEN OUR FAMILY MADE ITS OWN OATH, WE WOULD MAKE SURE TO LET EVERYCREATURE KNOW WHAT KIND OF MONSTERS YOU HUMANS REALLY ARE! WE SWORE TO NEVER LET ANY HUMANS LIVE HERE IN OUR BEAUTIFUL WORLD!”

“But…” - Alex was kicked in his stomach once again.

“Silence! My family didn’t care about the vow of silence, they tried to tell everycreature about this incident, but no one believed them, not even the King himself. After all, Starswirl and him were close friends. We also found out that Starswirl had closed the portal to the human world and so, the whole incident passed as if it had never happened. But we didn’t forget it! Now that a human is here in Equestria, I will be the one to exact revenge on you! That way my ancestor will finally rest in peace and I will release this beautiful world from your kind!”

Almost everypony trying to break the Faker Barrier had already stopped doing so. They were shocked after hearing these words from Bright Courage. “Are humans really this cruel?”,”How was a human allowed in Equestria if they are so evil?” these were some of the things a lot of ponies were asking themselves.

Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were still hitting the Barrier with everything they had. Rarity had passed out after watching Alex being horribly punished by Bright Courage; Fluttershy was crying and screaming for help.

Twilight and Cadence arrived at Princess Celestia’s spot.

“Princess Celestia, is this true?” – Twilight asked.

“I never knew anything about this Twilight. Starswirl never told me anything, I was so busy during those years, I was still sad for banishing Luna. I guess he was sure if I knew anything about it, I would have forced him to close both portals to the human world, including the one he used to visit his little female friend.”

“But why is he taking revenge on Alex. He never did anything to him!”

“I’m afraid some grudges never go away my little Twilight” - Cadence said.

At this moment, Princess Luna woke up. Princess Celestia told her everything that had happened until now. Luna was angry; she flew and shot a huge magical beam to the Faker Barrier, but it was useless.

“BRIGHT COURAGE! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING TO MY FRIEND? IF YOU KILL HIM, YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE; I WILL HAVE YOUR HEAD IN MY ROOM!”

Bright Courage laughed “You can have it if you want to Princess Luna, but not before I kill him. If I was you, I would save my energy; you can’t break this barrier, not until one of us dies!”

Luna was going to shot another magical beam but was stopped by Celestia.

“He is right Luna, remember this spell cannot be stopped or broken until one of the life counters drops down to zero. Since none of them is using any Faker Weapons, the only way to reach the zero points is if… one of the contestants ceases to exist.

The King of Minus was on his seat. He had listened to every word his champion had to say, he took a moment to think about these things. Suddenly he stood up and shouted:

“Bright Courage, I hope you understand you will not get away from this. This might lead to public execution!”

Bright smirked and said:

“Hahahaha! Do you think I’m planning to escape from this? I’m not scared to die, I have lived long enough. I’m happy knowing my last great deed will fulfill my family’s revenge. REVENGE THAT WAS DENIED TO MY FAMILY BY ONE OF YOUR ANCESTORS!”

Alex got on his knees again.

“Why did you wait so long? I mean, you could have killed me when we first met, you even saved me from Maximus Heart!”

“Yes, I could have killed you before, but I wanted to show every creature the true nature of your kind. I wanted to fight you on the finals but you disappointed me, losing against that Zebra, you forced me to use my plan B. Now, speaking from a warrior’s point of view… you are a disappointment.”

“I, aghhhh” Alex was in terrible pain “ . . . I didn’t want to fight you like this, I’m not a killer!”

Bright smirked and walked towards Alex and grabbed him from his throat; Alex was coughing, he was unable to breath.

“Have you forgotten about Blueblood?”

“What. . . how you know?” – Alex asked. He was barely able to speak.

“You thought something as big as that would be completely hidden from everycreature? I managed to get this information from fans I have all over Equestria. Don’t worry, I’m not planning to say anything about that, my war is against you, not Equestria.”

Alex spat some blood on Bright’s face “You tried to kill my friend Proud Hammer some moments ago you dumbass!”

The Minotaur used his other hand to clean his face “If I have a goal, no creature gets in my way. If he has to fall with you, he will!”

“You are insane, I killed Blueblood because I had to! He gave me no other choice!”

“Same here, you need to die! What if you bring more humans to our world? What if you want to kill again? You can’t be trusted; someday, the ponies will thank me for this!”

“No! Please, please don’t kill him, I love him!” - Fluttershy cried with all her strength.

Bright Courage heard her “Didn’t you hear what I just said? What his kind is capable of? At his side you will suffer, sooner or later he will betray you, it is his TRUE NATURE!”

“No! That’s not true” She replied “He is kind, sweet and loyal to his friends. He is not like anything you are saying, you just want to believe you are doing good but you are not! Please, don’t take Alex away from me!”

Bright Courage turned to see Alex again.

“You infected that innocent pony with your lies, I have to end this today; at your side, she or anypony else will suffer. Just look around you, no matter what happens today, I HAVE WON!”

Alex did as Courage said, many creatures had stopped trying to break the Barrier and many of them were looking at him with fear, disgust and even hate. Some of them seemed to be satisfied to see him beaten up and defeated. Alex remembered how he almost lost his life saving these same ponies, he was so angry.

“You ruined everything! Those were never my intentions. I just wanted a peaceful life, but you, you took it away from me! I had friends, fans, family and a girlfriend; now I can’t stay here anymore, but if I have to fall, I WILL KILL YOU WITH MY OWN HANDS!”

Bright Courage laughed out loud “You can’t even escape from my grip and you dare threaten me? I am sure I will fall today but not by your hand; it doesn’t matter, I will be a martyr, I’ll die knowing I did good in front of everycreature here!”

Bright delivered another punch to Alex’s stomach, sending him flying to the ground again. Alex tried to stand up as soon as he hit the ground, but the pain inside his abdomen brought him down to his knees.

“TIME TO END THIS!” – Bright Courage shouted.

He picked up one of Alex’s own Katanas and walked slowly towards the human who was unable to stand up on his own.

“You are not even worthy to be killed by my own weapon!”

Alex was struggling to move, he didn’t want to end up like this. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do. His body was so messed up, it wasn’t responding. He looked up and saw the Minotaur coming at him. Bright Courage stopped and got ready to stab him right on the chest. It was over.

Alex closed his eyes.

“I’ll see you in a moment Angela, I’ve missed you a lot…”

The edge of the Katana traveled through the air until it found its target. It cut through skin, muscles and veins. Blood started pouring on the ground.

The crowd went silent; Fluttershy couldn’t believe what she was seeing. The whole place was completely quiet.

Alex could smell the blood but didn’t feel any pain. He opened his eyes and there it was, the tip of his Katana was at a few inches away from him.

But Alex wasn’t looking at the blade; he wasn’t looking at Bright Courage either. He was looking at the eyes of his friend; Proud Hammer had stopped the Katana from reaching Alex by getting in its way…

The old pony was standing there with a shinning piece of metal and blood coming out of his chest.

“I… told you I was going to…

…help you out kidd…”