The Barcolt

by ThePizzaDeliveryPony

Chapter 5

Note, all of this Alex is saying out loud to Dash. EVERYTHING. However it is still being told by Alex looking back on it. Imagine Alex reading this to dash, word for word. And now I am rambling…so without further adieu, meet the Firewings…sorta

...

Nopony ever helps with the bullied foal.

Nopony ever helped my big brother…

Jack Firewing. Apparently we had an ancestor who was a Pegasus; however, he was no such thing. He was an amazing unicorn stallion, who could do anything. With an indescribable squiggle as a cutie mark, he was different. His name- jack- and his cutie mark represented how he could do anything. He was a jack of all trades… and he was hated for it.

… At least, that’s what I believe.

_-_-_

Jack was always getting picked on at school, but I never figured out why. He had a cutie mark which everypony saw differently. To one it was a piece of metal, to another it was a work of art, and yet another could consider it a flame. A jack of all trades, and he could do anything but…

The one thing he never managed to do was make friends. He would never talk about them, and never had anyone to talk to them about. I was too young, around six. He was around sixteen. I didn’t understand 2+2, much less his problems.

He was alone…

My parents. There are two fine examples of what not to do. My mother had to work all the time, mostly because my father was always out of a job. He was always out looking for one, or in a bar, or drunk and unconscious at home.

Jack took care of me, by himself. I had just started school, so he had to help with homework too. My mother had decent income, and was able to support us, however she was never home. I have no idea what she did though.

My brother always wore a smile, even if he was upset, he would not show it around me. He would come home, do all the chores, make everyone food, help me with homework, and do his own and the bullies’.

He would get me ready for school in the morning, and all that. I never saw much of my parents, but there wasn’t much I or he could do.

_-_-_

One day I got home from school and I couldn’t find him. I waited, but he never showed up. It was my mom who got home first. She found me in the kitchen trying to make myself something.

When she asked why I answered “because Jack’s not home.”

She looked at me confused and went up stairs. Maybe she thought he was in his room, sick.

Then I heard a scream.

_-_-_

The carriage pulled away with only a tail hanging out. My brother was gone. My mother was standing beside me screaming. “NO! STOP! DON’T TAKE HIM! HE ISN’T DEAD, HE CAN’T BE DEAD!” I was sitting on the pavement crying, I didn’t have the full idea of what was going on, however I understood that my brother was gone and not coming back.

He was gone. He was gone before they took him. I knew he had problems at school, but he always had a smile. I just wish he hadn’t done that. The most irreversible thing anypony could ever do.

Dangling there when she walked through the door, traumatized her. She would never be the same. Nor would he.

There is what sounds like thunder in the distance.

Then an explosion closer. I looked around for the source. Two houses exploded into fire around me. Ponies were running. The house next to me and mom blew up. Mom doesn’t notice. I ran. Trying to get to our house before…

It burst into a raging torrent of fire, three feet away from me.

I look up. Through the flames I can see a red, unicorn stallion standing on top.

“What are you doing?!” I yell. “DAD! STOP!”

He didn’t hear me and just stood there. I ran into the house, only one thought on my mind, I have to get it. I HAVE TO GET IT!

Then I heard it, the crashing sound. It was coming from above me. I looked up to see one of the support beams falling down.

After that, darkness.

I heard my name being called, but I was trapped in the dark confined space, unable to move, struggling to breathe.

“ALEX!” I heard somepony call. Light, it hurt my eyes, but I could see, and standing over me was an orange Pegasus. He was our neighbor.

He pulled me out of the hole. Then I realized it was gone. The only thing we ever had to remember Jack, a family portrait of when times were good in our family. Tears start to stream down my face as I walk to the road, I find my mom still standing there, looking towards where the carriage had gone. The life in her eyes had gone with the carriage.

I turn to see an earth pony lying on the ground…

_-_-_

“Dash have you ever seen a unicorn get really angry? They get so angry they burst into flames?” I ask interrupting my story.

“umm…well Twilight has a few times.” She had a sad look on her face.

“Well when a unicorn bursts into flames like that, they are using an enormous amount of magic. They can only do it for a short time, before they exhaust their powers. My dad was a unicorn who did it past the point he should have. It should kill you if you go past that point, however sometimes the pony doesn’t die. My father is one of the few who did not die.

“What happens to the ones who don’t die is they run out of magic, for good. It puts them in a coma, but they recover from that. What is really bad is that they lose their horn. It shatters, and there is nothing they can do to get it back.

“My father is an earth pony, but he wasn’t always that way. He didn’t die…”

_-_-_

When the police ponies finally arrived, he was in a coma, and they took him away. No one was hurt in his rampage, but several houses were destroyed. Luckily we did not have to pay the damages, because the insurance companies paid everything back.

My dad went on a rampage when he overheard someone talking about Jack in a bar. He apparently insulted him, and my dad became enraged. When he was in that state he had no control, that’s why we didn’t have to pay anything.

The court system however, disagreed. When my father went to trial after his coma, he was ruled as dangerous, and sentenced to fifteen years. As far as I know he never had an issue again. And fifteen years are up soon, so I moved out of Manehattan.

My mother was never the same after my brother’s death. She was changed, we had money from the house and damages. We had lost everything, so we were awarded around five hundred thousand bits for everything.

I grew up quickly after that day. She bought a small apartment, and never worked again. She took to drinking like my father, and was always either drunk or unconscious.

My mother was an angry drunk, and she would hit me if I didn’t do what I was told. I got her drinks and food, and that
was all she ever yelled for. I had to buy food and go to school by myself until I dropped out.

Around ten years old, I decided I wanted to try to get my mom to stop drinking. I gave her all kinds of drinks, some with more alcohol, some with less, and some that were terrible tasting. She drank it all, and didn’t complain.

After that I realized that I liked mixing drinks and I could be a bartender. That’s how I got my cutie mark; trying to get my mother to stop drinking.

Six years later I moved out on my own, sick of working, and taking care of my mom. I dropped out of school, and lived on my own, doing odd jobs and bartending when I could to make money.

Around two years back was when my mother died. I didn’t know until I got a call from the police station. They gave her and the keys to the apartment to me. There was a short funereal, to which only I came. And then I sold the apartment and got all the money I could.

I received life insurance money and inheritance from her and that’s what I bought the bar in Ponyville with.

_-_-_

“I don’t want to see my dad, so I moved out of Manehattan before he got out of jail. I hope he won’t find me where I am now.”

We both sat there, in silence contemplating what I just said. We had both cried a bit and dash still had tears in her eyes. I was feeling relieved; years of bottling it all up inside can be tough, and I just let it all out. I sigh contentedly.

Dash was the first to speak, “what… what if he tries to find you? What will you do if he shows up in Ponyville?” she says hesitantly.

I suck in a breath, surprised by her question, “I don’t know Dash…”

“That was a depressing story, and I feel sorry for you,” she says in a depressed tone.

“You shouldn’t feel sorry, it’s not like you wished this on me. I just hope that you understand that it is my past, and I don’t dwell on it, or bring it up. Whatever happened, happened. Don’t let it get you down. Telling you has actually helped me. Now somepony knows what I’ve been through and I can talk to them about it.” This is true in all aspects. I feel like a great weight had just been pulled off my shoulders, but I worry that it has been put on Dash.

I look to her and she is looking at me. I put out my forehooves and she moves across the cabin and leans into a hug.

“Now that I’ve told you that, you know I’m never letting you go, right?” I whisper.

“yea…and now that I know, I promise I will make up for all those bad memories with some good ones,” she responds quietly.

“All right… but, now aren’t we moving a little fast?” I ask, okay with it anyway.

“Are you happy?”she whispers in my ear. I nod.

“Then we’re fine.” And she reaches up and leans in for a kiss.

Then the train begins to slow. And I lay back onto the bed. I say in a normal, happy tone, “now I have to buy a train full of alcohol, and I don’t even like to drink!” We both laugh, and get out of bed.

As the train pulls into the station we are ready to jump off.

After we get off I go up to the ticket booth. “I need a whole cargo car, and a travel compartment, to Ponyville”

“Train leaves at four, and that will be three thousand bits,” says the mare behind the counter. I pay her and leave.

As we leave the station, Dash asks me, “wow, a whole car?”

“Yea, and I hope I won’t need more,” I say worried.

_-_-_

I spend the rest of the day going to several liquor stores, Dash in tow, and buying nearly everything they have. After I buy it I tell them to bring it to the train station by two this afternoon. And by one thirty we are back at the station.

We get something to eat while we wait, and when the first wagon load pulls up, we start loading my car. After the fifth wagon, it is filled to the brim, and luckily there was no more loads coming. Just in time for the train to leave the station. We had finished, so we got on the train and it left the station.

_-_-_

We get back in the car, and sit down after a long day.

“Hey Dash, thanks for coming with me today, you’ve been really helpful. Not to mention it would have SUCKED to have done this by myself.”

“Yea Yea… I had nothing better ta do. Plus, I can’t let my coltfriend go out and cheat on me while he’s away.”

“Dash… we weren’t together before the trip…”

“Hey, you were MINE before you even liked me!”

She is so much fun. Im so lucky, I hope I spend forever with her. “Hey Dash… I…Never mind”

“What?” she asks, getting a worried expression on her face.

“I…I-I love y-you.”

“WOW, now who’s moving fast?” My eyes hit the floor. I shouldn’t have said anything. “I love you too,” she whispers. And my eyes shoot up to look at her. She is looking at the floor now.

I move over to her bunk, pick her chin up and look into her eyes as I give her a long deep kiss. “Are you happy?” I ask looking into her eyes after I broke the kiss. She nods, and I say, “Then I think this is a good speed for us.” She smiles, and pulls me into a hug.

“You’re finally getting it.”

…we didn’t get much sleep…

Comments

[ThePizzaDeliveryPony]

I fear this is where my story began to fall apart. The romance began moving faster, and it spiraled out of control, along with some other parts of the story that also moved too fast, but you will see those later on... Thinking back on it I could have rewritten it some and been fine, however the story had some sentimental value (maybe) or I was just lazy and didn't feel like fixing it (probably), but either way i didn't feel like fixing the issue. After this there are only two chapters left, and then the epilogue which I find is the most entertaining bit of it. So, at the most, only two more days until the whole thing is posted.

As always, thank you for reading,
-ThePizzaDeliveryPony

[Zellor]

Two day's until the entire thing is posted aye? alright. I can wait... for now.
Btw great chapter!