The Beatle

by CrackedInkWell

Chapter 22 – The Long and Winding Road

Pull McCart didn’t want to believe it. The past several days didn’t seem real. The news didn’t sound right. Nothing about this was, in any point of view – right.

They did try to get her to stay awake on the way to the hospital. Ocellus wheezed and choked as their carriage hurried as fast as they could. He remembered how desperately he and Mango tried to keep her alert and awake – to stay just a bit longer.

It shouldn’t have been like that. Not to a young teenager who just wanted life to go back to normal. Not after all she had did for all of them. Least of all, her last audible words should not have been:

“I’m scared.”

Those words went around Pull’s mind when they got to the hospital. When they waited for the doctors and nurses to do everything they could in the Emergency Room to keep the young Changeling alive; it mortified the old stallion of how closely everything resembled when Dawn was murdered. Pull prayed to whatever force in the universe that history should not repeat itself.

Yet… it did.

This time he saw it all up close. This time he got to see when Ocellus’s family was called in that they scream and cried at the doctors to tell them that they were lying. For hours in the hospital, no one could believe that The Beatle, Ocellus, was dead.

For Pull, the past several days was a blur of wailing; candlelight vigils; black fabric; public anger at the murder who shot her; and worst of all – questions. In preparation for the funeral, Pull had to face some difficult questions with no easy answers.

Could he have prevented it?

Was she fated to die?

Was this a side effect of his wish?

Is it right for her to take Dawn’s place?

Should he… undo his wish?

In one of the rooms of Canterlot’s palace, he watched an endless river of mourners of fans come in and out to see the little Changeling in her coffin. The entire ground of the room was almost entirely covered in flowers and the air with crying. Pull didn’t take notice of the endless procession who came and went. He thought he saw Fancy Pants. Maybe King Thorax. Ocellus’s friends? Truthfully, he wasn’t paying attention except for the delicate coffin before him.

The coffin that Ocellus laid in was not a typical kind that was made out of wood or metal – instead, it was woven with plants. Since the announcement of her death, the Hive where she lived worked around the clock to fashion a coffin that was made out of any plants they could get their hooves on. Palm leaves, vines, flexible branches of lilacs, sunflowers, birds of paradise, a few roses, tall grass, oak, and maple leaves were used to create this incredible casket that resembled a basket with a lid. Next to the coffin were stands that held reefs that had ribbons quoting from All You Need is Love and In My Life.

“Have you heard?”

“What?” Pull was suddenly snapped back to reality to look up to see who spoke to him. Dawn took a seat next to him, a newspaper clenched in his hoof.

“Ocellus’s murderer,” he said, “it’s been announced that he pleaded guilty. From what I could find, it sounds like the court here is going to give the lunatic a life sentence. I…” Dawn let out a frustrated sigh, shaking his head. “None of this is right.”

“It’s too sad.” Pull agreed. “She’s too young and yet… helped the old band so much.”

Dawn patted him on the back. “I know… I know…” After a long pause with about a dozen or so visitors that came by to visit the body, he spoke up again. “She’s lucky, you know.”

“How?”

“Well, even though she has been doing this for less than a year, she’s certainly going into the history books for sure. We may have written the songs, but if we’re honest, they’ll remember her more. She was the muse and the singer; so, what she came up with is so incredible, so beautiful that I don’t think anyone is going to forget it anytime soon.”

Pull broke a smile. “Undoubtedly, have you seen the number of copies the final album sold for?”

“Well more than that.” Dawn explained. “Those songs all of us made have something timeless about them. They might be a hit back in our day and, who knows, be still a hit hundreds of years from now. The brut may have shot her, but she’s already immortalized.”

Nodding, a thought came to Pull’s mind. “So… what do we do now?”

“Huh?”

“I mean… Now that she’s gone, and there would be no more Beatle songs, what do you think we should do now? I don’t think we can bring the band back together again.”

“I have been thinking that too lately. Thinking hard about our talents and what she thought of us.”

“And?”

Dawn hummed. “I think… She saw something in me that I’m capable of doing something good with what I have.” He looked over to Ocellus, “I have seen hatred, and pure violence up close that night. Even now I can still hear her screaming. This isn’t a world I want to live in. She, and everyone else deserves better than that.”

“So, what are you going to do?”

“Well, that concert gave me the answer. When she sang my song, I saw so many faces that wanted what I described. Perhaps, I could advocate for peace by writing songs again. The kind where I and so many others wanted to hear. It’s about time for the world to give peace a chance.”

Pull snickered. “Hey, I think you found your new song already.”

“What?”

“Give peace a chance.” He said before quickly adding: “You might make something of that.”

This gave Dawn pause. “Huh… Come to think of it, you might be onto something.” Then a thought came to his mind. “But what about you? What are you going to do?”

Pull frowned and slowly got up. “I don’t know.” He said. “I think I would give a go at songwriting and performing from now on but… right now.” He looked at Ocellus for the last time. “I have much to think about.”

---

In the White Tail Woods, Pull was alone. A month after Ocellus was buried, he had a monumental decision to make. It was a difficult one where it consumed most of his time. He reflected and weighed against what Ocellus had said when he revealed the truth.

‘All she wanted was to get our music back out there. Did everything she could to piece those forgotten songs back together… Yet, it wasn’t the only thing she did. She repaired my friendship with Dawn and Mango. She reminded us what being a Beatle was all about. But her saying she robbed our destiny? Goddesses… She went to her grave thinking she was a thief!’

Pausing for a moment to adjust his saddlebag that contained the ingredients of what made this mess in the first place, he continued down the dirt path. Around him, birds chirped, and bugs buzzed, and the leaves started to turn in the morning light.

‘On the other hoof, Dawn is alive now. He’s making new songs and leading a peace movement. I have my friend back.

‘Only… is the cost worth it? My friend for an innocent? Yes, Dawn is alive and well, but without Ocellus believing that we’re capable of doing so much, he wouldn’t be back to his usual self. Now I think of it… if it weren’t for her, I think I would have forgotten what I’m capable too. It’s been so long that anyone thought we were worth paying attention to. Yes, Dawn’s not perfect but… was it worth for her to take his place?’

He paused as he noticed that there was a familiarity with the trees, the rocks, the path, and the mountains. Looking around, he spotted the clearing that he was looking for.

‘Then again… if you do this… Dawn will have to die again. This might be the last time you would get to have him be around. But… is it possible to have both of them be alive? Perhaps I could make it so that neither of them gets killed. Only… what if I change it too much and I make things worse to the point that I can’t reverse it?’

Pressing into the thicket of the foliage, Pull went towards the familiar clearing where there was a short sinkhole of mud. He sat down before it as he realized the gravity of what may come. Eyeing the saddlebag now and then, he thought, ‘After everything that has happened, am I going to turn on my back on her for the efforts she made? Would Dawn forgive me?’

“What the blazes are you doing all the way out here for?”

This made Pull jump in shock. Quickly turning around he found Dawn pushing his way through the bushes.

“Dawn? What are you doing here?”

“I was going to ask you the same thing.” He said, “My train for Manehattan was delayed and I thought I go check on you. Then I spotted you walking into the forest and… what are you doing out here?”

“…. Thinking.”

Dawn snorted, “Pull, you’ve been doing that for a month. I’ve hardly seen you now. So, what’s wrong?”

Pull didn’t reply.

“Is this about Ocellus? Because if it is, Pull, I get it. We all miss her. I miss her too. But it’s not right to keep yourself sealed up away like a forgotten toy.” Walking over next to his friend, he sat down. “Pull, you can always talk to me. We’ve helped each other out before and I’m here now. Please, talk to me.”

He sighed. “It’s very complicated.”

“Explain it.”

“I don’t think you’ll understand.”

Dawn frowned. “Try me.”

Pull weighed his choice for a long, silent minute as the branches swayed in the wind. “Alright,” he sighed, “you win.” Looking up to face him he added, “Dawn, what I’m going to say may sound too incredible that you may not believe it.”

“What is it?”

“You’ll think I’m lying.”

“I won’t – I swear I won’t.”

Pull swallowed. “Even if I told you I was from another timeline… where you died.”

The forest became as still as a December morning. Pull observed Dawn’s expression freeze over at this news. He could see that there was a part of him that doesn’t believe it, but another, however, was still listening. “What?” Dawn asked quietly.

He nodded. “About… Thirty or forty years ago, from my timeline, you were shot in an alley in Manehattan. You died the same way as Ocellus did, by a fan that was mental with a crossbow. Before all of that, I was still angry at you for breaking up the old band and… I…” Tears formed in his eyes to the point where he couldn’t see his face. “I never got the chance to say goodbye.”

Tears dripped and fell from Pull’s face as he couldn’t speak anymore. He felt Dawn’s hooves wrapping around him tightly. Neither stallion said a word as one wept and the other lends a shoulder to cry on. Although Dawn’s mind was full of questions, for now, they can wait.

His friend needs him.

---

“But how did you find a way to go back in time?”

Pull sniffed. It was now in the afternoon, and after Pull was through crying his eyes out that he did as best he could to explain everything to Dawn.

“Came about it by accident.” Pull said, “One day I was doing a book signing at Canterlot’s library when I decided that I need a break. So, I took about to go about its halls when I took a wrong turn. I came across a section of the library that looked important but somehow – I still don’t know why – the gate was open. So, I became curious to see what was in there.”

“Of course you would,” Dawn smirked.

“Well I was minding my own business when looking around, a book caught my eye. It was a spellbook, one of those forgotten ones where the title said, ‘The Magic of Earth.’ Something drew me to open its pages and while I was flipping through, I saw a bit that shows how to make a wishing well.”

“I didn’t think that was possible.”

“Neither was I. Yet, finding that, I realized what I could do with this thing. If the thing does what it advertises, I thought that maybe… I could do something to prevent you from being killed. The thing said that it works by a law of exchange. That you have to give up something to get something. Get it? Here I thought that if that being the case, if The Beatles were disbanded before we became popular, then you wouldn’t go and get murdered. At least, that was the thought going in.

“So, I did everything that book said, got all the ingredients, chose this place to make that wishing well, made my wish, and jumped in. The next thing I knew, I was back in Trottingham, young again and back to playing at clubs. Years later, I found out that Ocellus had got her head stuck in the well when I jumped in – that was how that she and I remembered what actually happened.”

“Ooh…” Dawn realized, “That explains the whole remembering differently thing. And those songs, you and Ocellus weren’t just creating them – you lot were trying to remember how it went. This is how we were able to crank out all those songs so fast.”

Pull nodded. “So instead of you breaking up the group, I did it years before we were supposed to. I thought that if I did, we can still be friends, be happier and you be alive… Only it didn’t go as I hoped it would.”

“I’ve noticed.” Dawn rubbed the back of his head. “Goddess… if everything you told me was true, I think… maybe you do need to fix this.”

“What!” Pull looked up in alarm. “Did you miss the part that you died in my timeline?!”

“I heard. How old was I when I was murdered?”

“Around forty.”

“And how old was Ocellus when she was murdered?”

Pull looked at him in disbelief. “You cannot be serious.”

“You said it yourself. She died too young and she had nothing to do with us until we dragged her into it. An innocent filly is dead because of us. Pull, I know we can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone. If you think about it, that’s all Ocellus has been doing for us from the start. Now, I think it’s time to return the favor.”

“But if I do fix everything, you will die again.”

Dawn put a hoof on his shoulder. “Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not, it’s not the end.” Hugging him again, he added, “Please… Let me go.”

“But-”

“I’m an old stallion.” Dawn insisted. “I’ve lived a happy life. I’ve made peace with myself. Ocellus never got the chance to do either. Whatever you have to do, do it for her. Do it for me.”

Pull hesitated. “So… this is goodbye?”

“It appears so.” A thought came to him. “Paul, in over seventy years of life, let me share you something that I’ve learned from this timeline.” He asked what it was. “We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hope for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of those who embrace life.” He hugged him one last time. “Goodbye Pull.”

“Goodbye Dawn.” Pull said, his ears folded against his head. “I’m sorry for what I’m going to do.”

“I won’t hold it against you.” After the two separate, Dawn began to make his way out of the clearing and slowly walking towards Ponyville.

Alone, Pull, now having determination, set to work. Pulling out the rare and secret ingredients from his saddlebag, he poured and mixed together the wishing well. Soon, the mud in the shallow hole in the ground shimmered and glowed. Rainbows of light floated over the murky earth.

The wishing well was ready.

Pull stood over the edge of it, looking around and behind. Almost expected to see Dawn somewhere. But he was alone.

“I wish…” he said softly, preparing to take the great leap once more. “I could back to 957 Trottingham.”

And he jumped in – sinking through the well and back through history.

Comments

[Dashie04]

This story still isn’t over, something cool is going to happen, I can sense it.

[Greenhorn]

Pull swallowed. “Even if I told you I was from another timeline… where you died.”

Come to think about it, even though Pull went back in time, this timeline should still continue - just forever separate from the current timeline. What Pull did had the same effect as Starlight's attempts.

[Dashie04]

10245833
Oh snap.

[Yoshifan30]

So basically Paul is gonna Undo everything that hes done and John made his sacrifice to save ocellus life Oh my gosh I was tearing up reading that 😢

[Yoshifan30]

“And how old was Ocellus when she was murdered?”

She was only 15 years old and the way how John said it felt like it should have been him Instead of her man 😔

[KvAT]

Oh man oh jeez, he's gonna do it again.

On another thought, how old is Pull mentally like holy crap he's at least 140 years old combined now.