//------------------------------// // Ch. 4: Story time part 2 or WHAT TIME IS IT? Well about 2:30 why? ….nevermind. // Story: A New Beginning // by BurningProse1929 //------------------------------// With that last comment Rarity’s eyes widened as she gasped louder than last time. “Prose why in the name of Celestia would you do such a thing to yourself!?” she asked concernedly. Prose lowered his head as he said, “Well like I said I’m not proud of it, I mean in high school it was small time at first, a little inhale of this, a little snort of that, but it wasn’t too bad, I wasn’t hooked or anything, I was being as safe as one can be with stuff of that nature, until one unfortunate day in my junior year.” Prose’s ears flattened back as he remembered, “I had just confessed to one of my male classmates that I had a crush on him, when he didn’t reciprocate my feelings that was fine, when he called me a fag,” Prose and Rarity both cringed at that word, “and then word got around the school, that was when it got worse, the bullying I mean.” Prose brushed a stray tear from his eye, “It didn’t help that my friend Thrill didn’t go to the same school anymore, his family had moved away, so I didn’t have him there to back me up, or give me any words of encouragement, I didn’t get to see him again until after we both had graduated.” Prose sank a little deeper into the pillow he sat on, “But it was already too late, I had gotten deeper into the drug scene and well it spiraled down from there. I mean I wasn’t some junkie or anything, but when the only friends you were able to make were the ones that were right alongside of you doing it with too,” Another stray tear fell, “well it doesn’t take a genius to figure that one out.” Prose sobbed lightly at the horrid memories struggling to find his voice again, when Rarity placed her hoof on his shoulder, “Darling, it’s ok, that’s the past now, and honestly, whatever you did then won’t make me think any different of you.” Prose managed to look up at Rarity, but all he could do was cry. Prose looked down again, putting his head into his hooves, not wanting this kind and generous mare to see him like this, he wiped away the tears somewhat and managed to shakily say, “M-ms. Rarity the things I did, the things I said to some of the ponies I met along the way, I’m ashamed and frightened of.” Rarity, slightly confused, asked, “Why are you frightened dear?” Prose meekly stated, “Because I’m afraid that it could happen all over again, I’m not the strongest willed pony, and it takes a lot of self control to not slip back into those ways again.” He started sounding a little more manic, “I-I don’t think I could help myself if something comes up, I haven’t even t-touched hard cider since then! What if I..” Rarity interrupted him, “Darling, there’s no use in thinking about the ‘What ifs’ all that does is lead you back into trouble and I don’t think you want that, do you?” she asked concerned. Prose shook his head, ‘She’s right,’ he thought, ‘That’s what caused me trouble when I lived in Baltimare, and I certainly don’t want anything like that to happen again.’ “Ms. Rarity, do you know where I’ve lived the last few years?” he questioned. “Why Prose I would hope somewhere safe at the very least, why?” she asked. Prose felt a small sting at the word safe, because he certainly was nowhere near that for a long time now, if anything it was like he’s lived in a gritty crime drama for the first part of the last five years, or at least on the side of crime as it were. Prose breathed in heavily, and steadied himself. “It all s-started after I had graduated, I was still messing with that awful stuff, and I just couldn’t hold down a job. It certainly was depressing in its own right,” Prose paused to breathe in again keeping himself steady, “but the only times I felt any twinge of happiness was either at open mic nights at some of the coffee houses, or when I was getting too messed up to think about anything. My mom was the first to notice something was up, but I just kept telling her not to worry about it, that I was fine.” Prose cringed slightly as he said, “But I was anything but fine, and lying to her made me feel guilty, which made me more depressed, which made me use more,” he circled his hoof in the air, “you know, vicious cycle and all that. And I did my best not to ever let her or my dad see me messed up, I didn’t want to break their hearts, well that lasted until Hearths Warming eve six years ago.” His eyes seemed to sadden more so then they have been, “I had been living on my own for a few years at that point, when my dad was the first to find out.” Prose sank just a little more into the cushion, “He had been out shopping for presents, last minute just like always,” Prose sadly chuckled at the memory of his father, “And I just so happened to be in the same part of Baltimare as him, I was supposed to be visiting them for the holiday, except I was down an alley so strung out on something I could barely keep my eyes open.” Prose paused for another second, “Well when he found me he didn’t recognize me at first, he thought I was just some down on my luck pony, when he got closer and realized who it was, he started to freak, I mean I would too, he at first thought I had gotten mugged or something.” A few more tears fell and his voice started getting a bit shaky, “He managed to get me home, to this day I still don’t know how he did that, I’m not exactly light as you can probably tell.” Prose laughed weakly, “He always was such a strong stallion, of course that came with his job, doing construction and all, But once he got me home he told my mother and she just burst into tears at the sight of me. I looked like I hadn’t eaten in a long while, and honestly I hadn’t. I had been homeless for a while then, living off of the kindness of friends in the area and anypony that dealt to me.” Prose sipped his tea calming down a bit, “I know you probably have no idea how hard it is to live like that, I have no idea what your life has been like Ms. Rarity, but what nopony seems to understand is..well…” Prose put his hoof to his chin pondering a good way to say it, “A good amount of the homeless in the cities and such aren’t homeless because of drugs like I was, I met a lot of down on their luck ponies who were just trying to get by, taking odd jobs and such, just to be able to eat or find a place to sleep.” “Really? I would never had guessed that,” Rarity stated surprised, “I guess I always had the thought that they were just users and alcoholics or something of that nature.” Prose shook his head wearily, “No in fact I had befriended a few who were just out of school themselves, they just had nowhere else to go or anypony to care for them. In fact one that I had befriended went by the name Mint Crystal, he was such a sweet stallion, he was kicked out by his parents for not wanting to continue the family jewelry business.” Prose had practically hissed out the previous sentence, “When I found him he had been living on the roof of the apartment building I had just got kicked out of, funnily enough I was going to the roof to sleep there myself figuring ‘Hey it ain’t the street where you could get hurt, so why not.’ Prose said sarcastically. “Darling that is not the way you should have thought, why didn’t you go back to your parents and talk to them about all of this? Were they not worried?” Rarity asked. “Well I just didn’t WANT them to worry about me and I just felt so ashamed of myself, and how I wasn’t living up to what I felt were their standards. I know my father would have bucked me into next week if I had told him what I spent most, if not all, of my money on and I didn’t want them to be disappointed in me.” He lowered his head, “I was scared to be honest, and when I got scared before I would just turn to the one thing I knew I could control.” Prose continued gaining a slight bit of happiness in his voice, “You know the day me and Minty met each other on that roof top was almost like a fairy tale….well if fairy tales had what my life had consisted of up to that day.” Prose chuckled sadly, “It’s funny looking back now, when we first met we didn’t trust a single thing the other did, we ended up staying on that roof all night just kind of glancing at each other terrified that one of us would snap and do something horrible, that is until day finally came.” Prose looked wistful, “Ms. Rarity that morning was the most tense and the most beautiful, tense because of the night before, but beautiful because I had never seen a sunrise before. It was so..so awesome, it didn’t help that I also awoke thinking that an angel had come to me,’ Prose grimaced slightly as he remembered, “when in fact it was Minty himself checking to see if I had maybe died during the night, I scared him to death when I grabbed him into a bear hug still thinking an angel had come to save me.” Prose’s grimace was replaced with a slight warm smile, “Instead it was the strange pony I had met the night before and thought was gonna kill me in my sleep or worse.” Prose chuckled, “He had the reddest face I’ve ever seen, which was a feat in and of itself because he was a mint green colored stallion, but once I realized what was up I released my hug on him and watched him quickly hide behind an a/c unit.” Prose paused thinking about that day, Rarity interrupted his thoughts, “Well what happened after that darling, I just have to know!” Prose chuckled again, “Well I went over to investigate who I had just hugged and wanted to make sure they were ok. When I managed to coax him from behind the a/c unit he was behind, what I saw was not angel as anypony believes, but to me he looked like one and inspiration hit me. I’ll always remember what I said to him, Prose raised his right hoof while reciting, “Coat as green as brightest emeralds, face as red as the shiniest of rubies, but this pony in front of me, afraid nor embarrassed should he be, as I come to see, he has come to save me.” Prose put his hoof down and noticed Rarity clapping lightly, “That was simply gorgeous Prose, I bet he wasn’t so afraid after that was he? In fact he must of practically attached himself to you.” Prose rubbed the back of his neck, “Well he did eventually warm up to me, but…oh who am I kidding, he knocked me to the ground in the tightest embrace, he had been terrified to the point of not sleeping the night before.” Prose poured another cup of tea, “When I had recited my poem to him it was like all of his fear had faded and all that was left was relief, relief that I wasn’t going to harm him. I was relieved as well for almost the same reason. By the way he explained all of this while sobbing into my shoulder, and all I could do was pat his head lovingly and let him get it all out. He had been on his own for a bit before I met him, and to find another pony in the same situation made his and my tension just melt away,” “Well I bet it did, I mean it’s not everyday somepony thinks he might get attacked physically, but instead gets serenaded by somepony as handsome as you Prose.” Prose blushed a little at the compliment, but then his blush deepened at the rest of the memory. “Prose?” she asked. Rubbing his neck, “Well, something else happened that day too…” Rarity raised an eyebrow. “Umm after all the hoopla and he had calmed down, we exchanged pleasantries, as it were, and I explained my situation. While it angered him I didn’t at least try and get help, he understood my dilemma.” Prose crossed his hooves in front of him on the table as he spoke. “We talked all day, just lying there on that rooftop not caring about a thing, I didn’t want to be anywhere else but there with Minty. We talked about how we had got to this point and how we wanted to make something better of ourselves when….well it kind of just happened.” Prose’s blush deepened even more than he thought possible, “He had just told this stupid joke and after I laughed we both happened to look up at each other and I saw them, like really saw them, those deep violet colored eyes of his.” His hoof went back to rubbing his neck, “And well, one thing lead to another and we…made love right there on the rooftop.” Prose looked up when he heard a stifled girlish giggle and saw Rarity with her hoof over mouth. “M-ms. Rarity it is not funny, he was still someone I had just met! I am not a, ‘love them and leave them’, kind of stallion. Plus all I knew he could have been….” Rarity waved her free hoof, “Oh come now Prose, I never said you were, it’s just you get so flustered at the mere mention of lovemaking that I find it kind of cute.” She giggled again when Prose turned to look away from her, his hooves crossed to his chest. “Now, now, darling, if it makes you feel better I used to be the same way, now go ahead and continue.” Prose looked back at her with his eyebrow slightly raised, but continued on. “Well after we had… ‘done that’,” Prose made air quotes, “I awoke the next morning. I was confused as to where I was at, until I heard a dainty snore from next to me. That was when it hit me like a horseshoe to the noggin, and needless to say I freaked out a bit, well ok I screamed like a little filly, which woke up Minty.” “All I did was scream until he placed his hoof gently over my mouth to quiet me. I just stared at him in horror. But when he called out my name to get my attention it was like my mind had been filled with warm cider, and I softened my eyes. He asked why I had screamed and I explained that this wasn’t the first time I’ve awoke to a stranger asleep next to me, he frowned when I said this.” Prose sipped his tea, “I back pedaled as fast as I could and explained some of the…well worse things I had done to get my fix, and how I thought he would hurt me because I didn’t know if he was into stallions or not. He removed his hoof from my muzzle and embraced me telling me that, yes he was very into stallions, and that from that day forward I would never have to do something like that ever again.” Prose looked into his tea, “It was all I could do to not cry until my eyes fell out of my head, we sat like that for what felt like forever, and all I said to him was thank you, over and over again, I said thank you.” Prose looked up at Rarity, “Well after that day we were inseparable, love at first sight as it were, at first I tried not to let him follow me,” Prose chuckled, “but he would have none of that.” Prose’s ears flattened a little, “I just didn’t want him to get involved, in any way, in the world I had gotten myself into at that point. But for the life of me he would not stay away, I finally relented and allowed him to be my…’street partner’.” “Did he get involved into any of the stuff you had done?” asked Rarity. “Oh no, I told him no matter what he was to never touch any of that stuff,” Prose looked up, “and to my drug addled dismayed mind, he did his best to keep me from getting my fix, he told me that he wanted me to clean up,” Prose smiled, “and no matter what I did he always managed to find me, either in a dumpster, or behind some random building.” Prose frowned some, “The one time he managed to not find me till after I was summarily messed up, he actually braved the horrid house I had managed to get into...” Prose paused as a single tear fell, but not of sadness it was more of a tear of happiness. “I was so far gone I couldn’t even stand, he managed to get me, and my quite larger frame, onto his back and he carefully walked me out of that horrid hole of a house and he checked us into some small hotel, he used the little bit of money we had both scraped up from begging.” Prose smiled warmly this time, “The next day I awoke to find myself in some strange bed, which honestly wasn’t new to me, but when I realized this, I got scared and thought about what Minty would think if he found me like this.” “I looked over after hearing a very familiar dainty snore come from next to me. What I saw will stick to me this day, Minty was sitting in a chair next to the bed sleeping. Around him I saw a bunch of bits of paper and what looked like a bowl with a wet cloth and water in it. I tried to wake him up but when I attempted to move, it was like my body didn’t want to respond. All I could do was lay back and fall back asleep.” Prose sighed, “When I awoke again, Minty was nowhere to be found and I got worried, then I heard the door open and looked over to see a mint green, triple ruby cutie marked, flank pushing the door open.” Prose trailed off slightly with a dazed look. Rarity waved her hoof in front of Prose’s face bringing him out of his daze. Prose blushed, “Sorry about that Ms. Rarity, a bit of a daydream.” Rarity giggled, “It’s ok, I know that look very well dear.” Prose, blushing still, went on, “Anyway, he hadn’t noticed I was awake yet, he went about making a pot of coffee and microwaving something. I looked over at him and said, ‘Hey what’s cooking good looking?’ Which made him jump almost through the roof, and me chuckle weakly.” “He ran over to my bedside asking how I felt and I told him it felt like Discord himself had been beating me about the head. He looked relieve until I asked him how I got here and that was when the look of relief on his face disappeared.” Prose’s blush had dissipated slightly, “Then for the next fifteen minutes he told me what happened and how worried he had been and how I could even think to go to the awful place he found me at, and how I could have died.” Prose’s blushed more, and smiled slyly, “I didn’t let him finish his little tirade before I wrapped him into a deep kiss, he tried to break it but found it was no use. After I felt him calm down I broke the kiss and looked at him, he had a deep blush on his face but was still practically staring daggers into me. I looked into his caring, beautiful violet eyes and said, ‘Even with all that, am I dead?’” Prose’s smile turned warmer, “He looked at me and told me that no I wasn’t dead, but that was because he had been fretting over me for the last three days.” His smile faltered a bit, “That was when it hit me, I had been out for three days and all I could remember was that I had managed to get a hold of some stuff.” His smile almost completely faded, “I had made my wonderfully green coated, violet angel eyed beauty worry his hoofs to the bone about me, and for what? Some stupid substance that gave me a short time of happiness?” He practically spat the words out, “I vowed from that day forwards to never let that happen again.”