> A Difficult Choice > by TheCrazyAsian > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Fight and Flight > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- This story is continued from the story A Broken Wing Chapter One: Fight and Flight You open your eyes again and behold the sight before you, you can see all of your new hometown of Appleloosa from your perch in the sky. You can see a train pulling into the station, the sheriff's office, and apple orchard. But right now you're more concerned about one small house at the south side of town, near the apple trees. And more specifically the golden colored colt inside. With his amber mane and oh-so-dreamy green eyes, Braeburn Apple, your coltfriend, your special somepony. No matter how many times you say it you'll always have doubt about whether that amazing stallion is really yours. As you near the edge of town you begin to angle your wings downward as you begin your descent into town, after a few moments you can begin to see some of the finer details of the town. You can see some of the horse drawn carriages and the wild and mild west dancing. You continue your journey into town for about two more minutes and at that point your fold your wings and drop onto the dusty Appleloosan soil. You close your eyes a moment while you wait for the dust to settle. After the dust settles you turn and walk into Braeburn's house, taking care to get the dust off your hooves before walking in. After opening the door you walk up a flight of steps and then towards the living room. "Brae, I'm home", you exclaim not wanting to stay away from him any longer. As you enter the living room your see his beautiful face, but with an almost angered look. "What's wrong", you ask. "An old friend of yours showed up today, we talked for a while", he says rather nonchalantly. The statement perplexes you, what could have happened with one of your friends that would have made him upset. "Who was it, was it? Was it...", you manage to say before Braeburn interrupts you. "It was Caramel", he says rather abruptly, "and he gave me quite a story about what you did to him." You feel blood rushing to you face as you realize what he could have and might have said. Embarrassment and anger wash over you in a wave higher than Canterlot Castle. Caramel, that little piece of crap, coming to your house and telling Braeburn Celestia knows what. "Don't listen to him, he's, he's just trying to make me look bad", you stutter while your mind is trying to think of explanations for anything he might have said. There was so much he could have said. "So you're trying to tell me that you didn't lead him along for months, that you didn't dump him like a garbage can at the curb", he says sarcastically, with a bitter sting, something you've never heard in his voice before. You remember Caramel, nice kid, but too gullible for his own good. Sure you lead him on, but that when you were young and stupid colt, it's the past and that's over, so why is it changing your life now. "So how long were you going to lead me on for?". You can see that he's starting to cry, tears are starting to well up in the corners of his eyes. His voice still has that bitter tone in it. Right now you don't know what to do, you could try and explain or you could leave. "That was before, when I was young and stupid, I really love you, and and", you stutter out," I actually love you". You're starting to cry as well, the combination of anger and sadness is starting to get to you. "You know what, don't even try to explain. I've heard enough from Caramel to know. Just go the buck away, LEAVE!", he now shouts at you. The words are like bullets. "You know what, I'll just leave then!", you shout returning fire. You then run out of the room, down the stairs, and out the front door. You can barely see now, but you dont stop. You flap your wings a few times and take off without any real destination in mind. But any place in Equestria is better than being next to Braeburn. His heart is probably broken and he probably doesn't want to even see you right now. After about five minutes you crash into a rock, and fall to the ground, but the physical pain your feeling can't compare to the emotional turmoil going inside you right now. Fear, anger, sadness, embarrassment, and love. All of which are mixing inside you into a stew of depression and hate. No, you don't hate Braeburn he has the right to be mad about what he thinks, you hate Caramel. The earth pony had to come waltzing into your life again to ruin it. The tears are starting to roll down you face and dripping onto the dusty ground below. You go over the basics in your head, my name is Feasttalon, my coltfriend was Braeburn, I just had a terrible argument with him, he will never want to see me again. The last line just makes you sadder and your cry even more. You just sit there for another few minutes and keep sobbing. Then you wipe the tears from your eyes and calm yourself down. You try and stand up, but your legs feel like jelly and you just fall back down. After a few minutes you manage to get back up on all four and start to flutter your wings. After a few flaps you take off, not wanting to spend any more time in Appleloosa. You're not just flying away from Appleloosa, but the pain of having to face Braeburn. The stallion who you love, the pony who you've screwed up on your tailspin down from the high perch in your life. No, don't think about it, just get the buck away from here as fast as you can. You flap your wings as fast as you can so that you can get as far away from your memories as fast possible. Memories, the bane of your existence, the one thing you can't get rid of, the only thing that can make you just want to drop out of the sky and die. Focus, just keep flying, don't go back, Braeburn will probably just kick you out if you do. Trying to salvage the situation is useless, there's nothing you can do now. So it seems your only option is to go to Cloudsdale. Sure why not, why not go back to Cloudsdale and get wasted, nothing could really make this day any worse. So let's see, which club should I go to, Cloud 9, no, everyone's way too happy there. The Cuddler Club, no, getting raped isn't high on your To-Do List. The Plot Hole, let's see a place where I can get wasted, and possibly get bucked by a random pony, sounds good. Just the thing to cheer you up, drunken sex with random stallions. With a now renewed vigor, due to the promise of inebriation waiting for you in Cloudsdale, you begin to flap faster, the feeling of cutting through the air helps to cheer you up. Why the buck do I need him, I'll just go back to what I did before. Yah, your life was good enough before and it'll be fine without him. But deep inside you, you still know that you're still in love with, but right now you can just repress it and go on to your drunken heaven. Within a few minutes you can start to see Cloudsdale, the arches and architecture amazes you every time. You now slow down your flapping and keep a steady pace, even from here you can see the huge neon sign with the large glowing words The Plot Hole. You glide into Cloudsdale, treading carefully near the edges as ponies have been known to fall off when a portion of the cloud just breaks off of Cloudsdale. Trotting forwards you can almost smell the alcohol radiating from the building, just the thing you needed today. So you continue along your path to the club and you start to mingle into the crowd of other ponies walking in. Now with your mind no longer occupied by flying it begins to wander back to Braeburn and what had happened today. Why the buck did he have to come and ruin your life, what was his thinking, that because he couldn't have you he was going to ruin your life. Why, why the hell did he have to ruin this, Caramel had turned your special somepony into your enemy. Braeburn was your special somepony and now you just had a terrible arguement with him. You just made him sad, that's something you just can't deal with. Making him cry, that was something that was just terrible. And this had happened because of that one choice you made years ago. Was that one mistake going to ruin your life, was Caramel going to come and haunt you for the rest of your life. You can begin to feel the blood rushing to your face and tears beginning to well up in your eyes. Calm down, calm down you can't do anything if you're all emotional like this. But it's no use, you'll never be able to be able to have the same relationship with him again. The one pony that you love will end up hating you for the rest of his life. Just thinking about it makes you want to kill yourself, life without Braeburn. No a life where he won't even talk to you, a life where even the thought of you having a relationship with him would just be a foolish dream. No, don't even think about it, just get the buck away from here, anywhere is better than here. You wipe the tears from your eyes and give your self a little bit to stop crying. Though you can still hear Braeburn sobbing from inside his house, goddess you hate yourself right now. Not just for screwing this up, but for screwing up Braeburn. A tap on your shoulder knocks you back to reality, you look back and you see a stallion, with dark blue hair, very pale blue coat, and a lighting blot with wings for a cutie mark. "Are you alright?", he asks, "You've been standing in the middle of the street for at least a minute". He looks familiar, too familiar, then it hits you "Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh, you're, you're", you manage to stutter out. A smile appears on his face and he opens his mouth to speak. "Yes, yes I am", he calmly replies. You're still starstruck, your hooves are glued to the floor and all you can do is stand there. After a few seconds he say," Are you coming in, or are you just going to stare at me all day?". You follow him into the club without making a sound, first walking through the large double doors and then down a dark hallway. At the end is the club: two bars, a dance floor, and music loud enough to be heard in Canterlot. He takes a seat at the bar and order two shots, you follow suit and walk towards the bar. He then hands you one as you take your seat next to him. "Bottoms up", he says. You clink the shot glass with his, then bring it to your muzzle and tilt it back. Nothing's better than alcohol when you're sad. "Two more", you scream trying to get the bartender to hear over the deafening music. You can already tell that you're going to be having a bad morning tomorrow. End of chapter > Cheers > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: I do not endorse nor condone drinking as a mean of dealing with your problems. Play this video at the end of the chapter. Chapter Two: Cheers Amazingly the bartender is somehow able to hear your request over the loud music and hands you two more shots. You hand one to the stallion to your right. After he gets a hoof onto the glass you clink your with his and shout, "Cheers!". Then you order another round, then another round. This continues for a while, with both of you getting more inebriated per drink. Somewhere around the 7th round of shots, or maybe it was the 8th, you can't remember. So after a few rounds Soarin begins to talk to you. "Sooooo, what brings you here", he says. It takes you a few seconds but you manage to piece together a few words. "I don't think that you would really want to know about all the crap in my life", you reply putting extra emphasis on the crap part of the statement. Why the buck is he asking about your life anyway, he just met you. You now squint your eyes and put a look on your face that is a combination of angry and annoyed. Now suspicious you shout, "Why the hay are you asking about my life, are you a bucking spy", in your stupor this makes perfect sense. "Don't, don't, ask about that kind of stuff", you tell him. "Yeesh, I didn't mean to piss you off man, you just seemed depressed is all", he replies trying to sound as innocent as possible. This puts a dent into your anger but does nothing to de-rail your drinking train. And you order another round of shots. While you drink yours as soon as you get it he puts his to the side. "Look man I'm sorry, it's just I had a terrible day. You know man?", you say. "Would you like to talk about it?", he says. You realize that he actually cares. Then the floodgates open. "I.. I just had a terrible argument man. Now my coltfriend won't talk to me. It bucking sucks!", you stutter out. Tears are beginning to form in the corners of your eyes. "It's alright, it's alright. It's going to be alright. You just need to give him some time.", he replies trying to comfort you. He puts one of his hooves around your neck and pulls you into a hug. Your tears are now rolling off of your face and down his back. You feel safe wrapped in his strong hooves, like when Braeburn used to hug you when you were sad. "What is it that you did anyway?", he asks. You now break out of the embrace and wipe the tears from your eyes. Your can see Soarin' staring intently at you waiting for you to speak. "Well it wasn't what I did to him, but what I did to somepony else", you speak in a rather meek voice. You can feel the tears starting to form again. "I don't get why he's so bucking upset it's not like I did it to him!", you exclaim. The tears are now flowing down your face. Soarin' see this and tries to comfort you, "There, there it'll be alright.", at this point he pulls you back into a hug, "Continue with your story". You once again feel his hooves wrapped around you pulling you into a hug again. You calm down and begin with the sad tale again. "Well, a few years back I used to go out with a a colt, his name was Caramel", you say, "I was really just using him for sex but he didn't know it until I stopped talking to him and took off". You begin to feel shame welling up inside of you, shame for stringing him along for so long. At this point Soarin' begins to run one of his hooves through your mane. "So he somehow he found where my current coltfriend lives and told him the whole tale", you stutter out. With the last phrase the emotions break through your barrier and begin to cry again. His hooves now wrap even more tightly around you. He says, "I see your problem, so I have one question. Do you actually love him, your coltfriend that is?" Angered by what you take as an accusation you shove him back and shout, "What are you trying to say here!". You hold an expression on your face that is a combination of anger and hate. "I was just wondering", he replies nonchalantly. You realize that he was just curious and you instantly sink down, putting your face on the bar, and reply, "If I didn't love him why would I be here drinking like there was no tomorrow." Without Braeburn there might as well be no tomorrow, you think. "I see", he nonchalantly replies, "So you need to prove to your coltfriend that you love him" "Just about", you say dejectedly. "Who says you need him anyway. Why do you need him, there's plenty of pegasi in the sky man.", he says. If you didn't know any better you'd say he was smiling at you, and he does make a good point. Why did you need Braeburn, why is it that Braeburn meant so much to you. You begin to cheer up now realizing that Soarin' is making perfect sense. But somewhere deep inside you you know that you still need Braeburn, but you can just repress that for now. He can see the smile appearing on your face now, and he say, "See, you don't need him. Let's get out of here, I'll set you up in a great hotel, free of charge", he exclaims in a rather celebratory voice. The almost happy atmosphere that he seems to spread with the goofy smile he has actually cheered you up. Somehow he has managed to make you happy, he's like the pink filly that Braeburn introduced you to. The sudden reemergence of Braeburn takes you by surprise but you just push it back into your subconscious. You just nod assent and get off of your stool, but you immediately fall to the ground. You see Soarin' reach into his pocket and throws a few bits onto the bar. Once he gets up he hurries over to your side picking you up, he remarks, "Can't have you falling all over the place" He takes one of your hooves into his and pulls you off the ground which was surprisingly comfortable. He then walks towards the long dark hallway out of the club and you follow as best you can trying to avoid falling over. You continue down the dark hallway and out the large double doors. You are now in the darkness of Cloudsdale at night punctuated intermittently by street lights. You two then continue through the dark down the street towards the center of town, where the hotel district is. At this moment Soarin' decides to speak up, "Is it okay if I share a room with you? It's going to have one queen sized bed so there's no use in wasting it." You mull it over for a minute and reply, "As long as you don't try anything". Soarin' replies with a small chuckle. After walking for another few minutes you bump into Soarin' after he's stopped walking. "What's wrong?", you ask. Right as the words leave your mouth he presses you against the side of a building. You struggle to move but his strong hooves press you against the fluffy building. "What the buu", your last word is cut off by his soft lips pressing against yours. End of Chapter > Dumped You, With Prejudice > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Difficult Choice Chapter Three: Dumped You, With Prejudice By: TheCrazyAsian A.K.A. Feasttalon Sorry this took so long, I was preoccupied trying to write a few other fics. If you'd like you may leave nasty comments making fun of me. You don't know what to think, and the alcohol isn't helping much either. You're in Cloudsdale, pressed against the side of a building with Soarin', a member of the Wonderbolts, kissing you. Should you run? Should you punch him in the face? Or should you just do nothing? Your internal debate is rendered useless as he pulls back, breaking the kiss. After he lets go you just slump onto the ground. A dumb grin appears on Soarin's face as he looks at you. Did that just happen, is this a dream? This has to be a dream, why would Soarin', the Wonderbolt, be kissing you. For that matter, why would he even be at the Plot Hole? You're pretty sure he likes mares, every few weeks there's a new tabloid article about somepony claiming to have slept with him. Either way you're still pissed. "I thought you said you weren't going to try anything!" you angrily exclaim. You knit your eyebrows into a scowl and bare your teeth at him. Who the buck does he think he is, thinking that he can just come up and kiss you. "I never said I wouldn't try anything, I just laughed," he calmly replies. He's got you there, that smug son-of-a-mule. But you telling him not to try anything should have been enough. "Still I told you not to try anything!" you yell back. You hope there's no cops around here, the last thing you need is to be arrested for being drunk and disorderly. "I don't get why you're so mad. for a lot of ponies having one of the Wonderbolts kiss them is a fantasy," he says. Does he think just because he's a Wonderbolt he can just go waltzing around kissing whoever he pleases, doing whatever the hay he wants. "Well not me! I still have a special somepony who I'm staying with!" you reply. He seems almost perplexed by your statement. Does he have a problem understanding commitment or something? Maybe he got brain damaged from all the times he's crashed into the side of the cloudseum. "Look, I hate to break it to you buddy, but he dumped you, with prejudice," he replies. No this can't be true, this can't be. Every relationship has its ups and downs, this is just a down, right? Is he telling the truth? No. This can't be the end, you won't let it. "No, I'm going back. I'm going back, and I'm going to try and find him," you reply. "Pray tell, what exactly is your plan, if you find him?" he asks. What is your plan, have you even thought this through? Did you even have a plan? No, you just expected to go back and find him, then explain to him what happened. After that you'd live happily ever after. You'll admit it was naïve. But there's no way this just ends here. You're silent for a few seconds then you tell him, "I know there's more to our story than, 'Braeburn gets angry and dumps me.' No. That's not an ending." "Come on, we've all been there. But it gets easier, you learn to get over it," he says. He's obviously trying to be sympathetic, you can tell, everything from the tone of his voice to his facial expression just screams 'I feel sorry for you.' "No, not if he's the one," you say. "Come on, I bet everypony in Equestria has gone through this. You'll get over it eventually," he says. No, you don't want to get over him, you loved him. Tears are forming in your eyes again, just great. Soarin' then leans forwards, you're half expecting him to try and kiss you again. It's not like you could resist, you're too emotionally drained to do anything at this point. But to your surprise he just wraps arms around you and pulls you into a hug. You feel safe again, safe and secure. You can't really describe it. You just feel like everything is alright, you're going to be fine. He then pulls back from the hug and says "Let's get you up". He then grabs you by the hooves and pulls you up. You're a little wobbly at first but you manage to regain most of your coordination and balance within a few seconds. "Can I still take you up on your hotel offer?" you ask. His goofy smile returns and he nods his head in response. "The hotel is a few blocks from here. Do you think you can make it or do you want me to call a cab?" he replies. A few blocks, you should be okay. It's not like anything's broken, well something is but you'd rather not pay attention to it right now. "I'll be fine, I've been through worse playing hoofball," you answer. The grin on his face, it almost never goes away does it. He's like some sort of giant goof-ball. "Alright, I'll lead the way" he says. You're not sure if he's being serious or just fooling around, but either way you need to follow him. After a few minutes of him joking around and walking we make it to a rather nice looking art-deco style hotel, with a sign that says "The Four Seasons". If you didn't know it was a hotel you probably would have thought it was a weather factory. It's a real swanky place, marble floors, chandeliers, ponies in suits everywhere, the whole nine yards. As you near the check-in desk you see a picture of somepony, who you assume to be the manager, and the Wonderbolts hanging on the wall. "Hey Soarin' have the Wonderbolts stayed here before?" you ask. He rings the bell and turns his head back and replies, "Yeah, this is where we usually stay in Cloudsdale, how did you know?" You point your hoof at the picture hanging on the wall. Well he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer. "Also, can we get different rooms? You understand why I'm not so comfortable sleeping with you tonight, right?" you ask. He just nods his head, you assume he means yes this time. After a few seconds somepony in a suit, who looks like the one in the picture, walks up from the back room and says "Soarin'! Nice to see you again, where's the rest of the team?" "It's just me and my buddy here tonight, I'm on break. I'm going to need two suites.", he replies. He gives you a noogie when he says "buddy". Why is he calling you his buddy? You just met him. And why the hay is he giving you a noogie, who the hay does he think he is, your big brother. "Okay, that'll be 200 bits," the manager replies. Soarin' then silently pulls out a bag of bits and throws it onto the table. "Keep the change." After paying for our rooms you get a small envelope, inside it is a card to open the door to your room. You follow Soarin's to a pair of elevators and head up to the top floor. After the elevator doors open and you head to your room. "Thank Soarin'. I'll see ya' tomorrow morning," you say. "No problem, sweet dream," he replies. You swipe your card and enter the room. It's very posh, a big king sized bed, bottle of wine and two glasses on the table infront of the television, et-cetera. Though you don't care, you're too tired. You just collapse on the bed and fall asleep. There's a bright light as you open you eyes, you hate mornings. You manage to get yourself up and into the bathroom, where you just randomly turn on the water and step in. Bad choice, the water is hotter than what your morning coffee. You immediately jump out when you step in, at least you're awake. You turn the water down to a more manageable temperature and step in, it feels great. Nothing like a nice warm shower to start the morning off. After you take your shower you walk out and towel dry yourself off, your mane's still a little wet but that's fine it'll dry soon enough. Right as you finish drying yourself you hear a knock on the door and a familiar voice that says "Hey it's me. Let me in." You walk over to the door and turn the handle and at the moment Soarin' comes tumbling in, with the same goofy grin still plastered onto his face. "So you want to do anything today?" he asks. End Chapter Three Choice 1: Go back to Braeburn Choice 2: Hang out with Soarin' Choice 3: Ask Soarin' for help with Braeburn Choice 4: Hunt down Caramel (Possible Violence Warning) Choice 5: Hunt down Caramel with Soarin' (Possible Violence Warning) Choices will be linked when the chapter(s) is/are written, so check back regularly to see if your choice has been written.