//------------------------------// // Chapter 14: Worthy // Story: When Dating a Sunset... // by ThePinkedWonder //------------------------------// I couldn’t believe my ears. Even after she learned the truth about the “kiss” I had with Diane Heart, Sunset Shimmer wanted to break up with me. It was like a blow to the gut and my hands were close to shaking. What did I do to make Sunset still not want to be with me? It was a struggle to hide my shock when I asked, “You...you want to break up?” “Yeah.” “But, why? I thought we cleared up what happened with Diane.” “We did.” “So what’s wrong?” Sunset sighed. She was already looking at me, but it felt like she was staring at me in the eyes now. “It’s because you don’t deserve me, Eric.” Well, I was still thinking that, but it nevertheless hurt hearing it and I looked away from her. I thought I would have to fight the tears from flowing. And yet, there were no tears to fight. Instead, I thought about the last month. I truly didn’t think that she thought that I wasn’t good enough for her. But hearing Sunset say it point-blank, I felt some sadness, but mostly anger. At least I tried to be a good boyfriend, so did it mean nothing to her? I wondered if I should have let her leave. Or if I should have even tried to date her. If things ended like this, not only would I have to deal with my own heartbreak, but I knew Starlight would think it was her fault, for asking Sunset to visit Equestria “for me”. Twilight might have felt a similar way. This fact filled me with more anger. I growled and swung my head back to Sunset. “Okay, Sunset, I know I sometimes get things wrong, but I thought I did some good as your boyfriend. If that means nothing to you, then fine, we can--” Sunset gasped, and her eyes widened and screamed both sympathy and guilt. ’’N-No! Eric, I didn’t mean it like that!” My new rush of anger made her words barely calm me down. “Okay, then how did you mean it, if you’re not saying that I don’t deserve you?” The frown on Sunset’s face grew into a sad one and her ears drooped. Her eyes became watery, but no tears came out of them. “I meant that you deserve better than me.” Now that took out the anger in me and it was replaced with...nothing. I was stunned. Sunset thought I was too good for her? Saying I was “thrown for a loop” would be an understatement. “Wait, you think I’m too good for you?” Sunset nodded her head. “But what makes you think that?” “When I saw you with Diane, I thought you were cheating on me.” If anything, that “answer” made me more puzzled, and I rubbed my neck. “Well, yeah, you did. But I still don’t get it.” Sunset sighed again, and this was sadder than the last one. “Think about it. The two of us have had so much fun, worked together to scare off a Cragadile, and you were willing to die for me in the Everfree Forest.” I was starting to “get it”. Sunset’s frown deepened to an even sadder one. I wanted to say something, but my mouth was fresh out of words. Though, I could tell Sunset wasn’t done, so even if I could have come up with some words, I would have stayed quiet anyway. “And yet, when I saw you ‘kissing’ Diane, I didn’t even think that maybe there was more to it, and you had to beg me to hear the truth from Diane, which you shouldn’t have had to do. I, of all people, or ponies, should know how awful that feels. I threw a pillow at you, and I bet you were even worried that I wanted to cast spells on you, weren’t you?!” Oh, boy. My heart sank, and I was between a rock and a hard place. When Sunset’s horn glowed when she used her magic to throw a pillow at me, for a brief moment, I didn’t know what she was about to do. My stupid paranoia struck again. I couldn’t lie. But if I told Sunset I felt some actual fear, it would have crushed her. Sometimes I wonder how Applejack makes telling the truth look so easy and simple. “Well...uh...maybe I was just a biiiiit--” That was all Sunset needed to hear. With a whimper, her mouth quivered and tears finally flowed from her eyes. The guilt in her heart must have been immense, because my own heart felt it. “There, you see?! I didn’t just get mad at you, I made you think I wanted to hurt you with my magic! I’ve been mad at others before, but I...*sniff*...never treated anyone like I did to you or made them scared of me since I was...was…I...*sniff*...I haven’t changed at all!” Somehow, even more tears poured from Sunset’s eyes. She fell to the floor, buried her head in her forelegs and cried. Man, it was a heartbreaking scene. As I watched Sunset cry, the true reason why she was this upset became crystal clear. She’s worked hard to change from how she used to be, gained confidence in herself, and when it comes to wanting to help others, Sunset’s at the level of Princess Twilight, the Princess of Friendship. Even so, when Sunset threw the pillow at me, a bit of her old self resurfaced. She wasn’t aware of it at first, but now she was, and it killed her heart. This would not be easy to fix, but I had to try. Since Sunset was lying down, I went to one knee and set a hand on her back. “Come on, Sunset. Please don’t--” But Sunset used a foreleg to force my hand off her. “No, Eric. I don’t deserve your kindness.” “But--” “Or to have anything to do with you after how I acted. You...*sniff*...deserve far better than me.” Well, this was getting nowhere fast. This was the second time in the last two hours that Sunset refused to listen to me, but for a different reason. Hearing Sunset talk so bad about herself wasn’t just breaking my heart, it was getting me mad. It was time to give my girlfriend some tough love. Still on my knee, I took a deep breath and yelled, “Sunset Shimmer, will you bucking knock it off and listen to me?!” My shout worked. Sunset calmed down and immediately turned her head to me. With tears still running out of them, Sunset’s turquoise eyes looked at me in the eyes, so I didn’t have to ask, or tell, her to look me in the eyes. It even felt like she didn’t think she could say anything, till I said she could. Maybe I overdid it. “I’m sorry for yelling at you, but you were getting hysterical. First, you did jump the gun, and yeah, you got a bit carried away when you threw a pillow at me. I won’t lie to you: I felt some fear when I saw your horn light up before you threw that pillow. Even so, you saw me in a kiss with another mare, so what else could you have thought? That Diane was giving me kissing lessons or I was giving her lessons? I understand why you got so mad and for thinking what you thought, because you were hurt. I might have thought the same thing if it were the other way around.” Sunset stayed still and kept looking into my eyes. The stream of tears flowing from her eyes was weakening. I set my hand on her back again. What I needed to say next made it feel particularly appropriate. “It’s time I tell you something that I was going to tell you soon. Since we started dating, the occasional worries I had about if some ponies thought I looked weird has been in my head less and less. I think I’m finally getting over being picked on about my burns in second grade. Not even my two Equestrian big sisters, Princess Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer, have been able to help me do that.” Sunset sniffed, wiped her eyes, and the waterworks stopped. My words were working, but I was far from done. “And even if you mess up sometimes, it won’t take away from what you have done since you started learning friendship. I saw how you made up for your mistakes, rose from your past, and I even think it’s a big reason why I started having feelings for you, but it took time. Now, thanks to you, I’m finally becoming able to rise from my past too, and you never knew you were helping me do it.” A small smile formed on Sunset’s face. She might have really needed to hear that, and it never felt so good to see her smile. I thought it could help even more if I gave her a hug, so I did, and smelt what smelled like citrus. “So, Sunset Shimmer, thank you, and don’t think that you don’t deserve or aren't worthy of me, and definitely don’t think that you haven’t changed! If you really didn’t change, you wouldn’t be feeling so bad right now, and you might have even tried to hurt me earlier. You are amazing, and I mean that, and I love you, Sunset!” I gasped, and so did Sunset. Did I just say I love her? Over the last week, I wondered if I was starting to not like but love Sunset, but thought it was too soon for me to feel love toward her, even though we had dated for a month. I was speaking from the heart, so if it slipped out, it must have been true. Wow. I had more to say, so after I shook off the shock of what came out of my mouth, I continued, “But, I can’t make you be my girlfriend. If you really want us to break up, we can, and we can go back to being good friends, and I’ll be okay with that. So, what do you want to do?” Done spilling my guts, I released my grip, stood to my feet and waited. Sunset’s eyes were bigger than usual; probably from hearing the “L” word. "Did you really mean all that, Eric?" I nodded my head. "Yep. I meant every word." After a few seconds, Sunset sprang to her hooves and wrapped her forelegs around me. Her grip was among the tightest she’s ever used on me, and I returned the hug. “In that case, I want to keep being your girlfriend, Eric.” “You do?” “Yeah. I’m so, so sorry for how I treated you, and it won’t happen again. Like I said on our first date, I’ll never try to hurt you, and anything that does will have to deal with me.” “It’s okay, Sunset. I will never try to hurt you either and if something tries, they’ll have to answer to me and my baseball bat. And I’m not scared of you; I was just surprised, but I know you’re not a Unicorn I should fear. And I’m sorry for not getting away from Diane before she had the chance to kiss me, or you wouldn’t have been hurt. I said that I’d never do anything to hurt you, and then I do it. I won’t do it again, so can you forgive me?” “Of course I do, Eric, and I love you too.” My eyes grew big, but Sunset couldn’t see it since we were still in a hug. Pure happiness flowed through my body. Sunset told me that she loved me! “Wait, you love me too? You’re not just saying that because I did, are you?” Sunset “answered” my question by first leaning her head back so I could see her face, but kept her forelegs wrapped around me. Then came a lip-lock. It was the longest one yet. Ha, I guess that was a “yes”. After we were done, I chuckled. “You make a convincing argument, Sunset. But, even though we love each other, there’s still something that we haven’t done yet.” “What?” “Don’t tell me you forgot? Remember what we talked about doing after I got out of the hospital? It was even your idea.” “Oh…hee hee, I remember now. That was the reason I told you I had a ‘lot’ of homework: I wanted to come and surprise you and then--” I didn’t need to hear more. I let Sunset go and forced the grip of her forelegs to weaken enough to crouch down. Then, I wrapped my arms around Sunset again and picked her up as she let out a “Whoa!” in the process! That smell of citrus seemed stronger, and I guess Sunset thought wearing perfume might entice her man. She wasn’t wrong! “W-What are you doing, Eric?” “Taking you to my room before you get any ideas about breaking up with me again.” “Ha ha, I won’t, I promise. But I can walk to your room, so you don’t have to carry me.” “Sorry, but you’re getting a ride there, baby! I’ve waited two weeks for our make-out session, and I ain’t taking the chance of you running away!” Sunset got the message, chuckled, and wrapped her forelegs around my neck. She wasn’t going to protest anymore. Now comes an embarrassing moment. Once I got to one of the library’s doors, since my hands were...full, I couldn’t open the door. “Though, you could use your magic to open the door if you want.” Sunset giggled, used her magic to open the door, and I got back to carrying my girlfriend out of the library. It was a bit tiring carrying her to my room, but I didn’t give a buck. In my room, I laid a smiling Sunset on my bed on her back. But before we could get...busy, there was something else that needed to be taken care of first. I pulled out a sign I hid behind my dresser against one of the walls. It was there for this moment. “What’s that, Eric?” “It’s a 'Do Not Disturb!' sign. Twilight, Starlight, and Spike are gone, but they could come back to the castle soon. This sign will keep them from bugging us.” “Wow. You have prepared for this, huh, Eric?” “Yep!” I hung the string of the sign around the door’s doorknob and closed it. After that, I took off my hat, laid it on my dresser, then in as seductive a voice as I could, I added, “Now that I took care of that, we can get started.” “Wait, hold on.” Before I could ask what Sunset meant, her horn glowed. The pictures I had on the walls and my dresser of Twilight and the others, some with me and others with just them, were all turned around. The partly closed curtains were no longer “partly closed". Lastly, with her magic, she untied the strap of her pack from around herself and levitated it to my baseball hat in the corner of my room, setting it beside the bat. “Okay, now I’m ready.” Surprised I didn’t think of any of that. But with my girlfriend ready, I hopped on my bed and wrapped my arms around Sunset. She did the same with her forelegs, and we laid ourselves on our sides. Our lips locked, Sunset let out a giggle, and her lips never felt so soft. Neither had her coat felt so soft against me, and the smell of citrus from Sunset’s perfume became even more noticeable. I stroked her mane while looking into her eyes, which seemed to be shimmering, even more than they did the first time we kissed after our date, before they closed during the kissing. Suddenly, during our lip-lock, I felt tongue. I knew Sunset would slip her tongue in my mouth, so it didn’t even surprise me. I liked our little tongue battle even more than I thought. As we kept our first-ever make-out session going, Sunset continued to let out giggles; guess she was enjoying it too! Our fun went on for a while. A goooood while. And no, we weren’t going to do that yet! I wasn’t sure if it would even be possible. Though, I bet Twilight/Momlight would freeze in place for a week if Sunset and I did "it", and we told her we did. Soon after Eric Reed took Sunset Shimmer to his room, walking through the hallways of Twilight’s castle; Twilight, Spike, and Starlight were on their way to Eric’s room. Twilight said, “Well, we asked the others if they want to go, so the only one left to ask is Eric.” “Yeah. It’s been a while since we all went together to the Crystal Empire,” Starlight commented. “And I’ve improved my disguise since the last time we went.” Twilight chuckled. “Spike, you still think you’ll need a disguise?” “Yep! After I stood up for Thorax, I’m even more loved there, so I need my disguise more than ever.” “Ha ha, whatever you say, Spike,” Starlight said. She knew Spike well enough to know to humor him in times like this. Once the three friends approached one of the doors, the one to Eric’s bedroom, they heard quiet sounds coming from the other side. “Wait, do you guys hear that?” Twilight asked. “Yeah, and it’s coming from Eric’s room.” Spike pointed to the sign Eric hung on his door. “And he has a ‘Do Not Disturb!’ sign on his door.” “Guess that means Sunset’s in there too. And those sounds...oh!” Starlight, understanding what was happening in Eric’s room, giggled. Spike teasingly pointed out, “Yep. It sounds like our brother’s busy in his room!” “Yeah he is. We promised that we’d give them privacy, so let’s go and--huh?” Spike and Starlight turned to where Twilight was, but the pony herself was gone. “Huh? Where Twilight go?” Starlight asked. “I don’t know. You have an idea of where she went?” “No idea, Spike. Maybe she wanted to make more checklists or something. But let’s go before Eric or Sunset come out and think we’re trying to listen in on them again.” With more chuckles, Spike and Starlight turned around and walked in the direction where they came from. However, Starlight Glimmer’s theory about why Twilight Sparkle abruptly left would be quite inaccurate. It was for a very different reason.