//------------------------------// // Friendship is Magic // Story: The Incredibly Interesting Date with the Non-Winning Human // by BronyWriter //------------------------------// "I'm sorry, I just... I've had a bad day." I ran a hand through my hair and took a deep breath while Twilight and Rarity gave me looks of sympathy. I had just gotten done ranting about everything that had happened to me in the past few days. Yeah, they knew, they went through it themselves, after all, but it was nice to have somebody to rant to. I sighed and rubbed my temples. "How did you do it? I mean, I can't imagine that nothing has changed at all, but how did you guys handle what happened?" The two of them exchanged an uneasy look before turning back to me. "Well, it wasn't exactly easy," said Rarity, "and I wouldn't exactly say that we've completely gotten over it yet." Twilight nodded in response. "Yeah, and to be honest, it's not like nothing is going to change." Twilight and Rarity exchanged a brief, awkward sideways glance. "We're still good friends, TD. What we've gone through... well, something like this isn't going to weaken our friendship. If anything it's going to strengthen it. It's just going to take it in a slightly different direction than it would have gone otherwise, I think." "We understand what you're going through, TD," Rarity agreed. "Yes, technically the only thing that really said that we were married was a piece of paper, but I think the worst part for us was the fact that we weren't in control and could have gone a lot farther." "But you didn't," I muttered. "Cloud Kicker and I did. We made out and, honestly, can't be completely sure that that's not all we did. It's unlikely that we had sex, but the mere fact that it's still a possibility is really freaking me out, you know?" I sighed and thunked my head against the wall. "I mean, I do have a pony that I would go out with, and did kind of think about asking out. I know she'd understand, but I'd feel awkward asking her out for a long time." "Well nopony expects you to recover right away, darling," said Rarity. "However..." Rarity pursed her lips and poked at her mane. "I think the proper way to get started is to talk to Cloud Kicker. I mean really have a deep heart-to-heart conversation with her about what happened. This avoiding each other isn't helping anypony, TD." I bit my lip and uneasily scratched the back of my neck. "Well it's still a little--" "Awkward, yes I know," said Rarity with a wave of her hoof. "But TD, how do you think that Twilight and I would have helped each other along if we hadn't interacted and talked about how we were feeling?" Rarity gave me a sympathetic smile and put a hoof on my leg. "I know you're not exactly the type of being that talks about his feelings all day, TD, and..." Rarity rolled her eyes. "Neither is Cloud Kicker, really, but I know that you will both do it if you feel that you need to. Right now, I think that you need to." "Well..." "You want to preserve your friendship, correct?" "Of course I do!" I straightened up and crossed my arms. "I mean, she's been my best friend since I've gotten here. Teaching the kids is nice and all, but it's really good to have somebody my age to talk to about life and connect with that way." I grimaced and deeply exhaled. "That's what Cloud Kicker was for me." Twilight gave me a sad smile of her own and took a step towards me. "TD, if I've learned anything during my time here in Ponyville, it's that friendships are worth fighting for. Your friendship with Cloud Kicker is important to you. Don't you think that it's worth fighting for?" I sighed and rubbed my temples. I knew they were right. They had been at this sort of thing longer than I had. Not that I hadn't been making friends until I came to Ponyville, but things of this scale and weight were something that they had more experience dealing with. At this point I really had nothing else to lose. She didn't either, really. I slowly nodded and stood up. "Okay. Let's talk." * * * * So there we were. Cloud Kicker and I were sitting in the library for our talk. Nobody else was in the room with us, which I think we were both grateful for. We didn't need anybody else chiming in on our conversation, no matter how well-meaning their comments would be. I took a deep breath. We had to get it started at some point, so now would be as good a time as any. "So let's just say it: it's never going to be the same again." Cloud Kicker snorted and rolled her eyes. "You think? I had thought that was something we had already established, TD. I guess what we have to think about now is what exactly that means." She flattened her ears and looked sadly at me. "It's not over, is it?" I widened my eyes and shook my head. "What? No! I don't want it to be over. I want to go back to our Friday drinking days where we talk and laugh and rant about life. No offense to Twilight and Co, but I can't exactly do that with any of them." "So then do we...?" Cloud Kicker spun her hoof. "What exactly? I mean, we can't just forget about this, right?" "Nope, and that's what's bothering me." I rubbed my temples and tried to think of what to say next. Truth be told, I was hoping for some magic cure-all set of words that would restore our relationship to what it was, but I couldn't think of anything. All I could really think to say was... "It'll never be the same." I looked up at her. "Yeah, two completely platonic friends got physically intimate and married because of something completely out of their control. Heck, it could have happened to any one of us. I could be having this conversation with Rainbow Dash right now, or something." Cloud Kicker, despite the situation, smirked and chuckled quietly. "I can't imagine having a long heart-to-heart with Rainbow Dash, but I see your point." "Yeah." I scratched the back of my head and cracked my neck to ease some of the tension I was feeling. "I guess the best thing to do to repair our relationship to the point to where we can get it back to what it used to be is talk about what is weirding us out. If we can do that, we can move past it, right?" Cloud Kicker nodded, and I returned it. "Okay. Well, I guess I can start. I think that what freaks me out the most is the fact that we did what we did and we weren't in control of anything. What's especially disturbing me is the fact that what we did when we weren't in control is exactly what we agreed we weren't going to do, and had built our relationship on confident that we weren't going to do..." I shrugged. "If that makes sense. A big draw for us was that we didn't have to do anything physical, then the first thing we do when we're not in control is something physical." "Sounds like my perspective too," Cloud Kicker muttered. "I know you've heard me talk about all of the horseapples going on with my love life, Having a friend who isn't even remotely interested in that kind of thing that I can actually rant to?" She scoffed quietly and crossed her forelegs. "I needed that." "And I needed a friend who I could connect to." I looked out in the direction of the Ponyville schoolhouse. "The kids are great, but a friend my age who I can connect to is something that I need, especially since I'm stuck here forever. We've already established that we're not going to stop being friends..." I frowned as a thought struck me. "Are we being dumb, stretching this out like this?" Cloud Kicker titled her head. "What do you mean?" "Well, what I mean is, we're being really dramatic about this whole thing, but... do we have to be? Yeah, this sucks, and I'm not downplaying the nature of what happened to us, but are we taking it too far?" "So are you saying that we should just forget about it and move on?" I shrug. "Not 'forget' per se, of course we can't do that, but let's be honest, we can't keep moping about this forever, right?" I looked at the ceiling thoughtfully and tapped my chin. "We both need a friend who we can rant to about stuff, right?" She nodded. "Isn't that exactly what we've been doing?" Cloud Kicker blinked a few times and her jaw dropped slightly. "Is it?" "I think so." I shrugged. "Put a cider in our hands and this is roughly the same sort of thing that we've been doing since we became friends. I mean, we both have a problem that is bothering us, and we both need somebody to rant to, so..." I motioned to the both of us. "Let's rant." Cloud Kicker seemed confused by my idea for a few seconds, but a small smile crossed her face and she slowly nodded. "Okay. I'll start." She cleared her throat. "I hate the fact that nothing in my life seems to be going right right now. I mean, I get a good friend who is everything that I want in a platonic friend, then I'm worried that I'm going to lose it forever because of something outside of my control?! How unfair is that?!" I snorted and rolled my eyes dramatically. "Yeah, well, welcome to my world. I got torn from all I knew and loved forever and I had to worry about losing my ideal platonic friend too. She was the closest thing that I had to one of my friends back home, and I'm scared that I lost that forever, just like everything else that I cared about." "Not only that, but I made out with the guy!" Cloud Kicker groaned and facehooved. "And he wasn't even a good kisser. Believe me, I'm the kind of pony who can tell." I mock-glared at her and crossed my arms. "Well, I'm sure he wasn't really all that into it, or he would have tried harder." Cloud Kicker sighed in an imitation of a person who is being condescending. "I'd like to think that, but he was under the control of a mind-altering substance at the time. We were both totally into it. He just wasn't that good." "Uh-huh." I was about to retort, but I noticed something interesting. I had a smile on my face. Like, a legitimate happy smile like the kind that I used to have when I was around Cloud Kicker and we were doing stuff like this. It made me feel that... maybe nothing much of anything had changed. Her smile seemed to indicate the same thing if I was reading it right. I chuckled and shook my head. "You know, I think we're going to be okay. The marriage is going to get annulled, and we can look back and laugh at this..." My smile turned mischievous. "Mrs. Cloud Powell." Cloud Kicker groaned and facehooved. "I never thought that I would ever be called that when I met you. That's another thing to rant about!" And rant we did. It went on for hours; the two of us just ranting and raving about everything that we were feeling about everything that had happened since we woke up married. But you know something? It felt good. It felt like maybe everything would go back to how it was before. I don't think that we would ever completely get used to it or ever really make it a running joke, but laughing and ranting about it took some of the badness away from it. Maybe everything wouldn't be so bad after all as long as Cloud Kicker and I could rant and complain to each other. Everybody needs a friend like that.