Unlicensed Therapy
"Pete there you are." Twilight said as she started towards him.
Pete turned his back to her and she stopped. "What are you doing here? I told you I wanted to be alone." He said taking another sip of whiskey.
"Pete you can't keep pushing others away like this. You're just going to...Is that alcohol?" She asked seeing the bottle.
"Whiskey to be more precise." Pete answered raising the bottle only to have it taken away in a purple aura. "I was using that." He said calmly.
"Are you just trying to drink all your problems away?" Twilight asked irritated.
"That is one of the main uses of alcohol." Pete told her lowering his hand.
"Alcohol isn't meant for that." Twilight scolded.
"I never said it was meant for it, I just said it's one of it's uses." Pete countered. Twilight just glared at him. "Can I just have it back?" He asked.
"Where did you even get this?" Twilight asked.
"Found it with some tea." Pete told her.
"Who drinks tea with alcohol?" Twilight asked.
"Apparently me." Pete responded.
Twilight sighed. "Can you just talk to me for once?" she asked.
"I think I already did talk to you once and look how that turned out." Pete said with a hint of anger.
Twilight flinched slightly. After a second she just sighed. "Yes I know, that was my fault, and I know apologizing to you won't changed anything, but I am truly sorry." Pete just scoffed.
The two stood there in silence for a few moments. "It's not your fault you know, with Art." Twilight said. Pete turned suddenly and glared at Twilight, but she kept herself from flinching and continued. "You couldn't of seen ahead, you can't see the future so don't blame yourself for not seeing it."
"That's easy for you to say, but do you think that you would be able to think like that if you were in my situation?" Pete told her. "My brother, Art, they may as well been killed by my hand. Hell, Celestia and the guard were killed by my hand."
Twilight just looked to the ground in silence. "...you're wrong you know." she said quietly. Pete just raised an eyebrow. "I felt the same way about my parents." She continued. Pete's eyes widened slightly. "They were visiting me in Ponyville. I hoard wandered into town. Nopony knew what was happening at the time. We were using my library as a makeshift hospital since we nopony could get to the real one. A lot of ponies were bit, we didn't know." Twilight said tearing up slightly. "When they started to attack my parents told me to run, so I did. I haven't seen or heard from them since. I don't even know if their alive or dead." She said completely breaking down.
Pete sat there for a moment processing what Twilight had said. He stood up slowly and walked over to Twilight. He grabbed the bottle from her levitation field and held out the bottle. She looked at him confused. "Like I said, it's good for dealing with problems." He said.
Twilight sat there a moment sniffling before taking the bottle and tilting it and her head back. Pete quickly reached out and took the bottle, while Twilight started coughing loudly.
"What are you thinking? This is whiskey, you don't chug it." He said.
"It's disgusting." Twilight said still coughing.
"It's an acquired task, and normally drank in small quantities. Your luck you spit most of that out, I don't need to explain to Luna why there's a drunk Twilight in the garden." Pete told her. He sat down on the rock again taking a small sip. He started to look around then noticed two small shot glasses sitting next to the rock. "bastard." Pete whispered under his breath. He picked up the shot glasses and filled them. "Here start with this." Pete said offering the shot to her. Twilight hesitantly took the shot and drank it. She coughed once and cleared her throat a few times. "Better?" Pete asked drinking his own.
"Relatively." Twilight answered.
The sat silently for a few moments. "...So?" Pete started. "How did you take it?" He asked.
Twilight looked to the ground. "About as well as you'd expect. When I got to the castle explained what happen to Celestia and Luna as best I could, but I still didn't know about the bite. Celestia was bit the next day. I fell into a depression even deeper than I was already in. I didn't leave my room for the longest time. My friends were worried obviously, but they still think it was all about Celestia. I haven't told them about my parents. When you found me I was actually on my way back from Ponyville, I had left to see if maybe I could find them in town. I never did though, and almost got myself killed looking." Twilight said.
Pete took a drink of whiskey. "You don't feel the guilt anymore do you?" He asked. Twilight looked up at him. "When we first met I could tell something was off about you. Now I know, you felt guilt same as I still do. Your different now though, the guilt isn't really there anymore, you moved on." He finished.
Twilight thought for a moment. "I... I suppose I don't, not anymore. I guess I see now that back then I did the best I could. It wasn't enough, but I couldn't have done it any differently." Twilight said.
"What made you change your mind?" Pete asked bringing the bottle to his lips.
"Well...you, Matt, Liz, and Jay." Twilight said making Pete stop midsip.
He moved the bottle away after a moment. "What do you mean?" He asked.
"Well, when I started to learn about you all, where you had come from and what you had done. I started to see that sometimes things aren't always under your control. It made me think hard about my decisions and I realized that there really was nothing I could've done to change anything. I still feel the sadness, but the guilt... that's passed." She said. "You need to learn that too."
"It's not that simple with me." Pete said. "I've never had the stereotypical childhood. I spent my first night in jail when I was only five years old. Cop found me stealing bread. He decided to 'set me straight.' and put me in a cell. Around two A.M. I realized I didn't have to put up with it. Whined to the guard that I had to pee. When he opened the door I kicked him where it hurts and ran off. Knocked a kid unconscious at the age of eight, had it coming too but the authorities didn't see it that way. Got, and gave, my first stitches at twelve, kid pulled the knife on me I just reacted but of course given my record no one believed that. Ran away at thirteen, but you knew that already."
"So you had a rough childhood that's no reason to feel guilt like this constantly." Twilight said.
"Have you ever held a person when they take their last breath Twilight?" Pete asked.
"What?" Twilight asked surprised.
"Because I have, the look they have in their eyes when they realize their dying, the last little gasp they have trying to get just that little bit more air. In that final breath every single possible thing you could've done flashes in front of you. That last breath change s you.
"But Pete that's just-" Twilight started.
"Twilight I'm not saying you're wrong." Pete interrupted. "I'm not saying you're right either. I don't think either of us can really say who's right and who's wrong, or if anybody even is. All I can say is how I feel. And I feel that it's my fault, plain and simple." He finished.
"You can't keep dwelling on the past. It's going to fester and eat away." Twilight told him.
"Perhaps." Pete said taking a sip of whiskey. "But it's that guilt that's made me who I am today, without it I would still be like I was. I don't know about you, but I prefer myself like this, so if it's guilt that got me here I think I'll stick with it." He said taking a large drink of the bottle. When he finished he looked at what was left. "You want the last sip?" He asked.
Twilight looked at him sad for a moment, but took the bottle and finished it. Silence fell over the two as their pasts lingered on their minds.