//------------------------------//
// Chapter 17. What do I do? 
// Story: A New Teacher 
// by Sparky Brony 
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She paws the ground with a hoof and snorts… "Now, I hate you." Did she really say that? Tears spring to my eyes as I look at her.

"Twilight…"

She screams again, "Leave me alone!" I am enveloped by her magenta colored magic, then I feel like I'm being shoved very rudely through the eye of a very hot needle. My vision is gone for a few seconds, then it's back. I collapse to the ground, I'm smoking pretty badly, I don't care. I blink my eyes a few times to clear them, then they widen. I'm back in Ponyville. Right in front of my house. I rouse myself enough to shamble slowly into my home, I don't even bother to shut my door, much less lock it. I finally make it to my bed, and I collapse into it.

"Twilight…" I sob. I feel my consciousness fading, I'm so tired. "I'm so sorry." Finally I'm able to say what I wanted to say to her, too bad she can't hear it now.

I'm standing in nothingness.

"I had a feeling you would be dreaming fairly quickly, Nicholas." I know that voice. I turn away from the Princess of the Night.

"Leave me alone."

"You know I can't do that. I did this to you, and I must express my apologies."

"You wanted to apologize, you did. Now leave."

"Nicholas, I want to help you, I knew you and Twilight would be a wonderful match. You were different enough to be interesting, and similar enough for there to be some commonalities."

I huff and put my head down, my ears are down, my wings are down, even in a dream my energy level is down to zero. "Moonbutt, I really don't care. I've lost everything. I've lost the one woman I've found that I really loved," I turn and glare at her with everything I can muster, "because of you."

She rears back a bit at the intensity of my voice, "I wouldn't say that, Nicholas."

Now I've got energy, I stand up and I feel my wings spread in a threat display. "No, Moonbutt, I do say that. You are the pony that caused the perfectly good engines on my fighter to fail. You are the pony that brought me here. You are the pony that set me on this stupid quest. You are the pony that enchanted me to where I was unable to divulge what was going on, so I couldn't even tell Twilight," I trail off.

"Nicholas,  Twilight will cool off, she will remember that she does love you." She stops and sighs, "I had to teleport rather quickly when I went to her and attempted to apologize. She sent a rather large ball of fire at me. Then she teleported off somewhere. I have no idea where she is now."

"Well, she hit me several times with her magic, then she teleported me to Ponyville." I lay down again, "and yet, with all of that. I miss her, already. If getting burned is what it takes to keep her around, I would gladly subject myself to it."

"Wouldn't that be rather extreme, Nick?"

I stomped a hoof on the non-existent ground. "No, it isn't. I've never known love. I've never been truly in love before Twilight. And now that I've lost her." Tears once again, damn it, I don't cry. But now, I'm sobbing, "I just want her back. I want to hold her and tell her everything is going to be okay. I want to soothe her pain, and let her know I'll always be there for her." I just completely break down crying.

After several minutes, a midnight blue wing envelopes me. I don't have the energy to do anything but continue to sob.

"Nicholas," she murmurs. I try to shake her off, but I'm too weak.

"Please, go away. She hates me. And there is nothing I can do about it." She moves her wing off of me and steps a few paces away.

"Nicholas, I know things look bleak right now. Twilight will come around."

"Go away, Moonbutt."

She looks at me sternly, "I really don't like that name, Nicholas."

"Okay, miserable bitch sounds better to me anyways."

"I guess I can live with Moonbutt for the time being then." She disappears, leaving me to my misery.

I continue to sob, I even transition to being awake without truly being aware of it. My only clue is I can feel how wet my pillow is from my tears. Hours pass.

***

My head jerks up, there was a crash. I really don't care. I lay my head down and just ignore the sound of hooves in my house.
My door slams open, "Dude, you are leaving Ponyville right now." I feel myself being lifted up and slammed into the wall.
I can hear the rage in Rainbow Dash's voice, "I can't believe I helped you, and it was all a big plot between Luna and you." I don't even react as a cyan hoof crashes into my cheek, that speed demon is strong. I find myself on the floor, my jaw in pain. I sigh.
I hear hooves on the floor. I'm picked up again, "You ass, I thought you were my friend. You were just using me to get to Twilight." Another hoof slams into my face, this time the other cheek. Once again, I'm crumpled on the floor, my wing awkwardly underneath me, it hurts. But that pain is nothing compared to the rest of the pain I feel.

I'm picked up again, and slammed against the wall, this time I actually see my assailant. Cerise eyes stare into mine.

"It's like hitting a bag of flour." She has a hoof drawn back, though most of her rage is spent. She looks intently at my face. She drops me, once again I'm unceremoniously on the floor. I just lay there, I can see her hooves.

"Nick. Say something, anything."

Several minutes pass. She just stands there, watching me lay there. It's not at all pleasant to lay there sprawled like this. But I can't muster enough volition to move to anything even remotely more comfortable. I just lay there, tears continuing to trickle down my face.

Finally, I'm able to whisper. "I'm sorry, Rainbow."

She huffs, "Ya know what, I actually believe you." She paws the ground for a moment, "You want to tell me your side?"

I find I'm able to sigh. "I'm so sorry, Rainbow."

"Dude, we've cleared up the question on whether or not Nick is sorry already. What I'm interested in is why in Equestria did you use me to get to Twilight."

I looked down, I'll try to talk. I do consider Rainbow Dash a friend. "At first, I was asking your help because of what Luna wanted me to do. Then I got to actually spend time with her."

She chuckles, "You actually fell in love with her?"

I can only nod slowly.

"Before Twilight found out what happened, when was the last time you actually were thinking about what Princess Luna wanted you to do versus what you actually felt?"

"It was about a month before you came up with the idea of having Twilight and I go on a romantic weekend together. Though where I actually realized I was truly falling in love was on the train on the way to the beach. I was in the restroom and I was trying to analyze how I actually felt, I wanted to see if I was deluding myself into these feelings, or if they were genuine."

"And they were genuine?"

I nod.

"C'mon, get up, Nick." I shift to laying on my stomach. I have all four hooves underneath me, I push, and nothing happens.

"I think I'll lie here." I feel something odd in my mouth, I work my tongue around and spit out a tooth, along with a good amount of blood.

"Oh, sweet Celestia, Nick. I'm so sorry." She helps me to my hooves, and guides me to my couch. Shortly I'm laying on the couch, she piles a few pillows so I'm somewhat comfortable. "Nick…" she looks down. "Don't worry about the job for now, take a few days off. I'll try to find a way to justify it to Cloudsdale. I really don't know what to do with Twilight. If you really do love her, all I can say is don't give up." She juts her muzzle right in front of my face, "And so help me if you are lying to me, I will make earlier seem like a light tap. You understand?"

I look at her, "I was enchanted by Luna to be unable to tell anyone what happened."

She jerks back, surprised, "Seriously? So you would have told me if you could have?"

I look down and nod, "Yes, Rainbow. I value Twilight's relationship, but I also value my friendship with you. I'm glad to have you as a friend, and thank you."

She narrows her eyes at me, "I'm not a lie detector, but I'm pretty good at telling if anypony is lying to me. And from everything I've seen since I got here, you are telling the truth." She lightly punches me in the shoulder, "Nick. We will see if something can be salvaged with Twilight."

I shake my head, "No, Rainbow. I screwed up with Twilight, and worse yet, I used you to do it. If I can get Twilight back it will be on my own merits, not from some pony helping me."

She ruffles my mane, "You are a good pony Nick." She turns to leave.

"Thank you, Rainbow Dash." I sigh, "For everything." She smiles as she closes the door behind her.

I look at the door, I don't want to get up. I just snuggle into the little nest that Rainbow built for me and just lay there.
It's hours before I fall into a dreamless sleep.

***
How many times do I have to be woken up by somepony knocking? I lift my head. But I can't muster the energy to say anything.
More knocking, then eventually the door opens, admitting a blonde mane topping a lavender face. "Hi, Nick," She opens the door fully, showing an early dawn scene outside, "Want to go for a fly?"

I turn my head away, "Not really in the mood Cloud."

She comes up and bumps a wing on my head, "Nick. I know some of what happened. Trust me, you are a pariah in Ponyville right now. Everypony loves Twilight Sparkle, and her heart being shattered like that." She shudders.

"How do you know what happened?" I whisper.

"Nick, welcome to Ponyville, everypony knows everypony and everypony knows everypony's business. That's how things are here. Just so you know, I learned from the boss. But she didn't tell me everything. She did say that she was really upset and roughed you up a bit, only to find that you really didn't have a choice in the matter."

"I did have a choice in the matter, Cloud. I could have refused to do what the Princess wanted. I could have moved out of Ponyville." Fresh tears, "I could have done something other than actually fall in love with Princess Twilight."

Her voice was soft…"But you did, did you?"

I nodded, "She was just so interesting. She was smart, she was beautiful. She wanted to help me through my transition to living here. She was a friend, and when I started feeling feelings for her, I thought that I was deluding myself, because I felt a deep seated need to do what Princess Luna wanted. Then I was looking at myself in the mirror, trying to see if those feelings were genuine." My ears fell flat, "and they were."

Cloud Kicker jumped off the couch and sat down on her haunches in front of me, "Nick. I won't pretend this is going to be easy. In fact, you might want to clear out of Ponyville for a few months until everything cools down. You are going to find ponies that are going to go out of their way to make your life harder. But, I promise, if you do, you will never have a chance with Twilight in the future, because she will see that when the pressure builds, you bail." She puts a hoof on my shoulder. "But, if you stay, I can't promise you'll get Twilight back, but at least she will know, even subconsciously, that she can count on you in a pinch. And that is a good thing."

"Cloud, I'm not moving. I'll endure what I have to endure. I have no hope that Twilight will want me back." I sniffed, and tried to stop the tears. "But I've built a life here, and if I lose some friends because of this, I'll have to live with that. But I have a job, I have friends here." I chuckle darkly, "I'm not going to be chased out of town by the rumor mill."

That gets me a punch to the shoulder and a big grin from Cloud Kicker, "That's the spirit, Nick. Now spread your wings. Let's fly."

I don't have the energy to fly, I haven't eaten much since leaving the beach side resort. I tell Cloud Kicker as much. So our first stop is to get some food at the place that Rainbow took me to that has meat. I'll tell you, that was a good way to lift my spirits.