//------------------------------//
// Ruin 
// Story: Not a Monster 2: Under Their Spell 
// by Dreamscape 
//------------------------------//

	I was under the assumption that life would return to normal once the sirens had been degraded into average, rather embarrassed, teenage girls, and Twilight returned to Equestria. Even if mine and Sunset’s relationship returned to the crumbling mess it had been before the chaos, I was hopeful that it could be mended. I wanted us to work. There may have been a slight hiccup, but that didn’t change my answer. I had pursued a relationship with her for a reason, and there was no way that I would be the one to ruin it. What I didn’t know was that it would be her.

I had dreaded it since the moment I was released from the sirens’ spell, but knew it was imminent. Even if she had been busy, Sunset would not have gone without noticing my absence. It was only a couple days after the event that she asked to talk in private.

In those two days, I had noticed quite the change in attitude of students towards Sunset, and the change in her own. One after the other, the students at CHS were suddenly growing friendly towards Sunset, actually conversing with her, asking her to hang out with them, and not scoffing at the sight of her. She was one of the heroes after all. The students were finally able to see the side of Sunset that I had always known to be true, one which not so long ago, they were too caught up in their ways to even notice. As for Sunset, finally achieving what she had wanted certainly made her chipper, but at the same time, that overly-nice attitude she once had seemed to be slowly dying off. It wasn’t as if she had stopped trying, but was able to relax and let her guard down a bit. I was actually rather glad to see that she could finally be herself and wasn’t afraid to hide it. 

I will admit that I was expecting our conversation that afternoon to go over rather nicely since Sunset was in such a pleased mood, and I was also excited to actually spend some time with her after the fact. Of course, those expectations turned out to be false. 


***


At the sound of her knock, I quickly made my way to the door. The moment I saw the look on upon her face, a sudden weight of seriousness sunk the normally comfortable and rather lighthearted atmosphere of my home; a home that I’ll admit I came to love. 

“Hey,” she said with weak wave and half of a smile, a smile that I began to think was fake. It seemed as though after so many months of being together, I would know such a queue, but sadly, I didn’t. 

“Uh… hi,” I muttered, feeling a lump growing within my throat.

“We should probably do this up in your room, make things more private.”

“Okay,” I said with a quick, nervous nod, motioning for her to enter. As we made our way up the stairs, I could feel myself panicking on the inside. I didn’t want her to know. If the talk was as simple as I had originally assumed, my panic would make me seem rather suspicious. 

I closed the door behind us with a gulp and gingerly sat upon the edge of my bed, my body shaking slightly with nervous energy. She took her place beside me, a sorrowful, almost helpless look upon her face. Her warm, soft hands wrapped around my own, providing some false hope. Swallowing down the growing lump, for once, I was the first to speak.

“I’m sorry for what I did. I guess… I guess I was a bit, well, mad about how far apart we’re getting. The sirens’ spell sort of increased that anger and made me forget that you were just trying to reach your goal, your dream, and that you were trying to stop those girls.”

Her hands squeezed mine tight before dropping away limply as she sighed, looking down at her lap. “Ugh… that just made things a lot tougher, thanks for apologizing though.”

“W-what do you mean tougher? What were you going to say?”

“I… I… honestly, I was hoping that the reason you were avoiding me is because what we have is sort of dying out for you,” she said with a gulp. Even though she looked away, I could see her eyes tearing up, their wet surface twinkling in the lamplight. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but nothing came out.

“But… why?” I mumbled, my heart sinking.

“I just… I really hate to say this, but I sort of needed you throughout all those rough times I had-”

“Yeah, but how is that a bad thing?” I interrupted.

“-you were the only one who was actually really there for me,” she continued, raising her hand to stop me from going on, “and I guess I sort of abused that.”

I gulped once more, my eyes growing wide. “What do you mean?”

“I really do like you, and I guess for a while there I did think that I loved you; I mean, I really did… but now that, you know, everything has changed, I realize that I don’t. We’re not really those two outsiders anymore. Things have changed and I…” her voice cracked, “I’m sorry.”

“So you mean you’re… this is…” I muttered in disbelief. 

She nodded her head softly, tears streaming down her face as she cried in silence. “Yeah… this… it’s not gonna work out, I’m sorry.” Suddenly I was wrapped into an embrace, my face pressing against her shoulder. I let my tears drip down onto the cool surface of her leather jacket, dampening it slightly. After only a few short moments, she pulled away. “I should go.” 

I nodded my head softly, not to agree, but to accept the inevitable. As she exited the room with the softest of footsteps and closed the door, I was at a complete loss, still utterly shocked and not exactly sure how to react. Tears continued to stream down my face, but the true grief of the situation had yet to fully sink in. It was as if the physical aspect of sadness had kicked in while the mental one struggled to comprehend it. 

There was a sense of emptiness within me as I remembered what it was like to be alone. Along with such thoughts, the worry of exactly how the others would react to our break-up rushed through my mind. Even more prominent was the wonder of if I would even be able to sit next to the girl without feeling pain. I fell backwards onto my bed and gazed up at the ceiling. It was strange to think that the first few nights I stayed in that house, I was gazing up at something completely new and unfamiliar. That day, it was so familiar that it was comforting.