//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 // Story: Twilight's Human Boyfriend // by Songbrony //------------------------------// I placed my hand on my face and I felt blood running down my nose. "Phil!" I heard Twilight say before I felt another punch hit my ear, leaving it ringing. "Stop it!" I rolled away from him and stood up. I wasn't a fighter, but I was fast enough to avoid his hits. Or so I hoped. My vision was blurry, but I could still make out Phil. I dodged a hit from him and moved to the right. He quickly turned towards me and tried to hit me again. I was able to move away from it and land a small hit on his shoulder, but in all honesty it was pathetic. "Both of you stop it!" I heard Twilight shout as he tried to punch me again. I ducked and kicked his legs out from under him. He fell hard on his face and I got a little confident. Until he pulled on my leg and sent me flat on my back. The impact knocked the wind out of my lungs and I saw him stand up shaking his head. "Why!?" he shouted at me. "Why what?" I gasped. "You know what the hell I'm talking about!!" he shouted. "And you!" he said pointing to Twilight. "You betrayed my trust! I cared about you and you threw it out the window!" "Phil, that's not what-" she started but was cut off. "No I know what happened!" he shouted. "You met someone new, thought I was old news, wanted some excitement, and cheated on me!" "Phil, we didn't-" I started. "Please I know what you two did. Kissing and sleeping together, hell what else have you all done, huh? What else!?" he exclaimed. "We didn't sleep together Phil!!" Twilight exclaimed. "I would never do that to anyone. You know that." she said. "Yeah, well I don't know what to believe. I used to believe that you were someone who wouldn't cheat or lie to me. Someone who I could trust. Yet that got thrown out the window when you decided to kiss him and have him sleep in your bed. What, you thought I'd be okay with him kissing you? Things were perfectly fine with us until he showed up! I'm done. Hope you two have a great life together." Phil said and he left the library. Twilight stood there, silent and unmoving. I slowly stood up, the air returning to my lungs. "What the hell did you tell him?" I asked. "I...I..." she stammered, shocked by what had happened. "I just...told him that you told me something...I was honest with him and told him everything. I couldn't lie to him Brendan. He...he said he wanted to talk to you. He was very upset...but I didn't think he would go as far as to hit you..." she said, still trying to register what had happened. "I'm sorry...I didn't think it would go this far. I didn't mean for you two to..." I hesitated. "Brendan..." she said turning to me. I could see that she was mad, and I'm not sure if she was mad at me, Phil, or both of us. "You knew I was with Phil...why did you have to kiss me? Why did you have to ruin this!?" she said, tears forming in her eyes. "I didn't mean-" "For this to happen? To ruin a good relationship?" "Hey, remember you said you loved me too." I pointed out. "Yeah? Well you can go buck yourself and get the hell out!" she said, using her magic to open the door. The hell is wrong with her?? I thought. This was not like her. I had never seen her like this and it was completely out of character. "Twilight, wait." "I said, Get. The. Hell. Out." This time she used her magic to grab my shirt and basically threw me out. She slammed the door closed and I just stood there, shocked. "Twilight..." I said quietly. The door opened and my heart jumped a little, hoping she wasn't really kicking me out. And then my bags hit my head. The computer bag, the backpack, another one I don't remember having full of the books I had given her to read, all of it. They fell on the ground and my heart sank. "Please..." It was quiet. I slowly grabbed my belongings and left, unsure of what to do. I couldn't tell if I was mad, sad, or what. Everything happened so fast that I couldn't register it. I walked to the fountain in the park just outside Ponyville and sat on one of the benches. I didn't normally come out here because while there are many who are okay with humans, there are just as many who hate us. But I didn't care. I needed a place to think. It was a bad idea though. Without warming I started sobbing. I knew I screwed up. Nothing good could have come from kissing her. Or telling her how I felt. Or telling her to choose one of us. And now, because of me, she lost both. I felt terrible, as if my whole world was crashing down. i lost her... I thought. There was no way I could get her back, nothing I could do to get her to even talk to me again. I don't know how long I stayed there, but it had to have been a few hours. The sun had gone down, the crickets and fireflies had all woken up, I looked up, my eyes feeling heavy. "Brendan?" I heard a voice say behind me. I quickly turned around and saw Rainbow Dash standing there, looking at me confused. "What are you doing out here?" "Oh. No reason. Just thought I would have a look at the stars tonight." I said, wiping my eyes. I was hoping she would buy it and not question further. "Are you okay?" "Yeah." I said, barely holding it together. "You sure?" she asked again. I lost it again. "Hey hey hey, sorry didn't mean to make you cry!" she said, walking over to me. "C'mon. Wipe away the water works." she said, taking a seat next to me. "Sorry." I said, stifling the tears. Look at yourself, Brendan. Man up. Stop the crying. "Don't be. Whatever's got you like this has to be important. I've never seen you lose your emotions like that." she said. I normally had a really good handle on my emotions. I could throw on a happy face and just hold the sad moments in without any trouble. Eventually the went and it was okay. But not this, and I really didn't want to talk about it, so I stayed quiet. "Hello? You still there? Don't faze out on me." she said. I still didn't say anything. "Ok. I get it. You don't want to talk about whatever's bothering you. But hey. I got an idea to help you feel a little better." "Like what?" I asked. "C'mon. Follow me." she said. I sighed and stood up, grabbing my bags and followed her. I wasn't sure where we were going. There were still places here I hadn't been since I stayed in a lot. "Where are we going?" I asked. "A place where you can loosen up." she said. We kept walking and after a few minutes we came upon what looked like the local bar. "Seriously?" I asked her. "Why not?" she asked. "I'm shy about a year from drinking." I told her. "Maybe where you're from, but here once you're 18, you're free to drink whatever you want." she said. "I don't come here too often because I don't like how it can mess with my senses, but you look like you need a drink." she said. I followed her inside. I'd only had maybe one drink in my life? Maybe? But I didn't have anything else to do. "Hey Berry! Can I get two ciders?" Rainbow asked the bartender behind the counter. The mare threw across two mugs of cider and Rainbow passed me one. "Here. Just something to take the edge off." "Thanks." I said. I hesitated before taking a sip. It wasn't bad, but it left a weird taste in my mouth. "So, what happened between you and Twilight?" she asked. "What do you mean?" "She told us. You think she wouldn't tell us when she lost the two most important guys in her life?" I took a bigger swig of the bubbly cider. "Yeah, well it doesn't matter. She doesn't want to see me. She needs to fix her relationship with Phil." I said. "Why not with you?" "Because I messed up. I made all this happen. If I hadn't kissed her everything would be okay." I said. "Look, Brendan, you couldn't have stopped it. Yeah you sped up the process, but she was going to have to tell Phil how she felt about you eventually. You know she's a terrible liar." Rainbow said, "I think she would have hid it from him. She did a good job of doing it before." I pointed out. "Maybe." "What would you have done?" I asked her. "If we had swapped places? I'd deck you on the floor when you kissed her the first time." she said. I don't know why I asked the athletic tomboy what she would do in Twilight's place. They weren't very similar, except for loving the Daring Do books. "Right." I said, chuckling. "But I don't think Twilight will just leave you. She cares too much for you." she said. "How do you know?" I asked her. "I just do." she said. I didn't believe her. She sighed. "Okay, but if you tell anyone, I swear I'll kill you." she said. "The way she acts and the stuff she's done for you are things I would love to have someone do for me. I can see in how she acts that she wants to be with you. How Fluttershy reads faces is like how I read small, tiny actions. It's the little things she does for you. She's stopped her studying to talk to you, she's let you sleep in and taken over some of your shifts at the library. Hell, even when she was pissed with you, she still looked out for your best interests. Well, you know, minus today." she said. "Yeah, because kicking me out and leaving me homeless is exactly how to show you care." I said. My eyes grew as I made a realization. "I'm homeless..." I slammed my head on the table and groaned. "Great." I said, muffled by the table. "You know I'd offer you to stay at my house, but-" "No please, let me up to your cloud mansion. I think the fall back down to Earth would be a great gift." I said, finishing off the cider. "Don't be like that. Everything will work itself out." she said. "Did she really do all that?" I heard a voice say behind me. I turned around and saw a face I was in no mood to see. "What do you want?" I told Phil as he sat down next to Rainbow Dash. "Well...at first I came here to get flat out wasted. But...I heard a little about what she was saying. Is it true?" he asked me. "I mean I guess so. I just assumed she was being a nice friend. I didn't realize she liked me until yesterday." I said. "I'll let you two talk this out. If you need me I'll be playing pool with the boys." Rainbow Dash said walking over to the pool table. Most of the players were humans, but the occasional pony would join in. And Rainbow was more than an occasional player. "I got $20 on the boys." Phil said, trying to lighten the mood. "Double that for Rainbow Dash." I told him. He chuckled. "You okay?" he asked. "Nose isn't broken or crooked and I don't think anything is permanently damaged. Well besides my spirit." I said. "That's good." he said. The mare brought us both another cider. I hadn't asked for one, but if I was going to be talking with Phil, the drink would be welcome. "So, how'd she tell you?" I asked. "She tried lying about it. Called her out on it and, well you saw how I reacted." he said. "So you only knew for a few minutes before I got back?" "Yep." he said, taking a drink. "Sorry. I didn't mean to get in between you two." I said. "My biggest question is why. Why did you kiss her when you knew we were together?" he asked me. I looked at him. "The same reason you would have. I love her. Much like you do. And I'm sorry, but she had to choose one of us to be happy." I said. "And now she has neither of us." he said finishing my thought. "Yeah." "So what are we going to do about it?" he asked. "What do you mean?" "Well we both love her. And I get the feeling you just want her to be happy." he said. "So, what are we going to do?" "I guess we could both walk up to her, tell her we talked and that we're okay with whoever she chooses." I said. "But can we put her in that situation?" he asked. "I don't want her resenting whoever she chooses." "Well what else is there to do. She's not happy now, she wasn't happy loving us both, and she deserves to have one of us." I said. "Does she?" "What?" "Sorry, I guess that's the wrong question. The better question is...do we deserve her?" he asked. I thought about it, and we didn't. We didn't deserve someone like her, least of all me. She was always nice to me, giving me a place to stay, a job, and a fantastic star display system. And I repaid her by ruining her relationship. "I guess not. Well, at least I don't. Why wouldn't you?" I asked him. "I never treated her like she treated me. Some of it was because of work, but most of it was the fact that I was shy." he said. "Shy? You're not shy. You're one of the most out going people I've seen. Well, minus Pinkie Pie." I said. "It's a facade. I don't do well when it comes to talking to girls. I get clammy, nervous, and say the stupidest things." he said, reminding me of myself. "I do it to try and look stronger. I feel that if I look the part, maybe I'll become that. Hasn't helped though." he said sighing. "She's miserable right now. Phil, what you need to do is go back to her and tell her you're sorry and that you want to fix things. You were just mad and upset that you weren't thinking properly." I said. He smiled. "And that's why I don't deserve her." he said. "Between the two of us you deserve her more." "No I don't. Brendan, you have only looked out for her happiness. You're doing it now, putting her happiness before yours. You don't care what happens to you, only that the one you love is happy. If I were you, I wouldn't have done that. In fact, I would've blown me off. But you haven't. You know you deserve her more, but you don't care. It's admirable." Phil said. "It's nothing special." I said. "But it is. Most people aren't going to do what you just did. They'd go out and take the opportunity to win her back. You don't care who she's with as long as she's happy." he told me. "Then why aren't you fighting to get her back?" I asked. "If you were in my shoes, why haven't you gone back to her?" I asked. "Because...I can't face her. Not after what I did." he said. I scoffed. It didn't make sense . He was just angry. Twilight would understand. "You know she loves you more than she does me." he said. "How do you know that?" "Because it's how she looks at you, acts around you. Hell, she even brightens up when you're around." "Funny. Rarity said the same thing." I said taking another swig. "Even more proof that she does." Phil said. I didnt say anything. I messed it all up and I couldn't go back and expect her to just welcome me back with open arms. "Besides...I'm probably leaving this place." Phil said. "Why?" I asked confused. He had a nice business here. Life was pretty nice for him. "Been missing home like crazy. Twilight was the only one who made me stay, but now that I lost her, well, nothing here for me really. The hospital will be fine without me." "Why not just visit?" I asked. "Then come back after the trip." "Because it'll be hard to leave them again. My sister is battling cancer and my older brother is leaving for the military. Parents are going to need someone back home." I looked down at my feet. Him talking about his siblings made me miss my sister. I understood his reasoning for leaving now. "You should be there then. Your sister will need to see her brother." I said. "Yeah. Last I heard she went in for her second chemo treatment, brother ships out in a few weeks, and my parents would be alone." he said. "Trying to convince yourself?" I asked. He smiled. "I guess." "Well family is important. Do what you need to do." I said. "I hope your sister kicks cancer's ass. And I hope your brother stays safe." I said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Thanks." he said smiling. "Well, I gotta go. Tomorrow I have to be in early at the hospital, and the next day, will probably buy my ticket home." he said. "Well good luck to you." I said, holding my hand out for a handshake. He shook it and left the bar. "Treat her well." he told me. "She deserves you. Just make sure you deserve her." he said and walked out of the building. I looked over at Rainbow who was completely destroying the others at pool. I finished my drink and paid the bartender for both of our drinks. I only had a few bits on hand, so I had to find a place for the night. I couldn't go to a motel with the few bits I had left. I walked out, knowing Rainbow would be too wrapped up in her game to know I was gone. I grabbed my bags as I left, thinking about what Phil and I had talked about. I normally was happy when those I cared about were happy. But I guess I did put my happiness behind other's. I couldn't help but feel somewhat sorry for him. He just lost Twilight, his brother leaving for the military, and his sister was battling cancer. It's a lot for one guy to go through. I kept walking and found myself at the park. I found an empty patch of grass and laid on my back, staring at the stars. I placed my backpack under my head and used it as a pillow. As the stars twinkled, I thought about Twilight, Phil, family, friends, everyone who I left behind for this new place. Phil had a good reason for leaving, and with Twilight and him no longer a thing and him too afraid to go back and talk to Twilight, he really didn't have anything left here. I sighed. Was it really okay for me to do this? To just go straight to Twilight, get her back, and be in a relationship with her right after things ended with Phil? Was that right? I don't want to just be a rebound... I thought. I shook it from my head. "No. I wouldn't be a rebound. She said she loved me. If she did, she wouldn't date me after Phil and then ditch me. That's not her." I whispered to myself. I yawned. I didn't want to go to sleep here in the middle of the park, but I didn't have anywhere else to go. The few clouds that were in the sky blocked some of the moonlight. I slowly closed my eyes as the cool air covered me like a blanket. I'll think about it more tomorrow. Twilight needs time to think about it too. I thought, and fell asleep.