Bermuda Beginnings

by ScarFox9700

Chapter 24: A Confession, Painful Repercussions, and Reflections

All while Taylor was out for his walk with Redheart, something kept bothering him. Deep down, ever since that painful night with Celestia two days prior, something had been eating Taylor up on the inside. Redheart. Taylor knew that he was going to have to tell her what he did.

"But I know that she'll hate me", he thought. "She'll never want to see me again. And we were just getting off the ground too."

"Yes, but what'll happen if you don't tell her, and then she finds out later?" His conscience asked. "Won't that hurt her even more? This way, you come clean, clear the air now, and maybe this gets resolved quietly. If you just leave it though, then that's always been a recipe for disaster. I mean, just think about what EVERYPONY else would think if they found out!"

Taylor knew that his conscience was right. "If she does hate me, then it's my own fault. I had every chance to stop that right then and there, but I didn't do it. I was a coward, and now it may cost me very dearly, Nevertheless, God's forgiven me, now I must seek Redheart's forgiveness, and take whatever's coming to me."

Since they were still walking about in public, Taylor didn't dare risk anything. He decided to talk to Redheart when they got back to the castle.

---

"Um, Miss Redheart?" He asked when they got back.

"Yes Mr. Taylor?"

Taylor sighed. "I, um, I really need to talk to you about something."

She looked at him curiously. "What? What do you want to talk to me about?"

Taylor didn't speak for a moment. "Can we go somewhere private? I don't really want to talk about it out here."

"Um, sure, I guess. We could go back to your room."

Taylor nodded. "Um, yeah, sure."

Once they were there, Taylor asked Redheart to sit down, which she did on the bed. He then closed the door, and turned around to face her.

Redheart saw how Taylor was reacting, and she began to be very concerned. "What's wrong Taylor?" She asked.

Taylor continued to look at her, but he didn't say anything.

"Taylor, I can't help you if I don't know what's wrong."

Taylor caved. He took a deep breath, summoned all of the courage that he could possibly muster, and then he spoke.

"What, I need to tell you, is something awful that I did. You remember two nights ago? The same night Celestia summoned me to her room?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I.....I......." Taylor then collapsed, and broke down crying. He then told Redheart everything. From when he kissed Celestia, to the trip to her room, to everything that happened in there. Taylor didn't hold back any of the details. He had to get it all off of his chest. "....And the worst of it is, I had the audacity to return to you that same night, to cuddle with you, after all of that! I'm dead!" Taylor then went back to sobbing.

Redheart didn't say a word. All while Taylor made his big confession, she never made a sound. Both of her hooves were over her mouth, and there were tears in her eyes, but she didn't say anything.

Eventually, Taylor did manage to get a grip on himself enough to stop crying, but he didn't lift his head up off of the bed where he'd fallen face first onto it after telling Redheart everything. Eventually, he felt one of her hooves on his head, gently pulling him back up. Once he was off of the bed, he found himself looking into Redheart's eyes. She seemed to be crying, but what Taylor failed to realize, was that this was merely the calm before the storm.

Before he could say anything, Redheart smacked him across the face with her hoof!"

"OWW!!!" Taylor yelled. "Why did you do that?!"

"That was for cheating on me!" She then smacked him again. "And THAT was for lying to me!" Another smack. "And THAT was for not telling me right then!"

Taylor's face was now somewhat bruised, and a little bit of blood was even leaking from his nose. "Please, for the love of God Redheart, PLEASE DON'T HIT MY FACE ANY MORE!!!!!!"

He definitely should have rephrased that. Moments after he said that, Redheart gave him a resounding, but not full-blown, kick to that one sensitive area between the legs. Taylor went down in an instant, crying, and sobbing for breath.

"And THAT was for cuddling with me when you cheated on me!"

Taylor maybe tried to get up again, but in her fury, Redheart kicked at him again, but this time, she missed. Instead of hitting one of his legs, she accidentally kicked him in the head! Taylor went down instantly.

Moments after she did this, Redheart realized her mistake. "Oh my Celestia! TAYLOR!!!!" She instantly got to his side. "TAYLOR, can you hear me?!?!" As she was feeling around his neck for a pulse, her hooves touched something wet and sticky. When she looked down at her hooves, she gasped in horror. It was blood! There was a pool of blood forming around the side of Taylor's head.

Redheart could only scream in horror! Moments after she did, she blacked out.

---

An unknown amount of time later, Redheart found herself being shaken awake.

"Redheart? Redheart! Can you hear me? Wake up!"

Redheart's eyes then snapped open. She then found herself looking into the eyes of Nurse Starlight.

"Redheart? What happened in here?!"

Redheart then sat up on the bed in a fright. She looked down at where Taylor was, and she saw that he'd been propped up against the wall next to the bed, and now had bandages over his head as well.

"Wh-wh....at? How did......?"

"You could probably start by telling me what happened in here."

Redheart started crying. "It was horrible Starlight! One minute, Taylor and I are out on our walk. Then the next, we're back at the castle, and he tells me that he has to talk to me about something private. He then brings me in here, and shuts the door. He then tells me that he did something horrible....." Redheart then tells Starlight everything that Taylor had told her. "....And when he told me this, I snapped. After smacking him around for a bit, I kicked him in his stallion-package, sending him to the floor. I then tried to kick him again, but I missed, and hit him in the head!

I panicked at what I had just done, and I tried to find a pulse. When I felt the blood, I saw it on my hooves, and when I realized that I had probably just killed Mr. Taylor, the first and only human in Equestria, the guilt, pain, and horror overwhelmed me, and I blacked out. Care to fill in any of the blanks?"

Starlight nodded. "Um, yeah. Tinker and I were coming back from a walk as well, we both heard you scream, we came running, and after Tinker opened the door, we both gasped in shock. You were unconscious on the bed with blood on your hooves, and Taylor was on the floor with his head in a puddle of blood. All things considered, I genuinely thought that you'd murdered him, and then committed suicide. You can imagine our relief when I found you both to still be alive."

"What did you do then?"

"Well, after making sure that you didn't have any injuries, I then immediately turned my attention to Taylor. Thank the Creator that the wound on his head was only minor."

"it, it...was?"

Starlight nodded. "Yes. It was a glancing hit. You hit him just hard enough to knock him out, as well as draw blood. Tinker then propped him up against the wall, while I bandaged him up as best I could."

"Um, you keep saying you and Tinker. Where is he?"

Starlight then pointed a hoof, and when Redheart looked, she saw Tinker sitting on the floor next to Taylor, previously out of her range of vision.

"Oh, I see. So, um, what happens now?"

Starlight shrugged. "To be perfectly honest Redheart, I have no idea. He did cheat on you, sure, but you assaulted him, and somewhat severely at that. He could actually press charges against you if he wanted."

Redheart buried her face into her hooves. "And he would have every right to do so if he chose to. Oh god, why? Why did I do that?"

"You did it because I was a fool. And yes, I could press charges, but because it was my fault to begin with, I won't."

Redheart looked over towards the voice. To her surprise, it was Taylor! He had regained consciousness, but he was still sitting next to Tinker against the wall.

"How.....how do you feel?"

"Like a load of bricks was just dropped on my head. I mean, I knew that you Earth-ponies were strong, but man, I had no real idea until now."

Redheart was still upset. "I broke my Ponycratic Oath! I swore to never do any harm, but only good. But now I almost killed you Taylor!"

"Yeah, you did. But like I said before, I deserved it. I cheated on you, and now I'm reaping what I sowed."

"But you didn't deserve to get kicked in the head! I meant to only hit you a few times, and let it go at that. I didn't mean for this to happen!"

Taylor sighed. "Well, I have a massive headache, as well as a lot to think about. However, before you say anything else, I have one more thing to say. The same night that that happened, I asked God to forgive me for what I did. Celestia also asked for God's forgiveness, as well as mine. I forgave her, and I'm pretty sure that God did too. However, that leaves one more stone to upturn. Do you forgive me for what I did to you?"

For the longest time, Redheart stared at the floor, and said nothing. Finally, she said, "Before I answer that question, I need to ask you, do you forgive me for what I did to you?"

Now it was Taylor's turn to look at the ground. "Well", he said at last, "I want to, and I know that I will, but I just......need some more time to think about this."

Redheart nodded. "As do I. I think that we should talk about this again in the morning before we leave for Ponyville."

"Yeah, I think that that would be good."

Once this was done, and after both nurses made sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt that Taylor was ok, they both left him for the night under the watch of Tinker just in case.

"But, don't you have duties to attend to?" Taylor asked him once they were alone. "You are a captain after all."

Tinker shrugged. "I did, but I guess that when word reached my superiors about you needing somepony to monitor you, I guess that I was chosen. This might sound like a weak explanation, but it's true." He then showed Taylor the papers that he had been given showing that he was to watch over Taylor.

"Shouldn't I be in an infirmary for observation though?" Taylor asked. "That would make more sense that this."

"Yeah, I think that you're right there too."

Tinker then summoned the two nurses again, and with their help, he moved Taylor to the castle's infirmary for overnight observation. Since Starlight didn't have a shift at the Ponyville General Hospital the next day, she agreed to watch over Taylor, while Redheart went back to her room, although Tinker stayed with her as well.

"You don't have to stay if you don't want to."

Tinker sighed. "Yeah, but Taylor's my friend, and he just went on a physical trip to hell and back, on top of his mental trip there earlier. I have to stay."

Starlight nodded, and together, the two of them kept a close eye on Taylor all through that night. They both knew that the odds of him being just fine were rather high, but it was better to be absolutely certain, than to take any unnecessary chances.

Author's Note:

Well, here it is, Chapter 24. I know that this probably wasn't the chapter that you were expecting, however, as user Starscribe recently pointed out to me, Taylor had to tell Redheart about his mistake. This chapter was the result of my thinking long and hard about that.

The next chapter, Chapter 25, will be somewhat filler, but from Chapter 26 onward, things will start getting very interesting. I hope your ready, because it's all leading up to something. Leading to what you ask? Well, you'll just have to keep reading to find out!

Meanwhile, it has also come to my attention how much I botched up a few of the earlier chapters of this story. I learned the hard way that Christianity, and a good action story just don't mix. I suffered a number of dislikes because of that.

However, I would also like to say, thank you to all of you who stuck with this story since my botching it, and trying to redeem myself. Your views mean a lot to me, because without you, the readers, there's really no point to my writing. So thank you again for sticking with it, and maybe one day, I'll create a proper storyboard, and fix those botched chapters.

Meanwhile, as always, comments, feedback, as well as sharing this story, are all appreciated, and I'll see you all in Chapter 25!

ScarFox out for now!

Comments

[harts fire]

ok i am now up to date with this story.
as of now i have not voted.
as a first story this is not to bade i can see improvement in your writing as you go.
their areas that need worked on, the story defiantly need filler / or more information about things / more description if you will.
but you will learn this as you go.
as to all the down votes i have a idea but i will not put it hear i will pm you that.

[ScarFox9700]

8542832
Hello Harts Fire.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story. I know that I messed some parts of it up, but I do my best to make improvements as time goes on. I have editors read it, and send me feedback as I go along. I think that I'll get the hang of writing soon.

[Starscribe]

Some real improvement here. Although I don't think Taylor getting suddenly possessed with guilt after going up until this point was earned (you really gotta foreshadow that, build up to it, not just suddenly flip a switch). This could've been a major point of drama, and some of that potential didn't get executed because we didn't get foreshadowing.

That said, the real payoff from this chapter was that it didn't get made up right away. There were actual consequences with Redheart, they didn't stay together at the end. This might be the first actual drama I've seen in your story since the initial flight into Equestria! That's good. For the first time, as a reader I am unable to predict what will happen next.

THIS is what you must foster as you continue to write. When we sit down to read, we need to not know if things or going to work out or not. If you can manage it, then you're golden. The longer you can leave us doubting the final outcome, the better. The surer we are of what will happen, the less reason we have to read.

[ScarFox9700]

8548005
Hello Starscribe.

Well, here we go.

First of all, Taylor had been harboring the guilt for a while, but until that moment, he never found the courage to tell Redheart about it.

Next, Well, thank you, I guess for that, I guess that I finally did something right.

Well, it was thanks to you driving this through my furry wolf-skull that I finally realized this. So this new story arc is all because of you. Thank you for that.