Learning to Live and Love

by FlashKenshin77

An Awkward Situation

I awoke nice and warm, almost like I was sitting in front of a fire. I opened my eyes and in fact was in front of a fireplace. I looked around saw that I was back in Fluttershy’s cottage, sitting in her poofy chair in front of the fireplace. I looked down and saw I was buried in a pile of blankets and jackets.

A cup of hot chocolate sat next to me and I went to reach for it when I saw my sword in its sheath sitting next to the cup. I hesitantly grabbed it and stared at it.

“Hey, he’s finally awake.” I heard Twilight say as several pairs of hooves walked briskly towards me. I turned my head to see Twilight, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash standing right next to me. I leaned the sword against the table.

“Look guys, I just wanted to say-” I was interrupted when Dash smacked me with her hoof.

“What the hay were you thinking Leon? You could’ve died a second time!” Dash said, almost fuming at me.

“Dash… I’m sorry.” I said, looking at her as I rubbed my cheek.

Twilight and Fluttershy shared a look and Twilight coughed. “How are you feeling?” She asked, trying to break us up.

I briefly glanced away from Dash to look at Twilight. “I’m better.” I said with a faint smile.

“Why did you freak out so much anyways?” Dash asked.

I felt the blood drain from my face and they all noticed my body stiffen. “It’s a long story.”

“Oh come on; it can’t be that bad. Besides, it’s not good to keep secrets from your friends.” Dash insisted.

I looked at her sadly. “Everypony has secrets from their past and I’m not ready to share mine.”

Before Dash could say anything, Twilight interrupted her. “Dash; he’ll tell us when he wants to. Let’s leave it at that.”

Dash wanted to argue, but knew she wouldn’t get anywhere. She sighed and shook her head yes. “Sorry Leon; I’m just a bit too nosy for my own good.” She said, staring at the floor.

“Don’t worry, no harm done. Just like they say, curiosity killed the cat.”

They looked at me with utter horror on their faces. “WHAT?” They yelled.

Even Fluttershy looked angry and very scary. “Who DARES hurt an animal?” She asked.

I held up my hands. “It’s an expression! No one literally killed a cat; it’s an expression from my world.”

They still stared at me in shock. “Your world is weird,” Twilight finally said.

“Tell me about it,” I muttered.

An awkward silence hung in the air. I avoided looking at any of the three and stared out the window when I saw a small purple dragon run across the snow; half his body buried. He finally made it to the front door and flung it open. “Twilight!” He yelled through hiccups.

“What is it Spike? Twilight said.

“I… I think there is a message… coming from-” he started before he was interrupted by a belch of green flame and a parchment flew out.

I fell back in surprise in the chair as the girls stare at it nonchalantly. Twilight caught it with her magic and unrolled it.

“What does it say Twi?” Dash asked.

“It… doesn’t make sense.” Twilight said, staring at the letter in confusion as she read it out loud.

Dear Twilight,

I’ve heard what happen to our guest and to hide his true identity; everypony he met besides you and your friends will think he had died in the blizzard from last night. I ask that you bring your friends and Leon to Canterlot so we can discuss what that means.

Sincerely,

Princess Celestia

“What in the Equestria?” Dash asked, staring at the others, confused.

“So I’m dead again?” I asked, half sarcastically.

They stared at me, shocked. “Well, he kinda is.” Spike said.

“SPIKE!” they all yelled.

“What? He is or at least that’s what Princess Celestia said.” He said, trying to defend himself.

“Maybe we should let Celestia explain what she means?” I asked, looking at them.

Twilight hesitantly shook her head. “Yeah, I guess that’ll work.”

I shot Spike a glance and he faintly smiled. “So… how are we going to get there without me being seen?”

“We’re going to have to teleport.” Twilight said.

“Um… can you do that Twilight? I mean; you’re strong and everything, but um… I don’t want to sound rude or mean… but... that sounds challenging.” Fluttershy said, her face hiding slightly behind her mane.

Twilight smiled. “Thanks for your concern Fluttershy, but I’m Princess Celestia’s apprentice; I’m pretty sure I can handle a simple teleportation spell.” She said.

“But for that many ponies and uh… human?” Spike said, glancing at me.

“You guys worry too much; I can handle this.” Twilight said. She started headed towards the door. “Come on Spike, let’s go get the others.” She said as she opened the door.

He sighed. “Coming; see ya guys later!” He said as he ran to catch up.

We watched them till they disappeared down the road. Fluttershy yawned quietly.

“Um… I think I might go take a nap, if that’s okay with you guys?” She asked, glancing at Dash then me.

“Sure thing Fluttershy, get some rest.” I said.

“Yeah, no problem; don’t worry about us.” Dash finished.

Fluttershy nodded and ascended the stairs to the second floor and we heard the faint noise of a door shutting.

Me and Dash looked at each other in an awkward silence. “So… no changing the weather today?” I asked.

“Nope,” she said, looking away.

I sighed. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“I’ve been around you long enough to tell when something’s bothering you.”

She turned and glared at me. “Why did you run out into the blizzard?”

I sighed; I had a feeling that was what was bothering her. “I didn’t want to relive something.”

She stared at me. “Look, I know you don’t want to talk about it… but I just wanted to let you know I’m here if you need me.” She said, a slight blush appearing on her cheeks. She looked very unsure of herself briefly.

I faintly smiled at her. “Are you sure you want me boring a cool pony such as yourself with my drama?”

“Well duh! If it helps a friend, I’ll do anything; Element of Loyalty remember?”

“Element of what now?” I stared at her vacantly for a moment before I remembered. “Oh; right…”

She sat on the couch and looked at me. “So?”

I sighed. “Well… it’s just your basic sob story. Meet a girl, date for a while, then she cheats on me with a good friend then dumps me; nothing out of the ordinary.” I said, trying not to go into too many details.

She didn’t fall for it. “Leon, I know that’s not everything.”

I looked away. “Do you really want everything?”

“Yes.”

I gulped. Well, here goes. “I met Ashley about a year and a half ago now on a video game from my world-”

“What’s a video game?” She asked.

“Please save questions till the end, this is going to be hard enough as it is.” I asked, to which she nodded. “So we met and hung out for a while, but we each had to go back to school. Then about a year later or so, we met up again and started playing some more. She told me how she was having trouble with her boyfriend at the time, so we started talking about it and I did what I could to help her. About a month later, she breaks up with her boyfriend and I try and help her get through it. We started to hang out every day; just talking and playing video games and watching movies, it was really fun.” I faintly smiled, the memories running through my head.

“One day, I found a picture of my grandpa and me and for some reason I broke down and cried. When I told her, she made me feel better and helped me get through it. It was probably one of the happiest times in my life; I found someone that I could open up to without being made fun of.” I said, as I felt tears starting to build up. “Finally at around six months, I asked if she would be my girlfriend and she said yes; I was so happy. We spent pretty much every moment awake together.” The tears started to flow and Dash went to get up, but I stopped her with a brief shake of the head. “Then I got a job and I never was around. I tried to text her and call her on my lunch, but she never answered. Finally after three weeks, I had a day off and I met up with her; she wanted to break up. We got into a huge argument and she left.” I barely managed to finish. “A week went by and my friend Derek said she was seeing someone on the side, said it started when I started work. So the next day I got a hold of her and we argued some more when I brought it up.” My voice went out and I couldn’t continue, putting my head in my hands to try and hide the tears.

A pair of hooves wrapped around my neck with two wings trying to cover me. I peeked out from my hands and saw Dash hugging me; she was crying to.

“I know how it feels; to have your heart crushed and the remnants thrown to the wind.” She whispered.

I didn’t know what to do; I was afraid. “Thanks… Dash,” I whispered back, “I would like to hear it, if you wouldn’t mind sharing.”

She stiffened a little. “Fair is fair; you told me a secret, I should tell you one of mine.” She said and let go of me. I got out of the chair and we sat on the couch.

“Whenever you want to; if you still do.”

“I… I haven’t really talked about it.” She said, closing her eyes. Her crying intensified slightly as she took a deep breath to try and calm down. “When I came here to Ponyville, the only pony I knew was Fluttershy and she kept to herself. Pinkie and I ran into each other and she planned a welcome party for me. The next day, at the party, which was pretty cool with all the dancing and the awesome music, I met this stallion there.” Her eyes grew distant as she remembered, the tears slowly stopping. “He had a flame red mane and the color of his coat could only be described as the color of dried blood. Looking at him reminding me of staring into a fire; wild and untamable. He saw me staring and walked over quickly introducing himself as Wild Sparks. He said he worked as traveling fire spitter and wanted to hang out sometime. We decided to meet up the next day and for the next 3 months, hung out every day. The only bad thing was that he was a unicorn. Don’t get me wrong, I like unicorns but Pegasus are better since we’re not limited to the ground.” She said, quickly trying to reason her remark.

“Anyway, one day he asked if I was dating anypony and I answered no obviously. He immediately asked me out and the next night we went on a date.” She said reminiscing, slightly smiling. “I was so nervous that night, my wings couldn’t stop opening.” She said with a blush. “After that night, we became a couple and started to date. For four months, I was the happiest mare in Equestria, having found my other half.” Her smile vanished, a frown taking its place. She lowered her head so her mane covered her eyes. “Then on our four month anniversary, we planned on going out to eat at some stupid fancy restaurant.”

Tears started pouring out. “He never showed up. I waited and waited for hours and he never showed up. When the restaurant closed, I rushed to his house and kicked the door open; I… I found him passed out on the couch with some mare underneath him.” Her body started to shake and I hesitantly scooted closer to her. Her ears drooped, almost blending into the side of her head. “I ran out of there and flew back to my house. The next day we broke up. He tried to blame me when we did and started spreading rumors that I was a lesbian; just because I wouldn’t sleep with him.” She glanced up at me, tears streaming from her eyes. “So now we’re even.”

I didn’t say anything. I slowly put my arm around her shaking shoulders and pulled her into a hug. At first, she stiffened and acted like she was about to fight it off, but gave up and buried her face into my chest. I held her as she cried and I tried to sooth her, gently patting her back. After a few minutes, she seemed to be under control as she gently pushed against me and I released her from the hug.

“…Thank you.” She whispered.

“What in tarnation?” A southern accent quickly noticeable as Applejacks; rang out in the room.

Dash and I quickly looked towards the front door to see the rest of the girls staring at us with shock written on their faces. Both of our faces turned bright red and we quickly looked away.

“What do we have goin’ on here?” AJ teased, grinning. “Does our resident dare devil fancy-”

“I do not!” Dash interrupted, her eyes glaring at AJ.

“From the scene we just witness, ah reckon otherwise.”

“Girls, we need to head to Princess Celestia and see what she wants.” Twilight said as she looked at us. “Then we can deal with whatever that was…” She finished, shaking her head slightly.

“It was nothing,” I insisted.

“Your face says otherwise Leon.” Rarity said, pointing out my still bright red face, which got brighter.

“OH! OH! Now his face looks almost as red as a tomato!” Pinkie said; she looked over at Dash. “And your face does too Dashie!” She exclaimed.

“I think it’s time to see if you can teleport all of us Twilight.” I said, trying to change the topic.

“Yeah… I agree; where’s Fluttershy?” She asked.

“I’m right um here.” A quiet voice said from the stairwell. We all looked to see Fluttershy watching us from the last stair.

“What are you doing over there?” I asked.

“Well… it looked like a private moment and I didn’t want to intrude.” She said, looking away.

“Come on Fluttershy, we should try and hurry and see what the Princess wants.” Twilight insisted. She nodded her head and walked over towards the group. “Alright everypony; let’s see if I can do this.” Twilight said, her eyes closing and a look of extreme concentration appeared on her face.

Her horn started to glow faintly but quickly gained strength. After a few moments, you could feel the energy buildup in the air. The hair started to stand up on my arm. Suddenly there was a bright flash of light and a loud popping noise before everything vanished.

Author's Note:

Another day, another chapter. I tried to keep certain characters like themselves. Yeah... I hope I kept everypony in character; see what I did there? Any way, thanks for reading. Any comment/question/complaint, sendme a PM or review.

Comments

[InkFox]

This story was just plain......EPIC AS ALL EPICNESS CAN GET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Seriously I love this story. The romance is my favorite part. I feel really bad for the guy, but I am glad that the mane 6 are helping him. Oh yeah and nice way to explain the whole rainbow-dash lesbian thing. I couldn't stop laughing after I was like "Awwww that's so sad.......*snicker* They got caught.....they so just got caught.

[Emerald Zweihander]

AWSOMNESS INCARNATE!

[ForgottenBackgroundPony]

too noisy?

Don't you mean nosey

[FlashKenshin77]

5741871
Yes, but I can't spell to save my life...