Explanations

"I'm so sorry..." Brewer was seated on my couch.

"Don't be, You didn't know. If I had known you had an interest, I would have talked to you about it." I paced back and forth in the living room. Lantern came in (still slightly buzzed, but he was coming down) with a few cups of coffee, even though it was nearly 11 at night. My mind went back to two hours before and kept replaying it over and over in my head.

"Well, It seems like you have a special somepony already!" Rarity shouted; furious about what had just taken place right in front of her.

"Rarity, no! She's not my special somepony!" I tried to explain, but she wasn't going to have any of it.

"Oh really?! Then why ever did she just kiss you?! Has this all been a game? Some twisted revenge for how I made you think we were dating?" By this point, tears were forming in her eyes. "I truly thought you were a better pony than that, Ozone. I thought you were a true gentlepony." Brewer was starting to cower behind me.

"Rarity, It's not what it looks like. Just calm down and-" I was suddenly cut off by a hoof slapping me across the face.

"Don't you dare tell me to calm down!" I held up a hoof to where I was just struck; it stung like a parasprite bite. Rarity looked down at her hoof and then back to me. She was on the verge of breaking down there, but she managed to turn around and run off without a word more.

"Ozone-" Brewer began, but I stopped her. I turned back to the Ponyville Detention Center and went inside to get Lantern.

"I guess the cat's out of the bag, huh? I like you, Ozone. I've never really had anyone in my life before I got a job at Pony Bucks, but even then no one came in for more than a few seconds to order coffee. The time I spent with you at work on Thursday and Friday may have seemed like such a short amount of time, but they meant so much to me." The tears were streaming down her face and she sounded like she was choking when she spoke.

Half of me wanted to wrap my hoof around her, but the other said that would cause mixed signals. Instead, I sat in one of the two chairs that faced the couch. I took a sip from the coffee that Lanti had brought in and instantly remembered why I was the one who made the coffee whenever we spent any amount of time together. Lantern noticed my cringe, so he made a good laugh while he could.

"It's fine, Brewer." Except it wasn't: Rarity was mad at me to no end, I was nearly out of bits, my job would be kinda awkward after what Brewer did, My first real kiss was with a mare I didn't even know liked me, Lantern was still half-buzzed and I-

I really wanted to take a nap.

My eyes were heavy and my chest felt hollowed out, but at the same time it was like stones were pressing down on me. I wanted to close my eyes, fall asleep, and wake up whenever all of this blew over. But I knew things had to be taken care of.

"First thing in the morning, I'm going by Rarity's to try and sort this out." By this point, the room had started spinning and I could barely keep my eyes open. "I think I'm going to lie down for a bit."

"You don't look very good, Zo Zo." Lantern said, but I don't really remember if I said anything. Actually, I don't remember much after that, except that the floor was flying towards my face really really fast.

I woke up on my bed. The feathered pillow was a softer touch from the brief impact with the floor that I barely remembered from last night. I was awake, but my eyes weren't open just yet. Somepony else was in my bed with me, I could feel their weight pressing down on the bed in front of me. It was probably Lanti; my foreleg was tossed over his shoulders and he gave off a strong scent of coffee. That's strange, he normally smells like pumpkins and cigarette smoke. I cracked my eyes open and saw his forest green mane tickling my muzzle...

Wait a minute.

Green mane. Coffee smell. Small shoulders... Oh sweet Luna's flank, I was in bed with Brewer! I'm not sure what caused it, but somehow I had gone from lying in the bed to crashing onto the floor beside my bed. Luckily, Brewer didn't wake up from the noise. Well, all that I can do is sneak out of here. I stepped out of my room as lightly as I could and closed the door behind me carefully so I wouldn't wake up my surprise bed guest. Then, I slumped to the floor, with my back against the wall.

"Problems?" Lantern called from the living room.

"Brewer." I said quietly, getting up to walk over to him, retaking my seat from the night before. "If we didn't have to work, you and I would be hitting the bar right now. I need a drink."

Lantern let out a sharp laugh, "We don't have to work today, you do. I'm going to the bar anyway." True, he didn't work here in Ponyville. How long of a vacation did he take?

"Be sure to pick up something and bring it back. Get something harder than cid-" I was cut off by a very loud knocking at the door. "I would answer it, but now I'm frightened." I shot a look over at Lantern.

"Hey, it's your house, not mine."

"Ponyfeathers." I got out of my chair as another barrage of knocks pounded on the door. I managed to save the door from being beaten off its hinges with a turn of the handle, that's when two cyan hooves followed by a rainbow slammed into my chest and pushed me to the floor.

"You have a lot of nerve doing that to Rarity!" Rainbow Dash shouted at me. I had to regain my senses for a second.

"What?" Was all that came out.

"Don't play dumb! You played with Rarity when you were really seeing that coffee pony!" She pressed her hooves down harder. By now, Lantern was standing over us. I told him he could contribute to this at any time. He responded by looking at the rainbow pony.

"Wanna drink?" He asked. I really wanted to facehoof. This mare was on the verge of punching me to death and all he can do is hit on her. Suddenly, a rope lassoed around Rainbow Dash and pulled her off of me.

"Simmer down, Rainbow!" I recognized that voice, I looked up and saw Big Mac's sister enter my home. What was her name again? "We can't make him apologize if he's beaten, can we?" She trotted in and helped me to my hooves. "Now, start talkin'."

"What happened last night was an accident." I began, "I asked Rarity to a date because I liked her. We- we had dinner and my bro, Lantern," I waved a hoof to him, "He got arrested so I had to bail him out. I walked Rarity outside and out of- and out of nowhere my boss shows up and kisses me. I didn't even know she like me! I tried telling her it wasn't what she thought, but she slapped me and ran off." The heavy feeling on my chest came back and a lump formed in my throat.

"Rarity's gone and locked herself in the Carousel Boutique. She was hurt about last night, plus feels awful about slapping you and sent us to get you. She told us most of what happened, but the rest kinda turned into a bunch'a giberish from the crying."

"That you caused." The rainbow pony mumbled.

"What happened last night was just a big misunderstanding," Lantern chirped in, "I was drunk off my flank and I could understand what had happened." He left to go dig his pack of cigarettes out of his saddlebags. "You guys run off to the place-thing, I'm getting more smokes." And that's what we did.

I followed Big Mac's sister and Rainbow Dash to Carousel Boutique while Lantern went to probably get drunk and buy more cigarettes. I realized that Brewer was still in my bed. Thank Celestia's sun she didn't come out and try to defend me. That would have looked bad.

On the walk up to the door, I felt like I could already hear Rarity crying. A weight was pressing down on my shoulders, it said to turn around and run, but at this point turning around wasn't an option. I saw three other ponies: Pinkie, Twilight, and a yellow pony I didn't remember. Twilight was the first(and only) pony to speak. "There you are, Applejack."

Applejack nudged me to the door of the Boutique, "Go on, now." She wasn't angry like Rainbow Dash was, but she certainly wasn't very happy: Disappointed.

Everything was moving in slow motion. I saw myself move up to Rarity's door, but I don't remember moving my legs. As if something was moving me while I was forced to watch, my hoof knocked on the door.

"It's unlocked, now." A voice quietly spoke from the other side. I opened the door and made my way inside, closing the door behind me. "Hello, Ozone." Rarity was across the room.

"Rarity." I hung my head a little bit, "Let me explain..."