It was the hottest day in the history of Ponyville. Not quite the hottest day in Equestrian history, that dates back to Princess Celestia’s childhood, but it felt damn near close. It was hot enough that Pinkie Pie was succeeding in her new baking experiment: sidewalk cookies.
And where was I during this facemeltingly hot day? Sitting in a classroom, of course, while slowly melting into a small puddle of horse. There were nine other ponies melting along with me, not counting Mr. Haven who didn’t seem to feel heat and instead kept droning on about something - last thing I caught was ‘Crystal Empire’ - while we all died. It was obvious to me then that he was not normal, not that I hadn’t considered it before.
I put my head down on my desk, thinking that maybe sleep would solve everything. It wasn’t like he would notice me anyway. I was sitting behind Ms. Cheerilee’s podium, effectively blocking me from his view if he were to turn from the chalkboard he was so happily writing on. I had to give him credit, he was fairly into his lecture and on a better day I would have enjoyed it. But this was not a better day.
The second the tip of my muzzle hit the desk was the moment he decided to turn around, using his special teacher sense to know when I was slacking off, I guess. He looked directly at me directly with those piercing blue eyes, making me realize that the podium wasn’t that good for cover. “Head up, Sordino.” He looked out at the rest of the room, letting out a sigh. “That goes for the rest of you too. You’re teenagers. If you want a nap, go back to Cheerilee’s class.” There was a chorus of groans from the rest of the class, but Mr. Haven just turned back to the board. “Now, back to the Crystal Empire…” And then it just bled into senseless noise.
I took this as an opportunity to see who hadn’t escaped yet. Maybe I could work with one of them to form a plan of our own. Then I realized that the ten of us were still there because we had no skills useful for escaping. We had Firelock and Soap Box, good for anarchy and destruction, Twist, good for sweets, Featherweight, good for recon and blackmail, Sweetie Belle, good for distractions which could actually be helpful, Noi, good for anything because she owed me a favor, Diamond Tiara, good for nothing without her ‘bestie’, High Roller, good for anything involving dice, and Cardinal, good at running and leading but only when awake. And then there was me who was good for being quiet and passing notes. I was sure that, with this ragtag group of ponies, we could surely escape so long as I could get the word out. That would be a piece of cake if Mr. Haven kept his back turned.
So, of course, he turned around. He pointed his stick of chalk at us. “Alright, now break into groups. No more than two, no less than two. I want a full page, front and back, on the part of Crystal Empire history that your group finds most interesting.” Another chorus of groans from everyone who could. Mr. Haven smirked in response. “Keep it up and you’ll get two pages with me assigning the topic.” Thankfully everyone shut up after that. “Good,” he nodded, “Now group up.”
I looked to my left, Featherweight and Sweetie Belle were already working together, then behind me, High Roller was with Noi and Twist stole Cardinal from me, and finally to my right where I saw Diamond Tiara waiting for me to notice her.
As there was no way that that was happening, I pulled out my notebook, opening to a fresh page, and raised my hoof to call Mr. Haven over. He certainly took his sweet time getting to my desk. I knew he was older, his coat was even graying around his muzzle and legs which didn’t actually look half bad, but he didn’t have to walk like he was half dead. He did eventually reach my desk, but only after everyone else had already started their papers. He flashed me the same smile he always gives me. “What seems to be the problem?” He already knew my problem and I knew his answer. We played this game every group project, both of us hoping that the other would change somehow. So far that hadn’t happened.
And so I tried again. “Could I please work alone?” I wrote on the piece of paper in front of me before turning it so he could see.
“I did say groups of two, didn’t I?” He said, not even bothering to read what I wrote. He gestured to my right, over to the bane of my existence. “You have a perfectly good partner right next to you. There’s no reason to work alone.”
I could think of about seven, but none of them would be good enough for him. Instead I just let him win once again and forced myself to move next to Diamond Tiara, just to play her game for the thousandth time. Mr. Haven had a cocky smile on his face as he walked back to his desk.
“So what are we gonna write about?” Was the first thing out of Diamond’s mouth as I moved my desk next to hers. Notice the ‘we’ which should instead be ‘you’ as she was going to be of no help with the writing portion.
I turned to a new page in my notebook. “What would you like me to write about?” I pushed the notebook to where she could see it.
She scoffed. “Well don’t make me do all the work.” Then her eyes lit up. For once it seemed like she had a full thought. Was she going to suggest the reign of King Sombra? The heroics of Spike the Dragon? Something intelligent? Well if you thought any of that then you certainly didn’t know Diamond Tiara. “How about diamond mines?”
This confused me as it was actually a valid topic. Just not in the ways she was thinking. “I’m sure we could fit something about the mines into a paper about King Sombra,” I wrote, “Would you be fine with something like that?”
She made a face like she’d smelled some of Cardinal’s racing gear, he didn’t wash it for fear of the luck going with the smell, which told me that she had something wrong with my brilliant plan. “Why would we do something about him? He’s so disgusting.”
I nodded with a sigh. This was going t be more work than it was worth. “Quite the understatement, but that’s not important right now.” I tapped my pencil against the pad of paper, trying to figure out the best way to break this to her. “The diamond mines were run by King Sombra and used slave labor to gather the most diamonds. I believe that Mr. Haven told a story about his parents being in the mines at one point.” That wasn’t true, of course, as he didn’t share much about about his personal experiences in the Empire, but an educated guess never hurt anyone.
Except Diamond Tiara who looked like I’d just kicked a puppy. “Oh,” she said as her constant smirk fell off of her face, much to my joy. “Well maybe we can still do something on the mines.”
“We could add it as a detail if we wrote about King Sombra.” I wrote. There was no way she would make it this easy for me.
“Sure.” She said with a nod. Nothing after that, just ‘sure’. It was good, but I expected a lot more stubbornness and maybe some yelling. It just didn’t feel the same without it.
It threw me for a loop. Her agreeing with someone other than Silver Spoon was like me talking; hasn’t happened since childhood. She truly was a stubborn mare, so what was making her agree with me now. It wasn’t at all important at that point, so I just left it for later.
“Alright, let’s get this done then. I’ll write and you can give me ideas if you want to. Sound like a plan?”
She nodded, so I turned to a new page and got to work.
A few hours after that school had ended and I was happy. I had a headache that hit me like a train, but at least I could go home and sleep. And on my walk home I was joined by a stallion, my dear dear friend Cardinal, who was already taking care of that whole sleeping thing.
He stumbled along the dirt road, leaning against me slightly to stay stood which I was entirely fine with. “I’m so tired,” he groaned, “Why’d I even go to school today?”
“Because you value your education?” I suggested.
This caused a large amount of laughter. Enough that he had to wrap a hoof around me to stay standing. I didn’t mind it one bit. “If I ‘valued my education’ I’d’ve listen to Haven’s lecture.” Even after his laughter ended, he kept his hoof around me. “So can I crash at your place? Flying probably isn’t the best idea right now.”
I shrugged. “Sure, whatever. As long as you don’t mind us sleeping in the same bed.” He hesitated once he read the paper, making me frown. “I’ll take the floor if you want.”
He shook his head. “We can share. It’s what friends do, right?”
I nodded, but wrote nothing. He was my friend, my best friend, and nothing could change that, no matter how much I tried.
We walked in silence for a few minutes, not that he noticed as he was fading in and out of sleep, before we ended up at my house. I dug through my school bag with magic and dug out my keys. The soft jingling was apparently enough to wake Cardinal up again.
“Are we there yet?” He groaned, slightly opening his eyes, but still keeping his muzzle pressed against my neck.
“Yeah,” I wrote, “Do you think you can get off of me so I can get the door unlocked?”
“Yeahsure.” He slurred. He promptly removed himself from my back, only a string of spit connecting us. He quickly wiped his face to remove it. “Sorry.”
I didn’t dignify that with a response. I just opened the door and walked inside, leaving him to follow me. I lead him into my bedroom, ignoring the living room and hallway I had to walk through to get to it. Before I could write anything he ran past me and leaped into my bed. I’d give his landing a five out of ten, but only because he hit his head against the headboard, thankfully breaking neither.
He rolled around on my bed, clutching his head in pain. “What’d I do to deserve this?”
\
I shook my head with a sigh. He really was an idiot, but now he was idioting in my bed. I walked calmly to my bed and nudged him with a hoof. He was taking up all of the space and I wanted to sleep too.
He stopped immediately and looked up at me with those bright blue eyes of his. “What’s up?”
I tried again.
“What?”
One more time.
“What do you want, dude?”
Finally I got fed up and moved him to one side with my magic. I then plopped myself onto my bed and sighed. Only then did I realize how tired I was. I closed my eyes slowly, fully giving in to sleeping. As long as there were no distractions I could fall asleep almost instantly.
“Dude?”
So of course there was a distraction. I just turned my back on him because I wanted to sleep.
“Sordino, can we talk?”
My eyes snapped open, only because it didn’t seem like he was going to stop and because he sounded a bit urgent. I rolled back over and was slightly surprised with what I saw in his face. Nervousness, unease, and desperation. All emotions I’d seen on him before, usually before a big race, but never this much.
He was sitting on the edge of the bed, his hindlegs hanging off and his forelegs propping him up so he didn’t fall off. He looked down at me, his eyes full of so much worry and sadness. But he managed a smile. This made me, in my tired stupor, throw everything I’d seen before and decide he was happy.
I gestured to him with a hood, urging him to talk. And so he began, looking back at the empty wall in front of him. “I can’t do it anymore. I don’t think at least. Everything’s just so hard now.” He took a second to wipe his face, maybe wiping away tears, but he still continued. “My parents-”
I stopped listening there. I felt like I’d heard it all before because he always talked about his parents negatively. I still pretended to listen, nodding whenever he looked over at me and trying not to fall asleep, but I couldn’t bear listening to him whine about his parents one more time. My problems were obviously more important than his and he ‘never’ helped me out with them. After a few minutes of this I couldn’t help but roll my eyes and sigh.
Very conveniently this was the exact moment he decided to look at me to make sure I was listening. He sat there, silent as a stone, for a few seconds as he wondered how his best friend could be so inconsiderate of his feelings.
Then that confusion turned to anger. Very controlled anger, the scariest kind. The only thing that changed about his face was that his mouth curved down into a frown, but I could still feel it in the air. I’d seen him angry before and I’d also seen him pissed, but then he was violent and impulsive. Very punchy, that one. Now he was calm, as calm as someone could be while angry, and that scared me more than anything.
“You weren’t listening, were you?” The question hit me like a brick, figuratively of course, as he stared at me with his burning eyes. I shook my head slowly. I already knew that he knew, so I couldn’t lie. He sighed and actually smiled, which gave me the slightest bit of hope. “And I thought you’d want to be a good friend. You know, like me.”
I reached out for my notebook in order to respond, but he just pulled me closer with a wing.
“You don’t need to say a thing. I already know what you’re going to say.” He struck a pose, a hoof to his chest and his head held high in an attempt to look high and mighty. “Oh my dear sweet Cardinal, I care not for your petty issues as I have numerous issues of my own that are much more important than yours, despite the fact that you've listened to my problems for hours on end.” He spoke that in what I assume to be an imitation of what my voice may have sounded like. The most disappointing thing is that, barring the floridity of the words and the blinding anger behind them, that was almost exactly what I was going to say.
My ears folded back and I lowered my head in an attempt to look sorry. I wasn’t though. I felt guilty, but it was only because he was pressing the issue. I had no intentions of apologizing for what I had done.
The kick to my side hit me like a brick, very frighteningly literally, and it threw me off the bed. I felt something inside me crack, but that was the least of my problems at the moment. The most would be the very angry stallion standing above me. The one who kicked me from the bed with what was probably only a fraction of his strength.
“Don’t pretend you’re sorry,” he said as he pressed his hoof against my injured side. “You just don’t care about anything unless you get something from it.” He punctuated the end of that sentence with another kick to my side. I coughed up some fluid, could have been blood or tar or something, but I couldn’t tell as my vision was going slightly dark.
He kept talking, but it was all drowned out by the sound of my heartbeat and the feeling of pain. the promise of sleep was becoming more and more tempting as time move, pain turning into numbness and thought turning into some sort of fuzzy mush.
The talking stopped a few moments later, but I was too far gone to notice. I saw him, through half lidded eyes, standing over me. Warm water dripped onto my coat and he said something in a frightened voice that I couldn’t make out.
And finally, I slipped into unconsciousness.
Author's Note
This isn't going to be updated ever. Just gonna let you know that now.