Dragonpool: Friendship is Violence

Gallus sat in his desk chair while the rest of his friends were all laying on the carpet. All of them looked like they were collectively avoiding something, tracing their hooves and claws on the floor and dodging each other's gaze. Gallus huffed, "So, none of us are gonna address the elephant in the room, here?"

Sandbar was the first to speak up, his tone mumbly and uneasy. "More like the murderer in the room," he muttered. Silverstream looked up.

"That's really mean of you, Sandbar. None of us expected what happened yesterday, okay?"

"You all act like I wasn't there too," Gallus spoke, his tone filled with annoyance. "You can't all blame Smolder for trying to protect the school. She was doing what she had to do back there."

Sandbar rolled his eyes, resting his head in a hoof. "Yeah, but we didn't actually see you kill anypony. Last we saw the other guy, he turned into a pile of ashes."

Gallus scoffed. "That was Spike. He was trying to help. You're not throwing him in jail for it."

"Friend Smolder not in jail," Yona corrected, not looking too comforted herself. "Dragon recovering in hospital," she continued, her voice shaky.

Though it was true none of them wanted their friend in the hospital, all of them had an opinion on what happened the other day.

"Yona just think friends overreacting. Smolder inside hospital. Shouldn't friends try politely asking what went wrong?"

Silverstream nodded. "Yeah! Maybe she'll be willing to open up a little?"

"Well, I think Ocellus might've already gotten her to do that," Gallus chuckled. Everyone else looked at him, all equally confused. Gallus cleared his throat, continuing, "...But yeah. I'm, uh, with you guys."

Silverstream and Yona stood up, both heading into the halls and leaving the guys alone in the dorm.

Sandbar just huffed. "We're going to visit a murderer, you guys. I know she's our friend, but still. I mean, shouldn't we keep our distance for a while?"

Gallus sighed, poking Sandbar in the side with a wing. "Look, Sand'. Not all of us are super new to murderers, okay? And Smolder isn't a murderer. Remember, I was out there, too. It wasn't just her."

"You're right about that one, but you're not the one in the hospital because someone from a friggin' gang shoved a katana through your back."

"Yeah, but-" Gallus tried to explain his reasoning even further, thinking the naive colt didn't quite get it yet. He felt as if it didn't occur to him that Smolder wasn't the bad guy of the situation. Well, she pretty much was, but Sandbar didn't need to know that yet. Nobody needed to know- not until Smolder was ready to let them.

Sandbar decided to preempt him, tired of the blue bird dancing around the situation. "You know what, Gallus? Each and every time Smolder disappeared to do something -and yes, I paid attention to that-, you were never involved. I was there when she disappeared in the Everfree the other day, and I know she wasn't going to get help.

"Are me and Ocellus the only ones who found her disappearing, and then that creature reappearing was suspicious? Or maybe you have some sort of way to dig her out of that, also!"

"Sandbar, stop it! Even if your wild little conspiracy theories were true-"

"Which they... are," Gallus sighed in his head.

"-Don't you think you should be showing your friend some, I dunno, SYMPATHY?!" Gallus bellowed at the top of his lungs, throwing an arm up and waving it around in Sandbar's face. "She saved us in the Everfree, she saved us today, she was stabbed because none of you wanted to help her, and now she's in the hospital!!!!!!"

Sandbar's ears wilted immediately as his heart began to beat faster with fear and little adrenaline. Gallus was in his face now, and it was clear that he was livid at him.

Gallus then took deep breaths, sighing as he spoke again. "Look, I'm sorry. And you should be, too. We're all pretty unsettled about this whole thing, but the least we could do is calmly approach her. I'm pretty sure she's got a lot on her mind."

Sandbar took a moment to put those words into thought. Yeah, Gallus was right. It was unnatural for Sandbar to be so cold about the situation. It was clear that his friend was only looking out for each of them, if she were to kill somecreature because of it. It was unfair that he even thought about singling her out.

Blinking in realization, he nodded solemnly. "Yeah. I kind of lost it there. Ah, sorry, Gal'."

Gallus smirked, wrapping a wing around his friend and hugging him into a close side hug. "Eh, don't be. Besides, the only one you should be apologizing to is Smolder," he replied, casting a knowing look down at Sandbar. The colt chuckled nervously.

"About that. Smolder won't hear about any of this, will she?"

"Not a word."