Sandbar backed away in fear as Smolder stormed over to him “What did I tell you?!” Smolder yelled at him as she threw him against the wall, the back of his head thumping against it. Her anger sparked by what he did earlier.
“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to! I was just trying to be nice!!” Sandbar stammered out. He looked around the hallway, hoping someone else was there to save him or at least tried to calm the situation down but unfortunately it was just the two of them at the moment so he had no choice but to endure Smolder’s rage alone, trapped against a wall.
“I told you to never call me cute in front of others!! No matter what I’m doing or how I’m dressed!” Smolder yelled at him. The shorter pony tried to cover his face in fear but Smolder grabbed both of his wrists and forced them away from his face, her dragon claws dug into his flesh and her grip tightened.
Sandbar yelped out in pain “Smolder your hurting me!!”
“Don’t be a baby and face me, NOW!” Smolder demanded out of him, but her friend tried to pull his wrists free and Smolder wasn’t having it. She slammed him against the wall again “I SAID NOW!”
Sandbar looked up at her with fear in his eyes. Smolder was stronger and taller then him (despite it only by a few inches) and knew she can easily hurt him. He was shaking in fear as he did as he was told.
“You listen to me! You will never EVER do that again, you hear?!” Smolder barked at him.
Her nails and claws dug more into his flesh and this made him let out a gasp in pain and his eyes teared up on pain and fear. Sandbar immediately nodded “Y-Yes I understand!! I won’t do that again! I promise!”
“And what else?!” Her grip tightened even more.
“I-I’m sorry!!” He cried a little “please let go, your hurting me!!”
“You better remember….” Smolder let his wrists go before shoving him against the wall again. She turned to grab her backpack and then stormed off “See ya later…”
Sandbar stood there for a moment before he slowly slid down against the wall to the ground. He was shaking really bad. Tears started to roll down his cheeks as he looked at his wrists, which were starting to bruise and the claw marks, which had almost cut his flesh open, were staring to be more visible. They were surly gonna hurt more soon along with the headache he expected to feel from his head hitting the wall. He let out a sob, not wanting to move, His body won’t let him. He wouldn’t move out of fear of facing her wrath again. But somehow, in his mind, he convinced himself one thing:
“I deserved it”
Saturday was probably one of the best days of the week if your in school. That’s because your not having to attend classes at all, you get the weekend off. The day was starting up at the school of friendship in Ponyville. Sandbar was up and about, ready to start the day. He smiled to himself as he finished brushing his mane in the mirror.
Perhaps he should do something about the bangs that covered his eyes, they were getting pretty long. But for now, He simply ran his tongue over his hand and helped get them out if his eyes. However, he flinched and cringed when he saw a certain purple mark on his right temple. The purple did not match his green color at all, Professor Rarity would be horrified at the discoloration.
He immediately got some strands of his hair and brushed them down to cover the ugly color, he would have to apply ice to get rid of them later and he didn’t want his other friends to ask questions, not that they already knew about the others. He turned to his roommate and one of his best friends, Griffin Gallus, who was just finishing up getting dressed, getting his varsity jacket on.
“We all should head to the lake today, I heard it was gonna be hot today” Sandbar said as he left the mirror and put his brush down. He followed Gallus to the door.
“Smolder and I have detention today” Gallus reminded him “From that prank we pulled on buckball team” they left their dorm and Gallus turned to lock the door.
Sandbar sighed “you really should have listened to Ocellus on not to do it”. After a moment, Gallus and him walked down the hallway “I’m sorry I forgot”
As they walked, a certain orange dragon flew down and joined them, walking on Gallus’ right “ready to get this over with?”
“Yes, but I still have no regrets” The Griffin smirked.
“Make that two of us” Smolder and him laughed as they fist/claw bumped.
While the two talked, Sandbar walked in silence. The feeling of fear slowly creeped in him. Over time he’s been around Smolder, He has learned to stay silent, in fear of getting yelled at gaining another injury to the body. He wouldn’t speak unless spoken too.
“….Sandbar forgot we had detention and thought we should go the lake” Gallus suddenly said, Snapping the pony back to reality. He looked at the two, who in return, were looking at him.
“Y-yeah, I thought we all should do something together. It’s been a while since we’ve all done something together as a group. All we’ve been doing together really is study, eat our meals and attend classes. We need to…..” he realized he was talking too long and looked down “never mind….”
A orange claw gently rested on his shoulder and he immediately tensed. Did he say the wrong thing again? He looked up and saw her eyes meeting his. However, instead of anger and rage, they had kindness in them, a look he wasn’t used to seeing in her for a while.
Smolder smiled at him “your right, Sandy, we haven’t done a lot together recently. Look, next time all of us are free, let’s do something ok?” She gently patted his head, earning a small blush from the pony “why don’t you see what the others are up to today? Gallus and I need to head to detention now, Ok?” Once he nodded, she patted his head again and turned “See ya later, Sandy”
“Later, dude” Gallus waved at him as he and smolder headed down the hallway, leaving Sandbar to stand alone there for a few minutes.
Sandbar sighed as he turned and headed back to the dorms in hopes of finding his other friends. However, he stopped walking for a moment. He looked around and when he saw he was alone, he gently pulled part of his shirt down to reveal the bare skin on his left shoulder, a deep purple had covered it well, even after it having a full week to heal, it still looked fresh. He gently poked it and immediately retracted his finger when he felt pain. He covered it back up with shirt. He was gonna have to ice it again.
“Maybe later….” He said to himself as he headed out to find his other friends.
“Sandbar!” Silverstream said cheerfully as Sandbar entered the student lounge, where Yona, Ocellus and Silverstream were seated “You came to hang out with us?”
“You know it! You don’t mind, do you?” The pony asked
“Not at all, come join us” Ocellus smiled as Sandbar sat next to Silverstream on a love seat while Yona and herself sat in a identical one across from them “We were just telling Yona we would be happy to give her swimming lessons”
Yona immediately shook her head “Yona not like water! Yaks not like water in general!”
Sandbar spoke “Ocellus is right though, learning to swim is a important thing to know and who better to teach then Silverstream and Ocellus?”
“See? Must be important if Sandbar says so” Ocellus said to Yona.
“………Yona Will think about it” Yona said.
Sandbar then turned to Silverstream “Speaking of which, How is Terramar? Have you spoken to him recently?”
The Hippogriff nodded happily “He’s great! Last letter he sent, he was planning his date with Gabby”
“They’ve been getting on well, huh?”
“Mmhmm, they both really like each other”
Ocellus joined in again “that’s great, Silver, we’re happy for them”
Silverstream smiled. Sandbar did as well, he hoped the two would treat each other right. He started to readjust his seating position when both Yona and Silverstream gasped. He didn’t get a chance to look up before Ocellus leaned over and grabbed his arms and the others leaned in to see them.
“Your arms!” Ocellus said as she saw the bruising on them “what happened?!”
Sandbar cursed at himself. He really should have iced them last night.
“Oh, I……I fell down the stairs and hit them when trying to grab for the railing” he lied, he wouldn’t like seeing Smolder get in trouble with their other friends.
“Friend Sandbar got bruises from fall on stairs?” Yona asked, her eyebrows raised, she found that hard to believe.
“W-well….” He got cut off by Silverstream as she inspected his arms more.
“I recognize claw marks when I see them….” She started to put two and two together “did Smolder lose her temper on you again?”
Sandbar tried to speak but no words came out. Though it answered her question.
Yona huffed “Friend Smolder needs to get anger under control! Yona will teach Smolder not to harm friend Sandbar!”
“No!” Sandbar immediately stood up before any of them can “please don’t get mad at her, I deserved it!”
“Wha-Sandbar, how in changeling’s hive do you deserve this?!” Ocellus demanded dumbfounded as she had motioned at his injuries.
“I angered her. I called her cute in front of classmates after I was told not to. It was my own fault, I deserve it, end of story” He explained calmly almost as if this was a normal topic.
“No, friend Sandbar doesn’t deserve it! Not end of story!” Yona argued
“Yona’s right, it doesn’t matter what happened. She shouldn’t have hurt you” Ocellus said.
“Plus….” Silverstream started to say “we hate seeing you like this. You’ve become green and purple”
Sandbar looked at them with pleading eyes “don’t say anything, please! If we say anything and word gets out, She might get sent back to the Dragonlands and I’ll hate that. She loves it here and being with us. She’s one of our friends and her being sent away doesn’t feel right”
The three girls all looked at him with looks of worry and sympathy. They knew he had a point. Smolder was their friend and they also didn’t want her to leave. But this situation had to be dealt with, if only Sandbar would acknowledge that.
“She’ll get better. I know she will, she doesn’t mean what she’s doing. She…..” he started to tremble “she doesn’t mean it…she cares”
He felt a wing wrap around him and then a arm do the same before it pulled him close into her embrace. Silverstream gently held him “Sandbar….” She used her free hand to wipe the tears that started to leave his eyes. Ocellus and Yona also joined them. Each had a hand on their male friend’s back.
“She doesn’t mean to do this-“ Sandbar started.
“You shouldn’t defend her behavior. We love Smolder too but we don’t love it when she does this to you…” Ocellus said
“Yona hates seeing friend Sandbar hurt” Yona said
“You don’t deserve to be beaten” Silverstream said before she noticed his bruised temple, his hair failed to hide it and she gently touched it before pulling him into a tighter embrace, a embrace of protection.
Sandbar trembled and tried not to cry as three of his friends comforted him and hated seeing the pain in his eyes.
Time had passed some, and Sandbar had gone from his usual kind and laid back self to a protected silence. All of his friends had noticed and understood what was happening to him, much to their worry and sadness. Others such as classmates seemed to understand also, they started to take notice of the bruises on his body. When one healed, another ‘mysteriously’ showed up. If his arms weren’t purple, it was his legs. If not the legs, his shoulders had the discoloration. If not the shoulders, his face would carry the color. From a bruised temple to a faint black eye. It seemed everyone knew something was wrong with their friend and classmate.
All but one.
Smolder didn’t seem notice or even understand at first. But she became troubled as Sandbar’s silence continued even after classes ended. While hanging out in the clubhouse or at The sugarcube corner, Sandbar was very quiet, speaking only when spoken too, and allowing the others to make all of the decisions regarding food and movie choices or what to do for the weekends, despite his friends trying really hard to start a conversation with him and wanting to hear him talk and be himself again. When there seemed to be no change in Sandbar’s quiet behavior, Smolder decided that it was time she did something about it.
One day after their last class, Smolder approached Sandbar in the hallway when he was alone, heading back to his dorm “What’s wrong, Sand?” she said, her tone gentle but her posture leaned forward, as if waiting for a reason to get aggressive. A worried look immediately crossed Sandbar’s face as he started to panic and get more nervous. He tried to think of something to say that would not anger the dragon trapping him against the wall.
“W-what do you mean?” He asked timidly
“Don’t be silly, Sandbar, your behavior has changed dramatically, everyone has seen it happen. You hardly talk now, you keep your head down most of time and you always look afraid when you make a mistake on something, even if it’s minor so what’s wrong?!” Smolder asked, her voice more stern.
Sandbar started to shake a little in fear before he tried to think of something to say to her to calm her down, but all he said was “Nothings wrong…..”
“Nothing…..” Smolder repeated “nothing….” She then felt some anger and her body got more tensed up when she realized he was lying snd he was hiding something from her, using that word as a cover up from something else.
Anger started to take over her whole body and she was ready to attack. Sandbar can see this happening and be started to move his hands up to his face in some attempt to protect himself, he wanted to be as small as possible. His body got tense and fear crept in. He tried to calm her down “I-it’s nothing, Smolder, really, it’ll pass overtime, don’t worry”
Smolder now knew he was really hiding something and she didn’t like this. Anger filled her and she didn’t even remember grabbing his wrists and forcing them away from his face, her nails dug into his flesh again “Tell me Sandbar!” She demanded at him, her body forcing his own up against the wall, overpowering him again. He tried to pull away but Smolder held him in place, her own claws once again harming him. It was then she realized Sandbar hadn’t replied back for a full minute.
She went from anger to surprise when she saw tears run down his cheeks and he looked afraid, her claws eased up on him but still held him in place “S-Sandbar?” She asked in some concern as Sandbar cried softly but sobs did come out.
“I’m sorry….” Sandbar said between sobs and tears “I’m sorry” he looked up at her “I know I’m making you mad and causing issues and I’m trying very hard not to. I’m trying to do what you want me to do…”
Almost as of those were magic words, Smolder’s eyes opened up. She looked down at her claws physically restraining him and harming him. She realized it now. She wasn’t teasing him and being playful like times before and with the others. Somehow things changed. Instead of being playful and teasing, she was showing discipline and force, and that had changed to abuse. She then realized, she had been abusing one of her best friends.
She was the reason why he was green and purple.
Her claws let him go and she trembled at the realization. She saw Sandbar still crying and shaking in fear.
“S-Sandbar, I-I…” she tried to speak but all she can do was listen to his crying snd begging to stop, promising to not make the same mistakes and how he’ll be obedient.
It hurts the most when a friend that made you feel so special yesterday makes you feel so unwanted today
Author's Note
Domestic violence is a serious thing. Don’t ignore it. It comes in all forms, relationships, friendships and even through family.
Inspired to write this after events I faced in middle and high school. A close friend would leave bruises on me when mad. I regret not saying anything now.
