Incognito trotted happily down the street, a sense of contentment settling comfortably over him. All in all, it was shaping up to be a pretty good day, and he was glad to be making the most of it. The sun was slowly sinking westwards, but there were still a good hoofful of daylight hours left, and after he finished up this delivery to mom, he could enjoy a nice relaxing afternoon-

“Hey, watch where you’re going!”

He was sadly pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of some rabble being roused nearby. A rather haughty female voice crying out in indignation.

“I-I’m sorry, I just don’t know what went wrong…”

The colt turned to the source of the commotion. He saw a little grey pegasus filly with a blonde mane sitting cross-eyed on the cobbles, rubbing her head as a rather angry-looking little blue unicorn filly glared down at her with disgust apparent in her eyes.

“Well, clearly quite a bit from the looks of you, if I had to guess, your mother probably drank too much when she was bearing you.”

Incognito sucked wind at the sound of this awful disparaging remark, his jaw clenching a bit. He hadn’t seen what happened, but he was already getting a feeling deep down in his gut that this filly was in the wrong.

At the same time, he also got a feeling like she wasn’t somepony he wanted to mess with. He couldn’t check her stats, not without going over and asking her, which, fuck no. But even without that, he could tell she was probably a bit more physically imposing than he is, and definitely a hell of a lot more confident.

He started to step forward as the little pegasus spoke again, her eyes welling up with tears. “H-hey, don’t talk about my mo-”

*SMACK!*

A sharp squeal sounded from the little blond filly as the other smacked her across the face harshly with one of her front hooves, snarling at her. “Be quiet, you little invalid. Trixie will make whatever remarks she pleases about your dam,"she said, spitting out the disparaging term harshly.

As he was attempting to work his way through fight or flight, he eventually, reluctantly concluded that getting involved probably wouldn’t make things better. As he turned to leave, he heard a loud *DING* and a notification popped up in front of him.

Intuition has reached Lv 10/70. Rank E of skill Intuition achieved.

Hidden Requirement for Accolade: Coward has been met. (Allow your fear of suffering to overshadow your resolve to act when presented with an innocent in danger)

Level requirement for Accolade: Coward has been Reached

You have attained the Accolade: Coward

Attained the Skill: Dodge: Lv 5/70
Attained the Skill: Assess: Lv 6/70
Attained the Skill: Escape: Lv 5/70

Received Attribute: Cowardice (Curse)

-Skills awarded by the “Coward” Accolade increase in effective level by 25% When in use against a perceived more powerful threat, but reduce offensive skills by 25% under these conditions.

-I’m disappointed in you, Jack.

Incognito’s eyes widened, his face going pale as he read the notifications scrawling across the box. As his eyes scanned the words over and over, his throat caught and his breath hitched a little bit as his muscles stiffened.

The message was concerning, certainly. He had a feeling that he knew exactly who it was speaking to him and grimaced.

Normally this would be an occasion that would have him celebrating. Not only had he finally cracked the level 10 hump, but he had even gotten some new stuff in the process! But that was all outweighed by the accolade he had gotten.

“Coward”

He swallowed, a lump forming in his throat as that word, that damned familiar word and its related faults raced through his mind in a hundred different voices and parses.

“You didn’t even bother trying, did you, you coward…”

“How could you just let that opportunity slip by you like that…”

“You could have stopped it if you had bothered to try, you know…”

“It’s your fault you didn’t get your shit together man, not mine. Get out...”

“Hey! Hey you, colt! what are you staring at, huh!? Do you have something to say to Trixie or are you just going to stand there and cry all day?”

The harsh tones of that haughty voice snapped him back to reality. His screen was gone and he could feel wetness creeping down the sides of his cheeks as he blinked, blurry-eyed as he was greeted by the sight of the unpleasant little filly standing directly in front of him.

He finally gathered enough of himself to speak again, his tone somewhat shaky. “S-sorry, I was just…”

“Don’t bother,” she said, waving her hoof dismissively at him as she turned back towards the blond mare, who shot him a pleading look as she scrambled to her hooves and ran behind him., causing the unicorn filly to scoff. “Pathetic, hiding behind a crying colt. You are not even worth the effort it takes Trixie to put you in your place.”

She clicked her tongue and turned to start walking away. “See to it that you do not cross Trixie’s path again, or else next time she may not let you off so easily.”

Incognito stared defeatedly at the filly, watching her walk away until she disappeared around a street corner. Once she was gone, his attention was caught by the sound of the pegasus simpering behind him. He wiped his eyes and took a breath, turning to face her, trying to hide the shame in his eyes as he tended to her. ”H-hey there, are you okay? That looked like it hurt…”

She nodded slowly, rubbing a slowly reddening hoof mark on her cheek. “Yeah, I’ll be okay..” she said downtrodden, as if she was disappointed but not surprised by the events that had befallen her here today. If he had to guess he would say that this was probably not the first time she had been bullied, and probably would not be the last.

But at the very least he could try to make things a little better now, even if he hadn’t ~~been willing to~~ been able to stop what happened.

He offered her a comforting little smile as he looked over at her. “Well don’t worry, she’s gone now, and hopefully we won’t see her again.” He said gently. “What’s your name? Mines Incognito, but sometimes people just call me ‘Nito for short.”

“D-Derpy. Derpy Hooves,” she said, offering him a brave little smile in return, seeming at least thankful for the kindness. “Thank’s for letting me hide behind you. I know it must be scary for a colt to have such a big mean filly in his face. That was really brave of you…”

He felt his heart twinge painfully with regret as he looked away for a moment before responding sullenly. “I-it was nothing really, anypony could have done it. I’m sorry I didn’t speak up…”

“It’s okay.” She said, seeing his distress and attempting to offer him comfort in return for what he offered her. “I didn’t do anything to stop her either, and she was doing it to me, so I should have stuck up for myself instead of letting a colt take the heat off of me," She finished, sounding just a tad ashamed of herself.

He sighed as he was once again reminded of the difference in gender roles in this world. It wasn’t always in focus, especially at this young an age, but he still caught hints of it now and again and it always threw him for a bit of a loop.

But he could wrestle with his struggle to properly soak in pony cultural norms later. He had only just gotten comfortable with being naked all the time a year ago, these things take time.

“Well, if you want, we could hang out for a bit so we aren’t alone in case we see her again. I’m going to bring my mom something to eat, and then I’ll be going to the library, you can come with me if you want to.”

She seemed taken aback by the offer, surprised, and perhaps a bit touched. She smiled a little wider, sniffling and wiping her eyes. “Yeah, that sounds nice. I have to be home by sundown though, or mommy will get worried.”

“Yeah, that sounds good, we have plenty of time to hang out then,” he says, with a nod that seemed to settle the matter. He started walking towards town hall again, this time with the little pegasus fluttering along through the air next to him. He still felt rather bad of course. You don’t just shrug that sort of thing off, especially when the universe itself calls you out on it. But he was certainly feeling a little better, and he had even made a friend, so maybe it was okay…

He stewed in these mixed feelings as they trotted along the road, listening to Derpy tell him all about anything and everything that came to mind and nodding along with a kind face as they made their way uptown, the pit in his stomach already feeling just a bit shallower.

Author's Note

I hope you guys think this is a good one because it was damn emotionally draining to write, lol. I do hate to see my boi suffer even if it is for the sake of art. I'm off to bed now, enjoy!