Sandbar was in his room sitting at his table and thinking about what just happened with his friends. Part of him feels that his friends are just stupid, and part of him believes he was just overreacting. He thought about the first time they met. They didn't get along at first, but when they skipped school, they started to hit it off. He then thought about all the good times his friends had had, but an argument had broken them apart. He felt like he hadn’t meant what he had said, but said it in the heat of the moment because of angry he was that he wouldn’t get to go home for the holidays.
Suddenly he remembered one time he had seen Gallus with tears in his eyes. He didn't listen to him when he was about to say something but instead had said some cruel things to Gallus.
Why don’t you just act like you don't care and fly away. It's what griffon's do best.
"Maybe he did care about us," Sandbar said with a sigh. He had another thought. He got up and went to Gallus's room to apologize.
He knocked on his door to see if he was in there. "Gallus... are you in there?"
He knocked on the door again and noticed the door creaked a little, letting some light come out of the room. "Gallus... I’m sorry about what happened. I was just angry that we couldn't go home for the holidays. I didn’t mean what I said." Gallus didn't answer or respond. Sandbar looks to the ground, unsure if he should continue. His friend doesn’t want to talk, but he has to try. He stands up firm and gently pushes the door open. "Hey. Maybe we can work this out, you know like maybe we could have our own Heart Warm-” He stops as he feels his blood run cold at what’s lying before him.
There lying on the floor was Gallus. In a pool of his own blood. With a knife stuck in his chest.
"G..G...Ga...Gallus," Sandbar stammered, tears beginning to well in his eyes. "No no no no no no no!" Sandbar yelled, starting to freak out.
"GALLUS PLEASE NO!" Sandbar yelled, "HEADMARE TWILIGHT!!!!!" Sandbar screamed as he ran out of the room and went to the Teacher's Lounge.
In the Teacher's Lounge, Twilight, Rainbow, and Spike are sitting on their couch and talking about what happened.
"So his friends just broke apart because of him," Rainbow asked. "Why would he ever think that?"
"I don't know," Spike replied. "But when I got out of the office. I heard an argument inside the room where his friends were at.” He scratches his head in thought, "Something about the tree. It sounded like they were blaming each other for the ruined tree."
"What do you think, Twilight?" Rainbow asked.
Twilight didn't say anything. She just stared at the ground sadly because of what Gallus had said.
"Um... Twilight?" Spike said with concern.
"Are you okay?" Rainbow said, concerned as well.
"It's all my fault," she said softly.
"What did you say?"
"This is all my fault!!!" Twilight said starting to tear up
"Your fault?" Spike said, confused. "Why would you think that it’s your fault?"
"If I hadn’t told them to stay here and clean up, they wouldn't have argued in the first place." She said, starting to sob.
"Twilight, this isn't your fault. It was your only choice," Spike said.
"Yeah, Twilight," Rainbow said. "I mean, you’re the Headmare of this school."
"Yes, but this is the School of Friendship, and I just made my student's friendship break apart," Twilight said, lowering her head in shame.
Rainbow and Spike looked at each other with a long 5-second silence. Spike decided to speak up first. "Well, even though they broke apart doesn’t mean that you can’t try to fix it, Twilight."
"Spike's right." Rainbow agreed. "Besides, what could possibly make the situation any worse?”
"HEADMARE TWILIGHT!!!" They heard a shout outside of the teacher's lounge in a voice they recognized as Sandbar’s.
Sandbar threw open two doors with full force with tears still in his eyes.
Twilight, Rainbow, and Spike noticed Sandbar crying. Twilight was the first one to speak, "Sandbar, what is it? What's wrong? Tell me what happened."
"I..it’s....G..G.G.Ga.." Sandbar tried to speak, but he was too distressed to get the words out.
"Sandbar, speak up," Spike said in concern
Sandbar finally found his voice and blurted out, "SOMEPONY KILLED GALLUS!!!"
"WHAT?!?!?!" Twilight, Rainbow, and Spike all said, their eyes widening in shock.
"I know it's hard to believe, but I saw it with my own eyes!!" Sandbar said, still sobbing.
"Where did this happen?"
Sandbar led the other three into Gallus' room and showed them where he lay unmoving. Twilight went over to Gallus’ dead body. "Gallus... I’m so sorry," She said while picking up Gallus with her magic.
"What are we gonna do?" Sandbar asked.
Twilight can only think one thing. "We have to take him to the hospital." She uses her magic to teleport them all to the hospital. Once there, Nurse and Doctors moved quickly to aid the young Griffen. It has been ten minutes since they got there, and no pony has said a word. They all sat there together in the lobby, waiting to see if Gallus would survive.
Twilight just finished sending a letter to Celestia, and Luna informing them of has happened and asked for a small squad of guard be sent to them to help protect to school from any more threats. When she heard a loud sniff coming from her left and noticed it came from Sandbar. She wraps her wing around the young pony, trying to comfort him.
Sandbar hasn’t stopped crying ever since they got there. He again felts like he’s to blame for the whole thing. He wished he hadn’t blamed his friends for the ruined Hearth's Warming Tree, and that he had been there for Gallus. Then none of this would have ever happened.
"Sandbar," Twilight asked with concern, "Are you okay?" but Sandbar said nothing. "Sandbar, I promise you Gallus is gonna be fine," Twilight said. "Everything is going to be-"
"It's my fault," she got interrupted when she heard a whisper from Sandbar.
"It's all my fault, Headmare Twilight" Sandbar looked to Twilight, still with tears in his eyes. "I destroyed our friendship. And what happened to your tree, all we did was just blame each other. And Gallus was the only one not fighting back, and I told him that... " he suddenly felt worse like he was about to cry. "I said to him to pretend to not care about friends because that’s what griffons do best. And then when he needed us the most, no pony was there to stop the pony who did this to him." Sandbar exclaimed, covering his eyes while sobbing. “Why would anypony try to kill Gallus?”
"Sandbar, don't blame yourself. Things like this happens, but things will get better soon.”
“Yeah,” Rainbow spoked up, “I mean, this is Gallus we are talking about here. He is not going to let a little cut like this stop him. I bet after he gets out of here, You and him will be splashing in the water fountains together and rearranging the books in the school library again.”
“What about the books in the library?”
Before Twilight could give an earful to her friend, a Doctor came into the lobby and called for them. "Your highness, I have news about your student," the Doctor said.
They quickly made their way to the Doctor as Sandbar was the first to speak, "Is he gonna be okay?"
"Yes, he is. The wound wasn’t serious. He's going to wake up any day now."
They all sighed in relief, knowing that Gallus will be fine, but Sandbar can only think one thing before he leaves. "Can I see him?"
Twilight, Rainbow, and Spike looked at him, and Sandbar simply said, "I want to be with my friend.”
The Doctor nodded and led Sandbar to the room where Gallus was in, and the others followed him. The Doctor pointed into a room, as they all went in. Gallus was in a bed with a heart monitor making slow and continual beeps. There were bandages wrapped around his chest, and an oxygen mash over his face. Sandbar walked up to him and then sat beside the bed where Gallus lies,
"Gallus... I’m sorry," Sandbar said, looking down in shame. "If only I had been there for you... then I could have… saved you." He put a hoof on Gallus’s claw, “I am never leaving you alone again.”
As Sandbar was talking to his unconscious friend; The Doctor pulled Twilight and Rainbow out of the room. To speak in private, “I can’t thank you enough, sir.”
“Don’t thank me just yet, your highness. We still have a problem on our hooves.”
“Yeah,” Rainbow spoke up, “Why like why somepony would try and kill Gallus? It doesn’t make any sense? What did he do? I mean, he is just a kid.”
“That is what I want to talk to you about,” He takes a deep breath to calm himself, “I already know who tried to kill Gallus.”
“What! How?” Twilight exclaimed before lowering her voice, “The case just started, and we haven’t collected the evidence from the crime scene yet.”
The Doctor looks back at the children in the room, “Even the best detective doesn’t need much to understand what happened here.” He closes his eyes before facing them again. The wound is self-inflicted.
Twilight felt horrible because not only had she indirectly caused an argument between her students that caused their friendship to break-apart but as a result, one of her students felt like suicide was the only option left. She felt terrible but knew that she had to pull herself together for the other’s sake.
Twilight told the Doctor and Rainbow to keep this between themselves. She will inform Starlight on the matter and schedule private sessions to see if there are any signs of Gallus wanting to kill himself again. For now, everything will continue as nothing happened. This is one friendship lesson that Twilight is not sure if she knows how to solve.
After Rainbow and the Doctor bid each other good night. Twilight went back inside and saw Sandbar sitting beside his friend holding onto him. She smiles at this, watching the adorable moment with Sandbar and Gallus. When a puff of smoke appeared in front of her before, it turns into a scroll. Quickly she read it to find that Luna has sent a squad of ponies to be at the castle by dawn to prevent any more attacks on the students. She was going to tell her that they are not needed but had a second thought. If guards were patrolling the school grounds, then Gallus would have a harder time committing suicide again. And even if he did, there will be a higher chance of finding him if he does. She nods to herself before slowly making her way to Sandbar side.
"Sandbar, It's time to go," Twilight said,
“But I can’t leave him!” Sandbar said, not letting go of his friend, “That pony is still out there. They might come back for him.”
“I understand, But a squad of guards is on there way here as we speak. That pony will have to think twice before they could do something like this again. Especially now that me and my friends know that they are around. The best thing you can do for Gallus is to let him rest. You can come back tomorrow and as many days after that.”
Sandbar sniffs before he stood up, and they left the hospital.
Sandbar was in his room again, thinking of what to do. Gallus would be waking up pretty soon, and he needed to be there for him, but he then thought about his friends that abandoned him.
He could only think of one solution to make this up to Gallus. And to catch this pony murder. He needed to get their friends back together.