"Ponies just don't pass out like that." Huh, that sounded like Applejack.
"Well, I don't know what you want me to tell you." Mom? Am I dreaming? Probably.
"Look, I don't know why you guys are making such a big deal about this. He's not exactly what you would call 'sturdy'. Kid's probably faking It, anyways." Wow, even in my dreams, Field's is a jerk.
"He's not Faking It. I'm a nurse, I can tell." Nurse Redheart? This isn't a dream. This isn't a dream at all.
I slowly opened my eyes. By the looks of it, I'm in a spare bedroom in the castle. I slowly get up and start looking around. I see some kites, some magic books, and then it hits me. This is Starlight's old room. I remember her from when I was little. But she had moved to the Crystal Empire to be with Sunburst.
"I'm also concerned about the bruising I found all over his body." What?
"Bruising, what bruising?" There was Fluttershy's voice.
"The bruising that he's had for a few days. You can't really see it now, unless you're looking for it. But it's there... Why?" And Pinkie's
"I didn't see any bruising!" Mom shouted.
"I should say. I saw no bruising at all." And there was Rarity's voice.
"Yeah, neither did I." Said Twilight.
"I sure did!" Pound?
"What?" Shouted a bunch of ponies at once.
"So did I. In fact, we took pictures." Pumpkin? You didn't...
I heard the sound of papers shuffling. There was a silence followed by bunch of audible gasps.
"Somepony is going to pay for this." There was Flurry Heart's angry voice. Couldn't miss that if I tried.
I heard some activity, then silence. I could feel the tension coming from the other side of the wall.
"How?" Mom asked in a low voice. There was silence.
"How did this happen, Field?" She asked agian.
"Apparently by being Varsity's punching bag!" Pumpkin shouted.
"I never hit him that hard!" Oh, Varsity's there too.
"You gave me permission, Dashie. Remember? When he decided he was going to talk back to me." Well... That was unexpected. I didn't expect him to just admit that in front of everyone.
"What's he talking about, Rainbow?" Like you care, Twilight.
"Well... I..."
"I don't know what kind of joke this is, but it's not funny." Said Pinkie.
"Rainbow, what did you do?" Asked Applejack.
"She let me instill discipline into the little twirp, finally." Field said hatefully.
"You watch your mouth, you scum-sucking pig!" I heard a bunch of audible gasps... Again.
"Pumpkin!" Oh, Ms. Cake is there too. Lovely. I wonder, is the whole town listening to all of this?
"You have no right... You're nothing but a... A FOAL ABUSER!" She screamed.
"Dude, better tell your sister to shut up before she gets hurt." Oh, Varsity. Please give me an excuse.
"Touch my sister, and you'll be tasting your mane for the next month. That's how far up your flank I'll shove your head." I wonder, has anyone ever told Varsity that Pound is a brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Probably not.
"Hey! You two are lucky I'm not a real Princess, yet. If I was, I'd be breaking out the guillotine right about now." Said Flurry Heart.
"Enough!" Twilight shouted. There was a silence. Then I heard Spike speak up.
"Tell me, does Astral still have those books I gave him?"
"What are you talking about, Spike?" Twilight asked.
"After you banned him from castle, I gave him some of my books on magic." Oh, very clever Spike. Very clever.
"Spike! Why would you do that? I stopped teaching him for a reason! I banned him for being irresponsible! Why would you go behind my back like this?" She screeched.
"Because you wouldn't see reason."
"Okay, Mister! In case you haven't realized, I get to decide who to teach and who gets to come onto castle grounds! I get to decide who gets to come in MY home, and who MY time gets spent on! You got that?!" Twilight declared.
"... That's fair." Spike said simply.
"Right. Now tell me again why you went behind my back?"
"Oh, I know you're not going to tell me what I can and can't do with MY PROPERTY! Not after that little speech you just gave!" He practically roared at her.
"In case YOU haven't realized, Missy, we have a clear case of foal abuse! Abuse that YOU helped facilitate by denying him place to escape to! Why?! Oh that's right. Because he was the victim of abuse... By his so-called 'brother'." He said bitterly. There was another short silence before he continued.
"Remind us, how did you handle that again, Cherilee? Oh, wait. Don't tell me. You punished him for restraining Varsity, a pony who's both older, and physically superior to Astral in nearly every way possible, with the only means that he had available to him."
"Spike you weren't there. It looked like Astral was attacking him! What was I supposed to do? I did all I could with the information I had." Um, no you didn't, Ms. Cherilee.
"HORSEAPPLES! I saw him after the incident. Him and Varsity both! I could tell at a glance that Varsity was much better shape than Astral was. You could have given Astral a chance! You could have given them both the benefit of the doubt and asked questions! Try to actually get to the bottom of everything! Try to actually figure out who's guilty!" There was silence before he spoke again. This time, he was a lot calmer.
"Guys, I'm... I'm not trying to be mean about this. I'm really not, it's just... That kid in there is suffering right now. He's suffering because no one wants to give him a chance." Spike said.
"Zecora says a child shunned by the village will burn that village down to feel its warmth." It seemed that Spike had finished his speech.
"Well, Astral doesn't have it in him to hurt anyone like that. But we are going to drive him away. This is Ponyville. We're supposed to take care of our own." Said Fluttershy.
There was a long silence. Nopony really said anything. I eventually went back to looking around the room. I eventually came across a postcard from the Crystal Empire. It had an address, and a picture of a house with Starlight in her family in front of it. Huh, so where she's living now. A voice got my attention.
"Rainbow, what happened?" Asked Twilight, now getting my attention. It was different, though. It sounded like it was shaking.
"Honestly, I'd like to know the same thing. I saw Astral wearing part of his Halloween costume the day after. Why did you beat him like that? I thought you were just going to spank him!" Mom shouted.
"And what made you think THAT was appropriate, Rainbow Dash!" Whoa, I've never heard Fluttershy sound like that before.
"Ah'll say. I'm willing to bet Sweet Apple Acres whatever he did, he didn't deserve that." Applejack said sternly.
"What did he do that made either of you think that either those options were even remotely appropriate?!" Shouted Twilight.
"Prissy little twerp talked back to me." Field said.
"Why?" Asked Fluttershy.
"What?" Field said, now confused.
"Why did he talk back? What exactly did he say?"
"It doesn't matter. What matters is..."
"They sold all his books." I heard Spike speak up.
"What?!" Shouted a bunch of ponies in unison.
"And a bunch of other stuff too. As a matter of fact, I'm fairly certain if you look in Astral's room, you'd find nothing but the bed, and a couple of empty bookshelves."
"How do you..." Spike interrupted Mom before she could finish the question.
"Oh, it was easy... Well, easy to put two and two together after I found a bunch of Astral's books at the local bookstore. I knew they were his because he puts his initials on pretty much everything he owns."
"I figured something wasn't right, so I left, and went to look for Astral. When I saw him trotting around Ponyville, sporting a black eye, I decided to cancel O&O for the day and started looking for his stuff." Spike... you did all that? For me?
"It took all day. I had to visit several stores in the area and spent a good 300 bits. But I was able to salvage at least 90 percent of his stuff. I have it stuffed in my room right now, A kind of Hearths Warming present for the little guy. If there's anything missing, I'm sure SOMEPONY will be happy to compensate him." Oh, I could feel the smugness radiating off of Spike right now. There was more silence before somepony spoke agian.
"That's so cruel. How could you guys do him that way? Why make him suffer?" Fluttershy asked. Another silence followed, then field spoke up.
"Because he's in the way." Field said.
"What did you say?" Mom asked.
"He's in the way! Come on, Rainbow, you know it's true. After all, why would you let me get rid of his stuff if you weren't going to eventually get rid of him? Why try to turn everypony against him? Why let me do whatever I could to drive him away?"
"WHY IN EQUESTRIA WOULD I WANT TO DRIVE MY OWN SON AWAY?!"
"BECAUSE HE'S NO GOOD! You, Varsity, and I, we get each other. We understand each other. Him? He's not going to be anything. He has no future! Varsity has a future! WE have a future! He's nothing but a nuisance. He's the one whose always in trouble!"
"I figured you understood that! After all, why torture him? Why make his life a living Tartarus? All those times YOU grounded him for months on end, I thought we were on the same page. I mean... I'm surprised you haven't sent him somewhere else... But hey, if you want to keep torturing the little loser, I'm game."
"But... You... I... Oh, no! No!.. What have I done?! No, no, no, no, Astral! Sweet Celestia, what did I do?!" I heard Mom begin sobbing.
"You did the right thing, Rainbow! He's an annoyance. Honestly, he doesn't deserve to be loved." There was a silence...
"SMACK... CRACK!... THUMP!"
"RAINBOW DASH!" I heard Twilight scream.
Uh oh. Not good