//------------------------------// // The Blame Game // Story: Trust Once Lost // by Greenhorne //------------------------------// When Applejack left the room I felt cold. I knew this was just part of my fear response, but I still felt uncomfortable. I walked over to the bed and pulled the blanket down with my teeth. I wanted to drape it around my shoulders, but I wasn’t coordinated enough with this new body. The blanket fell in a clump and I crawled underneath it until my head poked out the other side. I almost wished AJ would come back and hug me again just for the warmth.  Stupid, stupid, acting like a baby. I shivered and tried to draw the blanket more tightly around myself.  I heard the Crusaders before I saw them. In this world where everyone has both hooves and excellent hearing it must be nigh impossible for ponies to sneak up on each other. Or would that be neigh impossible? They made a fair amount of noise coming up the stairs, but slowed their pace as they approached the door. Before they entered they stopped and had a whispered conversation but it was too faint of me to make out.  They entered as a pack, none of them wanting to be the first into the room. They didn’t immediately see me hiding under the blanket, so I spoke first. “Hi girls,” I said. They turned as one to face me and the first thing I noticed was the bruise on Scootaloo’s face. “Oh, hi,” Applebloom said, “Er, Green.”  Clearly they were awkward and hesitant around me.  “Thanks for bringing me some cake.” I said, “You can go back to the party if you like, I don’t want you to miss it on account of me.” “That’s alright,” said Sweetie Belle, “The party wasn’t that fun anyway.” “What are you talking about?” asked Scootaloo, “It’s a Pinkie party, it’s going to be awesome!” Sweetie Belle put a fetlock over her face and sighed. “We’re supposed to be making her feel better about missing the party.” “Oh,” Scootaloo looked flustered, “I mean, uh, it wasn’t that great.” “I don’t really like parties anyway,” I said. The three fillies glanced at each other uncertainly. God this was awkward. Right, change the subject. I wanted to ask about the bruise on Scootaloo’s face, but that might be a sore topic. “Thanks for saving me when I was in the forest, I wasn’t in a good way.” “Yer welcome.” “I’m sorry if I said anything... weird.” I apologized. “I wasn’t really thinking clearly.” “Ya,” Scootaloo rubbed at her face, “We noticed.” Oh no. My mind made an uncomfortable connection. “Did you get hurt while you were rescuing me?” I asked. “You really don’t remember, huh?” Applebloom commented. I shook my head. “Look it’s not a big deal!” Scootaloo insisted. Despite her orange coat, the bruising was clearly visible. It was purplish, probably a few days old. It was a little swollen, but she wasn’t having any trouble opening her eye; probably no facial fracture. “It looks like you got hit pretty hard. Did you lose consciousness?” I asked. Scootaloo shook her head. “Did you have any blurred or double vision, headaches, nausea, vomiting?” I listed off. “Look you didn’t hit me that hard, okay?” Scootaloo snapped, “It’s fine.” My throat was tightening. I wanted to apologize, but my body just wanted to cry. “Oh.” I managed to choke out. I fought back tears. Stupid body. I tried to breathe, but the lump in my throat was painful and my breath turned into a shudder. I wanted to retreat further under the blanket, but I couldn’t. This wasn’t about me, this was about Scootaloo. I was just making myself the victim by being weak. I’d hurt her and now I was going to steal all the sympathy just because I couldn’t control my emotions. “I- I’m sorry,” I whispered, trying not to whimper. I didn’t want them to feel sorry for me. Keep yourself together dammit! I wasn't sure if they heard me, so I repeated myself as I stood up and shook off the blanket, though I wasn’t able to make eye contact.  “I’m sorry,” I said, my vision was blurry with tears as I hurried out of the room, “I have to go to the-” As I turned the corner out of the room without looking I ran into a wall of blue fur. I looked up to see Rainbow Dash looking surprised and, for some reason, guilty? I resisted the urge to throw myself into her chest and cry; instead, I just took an awkward step back.  “Oh,” I rasped, “Er, sorry, is there a bathroom on this floor?” She hesitated and I looked away, too ashamed to make eye contact. “Sure,” she said, concerned, “It’s just over here. Are you okay?” She guided me with a wing to another door along the hallway. The wing on my back gave me strength and I remembered back to what Applejack had said earlier. Clearly just keeping my emotions bottled up and under control wasn’t going to work anymore. I had to tell somepony. I sat down on the floor and looked up at Rainbow, my gaze not quite making it to her eyes, stopping mid-chest. “No,” I said. “I’m not okay.” “Oh,” Rainbow had a profound sense of awkwardness in her voice, “Uh, are you having... err... bathroom... problems?” Now it was Rainbow’s turn to look away, as she desperately searched for somepony else to handle the delicate issue. I blushed at that, and it actually helped distract me from my impending breakdown. “I don’t have to go.” I admitted, “I just didn’t want them to see me cry.” We both froze as we heard hoofsteps coming up the stairs. “Rainbow? What-” AJ’s voice turned from surprise to anger as she saw me, “Are you seriously-” “It’s alright,” Rainbow tried to placate the fuming Earthpony, “We were just talking-” “No, it ain’t alright,” AJ stood over top of me protectively, “I can understand wanting ta protect yer little sister, but coming up here so you could ambush a little filly and give her a talking to while she’s all alone? Ah thought you were better than this.” I was frozen. This was all my fault and I couldn’t think of the right words to defuse the situation. “I would never!” Rainbow had raised herself off the floor, flapping her wings indignantly. “I was just showing her where the bathroom is.” “Uh-huh.” AJ was unconvinced, “And what were ya doing up here in the first place?” “I was,” Rainbow’s eyes shifted side to side, as if looking for something, “I was going to use the bathroom up here because the other one had a line.” Ok. If this was the standard of lying that existed in Equestria I could definitely see why AJ didn’t need psychic powers to be the element of honesty. AJ shook with rage as she pulled me back behind her foreleg. “Get out.” “W-what?” Rainbow dropped out of the air in shock. “Y’all think ya can lie ta muh face, ambush a little filly on her way ta the bathroom in her own home where she’s suppose’ ta feel safe?” AJ yelled, “Yer no longer welcome here. Get. Out.” “Twilight,” Rainbow said in a panic, “We have a major friendship problem!” The Princess immediately looked at Rainbow’s cutiemark, and then to her own to check if they were glowing. “No, not like that,” Rainbow said in exasperation, “Ugh, look, I bucked up real bad and now AJ won’t speak to me.” There was a flash of teleportation and the two of them were suddenly standing outside. “Alright,” said Twilight, “Why don’t you tell me what happened?” “Well AJ saw me upstairs talking to Green,” Rainbow explained, “And she completely overreacted!” “She was so frightened of other ponies she couldn’t even attend her own welcome party and then an adult she doesn’t know comes upstairs to confront her? How did you think she would react, Dash?” Twilight said. “What?” Rainbow said, “That’s not what happened at all. Green was fine. AJ is the one that overreacted. She said I was trying to ambush a filly!” “Rainbow, you’ve been ranting about how dangerous Green is and how she hurt Scootaloo, and then you go to confront her while she’s all alone?” Twilight asked, “Did you think for even one minute about how that might make her feel?” “Green ran into me!” Rainbow responded, “And it looked like she was about to cry, so I asked if she was okay. That’s all that happened!” “She just happened to bump into you.” Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Upstairs, away from the party, where you had no reason to be.” “I was supervising!” “You were eavesdropping.” Twilight surmised. “Ugh, fine,” Rainbow admitted. “I just wanted to make sure they were safe, okay?” “I believe you Rainbow, and I’ll talk to Applejack,” Twilight consoled, “But I think you should probably head home for the night. She’s going to need some time to cool off.”