I wasn’t able to get much sleep, only a few more hours before Silver Spoon and I both woke up. She looked around tiredly before hopping up and out of bed, turning to me as she started to speak.
“Did all of that really happen last night?”
“Unfortunately,” I answered sickly. “All of today might really happen, too. I know Filthy Rich is angry, and Celestia is gonna be, too.”
“Do you think Mr. Rich is gonna go all the way to Canterlot to tell Princess Celestia about you?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised, since he hates my guts. Ugh, this is just a whole mess. One thing right after the other.”
“She won’t be mad, Asher. You don’t have to be afraid. Princess Celestia is as nice as can be. I got to see her once when my daddy went to Canterlot. She would never be mad at anypony.”
Yeah, right. I only sighed, not explaining how I knew better than that. Instead, I yawned and wiped my sick eyes, heading downstairs to see Twilight and the mayor speaking to each other. I hung back from the conversation, but the latter beckoned me to join them, giving a kind smile and a wave of her hoof to call me over.
“Are they okay?” I asked. “Scootaloo and them? They’re not hurt, are they?”
“They are, but it’s not life threatening. A few broken bones and bruises are what Nurse Redheart reports. But it could’ve been a lot worse had somepony not heard their cries for help. The way I hear it, Apple Jack was up late working on fixing up her barn when she heard them, and rushed in to save them. It was quite lucky.”
I flinched as I heard it, but also simultaneously breathed a sigh of relief. At least it wasn’t life threatening. However, I had a feeling that Celestia would hold me responsible for four girls breaking bones. Not to mention, hearing that my friends were hurt just plain made me feel bad.
“You wouldn’t have happened to put the idea of going into the Everfree Forest in their heads, would you?” she asked. It was a question I already knew was coming.
“Not only did I not put the idea into their heads, I explicitly told them not to go in there. Silver Spoon can tell you that I didn’t. And so can the rest of them.”
“Really? That’s interesting, because the way I heard it, they came across it because of a club you formed about finding cutie marks hunting monsters. Does that ring a bell?”
“What? No… wait, you mean the Talent Discovery Association?” I asked. She nodded her head and I continued, “That’s not about hunting monsters; that’s just about finding out what you're good at and any talents that you have. And I didn’t make the club, really. I only named it.”
“Well, the way they described it, Ashley–”
“It’s Asher.”
“–it sounded like something you came up from what I heard.”
“Why would I even come up with that?” I asked. “Can you not see that I’m sick again? I was the same way all last night! If you’re hearing that, then it’s obviously being misconstrued and you’re coming to conclusions that you want to hear rather than taking what they’re saying at face value.”
“Well, I can certainly tell you that from what I heard, it was described in a way that made it seem like you were encouraging them to go into the Everfree Forest.”
“Ugh, whatever, I don’t care,” I sighed, closing my eyes as the blood in my head pounded painfully. “You might as well not even talk to me,” I sighed bitterly.
“What? What do you mean?”
“I mean, if you’re just gonna not believe me, then why are you even talking to me? Why don’t you just come to whatever conclusion you’re gonna come to and not bother me with this? It’s already gonna be hard enough to listen to Celestia and Filthy Rich yell at me for something I didn’t do. I don’t need you to tell me how I’m really lying when I’m not.”
“I’m not saying that you’re lying, sweetheart, but can you understand why we–”
“No! I don’t understand it!” I wanted to cry, but forced myself to keep a straight face… or rather, an angry and frustrated face. I was in a mood where I absolutely didn’t want her to see my tears.
“I don’t understand what I’ve done to make what I say come off as unbelievable! Is it my tone of voice? The way I phrase what I’m saying? I wanna know what it is that makes everyone think I’m lying when I haven’t lied once here! I don’t just go around telling lies!”
Okay, maybe I couldn’t force myself not to cry, but I wasn’t surprised by that, given the last few months here. I felt the tears streaming down my face as I closed my eyes. It was just so frustrating that nopony here ever stopped to consider that maybe I was telling the truth when I spoke.
She moved to touch my mane, but I instinctively moved away, glaring at her. “Don’t touch me,” I growled. “I don’t want to be touched. I just want to be believed for once, and not be sick again and go back to sleep and just… not have everyone treat me the way they do!”
Oh, my head was pounding. I tried to stomp, but it hurt too much to do right now. My yelling certainly didn’t help with how I felt, I knew that. I instead walked quietly back into bed, breathing deeply to try and calm myself back down before I gently fell back into bed so I could head back to sleep.
“He really didn’t tell anypony to go to the Everfree Forest, Mayor Mare,” Silver Spoon pleaded after Asher marched off back to bed. “I was there. He told everypony not to go in.”
“Everypony told me she formed the club about hunting for cutie marks, Silver, and–”
“But Asher doesn’t lie!” the filly argued. “He never lies! And I was there, and heard him tell everypony not to go in! Everypony said they wouldn’t before they left!”
“Are you sure about that? You were in the room?”
“Yes! Asher didn’t do that!” The silver-coated filly looked like she was about to cry, too.
Mayor mare put a hoof to the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes to adjust her glasses before looking back down at Silver Spoon. “Okay,” she said. “I trust you. I guess I’ll have to have another conversation with the four of them to see if something got mixed up in communication. But the way I heard it, she formed the club, and then they went out to try and get cutie marks in the Everfree Forest.”
“They made that club weeks ago! I know because they invited Diamond and I weeks ago! Asher really didn’t do anything!”
“Okay, Silver Spoon,” the mare calmed the filly down. “I believe you. I’ll go speak to your friends again. It’s possible that I was just misunderstanding what they were telling me.”
“Okay,” the filly whispered quietly, staring down at her hooves shyly. After a minute more of speaking to Twilight, the mayor left, and Silver Spoon headed back up to Asher’s room.
“Are you okay?” she asked, the blonde maned filly, who sighed without turning over or opening her eyes. “I told Mayor Mare that you didn’t do anything.”
“Thanks, but I don’t think it’s gonna matter,” Asher replied. “Insert comment about how I can do no good here because no one listens to me and everypony thinks I have bad intentions,” she added lazily.
“I don’t think you have bad intentions… and the mayor said she probably misheard and is gonna talk to our friends again.”
“Well, I guess that makes sense. When I say ‘everypony’, I mean all the adults, because none of them listen. Or if they do, they hate me like She-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named does. But you guys are nice, and I’m glad to have you all as friends.”
“Well I think you’re telling the truth,” she said. “You haven’t lied once since I met you! I don’t know why grown-ups have to be like that.”
“I understand it. It’s because what I’m saying sounded unbelievable to begin with and they think I have attention seeking behavior or something, but it’s just frustrating. I have to keep dealing with this for no reason!”
Silver Spoon didn’t say anything else, only moving up quietly to lay down next to her and hug her. Asher didn’t hug back, but didn’t say anything as she was, keeping her eyes closed for the duration of the move. It was a long minute that neither said anything before Silver Spoon offered up something.
“If you have money as a cutie mark,” she started, “I’m sure my daddy will let you help him out. He works with Diamond’s dad a lot, but doesn’t really like him very much. I heard him say he was too hot headed.”
“That… sounds nice,” the filly replied. “I don’t know when I wanna get on that though, because everything is a mess and I hate… Equestria so much. I hate it badly. It’s only gonna be a matter of time before… nothing, because I can’t say anything lest I make ponies upset. It’s nothing.”
“It’s gonna be okay Asher. Is there anything I can help with? I can talk to my daddy and get him to talk to Mr. Rich if you want me to.”
“That would be great, even if I’m not sure how much good that’ll do. But thank you.” Silver Spoon hugged Asher as the latter fell back to sleep.
Mayor Mare was back at Ponyville General where four injured fillies were being cared for by Nurse Redheart. Despite their injuries, the four of them mostly looked annoyed and frustrated as they lay in hospital beds with a few casts on some of their limbs.
“All I’m saying is,” Scootaloo argued to Diamond Tiara, “if I had three more minutes, I could’ve taken that Timberwolf out for sure, and then I’d have my cutie mark!”
“You wouldn’t get your cutie mark!” the pink filly argued. “You’d just get more hurt, and then you’d be more in trouble!”
“You’re saying that now, but watch me! I just need to train a little bit more, and then when I’m as strong as Rainbow Dash, I’ll–”
“You’ll what?” Mayor Mare asked, interrupting the conversation as she sent a serious look the four’s way. “Because the way I see it, I don’t believe you four will be doing anything for a couple of days at least while you all heal, and then for the next five moons when we talk to your parents about your little outing last night.”
“It’s not our fault!” Scootaloo tried to say. “We were only trying to find out what our special talents are!”
“Yeah, and it was Button Mash who told us about monster hunting from his game!” Sweetie Belle added. “We were curious what being a monster hunter would be like!”
“Well you girls shouldn’t be going out into the Everfree Forest based on some archaic video game. Do you understand you all could’ve gotten hurt? What would your parents and siblings think if something terrible happened?”
The four of them looked down shamefully at their casted up hooves, offering a quiet, “We’re sorry.”
“As you should be,” she replied sternly before letting out a breath. “Although I need to ask about your friend, Ashley.”
“Ashley?” Scootaloo asked, a confused expression on her face. “Oh, do you mean Asher? He might have kinda sorta told us not to go into the Everfree Forest, and… we didn’t listen.”
“I thought you four said before that he formed– she formed– that club you’re all in. The Talent Discovery Association?”
“Oh, well, he named it, but it was Apple Bloom’s idea to make a club,” Sweetie Belle said.
“And Sweetie Belle’s idea to try out getting cutie marks in monster hunting,” Scootaloo added.
“Hey! I was only saying Button Mash said it about monster hunting from his game!”
“So just to be clear,” Mayor Mare clarified, “Ashley didn’t tell you all to go into the Everfree Forest?”
“Nope,” Scootaloo answered. “I don’t think Asher would ever let us do anything like that. He acts like a responsible adult all the time, and talks about how when we’re adults, we’ll understand, even though he said he’s technically younger than us if you count up the days. He’s weird like that.”
That didn’t make the gray maned mare feel that great. The way they phrased it before made it seem as though they were implicating the filly and that she was the one who encouraged them to head into danger. And now she was being told that she apparently misunderstood what they were saying after having talked to her. She would have to speak to the filly again, and apologize, too, considering how upset she looked.
“What’s wrong, Mayor Mare?” one of them asked.
“Nothing,” she said, quickly shaking her head free of thoughts. “I will be speaking to all of your parents. You should all know better, I say.”