Despite my several requests to help Applejack and her family, I did as I was told and attempted to make myself comfortable in my new home. The dog that had helped to keep me company on Sunday, Winona, also decided to stay with me the following Monday. At least, she did until she had to go to work on the farm as well.
I did enjoy my time to myself, though. I was alone from the time I got home until about eight o’clock or so, when it got dark outside. Granny Smith was there, of course, but she seemed fairly busy the whole time with her cooking and napping. She had baked an apple pie for us to have as soon as the work on the farm was done. I was never very fond of cooked apples, or any kind of fruit, for that matter, but that pie almost made me regret not trying pie sooner.
The rest of the night was spent chatting with the family, and getting to know everybody there. Big Mac seemed to be the man of the house. Even though he hardly ever spoke, his voice came across as law. Even Granny Smith obeyed him every now and then, I was told. Apple Bloom was the energized one of the group, always rushing around from here to there, despite having been working for the past four hours. Granny Smith, obviously, was the parental figure of the family, but had a certain tone that made her seem different from a typical parent. She was always involved in what happened on the farm, although her frail appearance might suggest otherwise. Applejack, from what I could tell, was the backbone of the family, providing the voice of reason whenever she needed to, no matter how harsh it might sound.
I struggled to know what my place would be in the household, or even if I would ever have a place. Perhaps I would only ever be thought of as the servant-boy, only sticking around to help with the problems and work on the farm. I doubted I would ever be thought of as more than simply that, but I didn’t mind much.
The next morning went along roughly again, but, at the same time, much more smoothly, since I had an idea of what to expect. After arriving at school, Applejack and I took our seats and began our typical bit of idle conversing until somebody else arrived, who just so happened to be Twilight.
“Hello, Sky,” Twilight said before turning her attention to the new face. “And who might this be?”
After making proper introductions, the two began a conversation of their own, which I was unintentionally kicked out of. It didn’t make much difference, however, as two others found their way to the table not long afterwards. Rarity and Fluttershy took their respectful seats, Rarity deciding to join in on the conversation that was taking place. Fluttershy didn’t seem quite as tired as she was the previous day, and I made a note of it. “Get some sleep, Fluttershy?”
She smiled at me. “Oh, yes. Angel was so worn out last night; it was quite easy to put him to bed.”
“That’s good to hear.”
The girls continued their conversation, while Fluttershy and I decided to take the quiet road and play on our iPads until the bell rang.
My day crawled by without any issues, none that I knew of, anyway. At lunch, Applejack informed me that she would be a little late after school, as she volunteered to help out in one of her classes. Of course, I didn’t mind. I didn’t know whether or not I should have told her about my “meeting,” anyway, and this was just one way to get around that.
I hadn’t been particularly worried over talking with Jenna after school, but the thought about what it would be about had crossed my mind, admittedly. I had never had any kind of interaction with her, before that week, so I had no kind of clue as to what we would be doing. I didn’t want to linger over the thought too much, though, so I left it be and continued my talk with Applejack.
Culinary Arts was, again, a painful experience, seeing Pinkie upset. Still, though, there wasn’t much work to be done, so we did textbook work for the class. I caught a glimpse of Pinkie Pie every so often, however, and I began to notice that she would occasionally look towards me. It was difficult to tell, but I could have sworn she was looking at me. Even so, I didn’t pursue it, and left her be, deciding it best to let things happen at their own pace.
Gym with Rainbow Dash was no different than any other day. We played basketball, she beat me, celebrated, then we got changed and talked until class ended. Once the bell rang, I exited the gym before Jingle had a chance to pester me about her.
The crowd was no different than it was every other day: massive and unmoving. I, somehow, forced my way through, and managed to make it to the parking lot with time to spare.
There weren’t very many people who drove to school, but there certainly were enough to block my field of vision. I looked left and right for Jenna, but there was no sign of her anywhere. I was forced to wait for the crowd to die down, but before I even had the chance, I ran into a couple of familiar faces. “Sky!”
I turned towards the sound and was greeted by Rarity, and not far after her was Fluttershy. “Oh, hey! I thought you rode the bus home?”
Rarity pouted. “Oh, is it suddenly a crime to change my mode of transportation?”
I stopped in my tracks. Had she taken offense to that? “N-no, of course not! I just-”
Suddenly Rarity began laughing, and I understood what she was doing. “Oh, I’m just joking with you, Dear! Fluttershy offered to take me home, and it would have been terribly rude of me not to accept,” She motioned towards her companion, who looked as if she would pass out at any given moment. She held her head down and was rubbing her shoulder. I looked around to see that the junction of students hadn’t died down much.
I made a quick deduction, and mentally thanked Fluttershy for her shy personality. “Fluttershy, are you okay? You don’t look so good...”
Rarity turned to Fluttershy and barely managed to gasp, “Oh, Fluttershy! What’s the matter?”
Suddenly Fluttershy’s cheeks grew red at the sudden attention and she mumbled, “Oh, it’s nothing. I-I’m fine...”
I, of course, blew off her claim. “Maybe you guys should go ahead and get home, huh?”
Rarity jumped at my idea. “Yes, we should, indeed. Come on, Fluttershy! We should get you home, now!” The pair then turned to leave, Fluttershy looking back towards me one final time and scrunching her eyebrows. It was difficult to tell whether she was thanking me or cursing me, but either way, I made a note to myself to apologize to her later about drawing the attention to her.
I had to make sure that nobody knew about this encounter other than the people involved: Jenna and myself. I just wanted everything to go away, and to go back to the way it all was.
I sat down on a nearby bench and waited. Eventually, after more time than it should have taken, the remaining people dispersed, and I was one of the few people left. The doors to the school opened one last time, and Jenna walked out. After scanning the area for me, she motioned for me to follow her around a wall. I did so.
I froze as soon as I passed around the corner. I saw another person there; someone I had no interest in seeing at that point, or ever again in my life: Henry. He stood there with his arms crossed and faced the ground. Jenna continued to walk, and stopped only to lean on the wall in between the two of us. “What is he doing here?” I asked her, not wishing to speak to him directly. I should have never asked. Instead, I should have turned and walked away right then. But I couldn’t. I was there for Twilight’s sake, and I couldn’t abandon someone and risk hurting them again.
“I want you to apologize to Henry. And after that I’ll stop messing with Twilight, and never talk to her again,” Henry didn’t budge. He didn’t even look up at me, as if he wasn’t expecting anything out of me.
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Good,” She spoke matter-of-factly as I turned to leave. “Now-”
“That’s not going to cut it, Sky,” I turned back towards Henry’s words. He was suddenly looking straight through me. “Some things just can’t be forgiven so easily.”
“You’re a fine one to talk,” I mumbled back, just loud enough for him to hear.
“You threatened me, and now I’m going to do a lot more to you,” Henry charged at me, fist drawn back for a swing. I had little time to react, and quickly found myself on the ground, blood dripping from my nose, splattering on the pavement in front of my face.
I prepared myself for the next blow, but was appreciative to hear a new voice. “Stop!” It was high-pitched, and sounded sweet, but strong. I looked up through my tears that had accumulated from the punch, and saw a pink blur through it all. She shouldn’t be here... I thought to myself. She’s going to get hurt.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Henry shouted at Pinkie Pie.
But Pinkie ignored the question entirely. “Why are you doing this, Henry?” Her voice cracked, and it wasn’t long before her words became jumbled and disoriented. “W-why are you hurting Sky?”
I began to rise to my feet, only to be kicked back down to the ground. Pinkie gasped and shouted again for him to stop. He refused to listen. “Because he deserves it! He’s a filthy rat who deserves nothing less than death, and he knows it!”
I squeezed my stomach and writhed in pain. Henry’s hits hurt a lot more then than they did the previous time we fought, that was for sure.
Jenna quickly joined the conversation. “Henry! That’s enough!” Pinkie then ran to me, doing all she could to make sure I was okay. I looked past her in time to see Jenna place her hand on Henry’s shoulder, only for him to bat it away and shout her down.
Pinkie lost all feeling as she realized the magnitude of pain I was in, and backed away in horror. I could only assume it was from the blood still dripping from my nose.
Then Pinkie was thrown to one side by Henry, who stood over me, shouting some unintelligible garbage as Pinkie looked up in terror at him. I suddenly found the energy I desperately needed, and began to rise to my feet. “Oh, now you’re going to be the hero, Sky? Save the damsel in distress?”
He laughed and tapped his chin, which he had put right in front of me. I took the invitation and swung, much harder than he had apparently expected. He was forced back, grasping at his chin in pain before lifting a foot and kicking me backwards.
My gut hurt even more, but I was able to stand my ground, and look up in time to see Henry reach down the back waistline of his pants. I was quickly brought face-to-face with the end of the dark barrel of a gun. I heard Jenna gasp and Pinkie immediately scramble to her feet, even over Henry’s voice. “What are you going to do now, Sky? Are you going to try to be the hero again, huh?”
My voice was shaky, but I managed to spit out, “Henry, you don’t want to do this.”
“Shut up!” He squeezed his eyes shut and clenched the gun even tighter, causing my heart to drop. “You don’t know what I want, and you can’t tell me what to do anymore! I’m the one in charge now, and I say that you need to go!”
He shoved the gun into my face, and I froze. “Henry, whatever I’ve done to you, I’m sorry, okay? Please, don’t do this!”
“Whatever you’ve done to me? You don’t even know?!” He turned around, shouted at the ground, and turned the gun back on me, all within a second. “You’ve always turned your back on me! Mocked me! And whenever I need to talk to you, you blow me off!” He stomped hard at the ground. “Nobody ever just talks about me! I’m always compared to you! It’s always ‘do you know Henry? You mean that shy kid’s friend? Yeah, that’s him!’” He stopped a moment, only staring at me before continuing. “I can’t exist on my own, as long as you’re around. And I can’t continue to be made fun of by the quiet kid at school!”
“Henry, I don’t make fun of you,” By that point, I was practically gasping for air, both from the hits to my stomach and from the fear of being shot. “Is that what you see it as? It’s just joking, right? You do it to me all the time!”
“No, Sky. It’s not the same! When you do it, it hurts.”
“You don’t think it hurts me sometimes? You lied to your mother, Henry! You threw me under the bus over something stupid you did with your cousin! Something that I had no part in! And you expect me to just laugh that off?”
He stopped, loosened his grip, but quickly seized the handle once more. “Just shut up! Let me talk for one damn time!” He paused, but quickly continued again. “Just leave me alone!” He raised the gun at me, and I clenched my entire body for the inevitable. But instead, I saw Pinkie rush forward and grab for the gun, trying to throw the thing from his hands.
I lost myself for the moment, but quickly realized that Pinkie wouldn’t win without help, and I surged forward as best as I was able to and grabbed the gun. I heard the shot, the loud clap of thunder, but ignored it as I finally twisted the gun out of Henry’s grasp.
I held it towards him. He backed away in horror, and quickly turned back and ran towards the nearby trees, disappearing from my view after a few seconds of sprinting.
I lowered the gun, then dropped it to the ground. I followed, barely feeling my body collide with the cement before Pinkie and Jenna rushed towards me. “Sky!” I heard Pinkie call to me.
I looked towards her as she began examining my stomach, holding back her screams with her hands over her mouth. I followed her gaze, and found the cause of her distress. On the side of my body was a massive blood stain, and it was quickly growing. The pain suddenly hit me, and I felt the burning of the blood as I lay there in agony.
Pinkie shouted something back towards Jenna, but I couldn’t tell what. I was growing weaker by the moment. I watched Jenna manage to bring out her phone and dial something before putting it up to her ear. Pinkie took off her over-shirt and applied it to the wound. It looked like she was pushing on it, but I couldn’t feel anything anymore.
The last thing I remember was Pinkie shouting something at me, before everything faded away...