A Young Bond Builds

by HeartBeat

Taking the Fall

Bright left his house feeling excited to see Ditzy again. He saw the schoolhouse coming into view he began to smile. Entering the classroom, he saw the three bullies sitting in the corner of the room. They were laughing and glaring right at Bright . He turned his head away and saw Ditzy waving to him. He felt his heart warm again. A smile grew and he waved back. As he trotted to his seat next to her, she greeted him.

"Hey, buddy! How's it going?" She asked smiling at him.

"I'm doing alright." He responded.

They talked together for a while and Miss Cheerilee greeted her class and began her lesson. Bright listened as she began to talk about Heart's and Hooves Day. The thought of having a love brought a weird feeling in his stomach. He didn't like the thought of having to go through the trouble of love. But he just shrugged off the feeling in his stomach and continued to listen. After a while of the lesson, the lunch bell rang. Bright grabbed his lunch bag and followed Ditzy outside.

"Hey, want to sit in the shade, or the bench again?" The colt asked her.

"Shade would be great!" she said, holding her bag with her mouth.

They went to the corner of the playground where a large tree kept them away from the sun. Bright would only come there to hide from the bullies, and he had hoped that they wouldn't find them there.

Ditzy stuck her hoof in her bag and pulled out a small muffin. She looked at it and licked her lips. She took a bite and her wings fluttered as she giggled.

"That's really cute." He thought to himself. Than his eyes shot open at what he just thought. "W-What! I just said THAT? No way..." He began to scramble in his thoughts. The feeling returned to his stomach. Brightlooked at the apple in his hoof and stuck it back into his bag. And leaned back against the tree, letting out a sigh.

"What's the matter?" Ditzy asked, with a mouthful of muffin.

"I'm not that hungry." He explained, patting his hoof to his stomach.

"Aww, that stinks," She said putting her hoof in her bag again. "Because I brought you something."

Bright looked at what was in her hoof. She was holding out a tiny muffin, small enough to be bite size. He looked back up to Ditzy, she was smiling at him and staring into his eyes. The feeling in his stomach went away as he grabbed the small muffin.

"Well... I guess I have room for one!" Bright said with a smile on his face. He popped the muffin in his mouth and began to chew it. The flavor of berries filled his mouth and he swallowed it down.

"Ditzy, that was great tasting! Where did you get them?" He said leaning in towards Ditzy.

"I made them." She said with a smile.

"Wow! You're a really good baker!" He said to her.

"Thank you, I have more at my house. Maybe your mom can let you come over to play? I live a few housed down from Sugar Cube Corner." She said smiling back at him.

"I'll ask my mom today and then come to your house." He said, feeling strange again.

"Yay! We'll have a lot of fun!" Ditzy said letting her wings flutter again.

A few hours passed and school was finished for the day. Ditzy and Bright trotted outside. Before they passed the playground, the three bullies jumped out from hiding. Ditzy jumped and his heart sank.

"Well, well, well..." Arid said circling the two. "Looks like we got a pair of love-birds!" He laughed.

"Ha! Yeah, love birds!" Buzz said from behind Arid.

"Don't you know that there is a price to pay us when you pass through our playground after school?" Arid said confronting them.

"I see that neither of you have any bits, but that can be replaced." He said with an evil smile. Arid dug his dirt in the ground and leaned forward, pointing right at Ditzy.

From the corner of his eye, Bright saw Ditzy crawl into a small ball and began to tremble. A shadow covered her as Bright was now standing between Arid and Ditzy.

"You can take me, but Ditzy leaves unharmed." He demanded.

"Aww, lover boy wants to protect the retard!" Zoom laughed.

"B-Bright... what are you doing?" Ditzy whispered from the below her hero.

"It's okay." He whispered back. A smile grew on his face, assuring everything will be fine.

"Okay. She can go, but you get it double, since your taking her place." Arid said leaving a clearing for Ditzy to escape.

"Go." He said to her still smiling at her.

Ditzy let out a small whimper and she picked her bags up. She began to make a fast retreat to the gates. She stopped at the open gate and turned around. She saw Bright being circled by the bullies. She noticed his head was down and his mane covered both of his eyes. She could still see the smile on his face. A tear hit the dirt below Ditzy as she went to go get Miss Cheerilee.

Another hoof his his head and to the dirt he went with a thud. All three of the bullies hit him at least once. They began to get closer to him. Suddenly they stopped as the door to the schoolhouse swung open.

"You three! Get inside RIGHT NOW!" Miss Cheerliee yelled to them. The three bullies droppe their heads, knowing they were busted. The three slowly trotted into her class and Ditzy began sprinting right to Bright.

She stopped a few feet from his breathing body. He laid in the dirt with a smile stil on his face. He opened his eyes and looked up to the mare.

"Hey, there..." He whispered.

"Why?" she asked with tears in her eyes. "Why did you take my place?"

"I couldn't... I wouldn't let them hurt you." He said getting up to his hooves.

"Why?" She asked sitting in front of her hero.

"I'm not sure... I felt like I had to do something about it. I would never let it go if they hurt you too." He tried to explain.

"We need should get you home." she said to him.

Ditzy helped him get back to his house. She rang the bell and Diamond answered the door. And she gasped as she saw her son in this state.

"Hey mom." Bright said looking up at her, grinning nervously with small bruises on his cheeks

"Oh my! What happened!" Diamond said holding his mane out of the way to see the bruise that covered his right eye.

"Bullies did this!" Ditzy said to her.

"Bullies? Oh, well you should come inside and explain it to me." She said opening the door to the house.

Ditzy explained the thing that the bullies did. They would occasionally just knock thing out of their hooves and call them names. But they seemed to go too far, they began punching and beating. Diamond looked at his bruise and scrape. After he was tended to, Diamond took Ditzy to her home. And Brightwas heading up to his room.

"Hey, son..." Heart called from the open door to the balcony. Bright's heart sank.

He sighed and prepared himself for the long lecture from his dad. He stepped out onto the balcony and sat in front of him.

"Take a seat." He said pointing to the empty space on the bench next to him.

"What is it dad?" The young colt said as he climbed onto the bench.

"I heard about what happened." Heart said pouring liquor into a small glass of ice.

"Yeah. Kinda got rough." Bright said looking down at the floor.

"You protected her didn't you?" His father said, taking a sip from the glass.

"How did you know that?" Bright asked looking up to him.

"I heard her say that she was there. But when I saw her, she didn't have a single scratch on her." His dad explained.

"I would have fought back. I'm just too weak." Brightsaid letting his ears drop.

"There is no such thing as a weak pony, Bright. You'll understand sometime." Heart said, beginning his lecture for his son. "Just having muscles wont help much. You have bravery and the will to take the pain for Ditzy. If you just had the muscles, you wouldn't even think about taking the beating. You would go headfirst into a fight, just thinking of your strength. But what you did, you understood your position, and had the will for Ditzy's safety to protect her. And having that, means a hell of a lot more than strength. Do you understand?"

"I think I do." Bright responded. "I just wish I didn't have to take their beatings and just fight back, for myself."

"Fighting for yourself wont help much. But you will know when the time is right to fight back. The moment will present itself, and when it does, you'll feel like you have all the strength in the world." Heart said placing his hoof on his son's shoulder.

"Thanks dad... I'm going to go lay down." He said moving back into his room.

"Alright goodnight, Bright." Heart said taking another sip from the glass with a proud smile on his face

Bright crawled in his bed and relaxed his sore muscles. He felt a sudden feeling of tiredness in him. He closed his eyes and fell asleep with a smile on his face.