--------------------Applejack---------------------
"Everypony here?" The orange work pony asked the question just as Twilight walked in.
"Good. Okay, Ah'll slap him awake, and Fluttershy, you'll give him the stare. We'll force the truth out of 'im."
Everypony present nodded in consent.
--------------------------------Peter-----------------------------
As he slept, he had a feeling of...peace. Rainbow Dash slept soundly in the crook of his arm, her tears stopped by his comforting embrace.
He was aroused by an orange hoof to the face, which not only hurt him but forced him to instinctively raise his hand to his face.
His first thought was to look down, to make sure that Rainbow Dash had not been disturbed.
He sighed when he saw her breathing lightly, still asleep. Well, time to set things right...
He turned to explain the scene to Applejack, knowing all to well that only she would walk in and slap someone when she saw them sleeping with her friend.
Instead, he was met with icy blue eyes of steel, the Stare looking deep into his soul, forcing him to stay fixed in place, drawing all his truths from deep within him.
Applejack's voice in his ear pervaded his thoughts. "What were you doin' with Rainbow Dash?"
He swallowed. "What do you mean?"
Applejack moved closer to him, her mane entering his field of view.
"You know darn right what ah mean. Now, answer mah question! What were you doin' with Rainbow Dash in your bed?"
Peter tried to look away from the Stare, but couldn't. Fluttershy's cold, blue eyes froze him on the spot.
"Nothing. I wasn't doing anything but sleeping in the same bed as her, I swear!"
He was starting to panic, his heart beating faster and faster, his mind being pulled into that never ending Stare.
"You're lyin'! You were doin' more than that!"
"Tell me! What...were you doin'...with Rainbow Dash?!"
Peter answered through gritted teeth. The only thing he could feel now was pain, the pain in his hands and mind as his carefully constructed reality was torn apart in the cold, blue depths of Fluttershy's eyes.
I don't belong here...I belong at home, playing Skyrim, doing something other than this, this isn't my home...
"How dare you...I would never, and I repeat, I would never disrespect someone like that! I would never forgive myself, I would hate myself forever, she was crying, she thought it was her fault that Rarity and I were hurt...so I gave her a hug, and we fell asleep in each others' arms..."
He blushed as he realized how intimate it really was, but the blush was taken away from him as memories of pain were forced to rise.
Everyone surrounding him, taunting him...not touching him, but still, shunning him...no one he could turn to...just him...in the center of those he thought were his friends...he couldn't tell his parents, they wouldn't understand...they never understood what his life was like...never able to know what a friend felt like for twelve long years...
"Stop it...I'm past that...I have friends now..."
Tears streaked down his face as Fluttershy's Stare brought out memories best left forgotten in time.
"No...get out of my head...I have friends now...get out...get out, please, get out..."
His voice was reduced to less than a squeak, his sobs interrupting his pleads to the voice in his head, the voice that Fluttershy brought to rise.
You never had friends. Just like back in your junior high school years, your 'friends' here have come to reject you.
"No...it looked wrong...it looked like I was doing something with her...it looked like I had taken advantage of her...as though I had used her..."
You never had any friends. You never had anyone to turn to. You never had anyone's shoulder to lean on as you cried, shunned by your 'peers'. And now, when you give a shoulder to one of their friends and just happen to fall asleep with her, they immediately jump to conclusions. They're not your friends, all they want is to see you suffer.
"No...no...no...get out...get out..."
Fluttershy's eyelids twitched, wanting to break the Stare.
"Fluttershy, stop it, you're sending him into insanity!"
Fluttershy tried to look to Twilight, the veins in her neck bulging with the effort, giving her a stressed, scared look.
"I'm trying!"
She tried harder, and her efforts were evident to Peter, her eyelids twitching madly as she tried desperately to conceal the Stare.
They want to hurt you. Hurt them back, just like you should have hurt those kids in your class that day, the day they truly exiled you...
"No...no...please, no, don't make me hurt them..."
Fluttershy strained, tears now joining her angry Stare.
Do it, now!
"No! Get out of my fucking head!"
Applejack took matters into her own hooves then, and kicked Peter out of the way.
Fluttershy continued to Stare, struggling to contain herself, now going into a panic.
Peter landed on the bed, unconscious, next to Rainbow Dash, waking the cyan Pegasus to the image that lay before her.
--------------Twilight-----------------
The cyan Pegasus held the panicking Fluttershy, her eyes now fully closed.
"What...were you guys...thinking?!"
Everypony around her took a step towards Rainbow Dash in anger, and started shouting at her.
"Shut up! Applejack, what were you thinking when all of you came here?"
"What was he doin' with you in that bed, RD? And don't say nothin', I know you're lyin', Pinkie saw you sleepin' with him. What were you thinking, letting him take advantage of you like that?"
She looked at her pink friend, eyes full of fury. Twilight backed away as the cyan Pegasus swept her gaze across the entire room, thinking of what to say.
"First, you see Peter and I sleeping in the same bed, and instead of asking us what we were doing, you immediately went and corralled everypony to come and give him the Stare? And not only that, I'm assuming that Fluttershy was more pissed than when she shouted at that dragon, making her Stare stronger than it's ever been!"
Everypony simply looked down at their hooves, ashamed of themselves for jumping to conclusions.
"Yeah, but why did he give you a hug? Why did he go that far?"
A sudden grunt made them all turn around. Peter sat up, holding his head, still dizzy from being kicked onto the bed.
"Because I wanted to give a friend something that I never had...a shoulder to cry on..."
A single tear streaked down his cheek. Rainbow Dash immediately jumped onto the bed by his side and held him, the same way he had held her before, and let him cry on her shoulder.
"It's okay, Peter, I'm here for you. Just tell us, what happened?"
Twilight looked at her cyan friend in surprise. She had never seen this side of her...
She's acting like a tomcolt version of Fluttershy...I've never seen her so compassionate...either Peter just woke up that side of her, or she has a...
She gulped at the idea, leaving the thought unfinished, the final words still echoing in her head despite her attempts to suppress them.
He told them all what he had heard, about his friends not being his friends.
"That...voice, did it tell you to do anything?"
Peter shook his head 'no', his arms holding Rainbow Dash tight, as if afraid that he would fall if he let go. A cyan hoof moved up and down on his shoulder, the Pegasus trying desperately to comfort her friend.
Twilight was going to speak when Rainbow Dash suddenly turned harsh.
"Get out. All of you."
Everypony looked at her in surprise. She had never told her friends to 'get out'.
"I said get. Out. We both need some time alone."
Fluttershy uttered small 'sorry' as she left. Applejack did he same, her hat low on her face to hide her single tear. Pinkie picked up a box of cupcakes from Peter's bedside table, placing them beside her two friends, feeling the most guilt for organizing the whole thing in the first place.
Twilight walked up to Rainbow Dash to say 'sorry', but was stopped by a mixed look of fury and anguish that she had never seen on her Pegasus friend before.
"I don't care how sorry you are right now, Twilight. Just send Spike here with Peters' things. I'm not leaving until the Stare wares off."
Twilight nodded, a tear glistening on her cheek.
She walked out, closing the door behind her, then joined the circle of friends that was waiting outside of the hospital doors for her.
The all looked up at each other, guilt ridden expressions present on each of their faces.
"Well, ah'm headed back to the farm, girls. Ah've got some thinking to do..."
And with that, Applejack walked off.
"And I'm going back to Corner. I need to clean up the mess Peter and I made the other day before Mr. and Mrs. Cake get back from Manehattan..."
And with that, Pinkie walked, no longer bouncing, a trail of broken tears following in her wake.
"I have to go get Angel out of his bed..."
Twilight simply nodded as each of her friends walked off. When Fluttershy left, she followed her, simply stating that she needed to go to Zecora's. The yellow Pegasus nodded. They silently walked, and then muttered small goodbyes as they parted ways.