Lightning Bolt’s mom had recently told him about Buckball, and he decided it would be a fun game to try. After all, if Rainbow Dash says it’s fun, it must be true! He tried to get the rest of his friends to play with him, but the only one that could was Dusk Star. Still, he could work with that, no problem!
 
”Hey Dusk, I’m open!”
 
”Coming!”
 
They started tossing the ball to one another, and things were going just fine…until Lightning didn’t see Dusk pass the ball back. It hit him full force and he spiraled out of control, crashing into the dirt.
 
His foreleg was scraped up pretty badly and it stung whenever he moved it, but he couldn’t make a sound or let out the tears that threatened to spill from his eyes. So he bit his lip and tried to stand, legs shaking before he fell down again with a pained whimper he quickly cut short.
 
“Lightning!” Dusk called out, galloping over to where the pegasus lied. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to throw it that hard! Are you…”
 
Lightning sat up on his hindquarters. “I-I’m fine, don’t worry. I’ll be back up in a minute.” He stood up again on his wobbly legs, slightly leaning to the right side away from his injured leg.
 
Dusk pursed his lips in concern. “I don’t know. It looks really bad.” He reached his own hoof out. “Can I look at it? Or I can go get our moms.”
 
Lightning pulled his hoof back. “I-I got it Dusk. Really!”
 
“Are you sure?” Dusk furrowed his brows, seeming to see right through Lightning. “It looks like it hurts a lot.”
 
Lightning looked away. It did hurt a lot, but he didn’t want to be a sissy about it. “It’s nothing really, sometimes when you play, you get hurt. I’ll be fine.”
 
“Well, let me at least look at it. It could get really bad if it gets dirty.” He grabbed onto Lightning’s hoof, causing him to immediately wince.
 
“Hey watch-ow, fine!” Lightning sat back down and held his hoof out to Dusk, looking away angrily. He hated making a fuss over this mess.
 
Dusk inspected the injury carefully. “It looks pretty bad, we should clean it up…are you crying?”
 
Lightning turned away and sniffled, trying to stifle his tears, “N-no! I’m not crying!”
 
“Hey, it’s okay to cry,” Dusk patted Lightning’s shoulder. “That’s what my mom always told me. Everypony gets hurt and sometimes you gotta let things out.” A soft smile grew on his face.
 
Lightning looked back at him, wiping his nose. “I can’t cry though. I’m the oldest, I can’t be a sissy. Mom says I’m the example…”
 
“You’re not a sissy,” Dusk assured him. “You can be an example and still show your feelings. My Mom’s a princess and I’ve seen her cry around her friends. I have a little sister and Mom says it’s good to teach her to be open with other ponies.”
 
Lightning sniffled some more before nodding and letting spme of the tears out, “O-Okay…That…sounds good.” He then let himself cry a bit more as his friend helped clean the wound up. He was still scared to bring it up to his mom, though.
 
“There, does that feel better?”
 
Lightning nodded as Dusk helped him dry his eyes.
 
“We don’t have to tell your mom if you don’t want to. Come on, let’s go get a band-aid.”