Shô found it difficult to open his eyes, and when he did, the light in the room stung so bad he winced and closed his eyes again.
There was a horrible ring in his ears, and his head had a throbbing pain in it. Shô tried to remember what had caused this all. And when he did, he forgot all about his hurting head and got up.
He remembered it all. The horn malfunctioning, the alarm, his own screams. After that things were bit fuzzy, but he got the jist of it all. He had failed. Again.
"Shô?"
The young stallion turned around upon hearing his brother's voice, only to see him wrapped in bandages. A surge of horror washed through Shô's whole body. Did he cause that?
"Onii-san!" Shô almost screamed and tried to get to his brother, but his head was still spinning, and he almost fell over to the floor between their beds. Ruy caught him with his magic however and hovered the young stallion on his bed.
"Easy!" he said. "You shouldn't be up yet!"
But Shô wasn't listening, he just threw his hooves around his brother and cried.
"It's my fault, isn't it?" he sobbed.
"Shô, listen to me when I tell you: this was in NO WAY your fault. It was all father's fault." Ruy said, sternly, yet with a hint of warmth in his voice.
"Father KNEW the horn was not ready to be tested yet. He KNEW it could be dangerous. And yet he went ahead with it all. It's his fault that you got hurt. It's his fault I got hurt. The scientists warned him, and he ignored it. You only did what you thought was right. And you fought back as much as you could." Ruy said, stroking his brother's back while trying to calm the crying earth-pony.
And even though Shô did believe his brother, he had no reason not to, the thought in the back of his head, that HE had caused this and Ruy was blaming father just to make him feel better, did not go away...