Putting Your Hoof Down
Pinkie Pie and Rarity watched Fluttershy get pushed around in the marketplace with increasing worry, then decided to step in and help their friend.
"Fluttershy," Rarity said after a succession of rude ponies cut in line ahead of Fluttershy at the asparagus stand, "you mustn't let them treat you that way."
"Oh, it's...it's really no big deal," Fluttershy said meekly.
"It's bigger than big!" Pinkie exclaimed. "It's double big! You are a pony with a problem."
"What problem?" Fluttershy asked. Pinkie Pie and Rarity exchanged a glance; Pinkie turned Fluttershy to face the asparagus stand, then pushed ahead of her in line with enough force to send Fluttershy spinning to the ground. "Oh...go right ahead, Pinkie Pie. You first."
"Right there! That's the problem," Pinkie said, leaning down and poking Fluttershy in the forehead for emphasis.
"You've got to stop being such a doormat," Rarity added.
"A doormat?" Fluttershy asked, drawing back in disbelief.
"Yes, a doormat," Sugarcoat said as she left one of the other vegetable stalls. A black marker pen floated out of Sugarcoat's saddlebag. She uncapped it and wrote 'WELCOME' on Fluttershy's forehead.
"Err...yes...I believe that's pushing the metaphor a bit far," Rarity said.
Pinkie started giggling. "It's...I shouldn't be laughing because that was really mean, but...heehee..."
Fluttershy crossed her eyes, trying to look up at the graffiti. Her ears drooped. "That bad, huh?"
"You just let me write 'welcome' on your face," Sugarcoat said. "You tell me."
"Oh..." Fluttershy looked down, rubbing the back of one hoof with the other.
While they were talking, Gizmo bought the last asparagus. They all watched him trot away. "Watch and learn," Rarity said.
Sugarcoat, Fluttershy, and Pinkie watched Rarity charm Gizmo out of the asparagus. Then, they walked over to the tomato stand, where Pinkie used her Pinkieness to cartoonishly con Roma into selling two bits' worth of tomatoes for a single bit. All the while, Sugarcoat watched with an amused smirk. While there were certainly things she wanted to say about their methods, for once it was just too much fun watching them to interfere.
Then Fluttershy tried to use what her friends had shown her on Crafty Crate at the cherry stand. Sugarcoat's smirk faded into a thin frown as, between Fluttershy's admission of desperation, Crafty Crate's attempt to take advantage of her, and Fluttershy's utter failure to be Rarity or Pinkie Pie, she somehow managed to drive the price for a single cherry up to twenty bits.
Finally, Sugarcoat couldn't take any more. She stepped up to the cherry stand. "I'll give you two bits for the cherry."
"Sold!" Crafty Crate said, eagerly scooping up the two coins Sugarcoat floated out of her saddlebags. Sugarcoat picked up the cherry in her magic, then hovered it over to Fluttershy. "Tough break, kid," Crafty Crate said to Fluttershy. "Next time, don't be such a doormat."
"Here, I'll sell it to you for two bits."
Fluttershy blinked. "Oh. Umm...okay. Thank you!" She fished two bits out of her bag and exchanged them for the cherry.
"HEY!" Crafty Crate shouted. "You can't do that!"
Sugarcoat turned and gave him a stern glare. "I just bought this cherry from you fairly and legally," she said. "It's my cherry now, and I can do whatever I want with it, including sell it to another pony for the same price I paid. And just for your information, everypony who watched you try to scam Fluttershy today is going to talk about what a terrible pony you are. Good luck making a profit in Ponyville ever again." She then turned to Fluttershy. "And you. Seriously. You need to stop being such a doormat." With that, she walked over to a stand selling oranges, bought three, and headed off.
* * * * *
The next day, Sugarcoat happened upon a bizarre scene. For whatever reason, Cherry Berry and Bon Bon were blocking the creek bridge with two huge wagons full of garbage while they stood around chatting. Behind them, Fluttershy looked like she was about to blow a fuse.
"A-hem," Fluttershy said. "Can you move? You're blocking my path."
"Yeah yeah, in a minute!" Cherry Berry snapped. Turning back to Bon Bon, she said, "So the donkey says to the mule..."
"When somepony tries to block, show them that you rock!" Fluttershy growled, bracing herself to buck the garbage carts.
"You could just fly over them," Sugarcoat said.
Fluttershy wheeled angrily on her. "What did you say?" she snarled.
Sugarcoat remained unimpressed by her ire. "You're a pegasus. You have wings. You're not pulling a wagon. They're not blocking your path at all. Just fly over them."
Fluttershy blinked, then calmed down. "Oh. Right." Shaking her head, she took wing and flew over the two mares yammering on the bridge.
Sugarcoat walked up behind the two carts and cleared her throat. "Excuse me," she said. "You're blocking the bridge. Other ponies can't get around you. You should really get your carts off the bridge and move someplace out of the way if you want to keep chatting."
"Gosh, what is WITH all these rude ponies today?" Cherry Berry complained.
"You're the one being rude," Sugarcoat said. "Take a look around you. Think about how you'd feel if you were trying to get across this bridge and two ponies with huge garbage carts were just standing on the bridge talking and blocking the path."
"Umm...she's kinda got a point," Bon Bon said. "Sorry." With that, the two mares hauled their carts off the bridge and over to the side to continue their conversation, and Sugarcoat crossed the bridge.
* * * * *
By the following morning, Sugarcoat had heard of Fluttershy's bizarre rage-fueled rampages around Ponyville. She ran into Rarity and Pinkie Pie in the town square. "Oh, good morning, Sugarcoat!" Rarity said. "Would you please come with us to try to talk some sense into Fluttershy?"
"Yeah, she's kinda let this whole assertiveness thing get the best of her," Pinkie said. "We think she might have gone overboard."
Sugarcoat frowned thoughtfully. "Normally, I don't really care what you and your friends get up to," she said. "On the other hoof, I probably helped cause this problem, so..."
When the trio arrived at the edge of Ponyville, they witnessed Fluttershy assaulting an innocent tourist. They exchanged glances, then confronted her about it. Unfortunately, Fluttershy was less than willing to listen to reason, and delivered a scorching rant which reduced Pinkie Pie and Rarity to tears.
"And YOU!" Fluttershy shouted, rounding on Sugarcoat as Pinkie and Rarity ran away crying. "All you ever do is follow other ponies around criticizing them! Do you even have a life? You're always saying we're not your friends, so why don't you butt out of our lives and live your own for once!"
Sugarcoat stared up at her. Her composure held...for almost thirty seconds.
"You're right," she said. "I don't belong here. I'm just...I'm just trying to cope the only way I know how." She frowned. "And yes, I criticize ponies, but in case you haven't noticed, ponies do stupid things and somepony needs to point it out to them." She narrowed her eyes. "Kind of like how you're doing something stupid right now, acting this way to your friends. You just ran two of your best friends off in tears. Is that really who you want to be?"
Fluttershy blinked, then glanced back the way her friends had run. "I...I..."
"You can be assertive without being a bullying jerk," Sugarcoat said. "Just tone it down a bit."
Fluttershy sighed. "I...I should just go home and—"
"No," Sugarcoat said. "You should go apologize to your friends. And that tourist you just attacked, if you can find him."
Fluttershy nodded. "You're right." She sagged in midair. "Will you go with me?"
"No," Sugarcoat said. "I have my own things to do today." She trotted off into Ponyville alone.
Nopony noticed the few tears that trickled down her cheeks.
* * * * *
As Iron Will and his goats were leaving Ponyville, they encountered Sugarcoat standing in the middle of the road, a deep frown on her face.
Iron Will snorted and flexed his pecs. "Do you have something you wanna say to Iron Will?" he rumbled.
"Actually, I do," Sugarcoat said. "You're full of bull—"
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... I kinda want to see how Iron Will reacted to THAT...
I don't think i'm really feeling this chapter.
It is outstanding to see Sugarcoat show some self-awareness for once. Takes her medicine like a champ, too! Well done, Mr. Moth.
Thanks for letting me write this guest chapter. It was a lot of fun! I hope your readers enjoy it.
And that's subtlety...well as subtle as you can get with a race that was born due to the dumb pride of an even dumber member of the dumbest pantheon ever to exist...and they only existed to make a civilization of idiots who couldn't get along for five minutes feel united when the situation called for it.
A.k.a the most overrated Civilization ever...Ancient Greece.
Hm.
Okay.
6922301 Ditto, dude.
You're never going get home, Sugarcoat. You'll never see your friends or family again.
Ever.
....tee-hee
6922329
An amazing chapter. Well done!
6922436
But she has a pretty good chance of banging Big Macintosh. That has to make up for a lot.
I like this. Sugarcoat is being brutally honest and blunt, but not to the point of seeming rude or a jerk.
ESPECIALLY Pinkie.
Damn, really got to her.
It's funny because he's part bull.
This was the chapter I was waiting for. It's not what I expected, but it was decent. The ending, to me, was a little weak.
Very far away but I have an idea about the Season 4 premiere. After realizing that she could of gone home Sugarcoat pretty much tells the, to figure it out for themselves. Cue chat with Discord.
6922436 Because Equestria Girls is non-canon for the main series, so the mirror doesn't exist for her to find and go through?
6922334
BULLSHIT!!! Hahaha!!!
So basically these "Guest Chapters" are those that your fans gave you for the idea of a certain chapter, am I right, Twinkletail?
6922891
This was actually MythrilMoth contacting me and asking if it was cool for him to write a guest chapter. It's probably not something I'm going to make a regular practice of at all, but I said yes to him and I'm quite pleased with the result
6922907 Well do you think you can make a part of it? People, and myself, aren't quite feeling it. Just saying. AND it made my heart sink a bit cause I didn't understand it whatsoever.
6922920
I'm not quite sure I understand. What do you mean by "make a part of it?" And what didn't you understand?
6922951 Well....I know this is someone else's idea you've used, but another part of the chapter. You know, about Fluttershy ignoring Sugarcoat after what she had said to her and didn't want to talk to her because on how hard she made her cry, and even on how Iron Will reacts. And HOPEFULLY the fans can understand it a little better. Get the picture?
6922964
Ahh...
Well, to be honest, I kind of think those two parts are better left the way they are. I know it may not seem totally conclusive, but I don't know if there's much that can do them justice by continuing them. Kind of a "better left to the imagination" situation in my opinion. I apologize if you weren't really a fan of the way those parts were cut off, but at least this way leaves the following events open to the readers' interpretation
6923003 Well on the next one, can you make to when Fluttershy avoids Sugarcoat after what she had said on "Putting Your Hoof Down", IF you can that is?
And actually, if you look back at the comments on this story, you'll see my name on one of the comments I've made. So in a way I'm somewhat of a fan of this story. Just looks back on these comments and find my name on of one of the commenters for this story, okay Twinkletail?
...or where you talking about this chapter, "Putting Your Hoof Down"?
6923013 Hi, MythrilMoth here. I think you might be slightly confused about how this all went down. Let me see if I can clarify a few things.
"Putting Your Hoof Down" has always bothered me for a number of reasons. There's just so much wrong with the episode and so many logic gaps. When Twinkletail started writing this story, I started picturing all the ways Sugarcoat could get involved in this episode. Around September, I PMed Twinkletail asking if I could write the chapter for this specific episode. I was given permission, I wrote it in October, and here we are.
Now, as to the things you've expressed dissatisfaction with. Let's see if I can figure out what your concerns are based on your comments.
- You seem to want a scene where Fluttershy goes and apologizes to her friends. That would just be a direct copy of the ending of the episode in question, which we've all seen. There's no point in writing that. The entire point of this story is to show how Sugarcoat changes or involves herself in events from the show. As such, it stands to reason that one would focus primarily on Sugarcoat's involvement, and not on writing scenes that are ripped directly from the show.
- Now, the last bit with Iron Will: That was just added as a joke. The whole point of that was to have a Curse Cut Short scene to end the chapter on. If the joke fell flat for you, I'm sorry, but that was literally the only reason that scene was there. To end the chapter on a silly joke.
I don't know if I'm missing anything else or if that was all. If there's something else you still don't understand or still want to discuss, by all means.
6923163 I believe Twinkletail told you about what I think of the chapter and what I said about it?
6923201 I read your comments myself. You did make them in public. They were a bit confusing, though.
6923214 That's just that! What happens next is just confusing! It's either Sugarcoat stays mad at Fluttershy or Fluttershy avoiding Sugarcoat! I can't TELL what well happen next!
6923228 Ahh, NOW I understand what you're talking about. Okay. That makes more sense.
So you wanted to see a scene where Fluttershy apologizes to Sugarcoat for hurting her feelings. That's what you're talking about?
I honestly didn't see any point in writing such a scene. It honestly never occurred to me to write that. It just didn't seem relevant.
6923234 Yes, thank you, NOW you're getting the picture! (Nearly started Drama there, hee-hee.
) AND you forgot to mentioned that Fluttershy would avoid Sugarcoat for what she said to her and fears that she'll stay mad at her for saying it. 
Basically after Fluttershy says "I'm sorry for..." to Sugarcoat, Sugarcoat will pretend she didn't hear that and still be mad with her, she tell her "friends" to wait outside (In Twilight's Library) or somewhere else (A Random Location) to say something to her, or to just show it in front of them which ever makes more since or more better, by saying I forgive you and hugs her. Basically Sugarcoat is still a little stubborn, but after thinking about how she somewhat acted ever sense she was in Equestria and not in the Human World, she decided to at least try, yes TRY, to be more nicer around other ponies, including Twilight, Pinkie, Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity, Spike, and among others, Background, Canon, Non-canon or not.
Sorry if I sounded both upset and confused about the idea YOU'VE made so Twinkletail can make it for this chapter, it just doesn't feel right to me is all.
6923267 Well, I'm sorry the chapter didn't completely suit you. As a writer, it's simply not possible to please everybody.
6923288
Holy crap, insulting, much? No reason to go off on someone for you not being satisfied with a story's narrative structure.
6923315 PLEASE don't accuse me, I didn't mean it THAT way, I was just saying is all.
(Goans) Why is everyone trying to start Drama with me here?!
The saddest part of this episode was realising that it takes Fluttershy being a bully for her to actually fly for more than five seconds.
It's About Time
I wasn't expecting this. Can you at least bring in the other Shadowbolts?
The summary of this episode here is what I was hoping to be addressed.