“You look happier today Sugarcoat, what’s on your mind?“ Sunny Flare asked her friend, who was surprisingly smiling ever since lunch. Either the world was going to end, or something really good must have happened, because Sugarcoat hardly ever smiles for more than five consecutive minutes, or at least, in public.
Sugarcoat, however, quickly went serious again at this comment and furrowed her eyebrows at her friend. “I am a human being just like you Sunny Flare. I have the capability of feeling emotions just like anyone else. Can’t I be happy?”
That was not an answer that Sunny was expecting and of course she was not trying to mock her or anything like that. “I’m sorry dear, I was just surprised that’s all. You hardly ever show any emotion when we are out in public. You tend to be more reserved in times like this and only show your true self when we are alone with the girls when no one else around”
To that, Sugarcoat could not object or come up with a comeback. “Point taken,” she acknowledge as she took a deep breath and got back to the project at hand that the professor had given them to do in pairs. “I’m just glad that an old friend finally found someone to be there for them.”
“Oh? An old friend? Who might this be dear?”
At first, Sugarcoat was tempted to answer, but she just dismissed the question with a wave of her hand. “We’re working right here, remember. It is not time to be chit chatting.”
Darn the girl could be dense like a donkey at times, but Sunny Flare knew that once Sugarcoat is done talking about one topic, it is nearly impossible to get more information out of her. Well, she was not going to force the information out of her either, it was her life after all.
At the end of the period, just as the bell began ringing, Sugarcoat and Sunny Flare finished their assigned homework, walked up to the professor to hand it over and get it over with.
“That was pretty easy,” Sunny exclaimed with a satisfied smile. Working with Sugarcoat had its perks. While both girls are extremely smart, Sugarcoat, being the smartest student of the school, was able to add little details here and there that no one else knows and that gives them extra points on their work. “Say, dear, why don’t we go and grab a bite at Sugarcube Corner after school with the girls? We could all use a break after all.”
Each girl had been working extra hard the past few weeks to make sure that Cinch would not even dare to leave them out of the team for the Friendship Games. Despite the team already being chosen, there can be last minute changes that could surprise not only the students, but also the competition. It was a tactic that has been used in the past, and everyone knew it would not be the last time either.
“Sugarcube corner? You mean that place that is filled with sweets that will deteriorate your teeth and give you lots of cavities? I’m afraid I will have to deny your offer. I don’t want my dental care to be ruined,” Sugarcoat retorted.
“They have more than just sweets dear. Besides, you could always come along and just hang out with us, even if you do not order anything.”
Sugarcoat was still in doubt, but she did enjoy hanging out with her only friends in this school at least. “Alright fine. I will be there.”
Sunny Flare was happy that she managed to convince her. Now she only had to get the other girls to go too. It would be pretty awkward to just have Sugarcoat show up and waste her time. “Marvelous, I will see you there then. I have to go, my next class it about to begin.” With that, Sunny left and Sugarcoat was left alone.
She didn’t mind being lonely. No one bothers you like this, makes you waste time, or even ask for favors such as working with them in some project they can’t do and end up doing all the work herself. She may have been used quite a lot when she was in her first year in this school, but she quickly learned the hard way that each student is on their own in the end… or so she thought until she met the friends she has now.
Yet, that was it. She had no other friends. Everyone else was either too annoying, too shy or outright too stupid for her. The only other person that was her friend in the past was Twilight Sparkle, but that didn’t end so well.
There was someone else now, a potential candidate to become her friend… One that was smart and athletic, that was caring and a good listener, though they do tend to have a habit to mess things up somehow. A small detail that she was willing to overlook if they do promise to change and learn from their mistakes, and from what she saw so far, they had done just that.
“Hey Anon, can I speak with you for a moment?”
“Oh, hey Sugarcoat,” you greet. The small talk that you had with Twilight had ended quite a long time ago and things ended up quite well with her. Sure things were a bit awkward still, but better to have them being awkward that just outright lose a friend, right? “Sure, I don’t have any other class today so… what’s up?”
“Come with me,” she simply requested as she began walking away from you towards the exit.
You were not sure if she was done with her school day as well, but it didn’t really matter to you. Not like Sugarcoat was a dear friend of yours or whatever. She was just an acquaintance to you. After getting all your books from your locker, put them away safely on your backpack and made sure you had everything with you, you quickly trot up to Sugarcoat to catch up with her.
For a solid two minutes, it was just silence. Neither of you said anything, mainly because you had no idea how to approach her. She didn’t seem mad, happy, sad, and you did not want say something or offend her. You were still going through Lemon’s friends “test” to prove that you are not a complete asshole and that you really mean to be their friends.
After what felt like ages, Sugarcoat finally came to a stop by the gates of the school, turn her head to look over at you and frown. This could not be a good sign.
“You better not hurt Twilight like that again. Hurting Lemon is one thing, she is tough and forgiving, you could throw hell at her, and in the end, she will still forgive you, but Twilight is different. You will need to be patient with her. You will need to be careful with what you say and what you do. She is not the one to forgive and forget easily. I am saying this for your own good”
There she was again, concerned about Twilight. It made you wonder why she was doing this. Clearly something had happened between Twilight and Sugarcoat to get her all overprotective or whatever it is that she is doing right now, but what?
“Sugarcoat, I already told you… It’s alright. I talked to Twilight and well… we are good now… sort of… she still hasn’t forgiven me completely and still has her doubts, but she is slowly opening up to me.” This was another friendship problem you will have to be careful with. Twilight might have forgiven you initially, but that was just the eye of the storm. You caught her in a weak moment, after a small while, she sort of got mad at you again for a bit. You are walking on thin ice, but you were determined not to fall down and fall into the water.
Sugarcoat looked up at you and stared right into your eyes. It was weird to staring into those big light purple eyes as they judge you, but in the end, she smiled… again. The world must truly be coming to an end. “I can tell you are not lying, but still. Twilight is like a feather in the wind. Go too strong and she will lose control. Go too soft and she might fall and leave.”
“Hey, Sugarcoat… why are you so concerned about Twilight?”
Sugarcoat rolled her eyes and sighed. “I already told you. We used to be friends.”
“Yes, yes… I know that. But… what happened? You seem to know an awful lot about her.”
That shut her up. Had you touched a nerve? Or maybe you said something you shouldn’t have to? Oh god did you mess up again!?
“Why do you care?”
“Because you are my friend Sugarcoat, and I want to help you like you helped me”
That certainly threw her off the loop. Since when were you two friends? Sure you and Lemon might be friends, maybe you are also friends with Sunny, but the other three? You are not even close to friendship with them.
“There is nothing you can do.” She refused to tell you anything. She has not told anything to her actual friends, why would she tell you?
“Maybe there is,” you challenge. “You won’t know until you try me.”
“I told you, there is nothing you can do. I am not telling you!”
“But why not? I’m just trying to be friendly and help!”
“No. I don’t need your friendship.”
“Why though? Because you have your other friends?”
Sugarcoat was starting to lose her patience with your at the moment. She just closed her eyes, clenched her fists and turned her head away from you “No, it’s not that!”
“Then what is it?” All you wanted were answers. Answers so you could help others, in this case, Sugarcoat. She helped you with Twilight, it was only logical you would help her back, right?
“Because I don’t want to lose more friends!” She nearly screamed in your face as she teared up. Luckily there was no one around to see nor hear them because if they had been there, you would probably be in trouble… again.
Sugarcoat quickly took her glasses off, whipped the tears from her eyes and frowned as she looked up at you once again after fixing her glasses. “Just… stop. Okay? I’m not ready...” And that was that. She simply turned around and began walking away towards the bus stop. Clearly her day was over, but you weren’t.
You were sick and tired of just standing there. You were tired of not being able to help others. You were tired of always being the one that needs help but not be able to provide it as well. You were not going to let go.
“No,” you said to yourself and began walking towards her. You stopped her by grabbing her on the shoulder gently. She flinch for a moment before turning around and looking up at you. Her eyes were red again and she was at the verge of crying. “Sugarcoat, you need to stop. You need to stop closing yourself to the world. This is not good for you!”
Sugarcoat surprisingly didn’t push you away as you would have expected, nor she made some sort of comment to dismiss yours. Instead she just began crying. She couldn’t hold her tears back. All those years of bottling her emotions up were finally coming out. Sure it was not with someone she would have liked to be, but it was someone she could trust to some extent.
Wrapping both arms around her, you pulled her into a warm embrace and let her cry. It takes more strength to cry than not to cry, especially to someone like Sugarcoat who shows little to no emotion in her life. Both her hands went up to your chest and she pressed her fists on them. She wanted to punch you, she really wanted to beat you up on the spot for managing to crack open her bubble shell and make her cry.
And then it began. After a few minutes of just crying and standing there in the middle of the sidewalk, she began giving you soft punches on the chest just to get all her emotions out at once. Anger, sadness, regret, anything that has been haunting her and hadn’t been able to deal with properly until now. It was a little painful, but you knew better not to stop her. If you had done that then and there, she would probably not open up to you ever again.
What’s with you and making girls cry? Really, you came to this new town and already made a few girls cry for something you did or even said. Either you are doing something wrong, or girls in this town are a bunch of sissies. Luckily, the punching did not last that long. She eventually began pulling out and looked up at you, her eyes still watered up with your arms around her body. You were not sure if you had to let go or not, but the answer to that came pretty soon. “You can let go of me. I am not going to kiss your or anything. This is not a cheap romance, this is real life”
You quickly unwrapped your arms from her, she wasted no time in stepping back to fix her uniform, her eyes, even her pig tails a bit and then sigh. Part of you was glad to have Sugarcoat cry like that, but another part of you kind of wanted her to not do it ever again. It was weird after all, you did not mean to be rude or anything, but Sugarcoat is not the kind of person who cries. Not on your book at least. “Better?”
“Yes. Thank you for that… and I apologize for hitting you.”
“You can cut the formality, Sugarcoat. You just cried me a river and showed me a side of you I never imagined I would see.”
Sugarcoat took a little offense to that but she let it slide this time because, despite saying she did not need nor want help, she did get it, and it was good. “Very well… you will not speak a word of what happened today. If you really are my friend, you will respect this request I make you.”
Too bad, it would have been a nice anecdote to tell others, but then again, who would have believed you that she cried in your arms? Probably no one. “I promise I won’t tell anyone about this, unless you allow me.”
That was enough for Sugarcoat. She just nod and gave you a quick hug with a small smile. “Thank you Anon. You may be a cretin and a moron sometimes, but you are a really good person deep down.”
You could not help but to hug her again. Her compliment was sincere… even though it was accompanied with an insult. It was something. “Thank you Sugarcoat, and you are quite a baby despite being so careful and serious.”
Sugarcoat immediately pushed out and slapped you across the face. “Don’t push your luck Anon. That is something only you know and no one else. Understood?”
“Y-yes ma’am… so about Twilight?”
“That is a story for another chapter.”
“Another what now?”
“Nothing. Forget what I said… I will tell you what happened some other time.”
“Oh alright. Well, I guess… I will be seeing you tomorrow?”
“We go to the same school, don’t we?”
“Yes?“
“There is your answer… See your tomorrow.”
As soon as Sugarcoat turned around, she climbed on the bus and began to leave, the sting on your cheek began to really hurt. It was worth it though. Not many times you get to tease Sugarcoat and not end up on top of a flag post for it or something. Overall, this was a good day… that is until you turned around and noticed someone leaning against the wall nearby.
“Well, well, well… Sugacoat can be quite a cry baby. Who would have thought?”
Oh no… someone had seen it all… It was not really something bad for you, but for Sugarcoat… this could ruin her reputation. No, it was worse. Someone had recorded it all with their phone. Dammit why didn’t you pay more attention?
“You are quite the charmer Anon… making all the girls in Crystal Prep cry… I wonder what would happen if a video of someone as serious and tough as Sugarcoat crying on the arms of the new guy would suddenly spread out through the internet.”
Why, out of all the people that could have found out about this, it had to be her? There was no easy way out from this one. If you were going to take a bullet for Sugarcoat, you would need to do what she tells you.
“Let’s make a deal. Do something for me, and I will delete this video.”
You had to… sure, Sugarcoat and you were not all buddy buddy yet, but… if you ever want to actually be friends with her and even with the other Shadowbolts… you would need to play her game.
This was the only way…
“Alright Gilda… what do you want?”