"So what happened at Twilight's first swimming course?"
Shining leaned back in his chair with a wistful smile, eager to tell more stories about his sister to Sugarcoat. "It was quite a...spectacle."
The white-skinned detective and the grey-skinned private school student met in the former's office, a strip mall about five miles north of Crystal Prep, to learn more details about Twilight's life. They hoped they could find a clue as to Twilight's whereabouts in those details.
Sunset was originally designated as the data collector, but a competition with her fencing club meant she wasn't available for that duty.
Sugarcoat decided to take up the task for her. While Shining got along best with Lemon Zest, Shining saw the bespectacled Crystal Prep student as the most professional and meticulous of her friends.
While Shining had barred the Shadowbolt from his house, he had no problem meeting with them in his workplace. It was a compromise between Shining accepting the Shadowbolts wanted to be better people while making it clear that he was far from giving them the family friend treatment.
Aside from a few loose papers on the table, Shining's office was pretty neat and minimalist, with a mahogany desk, a computer, and some cabinets being the most conspicuous objects. The Shadowbolt was here because she wanted to pick up Twilight's medical history. While ponies and humans had far different medical profiles, any information helped. But before she could get that, Sugarcoat had to listen to some family anecdotes about Twilight. Not only did they provide valuable insight into her former classmate's character, but some were entertaining.
"Anyways, it didn't go...well..." Shining said, beginning to chuckle.
"Let me guess," Sugarcoat asked in a deadpan tone. "She was afraid of the water?"
Shining began openly snickering even more. "No...it was...a little bit worse than that."
Clover Community Center-Ten Years Ago
A sweaty Shining Armor sat in the commons room of the community center, fooling around on his laptop. He earned himself a rest after his reps. He tried to withdraw himself from the world-
"MONSTER GONNA EAT ME!"
He looked up from the computer and saw, to his horror, Twilight running around the room.
She was shrieking her voice out, screaming about some monster going to eat her.
Twilight's swim coach was chasing after her. "Sweetie," the blue-skinned woman admonished calmly but gently.
"MONSTER! MONSTER!"
While the commons room looked at this spectacle with confusion, the white-skinned teenager watched this scene with mortification. "Oh Vida," Shining muttered under his breath. Pushing the temptation to pretend he wasn't related, he closed his laptop and marched toward Twilight.
"Twily," Shining muttered. The stern voice of his loving and protective brother got the five-year-old girl to stop. "What's wrong?"
"Shiny," the little girl wailed, "There was a monster, and it nearly got me!"
Shining looked confused and turned toward the swim coach, Mrs. Bubble, who let out an annoyed sigh before holding up some yellow thing. "I was trying to put this around her-"
"AAHHH!" Twilight shrieked, getting behind her tall older brother. "Monster!"
"Twilight, it's not a monster," the white-skinned athlete said, forcing some patience into his voice. The monster his sister claimed to be afraid of was a duck-shaped floatie.
The girl cocked her head cutely. "It's not?"
"It's a floatie, sweetheart," Mrs. Bubble assured the scared girl. "If you wear this, you can float in the water."
Twilight's fear gave way to confusion and embarrassment as other people began to mock and belittle her.
,
"It's alright folks," Shining announced to the crowd, trying to cover for his little sister, "Just a false alarm." Twilight was gently led back to the pool by Mrs. Bubble.
Sugarcoat, ever the stoic person didn't laugh, but a hint of amusement could appear even on her face. "Wow, so even back then, Twilight had a knack for embarrassing-," Sugarcoat began only to shut her mouth when he saw a hint of a glare on the white-skinned man's face. The pig-tailed girl was a blunt person, but she realized that casting aspersions on Twilight in front of her brother while she was missing wasn't a wise choice. "So Twilight could...swim". Sugarcoat added abruptly, trying to keep the conversation pleasant.
Shining let out a quiet but annoyed sigh, recognizing the grey skin was trying, for once, to filter her words. "Well she wasn't a sports person, but she liked swimming in the pool. But, she just stopped." A frustrated frown appeared on the blue-haired man's face. "I can't remember when it was. But when she was about ten years old, she did something that managed to impress a lot of people." A proud smile appeared on the man's face.
"Twilight." Mrs. Bubble approached her student, who was sitting around, playing with beakers of water. "Time to swim."
"But Mrs. Bubble," the little lavender girl said while holding up the two beakers, "I need to determine the Ph content of the pool."
An amused smile appeared on the swim coach. Most girls played with dolls or video games, but this girl did chemistry in her spare time. "First swim," the blue-skinned woman sang, "then you can determine the pH content of the pool."
The bespectacled girl's eyes widened. "Really?"
"In fact," Mrs. Bubble said, "I let you see how we apply chlorine to disinfect the pool." The girl jumped up from her sitting place and waddled toward the pool.
"HELP!" A scared voice said. Mrs. Bubble saw a panicking boy with white skin and something brown flailing about in the pool. "DOGGIE FELL IN!" The boy shrieked.
All her charges began shrieking with terror over the poor doggie, their cries drawing people into the pool. Mrs. Bubble jumped in until she saw someone else was already swimming to save the doggy.
Twilight immediately swam up to the dog and pulled it out of the water. "Don't worry, doggy," Twilight chirped, "I'm gonna help you."
Shining burst a few moments later into the pool, attracted to the noise and worried about his sister. He saw Twilight lying near the pool's edge, moist and panting.
"Twilight-," Shining began-
"IS A HERO!" A shrill male voice yelled. He saw some boy hugging her exhausted sister and several of the kids crowding around her.
"It's true Shining," Mrs. Bubble said with a proud smile while holding a wet brown terrier. "This poor dog fell into the pool, and Twilight was the one who saved her from drowning." The brown dog lept out of Mrs. Bubble's arms and tackled Twilight, licking the bookish child as a thank you.
Shining ran up to his sister and gave her a big hug. "I'm so proud of you, Twily."
"Really?" Twilight asked her brother
"As a way to reward Twilight," Shining said wistfully, "my parents got her Spike".
Despite her own cynicism, Sugarcoat couldn't help but feel moved by Twilight's heroism. "I never knew about that," the bespectacled Crystal Prep student wondered aloud.
"If you weren't such an ass, you would've," Shining said with sarcastic bitterness, much to the Crystal Prep student's mortification. "For someone who gives her opinion, there's a lot you don't seem to know."
Sugarcoat tried to reign in her temper. She knew deep down she deserved the shade Twilight's brother threw at her. She tried to be the bigger person, but insults directed toward her intelligence were one of the few things that could get under her skin.
"You're such a great detective and you couldn't figure out your sister was miserable." Sugarcoat said the words in her usual stoic tone, only for her to realize, based on the shocked expression on Shining's face, that she went too far. Sugarcoat's regret gave way to fear as the man continued to stare silently at her
Sugarcoat started to try and excuse herself, rising from her chair. "Um, I should be going-,"
"Why don't you have a seat right over there?" Shining asked in a seemingly polite tone, pointing to the chair Sugarcoat just rose from. Sugarcoat's fear grew, recognizing that this was the tone Shining used before he punched the wall right in front of them. The deceptively calm but fierce tone that Indigo once called Detective Mode. Indigo theorized Detective Mode was why Twilight always acted like a goody-toe-shoes: because she couldn't get anything past an older brother who was a detective.
"Uh...
"C'mon", Shining said, his tone becoming quieter while his eyes were becoming sharper. "Have a seat." Realizing Shining's words were more of an order than a statement, Sugarcoat sat down feeling sweat roll down her forehead and let out a gulp.
"So you think I'm an idiot, don't you?" Shining asked. Asking wasn't really the right word. Sugarcoat felt she was being interrogated, and anything she said would be used against her. Sugarcoat just looked at the floor, not giving any commentary for once.
"What's wrong?" Shining asked in a "good cop" voice. "Do you have a sore throat? Do you need a glass of water? C'mon, we're friends here. You can say anything you want."
Sugarcoat forced herself to look into Shining's eyes. "I don't think you're an idiot-"
"Yes, you do," Shining interrupted, his voice a weird combination of manic and playful. "You think I'm an idiot for believing in such stupid things like teamwork, right?" Sugarcoat looked down on the floor, guilt mixing with her terror to create a horrible feeling in her brain. "I am an idiot for thinking that my sister's teammates should look out for her health and well-being, right? I guess I'm also a complete moron for believing in such stupid, pathetic, awful things as responsibility and sacrifice, right? I guess Cadence was a complete fucking moron for expecting you and your equally intelligent buddies to treat a teammate like she mattered right?"
Sugarcoat glared at the floor, hoping the ground would open up and suck her in. "Look at me, Smart Girl!" Alas, the floor didn't afford her that luxury, and she forced herself to look at Shining's fake smile, which looked worse than when the detective punched a hole in the wall.
"No, no, no, I guess instead of believing the basic decency of others, we should all think like you, shouldn't we?" Shining bent down to look at Sugarcoat directly in the eyes. "You are the smartest person ever, right? You're so smart, you never thought to say anything nice to her for once. You're so smart, you never once congratulated her on anything she did right? You're so smart, you told my sister to cheat and mess with magic you didn't understand." He got so close, their noses were practically touching. "Tell me Sugar, how smart do you think you are?"
Sugarcoat felt her eyes begin to water out of fear and regret. "No," Sugarcoat muttered in a tiny voice.
"What did you say?" Shining asked rhetorically. "Speak up a bit?"
"I don't think I'm smart," Sugarcoat said angrily, "OK?"
"No, it's not OK!" Shining bellowed, no longer pretending to be in a good mood. Sugarcoat jumped, but Shining wasn't showing her any mercy. "Despite all you've done, you do think you're smarter than everyone else."
", No I-,"
"SHUT UP!" Sugarcoat clammed up. "You think being cynical and tearing everyone down is the same as being smart!" Shining took a deep breath. "There are times you do have to be cynical and mean. Sometimes it is warranted." His anger surged. "But being cynical and mean can be stupid as wel! When you think everything is bad and hopeless, you can't think of how to make things better. You were so obsessed with Twilight's flaws you couldn't think of how she could better herself or help her out in any way. You couldn't tell her something that made her feel better. That's what Cadence did for all of you in her office, but you couldn't make any effort! And because of how much you hated her, you nearly got her killed!"
Sugarcoat felt tears form in reaction to Shining's outburst, which felt like an earthquake to her.
"Should Cadence act like that?!" Shining asked in a nasty tone. "Should the Princess act like that? I would love to act that way, but my dear loving wife thinks I should take the high road. I would love to call you 'The Big Black Hole of Misery', or 'The Bigmouth Who Poisons Everything With Her Words, or 'The Girl Whose Destined To Be A Whore Because Nobody Else Can Stand to Be Near Her Big Mouth,' but I know it is wrong to say those words." Sugarcoat was practically on the verge of tears, but Shining wasn't in a forgiving mood.
"Maybe I should bring up how you've destroyed my life and made Twilight want nothing to do with me anymore. I can't think of any other reason she wants to stay in Pony World besides the fact that I sent her to school with a bunch of girls who nearly killed her."
Sugarcoat felt her tears return as she considered one of the theories behind Twilight's absence: Twilight probably found her princess doppelganger but didn't bother to look for her because she wanted nothing to do with her family or Crystal Prep.
Shining got back behind his desk, but still stood and glared at the stated girl. "That's another thing I might have to deal with because of you." Shining's deceptive calm returned after he took a few deep breaths. "Tell me, Sugarcoat, why should anybody have anything to do with you? He sat down, giving Sugarcoat a furious glare. "If the girl who talks too much but is so nice she does her chores with me having to tell her shouldn't get many chances, why should you, the girl who couldn't say anything nice and blew my sister up, get any chances?! Tell me?"
With that, Sugarcoat collapsed into tears, and her hands fell into her face as she began crying her eyes out. Shining maintained his calm facade, but internally, he felt ashamed as she watched the girl cry. Shining looked under his desk and saw a small fridge where he kept water bottles. He wondered if he should offer her one, maybe get her a tissue, or say something nice.
But then he remembered the sad expression on her sister's face the last time he saw her and quickly buried those feelings of mercy.
Sugarcoat treated Twilight like crap. She needs to learn.
"Get lost," Shining said coolly. The forlorn girl looked at Shining with shock and a little bit of pleading as her tears died down. "Your wonderful friend said you didn't like desperate or needy people near you. I can't think of anything more desperate and needy than begging me for mercy and pity you didn't give Twilight." Sugarcoat began to protest, but Shining stopped her with a hand. "You can come back tomorrow. Don't worry, I'm not kicking you off the team," Shining assured her with a bit of sympathy. "But right now, I don't want to deal with your crap."
Shining handed Sugarcoat a file with Twilight's requested medical history. "Now scram before I change my mind." The upset Shadowbolt hurried out of his office. With that, Shining's mean-spirited expression faded. He let out a regretful sigh.
Did I go too far?
On the bus home, Sugarcoat still felt horrific after the verbal beatdown Shining unleashed on her. Still, she managed to bury her feelings by focusing on the medical history of her missing former classmate. While looking through the files, a small card fell out. On it were the words "CPR Certified."
"Twilight knew CPR?"Sugarcoat asked aloud, picking up the card. She got off at her stop and began walking down the street when she saw Sour sitting on a bus stop bench.
"Hey Sour-," Sugarcoat paused when she noticed her pony-tailed friend looked like a little girl whose mom went missing.
"Sour," Sugarcoat began, concern in her voice, "are you OK?"
Sour would either reassure Sugarcoat with a smile or angrily retort that she was okay. Instead, Sour stared at the ground before collapsing into tears, much to Sugarcoat's shock. She immediately pulled her friend into a hug, pat her back like a little baby, and calmly asked her what was wrong.
A Few Hours Later
Juniper smiled as she looked into the mirror at Crystal Prep's bathroom. Not the most ideal place to freshen up, but it was convenient since the gourmet restaurant her friends were taking her to wasn't far from here. Sunny told her this was an incredibly high-class place that required formal dress, and she was determined to look the part. After help from Sunny, she finally learned to dress and groom herself, and while it was narcissistic to say, she liked what she saw in the mirror.
Her new blue dress was immaculate, she finally got her makeup right, and she let her hair down and was able to comb away her split ends. She looked good enough to be at a movie premiere. She walked out of the bathroom, only to bump into Sunny.
"Hey Sunny," Juniper cheered, "how's it-"
"June," Sunny said in her sad voice. Juniper's good cheer gave way to concern.
"Sunny, what's wrong?" Juniper asked her friend with concern.
"We need you to work tonight," Sunny said reluctantly.
Juniper looked at her friend with a bit of concern and anger. "Sunny," the film enthusiast said with some patience, "you promised me-"
"I know," Sunny interrupted with some unease, "but we need you to work-,"
"I've been doing that for three weeks," Juniper threw back patiently, but with a hint of anger in her voice that Sunny couldn't pick up. "I need a break, and you-"
"We paid you, didn't we?" Sunny Flare said in a forceful tone. "I thought friends helped friends, didn't they? Are we friends? Didn't we help you?" The purple-haired girl asked in a tone that sounded like a threat. "If you don't want to return the favor, I guess we're not-"
"No, no, you're right," Juniper said with a forced smile and a cowed expression. "We can do the dinner...some other time." Juniper let out a disappointed breath but forced a smile onto her face. "I'll just go back to the lab."
"Thanks, June," Sunny said, a satisfied expression on her face as if she had won a great fight. "We'll pay you back, promise," the purple-haired girl said, albeit not in a sincere tone. "I got to go through those files; see ya later." She walked away from the green-haired AV student without offering to help her with her lab work. Juniper stood in shock at her best friend once again blowing off plans.
Juniper walked back into the girls' bathroom, ready to wash her makeup off. Once the makeup was off, suddenly, her frustrated emotions boiled over, and she ran to the bathroom stall and angrily punched the door before crying in despair and flushing the toilet, hoping no one heard her.