//------------------------------//
// Ch.27 Bitter and Sweet 
// Story: The First Star of Twilight 
// by Arcanum -Phantasy 
//------------------------------//

If there was one thing Sugarcoat took the most pride in, it was her ability to plan ahead. This skill served her well on countless occasions, both in her gaming sessions and in other aspects in her life. Of course, it was impossible to prepare for everything, but it wasn't too hard for her to improvise when such events came to pass. 
That pride was currently recovering from its most recent massive kick in the crotch.
At the moment, she found herself sitting in the middle of the Crystal Emporium's food court, sharing a pizza with the last person she thought she ever would. Sour seemed to mirror her feelings on the matter, the girl's posture tense and awkward as she nibbled on a slice of pizza. Sugar let out a small sigh, a faint frown following it when Sour flinched in response.
I can't believe Dagon dragged me into this, she thought, slowly sucking a bit of soda form her cup's straw. 


***


"You want me to do what?" Sugar blinked, faint confusion slipping onto her stoic face.
"You heard me," Dagon stated, small fists on his hips as he met her gaze.
The two sat on the bed in their borrowed room, the girl still bedraggled and groggy from a night of fitful sleep. wiping her bed-head out of her face , she plucked her glasses off of a bedside table and put them on to better meet the spirit's glare.
"I did," she nodded. "I just don't think it would be a good idea."
"You wish to atone for your wrongs, correct?" he pressed.
Her lips quivered briefly before she nodded.
"Then you know what must be done," he huffed, then gave her a crooked smirk as he added, "I was going to make you take a break from our lessons today, anyway. So I fail to see any better time to do this."
"You were?" she blinked.
He nodded, his smile wilting.
"A human's mind is a great, but delicate thing. To wield my power, a truly exceptional mind is required as a base. After that, a cycle of practice and rest is required."
"Like training a muscle," she nodded. "That makes sense. I am not a Gifted, so I lack the kind of power someone like Sunny has access to."
"The fact that you are not a Gifted is exactly the reason you can use my power," he chuckled.
"What do you mean?" she frowned. "Wouldn't a Gifted make a better candidate?"
"You would think," he sighed. "Let's just say my power isn't compatible with Aether and leave it at that."
"I see," she nodded. 
"Good," he huffed. "Now, get out there and make a friend!"
"I need to get dressed first," she deadpanned, gesturing to the teddybear onesie she was still wearing.
"I still do not see why you like to sleep in that?" he mused, watching her drag herself out of bed.
"It's comfy," she said simply, reaching into a gray duffle bag by her bed.
Shrugging the comment off, he sat himself down on the bedside table. With puff of gray smoke, he disappeared, leaving his ring behind on the table. Sugar was unfazed as she pulled a towel out of the bag and made her way towards her guestroom's bathroom to freshen up. While her face didn't show it, she knew that today was going to be a long one.


***


At least we haven't tried to kill each other yet, she mused, setting her drink down.
"So," she flatly started. "You want to play D&D?"
"Y-Yes," Sour softly smiled, then scowled and bitterly added, "But not with you."
Sugar raised a brow at that.
Sour's eyes widened, both of her hands flying to cover her mouth.
"I...understand," Sugar sighed. "We've been attacking each other for years. It would be unrealistic to think that we could just suddenly be friends."
"Th-That's not it!" Sour cried, her voice holding a faint echo. "J-Just give u- ME! Just...give me a minute."
Sugar nodded, perplexed and a little worried for the girl sitting across from her. 
Ignoring Sugar, Sour closed her eyes and tried to find her center. While a little more difficult than usual, Sour eventually managed to reconnect the two halves of her mind. Letting out a relieved sigh, she opened her eyes and gave Sugar a tired smile.
"Sorry about that," she nervously chuckled, her voice regaining its full echo. "I'm....I'm good."
"Why does your voice sound like that?" Sugar blinked. "It sounded like that yesterday too, but I forgot to ask about it."
"I guess that's as good place to start as any," Sour frowned. 
For the next few minutes, Sour told Sugar everything she could about her condition. The whole time, Sugar stayed silent and listened. While she didn't show it, guilt ate at her little by little the more details she was fed. Slowly, past interactions with the girl started to make more sense. Combined with what she had learned about Sour's past served to push the knife even further into her heart.
I am such a bitch.
"I'm sorry," Sugar frowned, wilting in her seat. "I know it doesn't make any real difference, but I'm sorry for everything I did to you."
"It's okay," Sour sighed. "I...don't really blame you for acting like that."
"But-" Sugar started, only to be cut off by a halting hand from Sour.
"Let's....just try to talk about something else, okay?" she sighed, smiling softly. 
Sugar blinked dumbly at her for a second, then sported a small smile as she nodded.
"What do you want to talk about?"
"I guess we could talk about that game," Sour shrugged. "Dungeons and....Dragons, was it?"
"Alright," she nodded. "What do you want to know?"
Sour's cheeks reddened a bit, fidgeting sheepishly in her seat as she said, "Lemon said you could help me make a character if I asked. So...."
Sugar let out a small chuckle.
"If you want to join my playgroup, that would be a good place to start. Luckily, the mall has a store that should have everything we will need for you."
"R-Really?" Sour asked, surprise flooding her features.
Sugar nodded.
"So, what kind of character do you want to build?"


***


The D-20 was full of life, countless people appraising wears or making their way to the checkout with their desired purchases. The other half of the room was loaded with occupied tables, some of the people there dressed in elaborate costumes and others sporting various merchandise from one franchise or another. All of said tables were covered with various figures, dice, and dry-erase marker-maps arranged in a way that only made sense to the people at those tables. 
In the center of this sea of chaos, Sugar casually went about her business, studying the various figures the store had on display in a row of glass aisles. Sour was close by doing the same, clearly overwhelmed by everything that was going on around her. Sugar watched her from the corner of her eye and smirked a little, the girl's reaction reminding her of the first time her mom brought her to this store.
"I-Is it usually this crazy in here?" Sour asked, the echo a bit dim in her voice.
"Not really," Sugar said, forcing away her smile as she continued to scan the display. "There's a sale on minis and dungeon props today, so everyone's eager to get as many good things for their games as they can."
"Really? Why?" Sour balked. "Can't they just use their imagination or something?"
As she said that, she waved her hands in front of herself in a random series of loops and swirls. 
"It's a matter of pride for DMs," Sugar stated, still searching. "Our jobs are to give our players as good of an experience as we can. Sometimes, that requires a special figure or set model. Other times, it means finding some good background music or incense to add to the atmosphere."
"So, it's like you're a playwright?" she asked, taking point at Sugar's left to look at a few figures.
"Kind've," Sugar nodded. "I have some control over the world my players are in and the characters they can interact with, but they are the ones that decide how their characters interact with that world as a whole."
"That's....a lot," she blinked. "How often do you all get together?"
"Once or twice a week," Sugar simply stated.
Sour's head snapped towards her, shock plain on her face.
"Once or twi...how do you set up everything and deal with classwork?" 
"I have a system," she shrugged.
Sour continued to stare at her for a few seconds, before she slowly shifted her attention back towards the figures. Being an Elite, she was no stranger to Crystal Prep's demanding academic standards. Just getting into the top ten required an impressive amount of dedication. Getting into the top five required either double the effort or an incredible amount of talent. While she knew that Twilight and Sunny were the later cases, she herself fell into the former category. Between her training and classes, it was almost impossible for her to maintain what few hobbies she had.
Sneaking a few small corner glances, Sour couldn't help feeling a bit of admiration towards the stoic girl.
When she resumed her examination of the figures, one of them suddenly grabbed her attention. The being resembled a blond elven woman, only, her skin was a bright verdant green. She wore a brown sleeveless tunic that looked as if it was made from two large leaves, a pair of ornate leather gauntlets, black pants, and light-set boots. She looked as if she was in the middle of a twirl, hair waving behind her in an imagined breeze and smiling brightly as she aimed an already notched arrow at some unseen threat. 
She looks....SO COOL!
"Find something you like?" Sugar asked, lips pulled up into a small knowing smile.
Sour quickly schooled her expression, admiration trading places with indifference as she let out a terce, "Maybe."
Sugar nodded, clearly not fooled by the act.
"What did you find?"
Fidgeting in place, small blush colored her cheeks as she pointed at the figure in question.
"The green elf lady."
Sugar stared at the figure.
"Close," she stated. "That's an Eladrin."
"That's what an Eladrin looks like?" Sour blinked.
"Sometimes," Sugar shrugged. "That's a Spring or 'Happy' form Eladrin."
"Spring form?" she frowned, then face-palmed as she bitterly added, "That's right. Lemon said they could do that."
"Do you want to get it?" Sugar asked. "It would be perfect for the ranger character you want to make."
"I don't know," she mused. "Wouldn't I need to get different figures for her or something?"
"Not necessarily," Sugar shrugged. "Some Eladrin stay in one form permanently while others change with their moods. It depends of how you want your character to be."
Sour mulled that over for a minute, staring intently at the spring Eladrin. Shuffling around with different figures sounded like a huge pain in the neck and she was sure that there were a few things that would make this character even more of a pain to use. At the same time, she couldn't help but to be drawn to the idea of giving it a try. On top of that, if the spring version of this kind of being looked this cool, she could only imagine how the other forms would look.
Knowing that she was probably going to regret it later, she gave Sugar a smile and said, "If I'm going to do this, I want to do this right. How many forms do Eladrin have?"
"Four," Sugar smiled back. "And they each do something different. Are you sure you want to do this?"
"Bring it on," she smirked, her echo back to its normal volume.
"Alright," Sugar softly chuckled. "Let's see if we can find any minis that match this one."


***


Sour and Sugar sat in the bus in comfortable silence, the former excitedly reading through a book on character creation. Sugar held her stoic mask while she watched her, a tiny ghost of a smile teasing at the corners of her mouth. The day went better than she expected. Granted, those expectations had been pretty low at the start, but that was beside the point as far as she was concerned. It was almost as much of a mixed bag as the first time she went to the mall with Twilight and Petal. The sense of deja vu was especially strong when Sour had her "moments". Those aside, she could see that Sour was a pretty nice girl to be around. If it wasn't for the girl's quirk, Sugar was sure that they could've been friends a long time ago.
I wonder if the same could be said for Sunny, she mused.
A nervous cough pulled her out of her thoughts.
"Yes?" Sugar asked.
Sour fiddled with her fingers, staring down at the now closed book on her lap as she asked, "Are you sure you're okay with me coming to your house?"
Sugar nodded.
"All of my DM stuff is in my room. It will be easier for us to make your character there. Besides, it's only fair that you get to see my house after I got to spend the night at yours."
"That's a really sweet thought," she beamed, then bitterly added, "Not that you really needed to go that far."
Sugar raised a brow.
Sour offered her an apologetic smile, closed her eyes, and took a long, slow, breath. After doing this for a few minutes, she opened her eyes and gave her a nod.
"Sorry about that," she sighed, her voice regaining its echo. "This whole thing is still....really weird for me. I'm so used to us being at each other's throats that being nice feels...."
"Wrong?" Sugar offered.
Sour guiltily nodded, staring down at her book.
Sugar sighed, leaning back in her seat and closing her eyes.
"This whole thing has been weird for me too."
"The Gifted thing, or us not trying to throttle each other?" Sour bitterly snorted.
"Yes," she flatly stated.
Sour let out a full chuckle at that.
Sugar continued.
"I always thought that it would be cool to have magic powers. Now that I am getting them....I'm not so sure anymore."
"I thought the same thing when Mom started training me," Sour snorted, lips pulled up into a wistful smile. "Trust me, once you get used to it all, you'll start to feel a lot less overwhelmed by everything"
"Dagon said something similar to that," she faintly huffed, giving Sour a flatter stare than usual. 
Sour rolled her eyes at that, then ruefully shook her head.
"Do you want to know what really makes my head spin?" Sugar asked.
"What?"
"The fact that we're civil with each other is more shocking to me than a talking dragon spirit popping into my room."
Silence settled between them for a few seconds, before they both burst out laughing.
When they eventually caught their breath, the bus slowed to a stop. Taking a look out the window, Sugar nodded to herself and rose from her seat. Sour followed suit, following the girl to the bus's door as it opened with a loud hiss. When archer stepped out of the bus and took stock of her surroundings, one house in particular instantly caught her attention.
It was a two story house with round windows  on the top and bottom floors with a similarly shaped front door, each of the former tinted different colors while the later was yellow with small red polka dots spattered all across it. The exterior stucco walls looked as if someone took random buckets of paint and dumped them everywhere, complete with trails and spattering drips in each area. The front lawn was immaculately trimmed, but decorated with a wide variety of fantasy-themed ornaments. Dragons sat at mushroom tables sipping tea with leprechauns and dwarves, faeries read newspapers on couches made of grass, gnomes rode rabbits into battle against small armored gremlins, and various other absurd scenes dotted the lawn in near random arrangements. A cobblestone path made of round, square, and triangle gray slabs ran down the middle of the lawn towards the front door from the sidewalk.
What kind of lunatic would live there? Sour thought, struggling to look at the madness before her.
Her question was answered when Sugar stepped off of the sidewalk onto the cobblestone path.
"This is where you live?" she gaped, the echo in her voice wavering.
"Yes," she nodded, turning to face the still sidewalk-bound girl. "Is there a problem?"
"N-No," she stuttered out. "I just...this is isn't the kind of place I thought you would live at."
Sugar looked around for a second, then turned back to her and said, "My dad has fun taste."
"Your dad did all of this?" she blinked.
Again, Sugar nodded.
"Do you want to see what it looks like inside?" Sugar asked, a small smile spreading across her lips.
"I'm....Yeah," Sour nervously nodded.
"Thought so," Sugar softly snorted.
With that, she took Sour's hand and gently guided her towards her home's front door. As she did, Sour tried to brace herself. If this was what Sugar's family was willing to show the world, what kind of madness lay hidden within the house itself? Her mind ran through all kinds of possibilities with each step she took, some of them more fanciful than the last. By the time she reached the door, she was sure that she was going to meet a talking white rabbit or magical smiling cat on the other side.
Still softly smiling, Sugar opened the door and gestured for Sour to step inside. Taking a steadying breath, Sour nodded as she did just that. When she crossed the threshold, she looked around to see just what kind of insanity she had stepped into.
She was greeted by a living room straight out of a fantasy novel, with an ornate red rug laid out over a chocolate brown hardwood floor. The furniture, a wood-framed green couch and lounge chair, sat facing each other on opposite sides of an oval coffee table at its middle. The couch and chair looked as if they were made of dragon scales while the wood was carved to resemble bones. The coffee table had an amethyst base with an iron frame and legs molded into the shape of ivy and leaves. The walls looked to be made of bare wood with lamps made to look like torches set into each of the corners. The oddly tinted window in the room filled it with an alien aura that added an almost fae feel to the scene.
All of it left Sour stunned, so much so that she almost didn't notice it when Sugar closed the front door behind them.
"Pretty, isn't it?" Sugar asked, stepping up to the girl's side.
Sour nodded, jaw still slack.
"Do you want to see more?"
Again, Sour dumbly nodded.
Sugar giggled softly, then lightly took Sour's hand and guided her further into the house. 
For the next half hour, Sugar gave Sour the grand tour of the place she called home. The bare wood walls and hardwood floor from the living room were a constant sight, along with the fantastic elements that room displayed. Pictures of enchanted scenes in nature-themed frames decorated walls while the furniture all held the same level of druidic flavors. All of the wall lights were made to look like torches, complete with bulbs that , when lit, looked like flickering flames. Even the basement wasn't ignored, the walls covered with wallpaper that, combined with the "torch" light, made it look like a stairway into a dungeon. 
Sour observed it all with childish wonder, not once voicing any kind of opinion on anything she saw until she was brought to Sugar's room.
"What kind of things do your parents do?" she asked, still gobsmacked as she took a seat on Sugar's bed.
"My dad is a professor at Canterlot University and is an indigame developer on the side," Sugar shrugged, taking a seat next to her guest.
"And your mom?" 
A bit of pain briefly slid across Sugar's face.
"She's....not around," she forced out, a somber lilt coloring her mostly flat tone.
"Oh," Sour gulped, shame dominating her features as she softly said, "S-Sorry."
"It's.....fine," Sugar sighed. "I'm.......mostly over it."
Silence settled between them, both of them struggling to think of a way to break it without stepping on a land mine. After a few minutes, Sour decided to be the one to bite the bullet.
"So...what kind of games did your dad put out there?"
Sugar visibly relaxed at that, as subtle as the shift may have been to the naked eye.
"Well," she hummed. "He's put out quite a few. One of them was some rhythm game called Friday Night Funkin'. Another was a horror game called Five Nights at Teddy's. I think he helped produce a game called, Dark Deceptions, but I'm not sure. He also made a DLC for Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion."
Sour's jaw was practically on her lap.
"Uh, Sugar, what is your dad's name?" she gulped.
"Discord?" she announced, raising a brow. "Why?"
Sour stared at her, eyes wide and exasperated choking noises falling out of her fully slacked jaw.
"Sour? Are you okay?" Sugar nervously asked, poking the stunned girl's shoulder.
"S-Sorry," Sour stammered, shaking the cobwebs out of her head. "I'm just...It's just......I'm a huge fan of Discord's games and you're.....and he's.......Wow."
"Do you want to meet him later?"
"CAN I?" she gushed, then quickly schooled herself, looked away with a small blush, and added, "I-I mean...Sure. That would be cool...and stuff."
Sugar watched her with a small smile, rolling her eyes as she stood up and walked towards her Dungeon and Dragon gear.
"He should be back around eight tonight. Maybe we can help him beat these two ladies that are kicking his butt at Fortnight the last few months."
"Who?" she asked, a challenging smirk spreading across her lips.
"A pair calling themselves Sunprincess432 and Woonawins693," Sugar shrugged "Are you game?"
"To help my favorite game developer kick butt?" Sour asked. "Let me thi- HELL YEAH!"
Sugar chuckled at that, making her way back towards her bed with a few sheets of paper and  three different notebooks tucked under her arm.
"Looks like things are going to be a little interesting tonight," she smiled, taking a seat. "In the meantime let's get your character put together."
"Right," Sour nodded, a hint of nerves creeping into her features. "I hope I don't make a fool of myself."
"In front of my dad or at the next D&D session?"
"Yes," Sour gulped.
Sugar just shook her head, small smile still present as she flipped open one of her notebooks.
"Let's just take all of this one step at a time, okay?"
Sour nodded, both halves of her mind spinning in the face of just how crazy this simple day had become.