Sunset Helpers

by Spirit Shift

CH28: Try Try Again

Coco, with a smile almost as radiant as the sun, took a deep breath as she stepped off the bus. Staring out to the front of the girls school. The clouds had finally parted, a drastic change from the mess that was yesterday. Now gone, the world above them revealed a blinding bright light surrounded by an impeccable blue sky.

A light breeze wafted across the area, lightly blowing some hair into Sunset’s face as she followed her friend out onto the campus of their school.

Coco gave a huge stretch, continuing her deep breaths and appreciation of nature. “It’s such a beautiful day!” she exclaimed, looking around at the various students pooling into the school. Some rushing, some taking their time. Others walked with friends and some strolled alone.

Sunset nodded. “Yeah, I guess it is,” she muttered, looking around at the surprisingly small number of kids coming off the bus behind her. “And quiet for once.”

Coco turned back to Sunset. “Definitely a perfect day for a new friend!” she said, excitedly. Her expression softened however. “Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you to talk to Coalstone? I can help!”

Sunset smiled softly but shook her head nonetheless. “I know you could. But this is something I have to do on my own.” She looked up into the blue sky and remembered seeing Coalstone for the first time, his large back surrounded by stone and lifelessness.

“I can’t really explain it… but he reminds me of me somehow… before we met, I mean.” Coco looked over her, her head cocked curiously, but a concerned look on her face regardless. Sunset continued.

“All I can really say is that I want to help him get used to this school and people, like you did for me,” Sunset caught a quick glimpse of Rainbow running from nearby into the school. She had thought of waving, but the girl clearly seemed to be in some sort of rush, definitely enough of one to have not noticed Coco or herself. Seeing her friend in such a rush, Sunset couldn't help but chuckle.

“All of you,” she finished, turning back to Coco. Looking the shorter girl in the eyes, Sunset nodded resolutely and held up her hand. “I got this!”

Coco nodded and eagerly met Sunset’s upheld hand with her own, completing the high five.

~~~

“Easier said than done,” Sunset mused as she made her way down the school hall.

Not more than 20 minutes later, she found herself striding down the same path that led to the very room she had been unceremoniously kicked out of the day before. Taking out her phone, she once again checked her recent text from Rainbow. The first of which came only a few minutes after she and Coco had separated to go to their first classes.

“Yo! Dont come to 1st period today, got cancelled.”

“How??” she had replied.

“Ok well not canceled, more like its study hall cuz the teach isnt here. Anyway, go do something else! See you next period!”

And she hadn't gotten another text since then.

Sunset sighed. Originally her plan was to use most of the school day to build up herself mentally and maybe plan out some conversation topics in a helpful bulleted list or something. And while she could probably do the same during study hall, something told her that talking to him sooner would be better.

So, she found herself making her way down to this wing of the school, passing less and less students as she went. By the time she turned the corner to her destination, almost all student traffic had ceased.

Much to her surprise, the art room door was wide open. Glancing around, she hesitantly made her way over.

Peaking in, she was greeted with the sight of Coalstone standing near the corner of the room, once again, his back turned towards the entrance.

Sunset took a deep breath, and readied herself before walking in as naturally as possible.

The sound of her boots quickly caught Coalstone’s attention. A stark difference from how he was yesterday when he wouldn't give her existence the time of day while he was working. He quickly turned and glanced at her direction before subtly rolling his eyes. “What do you want?” he asked tersely. Upon turning his body Sunset discovered a set of tools on the table in front of him, in his hands held a chisel that he was wiping down with a damp looking washcloth.

She mentally nodded, resolving to try to take advantage of his attention. “Judging by the state of the room, I don’t think he’s started anything yet,” she idly considered. “This is perfect!”

“Umm, well I,” Sunset began, stammering, “Well I was just surprised to see that you left the door unlocked. So I just…” she shrugged.

“Hmph. The art teacher was upset when she found out that I had the door locked,” he said stoicly. “That still doesn’t mean that I was looking for company.”

Carefully setting down his tools, he turned to Sunset once more. “I told my cousin that I’m not interested in hired friends, so you don’t have to come here anymore.
Sunset shook her head and took a step forward. “That may be, but I do genuinely want to get to know you. You have so many interesting things here.”

Coalstone looked at her for a second, before turning away. “Interesting, huh. I guess you could call them that. But I'm good. Not really interested in getting to know anyone in this school, fairly sure I told you that before.”

Moving back to his tools, he quickly wrapped them in cloth, and picked them up.

“Not sure why you even care,” he continued as he moved. It’s not like you would have known I was even here if it weren’t for Diamond Tiara,” he finished. As he talked he had walked his tool set back to the centre of the room where a pedestal with a semi chiselled piece of stone sat.

Sunset shook her head, expecting this response. “Even so, I’m here now and I want to know more about you, and these statues. I heard they were something called gargoyles, right?”

This caught his attention, and for a brief moment when he turned to look at Sunset, she saw something that resembled a pang of interest in his eyes. However, a single blink and it was gone, replaced once more with his usual stony gaze.

He let out a small sigh. “Listen, I don’t know how much Diamond Tiara is paying you to put up with me, but there’s no point. I’m just a guy in the corner making statues. I’m sure they’re unsightly and ‘interesting’ so I don’t blame you for being curious, but honestly, I’d rather make my ‘creepy’ statues in peace.”

And with that he turned to reach for his hammer to begin the day's sculpting.

“Creepy? I don’t think they’re creepy at all though,” Sunset replied, her tone laced with genuine confusion.

Coalstone’s hand paused, still as a statue while Sunset continued. “I’ve honestly never seen or heard of these creature shapes before.” She glanced around at the various statues. “And I thought I knew a LOT about various creatures.”

She glanced back and Coalstone who, once again had turned to her, a bit more light shining in his eyes than before. “Right... You’ve really never seen a gargoyle before?” he asked skeptically.

Sunset shook her head and Coalstone nodded before turning away. “I see, well you strike me as the studious type. I’m sure you can swing by the library to pick up a book or two and read up on them.”

Sunset noticed that he wasn’t immediately reaching for his tools anymore. Her chest lit up, excited to see that her efforts were not in vain. Her thoughts immediately went back to her first conversation with Rainbow Dash in the library. What was little more than a few months ago suddenly felt so far behind her. But what still remained fresh in her mind, was the topic that brought them together.

“I could,” she said, smiling softly. “But I thought I could come to you about them. I can see how much detail you put into them. I admire hard work and craftsmanship and I can tell that you put a lot of work into carving every wrinkle, every imperfection, and every detail you can into their image.”

Coalstone stared at her, and hummed for a second. “Thank you for noticing, I suppose you do have a good eye.” He turned away and picked up his tools to begin carving. “Or at least a passing interest,” he finished, lowering his goggles.

With the swing of his hammer, Coalstone began working. “Fine then, I’m losing time. You can stay, I guess, just don’t break anything.”

Sunset flinched and her mind raced for a solution. She had expected the conversation to flow from there, maybe he would take the time to teach her. What she had not been expecting was for him to give her slack and voluntarily back out of any further conversation.

She quickly leapt out to grab the last thread of conversation she had tried to weave prior. “So will you tell me more about what these are and why you make them?

The sounds of iron against stone continued to permeate the air for several seconds before his response. “Like I said, go read a book about them. Better than I could explain. Or you could ask a teacher,” he said, between strikes.

Sunset wracked her brain for a second, mildly annoyed that this wouldn't be as easy as she was beginning to believe it was.

However, what came to her was not the mind blowing solution that would continue the conversation that she had hoped, but rather, an explosion of a different kind.

In an instant, the ground shook under her feet as a dull boom echoed around the room. Several statues in the room began shaking along with the shock wave, however, due to either their size and weight, none came crashing.

“What was that?” Sunset yelled, lowering down to the ground for safety.

Coalstone lifted his goggles and looked around. “Doesn’t feel like an earthquake…” he muttered standing up. As he did the shaking died down and Coalstone made his way towards the window on the far end of the room.

Sunset, still low to the ground, began looking around once the shaking stopped. “Then…”

“That class over there,” Coalstone said, trailing off.

"What class? What about it?" Sunset asked, carefully standing up.

"It exploded," he deadpanned. "Right over there."

Sunset’s ears perked up and she quickly made her way over to him. “A class? Did someone set off some kind of science project?”

However, just as she reached the window, her eyes went wide. Looking out into the distance she could see the sight of a classroom in an adjacent wing, its windows were blown out, and there were signs of damage hanging out of them. From where she could see there were also some odd stains covering the entire outside frame of the window.

Although, one thing stood out more than anything else. The room that had exploded was the same room that she should have been in for the first period and the same one her friend might still have been in.

“Oh no,” she muttered before running off. Coalstone turned and watched her leave before turning back to the window.

Comments

[TheGJ90]

Uh oh, who put soda in the volcano again?!

[Anemptyshell]

He Lives...What a shame.

[redandready45]

Coalstone looked at her for a second, before turning away. “Interesting, huh. I guess you could call them that. But I'm good. Not really interested in getting to know anyone in this school, fairly sure I told you that before.”

Coalstone: Why do I hear friendship music?

What a chapter twist in the end.

But what role will Coalstone play in dealing with the literal fallout?

[Velvet-Fresh]

so is Screwball gonna pin the explosion on Sunset ? She has a witness though