No Hugs for Sugar Crush

by FerociousCreation

No More Shade

The seat chilled Mineral’s flank when he sat in a chair high in the stands. The sun was beaming down at the stadium, consuming nearly all shade, save for the location Mineral and his “friends” were sitting.

Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Spike were no longer in the field as they chased after Morganite and Nightshade. “Funny how Morganite is a reflection of Sugar,” Mineral said aloud.

“What do you mean?” Saradiamond asked to Mineral’s left.

“Neither you nor I want to see Sugar upset," Mineral answered. "The idea is repulsive.”

“It is,” Saradiamond weakly answered.

Both looked at Steadfast to see if he had anything to say about their discussion. He did not. Steadfast’s body lacked the normal glow his body emitted because of the shade. His mind was clearly on other matters, and the discomfort he bore was a sign of that.

“Saradiamond?” Steadfast finally spoke.

“Yes?”

“Am I a good friend to you?”

The question was blasphemy, even for Mineral. “Of course!” Saradiamond answered.

“Then why are we all sitting here?” Steadfast asked, his gaze falling on his two old friends.

“To tell the truth and fix what is broken?” Saradiamond answered in question.

“No!” Steadfast answered bluntly. Saradiamond and Mineral flinched at his single word. “We are here because of outside influence! Not because of me! Not because my words meant anything to either of you! But because of them!”

Steadfast pointed to the field without looking away from Mineral and Saradiamond. “Because of them, you two are finally listening! This sitdown we are having is because of them!” Steadfast looked at Saradiamond. “In fact, if it weren’t for Spike, the Great and Glorious, I don’t think you’d be listening so intently! That wonderful hero trumps over my friendship and words, now does it?”

The truth wedged itself into Saradiamonds jaw and kept it from moving.

“Funny how you’d normally argue and create such a fuss by continuously say, ‘Mineral this! Nebula isn’t here because of him that!’ But now you hold your temper! And you had the audacity to tell Spike, right in front of me, ‘Am I a hypocrite?’ You needed his opinion! Not mine, not Mineral’s, but his!”

Steadfast then turned his attention to Mineral. “And you!” Mineral twitched, not expecting himself to be scolded. “Last night, when you saw me, you gave me the cold shoulder. You glared as if I was your long-lost rival. And yet, I was still happy to see you, regardless of what you did to me!”

“But-”

Steadfast cleared his throat and calmly said, “Please let me finish. I have a lot to say. And I’d rather get it all out, first.”

Mineral nodded, “Then continue.”

Because Mineral stopped Steadfast’s justified anger, his words were less loud, but the message retained its theme. “I was happy to see you,” Steadfast resumed, recapping his last thought. “Then when you arrived here, you approached me with a calm, reserved attitude. In fact, you were nervous. No doubt you and Rarity had some talk.”

“We did,” Mineral said to confirm Steadfast’s suspicions. “She convinced me to want to talk to you.”

“And there lies my issue with you two,” Steadfast said, changing his focus back on both friends. “My past words fell on deff ears until outside influence came in. I feel so useless in all of this.”

“No, you’re not!” Saradiamond argued. She reached over Mineral to touch Steadfast’s shoulder. Mineral didn’t mind the gesture despite her having to be over him.

Steadfast dismissed the hoof with a wave of his own. “I don’t want your pity right now. I want to talk about my feelings on this entire matter. Don’t get me wrong, I love that this is happening. Truly, I’ve prayed for this moment. But the fact it wasn’t me makes me feel unheard and... somewhat jealous.”

Steadfast’s eyes glanced here and there, thinking in his chair. Mineral and Saradiamond waited for more to be said as he looked. “I think that is all I have to say. Any thoughts?”

The words stabbed hard into Mineral like ice being held for too long. Part of it was shame. But the bitter, stabbing pain was realizing what was going on in Steadfast’s golden head. Despite all the smiles he made within the last twenty-four hours, there was so much more to his facade.

Mineral couldn’t manage his thoughts. He was convinced the words “I’m sorry” would only lead into Steadfast asking why he did it then; and sadly, Saradiamond, the one beside him, had convinced him a long time that sorry does not fix the damage of the past.

“Trust me,” Steadfast said, interrupting the quiet air, “I’d rather talk about my… current fondness of pink mares. Those who don’t glitter but portray a bold, single shade. But this current matter requires all of us to put our thoughts in the spotlight.”

There was the Steadfast Mineral remembered. Steadfast could never keep himself from trying to make others smile during a bitter moment. “I think we all want to talk about current gray thestrals that make us happy,” Mineral said. He looked to Saradiamond and asked, “Don’t you agree?”

“I do,” Saradiamond nodded. “But I know I’m not a mare that makes others happy.”

A long-winded sigh hissed through her lips. “I think I now know how you feel, Mineral.” Mineral’s ear twitched, not sure about the vague statement. “We all know how you behaved when Nightshade said she blamed herself for White’s death, but I tried to defend her and convince her otherwise.”

“I do. But what are you getting at?” Mineral asked furrowing his brow trying to understand the mare.

“Being constantly barraged by the same thing over and over until you’re convinced that thing beating you over the head is the truth. That is what I now understand. Over and over, I told myself that Nightshade was not at fault for White’s death. And-”

Saradiamond started to choke on her words. “And I suddenly understood what I had done to you. I finally knew the helpless pain you felt when I was such a horrible pony. It was so hard to hold it all in down there.”

Tears quickly rolled down her face. “Can I let it out now? Can I shamefully admit to you how truly, and utterly sorry I am? I did stand on Nebula’s grave like Nightshade said, and I used that power to stab you over and over until-”

“You’ve… made your point,” Mineral managed to say through his hurt throat and tears. “Don’t beat yourself up too hard. I know what happens when you do that. You’ll shut yourself in a basement and make soaps in self-loathing pity.”

Saradiamond made a disgusting snort but managed to smile. “We wouldn’t want that happening,” she said.

Saradiamond got up from her seat and stood in the aisle. She slowly rose her arm to welcome Mineral in. “I promise I won’t tickle you.”

Mineral quickly stood from his chair and embraced Saradiamond. The contact made him shutter, but her warmth made the stallion somewhat calm and less uncomfortable. “I’ve always wanted to hear you say those words,” Mineral said as he cried. “No matter how deeply I hated you, I wanted you to know exactly how I felt and apologize to me like this.”

“But how can you forgive me so quickly?” Saradiamond asked. “Last night you still hated me and I hated you. How, Mineral? How?”

Saradiamond started to squeeze Mineral in her arms. Her movement made him tremble in discomfort. But Mineral knew she didn’t mean to make him uncomfortable for once. He continued to let her hold him for the moment.

“I can ask that same question,” Mineral said. “It seems that all I did has been forgotten.”

Saradiamond shook her head in Mineral’s shoulder. “No, it has not. I vividly remember how horrible I was to you. And yesterday, when I told Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Spike about you, I was so mean. And I feel ashamed! I did bring shame to Nebula’s memory! And now I realize what you did was a mistake that I abused!”

Saradiamond cleared her throat and continued, “Even though you should have been asleep and not working the evening prior to our match.”

Old anger flared in Mineral. But there was no denying that he should have been resting, so he chose to suppress the hot emotion. “And the following days, I did try to make it up,” Mineral calmly countered. “You saw me waiting outside this stadium with a different arrangement of flowers each day for Nebula if she came back.”

“There is something that did happen during those few days,” Saradiamond admitted.

“What is it?” Mineral asked.

“I was happy to see you want Nebula. I was happy to see that you wanted to say sorry to her.” Mineral felt Saradiamond sag her shoulders. “I knew that if Nebula saw you dressed with flowers in your hoof, she would obviously tell you off.”

Mineral groaned at the idea of Nebula ranting at him.

“She would then throw herself into your arms and kiss you to death.”

Mineral’s throat rumbled with a light chuckle. “Death by thestral is still a possible fate.”

Mineral gave a hard sniff, then stepped back to look at Saradiamon’s broken expression. “There is one thing I have to say about all of this despite your forgiveness.”

Saradiamond tried to furrow her brow, but she didn’t have the strength to hold it for too long. “I won’t say it will be impossible, but it may be quite a while before I move on from what you did to me.”

“So you haven’t forgiven me,” Saradiamond said in a low tone.

“Don’t be like that,” Mineral replied, irritated she would try to make him look bad. “Forgiveness is one thing. And I have given it. I don’t want to hold onto it anymore. I’m sure you don’t want to hold onto your guilt and shame but will be reminded of it when I’m around Sugar.”

Saradiamond’s ears fell back. “I’m not against the thought…”

A smile started to grow on Mineral’s lips. “Have there been times when you forgot Sugar was a thestral who reminds you of Nebula and was simply Sugar, the friend?”

Saradiamond nodded a ‘yes.’

“Those are wonderful moments. Sugar has helped me move on from bad thoughts by being a good pony and not mentioning Nebula. Though, it was difficult at first to stop her from being curious about Nebula. But for the longest time, Sugar hasn’t even mentioned Nebula’s name. It became about her and me. I don’t know if Sugar lost interest, or maybe she learned everything she needed to know.”

“Or maybe because I entered the picture and Sugar didn’t want to learn the truth between us,” Saradiamond interjected.

Mineral sighed and agreed, “It was hard to hear Sugar say she didn’t want to learn the truth. I thought after how she and I had our moment yesterday morning, I would confess everything to her. Not just my love, but who I once was, who my old friends were, how she saved me, and why I don’t want her to hug me.”

“We both know she doesn’t want to learn about our lesser, past selves,” Saradiamond said.

Mineral looked at Steadfast with a grin. “I think the only stagnant pony among us is him.” Steadfast humored Mineral and snorted along with his own smile.

“I want to know why Sugar doesn’t want to learn about us,” Saradiamond admitted.

“Likewise,” Mineral said.

“That is something you both need to ask her at the same time,” Steadfast interjected.

Mineral sighed, “Not to mention how she was able to move on from Nightmare Moon’s reign and forgive Princess Luna.”

Saradiamond looked at the ground. “And maybe, if the princess accepts the request we sent her, we can ask what happened to Nebula. Was she banished to the moon? Or did she live a fruitful life before Luna was banished?”

The former question poisoned Mineral’s mind. “I may be hesitant to learn her fate if I’m going to be honest.”

“I won’t,” Saradiamond said, her brows furrowed in thought.

“Don’t lose your temper in front of the princess,” Steadfast said.

“Yeah, yeah…” Saradiamond muttered with irritation.

Steadfast’s tone became bolder, “I mean that! Control yourself! We both know how you get whenever Nebula is concerned.”

“But can you blame me?” Saradiamond asked. She softened her expression to a relaxed, but sad frown. “She was a part of my life since we were foals. We were sisters and nopony will ever convince me we weren’t!”

“We understand your feelings,” Steadfast said. “But I won’t stand by and let you throw a fit. Last night I allowed you to do that. It won’t happen again.”

The mare looked further pained while she listened to Steadfast. However, the stallion clasped his hooves together and beamed. “Until we get our answer, can we all smile and be proud of this tremendous leap? This is a joyous moment!”

Mineral rose a brow at the sudden switch of moods. “What about how insignificant you feel in what’s going on?”

Steadfast shrugged, “There’s nothing I could do about what has already happened. However, all I do ask from here on out is to listen to me. I just want to be heard by my closest friends. I’m sure you both want Sugar to hear you. Treat me the same, please.”

Mineral felt more shame stab into his heart. “You sure know how to get your point across.”

“I agree,” Saradiamond said, looking at Mineral.

The stallion stood from his seat and proclaimed aloud, “But no more shame! The time for redemption has come for my friends!” Tears streamed down Steadfast’s face while his voice continued to echo off the stadium walls. He snared Mineral and Saradiamond with his magic and pulled them into a strong embrace.

“Everything is fine, Nebula!” Steadfast cried to the heavens. “All is well now! You no longer need to worry!”

The idea of Nebula watching all that time hurt Mineral. But if Nebula was watching, Mineral knew she would be crying tears of joy just like Steadfast, Saradiamond, and himself.

Mineral’s body became warmer as the sun finally swallowed the shade he and his friends resided in.

Author's Note:

The last five chapters, including this one, were some of the most difficult parts to write. I've wondered how I would get to this point in this story for almost three years. Now it has come.

Thank you for waiting and coming this far into the story. I hope it was worth the wait.

But understand this: this is only one of three big moments that is to come.

Comments

[redmar]

It is good that hey have all forgiven eachother but it's clear that their ordeal is not yet over. I am also curious to same things as the characters such as Nebula's fate and why Sugar doesn't want to learn about the past of her friends.

[Shadowshame]

10449444
That last part has been told in previous chapters you might need to reread the story

[FerociousCreation]

10449890 I’ve repeated several times in the story the same thing only on the grounds that it’s been over a year since I’ve uploaded and to refresh what’s going on.

I’ve read books before where they repeat the same thing only to give clarity and regurgitate info to refresh the memory.