The First Star of Twilight

by Arcanum -Phantasy

Ch.5 Friction

Sparrow Hawk frowned, clutching her staff tightly as she sat before a fire, the elven mage's magenta hooded cloak rustling lightly under a faint breeze. Crickets and the occasional snapping of branches echoed through the forest surrounding her, but that didn't hold the bulk of her attention. Her teal eyes were locked onto the two humans sitting across from her. One was a female bard dressed in an elaborately colored long sleeved silk shirt and pants and brown leather boots. Her skin was a rich mocha color while her long hair was a confusing swirl of blue and red. Her pink eyes glinted with mischief and cunning as they met Sparrow's teal ones. The other was a female rogue and the biggest source of Sparrow's concern. She wore all black leather armor, only her face showing her dark blue skin-tone as well as a long scar that came from just under her left eye down to her jaw. Her hair was short and the same shade of silver as her eyes, said eyes appraising Sparrow like one would a great puzzle.

Sparrow flinched when a small brown owl landed on her shoulder, her nerves settling when she took note of the familiar's presence. The bard chuckled at that while the rogue gave her a faint smile. The friendly display put the mage back onto guard, a hard frown marring her otherwise pretty face as she pushed her silver framed glasses further up her nose with a free hand. The duo coughed awkwardly, neither sure how to proceed further with their new party member.

Eventually, the quite became too much for the bard and in an attempt to break the ice, she stared up at the sky and said, "NIce night, right Shroud?"

The Rogue, Shroud, shifted her attention from Sparrow to the sky.

"Yeah. A fine start to a long journey. How much do you think we'll be able to make from this Melody?"

"Maybe enough for me to get this replaced," the bard, Melody, sighed, dragging her violin onto her lap. "As much as I love her, this old girl is long past retirement."

"Please put that away," Sparrow said coldly, her grip on her staff almost turning her gray hands white.

Melody gulped under the cold glare the elf was giving her and slowly returned her instrument to her bag. Sparrow relaxed a fraction, but then shifted her full attention towards the rogue. More specifically, the short sword sheathed at her hip.

Shroud narrowed her eyes and said, "I will not disarm unless you do first."

"Something we are both in agreement on," Sparrow spat.

"Not the friendliest of sorts, are ya?" the rogue frowned, crossing her arms.

"I see no need to be," the mage huffed. "The only reason I am here is because you need my strength. Once this job is done, we will never see each other again. The sooner that time comes to pass, the sooner our lives will improve."

"Shouldn't we at least make the most of it?" Melody asked sheepishly.

"Perhaps," the elf snorted bitterly. "If only there was any real point in doing so."

As she said that, she waved a glowing hand around herself, a transparent green barrier surrounding her before she laid her staff down on the ground beside herself and laid down on the ground with her back to them. The two adventurers traded looks, one a sheepish chuckle and the other a raised brow, before they to decided to turn in for the night. While they couldn't speak for Sparrow, they both came to a very unfortunate conclusion. This was going to be a very long job.

***

The plan had been simple enough; introduce Twilight to the group through their shared interest in Dungeons and Dragons. Sugar Coat even came up with an easy quest they could all do together to help break the ice. A thief stole an important relic from a local church and hired a ragtag group of mercenaries to get it back. She even let Twilight use a character from a campaign she finished with her brother. Granted, she had to drop Sparrow's level down from twenty to five, but Twilight agreed that that was an acceptable compromise. After making a lower level copy of Sparrow's character sheet, the elven mage was introduced to the party through the church and the adventure began

The only problem was that Twilight played the mage in a rather distant manner from the rest of the party. A fact that didn't go unnoticed by Lemon and Indigo. While Sparrow was somewhat abrasive towards villagers and other such NPCs, a bulk of her hostility was aimed at Shroud and Melody. This only went as far as dialogue though and she never actively tried to kill them, providing plenty of warnings in combat before casting her attack spells. That being said, she never passed up a chance to speak bitterly towards them whenever she gave them a potion or some other form of medical aid.

As such, the four girls sat at a round table, three of them giving their newest member raised brows. Twilight met their gaze with a cautious frown, her eyes jumping quickly between the three of them before looking down at her figurine. In a lot of ways, Sugar expected this kind of reaction. If even half of what Twilight told her was true, it was a miracle that the girl had agreed to play with them at all. That went double considering where they were playing to begin with. Since the library was her "territory", she had a lot of flexibility as to what she did in it after hours. This allowed them to use one of the tables in the main studying section of the library's second floor for their sessions. So long as they cleaned up after themselves, didn't damage anything, or do anything illegal, they were free to do whatever they wanted.

Twilight didn't care about any of that, the girl more focused on potential escape routes and how quickly she could shove her things into her bag if they became needed. She knew that there had to be some reason Sugar wanted her here and it had noting to do with playing a game. At least, not the literal game set up on the table anyway. Even the lengthy apology she sent her over Crystal Heart had to have been part of some kind of plan. A morbidly pessimistic part of her couldn't wait to be proven right. Maybe then Petal wouldn't talk her into something as stupid as this again in the future.

***

Twilight sat, trembling on her bed, her hands loosely holding her phone. Displayed on the screen was a message from Sugar Coat, the girl apologizing for using Spike the way that she had, but saw no other way to talk to her without risking a repeat of what happened at the mall. The message also stated that she wanted to include her in a small D&D session after school at the library to make up for both incidents.

Twilight didn't know what to do. The whole situation was obviously a trap, but to what end? Was Sugar Coat planning to remove Sunny and Sour's titles? Not likely as doing so would mean removing them from their leadership positions first. Sour Sweet would be the easiest in that regards, seeing as she was head of the archery club, but Sunny Flare was essentially untouchable. Being Principal Cinch's daughter and President of the Student Council more than made sure of that.

"What should I do, Petal?" she muttered, putting her phone onto her headboard and resting her face in her hands.

"Do you really want to know?" the Wraith sighed.

"I don't know. Maybe?" she groaned, flopping bonelessly back-first onto her bed.

"I think you should give her a chan-"

"No," Twilight said coldly.

"Why?" Petal asked, exasperation heavy in her tone.

"She's up to something. I don't know what, but that couldn't be more obvious," she said emptily. "It wouldn't surprise me if meeting her at the mall was part of her plan as well."

"Okay, now you're just being paranoid," Petal frowned.

"Am I?" she asked, tone eerily hollow. "Think about it. I have been in that store countless times and never saw her once. Now, all of a sudden, I run into her not only there, but at a park a full day later."

"Okay, I'll admit that is kind of weird," the Wraith mused, "But that all happened in some pretty open public places. It's not like something like that isn't bound to happen every now and then."

"Maybe," she sighed.

"You trust me, right?" the Wraith asked briskly.

"Yes," she nodded, then let out an uneasy, "But..."

Petal let out an irate groan and said, "Okay Mrs. Tinfoil, how about we make a deal."

"I'm listening," the girl frowned, a bit miffed by Petal's small jab.

"You give Sugar and her friends one week to prove themselves. You don't tell them that their being tested and the second I tell you that something's up, you get the fuck out of there."

"Why do you get to say when things are going wrong?" Twilight asked, raising a brow.

"Because you and I both know that you'd book it the second you got the chance," she said flatly. "Besides, they know you don't trust them all that much, so they're going to be walking on eggshells around you anyway."

"I guess," she frowned. "And what do I get out of this when things go wrong?"

"You mean if," the Wraith frowned. "And if that happens, I'll tell you everything about my kind."

Everything?" she asked, sitting upright and suddenly alert. "As in-?"

"Everything," the Wraith intoned. "How we eat. How we sleep. How we fuck. Everything under the sun and then some. Sound good?"

"Y-Yeah," she stammered, a bit of a blush briefly coloring her cheeks over one particular topic in the Wraith's list. "But what happens if I lose?"

A wicked chuckle came from Twilight's pendant, then the Wraith ominously said, "You'll just have to wait and see."

***

"Wow. Can you at least try to get along with them?" Petal asked flatly.

Twilight picked up a pencil and as soon as she was sure the others couldn't see quickly wrote, "I'm just getting into my character." onto a notepad.

"So, Sparrow Hawk is a raging bitch. Got it," she snarked, rolling her eyes.

Twilight clenched her jaw tight enough to hold back a frustrated growl as she hastily wrote, "No! She! Isn't!"

"You could've fucking fooled me." Petal flatly stated.

Twilight was about to write something that she was probably going to regret later, but stopped herself when Sugar Coat said," All three of you sleep through the night with no interruptions and after gathering you possessions the three of you make your way west until you spot a small farming village in the distance. A vast open field is the only thing between you all and your destination."

Twilight raised a brow at that.

No night attack? Strange. Why didn't she take the opportunity to kill me? Maybe she has something worse waiting for me later down the road. I'd better grab whatever useful items I can get when we get into town.

She gave Indigo and Lemon cautious glances before she returned her focus to her character sheet.

Barring that, it would probably be a good idea to make plans to deal with Shroud and Melody before they decide to turn on me. Let's see what I have to work with

"Sparrow Hawk makes her way towards the village," Twilight sighed, nudging her figurine forward a bit.

"Shroud does too," Indigo nods, doing the same.

"With Melody not far behind her," Lemon smiled.

***

After a long walk in total silence, the trio made it to the small village. Upon entering, a strange shimmering tingle washed over them, briefly dizzying them as they staggered past the hamlet's borders. When it passed, a jaw-dropping sight awaited them. What they had thought were simple houses with straw roof had turned into towering trees, each living in spite of the visible widows and doors they each bore. Countess fare folk moved through the disguised hamlet, from the tiniest faery flitting about to a massive annis hag that eyed the trio with a wicked smile before slinking back into the shadows of her withered tree home. Countless glowing orbs drifted lazily over the town, bathing the whole scene in an alien ambiance.

If it was even possible, Sparrow's expression soured further at the sight. She spat at the ground and quickly turned to face her dazzled companions.

"Get your acts together you fools," she snapped. "Or we're all doomed."

"Huh?" both humans blinked.

Sparrow groaned, messaging the bridge of her nose and muttering a few elven curses under her breath before briskly stating, "We've crossed a faery ring. Now we're stuck in this town until we can convince one of the locals to let us out."

"Is that all," Melody giggled. "No sweat, I'll just-"

"Don't even think about it," Sparrow growled. "The fae are masters of charming and allure. Trying to match one is tantamount to suicide."

"She's got a point," Shroud sighed. "You'd probably end up as someone's love slave or something."

"Doesn't sound that bad to me," Melody shrugged.

"Assuming they don't eat you instead," Sparrow spat, glaring at a hag that passed by them. "Most fae don't see the other races as more than just cattle and some have a taste for the exotic."

Melody cringed at that, suddenly a lot more cautious of her surroundings.

"That will make things a lot more difficult for us," Shroud mused. "I'm sure we could work out some kind of de-"

"Do not make a deal with a fae," the mage intoned, slamming the butt of her staff into the ground for emphasis. "It never ends well or how you think it will."

"Then how do we get out of here?" the rogue demanded.

For the first time since she joined the group, Sparrow smiled and said, "Let me handle that," only to regain her sullen expression as she added, "Just don't accept any food or drink from them unless you paid for it with gold coins. Even if they say that it's just to be friendly, demand that you pay for it. We need to stay close, watch each other's backs and remember: don't flirt or make any deals, no matter how tempting it may be."

With one showing caution and the other determination, the two humans nodded. Satisfied, Sparrow turned away from her companions and led them further into the hidden town. Ignoring the curious looks she and the rest of her party were getting from the locals, she carefully planned her next move to get both her and her two unwanted companions out safely should her first strategy fail. This was the kind of thing she was hired to tackle in the first place and by Sehanine Moonbow's diaphanous gown, she was going to do it right!

***

"There. Is that better?" Twilight wrote.

"I guess," Petal sighed. "I'd say drop the sass, but it's way to late at this point."

Twilight agreed, but couldn't really bring herself to feel all that guilty. Sparrow was a character she built mainly for solo games and was given an anti-social personality because of that. Combine that with her Chaotic Good alinement and you had the makings of a fairly rough character. Mainly, the kind that will work with you and try to keep you alive if things get hairy, but won't get any closer to you on a personal level than was strictly necessary. She did feel bad about the sharp tongue she gave her this session, but only a little. Both her and Sparrow were surrounded by possible threats after all.

"I think that will be where we will call it a night," Sugar Coat nodded, already gathering her things.

"Yeah, it is getting kind've late," Indigo sighed, looking at her phone.

She turned towards Lemon and asked, "Do you want a lift home?"

"Totally," Lemon smiled, already putting her gear back into her bag.

Twilight let out faint sigh of relief, then blinked in shock when she looked at the time on her phone. She knew that she had been playing for a while, but she hadn't realized that it had been for four hours. It looked like she was going to need to spend the night in her lab tonight. It wouldn't be the first time, but at least she wouldn't be alone this time, sans Spike.

Taking the extra effort to keep her equipment organized and returning them to their proper protective measures, Twilight barely responded when Lemon and Indigo left the library. A quick glance and nervous nod the only sign of acknowledgement she gave them in response to their waves on the way. Now, alone with a Elite much closer to her own rank, a chilled dread filled her core. The two worked in silence, Twilight's neurosis preventing her from rushing any part of her clean up process while Sugar seemed more willing to clean up at a leisurely pace by default. Twilight's heart pounded in her chest, both dreading what the girl had in store for her and eager for her to just get it over with. She could almost feel Petal eating her anxiety, silently thanking her for the help in spite of it making her more willing to stand before the proverbial firing squad.

Twilight flinched when Sugar said, "You need to relax."

Twilight just nodded, barely meeting the girl's eyes for more then a second before returning her focus to her gaming equipment.

Sugar sighed, then said, "If you're not having fun, we can try something else tomorrow."

"N-No, it's fine," Twilight stammered, visibly trembling as she forced herself to meet Sugar's eyes. "I-I just need to get more used to the world you've made. Maybe after you kill off Sparrow, I can make something that fits in better."

The girl's word choice got a faint look of shock out of Sugar, but to Twilight, it looked like confirmation to her suspicions.

"It was in my character's backstory that she had experience dealing with the fae. This whole stage was set to give her a moment to shine, right? So, how is she going to die? Is she going to get outmatched by an annis hag? Dropped into a pit full of displacer beasts? I suppose a gelatinous cube trap is a classic approach, right? Or is Shroud going to finally get fed up with her and slips some poison into Sparrow's drink?"

"Do you really think I'm that kind of DM?" Sugar frowned.

A long pause, then, with a deep sigh, Twilight broke it with a shaky, "Yes."

Sugar blinked, then frowned as she said, "That's rather rude, don't you think?"

"You don't need to put on an act like this," Twilight sniffled, seemingly oblivious of the girl's blunt assessment as her head tilted down and the first of many tears started to fall. "I don't know why you wanted to know about Sunny and Sour, but I know you're plotting something against me. Just get it over with already."

Sugar took in the sight with only a frown making it past her calm poker face. On the inside, a burning rage flared at the sight. Forcing it down like the bile it was, Sugar tried to think of what she could say to salvage this. She knew that this was going to be an uphill battle, she just didn't realize until now just how steep this cliff turned out to be.

With a determined frown, Sugar flatly stated, "I'm not acting. I'm bad at it."

"W-What?" Twilight sniffed, leveling a confused look at her.

"And I'm not a Player Killer," she added, crossing her arms. "If your character does something stupid and gets killed, that's the player's fault."

Twilight blinked, then let a bitter frown mar her face as she softly spat, "Fine. Don't tell me. It'll happen eventually anyways."

Sugar sighed, then aimed a faint, determined glare at her and said, "I'll prove you wrong."

"A-About what?" Twilight stammered, taking a nervous step back.

Calmly, Sugar took a seat directly across the table from Twilight and steepled her fingers on the table, her eyes unreadable and sharp as they bore into the girl.

"Everything," she intoned. "Now, how do you want Sparrow to save the group?"

Comments

[BlackOpsElf]

I really like this interpretation of Sugar. There just aren't enough stories that really explore the full potential of an "indoors-y Applejack analogue".

[Tjxen Dlue]

Um..., what kind of a game they are playing? I'm not the best reader

[Arcanum -Phantasy]

10706564
Dungeons and dragons.

[Stet709]

Yeesh, what's it gonna take to break Twilight's insecurities? I'm rooting for Sugar Coat here (and Petal even if she might be Lily on a weaker form)

[Teraunce]

Go Sugarcoat and Petal. I see Twilight losing her bet. I imagine the initial meeting between the Crystal 5 and the Terrific 13 will be quite interesting to watch, provided Petal manages to properly break out.

[DavisSentoV5]

It's a real shame that Twilight can't tell the difference between someone wanting to be her friend and someone trying to betray her...

[Honey Lavender]

10714728
That's trauma for you