See How the Night Sky Glows

At lunchtime, Sky walked into the cafeteria feeling absolutely miserable. Nearly everyone at school had given him a wide berth that morning, and during gym class even Cloudchaser and Flitter didn't talk to him. What made it worse was that he had no definitive way to prove that TheRealSkyScraper1 wasn't his account. After going through the lunch line and buying his food, he found a table at the back of the cafeteria and sat down. He was in no mood to be near anyone else, and he was sure no one else wanted to be near him.

Unbeknownst to him, his friends were watching him from their usual table. "Aw man, Sky's looking terrible right now." Curly sighed. "Do you think we should go over and talk to him?"

"At least one of us should." said Wiz. "I mean, we've all pretty much agreed that he's been framed."

"Aye." Sherbert agreed. "At first I believed it, but noo that I've thocht aboot it, it juist disna seem richt. I mean, I ken Sky got verra angry oan Monanday, but I juist canna see him postin sich nestie things."

"If any of us is going to make things right with him, it should be me." Emerald said firmly. "I didn't talk to him at all in English class this morning, and now I feel bad about it." He picked up his lunch tray and went to the back of the cafeteria.

Sky was sadly poking at his food when Emerald sat down next to him. "Hey, Sky." said Emerald. "Mind if I sit here?"

"What do you want, Emerald?" Sky grunted.

"Well, just listen for a minute." said Emerald. "I know about what happened between you and Lyra this morning, and I'm really sorry. But I've been discussing it with Sherbert, Wiz and Curly, and we all think that someone is impersonating you."

"Yeah, you think?" Sky snapped. "You've known me for a while now! Why the hell did you think I'd post something like that?" Then he backtracked a bit. "But... to be fair, I guess I did get pretty angry on Monday."

Emerald nodded. "You did, but I completely understand why. Speaking of which, I wouldn't be surprised if Noteworthy was the one impersonating you. I mean, I don't know of anyone else who has that much of a grudge against you."

Sky scowled. "Of course! Who else would it be?" He clenched his fists. "I swear, if I catch that prick in the act..."

"...then we'll make sure the whole school knows about it." Emerald finished. "But right now, I think the rest of the guys are all waiting for you." He got up from the table and began heading back to join Sherbert, Wiz and Curly. Sky followed.

"Hey, Sky." Sherbert said when Sky arrived. "Sorry aboot whit happent this morning. I shoud hae ken that ye'd niver post onything like that." Wiz and Curly nodded in agreement.

"Thanks. I appreciate it." said Sky. "Clearly, someone is impersonating me on SnapGab. And I think it's obvious who it is."

"Let me guess, it's Noteworthy." said Curly.

"Exactly." said Sky. "I'm guessing you already figured that out before I got here."

"Of course." said Wiz. "It couldn't be more obvious. He knows that he could never beat you in an actual fight, so he resorts to cyberbullying instead. That way, he looks like the victim and you look like the bully."

"We'll aw be shair tae keep a close ee oan Noteworthy," said Sherbert, "juist in case we see onything suspeecious. If we see onything, we'll be shair tae tell ye."

"That'll be great." said Sky. "But I have another problem, too. How do I win Lyra back? Unless I can prove my innocence, she'll never want to speak to me again."

"Let's focus on catching Noteworthy in the act first." Emerald suggested. "Once we expose him, I'm sure Lyra will come back to you."

"I hope so." Sky sighed.

Emerald pat Sky on the back. "Don't worry about this. I'm sure everything will be back to normal soon."

"Soon can't come soon enough..." Sky muttered.

At the end of the school day, Sky was still down in the dumps. During Chemistry and Algebra, Lyra had refused to speak to him or even make eye contact with him. As such, Sky's only option was to not initiate any conversation with her until he could prove his innocence. He also thought it best not to tell his parents about what had happened. When he got back to his apartment, Evening Shade could immediately sense that her son was not in a good mood. "Is there something wrong?" she asked.

"Oh, nothing." Sky lied as he put his backpack down on a chair. "I just have a lot of homework today, that's all."

"Well, then you should get started on it soon." said Evening.

"Of course." Sky replied as he headed to the bathroom.

In reality, Sky didn't actually have any homework, but even that wasn't enough to cheer him up. When he was out of the bathroom, he headed into his room and closed the door, pretending to be busy working. He was actually listening to some classical music, which did make him feel a little bit better. He had somewhat of an addiction to "Funeral March of a Marionette".

Eventually, Sky felt like he needed to give someone a ring, and he knew just the girl to call. He dialed Sugarcoat's number and within seconds, she picked up. "Hey, Sky! How are you?" she asked.

"I'm pretty terrible right now." Sky replied. "Which is why I needed to talk to you. For emotional support."

"Of course. I'll always be there for you." Sugarcoat said kindly. "Anyway, I'm guessing this is about what happened on SnapGab?"

Sky groaned. "You saw it too?!"

"Relax! It's all right." Sugarcoat explained. "Yes, I did see it, but I knew it couldn't have been you."

Sky breathed a sigh of relief.

"What made you think I would believe any of that crap?" Sugarcoat laughed. "I've known you forever! I know you'd never say those kinds of things about anyone."

Sky nodded. "Thanks. I knew I could count on you. The problem is that Lyra, and nearly everyone else except the guys I'm friends with, all think I'm an asshole now."

Sugarcoat thought for a moment. "Well, since you obviously aren't TheRealSkyScraper1, do you have any idea who is?"

"It's pretty obvious." Sky replied. "It has to be Noteworthy. He and I had another confrontation on Monday. My friends all think it's Noteworthy too."

"Yes, that would definitely make him the prime suspect." Sugarcoat agreed. "Do you have any idea how you're going to catch him in the act?"

"That's going to be the hard part." Sky conceded. "My friends and I will all be keeping a close eye on him. But getting mud on him may not be easy."

"Have you considered just sitting down with Lyra and explaining the situation?" Sugarcoat asked.

Sky sighed again. "Well, she was crying about it with Bon Bon this morning, and this afternoon she refused to even make eye contact with me. I'm afraid that if I try to talk to her, I'll only make the situation worse."

"Just give it time." Sugarcoat advised. "Things might be different tomorrow. Lyra will probably realize soon enough that you would never say those things."

"Maybe, but unless I can prove it, I'm not sure it'll matter." Sky said sadly. "You know, I was going to go for a walk tonight, and I could use some company. Want me to come to your house after dinner?"

"Sure!" said Sugarcoat. "I'd never say no to hanging out with you."

"Great!" said Sky. "See you tonight." He hung up, feeling better than he had all day. At least there was one girl who still trusted him.

That evening, Sky ambled down a quiet street near the ocean. The shape of Sugarcoat's house loomed against the violet sky. As would be expected for a student of Crystal Prep, she lived in a large house and had wealthy parents. Sky walked up the front steps and rang the doorbell. Sugarcoat answered the door.

"Good to see you're here, Sky." she said. "You should come in. My parents really want to see you!"

"Of course!" Sky agreed. He hadn't seen his Uncle Silver and Aunt Vanilla since the previous summer.

Sky entered the house and was greeted by Sugarcoat's parents. "It's so good to see you, Sky!" Vanilla Creme said as she hugged her nephew. "It seems like you've gotten taller since I last saw you."

"Well, yeah, I think I grew an inch since last summer." Sky chuckled. "I'm 5'7"."

Silver Bullet shook Sky's hand. "Welcome back, Sky. How's Canterlot so far?"

"It's been great!" Sky replied. "I'm doing well at my new school, and I have a lot of friends now."

"Fantastic!" said Silver.

"Even if you're not going to Crystal Prep, it's great that you're in the same city as us." Vanilla added.

"Definitely." Sky agreed.

"Sky and I are going to go take a walk along the waterfront." said Sugarcoat. "We should be back around eight."

"All right. Stay safe out there!" Silver called as his daughter and nephew headed out into the evening. Sky waved goodbye to his aunt and uncle as he left.

"Anyway, how have things been at CPA this week?" Sky asked Sugarcoat as they walked toward the docks. "I heard Principal Cinch got fired after the Games."

"Technically, she resigned before they could fire her, but yeah." Sugarcoat replied. "I'm glad to see her go."

"Me too." Sky agreed. "I saw how she acted when that whole incident with the magic happened. She clearly didn't care about anyone's safety but her own."

"Exactly." said Sugarcoat. "It's shocking that someone that selfish and incompetent was allowed to be principal of such a prestigious school."

"Who's your new principal?" Sky asked.

"Dean Cadance." Sugarcoat replied. "She's only had the job for three days and I already like her way better."

"Yeah, I saw her at the Games. She seems really nice." said Sky.

"Which she absolutely is." said Sugarcoat. "I bet the rest of this school year will be a blast."

Sky nodded. "I hope so, for both of us."

"Anyway, I thought I'd mention something that happened a while ago." said Sugarcoat. "Back in October, there was a girl who got kicked out of Crystal Prep for harassing some other students on SnapGab. Several students saw her posts and reported her to Cinch."

Sky thought for a moment. "So you're saying that if I catch Noteworthy, I could get him kicked out of CHS?"

"Precisely." said Sugarcoat. "You could get him suspended, at least."

"Oh, wouldn't that be great!" Sky laughed. "Just wondering, what's this girl's name?"

"Well, you wouldn't know her, since she doesn't live in Canterlot anymore." said Sugarcoat. "Her name's White Flower."

"Hmm, not a terribly creative name." Sky remarked. Then he paused.

I got with her as soon as I got bored with White Flower, my previous lover from Crystal Prep.

"Wait a minute... that's the same name from Noteworthy's fake post about me!" Sky exclaimed.

"You're right!" Sugarcoat agreed. "He must have seen White Flower's posts and decided to use her name in his own post. I guess he figured that if he was painting you as a cyberbully, he'd make you look even worse by claiming you dated another cyberbully."

"That's exactly what I'm thinking." said Sky. "The question is how do we expose him once we catch him?"

"That's a difficult question." said Sugarcoat. She thought for a moment. "I guess you could -"

But before she could finish, a bright white light shone out from behind a stack of wooden crates. "What the hell is that?!" Sky cried. The light was shining right in his eyes.

"It looks like... I think someone's photographing us!" Sugarcoat exclaimed. She and Sky ran toward the stack of crates, but then they saw a figure holding a cell phone running the other way.

"To hell with it! Let's go after them!" Sky ordered. He took off down the street, and Sugarcoat followed.

Both Sky and Sugarcoat were fast runners. After all, Sky had run cross country and track since eighth grade, and Sugarcoat didn't get into the Friendship Games by being slow. They gained on the figure rapidly, and Sky thought he had a pretty good idea of who he was chasing.

Eventually, Sky was all over the back of the figure as they raced along the waterfront, with Sugarcoat not far behind. The figure suddenly took a sharp left into a nearby park, briefly pulling away from Sky again. But Sky sprinted forward, grabbed onto the figure's shoulders, and tackled them straight onto the grass. A cell phone went flying out of the figure's hand and landed with its screen facing up.

The person who Sky had tackled looked up, their right cheek stained with grass. It was Noteworthy.

"Well, well, well. Why am I not surprised?" Sky said in a sarcastic tone as Sugarcoat arrived on the scene. "Now why the f*ck were you taking a picture of me and my cousin? What were you going to do, post it on that fake account where you pretend to be me?"

Noteworthy remained silent, unable to think of anything to say in response to Sky's very pointed question. He just lay on the ground, glaring up at Sky.

While Sky held Noteworthy down, Sugarcoat walked over and picked up Noteworthy's phone. She then showed it to Sky. Sure enough, Noteworthy was logged into SnapGab as TheRealSkyScraper1. He had been about to post a picture of Sky and Sugarcoat walking on the waterfront together. "Do you care to explain this?" Sugarcoat demanded as she shoved the phone in Noteworthy's face.

"Let me put it this way." said Sky. "If you delete this picture and never post anything on this account again, we'll let you go. But if you don't, then me and my cousin will have no choice but to seriously f*ck you up, because what you've been doing is downright despicable."

Noteworthy continued to glare at Sky. Then, to the shock of both Sky and Sugarcoat, he began tearing up. "I'm sorry!" he sobbed. "I didn't mean for any of this to happen!"

"Then why did you impersonate and slander me online in the first place?!" Sky barked. "If you can recall, this whole thing started because of a badminton game in gym class. A single trivial game that doesn't mean anything in the long run!"

"Just let me explain!" Noteworthy cried. "You know Bleeding Gums, the jazz musician?"

"Yeah. What about him?" Sky grunted.

"He's my older brother." Noteworthy explained through tears. "All my life, my parents have done nothing but compare me to him. And why wouldn't they? He's rich and famous, and I'm just a nobody with no special talent of his own. Yeah, I play the saxophone, but I'll never be as good as my brother. The only other thing I'm actually kind of good at is badminton. I've been playing it since I was ten, and I've won a lot of games, but my parents don't care. To them, and probably to everyone else, I'm just a useless knockoff of Bleeding Gums. That's why I was so excited when we started playing badminton in gym class. It was the first time all year that I could actually be the best at something. But then... I was put up against you, and I was humiliated!"

Sky wasn't really sure what to say. He hadn't expected Noteworthy to suddenly start spilling his guts to him. "Well, that was your own fault for getting so angry during that game!" Sky finally said. "And if you want people to appreciate you, then you could try not being an arrogant prick to everyone you meet!"

"I know." Noteworthy muttered. "The truth is, I hate myself. I always have. When I lost that badminton game, I just couldn't let it go. I was mad at myself for losing... and I took it all out on you." He sighed. "I'm so sorry for everything I've done, Sky. Neither you nor Lyra deserved any of it."

"Well, if you're truly sorry, then you can post an apology on SnapGab, so that everyone knows." said Sugarcoat. She handed Noteworthy's phone back to him. "Here, take your phone. I don't want it anyway, it's an outdated model."

Noteworthy nodded. He took his phone back, and Sky got off of him. Noteworthy then stood up and ran off. He didn't look back at Sky or Sugarcoat, and eventually he disappeared from view.

"Well, that was unexpected." Sky remarked. After Noteworthy's tearful confession, he didn't know what to think. Neither did Sugarcoat.

"Indeed." Sugarcoat agreed. "Let's just keep walking. It's not even half past seven yet." She began heading out of the park, and Sky followed. As Sky walked along, he wondered what Noteworthy was going to do next. Would he publicly apologize for his actions, or would he make another hateful post? Regardless, Sky knew that the next day was going to be strange.

When Sky walked up to Canterlot High on Thursday morning, he felt rather awkward. He had no idea how his classmates were going to treat him. It all depended on whether Noteworthy had done what Sugarcoat had told him to do.

Sky opened the doors and entered the building, bracing himself for the worst. He was walking gingerly through the main atrium when someone hugged him from behind. Sky was startled, and turned around to see who had grabbed onto him. "Lyra!" he exclaimed with delight.

"Oh, Sky! I'm so sorry!" Lyra cried as she wrapped her arms around him tightly. "I should have known you'd never say such horrible things about me!"

"It's all right, Lyra." Sky said with a smile. "I mean, it wasn't you who posted that. But how did you find out that I was innocent?"

"It was pretty simple." said Bon Bon, who was standing next to Lyra. "Noteworthy posted an apology video on that account. He also deleted his post about Lyra."

Sky was pleasantly surprised. "So he did as Sugar said."

"What do you mean?" Lyra asked.

"It's a pretty crazy story." Sky chuckled. And he told the full story of all that had happened the day before.

"Wow!" Lyra remarked once Sky had finished his story. "Yesterday sure was crazy. But at least things are back to normal now."

"Yep! To be honest, I think we all should have suspected Noteworthy from the start." said Bon Bon.

"Indeed." said Sky. "At least I know he won't be bothering me anymore. I'm not sure what I'll say to him the next time I see him."

"You can cross that bridge when you come to it." said Lyra.

"Of course." said Sky. "And just so you know, I've had a SnapGab account for about a year now, but I've never used it." He pulled out his phone, opened the SnapGab app and pointed to the username "SkyScraper39" in the upper right corner.

"That's awesome!" said Lyra. "How about we take a picture together and you can post it right now!"

"Sure thing!" said Sky. He held up his phone, and he and Lyra took their first selfie together. Then he uploaded it to SnapGab, with a simple description:

Me and Lyra

And yes, this is the real Sky 😉