See How the Night Sky Glows

"It's been quite a while, Sugar. How have you been?"

"I've been well, thank you. But it hasn't been that long. You slept over at my house last summer, and we're constantly texting each other."

Sky chuckled. "Oh, right. You never change, do you, Sugar?"

"Hey, you know me. I'm a straight-talking girl, I tell it like it is."

Sky was sitting on a bench near Canterlot High with his cousin Sugarcoat. She had silvery blue hair tied into two long pigtails, and wore a pair of orange-rimmed glasses. Her father, Silver Bullet, was the younger brother of Sky's father, Air Raider, while Sugarcoat's mother, Vanilla Creme, was good friends with Sky's mother, Evening Shade. As such, Sky and Sugarcoat had known each other for pretty much their entire lives and had become very close. They hung out frequently throughout the year and texted on a regular basis. In fact, Sky was much closer to Sugarcoat than he ever was to anyone he'd met in Manebridge. But now that Sky had made more friends in Canterlot and Sugarcoat was busy preparing for the Friendship Games, it had been a few weeks since they had contacted each other, even though they now lived in the same city.

"Anyway, me and the rest of the Crystal Prep Friendship Games team have been training pretty much every day." Sugarcoat continued. "My school has never lost against yours, and I don't intend on that changing."

"Does this training of yours include spying on our team?" Sky asked, figuring that that was what Sugarcoat had been doing before he bumped into her.

"Of course! We need to keep an eye on the competition. You know what they say, keep your friends close but your enemies closer. And I'm far more discreet about it than Rainbow Dash or Pinkie Pie."

Sky remembered the incident that had happened last week, when Rainbow and Pinkie attempted to spy on Crystal Prep's team and completely blew their cover. "Yeah, that was pretty embarrassing." he laughed.

"You bet it was. And my friends and I will be sure to remind Rainbow and Pinkie of that next time we see them, likely at the Games themselves." Sugarcoat paused. "Anyway, how have things been for you? You've barely texted me since moving here."

"Things have actually been going really well, all things considered." Sky replied. "The people here are way nicer than the people in Manebridge."

"Well, that's good." said Sugarcoat. "You always were sort of reclusive. And of course, I was always the outspoken one and basically did the talking for you." She put an arm around Sky's shoulders. "We sure make a great team."

Sky put his arm around Sugarcoat's shoulders. "We sure do, sis!"

At that moment, Wiz and Curly came around the bend. "Yo, Sky!" Curly shouted. "What's up, man?"

"Yeah, we weren't expecting to run into you around here!" said Wiz. He looked at Sugarcoat. "Speaking of which, who's your friend here?"

"My name's Sugarcoat. I'm Sky's cousin." Sugarcoat replied.

"Cool! Nice to meet you!" said Curly. "I'm guessing you live in Canterlot too?"

"Of course I do." said Sugarcoat. "I live in the city and I go to Crystal Prep. Although Sky here has somehow managed to avoid running into me until now." She gave Sky a playful nudge.

Sky chuckled. "Ah well. At least we crossed paths today, right? Sorry if I kept you hanging for a few weeks."

"It's all right." Sugarcoat replied. "I sort of figured settling into a new town would keep you busy."

"Yeah, it has." said Sky. "But don't worry - even though I've made a bunch of new friends since coming here, I'll always have room for you!"

"You'd better." said Sugarcoat with a smile. "We've been besties for pretty much as long as I can remember."

Wiz suddenly had a thought. "Wait a minute... Sky, aren't you not allowed to be on school grounds during your suspension?"

"Well, yes, but today's a Saturday and I'm technically not on school grounds." Sky replied. "This bench is not actually on the CHS campus."

"Wait, you got suspended?!" Sugarcoat exclaimed. "What did you do?"

"Oh boy." said Wiz. "We'd best leave you two to catch up." He and Curly headed off, leaving Sky and Sugarcoat alone again.

"All right then." said Sugarcoat. "How did you get yourself suspended, and for how long?"

"Three days." Sky replied. "Thursday, Friday and this coming Monday." He then explained the situation with Noteworthy.

"Wow. That guy really is an asshole." said Sugarcoat once Sky had finished his story. "I mean, all that over a stupid badminton game. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's people who take something trivial and act like their entire life depends on it. And I agree with what pretty much everyone else has said. You did nothing wrong. That asshole had it coming to him."

"Yeah. To be honest, I'm really glad I punched him, even if I got suspended for it." said Sky. "I wasn't going to let him cause trouble for my friend just because he was mad at me."

Sugarcoat pat Sky on the back. "Good on you, bro. But speaking of that, I was not expecting you to have a crush on someone. You've never acted like the romantic type of guy."

"Yeah, I guess not." said Sky. "Then again, Manebridge wasn't exactly the best place for something like that."

"That's true. I've never been in a relationship either, mainly because pretty much all of the boys at CPA are a bunch of idiots. They think they're really smart but they're not. I mean, there are some who are decent, but none of them are really my type. Besides, I'm perfectly fine being single. I'm pretty busy with my studies, so I don't need a relationship distracting me."

Sky nodded. "I can understand that."

"So, who's this girl that you like?" Sugarcoat asked.

"Her name's Lyra Heartstrings." Sky replied. "She and her best friend Bon Bon used to go to Crystal Prep, so maybe you know them?"

"Yes, both of those names sound familiar." said Sugarcoat. "I shared a few classes with them back in eighth grade. Like CHS, CPA is a five-year school. They were only there for one year, though, as they both transferred to Canterlot High for ninth grade. In a private school like mine, only the absolute best can stay in, so the first year usually weeds out a lot of people."

"I figured that." said Sky. "Although as you probably already noticed, they're on the Friendship Games team now."

"Yeah, I see both of them out there on the track. No matter, this team still doesn't look strong enough to defeat ours, with or without former Crystal Prep students."

"We'll see. Anyway, Lyra and Bon Bon were the ones who gave me a tour of the school when I first arrived here, and I liked Lyra pretty much as soon as I met her. After that, all three of us became friends, and my feelings for Lyra have just been getting stronger and stronger ever since." Sky sighed. "I really hope I'm not on my way to the friend zone."

"In this situation, you need to think logically." Sugarcoat said firmly. "Do you have her number?"

"Yes. We exchanged numbers a couple weeks ago, and we text each other pretty much every day."

"Well, who usually initiates the conversation?"

Sky ran through in his head every texting conversation he'd had with Lyra so far. "It's been about 50-50." he finally concluded.

"Okay. If you text each other almost every day, and she initiates half of your conversations, then she clearly likes you to some extent." said Sugarcoat. "So I wouldn't worry about it if I were you."

Sky nodded. "That's good to know." Then he sighed again. "I just have this crippling fear of rejection. Mainly because of me getting rejected by this girl that I really liked back in eighth grade."

"Wait, you asked somebody out two years ago?" Sugarcoat exclaimed. "You never told me about that! But seriously, that's really young to be dating someone. No wonder it didn't work out."

"Yeah, that's true. I guess it sort of turned me off of dating for a while, though."

"I can understand that, but you're in a much better community now. And from what you've told me, it sounds like you're really close to asking Lyra out. You need to just do it."

"Well, all right, but the Games are next Sunday. That means I probably won't get a chance for the next week."

"It's fine if you have to wait another week. Just know that the chance is there, and you just need to take it when you can."

Sky smiled. "Thanks for helping me out with this. It's nice to get advice from a girl."

"No problem. Even if you're talking to a girl who doesn't actually have any experience with this sort of thing. But whatever. If my favorite cousin needs help, I'll do what I can." She got up from the bench. "Anyway, I have to go now and tell my teammates what I saw of your team. It was great seeing you again, Sky."

"You too, Sugar." Sky replied. Sugarcoat gave him a warm hug and then headed back toward the mall, where her friends were presumably waiting. Sky headed back to his apartment with renewed confidence.