Chapter Text
"So, what then?"
"Mother, mother!" Black Sapphire Cookie knocked anxiously on his mother's door. "Please, open up. The letters have been piling up, the subjects have been demanding me for answers-" Before he could finish, his mother's door creaked open. Black Sapphire burst in to his mother on the floor, almost crumbling apart. "Mom!" Black Sapphire ran over to her, quick to check her condition. "No matter what I do...no cookie is ever truly happy..." She wept, room full of bottles of berry juice, some empty, some full, some opened. "I am no Sugar of Happiness..." "Mother, no please, you make cookies so unbearable happy, it's just- outside of the castle, outside the garden is the problem! Once they leave, that's when they're unhappy." Black Sapphire twisted, he had grown to learn to give false or twisted truths to keep those he knew happy. "My castle..it's fine?" Eternal Sugar Cookie hickuped. "Yes, yes mother." Her son nodded. "Inside here, they're happy, fulfilled, the outside world is just too cruel for you mother." Black Sapphire lied through his teeth, desperate to get his mother up so she can rule again. "Has...has your father wrote...?" The Sugar of Happiness begged, she was beyond distraught he hadn't even stopped by the castle. Black Sapphire bit his lip, no, he hasn't. "I've been so busy trying to rule I haven't gotten through personal addressed mail...but you have a letter from the Salt of Solidarity!" Black Sapphire Cookie quickly shoved the letter into his mother's hands. She opened it slowly, tears still dripping from her cheeks. She read through it quickly and then threw it to the side and began weeping into her hands. "Mother, mother please!" The lavender cookie begged, "Beast-Yeast is in shambles...the other virtues disappearing, at least Blueberry Milk hasn't just abandoned me!" The Sugar of Happiness screamed and through the bottle she was drinking against the hard sugar wall, it immediately smashing and splattering berry juice over her fine baby pink curtains and rugs. Black Sapphire flinched, stepping from his mother, she had never been in such condition before. Black Sapphire cleared his throat, "Mom, listen here," he spoke as he clutched Eternal Sugar's chin, bringing her face to his, "I'm going to go get father, and he will come, and we will figure out what's happening." The prince promised. Eternal Sugar Cookie's eyes watered excessively as she nodded, kissing his hand, "Thank you, my dearest delight, you've never failed me..."
"But I thought you said I was of Eternal Sugar Cookie's dough?! Was that another trick!!??" Candy Apple squealed, stomping her feet. "I'm getting to it!" Black Sapphire hissed, slamming his staff on the ground.
"You don't understand, I am the Fount's son, prince of your very king let me through!" Black Sapphire roared as he pushed through knights, "Who are you really? The Kingdom has been overfilling in intruders, liars, and thieves!" "I am your PRINCE!" Black Sapphire Cookie finally let out a large scream, eyes glowing as he lifted himself off the ground with his small black wings. The cookie realized he couldn't get through these knights, so he lifted into flight. He admired from below, trying to figure out the condition of his father's Spire. It was beyond chaos, cookies were...fighting each other? Stealing from each other. No time, he had to find his father. He flew through an open window inside his father's castle, landing inside an unfamiliar corridor. "Father, Blueberry Milk Cookie, Fount of Knowledge! Come out, I swear to the witches! Mother is going insane, all the other virtues haven't shown up in forever. We-we need your knowledge!" The prince ran through the halls, begging and calling as if it meant his life. Black Sapphire Cookie burst down the door to the library and ran throughout it, searching endlessly. Black Sapphire stopped when he saw a familiar figure at one of the balconies in the library. "Father, please-" "Food." Was all the Fount said. "What?" Black Sapphire begged, "Food. We are food." The lavender prince couldn't even process what his father said, absolutely stunned. "It all leads to misery; there's no happy endings." Blueberry Milk Cookie turned around and revealed his changing form, his icing falling off and revealing new clothing underneath. "Father please-" The cookie grabbed Black Sapphire Cookie's wrist tightly and pulled him in. Suddenly, there was darkness, Black Sapphire was in nothing, he had been pulled into a new world, new dimension. "Father?! Mother?! Where am I?" The cookie cried, beckoning to the void.
"You saw the magnificent Shadow Milk Cookie become the trickster we love and know!? Eek, so exciting!" Candy Apple Cookie clapped, smiling to reveal the sharpest, tiniest fangs. "Now, how was I made? Get to the point!" Black Sapphire Cookie rolled his eyes at her, letting out a sigh. "Fine, I'll begin...father would put on a disguise and frequently visit the Garden of Delights, though mother knew it was him every single time."
The lady walked through towering jars of jam, giggling at the pathetic cookies preserved within. Her azure, blue dress following her as she admired her surroundings. Though, she was here with ulterior motives. She suddenly shifted, her dress fell to the ground as a jet-black snake slithered from inside it and into the grass. The serpent slid through the sickeningly sweet fake grass with a motive, knowing there is something here it wanted. Then, the snake became a cookie again, a familiar one. Shadow Milk Cookie's milky hair lifted off the ground as he reached high to collect sugar syrup from a candy apple tree in the Garden of Delights. "C'mon, c'mon!!" Shadow Milk Cookie grumbled, he needed this over with so he wouldn't be caught. When the jar was halfway full, he immediately shifted into a portal that teleported him in the empty, almost abandoned hallways of the old sugar castle. "Quickly..." He whispered to himself, searching for whatever fragments he could find. He collected feathers, crumbs, specs of icing, until he found it. The nursery Black Sapphire was born in. The beast stopped dead in his tracks, mouth agape. He stared, the place was untouched and clean, as if she took care of it. Impossible, she hasn't stepped into this castle in forever!! Shadow Milk Cookie pleaded, but alas here it was. He looked to the left, where Black Sapphire was baked, where Eternal Sugar Cookie took her dough apart to build their baby. By miracle, some fresh dough had been preserved in a golden jar inside the cabinet. Shadow Milk Cookie quickly snagged it, cradling it in his arms as if it was Black Sapphire all those years ago. "Perfect...I can truly make her!" The cookie began to laugh loudly, dancing around with the jar in his hands. "Now, my dearest, to the lab!" Soon, he was back inside his Spire.
"But why?" Candy Apple Cookie begged, kicking her feet, "Why did master Shadow Milk Cookie make me?" Black Sapphire Cookie froze, remembering what his father said years ago. "Shadow Milk and Eternal Sugar were fighting over which kingdom I'd inherit. My father said he wanted another child, to "settle the argument", but you know he is quite the king of lies!" Black Sapphire chuckled, desperate to keep his image through the emotional, troubling topic. "But him and Eternal Sugar Cookie, like, haven't been together forever! Why noooow?" Candy Apple Cookie demanded, Black Sapphire was annoyed, but know she just wanted to know why Shadow Milk brought her into this world, and still hated her so much. "He was gushing over his ex-wife, I imagine!" Black Sapphire Cookie twirled his staff, "He's just beyond clingy!" Candy Apple groaned loudly, " Clingy? Master Shadow Milk Cookie tries harder then anyone else to be alone! Why don't you ever just tell me the truth!!" She cried and wailed, throwing her typical tantrum. "Enough!" Black Sapphire Cookie screamed, a familiar shout to the one he beckoned long ago. "You act as if its so horrible for you but I had to witness it all! I had to watch Shadow Milk and Eternal Sugar fall apart and seperate, yes we have the magnificent beast of deciet now but you have no idea what had to happen to get here!" The cookie blew up in a rage, finally boiling over. Candy Apple squealed in surprise, trembling, "The stupid "virtues" were never good in the first place, you have no idea how lucky we have it." Black Sapphire finished, turning away from Candy Apple Cookie.
"Is that why master Shadow Milk Cookie...why dad doesn't like me?"
Black Sapphire flashed his head back at a teary eyed cookie, lips trembling. "Is that why I'm never good enough?!" She screamed, demanding answers, "Why even put me here in the first place then?!" The cookie cried before storming out the room, running through the halls. "Candy Apple Cookie!" Black Sapphire cried, dropping his staff as he set out to follow her. The cookie was in shambles, she couldn't get over herself. The idea that Shadow Milk baked her just to remember what he used to have, just to further act out his big, elaborate play. Thats why she was so imperfect, she wasn't made to be his most perfect henchman like he said, she was made to make him feel better about his failures and yet all she did was remind him of them all over again. He was beyond selfish in such an act, but what could either of them do about it now?