Secret of the Sugar Flare

Prologue II: Tragedy of the Vanilla Kingdom

~8 years later~

It had been two years since the incident on the street. Meringue Cookie was now eight years old, crisp and fresh as ever, though full of questions. About a year back, her mother had left the Vanilla Kingdom in search of an answer unknown, but she wasn't sure what. Since then, she was left under the care of her father.

There were answers of her own Meringue Cookie had been looking for. What had happened that day on the street? Why had her mother left afterwards? If only the blossoms on her face weren't blinding her from the truth.

The truth...there was only one Cookie she knew who she could get the truth from.

Meringue Cookie wandered around the castle, listening for his voice, sniffing for his vanilla scent. Sure enough, she found him in the Solarion of Unity, presumably looking out the stained-glass window.

"I remember that day like it was yesterday..." she could hear him mumbling to himself. "White Lily Cookie...where have you gone?"

"Father?"

There was a slight gasp of surprise, and the rustle of robes as Pure Vanilla Cookie turned to face his daughter. "Meringue Cookie! You startled me, little one. Do you need something?"

"Yes, actually," Meringue Cookie was relieved she had caught him at a non-busy time. "I wanted to know more about what happened that day on the street...when I was playing with Dark Choco Cookie. Did you ever see what happened?"

There was a long silence from Pure Vanilla Cookie. Meringue Cookie couldn't see it, but an expression of worry and uncertainty had twisted his face. "I...don't know if I have the right words to explain it to you."

"But you DID see what happened, right? It's been haunting me for years...and it caused Mother to leave too...they MUST be connected somehow. Please, Father, do you know anything?"

Pure Vanilla Cookie thought very hard over this request. He wasn't expecting Meringue Cookie to ask this soon, but he knew this was going to happen the moment White Lily Cookie left. Perhaps he should take the plunge and come clean.

"Very well..." he sighed, settling down in front of her. "Two years ago, when you and Dark Choco Cookie were playing, we were watching you from the castle. We saw trouble and were about to come down and help, when...there was an explosion."

"I heard it too!" Meringue Cookie pointed out. "I could feel it all around me, but it didn't affect me at all. Did you see where it came from?"

"This is going to sound hard to believe, but...there's a reason you weren't affected,"

"What...?" What are you saying...?"

"Meringue Cookie...the cause of that explosion was you."

Meringue Cookie could feel the strawberry jam in her veins freeze up from shock. It couldn't be...such a powerful explosion...caused by her? "Me...? But how??"

"We weren't entirely sure ourselves," Pure Vanilla Cookie admitted. "The other heroes and I theorized that you absorbed energy around you and your body separated it into light and sugar before expelling it, causing the explosion. We called it...'the Sugar Flare.'"

Meringue Cookie faced towards the floor. "So THAT'S what happened...I KNEW there was something wrong with me."

"There is nothing wrong with you," Pure Vanilla Cookie took her shoulder. "Every Cookie has some sort of power that's yet to be cultured."

"Oh, sure," Meringue Cookie shook her head. "What an amazing power to have, capable of causing such destruction in a kingdom that's meant to heal."

"You just haven't mastered it yet," Pure Vanilla Cookie insisted. "You will when you get older."