I Crush You
I Crush You
The barest hint of heat in the air, the smell of flowers drifting across campus on the gentle breeze, and the golden blanket of light that crept over the school set the perfect atmosphere for romance. It was one of the few things that could make Sour Sweet just stop and pay attention to the world around her. Or perhaps more accurately, stop and pay attention to the only boy who was capable of stopping her in her tracks.
Her footsteps slowed on the sidewalk approaching the school, her eyes drifting to watch him sit on the grass on the front lawn strumming an old acoustic guitar with one hand. His name was Braeburn, one of the strongest, kindest, handsomest boys in all of Crystal Prep Academy. She couldn't name a single girl who hadn't at least talked about getting together with him once.
"Give it up, Sour Sweet," Sunny Flare's voice warned from behind her head. "We've talked about this."
"Mngh, it's just not fair." Sour Sweet clenched her fists, punching at the air in frustration. "The one guy in this school who seems decent and he's already taken!"
"Yeah, that about sums it up." Sunny Flare smirked with her hands clenched behind her back. "I don't know about the 'only decent guy' thing, though. Blueblood isn't bad... looking..."
"Ugh." Sour Sweet rolled her eyes. "Don't mention that jerkwad to me." She stopped in her tracks to stare across the lawn at Braeburn, who remained oblivious to her. As she watched, a beautiful girl with deep, auburn hair and a bright smile approached him. She moved with the grace of a professional dancer, and the laugh that echoed over to them could have come from an angel playing with a crowd of happy schoolchildren and newborn puppies.
Sour Sweet's fists clenched as her voice lowered to a growl. "Little Strongheart..."
Sunny Flare watched them kiss as she settled onto the grass beside him. "They sure do seem into each other."
Sour Sweet punched her fist into her palm with a quick nod. "I've had enough of this! I'm gonna ask him out!"
"Darnit..." Sunny Flare slapped a hand to her forehead. "I was afraid this was coming. You know there's a special cage in Tartarus for relationship wreckers, right?"
"Relax! If he goes for me he obviously didn't like her that much, right? So, no harm no foul!"
"Even if that wasn't a horrible fallacy, I'm not sure it applies to this."
"It'll be fine! There's no harm in asking. That's not a horrible fallacy, is it?"
"Well... no, I guess it's not."
"That settles it, then!" Sour Sweet pumped her arms in front of her. "I am going to date Braeburn if it's the last thing he does! I just need to wait for my chance!" She whirled to rush toward the school.
"I'll be here when you're done being crazy for the day!" Sunny Flare called after her through cupped hands.
***
The hallways of Crystal Prep Academy were always pretty quiet. A majority of its students preferred to keep to themselves, or wander the hallways in small groups. So Sour Sweet knew how to be completely silent as she crept her way up behind an open locker, and struck up a sultry position with her back against the one beside it. When the door closed, Braeburn's eyes locked onto her, obviously somewhere between shock and intrigue.
"Sour Sweet?" Braeburn blinked in shock. "I mean... howdy. Are you lost?"
"Nope. I'm right where I wanna be." Sour Sweet winked and pushed off from the locker. "You know I see you doing so much throughout the day, you must be reeeaaaally tired sometimes."
"Well, yeah, I s'pose." Braeburn rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. "A good workout will make anybody a little tuckered out."
"You really need somebody who'll... relax you." Sour Sweet grinned her most sappy sweet grin. "Here, I even brought a pillow, so you don't have to strain those mighty neck muscles." She pulled out a soft travel pillow from behind her back.
"A pillow? I don't-oh, uh..." Braeburn was cut off as she moved behind him and pressed the pillow against the back of his neck. "Thanks...?"
"You're welcome. Oh you're so tall, that neck must get super tired holding up that handsome head."
"Maybe...?" Braeburn coughed into one hand.
"And maybe you could rest it-" Sour Sweet's voice trailed off when she felt gentle hands on her shoulders. Almost of its own volition her body let the hands guide her back away from Braeburn, turn her down the hall, and send her walking away from the boy. She was halfway down the hallway before she looked back to see that Little Strongheart had joined him, both of them now completely ignoring her.
"How in the..." Sour Sweet ripped the pillow in half in her fists, sending stuffing flying across the hallway. "This isn't over!"
***
Sour Sweet was leaning against a locker as Braeburn passed. "Hey Braeburn, you wanna go out with me some time?"
"Thank ya kindly, but no." Braeburn tipped his hat to her as he passed.
Curses, foiled again!
***
The lunchroom was full of murmuring and laughing students, though Sour Sweet's attention remained on two in particular, who were sitting in the far corner of the room at a small table by themselves. Braeburn and Little Strongheart kept talking in hushed voices, making sickening googly eyes and cute faces at one-another.
Sour Sweet only looked away to stare down at the table, quickly scribble a message on a sheet of paper, then carefully fold it against the solid wood until it compiled neatly into a paper airplane, complete with a tiny rudder she made sure was perfectly aligned for stable flight. She turned toward the couple, stuck her tongue out, then let it fly. The plane whizzed right by their heads while Braeburn was looking down, but Little Strongheart watched it pass, then gave Sour Sweet a sharp glare.
Sour Sweet just wrote another note, folded another plane, and sent it flying. This time Little Strongheart slapped it out of the air before it could reach him, giving Sour Sweet a dainty smile in return. The next plane was caught in one hand and chucked back, forcing Sour Sweet to duck out of the way or be hit in the forehead.
When she didn't grab another sheet of paper immediately, Little Strongheart turned back to her oblivious boyfriend. After a couple of minutes, however, a small stream of paper airplanes pelted her in the back of the head. She ducked in surprise and the remaining planes flew right over her head. A confused Braeburn finally looked over to see what was going on, and caught a plane right in each eye.
"AAAAUGH!" Braeburn howled and collapsed to the floor in a heap, his hands clutching his eyes in pain. Sour Sweet's heart stopped for several moments before she leapt from her seat to run from the cafeteria.
***
"Indirect approach..." Sour Sweet strolled casually down the hallway with picture clenched in her hands. Her eyes darted back and forth up and down the hallway, making sure it was empty before she quickly wrenched Braeburn's locker open. A wicked grin lit up her lips as she slipped the picture into the first textbook she could find, a history book, and slammed the door again. Her mission accomplished, she turned to march down the hallway. "Let's see if you can resist me after seeing that..."
She casually stepped out of the hallway when she saw Braeburn approaching, moving toward his locker as he spoke energetically with his companion. "I'm tellin' you it's no problem at all, Sassy." He approached his locker and pulled out his history textbook, holding it out to her. "Here you go, I think I've got all my chickens in a row on the subject."
"Thanks, I really owe you one." Sassy Saddles took the book from him with a wide smile. Sour Sweet clenched her teeth. "Come on, let's get to the cafeteria and we can do a little cramming together before our next class?"
"That sounds like a fine idea." Braeburn moved down the hall beside Sassy. Sour Sweet continued to swear at herself under her breath. That picture was for his eyes only!
When they neared her hiding spot, Sour Sweet suddenly leapt from the doorway, shoulder-tackling Sassy Saddles into the far row of lockers and clutching the textbook against her chest with both arms as she took off down the hallway.
"Sour Sweet! That's my book!" Braeburn called after her furiously.
"Sorry! I'm super interested in BaconHam Linkin'!" Sour Sweet shouted back just before rounding the far corner out of sight.
***
Sunny Flare opened her locker with a swing of one hand and slipped her books into place absently. She was glad school was over for the day, she had been keeping an eye on Sour Sweet's progress, and she was really starting to worry. These manic freakouts weren't entirely unusual for her, but they usually didn't involve stalking and harassing other students. Maybe now that school was ending she would go back to normal.
She looked up in surprise, along with every other student, when the school's P.A. system crackled to life, and Dean Cadence's voice echoed across the hallways. "Stop this! You can't just-" Her voice faded into crackles again.
The crackles faded into Sour Sweet's voice this time. "Get off of me! I gotta say it and you can't stop me! I-ow!" The sound of a roll of papers smacking something echoed down the hallways.
"Get away from-" The system went dark again.
Sunny Flare just stared at the nearest speaker in shock. This was even worse than usual.
Without warning Sour Sweet's voice echoed through the hallway one more time. "-out with me, meet me at-GAK-!" The P.A. system shut off again.
Sunny bit her lip. She was going to get herself hurt at this rate...
***
It was getting late in the day, long after school had ended. The sun was drifting toward the horizon, casting its glow across the large park filled with lush green vegetation. In its center sat Braeburn and Little Strongheart, on a picnic blanket with a wicker basket forgotten on the grass beside them. The girl was leaning contentedly against his powerful chest, her hands idly stroking the back of one of many cute, chirping birds that were standing on her legs, singing a soft, calming tune along with her golden, flutelike voice.
In the bushes not far behind them sat Sour Sweet, fuming and cursing to herself as she watched his hand stroke her smooth, slender arm. A whole day's effort had been wasted, and worst of all, she wasn't even close to fulfilling her declaration. She wasn't a quitter, she had never quit at anything in her life, and she wasn't about to start now!
After a deep, steadying breath, she marched out of the bushes toward the couple. "Little Strongheart!" The two lovebirds looked back at her in surprise. "I challenge you for Braeburn! Winner takes boyfriend!"
Braeburn scratched his head confusedly. "What am I, a pair of shoes?"
Little Strongheart just stared at her for a moment, then slowly began rising to her feet. The birds took flight, flapping their tiny wings powerfully against the air to get away from her as she stood. One of her hands snapped behind her, whipping a tomahawk from the back of her belt and swinging it expertly between her fingers on its way into position clenched in her right fist. Sour Sweet's eyes bolted from the shimmering blade of the weapon to Little Strongheart's eyes, which were sharply narrowed.
***
Twilight Sparkle sat at the top of the highest hill in the park, sipping at her tea after a deep breath to take in its scent. "Mmmh, it really is lovely out here Sugarcoat, thank you for inviting me."
"You're welcome. It's a pretty nice evening." Sugarcoat sipped her own tea, with her mug cupped daintily in both hands. Her eyes opened wide, and Twilight Sparkle nearly jumped out of her skin, when they both heard a high-pitched scream from further down the hill in the park. In the distance they could see a figure that looked like Sour Sweet charging across the grass at full speed.
Twilight adjusted her glasses. "Is that Sour Sweet running for her life from an axe-wielding maniac?"
"Looks like it."
"Should we help her?" Twilight cupped her hands worriedly in front of her as she watched Sour Sweet duck behind a tree, peering out from behind it at the approaching girl, who Twilight finally recognized as Little Strongheart. Little Strongheart swung the tomahawk as hard as she could, its blade biting deep into the trunk of the tree between them and sending a spray of bark across both girls. Sour Sweet took the opportunity to bolt from cover while Little Strongheart struggled to pull her weapon free.
"Nah."
"Isn't that what a friend would do?"
"Do you want to get between them?"
Twilight looked down again, just in time to see Little Strongheart hurl the tomahawk with a wide overhead swing. It missed its mark and embedded itself into the dirt, though this didn't slow down Sour Sweet one bit as she ran for the bathrooms in the eastern side of the park with all her strength.
"N-not really..."
"Sour Sweet will be fine," Sugarcoat said with one more dainty sip of her tea. "She's crafty."
***
Sour Sweet leaned against a bathroom stall door, her heart pounding in her chest the only sound she could hear until the footsteps followed her in. Sour Sweet gulped, seeing her life flashing before her eyes. It was a short life, but a good one, all in all. Especially that time in pre-school grade when her parents let her bring her big-wheel to school. So many burnouts on the pavement, laughing as her wheels ran over other students...
"Little Strongheart, so good to see you." Her flashbacks ceased when she heard Sunny Flare speak from outside the bathroom stall.
"Oh, hello Sunny." Little Strongheart's voice was light and amicable, all of a sudden. "How is your day going, today?"
"You know, same old same old. How about you?"
"Just teaching lessons."
"Important ones, I'm sure. I think I can take it from here, though."
"Okay, thank you. I'll see you tomorrow!"
"Later!" Sunny Flare went silent until a pair of footsteps disappeared into the distance. "You can come out now, Sour Sweet." The hiding girl hesitated a moment before opening the stall door with a sigh, walking out with her shoulders slumped. "Are you finished?"
"Yeah, I'm done..." Sour Sweet rubbed her forehead with one hand. "None of today went how I planned at all."
"The best laid plans of mice and men, as they say. And girls, of course." Sunny Flare moved closer to slip a comforting arm around her shoulders. "Glad to see you back to your normal self again. Did you learn anything today?"
"Yeah, don't @%$# with Little Strongheart! She has an axe!"
"Close enough." Sunny turned to guide her friend out of the bathroom and into the park. "You look tired. I'll walk you home."
"Thanks Sunny... and I'm sorry I kind of went crazy." Sour Sweet blushed and cupped her hands in front of her. "Sometimes my brain gets away from me."
"Don't worry about it. That's just part of your Sour Sweetness." Sunny squeezed her shoulders comfortingly with one arm and turned to lead her toward home. Sour Sweet felt herself relax for the first time since she got to school, leaning a bit against her friend. Now that her euphoria was wearing off, she decided it really wasn't worth the effort anyway. If he chose Little Strongheart over her, he didn't like her enough to consider going out with.
Now if only her brain worked well enough to figure that out sooner...
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That was both sweet and hilarious. The fact that Sour managed to escalate things so quickly in one day is astounding.
I love how you briefly touched on her having regular 'manic' episodes. It seems completely believable to me, especially as someone who lives with several bipolar family members who do go into manic periods occasionally. You did a good job capturing the lack of normal rationality and forethought as well as the focused drive that often accompanies it,
...Though she might need to see someone about that. She's just a liiiitle too fond of this memory... O-O
Also, Little Strongheart chasing Sour Sweet through the park with a tomahawk was amazing. I laughed the whole time. xD
BraeburnXStrongheart OTP
Exellent work as usual. Can already not wait until the next entry in this series.
HAHHAHAHHAHA. OMG. I C A N T.
i was laughing and reading at the same time. this was a great story of Sour Sweet.
OMG. I just love these Shadow 5.
Oh my god my lungs...They DIED!
6571392
You're welcome to leave whatever you want, but I feel like you missed the point somewhere.
6571408
This was never a story about Sour Sweet getting Braeburn as her boyfriend. It was established right from the start that he and another girl (Strongheart) were firmly a loving couple, and that Sour was destined to fail in her desire to get him as her own. This entire story was simply a comedic tale following Sour Sweet as she goes to extremes for illogical goals. She never had romantic investment in him, and he absolutely didn't in her.
In fact, this would have been a more realistic tragedy if she had gotten him to be her boyfriend somehow. Braeburn and Strongheart would have been separated, Braeburn would come to resent Sour (as would Strongheart), Sour would be stuck in a relationship that was never there and would have been crushed by the realization of her folly. That would have been a nasty slap of reality. Getting chased by a girl with a tomahawk through a park is hopefully not reality- it's just goofy.
I realize that that is your opinion, and this is mine, and that I may be overstepping some bounds here. However, I can't help but feel that your view of this story may be a little too black and white, and that you are missing the point of it- to be a silly story of a girl with a silly crush doing silly antics, who didn't really lose out in the end after all. Nothing won, nothing lost, and no hurt feelings.
I actually half expected one of the paper airplanes Strongheart threw back at Sour Sweet to land in Blueblood's lap and create an awkward moment later on,
s6.postimg.org/5pzpmopep/Pirate_Approved2.jpg
6571844
If I sounded like I was ranting, then I apologize. I assure you the intent behind my words were purely informative and neutral. My only goal was to perhaps shed this story in a new light that would allow you to enjoy it more. Forcing you to change your opinion is not something I have any desire to do, nor is offending you or prying into your life. Again, I apologize if I came across as trying to do those things. There is nothing wrong with having an opinion.
For the sake of peace, I will not continue arguing about this (Hypocritical coming from the person who jumped in, I know). I will not reply to you anymore in the interest of leaving you be, and offer my sincere apologies. I also apologize to the author for starting this argument in their comment section.
-(And sorry for the deleted comment- my internet is having technical difficulties and replied to no-one)-
6571972
Ranting is never a bad thing, I respect your reasons for doing so, because I tend to do it myself occasionally.
I was not offended, nor were you trying to pry into my life, but most people when cornered in an argument try to play the pity card, "oh woe is me my life is horrible" and all that. I have no idea why I brought that up but whatever.
If you'll excuse me I'm going to put this all behind me and go read other stuff. Toodles!
Well, this was fun.
The bit with Sour trying to use the intercom almost made me wake everyone up with my laughing.
I'm looking forward to a story focused on Sunny Flare; she's been the sane to offset everyone else's crazy so far, so it'll be interesting to see you get into her head.
As I was reading the part of Twilight and Sugarcoat having tea, I can see what would be going on in the background between Sour and Strongheart. Just like those classic cartoons, like Tom and Jerry.
6571392 Wow I don't think I've ever seen that many thumbs down on a comment before on this website lol.
6575046 I once managed to get 67 thumbs down on a comment within an hour. I wasn't even trying to be an asshole then.
6575081 Wow.....just....what did you say?
6575102 I think it would be best left unsaid, needless to say I'm still a little bitter about that.
6575104 Ok, that's fine. Have a nice day.
I've been following your "Shadowbolts Adventures" and I think this one is my favorite. Loved how crazy everybody got when love was on the line.
Now for what I really want to say:
BraeBurn's sexuallity is a slghtly complicated issue for me. I've pretty much accepted the idea that pony-Bareburn is gay into my headcannon, and you would think that it makes sense to apply the same concept to his human counterpart, but then I discovered this and it was so cute that I just couldn't bring myself to do it. At this point, I continue to characterize pony-Braeburn as gay, while human-Braeburn is straight. Is there anything wrong with that?
6577181
Thank you for enjoying it, I'm glad you did.
And no, it's not really weird to consider them so different. While there are certainly common traits among those of both universes, they're definitely not the exact same entity. Human Twilight is much more quiet and demure than her powerful and confident pony counterpart, Fluttershy is a lot less shy than her pony counterpart, probably due to being forced all the way through school instead of dropping out to become a hermit and friend to the animals, and Rarity has mannerisms on the human side that she has never shown as a pony ("Puh-psh-tch-pff" being among them). In general they're just slightly different due to having different life experiences.
Gotta say, first I've seen of these shadowbolt adventures, but if theirs more of the same I'm definitely marathoning them all. I love nicely paced, quick little one-shots and this certainly delivered on it! good job man.
6578969
I don't know about "the same". There are other episodes of Shadowbolts Adventures you can find in my profile, and more yet to come, I upload one every Sunday evening/Monday morning, but this one is atypically short and silly (the others are roughly double the length, 5,000-6,000 words).
Still, do feel free to let me know what you think if/when you do decide to read them.
This is probably the funniest of the Shadowbolt Adventures. I just love seeing the lengths Sour Sweet will go to just to get with BraeBurn.
Another great Shadowbolts story! I'm really enjoying these and how you flesh these characters out.
BTW, something I've really been wanting to say but which keeps skipping my mind: I really want to commend you for how you write Sour Sweet's dialogue in these stories. You're the first writer I've seen do it properly. I know I couldn't do it.
So, Sour Sweet has a romantic side? Who knew??? Lol! Shadowbolt romance fics seem very few and far between, and truth to tell, Sour Sweet doesn't seem like the romantic type; for me that would be Sunny Flare (Rarity's counterpart) or Lemon Zest (my newest waifu!!!111!!!). But it's nice to see Sour expanded to more than just the bipolar joke she was in the movie. She must be pretty strong too to wrench open Braeburn's locker (don't they have locks on them in this school? lol!).
And wow...Applejack's cousin goes to Crystal Prep! Nice to see he hasn't succumbed to the atmosphere there and become a jerk.
Again, I've really enjoyed reading these fics. Have a watch!
Little Strongheart is such an underrated character it's not funny.
I'm glad she got to really shine in this and more Strongburn is always welcome. {Seriously, how did that ship not take off?} This fic was all around funny and I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Also, Sour Sweet is an idiot. She's a ranged unit. Those do poorly in close quarters, especially against melee units.
So the conclusion was foreseeable but still hilarious.
I enjoyed this story greatly. Sour Sweet is an adorable schizo.
One nitpick, though. Sunny Flare should have said "Hell" instead of "Tartarus." The whole point of EG is to help the audience relate to the characters more. On Earth, they are older and humans. That's easier to relate to than ponies. So if you choose to go with the Earth settings, you gotta follow its culture too. No one says "Tartarus." Mentioning something that is not even remotely a part of our earthen culture, you break the immersion. The term "Hell" has long become a quintessential part of expression of strong emotions. Think, "go to hell," or "what the hell." And it doesn't matter if Sunny Flare is a believer or not. What counts is the term's cultural significance.
6635276
Fair points, but personally I don't see the EG world as "our" world in every respect. Tartarus in their world isn't a literal prison where bad guys are sent like in Equestria, but rather, yeah, their version of Hell. I can see how this can "break immersion" for some people, but that's how I choose to interpret their world. A reshuffled version of Equestria rather than a version of our own.
This whole series has been pretty enjoyable so far. Good stuff, even if I am reading them in reverse order.
6635276
Tartarus is the name for the Greek pantheon equivalent of Hell. Their take on the underworld was more complex than most, with several different places a soul could be sent. Tartarus was deep below the rest of it and was basically a suffering pit for evil souls. A lot of the imagery associated with Hell comes from Tartarus.
Do the teachers know Little Strongheart takes an axe to school?
Either way, given that Sour Sweet is who I'd angle for if I wanted to date a Shadowbolt, this was kind of interesting to read. I can just imagine myself wanting to ask her out but not really wanting to get in the way of her laser-guided obsession...
Braeburn goes to crystal prep? he's TRAITOR!!!!!!!
also, i though this fandom hated little strongheart because she's a racist caricature
8508953
If they do hate her, it's news to me.
Also she's not really a racist caricature, the Buffalo do really nothing to specifically come off as "Native American" besides have land and have feathers in their headbands. You have to be trolling really hard, or be super easy to offend, to get mad about the way Little Strongheart was portrayed.
8509385
I dint say I was and I wasn't really expecting my comment to be taken seriously anyway
8509385
...and the fact she's carrying aroud a tomahawk for no apperent reason, what is this, Street Fighter II?
and i thought Capper was bad lol
I about fell out!
And i didn't really think she was going to hurt Sour Sweet, she was just teaching her a lesson.
8729852
I'd say it's more Assassin's Creed.
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/assassinscreed/images/d/d6/ACI-Connor.png/revision/latest?cb=20150930201745
So was she actually gonna hurt her or what