Sour Bomb

by Luna T Nox

Day 3 - 24 Hours To Go

It was a bright day in Canterlot. Birds were singing, wind was gently whistling, trees were green and full of creatures. This was a happy day. Though for a certain teenager this was the second day of hell.

Sour Sweet sat on the edge of her bed. It was about 10 in the morning and she was feeling sick. Not physically sick, but mentally sick. Today marked the third day she was without her bipolar & anger management medication. She had been told, Friday, by the pharmacist that the medication would be available Monday. It was now Sunday and she was now feeling the full effects of what the medication made easier to control. She had felt the same yesterday and had managed to keep her self stable. She also was able to hide the fact she didn’t have her medication from her friends when they hung out yesterday as well.

But today they were going to hangout again. Gah, these urges! I made it through yesterday. But can I really keep control of myself for another day. NO, go away bad memories. She shook her head to clear the sudden appearance of her memories of other times she hadn’t had her medication. Great that didn’t help my anxiety migraine. Okay Sour remember what the shrink said “one step at a time” Okay let’s get a shower and see how we feel after that. She then willed her very stiff body to move. Phantom pains spread through out her body as she stood up. Well that isn’t pleasant at all. Alright to the shower. She began grabbing her clothes for the day and headed to the bathroom.

o7-o7-o7-o7-o7

Walking into the kitchen Sour was feeling less in pain than when she woke up. Though those phantom pains were still pulsing through out her body, at least they didn’t hurt so much after the hot shower. She made her way to the pantry and grabbed the bag of cereal. Then headed to the island to fix herself breakfast. As she poured her Orange Juice her mind kept flicking more bad memories at her. Ugh please head shut up she shot at her subconscious. The rest of her morning went by with unrelative ease.

The time was now half past noon. Indigo said she would be by to get her at 1. Sour spent the next 30 minutes readying herself for hanging with her friends. She heard a car horn go off outside, making her cringe, she went to a front window and sure enough it was Indigo Zap. Sour took a moment to calm herself of her annoyance at friends rude behavior. Sour made her way out to Indigo’s car and hopped into the back passenger side seat. “Indigo, I told you multiple times it’s better to just text me when you’re here. And never to just blow the horn and annoy my neighbors” Sour said through gritted teeth while buckling up.

“The horn is so much faster” Indigo shot back. Eliciting a smack on the arm from Sugarcoat.

“I’ve also told just how rude it is to honk your car’s horn when picking people up.” Sugarcoat added from her seat behind Indigo.

Sunny Flare just gave an evil stare to Indigo through the rear view mirror. Lemon Zest, who was listening to music through her headphones in the passenger seat, was oblivious to the little argument that just happened. Indigo just shrugged and backed out of Sour’s driveway. The girls chatted about what they were going to do today. They soon came to a consensus that they should hangout at Lemon’s house.

o7-o7-o7-o7-o7

Lemon’s house was the biggest among the girls’ homes. She had all the latest video game consoles, and a high performance gaming desktop. Her family also had a pool and hot tub in they’re backyard. In short Lemon’s family was fairly rich. They also were the most open minded and least pestering of the girls’ families. This let the girls be able to relax and hang without worrying about adults always being around.

Sour had spent most of the ride to Lemon’s house in her head. She was still trying to instill stability in her emotions.

Once they were all in Lemon’s room they setup one of the video game consoles with a multiplayer game for four. Sunny opted to watch since she found herself more of a spectator to these games. Sunny was more of an open world, single player gamer. The other four girls grabbed controllers and setup a match. A hour went by and they were all tied except for Indigo who was a single win ahead of everyone. They continued to play and everyone was racking up wins, except Sour Sweet who had only won two of the last twenty or so matches. Her frustration with losing was building. So far she had kept herself under control and was only trash talking.

o7-o7-o7-o7o7

“And boom! Another win for the blue streak!” Indigo yelled as she won yet another match. Indigo was in the lead by a wide margin at this point and Sour was starting to become distracted with anger. “Best 126 of 250?”

Sour had lost her control and lunged on to her friend and took her to the floor. “Bitch! I know you’ve been cheating!”

Sour was about to do further harm to her friend “Sour! Calm down it’s only a game!” Sunny cried jumping over to the two and attempted pull Sour off Indigo. Sugarcoat knowing she was the next strongest after Indigo, dived into help Sunny pull Sour off Indigo and restrain her. They tussled with Sour, but managed to pull her off Indigo before she could do any serious harm. With Sour now restrained, Sunny Spoke softly while keeping a tight hold on her friend “Sour please calm down. This isn’t you. You’re a calm sweet girl. Not an aggressive fighter”

Sour for her part continued to try and escape yelling “Get Off Me! Let me at her!” eventually Sour relaxed and let herself fall limp.

Sunny and Sugarcoat relaxed their hold on their friend, but made sure to still have their friend restrained. “Okay, Sour are you cool now?” Sunny slowly asked. Sour made no sound but nodded her head. “Okay, before we let you up answer me this one question. Have you had your medicine today?”

This time Sour shifted her head and said “No” her voice was very low, but audible.

Sunny and Sugarcoat kept their hands on Sour Sweet, but let her sit up. “Okay Sour can you tell me why you haven’t taken your medicine?” Sunny asked making sure she kept a calm voice.

Indigo was now sitting back on the edge of Lemon’s bed where she originally was. She checked herself for injuries, she had none not even a bruise. This wasn’t the first time she had been attacked by Sour Sweet. But it had been a long time since it last happened. She still knew the drill, don’t say anything and let Sunny take care of Sour. Sunny and Sour knew each other since kindergarten, in that time Sunny had learned how to control Sour and calm her down when she had an episode. It was because of Sunny that her and Sour were still close friends after the first time Sour attacked her. The only one to never be on the receiving end of Sour’s aggression was Sugarcoat. Sugarcoat was very perceptive and could tell when not to push Sour’s buttons. This also made a great help to Sunny when Sour did have an episode.

Sour breathed a deep sigh and explained her reason for not having taken her medicine. “…So I haven’t taken it since Thursday and won’t have more till Tomorrow” Sour summarized.

“Okay, do you feel you have enough control to not explode again?” Sunny asked. Sour nodded and the two girls let go of her. “Okay girls I think we all could use a little dip in the pool to cool off” Sunny announced to the group

Lemon who had been waiting for the little event to resolve yelled “Everyone remembered a swim suit?” All nodded in unison. Sunny held out a hand to Sour to help her off the floor. Everyone grabbed their bags and headed to the bathroom near the back door.

o7-o7-o7-o7-o7

After everyone had a turn to get changed. They headed into the backyard and warm summer heat. Sunny and Indigo opted to use the hot tub first. Lemon ran to the deep end of the pool and cannonballed into the pool. Sugarcoat had brought a book and decided to read while she sunbathed.

Sour was still standing near the back door. She had kinda just let herself move on autopilot while following her friends to the backyard. Her mind was a blur of emotional thoughts. Why did I have to lose control? Am I really a good person? How could I attack one of my friends again? She slowly made her way to the nearest pool chair and laid down on her side. Still trapped by her thoughts she laid there in a near fetal looking position.

A few minutes passed by and everyone was relaxing or having fun. Well all except Sour Sweet whom was still laying down in that near fetal looking position. Sunny had watched Sour lay down on the chair when they all came out of the house. At this point she started feeling something was still bothering Sour Sweet. “Hey Sour, come get in the hot tub with me and Indigo” Sour made no motion to get up. “Sour Spicy Sweet are you even hearing me?” This time Sour at least moved her arm to brush her side. Sunny taking this as conformation she was listening “Then would you mind coming over here and talking with me in the hot tub?” Sour just shook her whole body in response. “Alright, excuse me Indigo, but I think our dear friend is still a bit shaken by her episode” Sunny got out of the hot tub and made her way to the chair next to Sour. “Okay, clearly you’re still shaken by your little episode”

“Little?! I was about to physically tear into one of my closest friends!” Sour said harshly in a barely audible whisper

“Yes and we all knew that. But we also know that isn’t the real you. You are a kind person, who would never physically try to hurt someone. Though you do have a hell of a mouth on your best days” Sunny lightly chuckled at her last comment. Sour seemed to at least relax a little.

“But I could have seriously injured Indigo” Sour said still very tense in her speech.

“But you didn’t and I’ll prove it” Sunny stood up and yelled for Indigo to come over. Indigo got out and started walking over.

“Hey what’s up?” Indigo sat down next to Sunny on the pool chair.

“Can you show Sour a place she hurt you in your little scuffle?” Sunny asked of Indigo

“But I told you I didn’t sustain an injury. Not even a bruise” Indigo replied to Sunny’s request

“There you go Sour, no injuries” Sunny said succinctly

“What if it’s worse the next time I explode?” Sour asked still worried

“Hey what’s the commotion?” the sudden appearance of Lemon Zest made Sunny and Indigo jump a little. Sour had watched her approach and Sugarcoat wasn’t far behind her.

“We are trying to comfort and cheer up our dear friend Sour here.” Sunny answered now noticing Sugarcoat next to Lemon Zest. “And to answer your question Sour, there won’t be a next time. You’re better than that. And if you do have an episode again. You have us to talk to and console you.”

Sour relaxed enough to stretch her legs “Really you all have my back?” she asked still holding her arms close to her chest.

“Yes dear we are all here for you” Sunny confirmed “Right guys?”

“Of course” Indigo and Lemon said in unison.

“Well you are one of the smartest girls at CPA and I adore intelligence. So yes, I don’t see myself betraying you anytime soon” Sugarcoat answered in her signature blunt honesty

“See we’re all here for you Sour” Sunny re-iterated

Sour finally moved and sat up on the side of the pool chair facing all her friends. Though she was still slumping and was staring at the ground “Thank You” she calmly said. Gaining a bit more confidence she raised her head and repeated “Thank You everyone and especially you Sunny for always being here for me. Always not hurting me more when I’m at my worst. Thank You” Sunny initiated it but everyone crowded in after and they all held a big group hug with Sour Sweet in the middle.

“Okay girl you feeling better?” Indigo asked as they broke the hug. Sour nodded. “Up for a little water basketball?” Sour nodded and they all jumped into the pool. Except Sugarcoat who sat on the side as ref. The girls had a relatively normal day there after.

Author's Note:

Thank You for reading.

I'm willing to accept any criticism good or bad.

A little background on what inspired me to write this, as well as why Sour Sweet may seem a little off. I wrote this taking inspiration from real events from my life. I basically replaced myself with Sour Sweet, this is why she may seem a bit out of character. I melded my personality into her's. I also like the idea of her being more mentally unstable than she let's on. This version of her makes her very relate able for me.

I would not call this any where near my best writing. I wrote it in one day and only proof read it once.

Thanks again for reading
Luna T Nox

EDIT: I've decided to write a whole Fic series around My interpretation of Sour Sweet. So wish me luck in writing it. Also I fixed a few errors I made in this fic as well.

Comments

[Hopeful_Ink_Hoof]

It's decent, but could use a little more. For example, being her third day without, she is likely going through withdrawal. It might be touched on a little with the pain, but is not really explored. Especially since some of the possible side-effects include signs of making her very situation worse.

It also seems like she should have given her friends a heads up. Or at least show some conflict to it. Like she wants to give them a heads up, but she also doesn't want to be given special treatment.

[Luna T Nox]

8055545 I did try to touch on the withdrawal symptons with the morning segment of the story.

Her lack of communication is actually on purpose and is derived from my own personality I had at the same age. I was twisting to be a little more like myself at her age, 16-17, which I was never a good communicator of my problems at that time. I was very insecure about myself and my problems in High School. Again her out of character feel was intentional. I also made her a little more able to control herself than I probably should have.

Admittedly if I were to go back and do rewrites of this. I would make the middle quite a bit longer, showing more detail to what's going on in Sour's head. I had decided to try going with a zoom out during that part, and in hindsight my have been a bad idea.

On a last note I will take you suggestions of a better conflict into consideration for a future fic involving a similar scenario.

Thanks for the input

[forbloodysummer]

I thought this showed a great understanding of what Sour must have been going through. It could probably benefit from just being read through once or twice, now you've had a couple of days of it being up here to gain some distance from it, as there are a couple of missing apostrophes, a their instead of they're, that sort of thing.

The last few paragraphs could have been a bit stronger, I feel, but it was nice hearing about the history of Sour and Sunny together. Also, maybe it's just that we heard her speak so little in her only canon appearance, but I never felt she was out of character here.

Have you read many of the other stories exploring Sour Sweet from the more real world, mental health perspective, like A Talk Between Sisters?