Author's Notes:

For any new readers, you may find reading Sour Sweet Sorrow before this story to be helpful. In addition to those not aware and read Sour Sweet Sorrow before May 30th, you may want to know that I made some revisions to it ( as well as some of my other stories ). Here's my blog post explaining what was changed.

As always, when Sour Sweet’s dialogue is presented in italics she’s sweet, in bold she’s sour, and in plain type she’s normal.

Shock. Horror. Confusion.

The reactions of Sunny Flare, Indigo Zap, Lemon Zest, and Sugarcoat are difficult for you to witness as you inform them of the events of last night. When they had met up in front of Crystal Prep Academy as they usually did in the mornings before first bell, they couldn’t have expected to learn how Sour attempted to drown herself after hearing the harsh, poorly chosen words of her father.

Sunny Flare’s eyes begin to moisten. “We almost lost our Sour Sweet?”

“I wish that I was the one to knock Mr. Sweet’s lights out!” Indigo Zap shouts, angrily smashing her fist into her hand.

“Wait, where is Sour now?” Lemon Zest desperately wants to know.

“She texted me before I went to sleep that her parents called Doctor Chrysalis to tell them what had happened,” you begin to explain. “She recommended that she stay out of school for a few days.”

Lemon Zest threw her hands up in frustration. “Aw, dudes, how can we just waste time in school all day when she needs us?!”

Sugarcoat opens her mouth but then closes it. That certainly surprises you. Sugarcoat would be the last person to not express what’s on her mind.

“Hey, Sugarcoat?” you press. “You okay?”

Sugarcoat bites her lip. She then turns around away from everyone.

“Sugarcoat, it’s alright,” Sunny Flare assures, coming over to put her hand on her friend’s shoulder. “We’re all crestfallen about this, but Sour’s going to be okay.”

“I aided her decision to kill herself!” Sugarcoat suddenly blurts. She turns around to reveal the tears rolling down her otherwise stoic face. “I’m not the most expressive or outgoing friend in the world. What have I done to help give Sour Sweet reason to live?” She shook her head with a look of self-disgust. “Absolutely nothing.”

“Oh, Sugarcoat!” Sunny Flare gasps and gives her a comforting embrace.

“Sugarcoat, it’s not your fault,” you promise. “There are just a lot of things constantly going on in Sour Sweet’s head that keep her from thinking clearly. The only thing you could really blame is fate itself.”

“What we need to do is make sure Sour Sweet knows that she has the full love and support from her friends all the time,” Lemon Zest declares. “Any good ideas on how we can do that?”

Indigo Zap sighs in frustration. “Well, we certainly can’t give her a Hallmark card saying, ‘Sorry you attempted suicide. Get well soon!’”

Sunny Flare tilts her head up in thought. “Actually, that would be as nice a start as any I suppose. I could design a custom card just for her and we could all sign it. It’d be at least a small reminder of what she means to us.”

****************

At lunch time, Sunny Flare took out the card she had been working on throughout the morning whenever the teachers weren’t looking.

It was folded construction paper with color pencil doodles of flowers, butterflies, and other such calming images all over the outside. Also, among the many craft materials she always kept handy in her backpack were acrylic rhinestones with adhesive backs which were usually reserved for dress decorations. She had picked out a couple dozen red and aquamarine colored ones which matched Sour’s hair and dotted them about the front.

“It’s quite attractive despite the little time you had to work on it,” Sugarcoat comments.

You and the girls pass Sunny’s pen around to sign your names.

“H-hey,” you hear hesitantly said behind you.

You all look up to see Gilda. Needless to say, there was still some uncomfortableness between her and everyone, despite Gilda’s renouncing of her previous bullying behavior towards Sour Sweet.

“I’m sorry to hear about what happened last night,” Gilda sincerely expresses. “Um, that card for Sour Sweet… can I sign it?”

“Dude, how did you know about what happened?” Lemon Zest asks.

“It’s been going around the whole Academy all morning,” Gilda informed.

“Someone must have overheard us talking about it!” Indigo Zap realizes.

“Sour’s problems don’t deserve to be paraded around like some trashy gossip,” Sugarcoat declares, allowing some frustration to come through.

You sigh in frustration as well. “Cat’s out of the bag. Can’t do anything about it now.” You reach over, take the card and pen, and present them to Gilda with a smile. “Here, Gilda. It would mean a lot to Sour to see your name.”

Gilda smiles gratefully and proceeds to sign it. As she jots down her name, Fleur de Lis and Upper Crust suddenly come up behind her.

“Hey, can we sign Sour Sweet’s card?” Upper Crust asks.

“Uh, sure,” you say with some surprise.

One by one, student after student, a line gradually forms cutting across the cafeteria. You and the girls simply stare at the sheer number of well-wishers waiting for their turn to sign their names.

“Sunny, I think we may need some more cards,” Indigo states. “We’re running out of free space on this one!”

“I’ve always thought things were getting better around Crystal Prep since the Friendship Games, but I had never expected something like this,” you say, swelling up with school pride for the first time in… well, forever, actually.

An idea suddenly pops into your head. You smile brightly, lean over, and whisper your plan into Sunny Flare’s ear.

Sunny smiles and nods with determination. “I certainly can’t work on something like that during class, but after school I’ll have one whipped right up!”

You then step up on top of the lunch table. Immediately, eyes begin to shift towards you. You try your best to brush off the fact that you suddenly have so much attention on you all at once. Sour Sweet comes first before your social discomfort.

“Hey, everyone!” you announce. “If you really want to wish Sour Sweet well, then let’s do something BIGGER and BETTER than just sign a card!”

****************

After Crystal Prep lets out, you take the bus all the way to Canterlot High. As luck would have it, you step off to see the very group of girls you were hoping to catch still hanging around the steps of their school, giggling over their plans for the rest of the evening.

“Hey, Fluttershy!” you call out as you run up.

Not only Fluttershy, but all of the girls were shaken as you quickly explain Sour’s situation and what your plans to help her feel better are.

“Oh, poor Sour!” Fluttershy cries. “Of course, I’ll come with you!”

“She’ll appreciate it,” you say. You then hesitantly focus attention to a certain other member of the group. “Hey, Twilight?”

Twilight Sparkle awkwardly stiffens and averts her eyes. You sigh. You can’t blame her for her apprehension.

“Look, I know you weren’t treated well at Crystal Prep. And, yeah, Sour Sweet had a lot to do with it. But, we’re getting better, I promise. I know Sour would like to see you again. A lot of us would.”

“I have a lot of bad memories thanks to the Shadowbolts…” Twilight sighs.

A hand places itself on Twilight’s shoulder. She turns to see the warm smile of Sunset Shimmer.

“Twilight, remember that forgiveness is the first step in healing bad memories,” Sunset imparts. “Besides, it really sounds like Sour Sweet is in a time of need right now.”

“It if wasn’t for Sour Sweet, I would have fallen straight down and went SPLAT into Equestria!” Pinkie Pie announces overdramatically, before merrily adding, “Count me in to help cheer SS up!”

“We’ll all go, right girls?” Applejack announces.

All but one of the group cheer. Twilight stays silent before a smile finally forms.

She nods. “Okay, I’ll come.”

“Alright!” you cheer. “All we need now is to get the Crusaders, and we can get started!”