The Mare in Her Cup
By The1Ryu
The dark brown pony in Berry Punch’s cup stared back up at her with eyes that had surely not had proper sleep in some time. The thick, strained blood vessels in those eyes could even be seen through the murky liquid. She watched as the ponies eye lids slowly came down over the eyes but she missed seeing them shut as he own world was plunged into darkness.
Suddenly she was assaulted by a thumping against the inside of her skull and the sound of groaning vibrated through her muzzle. The memory of the table’s cool surface came to her mind and felt herself sink down, no plummet down, and held herself still. Why did movement hate her so much? Using its evil powers to make her stomach lurch and her to go light-headed.
She took a minute to steady herself and summoned the light back to her world, the sound of hissing sliding up to her ears. The light was clearly working with movement against her, but pain was pushed back as Berry Punch looked down at the mare in her cup.
That mare was clearly hung over. Not so for Berry Punch, though with the forces of light and movement working against her, her stomach squeezed itself beginning to force something up her esophagus that she concentrated to force back down, and her stomach flu, it certainly felt like she was.
No that might have once been her problem but she had battled that demon and won. It was all a matter of hitting rock bottom. She remembered the day those government ponies had come to her door and threatened to take Berry Pinch away. That had been the wake-up call she needed, she shook with fear at the thought of it, her little daughter being taken away. Her being declared an unfit parent, the mere thought of it brought dark imaginings to her mind.
They return finding her laid out on the floor too drunk to open the door or stop them from entering. She could see their frowning disgusted faces as they walked past her. She could hear the sad frightened cries of her daughter. The tears that slid down her face when Berry Pinch ran to her begging her to stop them and the look of resignation when she saw her mother too intoxicated to even move to her defense.
Berry Punch rubbed her hooves across her face wiping away wetness, just the thought of that happening bringing her to tears.
She looked back into the eyes of the mare in her cup, she didn’t look like she had fought and won such a battle, poor thing.
Berry finally managed to lean down and take a sip from the tea cup, the disturbance cause the mare in the cup to disappear, and Berry stuck her tongue out at the taste. She really should head home and have her roommate Colgate make her a cup of mint tea instead, that was always the best tea.
The tea in her cup settled and the mare reappeared staring up at her. She looked hung over. Berry Punch could feel of her, for she had once battle alcoholism, but had won. It was all a matter of hitting rock bottom.
She could remember arguing with Colgate, whom had begged her to stop, to think of Berry Pinch whom needed her to be a mother. Colgate had warned her that if Berry Punch didn’t stop, she would have to move out. Colgate begged her to be more responsible for her own sake and the sake of Berry Pinch.
Berry shook her head denying the images of her tears at another lost job, at the bottle that promised to make her forget, at Colgate’s angry yelling and the looks of disappointment she gave her when she left. Those had been the dark thoughts that had made her promise to quit drinking for the sake of her dear friend, who made the most wonderful tea.
Berry Punch’s eyes met those of the mare in her cup once again, down cast eyes that looked as if they had seen many ponies leave her behind. They were eyes filled with regret and failure, of somepony whom had continued to fall after despite all the lost she had suffered.
It was all a matter of hitting rock bottom, but rock bottom was not the same for everypony. There was not some universal level that, once reached, was declared the lowest one could sink. If that were true then the lowest point a pony could hit would be death. To completely succumb to one’s failings and allow their problem to claim them completely. That poor mare in the cup looked like she was near to that point. Berry Punch couldn’t see any more fight in her eyes.
For Berry Punch rock bottom had come early on, before her drinking had affected her jobs, her friendships, or even her family. To her rock bottom had been simply disappointing her daughter. She had miss just one or two events that her daughter had wanted her to go to. Berry had always had a believable excuse to quell Berry Pinch’s anger for her absents and keep her from knowing the truth about what she was doing.
The truth had come out of course, and in the cruelest way possible. She remembered the day Berry Pinch had come home in tears demanding to know if Diamond Tiara’s words were true. Demanding to know if Berry had really missed so much of her life because she was drunk or hung over and pleading to understand why.
With a squeezing pain in her chest Berry Punch had managed to admit her problem to her daughter, but after trying several times to answer the filly’s other question her mouth just became dry, begging for a drink to help it through the pain of speaking.
Berry Punch knew then that she wouldn’t be able to lie to her daughter anymore or rather, more accurately, Berry Pinch would never again believe her lies. She could see her daughter’s disappointed face each time she failed to be there for her and how, with each time, it lost a bit of hurt and anger and grew more stoic and sad. She saw too the hope and joy slip away at every promise proceeded by another failure. Berry Punch couldn’t stand that thought and promised Berry Pinch she would stop.
Tears dripped from Berry’s muzzle at those thoughts, splashing into her cup and causing the mare within to disappear once again. Berry Punch leaned down to take another sip but a reminder of the bad taste caused her to pause.
Without much thought she reached down to her side, pulled up a flask, and unscrewed its lid. Just a little would help improve the taste. Just a little might help settle her stomach and clear her head. It wasn’t a big deal after all, she wasn’t the mare in her cup, she had hit rock bottom a long time ago.
Author's Note
The second in my unrelated series, created from the randomly generated prompt of Tea and character of Berry Punch.