It's The End Of The World As We Know It

by Samey90


1. A Can of Soda

The loud guitar riff pierced the air in the hall. The crowd cheered in response, jumping on the dancefloor and waving their hands in the air. Atmosphere seemed to heat up; several jackets and much more pairs of boots were scattered on the floor and comfortable couches surrounding the round tables scattered around the dancefloor.

The lyrics were hardly discernible in the crowded hall, but no one seemed to mind. The smell of sweat, perfume, smoke, and dust filled the air. With a noisy feedback, the guitar sound ceased, replaced by a quick, improvised bass solo. Then it exploded from the speakers again, nearly sending the nearest teens flying. The colours and sounds mixed in a loud crescendo, shaking the walls.

“Watch out for me!” the vocalist screamed into the microphone, accompanied by the drums banging an insane rhythm. “I’m awesome as I wanna be!” She slid the pick down the strings of her guitar, finishing the song.

“Woohoo!” Lemon Zest dropped on the couch and rubbed her feet. “Girls, you have to go with me!” She looked around. “Vinyl spiked the punch.”

“Who the hell is Vinyl?” Sugarcoat asked.

Lemon Zest pointed at the lanky girl with sunglasses standing slightly behind her and resting against the couch.

“Ah.” Sugarcoat poked her glasses. “You’re integrating.”

Lemon Zest nodded. “Come with me. And you too, Indigo! That’s, like, a lot of punch.”

Indigo, who was sitting on the couch with her face hidden in the shadow, rested her hands against the table. “You know I don’t drink.”

“Not even after the Friendship Games?”

“No.” Indigo stretched her limbs. “You and Sugarcoat may go. I’m gonna wait for Sunny and Sour Sweet… Wherever they are.”

“Follow the bloody footprints until you reach the dumpster,” Sugarcoat said. “There, you will find Sour Sweet. Or at least the body of someone she met.”

Indigo smirked, watching her friends walk away. She rested her back against the couch and sighed. After the whole incident with Twilight turning into a demon and tearing holes in time and space, no one was in the mood for Capture the Flag, but Indigo couldn’t really settle for such a simple thing as everyone being a winner. She’d already talked a few people into joining her for a violent match of dodgeball that’d solve the question of who was better once and for all. This would, however, be a matter of a few days, maybe a week.

Another song started, but Indigo wasn’t in a mood for dancing. She looked around, searching for something to drink, but there was nothing like that in sight. Aside from a spiked punch and that was the last thing she’d like to drink right now.

She saw some tall, muscular guy from Canterlot High walking near her table. With short, blonde hair and a golden earring he didn’t look very subtle, at least in comparison with people Indigo knew from her school. However, Indigo was very thirsty and he had to know the way to someplace where she could get water or something like that.

“Hey, dude!” she shouted.

“Yeah?” He turned back and lowered his gaze to look at Indigo.

“Hello,” she muttered, looking up to take a look at his face. “Do you know where I can get something to drink?”

The guy shrugged. “I think they had punch.”

“Yes, but… I’m not in the mood for it,” Indigo replied, standing up. Even then, she could barely reach the guy’s arm. Which was, she had to admit, quite muscular.

“Ah, okay,” he said. “There’s a vending machine here.” He walked through the crowd like an icebreaker. Indigo had nothing else to do except of drifting in his wake; she had to take three steps for each of his, so she was nearly running. This reminded her that she’d kicked off her shoes when she went dancing and she had no idea where they were.

Soon, they left the hall and walked down the empty school corridor. The lights were out, except of one flickering light bulb in the middle.

“Like in a horror movie, huh?” Indigo chuckled.

“Yeah.”

Indigo’s chuckle died down. “You’re not going to kill me, right?”

“No.”

“No, you’re not going to kill me, or no, you’re about to stuff me in the locker?” Indigo asked, shuddering slightly.

“I don’t kill people or anything.” The guy chuckled. “Even sassy girls from Crystal Prep.”

Indigo smirked. “Yeah, sure. By the way, my name’s Indigo Zap.”

He nodded. “Yeah, I’ve heard Twilight mentioning that. I’m Bulk.”

“Interesting name.” Indigo shrugged. “Umm… You know that I always thought all the guys from Canterlot High had bad hair and smoked weed?”

Bulk chuckled. “Nah, that’s only Sandalwood.”

They turned behind the corner and Indigo saw a vending machine. “There you are.” She smirked, checking her pockets for coins. “Aw, hell…”

“What’s going on?” Bulk asked.

“It seems that I’m out of money,” Indigo replied, resting her hand against the machine.

“Don’t worry.” Bulk handed her some coins.

“No, thanks.” Indigo backpedalled. “I couldn’t…”

“Really, it’s not a problem.” Bulk shrugged and put some coins in the machine. “That’s what friends are for.”

“Umm… yeah.” Indigo shrugged when Bulk gave her a can of soda. “Friendship Games and all. A propos, did I tell you that Sunny Flare once told me to keep quarters and dimes in one pocket and pennies and nickels in the other one?”

“Why so?” Bulk asked.

“So it’d be easier for me to keep balance. I’d just have to have even numbers of each coin.”

“Does zero count as an even number?” Bulk chuckled, grabbing another can of soda for himself.

“It seems so.” Indigo looked at her feet. “No shoes, no money… I’m in here for a day and look what happened to me.”

They heard someone running down the corridor. “Hey, Bulk, come here, quick!” some guy shouted. “Crystal Prep girls are dancing on the table!”

Indigo groaned, covering her face with her hand. “Well, at least I’m not dancing on the table.”

“Does it happen often in Crystal Prep?” Bulk shook his head. “I once broke a table that way…”

“We are a school with three hundred years of tradition,” Indigo replied. “I’m afraid table dancing is banned. You know, we only got theatre program twenty years ago and even then some people still think that the Crystal Prep founders turn in their graves because of that.”

“At least none of them started to haunt you.”

“Well, I guess they got really angry once we stopped stoning people for adultery, but that’s not something I’d say with the teachers around.” Indigo cleared her throat and spoke through gritted teeth, “The school heritage is not something you can make fun of.”

“Clearly,” Bulk muttered. “Can’t argue with all those noble guys.”

“Well, to be honest, they did encourage some rules breaking,” Indigo said. “Sunny would probably word it better, but they wanted people to get creative.”

“Like dancing on the table and losing your shoes?”

Indigo took a large gulp of her soda and looked at her feet. “Nah, that’d be too straightforward for them. Losing your shoes to gain a shoes factory seems more like their thing.”

Bulk raised his eyebrows. “How would that even work?”

Indigo shrugged. “I’ve never been a very good student. My dad was at Crystal Prep too and I really liked their sports facilities.”

“You’re into sports much?” Bulk asked.

Indigo flexed her muscles. It wasn’t much in comparison to Bulk, but it was still enough to be the pride of the Crystal Prep’s rowing team and become the top scorer of the last year’s football competition. “Oh yeah. I can bench-press Sugarcoat benchpressing a barbell and–”

“I’m mostly into knitting and playing a violin.” Bulk looked at his hands. “But I do sit at the gym most of the time.”

Indigo raised her eyebrows. “Knitting?”

“Long story.” Bulk looked down, putting his hand behind his head. “I’m also pretty good at embroidery.”

“Sunny Flare once tried to teach me sewing.” Indigo raised her hand to show a pale scar on her finger. “Good advice: never try to stitch your hand to anything.”

“That Sunny Flare doesn’t sound like someone you’d like to piss off…” Bulk nodded.

“Nah, I just put my fingers in the sewing machine without switching it off first.” Indigo shrugged. “Guess I kinda ignored that thing. It doesn’t exactly strike fear into your heart like a screaming circular saw.”

“Yeah.” Bulk nodded, downing his drink. “I saw you making that birdhouse. That was… a really nice birdhouse.”

Indigo smirked. “Thanks. I used to help my father with his boat. If the world is ever gonna be flooded, just come to me and remember of bringing two of each kind of beast.”

“What?”

“Nevermind.” Indigo crushed the can and threw it into the bin. “I really need to find my shoes.”

“Indigo!” someone called in a slightly slurred voice. “Where are you, the love of my heart? Come back here, moron, we need to get on the bus!”

“Sunny Flare?” Bulk chuckled.

“Worse,” Indigo replied. “It seems that Sour Sweet mixed her meds with something funny.”

“Does she do that often?”

“Luckily not,” Indigo replied. “When she does, she’ll cuddle you to death. Often literally. Or sometimes she’ll murder you and then apologise.”

“Not much of a consolation…” Bulk shook his head.

“Indigo? Where are you? I’m lonely and I need a cookie…”

“A cookie, huh?’ Bulk smirked.

“In this case, cookie means cookie.” Indigo rolled her eyes. “I guess I’ll have to go. Still without the shoes, though.” She sighed. “By the way, do you have any plans for vacation?”

“We’re going to some kinda camp.” Bulk shrugged. “Guess it’s gonna be pretty boring.”

“Dunno, I always liked camping.” Indigo looked down the corridor to see Sour Sweet walking to her, holding a pair of shoes in her hands. “What’s up?”

“Hello.” Sour Sweet stood in attention and smiled. “I found your shoes, my pretty. I’d keep them, but they smell!” She winced and threw the shoes at Indigo. “Put them on and we’ll go to the bus…” She made a walking gesture with her fingers. “And we’ll have a ride…” Her smile grew wider before she screamed, “We’ll all go to hell for that!”

“What’s wrong with her?” Bulk whispered, resting his back against the wall and trying in vain to walk through it.

“Wrong? She’s pretty fine now,” Indigo replied, putting on her shoes. “At least she’s not trying to kiss me.”

“That’s because there are boys around.” Sour Sweet staggered towards Indigo and rested her hand against the wall, smiling at Bulk. “Get out, creep. Indy and I have a lot of catching up to do.”

“Indy?” Bulk chuckled.

“Call me that and you’ll have to learn to knit with a prosthetic hand,” Indigo muttered, gently pushing Sour Sweet away. “And you… Don’t worry, I’ll keep Dean Cadance busy so she doesn’t notice how drunk you are.”

“That’s so cute of you…” Sour Sweet muttered. “Almost as cute as when my mom told my sisters to stop treating me as a punching bag because I already–”

“– killed one of them.” Indigo rolled her eyes and looked at Bulk. “Don’t worry dude. We once checked that story and she never killed any of her siblings. Her parents are shrinks, actually, and while she does have two brothers and two sisters, they’re pretty chill. Like, her sister Sweeten Sour is in Canterlot High, but she’d never tell you about that.”

Bulk scratched his head. “Ah, I know her. She’s a majorette or something, right?”

“Disgrace… I’d whack her with that stick of hers if I had a chance…” Sour Sweet muttered. “But of course I can’t since we’re the best of sisters…” Her smile caused Bulk to frown.

“By now, you need to sleep.” Indigo groaned. “Though I guess leaving you by your door, ringing the doorbell, and running away will be the best course of action.” She pulled Sour Sweet with her, joining the other Crystal Prep students, slowly walking towards the car park. Some of them were still talking with their new friends from Canterlot High. Bulk also walked with Indigo and Sour, ignoring the looks the latter was giving him.

“So… See you around,” Indigo said. “Have fun at the camp.”

“Thanks,” Bulk replied. “By the way, why don’t you join us? It’d be fun.”

“We already have plans,” Indigo replied, seeing her friends waiting for her by the bus. “Bye, Bulk.” She walked to the group, hauling Sour Sweet behind her.

“Hello, losers.” Sour Sweet raised her hand to greet Lemon, Sunny, and Sugarcoat. “Indy and I met a guy.”

“Yeah, but you creeped him out.” Indigo rolled her eyes. “As usual.”

“Well, I met a lot of guys.” Sugarcoat smirked, taking a seat in the bus. “Most of them were weird. How was yours?”

Indigo shrugged. “Dunno. Kinda nice?” She turned to Lemon Zest and pushed Sour Sweet at her. “You got her drunk, you deal with her,” she whispered.

“You’re no fun.” Lemon smiled when Sour Sweet hugged her. Still in an embrace, they sat on their seats.

Indigo didn’t listen to her. She looked through the window, watching as Canterlot High disappeared in the distance. She took off her shoes and rubbed her feet, sore after a whole day of competition and dancing. Soon, she fell asleep on her seat, rested against Sugarcoat’s arm.