//------------------------------// // 40. Tough Steps // Story: It's The End Of The World As We Know It // by Samey90 //------------------------------// “Screw that,” Indigo muttered, staring at the walls of the elevator. There was nothing special about them, but after spending several weeks in the hospital room, seeing something else was a nice change. “I’m not leaving this hospital in a wheelchair.” Indigo’s dad sighed and shook his head. “The doctor said that you should watch out for your leg.” “Just for a moment.” Indigo looked at her father. “Give me the crutches. I’d like to at least get to the car by myself.” The elevator stopped and the door opened. Indigo’s dad pushed the wheelchair out of it and walked down the corridor. “What if you slip and fall?” he asked. “If you don’t care about your leg and spine, at least think of the baby.” Indigo groaned. “Just give me the crutches or I’ll go without them.” “Stubborn like your mom.” Indigo’s father sighed, taking the crutches from the back of Indigo’s wheelchair. “I’ll catch you.” Indigo took the crutches and stood up shakily, raising her left leg slightly. Just as her father suspected, she nearly fell; her left hand was still weakened after the accident and she couldn’t grab the crutch properly. Also, she felt strangely heavy; during the weeks she’d spent in the hospital the baby grew in her womb. A few times, she felt it move. Indigo took a deep breath. She placed the crutches in front of her and leapt forward. Almost immediately, the left crutch slipped from her grasp and she’d fall if it wasn’t for her father grabbing her arm. “I… I can’t.” Indigo shuddered, sitting back in the wheelchair and covering her face with her hands. “It’ll get better,” Indigo’s dad said. “Now, let’s get you home. You got thin like a twig on this hospital food.” “The nurses said the baby gets most of the nutrients,” Indigo muttered. “Just another crazy thing, huh?” They walked out of the hospital. Indigo squinted; it was almost May and the sun was much higher than when she was last outside. The birds were chirping and the trees were covered in leaves. “When your mom was pregnant, she called it crazy too,” Indigo’s dad said. “Well, after Lightning was born, she still called it crazy.” “Oh, that explains a lot of things.” Indigo sighed. They got to the car and she carefully slipped onto the passenger’s seat while her father put the backpack with her things in the trunk. He then folded the wheelchair and put it next to it. “You’d prefer not to deal with more craziness, right?” Indigo’s dad asked. Indigo pointed at her leg. “In this state? How do you think?” “I understand that you don’t want to keep the baby and why you made that decision,” Indigo’s father replied. “This doesn’t mean I like it or approve of it. But that’s your decision.” “I’ll have to deal with that myself, yeah,” Indigo muttered. “Can we go home now? I’d rather not have that conversation in the car park.” “And I bet you’d want to meet your friends too, right?” “Well, yeah.” Indigo blushed. “I wonder what they’re up to.” Sweeten Sour tiptoed into the dimly-lit room. When her eyes got used to the lack of light, she saw Sour Sweet curled up in a ball on her bed, facing the wall. She was shuddering from time to time, weeping quietly. “Sis? Are you okay?” Sweeten Sour asked. “Do I look like?” Sour’s voice seemed like she was not only on her regular meds, but also something the staff kept for her worse days. Sweeten Sour walked closer to her. “I see they took your bedsheets away,” she said. “And the belt of your sleeping gown.” “Are you surprised?” Sour groaned. “They don’t want any problems with me. Why no one bothered to tell me?” Sweeten Sour backpedalled. “Well, I guess they were afraid of your reaction…” “I took the news about Indigo well,” Sour Sweet muttered. “But you didn’t tell me about Sweet Leaf for a fucking month! Even though I asked you so many times why she wasn’t coming to me! I learned about it by overhearing nurses talking!” “Well…” Sweeten Sour raised her hand. “For your information, I’m ill, not retarded!” Sour Sweet exclaimed. “So, please, don’t treat me as such!” “We didn’t mean to–” Sweeten Sour took another step back when Sour got up on her feet, trying to reach her. Luckily, the meds slowed down her reactions, allowing Sweeten to grab her wrist and push her back on the bed. The door opened and a tall man in a white scrub darted inside. However, he stopped in his tracks, seeing pale Sweeten Sour standing in the corner of the room and Sour Sweet panting on her bed and rubbing her temples. “Is something wrong?” he asked. Sweeten Sour guessed he was a nurse for more dangerous patients. “Whatever you’re giving me, it’s not working,” Sour Sweet muttered, smirking at him. “On a scale of one to ten, I’d give my mood a solid minus five. I want to murder my sister and then myself, even if I had to bite through my veins with my teeth. Do I qualify for euthanasia? If so, count me in.” “You don’t,” the guy replied. “However, you’d better tell that to the doctor. He’ll know what to do.” “They didn’t know what to do for the last eighteen years!” Sour Sweet rolled her eyes and got up from her bed when the nurse walked to her. “I can walk by myself.” As it turned out, there were several more nurses waiting outside. They escorted Sour to the doctor’s office while Sweeten looked at her before slowly lowering her head. “I don’t know what to do with her,” she said. “Anytime it seems she gets better, something like that happens.” “Well, we want to transfer her to another hospital, better suited for young patients,” the nurse said. “But we don’t know how she’d react now. She was never suicidal before, right?” “Not really,” Sweeten Sour replied. “She was aggressive, yes, but not suicidal. Now she’s… broken, I think. That whole thing with Sweet Leaf… Sometimes I think Sweet Leaf was the only person that never failed her.” “Frankly, I’ve seen worse,” the nurse said. “Most of them got better and are leading wonderful lives.” Sweeten Sour nodded. “Yeah, that’d be nice… But I’m afraid she already fucked up her life beyond repair.” “No one really does.” Sweeten Sour looked at the nurse and shrugged. “Really? Well, she surely fucked up my life. And anyone else’s in the family. Not to mention that girl from her school. It’ll be hard to come back after that.” She sighed. “Gotta be going. I’ll be back when she doesn’t want to kill me.” She walked out of the ward and stood by the elevator. Groaning, she pushed the button way harder than necessary. When the elevator arrived, Sweeten Sour walked inside, not looking back and rested her back against the wall. Letting out an audible sigh, she lowered her head, lost in her thoughts. The crowd cheered, jumping around the stage, engulfed by smoke and colourful lights. Beauty Brass grabbed Lemon Zest and spun her around. A fast guitar solo backed by an electronic bass pulse blasted in their ears. Lemon gasped in surprise when Beauty Brass lifted her effortlessly and sat her on her back. “Are you crazy?” Lemon exclaimed. “Oh, come on!” Beauty Brass shouted. “That’s fun!” “It won’t be if I fall!” Lemon replied. Suddenly, Beauty Brass leaned forward and back, causing Lemon to cling to her tighter. “Put me down!” “Okay, okay…” Beauty Brass let Lemon slip off her back and hugged her. The song ended with a loud guitar feedback and the heart-like beating of the drum machine. “That was Trixie and the Illusions, Through the Looking Glass!” Trixie exclaimed. “And now…” She swished her cloak dramatically, throwing a bunch of playing cards at the audience. “Queen of Hearts!” Lemon woke up, blinking in the darkness. Even though it’d been a while from the concert, she still dreamt about it almost every night. She could still hear the heartbeat-like rhythm. A closer examination revealed that the sound wasn’t exactly a dream. What Lemon thought to be her pillow turned out to be Beauty Brass’ chest. It was raising and falling slowly, in synch with her quiet breath. Lemon turned in her bed and took her phone from the nightstand. She blinked several times before she managed to read the time. “What’s going on?” Beauty Brass asked groggily. She yawned, reaching to Lemon and hugging her. “I don’t know what you’re doing here,” Lemon replied. “Unless I’m dreaming, but this can’t be.” “Why so?” Lemon looked at her phone again. “If I want to get to school on time, I’ll have to get up in five minutes.” “Damn. School.” Beauty Brass sat on the bed and reached for the t-shirt lying on the floor. “Let me guess, I didn’t bring my toothbrush. Story of my life.” Lemon scratched her head. “What exactly happened? I’m not quite awake yet…” “You don’t remember? Now you’re making me uncomfortable…” Beauty Brass wrapped her arms around Lemon and kissed her forehead. “We were hanging out, you mentioned that your father was playing a concert out of town, we drank a bottle of wine, then we had some fun…” She kissed Lemon again. “Can you stop?” Lemon asked. “I need to find my uniform…” “Sorry.” Beauty Brass broke the hug. “You know, if you play a sousaphone, you need to get used to tight hugs.” “I think you told me that yesterday, yeah.” Lemon stood up and looked into the closet with her shirts. “Are you in a hurry? I wanted to take a shower and I know Canterlot High is further away from here.” “No worries, we can always go together.” Beauty Brass leaned forward to pick her phone from the floor. “Hmm, my mom’s gonna kill me. Also, it seems that my boyfriend is coming back today…” Lemon froze. “You have a boyfriend?!” “Yeah,” Beauty Brass replied. “He’s studying to be a sailor, so he’s away for months.’ “But I… we…” “Oh, that?” Beauty Brass smiled, patting Lemon’s back. “Don’t worry, he won’t mind. He doesn’t even have to know.” Lemon stared at her blankly. “We can still meet, if that’s the problem. As I said, he’s away for months.” “I’ll better take that shower…” Lemon muttered. Sugarcoat leaned back in her chair, looking at the phone hidden under her desk. Normally, she’d pay attention to the lesson, but she felt she already knew the topic better than the teacher. Besides, she didn’t use the internet for entertainment; she was checking out the websites and social media profiles of various colleges all across the country. “Oh, great,” she muttered to herself. “Another safe haven for delicate morons, blase keyboard warriors, and those who didn’t get the memo that hippies died out.” She shrugged. “Hmm, I’d fit there. They need some shock.” She closed her eyes, imagining the riots. “Sugarcoat?” Lemon Zest whispered. “What?” Sugarcoat opened her eyes and looked at Lemon. She immediately noticed that while there was an open book in front of Lemon, she didn’t really pay attention to the lesson either. For starters, the book was upside-down. Not to mention that it was the Spanish textbook rather than physics one. “May I ask you a question?” Lemon asked. “I’m a bit busy right now,” Sugarcoat replied. “Yeah, I see.” Lemon smirked. “Do you want to study physics?” Sugarcoat nodded, smiling in a rather uncanny way. “I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.” “Whatever,” Lemon said. “I need your opinion, destroyer of worlds or not.” “I’m listening,” Sugarcoat muttered. “What would you do if you found out Sandalwood was cheating on you with another dude?” Lemon asked. Sugarcoat looked at her and slammed her head against her desk. “What?” “It’s a long story,” Lemon replied. Sugarcoat shook her head. “I guess I wouldn’t mind. Let’s say that Sandalwood always had that rainbow streak to him, you know. Also, he really likes when I–” She leaned to Lemon and whispered in her ear, causing her to blush. “I need to try that,” Lemon muttered. “Anyway, let’s say it wasn’t Sandalwood, but someone you thought was only into you and suddenly you find out they were cheating on you and–” “I’d get a can of gasoline and matches,” Sugarcoat replied calmly. “But if it was Sandalwood, I’d ask if I could join.” “I don’t know what’d be worse,” Lemon muttered. “Let me guess: Beauty Brass told you you weren’t the only monk in the temple?” Sugarcoat asked. Lemon smiled sheepishly. “Kind of. And told me that he doesn’t have to know. He’s a sailor or something.” “Did she tell you that before or after the consumption?” Sugarcoat rubbed her temples. “After,” Lemon replied. “Congratulations, you got laid.” Sugarcoat smirked. “Also, the guy got cucked, though his reaction depends on him. I’d watch out for random guys with axes running around and looking for you.” Lemon rolled her eyes. “I’ll keep that in mind next time I meet a crazy axe murderer. Which may be soon, since he’s coming back today.” “Ah, so you have a free afternoon?” Sugarcoat asked. “Good. We’ll grab Sunny on the way and visit Indigo. She came back from the hospital or something.” “Sure,” Lemon replied. Indigo wiped sweat from her forehead. As it turned out, most of her tank tops somehow got too small, but luckily, her mother bought her some new ones when she was at the hospital. Now she was wearing one of them, sitting on the training bench in the living room. She looked at the weight in front of her. It was the smallest dumbbell she had at home, weighing just two pounds. Indigo grabbed it with her left hand and slowly did a bicep curl. It went well, but after only a few repetitions, she started to run out of breath. Her arm and the place where the broken bones mended hurt. Groaning, Indigo put the dumbbell on the floor. Suddenly, she heard her phone ringing. Cursing under her breath, she stood on one leg, grabbing her crutches. She rested herself on the crutch and leapt forward, nearly tripping when her right leg, also weakened after a long stay in bed, trembled under her weight. Luckily for Indigo, the phone wasn’t that far away. She reached for it and looked at the screen. She’d never bothered to save that number in her phone’s memory, but she knew only one place that’d still use a landline. “Lightning?” she asked. “Hello, sis,” Lightning Dust said. Her voice was slow and raspy; it seemed like she was mostly used to shouting and now, when she tried to lower it, it’d come out as unnatural. “I see you still remember my name.” “Why wouldn’t I?” Indigo sighed. “I know I never visit you, but I’m busy and now–” “Mom’s also busy and she comes to me from time to time,” Lightning replied. “Don’t worry, I don’t mind. When I get out of here, I’ll even let you choose a movie we watch. Just not Shawshank Redemption, okay?” “Well, you’re not getting out in years,” Indigo said. “And I can barely walk two steps now…” “Yeah, I’ve heard.” Lightning’s voice cracked for a moment. “How are you?” Indigo looked around to see if her parents weren’t coming back home. “Frankly? I feel like shit. My leg is shit, my hand is shit, my back hurts, and being pregnant doesn’t help matters.” “Is your boyfriend good for you?” Lightning asked. “If he isn’t, tell him I’ll break out of this place just to rip his guts out.” “He’s fine,” Indigo replied. “Don’t run away from prison.” “I would, but I’m too dumb and I don’t like digging tunnels with a spoon.” Lightning chuckled. “Carry on, Indy. The guard is looking at his watch, so I guess I have to go. Hope you’re alright.” “Like hell,” Indigo muttered, ending the call. She looked at the crutches, but after a while of thinking, she just used one of them to pull the wheelchair closer to herself. She sat in it, trying to straighten her injured leg. A jolt of pain made her hiss, gritting her teeth. Still groaning, she grabbed the push-rims and pushed the wheelchair across the living room. Her father had moved most of the furniture away, leaving wider spaces between them, but still, using a wheelchair was harder than Indigo thought it’d be; her sore hand most definitely wasn’t helping. The doorbell rang. Indigo raised her head, looking at the distant hall. When the doorbell rang again, she rolled her eyes. “You can just open the damn door, mom!” she exclaimed. “It’s not like I can come and open!” “I don’t have a key!” The voice most definitely didn’t belong to Indigo’s mother. “Sunny?” Indigo asked. “You here?” “We’re all here,” Sugarcoat said. “Can you open?” “This will take a while.” Indigo stretched her fingers. "I'm in a wheelchair." “We can push you back,” Sunny replied. “I can push you off a cliff.” Indigo muttered under her breath, pushing the wheelchair forward. It took her a while to get to the door, not to mention that the tiles in the hall were quite slippery. It was also littered by shoes, making it hard to navigate. Cursing, Indigo reached the door and unlocked it. “Hello!” Lemon walked to Indigo and hugged her. “Poor girl…” “Yeah, I know,” Indigo muttered. “If that makes you feel better, I can get up from this wheelchair, but not when I feel like shit.” “Hey, it’s growing!” Sunny cooed, putting her hand on Indigo’s stomach. “May I listen? Is it a boy or a girl?” “If you try, I’ll kick your ass. With a wheelchair,” Indigo replied. “Don’t try to push me,” she said, turning to Sugarcoat who stood behind her. “I don’t like it and it doesn’t matter how long it takes me to get anywhere.” With a few swift turns of the wheels, she spun the wheelchair in place and rode towards the living room. “So, is it a boy or a girl?” Sunny asked when they got there. “Can you even check that now?” “Yes, I have an ultrasound in a few days,” Indigo replied. “If you’re so interested in this baby, maybe you’d adopt it?” “No need to be rude, Indigo,” Sugarcoat muttered. “Also, I thought you wanted to find this baby some better parents than you and Bulk…” “Yeah,” Indigo muttered. “I still wonder how to do that…” “I can help you later,” Sugarcoat said. “But now, we have a lot to tell you.” Sunny sat on the couch and smiled at Indigo. “Like, Sugarcoat found a college, I’m moving out of town once the vacation starts, and Lemon cucked a sailor and now she’s afraid of every man with an eyepatch…” “I’m pretty sure not every sailor wears an eyepatch,” Sugarcoat muttered. “I’d even dare to say that most of them don’t.” “Wait, where are you moving?” Indigo asked, raising her eyebrows. “West,” Sunny said. “Dad wants me and mom to be closer to him. More job opportunities too, especially for a dropout like me…” “You mean you’ll try to become an actress or a fashionista only to become a disgruntled fast food waitress, ruined by booze, drugs, and broken dreams by the time you turn thirty?” Sugarcoat asked. “Always a ray of sunshine.” Sunny shook her head, patting Sugarcoat’s back. “Well, about that sailor…”