//------------------------------// // Caffeine Crash // Story: Deafened // by Crayonpaste //------------------------------// You strike the last note, and look behind you, seeing a yellow glow surrounding Sunset Shimmer as her eyes are closed. Her hair has grown considerably longer and two weird, yellow appendages have grown on the top of her head---no wait, those are ears! You stare at Sunset in awe as she opens her eyes and looks at you with a radiant smile. "Anon!" She drops her guitar, and rushes over to you, embracing you in a Pinkie Pie-style bear hug. "Anon, that was incredible!!!" You want to say something back, but...you actually don't mind this. It feels nice having her this close to you. It's......comforting. When she finally lets go of you, you take a step back, and look at her seriously. "Sunset..." You say, clearing your throat. "Did you...did you see what just happened to you?" "No, what?" "At the end of that song..." You explain, gesticulating with your hands. "You just...you started glowing all the sudden, and then you grew horse ears!" "I what?!" Her eyes pop open. "No, seriously!" You nod. "And your hair too; it just...turned really long all the sudden!" You and Sunset stare at each other for a moment before a small smile cracks on her face. The smile quickly spreads, and without warning, Sunset Shimmer begins squealing like a twelve year old girl who just got an autograph from the Jonas Brothers, or whatever boy band is popular nowadays. "You're kidding!" She looks at you excitingly. "Did that seriously happen?!" "Seriously!" You repeat yourself. "It was-" "THAT MEANS TWILIGHT'S SPELL IS WORKING!!!" She exclaims. "WE ACTUALLY DID IT!" "I can't believe I actually did it..." You laugh to yourself. "I can actually play this damn thing, and it's all thanks to you, Sunset." "Oh, give yourself come credit too." She playfully smacks you on the back. "You've been slaving away at it for like five hours straight; of course you're going to see results!" "Yeah I'm pretty awesome if I say so myself." You look at her triumphantly. You try to puff up your chest, but feel a wave of fatigue beginning to come down on you. "I'm...a..." The world around you begins turning increasingly more and more blurred as you slowly feel your consciousness slipping away. A second wave of tiredness hits you and the edges around your vision begin to darken. Your mind starts shutting down, and every nerve starts to become numb; you can do nothing but listen to the sounds of Sunset's voice that's increasingly getting softer and softer before the overwhelming feeling of fatigue claims you completely. ****** When you saw Anonymous suddenly collapse on the ground like that, you immediately thought what just happened to him was some kind of medical condition he had, so your first instinct was to rush over to his backpack and see if you could find an EpiPen or something. The way he just passed out like that, it seriously looked like he just had an aneurysm or something really scary. As you tore through Anon's bag looking for anything resembling medicine, what you found instead were six empty cups of Starbucks ice coffee, and a half-eaten cinnamon doughnut. 'So that's how he was able to practice for so long...' You sigh in relief. 'But it looks like the caffeine's all spent now, and so he.' You stare at Anon as he snoozes away on the cold floor of Applejack's barn. He just looks so at peace right now, as if he's completely oblivious to the fact that he's going to be fighting three overcharged sirens in like an hour and a half. You move closer to his unconscious body, and poke him with a pencil, causing him to snort and roll away from you. "Idiot." You smirk as you watch him tossing and turning again. Suddenly, you hear the barn open, and you see Twilight Sparkle peeking out of it. "Sunset?" She asks. "Are you and Anon still-wait a second, what happened to him?!" "Relax, he'll live." You chuckle. "He just had a little too much caffeine for his own good..." "He...what?" Twilight looks at you confused, before her eyes fall on the empty coffee cups. "I just wanted to say that we have like forty minutes until the Battle starts, and I was looking for a ride; I still don't really feel comfortable about using those human car things..." "Oh!" You look at the time on your phone. "Crap, I totally forgot!" You're about to get up, and make a run to your car before you hear a snore behind you, reminding you of Anon. "Hey Twilight." You beckon her. "Mind giving me a hand dragging him to my car?" Twilight nods, and runs over to Anon, grabbing him by the ankles as you take his arms. "On three...one...two...three!" The two of you grunt in unison as you two manage to lift him, but only travel a few feet before Twilight drops Anon's feet in exhaustion. "Sheesh..." Twilight wipes her forehead. "How are humans this heavy?" "Yeah." You agree. "Life here's tough without telekinesis and magic, but these human hands can be really useful too. Plus, these smart phones they have are really cool as well." You wait for Twilight to regain her strength, before hoisting Anon up again. The two of you travel another couple feet before taking a break, and repeat the process five times over before finally getting him buckled up in the backseat of your car. "Finally..." Twilight pants, before climbing up shotgun into your car. You grab your keys, slide it into the ignition, and take off in the direction to Canterlot High, thus commencing a period of silence where the only sounds being the car's engine, and of course Anon still sleeping off his caffeine crash. "So Twilight..." You break the silence. "How're you feeling about this Battle?" "To be honest, I'm kind of nervous." She says, looking down. "I really don't know about this counter spell..." "The spell was hard enough as it was." Twilight Sparkle explains. "Now, with the sirens overloaded with negative energy because of Anon, so many more variables come into play; it's probably one of the hardest spells I've ever tried to pull off." "I'm sure you'll find it eventually." You pat Twilight on the shoulder. "Besides...we've got a secret weapon in our hands now." "A secret...what?" Twilight raises an eyebrow. You respond simply by jerking your head back to a snoring Anon. "That music coming from the barn was him?!" Twilight exclaims. "How?! I thought he just picked up the guitar!" "Let's just say you can accomplish a lot when you really set your mind to things......along with a mega butt ton of coffee." You quickly add. "Seriously though; he was practicing for almost five hours nonstop, and flat out refusing to stop until he could play that guitar half decently." "S...Seriously?" Twilight's eyes widen with surprise. "Five hours nonstop?" "I know." You roll your eyes. "Guy's crazy. The last time I've seen someone this determined to accomplish something was when...well..." "When I was trying to stop you from taking over the school and invading Equestria?" Twilight asks. "With no offense to you by the way..." "Yeah." You sigh. "And none taken." It's been like what, three months since that whole..."episode" of your life? You don't remember, and it's probably for the best that you never do. You really wish you could just go back to Equestria, where you could blast yourself with a memory-erasing spell, so you could completely forget all that happened. Or even better, go back in time, and never make the mistakes that you made in the first place. That would be nice. The conversation comes to an abrupt stop, and Twilight begins awkwardly looking at her feet, avoiding eye contact with you. "Sorry, Sunset..." She says feebly. "I...I forgot that's a sensitive topic for you..." "No need to apologize." You shake your head. "I was completely nuts during the Fall Formal, and I deserved it. In fact, I'm glad somebody like you was there to rainbow-blast some sense into me." "But...still; it would've been nice if I just never did it in the first place..." You say, taking a deep sigh before concentrating back on the road again. Applejack's house is a fair distance away, since she lives on the outskirts of Canterlot due to the farm. Just now is the scenery finally beginning to break away from the flat, farmlands and the tall skyscrapers begin appearing on the horizon. "Well if it never happened, you never would've learned about friendship, right?" Twilight replies. "Besides...they all say that the best way to learn is from your mistakes..." "Yeah, but nearly murdering you, turning into a raging she-demon and almost taking over all of Equestria?" You reply. "Kinda asking much for just 'learning' something isn't it?" Twilight simply responds by chuckling. "No price is too steep for learning the importance of friendship." Twilight smiles at you. "Besides...the most important thing is that you know what you did was wrong." "Yeah, I know but..." You groan. "I just doubt I'm ever going to live down what I did-" "Well, you can't expect others to forgive you if you can't even forgive yourself, right? Twilight cuts you off, wearing an all-knowing smirk. "Funny; it's just what I told Anon..." "Anon?!" Your head perks up to that name. But the second you shift your attention away from the driving wheel, you hear an angry horn blaring as the biggest Coca-Cola truck you've ever seen in your life comes speeding towards you. You scream in terror, and violently jerk the wheel to the right, nearly avoiding a head-on collision with the monster. Behind you, you hear a snorting noise as Anon finally wakes up, just to see the truck pass by, still holding his horn. "Whoa, what was that?!" ****** Coffee is amazing; under the influence of this amazing brown liquid, you've pulled off amazing feats, such as passing Ms. Harshwinny's Chemistry class with an B+, and getting an 82% on Ms. Cherilee's Shakespeare Macbeth unit test that you spent twenty minutes studying for on Sparknotes. You know full well that if coffee didn't exist, your GPA would have probably dropped by a full point. But then there comes the caffeine crash...the moment when it all comes to ruin..the moment that's happening to you now... Regardless, you do your best to ignore the oppressive feeling of being dead inside, and do your best to focus on walking in a straight line without falling. You simply follow the rest of the Rainbooms through the auditorium, trying to find seats as the rest of the bands begin gathering up as well. Your eyes dart around, looking for any soccer balls flying towards your face or groin, but so far, all is good. Probably because Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna are standing in plain view in the center of the stage, and would see it. Still, there's nothing Celestia and Luna can do about the glares, and looks of scorn everyone gives you as you pass them by. As you and the rest of the Rainbooms manage to find some vacant seats, you spot Flash Sentry carrying a guitar with some of his other bandmates, and you walk over to him, trying to strike a conversation. "Hey, Flash!" You smile at him, holding your hand out to high five him. "You competing in the Battle?" "Totally!" He nods, he's about to give you five, but then narrows his eyes for a moment. "W...wait a second, Anon; why're you here?" "Huh?" You look at him confused. "What do you mean?" "Only bands competing in the Battle of the Bands are supposed to be in the auditorium right now!" He says. "So that means...wow, that's so low..." "C'mon man, what's gotten into you?" You ask him. You're about to put a hand on his shoulder, but he promptly smacks it away. "What's gotten into me?!" Flash looks at you as if you just said the dumbest thing ever. "What's gotten into you is the real question! Don't you get it?! If you're in a band too, that means we're competitors; enemies! My band's going to win this battle, and you're just getting in the way!" "Seriously, what the hell is with you-" You bite your tongue when you see Flash Sentry's eyes flash green for a second. You get it now...you simply shake your head, and make your way back to your seat, all the while keeping your eyes peeled for any signs of the Dazzlings nearby. It's odd though, because you can't seem to find them anywhere. You take one last look at Flash, and see him still giving you a look full of contempt, and turn back to your own bandmates. "Don't worry." Sunset pats you on the back reassuringly. "He's just under those sirens' spells; he'll be back to himself before you even know it." "I sure hope..." You grit your teeth. The auditorium's chattering quickly dies down. You look up from your seat, and see Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna stepping into the spotlight. "Good afternoon, CHS students." Principal Celestia announces in her booming, authoritarian voice. "Thank you all for joining me today, in which is perhaps what is one of the greatest events to ever happen at Canterlot High School..." "As you are all aware, what was once supposed to be a musical showcase has, under popular opinion, now become an all out Battle of the Bands!" She continues. "After all, competition brings out the best in all of us, and we are eager to see who may rise to the top, above all else. It brings both me and Vice Principal Luna great pleasure to formerly announce that Canterlot High School's Battle of the Bands... begins now!"