Before the Friendship Games: Indigo Zap

by CapNTilfy

Home Yet Again

"I'm home." Indigo said as she closed the front door.

"Welcome back!" Her parents said from the living room.

Indigo slowly walked into the living room, dreading the inevitable outcome of her telling her parents how the day went and what started it all. She sat down on the sofa, looking both of her parents straight in the eyes. "All right, there's a band-aid I have to rip off here..."

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"...And I know that with that one impulsive whim, I brought this all on myself." Indigo concluded. She sighed heavily and looked away from Azure and Twinkle, clearly ashamed of herself. She forced herself to look at her parents' reactions.

Twinkle had the palm of her hand on her forehead, shaking her head. Azure, on the other hand, had an unreadable expression. The family stayed silent for a minute, then Twinkle spoke up.

"Indigo..." Twinkle paused, as if carefully considering her words. "I think I speak for both your dad and I when I say that while we're proud of you for telling the truth, opening up to De Verre and encouraging her, but..."

"But what the hell were you thinking?" Azure asked, throwing his arms up and giving his daughter a look of anger. "I know you can be impulsive from time to time, but just randomly kissing someone in the hallway? Someone who, might I add, you barely even know?" Indigo looked away, still ashamed. "Look at me when I'm talking to you, Indigo Zap!"

Indigo flinched. Oh crap, he called me by my full name! He's pissed. Not that I can blame him. She turned her head to face her parents. She could feel sweat dripping from her forehead. She loved her parents to death, but they always made her nervous whenever they're mad. And not just when they're mad at her, but even mad in general! She sighed, knowing that her punishment was imminent.

Azure and Twinkle looked at each other momentarily, then nodded. "We'll let you off with a warning this time. We know you're a good kid, Zappo. But if anything like that happens again, you will be grounded."

Indigo blinked in surprise. "Wait...what? Isn't that a little lenient?"

Azure grinned in a way only someone related to Indigo could grin. "Well if you want to, you can just go up to your room and stay there the rest of the night. Far be it from me to stop you."

Indigo suppressed a laugh. "Okay, okay. I won't push my luck." She said, stretching her arms in front of her and opening her hands. But that won't stop me from wondering why you guys went easy on me after all that I did. Was it because I was genuinely ashamed of myself? Was it because the good I did outweighed the bad? She shrugged inwardly. Best not to think about it too much. I don't like things keeping me awake at night when I want to sleep. "So where do we go from here?" She asked, grateful that the talk was over.

"Well." Twinkle said, tilting her head up in thought. "It's Monday, so that means it's a work and school night, so we can't do anything that goes on for too long." She hummed in thought, then looked to her husband. "Do you have any ideas?" She asked him.

Azure blinked, then cupped his chin in thought. "I can't think of anything right off the bat. You think we should just play it by ear or something?"

Indigo shrugged. "Something's better than nothing. I don't have any ideas either. All I know at this point is that my legs are going to absolutely sore tomorrow. Ugh." She laughed. "Glad I've got skates in my shoes, that just makes it easier on me. I don't like all this 'taking it easy' stuff. I think I'm gonna go crazy before I fully recover."

"Oh, I'm sure you'll survive." Said Azure. "You're a big girl."

Indigo rolled her eyes and smiled. "D'aww, thanks!" She said in an overly bubbly voice. Her face twisted in disgust. "Okay, yeah. Never using that voice again." Her parents laughed and she joined in. She checked a nearby clock, then blinked. "Why do I keep looking at clocks? That never makes time go faster, but it never stops me from checking them."

"It hardly ever stops anyone, Zappo. I can't even count on my fingers and toes the number of times I check the clock at work." Azure sighed. "Man, desk work sucks the life out of you."

Indigo shuddered. "No offense, Dad, but I definitely don't see myself doing desk work in the future. I think I'd go completely mental on my first day!"

Azure laughed. "None taken. But I do it because I have to, and because I love you guys." He said.

"Hey now." Twinkle leaned over and lightly punched her husband on the shoulder. "You're not the only one around here with a job." She winked.

Indigo smiled, remembering when she last saw her mother at work. Being a lifetime magician's assistant paid higher than she could have ever imagined, and it explained where she got her flair for the dramatic when dealing with people outside of her family. She even met the magician in person after one of the performances! She had his picture with his autograph in a frame on one of her dressers.

"You know what?" Indigo said. "This is nice. Maybe we could just spend the evening hanging out and talking. Not every night has to be about going out and doing stuff."

Twinkle smiled. "That's not such a bad idea. What do you think, hon?"

Azure smiled. "Hey, whatever works." He shrugged. "Now, how does dinner sound?"

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Indigo walked into her room and yawned. She stretched as she began to change into her pajamas. Once she finished, she took the photo of the magician in her hands and read the autograph for what had to have been the millionth time.

Indigo Zap, keep on being magical!

- Jackpot

Indigo Zap smiled and returned the photo to its proper place, then went to bed and fell asleep.

Author's Note:

Don't think that I've forgotten about "The Cause". I'm just trying to tone down the foreshadowing.

Comments

[Yami Vizzini]

Ah yes, this returns. It should be very interesting once we finally get to Cadence’s POV of all this.