Indigo closed the door of her house and walked into the living room. She saw her father lying on a training bench and lifting dumbbells. Smiling, she walked to him and sat on the couch nearby.

“Hi, dad,” she said. “Is mom home?”

Indigo’s father put the dumbbells on the floor. “She’ll be back from Lightning Dust tomorrow, remember?” he replied.

Indigo nodded, a little sigh escaping her lips. “Training chest muscles?” she asked, pointing at the dumbbells. “Not bad.”

“Gotta keep in shape,” Indigo’s father said, looking at his large arms. “So, how was your day?”

“We went to the cinema with the girls,” Indigo replied, yawning. “In fact, I’m pretty tired. I guess I’m gonna take a short nap.” She stood up and walked towards the stairs.

“Okay.” Indigo’s father grabbed the dumbbells. “I’m going to meet uncle Magnum later.”

“Sure thing.” Indigo smirked at the idea. Magnum wasn’t her real uncle; he was her father’s friend from the football team and they still kept in touch after retiring, much to their wives’ annoyance. Indigo once heard that uncle Magnum’s daughter Sweetie Belle learned quite an interesting vocabulary after she heard them commenting on a game.

She walked to her room and lay on her bed, her eyes half-closed. She focused on the posters of various punk rock bands covering the wall in front of her, waiting for them to blur and fade as her mind drifted away.

Indigo wasn’t sure how much time passed, but suddenly she was awoken with a loud guitar riff coming from her phone. She turned in her bed and saw it lying on the nightstand. The number on the display was unknown to her, but she picked it up anyway.

“Umm… hello.” The voice sounded familiar, though she was sure it was usually louder.

“Bulk?” Indigo asked groggily.

“Yeah,” Bulk replied. “Were you asleep? I’m sorry…”

“No, of course not,” Indigo sat on her bed and ran her hand down her hair. “How was the rehearsal?”

“Pretty good,” Bulk said. “Though I guess Octavia won’t forgive you for calling her cello a big violin…”

“I got that impression.” Indigo chuckled. “Do you think she sleeps with it?”

Bulk laughed. “I didn’t need that mental image…”

“Yeah, screw it,” Indigo said. “How was the camp?”

“Cool,” Bulk replied. “Except that one day when the camp director turned into a demon and tried to trap everyone behind a wall of vines and stuff.”

Indigo raised her eyebrows. “Is that some kind of a Canterlot High tradition? Do you make bets on who turns into a demon next time?”

“No, it only happened three times so far,” Bulk replied. “And once it was a girl from Crystal Prep.”

“Technical details,” Indigo said. “How it turned out in the end? I’m guessing you defeated her somehow?”

“How do you know?” Bulk asked.

“You can talk with me, so I assume you got out of the camp, somehow.” Indigo smiled and shook her head.

“Well, Sunset Shimmer and her friends defeated her, she went back to normal and we saved the camp,” Bulk replied. “Oh, and I think her brother now dates Twilight Sparkle.”

Indigo nearly choked. She gasped for breath for a while, nearly dropping her phone.

“Are you okay?” Bulk asked.

“Yes,” Indigo replied. “I just… I can hardly imagine Twilight dating anyone. She never seemed interested in boys. Ditto for the girls.”

“Maybe you were just giving her a hard time?” Bulk asked.

“Ummm…” Indigo put her hand behind her head. “Well, it’s not like boys in Crystal Prep are anything special. If you try to talk with them about anything else but learning or whose father is more important, they suddenly lose the whole charm.”

“Well, my whole family are lumberjacks,” Bulk replied. “Not much to talk about.”

“I guess so,” Indigo said, rubbing her sore hand. She then quickly put the phone in the second one. “My father used to play football, but now he’s only doing the business stuff.”

“Wait, Lightning Zap is your father?” Bulk asked. “I remember him! He was the best.”

Indigo chuckled, blushing.

“I’m sorry,” Bulk muttered. “You probably hear that a lot.”

Indigo shrugged. “Not really. The guys in my school aren’t into football much. I prefer rowing, myself. And I never really paid attention back when he was playing. Maybe my sister...”

“You have a sister?”

Indigo sighed. “Yeah… She’s much older and we’ve never been very close. She doesn’t live with us either.”

“Ah.” There was a brief pause before Bulk spoke again. “We must meet one day…”

“With my sister?” Indigo asked. “Unlikely.”

“No, I meant…” Bulk spoke quickly, as if he was afraid that courage would leave him. “We’re gonna have a movie night at Sandalwood’s house this weekend. If… If you’d like to hang out…”

“I’ll see.” Indigo yawned. “Gotta crash now. I’ll call you later.”

“Sure,” Bulk replied. “See ya.”

Indigo put the phone on her nightstand and turned in her bed. Everything went blurry and soon faded.

Lightning Dust stretched her limbs and looked at the TAR-21 hanging from her neck. Or at least Indigo thought it was TAR-21 – she hardly knew anything about guns and every single bullpup assault rifle in the world could be TAR-21 for her.

Indigo looked around. They were standing on the roof of some building made of sandstone in the middle of a town consisting mostly of clay huts and palm trees casting shadows on dusty streets. Lightning was wearing combat trousers and a tank top, revealing the burn marks covering her left arm most of her back and part of the neck.

“What’s going on?” Indigo asked.

Lightning Dust didn’t reply, instead handing two guns to Indigo. “You’d better take them,” she said. “This place is not safe.”

“I thought you were in jail,” Indigo muttered, twirling one of the guns and hiding it in the holster attached to her belt.

“I was released,” Lightning replied. “We’re on a super secret mission from the government, remember?”

“Yeah, that rings a bell,” Indigo muttered, scratching her head with the barrel of the second gun. “But what am I doing here?”

Before Lightning Dust could reply, one of the huts behind her exploded. She quickly spun, clicking on the safety of her rifle and firing a short burst in the direction of the fire. Indigo drew the guns and jumped off the roof, somersaulting in mid-air. She raised her arms, suddenly finding herself surrounded by three silhouettes in white robes.

Indigo pulled the triggers of both guns. The smoke and dust blinded her, but she saw one of the assailants falling back, his clothes stained red. She turned, hitting the other attacker in the temple with the handle of her gun, while shooting the third guy with the other one. She darted forward, firing whenever she saw someone moving.

Suddenly, a large man stood in her path, holding a sabre. Indigo fired at him, but his arms moved rapidly and the bullet bounced off his blade. He spun the weapon, deflecting a few more rounds.

“Damn,” Indigo muttered. She jumped and spun in mid-air, landing a kick on the face of her opponent. He staggered, but withstood the attack, raising the sabre.

Indigo landed smoothly on the ground. She saw the blade approaching her in slow motion, so she dropped the gun and caught it with her bare hand. The eyes of the man widened, nearly taking over his moustache. Indigo heard a couple of shots and the man collapsed in front of her, revealing Lightning Dust standing behind him with a smoking rifle.

“Let’s go,” she said, pointing at the door to the nearby house.

The interior was dark and almost empty. The only thing was a small table standing in the middle of the room. There was a mobile phone lying on and ringing.

“Pick it up,” Lightning Dust said. Indigo obeyed, wondering what was going on.

“Hi, Indigo! What are you doing?”

“Lemon Zest!” Indigo’s eyes shot open and she realised that she was lying in her bed. The sky behind the window was dark and she realised that she had been asleep for quite a while.

“Hey, no need to shout,” Lemon muttered. “What’s up?”

“I was sleeping,” Indigo replied. “And I guess I’m gonna grab something to eat and then go back to sleep again.”

It wasn’t that easy to get rid of Lemon Zest, though. “How about that guy?” she asked.

“Which guy?”

“You know which one,” Lemon replied. “You know, the Saddle Rager with a violin.”

“Ah, this one.” Indigo scratched her head. “He called. If I didn’t dream this up, he wanted to hang out with me.”

“Oooh!” Lemon exclaimed. “That’s so cool! You and him are, like–”

Indigo sighed. “Calm your tits, Lemon. Don’t you have, like, better things to do? Like sleeping?”

“I can’t sleep.” Lemon’s voice faltered. “That’s why I called.”

“Why don’t you call Sugarcoat?” Indigo asked. “She could read you something boring.”

“I did,” Lemon replied. “She told me to find some other idiot to talk to.”

Indigo sighed. “And you called me?”

“Yes.”

“If something’s wrong, you’d better consult someone who actually knows what they’re talking about,” Indigo said. “How’s your mother?”

“I told you she’s fine,” Lemon replied.

“So it’s about you then, right?” Indigo asked, standing up from her bed. “Nightmares or some other stuff?”

“Nah, I just can’t fall asleep.” Lemon’s voice sped up. “I think it’s too early for me. Like, I’d go out and do something, but no one else wants to go or I’d–”

“Dammit, Lemon,” Indigo muttered. “I thought it was something serious. Go and play computer games, or chat with any of your three thousand friends on various social media sites. Goodnight.” She put the phone down and went to the kitchen. A peanut butter, banana, and bacon sandwich later, she went to the bathroom to take a shower and brush her teeth. Soon, she was asleep again.

Author's Notes:

Today's chapter is a short one, but on the other hand, on Friday we'll meet Sandalwood and your life won't be the same once you meet Sandalwood.

In the meantime, let's talk families. Not much to tell as far as siblings go: Sugarcoat, Sunny, and Lemon are the only kids and Indigo's sister is, as you may guess, slightly busy. At least Sour Sweet has two sisters (Sweeten Sour, aged 17, and Sweet Dreams, aged 5) and two brothers (Sour Patch, aged 15, and Sour Grapes, Sweet Dreams' twin). We already know Indigo's father; her mother (I think she's called Battle Dust) is also rather chill. Sour Sweet's parents are shrinks and Sugarcoat's parents are dentists; we'll meet them one day. Lemon's dad is a musician and her mom is a painter. Sunny's mom, as we already know, makes movies and her name is Lens Flare. Interestingly, I wrote her without any particular image in mind, but then the shorts rolled out and she's totally that woman next to Canter Zoom. Her husband isn't around much, busy supervising his company's construction sites in different countries and hoping his daughter doesn't spend all his money.