Evil Empire

The following day at lunch, Vinyl had put her headphones back on. They helped - at least temporarily - forgetting the world around her. After yesterday's events, she thought of it as more than necessary. Trying to avoid Trixie for time being, she had placed herself down at a fully crowded table, with no room for anyone else to join in. Of course, she might as well have stayed away from lunch in the first place, but that option didn't sound very appealing, either. It was Taco Tuesday, after all.

Strangely enough though, the crazed magician was nowhere to be seen. Which was probably for the best. Or not, who knew.

Meanwhile, the corridors outside the cafeteria lay almost completely deserted. Apart from three girls, standing together close to the lunch area's entrance, not a single student or teacher was to be seen.

While their skin colors - purple, light orange, and a very pale cyan, to be exact - seemed entirely normal for Canterlot High standards, the remaining pieces of their apparel did not. Both haircuts, as well as clothing made them look like some sort of fangirls, who had just stepped right out of a convention, or glam rock concert. Maybe even both. Bystanders couldn't exactly tell, since there were none.

In theory, their appearances could have also been designed for some specific kind of merchandise, of course. However, anyone halfway sane would have probably dismissed that theory as plain ridiculous.

By the looks on their faces, one could easily identify their shared feeling of anticipation. Even though their motives might have slightly varied from one another. The orange one would appeal to anyone as their leader, simply judging from her expressions, and the way she carried herself. The remaining two merely awaited her orders.

"This is it, girls," she finally said, overly confident. "The moment we've been waiting for!"

"LUNCH?"

The two girls turned to their light blue friend in a mix of surprise and annoyance. One of them let out a groan.

"The chance to get our true Equestrian magic back!"

"Oh...right."

"Our powers are just strong enough to make them want something so badly, they'll fight to get it!"

On that notion, the purple one chuckled. "Adagio...You do realize...sometimes you just sound like explaining random porn concepts?"

The orange girl, Adagio, rolled her eyes. "Being reeeal mature there, Aria. Ugh, anyway...not like I would have expected you morons to take any of this even slightly serious."

"WHOA!" Sonata's eyes had widened at Aria's statement, and pressure to contribute had apparently been adding up ever since. "You guys...I just had, like, the most random thought!"

The other two cast a confused glance at her, demanding an answer by a requesting shrug.

"You know, if this was like, a kids' movie, they'd just totally cut out that part!"

Aria facepalmed, while Adagio tried to calmly massage her temples.

"Yeah, right," she said. "And you know what, Sonata? If they ever plan to do that, we'll just come up with something else for the script. Shouldn't be too hard." She let out a low breath in order to calm herself down even further. "For now, everyone just follow my lead."

"Or my lead..."

"My lead!"

Trixie stood in the central portion of Canterlot High's cafeteria, her back resting against one of its blank cement pillars. Her right arm idly hung down next to her waist, the left hand carrying the 213rd edition of Mythical Creatures and Motives in Homer's Odyssey. There was a history test scheduled for her last block today, so reviewing the topic one last time certainly wouldn't hurt.

For a moment, she looked up, her eyes carefully wandering over the crowd, happily chatting about their day. Watching her peers' plain dumb behavior made a mix of anger and frustration rose up in her. Anger, since everyone seemed falling for the system's perceptions and lies so easily. Frustration, because she couldn't remember a thing that happened yesterday, but felt like she had to, somehow.

With a low groan, Trixie decided to place both eyes back onto the text in front of her. She honestly hoped not to be distracted by any random outbursts, today.

Right then, the room's central entrance doors flung wide open, clearing the view for three rather strange figures. They slowly proceeded to enter the cafeteria, chanting some ridiculous melody.

Trixie decided on having seen weirder stuff in her time. Even some complete strangers randomly bursting into a song didn't surprise her that much. And although it would proof hard to concentrate in this newly tense atmosphere, she did her best to ignore it, and focus on her reading. And said focus turned out surprisingly intense, being broken only when suddenly, she felt a light sensation to the lower part of her face.

As one of the girls, who had previously entered the room, brought out the line You're a star, and you should know it, she briefly took hold of Trixie's chin. Seconds later, the other two jumped to her aid, lifting her onto a nearby table. The girl commented on their action by singing: "Yeah, you rise above the rest."

After being irritated by this unreasonable display of arrogance for just a split second, Trixie quickly tried to make sense of this grotesque performance. Why would anyone dress up that strangely, just to sing something seemingly entertaining amidst a crowd of young adults, while inappropriately touching them without asking for permission? It took a moment until the gears in her head were set in motion.

"Sweet," she then exclaimed, though not entirely serious. "Looks like the strippers are here."

In contrast to what she had anticipated - some light laughter, and no further disruption of their singing - their song died down immediately, as the orange girl stopped herself. She turned around with a gasp, looking at Trixie with wide eyes. In another instant, the entire cafeteria fell silent, all eyes turning to her.

And yet, nobody was laughing. The only sound produced after a few seconds was the starting, but resolute sobbing the pale, blue girl produced.

Also, some yellow-skinned, brown-haired kid rose from his seat for a second, pointing at Trixie, while yelling: "Ha-ha!"

"What did you just call me?" the orange one asked, madness burning in her eyes. On the verge of panicking, Trixie's eyes shifted throughout the room. Of all her fellow students, no-one dared uttering a word.

"Uh...hey," she winced. "Look, that was just supposed to be...funny...Trixie didn't...I mean..."

Clearly enraged, and with a face that had turned a few shades darker, the orange girl stepped back down from the table. One of her hands forcefully grabbed Trixie by her shirt, the other one pointing at her sobbing friend.

"Funny?" she asked. "FUNNY? Do you see that girl?"

"Duh..."

"That is Sonata Dusk."

"Pleasure."

"Her father ran away from home, left her mother for some stripper, as you like to call them. The poor lady had to prostitute herself to care for that girl's feeding. Only before being murdered by her drunk pimp three weeks later. Ever since, we've been all the family Sonata has, after all this left her emotionally scarred to a tremendous extent. Do you still think that's funny?"

She nearly spat out the last few words, while her friend collapsed into the purple one's arms, crying uncontrollably . "Make it stop," she lamented. "Make it sto-o-o-p!"

The orange girl then let go of Trixie, rushing to Sonata's aid. "You have a lot to think about," was all she produced in her direction, before leaving the room.

And after that, for a moment, the room fell silent again. Just before people started throwing angered looks at Trixie, murmuring something too low for her to comprehend.

Well..., she thought while passing through their rows.

...shit.

After getting another Neighvana album done, Vinyl decided to take of her headphones. The expressions of the kids around her had drastically changed in the past minutes, and naturally she desired to know, why that was. She reacted with mixed emotions, when a familiar voice addressed the sophomore boy sitting next to her.

"Out of my way, peasant! You've already eaten up, so make room for the great and powerful Trixie!"

Silence fell across the table once again. Vinyl didn't know the reason for everyone looking at Trixie hateful like that, but she started getting a very bad feeling about it.

"Excuse me?" the boy asked, straightening his Space Invaders Against Racism shirt.

"You've heard it! Trixie is in a bad mood today, and doesn't need to be trifled with a pathetic nerd like you. So..."

"Well, there - there's a nicer way to say that, you know," the boy tried bringing forth, though he seemed clearly intimidated by the older student looking down on him. Not that it would improve Trixie's reputation in any way.

"Well, if this helps," she replied. "Me - /root, you - /dev/null. Get outta here, now!"

"Um...no!"

"sudo get outta here?"

"Gee, alright."

Though initially trying to object, he eventually grabbed his tray and went off, leaving his spot unoccupied. Trixie took the opportunity, planting herself down next to Vinyl with a frustrated sigh.

"Ever had one of these days, where people just don't seem to make any sense?" she asked.

"Tell me about it," Vinyl replied with a smirk.