Eating up the song, the crowd recovered its good mood and was flapping wings and cheering as the final notes died off. Their cheering reduced in volume when a winged man climbed up on the stage.
"Whoa! How awesome was this?!" Hurricane had brought a microphone with him and held it in one hand while gesturing to the Rainbooms with his other. "Let's hear a Canterlot U cheer for the Rainbooms!" Smiling wide, Hurricane almost had to shield himself from the wall of noise that hit him. "You rock, Canterlot U!" He had to yell into the mic to have a hope of being heard over the crowd, but he managed.
Spicy Hot was awed at how easily Hurricane had just taken control of the crowd. He shook his head to avoid lewd thoughts (like how well Hurricane could swing a crop) and pointed to the side of the stage. "Come on, Sonata. Let's meet up with them backstage."
Her heart beating a million miles a minute, Sonata could only nod to Spicy and follow him. The pressure of the gem had lessened with the crowd's emotion swung so hard toward joy. Keeping her focus on Spicy, Sonata threaded through the jubilant crowd toward a side gate.
Flashing his pass and getting Sonata to do the same, Spicy Hot slipped through the gate and into the bands' setup area. The members of the Rainbooms were mostly a mystery; Spicy Hot knew Rarity and Rainbow Dash. When Sonata peeked around his shoulder, however, all the Rainbooms turned to look at her.
Rarity moved first. She could see real fear in Sonata's eyes, and rushed up to the strange bundle of former Equestrian monster that she had feelings for. "We had things under control, darling. What's wrong?"
Clinging to Rarity, Sonata pressed herself against her girlfriend as tightly as she could. She couldn't reply, instead taking solace in having her "family" nearby. Spicy, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity made up the center of Sonata's world, and the gem-pendant around her neck had no place in that. She inhaled, drawing in the exciting scent of her mistress.
Sunset had seen Rarity and Sonata together before—although seeing Sonata ponied up this far was a little shocking—she tried to get a feel for the strange young man who had come backstage with Sonata. Her mouth formed an O of understanding when Rainbow Dash literally flew into his arms.
Barely catching the glances of Rainbow Dash's bandmates, Spicy pulled Rainbow into a tight hug, then let go and stepped back from her. "Why didn't you tell me you liked a little horse-play?" He put on his best innocent smile he could, which given that he looked a little more like a devil than usual didn't go far.
Barking a laugh, Rainbow Dash held up a fist to Spicy. "Says someone who is going batty."
"Uh, Rainbow Dash? Are ya gonna introduce us?" Applejack had held her tongue too long. She looked Spicy Hot up and down, noting his fishnet shirt over a tank top—both of which doing a poor job of hiding the fact he had good muscle definition. Leather pants seemed a little odd, as did the big boots he wore. She ignored most of, however, and focused more on the bat wings half-folded behind his back.
Rainbow Dash did a little facepalm and turned to her friends. "Oh, right. Spicy, this is Applejack, Sunset Shimmer, Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, and Fluttershy. Everyone, this is Spicy Hot."
"He certainly is." The moment Twilight spoke she realized that they hadn't been said in her head, but out loud. She blushed at the implications of her words and covered her mouth with her hands to stop from saying anything else.
"Okay… Well, hi Spicy." Sunset held out a hand to Spicy Hot, trying to ignore Twilight's slip. "So you're the guy that makes Rainbow Dash smile so much?"
"I make her do a lot more than smile, but that's probably me." Spicy stepped forward and shook hands with Sunset. "You were all great out there. I wasn't expecting quite this level of—"
"Don't you dare say horseplay again." Rainbow Dash punched Spicy in the arm.
Spicy rolled his eyes. "I wasn't going to say horseplay. I was going to say awesomeness. That was amazing!"
"Now I recognize you!" Clopping forward on hooves she was somehow super-comfortable balancing on, Pinkie Pie jabbed an accusing finger toward Spicy Hot. "You work at the toy store!"
Reaching to an imaginary hat, Spicy Hot performed a mock bow. "You have unmasked me. I am a purveyor of perverted toys. I hope everything is working out okay?" He couldn't help but notice that Sunset had reached her arm around Pinkie Pie and tried to quieten her down.
Pinkie Pie giggled and turned to look at her girlfriend. "Ask Sunset!"
Rarity had left her friends to meet Spicy without her help. She could sense an air of uncertainty in Sonata and didn't want to let her special someone down. "Are you alright?"
Not wanting to lie to Rarity, Sonata shook her head. The gem's weight around her neck, and the touch of it against her skin, reminded her of all the bad things she had done. "I don't want to be alone tonight."
Rarity heard pain in Sonata's voice. The fun-loving, taco-eating girl was beset by something, and Rarity intended to find out what. "Then it's settled. I won't let you be alone."
"That was amazing!" Apple Bloom, followed by her friends, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, rocketed through the gate, followed by Shining Armor.
"Yeah. You're all awesome!" Scootaloo didn't like to admit it, but she had had a bit of a hero-worship thing going on with Rainbow Dash for a while. She froze, however, at the sight of Rainbow hugged to Spicy's side.
Sweetie Belle had been about to say something inane about how good her sister's band was when she stopped and saw Sonata pressed to Rarity. She remembered the sirens, and what they had done. Sweetie had even heard that Sonata was getting a second chance. She hadn't realized that her big sister was the one directly responsible for that second chance. "H-Hi." She walked a little closer, they cast a quick look around the other Rainbooms. When none of the other heroes of Canterlot High School seemed to react to Sonata, Sweetie turned her attention back to her sister.
"Sweetie Belle." Rarity was caught. She had come out to her best friends, extended friends, but Sweetie was family. "I… Uh… Sweetie, this is Sonata. My girlfriend." With her heart jumping up into her throat, Rarity tried to read Sweetie Belle's expression.
Narrowing her eyes a little, Sweetie Belle looked at Sonata Dusk. "You're not going to do evil stuff anymore, are you?"
"I-I-I don't want to." Sonata was aware of the gem, the hard stone now at her body temperature, pressed to her skin. "When I heard your sister and her friends sing, I promised myself I wouldn't do anything bad."
"And what about your sisters?" Sweetie considered her big sister as a little biased here, and in need of protection. "They're still evil?"
Biting her lip, Sonata Dusk nodded. "They left and I didn't want to go with them." To her shock, Sonata watched a smile spread over Sweetie Belle's face. It hadn't taken too much to recognize Rarity's little sister as such, and Sonata wanted to make a good impression.
Sweetie Belle looked from Sonata's troubled face to Rarity's. Her big sister was practically biting her lip in worry. "I guess if you're helping her be good it's okay. I didn't know you liked girls?"
"We all need to talk." Shining Armor, wearing a black shirt and jeans, looked around all his sister's friends. "But not here, and not now. Tomorrow at twelve-hundred hours at my place."
"Twelve hundred hours?" Looking from Shining to Sunset, Rainbow Dash was wearing confusion on her face. She'd dealt with twenty-four hour time before, but had never heard it spoken in that way. "Isn't that next month some time?"
"I know you!" Spicy Hot's eyes widened. "Shining Armor! You went to Crystal Prep Academy! I was a sophomore when you were doing your senior year." Reaching out a hand to shake Shining's, Spicy was stonewalled for a second before Shining's digits engulfed his own. "Weren't you going to join the army or something?"
Shining Armor was a touch confused at first. He pulled up memories he had of his final year at CPA, and managed to remember a scrawny kid who kept trying to wear "interpretations" on the school's dress code. Seeing Spicy Hot on Rainbow Dash's arm confused Shining enough that he found himself distracted. "Navy. You were gay, weren't you?"
Spicy spread his lips into a huge grin. High school had been, if anything, more accepting of him than his parents had. "Still am. I make an exception for my girlfriend, though." He would have smiled wider at the confused look that covered Shining Armor's face, but Rainbow Dash put her arm (and a rather large wing) around his side and pulled him back.
Giving Spicy a squeeze to appease his ego, Rainbow Dash looked up at Shining Armor and shrugged. "It's complicated, but it's working. So when do we meet and where?"
"Hold on. What's this all about, anyway?" A bit put out by someone giving orders to her friends, Sunset Shimmer stepped forward and confronted Shining Armor. When he didn't immediately respond, she verbally pushed on. "Last time someone became this pushy, the universe almost got ripped apart."
"Yeah! We don't take kindly to people pushing us around." Applejack felt obliged to jump in to fight alongside Sunset.
"I wanted to thank you, was all, and warn you." Shining Armor bit off what he was going to continue saying. He turned and looked at Twilight. "Twily, come on, we're going. I promised Mom and Dad to have you home as soon as the concert was over." He walked closer to Twilight, only to have Applejack lock her hand on his wrist.
Shining might have been strong, with muscle upon muscle, but Applejack's hand was like an iron shackle around his wrist. He started to move without thinking. The girl's grip was firm, but he pulled with his arm while ducking low.
Watching Applejack get launched into the air, Twilight Sparkle ground her teeth and used her magic. She grabbed Applejack first and floated her to the ground. "Stop this!" She held both her brother and Applejack in spheres of magic. "Please. He's my brother." She looked at Applejack until her friend grumbled something. "Shiny. They're my friends. Applejack wouldn't have hurt you."
Having acted mostly out of reflex, Shining Armor lowered his head. "I'm sorry… to both of you. You need to back off on all this magic stuff. We're pretty tolerant here in America, but if you push things…" He let his words hang.
"You're just trying to protect your sister, we get that." Rainbow Dash shivered as one of Spicy's wings curled around her own back and hugged her. "We really do. We protect each other. If someone tries to hurt Twilight, we'll—"
"And what if it's the government? What if they send the police to bring you in? You're going to beat them up?" Now out of the bubble, Shining Armor pointed toward the exit gate. "Come on, Twily, let's go."
"I'll text you guys the directions. See you tomorrow!" Twilight said, turned, and followed her brother out the gate.
Everyone called their goodbyes to Twilight and then, as a group, turned and looked at each other.
Spicy rolled his eyes. "Well, he hasn't changed much. Anyone would think he's the gay one, given how far that stick is up his butt." Everyone except Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom looked shocked—the three young teens just laughed. "Don't look at me like that, it's true."
"Sticks up butts aside, what if he's right?" Sunset was having a great deal of trouble not snickering at the picture Spicy Hot had put together with his words.
"You mean what if we could get in trouble?" Giggling, Pinkie Pie shook her head. "Limestone said what we have done is all fine. Only she said it was 'above board and unlikely to get your arse in jail.'" She tapped her chin. "Maybe I should get her to come with us tomorrow to tell Twilight's brother that."
"That would be a really good idea, Pinkie." Sunset put her arm around Pinkie and gave her a hug as a reward. "A second opinion. And I like Limestone."
"Limestone really likes you, too! She only swore twice when she was talking about you to Mom and Dad." Leaning her head sideways, Pinkie Pie felt one of Sunset's wings close around her. "Mmm, not-burny."
"Limestone told your parents about me?" Sunset didn't need to ask. As close as Sunset Shimmer was to Pinkie Pie at that moment, she could read the scene right from her girlfriend's mind. "I guess the cat's out of the bag."
Pinkie Pie giggled and kissed the underside of Sunset's jaw. "Silly. They said it was okay. You do need to pay for food, though." She made sure to focus her mind on that scene, figuring that if Sunset wanted to see it all, she could.
"I can afford that for a while, at least. Selling my paintings is actually earning a little money now. College…" Letting out a sigh, Sunset Shimmer closed her eyes. "College isn't going to happen."
"It could if you wanted it to." Hurricane, moving reasonably quiet for his size, had slipped backstage and heard enough of Sunset and Pinkie's conversation to get the gist of things. "This,"—he made a gesture that attempted to encompass all the poniness of the girls—"is fantastic stuff. Real magic."
Behind Hurricane, two members of his faculty were discretely slipping in to listen to the conversation. Star looked at her fellow professor, Chris, and raised an eyebrow. "Is he for real with this? I think he's going to offer them—"
"How would you like to study at Canterlot U?" Ignoring his employees, Hurricane's gaze flickered from Sunset to Pinkie, to Rainbow Dash, and even over to Rarity and Sonata. The last confused him a little. "Well, those of you who want to study further."
Sunset Shimmer just stared at Hurricane for a few moments while trying to understand what he was offering. Her mind finished racing in circles long enough for her to actually ask. "So, what? Tuition?"
"Covered. Four years of college. If you want to go further than that you will have to prove yourself. All I want from you is to explain and help us explore magic." Hurricane spread his hands wide. "This!" He gestured at the girls. "All of this. No other college has even begun to delve into magic."
"That's because it is considered useless. Party tricks at best." Chris stepped up beside Hurricane and pointed at Sunset. "It's all so temporary and uncommon that it isn't worth studying."
Seeing Chris for the first time, Sunset almost jerked back. Black, hard skin. Cerulean mane of hair. Insectile wings. Her heart started racing while she looked for exits. There was a creature she knew who matched the description. "C-Chrysalis…"
Chris' head snapped from glaring at Hurricane to looking at Sunset. "Yes?" She could see the fear and panic growing on the girl's face. "What's wrong?"
The change in tone, the honest worry in Chris' voice jolted Sunset. She still stared at the ponied up changeling, but curiosity filled her more than anything now. "Where I come from there is a creature named Chrysalis, that looks a lot like you. She—" Sunset Shimmer took a deep breath and exhaled. "She is not nice. She sucks the love out of those around her and uses it for great magic." Sunset hadn't met Equestrian Chrysalis, of course, but Princess Twilight had kept her appraised of the situation.
Chris rolled her slit eyes. "She sounds like she has some issues of her own. I assure you I am—"
"You aren't nice, Chris. Remember what you did to that boy who submitted his paper late, last semester?" Star stepped out and noted that another jolt of recognition passed through Sunset. "But I think you missed the most interesting part of what she said about you."
Just like she had heard of Chrysalis, Sunset had heard of Starlight Glimmer. Princess Twilight had described her student enough that Sunset felt like she was looking at the real thing—because of course she was. "Sorry, but this is all so—"
"Familiar?" Chris smiled now, catching on to her colleague's hints. She turned to Hurricane. "I've changed my mind. Consider my faculty behind this one-hundred percent."
"I wasn't aware I needed your support, but it is noted." Knowing when he was winning, Hurricane decided quickly to leave Chris be. "So how about it?" The last he directed at the girls present.
"If you cover lodgings…" Sunset hated being manipulated. She had done it so much in her earlier days at CHS that she knew a con-job when she saw one. "I want this in writing."
Chris barked a laugh that revealed prominent fangs and sharp teeth besides. "I expect to see you next semester. Don't let him off lightly." She turned and started walking away.
Sunset lifted her voice to be heard by Chris. "What do you teach?"
"Psychology." Chris didn't stop, and was joined by Star.
"I'll put together a package for the college fair. You won't regret this." Hurricane started to turn, and caught the eyes of Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy. "This deal goes for all of you. Pick a course that interests you and— Wasn't there another one?"
Applejack nodded. "Twilight had to go early. Her brother was chaperone'n her."
"We can pass on your offer to her tomorrow, but I think she might have something else already planned. You'd have to offer her something special." Rainbow Dash couldn't help but smirk. "She's smart with a capital S. Pushed ahead a grade, built a magical storage device… You catch my drift?"
"Tell her not to commit to anything. I'll have an offer she won't say no to." Giving the girls a slight bow, Hurricane stepped back. "I should be going, think on my offer." With a ruffle of his wings, Hurricane left the girls.
"Well. That was intense." Fluttershy could breathe properly with the highly charismatic Hurricane gone. "Was it just me, or did he seem really big?"
"Of course, darling. It was his machismo—his charisma. I just don't know about his offer, though. I did want to go to fashion school." Rarity kept one arm around Sonata. She could sense something was off about her girlfriend, and intended to find out what it was in private.
Spicy Hot cleared his throat. "What you need to do, then, is work out what you want to do. With your lives, that is." He looked at Rainbow Dash in particular. "School's out. Do you want to dive into more school, or make your mark?"
"While I may not approve of your… employment, I do believe you have a very good piece of advice there." Celestia held a level glare at Spicy Hot, and despite the normal subduing effect of her teacher-look he seemed completely nonplussed.
"Employment nothing. I own my store." Completely unrepentant, Spicy Hot kissed Rainbow Dash on the cheek. "So. I have room for two in my car. Who wants a ride back to the other side of town?"
Rainbow Dash laughed. "He's my boyfriend, so dibs on one."
"I think, if you're taking Sonata home, you are going to have to take Rarity too." Despite all her misgivings about Sonata Dusk, Applejack had to admit it was all kinds of warm and fuzzy seeing the pair of them together. "Those gals're joined at the hip."
"We'll go via the school. I can get you some information there on Canterlot University. So you can all discuss it tomorrow." Celestia walked toward the gate that led outside the venue. "Anybody who needs a ride back, I'll be taking the bus."
Huddling at the back of the concert, waiting for all the students to leave, Abacus Cinch was crouched and trembling. A fire boiled within her—a darkness she couldn't believe. But she wanted to believe it.
In the rush of the students leaving, Cinch had lost track of Cadance, but she had other things on her mind. "Why should I let you in?" Her voice was raspy, thin, but she managed to keep some steel in it. The thing that had bloomed inside roiled within her. Its reply didn't come as mere words, but the promise of what it offered was plain.
Abacus Cinch had to do just one thing to have her revenge. Closing her eyes, she acquiesced to her desire for revenge. Power boiled through her thin frame. Power bubbled out and swelled her muscles. Power rushed into her head and pushed a glowing, red horn from the middle of her forehead.
Snapping her eyes open, Cinch saw a tint of green and red—envy and rage. She let out a soft breath, the last she had taken merely as Abacus Cinch. When that power flooded her, she could feel everything change. Standing up straight, black locks of hair cascading around her face, Cinch laughed.
Shadows gathered around her, and Cinch pulled them close. "I'll have my revenge. You gave me the power to do it." Another breath, this one in, filled lungs larger than Cinch had ever had. "I'll make you proud, Sombra."