Twilight Sparkle adjusted her glasses—a touch annoyed that she couldn't keep using the spell she had tested—and looked around at the slightly blurry world. Canterlot High School had been a scary place for her at first, but even then it had open doors and welcoming faces. She waved to her brother's departing car and then walked toward the entry doors.
Inside was a sign resting on an easel.
College Fair
It had an arrow pointing to the right. Twilight followed the arrow and could already guess as to the destination. At the end of the hall, another sign (again pointing to the right) confirmed her assumption. She walked into the school gym and smiled when she saw her friends already waiting.
"There she is! Hey! Twilight!" Pinkie Pie bounced in place, her energy levels high despite her sister being laid low. Her level of distraction, however, was higher than normal.
Twilight blushed as most of the attention in the room focused on her. She quickly made her way to her friends—if only to blend in with a crowd to hide. "Hi. Sorry I'm late, Shining insisted on driving me. Did you know he's the new dean at Crystal Prep?"
Applejack moved in with her friends for the customary hug of greeting. Being seven, there was always six such events when they all met. "Hey, sugarcube, that's great to hear. So he's gonna be hangin' around to keep an eye on you?"
"I love him to bits, but he's starting to get a little clingy. I hope his job gives him someone else to pester." Being with her friends meant a lot to Twilight Sparkle. Her time in Crystal Prep High had mostly been alone, and that was only half her own doing. "How's Marble doing?"
"Sleeping, like Rainbow said she would." Pinkie Pie's hair wilted for a moment, and her ears tucked back. A strong arm circled around her belly from each side and behind her. A tug pulled her against Sunset's front. A red and gold wing wrapped around her too, and snuggled like that she had all the hope in the world for her little (by a few minutes) sister.
Locked into their ponied up forms, the girls all felt their specific wavelength of magic quite strong, and Rainbow Dash felt hers kick into gear at the tone of Pinkie's voice. "She'll be okay. It hasn't hurt anyone, it just makes— Well it—" After a moment more of trying to say what the parasite did, and giving up, Rainbow just thumbed over her shoulder. "I've got the stuff she'll want when she wakes up."
Sunset Shimmer didn't give up the four-limbed squeeze she had on Pinkie Pie. She wasn't catapulted away to a magical realm in Pinkie's head, which was a sign of how distracted Pinkie Pie really was. "How much do we owe you for that?"
"Pfft. You don't have to worry about it." Rainbow Dash didn't have to be quite as honest with herself as Applejack was, but she did feel a little responsible for everyone else who came down with this odd thing. Of course, she had no idea that she was directly responsible for it spreading throughout the town.
Right then President Hurricane found the girls together, and still showing signs of their magic being active. "Hello there! I hope you've all thought about my offer?" His eyes darted around the winged girls, then around each of their pointed, pony ears.
"Actually," Twilight startled her friends into turning toward her, "I was thinking I might ask the other schools if they will better your offer. Either way, we're staying together." She didn't have to be good at reading people to see a look of surprise on Hurricane's face. "I did hear that Cloudsdale Institute of Technology was on the look out for similar students." As she spoke, Twilight's eyes flicked down so she could read her script from the notepad she held.
Hurricane bit back his anxiety over the matter. This had been something he'd pushed, and without some students even partly involved in magic he had nothing to build his new school of magic around. Steady, Hurricane. These girls might get their backs up if you strong-arm them, and you knew this wasn't going to be cheap, he thought. "I am prepared to match any of their de—"
"Mister Hurricane." Twilight's mom had given her coaching on this. Who better to give advice on negotiation than a lawyer? "You will do better than any offer we get, I'm sure." That she had successfully cast an actual spell herself earlier in the day bolstered her confidence no end.
"Or—" Again Hurricane had to bite back a threat. He counted to ten, slowly. "You seem a lot better at negotiating now than you did at the party. Did someone help you?"
"Oh," Twilight said, reaching up and taking off her glasses. "I just realized how much you have to gain from all of us being at your college." And with that, Twilight Sparkle cast the spell again and made magical glasses appear on her face. "You see, I'm already researching magic on my own. I don't need your school in particular. So you had better offer us something good."
Real magic. Magic like comic books talked about. This was more than Hurricane had asked for. He had expected to get seven hedge witches into his university to kick-start the process of building a new faculty. This was completely different. He gulped at the sight of the girl who had already found a practical use for magic. This wasn't just theory, he could market that—assuming they really worked. "Tell me what you want."
"Tuition for all my friends to study whatever they want for however they want. If one of us wants to spend the rest of their life studying undergrad courses, you'll pay for it." Twilight looked down at her pad. The demands were on page two, but something about her sight through the magic glasses let her read from it as perfectly as she could the first. When Hurricane nodded to her, she continued. "Accommodation for us and any significant others we have. We'll pick a location, you just have to pay the bills."
Hurricane grabbed a notepad of his own and started jotting down numbers. All the while his eyes never left the glasses on Twilight Sparkle's face. Real magic. "What else?"
"I'll start teaching immediately. The class will be my friends and whoever else wants to attend. It will be worth credits." This was more a concession to Hurricane than from him to Twilight. Besides, it let them all be together for some time regularly. "When I graduate I get tenure. You give me an honorary masters in the new field, and I will start working for you."
Having been married three times, Hurricane knew a proposal when he saw it. Unlike two of his marriages, this one promised to last. Tenure was a two-way street. "Anything else?" A note of sarcasm was in his voice. Even if all six of Twilight's friends studied law and then medicine, it would still be a net win for the university.
"I think that's it. We shouldn't need a stipend to live." Turning to her gaping friends, Twilight looked around the shocked faces. "What do you think, girls? Do we want anything else?"
Six heads turned side to side, shock registered on them as they watched Twilight Sparkle exercise confidence they'd never seen in her except for her study of science.
"Perfect. I didn't think we'd need a full contract written up today…" Twilight glanced down, through the notebook's empty pages to the forms underneath. "But I brought one anyway."
With a flourish, Twilight Sparkle produced a drafted and professionally assembled contract, copied eight times, and passed it to President Hurricane. "Feel free to read it. It covers what we just talked about. Also, that's non-negotiable."
Chrysalis had started getting interested in the conversation between Hurricane and the students the moment she realized who they were. Their wings were smaller, they lacked tails and hooves, but she could identify the girls from the concert easily enough by the fact they had wings and pony ears still. She was already getting up, circling around to Hurricane's side.
When Chrysalis saw the contracts in Hurricane's hands, she burst out laughing. "Just sign the damn things. I can see whole new fields of study opening up. Magical Ethics for undergraduate students, and dozens of papers on the psychology of having magic, using magic, and having magic used on you."
"You're not making this easy, Chris." Hurricane began reading the remarkably clear and well stated contracts. The clauses were almost word for word what they had discussed, and the final article stated that Twilight Sparkle would remain as a professor at the school for no less than five years. Defaulting on the contract would mean the school would be paying up to two undergraduate degrees to each of the girls in fees. Hurricane never planned on defaulting on this. He carried the contracts to the information booth where Starlight was talking up the engineering department of the school to two students. Pulling out a pen, he started signing the prepared contracts.
"So, are any of you planning to study psych?" Chrysalis looked around the girls—young women—and met each of their eyes. Twilight's were the big surprise. "Those glasses look good on you."
"Th-Thanks." Without her script to work off, Twilight Sparkle was back to being partially lost in the conversation. "I-I think I'll be studying physics." As a nervous gesture, Twilight reached up to adjust glasses that not only didn't need it, but weren't technically there to touch. Having worn glasses all her life, Twilight actually missed the weight of her plastic frames.
Rarity saved her friend from needing to talk further. She gestured at her own, self-made outfit. "Arts, darling. Fashion."
"Engineering!" Rainbow Dash surprised even herself with how vehement her words were. Even the wings on her back fluffed out and spread in excitement.
"Psychology. Art too, maybe. I read about double degrees." Sunset still had her wings around Pinkie, and she wasn't planning to give up her hold.
"I'll take one of those, too!" Pinkie Pie giggled and squirmed a little in her girlfriend's embrace. What she really enjoyed about the way Sunset held her was that Sunset's breasts were pressed to Pinkie's back. "Culinary school and business!"
"Business and botany." Applejack glared at Chrysalis, daring her to gainsay the selection.
Fluttershy had built herself up and managed, in not too quiet a voice, to say, "Veterinary science."
"Sounds like you'll be getting your money's worth out of Hurricane. Feel free to sign up for any psych electives." Chrysalis turned her eyes on Sunset Shimmer, and smiled wide. "I look forward to teaching you."
Sunset finally let go of Pinkie as Hurricane turned back to them all. She nuzzled at Pinkie Pie's ear and murmured softly. "Love you." As soon as the second word left her mouth, Sunset Shimmer felt her magic pull her into Pinkie Pie's mind.
The moment Sunset Shimmer tumbled into her head, Pinkie Pie pounced on her and kissed her.
Surprised, but not more so than normal, Sunset enjoyed the kiss and slowly drew back from Pinkie. "How do you manage to do this so easily?"
"Because I love you too." Pinkie booped Sunset on the nose and then, just as suddenly, they were back in the real world. Not even a second had passed.
The contract was between Twilight and Hurricane, so Twilight had to sign all of them. "I'm not eighteen yet, but you'll notice my mother signed as my legal guardian."
"All the arrangements to carry out the contract will be made during the month leading up to your first week. I'd recommend speaking to Chris or Star over there about what courses you want to apply for." Hurricane watched as the last of the contracts was signed. He took the first and folded it up for his own pocket. "Welcome to Canterlot University, Miss Sparkle."