The seven ponies ventured through the crowd to the edge of the stage, where a walkway was marked by security barriers. They walked around to the edge of the barriers, and followed a path that led further to behind the stage area. There, they came across a vast array of large carriages, each marked with a band name, such as “The Fooh Fighters,” and “Metallica.” Beside one of the carriages stood an Earth Stallion wearing a grey flat cap. He was leaning against Iron Mare’s carriage and looked as though he was listening to the music from the stage, which was still easily heard, despite his location.
“Well, we’ve found the tour carriage parking,” said Tech, pointing out the obvious.
“But where’s the Chili Peppers’ carriage?” asked Spike, searching the lot from atop Twilight Sparkle’s back.
The stallion by the carriage heard the purple dragon’s question, and looked to the group of mares to answer, a brogue clear in his voice as he spoke. “The Chili Peppers?” said he, “they’re on the next row, right-hoof side.” He motioned with his head to another row of carriages.
“Okay,” replied Tech Specs, “thank you, Sir.” The stallion tipped his hat and continued bobbing his head to the music.
The group followed the stallion’s directions and, like he said, on the right side of the row of carriages stood the one labeled, “The Red Hot Chili Peppers.” Tech Specs knocked her hoof on the carriage’s door, and a female voice from inside yelled, “go away! We’re not doing any interviews!”
Tech rolled her eyes and replied, “Floyd, it’s me, Tech! Open up, you fool!” After a couple seconds of silence, the door swung open, revealing a green pegasus mare, the same one who played guitar on stage. Her mane was a violet red with a streak of orange, with a matching tail. Her eyes were rose pink and freckles adorned her face just below them.
“Hey, Tech,” said she, in a raspy voice similar to that of Rainbow Dash, but a bit deeper. “Come on around the back; everypony else is chilling there.” Tech nodded and the green mare led them around the front end of their carriage, where they saw the rest of the Red Hot Chili Peppers as well as Vinyl Scratch. Each pony was sitting in the grass, talking to one another and socialising.
“Hello again, Rarity and company,” greeted Vinyl. She then looked at the bruised Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash and added, “somepony did some moshing, eh?” Everypony laughed, and the group joined the others on the grass, save Rarity, who stood firm.
“I refuse to sit; I may stain my dress,” insisted the white unicorn, turning her head away from the ponies.
“Well,” said Humm Bucker, standing up, “we’ll have to do something about that, won’t we?” rarity looked at Hummy with a disturbed look on her face. He noticed and quickly said, “no, not THAT. Just chill out a minute.” He trotted around the carriage and out of sight for a few seconds. When he returned, he was holding a small blanket in his teeth. He walked past Rarity and spread the blanket out on the grass in front of her. “There you go, Miss.”
“Such a gentlecolt,” said Rarity. After thanking Hummy, she sat down on the blanket.
“So,” began Mosh Pit, looking at the group of ponies who had just joined them, “how’d you mares like the show?” He smiled as he asked.
Twilight Sparkle and Rarity agreed that they liked the Chili Peppers’ performance, Pinkie Pie openly expressed that she loved it, and Applejack commented on the mosh pit they started.
“Yeah,” agreed Rainbow Dash with her orange friend, “first you played all that soft junk, and then you started shredding like Metallica. It was so awesome!”
“I heard you were a fan of the pits, Rainbow,” said Bass Beat. “I also heard that you almost got yourself stomped by this big lug.” She lightly punched Mosh’s arm with her hoof as she mentioned a “big lug.”
“Hey, I said I was sorry,” replied the orange stallion, laughing as he remembered.
Rainbow simply crossed her forelegs and said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. That never happened.”
“Oh, come on, Dashie,” beamed the pink mare. She then stood up and started re-enacting the scene, moving about rampantly as she described Rainbow Dash moshing, and then falling, and then Mosh Pit almost stepping on her. She finished her story with, “and that’s how we met Mosh Pit!”
“What about you, Miss?” Mosh Pit looked to Fluttershy, who was sitting beside Rarity, looking away nervously.
“Umm, I.. guess it was okay,” said the yellow mare, barely above a shy whisper.
Humm Bucker jumped up in sudden realisation. “Oi! I forgot!” shouted he. He trotted around into their carriage again and re-emerged holding a rolled up piece of parchment, bound by a brilliant purple ribbon, in his teeth. He held the parchment in his hoof and was brandishing it as he said, “can you guess what a Royal Pegasus Guard delivered to our apartment yesterday afternoon?”
“A Royal Pegasus guard?” beamed Twilight, thinking about the glorious armoured stallions of Canterlot. “What was it?”
“Well,” began Hummy explaining, “when I opened the door and saw him there, he gave me this and said ‘a message for the Red Hot Chili Peppers from Canterlot.’ I showed it to Mosh, Bass and Floyd, and we all thought it was either really good or really bad, so we opened it and...”
“Just get on with it,” interrupted the impatient blue pegasus.
“Alright, alright,” replied Hummy. “I opened the letter, like this.” He opened the letter slowly and said, “and read it to everypony, like this.” He was about to continue when he was interrupted again, this time by Spike.
“Ooh, ooh,” said he happily, “can I read it? I want to read it!”
The green stallion shrugged and complied, “all right. Knock yourself out, Little Lizard.” He gave the letter to the baby dragon, who opened it with gusto.
Spike cleared his throat, and began reading, “her ye, hear ye. Her Royal Highness, Princess Celestia of Equestria, is pleased to ask that the Red Hot Chili Peppers, consisting of Bass Beat, Floyd Rose, Humm Bucker, and Mosh Pit, to serenade Her Highness’ guests at the Grand Galloping Gala in the lush capital city of Canterlot. Enclosed are four Royal Musician’s passes to the Gala.” Everypony, save the band members, were completely aghast at what the purple dragon had just read.
Humm Bucker noticed everypony’s amazement and addressed it with, “I know; can you believe it? We’re going to a gig in Canterlot!”
Twilight Sparkle stared at the ponies, mouth agape. She regained her composure and said, “that.. that’s great, Hummy! More than great; it’s fantastic!” She joyously clapped her forehooves as she added, “the six of us and Spike got invited to the Gala too; we’ll be happy to see you there!”
Rarity then looked to Tech Specs, who looked rather uncomfortable at the current conversation. “I say, Tech,” said she, “Twilight can always ask Princess Celestia for an extra ticket; you should come with us when it comes round.”
Tech Specs looked up rapidly, staring off into space in a trancelike state. She shook her head and hastily replied, “no, no. That’s not a good idea. It’s the opposite of a good idea; it’s a very very terrible idea.” The unicorn scratched her mane with her hoof and stood up nervously.
“What are you talkin’ bout, Tech?” asked Applejack, who, like everypony else, was shocked by the unicorn’s response.
Tech looked around, trembling as she answered, “umm, i-it’s nothing. I have to go.” She then ran at full gallop away from the group of ponies, Blades sprinting after her.
Rainbow Dash stared in a daze at the fleeing mare for a second, then regained her composure and, at word from Twilight Sparkle, took flight, speeding towards Tech and scooping Blades up in her hooves as she sped along.
“Hey, what’s going on?!” shouted Blades as he and Rainbow sped closer and closer to the blue unicorn.
“Hold on, Little Guy,” replied Rainbow as she manoeuvred him to her back and tackled Tech Specs. She turned the mare over to face her, and Rainbow saw that she was addled. When she came to, the blue pegasus was quick to ask her, “what was that all about, Tech?”
Tech Specs looked up at Rainbow Dash, but she began losing focus and the pegasus’ face was but a blur with the sky. Memories raced through Tech’s head: she saw a cyan filly and orange baby dragon in Princess Celestia’s quarters, a disappointed and angry look strewn across the princess’ face. She then saw a Royal Unicorn Guard looking at the same filly and dragon pair, then closing Canterlot’s city gates, locking them out of the city. The last thing she saw was the filly hiding in a cave with the baby dragon, the filly crying as rain fell heavily around her.
“Tech! Tech! Wake up!” Blades’ voice called into the unconscious mare’s ear. Her eyes slowly opened, and she saw Blades, as well as the rest of the group of ponies surrounding her. She began breathing rapidly and tried to rise, but was stopped by an orange hoof.
“Whoah there, Partner,” said Applejack, gently holding Tech back. “We don’t want y’all runnin’ off like that again.”
“Why?” asked Tech, still shaken, but her breathing slightly more calm. “What’s going on? Am I being arrested?”
“Now what in the world would make you think that, Sug?” replied the orange mare, looking utterly at a loss as to what the unicorn was talking about.
Soon, Tech Specs had entered another delirium, replaying the princess’ scornful face in hear head, and repeatedly saying aloud, “No. I can’t go back. I can’t go back to Canterlot. I can’t.”
“Tech!” The mare heard Twilight’s voice call her name. She shook her head and looked at the purple unicorn, who was just looking at her with an eyebrow raised. “Are you alright, Tech?”
“Umm, yeah,” answered the blue mare, holding a hoof to her head. “I.. I’m fine.”
“You never answered my question,” said Rarity, looking at Tech Specs with the same look as Twilight.
“What question?” replied Tech.
“I asked you if you’d like to come with us to the Gala in a few months,” informed the white unicorn, “and you said it was a terrible idea. I asked why, and you started staring into space. You were staring for a couple minutes.”
“Oh, umm, I’m sorry,” said Tech, breathing heavily and rubbing her mane. “Well, let’s just say that the princess and I aren’t exactly on even terms.”
“What ever do you mean, Darling?” The white mare looked concerned as she watched Tech bury her head in her hooves.
“Yeah,” agreed Twilight, “what do you mean by ‘even terms?’”
“She hates me, alright?!” shouted Tech, barely holding back tears. “Princess Celestia hates me, and has hated me for quite a while now!”
Twilight Sparkle took a few seconds to wrap her head around what she had just heard. Princess Celestia has never hated anypony, to Twilight’s knowledge. Why would a humble pony like Tech Specs be hated by the ruler of Equestria? The purple mare stood up and approached Tech. “Come on,“ said she gently to the mare, who seemed to have been having a breakdown. “Let’s go walk around; it’ll calm you down.” She offered a hoof to Tech, who accepted.
Tech stood on her hooves and lifted her goggles. She wiped a couple tears from her eyes and said, “okay then. If anypony can help me, it’s the princess’ star pupil.”
Tech and Twilight slowly walked away from the group, but were quickly joined by the other five ponies who were with them, along with Spike and Blades.
“Umm, Girls,” said Twilight, “I’m sorry, but I think Tech would rather not have a crowd of ponies around right now.”
“It’s fine, Twilight Sparkle,” said Tech quietly.
“Okay,” quietly replied the purple mare. She turned her head to look at the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Vinyl and said, “thanks for inviting us to hang out; It was nice.” Mosh Pit nodded at Twilight and sighed deeply.
As the ponies walked toward the edge of Central Park, Twilight looked to Tech and said, “so, umm, Tech?”
Tech Specs looked at her purple friend, anticipating what she was going to say, and answered, “yeah, Twilight?”
“Would you please tell me what happened?” She looked with worry in her eyes at the blue unicorn, who appeared to be struggling to respond.
“You’ll likely end up hating me as well.”
“I’ll take that chance; I just want to know.”
“Alright,” said Tech Specs. Taking a deep breath, she began, “I was born in Canterlot, to a family who viewed magic as an heirloom that every member had to possess. I was no exception.”
Pinkie Pie giggled lightly and whispered to Rainbow Dash, "this is where everything goes all wiggly." Rainbow just gave her a confused look and they trotted on.