It was 20 minutes before show time. The stage was ready, amplifiers on, levels were set, lights, lasers, special effects were primed and ready to go. Rarity loaded the dryers with clothes, and started them up.
Rainbow hovering above the stadium saw some ponies coming up to the gates.
“Ahh yeah! Here come the crowds!”
Ponies from Ponyville and a few from Canterlot arrived at the arched entrance.
“Uhh, here for the…Rush…show?” said a nervous white stallion.
“Come on in!” said Applejack. “Next!”
The Cutie Mark Crusaders were selling Rush merchandise in a stand.
“Who wants a Rush T-shirt?!”
Pinkie Pie was right behind them.
“I want a Rush T-shirt!”
The Crusaders rolled their eyes.
“Who else wants a Rush T-shirt?!”
“I want a Rush T-shirt!!!”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was 5 minutes before the show, but only a couple hundred ponies showed up, filling barely half of the floor section.
“Golly,” said Applejack. “I thought everypony in Equestria would be here.”
The six of them all sighed sadly.
The band came up dressed and ready to play. Geddy and Alex had their guitars, and Neil twirled his sticks through his fingers.
“Showtime!” said Neil.
“Hey,” said Geddy. “What’s the matter, girls?”
“Excuse the pun,” Alex added. “but why the long faces?”
“There’s hardly anypony here.” Rainbow Dash moped. “We were hoping the stadium would be filled, but there’s only a few hundred out there. After all the work we did to get the word out about it.”
“Talk about sour apples.” AJ added.
Neil looked at the dismal crowd from off stage, and turned back to the ponies with a grin.
“This is nothing girls, we’ve played way worse audiences than this.”
“Really?” Fluttershy asked.
“Sure,” he continued “In fact, in our early days as a band, we did a whole ‘down the tubes’ tour. The record we made wasn’t well liked, and we were playing sleazy places you’d never want to be in, with hardly anybody there.”
“Why did you keep playin’ then?” asked Applejack.
“Because we loved playing.” said Alex. “The three of us loved music and playing together so much, audience numbers never mattered.”
“Besides,” Geddy added. “You brought us here because of our friendship remember?”
“Yeah?”
“We wouldn’t care if there were only ten ponies out there, or even less. We’d still play, and play our absolute best.”
Twilight smiled.
“Everypony, to your stations. We’ve got a show to do.”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Out in the crowd, the ponies who did show up talked amongst themselves.
“What do you think this’ll be like?” said Caramel to Sweetwater and Berry Punch.
“Whoever thought of a rock concert to destroy the cloud?”
Shining Armor sat down with Cadence.
“I don’t know about this.” Cadence worried. “I mean, creatures from another universe playing rock music?”
“It doesn’t make sense to me either sweetie, but Twilight says it’s what has to be done. She did say this band was unbelievable.”
Cranky and Matilda entered the stadium.
“I can’t believe you talked me into this.” Cranky grumbled is his usual way. “You know I hate rock music.”
“Maybe so dear,” Matilda patted him on his toupee. “But we should all do our part to save Equestria. You do look adorable in that shirt.”
Cranky snorted cynically.
“I’m so excited!” Minuette beemed. “I mean I love rock concerts anyway, but it’s so fun to hear a new band.”
“Never heard of this band.” Lemon Hearts responded. “Where are they from?”
“I heard they were from another place, like not from Equestria.” said TwinkleShine.
“Where?”
“Somewhere called Canada.”
“Canada, hmm. Sounds like a cool place.”
Twilight took to the stage, levitating a microphone to her muzzle.
"Hello..."
But as she spoke the mic gave a deafening squeal of feedback. Holding her ears, Twilight frantically signaled to Vinyl Scratch in the mixing booth.
“Turn it down! Turn it down!”
Vinyl fiddled with the fader knobs until the squeal went away.
"Check, Check, 1...2...Is that better? Okay, as I was saying...Hello Everypony! Welcome all to this very special concert event to destroy the Grey Crystal! But first let’s welcome the rulers of our land, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna!"
Celestia and Luna flew in from above the stadium and sat in respective seats in their private box.
"This concert plan better work," Luna whispered to her sister. “I’m not too sure about it.”
"I'm sure it will. I’m nervous too sister, but I have faith in Twilight. Let's try to enjoy the show."
"I hope this music is good." said Luna.
Twilight continued to speak.
"And now, it is my great pleasure to present to Equestria, a truly amazing rock band. Music unlike anything heard by ponies before. Coming to us all the way from another world, and a land called Canada, stomp your hooves for . . . Rush!"
Twilight left the stage with little fanfare from the ponies below.
“What’s with the clothes dryers?” Lyra commented to Bon Bon.
Twilight took her spot off stage.
“Everypony ready?”
Pinkie and Fluttershy were at the switchboards, Rainbow on stage right with the guitars, Applejack on stage left with the basses, Rarity and Spike hidden behind the drums. All were wearing communicator headsets.
The stage went dark, and a movie appeared on the screen.
A single ice cube appeared, joined by a swarm of other cubes that all came together to form the word RUSH in the style of the first album. A metal ball shot at the center of the cubes scattered them in all directions.
The scene changed to a fly-over of a barren sandstorm landscape up to an old unicorn standing on his hind legs. A crack of thunder from behind the pony caused him to jump. Turning around, he gazed out to look at an ocean and storm clouds overhead. The stallion looked down to see a snake hissing around his hooves. He picked the snake up and coiled it around an arrow. Drawing a bow, he fired the snake & arrow out over the ocean and through the clouds.
The snake and arrow flew through the thick clouds, lightning striking all around it until a hoof reached up and caught it. A peach unicorn mare standing on a brain grasped her hooves on the snake-coiled arrow. With her magic, she transformed both into a top hat, flinging the hat onto the head of a smartly-dressed pony. Suddenly, a huge, golden-eyed owl swooped down and snagged the hat off the pony's head.
The owl flew toward the screen then away, and dropped the hat on top of a grey hill. The hat began to bounce and jumped up into the air, where a large pack of rabbits poured out and down the hill. The scene of the rabbits began to distort and jump, pulling back to reveal it to be an image on a television. Next to the television, a yellow pony sat in a dark room next to an open window. Lightning flashed through the window, lighting up her bones and transforming her into a fire hydrant. The walls of the room fell backwards, revealing green grass. A Dalmatian approached the hydrant and sniffed the base of it.
The top bolt of the hydrant suddenly blasted off with a bang, going high in the sky to the edge of space. It floated in midair where an opposite floating nut screwed onto it. The nut and bolt fell back down to earth, landing on top of a building, demolishing it.
A beautiful unicorn mare with a poofy mane walked by, shrugged, and smiled. She looked down to find a pony's skull on the ground. Picking it up, she rolled the skull over to a jester pony sitting motionless on a throne amongst more demolished structures. The jester pony shattered like glass.
The scene zoomed out revealing it to be a picture in a frame. It and a train of other pictures were being carried down a facade of stairs by mover ponies in red coveralls. Two of the ponies sat down a painting of a red star and left.
The same peach unicorn from before appeared and used her magic to stretch the picture to the entire screen. She then jumped onto the star which lit up to a guitar chord fanfare. The lighted star shorted out with the pony still on it and the fanfare died like a stopped record.
The image fell backwards with a crash revealing a giant stone Inuksuk in a snow swept landscape. The same metal ball from earlier hurled toward the statue and blew it apart.
Three round stones landed smoking in the snow, melting it. The melted snow changed the scene to bright red, and the three stones changed into three red balls. The balls ignited and spun around each other. They hit each other, exploding into a fireball. The fireball flew down to a map of Equestria, into Canterlot, and onto the stage at the Satin Stadium. The sound of the explosion woke up a sleeping Pinkie Pie in a Rush T-shirt.
“Whoa! What happened? Who put that in my punch? Where is everypony? Did I miss the band? The whole show? Where’s Lerxst, the goof who plays the guitar, and the skinny guy with the tight tonsils? Who am I forgetting, oh yeah the new guy. I hope they play Tai Shan. Okay boys it’s show time, get on stage, chop chop chop, let’s go, let’s go! Let’s RUSH!!!!!”
With a big loud strum of a guitar chord, Rush appeared on stage.
The ponies in the audience were stunned to see such strange creatures on the stage playing instruments.
“What…who…are these things!?” Junebug gasped.
“I don’t know!” Berry Punch answered.
On screen, Pinkie Pie screamed and spastically rocked out to the music. The energy of the music and the band’s playing was so infectious, the ponies watching soon forgot to be shocked. They were starting to enjoy it.
“Whatever they are,” said Lyra. “They sure can play!”
“Look at them go!” said Bon Bon.
Ponies started stomping, jumping up and down, and cheering for the band.
Vinyl Scratch at the sound table picked up her cellphone with her horn.
“Octavia, Put down your cello! You’ve got to come see this!”
In the streets of Canterlot, other ponies heard the sound of the music
“What is that?”
“I don’t know, but it sounds really cool.”
Ponies from all over began pouring into the stadium. The Cutie Mark Crusaders had their hooves full selling merchandise.
“Here you go!” Applebloom shouted excitedly. “Rush T-Shirts! Get your Rush T-Shirts! Can’t enjoy the concert and destroy the crystal without a Rush T-Shirt!”
“I’ll take one!” said Cheerilee.
“We’ll take four!!!” shouted Mr. & Mrs. Cake with Pound and Pumpkin.
Up in the royal box, Princess Luna stared blankly at the band onstage, not knowing how to feel.
“This music is so...peculiar. It’s like, I don’t even know how to describe it.”
Celestia was enjoying it.
“It may be peculiar, sister,” said Celestia. “But it sure is fun.”
----------------------------------------
The stage lit up with multicolored lights spewing in all directions as the band began their first song of the night.
The ponies of Equestria couldn’t believe what they were seeing and hearing. The lights and sound dazzled their eyes and ears.
“Amazing!”
“Unbelievable!”
Everypony was cheering and jumping along with the song.
“What kind of band is this?”
“It’s Rush!” screamed another pony.
Lights danced around to the beat of the song’s chorus'.
“Oh Yeahh!!!!”
Geddy clapped his hands. Ponies all over the stadium jumped and stomped their hooves along with him. Even Celestia and Luna were clapping their hooves.
“You’re right sister!” said Luna “This really is...fun!!”.
During the ending reggae and Alex’s solo, Pinkie shined white lights out over the crowd. To everypony’s surprise, the stadium was completely filled.
The band finished off the song. All through the stadium, ponies from all parts of Equestria were cheering for them.
“Everypony in Equestria is here.” said Applejack.
“Oh my stars!” Rarity gasped. “I’ve never seen so many ponies.”
Alex, Neil, and Geddy smiled as they looked out at all the cheering equines.
“Would you look at that.”
“Rush,” Twilight spoke to them. “Give them a show they won’t forget.”
The guys nodded to each other.
“Let’s do it.”
-----------------------------------------------
All the ponies in the crowd were entranced by the music. AJ, Rarity, and Rainbow held their sisters close, watching with the band play.
“Just unbelievable.” Rarity sighed.
“It’s like magic.” said Scootaloo.
“I know I hate rock music, but I do like this.” Said Cranky.
Several ponies were imitating the band, trying to airplay the notes and sing along.
“Dude! How awesome is this band!?” said the Peter pony.
“Awesomely awesome awesomeness!” replied the Sydney pony. “to the power of infinity times infinity plus one!”
Luna leaned into Celestia.
“Sister, do you feel this song speak to you somehow? Like how we relate to our subjects?”
“Yes. In a funny sort of way, it does.”
“Such deep lyrics” sighed Moondancer.
The ponies were even more enchanted by Alex’s guitar solo.
“Never heard a guitar sound like that,” Lyra told Bon Bon.
Celestia was also amazed by Alex’s solo.
“Such an amazing player.”
“They all are.” Luna agreed.
The band finished off the song to roaring stomps and applause.
--------------------------------------------
"Helloooo Equestria!!!" Geddy shouted.
Ponies in the crowd stomped and bobbed their heads to the tune. Backstage, the ponies rocked out in their own unique way.
“Awesome!!!”
Fluttershy gently swished her tail back and forth.
“Woo hoo.”
“So much music, and there’s just three of them.” said Lyra.
“And they’re so tight.”
Images of cutie marks, and corresponding talents appeared one by one on the screen for the bridge.
“This song feels like it relates to cutie marks somehow.” Applebloom whispered to Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.
“How so?”
“Just the whole thing symbols and special talents.”
“You’re right, counterparts.”
Mixed in were photos of Pinkie Pie making a goofy face, Rarity screaming after ripping fabric, Twilight with her horn stuck in a wall, another one with her tongue stuck on a pole, and a toddler Sweetie Belle crying after wetting her tail.
“How’d that get in there!!”
“Must’ve been in the roll of film we used to take all these pictures.” Pinkie giggled.
Sweetie Belle blushed in embarrassment.
The last image in the chain was a lone silver bolt. With the second part of the bridge, it starting spinning in a black void, among other nuts and bolts. A nut floated into the space underneath.
Throughout the final verse the nut and bolt creeped toward each other. Blended overtop displayed: “Polarize” “Sensitize” “Criticize” “Civilize” “Compensate” “Animate” “Complicate” “Elevate”, “Complicate” “ELEVATE”. As the nut and bolt screwed together, cutie mark symbols flashed around them. The two screwed tight with the word ANIMATE finishing off the song.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A gold watch appeared on screen ticking up to the hour of 12. After about a 45 seconds of ticking, it was suddenly smashed by a yellow hoof, stopping it dead.
For each chorus, the inside of a ticking clock appeared, the gears and cogs clicking and turning to the beat. Rarity and Fluttershy’s images sang ‘Time Stand Still’.
“This song,” Doctor Whooves murmured, “…somehow it summarizes everything about my life in such a profound way. Astounding!”
A long white tunnel with different kinds of clocks appeared for the bridge. Backstage, Rarity and Sweetie Belle sang the accompaying harmony. Building up to the final chorus, different style clock faces flashed one by one. Neil leaned into toward his camera mouthing 'Time Stand Still'
The song finished with a clock striking 12.
-------------------------------
"Hello Equestria!” Geddy shouted. “Canterlot! Look at all you ponies out there. Earth ponies, Unicorns, Pegasi, cutie marks of all kinds, and you all look very animated out there. It’s pleasure for the three of us to be here. As you may know, we’re here to destroy the ominous looking...thing above us, and with everypony’s help we can make it happen!"
The crowds of ponies cheered in agreement.
"We've got 6...bazillion songs to play. Since this is a special show, we’re going to do an extra special set of songs. Some favorites and some we haven't played in a while. Let’s get to it with a song from our Power Windows album, this is Grand Designs."
Multicolored abstract mosaic and fractal patterns danced across the screen.
“Twilight,” said Applejack. “Never knew you could do patterns like these.”
“Not mine, they’re Rarity’s”
“They’re amazing!”
“When I heard they had a song about grand designs, I just couldn’t resist.”
Pinkie Pie went to town on the lighting board.
“Wild Kinetic Dreams!!”
Next to her, Fluttershy gently bobbed her head and tapped her hooves.
-----------------------------
----------------------------
“Thank you! How’s everypony doin out there?”
“We just decided, since this is a world hooves, muzzles, and manes, ought to change gears a little, and play some music that suits every pony.”
They started playing a slow cloppy country/western melody.
“Yes sir, country western music. Music to clop your hooves, swish your tails to, and mosey on down with. And right now, we gotta a good old country tune for ya’ll, a little song we like to call...EarthShine.”
“Yeah!!!!” Bulk Biceps screamed.
---------------------------
"Something else from Signals!" Geddy called to the audience. "New..World..Man!!"
Bright spotlights flashed one by one in sync with the bass synth, while shades of green slowly lit up the band.
"That's some bass line!" Applejack commented.
The CMC danced along too.
"Love this one!" said Scootaloo
"We should make this our theme song!" Sweetie Belle squeed. "And do all the things this man does."
"Yeah!! We could be new world mares!!" Scootaloo replied. "Now that would be a cutie mark!"
---------------------------
“Now’s the time in our show where we check in with our old pal, Mr. Lerxst.”
Geddy goofily looked around the stage away from Alex.
“Mr. Lerxst? YooHoo?”
“Uhh, over here.” Alex casually gestured.
“Where?”
“Over here.”
“Where, I don’t see you.”
“Turn to the right.”
Geddy turned around, pretending to be surprised when he saw Alex.
“Oh there you are! Hello Lerxst.”
“Hello there Dirk, long time no see.”
“Where’ve you been all this time?”
“Oh, you know, around.”
“Why don’t you say hello to everypony in Equestria.”
“Hello everypony in Equestria. Can I have your autograph?”
The crowd of ponies laughed.
“Who wants to hear a joke? So there we were in the...place where we live. I was knocking balls into holes on a big lawn...it's just something I do. Dirk was getting lost in his own museum, and Pratt was doing...whatever Pratt does. And all of a sudden, we disappeared, were swallowed by a rainbow and woke up here, in Equestria! Best day ever!! It’s not everyday you’re kidnapped out of your own home, together with your best friends. Hey guys, shouldn’t that have pissed us off.”
“Nahh.” Geddy shrugged.
“Nothing important over there anyway.” said Neil behind the drum set.
“I thought you never talked.”
“Hey, you’re right.”
“Oh, I said I’d tell you a joke.” Alex continued. “So there’s this nasty ol’ bug queen somewhere out there who thinks she can sap the magic from this beautiful land of yours...and she thinks she can win.”
The ponies and band cracked up. The girls backstage giggled too.
“What a set of circumstances.”
Circumstances
----------------------------------
A single die appeared onscreen in a black emptiness. Next to it, other dice all showing different numbers slowly emerged from the shadows. More and more dice emerged from the darkness, slowly zooming out showing them to be part of a much bigger object. Slowly the object emerged from the shadows, revealing itself as a pony skull.
A skeleton pony pixeled together and sang the rap, doing crazy dance moves.
The pony skull appeared, mouthing ‘Because We’re Here’. It was smashed by an anvil to the final chord.
----------------------------------
Geddy came back up to the mic.
"What’d you think of that?"
The crowd of ponies cheered and stomped.
"This next song is one of our very favorites. Back where we come from, we have these things called cars. They're these cool machines you get in, start up the engine, and you can drive to interesting places in them. This song is about a special kind of car, a red car, a Red Barchetta."
Overtop the harmonic intro, a dark object appeared on the screen. Turning in a circle, it slowly showing its features: a red metallic body, chrome highlights, hubcaps which shined in the light, a red vinyl dashboard and seats, and sparkling headlights. The object revealed itself to be a real Ferrari Barchetta.
“That looks just like the model from Neil’s drum room.”
“It is,” answered Pinkie. “I snuck it into the bag.”
The Barchetta turned to face the audience. Amber headlights flashed on at the stroke of the opening note.
Heading into the bridge the Barchetta’s engine flared, tires screeching. In a flash, the scene changed to the car racing along a road in the countryside, swerving around curves, through tunnels and fields at high speed.
“I gotta get me one of these Barchettas.” Rainbow squeed.
“Oh, I can just smell that scented country air.” Rarity agreed.
Celestia leaned over to Luna.
“Remember when we used to take daddy’s wagon out, without telling him.”
“Oh yes.” Luna sighed.
On the road ahead, the bright headlights and flashing sirens of two Alloy air cars approached. The car spun around, tires screeching, and took off down the road, the air cars chasing in hot pursuit. The Barchetta raced as fast as its wheels could take it, while the air cars swerved along side trying to push it off the road. Finally it zoomed across a one-lane bridge, leaving the alloys behind.
The Barchetta raced toward the audience, screeching to a halt in a cloud of dust. All through the ending notes, the image panned around the car showing off its glittering features. With the final note, the headlights switched off, and the Barchetta faded into darkness.
----------------------------------------
"Thank you so much." said Geddy. "We'd like to do a woodsy song now. This one is a light tribute to the great icon of Equestria, the EverFree Forest, this is called The Trees."
Beautiful watercolors of trees in the EverFree Forest displayed on the screen. One watercolor was of a tree that bore a likeness to Fluttershy.
“Who did the paintings?” asked Applejack. “They’re really something.”
“They’re Fluttershy’s.” Twilight answered.
“Wow darling, you painted those?”
“I did.” Fluttershy blushed. “Neil said they’d be great for this song.”
“Sure hope ma apple trees don't have such troubles.” Applejack thought to herself.
-----------------------------------
YYZ
Spotlights and mosaic lights flashed on and off in the shape of ‘YYZ’.
“Alright! My favorite!” Rainbow Dash squeed.
The crowd was astounded by such a fast moving complex song. Everypony jumped and stomped along with the beat of the song.
“Gosh,” said Minuette. “How do they do it?”
Geddy and Alex came down the edge of the stage, making and faces back and forth, pretending to challenge each other.
Octavia, next to Vinyl at the soundboard, listened in awe.
“Just…so many notes.”
Vinyl silently bobbed her head to the music.
The song finished off with lights on the screen flashing ‘YYZ’.
-------------------------------------
Twilight suddenly got misty-eyed.
“What’s the matter sugarcube?” Applejack asked.
“I’ve just never heard a song speak this deeply about us.”
“Us?” Rainbow tilted her head.
“Our friendship; being so different but joined by slender threads.”
“You’re exactly right darling.”
--------------------------------------
Equestrian Bit bills exploded on the screen, floating around and fanning out: Celestia on the 1, Luna on the 5, Cadence on the 10, Princess Platinum on the 20, Chancellor Puddinghead on the 50, and Star Swirl the Bearded on the 100. The image of Star Swirl turned the audience and winked with the drum roll. The image changed to Equestrian coins and dollar bills being printed, minted, and counted with the beat; stock tickers counting, trading ponies shouting.
The outro featured bags of money being stacked, conveyor belts of Bit bills and coins, gold bars being poured and stamped, stock graphs crashing, a bank teller pony shutting her booth, finishing with a pony piggy bank being smashed by a hammer.
------------------------------------
An image of a closed eye appeared. Suddenly it opened and the iris closed. A red dragon awoke, stretching its wings and claws.
“Isn’t that the same dragon that was smoking up Equestria?” asked Rainbow. “How did we get him in this movie?”
“Fluttershy.” Spike answered.
Rainbow couldn’t help but laugh.
“Good one, Spike.”
“It’s true.” Said Fluttershy calmly.
Rainbow was aghast.
“But…how?!?”
“He agreed as soon as he saw me.”
The dragon came out from his cave, and suddenly his eyes perked up. He saw a girl dragon laying on top of a giant mound of gems. Cooing for attention, she enticed him with Rush backstage passes. The dragon ran for the love of his dreams, only for her, the gems, and the passes to vanish into thin air. Surprised and angered he looked around, before noticing the audience. Smoke snorted from the dragon’s nostrils as he growled at the crowd. He took a deep breath and hurled fire at the audience, engulfing the scream in flames.
Tall plumes of fire erupted around the stage. A fireball swirled on the screen overtop fire and smoke. The image switched to show the band dissolved behind flames, sparks, and refracting air. The flames, red light, and shadows gave the band demonic looks.
The fires flared up again at the end. Pinkie Pie roasted marshmallows in one.
“Who wants S’mores!”
“Dude, that was intense!” said one stunned audience pony.
------------------------------
Closer To the Heart
Unicorns lit up their horns, speckling the stadium with spots of color like a starry night.
“Isn’t that beautiful?” said Twilight.
Neil turned to his electronic keypad to play the bells. Offstage, Pinkie Pie, with a mallet in her mouth, hit a row of bell chimes and smiled with a squee. Neil jokingly shook his fist and continued the song.
“Twilight was right.” Cadence whispered to Shining Armor. “This band really is unbelievable.”
“We’re so fortunate Twilight found this band.” Said Celestia. “It really is music made through a pure friendship.”
Way up above Canterlot, a small piece of the cloud broke away and vaporized.
-----------------------------
Natural Science
At her station, Twilight goofily sang along with the lyrics, bobbing her head side to side.
"I love a song that speaks to my intellect."
Chrysalis observed the show hidden behind a tower overlooking the stadium. Suddenly one of her changelings buzzed down and hissed in her ear.
“What?! How is that possible?”
The changeling hissed some more.
“By venom, that purple unicorn wasn’t joking. Their music actually could destroy my crystal! We’ll have to sabotage the show.”
She thought while listening to the music, particularly Geddy’s high vocals.
“And I know just how to do it.”
A changeling appeared in the darkness at the side of the stage. Using its magic, it unscrewed the cap to Geddy’s water bottle and poured something in. The bottle glowed red for a second before going back to normal. The changeling screwed the cap back on and snuck away, unaware of being watched by a pair of glowing eyes.
-----------------------------------
Rush finished off the first half of the show to rousing applause from Equestria's ponies.
"We're going to take a little break right now, the three of us need a tune-up. Pratt's blown a gasket, my radiator is steaming, and Lerxst needs a triple overhaul."
Alex made stupid faces.
"Make that a quadruple. We'll be back."
The three of them left the stage, and headed for their dressing room. As Geddy headed off, he grabbed the water bottle and took a drink from it.
Chrysalis watched from her outpost. One of her changelings buzzed up to her and whispered in her ear.
"Excellent."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“That was some great playing there, boys.” said Applejack.
The ponies gave the band towels as they came back into the dressing room.
“Don’t mean to be cocky,” Alex said as he took a drink. “But I think that was one of the best first acts we’ve ever done.
“Definitely.” Geddy agreed. “All those favorites back to back.”
Geddy coughed a bit, and held his chest.
“Scuse me.”
“Can’t wait to the second set.” Said Neil. “With the old songs we dusted off and our epic medley, it’ll be a great moment in Rush history.”
Geddy coughed a few more times.
“Ged? You alright?”
Geddy cleared his throat.
“I think I need some water.”
Twilight levitated Geddy a glass of water. Geddy took a drink.
“Feel better?” asked Rainbow.
“It’s so weird. All of a sudden, my throat feels so raw.”
Geddy’s voice got worse. Neil and Alex started to get nervous.
“Ged, you sound like you’re losing your voice.”
“No! I can’t be losing my voice! Not now!”
Geddy’s voice was now low and gravely.
“What about the rest of the show!?”