And so the next set of songs began...
This next song, it was dark and villainous to the core, but still because of how fun it was at the same time and because of the singer's undeniable charm, you couldn't help but want to sing along to it as well. The singer sung about hoodoo and voodoo along with various other things he hadn't even tried, he had friends on the other side. At one point he even asked if they'd shake a poor sinner's hand to the two other people he was talking to. Finally the song ended with one last chorus of main verse and it's tempo picked up as well before the song began reaching it's inevitable conclusion.
"Well... That was something." Trixie said after taking the song in and it's lyrics about witchcraft.
"You said it." Rarity agreed before turning to Twilight."Twilight dearie, you're our resident expert on magic-No offense Trixie-so maybe you can tell us what all this hoodoo and voodoo is all about?"
Twilight imeditantly went into what Rainbow termed as her "Egghead Mode" and began to explain.
"Well, I may not be the expert on all of this, Zecora could probably tell you more if you're really interested but hoodoo and voodoo are various magic native to the Zebra countries and active throughout the city of Neigh Orleans as well." She began before continuing her explanation. "Basically, they and their practitioners draw power from various talismans and potions and the like and the spells and hexes can be very powerful in the wrong hooves." She warned.
"Like the ones shown here huh?" Rainbow deadpanned.
"Yes, exactly." Twilight confirmed, a little creeped out by the song's content. She switched radio stations to get it and it's lyrics out of her mind.
Then, the next song began to play. It started out ominous and foreboding, making the ponies think that things weren't off to a great start, before it quickly became sweeping and majestic, almost heroic in it's style. Various feelings spread over the ponies as they heard it. The first feeling that came was awe, then another swiftly replaced it. That next emotion was called hope, hope that despite any problems that they may face in the near future, everything would be alright. The song was beautiful, the players of song were experts. Octavia, as she was part of an orchestra herself, could tell the skills of those who played this song. She could tell they were masterful in their craft, and had the ability to generate all of the right feelings when they played this song.
"By Celestia..." Twilight whispered as the song continued to play. "It's beautiful."
"I know what you mean." Octavia agreed as the song reached It's middle part and again became hopeful. "Please tell me you've figured out a way to record these songs."
"I... I've been meaning to start working on a way, but I've never been able to find the time, what with everything going on and all."
"Well, I have faith in you Evening Twinkle." A familiar voice said gleefully as there was a bright flash of white light from behind Twilight, who yelped in surprise. The figure who appeared looked like a creature who had it's blueprints mixed up somehow, what with his menagerie of various animal parts making him up, with no two parts exactly the same. "You being an Alicorn Princess and all."
"DISCORD!" Twilight exclaimed in annoyance as soon as she got her heartbeat back down to normal levels. "How many times have I told you, please knock before you enter!?!"
"Oh Twilight..." Discord remarked in a dismissive tone of voice while waving his paw. "Knocking's boring for one such as me. Now appearing in a flash of light, that's much better."
"The jury's still out on that..." Twilight muttered to herself even as Discord turned to Sunset Shimmer.
"And speaking of Alicorn princesses..." He began as he pinched Sunset's cheek. "I hear there's a new one in town. What are you, Princess of Bacon Hair or something?" Discord joked, while Sunset glared furiously at him.
"Gee, it seems they'll make just about anypony a Princess these days, huh?" Discord remarked in a teasing tone as Fluttershy facehoofed in the background to herself. Meanwhile, Discord had given himself two feathery wings in place of his usual ones and a tiara as well with a snap of his fingers.
"Who knows, maybe old Sunbutt will finally go ahead and make me one!" He continued. "I mean, think about it. I'd be Discord, Princess of Chaos! Well, I suppose it's be Prince but you get my drift. Just think about it!"
"I'd rather not." Twilight growled as she ground her teeth together, severly annoyed at Discord's shameless mocking of her, Sunset and Princess Celestia. "What are you doing here anyways, Discord?"
"Oh, you know me. Always curious." The Spirit of Chaos replied to her with a shrug. "Heard you gals were listening to music by those lovely humans so I decided to see if I could join in!"
At this point, Discord hugged them close to himself before he then let them go and mimed playing a guitar like Chuck Berry while wearing sunglasses.
"Anyways, let's spin the wheels of fate and see what we get next, eh?" Discord exclaimed, while taking control of the transmission receiver and getting it to play another song. What he got next however, gave him along with Fluttershy, a bit of a surprise...
This next song started with soft and sad sounding piano notes before a male singer began to sing in a heartfelt tone of voice. He sung that if he hadn't promised to keep some sort of crazy deal, he might not have fallen in love and known there was something more to whomever he was singing about. He told the target of his affections to dry her eyes as he was there for her. Then, if things weren't heartbreaking enough, a female singer joined in for a part of her own, singing about the exact same things the male singer sung about. The two joined in a duet and sung together their lines in a very beautiful manner before the song finally ended, leaving the listeners in tears.
"That... That was beautiful..." Rarity whispered as tears streamed down her face before she grabbed whatever was closest to her and used that to very loudly blow her nose. Unfortunatly, that something happened to be Applejack's tail.
"Could have asked before you did that, ya know that right Rares?" Applejack deadpanned tossing Rarity an annoyed look, while the fashionista herself looked sheepish with herself.
"Sorry, it's just..." Rarity trailed off unable to finish her sentence. But she didn't need to.
"I understand." Applejack said kindly while nearby, Sunset and Twilight shared a smile and accidentally intertwined their tails before they quickly realized what they had done and broke them apart while blushing heavily.
"That was one of the most beautiful things Ah ever heard in mah lifetime." Applejack continued, a small tear running down the side of her face and she quickly tipped her hat to hide it.
"Trixie agrees with you." Trixie replied to her while nearby Octavia wiped away some tears of her own.
Then, everypony heard the sound of loud bawling. Surprisingly, it came from the last pony anypony expected it to come from. Nearby, with tears streaming down her face was Rainbow Dash.
"Er, Rainbow? You alright?" Applejack asked in concern. "Do... Do you need a handkerchief or sumthing?"
"That... That was beautiful!" Rainbow continued to sob while Applejack muttered "So much for the big tough act eh?"
Rainbow quickly took a offered handkerchief from Rarity and blew her nose and wiped away her tears before saying to everypony "That does not leave this room understand?" while giving them a harsh glare that was scary enough to make even Discord take a step back.
Speaking of the chaos entity, both he and Fluttershy were in shock. They recognized exactly who those voices were supposed to be, AKA them.
"How... How could they know? We certainly haven't exactly announced to the world that we're dating... Have we?" Fluttershy whispered, quite shocked to the world that somewhere out there somepony or someone knew that she and Discord were dating.
"Well, my mind is officially blown for today." Discord muttered in a almost inaudible tone. Almost.
"Something wrong?" Twilight asked in concern.
"No... No, nothing at all!" Discord responded nervously with a squeaky tone in his voice. Twilight eyed him suspiciously before beginning the next song...
Crystal Castle: Dungeons
Meanwhile in the Crystal Empire, Prince Shining Armor of the Royal Guard marched through the corridors of the dungeons of the castle he shared with his wife and the Princess of Love, Mi Amore Cadenza. He had one singular purpose in mind, to interrogate the Dazzlings and find out who exactly was their hidden backer. Like his sister, he had quickly figured out that they weren't working alone due to the fact that somehow they'd regained their magic.
Already, he'd tried to get information out of Aria, but she'd been no help at all, offering only sarcastic comments. Now, hopefully he'd have better luck with her older sibling.
"There's two ways we can do this Adagio, the easy way or the hard way." Shining told the Dazzling while he circled her like a lion his prey, which wasn't a bad comparison really.
"Oh, I'm so scared..." Adagio mocked. "You going to play good cop/bad cop with me? I wouldn't mind that really." She said seductively while Shining only rolled his eyes.
"Listen, I'm not in a playful mood siren." Shining growled while trying to keep his cool. He'd been mind controlled once before, back at his wedding to Cadence, by Queen Chrysalis so this was bringing up bad memories for him.
"Shame, shame, 'cause I am." Adagio continued before she chuckled. Shining wasn't amused in the slightest.
"No games. I'm starting to lose my patience." Shining growled out at her.
"Ugh, fine. Spoilsport. Bet you were the school swot and never even got kissed." Adagio sighed to herself. "Well, just because I'm feeling generous, I will offer you this. I do have friends, very... shadowy ones."
Shining considered her statement, the wheels mentally turning in his head before he reached a rather frightening conclusion, his eyes widening like dinner plates. Shining quickly regained his composure, before he turned to one of his guards that was in the room with him.
"Get a message to Canterlot to the Princesses. HE'S returning..." Shining said fearfully before the guard dashed off while Shining thought to himself.
"Let's just hope we're not already too late..."