The Music Makers

by Talon and Thorn

Epilogue

Principal Abacus Finch angrily slammed the door to her office closed and slumped down into her seat. For a moment she felt like committing violence, smashing the desk or throwing one of the many awards around the room, then she shuddered and brought herself back under control.

“What vexes you?” came a voice from the corner.

Abacus started and glared at the shadowy figure which lurked in a dark corner of the office.

“You! How did you get in here? This is all your fault!” she hissed.

“There are few doors bared to me,” replied the figure calmly. “What has happened?”

“Those useless tarts you had me hire as music teachers almost gave away their secrets in front of the Princess. Now she wants to investigate our teaching practices! This could ruin the school! Could destroy my reputation!”

“Do not worry, no inspector will find anything out of place. I guarantee it.”

“What about those Flim Flam brothers, I told you there was no need to remove any of the competition. As if there was any!” she snorted.

“Even if they are captured there is nothing to link them to you. Do not worry. I had hoped that they would do a better job of driving a wedge between the element bearers, but no matter, I have other plans.”

“There better not be! Or...”

“Or what?” asked the figure seeming to grow larger, filling the entire office while still remaining cloaked by shadow. “You forget yourself Abacus, you are just one of my agents. I do not need you or this little school.”

“I... I...” for a moment the principal seemed rebellious, staring up into where the figure’s eyes would be. Then her spirit broke and she looked down in defeat. “I am sorry.”

“Good. Now do not fret, everything will be well. After all we have an agreement,” said Nemesis.

Author's Note:

See I told you it was short, this sort of ties into an overall plot which might never come to pass but well we'll see won't we.

Thanks to Grass and Clouds 2 and docontra for their suggestions and editing.

Comments are always welcome.

Comments

[Walabio]

¡The horseapples just got real!

[Walabio]

7508513

You are welcome, but you still have the "it look" in the description of the story.

[Talon and Thorn]

7508530

Sorry forgot about that. I've fixed it now, luckily I had 2 whole characters left before I used up all the space in the description.

[Walabio]

7508533

> " … it look like…"

It did not take. I know that you have a wordlimit, but the passive voice bugs me. It should be:

> "When The Equestrian Government gives Ponyville-School money for setting up its own band, it looks like it will be good business for Medley, but when a pair of flamboyant stallions turn up in town offering cheaper instruments, Bluenote and Cheerilee have a hard decision to make."

I figured out a way to write the description which is even shorter than your way which uses the active voice:

> "When Ponyville-School gets money to set up its own band it looks like it will be good business for Medley but when a pair of flamboyant stallions turn up in town offering cheaper instruments Bluenote and Cheerilee have a hard decision to make."

The voice is active, it is short and it fixes the "it look like" to "it looks like. You can just copy and past my correction into the description-field. In order to get it to fit, both the original version and the corrected version have to omit commas, but one cannot have everything.

[Skyeheart]

I just KNEW it was a matter of time before we had a Music Man spin in this universe!

[Walabio]

8167681

> " > 'Hopefully, they will not eat the students.'"

> "They can eat Cinch... no one will mind.

Certainly nopony would mind, but she would give the Dazzlings an huge stomachache.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Ooh. Should've figured on Nemesis showing up.

Great story, Talon.