Epilogue
Miss Shimmer,
The situation has been resolved. This book is safe. You can return now. If you do not trust me, call Twilight Sparkle or any of your other friends. All of them are here.
Abacus Cinch.
Rainbow Dash pointed an accusatory finger at Cinch. “Hey, why are you writing in her book?”
“Because, miss Rainbow, this book contains private correspondence.” The woman closed the book and looked at the girl who stared back uncomprehendingly. “I don’t believe either miss Shimmer or miss Sparkle—the equestrian one, that is—have given any of you express permission to read it. I, however, have already violated their privacy earlier.”
“I’m pretty sure she’d rather we wrote in her book than you.” Rainbow Dash put her arms on her hips. “Besides, we don’t need to read from it to do that.”
Cinch rolled her eyes. “Fine.” She approached the girl and handed the book over to her. “I suppose if any of you writes something, it will remove any doubts miss Shimmer might have about the truthfulness of my message.”
“Exactly,” Rainbow Dash said as she opened the book and flipped to the last entry. “Um...” She looked at the rest of the girls, who talked to the sirens, and Shining Armor, who stood nearby, glancing between all of them and Cinch. “Any of you guys have a pen or something?”
“Sure!” exclaimed the pink one. What was her name again? “I have a bunch. What color do you want?”
“Uh, any color, Pinkie.”
“Righty-o!” said Pinkie before reaching into her hair and taking out a pen. It was orange. There were orange pens?
Cinch glared at the common sense-defying pink creature. Couldn't she be like any normal teenager and rebel against her parents or teachers, rather than the laws of physics?
Eventually she decided that her business here was concluded. The three freshly-made pendants were nothing but red dust on the wind, the book was back in the hands of Shimmer’s friends and Cinch’s skin was its normal color. She walked out of the abandoned lot.
Apparently, Shining Armor still had business with her. “Hey, wait!” he shouted and ran after her.
Cinch stopped and turned to him.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Armor said as he ran up to her.
“Crystal Prep, obviously,” Cinch replied. “Since I am no longer preoccupied with the book, I shall relieve Cadance of overseeing the Crystal Talent Fair.”
“Wait a second, alright? I’m coming with you.”
Cinch raised an eyebrow. “Whatever for?”
“I want to make sure Cadance knows of what you tried to do here.” Armor’s eyes were serious as ever. ”You need to tell her, and she needs to decide if she wants to keep working for you.”
Cinch sighed and closed her eyes. “Fair enough.”
Shining Armor gave her a look then ran back to the girls, probably to tell Twilight where he was going. After he got their attention, the conversation seemed to pause as the girls looked at one another. They laughed and headed for the exit where Cinch was waiting. Armor went ahead of them.
“Seems like they’re all coming with,” he said. ”They forgot they all have somewhere to be.”
“I was rather hoping not to share the bus with all of them,” Cinch admitted glumly. “But they do have either classes or the fair to return to, so it can’t be helped.”
The group exited the yard and made for the nearest bus stop. Cinch and Armor stayed in front.
“So what made you change your mind, anyway?” Armor inquired, glancing at Cinch who kept staring forward.
“A number of things, I suppose,” she replied after a few seconds of silence. “My assumptions about the nature and effects of magic had been wrong.”
“And just what were your assumptions?”
“I had reasons to believe that there was magic coming from the other side of the portal at CHS. Continuously.” Cinch glanced at Armor. His face did not betray surprise—he must’ve been up to date on the whole magic business. “And, more importantly, that said magic was affecting the minds of people there... in a destructive way.”
“Huh.” Armor rubbed his chin. “And you wanted to stop that from happening?”
“Precisely.”
“Well, maybe Cadance will understand where you were coming from, at least.”
“And you didn’t even think to ask anyone?!” Cadenza shouted. “All of this nonsense could’ve been avoided if you talked to anyone with some experience with magic! Sunset, Princess Twilight, heck,”—Armor looked at her with wide eyes—”even any of their friends!”
“If my suspicions had been correct,” Cinch said, annoyed, “do you think any of them would’ve told me the truth?”
Cadenza crossed her arms. “Hmph.”
The Crystal Talent Fair was wrapping up. According to Cadenza, it had been a moderate success. Some of the displayed projects had caught the attention of the talent seekers. To Cinch’s mild surprise, not all of them belonged to Crystal Prep students.
Shining Armor had helped Twilight disassemble and pack her abandoned project before they left. Twilight seemed upset that she and Shimmer had been forced to leave the fair. Cinch considered feeling guilty, but couldn’t bring herself to care. Those two would have other opportunities, even in CHS.
As Cadenza and Cinch stood to the side, they were approached by Adagio.
“So, Abacus,” the siren asked, “what exactly happens to us now?”
Cadenza was brought out of her indignant pout by the strangeness of seeing someone on the first name basis with the principal.
“Nothing,” Cinch said. “I don’t believe I require any of your services anymore.”
“You aren’t going to expel us?”
Cinch raised her eyebrow and looked at the siren. “Why would I do that?”
Adagio shrugged. “Just making sure. Sonata was nervous.”
“Okay,” Cadenza finally spoke up, “Principal Cinch, just so you know, I’m not quitting, but I’ll need some time to process all of this.”
“You may leave,” Cinch said, “I shall handle everything today.”
“Alright, I appreciate it. Goodbye.” She turned to the siren. “Goodbye, Adagio.”
Adagio nodded then looked at Cinch. “You know, you could’ve asked us.” Cinch raised an eyebrow in response. “We wouldn’t have had a reason to cover for them. We used to ridicule the ponies’ ideals of friendship.”
Cinch didn’t answer for a few seconds. “And where do you stand now, Adagio?”
“I... I don’t know,” said the siren. “It’s difficult to adjust one’s worldview like this. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“Indeed.” Cinch furrowed her brow.
“But, what I’ve found,” Adagio continued, “is that we can just treat it as trying another new hobby and see how it goes. We’ve had to find new ways to amuse ourselves throughout the decades.”
“I’d rather not know, I’m sure,” said Cinch. Adagio smirked.
“I’m pretty sure I know why you’re here, Abacus,” Lóbrego said, chewing on a piece of chicken.
Cinch kept her eyes off the messily eating man. “I would expect you to be. It’s been all over the news.” She glanced at a pan on the counter, thick with grease.
“And you, of course, want me to tell you what to do with him.”
“Yes.”
Lóbrego pointed the drumstick at her. “I think deep down you know what I’m going to say. You just want me to convince you, isn’t that right?”
“...Yes.”
“Well, I can’t refuse a young lady can I?” The man picked his teeth. “Let me spell it out for you. This could become a tough stain if you don’t clean it out right away.”
Cinch shook her head. “But he’s a friend. I can’t just do this to him.”
“Cinchie, you chose this responsibility. Is a single friendship worth the risk? It won’t look good if you keep a drunk-driving buffoon on staff!”
“He was coming home from a wedding...I don’t even want to think what this would do to him.”
“Nobody cares, Abacus. He’ll live without your friendship.” Lóbrego leaned back and put his arms behind his head. “Everyone will. And you? You’ll have to learn to make difficult choices. This one I can make for you. Make a statement and let him go.”
The names of her childhood friends were lost to Cinch, but looking up her former colleagues was easy. And that is why she ended up here, sitting opposite of Amethyst Maresbury in some coffee shop in Poshley Heights.
“So... how have you been, Amethyst?” asked Cinch, swirling her spoon. The woman across the table scrutinized her expression.
The doors burst open. “What do you think you’re doing, Abacus Cinch?”
“Calm down, Amethyst,” Cinch said as the woman slammed her hands on the desk. “He brought this upon himself.”
“I can’t believe you! He’s our friend! And you didn’t even talk to any of us first?”
Cinch’s shoulders sagged a little bit. “Amethyst, you have to understand, I have no choice when something like this happens. Friends or not, I can’t afford to sink Crystal Prep’s reputation.”
“You know what, Abacus?” Amethyst stood straight. “You are different from Sombra. But you’re no better than him.”
“I’m sorry you think so, Amethyst. Perhaps you’ll understand in the future.”
Amethyst Maresbury sighed, bags under her eyes and early wrinkles on her brow. “I’m not sure I can believe you, Abacus. People our age don’t magically change.”
“You’re right,” Cinch said. “I don’t regret any of my decisions. Given the chance, I would make them all again.” Amethyst gave her a weary look. “This does not mean I can’t be sorry for their consequences.”
Amethyst exhaled and cast down her eyes. “So you throw away everyone in your life, pretend that we don’t exist for thirty—” she shook her head “—more than thirty years now! And you suddenly want to ‘reconnect’? What happened?”
“I’d rather not talk about it,” Cinch said. Amethyst raised an eyebrow at that. “Yes, something did happen. It’s personal.”
Amethyst kept her eyebrow up for a second then looked away and grabbed her cup with both hands. “Do you remember when Professor Neigh quit? I asked what was wrong because you looked upset and you told me you liked him.” A passing smile lit up her face. “And then I convinced you to write him a letter and we read his reply together.”
Cinch sat silently for several seconds. Her eyes danced around the table.
She gathered herself. “Amethyst, I... I would like us to have that again.”
Her former friend gave Cinch another long, uncertain look. Cinch met it stoically.
“Now, please, get ahold of yourself. I need everyone here able and focused,” Cinch said. “We will have to repair the damage.”
Amethyst looked at Cinch with worry written all over her features. Cinch averted her eyes. Amethyst sighed, turned around and slowly left.
“You know what?” Amethyst’s mouth shifted into a sad smile. “So would I.”
Cinch’s phone buzzed in her bag. She twitched but didn’t reach for it. Amethyst nodded.
“Just take it, Abacus.”
It turned out to be a text message, sent from Sombra’s number, which Cinch had forgotten about even having in the phone’s memory.
The message read as follows:
‘My boys tell me those red gems from the other day don’t belong to any of the known gemstone types in the world. I think you owe me some answers, Cinchie.’
Cinch groaned and put her head in her hands in resignation.
And that's that!
Now, first of all, I would like to once again thank my editor Vikonaut. Thanks to him this story is much better than it would've been.
Originally it started as more of a series of random scenes based on who I wanted Cinch to talk to (for no other reason than interesting juxtapositions). The sirens were there but only to be briefly mentioned in every chapter and entirely useless to the plot, a running gag. Then it evolved into something closer to what you see now, though the Cadance and Shining Armor conflict wasn't originally there to better tie some of the chapters together. And a few other scenes were missing. Not to mention the general quality of the text! 
And then the first editing pass prompted a wave of massive rewrites and additions. And then it took more than half a year to review those because someone was getting a second PhD or something... 
And yet, here we are! 
Aaaaanywho, thank you all very much for sticking until the end, and see you in whatever I write next! Blog post about my plans incoming in the near future.
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Hmm, all's well that ends well, even if Sombra might learn abou - WAIT! Hold the phone!
There are orange pens?
Does Sonata still want to go home?
7580278 Little known fact, Pinkie's hair actually houses a portal to the orange pen dimension, the only place in the multiverse where there are orange pens. She normally uses it for storage, but hey, sometimes you need a pen of an unspecified color.
7580288 I'd imagine she does, however at this point it isn't of any concern to Cinch, so this story doesn't deal with it in any way. A future story may, though.
lol Nice consequences with Sombra at the end there. XD
7580382 Gotta do a sequel hook!
hrm. a little dangle to go on from here, but everything sorted itself. i wonder what the sirens will do now. so close again to the gems... but another route opens.
7580406 I imagine even if they weren't slowly getting into this whole friendship thing, they'd still realize they were under a constant watchful eye of the rainbooms. They could stay in the human world, relearn to sing without autotune, or they could return to Equestria. Their future is pretty much as murky as Sunset's at this point. No concrete destiny to follow, lots of choice.
7580421
Tough to do that when your face is on fire.
7580494 Well, if it comes to that, someone else will learn about it and spin it, and Cinch will be made a martyr. Worth it!
So many things left unsaid.. What happens to The Dazzlings? Would they be given a way back to Equestria? Well at least you make Cinch transformation and sudden redemption true to how'd the movies handles it.. Which is too fast.. Grr, Cinch's method of thinking rubs me the wrong way here.. Because while it gives an intresting sharp contrast in the first series, now it was the key to a super sudden change of heart because she agrees with the world... Maybe Im just looking for a victorious villain (which happens to be the main character, here?) trope, and didnt get it here, sorry!
7581361 Heheh, yeah, I was thinking while writing that the last chapter was in the "best" traditions of EqG1. But hey, upholding the traditions of the source material can be a good thing right?
Also, I don't think Cinch had THAT much of a change of heart... only a change of perspective on the particular issue of magic, and a continuation of what started happening at the end of She's Awful, which was remembering, drop by drop, that she can still attain happiness.
Also, if she "won" in the end and kept her worldview, I think that would've been an incredibly frustrating end
Not a bad ending to a decent story. I'm not inclined towards making Cinch sympathetic, but I'm glad others are making a good effort of it. If there's a third one, then I look forward to it.
7581955 Thank you! There'll most certainly be a third part of her "misadventures" (unless for some outside reason I completely abandon mlp and fimfiction before I get to it, which is highly unlikely), following the little hook I left here, but it won't be the next story I write. I'll put a bit more detail in a blog post soon-ish, but I wanna write about the sirens' struggle to fit into Crystal Prep that went on during this fic.
At some point, you have to decide if you wish to wear the hat or if the hat (role) will wear you. For a very long time, Abacus Cinch has chosen the latter. Now, I suspect that she's now wishing that she chose the former.
7582311 Pretty spot-on, yup
7582007 That'll be an interesting one too.
7582796 I hope it will! I also hope the quality doesn't take too noticeable of a nosedive as I'll be writing it without the supervision of my editor for these first two stories.
(Unless another willing and patient editor magically appears in my life).
I gotta say, I'd have had no idea this existed if you didn't say something about it yesterday(or was it the day before?)
This did not disappoint, an intriguing subject.
7580278
7580323
There are also actual orange pens. They are some times sold with large sets of multiple colored pens -- blue, pink, even yellow -- or can maybe be found individually in art sections of office supply stores. I for one believe that Pinkie Pie would totally buy large numbers of multi-colored pens so she can make massive and elaborate "doodles."
7582971 You mean in the blog post I made? Cool, so it was worth it to make that after all.
7583058 I feel like I've seen such exotic pen colors all the time as a kid, but then the belief in their existence melted away like in Santa's. Now as a big serious adult the only pen colors I'm aware of are blue for normies, black for the cool people, red for teachers and pink for girly-girls to draw hearts on the margins. And even this, as you can see, comes from my memories of school, as I haven't once used a pen since those years.
7591026 I'm happy I was able to portray such a dynamic. You're describing it pretty much exactly as I wanted it to appear. Though a bit later Aria does call Shining Armor "kid" so they're not exactly like teenagers.
7591061
I interpreted that as another way for Aria to be rude to someone. And no joke, when Sonata sat in Cinch's office bouncing on that chair and annoying her, I half-expected Cinch to scold her and Sonata squeak out a non-ironic "sorry mom!".
It really was fascinating. When they first met, the Dazzlings obviously believed they could manipulate her. That belief quickly evaporated when Cinch put them in their place. Then they did Cinch's minion work, and they began truly finding friendship at CHS despite everything. They must've felt so out of control during all this...
7592341 I see where you're coming from, however I didn't consider extending that scene simply because Cinch has ways to know things for sure at that moment. Not only does she remember that the sirens are bad at lying, she can sense magic in her powered-up state, so she can tell Adagio isn't "infected" with it. Plus, I think it's mentioned at some point, absorbing the magic gives her a new understanding of it (kinda like it did with Twilight) and she can feel that it probably doesn't work the way she thought.
7604375 RationalWiki has some incredibly biased pages full of total misinformation... frankly, I think it's pretty freaking terrible. Though I suppose a few pages might be alright.
7604412
I almost didn't see this because fimfic is broken and doesn't send e-mails if you reply on a different chapter than the comment you're replying to.
That said, fair enough. Still, if you're willing to double-check before trusting, it's at least great for a laugh. (Out of curiosity, can you recommend some good examples of misinformation on RationalWiki? I tend to habitually double-check and discard, so I can't remember any specific instances.)
7604576 Fimfic only sends me emails when someone PM-s me
Anyway, I haven't looked at it in a while, but I recall it being pretty biased in some things regarding political and social topics. Aka the great modern internet war of "sjw" versus "anti-sjw". And its page on good ol' Gamergate (not that I want to drag that into this comment section) presented, IIRC, a lot of complete garbage, lies, balderdash, etc. and was disgustingly biased. But yeah, ideologically-neutral pages should be fine. Though I don't think anything will top TVTropes for me...
7604631
Ahh. That'd make sense.
Re: GamerGate, I didn't trust any sources and I'm only just winding up to check the more reliable ones now that everything has died down.
7604641 I mostly lurk in r/kotakuinaction to pass the time every now and again. Seems like as good a source as any, straight from the maw of the beast, so to speak.
7605180
Unfortunately, I could have three bodies and I still wouldn't have enough time in the day to get that far down my priority-ordered list of things to do. (Hell, lately, I've been having trouble just finding time to keep up with the highly technical LWN.net articles I love.)
7605692 Whereas I frequently have hours upon hours to kill at work
Though I could be writing my fanfics or working on horsegame levels or something like that but I'm often not awake enough for that.
7606057
When I'm too tired to be productive, fanfic is just about the only thing I've got the willpower to read.
7610096 Sorry i have never play Wolfstain or paper Mario
7610746 Oh well, that's fine
(you are missing out though). Maybe nobody among my readers does? In any case, Fluttershy's random bird's name "Blazkowicz" is a Wolfenstein thing, because the series' protagonist is called "BJ Blazkowicz" (and I dunno what BJ stands for, but presumably not that) so in my case it's "Blue Jay Blazcowicz". And "Poshley heights" was a location in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. 
The more you know!
7611201 ho i see.I remember seen the name Blazckowicz and thought to myself, "that name seems important, do i need to know who that is?", is such a uncommon name to be put in there just because. Actualy that name had bouther me a little, i had the filing that i suppouse to know that name but i didnt
thanks for the explanation :)
7611326 To be fair, they do name their animals "Owlowiscious" and "Hummingway" and stuff like that... "Blazkowicz" seems pretty innocuous among those
Ho god, finally i had time to finish this and let me tell you, it was wothed. it was a good story and i love it. defently in my fav
.
and also;
hahaha i laugh so hard at this, it was embarrassing, i am in a public library
7629852 Thanks! Always glad to get a comment on this story, it was the one I worked the most on out of my three. Happy that you enjoyed it. As for that sentence, fun (debatably) fact, it was entirely rewritten by my editor because my original, while having the same meaning and idea, was apparently super awkwardly phrased
Something like "Cinch thought that laws of physics were a nobler authority to rebel against than parents or teachers".
I've just finished reading both Cinch stories and I must commend you on your writing, it is engaging, characterization is solid, you have some great insights - girls getting a power up from new friendships, magic draining device built around the siren gems and the overall story idea hasn't been explored much if at all.
However in both stories, closer to the ending i've started feeling that you are writing yourself into the corner, in the first Cinch isn't challenged and i also think that Twilight would have sought advice from EqG Celestia or Cadenza before attempting to sway Cinch. In second Cinch is too focused and too narrow-minded for a research-oriented person. i feel it would be better to go without a semi-magical confrontation. While Cinch is talked down, the revelation and its ramifications are too abrupt and story finale suffers for it.
I guess i am repeating what earlier commentators have said.
Still, i am glad to have stumbled on these stories and i enjoyed them, so thank you.
P.S. Your third story, I've read earlier and it find it delightfully amusing.
7724783 Thanks! Yeah, I have some problems properly ending my stories. Though I usually have an ending in mind right off the bat, so it's not like I have to invent one last minute. But it probably means the overall plans have been flawed from the beginning. Well, I'm still learning the ropes, so to speak, so hopefully it'll improve in the future.
Though I do think that Cinch's narrow-mindedness in the sequel was in character for my interpretation of her. I see her as having the capacity and the maturity to be truly logical and reasonable, but having had nothing challenge her logic and reasoning for the longest time, she got used to settling with her first idea about something, without examining other views, just like most of us do.
Anyway, I'm moving away from Cinch for a bit, as I've written in the latest (I think?) blog post. Hopefully the "sirens settling in CPA" story will be alright. When it's done, it would be lovely if you gave your opinion on it too! I also want to add a lil' bonus chapter to this story that mentions the events of the fourth movie.
"A sinister, mind-controlling force that must be stopped for the good of everyone"? Cinch, you're a f
king idiot. Please, will someone do this to her?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-gkvrkvH_Q
7789536 Couldn't help yourself and went and read the description despite not wanting to touch this story, eh? ;)
7789559
Yeah, I did. But the description tells me all I need to know: Cinch is still a horrible, cynical BITCH, and she can't comprehend that MAYBE the magic isn't mind control. Only way I probably woulda read the story is if someone did something like THIS to Cinch at some point:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DKn9qgTtbI
7789569 Well, have fun being unhinged.
7789573
Hey, what can I say? I'm VERY vindictive towards fictional characters I don't like. Ross and Zemo from the MCU, Flim and Flam after "Viva Las Pegasus" (screw you, writers), Koba from Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and of course, Cinch. And look at it this way; at least I KNOW they're fictional...
7789589 If anything, them being fictional makes it even weirder because of how pointless it is. Who the heck holds a grudge against fictional characters? That can't be normal.
7789605
Would you rather I hold grudges against real people? And besides, if nothing else, that means I've gotten invested in the stories those literary and cinematic blights happen to exist in...
7789609 Holding grudges in general is kinda dumb, but at least with real people it makes some modicum of sense and can have some point to it in some circumstances. And sure, getting invested is good, but above all being able to separate reality from fantasy is important. This much investment becomes irrational.
7789628
And see, that's the thing; I CAN separate reality from fiction, but when characters I hate do things I hate, there's not a damn thing I can do about it, and it frustrates the crap outta me.
7789634 So basically you're saying that you can separate reality from fiction except for when you can't. Gotcha.
7789648
That's not what I'm saying; I'm saying that, when characters do things that piss me off, I know that, because they're fictional, there's not a damn thing I can do about it, and it pisses me off to no end. Hence, why I'm inclined to call the creators of those stories sadists.