Rich In Dollars, Poor In Sanity

by SilverNotes

Upscale

"Musical counterspell? Is that really a thing in Equestria?"

Sunset paused in tuning her guitar, and turned to look at Twilight. "Sort of?"

The two had been hanging out in the Rainbooms' usual practice room in the school for the past while--they'd volunteered to play a song at a school sporting event that would be next week, so they were squeezing in all the practice time they could--and so questions about the band had naturally started flowing. Human-Twilight Sparkle had an insatiable curiosity about the girls' previous adventures, as well as Sunset Shimmer's homeworld, and for a stranger in a land that she'd had to rapidly learn to blend into, it was freeing to be able to talk about it.

Twilight blinked and adjusted her glasses slightly. "What do you mean 'sort of?'"

"Well..." Sunset placed the guitar down entirely. "What you've got to realize is that magic is kind of... everywhere and in everything. It's a background radiation, and most creatures that use magic just... do it. Pegasi fly, kelpies turn into water, diamond dogs can smell jewels... it's barely thought of as magic because it's just... what we are." She waved a hand around. "So for us, there's magic in music, but it's also not something anyone's doing deliberately most of the time, and it usually doesn't do much."

"But the sirens were... different?"

She nodded. "Something that's usually passive magic, they could use actively, and put a lot more power into it. Unicorns can do a lot of active magic, and sometimes we do channel it through words, but it's more like short rhyming incantations. So expanding that into a musical spell is something that makes sense as possible." She held her arms out to gesture at the room around them. "And, y'know, since we're not all a bunch of thralls right now, it clearly worked. But it's not something you're exactly taught to do in magic school. Princess Twilight was snapping around in the theory zone trying to get a jaw grip on something workable."

"Fascinating. And how does--"

The door slammed open, colliding with the wall with a deafening smack as a blue blur raced into the room. "Twilight! We've got to go to Fillydelphia!"

Sunset was on her feet in an instant. "What's wrong, Rainbow?"

"Is there an artefact? Did someone transform? Did a portal open?" Twilight's words were accelerating with each horrible option. "Did a portal open and drop in an artefact that transformed someone?"

"No no no, way less horrible and way more awesome." Rainbow grinned triumphantly, waving around her hand, the object in it moving several times faster than the human eye could manage to identify it. "There's a huge robotics convention there in a couple of months! You gotta go, Twilight!"

"Robotics?" Twilight blinked several times, and when the waving blue hand came close enough to her face, she instinctively grabbed the object flapping around in its grasp. It revealed itself to be a now thoroughly-creased pamphlet. "I mean, that sounds fun, but robotics aren't really my main field..."

"Uh hello." Dash opened both hands and extended her arms toward the small, white device covered in orange propellers sitting innocently on a pushed-out-of-the-way desk. "You built a drone that can fly around all kinds of places without bumping into anything and that listens to voice commands. You could make bank on that kinda thing!"

Twilight, helpless in the face of the wave of Rainbow Logic and looking for a life raft, turned to Sunset. Unfortunately, all she could do was shrug. "Don't look at me. Something like that is tricky to do back home, but there are wizards who pulled it off with a mix of magic and clockwork, so I didn't think about it." She gave a wry smile. "Hate to say it, but when it comes to tech, Rainbow's the better judge than I am of what's average and what's special."

"See! Even Sunset agrees--Hey what do you mean by hate to--"

The words faded as Twilight got up, and both girls watched her walk over and pick up her drone. "It's... not really that impressive, is it? I threw it together in my spare time as a fun side-project. I mean, we go to school with Micro Chips and he builds actual robots."

Rainbow shook her head. "Twi, who do you think told me about the expo? He's going and he thinks you totally should too."

Sunset raised an eyebrow. "You were chatting Micro Chips?"

"Well yeah. Duh." She looked at the stares she was getting and crossed her arms. "What's with the looks? We share a History class and talk sometimes. He's cool." She grinned, gesturing in the air. "He's a supersmart dude who builds robots. It's like hanging out with supervillain. A comic book supervillain instead of the like... 'it's Tuesday and someone's drunk on alien magic again' kinda supervillain."

Twilight, well and truly washed out into the Rainbow Logic sea, looked down at the pamphlet thoughtfully. "I'll... think about going." She looked between the two of her friends. "If you and the other girls come with me?"

Sunset shrugged. "I'm in." She smiled. "And I'm sure the others will enjoy the trip to Filly."

"Woo!" Rainbow's fist shot into the air. "Fillydelphia, here we come!"

---

The door of the hotel room opened, and an ecstatic-looking Pinkie Pie, concerned-looking Sunset, and exhausted-looking Twilight Sparkle strode in.

The room could have been kindly described as "economical." The more accurate would be "cramped." The idea of splitting the costs of a single room for all seven of them had been floated, encouraged--it would just like a sleepover, had been the logic, and that train of thought had only reached the obvious difference that slumber party participants technically had the host's entire house to spread out through, instead of a single room, shortly after check-in--and booked, with the chaotic results now on display.

There wasn't enough room in the provided dressers for all of their clothes. Rarity alone had her personal skin, hair, and nail care routines taking up half of the bathroom's space and left everyone else's supplies battling a bloody war over the remaining territory. The two beds could hold four people, and so Applejack had taken the floor, Rainbow had claimed a chair, and Rarity had been the one to have the misfortune to wake up in the middle of the night for a drink of water and see Pinkie Pie dangling from the ceiling in a sleeping bag like something out of a low-budget horror film. Other convention-goers were still shooting glares at anyone who stepped out of the room due to the resulting hotel-permeating shriek.

Rarity was, thankfully, in much better spirits than she had been during the night, as she leaped up with smile. "There you girls are! We were just talking about going to..." She stopped, and blinked. "That... is a lot of business cards."

Sunset nodded. "Yeah, somebody got really popular, really fast."

Pinkie bounced on the balls of her feet. "Everybody wanted to see Droney McDroneFace, especially when Twilight started showing off all the words he knows!"

Twilight, struggling beneath the cumulative weight of small paper cards, still managed the frustrated sigh. "I told you Pinkie, that's not--"

"But he needs a name now that he's famous!"

"My drone is not famous! And does not need a name! Or a gender!"

"I did see a lot of people with their phones out," Sunset admitted, rubbing the back of her neck. "So there might be videos online after the con's over."

Twilight made her feelings on that known with a irritated groan and leaned against the room's wall, prompting Applejack to get up and stroll over. "You want me t' take those, sugar? You're lookin' a bit overwhelmed."

"Please." Twilight handed the business cards over, and heard the grunt as the girl who could casually bench-press the population of CHS, student and faculty alike, was surprised by the heft of the cumulative paper.

"It looks like you have a lot of potential jobs for this summer," Fluttershy commented from her place playing cards with Rainbow Dash, a stack of oreo cookies between them and Rainbow currently staring down the fact that Flutters had been systematically taking her to the cleaners the whole time and so she would get to eat none of them.

"That's the thing," Twilight said as she worked the soreness out of her arms. "These aren't just summer jobs. These are big offers. The kind of thing you usually give to college graduates." She shook her head. "There's no way I can juggle being a highschool student, investigating magical phenomenon, and working in a robotics lab. And I don't even want to work in a robotics lab!"

"So what would you like to do?" Fluttershy asked gently, as Rainbow reached out toward the oreo pile behind her with all the stealth of a flatulent hippo.

"I..." Twilight looked at the stack of cards that Applejack was searching for a place to put down, then around to everyone else, then back to Fluttershy. "I think I'll look into registering some patents?" She gave a weak smile. "After all, a little extra money to fund other projects won't hurt."

"That's the spirit! Told you this was a good--Ow! Come on, Shy."

"If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen," Fluttershy responded smoothly, not having even looked back to smack Rainbow's hand. "And don't bet what you can't bear to lose."

Giggles broke out around the hotel room, and even Twilight couldn't help but smile.

Despite the exhaustion, this convention weekend really was turning out to be a good idea.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

She's had all of three lines and I already love your human Fluttershy.

[TasermonsPartner]

"If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen," Fluttershy responded smoothly, not having even looked back to smack Rainbow's hand. "And don't bet what you can't bear to lose."

Pssh, Fluttershy for the burn!

Good nuance on recognizing that the human Fluttershy has a slightly different personality than the pony one. She may still be ind and shy, but she's got snark when it comes to dealing with certain situations.

[OmniFox]

Rumors about that robot dog.

[redandready45]

"That's the thing," Twilight said as she worked the soreness out of her arms. "These aren't just summer jobs. These are big offers. The kind of thing you usually give to college graduates." She shook her head. "There's no way I can juggle being a highschool student, investigating magical phenomenon, and working in a robotics lab. And I don't even want to work in a robotics lab!"

In some fairness, balancing a career, high school life, and life as a magical girl is a deeply stressful thing.

There are countless stories of child soldiers burning out.

No matter how much of a prodigy you are, balancing that much work at a young age would take a lot out on you.

"So what would you like to do?" Fluttershy asked gently, as Rainbow reached out toward the oreo pile behind her with all the stealth of a flatulent hippo.

This line made me laugh, as did an observant Fluttershy who ain't taking Rainbow's nonsense.