Evil Empire

Chapters

The Revolution Backfires
...and now you do what they told ya
Red and Green, The Ups and Downs of Life
Breakfast at Sugarcube's
Introducing the Flash
Some Like It Not
Sick But Still Entertaining
The Funniest Chapter You've Never Read
Happy Metal Plunder
Blame it on the Government
Pizza and Beer Go Well Together
Choke on the Water
West Side Gory
Flash Dies at the End
The End
Comes in all Shapes and Sizes

The Revolution Backfires

This work of fiction was created by a person of multiple religious faiths and beliefs. What the hell am I doing?

“Twelve-thousand dollars?”

Agonized words of disbelief echoed throughout the store, dramatically reflecting from the room's every wall in a great and powerful manner.

Vinyl Scratch helped herself to a short, internal chuckle in response, since she had pretty much seen it coming. She knew Trixie hadn't been the first customer to lose her faith to that particular prize tag. She could also tell – with certainty, really – this wouldn't mark the last time she heard these words. After all, they were talking about a custom made, special painted, 24-thread, Clop Zeppelin signature doubleneck. Being a hand-manufactured import only increased the prize even further.

“You'll pay for this, Rainbow Dash!” Trixie exclaimed, while reaching out towards a certain inanimate object, using her index finger. Or plainly speaking, she pointed at the exit door. The girl she tried to address had just disappeared through the very same door with her newest purchase, leaving Trixie behind like some boasting, overconfident moron.

Of course, no-one would ever dare call her that.

To make matters even more hilarious, one of the girls – Pinkie Pie, as Vinyl identified her – poked her head in through the doorframe one more time, cheerfully grinning at them.

“No, silly,” she chanted. “If you want it, you have to pay for it.”

Vinyl briefly turned away from her powerful customer to let out a fairly delighted grin, which had been building up ever since. The entire feud that had just gone down before her eyes had been largely unnecessary, and thus idiotic enough for her to almost lose it. After all, when Rainbow Dash had brought in her 'broken' guitar earlier, Vinyl could have told her right then, how to easily fix it. Even if done by a professional, the whole thing would have been a 50 bucks job at max.

Of course, that wouldn't be even half the cash you could get for selling a brand new guitar. Running a business was simple, keeping it running usually turns out the tough part. Judging from the way how things had unfolded, Vinyl sure didn't regret her decision.

Any job could get monotonous over time, even if it revolved around her favorite interest. And even if it took place in her favorite city, which might have been the only one she ever lived in...but still. On long workdays like these, a little distraction always came in handy and Vinyl would warmly welcome it. The only factor ruining the equation was Trixie, whom she – admittedly – did feel somewhat sorry for.

The silver-haired girl hadn't moved an inch. She stood in the exact same spot as five minutes ago, the very same look of disbelief on her face. Maybe time had frozen for her, or maybe, she was just helplessly confused.

Vinyl didn't really mind either way. Her rational beliefs had awfully been messed with a few weeks back, already. Back then, a few random girls from her grade had randomly and with random intentions decided to crash the fall formal party she had organized. For reasons Vinyl could never quite explain to herself, those girls had promptly produced a number of rainbow-colored(!) lasers. Their visual effects had turned out way more awesome than hers, even though none of them owned any professional equipment at the time.

She had even gone as far as to call some preacher to consort about these apparitions. However, after she had denied his question, whether any depictions of the virgin Mary or any other saint had appeared that night, he became gradually uninterested. As a good christian, he believed anything involving demons and rainbows to be some sort of satanic-homosexual propaganda. When Vinyl explained, how the rainbows and demons were actually fighting each other, he only laughed at her, and hung up.

Needless to say, that hadn't been entirely helpful. As a matter of fact, the same confusion she had felt that day, Trixie appeared to be experiencing right now. Speaking of which, maybe it was time someone pulled her mind out of the gutters.

“She has a point, you know,” Vinyl mumbled, trying not to sound overly amused. Trixie's eyes subsequently rose up towards her, the magician's bewilderment still clearly visible.

“Excuse me?" she asked, somewhat disturbed.

“Well, you do have to pay for it. And if you can't, I'd suggest you look around for something else. Just saying...we've got lots of things less expensive around here.”

“The great and powerful Trixie requires an equally great and powerful instrument to match her astonishing talents and personality.”

Invisibly, behind her pair of purple shades, Vinyl rolled her eyes. Did that obnoxious geek honestly consider herself the next Jimmy Haydrix or something? Either way, time for a sarcastic response.

“The great and powerful Trixie probably shouldn't always judge a book by its cover.” Vinyl tried to put as much emphasis as possible into her customers self-proclaimed title, only to realize the fault in her action soon after. Judging from Trixie's twitching eyelid, that had obviously been the wrong answer.

“And what would you rather suggest, Scratch?” Trixie returned, clearly angered by now.

With a low sigh, Vinyl went around the counter, thereby snatching the doubleneck guitar from her hands. “Why don't you come over here for a second?”

Mounting the guitar back onto its rightful place on the wall, she continued: “From what you've been blasting out back there, I'd guess you're more the heavy metal kind of person. I mean, you've really been pulling a thing or two on that Flying V. But the doubleneck requires some completely different style...and I don't think there's a left handed version.”

"Wait...left-handed?” Trixie critically raised an eyebrow.

“Well, yeah. That guitar you been shredding on was left-handed. I guess you are, too...And the doubleneck might look awesome, but simply wouldn't be available for you.”

In a moment of awkward silence, Trixie blinked helplessly. “Oh,” she said. “Uh...you seem to know quite a bit about music.”

“You could say that. Practically, I'm all about it. Always have.”

“Trixie wonders, whether you as an expert would care to help manage her gig. Or even join it in some way...”

Vinyl raised a hand, telling her to stop. “Thanks,” she answered. “But I'm tryna stay out of this whole CHS musical competition thing.”

“You do?” After shifting from anger to curiosity, Trixie's expression seemed more confused than anything, now. “But why?”

And what a question that was. One, which Vinyl had luckily been preparing for ever since 9th grade. Would have been a shame if no-one had ever cared about her being heard. “I just...disagree with it,” she thus replied, suddenly rather unassured. “On a moral level, you see.”

Trixie didn't. At least not as far as Vinyl could tell.

She therefore continued: “It's our educational system in a nutshell. All of us have some sort of special talent, for whatever reason, but still. I for once make a pretty good DJ, you're good with your magic tricks and all...others might just be good at anything else: Sports, Music, Literature, even something dumb like...I don't know...writing down some fictional characters' dialogue for no reason.”

She paused, taking a deep breath for the revelation about to come: “And then, there's school, just like: Fuck it, you're all just gonna play rock songs, now. We don't care who you are as long as you simply blend in with the crowd. Heck, even TV cartoons teach better lessons than that.”

Throughout the dialogue, Trixie's expressions remained rather stable. However, from tapping her index finger against her waist, it was easy to see her getting at least somewhat nervous by now.

“Maybe...maybe Trixie might indeed settle for that other guitar, after all.” Her voice seemed to regain a lot of confidence, while adding: “And she did use some of her special talent for performance enhancing. That great and powerful guitar playing from earlier was something special, no doubt about it.”

“Your special talent, as in...magical talent?” Vinyl's sarcasm had soon return right along with her opposite's confident attitude. “In what way did you do that?”

Trixie then proceeded to rise back up to her full imaginative height, a smirk starting to dwell on her face. “Thanks to her magnificent use of magical elements, the great and powerful Trixie doesn't even require the assistance of an amp.” She pointed at the Flying V. “Or did you observe her plugging that thing into anything before starting to shred?”

Vinyl's eyes widened alongside Trixie's grin. At this point, only two questions roamed inside the head of Canterlot High's infamous disc jockey.

How the hell did she do that? Also, why does she refer to herself in third person...?

Vinyl rubbed her forehead, as another thought came to mind. She had heard about these cases of schizophrenia before. Matter of fact, there had been a report about what to do about them on the History Channel, lately.

Without further hesitation, Vinyl quickly produced a small, plastic package from one of her pockets, holding it out to Trixie. The magician seemed taken aback by it, or mistrustful, at best.

“...and what is Trixie supposed to accomplish with that? Make it disappear?”

“Eat up.” Vinyl tried making herself as clear as possible. “Seriously, Trixie. Eat some peanut butter crackers. You're not yourself when you're hungry.”

Trixie doubtingly narrowed her eyes, looking at the package. Eventually, she still took it, just before another short period of consideration followed. After that, she finally produced a cracker from it, turned it in her hand a few more times, then took a bite.

“Better?” Vinyl asked.

“Better,” Trixie replied.

“I feel so relieved,” she added. “This might just be what I'm meant to be...where I'm meant to go in life.”

“Uh...cool. Maybe we could all just calm the hell down now, for a change.” That reaction was not what Vinyl had anticipated. Needless to say, she felt pretty disturbed from it. “So...you want the Flying V, or what?”

“Meh, not really,” Trixie said, dismissing her question with a short waving. “Honestly, I don't even like playing the guitar that much.”

She raised an eyebrow, moving two steps to the right. Suddenly, she stopped dead in her tracks, again. “I...I can see clearly now,” Trixie stuttered. “I can see, what you mean. The system does try to force us all into submission. I see...it's all so obvious...how...beautiful.”

Vinyl proceeded to take a few steps back towards the counter. This was getting way too weird for her to comprehend. And again, it certainly wasn't what she had expected. As usual when nervous, she grabbed something – an empty coke bottle in this case – and started turning it in her hands anxiously.

Meanwhile, Trixie continued her monologue, as both eyes randomly and energetically shifted through the room. “We have to ditch this corrupted system. For corrupted it is, big time. And it's missing something...essential. We're all missing a little peace, and justice, and...fraternity. Without all these, everything's just...”

Right then, their eyes suddenly met. Vinyl tore hers wide open in shock, in response to what happened. She felt something heavy being lifted off her chest, something extremely unpleasant. Something, whose presence she hadn't even noticed up until now. In this very moment, however, it was gone. Gone for good, that was. Judging from Trixie stopping dead in her tracks, she probably felt the same way.

“It's...it's just...” Trixie stuttered. “Everything is...”

“...fucked...up.”

Vinyl finished the sentence in a voice barely above a whisper, yet it still brought an incredibly grateful smile on Trixie's face. Matter of fact, tears of joy even started forming in her eyes, as she nodded in agreement.

“You see it now?” she whispered back, almost inaudible. “What do you think?”

“I guess, maybe, you're right,” Vinyl answered. She caught another glimpse of the label on her bottle: Fizzy Apple Cider. With a smug, she dropped it into a nearby trash bin.

Hesitant, almost timidly actually, she looked back up towards the blue-tanned girl in front of her.

“Vinyl Scratch?” Trixie asked in a most genuine tone.

“Uh-huh?”

“I think this might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

A moment passed, during which neither of them said a word, since it seemed there was nothing more to add. Had they been characters in a movie, this sentence would have been a perfect cliffhanger, making way for the next scene.

Of course, that wasn't the case.

With a shrug, Vinyl grabbed another bottle of cider from behind the counter, and took a sip.

“We'll see,” she said.

...and now you do what they told ya

A loud, squishing, and - in all honesty - not exactly appetizing sound made its way through half the school's cafeteria, as a homogenous, gray mass of something smashed down onto Vinyl's food tray. Same as every day. There had been a time when only the best of meals would be served at Canterlot High, Sunset Shimmer's letter bombs to the delivery service had made sure of that. Yet, ever since she had stopped threatening people she didn't quite agree with, the food's quality had strangely deteriorated.

Combined with the event of six girls without any light equipment totally overshadowing hers, these circumstances had lead Vinyl to the assumption that everything at this school would constantly go downhill from here. In order to shield herself from any dump crap, which she was certain would go down in the near future, she constantly kept her headphones on. That way, at least she wouldn't have to be too big a part of it.

It could only be the best way out...even if her grades said otherwise.

Having some food - if one could call it that - put onto her tray, the school's DJ quickly went over to the main mess hall. Little less than 48 hours after finishing up at the store, it was just another Monday at noon. By now, most of the student body already sat themselves down for lunch, and there was only so much time to find a table worth sitting at.

After Sunset Shimmer's defeat, most of the school's social groups had broken apart, as everyone suddenly felt way better working together with literally everyone, no matter the others' interests. While Vinyl thought of that as highly bewildering, it really wasn't much of a surprise, when a light blue hand rose up, waving her over to one of the smaller tables on the room's left side.

Said hand's owner - Trixie, to be precise - had obviously left some room for her. When Vinyl spotted her, she was sitting more or less by herself, leaving a couple of seats empty to both sides. Apart from her, only a bunch of freshmen kids were at the table at all.

Stating that Vinyl didn't know much about those three menaces would have been a flat-out lie. The Crusaders, as they called themselves, had made themselves feared and famous throughout Canterlot High, ever since first attending the school.

Naturally, setting the principal's car on fire by accident as part of an "algebra homework assignment" would gain a group of 15 year-old girls quite a reputation. And ever since their first chemistry class caused an evacuation of the entire building because of an impending nuclear meltdown, said image had been rounded off rather elegantly. In the school's corridors, students usually decided to get out of the Crusaders' way quickly.

They didn't seem to mind, though. As long as they had each other, everything would turn out alright. Or not...given the perspective.

At this point, Vinyl didn't actually care, either. Trixie had never been quite the sort of person to hold a set-back conversation with, but she could really do worse. Besides, she couldn't deny herself being more than eager to find out more about that freaky encounter the two of them had had two days back. A few rogue freshmen wouldn't stop her in that. Truth be told, the three of them hardly even noticed Vinyl, as she placed herself on a chair next to the school's hobby-magician.

Trixie turned towards her, eyes wide open, and, to Vinyl's surprise, even some signs of a welcoming smile on her face. "Did you think about our talk?" she asked.

Well...someone's eager to get straight to the point, Vinyl thought to herself.

"I've been...thinking," she answered. "That was pretty weird, wasn't it? But I can't quite figure out how...or why."

Trixie smirked, as she placed both her hands onto the table in front of her, taking a deep breath. "You miss the point, Vinyl Scratch. This is nothing personal, this is about the evil empire we call our educational system. Especially concerning the upcoming showcase."

"O...kay."

"You said you were openly opposing Principal Celestia's plans?"

"Well, duh."

"And you would want to actively work against them, as well?"

"I guess."

"Should the two of us, me and you, start on that right here, right now?"

"Sounds good...probably..."

"Then it's settled," Trixie concluded, just before returning to a rather serious expression. "So, what are we gonna do?"

Vinyl raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "Dunno...I've just been boycotting it so far. You sounded like you'd have a plan, though."

"Me? Nah," Trixie answered with a shrug, as she hastily shoved some additional peanut butter crackers in her mouth. "You were the first to come up with the idea, so I kinda relied on you here."

"Is that...so?" Vinyl nervously produced a fake chuckle, while staring at the table in front of her. Her food was long gone; the gray pulp had excused itself to go, buy some cigarettes. Research later concluded it wouldn't be back for another 40 years or so.

For now however, an awkward silence ensued between the two of them.

"Well," Trixie started, clearing her throat. "I guess, first of all, we have to make ourselves be heard. You know, spread the idea of our cause to our peers. Only with enough people following it, we can actually get stuff done."

Vinyl nodded. "Again, sounds good. No idea what I'm getting myself into here, but good enough for now. How exactly do you plan on doing that, though?"

Trixie thoughtfully rubbed her forehead on that notion. "We should probably try to talk to the Principal about our plans first, just in case. After that, we need to advertise ourselves the usual way. Like, flyers, posters, bumper stickers...you get the idea."

"Uh-huh...and if we don't get permission for any of that...?"

"In that case," Trixie's evil grin crept back on her face. "We'll just have to go underground, and do the whole thing guerrilla-style. Would create more of a lasting image, anyways."

"Guerrilla...what now?"

The two girls looked up from their conversation, as someone else had obviously just tried to join in. It didn't take them very long to locate the source of the voice: One of the crusaders had turned her head towards them, obviously largely interested by that word Trixie had used. It didn't take Vinyl longer than a few seconds to recall the orange girl's name: Scootaloo, it most likely was.

"Oh yes, indeed," Trixie answered her, while nervously unwrapping another cracker. "The gr - We intend to spread our beliefs by the powers of printed media to alter the course of our school's destiny, and eventually to save the world!"

Scootaloo looked at her, skeptically arching an eyebrow. "So, wait...you're telling me, you can get your opinions across by just placing posters at places 'n stuff?"

After quickly gulping down her short snack, Trixie nodded. "That's pretty much the idea, yeah."

Lost in thought, the freshman kid placed an index finger on her chin, before turning back to her two friends. For some reason, Vinyl could immediately tell she didn't like where this was going.

The following morning, she liked it even less. For some reason, Vice-principal Luna had called Trixie and her into her office. Vinyl couldn't help the impression of all this being somehow connected to their conversation at lunch.

"Surely, you can imagine what you've been called for?" the blue-skinned woman asked them after a brief, intimidating pause. Vinyl shook her head. Even though she had a suspicion, having to attend a private lecture with Luna like that had still been quite a surprise this morning. To make matters worse, Trixie seemed just as annoying and overconfident as always. So far, she had luckily decided to remain silent.

"Tell me," Luna asked, arms crossed, looking extremely stern. "What would you think of it, if I told you about an act of vandalism that was committed here at this school, only yesterday?"

"Why, there's only one answer," Trixie answered, raising up her clenched fists. "This clearly is a travesty! Great and powerful perhaps, but a travesty nonetheless!"

"There, there." Luna raised an eyebrow, clearly somewhat taken aback by that statement. "And what would you think of it, if the two of you had been the reason for it?"

Trixie tried raising her voice once more, but this time, Vinyl was quick enough to cut her off in time. "Well...I don't know, what happened," she told the principal. "But I'm pretty sure neither of us have anything to do with that...ma'am."

"Is that so? But surely, you are aware what exactly you are being accused of? It appears you speak otherwise."

The two girls shook their heads, causing Luna to let out a low sigh.

"Very well. Yesterday, two hours after the day's final lesson, our groundskeeper went up to the second floor to close down and lock the detention rooms. Anything than the usual site presented itself to him, however. Instead, he found the room's walls, windows, and doors covered in several dozens of these." With that last word, she passed a small note of paper over to the bewildered Vinyl Scratch.

Vinyl slightly lowered her shades in order to have a better look upon it in this darkened room. It was a bumper sticker, no doubt. Wherever several dozens of these had come from all of a sudden remained an enigma to her, however.

Lowering her shades even further, she noticed the image printed upon them, and had to try hard not to facepalm: Backened by a waving, patriotic stars and stripes background, blue capitals embraced the short, but meaningful message:

Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

Vinyl slowly raised her eyes back up to Luna, who returned the look with an even stricter, and more furious expression.

"Three freshmen students, who prefer to remain anonymous at this time, have earlier been identified as the concerning troublemakers. Upon questioning, they quickly accused the two of you for being their main motivation. Of course, vile behavior of deceiving or manipulating others would never be tolerated at this school. Do you know what that means?"

Silence followed.

"It means," Luna concluded. "You should put some effort into changing your ways for the better. For time being, maybe you would like to undo the damage that's already been done. These freshmen students will be happy to assist you with that task."

No further words followed, since in all honesty, none were necessary. Resigning, Vinyl pushed the neon shades back up where they belonged. This certainly wasn't the way she imagined a pleasant start to a day at school.

Red and Green, The Ups and Downs of Life

"Three hours! Three fucking hours of detention with a bunch of little kids and that scumbag Sunset Shimmer! Plus, I haven't got any work done for tomorrow, and it's past six already."

Vinyl spat and cursed. While usually more of an introvert, this would mark one of the few times for her to let her emotions run free. "Goddammit, Trixie! That was the last time I'm helping you with any advice for anyone! Also, what was tha..."

"The great and powerful Trixie," the words' obvious source emitted. "Doesn't require your criticism, Vinyl Scratch! For she stands tall above any flaws!"

Vinyl narrowed her eyes, one index finger pointing towards Trixie's backpack. After a brief, and somewhat tense silence, Trixie rolled her eyes, taking it off. "Very well then," she said. "If you see no other way for Trixie to settle your worries..."

She quickly produced another package of crackers, then began chewing on one. Only seconds later, her pupils widened, and she sighed. "Listen, Vinyl, I'm sorry. I never expected them to make it that obvious. Or telling on us, for that matter."

"That's better."

"Exactly. And you know what could get us back together, again? We need a common enemy."

"Uh-huh. Like what?"

Taking in a dramatic pose, Trixie raised her right hand, pointing at the red traffic light across the street.

"Why? Cause it won't let us pass?" Vinyl asked. "Come on now, don't get all ridiculous again. Besides, if you know a better way downtown...well, I'm all ears."

Trixie chuckled for just a second, before her serious expression returned stronger than ever. "That's not what I meant. It's more the way how it tells us to stop, you see."

"Uhhh...not really, sorry."

"Think about it," Trixie told her, having grown back to her full confidence already. "Why exactly is it that it's the red figure telling us to stop? If you're just honest with yourself for a moment, you'll realize that you automatically associate the red guy with something negative, as soon as you see him, right?"

"I guess..." Vinyl replied, hesitantly. Most of her aggression had already turned into plain confusion by now. "And that colossal revelation tells me...what?"

Trixie retrieved her hand from its outstretched position, and placed two fingers onto her temple. "Subconscious messages, never heard of those?" she asked. "They constantly confront you with the negative image of the red man. It goes on like that from your first day to your last, all the time, every hour and minute of your life, and to an enormous extend. Eventually you - everyone - succumbs to them, until they just wanna shout 'Better dead than red' themselves. And then you do what they told ya."

"You...are you sure, you're not taking this whole anti-systems thing a little too far?"

"Another example to make up your mind: When someone is correct, they're right, not left. but when you accidentally lose something precious to you, you left it. Not right, see? The messages are everywhere. Powerful enough, they could easily convince you that these..." She lifted up her other hand, four fingers stretched out. "...are actually five fingers instead of four. Sure, it'd take time and effort. But then? Everyone would believe them!"

Vinyl rolled her eyes. "You are taking this over the top, Trixie. And honestly? Please don't...you're making an idiot out of yourself, and..."

"How many fingers?"

"Look, it's four, okay. Now..."

Following her response, Trixie clenched her fist, forcefully punching Vinyl's shoulder.

"OW! What the hell..."

"How many fingers, Winston?"

All of a sudden, Vinyl felt the rage flowing back into her system. Alongside, the reason for originally being mad at Trixie returned as well.

"Are you crazy?" she yelled. "You could actually hurt people that way!"

"Oh, please," Trixie responded ever so calm, pointing at the DJ's severed shoulder. "'tis but a scratch."

"Scra...SCRATCH?" Vinyl couldn't believe her ears. "That's it! I'm outta here."

She turned around, and vengefully started marching back down the sidewalk, fists clenched beside her hips. Only after a few meters, Trixie started vigorously yelling after her.

"Wait! Where are you going?" Vinyl heard her call.

She took a deep breath, before looking back over said shoulder, muffling her annoyed, but still incredibly sarcastic response: "Off to see the wizard, the powerful wizard of..."

"Okay, I get it. Sorry about the punching. But honestly now?"

She sighed, just before turning around completely.

"Probably just grabbing a milkshake or something at Sugarcube Cafe. But..."

"Can I join in?"

"Any way I could stop you?"

"Not really."

"Thought so."

Breakfast at Sugarcube's

Sugarcube Cafe was located on a street corner, only a couple of blocks away. It didn't take the two girls longer than about twenty minutes to reach the small store. They quickly placed themselves down by a window, after Vinyl had ordered a milkshake, and Trixie suddenly remembered forgetting her wallet at home. "Text me if you're gonna starve," was all Vinyl commented on her troublesome companion's misfortune.

Apart from them, the cafe was experiencing nothing but another, casual weekday. Since it was a popular meeting place among Cnaterlot High's students, several of them had gathered here already, chatting away about the casual gossip. In one corner of the room, right next to the counter, one of CHS's showcase bands played a short practice set at half volume.

Vinyl instantly recognized the Rainbooms: After all, they were the ones having made Trixie look like an idiot right in front of her eyes, something she wouldn't forget so quickly.

If anything was off about the place, that would have been the three strange figures sitting around the table directly to Trixie's back. They were wearing blue jeans and hoodies, covering all of their limbs and torsos. Even looking in their direction from her sitting position, Vinyl couldn't make out a thing about their faces. She only heard them singing some odd melody in a low tone...whatever that meant.

Trixie didn't seem to care. For now, at least. She still did look rather grim, forced to watch Vinyl slurping down her drink, while ending up all empty-handed herself. The undeniable lack of empathy from Vinyl's part scarcely helped. After groaning and looking out the window several times, Trixie finally turned back to face her companion. At that point, Vinyl had almost finished her drink.

"So...I heard you can get cancer from those," she said, pointing at the milkshake's straw. "God only knows what kind of toxic waste they put in that plastic. Probably even helps brainwashing."

Vinyl rolled her eyes. "Seriously now? We're back to that?"

"Hey, if you've got a more interesting topic for a conversation, don't let me stop you!"

Silence ensued, during which nothing but the singing voices from different corners of the room could be heard. Somewhat further away from their table, the Rainbooms had just started playing their song Better Than Ever, while the three figures to Trixie's back were quietly discussing something with dampened voices.

After a few minutes, Flash Sentry, another student from their grade, walked in. He shot a curious look over to the five girls in the corner, one that would soon turn to obvious disappointment. Eventually, the blue-haired boy walked up to the counter, presumably trying to look indifferent as possible, and ordered a coffee to go. For some reason, he then sat down a few tables apart from the two, mostly by himself.

"Speaking of obnoxious," Vinyl said, pointing her straw over to him. "Don't you think you're making this a little too obvious?"

Probably lost in thought up until then, Trixie looked up in surprise, blinking repeatedly. "Who, what, me?"

"Well...yeah. I mean, you're learning of me going to buy a drink, and decide to come along for no apparent reason. Just as we got as far as to actually order something, you remember accidentally forgetting your cash at home." She sighed. "Listen, it's not like I have any personal problems with you...but after getting me into all that crap earlier, trying to sneak some free food from me is kinda jerky, don't you think?"

As no response followed, and Trixie seemed more concentrated with the table in front of herself, than their conversation, Vinyl added: "Are you even listening to me?"

"Shush," Trixie replied to cut her short, while lifting up one hand. She then leaned in closer, whispering: "Do you hear that?"

Vinyl started to get angered at first, just before she could indeed make out a slight change in their surrounding atmosphere. In fact, it was the three people next to them, who had started singing their low, enchanting melody once more. Making the scenery even more bizarre, small clouds of light green mist had gathered on the nearby ground, and started slowly drifting towards them.

Vinyl raised an eyebrow. "And what does that mean?" she asked in a similar, whispering tone.

"I'm pretty sure, I've heard of these people before..."

"These people? The hell are you talking about now?"

Heavily in thought, Trixie quickly buried her face in both palms. "It's simple, they're some sort of...mythical creatures...or something..." she observed. By now, her voice was barely audible, dampened even further by her hands. "They start off in one area, acting all nice and friendly, but then they...kinda manage to get people under their control, until they dominate it all..."

"Are you okay?"

"They grow stronger from people's mistrust and intolerance. Make friends turn against each other, fathers against their sons, and vice versa... And when they finally control one place, they move forward to invade another, until all bow before them." She groaned. "But there's a word for them, something..."

She kept to her thinking process, while Vinyl nervously looked around, hoping no-one she knew was around to see her.

"I've got it!" Trixie whispered, once again breaking the silence. "They're nazis!"

Vinyl facepalmed. "Seriously?"

"Trust me," Trixie told her, while getting up from her seat. "I know what to do. I've seen this in a movie."

Without further ado, she rushed by the strange figures, approaching the Rainbooms. They had just finished another song, and seemed to near their performance's conclusion. Mostly, they were only chatting away, laughing about some minor issues.

"Play La Marseillaise!" Trixie audibly delievered her demands, suddenly rising up in front of them. "Play it!"

Once again, Vinyl checked her surroundings for anyone familiar, while the five girls exchanged some confused looks themselves. Eventually, their drummer, Pinkie Pie, looked at the store owner, clearly in search for help. He didn't say anything in response, but simply nodded, before taking a sip of his coffee.

After helplessly looking at each other once more, the band eventually left it to Pinkie counting down the start to the song requested. Trixie wouldn't spare a second, but to quickly rush back to the three mysterious figures. Once she stood next to their table, she started to sing along at the top of her lungs.

Needless to say, her accent was horrifying.

Also, Vinyl decided not to go through the trouble of checking the room's guests a third time. Instead, she immediately crouched down beneath the table for hiding, just to make sure.

And yet, to her surprise several people actually started singing along. Those, who hadn't completely been embarrassed by now, she presumed. It took another minute or two, before Vinyl noted three pairs of legs quickly rushing towards the exit. Given her position, she couldn't make out their owners, though that was hardly necessary. And before long, they were replaced by a pair of light-blue boots, both decorated by a silver star.

"Get out," a terribly familiar voice yelled after the three. "I was born free, and I intend to have it stay that way!"

Introducing the Flash

"Now, here is just another terrifying abomination carving itself out of the sewers of society with every passing day: You wouldn't think it too much of a request helping those in need without any further intentions for oneself. Not all of us are rich, you see. We're...dependent on a certain minimum of services that - in any healthy society - would be taken for granted. Yet, one by one, they try to make us pay. Greedily fill their pockets solely by providing the minimum standard of life customary for any first world country. And I can tell you this much: It hurts me - agonizes me - to the depths of my soul having to comply with an establishment of this ideology."

"Let me guess...You need cash for a bus ticket," Vinyl stated, as they exited the cafe, getting back onto the sidewalk.

A smug crossed Trixie's face. "I see," she replied. "We have an understanding."

Vinyl rolled her eyes, as she produced two green bills from her pocket. Actually, it had only been the change for her shake earlier, so it wouldn't hurt that much. At least, that was what she guessed. "You owe me one, though."

"We'll see," Trixie said, as she took the money with a simple nod.

The bus stop was located right next to the cafe, so it didn't take them longer than a few moments to reach it. To Vinyl's dismay, she now realized Trixie had to take the same line as her. The sight of Flash Sentry already waiting for a bus didn't exactly help. He was leaning on a nearby lamp post, mostly relaxed, though his eyes constantly wandered off in the distance, somehow.

Trixie apparently decided ignoring him, as she threw herself down on one of the seats available. She nervously looked around her backpack for a few seconds, then raised her eyes back up, drawing in several deep breaths.

"Sooo, any plans for your world domination thing?" Vinyl eventually asked, after another awkward silence, trying to pass some time.

Trixie snorted. "I've made up my mind," she replied. "I'll still take part in the showcase. And I'll win, no doubt about it. Finally, when they ask me to claim first place, I'll refuse, telling everyone how dumb they really are. It's something of a plan, if you ask me"

While Vinyl looked at her rather skeptical - though she did get used to the magician's nonsense, sadly - another voice now joined the conversation from behind her. "Like that'll happen," Flash exclaimed.

"Excuse me?" Trixie said, coming back at him. "Was that adressed to us?"

"No." Flash rolled his eyes in sarcasm. "We're the only people at the bus stop, standing - like - ten feet apart. Of course, I was talking to you!"

"Really? And did Trixie...uh...did I ever ask for your opinion?"

"Kinda. When you say you're gonna win, that's making it my business as well. This isn't about playing music, this is about winning! And I'm gonna get this thing, so stay outta my way."

"Strange...that...when...apples..." Trixie remained silent for a minute, vigorously staring at the ground in front of her. "Since when did you think so?"

"Like you don't know." Flash's voice steadily changed from an aggressive tone to some kind of sarcastic giggle. "Just now, in the cafe? When I heard those three hooded people chanting, it all became so clear to me."

"What...but Trixie did...you didn't...uh, 'scusi..."

Trixie quickly reached into her backpack, producing another full package of peanut butter crackers. Her hands slightly trembling, she tore it open, subsequently gulping down its entire containment in the course of seconds. It was all but an inviting sight.

"And that's how you plan on winning?" Flash asked, his tone clearly hostile now.

"No, wait, listen here," Trixie interrupted him. "You've fallen under their spell, you must fight back!"

"Spell? What spell?"

"The one the Nazis put on you, so you'll help them establish their new Reich."

Vinyl facepalmed, with Flash looking extremely bewildered, all of a sudden.

"Are you sure you're not hallucinating," he asked with a chuckle. "Wouldn't be the first time."

"I'm fine. Why would you think otherwise?" Trixie asked, one eyelid twitching, thereby covering the lower portion of her eyes, which - by now - consisted mainly of her gigantic pupils. "You however are not, young man," she proceeded. "Don't let their ideas get the better of you. Try to concentrate on the ideologic opposite...I don't know...Woodstock, acid...peace, love, happiness..."

Flash's expression changed to one rather repulsed by now. Even though Vinyl had started to wonder whoever had put a stick up his ass, she felt rather empathetic towards that reaction in particular. "Uh-huh," he said, hesitant. "Anyhow, we're gonna beat you to it, you'll see. My band's got a brand new song written down just now, that you won't stand a chance against."

"Well, as long as it's nothing critical or dangerous..." Vinyl tried to put in to settle the two rabid teenager's minds.

"It's...not exactly that," Flash replied. For some reason, he sounded a lot more friendly talking to Vinyl. Then again, she wasn't any competitor of his...if one could call it that. "You see, we've put down those kick-ass lyrics, mainly about all those politics and nuclear wa..."

"OH NEIN, YOU DON'T!"

In the blink of an eye, Trixie had jumped to her feet, throwing her bag to the floor. It would merely take another brief moment, before her fist shot forward, aiming right at the clueless guitarist.

Flash never saw it coming, of course. The blow hit him right below the chin, and sent his entire being flying clear across the sidewalk. It took another approximate ten feet, until he hit solid ground, again. Vinyl's eyes widened in shock.

"Are you insane? What in the hell was that?"

Ignoring her companion, Trixie raised both fists clenched into the air, looking at the sky above herself.

"I have become death," she chanted. "Destroyer of worlds."

Lowering her view back down to Vinyl, she added: "Admit it. You were getting tired of him just as well."

"Well...yeah...but...you can't just..."

"I could, I would, I did," Trixie answered, sticking out her tongue. "Deal with it."

Concluding the self-proclaimed magician abandoned by all her senses, Vinyl eventually walked over to Flash, who still wouldn't move a muscle. Bending down, she tried holding one ear as close to his face as possible, without feeling uncomfortable. "Seriously now?" she then concluded. "I think he's not breathing."

"He'll come around," Trixie answered with wide eyes, and a dumb giggle. "Unless you've got any other suggestions."

"Uh...not sure...CPR, maybe...?"

Trixie scratched her chin for a second. "That, or," she replied. "We'll make it look like an accident."

That night, Canterlot's central hospital was to be confronted with some of the most bizarre cases in it's history. At about five-thirty in the afternoon, they received six different calls, five of them concerned about the same victim. The remaining one seemingly revolved around a girl, who - due to her cross-eyed vision - had somehow managed to confuse her asthma medicine with a dose of raw sulfur, which she then inhaled. The doctors later found themselves forced to shorten her vocal chords, thus giving her a much deeper voice than anticipated.

However, the five remaining calls, all of which deployed in the course of ten minutes, talked about something far more bewildering: A teenage boy had - stripped to his underwear - been glued to the side of Canterlot's state prison, hanging upside down. Ironically, the materials used for his attachment were nothing but small bumper stickers, reading Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

Though initially stunned with the admittedly remarkable display, police had - after discovering a nearby suicide note - decided to close down investigations. It wasn't written in his handwriting, but word choices sounded convenient enough. On an unrelated note, a new doughnut store had opened up downtown that very afternoon.

It wasn't until about ten in the evening that Flash Sentry was placed under stable conditions. He had yet to regain his consciousness, however.

The concerned guests he had received in the meantime - mainly the Rainbooms, as well as his fellow band members, and parents - had left for home, after medical personnel safely got him out of any critical state. For now, Flash remained alone with another unconscious patient - a woman in her early thirties - in the bed next to him.

That - and the medic, who was now leaning above him, carefully observing the boy's features. He had a malicious grin plastered right across his face.

"Flash Sentry, huh," he said, mostly to himself. "Don't know much 'bout ya, but boy...hell of a scare you been givin' the guys out there." He pointed one of his thumbs out the window. "Come to mention it, I'm from Houndsville, Texas. My name's Buck," he added, the grin on his face windening. "...and I'm here to..."

Some Like It Not

The following day at lunch, Vinyl had put her headphones back on. They helped - at least temporarily - forgetting the world around her. After yesterday's events, she thought of it as more than necessary. Trying to avoid Trixie for time being, she had placed herself down at a fully crowded table, with no room for anyone else to join in. Of course, she might as well have stayed away from lunch in the first place, but that option didn't sound very appealing, either. It was Taco Tuesday, after all.

Strangely enough though, the crazed magician was nowhere to be seen. Which was probably for the best. Or not, who knew.

Meanwhile, the corridors outside the cafeteria lay almost completely deserted. Apart from three girls, standing together close to the lunch area's entrance, not a single student or teacher was to be seen.

While their skin colors - purple, light orange, and a very pale cyan, to be exact - seemed entirely normal for Canterlot High standards, the remaining pieces of their apparel did not. Both haircuts, as well as clothing made them look like some sort of fangirls, who had just stepped right out of a convention, or glam rock concert. Maybe even both. Bystanders couldn't exactly tell, since there were none.

In theory, their appearances could have also been designed for some specific kind of merchandise, of course. However, anyone halfway sane would have probably dismissed that theory as plain ridiculous.

By the looks on their faces, one could easily identify their shared feeling of anticipation. Even though their motives might have slightly varied from one another. The orange one would appeal to anyone as their leader, simply judging from her expressions, and the way she carried herself. The remaining two merely awaited her orders.

"This is it, girls," she finally said, overly confident. "The moment we've been waiting for!"

"LUNCH?"

The two girls turned to their light blue friend in a mix of surprise and annoyance. One of them let out a groan.

"The chance to get our true Equestrian magic back!"

"Oh...right."

"Our powers are just strong enough to make them want something so badly, they'll fight to get it!"

On that notion, the purple one chuckled. "Adagio...You do realize...sometimes you just sound like explaining random porn concepts?"

The orange girl, Adagio, rolled her eyes. "Being reeeal mature there, Aria. Ugh, anyway...not like I would have expected you morons to take any of this even slightly serious."

"WHOA!" Sonata's eyes had widened at Aria's statement, and pressure to contribute had apparently been adding up ever since. "You guys...I just had, like, the most random thought!"

The other two cast a confused glance at her, demanding an answer by a requesting shrug.

"You know, if this was like, a kids' movie, they'd just totally cut out that part!"

Aria facepalmed, while Adagio tried to calmly massage her temples.

"Yeah, right," she said. "And you know what, Sonata? If they ever plan to do that, we'll just come up with something else for the script. Shouldn't be too hard." She let out a low breath in order to calm herself down even further. "For now, everyone just follow my lead."

"Or my lead..."

"My lead!"

Trixie stood in the central portion of Canterlot High's cafeteria, her back resting against one of its blank cement pillars. Her right arm idly hung down next to her waist, the left hand carrying the 213rd edition of Mythical Creatures and Motives in Homer's Odyssey. There was a history test scheduled for her last block today, so reviewing the topic one last time certainly wouldn't hurt.

For a moment, she looked up, her eyes carefully wandering over the crowd, happily chatting about their day. Watching her peers' plain dumb behavior made a mix of anger and frustration rose up in her. Anger, since everyone seemed falling for the system's perceptions and lies so easily. Frustration, because she couldn't remember a thing that happened yesterday, but felt like she had to, somehow.

With a low groan, Trixie decided to place both eyes back onto the text in front of her. She honestly hoped not to be distracted by any random outbursts, today.

Right then, the room's central entrance doors flung wide open, clearing the view for three rather strange figures. They slowly proceeded to enter the cafeteria, chanting some ridiculous melody.

Trixie decided on having seen weirder stuff in her time. Even some complete strangers randomly bursting into a song didn't surprise her that much. And although it would proof hard to concentrate in this newly tense atmosphere, she did her best to ignore it, and focus on her reading. And said focus turned out surprisingly intense, being broken only when suddenly, she felt a light sensation to the lower part of her face.

As one of the girls, who had previously entered the room, brought out the line You're a star, and you should know it, she briefly took hold of Trixie's chin. Seconds later, the other two jumped to her aid, lifting her onto a nearby table. The girl commented on their action by singing: "Yeah, you rise above the rest."

After being irritated by this unreasonable display of arrogance for just a split second, Trixie quickly tried to make sense of this grotesque performance. Why would anyone dress up that strangely, just to sing something seemingly entertaining amidst a crowd of young adults, while inappropriately touching them without asking for permission? It took a moment until the gears in her head were set in motion.

"Sweet," she then exclaimed, though not entirely serious. "Looks like the strippers are here."

In contrast to what she had anticipated - some light laughter, and no further disruption of their singing - their song died down immediately, as the orange girl stopped herself. She turned around with a gasp, looking at Trixie with wide eyes. In another instant, the entire cafeteria fell silent, all eyes turning to her.

And yet, nobody was laughing. The only sound produced after a few seconds was the starting, but resolute sobbing the pale, blue girl produced.

Also, some yellow-skinned, brown-haired kid rose from his seat for a second, pointing at Trixie, while yelling: "Ha-ha!"

"What did you just call me?" the orange one asked, madness burning in her eyes. On the verge of panicking, Trixie's eyes shifted throughout the room. Of all her fellow students, no-one dared uttering a word.

"Uh...hey," she winced. "Look, that was just supposed to be...funny...Trixie didn't...I mean..."

Clearly enraged, and with a face that had turned a few shades darker, the orange girl stepped back down from the table. One of her hands forcefully grabbed Trixie by her shirt, the other one pointing at her sobbing friend.

"Funny?" she asked. "FUNNY? Do you see that girl?"

"Duh..."

"That is Sonata Dusk."

"Pleasure."

"Her father ran away from home, left her mother for some stripper, as you like to call them. The poor lady had to prostitute herself to care for that girl's feeding. Only before being murdered by her drunk pimp three weeks later. Ever since, we've been all the family Sonata has, after all this left her emotionally scarred to a tremendous extent. Do you still think that's funny?"

She nearly spat out the last few words, while her friend collapsed into the purple one's arms, crying uncontrollably . "Make it stop," she lamented. "Make it sto-o-o-p!"

The orange girl then let go of Trixie, rushing to Sonata's aid. "You have a lot to think about," was all she produced in her direction, before leaving the room.

And after that, for a moment, the room fell silent again. Just before people started throwing angered looks at Trixie, murmuring something too low for her to comprehend.

Well..., she thought while passing through their rows.

...shit.

After getting another Neighvana album done, Vinyl decided to take of her headphones. The expressions of the kids around her had drastically changed in the past minutes, and naturally she desired to know, why that was. She reacted with mixed emotions, when a familiar voice addressed the sophomore boy sitting next to her.

"Out of my way, peasant! You've already eaten up, so make room for the great and powerful Trixie!"

Silence fell across the table once again. Vinyl didn't know the reason for everyone looking at Trixie hateful like that, but she started getting a very bad feeling about it.

"Excuse me?" the boy asked, straightening his Space Invaders Against Racism shirt.

"You've heard it! Trixie is in a bad mood today, and doesn't need to be trifled with a pathetic nerd like you. So..."

"Well, there - there's a nicer way to say that, you know," the boy tried bringing forth, though he seemed clearly intimidated by the older student looking down on him. Not that it would improve Trixie's reputation in any way.

"Well, if this helps," she replied. "Me - /root, you - /dev/null. Get outta here, now!"

"Um...no!"

"sudo get outta here?"

"Gee, alright."

Though initially trying to object, he eventually grabbed his tray and went off, leaving his spot unoccupied. Trixie took the opportunity, planting herself down next to Vinyl with a frustrated sigh.

"Ever had one of these days, where people just don't seem to make any sense?" she asked.

"Tell me about it," Vinyl replied with a smirk.

Sick But Still Entertaining

"So, acid. Huh?"

Trixie groaned, rubbing her forehead. Vinyl couldn't help but respond with a brief chuckle.

"Gotta say, world domination or not, these Nazis of yours sure do have a sense for humor."

Some vile sort of irony had it that Trixie got transferred to Canterlot hospital only two days after walking up to Flash, and literally beating him to it. Of course, she didn't feel particularly excited about it. And neither did Vinyl about having to stop by that Saturday afternoon.

For most of their conversation, the blue-skinned girl had remained rolled up in her blankets, an embittered frown on her face. Rarely would she sit herself up, revealing the bandages around her arms. Alongside them an oversized, white t-shirt bearing the words Ha-ha, you're dead came into view.

Even now, she had obviously decided not to drop her casual act.

"You know what's bothering me the most about all this? Not being able to perform at the showcase, that's what. Seriously, who's gonna open all those plebeians' eyes, now?" Trixie crossed both arms, while throwing her head back onto the bed's pillow. A metallic ring escaped from it on impact, as she momentarily squeezed her eyes shut in a mix of agony and frustration.

"Well..." Vinyl began, trying hard not to laugh. "There's Derpy's gig, up against your so called strippers in one of the semi-finals. The other one contains the Rainbooms..." Trixie snorted on hearing that name. "...and, well...you."

The magicians eyes widened, as soon as Vinyl concluded her informative monologue. "Wait...but how am I still in?"

"Kind of a long story," Vinyl answered, rubbing her forehead. "Basically, your gig managed to get the best results in your tier. Apart from you, there was only...Flash, whose band withdrew for, well...medical reasons. Then they had a bunch of eco kids, getting knocked off the competition first-hand for lacking proper character names or development. And Snips and Snails rap...thing somehow set up an acoustic torture method none of us had prepared ourselves for. They eventually received a score of negative 213 points with what they...sang."

"...and?"

"And you didn't perform at all, but never resigned from the tournament, either. That gives you an exact zero points, beating every other contestant."

Trixie raised a disbelieving eyebrow. "So, let Trixie get this straight. She...I did nothing, but still got the most credit? Sounds like a trap!"

"Nah. Just how proper business administration works, I think," Vinyl replied with a shrug. "Also, what's with your self-references? Are you gonna settle for first or third person, or what? Cause switching between them is getting kinda annoying, you know."

"Trixie would like to point out that none of this would happen, if they wouldn't have taken me off her diet. Also, the food in this place is awful enough to make her look forward to my...her release more than anything."

"Meh." With a sudden motion, Vinyl let go off her position next to the bed, and walked over to the room's massive window.

The view outside was anything but impressive. From an elevated position like this one, Vinyl presumed one could easily get a glimpse of the entire city, hadn't it been for the massive, gray skyscraper across the street. Gray, for the most part, at least. The facade was vastly hidden by an colorful, political banner. It displayed a man and a woman with dark-gray skin, facing the viewer with a vicious smirk. Again, a stars and stripes background was waving behind them, while an eye enclosed in some golden, glowing triangle seemed to be hovering above both their heads.

Sombra / Crysalis '16 - At least we've got our hair under control, the slogan, placed below them, read.

"I heard you're outta here on Sunday morning?" she asked, not bothering to turn back around to face Trixie.

"Pretty much so, why?"

"Well, I've checked your lunch schedule. Seems like you'll be getting a bacon burger with chili cheese fries that day. Or won't...to be more precise."

"Well, there'll be other opportunities, I guess," Trixie answered, shrugging.

"They're also gonna serve peanut butter crackers for dessert. Or so I have read."

Trixie chocked on a non-existent drink she wasn't holding, as her eyes widened once more. "You're kidding, right? Or not? Dammit, I've gotta stay in here long enough for...ugh..."

"Ugh...what?" Vinyl quickly replied, turning back around.

"I...I might not be feeling so well. Matter of fact, things just got a lot worse..." Trixie's eyes widened, as she pointlessly started staring at the ceiling above her. "Oh shit, oh shit. Not good. Pretty sure I've got...uh...prostate issues or something. Well, sure can't go home like that..."

"Yeah...right." In a mixture of confusion and discontent, Vinyl put both hands to her hips. "You know, you can't actually get something like that, right?"

"Is that so?" Trixie vigorously responded. "And how could you tell, you of all people?"

"Uh...hell, I don't know. Like, sixth grade biology? Says right there, you're a woman, you're not gonna get that."

"A strong, and independent woman." Trixie cautiously lifted a finger. "As such, Trixie may acquire whatever disease she wishes to."

It took about another painful thirty minutes, until Vinyl could eventually shake off her self-proclaimed comrade's selfish attitude, and headed out the door. Right there, she could have resolved all those issues, hadn't Trixie reminded her last minute why she had come over in the first place.

Quickly going over the homework for this week together, that was. Principal Celestia hadn't asked anything but that one, simple task of her. Then again...

"Crap...yeah, I'll text ya...later." Without leaving Trixie any more room to protest, Vinyl quickly rushed out onto the corridor, pulling the door shut behind herself. She sighed. Hitching a ride halfway across town all for nothing could be pretty depressing. Still, she was not going back in there. She turned around on one heel...

...immediately finding herself face to face with one of the local nurses, who carried a tray with her. Whatever it contained strongly reminded Vinyl of her everyday cafeteria lunch. Unless it happened to be Taco Tuesday, of course.

"Lunchtime for Ms. Lulamoon," the middle-aged lady told her with a warm smile. "She is currently available, isn't she?"

"Uh, well su..." Just before concluding her sentence, Vinyl quickly took in a moment of consideration.

"Actually, she didn't seem very hungry. Or sociable, for that matter. Probably for the best you just leave her alone for now. Oh, and..." she added, already walking towards the corridor's exit. "She definitely has to be out by Sunday morning. Big week coming up after that!"

The Funniest Chapter You've Never Read

The time was around two-thirty in the afternoon, as Vinyl slurped down yet another one of Sugarcube Cafe's chocolate milkshakes. Considering it being her sixth one this week made her take a mental note. This hadn't gone out of hand enough for a therapist just yet, but she should really try cutting it down sometime.

Some concerned thoughts on her loose motives for going into town, or anywhere else also couldn't hurt, for that matter. She had been sitting at the exact same table for almost two hours by now, her mind constantly revolving around one question:

What the hell am I doing with my life?

She cast a glance out the window, seeing a garbage truck pass by. If that represented some higher power giving her a sign, it didn't made her feel any better about herself. And Vinyl hated to admit it, but she actually did miss the past few days. They had given her nothing but trouble, but had been mildly entertaining, nevertheless. Anything better than this.

Carefully, and since there was nothing better to do, really, she tried to reconstruct the events of her earlier visit to the cafe. There had been the Rainbooms, playing their set in the corner, but that was nothing out of the ordinary. Also, Trixie being weird and Flash pathetic, but there had been something, or rather someone else.

Those three, hooded people, sitting next to them - and Vinyl was positively sure about opposing Trixie's Nazi theories - still proved a subject she couldn't quite put her finger on. Which made her think, since having also seen those three strange new girls at school with their hypnosis...strategies and all, there might have been a connection there. Maybe, they'd just...

"Ah! The girl we've been looking for!"

Vinyl looked around in surprise, trying to diagnose the call's source. Which didn't take her particularly long, since the answer had already set itself up right in front of her. As a matter of fact, the three girls she had just been thinking about stood next to her table, just now. All of them had satisfied grins on their faces, looking down onto the clueless DJ.

"Um...hi?" Vinyl tried her best not to sound excessively bewildered. "Aren't you those strippers girls...something?"

Their smirks vanished abruptly, as the purple one quickly turned around to her light blue friend, whose eyes had just widened in horror, giving her hand an empathetic squeeze. At the same time, the orange girl's eyes narrowed in anger.

"We're not that, okay? No matter what you've been told...ugh." She sighed. "Listen, can we sit down? I just wanna talk."

"Suit yourselves."

"Why, thank you."

In the blink of an eye, the three of them had planted themselves onto the couch opposite to Vinyl. Their expressions suddenly went back to being dead-serious, as they thoroughly stared at her.

"Uh...y'all okay?" she asked somewhat intimidated, taking another sip off her drink.

"Well..." the orange girl, who had placed herself in between the other two, started off in a tense tone. "I think you know about the game being played here very well. And that is why we came here: We want you to tell us, now!"

"Tell you...what?" Vinyl cocked her head in confusion.

"Everything," the purple one added, joining in. "What about that Equestrian magic, making you immune to our spell? When did you get it, and how? How did you learn about using it, and what's your connection to those six other ones?"

Magic? Spell? Others? Oh, what the hell...

Vinyl leaned back in her chair, putting on a fake smile as facade. "You want information?" she asked. "Fine. I'll tell you all I know. Of course, I'm also afraid to tell you nothing in this world's for free, so..."

To her surprise, the old 20's gangster show actually played its part. After a short moment of consideration, the orange girl produced a green slip of paper from her pocket, handing it to Vinyl. She couldn't remember ever being so enthusiastic about seeing Former President Jackson's face before, but whatever. Letting out a low snicker, she leaned back once again.

"Truth is, I don't know shit," she replied. "'cept getting half a Saturday's wage out of some naive fundamentalists' ideas. And no, I'm not gonna accept Jesus as my savior, don't even try. You'll just be wasting your time."

Right now, it was Vinyl's turn to smirk, since the other three had obviously lost their every reason to do so. While the orange girl simply deadpanned, trying to catch up with what had just happened, her purple friend spontaneously decided to slam her head on the table, right there. Their blue companion, on the other hand, didn't seem to get along with the conversation very well at all, judging from her confused face.

"Wait, but...you...WHAT?!" The orange one clearly came at a loss of words, while Vinyl happily slurped down the last remnants of her drink. "You can't just do that! We were going to buy ourselves dinner with that money!"

"Well, seems like someone's gonna go to bed hungry tonight," Vinyl told her, grinning from ear to ear. "Guess I'll just get some more pie to eat in front of your faces."

With that, she got up, ready to walk back to the counter. "Gimme a minute, I'll be right back."

"No," the girl then replied to her with grim determination in her voice. "You won't." And with that, they started to chant a melody in unison. Vinyl would look back at them for a second, then shrug, continuing her walking.

As she did, the voices suddenly stopped, once again.

Vinyl returned to her table with a piece of cake and a cup of coffee, only to find it entirely deserted. Apart from a yellow post-it note, nothing witnessed of her visitors. For some reason, they must have been able to leave the place incredibly stealthily, and quick.

Sitting back down, she lifted the small piece of paper up, her eyes briefly wandering over it.

Just so you know, this isn't over.

We'll find your secret, whether you tell us or not.

Prepare for trouble, Vinyl Scratch!

- A.D., A.B., S.D.

Vinyl Scratch scratched her chin, finding herself chuckling once more.

"Heh. Morons," she eventually concluded, unplugging her earphones.

Happy Metal Plunder

"WHAT? This is a travesty! A travesty!"

Trixie took a deep breath, extending one index finger towards the stage she had just been forced to leave.

"You'll pay for this, Rainbow Dash! Like...again..."

After lowering her voice in frustration, she eventually did the same to her head, and decided to go get some more punch. This day really could have gone a lot better. And wasn't it all just a travesty? Why, of course! She herself had stated it, after all.

"It really is," a voice suddenly confirmed said opinion from behind her. "The Rainbooms don't deserve to be in the finals. Not, when your band was so much better in the semis."

Upon turning around, three familiar faces wandered into Trixie's view. They did, of course, belong to the so-called Dazzlings. Another sigh escaped her. This day might not have gone along perfectly fine, but acting like an ordinary human being should still lie within the range of possibilities.

"Look," she told them. "Trixie doesn't know how to say this, but...ugh...I don't actually like girls...the way, you know. In all honesty, there really isn't any cash for you to grab here."

For a second, Adagio didn't respond. She narrowed her eyes, apparently trying to compensate, what Trixie had just told her. After merely a few seconds, however, the light orange color of her face's skin became quickly replaced by a sickening shade of dark red. To call her an overripe tomato at that point would have been an understatement.

"OH! SO YOU'RE STILL ONTO THAT?!" She yelled it at the top of her voice, violently grabbing Trixie by her collar. "I'm gonna say this out loud for everyone to hear. No idea, how you ever got to that conclusion, BUT WE'RE NO - FUCKING - STRIPPERS! HEAR THAT?"

"Sheesh, alright," Trixie replied, rolling her eyes, as she pulled herself loose from the enraged siren. Adagio didn't lose any further words following her initial outburst, however. She simply grabbed her two companions' wrists, dragging them out of the gym alongside herself.

Trixie would have enjoyed laughing at the ironic display presented to her, but the hostile looks from everyone else around advised her not to.

After searching for several minutes, Vinyl eventually discovered the blue-skinned magician she was looking for. It didn't turn out especially easy in a crowded room like this one, and everyone's suddenly hostile attitude didn't improve her efforts in the least. The gym's atmosphere seemed poisoned to an enormous degree; it all felt like Three Mile Island all over again.

To Vinyl's surprise, she managed to find Trixie in comparably high spirits. Despite having been kicked out of the competition minutes earlier, she had a satisfied smirk on her face. A blue plastic cup rested in her hands, from which she kept sipping CHS's prized punch - probably yet another abomination to the laws of nature - her eyes carefully guarding the exit door. As she spotted Vinyl approaching, she lifted her cup an inch higher, as to greet her.

"Didn't go all that well, I've heard?" Vinyl started, trying to omit the detail about herself having taken a bathroom break during most of the actual performances so far.

"Not really," Trixie replied with a shrug. "We did Tricks Up My Sleeve, like I intended. They didn't even finish their song properly. Whatever that was called...Smells Like Twi Sparkle, or something." She paused for a moment, one index finger resting against her chin. "But that's okay, I guess. They'll just have to do without my greatness and power."

Vinyl raised an eyebrow at that. "You sure? I remember you almost going on a rampage the last time you...well, thought you'd be kicked out."

"Yeah, well...Trixie said so. But then she ran into those strippers of ours...gosh, they're adorable when angry. Brightens up your whole day, really. I mean...they still try assuring me it's not what they do, but honestly? That's exactly what a proper stripper would say."

"I guess," Vinyl indifferently replied, casting a short glance over to the stage. "So, what now?"

"Heck, I don't know," Trixie answered, following Vinyl's eyes. "...but I sure don't need to go through the entire second semi, when there's nothing more in for myself. Also, that orange girl...Ada...something briefly grabbed me by my neck, giving me some time to reach out for her own clothing..." She reached in her stage outfit's pocket, producing a white envelope. Turning it around, a familiar handwriting stated: Week's food cash for Sonata.

"Wanna go grab some pie?" Trixie asked with a grin.

Vinyl quickly returned her expression with an even more vicious smirk. "You know," she concluded, as they turned to leave. "The two of us might have some more things in common than I imagined, after all."

As the two of them reached for the exit, all the bystanding lights got switched off at once. In a matter of seconds, the entire gym went pitch-black.

As Vinyl, Trixie, and most of the other students looked around in confusion, something did in fact light up in the room. A projector, attached to the ceiling, shot a short movie clip onto the backstage wall. Vinyl soon recognized the film: It was one of these sixties western movies she had never really given a damn about.

The two girls remained in their position, watching the video a few minutes longer. All the while, Vinyl couldn't help but wonder, why she actually associated this scene with musical performances in the first place.

After that, the clip ended, leaving the room in the same darkness as before for a short moment. When suddenly, several lights coming from the stage, illuminated the crowd, a deep, masculine voice sounded from the speakers.

"AAAAAlright, Canterlot! You wanted the best, you'll get the best! The hottest band in the world...uhh..."

There was a short pause, during which the stage got lightened up, revealing the next band. Their leader, a cross-eyes junior named Derpy Hooves, placed herself between her two bandmates, carrying a crosscut saw in one hand, and a cello bow in its respective opposite. She stood at the microphone, while scratching her head in confusion, mumbling to herself a few, inaudible words. One of her band mates facepalmed.

"Good evening," she then roared with the same, surprisingly deep voice. "We are Motörhoof. And we play rock n roll."

Around twenty minutes later, the two of them had put themselves down at their usual table at Sugarcube Cafe. Trixie had kept the very same grin on her face all, along, while Vinyl had buried an overly frustrated expression in her palms for quite some time, now.

She groaned. "I still don't get why I'm the one to pay for the drinks, again."

"I told you, I'm broke." Trixie leaned back in her chair, legs crossed, enjoying her vanilla milkshake. An emptied package of peanut butter crackers ornamented the table in front of her.

"Well," Vinyl looked up in anger, rubbing one hand against her forehead. "You wouldn't be, if you hadn't burned the frikkin dollar bills on the way here! Like, honestly, what the hell?"

"This is not about money," Trixie replied, setting her drink back down. "It never was. It's about sending a message. Even without any wealth..." She quickly produced the - by now, emptied - envelope from her pocket. "...I'll still be able to humiliate them tomorrow. And I think, I deserve as much. I've been through more than enough, today."

A short silence ensued, during which Vinyl slurped down some more of her own chocolate drink (this really was getting out of hand), while Trixie poked around her own with a straw for a while.

"And you know what?" she suddenly continued, raising her eyes back up. "Weren't it for our beloved Fall Formal Princess, I'm sure I'd have totally kicked their butts today."

"Huh. I don't know..." Vinyl hardly even got any further in her sentence, since all her thoughts kept drifting off to her drink over and over again. "Kinda funny though, how she only shows up, whenever there's some extracurricular stuff. Just saying...I've never seen her in any of my regular classes."

"Well, you know...royalty." Trixie shrugged. "Don't blame it on me, anyways. I voted Sunset Shimmer."

"Really? Gotta be honest...some disgusting tyrant competing with some chick, who just randomly showed up at school two days ago...that's kinda tough. I actually decided to vote for a third party candidate back then. Didn't stop my lighting equipment from being totally destroyed by their displays of lasers, though. I guess that was a dumb decision, then..."

For a moment, Trixie chuckled, raising a questioning look from her comrade. "Third party candidate, huh? You should know better than to waste your ballot like that. Trees died for producing that paper. I mean, honestly...you remember what country we live in, right?"

"Actually, no...you?"

"Meh. Never really been one for politics."

And once again, silence. With a shrug, Vinyl went back to slurping down her drink, letting Trixie to the world of her own thoughts. Had the two of them known about their school becoming vigorously enslaved by three dark, extraterrestrial menaces, simultaneously...

...well, they probably couldn't have cared less. But that's not up for debate right now, is it?

Obviously getting bored with herself, Trixie soon extended one hand, as she started mingling with the envelope in front of her, again. She got especially concerned about the corner of what seemed to be some piece of paper still stuck inside. Only one small corner had slipped out of its depths, just now.

The two of them barely recognized it. Curiously, and with a swift pull, Trixie removed the tiny sheet from it's paper jacket, holding it in front of her face with both hands.

Vinyl only saw the backside for some time. It still got her awfully curious. The paper was rather minor, its side lengths not exceeding three or four inches. Some parts of it had already faded to yellow, judging from which it had to surpass at least...well, thirty, or forty years of age by now? A few, cursive words had been scrabbled on this side with pencil. Vinyl couldn't make out any of their meanings. She could barely tell one character from another.

"So, what's there on it?" she asked, increasingly anticipating an answer, as Trixie's eyes widened in shock.

Her wizard friend took a deep breath, before finally answering: "You...you remember the day we met those Nazis in here?"

Vinyl rolled her eyes. Of course, that still didn't express anything due to her shades, but she didn't mind. "Yeah, right. Except I highly doubt that's what they were."

"Well I for one don't." Giving her response, Trixie sounded more resolute and determined than ever. "In fact, what would you say if they, and the three new girls at school were the exact - same - people?"

"Trixie, don't. You're getting ridi..." She stopped dead in her tracks, as Trixie let the paper swing around, revealing its other side to her.

On it, there was a black and white photograph. Judging from its content, Vinyl had never been wrong about the age. Slowly, she removed her shades in order to get a better picture of it all.

The image itself remained highly disturbing: It portrayed the three girls from their school - the ones Trixie had been so kind as to introduce as strippers - in centered position. All three of them were wearing black uniform jackets and hats, combined with equally black miniskirts and pairs of high leather boots. They were standing on top of a pile of rubber, a bombed-out factory building behind them.

The entire, bizarre scenery was captured by a simple phrase in Gothic letters:

Minsk, Reichskommissariat Ost, August 1942

Mouth agape, Vinyl couldn't help but stare at Trixie in a mix of confusion, and amazement. Could she possibly be right about...

Oh, come on. That's just plain ridiculous.

"That's not shopped," Trixie said, answering an unspoken question. "I've seen a number of fakes in my days, and trust me, there's more behind all this than just some IT skills."

"But...but I don't understand," Vinyl stuttered. "How can this...what does it even mean..."

"Means, we'll have to conduct some research, I'm afraid." A grin crept back onto Trixie's face, as she added: "...and on Friday, when the finals are happening...well, looks like we've got a party to crash."

After yet another short silence, she snorted. "I mean, I was gonna do that, anyways, but..."

Vinyl facepalmed. "Thanks a lot, moron. We just missed the cliffhanger. AGAIN!"

"Oh," Trixie replied, awkwardly scratching one ear. "So that's the whole chapter already?"

"Yeah, I guess we should just end it here."

Blame it on the Government

That Wednesday, as on the week's preceding days, Vinyl got up only around noon. By the time she consumed her breakfast, time had proceeded to around 2 pm central time. Of course, given Canterlot's location, no-one could actually make sure whether that time zone applied to the city or not.

Still in pajamas, and with bloodshot eyes, she poured herself a bowl of cereal. Sleeping in on school days might be ridiculous, not mentioning the trouble of catching up with her lessons later on, but Vinyl had her reasons...more or less.

Trixie had made a rather enlightening point on that subject. According to her assumption of the principals' brains getting fried away by the Dazzlings anyways, the magician girl had concluded they might as well take the week off. The additional free time would enable both of them to prepare for what was to come on Friday. Then again, high school students never started working early on any assignment, so they might as well spend a few days slacking off.

While that plan might not have been incredibly well thought out, it did indeed appeal to Vinyl's lazier side. The side of hers, determined to win the subsequent, inner conflict right from the start.

As the DJ's eyes wandered around the room for some time, her view inevitably fell onto a tremendous number of emptied chocolate milkshake glasses, piled up onto the kitchen counter. Looking back towards her breakfast (swimming in chocolate milk, by the way), she suddenly felt more miserable than she had all week.

Also, Trixie wasn't home. Or didn't seem to be home, at least. Whenever Vinyl tried to call her, no-one would answer. The fact of herself actually calling that obnoxious freak out of boredom didn't light up her day, either. And wherever Trixie had gone, Vinyl hardly even considered the idea of her being up to any good. In case something would burn down, explode, or crash the economy in the near future, it wouldn't surprise her all that much.

With a low groan, Vinyl pulled out her phone. She pushed her thumb against the screen a few times, logging onto a social network. Its name seemed restricted by copyright, but probably contained a human body part in the front portion of the head, as well as a general term for a work of literature...whatever that could mean.

To her immediate disappointment, the annoying trend in her newsfeed hadn't stopped ever since Sunday morning. About ninety percent of it was filled with simple text messages quoting All hail Dazzle. Also, some ads for the Cadenza's Palace in Las Pegasus...something she tried her best to ignore.

On a second note, she also noticed a notification from some profile called [withheld]. Her eyes slightly widened at the overly suspicious name, which didn't stop her from opening the message.

Golden Oak Library, Entrance, Friday 3 pm

Well, at least that was something to look forward to. Since there seemed to be nothing more interesting on this site, let alone a lot of smart people, Vinyl closed the app. Scratching her head, she turned to the web browser, loading one of the blogs she followed...

Talking equines hiding among us? Illuminati confirmed!

Turning off the phone in frustration, she buried her head in both palms. This day could only go uphill from here.

Pizza and Beer Go Well Together

After another endless two days and nights of idleness, desperation, and staring into cereal bowls, Vinyl finally managed to get back onto her feet. It was Friday afternoon, the final band performance at school just about six hours away. The time to get some preparation done had come around, always assuming someone knew where to start. Unfortunately, she herself hardly even felt motivated, and Trixie seemed to be the sole person able to help her out. Vinyl hadn't seen the blue-skinned magician anywhere for days at a time, and she could have gotten god-knows-where by now.

Vinyl didn't see any way of motivating herself to save the world all alone. Instead, with Wednesday's anonymous note in mind, she left the house, strolling off to the local library. That wouldn't save the entire city from its potential, upcoming doom, but at least it was a distraction for a few hours.

Stepping out into the bright sunlight for the first time in days, she hastily flung her shades over both eyes. A low groan escaped Vinyl's throat, as she truly hadn't expected for this so-called good weather. There were exactly two reasons for her to hate this sunshine bearing down on her right now. One: The showcase would get blown off in case of bad weather, since it happened outdoors. That way, she at least wouldn't have to worry about rescuing everyone she knew for another week or so. As for her other reason...basically, she always hated bright sunlight, Nazi mass hypnosis or not.

Passing several blocks on her way around the streets, Vinyl noted the many, one-story homes around her with greatly antagonized emotions. Somehow, these hives of suburbs really did reflect on a - she hated to say it - mindless, consuming society. In a way, Trixie's influence on her world view could truly become depressing. Was that a bad thing? Probably.

Also, none of them served chocolate milk. And neither did the library, or so she guessed.

Vigorously shaking her head, Vinyl tried to snap out of it. She really had to stop, before one day would turn her over to the harder stuff. Seeing the effects on peanut butter crackers on Trixie had been more than enough to begin with.

Arriving at her destination, Vinyl's eyes widened in a mixture of shock and surprise. Wherever she had presumed the building lay nothing but some burnt out ruins, covered in black pieces of rubble. With a gasp, she turned to the sign put up in front of the front lawn.

Golden Oak Library closed indefinitely due to a lack of books...and library buildings

She couldn't help but roll her eyes. The text was written in Comic Sans, and a lime green color. Though initially wondering whether the Dazzlings were behind all of this, Vinyl's mind quickly turned over to a number of alternate possibilities. Maybe the Crusaders had to prepare another research paper? She thought it over for another few seconds, just before a seemingly fakened, deep voice tore her out of her thoughts.

"You don't watch a whole lotta news, do you, Mr. Wayne?"

Vinyl turned on her heel, trying to make out its source. She stopped dead in her tracks, ending up face-to-face with an extremely bizarre apparition.

A poorly dressed-up, female figure stood before her, pushing one hand to her hip, while presumably raising an eyebrow. Vinyl couldn't actually tell, since they stayed hidden beneath a giant pair of cheap sunglasses. A fake beard, matching the platinum shade of a long, disheveled haircut, covered the lower part of her light-blue face. The girl also wore an oversize, white t-shirt, red shorts, and a pair of plastic sandals. A worn-out, light brown bathrobe was loosely flung around her shoulders. Its fuzzy, lower edges reached well below her knees. Her left hand held an opened package of milk, an unpleasant stench rising up from it.

"...what the hell?"

Vinyl finished her sentence in quite a different manner than anticipated, but that wasn't the important matter at hand, now. The essential question remained, whether to cry, run away, or simply double over laughing for no reason.

She decided to settle for the latter.

"You makin' fun of me, or what?" the girl asked, clearly offended by the DJ, who was basically choking her guts out with incessant, clearly audible chuckles. Though considering the past few days, nobody could have actually blamed Vinyl for the unnatural behavior from he part.

"N-no...nevermind," she replied, briefly lifting her shades to wipe a few, remaining tears from her eyes. "Let's just...don't we have any preparations to do for tonight?"

"Yeah, yeah, for sure." In a moment's hesitation, the girl quickly gazed over to the ruined pebbles. "The great and powerful dude has it all planned out...might've forgotten about a detail or two, though. Guess we gotta move our sh...stuff someplace else." She hinted over to the opposite side of the road with her head, then started crossing over. With a sigh, Vinyl started to follow her.

"You can drop the act now, Trixie. You know that, right?" she asked. And yet, all her sudden companion did was raise an eyebrow, while mustering her with suspicion.

"Man, in all honesty? I really dunno what you're talkin' about."

Arriving at CHS half an hour later, the two of them found most of the building deserted. A number of newspapers, among other garbage was scattered all around the arid, brown front lawn. Several missing doors, shattered windows, and walls covered in graffiti rounded up an image of utter decay and abandonment.

No wonder Trixie had chosen this place. She didn't even question the unusually quick deterioration of the building's facades. Then again, she might also have settled for the ruined Golden Oak building. The way she knew her, Vinyl guessed being grateful for this choice was more of an appropriate response.

Of course, she still wondered about it. None of her surroundings made her feel particularly eased up, but Bearded Trixie told her not to worry. Entering the building, they quickly found themselves in one of the main corridors. Walking down the hall a few steps, the so-called dude suddenly slapped his hand on Vinyl's shoulder a few times.

"Alright, pal," she said, pointing towards the girls' bathroom. "Gotta take five. S'ppose you might wanna go ahead 'n get started. I'll check back with ya there."

Taking another sip from his (or her) stained milk package, she pushed through the door, and disappeared from view. Shaking her head in disbelief, Vinyl continued making her way towards CHS library. She never considered this a suitable place for making up a plan to defeat the Dazzlings, but more like unnecessarily entering the lion's nest. Then again, was there any point in arguing with Trixie on a subject like that? Still rather clueless, Vinyl turned another corner...

"Well, you've certainly taken your sweet time, Scratch."

She could almost feel her eyes bug out, with a simultaneously dropping jaw. Of all the things she had anticipated, this was definitely one of the least. And she couldn't say for sure whether to feel sad or happy about this sudden revelation.

In front of her, like on any other day, stood Trixie. She even wore the very same clothes as always, including those tacky, azure boots of hers. A cone-shaped hat of the same color, covered in silver stars, rounded up the ensemble. Two navy blue eyes darted out from below, examining Vinyl with little more than just slight suspicion.

"What kept you so long? I've just come back from the airport, thought you would be at it since last night, or so."

"What..I, but...you did..." Vinyl felt herself at a loss of words. This really was unprecedented, to say the least.

"I did?"

"Yeah, well...wasn't that you, with the fake beard, and the spoiled milk, and all?"

"Fake beard..." Letting the words echo through the corridor, Trixie froze for a short moment, one eyelid twitching slightly. It took her a moment to catch her breath, and return to the same, old confidence. "I have no idea what you're talking about. Let's just get this done now, shall we?"

"Wait! What was that about an airport, just now?" It took Vinyl a few yards to catch up with the magician, who already started directing her steps towards the library rooms. When the DJ arrived by her side, Trixie turned her head several times, looking out for any possible bystanders. After making sure they were alone, she sighed.

"I've had a short, and spontaneous trip to Saddle Arabia," Trixie explained, as they continued closing in on their destination. "Got a little deal running for my new company, Lulamoon Enterprises."

"Uh-huh..."

"I know what you're gonna ask. And to answer it beforehand: Yes, that's what I do, planning ahead for the future. I mean, sure, I'm the sole board member so far...and we're far from going public just yet. But if we ever do, I'll make sure you'll get some stocks for a friendly price."

Vinyl scratched her forehead. "Yeah...I don't think the stock market works like that. Also, what exactly is it you do? Potential investors might be more interested in that?"

"Oh, nothing much," Trixie answered with a shrug. "Evil things, mostly. In a capitalist society, these tend to get you pretty far, pretty quickly."

"Evil things?"

Trixie rolled her eyes. "We steal candy from toddlers, and sell for a fixed price. That money goes to a publicly listed foundation on the Cayman Islands, with 51% of the stocks owned by us. Said foundation proceeds to use its tax revenue by buying nuclear warheads from corrupt European arms manufacturers, then transfers the weapons' ownership back to us. Eventually, we finish off the deal by selling the bombs to non-trustworthy, middle-eastern dictatorships. Evil things, like I said."

While Vinyl could indeed think of several answers to give to that, she ultimately decided to keep her mouth shut. This wasn't going to get her anywhere in the first place. Also, turning around yet another corner, the library doors came in sight at the corridor's far end. In other terms, there literally was something to look forward to, now.

As they approached, another thought occurred to Vinyl.

"So, uh...what exactly is it we're gonna do now?"

Trixie looked at her in confusion, as she produced two peanut butter crackers from her pocket, and started chewing on both at a time. "Why, I thought you had it all figured out by now?"

Vinyl shook her head.

"Well, there's obviously some historical background to these girls," Trixie started. "If they appeared in our time and place, as well as another, I'm sure there's more to discover about them. And whatever we do find will surely give us some information about a weakness of theirs. That's what we'll use to destroy them tonight, save the world, and stop by at Sugarcube Cafe on our way home, rewarding ourselves with a nice, big milkshake for an accomplished task."

For a moment, Vinyl eyed her companion's expressionless face in disbelief. "Let me guess," she asked. "You forgot your wallet, so I'll have to pay for that reward."

A quick smirk escaped Trixie's lips. "Scratchie, sometimes I feel like you're reading my mind."

Choke on the Water

The student library at Canterlot High School was arranged much like any of its public equivalents. Which is far from an exactly helpful description to most people. After all, who doesn't search for everything on the internet, nowadays? Information found online might not prove as accurate as professional literature, but neither does it require anyone to get up and leave their homes. Thus proving once again that complying with people's laziness was the real key to success.

Following that rule, Vinyl Scratch had placed herself in front of a computer, researching the topic in question from a most reliable source.

She had also gone to a library to do so, which might seem hard to comprehend for the less skilled reader.

Naturally, the source material provided caused a good chuckle or two. As it died down however, she soon found herself blankly staring at the screen. Trixie had disappeared in between a couple of bookshelves a few minutes back, leaving her alone with said uselessness. The only internet connected desks, squished between endless rows of shelves, never provided any good way of overlooking the room.

How exactly was this better than being all depressed at home? Maybe the lack of chocolate milk simply contributed to her mood.

It took a moment longer until something caught her attention. Looking in the exact opposite of the direction Trixie had disappeared to, she saw the magician darting back towards her. A frown on her face, she stumbled forward, carrying some humongous volumes of at least several thousand pages. Or so Vinyl estimated.

By now, Vinyl hardly even bothered about how she got over there. Instead, she stared with an emotionless expression, as Trixie unloaded all her weight onto the table. She also slammed a thick, brown book onto the computer keyboard right in front of Vinyl. The DJ quickly found herself engrossed inside an impressively opaque cloud of dust particles. She choked on them several times, then instinctively pushed herself and her office chair back. Sliding over the ground a few yards, she ended up next to a can of water, took a sip, and choked on that as well.

When the dust cleared, it revealed a very disappointed looking Trixie. She raised an eyebrow of skepticism towards Vinyl, then motioned for her to get back.

For reasons she didn't quite understand, Vinyl obeyed, proceeding to do just that.

Taking a closer look at what had been presented to her, she examined the book's exterior. The wrapping presented itself rather monotonous, displaying nothing but a homogenous, sandy brown shade. The only thing highlighted was the all too curious title, printed on the front in bold, black letters.

Starswirl, Hon.PhD.: The World History Almanac of Literally Everything

"Starswirl, huh?" Vinyl asked, forcing a self-satisfied nod from Trixie.

"Indeed. One of the finest researchers and scientists of his generation, you might say."

"Yeah...I dunno. Isn't he the fortune telling guy from AstroTV Baltimare? At least that's where I've heard that name before...I think."

"Well..." Trixie's brow furrowed at the thought. "That might explain why he included every event two centuries into the future. I knew there was some missing link."

"Talking about missing." Vinyl crossed her arms, leaning back in her chair. "I guess what we're missing is a few reliable sources. I mean...you don't expect us to save the world using...this, do you?"

"Or what?" Trixie replied, as she narrowed her eyes. "Every piece of mainstream literature could be easily controlled by them, or whoever supports their cause. Tell you what: I may not know who these girls are, or what they're up to...well, except the world domination thing, uh, anyways...point is, they very probably made some important difference throughout history, without any of us knowing..."

"Please don't."

"And the reason we don't know is merely them deliberately keeping themselves off any possible records. Good thing though, information is always getting leaked sooner or later. And if we'll have to deal with some maniacs to find out, so be it."

"Whatever...how do I start?"

A vicious smirk creeping up on her lips, Trixie pointed at the book before them. "I suggest you go on checking that thing. Try to find anything useful...even if you have to scan the thing in its entirety. Just remember, time is limited. We need to be ready by tonight."

Vinyl rolled her eyes, and - while Trixie grabbed a copy of Why Global Warming is a Hoax off the stack - opened up the first page of relevant information in the book. Sure, there were some author's notes and publishing information, but nobody ever went through these anyway, right?

Carefully her eyes wandered over the first paragraph:

around 4.5 bln BCE: Creation of the Universe (probably)

She let out one long, frustrated sigh. This would be a very long afternoon...

After finishing a very detailed, as well as disturbing paragraph called 11/22/1963, Vinyl looked back up. Finding the opposite side of her desk deserted, she got rather confused at first. It took her a minute to recall Trixie excusing herself to go, grab some lunch. And Vinyl could hardly deny the rumbling of her own stomach. Considering she hadn't eaten ever since breakfast time, as well as 5pm rapidly approaching, this was all too convenient.

Looking around the table, she found dozens of volumes spread out all across. One in particular caught her attention, however. A small, azure booklet lay close to where Trixie had been sitting. Embroidered on the cover was a symbol of some silver silk fabric wrapping itself around what she presumed to be some kind of magic wand. Below it ran a short description, in cursive:

The Great and Powerful Trixie's Great and Powerful Journal

Greatly and Powerfully Secret

Vinyl couldn't help but bite her lip, reading that. Part of her knew she should simply leave it there. Yet, another one had already realized she wouldn't be able to hold herself back, anyways. She was rather satisfied about which part won her inner conflict in the end. Sure, she decided to do what was morally wrong. But it had taken her much longer than on an average day.

And above average had to do for now. She would help saving the world later, so at least some good karma should come flooding back. In case the Buddhists were right, of course. Or was that the Presbyterians? Whatever...

She picked up the blue book, and started reading the first page:

April 27

Dear Piece of Shit Journal,

Trixie just bought you earlier today, and already regrets having wasted ten bucks over a mindless piece of paper hardly worth catching her attention.

Vinyl grinned. If this didn't sound like Trixie, she didn't know what would.

Skipping through a number of pages, she discovered a few more facts and secrets, most of which were only mildly entertaining. Almost every entrance either dealt with Trixie's daily routine, or her apparent greatness and power. Or that of her routine, of course. Vinyl had almost decided to put the journal back to where she had found it, when another thought occurred to her. Curiously, she went through some more pages, hastily skipping ahead to the part of Trixie's showoff performance at the music store a few weeks back.

Dear frikkin fuc Journal,

Today, I learned about something. Yes, believe it or not, there are indeed some aspects of life, which had escaped the Great and Powerful Trixie's great and powerful mind so far. It is, by the way, great and powerful, if I failed to mention that earlier.

But back to the task. I was out at the music store, having decided that my guitar lacked a certain level of greatness and power (Required for servitude under my authority, that is. Better watch your ass, book!). At the store, a certain plebeian individual going by the name of *Rainbow Dash cheated me into an unfair contest, wherein I lost the chance to claim what was rightfully mine.*

Initially, that made me extremely angry, as you can understand. Then again, one can hardly blame those inferior beings for their savage behavior. Nevertheless, that horrible loss brought me into starting a conversation with the local store clerk, Vinyl Scratch.

I might have told you about her, earlier. She's that CHS disc jockey, who's pretending not to give a damn about socializing beyond her music, while secretly being head over heels into that girl Octavia Melody. And she really thinks I wouldn't notice...

Vinyl's jaw dropped, causing a mouthful of hot coffee to splash onto her lap. She hardly even noticed, though. Why the hell would Trixie even...

Then again, she could worry about all that later. Right now, there were another few paragraphs to finish.

So, like I said. Vinyl thinks I wouldn't notice. Or the entire school for that matter. If the possibility of her realizing the facts even exists, it probably is through this book. And who could tell? She's probably reading it right now, what do you think, journal?

If so, there's one thing you should know Scratchy: While my behavior might not make the impression most of the time, I am extremely well prepared, and planning ahead. Even though this text is a few weeks old, I can tell you that I'll be back from pizza place two blocks away in about seven point three five seconds. Better put this thing down if you don't want me to notice.

Also, get the buck back to work.

More pale than usual - if that was even possible - Vinyl put the book down in disbelief. Only a moment later, the front door burst open. Trixie stepped in, carrying two cardboard boxes from a nearby pizza takeaway. Vinyl kept staring at her in disbelief, even after the girl had placed the pizzas down on the desk, ridiculously brushing back her hair.

"Lunchtime," Trixie announced with a grin, ignoring the deadpanned look on Vinyl's face. "Figured I had a thing or two to make up for."

As the magician swooped one of the pizzas over to her, Vinyl stretched one hand out to open it up, her disbelief still remaining unchanged. She tried to figure out the strange topping presented to her.

"Special Lulamoon secret recipe," Trixie explained, her eyes falling on Vinyl's lap for a second. "Also, white clothing might not be your best wardrobe combination with diarrhea. Just saying."

"Wai...WHAT?" Vinyl shouted without thinking, several gallons of blood rushing up to her face, simultaneously. "I...I just had...no, well, my coffee had a short malfunction. And I don't even remember where it came from..."

"Huh...figures..." Trixie mumbled, removing the blue journal from the desk with a swift motion. "By the way, find out anything?"

"Wh-what? No...I'd never..."

"Not the journal, dammit." Trixie rolled her eyes. "You've probably gone through that ages ago. It's outdated anyway, so what do I care? I'm talking about our research for tonight."

"Oh," Vinyl mumbled, awkwardly massaging her neck. "No, not really...about anything."

"Meh." With a light frown Trixie leaned back in her chair, then shrugged. "Well, just gotta go with plan B."

"Which is...?"

"Haven't read that far, yet? No? That's cool, you'll see."

A smirk returning to her face, Trixie reached for her own pizza box. She opened it, revealing a large number of peanut butter crackers, instead. Starting to munch on them, her eyes wandered around the room for a few moments.

"Well...three hours left to save the world, I guess. Mind if I put on some music?"

West Side Gory

***Welcome to the show

We're here to let you know

Our time is now***

Your time is running out

Pulling into the parking lot of the local rock center, Maudison Square Garden, Vinyl turned off the car's radio. She never liked that kind of melodic music to begin with. If she payed it any attention at all, it did - at best - resolve in the question of who would even compose this trash. With the satisfying sound of a car door slamming shut behind her, Vinyl pumped both fists to her hips, drawing in a deep breath of the fresh, evening air. Nothing felt better after being stuck in traffic for three hours straight.

Reopening her eyes, she looked around the vastly deserted area. From behind the fence bordering the concert area to her right, she could see the different colored lights flashing on and off. Judging from that, as well as the sound, the first finalists' performance seemed to be in full swing, already. Vinyl had forgotten their names by now...then again, they were probably nothing more than some insignificant background characters, so why would she care? She was half an hour late to begin with. There certainly couldn't be any more time to waste on such pointless thoughts.

As she approached the cashier's box, she found it empty. A single note had been attached to its front window:

Staff currently unavailable due to peanut butter parkour at home

Considering the layer of dust on the inside desk, that must have happened quite some time ago. An assumption, which was well confirmed by a truly ancient register, and a stack of red, blue, and white Rock us, Dukakis stickers.

Sometimes, and more and more often during the recent past, Vinyl didn't even want to hear about the backstory. With a shrug, she proceeded towards the public area, not paying any further attention to her strange surroundings. For some reason, she felt horribly unprepared.

Nevertheless, she decided to put her headphones back on. If some lousy live musicians thought they'd have to create any competition for original, independent artists like her, she didn't even want to hear about it.

Joining the rest of the crowd, she found the party already cooling back down, the first live act obviously having finished their set some time back. Whatever artist Trixie's Nazi nemesis was up against had just left the stage. It didn't seem like she'd ever find out very much about them.

And frankly she didn't bother. There were more important things to worry about right now, anyway.

One of them would be Trixie, and her whereabouts. Vinyl hadn't seen the overconfident magician ever since she had blurted out of the library halfway through her pizza. That party required some divine intervention, she had told her. Thus, there was a whole lot to get ready for.

Which brought Vinyl to the thought: Did they need any sort of formal attire at this place? Most of the student body looked rather well made up for tonight, not exactly completely formal, but a lot more than in usual, everyday life. In contrast, she herself hadn't even bothered to change into a different skirt since this afternoon.

Deep down, she probably still hoped for some punk band to attend. The concerning type of audience wouldn't think much of any ruined clothes. It's supposed to be that way would have sounded a lot more convincing around them.

Then again, Vinyl wasn't really into that kind of tune, anyway. Which was why she presumed it all to be a win-win situation. Trying to think positively seemed surprisingly motivating, considering it now.

Pushing her way through to the stage, she dealt with all sorts of irritated, even grumbling audience members. For some reason, the overall atmosphere seemed surprisingly tense. This was a party of sorts, after all. But instead of some happy celebrating and rejoicing, most of them kept arguing about any topic imaginable. Be it each others talents, those of someone else, inappropriate jokes, the weather, or the varying efficiency of Saddam's mustard gas - people always found a way.

Which made her wonder; had the preceding act really been that bad? It couldn't be the lack of cool beverages causing the bad mood, because the place had plenty of those. She had grabbed an ice-cold can of soda herself, passing the Front of House area (From the artists' fridge, that was. Staff members never give a shit about guarding those). There was nothing wrong with the taste, anyway. To her, it came across just about right.

Passing by further, she had also caught a short glimpse of the Dazzlings' setlist, which contained no more than one song. Nevertheless, it had been printed on dozens of A4-sized papers, taped on every piece of equipment possible.

Shaking her head in disbelief, Vinyl chose a more aggressive track to go with her situation, she continued to push herself through the increasingly dense crowd. Even though she had no idea what to do once she got up front, it seemed like a good idea.

She didn't have to go home disappointed. Standing about fifteen yards away from the security zone, a sudden change in mood started to happen all around. Instead of whining and shouting at each other, people simply kept staring dead ahead, now. Simultaneously, the standardized lights went out, making way for some sort of light-green smoke hovering right above the stage floor.

It looked rather disgusting on first sight. Maybe this was a punk rock show after all?

Three spotlights lit up the stage, as three figures emerged from the back. Recognizing them didn't take all that long. It was the Dazzlings, of course. Had there been any further supporting artists, she'd probably know by now.

All three of them had their eyes closed, mouth wide open, as they slowly stepped forwards. Details, which suggested them singing out some tune, something that wasn't exactly uncommon for musical artists.

What was more to Vinyl's surprise, everyone around her started softly bobbing their heads back and forth. Since she felt like blending in with the crowd would be helpful at this time, Vinyl seconded that movement. Which wasn't exactly simple, given her headphones provided a completely different beat than the one she assumed came from the girls in front of her.

But there was no way she would listen to their stuff, even now. If these...whatever they were tried putting her out of business, she wouldn't just back down like that. Even though she still didn't try anything to actually work against them. But neither did she plan on recognizing their potential victory...hoping that was any consolidation.

Vinyl was torn out of her thoughts, as the next song on her playlist started. It didn't fit the previous one at all, nor her somewhat tense mood for that matter. Though it certainly did add a certain touch to the Dazzlings' costumes. Taking another sip off her drink, Vinyl couldn't hold back a smirk.

For another minute or so, nothing unusual happen on or off stage. Of course, Vinyl's question on what to do next didn't get answered either. Only when the remaining lights came back on a moment later, she found herself surprised once more. And she was by far the only one.

In their confusion, the three girls immediately quit their singing. Or at least Vinyl guessed they did, judging from the ceased motion of their jaws. The one in the middle, Adagio she presumed, cast several wild glances around herself, before motioning towards the stage technicians with a questioning shrug.

One thing Adagio didn't see - couldn't see, given her perspective - was that all of them lay on the ground, knocked unconscious in the meantime. Even Vinyl realized that just now. All the bigger was both their perplexity, when a dark figure, dressed in a crimson, linen gown, and carrying a shepherd's stick, entered the stage.

Vinyl looked at the strange phenomena in disbelief, took of her shades, rubbed both eyes, then looked again. But no doubt - what she first presumed an apparition was in fact very real. Also, it looked very much like Trixie.

She took of her headphones, just as Trixie opened her mouth to speak. She was holding a microphone in her other hand, which she held up to her face, now. There was hardly any time for Vinyl to wonder where that came from.

"Artists! Staff...guys! People of Canterlot!" The magician girl raised her wooden stick to a dramatic pose while speaking. "Listen to me, for I have been called upon for a most important quest."

Vinyl took a quick look around, whether anyone was staring at her, but luckily, that wasn't the case. The remaining audience members kept staring dead ahead.

"A quest?" Adagio answered, breaking the silence. "And what would that be? Mind you, your petty magic of friendship has failed you, already. We will..."

"Ye mighty one," Trixie exclaimed, as she cut her off. "It is thou, whom I have been commanded to deliver the demands of the Lord! I shall tell them once, and not a single...uh...occasion further. Mighty Pharaoh, LET MY PEOPLE GO!"

Vinyl facepalmed. Which was getting a bit repetitive, but there honestly was no other response she could think of after this.

Adagio, and her fellow singers seemed to share that opinion. But instead of any disappointed groans, they merely let out a brief chuckle in response. Which didn't help the situation, whatsoever. Instead, Trixie seemed even more enraged.

"Should you fail to comply with His wishes," she continued. "Be warned! Your punishment will be severe!"

"Uh-huh," Adagio quickly replied in a mocking tone. "And what horrible things might that be? You realize we already rule your world, don't you?"

For some reason, Vinyl decided she should probably join the magician. Trixie had finally lost it, apparently, and everyone else seemed too hypnotized to do anything. That included security personnel, so getting past them didn't prove very hard. As Vinyl rushed over towards her, Trixie broke into another, even longer monologue.

"Hear ye, hear ye!" she shouted, warningly raising an index finger. "Should you decide to stand against the will of the Lord, he will send onto you the locusts. There will be thousands upon thousands of these parasites, more than you shall ever find yourself able to count! They shall blacken out the sun, and fall upon your harvest savagely, bringing years of starvation and hardship on you and your offspring! And in the forthcoming night, He will travel from one home to another embodying the literal angel of death. His hand shall strike down the firstborn son of man and cattle alike. And all the streams and rivers in Egypt shall run red from the blood of innocence!"

All three of the girls, lead by Adagio, let out a roaring laughter, almost doubling over.

Trixie scratched her head in confusion. "Well, that didn't go as planned," she mumbled. "I could need some backup."

Luckily for her, Vinyl arrived by her side just at that moment. "Alright, I'm here," she said.

Contrary to her expectations, Trixie didn't answer her statement with some sarcastic response. Instead, she hardly reacted at all. For a few moments, the entire scenery fell silent. After a moment, Trixie's view shifted around nervously, thus finally bringing her attention to Vinyl.

"Oh, you made it. Took you long enough," she groaned.

"Yeah, right whatever...so, what's the plan..." Vinyl trailed off, as the three Dazzlings turned over to join them, each of them carrying a rather bemused look on her face. Trixie didn't seem to have noticed her words in the first place. Her eyes had shifted back to the Dazzlings, awaiting some sort of response with eager anticipation.

"What is the plan, indeed," the purple one, Aria, asked. "We did wonder about that..." She got cut off by a swift motion from her leader.

"I think we agreed that I do the talking, didn't we?" Adagio hissed. "We could be done with all this, if you could just follow my lead for once."

"Heh. For realzies, isn't she the worst?" their third wheel, Sonata, asked, causing everyone present to roll their eyes in unison.

"That isn't the point," Adagio replied, frowning. Casting an angry glare, she turned her attention back to Vinyl and Trixie, she continued. "From the day we first arrived, you kept resisting our spell for some reason. And we want to know, where you got that magic from, now!"

"Headphones, I guess", Vinyl told her with a shrug. Trixie didn't answer.

"Well, that explains that," Adagio answered in thought, then turned to Trixie. "What about you, sweetheart?"

Trixie still didn't answer, but at least realized someone spoke to her. She cast a questioning look at the orange girl.

"How you resisted our spell," Adagio thus repeated, somewhat louder. Trixie's facial features hardly changed, still expressing the same, utter confusion.

"SPELL - RESISTING - HOW?" the Dazzling leader shouted. When Trixie still didn't seem to understand, Adagio first pointed at the magician, then circled one finger around her own ear. Trixie's eyes suddenly widened in awareness.

"Oh, I see," she said. "Wax in both ears. Works perfectly, I can't hear shit. I don't even know if I'm pronouncing all of this right. Anyway...you probably want to know how I got the idea? Well, I read it in a book. Homer's Odyssey, to be exact. Seems some old Greek dude did know a thing or two about you guys."

And then, another long, awkward silence ensued. While Trixie mainly ignored whatever happened around her, Adagio seemed extremely shocked. The orange girl's jaw dropped, as her eyes widened, and her face became increasingly pale. Her purple companion showed a similar reaction.

"Goddammit, Adagio!" Aria hysterically screamed at her leader, making her cringe.

"Aria, please not...not now..."

"What's that, not now? I told you what we did was stupid, and that asshole was gonna tell on us. We should have just made him jump off a cliff right there! But nooooo, our sweetheart princess had to let him live, because..."

"Aria!"

"...because, he had such cute cheekbones!" She spat the last two words out like venom, as the orange siren buried her face in both palms.

"Now you've done it," Adagio mumbled, mortified.

"Oh, have I?" Aria continued, all the more enraged. "Tell you what, there's more where that came from!"

"Well," Adagio replied pointing a threatening finger at her. "What if I won't let you..."

"Oh, you don't have to. I quit. I'm tired of all this bullshit of yours!"

As the purple siren took off her pendant necklace, and smashed it on the floor, just to stomp off stage in anger, Trixie quickly leaned over to Vinyl. "That time of the month again?" the magician girl mumbled, causing Vinyl's urge of slapping her to rise up once more. Then again, she was probably right.

Meanwhile, Adagio and Sonata could only stare at the broken pendant in horror. Only seconds later, the ones hanging from their own necks started to crumble, eventually dissolving into dust. Their eyes went wide, as they cast a look onto the audience, which had - seemingly - been freed from their spell just now. Instead of their hypnotized stares towards the stage, most of them had started chatting, wondering how they even got here.

As the two remaining sirens nervously stepped forward, Adagio gave her remaining companion a sign. Both of them started singing out a tune, but their voices sounded horrifyingly broken, and off-tune. Their disillusioning performance resulted in massive booings from their audience, as most of them got ready to leave the place.

Merely one guy in the front row, wearing a Metallica shirt, kept jumping up and down, bobbing his head to the squealing sounds. "What?" he asked his bystanders, as he received a number of questioning looks. "Sometimes artists have to reinvent themselves, even if it pisses their fans off."

While Vinyl, among with the two sirens, rolled her eyes once again, Trixie was busy removing the wax layers from both ears. "Yuck, tell you what, that is disgusting," she proclaimed. "But at least we're save now, aren't w..."

"TRIXIE LULAMOON!" a male voice from offstage shouted, cutting her off. "YOU AND I HAVE SOME UNFINISHED BUSINESS!"

Trixie's eyes went wide in confusion, as she hastily looked around, trying to make out whatever source these words had come from. "What...who was that?" she asked, somewhat afraid.

In search for an answer, Vinyl quickly pulled out a small, white booklet, the words Evil Empire - Transcript printed on its front page. "Let's see," she mumbled, skipping through several pages. "Oh, here we go: It's Flash Sentry!"

"Flash, why...that?"

"Says right here he got out of the hospital," Vinyl replied, scratching her head. "And he's basically coming to kill you, like...right now."

Flash Dies at the End

"Coming to kill her?" Adagio stared at Vinyl, eyes wide, looking more perplexed than ever. "But why? And...Flash Sentry? Who is that, anyways?"

Trixie chuckled, awkwardly shuffling her feet. Of course, now she tried to look anywhere but Adagio. "Well, we do have kind of a history...or so I've been told. Truth is, I was kinda...intoxicated that day, and don't exactly remember."

"Ugh," Adagio responded with a frown. "Yeah, that's probably one of those really nasty cases. Pretty much the worst, you might say."

"Oh, oh, like that one, time, when you and King Richard..."

"Not the time, Sonata!"

"Awww, but it's such a sweet story," the cyan girl chirped.

Sonata looked like she wanted to add something, but was abruptly cut short. In the wake of her next would-be sentence, a certain blue-haired figure entered the stage.

Flash was dressed in a skin-tight, yellow motorbike suit (a little too tight for some people's tastes). His left hand was holding a helmet in an equal shade, while a Katana sword rested in his right. Overall, his face completed the ensemble pretty neatly. He looked extremely pissed, in a way.

"There you are," he said, narrowing his eyes. "Now, stand still, Lulamoon, and it'll all be over quickly."

"Uh, h-hey, now..." Trixie nervously stuttered. "That was all in good fun, now, wasn't it? Wouldn't wanna bring in my army of...uh...ninja turtles to threaten you...someone could get hurt..."

"I'm afraid I'm way too one-dimensional and repetitive to answer that," Flash said, answering Trixie's request, ironically. "Now, stand still, Lulamoon, and it'll all be over quickly."

As Trixie cautiously took a few steps back, he raised his saber up in the air...

...only to collapse onto the floor a second later.

Everyone's eyes widened once again, as they stared onto the motionless body. In the end, it was Vinyl, who spoke up, vocalizing what they all thought: "What the hell was that?"

"One hell of spoiling the climax, to say the least," Trixie returned with a shrug. "Or a particularly lousy Deus ex Machina...or all of the above, I don't know."

The DJ's question would soon become answered, as a somewhat familiar figure stepped onstage behind her. Vinyl recognized the woman immediately: It was that bearded, slobby dressed version of Trixie. Her hands carried the same old milk package, among a silenced .22 handgun. Clearly now, the two Trixies could hardly be the same. The other one was still standing right by their side.

"Sorry for the delay," the (presumable) woman told them, taking another sip off her spoiled milk. "Dope came in a lil' late this morning, had to rearrange my schedule first. Anyway, what's up, hon?" she asked, turning to Trixie, who looked like she was about to explode in anger, right now.

"Something wrong?" Sonata asked in a squeaking voice. Of all the people on stage, Vinyl would have least expected these words from her. Trixie, on the other hand, hardly even reacted to her. The blue-skinned girl kept staring at the alternate version of herself, too busy taking a deep breath to let her sudden range flow freely.

"MO-OM!" she shouted. "Why do you always have to do that? God, you're so embarrassing!"

Hiding her face behind both palms, she stormed off. Left behind, dazed and confused, Vinyl used the dramatic pause to take another look at her booklet. There was something she couldn't help wondering about...

"Uh, excuse me, miss?" she spoke up, after skimming through a few lines. "According to the transcript...well...I don't think you were supposed to even do that to him." To clarify her point, Vinyl motioned towards Flash, or whatever was left of him. Bearded Trixie's brow furrowed.

"You sure about that, man? Just a second," she replied, putting down her milk. From the depths of her morning gown, she produced a small leaflet of her own, labeled Evil Empire - Transcript (GrimDark Version).

"Nope," she told Vinyl, after skipping to the last portion. "Says I was bound to screw him up. Also says you oughta have died from Ebola last week...now, that's somethin' not quite right here."

While the two of them still tried figuring out, where the mistake had been made, Sonata took another booklet out of her skirt pocked. Evil Empire - Transcript (18+ Version), it read. Her face went pale, as she read through the first few pages. "Oh - oh my," she stuttered, covering her mouth with one hand.

After Vinyl and Adagio remained in an awkward silence for another moment or so, the latter turned towards her fellow siren, grabbing her by the arm. Upon a questioning look from Sonata, she shook her head, eyes closed, and motioned towards the stage's opposite end. In unison, both of them walked off in silence.

Vinyl looked around. Unfortunately, that last exit left her alone with Trixie's miraculous - if somewhat repelling - lifesaver.

"You happen to know where in town they'd sell a decent rug?" Bearded Trixie asked after another minute or so, trying to break the silence. "Y'know, I could use one, right now. It would really tie the stage together."

Half an hour later, Vinyl was the only one to remain on an utterly deserted stage, looking down on an equally emptied out stadium. The sole person she spotted after a minute of searching was the guy with the weird musical tastes from earlier. Everyone else had gone home in their every frustration. Though not looking at Vinyl directly, he has his eyes fixed on the stage, waiting for something to happen.

"Can I help you?" she finally asked, after about another thirty minutes of silence, or so.

"Depends," he shouted back at her. "Is there gonna be an encore with any Metallica?"

In a moment's notice, Vinyl took a look around, searching for guitars...or drums, for that matter. There were none.

"I don't have any instruments," she replied, once again stating the obvious. Her spectator frowned.

"Dammit...is there at least some kind of setlist or artist's autograph I can have?"

Vinyl again looked around, scanning the stage, but found none. Most likely, all available set papers had been left with the stage technicians. Or maybe Flash had dropped onto one, but she honestly didn't feel like checking there.

"Can't do...sorry."

Head hung low, he turned around, preparing to leave. Only a few minutes later the power went out, draining the entire stadium in pitch black darkness. Vinyl would have checked the time, but her phone's display had shattered during the Dazzlings' mismatched vocal attempt. From her own judgment however, she figured it had to be far past midnight.

Vinyl stayed for at least another hour or so, standing on a dark, empty stage, looking out towards a completely abandoned scenery. It felt like an eternity, and yet nobody else came by or went past. Trixie never returned, and neither did any of their former antagonists. CHS's disc jockey remained by herself.

A mixture of anger and confusion rose up inside the abandoned teenager, as her eyes fell onto the small, white booklet placed to her feet. Evil Empire - Transcript (GrimDark version), it read. More than anything, she felt cheated on. Hadn't all this been supposed to be a comedy act?

Somehow, the world didn't seem to make sense anymore. She could hardly explain that logic to herself. Then again, maybe she simply lacked the correct perspective. Which didn't improve her situation at all. Or was she also lacking the perspective to see that improvement?

Vinyl's right hand shot upwards, reaching for her shades. She took them off, thoughtfully turning them in her hands for a few seconds. Looking up to the sky afterwards, she sighed. Had she been the one wrong all the time? And if so, what had the question been? Had there even been one?

After another moment or so, she took a deep breath. Stepping back once, her grip on the pair of shades tightened. Breathing back out, Vinyl took a wide swing with her arm, tossing her purple glasses into the audience ranks. A distant, shattering sound told her they had arrived at their righteous place.

And then, without further hesitation, she turned around, and walked away. There was nothing left to do for her in this town, anyway.

Taking her first steps back to the parking lot, and - hopefully - into a better time and life, Vinyl still felt uncertain about a lot of things. Only one she was sure about. Wherever this path would lead, which nobody could say just yet, she was certain about just one of her destination's aspects.

She would - ultimately - be going home.

Or maybe she wouldn't, and simply didn't care anymore.

The End

This is an epilogue. Readers, who are looking for any more reasonable plot buildup should quit reading here. Then again, assuming you even made it this far, you've likely been mislead all along.

- (probably not) Shakespeare

Having lost their superpowers in one of the least ways anticipated - interior intervention, that was - the Dazzlings seemed to be stuck at a dead end with no way out. It wasn't until Adagio's and Aria's paths crossed again, years later, that they made peace with each other. While this newly found unity didn't fix their voices, it certainly did give both girls some of their motivation back. Willing to participate in the world of music once more, they went straight ahead, founding a highly commercialized rap duo, while marketing their music worldwide. Seven platinum, and many more golden records would prove once again that no trace of talent or creativity would ever be required for mainstream music, ever.

Sonata didn't partake in any of her former partners' endeavors. She had given turned away from her music completely, in the meantime, willing to try a new path in life. Eventually, she decided on dedicating herself to another field more fit for her strengths. Her somewhat convincing charisma, combined with having no idea on what was happening around herself most of the time, narrowed her choices down to exactly one ideal career opportunity - politics.

After wasting several unexciting years in congress, Sonata ended up being elected the first female president approximately twenty-five years after the battle of the bands concluded. She served two successive terms, being re-elected by a landslide. During eight years of power, she managed to efficiently increase national debt, while simultaneously lowering the GDP by 16%, crashing Wall Street twice, and losing three completely irrational wars against Islamism in Yemen, Morocco, and Estonia.

Needless to say, the GOP still considered her presidency a complete and overwhelming success.

Trixie finally realized her true talent and potential, as she turned away from rock music in her very own way. She later went on to become a professional stage magician. That way, Trixie kept her audiences entertained, and her own finances floating. Her career lived long and prosper, even bringing her to a certain local fame.

She did, however, also spark some controversies. At the age of 27, she would use her first ever live television appearance to demonstrate the morally questionable Hat out of a Bunny trick. The overall performance resulted in 413 lawsuits against the TV station for motivating domestic violence, and a livelong ban from said station's shows for Trixie.

Fed up with her old life, the people around her, and literally everything else in Canterlot, Vinyl Scratch decided to start her existence from scratch. Which sounds ironic, considering that's been her family name for all her live. Not that any of it was ever her intention.

Vinyl went ahead to finish the final few weeks of her junior year, before ultimately quitting high school. Collecting all the money she had saved from her Saturdays' job, she moved out of the city by August. Most people never got to know about her destination - which, admittedly she wasn't so sure about herself at the time. To this day, her whereabouts remain a mystery. According to the few people still close to her, Vinyl converted to Buddhism after moving out, and decided to spend the rest of her days meditating in a lone log cabin high up in the Rocky Mountains.

One of these people is named Steve. He's not special or anything. He just so happens to work for a delivery service in Denver, which ships a pepperoni pizza and a diet coke to said log cabin each Tuesday.

Flash Sentry remained dead because death is permanent.

Trixie's mom lived happily ever after for most of her days. Of course, there weren't exactly many of them, since she died from food poisoning a few years later. Strangely enough though, she never got sued for blowing someone's head off in front of hundreds of people.

The reason for that was everyone's complete ignorance of Flash Sentry even attending the stadium on that night. He had never officially been released from the hospital, but instead managed to put his overseer in a coma before escaping.

Said overseer should have reported to his superior later that day. However, he was on vacation at the time, and his substitute was on maternal leave since that morning. Which is rather unusual for a man in his forties, but his insurance didn't check on his file for about another week, anyway.

Papers concerning Sentry's death were never filled out, and the entire case somehow got lost in the chaos. Two FBI officials from Los Alicorns would take up the files years later, but Trixie's mom was long gone by that time. They also got abducted by aliens, so the entire case would never be resolved completely.

Bureaucracy.

Two weeks after the battle of the bands, Trixie's mom caused a brief incident at the local bowling alley. During this, she accidentally slipped, while trying to toss a ball. Instead of knocking down some pins, she ended up placing the same effect on the place's current intern, another CHS student. Luckily, the girl only received a minor trauma, though she went on to suffer from strange hallucinations for weeks.

After being released from the sirens' spell, Principal Celestia couldn't remember a thing that happened ever since the three girls had first entered her school. However, she did have to realize the entire student body now being two weeks behind schedule. None of her employees had any reasonable explanation for that.

Whatever she tried to bulge it out, at the end of that year, almost no-one at CHS had gotten ready to pass their SATs. Celestia's caffeine consummation reached truly questionable heights in the meantime.

Vice-principal Luna was quickly faced with similar issues. Yet, unlike her sister, she decided to rather not face them. Shortly after the battle of the bands, she quit her job, planning to become a professional artist. At the usage of her new stage name, Nightmare Moon, she founded her own gothic metal band.

Their success did remain limited. Aside from a TV interview with that one bearded guy from the Hangover movies, Luna never quite managed to hit the big screen.

Time Turner remained at CHS for a few more years until one day he stepped into a mysterious blue box, and disappeared without a trace. The remaining staff found themselves unable to see any reason behind this, since none of them normally watch British television.

The nerd kid, whom Trixie insulted in the cafeteria after her unsuccessful trolling attempt, did indeed manage to straighten out his life later on. Smart investments, and the correct lottery ticket would make him a billionaire only months after his own graduation.

He also became Batman, thus making him the officially most badass character in this story. There will be no questioning this.

Any other people, mentioned whenever, were deemed unimportant side characters, and will not appear in this list any further. That also accounts for the Rainbooms.

In short, and after that night at the stadium, our heroes and villains decided to split up. While none of them had initially planned to do so, it was merely a logical consequence emerging from their forthcoming actions. Some of them went straight ahead to be happy, successful, and generally go far in life. Others...not so much. Somehow, history has its own plan for each and every one of us.

That's the way it has always been, the way it is, and the way it always will be.

Because war...war never changes. Or something like that.

Comes in all Shapes and Sizes

"This is it girls. The moment we've been waiting for!"

"LUNCH?"

"Ugh. The chance to get our true Equestrian magic back."

"Oh...right. But we can still go, have lunch afterwards? It's Chicken Wing Wednesday!"

Heavily in thought, Aria tapped one index finger at her chin, pursing her lips. "You know," she said, hesitantly. "Is it just me, or did all this happen before?"

"We don't have time for this." Clear traces of annoyance had mixed themselves into Adagio's voice. "There is Equestrian magic here, which we need to claim for ourselves. We can still deal with your déjà vu afterwards, and...uh..."

She suddenly got thrown out of her concept, as Sonata's eyes widened in shock for no apparent reason. "Are you okay back there?" Aria asked her.

"Déjà vus are errors in the matrix," Sonata swiftly replied in a mechanical voice. "That happens when they change something."

"Ugh..." Adagio once more buried her face in both palms. "Go back to sleep, Sonata."

"So we'll just go in and try the same thing we did yesterday? Some plan, Adagio," Aria asked her superior, more skeptical than ever.

"Nothing will go wrong, trust me on this one."

"That's what you said before. And we all saw how that worked out."

"Okay, well...yes. But the only reason we failed yesterday was that one girl and her witty attitude. But don't worry, I took care of her."

"Huh? You can't just put anyone under a spell all by yourself..."

"That's not what I did!" Adagio burst out furiously, before catching her breath again. "Let's just say, I...borrowed her coffee this morning, and enriched it a little. Anyway, are we good? I'd like to get this over with."

And with that, they opened the cafeteria doors, marching in somewhat more confident than yesterday. Adagio smirked, as her eyes fell onto the unsuspecting horde of her future minions. What could possibly go wrong?

Trixie didn't show up for lunch today. Not that Vinyl had initially been irritated that much, though she did gradually grow nervous about her absence, nevertheless. She had thrown around a few glances, but the powerful wizard of Canterlot was nowhere to be seen. In the end, Vinyl had decided to concentrate on her food, and not worry that much about the ones around her. She couldn't change the world anyways, and watching it all go to hell would just be plain depressing.

When the three girls from the day before stepped in through the doors once again, Vinyl hardly even noticed. Actually, she didn't even observe any of the confused faces around herself, when the others all turned towards the cafeteria entrance, as in some kind of hypnosis.

After all, Bohemian Rhapsody had just shown up next on her playlist. One did not simply listen to that tune without getting fully absorbed by it.

"E-hehe. I think something might have been wrong with breakfast this morning," Trixie observed with a giggle.

She presumed time somewhere around noon, but still didn't move from her safe spot. Lunch or not, the floor was lava. She kept sitting on top of the math room's bookshelf for hours, her head almost hitting the ceiling repeatedly. For reasons not exactly clear to herself, she had climbed up here after her first block, and nobody had come in ever since.

She let her legs swing around freely, carefully watching over the desks beneath herself with wide eyes. All of them were empty, of course.

All except one, to be precise. The one directly in front of her was occupied by a blue, bored-looking unicorn, who had just magically appeared out of nowhere some time back. The two of them even shared the same haircut, which was beyond Trixie's every reasoning.

"Sooo..." she began anew. "Another poor soul to crumble beneath the great and powerful Trixie's feet, huh? Don't think I'd give you the honor to sit by my side. We'll never be neighbors, you know!"

The unicorn remained silent.

"Not good? Okay, wait, how about...oh, oh! Wait! Fantastic!" She took a deep breath. "So you know, how they always let you wait for such a long time in restaurants? It's like...you wait, but they're able to wait for much longer, and you know why that is? They're much waiter than you'll ever be, since they are waiters themselves!"

The unicorn slowly rolled its eyes, but didn't laugh.

"Well, uh...and it's funny, because, you see, to wait is like...a verb. So you can't even be any more wait than anyone else already...uh...does? Anyhow, it doesn't make sense, you see."

Silence.

During the awkward pause that followed, Trixie suddenly started sobbing uncontrollably. "It's true...it's all true. I'm not great and powerful, and I'm not an actor. I don't even have a full-time employment, and the payment for those two years in Vietnam can hardly cover my family's upkeep, let alone the therapist. What do I do-o-o..."

The unicorn suddenly smirked.

"What? Trixie never said you're greater than her, though! How dare you, fool!" She stretched out her arms, legs crossed, head held up high. "If Trixie goes down, she'll at least go down with dignity!"

She started humming a melody to herself, upon which the unicorn quickly smashed a hoof to its forehead.

"You won't get me down here, you hear? Huh, rhymes...Anyhow, you can't, that's the point! They told me this ship is unsinkable, and I'll show you!"

Right then, as she tried leaning forward, the entire shelf collapsed, burying the girl under dozens of textbooks and office accessories. Judging from the noise it produced, she must have been heard clear across campus.

And it did indeed take less than five minutes, until the door to the corridors flung open. A middle-aged man stood in its frame, one word on his lips, as he caught the door knob, before it crashed into the adjacent wall:

"Allons-y!"

It was Time Turner, their halfway-insane, British algebra teacher, of course. Upon seeing the ruined furniture to his right, he squeezed his eyes shut in frustration. "Sweet Victoria, this'll take some bloody effort to clean up."

To his surprise, and slight shock actually, a light blue hand suddenly rose up from beneath the rubber. "Trixie is...okay," a female voice yelled, accompanying it.