Evil Empire

***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."