On the next day, the whole band was there... except for Twilight, for some reason. They waited for approximately ten minutes before they saw her running up to them, with Spike on her back, carrying a bunch of stuff.

  "What took you so long?", asked Rainbow Dash, frustrated.

  "I'm sorry.", said Twilight. "Pinkie, Spike wants to ask you something I don't want to ask for him."

  "What is it, Spikey?", asked Pinkie Pie.

  "Well...", said Spike. "... I wanted to know if you could hire me as your manager."

  "Of course!... what do managers do, anyway?"

  "... Pinkie, do you know anything about the technical part of having a rock band?", asked Twilight.

  "Well, no. I'll ask Linkin some time."

  "I really hope we're doing the right thing here..."

  "Don't worry. Every little thing's gonna be alright.", said Spike.

  "Hey, ah don't wanna interrupt yer conversatin' here...", said Applejack. "... but we're all here already, so we should be goin' inside."

  "AJ's right.", said Pinkie Pie. "We'll set things up later. I'm sure Linkin will help us out too."

  "Why am I getting such a huge feeling that something will go wrong here?", said Twilight to herself, as the band entered the music school, heading to Lincoln's office.

---------------------------------------------------

  "Good morning, Chia Lincoln!", said Lincoln Rhettfield to his pet chia statue of himself, having just woken up. He often ended up sleeping on his own desk, since he had so very much to work on. He always kept his head up, though. "Beautiful day we're having out there, isn't it?"

  "Knock, knock!", said a voice knocking on the door. It was Pinkie Pie, because it sure sounded like it.

  "Come in!"

  "Here we are!", said Spike, as the band entered Lincoln's office.

  "Good! Now, if you guys don't mind, I want to talk to you about... basically, the technical stuff you need to know about if you don't want to risk getting in trouble with the law, or anything like that. First of all, who is your manager?"

  "We were thinking about hiring you...", said Pinkie Pie. "... but then Spike came up, and I decided to give him a chance."

  "Does that Spike guy know anything about the technical part of having a rock band?"

  "I don't think so... do you, Spike?"

  "Just some really basic stuff...", said Spike.

  "Wait... you are the manager?", asked Lincoln, with a surprised look.

  "Yeah."

  "Aren't you a little too young to be the manager for one of the greatest psychedelic polka-rock bands in Equestria?"

  "Sure."

  "... okay. I suppose you know where you're going with this. I wish you luck on that. Okay, so it's actually a good thing that Spike is here. He's the one who needs to know the most about this."

  "When are we going to actually make some music?", asked Rainbow Dash. "This is so boring!"

  "Well, I can see you're all dying to get in the studio and play your music, but this is really important. So, please listen, mmkay?"

  "Fine..."

  "Now, do you guys have a lawyer?", asked Lincoln. "It would be a GREAT help to you, especially to Spike."

  "I was also wondering if you could be our lawyer.", said Pinkie Pie.

  "... that's not a good idea."

  "But we don't have anypony else--"

  "It's a GREAT idea! Of course, it's a bit more work for me to do, but I can handle it just fine."

  "Oh, Linkin, we don't wanna feel like we're drowning you in work papers."

  "Yeah... but what can I do?"

  "I could help out.", said Spike.

  "Spike, aren't you getting a little too involved in this?", asked Twilight.

  "Don't worry, Twilight. We'll split the work between us. How about it, Lincoln?"

  "Well, Spike, it's your choice.", said Lincoln. "I'm okay with it. Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about royalties."

  The word 'royalties' brought up Rarity and Applejack's attention in a matter of seconds.

  "Basically...", said Lincoln. "... when you record an album, and release it in record stores, you will hopefully sell quite a lot of copies. You'll earn 10% of all wholesale-priced sales."

  "Doesn't sound like much.", said Applejack.

  "Who cares about money anyway?", responded Rainbow Dash.

  "Well, to be honest, ah care 'bout it as much as you do, Rainbow. However, it'd be nice to have some money fer buyin' some important stuff. Ah'm not talkin' 'bout jacuzzis or diamond-studded swimmin' pools. Ah just want to raise some funds for the barn, that's all."

  "Applejack...", said Lincoln. "... let me give you an example. Let's say your first album will cost, I don't know, $15. For each album sold, your band will get $1,50."

  "So?"

  "Well, if your album is interesting enough to sell one million copies, you'll get a whopping $1,500,000! You'll have enough money to take care of your personal stuff, and maybe you'll even have some bits left!"

  "Heh... I never was good at math anyway."

  "Anything else we need to know?", asked Spike.

  "Just one teeny-tiny thing.", said Lincoln. Rainbow Dash sighed.

  "What is it?"

  "When you record your album, I will own the rights to it until five years after the contract ends."

  "Wait, we make the songs and you take credit for it?", asked Rainbow Dash. "Not cool, dude."

  "No, you'll still take credit to it. However, I'm the one who will decide, for example, if your song can be featured in somepony else's work. But since I'm such a nice guy, I'll let you take part in deciding this kind of stuff."

  "So, that's all?", asked Pinkie Pie.

  "Yep. That's all for now. Any questions?"

  Everypony shook their head negatively.

  "How about you, Fluttershy? You didn't say a word."

  "No, it's fine.", said Fluttershy.

  "So, can we go to the studio now?", asked Rainbow Dash.

  "Yep.", said Lincoln, before Rainbow Dash zoomed through the door.

  "It's music time!", said Pinkie Pie. "See ya later, Linkin!"

  "See ya."

  "She does know your name is Lincoln, right?", said Spike.

  "As long as she pronounces it right, I'm okay with it." Next Chapter: Studio Time Estimated time remaining: 27 Minutes