An Unsettling Detail

  The alicorn turned around, but Sportsy quickly hurried back to her friends. Mostly everyone had left already.

   "Come on, guys. Let's go. I have something to tell you." she dragged them out of the building.

   They arrived at Sportsy's house. "What were you doing?" Blue Note asked.

   "I was right! That isn't Melody!" Sportsy explained. "I saw her shape shift into a different pony backstage!"

   "What?!" Empousa cried and hid behind Blue Note.

   "Then where's the real Melody Spring?" Blue asked.

   "I'm not sure, but I did notice the alicorn was wearing a necklace with a red gem." Sportsy helped. "Maybe we should follow her?"

   The impersonator of Melody was not at the stage anymore. "Now what do we do?" Mage asked sadly.

   "Go home?" Empousa guessed.

   "No, wait, maybe I can track her...Got it!" Sportsy said and a map appeared in front of her. "Looks like she's right here." She pointed to a spot on the map. "At the top of this mountain."

   "Ugh. This'll take forever!" Blue complained.

   "...Said the one with wings." Mage Plateau growled.

   "Hey, if me and Sportsy were alone, it would take seconds!" Blue Note replied.

   "Girls, calm down. It won't take that long." Sportsy said. "We'd better get started or else we'll never make it there."

   Mage stuck out her tongue, and Blue responded the same way. And they started off on their journey.

TWO HOURS LATER

   "Are we there yet?" Blue asked for the hundredth time. Mage rolled her eyes.

   "The last fifty times you asked the answer was no, but this time it's actually yes!" Sportsy looked up the mountain towering over her. She couldn't even see the top. "Make that a no." She corrected herself.

   "Oh, come ON!" Mage screamed angrily, her echo bouncing around, then covered her mouth. Darn it. Now she was becoming Blue Note!

   "Well, climbing it won't be too hard, right?" Sportsy began climbing up, Mage following and Blue hovering overhead. They noticed Empousa wasn't behind them.

   "Empousa, come on. Don't be scared!" Mage called.

   "But it's so...big." Empousa whispered.

   "Well it is a mountain!" Blue said.

   "It's OK, Empousa. I'll be right behind you." Mage winked, and Empousa climbed up, convinced.

   The first few minutes were easy, but then got more icy as they got higher. The group stumbled over the frozen stones and dirt, until they were almost at the top...

   "Help!!" Mage cried out, about to tumble to her doom. Empousa grabbed onto her, but her grip began to slip. Blue grabbed her, but the weight was too much.

   "Sportsy!" Blue exclaimed. Sportsy gasped and came to their rescue, using her magic to carry them all to the top safely before teleporting herself there.

   Empousa sighed in relief. "Thank-"

   "Shh." Sportsy quieted. She looked around. A building, three glowing red necklaces surrounded by some sort of dome thingy, a-

   Wait, glowing red necklaces? Three? Sportsy looked back to them. So there are three of them, she thought. She'd come back for those later.

   Sportsy inched towards the building, her friends following. Peeking in, she saw three figures, all of them strange alicorns. One was the pony at the concert, one was yellow with poofy orange hair with a yellow highlight, and the other was light purple with purple hair with green highlights in pigtails.

   They were all crowded around...Melody Spring! At least she was safe. Sportsy listened into their conversation.

   "Let us record your song!!" the yellow one yelled impatiently.

   "No." Melody said sternly.

   "Come on, Adagio. Why don't we just put her under our spell already?" the purple one asked.

   "Aria, darling, do you realize that if we do that we won't be able to get any answers out of her?" Adagio asked in a fake sweet tone.

   "Why don't we just kidnap another famous singer?" wondered the blue one.

   "Because everyone goes to her concerts, Sonata. Do you know how good that would be for us?" Adagio's tone was fading. "Let's just try again tomorrow." She walked up the stairs to go to bed, and the other two followed. Perfect, Sportsy thought.