Chapters The Haunted Dressing Room
So we arrived at the hot air balloon station, right outside Las Pegasus. Golden bridges arching over the clouds, all sprawling into smooth artificial islands, filled with glamorous buildings and vendors selling shiny trinkets. And most of all, huge crowds to get lost in. Lyra seemed to be distracted by every single shining light, so I had to pay attention to where she was going. Lots of opportunities to spend all her money, before we even get to our destination.
We arrived at Flim and Flam’s resort, our wallets still safely sealed shut. Though when it comes to these two, that might not be the case for long. I hear they’re way better than the previous owner; would hate to see what that guy was like. You just can’t trust anypony who builds a golden statue of themselves.
It took barely five seconds talking to the bellhop and Lyra was already somewhere else. Thankfully I found her quickly and dragged her back to our luggage.
“At least we should get to our room first, before you throw all your bits at something.” I scolded her.
She chuckled. “You’re right. Maybe you should put me on a leash.”
When we arrived at our room, she ran in immediately, bedazzled by the spectacular interior design. She threw herself onto the bed and declared it to be the best birthday ever. I took our luggage and tipped the bellhop. By the time I finished, it took barely a few seconds, she was already off somewhere else. Before he left, the bellhop told me she went to the pool. Sure enough, when I looked out the window, there she was, relaxing in the pool, by the stepped pyramid fountain, wearing sunglasses I’m pretty sure she previously didn’t own. I stepped to her, blotting out the Sun with my displeased face.
“Heh heh,” she chuckled, “I ran off again, huh?
“At least you could tell me, before you do that.” I glared at her.
“I’m sorry. But look on the bright side, at least I didn’t spend any money yet.”
“Where did you get the sunglasses then?”
She looked down at the glasses on her nose, then back at me with a nervous smile.
“Whatever, be sure to stay in one piece until the concert.”
“No promises.”
“Lyra!”
“Okay, okay, don’t worry. I am not that dense.”
I held my glare for a bit. “Stay here, I need to take care of something.” Then I left.
The next thing she knew, I was doing a somersault over her head, right into the pool, splashing her all over.
“Ha-ha, gotcha!” I exclaimed, while she tried to comprehend what just happened. And when she did, she burst into laughter.
“Ah, I could really get used to this!” She leaned back into her relaxing position.
I brushed up against her. “Your wallet wouldn’t.”
“Alright there, Ms. Stingy, let this mare enjoy her birthday.”
“You’re right, I mean, I did give you this opportunity.”
She lifted her sunglasses to look at me. “And I’m endlessly thankful for that.” She said and hugged me.
We stayed there for a while. The show wasn’t about to start for quite a few hours, so we weren’t in a hurry. She slid down a few times on the stepped pyramid fountain-slide, while I slurped on some fancy drinks. We don’t often get to enjoy such extravagant activities, so we let ourselves indulge in it.
But she insisted on leaving early, she wanted to be among the first ones in the line. When we got there, barely anypony was standing in the line. But right before we could get in, we heard an explosion and an angry voice.
“Darn it! I told you to keep them separate!” The voice yelled.
We turned to see what happened and there was Starlight Glimmer unloading big boxes alongside a few other ponies. We rushed there to see what happened.
“Is everything alright?” I asked her.
“Yeah, nothing serious,” she said, “just a bit of a packing mistake.”
“What happened?”
“A few fire orbs got mixed in with the fireworks.”
“Fire orb?” Lyra asked. “What’s that?”
“It’s an exciting new invention,” Starlight took out a small orange, rubber ball looking glowing orb, “it’s a specially designed tool for fireworks. It ignites them with a single touch, without being a fire hazard themselves. That is, if it’s packed correctly!” She glared at the worker ponies.
“Fireworks inside a concert hall?” I inquired. “Isn’t that a bit dangerous.”
“Didn’t you know?” Said Starlight. “The roof is retractable. You only need to aim them upwards.”
“It is still an experimental invention and I don’t trust it.”
“Yeah,” Lyra added, “one moment you’re setting up the projector for a presentation and in the next, an ancient phantom is putting a curse on you.”
“Oh, that was a doozey!” I said.
“Don’t worry,” Starlight tried to calm us down, “Trixie is inside setting everything up. She’s an expert. Though she did not tell me all the details; she wanted to keep it a surprise.”
“I surely hope she’s not planning anything shady.” Lyra felt suspicious.
“What do you mean?” Starlight asked.
“She used to have a bit of a feud with Hendrix not too long ago.” Lyra replied. “I just think it’s odd that everything’s fine and dandy now.”
“Oh no, that hatchet has been buried long ago.” Starlight said. “She said that she doesn’t even remember why it started, but she felt the need to apologize, by helping him put on a show.”
“Well, it better be freaking awesome!”
“Oh, you bet your cutie-mark it will!”
So we finally went inside. Lyra immediately rushed forward, right in front of the stage. I went after her, though I wasn’t planning on staying there. I was going to watch it from somewhere in the back. But Lyra wanted to be right in front of the action. At first only a few ponies were there, but slowly the hall was filling up, so I decided to move to the back.
I wasn’t even outside the crowd. That’s when a huge explosion could be heard. The crowd turned quiet for a brief moment. I didn’t want to wait for an official statement. I glanced back at Lyra, who felt much the same way and was on her way towards me. I didn’t wait for her; I rushed to the source of the explosion. I saw smoke coming from the dressing area and out of the smoke there was Starlight running at me.
“Call the authorities, the police!” She panicked.
“What happened?” I asked.
And with terror on her face, she said: “He’s gone!”
The Haunted Dressing Room
The police parked their flashing cars outside the concert hall and the crowd was blocked from getting inside. Ponies were trying to peek over the blockade around the backstage corridor. Trixie and Starlight were allowed in, since they were part of the, now cancelled show. Thankfully, I knew one of the officers, so I convinced him to let Lyra and me in.
The explosion came from Hinny Hendrix’s dressing room. The door was blasted open, the walls and floor singed heavily. But the explosion wasn’t large enough to knock down any walls, or even cause major injuries. That last part we can only assume, as Hendrix himself was nowhere to be seen. I looked around the dressing room, while Lyra questioned Starlight and Trixie.
“Hendrix had some unexpected ideas for the show.” Starlight explained. “He had this cannon and wanted to shoot fireworks out of it, during the song Fire.”
“It was originally going to be some standard pyrotechnics,” Trixie added, “you know, sparks flying out of the neck of his guitar, some puffs of flame around the stage, you know, that sort of stuff. But we had some spare fireworks left and he asked if he could borrow it. I told him, ‘sure you can have it’!”
“And now we’re here.” Starlight finished the train of thought.
“So you just put a bunch of fireworks in the dressing room?” Lyra asked in disbelief.
“Hey, I was going to teach him how to deal with them,” Trixie clarified, “I didn’t even give him any of my fire orbs. It’s not my fault he found a way to light them regardless.”
“Are you sure about that Trixie?” I asked as I lifted a fire orb, out of a pile of ash that I assume was the box that contained the fireworks.
“Interesting!” Lyra said in a very accusatory tone, as she turned back to Trixie.
“Hold on!” Trixie exclaimed. “I did not put that in there!”
“Then how did it get in there?” Lyra pushed Trixie further.
“Hendrix took the fireworks himself.” Starlight stepped in. “And if you remember, the fire orbs ignite immediately. Which means, it was put there when Hendrix already had the fireworks.”
Lyra stopped to think as she realized, her judgment was too hasty. “That is true.” She said. Though, I could tell she was not going to let that lead go that easily.
“Ugh, I’m not surprised by Lyra’s reaction!” Trixie complained. “Everypony’s been suspecting me from the start. ‘Hack performer plans to blow up greatest guitarist of all time’ says the newspaper,“ she gestured dramatically with her hoof, ”false rumours all around. It was only Hendrix who trusted Trixie, but his agents were trying to convince him otherwise, as if I couldn’t hear them whispering.”
“Trixie isn’t as bad as you might remember Lyra.” Starlight continued. “She’s changed, she realized her grudge for Hendrix was silly and offered an apology tour. Which he happily accepted.”
“This is just typical Starlight,” Trixie complained further, “I try to do something nice and everypony just assumes the worst.”
“Right,” I said, “but we still need to find Hendrix and find out what happened.”
“Perhaps it was a ghost.” Starlight offered an explanation.
Lyra’s face assumed a displeased expression. “A ghost...” She said in a similarly displeased tone.
“It is said,” Starlight carried on, “that this dressing room is haunted by the ghost of Pranceley.”
Lyra’s expression did not change. “A ghost...” She repeated, further highlighting what she thinks of that explanation.
“It is true,” an officer approached us. He was carrying a roll of tape and a big padlock, “Pranceley died in this very dressing room and other ponies who used it reported paranormal activity.”
“Exactly,” Starlight continued, “and Pranceley had a feud with Hendrix as well.”
“Yes,” Trixie continued, “Trixie followed the events very closely.”
“You thought Pranceley’s death was Hendrix’s fault.” Lyra sneered at her.
“Eh, Trixie never believed that herself.” She replied.
“But he and Pranceley never made up.” Starlight added. “Maybe this whole thing is his revenge.”
"Oh come on!" Lyra sighed. "A ghost? Really?"
"Do you not believe in ghosts, Lyra?" I asked her.
"Yeah, next to all the weird things that happen in this world," Starlight inquired, "it's ghosts that you don't believe in?"
"Look, I don't know for sure whether ghosts exist or not," Lyra explained, "but every time ghosts are brought up, it always turns out to be something else. I am certain, that that's the case here as well."
"And what do you think that is, Ms. Officer?" Trixie asked mockingly.
"I don't know, but I'm going to find out."
"Well, feel free to have a hard think about that, because you're not going in this room." The officer put the door back in its place and locked it up. “I’m going to be watching this door all night, so don’t even think about doing any detective business here!” He then left.
Clearly, that officer wasn't the one who knew me. I knew a way Lyra could find the answer. All I needed is some alone time... And a maneclip.
The Haunted Dressing Room
We went back to our rooms. Lyra was still grumpy about the officer locking the dressing room, because she was sure the answer was in there. She drew all the information on a piece of paper. And no matter how she looked at it, everything lead back to Trixie. Of course she omitted any possibility of the ghost story being true. But the fire orb was a very difficult point. Everypony said, that Hendrix took the fireworks himself. In that case, the fire orb must have been inside his box before the explosion. But why didn’t the fire orb ignite immediately?
Questions like that tormented her curious mind. Thankfully she wasn’t planning on sleeping. On the other hoof, I was planning something.
“I’m going to the diner for some food. Maybe that’ll help.” I said.
“Okay,” she responded, “hopefully, by the time you come back, I’ll figure it out. I am this close, I can feel it. The answer is right there, staring me in the face. I just can’t find it, because it’s locked up inside the room.”
“Alright, good luck.” I hurried out the room.
I wasn’t going to the diner. I went outside and looked for a dark spot where nopony would see me. I took up my dark blue stealth outfit, to blend into the night. Even covered up my tail, because that’s something many newbies forget about. I sneaked back inside the concert hall. Wasn’t too hard; the guards weren’t paying attention at all. I hid in a place where I could see the dressing room. And then I waited.
I waited, because the officer that locked the door was pacing around the place. I had to evaluate his rhythm. After the third loop, I had it all figured out. He makes a circle around the hall, covering all dressing rooms, which takes up about five or so minutes. He then stops at the entrance to chat with his much more laid back colleagues for twenty or thirty minutes. And then repeat. I’ve got no less than twenty-five minutes to do this.
He went past the dressing room, inspected the lock to make sure it’s still there and continued his circle through the dressing area. I waited ‘till the light from his flashlight disappeared around the corner and I sneaked up to the dressing room.
I took the lock into my hoof. A keyed closed shackle padlock? Pff, amateur. I took my maneclip and unlocked the door within seconds and sneaked inside the dressing room. I’ve had plenty of time to do the ritual, but I still needed to hurry.
I laid out the cloth, got the candle and got the book with the right words. I’m not going to detail the procedure, because then I’d have to erase your memories.
When I finished, a light appeared in front of me, taking up the vague shape of a pony. I took my mask off as Pranceley materialized in front of me. Once he appeared fully, he quickly realized what was happening.
“Hey, I can see my hooves again!” He exclaimed at the sight of his own ectoplasm. He then looked at me. “Look, I’m sorry, but I’m currently not quite available for backstage sessions.”
“No, that’s not what I...” I was too caught off guard to form a coherent sentence. I sighed and explained myself. “I’m here for answers.”
“Is this about how I died on the toilet? Well, that’s a funny story that I’d rather not tell.”
“No, about the explosion!”
“Oh, the explosion... Right...” He thought for a moment. “Well, Hinny jack brought in the small box of fireworks, he set it down next to the wall... And then it exploded.”
I couldn’t believe how nonchalant he was about all this. “Is that it?” I asked.
“Oh, here’s one more thing. That magician filly had absolutely nothing to do with it.” He then got distracted by his own thoughts. “I hear she’s a big fan of mine. Well, I’m a big fan of hers.”
I put my hoof on my face. This is not one of those compliant ghosts. But I pushed further.
“Do you know anything about where Hendrix went?”
He raised his left eyebrow. “Remember when I said, he set the fireworks next to the wall?”
He had a point. The explosion was quite large, yet the wall was fully intact. I got up and went to investigate it. I tapped on it with my hoof; it seemed thick, but hollow. I put my ear up against it and I did hear something. I couldn’t believe my ears. Snoring?
“I’d hate to interrupt your wall inspection,” he interrupted, “but the officer is coming back.”
That’s bad. We’ll have to do this tomorrow morning. By the time the officer arrived, I already put away everything and sent Pranceley back to the spirit realm.
The door opened and he the officer walked in. He shined his flashlight around the dressing room, trying to find me. But I was hiding behind the open door, with my mask on. I had to be quick, because he could turn around any second. And just as I was stepping out the door, he did turn around and spotted me with a loud “Hey!”
I bolted off immediately. Thankfully, I was both faster and more prepared than him. While he was stumbling outside, I could hide in a dark corner he couldn’t see. He ran past me, right outside the entrance.
“What are you standing around for?” He yelled at the two night guards. “They’re getting away!”
They were slow to realize that he saw somepony and they were just as slow to take action. They started running around outside, awkwardly pretending they’re looking for somepony. Meanwhile, I sneaked right past them.
I went behind the diner. Since not many ponies were inside anymore, I figured I could sneak in through the window and still get some food for Lyra. Or at least, go around and get back to our room without anypony noticing. As I passed an open window, a familiar voice could be heard.
“...But why even hang around Bon Bon?” It was Starlight.
I quickly hid next to the window.
“What do you mean?” Lyra’s voice could be heard.
“What I mean is,” Starlight continued, “you could get back with Twilight, or hang out with us. I mean I’ve got to travel around Equestria with Trixie, even meet Hinny Hendrix himself. Imagine where you could be, if you stopped yourself be held back by Bon Bon.”
I abhorred every word that came out of her mouth. But there was no time. One of the guards was around the corner. Though he expressed disbelief at the officer’s claims, even called him “way too paranoid”, but it still would have been bad if they saw me. So I ran away silently.
I waited for a bit inside a bush for the guards to stop searching for me. Once they were gone, I changed back and made sure nopony would notice anything strange when I walked into the hotel and back to our room. Lyra was inside, slurping on some drink.
“Where in Equestria have you been?” She asked angrily, but ultimately relieved.
“I got lost and then I got distracted by something.” That’s the best story I could come up with.
“A-ha...” She drank the last drop of her drink. “Somepony broke into Hendrix’s dressing room.”
I turned to her very quickly. “Oh really?”
She looked at me questioningly, while I tried to look as innocent and unaware of anything as I could.
“I hope they find ‘em.” She said nonchalantly, then went to bed.
After an awkward pause I asked her. “Did you figure out anything?"
“Eh.” She answered and lobbed her empty cup into the trash bin, which was filled with crumpled up pieces of paper.
I went to bed as well. “Be ready to wake up early tomorrow.”
“Why?”
“I want to show you something.”
“O-okay?”
We laid there silently, trying to sleep.
Lyra suddenly mumbled something. “I met Starlight at the diner...”
I lurched up. “What’s that?”
“Oh... Nothing... Never mind... Good night.”
I didn’t ask further. But inside I was being torn apart.
The Haunted Dressing Room
“Hey, Bon Bon!” Lyra shook me up from my sleep. “You said you wanted to show me something.”
Lyra was right. I was the one who told her to get up early. It took me a bit of time to wake up; I didn’t sleep well that night. What Starlight told her kept echoing in my head. I dragged myself out of bed and we went back to the concert hall. The guards were asleep.
“Uh, what are we doing here?” She asked, as I walked up to the entrance.
“Just follow me.” I picked the lock on the entrance. The guards probably put it there before going to sleep.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Lyra stopped in front of the entrance.
“Shh, you’ll wake them up!” I whispered. I looked around, then I beckoned her over.
I lead her to the dressing room. The officer was sleeping right in front of the door, which made my job marginally more difficult. I opened the door, carefully put the padlock down and then gestured Lyra to follow me in. We stepped over the sleeping officer and I shut the door quietly once we were in.
“Okay, I know I like to drag you into some weird stuff,” Lyra said, “but I never made you break into places.”
“You said that the answers are in this room,” I hurried her, “this is your last chance to find it.”
She was worried, but was also glad that she could now finally take a look around. But she didn’t know what to look for. She looked at Hendrix’s broken guitar, mourning it silently. Looked at the broken mirrors and wondered how many years of bad luck that equalled. She then inspected the ashen remains that used to be a box of fireworks. She picked up the fire orb and took a very good look at it. She then groaned in frustration.
“I don’t know what I’m looking for!” She whispered loudly.
“Just keep looking somewhere around there. I’m sure you’ll find it.”
She sat down by the wall, just about to give up. “I’m starting to believe this was indeed a ghost.”
“Seriously? Is this why I-“ I tried to scold her for giving up, but she shushed me.
I could see her ear perk up. She looked at the wall as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Or hearing.
“Do you hear that?” She asked me.
We stood there for a few seconds in complete silence. I could indeed hear that. There was a very faint sound of snoring and it wasn’t the officer at the door. Lyra put her ear up against the wall and then looked at me.
“I think somepony is snoring behind this wall.”
“Could it be Hendrix?”
“There is only way to find out. We have to tear down that wall.” She turned to me. “We need a sledgehammer.”
“No, we need to be quicker.”
“Quicker? How? Another box of fireworks?”
“You went to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, I dropped out in the final year!”
“You had to somehow get to that final year! Come on, I’m sure you can do something.”
Lyra took a deep breath. “Okay... I’m sure I can remember some offensive spells.” She took a few steps back.
I could see her horn start glowing more and more intensely. Lyra’s face seared with concentration as her horn glowed brighter and brighter. She lowered her head and pointed her horn towards the wall, a waterfall of sweat pouring from her forehead. Then suddenly, her horn spew a few sparks and just stopped. Lyra tried to say something, but the belated laser beam shot out of her horn and she was thrown to the ground by its force.
When the dust settled and she got up, we saw that there was a big gaping hole in the wall and the snoring was now very loud. She looked through the hole and let out a very loud gasp. I looked as well and she had all the reason to be shocked. There was small dark room that must have formed after the explosion and Hendrix was inside it, asleep and snoring very loudly. That is when the officer barged in through the door.
“What is the meaning of this?” He yelled. “Are you the one who sneaked in last night?”
“We’ve found Hendrix!” Lyra shouted not wasting any time.
“What? You’re not fooling anypony!”
“Shut up and help me pull him out!”
The officer stopped yelling when he saw, that Lyra was indeed trying to pull something out of the wall. He ran up to the hole and saw the dark “room” and the sleeping Hendrix inside. He pushed Lyra to the side, turned around and kicked the wall with his hind legs. The hole grew larger and now a whole pony could fit through. We pulled Hendrix out, who was still snoring.
“Is this where he was the whole time?” The officer was in disbelief at his mistake.
“And how is he still sleeping?” I asked, also in disbelief.
Lyra thought for a bit. “He must be under some sort of sleeping curse.”
“Can you lift it?” I hurried her.
“I don’t think so.”
“I’ll get Starlight Glimmer,” the officer exclaimed, “she must be a powerful enough unicorn to do that.” He then ran off.
But I wouldn’t let Lyra just leave it like that. “Come on, you blew a hole in the wall, you can remove a curse as well!”
“I can try!” She said and then breathed in deep. “Okay, what do I remember about curse removal...? Absolutely nothing, I wasn’t paying attention.” She then looked at Hendrix, who was still snoring very loudly. “Okay, I can do this.” She boosted herself.
She closed her eyes, lighted her horn up, I could see drops of sweat appear on her forehead, as her eyebrows lowered in concentration. Moments later, a small glittery smoke emerged from Hendrix’s mouth. He stopped snoring and grimaced as he tried to sniff his nose. He groaned quietly as he finally opened his eyes very slowly.
“You did it, Lyra!” I was excited to finally see her do some more advanced magic.
However she was panicking. “Quickly give me a bottle or a box, anything!” She ran in place nervously as she levitated the curse cloud in front of her.
“What? Why?” I asked.
“I need to put this somewhere; you can’t just destroy a spell!”
“What is happening?” Hendrix muttered as he slowly woke up.
Suddenly, a laser beam shot into the curse cloud, dissolving it completely. It was fired by Starlight as the officer finally returned with her. And they brought Trixie along.
“Alright, step away from the donkey.” Said the officer.
Hendrix finally got up, with some difficulty though, because he was asleep for the duration of almost an entire day.
“Does anypony have any tissues?” He asked. “The dust completely clogged my nose.”
“Well, I’ll be,” said Trixie, “what happened?”
Hendrix looked at her and his face flared up. “What do you mean, what happened? You blew me up!”
“What?”
“Everypony was telling me not to trust you. I should have listened to them.”
“Hey, Trixie has nothing to do with this!” Starlight stepped in front of him.
“That is true, sir,” the officer chimed in, “you were attacked by a ghost!”
“A ghost?” He exclaimed, then sneezed a big one.
“It wasn’t Trixie who blew you up; it was a fire orb.” I said. “Do you remember putting it in the box?”
“I don’t really remember anything, to be honest.” He answered. “The last thing I remember is the pink pony asking if I’m alright, but I guess the explosion knocked me out very bad.”
“Wait, you don’t remember being put into the wall?” The officer asked.
“Being what in the what?”
“We were looking for you the whole time. These two young mares have just found you inside the wall under a sleeping curse.”
He looked at us in utter confusion. “How long have I been sleeping?”
“About fifteen hours.” I answered.
He couldn’t believe what I just said. “Fifteen hours?!” He exclaimed in disbelief. But there was something else he was more concerned about. “The show, what happened to the show?”
“It was cancelled.” Trixie said in a disappointed tone.
“Aw man!” He groaned. “Seriously, Trixie?”
“Me? I had nothing to do with this!”
Starlight got in front of him again. “Do you really think she’d put you under a sleeping spell and put you behind a wall?”
“Yeah, Trixie doesn’t even know how to do that!” Trixie added. “Why would Trixie even go through the trouble?”
Lyra finally shook off the dumbfounded expression she took on upon seeing her idol up close. She looked around the room and started thinking. After finally connecting the dots she interrupted the wave of accusations and declared: “I think I know exactly what happened.”
All eyes were on her.
The Haunted Dressing Room
“Trixie, is indeed innocent!” Lyra declared.
“Finally, you admit that.” Said Trixie.
“I don’t know,” Hendrix added, “thinking about what I’ve been told, it’d make sense. Especially now”
“No, just think about it,” Lyra began, “Trixie isn’t very good at magic...”
“What? The Great and Powerful Trixie is a great magician!” Trixie shouted.
“Yes, a great magician ,” Lyra explained, “but Trixie specializes in trickery and spectacle and sleight of horn.” She began pacing around. “But a sleeping spell? An entire wall rebuilt? I mean look at this.” She put her hoof on the wall. “The hole the explosion left was large enough to fit a grown donkey inside and still leave room. Yet the wall that’s been rebuilt over it has not a single scratch. This isn’t sleight of horn! This is advanced solid material reconstruction. This was the work of some very powerful magic.”
“Very powerful magic?” The officer wondered. “But that only leaves one option.”
Everybody looked at Starlight. She looked back at everybody.
“Wait, you’re accusing me?”
“Starlight, you were the only one to stand up to Trixie.” Lyra continued.
“Well of course! She’s innocent.”
“Right,” Lyra nodded, “and you know that, because you were there when the explosion went off.”
“Yes. I was nearby and when I saw the explosion, I came in and Hendrix was already gone.”
“Except he himself has just said, that he saw you come in! Which means, he was still conscious and outside the wall when you found him.”
Starlight got visibly very nervous. “I... I can explain.”
“No need to. I can explain it myself. You came in after the explosion and you were the one who put him under the sleeping curse!”
“No, I...”
“And then you put him inside the hole-“
“No!”
“-and then you rebuilt the wall around him, hoping that nopony would ever notice a thing.”
“No, I...” Starlight sighed. “Yes, that was me.”
A shocked silence lingered for a moment. We looked at each other with great confusion.
“But why?” Trixie asked, voicing the source of everypony’s confusion.
“Everypony was so mistrustful of you.” Starlight began to frantically explain. “We were so careful about everything, because even a tiny mistake would be called sabotage and ruin your career. Hendrix was kind enough to give you the benefit of the doubt, but then the explosion happened and even that was lost. When I came in, he was blaming you. Imagine what would have happened if he told the media. Your career would be in ruins.” After a bit of a pause and a sigh, she continued. “I thought, that if I placed the blame on a ghost, then I could keep at least some of your positive image.”
A bit of silence lingered as everyone took all of that in. Tears of regret appeared on Starlight’s face.
Trixie put her hoof over Starlight’s shoulder. “You risked your own future and the life of one of the greatest musicians of history, just so you could save my career?”
Starlight sniffed. “Honestly, I wasn’t thinking when I did it. But yes, that’s what I did.”
Trixie pulled Starlight closer. “Hey,I appreciate it, even if nopony else does. I’m glad to have a friend that would risk everything to defend me.” They then hugged. “Just maybe next time, try not wall up others to do it.”
Starlight was crying and laughing at the same time.
Hendrix let out an audible aw. “Isn’t friendship wonderful?” He said.
“Sir, she almost killed you.” The officer said, but Hendrix just shrugged it off.
Hendrix stepped up to them. “Look Trixie, I’m sorry for accusing you. As she said, everypony was so suspicious of you and I guess they filled my head with all that and I put the blame on you the first chance I got.”
“The Great and Forgiving Trixie forgives you.” She smiled.
“I’d like to try this again. Just no explosions this time.”
Trixie chuckled. “Deal!”
“Wait,” the officer interrupted, “we still haven’t got any answers on who caused the explosion.”
I had an idea, but I dared not to say it. I knew somebody who’d do such a thing and I hoped that I’d never cross paths with him again. I came up with an explanation quickly, to completely avoid even the possibility of bringing him up.
“Could the fire orb have been defective? I mean, it’s still an experimental invention, it’s bound to misfire occasionally.”
“Well, I know for sure, that I’m never using them again.” Said Trixie. “I’ll stay with regular ol’ fire. You’re not gonna lose track of that.”
“Honestly, I might have picked one up without thinking.” Hendrix shrugged.
“Yeah, I’d personally wait with any experimental inventions,“ I added, “let it go through rigorous testing first.”
“So,” the officer took out his hoofcuffs, “shall I hoofcuff her or, what?”
“No, that won’t be necessary.” Hendrix smiled.
“But sir…”
“She was just defending her friend, no need to punish that.”
The officer blinked a few times as he slowly put his hoofcuffs back onto his belt. “Well… Alright then…” That’s all he had to say to that.
Suddenly, the entrance guards barged into the room. “We’ve heard an explosion! What happened?
“You heard him,” the officer yelled at them, “no charges pressed!”
“What?” The guards said in unison.
“And what’s with that awful response time?” The officer led the guards out of the room. “You two are simply the worst night guards I have ever seen! Missing two break-ins like that!” His voice slowly faded, as they left.
Trixie and Starlight began leaving the room as well.
“Wow, you’re really good at getting off scot free.” Trixie turned to Starlight. “How do you do it?”
Starlight thought for a moment. “I guess explaining your actions, will bring out the sympathy in others.”
“Huh, I should have thought of that before.” Trixie chuckled. “Can you imagine what I could get away with if I just made up a sob story?”
“Trixie!” Starlight groaned.
“What? It’s not my fault my parents left me when I was a little filly.”
Their laughter is the last thing we could hear of them. We were just about to leave as well. But then Hendrix stepped up to Lyra.
“That was some impressive detective work back there.” He said.
“Oh, it was nothing.” Lyra waved that compliment off, as her face turned as red as a ripe apple.
“May I ask for your name? Just to know whom to thank in the interview.”
“Lyra… Heartstrings…” She could barely pry the words out of her trembling mouth.
“Lyra Heartstrings? That’s the prettiest name I’ve heard.”
“Hey, Hendrix,” I leaned on Lyra, “you know, this mare is not only a fine detective, but also a wicked lyre player. She didn’t get a lyre cutie-mark for nothing!”
“A lyre player? Ooh, I have an idea! How about you perform with me and Trixie on our next show? A show to symbolize the end of a grudge, featuring the detective-musician who got both of us out of trouble! How does that sound?”
Lyra opened her mouth to say something, but all that came out is a faint sound somewhere between an excited gasp and terrified screaming.
“She says yes.” I answered for her, because she wasn’t able to at the moment.
“Great!” Hendrix shook Lyra’s hoof, who was still unable to react. “I look forward to playing with you!” He then let go of her. “When shall we begin?”
Lyra stood there, still frozen. Her mouth was moving slightly and faint sounds came out, but nothing intelligible.
“I suggest, we let her gather the pieces of her mind first.” I said.
Hendrix chuckled. “It’s okay, I can wait. Here,” he handed us a card, “you can contact my agents here, they’ll help you get in touch with me.”
I took the card and we left the room. I had to push Lyra outside, because she temporarily lost her ability to react to anything. At the same time, I was preparing for the sudden outburst of energy once she snapped out of it.
The Haunted Dressing Room
Lyra slowly calmed down, once we got back to our room. Her frozen staring turned into hyperactive spazzing. After delivering a few rib-crunchers, she finally exhausted herself enough to help me pack. But I have a feeling she’ll be raving about this whole thing for at least a year.
“You know,” she flopped down onto the bed, “is this like the second mystery we solved?”
“What are you getting at?”
“We should totally become a mystery solving duo!”
I looked at her disapprovingly.
“Come on, ‘Demystifyers’ is a way too cool name to pass up.”
I tried to keep a serious face, but I had to chuckle. “You really love doing these, huh?”
“Yeah!”
“I’d honestly prefer if we didn’t seek out these mysteries.”
“It’s more like the mysteries seek us out.”
“Alright, help me pack.” I tried to get us back on track.
She got up and crammed her stuff back into her case. After a failed attempt at squeezing it together, she took everything back out.
“You know,” she gave up packing momentarily, “there’s still one question that needs to be answered.”
“What is it?”
“Who did light the fireworks?”
I closed my neatly packed case and looked at her. “I told you, it was a defective fire orb.”
“Come on, Bon Bon,” her face turned serious, “I can tell you don’t believe that explanation either.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Ever since you told me about the secret agent stuff, I’ve been noticing things about you. Like when there’s something you don’t wanna talk about.”
Well, I guess I’m not going to get out of that without an explanation. I looked around, to make sure it’s only the two of us. I sat down next to her closely. “Alright you got me...” I sighed.
“Out with it. What’s going on?”
“Without telling you too much...” I looked around again. “Let’s just say, there is someone that I was really hoping I’d never meet again.”
“Ooh, like an arch-nemesis?”
“Yeah, I guess we could say that...”
“You know,” she looked around as well, “there is something I should have told you as well.”
“What is it?”
She sighed. “I met Starlight at the diner...” She paused. “...And she said something that I think you should know about.”
I had a pretty good idea what she was getting at. I listened.
She took a deep breath. “She tried to convince me to leave you. She told me that I should hang out with her and Trixie, because according to her, you’re holding me back.”
I didn’t say anything; I was worried what she was going to say next.
“You know what I told her?” She turned to me.
“What?”
“I told her...” She then looked forward, as if Starlight was in front of her again. “Absolutely not!” Her face flared up. “What are you thinking? She’s my best friend and best friends make you better, not hold you back! You graduated as Twilight’s student and now you’re counsellor at the School of Friendship. You should know that!”
As if a million tons were lifted off my heart, it made me so happy to hear her get so angry about this.
“She then apologized and it turns out she was just trying to save herself by distracting me,” she continued, “but it still ticked me off, that she’d talk about you like that. I just didn’t mention it, because I wasn’t sure how you’d feel about it. But now that you shared your own hidden feelings, I felt it was needed... A-are you crying?”
She was right. I was indeed crying. “I’m so glad you told me that. You know,” I tried to wipe the tears off, “with the things I’ve been through before I met you, I often worry about losing you... It’s good to know, that I don’t have to worry about you abandoning me.”
“Abandoning you?! Oh Bon Bon!” She hugged me. “I would never abandon you! You’re the best thing that ever happened to me! I’d never leave you for anything!”
Her hug was firm, but soft. This wasn’t one of her rib-crunchers; this hug showed that she did mean everything she just said. I returned the hug. At that moment I remembered everything we’ve been through, from the moment we met, up to this day. And I couldn’t help but let out the tears I have been holding back.
“Thank you, Lyra...” I whimpered.
The Haunted Dressing Room
I always have an easy time planning surprises for Lyra’s birthday. She always stays at home for the week, because she’s afraid of Pinkie Pie throwing a surprise party for her. Understandable and very convenient.
You see, there’s this donkey musician she idolizes called Hinny Hendrix and he was going to perform at Las Pegasus alongside Trixie, who’d handle the special effects. Lyra really wanted to see that, but due to this show being even more expensive than usual, she just gave right up. But I knew a way to get tickets for free. I’d tell you how, but then I’d have to erase your memories.
Anyway, I went home with the two tickets, hoping to surprise Lyra. She didn’t surprise me, she was reading the same book as she did when I left. Something about an evil monster and a dragon.
“Hey Lyra!” I tried to get her attention.
“Hey Bon Bon…” She said in a disinterested tone.
“Look what I got you!” I said in that obnoxious tone you use when you want to surprise a little kid.
“I hope it’s a cupcake, because I could…” She stopped in the middle of the sentence when she saw, that what I was holding was in fact, not a cupcake.
The way she looked is hard to describe. Let’s just say, that her mood went from zero to a hundred within the fraction of a second.
“Are those…?” She looked at me in wonderment.
“Two tickets for the Trixie-Hendrix Las Pegasus Spectacular? Why, I believe they are!”
And if you thought there was nothing beyond a hundred, yes there is. There is when it comes to Lyra. She jumped out of the couch and hugged me in that ribcage crushing way you hug only your best friends.
“How did you…? I thought they sold out!”
“Well, let’s just say, I know a guy, who knows a guy, who knows a guy.”
“Bon Bon this is incredible! Ah! You’re the best thing ever!” And then she continued to crush me between her forelegs.
