Reeltime Roadtripby Vis-a-VisceraChaptersThe Opening ScoreThe Feature ConfrontationThe Vintage DiscoveryThe Final CutThe Opening Score“Remind Trixie again why she's hanging out with you two on her day off?” Starlight Glimmer let out another mighty sigh. “Because I thought it’d be nice to get you out of the Friendship School for one day. Besides, Twilight and the others are too busy with the school to address this directly-” “Wait-a-sec, that’s why Trixie came?” Popping out from the wagon’s door as well, Sunburst re-adjusted his glasses on his snout with a huff of air. “Thought there was a bigger reason you needed us both, Starlight. Especially since your note about this trip said murder was involved.” “On the legs, Sunburst. It’s murder on anypony’s legs; and teleporting all this stuff with us was a no-go.” Indeed, the wagon was stuffed with investigative knick-knacks. “Don’t worry, Sunburst. Trixie was tricked with Starlight’s misleading messages, too.” “Hope Hollow and Ponyville will cut off all trade if we don’t solve their mayors’ friendship problem, Trixie!” huffed Starlight. “Technically, you actually will be screwed in Ponyville soon! Unless you think your antics’ll fly when the lumber and plaster prices skyrocket!” “Well then, let’s get cracking!” Sunburst said. “This should all be over in a snap!” Slinging one of the cameras around her neck, Starlight gulped. “Here’s hoping,” she uttered, with far more confidence than she felt. As they entered the center of Hope Hollow, each of the three visiting unicorns found something to feast their eyes on. Starlight focused on the looks of the ponies around them. For once, she was both comforted and concerned by how she wasn’t the only anxious pony in this town. Considering how the muscles in Hope Hollow’s residents tensed as they moved through the streets, she had to wonder if it wasn't already too late. Sunburst’s gaze locked onto the minute print on the papers the ponies held in their hooves and magic, the whirling headlines making his brow furrow. Apparently, they had arrived in the nick of time - the papers were already talking about the impact of Ponyville’s embargo. Speaking of arrivals, Trixie was hunting for a stage more suitable for her grand entrance. So many frowns and concerned faces - she had to do something! What kind of magician would she be if she couldn't dazzle them with her brilliance? Her gaze was focused, but her unruly nostrils twitched, her attention caught by the aroma of something delicious cooking. She shut her eyes and followed the scent, sniffing every now and then. Sunburst and Starlight exchanged glances but followed Trixie as she followed her nose. The scent led to the town hall, where checkered tables laden with grains, beets, and other crops had been laid out. And between two of those tables stood the pony they were here to see. "Mayor Sunny Skies!" The Feature Confrontation“Oh! You’re here already!” Mayor Sunny Skies chortled. “You’ll have to forgive the light spread. I figured we’d need to have the Hope Springs Eternal Festival early, considering…” His smile dropped as he pointed to one of the newspaper stacks nearby him. Starlight levitated the paper over, Sunburst skimming the headline before whistling. “Geez! We got here just in time - the blockade’s getting ridiculous!” he quickly said. “I'm Sunburst, that’s Trixie, and the purple mare picking her jaw off the floor is Guidance Counselor Starlight Glimmer.” Mayor Skies shook Starlight’s hoof first, his grin returning as Starlight’s gaping mouth closed. “Starlight, I’ve heard of you before - through Headmare Twilight!” “Apologies in advance then, Mayor Skies...” Starlight grimaced. Visions of Our Town were dancing through her head. “Whatever for, Starlight? Being the most dedicated student Twilight’s ever had?” The way Starlight’s face lit up at the praise, one would think there were three ponies named ‘Sun’ in the room. “You’ve got the camera she told me to look out for. I assume Miss Twilight had other obligations today?” “Unfortunately,” Starlight affirmed. “Well, we’re hardly oversights ourselves, Mister Sunny,” huffed Trixie. “What is so pressing that I have to worry about the Mayor sending the Great and Powerful out of Ponyville?” “She forced you to come?” Before either Sunburst or Starlight could correct him, a scowl flashed back onto Sunny Skies' face. “I see she hasn’t lost that tendency to bully ponies since we last met, either! Now her superstition’s the town’s problem.” “Forced is a strong word there.” Sunburst’s replied. Mayor Skies's disclosing didn’t seem to really gel with the rational Mayor Mare that Sunburst knew. “And what superstition is that you're talking of, Mayor Skies?” The mayor grimaced. “Well, it all began with that blasted homeroom.” “A homeroom” An uncomfortable beat passed, before Sunny Skies finally turned to the newspaper again, flipping to its third page. “It’s been pushed off the front due to this… ridiculous feud Mayor Mare insists on continuing, but…look.” Sunburst’s eyes bulged at the picture the mayor showed him. Reclusive as he was, even he knew the cold equation playing out before his eyes. Black-and-white class photos with the words ‘MISSING’ never boded well. Starlight gasped as she read the headline. “Class of Hope Hollow’s Elementary, ‘Homeroom 22’, missing since 1970: visited by traveling magician, Spectacle” The fillies in the photograph were as different from one another as could be imagined, their expressions ranging from beaming smiles to camera-shy scowls, but every face in the photograph sent a little pang of pain lancing through Starlight. Especially the younger ones, some of them barely out of kindergarten. How could all these little lives have evaporated into smoke? The magician Spectacle stood off to one side from the group of children, a smarmy grin splitting her muzzle as she theatrically flourished her wand at the camera. Starlight barely spared her a glance. She couldn’t look away from the fillies. Goddess, some of them were my age when I ran away from Sire’s Hollow. My home town. Starlight's eyes brimmed with tears as she forced herself to read further. Only to keep from ruining the paper, she said to herself. I don’t want the others to see a Friendship School official break down. Yet the spike of shame at her display of emotion burrowed in her breast as she read on. “HOPE’S HOLLOW - The upcoming anniversary of the disappearance of Homeroom 22 will continue as planned, despite the possibility of a trade fallout between Hope’s Hollow and Ponyville. ‘We must not forget how, even with the Elements’ saving of our town, there are still some wounds here that only remembrance can heal.’ said Mayor Sunny Skies. He refused to comment at the time on whether it was this event that led to the departure of Mayor Mare from Hope’s Hollow and the subsequent feud between the local governments of Hope Hollow and Ponyville. However, this moment still serves as a secret shame to many in Hope’s Hollow, according to First Lady Petunia Petals. Shortly after the above picture was taken fifteen years ago, the twelve fillies of Homeroom 22 and their visiting guest magician Spectacle disappeared without a trace. The investigation led by recently minted Mayor Mare at the time was inconclusive, with no new leads reported after the first week of the case. Some ponies report that it is possibly the need for a scapegoat that led to Mayor Mare leaving Hope Hollow, and the current strife between government officials in Ponyville and Hope Hollow today. “By Hoofdini’s mane…” whispered Trixie. Starlight cast a sideways glance at her friend, and was surprised to see all the color had drained from Trixie’s face as she stared open-mouthed at the photograph of the travelling magician. “I was…hoping you could assist us mayors in bringing some closure to this,” Mayor Sunny asked. “I know that even Mayor Mare must feel the same way about this.” Sunburst gulped. “We’ll try, Mayor Sunny. But I don’t know what we can do that your law enforcement ponies couldn’t.” “You can use a little magic, for starters.” At Sunburst’s questioning expression, Sunny Skies continued his explanation. “We had Hope Hollow Elementary shut down the day after to prepare the scene. But soon after, the first issues with our rainbow machine occurred - drew off all the magical pony power we had. Eventually, there were too few to process the scene, and we had to call off the case.” “Do you at least know who took the photo? We could start there!” Trixie asked hastily. Something beyond mere eagerness made the tone of her voice seem low and desperate. “The old photographer Grey Film?” Mayor Sunny shook his head. “Sorry. Passed a magical polygraph when we asked if he’d seen them leave the school. We had to let him go - nopony’s seen him since either.” Starlight nodded. “Then we’ll start at the school. I assume it's still closed off?” “Yes,” the mayor confirmed. “Derelict since the incident. Nopony would go back. This should get you past the guards overseeing the front of the building.” Mayor Sunny handed Starlight three golden badges. “Good luck.” “You too,” Starlight replied, batting off Trixie’s hoof as she snatched at the badges. The three of them turned to leave, but a heavy sigh from Mayor Sunny Skies drew Starlight’s attention back. “Are you sure you’re alright, Mayor?” Sunny Skies lifted a cerulean hoof in a shrug. “It’s just all...such a mess. Mayor Mare and I were friends, before all this. I don’t think she’s ever forgiven me for it.” “To this day, I don’t know why the parents did.” The cold voice made all four of them flinch and turn to see who spoke, and they swung around to see Mayor Mare stalking towards them, her eyes steely with resolve. Trixie’s eyes widened at the Mayor’s sudden appearance, and Sunburst’s ears tipped back in dismay at the hostility on her face. “I guess we should have known she was already here,” he hissed to Starlight. Starlight was frantically scanning the newspaper once more, trying to capture anything she might have missed on her first read through. The disaster unfolding in front of her soon drew her attention back as voices began to climb. “Nopony forgave me for that, Mayor Mare, least of all me! But we were in a crisis-” “And you decided a machine was worth more than the welfare of thirteen fillies!” Mayor Mare spat. “A case which I reopened right after the color came back to Hollow!” protested Mayor Sunny. “And considering what happened to this town after the machine started sputtering, I’d have thought you’d be happy to be well away when it went kaput!” Mayor Mare hmphed. “If you still want us to help, Mayor Skies, we’d be happy to try,” Starlight offered tentatively, her smile wilting as she spoke. Sunny Skies’ expression became conciliatory once more. ”If you would,” he said, almost begging. “Before we have to bring out wheelbarrows for a jar of Zap Jam.” “Right!” Trixie said suddenly, blurring into motion, and scooping up both her friend’s tails in a pink field of magic, she dragged them backward and out of the hall. The mayors watched them go, their mouths falling open slightly in shock, and Trixie waved a hoof. “We’d better get started if you’ll excuse us!” Sunburst was first to speak, the slight feeling of gratitude for being removed from the mayoral squabble drowned out by his indignation at such rough treatment. “Trixie, what in the world-” “I recognize that stage magician.” Swiftly, Trixie pointed out the paper still in Starlight’s magical aura. “More to the fact, I was born to that stage magician.” Starlight brought a hoof to her mouth, humbled by the hurt in Trixie’s eyes. “Goodness, Trixie, I never knew that your mother had gone missing.” Trixie pulled the brim of her hat over her eyes, but the tears twinkling at the edges of her eyes were still visible. “It's been our secret shame. I think it’s why Dad tried to keep it from me. And later… why he spoiled me so much.” Trixie’s shoulders rolled as she trotted out toward her caravan. “But now these Mayors have given the Great and Powerful Trixie a chance to get closure.” Sunburst, after a short pause of his own, followed Trixie. “When Trixie’s right, she’s right,” he said softly. Starlight lingered for a moment, though. Looking at the paper and the camera around her neck - the only evidence of this ‘Grey Film’s’ existence - her mind was a turbulent tempest. Were the disappearances and the wrecking of that rainbow machine connected? Where’d Spectacle and Homeroom 22 go, if not out of school grounds? How could a whole class just vanish? And could such a terrible event somehow happen again? The investigation into this friendship problem had grown - at least, enough to finally get clues. So why did Starlight feel like she was still stuck in a grey area? “Only one way to find out,” she murmured to empty air as she raced to the wagon. Wherever this would take them, Starlight was ready to shed some light on this missing mare mystery. The Vintage DiscoveryStarlight studied Hope Hollow Elementary's facade as she, Trixie and Sunburst trotted into its depths. For her, the sight was a startling surprise. Despite the years that passed, the school seemed near-immune to the ravages of time. Starlight’s glowing horn revealed slightly chipped blue walls holding crudely drawn sketches of the townsponies, but no further damage. The three unicorn investigators slowly traveled the empty corridors, their hoofsteps like cannonfire in the silent halls. Sunburst peeled away as they passed the library, and began to root through the books. He ignored the books on the shelves, but his magic pulled book after book over to him from the ledge behind the desk. Starlight looked behind her for Trixie, but the showpony was making a beeline for the doorway at the end of the corridor. Her gaze was affixed on the doorway's shiny sign: ‘AUDITORIUM’. Starlight followed closely behind, curious on whether Trixie had a lead. But when she reached the auditorium herself, Starlight was dismayed to see the blue unicorn pacing ceaselessly around the stage at the far end of the barely-sunlit room. On Trixie’s fifth pacing loop of the stage, Starlight stepped in front of her. “Is there... any way I can help?” Starlight asked. Trixie, for once, only had two words for her friend. “Fake hatch.” Her steps continued, exaggerated yet precise as they struck against the wood. But only heavy thunks answered her odd steps, and Trixie’s frown grew on each. Starlight had no response. Apparently Trixie had something in mind that she was looking for, despite the likely impossibility of Spectacle still being around. Watching as Trixie’s prancing took her closer to the purple-blue curtain to the rear of the stage, Starlight fought back the urge to ask Trixie for clarification. Perhaps letting her do this might take her mind off her incognito mother. Goodness, and the worst part is, I know what I did when I found out one of my parents was here one day, then gone- Starlight stiffened as Trixie’s tail disappeared behind the curtain. Once again, her memory dredged up that Homeroom 22 photo. And Just as she was about to ask Trixie if this was her futile attempt to find Spectacle, Sunburst’s voice broke the silence. “Starlight! Found something you’ll wanna see!” Starlight teleported right to his side. “What is it, Sunburst?” Sunburst showed another photograph. “Apparently, the librarian here had a lookout notice. Comes with photos too, and I found this as a bookmark in a ledger. Does he look familiar?” Starlight’s forehead creased as she looked at the masked pony in the photo. A mask with spikes a the sides that resembled a spool of film, a shiny black hood with white gears covering the shoulders, and an impeccably sharp suit with a blood-red rose in the lapel. “Besides it looking like a poor Nightmare Night costume?” Starlight whispered back to Sunburst. “Nope, doesn’t ring a bell.” Sunburst’s dour expression was a surprise to Starlight. “I’m not surprised. Not many ponies like hearing about a literal foalnapper like Reeltime.” Starlight’s mane stood on end. “You know of him?” “No, but Mom did.” Sunburst grumbled. “Mom fills buildings in Sire’s Hollow; eventually she got a habit for keeping up on knowledge of who not to let in house and home.” Squinting under Starlight's purple horn-glow, Sunburst’s face sank back into shadow as he looked at the picture. “Well, this pony’s infamous enough that Grey Film’s alerted the teachers to the possibility of his presence.” Starlight blinked. “Really? D’you think Grey Film escaped Reeltime?” Her eyes flickered once more over Reeltime’s photo. “Maybe Reeltime got in here somehow, snatched away Homeroom 22, and Grey Film fled over the guilt?” “I thought that too, at first.” Sunburst rummaged in his cloak and brought out some scraps of paper. “But if Grey Film’s got any motivators, guilt isn’t one of them.” He displayed a repair slip and two complaints notices. “The desk I got this ledger from is covered in hoof imprints, and Grey Film is mentioned in the librarian’s notes back there. Mostly complaints about him getting on their case. Apparently, they didn’t provide him with certain documents he wanted, or clear out certain locations for him.” Starlight shook her head. “Well, keep an eye out for more about that. I can’t believe Grey Film left such a bad impression that he made somepony paranoid enough to monitor him like that!” Midway through Starlight’s griping, Sunburst stifled a giggle. Starlight turned toward him. “What?” “I just thought….Well, you, getting mad about somepony monitoring somepony else!” Sunburst couldn’t keep the grin off his face. “Probably in bad taste in the scary pitch-black school, but-” “Oh.” Starlight’s ears drooped in shame. Goodness, that Our Town’s specter would never leave her, would it? Like Grey Film’s one, Reeltime, wouldn't leave him. “I’m sorry, Sunburst. I thought - I thought it was about-" Starlight shook her head. "Nevermind. I'm not that pony anymore. Sunburst’s hooves went up quickly. “O-of course, Starlight! I didn’t mean anything by it - I was just ribbing you! Sheesh, I... “ His eyes went back to the paper, his horn’s glow flaring up to keep the flush on his cheeks from being visible. ”A-anyways, It wasn’t just the photographer acting suspiciously that day.“ “So there was another pony having issues with the librarians, huh?” Starlight asked. “Well, not the librarians - just the administrators, it looks like. And that other problematic pony was… Mayor Mare.” “What?!” A sharp cry came from behind them, and Starlight whirled in fright to see Trixie appear in the doorway to the library. Sunburst leaped back in shock, his horn shooting haywire sparks out from the end as his magic sputtered out. “Jeez, Trixie!” “Didn't think you were that concerned about the Mayor but - yeah, she made so many noise complaints to them that she was nearly kept out of the school photos. All the complaints were about Reeltime, too.” Sunburst shuddered as he looked back at the photo of Reeltime. “What? Who cares about Mayor Mare?” Trixie waved a forehoof. “I came to get you because I know what trick Spectacle did! And what I can use to find where she vanished to!” “Huh? But…” Sunburst’s eyes narrowed in confusion. “Sorry, I think I’ve missed something.” Starlight sighed. “Yeah… Trixie’s looking for a fake hatch. She thinks her Mom might have hidden under the stage.” “Starlight!” Trixie snapped. “That was not the issue I was. And I know my Mom has to have escaped whatever foul fate befell her audience.” “Wait, hold on!” Starlight pushed both unicorns away from each other. “Sunburst, explain your stuff first. Trixie, wait your turn.” Trixie flushed with anger, but she remained still. Sunburst took over, giving Trixie an apologetic smile. “Well, the Mayor... she wanted to up the patrols and increase security with Reeltime around, despite the budget not being big enough for it. And considering how hostile she’s gotten towards Mayor Skies - do you think it’s possible she pretended to be Reeltime? To scare Hope Hollow straight?” Trixie’s jaw dropped at this. “No! The Mayor may be a petty bureaucrat, and far too harsh to unfortunate ponies who accidentally lead Ursa Minors into town-” Starlight’s hoof jabbed into Sunburst’s side as he rolled his eyes. “-but that does not mean Mayor Mare can get the drop on my mother.” Trixie finished. ”It would take more than that to disappear the Great and Powerful Spectacle! And I have proof.” Sunburst sighed and let his papers and photos drift back to the desk. “I can see I’m not going to get any peace to do any more research here until we go see Trixie’s proof. Lead the way.” Trixie smiled smugly and trotted back down the corridor towards the auditorium, with Starlight and Sunburst following the self-satisfied swish of her tail. The auditorium looked different to when Starlight had left it. The curtain on the stage had been dragged down and lay strewn about the stage, and Trixie’s many hoofprints had disturbed the thick layer of dust. “Here!” Trixie gestured triumphantly. Starlight glanced at Sunburst, her expression blank. “Trixie...what are we looking at?” “Ugh!” Trixie stamped a hoof impatiently. “Must I explain everything? The curtain would conceal Spectacle just long enough for her to complete her trick. Which means she could likely make her disappearance by using a potion to give her wings! Or perhaps by using a Fade-in-Fabric potion to pass through the curtains and the wall behind…” “Or maybe just use a dumbwaiter,” Starlight pointed out. “Or she could use a-” Trixie nearly choked on her sudden outrage. “How dare you call Trixie dumb!” Then her eyes followed the direction that Starlight was pointing in, and her anger faded into a sheepish grin. “Or you could mean that tiny lift Trixie sees now.” Indeed, the descended slice of curtain had revealed a crawlspace, with a lift tucked away in one corner. Something small twinkled in the interior of the dumbwaiter, drawing Trixie in, with Starlight close behind, wryly shaking her head at the showpony’s last outburst. “Starlight, Trixie, hold on! That could be dangerous.” Yet Sunburst followed them regardless, right up to the edge of the dumbwaiter- despite its visibility from far away, the curtain’s shadows still kept the mystery item from view. “It’s fine, Sunburst.” Starlight said, shooting Sunburst a knowing look as he watched Trixie clearing the dust choking the backstage. “And yes, I know how ironic it is that I’m saying that.” Sunburst’s eyes were still trained on that sparkle. “But Starlight-” “After how we beat Chrysalis, I’d argue that we’re the most dangerous things in this school now.” Starlight sighed. “Well, besides Reeltime, since you think he trailed Grey Film here.” “Speaking of, I think I know how Grey Film escaped!! And if she knew of it, how my mother escaped as well!” Trixie pointed at the dumbwaiter, and the camera sitting face-down at the center of it. Despite the caked layers of brown and rust-red that age had set upon it, the clue’s potential was all too obvious. “They must have taken the dumbwaiter to the basement; it’s big enough to fit them both!” “Leave it for now. We don’t know what state the lift’s in, and-” Sunburst jumped at the sound of the front door to the school banging open. Hushed whispers could just be made out, but the distance made those words unintelligible. “Well, that’s your ticket out of riding the scary lift, Sunburst! Somepony else is here; let’s take the camera to them!” And Trixie’s pale pink magic gripped the camera, tugging hard. Starlight’s eyes widened in horror as she finally spotted the source of the sparkle that had initially caught her eye. Leading to the camera was a thin, glittering thread, securing the camera to something out of sight. “Wait, Trixie, hold on!” cried Starlight, but it was too late - Trixie held the camera up to her eyes, the glittering thread pulled taut. Suddenly a flood of green light, sickly and blinding, exploded from inside the dumbwaiter as it shot down into the yawning shaft. The silver string still attached to it, and Trixie to that string, as was almost dragged down with it. But Sunburst and Starlight scrambled after her and just managed to hook their forehooves around Trixie’s hind legs, keeping her dangling in the chasm. Starlight gasped as she took Trixie’s weight. “Trixie, let go of that camera, we’ve got you!” Sunburst yelled. Trixie shook her head frantically. “Trixie is too scared to hold on and too scared to let go!” Starlight grabbed Trixie’s tail in her mouth and braced her legs against the wall. It sounded like she’d need to be the tie-breaker now. Hoofsteps sounded close by approaching their room. Starlight tried to turn her head to see who it was, but Trixie’s tail hair filled her muzzle and her vision, and she didn’t dare let go to get a better look. The steps toward them got louder. The sickly green light grew stronger. And Trixie’s legs got slipperier - Starlight was sweating with nerves, disorientated from the blinding light, and her hooves slid helplessly along Trixie’s limbs as the blue mare slipped lower. Sunburst’s horn ignited to add some more force to their pull, but then something happened Starlight could scarcely believe - Sunburst’s own magic turned against him, solidifying in a cone and gripping him tightly by the horn. Then it yanked him into the gaping dark mouth of the shaft. “Sunburst!” Starlight couldn’t help it; she instinctively lit her own horn to try to catch him, but by then he was already tumbling down the shaft, and the two new light-cones that warped around her sent Starlight and Trixie following. In Starlight’s twitching ears - beyond her and Trixie’s screams - she could hear the auditorium door slam open. Too late, she thought mournfully, her horn sparkling futilely to slow her endless fall. Too late! The light surrounding her hit its highest intensity, forcing Starlight to shut her eyes. She tumbled over and over, the wind rushing against her fur. Then everything went black for a different reason - her head impacting against something much harder than itself. This time, Trixie was the first to realize their change in surroundings. The sickly green light of the shaft was gone, replaced by a black-and-white painted showroom. First on her agenda was stirring her similarly downed - and still alive! - friends. Their prone forms were the only spots of color in the otherwise monochrome room. After they were groaning and stirring, Trixie’s second action was fighting back cardiac arrest when a third pony’s hoof tapped on her shoulder. “Agh! Don’t hurt Trixie she has a family!” Then her eyes widened at the mystery pony who’d startled here. Behind her Starlight and Sunburst were similarly gobsmacked. Part of it was due to how much taller and prouder that mystery mare stood over them. Part of it was that fact that she, like them, was vibrantly colored - an almost Applejack-orange coat and flowing blond mane, but a curved horn and a sunflower-like mark on her flank. But it was the white-and black starred hat and cape upon her that quickly narrowed down her identity. One that her next words confirmed with all the subtlety of a lightning bolt. “Well, my daughter, I’d hope you still have family. Nevertheless, I apologize for my… late debut.” “Spectacle?!” Sunburst’s shriek broke the tense silence like a glass shattering. Even if the magical mare herself hadn’t raced to clamp a hoof over Sunburst’s mouth, Starlight might have. Despite her shock right now, several things were self-evident -- -Oh my Faust! Spectacle here, and the shaft we fell down, she’s here that means the other fillies might be here and I have no idea how to get back and- Sunburst was as stunned as Starlight. Trixie was a different case - she was sobbing and hugging her mother, Spectacle’s foreleg cured around her. It was a testament to Spectacle’s apparent skill at multitasking that she could console Trixie and converse with Sunburst at the same time. Yet that’s just what she did. “Charmed as I am to see a pony cheer for me again, I would rather you keep it down. It has been fifteen days since we were blinded and dropped in this world. Celestia must be notified of our dilemma - she will know a way to free us from this strange land.” “Wait, where are w-we?” Trixie blubbered, lifting her head from Spectacle’s shoulder at last. Her eyes still shimmered with gratefulness over the discovery of her long-lost mother. “Please, at least tell me it’s still Hope Hollow!” “Well… yes and no.” Spectacle, for some reason, held Trixie even closer to her. “And you’ve grown so much so fast, dear Trixie. But my fellow captives are in the other room, and if your friends know of a way out, that takes precedence over our reunion-” “-did you say fifteen days?” “I’m sorry, what?” Starlight finally asked, turning to Sunburst. “Spectacle said she’s been here fifteen days, how could that be the case?” Sunburst demanded. “Do you mean fifteen years?” “I’m… positive it’s fifteen sunrises on this end.” Spectacle pointed at the window. “Laborious as it’s been to find the sun in a sky like that.” Starlight investigated first, and her eyes widened at the endless planes of black and white that yawned out to join her. It looked exactly like the town they’d just left, right down to the thatched buildings and the monochromatic rainbow arcing overhead. And if Starlight peered over to the left - to her horror - she could see the expanse of another city- in fact, a chain of cities, each an identical copy of the one before. They began where the hills of Hope Hollow started, an endless ring surrounding the town like a wall. That wasn’t the only difference. There were creeping oily-black loops of plasma in this Hope Hollow. And the sight of those slick streams made their new watcher gag. It was so... wrong. Like so much of this colorless world had become since they landed in it. Trixie was right. Now was time for some answers. “Okay, Spectacle…” Starlight announced, her voice dangerously low. “Never mind how long it’s been for us in the outer world. Explain how long it’s been since that’s done… that.” The Final Cut“Soon after our photo was taken, we blacked out and awoke in this world,” Spectacle started as she, Starlight, Sunburst, and her daughter Trixie trekked through the halls. Every so often, they waved to groups of bedraggled fillies they passed. Despite the grime on their clothing and their sunken eyes, the children waved happily enough at the other colorful ponies passing by. "We had issues with food, but I was able to open the school's cafeteria with my horn. Then... bigger problems arrived." "No way back?" Starlight offered. “... None.” The way Spectacle spoke, that homeroom’s trials might have been more than she signed up for. “I gathered as many of the fillies as I could and searched everywhere. Getting out...hasn’t been as simple as getting in here. Thank goodness I heard you arrive in the auditorium - you might have the key to get back.” “Of course. And with these two's help,” Trixie tittered. “I have no doubt we'll be back home soon.” “Oh, Trixie! There’s the modest, gentle soul I raised!” Spectacle seemed completely genuine, ignoring the shocked look Starlight shot her. Even Sunburst could read the Trixie? Modest? Hanging on the tip of Starlight's tongue. "Did Reeltime show up here too?" he asked. "Shortly after we did," Spectacle growled. “He must have followed Grey Film! He’s been popping in and out of this world, taunting us all about how close he is to having enough negatives to unleash on Equestria. Really obsessed about retooling that place in his image, the second he finds worthy ‘models’.” Spectacle bitterly laughed as they looked through the schoolhouse doorway, the streets hauntingly empty. “Such an ego on that fiend.” Starlight gulped audibly. “I… see.” Her gaze swung toward the streets. “You said 'negatives', right? Do you mean the town?” Spectacle looked a decade old as she turned to Starlight. “No. They’re the… things that Reeltime made of near-half the class - a process he perfected from the towns around us. Follow me - you can see the ‘negatives’ for yourself.” After shutting and locking the door of the school behind them, the four ponies trotted through the streets of the black-and-white Hope Hollow. Spectacle kept them close to the walls and trees. “I’ve looked for Grey Film, but he’s gone. I can only assume he was taken by them.” Spectacle stopped, pointing from behind a tree. Trixie, Sunburst and Starlight almost gasped at what they saw. Several ponies were in the town market, and beyond the striped grey-scale roofs, lurking beside the slick black lake, were the ‘negatives’. They certainly had the shape of ponies. But they were consumed by shiny, rippling ichor - the same oily black substance that crawled through the monochrome school. It covered the ponies entirely, only thinning out slightly at the rear flank to show the cutie mark over a ring - whichever ponies were old enough to have them. The way the inky darkness made their jaws and forelimbs look - wicked and jagged - made Sunburst shudder, thinking of the behemoth Stygian had become when under the influence of the darkness. The Pony of Shadows. But much like the pool of ichor one of the streams had made, the ponies seemed to have a limit to their reach. They paced, they coughed, they growled in a sound that reminded one of scraping chalk against boards, but they stayed near the lake. “Gonna guess magic doesn’t work against them?” Sunburst asked. “On the contrary.” Spectacle mused. “It draws them. Then they pull you into those lakes, and…“ She swallowed thickly. “I shouldn’t have brought you here. I-” “How many fillies did they take?” That the question came from Trixie wasn’t what made Starlight turn to her in shock. It was the tone that Trixie asked it in, something that Starlight hadn’t thought Trixie could harness - near-silent fury. Spectacle was the first to realize it. “Trixie, please don’t do anything rash-” “This... Reeltime stole you from me. Stole this homeroom from the real Hollow. Stole these… fillies’ bodies.” Her purple eyes sparkled with rage. “How. Many.” “There were seven, Trixie! But please, don’t-” Starlight was more punctual than Spectacle, tackling Trixie to the ground before she could let her sorcerous bolt fly. “Right now, Trixie, we don't know what they might do to us - or what they can handle!” she hissed to her thrashing friend. “Let’s get accounts from the other fillies at the school; then we can figure out a way to save them and leave!” Just as Trixie finally calmed down, an ear-piercing scream broke out. “The school!” Spectacle’s head whirled to face the bundling. “I can’t lose more of them! Not again!” Sunburst gulped. “Uh, Spectacle?” he whispered, his voice hoarse. “Think the losses might be coming a bit closer to home right now.” Slowly, Spectacle turned to notice the negative ponies, slowly stalking toward their position. The strings linking them to the pool still weaved and twisted in the air with an almost independent will. They reminded Starlight of snakes - hungry, hunting pythons. And the creatures they were attached to were just as ravenous. “Right. Time to take these things out. We've been found out anyway.” Starlight lit up her horn- -and got yanked backward by Spectacle as she burst into a gallop. Sunburst towed Trixie after them by the ends of her cape. “Those are stillinnocent fillies, Miss Glimmer!” yelled Spectacle. “We can find a way to sever them from those pools - but not like that!” Sunburst peered behind him. Despite the disturbing yells and growls from the pursuing negatives, he noticed that the threads of ichor connecting them to the black lake were growing dangerously strained. Not only that, but the ichor around their bodies was thinning out the closer they got to the schoolhouse - and the further they got from the pool. A knowing grin crossed his cape-stuffed muzzle. “Ah thimpk Ah hav an-” Remembering he still had Trixie’s cape in his mouth, he gave a swift tug and yanked the showpony onto his back, before spitting out the speech-obstructing fabric. “I think I have an idea! Starlight, get your horn ready and be prepared to catch!” Starlight, already at a run herself, turned to Sunburst with confusion worn across her face. “Catch what- whoa there!” But both she and Spectacle were too late to stop Sunburst’s bolt of magic, shot straight at the closest negative. His target was different, as the magic javelin missed the filly’s body entirely, slicing through the thread of ichor instead before impacting the ground. But the loss of tether and the resulting blast sent the negative flying right into Starlight’s clutches. She overbalanced, the black-coated filly clutched in her arms, and both ponies crashed into the town halls front door. “Starlight!” Trixie yelled. But upon Sunburst’s back, all she could do was fire enough bolts from her horn to keep the other two Negatives from following Starlight. The negatives flung themselves after Starlight, but their tethers were at their limits and yanked them back just shy of the school doors - where Sunburst, Trixie, and Spectacle burst through into safety. Trixie whirled on the others the second they slammed the doors shut. “We’re going back for Starlight!” she demanded. “Right now!” “We might not have to if my hypothesis is correct!” Sunburst said. “Those tethers come from the lake, and cutting one-” “You risked Starlight and an innocent filly’s life for a hypothesis?” Spectacle snarled, shoving her muzzle against his and forcing him to back away from her until his rear collided with the wall. “I have lost nearly a third of these poor scared ponies to Reeltime’s madness, Sunburst!” “I didn’t think Starlight was gonna charge them into Town Hall!” Sunburst said. “And if you want, I’ll lead the charge myself, but-” Then his eyes shot back toward the door and his words trailed off. “Spectacle, didn’t you lock that door behind us when we left?” Spectacle sighed in exasperation. “Yes but - one of the fillies may have unlocked it to look for us on the outside-” Then her face turned pale enough that Sunburst could almost have believed that she was a negative too. “I locked it from the outside. Who in the world could have come in?” A SNAP and a flash of green light made all three ponies squint. The second they tried to straighten from their crouch, they realized that they… couldn’t. “Who’s doing this?” Trixie yelped, her purple eyes searching fruitlessly for their captor. But it was no good - they were stuck fast. Helpless. Then she gasped, her eyes widening at the sight of ponies even more helpless than herself, her mother, and Sunburst. The schoofillies were crying and sobbing as they were led out of the classrooms by four more negatives. And leading this band like a pied piper, was the masked and malicious pony from the photograph in the library. “Reeltime!” Spectacle hissed, straining madly in her frozen prison. “I should have known you would strike here while I was gone!” “Really, the pleasure’s all mine! Thanks to them-” Reeltime jerked a forehoof, the one holding his glistening black camera, twinkling with green sparks, at Trixie and Sunburst. “You really went the distance, holding out against me all these years, Spectacle! But these idiots here drop into my world, and deliver you to me in one tidy package!” A tinny chuckle came from behind the mask, and he tapped the glittering flashbulb on his camera. “What’s wrong, Spectacle - you’re the best showpony in Equestria, surely a little spotlight wasn’t that maddening?” As he calmly produced a foldable stand and set it up at the entrance, Sunburst struggled against his bonds. “What in the world would you do this all for, Reeltime!?” he yelled. “There’s far more ponies in our world now than there were before! Brave ponies with magic strong enough to defeat you! Whatever evil you're planning-” “Improvement, you scruffy-haired simpleton. What I am doing is home improvement!” Reeltime smirked. “And the second I have your purple friend captured too, you’ll learn that nopony is immune from being made into a negative. A literal film-soaked scion, ready to learn from a real teacher. One who will forward a Renaissance in Equestria, to make up for the deformity that Equestria forced on me.” It was only then, as he hunched over his camera stand and his cape bunched up on his side, that Sunburst noticed the sharp stubs of skin twitching at his shoulders. Like there were supposed to be wings there. “You mean… you had something taken from you?” Sunburst’s voice was softer, but his eyes flickered to the windows for any sign of Starlight. “Hmph. Like you’d care about the fillies in Manehattan who pretended to be my friends, and taunted me every day for my tiny wings.” Reeltime grumbled, aiming down the sights of his pony-freezing weapon. “Like you could comprehend the pain they dealt me, even before I lost one wing saving one of them from falling off a flagpole they wanted to wedgie me on. Like you could ever survive the pain in a father’s disappointment at the failure of his son who he had hoped would become a Wonderbolt, seeing me return with those dreams dashed… and then running rather than face it.” Finished with his work, he jabbed bitterly at the camera aimed at the door. “This is all that kept me aloft in Equestria. Not magic, not friendship, and certainly not the critics that plague my art.” “I understand the pain of your loss, Reeltime,” Spectacle started. “But that does not make doing…whatever monstrosity you’ve visited on those other fillies acceptable! Spreading your misery doesn’t make the friendship problem go away, it just makes it everyone’s problem!” “Oh, please don’t waste my time on such trite pleas,” snarled Reeltime. “The last snapshot is almost ready. A pity your little photographer Grey Film never told you of why we’re so close.” “He told me enough, Reeltime!” Spectacle yelled. “He told me you’ve stalked him!” “You see, this is why people should watch more films!” Then Reeltime reached for the clasps to his mask, unhooking each one with foreboding snaps. “Then this wouldn’t be a surprise.” As the leather and metal fell away, what lay beneath made both Spectacle and Sunburst gasp. Despite the age that had silvered his mane and the lack of an actual horn on his head - unlike what the pointed mask hinted at - the face was all too familiar. Sunburst had seen it in the complaints report, even his name was in the headline of the Homeroom 22 papers. Spectacle, however… had likely seen him far earlier than the others. “Grey Film…” she moaned, and the word fell from her lips like an anvil. “By Celestia…” “Oh believe you me - she’ll be before the lens in good time. And speaking of…” Grey Film, now revealed as Reeltime, clapped his hooves. “My wonderful negatives - make them shine. You know where the source is for the dip.” Then the ichor-dripping ponies lunged forward, grabbling clumps of fur and clothing in their teeth and dragging the three ponies away. The fourth - the one not holding Spectacle, Sunburst, and Trixie - and turned to snarl at the frightened fillies, keeping them rooted. For the three unicorns being pulled away, however, those growls rang in their heads like tambourines. It was a dark testament to the sounds - and freedom - they’d have taken from them in minutes’ time. Just then though, Sunburst caught a glimpse of a flash of purple outside the window of the auditorium, and his eyebrows rose. He nudged Trixie, who glanced over and understood at once. She darted forward, aiming right for Reeltime, and he was forced to scramble backwards away from her until he could blast her again with the freeze-flash of his camera. He caught his breath, and then brushed himself off. He stood on the very precipice of the black lake on the stage, Trixie frozen before him, her hooves outstretched towards him. Reeltime laughed cruelly at her ridiculous posture, and flicked her dismissively on the nose. “Nice try, Trixie. Was that the last trick up your sleeve? Not much more of a threat than your mother.” He sneered over at Spectacle, and it was then that a flash of blue magic sparked into being above his head. A snap of magic and dislodged air announced Starlight’s arrival, and before a dazed Reeltime even had a chance to look up, Starlight was landing on his shoulders, her strike making him lose his grip on his camera. It tumbled from his grasp and into the black pool of ichor. Reeltime gasped and swung after it, trying to catch it, and Starlight’s weight on his shoulders was just enough to throw his balance off. He skidded in the oily pitch, his hooves slid from beneath him, and then he and Starlight were falling, falling, Reeltime’s forelegs windmilling and his mouth open in a rictus snarl of fury as Starlight’s horn lit and -- SNAP! The flash of Starlight’s magic blinded them for a moment, and the first thing Trixie and Sunburst could make out were the last ripples on the pool’s surface as Reeltime’s reaching hoof sank. “Starlight!” Sunburst howled, rushing to the edge. “Up here!” A distant voice called, and their heads tipped back to spot a little purple shape crouching in the rafters of the auditorium. Starlight teleported one last time, down to their sides, and the three friends watched in amazement as the ichor began slowly but surely to drip away from the negatives. “I think...I think we did it,” Starlight said slowly. “We solved our friendship problem.” “We did far more than that,” Trixie said, putting a hoof around Spectacle’s. “We found my mother.” “And saved all these ponies,” Spectacle added, beckoning the frightened fillies towards her, to watch the faces of their friends emerge from the slick black ichor together. It had taken only an hour for them to get the other ponies freed from the pools that Reeltime had made for them. Once that was over, trekking up the dumbwaiters was tough work - but one that four unicorn horns were all too happy to facilitate. After all, Grey Film’s spare camera was still in the shaft. And when they got back to normal Equestria, the shaft was where it would remain - with a vow between them to never tell of the horrors it’d produced again. Starlight, however, had been busy wondering just what it was that prompted the two arriving mayors to follow them into the school fast enough to wrap them in hugs when they got back from the monochrome wordl. Or what had caused the once bitter rivals to start whispering to each other so fast after their reuninon. Goodness, Starlight thought, what could have gotten them so chummy in a hurry? I mean, besides, the obvious? She got her answer when she went through the portal in a flash of sparkles and alongside Trixie, Sunburst and Spectacle. And both she and Spectacle jumped at the seeing a tarp-draped black figure standing behind an old camera. But this time, the source was far more tame than the abductor of Homeroom 22. “Up for another photo?” Mayor Skies said. Starlight, the second she got her heart rate down to normal, asked the obvious question at hand. “For what end, Mayor?” “Well….” Mayor Mare popped her head into the auditorium, now brightly lit with the help of the tinkering Torque Wrench. “I… realize I may have been a bit hasty as to who was to blame for Homeroom 22’s end. And I wanted to give Skies the moment to capture my great error.” Mayor Skies nodded. “Plus, Mayor Mare wants to celebrate the lift of the blockades and the finding of the fillies. Perhaps a snapshot with the saviors? And the brave magicians alongside them?” Almost immediately, Trixie and Spectacle posed for Skies. “Yup, definitely Trixie’s mother…” grinned Sunburst around a cup of pumpkin juice. “Dunno - I think cameras are a bit of a sore spot for me.” Then one of the rescued fillies leapt into Starlight’s embrace, hugging her. Starlight noticed the mark on her flank - a rainbow ring around a blue star in the center - her memory telling her that it was the very ‘negative’ that she’d rescued. Almost immediately, she brightened up. “On the other hand…” Several minutes later, Starlight, Trixie add Sunburst left the room, heading for Trixie’s cart and their home in Ponyville. Leading the charge to the cart was Spectacle, all smiles at Trixie’s latest story of how she and Twilight had ‘saved’ Ponyville from the corruptive influence of the Alicorn Amulet. Sunburst was stuck between shaking his head at Trixie's braggadocio, and pleading with Starlight to stay for Hope Springs' Eternal Festival. And Starlight was busy pointing out to Sunburst how important it was to let Jack-Pot know of his long-lost wife. But hanging in the corkboard just inside the swinging schoolhouse door was the product of the unicorns' efforts - a large panoramic photo of them, the Mayors and the gathered fillies, standing in the great auditorium. Already, the dumbwaiter door was boarded up in the background, another Torque Wrench insurance policy. But pinned at the edge of the door, signed in looping purple cursive, was the message that’d greet anypony that moved through those doors. Hope Hollow Thanks Spectacle, Trixie, Sunburst and Starlight! Every picture is a window into the soul And some of them are of those lucky ones, again made whole.
The Opening Score“Remind Trixie again why she's hanging out with you two on her day off?” Starlight Glimmer let out another mighty sigh. “Because I thought it’d be nice to get you out of the Friendship School for one day. Besides, Twilight and the others are too busy with the school to address this directly-” “Wait-a-sec, that’s why Trixie came?” Popping out from the wagon’s door as well, Sunburst re-adjusted his glasses on his snout with a huff of air. “Thought there was a bigger reason you needed us both, Starlight. Especially since your note about this trip said murder was involved.” “On the legs, Sunburst. It’s murder on anypony’s legs; and teleporting all this stuff with us was a no-go.” Indeed, the wagon was stuffed with investigative knick-knacks. “Don’t worry, Sunburst. Trixie was tricked with Starlight’s misleading messages, too.” “Hope Hollow and Ponyville will cut off all trade if we don’t solve their mayors’ friendship problem, Trixie!” huffed Starlight. “Technically, you actually will be screwed in Ponyville soon! Unless you think your antics’ll fly when the lumber and plaster prices skyrocket!” “Well then, let’s get cracking!” Sunburst said. “This should all be over in a snap!” Slinging one of the cameras around her neck, Starlight gulped. “Here’s hoping,” she uttered, with far more confidence than she felt. As they entered the center of Hope Hollow, each of the three visiting unicorns found something to feast their eyes on. Starlight focused on the looks of the ponies around them. For once, she was both comforted and concerned by how she wasn’t the only anxious pony in this town. Considering how the muscles in Hope Hollow’s residents tensed as they moved through the streets, she had to wonder if it wasn't already too late. Sunburst’s gaze locked onto the minute print on the papers the ponies held in their hooves and magic, the whirling headlines making his brow furrow. Apparently, they had arrived in the nick of time - the papers were already talking about the impact of Ponyville’s embargo. Speaking of arrivals, Trixie was hunting for a stage more suitable for her grand entrance. So many frowns and concerned faces - she had to do something! What kind of magician would she be if she couldn't dazzle them with her brilliance? Her gaze was focused, but her unruly nostrils twitched, her attention caught by the aroma of something delicious cooking. She shut her eyes and followed the scent, sniffing every now and then. Sunburst and Starlight exchanged glances but followed Trixie as she followed her nose. The scent led to the town hall, where checkered tables laden with grains, beets, and other crops had been laid out. And between two of those tables stood the pony they were here to see. "Mayor Sunny Skies!"
The Feature Confrontation“Oh! You’re here already!” Mayor Sunny Skies chortled. “You’ll have to forgive the light spread. I figured we’d need to have the Hope Springs Eternal Festival early, considering…” His smile dropped as he pointed to one of the newspaper stacks nearby him. Starlight levitated the paper over, Sunburst skimming the headline before whistling. “Geez! We got here just in time - the blockade’s getting ridiculous!” he quickly said. “I'm Sunburst, that’s Trixie, and the purple mare picking her jaw off the floor is Guidance Counselor Starlight Glimmer.” Mayor Skies shook Starlight’s hoof first, his grin returning as Starlight’s gaping mouth closed. “Starlight, I’ve heard of you before - through Headmare Twilight!” “Apologies in advance then, Mayor Skies...” Starlight grimaced. Visions of Our Town were dancing through her head. “Whatever for, Starlight? Being the most dedicated student Twilight’s ever had?” The way Starlight’s face lit up at the praise, one would think there were three ponies named ‘Sun’ in the room. “You’ve got the camera she told me to look out for. I assume Miss Twilight had other obligations today?” “Unfortunately,” Starlight affirmed. “Well, we’re hardly oversights ourselves, Mister Sunny,” huffed Trixie. “What is so pressing that I have to worry about the Mayor sending the Great and Powerful out of Ponyville?” “She forced you to come?” Before either Sunburst or Starlight could correct him, a scowl flashed back onto Sunny Skies' face. “I see she hasn’t lost that tendency to bully ponies since we last met, either! Now her superstition’s the town’s problem.” “Forced is a strong word there.” Sunburst’s replied. Mayor Skies's disclosing didn’t seem to really gel with the rational Mayor Mare that Sunburst knew. “And what superstition is that you're talking of, Mayor Skies?” The mayor grimaced. “Well, it all began with that blasted homeroom.” “A homeroom” An uncomfortable beat passed, before Sunny Skies finally turned to the newspaper again, flipping to its third page. “It’s been pushed off the front due to this… ridiculous feud Mayor Mare insists on continuing, but…look.” Sunburst’s eyes bulged at the picture the mayor showed him. Reclusive as he was, even he knew the cold equation playing out before his eyes. Black-and-white class photos with the words ‘MISSING’ never boded well. Starlight gasped as she read the headline. “Class of Hope Hollow’s Elementary, ‘Homeroom 22’, missing since 1970: visited by traveling magician, Spectacle” The fillies in the photograph were as different from one another as could be imagined, their expressions ranging from beaming smiles to camera-shy scowls, but every face in the photograph sent a little pang of pain lancing through Starlight. Especially the younger ones, some of them barely out of kindergarten. How could all these little lives have evaporated into smoke? The magician Spectacle stood off to one side from the group of children, a smarmy grin splitting her muzzle as she theatrically flourished her wand at the camera. Starlight barely spared her a glance. She couldn’t look away from the fillies. Goddess, some of them were my age when I ran away from Sire’s Hollow. My home town. Starlight's eyes brimmed with tears as she forced herself to read further. Only to keep from ruining the paper, she said to herself. I don’t want the others to see a Friendship School official break down. Yet the spike of shame at her display of emotion burrowed in her breast as she read on. “HOPE’S HOLLOW - The upcoming anniversary of the disappearance of Homeroom 22 will continue as planned, despite the possibility of a trade fallout between Hope’s Hollow and Ponyville. ‘We must not forget how, even with the Elements’ saving of our town, there are still some wounds here that only remembrance can heal.’ said Mayor Sunny Skies. He refused to comment at the time on whether it was this event that led to the departure of Mayor Mare from Hope’s Hollow and the subsequent feud between the local governments of Hope Hollow and Ponyville. However, this moment still serves as a secret shame to many in Hope’s Hollow, according to First Lady Petunia Petals. Shortly after the above picture was taken fifteen years ago, the twelve fillies of Homeroom 22 and their visiting guest magician Spectacle disappeared without a trace. The investigation led by recently minted Mayor Mare at the time was inconclusive, with no new leads reported after the first week of the case. Some ponies report that it is possibly the need for a scapegoat that led to Mayor Mare leaving Hope Hollow, and the current strife between government officials in Ponyville and Hope Hollow today. “By Hoofdini’s mane…” whispered Trixie. Starlight cast a sideways glance at her friend, and was surprised to see all the color had drained from Trixie’s face as she stared open-mouthed at the photograph of the travelling magician. “I was…hoping you could assist us mayors in bringing some closure to this,” Mayor Sunny asked. “I know that even Mayor Mare must feel the same way about this.” Sunburst gulped. “We’ll try, Mayor Sunny. But I don’t know what we can do that your law enforcement ponies couldn’t.” “You can use a little magic, for starters.” At Sunburst’s questioning expression, Sunny Skies continued his explanation. “We had Hope Hollow Elementary shut down the day after to prepare the scene. But soon after, the first issues with our rainbow machine occurred - drew off all the magical pony power we had. Eventually, there were too few to process the scene, and we had to call off the case.” “Do you at least know who took the photo? We could start there!” Trixie asked hastily. Something beyond mere eagerness made the tone of her voice seem low and desperate. “The old photographer Grey Film?” Mayor Sunny shook his head. “Sorry. Passed a magical polygraph when we asked if he’d seen them leave the school. We had to let him go - nopony’s seen him since either.” Starlight nodded. “Then we’ll start at the school. I assume it's still closed off?” “Yes,” the mayor confirmed. “Derelict since the incident. Nopony would go back. This should get you past the guards overseeing the front of the building.” Mayor Sunny handed Starlight three golden badges. “Good luck.” “You too,” Starlight replied, batting off Trixie’s hoof as she snatched at the badges. The three of them turned to leave, but a heavy sigh from Mayor Sunny Skies drew Starlight’s attention back. “Are you sure you’re alright, Mayor?” Sunny Skies lifted a cerulean hoof in a shrug. “It’s just all...such a mess. Mayor Mare and I were friends, before all this. I don’t think she’s ever forgiven me for it.” “To this day, I don’t know why the parents did.” The cold voice made all four of them flinch and turn to see who spoke, and they swung around to see Mayor Mare stalking towards them, her eyes steely with resolve. Trixie’s eyes widened at the Mayor’s sudden appearance, and Sunburst’s ears tipped back in dismay at the hostility on her face. “I guess we should have known she was already here,” he hissed to Starlight. Starlight was frantically scanning the newspaper once more, trying to capture anything she might have missed on her first read through. The disaster unfolding in front of her soon drew her attention back as voices began to climb. “Nopony forgave me for that, Mayor Mare, least of all me! But we were in a crisis-” “And you decided a machine was worth more than the welfare of thirteen fillies!” Mayor Mare spat. “A case which I reopened right after the color came back to Hollow!” protested Mayor Sunny. “And considering what happened to this town after the machine started sputtering, I’d have thought you’d be happy to be well away when it went kaput!” Mayor Mare hmphed. “If you still want us to help, Mayor Skies, we’d be happy to try,” Starlight offered tentatively, her smile wilting as she spoke. Sunny Skies’ expression became conciliatory once more. ”If you would,” he said, almost begging. “Before we have to bring out wheelbarrows for a jar of Zap Jam.” “Right!” Trixie said suddenly, blurring into motion, and scooping up both her friend’s tails in a pink field of magic, she dragged them backward and out of the hall. The mayors watched them go, their mouths falling open slightly in shock, and Trixie waved a hoof. “We’d better get started if you’ll excuse us!” Sunburst was first to speak, the slight feeling of gratitude for being removed from the mayoral squabble drowned out by his indignation at such rough treatment. “Trixie, what in the world-” “I recognize that stage magician.” Swiftly, Trixie pointed out the paper still in Starlight’s magical aura. “More to the fact, I was born to that stage magician.” Starlight brought a hoof to her mouth, humbled by the hurt in Trixie’s eyes. “Goodness, Trixie, I never knew that your mother had gone missing.” Trixie pulled the brim of her hat over her eyes, but the tears twinkling at the edges of her eyes were still visible. “It's been our secret shame. I think it’s why Dad tried to keep it from me. And later… why he spoiled me so much.” Trixie’s shoulders rolled as she trotted out toward her caravan. “But now these Mayors have given the Great and Powerful Trixie a chance to get closure.” Sunburst, after a short pause of his own, followed Trixie. “When Trixie’s right, she’s right,” he said softly. Starlight lingered for a moment, though. Looking at the paper and the camera around her neck - the only evidence of this ‘Grey Film’s’ existence - her mind was a turbulent tempest. Were the disappearances and the wrecking of that rainbow machine connected? Where’d Spectacle and Homeroom 22 go, if not out of school grounds? How could a whole class just vanish? And could such a terrible event somehow happen again? The investigation into this friendship problem had grown - at least, enough to finally get clues. So why did Starlight feel like she was still stuck in a grey area? “Only one way to find out,” she murmured to empty air as she raced to the wagon. Wherever this would take them, Starlight was ready to shed some light on this missing mare mystery.
The Vintage DiscoveryStarlight studied Hope Hollow Elementary's facade as she, Trixie and Sunburst trotted into its depths. For her, the sight was a startling surprise. Despite the years that passed, the school seemed near-immune to the ravages of time. Starlight’s glowing horn revealed slightly chipped blue walls holding crudely drawn sketches of the townsponies, but no further damage. The three unicorn investigators slowly traveled the empty corridors, their hoofsteps like cannonfire in the silent halls. Sunburst peeled away as they passed the library, and began to root through the books. He ignored the books on the shelves, but his magic pulled book after book over to him from the ledge behind the desk. Starlight looked behind her for Trixie, but the showpony was making a beeline for the doorway at the end of the corridor. Her gaze was affixed on the doorway's shiny sign: ‘AUDITORIUM’. Starlight followed closely behind, curious on whether Trixie had a lead. But when she reached the auditorium herself, Starlight was dismayed to see the blue unicorn pacing ceaselessly around the stage at the far end of the barely-sunlit room. On Trixie’s fifth pacing loop of the stage, Starlight stepped in front of her. “Is there... any way I can help?” Starlight asked. Trixie, for once, only had two words for her friend. “Fake hatch.” Her steps continued, exaggerated yet precise as they struck against the wood. But only heavy thunks answered her odd steps, and Trixie’s frown grew on each. Starlight had no response. Apparently Trixie had something in mind that she was looking for, despite the likely impossibility of Spectacle still being around. Watching as Trixie’s prancing took her closer to the purple-blue curtain to the rear of the stage, Starlight fought back the urge to ask Trixie for clarification. Perhaps letting her do this might take her mind off her incognito mother. Goodness, and the worst part is, I know what I did when I found out one of my parents was here one day, then gone- Starlight stiffened as Trixie’s tail disappeared behind the curtain. Once again, her memory dredged up that Homeroom 22 photo. And Just as she was about to ask Trixie if this was her futile attempt to find Spectacle, Sunburst’s voice broke the silence. “Starlight! Found something you’ll wanna see!” Starlight teleported right to his side. “What is it, Sunburst?” Sunburst showed another photograph. “Apparently, the librarian here had a lookout notice. Comes with photos too, and I found this as a bookmark in a ledger. Does he look familiar?” Starlight’s forehead creased as she looked at the masked pony in the photo. A mask with spikes a the sides that resembled a spool of film, a shiny black hood with white gears covering the shoulders, and an impeccably sharp suit with a blood-red rose in the lapel. “Besides it looking like a poor Nightmare Night costume?” Starlight whispered back to Sunburst. “Nope, doesn’t ring a bell.” Sunburst’s dour expression was a surprise to Starlight. “I’m not surprised. Not many ponies like hearing about a literal foalnapper like Reeltime.” Starlight’s mane stood on end. “You know of him?” “No, but Mom did.” Sunburst grumbled. “Mom fills buildings in Sire’s Hollow; eventually she got a habit for keeping up on knowledge of who not to let in house and home.” Squinting under Starlight's purple horn-glow, Sunburst’s face sank back into shadow as he looked at the picture. “Well, this pony’s infamous enough that Grey Film’s alerted the teachers to the possibility of his presence.” Starlight blinked. “Really? D’you think Grey Film escaped Reeltime?” Her eyes flickered once more over Reeltime’s photo. “Maybe Reeltime got in here somehow, snatched away Homeroom 22, and Grey Film fled over the guilt?” “I thought that too, at first.” Sunburst rummaged in his cloak and brought out some scraps of paper. “But if Grey Film’s got any motivators, guilt isn’t one of them.” He displayed a repair slip and two complaints notices. “The desk I got this ledger from is covered in hoof imprints, and Grey Film is mentioned in the librarian’s notes back there. Mostly complaints about him getting on their case. Apparently, they didn’t provide him with certain documents he wanted, or clear out certain locations for him.” Starlight shook her head. “Well, keep an eye out for more about that. I can’t believe Grey Film left such a bad impression that he made somepony paranoid enough to monitor him like that!” Midway through Starlight’s griping, Sunburst stifled a giggle. Starlight turned toward him. “What?” “I just thought….Well, you, getting mad about somepony monitoring somepony else!” Sunburst couldn’t keep the grin off his face. “Probably in bad taste in the scary pitch-black school, but-” “Oh.” Starlight’s ears drooped in shame. Goodness, that Our Town’s specter would never leave her, would it? Like Grey Film’s one, Reeltime, wouldn't leave him. “I’m sorry, Sunburst. I thought - I thought it was about-" Starlight shook her head. "Nevermind. I'm not that pony anymore. Sunburst’s hooves went up quickly. “O-of course, Starlight! I didn’t mean anything by it - I was just ribbing you! Sheesh, I... “ His eyes went back to the paper, his horn’s glow flaring up to keep the flush on his cheeks from being visible. ”A-anyways, It wasn’t just the photographer acting suspiciously that day.“ “So there was another pony having issues with the librarians, huh?” Starlight asked. “Well, not the librarians - just the administrators, it looks like. And that other problematic pony was… Mayor Mare.” “What?!” A sharp cry came from behind them, and Starlight whirled in fright to see Trixie appear in the doorway to the library. Sunburst leaped back in shock, his horn shooting haywire sparks out from the end as his magic sputtered out. “Jeez, Trixie!” “Didn't think you were that concerned about the Mayor but - yeah, she made so many noise complaints to them that she was nearly kept out of the school photos. All the complaints were about Reeltime, too.” Sunburst shuddered as he looked back at the photo of Reeltime. “What? Who cares about Mayor Mare?” Trixie waved a forehoof. “I came to get you because I know what trick Spectacle did! And what I can use to find where she vanished to!” “Huh? But…” Sunburst’s eyes narrowed in confusion. “Sorry, I think I’ve missed something.” Starlight sighed. “Yeah… Trixie’s looking for a fake hatch. She thinks her Mom might have hidden under the stage.” “Starlight!” Trixie snapped. “That was not the issue I was. And I know my Mom has to have escaped whatever foul fate befell her audience.” “Wait, hold on!” Starlight pushed both unicorns away from each other. “Sunburst, explain your stuff first. Trixie, wait your turn.” Trixie flushed with anger, but she remained still. Sunburst took over, giving Trixie an apologetic smile. “Well, the Mayor... she wanted to up the patrols and increase security with Reeltime around, despite the budget not being big enough for it. And considering how hostile she’s gotten towards Mayor Skies - do you think it’s possible she pretended to be Reeltime? To scare Hope Hollow straight?” Trixie’s jaw dropped at this. “No! The Mayor may be a petty bureaucrat, and far too harsh to unfortunate ponies who accidentally lead Ursa Minors into town-” Starlight’s hoof jabbed into Sunburst’s side as he rolled his eyes. “-but that does not mean Mayor Mare can get the drop on my mother.” Trixie finished. ”It would take more than that to disappear the Great and Powerful Spectacle! And I have proof.” Sunburst sighed and let his papers and photos drift back to the desk. “I can see I’m not going to get any peace to do any more research here until we go see Trixie’s proof. Lead the way.” Trixie smiled smugly and trotted back down the corridor towards the auditorium, with Starlight and Sunburst following the self-satisfied swish of her tail. The auditorium looked different to when Starlight had left it. The curtain on the stage had been dragged down and lay strewn about the stage, and Trixie’s many hoofprints had disturbed the thick layer of dust. “Here!” Trixie gestured triumphantly. Starlight glanced at Sunburst, her expression blank. “Trixie...what are we looking at?” “Ugh!” Trixie stamped a hoof impatiently. “Must I explain everything? The curtain would conceal Spectacle just long enough for her to complete her trick. Which means she could likely make her disappearance by using a potion to give her wings! Or perhaps by using a Fade-in-Fabric potion to pass through the curtains and the wall behind…” “Or maybe just use a dumbwaiter,” Starlight pointed out. “Or she could use a-” Trixie nearly choked on her sudden outrage. “How dare you call Trixie dumb!” Then her eyes followed the direction that Starlight was pointing in, and her anger faded into a sheepish grin. “Or you could mean that tiny lift Trixie sees now.” Indeed, the descended slice of curtain had revealed a crawlspace, with a lift tucked away in one corner. Something small twinkled in the interior of the dumbwaiter, drawing Trixie in, with Starlight close behind, wryly shaking her head at the showpony’s last outburst. “Starlight, Trixie, hold on! That could be dangerous.” Yet Sunburst followed them regardless, right up to the edge of the dumbwaiter- despite its visibility from far away, the curtain’s shadows still kept the mystery item from view. “It’s fine, Sunburst.” Starlight said, shooting Sunburst a knowing look as he watched Trixie clearing the dust choking the backstage. “And yes, I know how ironic it is that I’m saying that.” Sunburst’s eyes were still trained on that sparkle. “But Starlight-” “After how we beat Chrysalis, I’d argue that we’re the most dangerous things in this school now.” Starlight sighed. “Well, besides Reeltime, since you think he trailed Grey Film here.” “Speaking of, I think I know how Grey Film escaped!! And if she knew of it, how my mother escaped as well!” Trixie pointed at the dumbwaiter, and the camera sitting face-down at the center of it. Despite the caked layers of brown and rust-red that age had set upon it, the clue’s potential was all too obvious. “They must have taken the dumbwaiter to the basement; it’s big enough to fit them both!” “Leave it for now. We don’t know what state the lift’s in, and-” Sunburst jumped at the sound of the front door to the school banging open. Hushed whispers could just be made out, but the distance made those words unintelligible. “Well, that’s your ticket out of riding the scary lift, Sunburst! Somepony else is here; let’s take the camera to them!” And Trixie’s pale pink magic gripped the camera, tugging hard. Starlight’s eyes widened in horror as she finally spotted the source of the sparkle that had initially caught her eye. Leading to the camera was a thin, glittering thread, securing the camera to something out of sight. “Wait, Trixie, hold on!” cried Starlight, but it was too late - Trixie held the camera up to her eyes, the glittering thread pulled taut. Suddenly a flood of green light, sickly and blinding, exploded from inside the dumbwaiter as it shot down into the yawning shaft. The silver string still attached to it, and Trixie to that string, as was almost dragged down with it. But Sunburst and Starlight scrambled after her and just managed to hook their forehooves around Trixie’s hind legs, keeping her dangling in the chasm. Starlight gasped as she took Trixie’s weight. “Trixie, let go of that camera, we’ve got you!” Sunburst yelled. Trixie shook her head frantically. “Trixie is too scared to hold on and too scared to let go!” Starlight grabbed Trixie’s tail in her mouth and braced her legs against the wall. It sounded like she’d need to be the tie-breaker now. Hoofsteps sounded close by approaching their room. Starlight tried to turn her head to see who it was, but Trixie’s tail hair filled her muzzle and her vision, and she didn’t dare let go to get a better look. The steps toward them got louder. The sickly green light grew stronger. And Trixie’s legs got slipperier - Starlight was sweating with nerves, disorientated from the blinding light, and her hooves slid helplessly along Trixie’s limbs as the blue mare slipped lower. Sunburst’s horn ignited to add some more force to their pull, but then something happened Starlight could scarcely believe - Sunburst’s own magic turned against him, solidifying in a cone and gripping him tightly by the horn. Then it yanked him into the gaping dark mouth of the shaft. “Sunburst!” Starlight couldn’t help it; she instinctively lit her own horn to try to catch him, but by then he was already tumbling down the shaft, and the two new light-cones that warped around her sent Starlight and Trixie following. In Starlight’s twitching ears - beyond her and Trixie’s screams - she could hear the auditorium door slam open. Too late, she thought mournfully, her horn sparkling futilely to slow her endless fall. Too late! The light surrounding her hit its highest intensity, forcing Starlight to shut her eyes. She tumbled over and over, the wind rushing against her fur. Then everything went black for a different reason - her head impacting against something much harder than itself. This time, Trixie was the first to realize their change in surroundings. The sickly green light of the shaft was gone, replaced by a black-and-white painted showroom. First on her agenda was stirring her similarly downed - and still alive! - friends. Their prone forms were the only spots of color in the otherwise monochrome room. After they were groaning and stirring, Trixie’s second action was fighting back cardiac arrest when a third pony’s hoof tapped on her shoulder. “Agh! Don’t hurt Trixie she has a family!” Then her eyes widened at the mystery pony who’d startled here. Behind her Starlight and Sunburst were similarly gobsmacked. Part of it was due to how much taller and prouder that mystery mare stood over them. Part of it was that fact that she, like them, was vibrantly colored - an almost Applejack-orange coat and flowing blond mane, but a curved horn and a sunflower-like mark on her flank. But it was the white-and black starred hat and cape upon her that quickly narrowed down her identity. One that her next words confirmed with all the subtlety of a lightning bolt. “Well, my daughter, I’d hope you still have family. Nevertheless, I apologize for my… late debut.” “Spectacle?!” Sunburst’s shriek broke the tense silence like a glass shattering. Even if the magical mare herself hadn’t raced to clamp a hoof over Sunburst’s mouth, Starlight might have. Despite her shock right now, several things were self-evident -- -Oh my Faust! Spectacle here, and the shaft we fell down, she’s here that means the other fillies might be here and I have no idea how to get back and- Sunburst was as stunned as Starlight. Trixie was a different case - she was sobbing and hugging her mother, Spectacle’s foreleg cured around her. It was a testament to Spectacle’s apparent skill at multitasking that she could console Trixie and converse with Sunburst at the same time. Yet that’s just what she did. “Charmed as I am to see a pony cheer for me again, I would rather you keep it down. It has been fifteen days since we were blinded and dropped in this world. Celestia must be notified of our dilemma - she will know a way to free us from this strange land.” “Wait, where are w-we?” Trixie blubbered, lifting her head from Spectacle’s shoulder at last. Her eyes still shimmered with gratefulness over the discovery of her long-lost mother. “Please, at least tell me it’s still Hope Hollow!” “Well… yes and no.” Spectacle, for some reason, held Trixie even closer to her. “And you’ve grown so much so fast, dear Trixie. But my fellow captives are in the other room, and if your friends know of a way out, that takes precedence over our reunion-” “-did you say fifteen days?” “I’m sorry, what?” Starlight finally asked, turning to Sunburst. “Spectacle said she’s been here fifteen days, how could that be the case?” Sunburst demanded. “Do you mean fifteen years?” “I’m… positive it’s fifteen sunrises on this end.” Spectacle pointed at the window. “Laborious as it’s been to find the sun in a sky like that.” Starlight investigated first, and her eyes widened at the endless planes of black and white that yawned out to join her. It looked exactly like the town they’d just left, right down to the thatched buildings and the monochromatic rainbow arcing overhead. And if Starlight peered over to the left - to her horror - she could see the expanse of another city- in fact, a chain of cities, each an identical copy of the one before. They began where the hills of Hope Hollow started, an endless ring surrounding the town like a wall. That wasn’t the only difference. There were creeping oily-black loops of plasma in this Hope Hollow. And the sight of those slick streams made their new watcher gag. It was so... wrong. Like so much of this colorless world had become since they landed in it. Trixie was right. Now was time for some answers. “Okay, Spectacle…” Starlight announced, her voice dangerously low. “Never mind how long it’s been for us in the outer world. Explain how long it’s been since that’s done… that.”
The Final Cut“Soon after our photo was taken, we blacked out and awoke in this world,” Spectacle started as she, Starlight, Sunburst, and her daughter Trixie trekked through the halls. Every so often, they waved to groups of bedraggled fillies they passed. Despite the grime on their clothing and their sunken eyes, the children waved happily enough at the other colorful ponies passing by. "We had issues with food, but I was able to open the school's cafeteria with my horn. Then... bigger problems arrived." "No way back?" Starlight offered. “... None.” The way Spectacle spoke, that homeroom’s trials might have been more than she signed up for. “I gathered as many of the fillies as I could and searched everywhere. Getting out...hasn’t been as simple as getting in here. Thank goodness I heard you arrive in the auditorium - you might have the key to get back.” “Of course. And with these two's help,” Trixie tittered. “I have no doubt we'll be back home soon.” “Oh, Trixie! There’s the modest, gentle soul I raised!” Spectacle seemed completely genuine, ignoring the shocked look Starlight shot her. Even Sunburst could read the Trixie? Modest? Hanging on the tip of Starlight's tongue. "Did Reeltime show up here too?" he asked. "Shortly after we did," Spectacle growled. “He must have followed Grey Film! He’s been popping in and out of this world, taunting us all about how close he is to having enough negatives to unleash on Equestria. Really obsessed about retooling that place in his image, the second he finds worthy ‘models’.” Spectacle bitterly laughed as they looked through the schoolhouse doorway, the streets hauntingly empty. “Such an ego on that fiend.” Starlight gulped audibly. “I… see.” Her gaze swung toward the streets. “You said 'negatives', right? Do you mean the town?” Spectacle looked a decade old as she turned to Starlight. “No. They’re the… things that Reeltime made of near-half the class - a process he perfected from the towns around us. Follow me - you can see the ‘negatives’ for yourself.” After shutting and locking the door of the school behind them, the four ponies trotted through the streets of the black-and-white Hope Hollow. Spectacle kept them close to the walls and trees. “I’ve looked for Grey Film, but he’s gone. I can only assume he was taken by them.” Spectacle stopped, pointing from behind a tree. Trixie, Sunburst and Starlight almost gasped at what they saw. Several ponies were in the town market, and beyond the striped grey-scale roofs, lurking beside the slick black lake, were the ‘negatives’. They certainly had the shape of ponies. But they were consumed by shiny, rippling ichor - the same oily black substance that crawled through the monochrome school. It covered the ponies entirely, only thinning out slightly at the rear flank to show the cutie mark over a ring - whichever ponies were old enough to have them. The way the inky darkness made their jaws and forelimbs look - wicked and jagged - made Sunburst shudder, thinking of the behemoth Stygian had become when under the influence of the darkness. The Pony of Shadows. But much like the pool of ichor one of the streams had made, the ponies seemed to have a limit to their reach. They paced, they coughed, they growled in a sound that reminded one of scraping chalk against boards, but they stayed near the lake. “Gonna guess magic doesn’t work against them?” Sunburst asked. “On the contrary.” Spectacle mused. “It draws them. Then they pull you into those lakes, and…“ She swallowed thickly. “I shouldn’t have brought you here. I-” “How many fillies did they take?” That the question came from Trixie wasn’t what made Starlight turn to her in shock. It was the tone that Trixie asked it in, something that Starlight hadn’t thought Trixie could harness - near-silent fury. Spectacle was the first to realize it. “Trixie, please don’t do anything rash-” “This... Reeltime stole you from me. Stole this homeroom from the real Hollow. Stole these… fillies’ bodies.” Her purple eyes sparkled with rage. “How. Many.” “There were seven, Trixie! But please, don’t-” Starlight was more punctual than Spectacle, tackling Trixie to the ground before she could let her sorcerous bolt fly. “Right now, Trixie, we don't know what they might do to us - or what they can handle!” she hissed to her thrashing friend. “Let’s get accounts from the other fillies at the school; then we can figure out a way to save them and leave!” Just as Trixie finally calmed down, an ear-piercing scream broke out. “The school!” Spectacle’s head whirled to face the bundling. “I can’t lose more of them! Not again!” Sunburst gulped. “Uh, Spectacle?” he whispered, his voice hoarse. “Think the losses might be coming a bit closer to home right now.” Slowly, Spectacle turned to notice the negative ponies, slowly stalking toward their position. The strings linking them to the pool still weaved and twisted in the air with an almost independent will. They reminded Starlight of snakes - hungry, hunting pythons. And the creatures they were attached to were just as ravenous. “Right. Time to take these things out. We've been found out anyway.” Starlight lit up her horn- -and got yanked backward by Spectacle as she burst into a gallop. Sunburst towed Trixie after them by the ends of her cape. “Those are stillinnocent fillies, Miss Glimmer!” yelled Spectacle. “We can find a way to sever them from those pools - but not like that!” Sunburst peered behind him. Despite the disturbing yells and growls from the pursuing negatives, he noticed that the threads of ichor connecting them to the black lake were growing dangerously strained. Not only that, but the ichor around their bodies was thinning out the closer they got to the schoolhouse - and the further they got from the pool. A knowing grin crossed his cape-stuffed muzzle. “Ah thimpk Ah hav an-” Remembering he still had Trixie’s cape in his mouth, he gave a swift tug and yanked the showpony onto his back, before spitting out the speech-obstructing fabric. “I think I have an idea! Starlight, get your horn ready and be prepared to catch!” Starlight, already at a run herself, turned to Sunburst with confusion worn across her face. “Catch what- whoa there!” But both she and Spectacle were too late to stop Sunburst’s bolt of magic, shot straight at the closest negative. His target was different, as the magic javelin missed the filly’s body entirely, slicing through the thread of ichor instead before impacting the ground. But the loss of tether and the resulting blast sent the negative flying right into Starlight’s clutches. She overbalanced, the black-coated filly clutched in her arms, and both ponies crashed into the town halls front door. “Starlight!” Trixie yelled. But upon Sunburst’s back, all she could do was fire enough bolts from her horn to keep the other two Negatives from following Starlight. The negatives flung themselves after Starlight, but their tethers were at their limits and yanked them back just shy of the school doors - where Sunburst, Trixie, and Spectacle burst through into safety. Trixie whirled on the others the second they slammed the doors shut. “We’re going back for Starlight!” she demanded. “Right now!” “We might not have to if my hypothesis is correct!” Sunburst said. “Those tethers come from the lake, and cutting one-” “You risked Starlight and an innocent filly’s life for a hypothesis?” Spectacle snarled, shoving her muzzle against his and forcing him to back away from her until his rear collided with the wall. “I have lost nearly a third of these poor scared ponies to Reeltime’s madness, Sunburst!” “I didn’t think Starlight was gonna charge them into Town Hall!” Sunburst said. “And if you want, I’ll lead the charge myself, but-” Then his eyes shot back toward the door and his words trailed off. “Spectacle, didn’t you lock that door behind us when we left?” Spectacle sighed in exasperation. “Yes but - one of the fillies may have unlocked it to look for us on the outside-” Then her face turned pale enough that Sunburst could almost have believed that she was a negative too. “I locked it from the outside. Who in the world could have come in?” A SNAP and a flash of green light made all three ponies squint. The second they tried to straighten from their crouch, they realized that they… couldn’t. “Who’s doing this?” Trixie yelped, her purple eyes searching fruitlessly for their captor. But it was no good - they were stuck fast. Helpless. Then she gasped, her eyes widening at the sight of ponies even more helpless than herself, her mother, and Sunburst. The schoofillies were crying and sobbing as they were led out of the classrooms by four more negatives. And leading this band like a pied piper, was the masked and malicious pony from the photograph in the library. “Reeltime!” Spectacle hissed, straining madly in her frozen prison. “I should have known you would strike here while I was gone!” “Really, the pleasure’s all mine! Thanks to them-” Reeltime jerked a forehoof, the one holding his glistening black camera, twinkling with green sparks, at Trixie and Sunburst. “You really went the distance, holding out against me all these years, Spectacle! But these idiots here drop into my world, and deliver you to me in one tidy package!” A tinny chuckle came from behind the mask, and he tapped the glittering flashbulb on his camera. “What’s wrong, Spectacle - you’re the best showpony in Equestria, surely a little spotlight wasn’t that maddening?” As he calmly produced a foldable stand and set it up at the entrance, Sunburst struggled against his bonds. “What in the world would you do this all for, Reeltime!?” he yelled. “There’s far more ponies in our world now than there were before! Brave ponies with magic strong enough to defeat you! Whatever evil you're planning-” “Improvement, you scruffy-haired simpleton. What I am doing is home improvement!” Reeltime smirked. “And the second I have your purple friend captured too, you’ll learn that nopony is immune from being made into a negative. A literal film-soaked scion, ready to learn from a real teacher. One who will forward a Renaissance in Equestria, to make up for the deformity that Equestria forced on me.” It was only then, as he hunched over his camera stand and his cape bunched up on his side, that Sunburst noticed the sharp stubs of skin twitching at his shoulders. Like there were supposed to be wings there. “You mean… you had something taken from you?” Sunburst’s voice was softer, but his eyes flickered to the windows for any sign of Starlight. “Hmph. Like you’d care about the fillies in Manehattan who pretended to be my friends, and taunted me every day for my tiny wings.” Reeltime grumbled, aiming down the sights of his pony-freezing weapon. “Like you could comprehend the pain they dealt me, even before I lost one wing saving one of them from falling off a flagpole they wanted to wedgie me on. Like you could ever survive the pain in a father’s disappointment at the failure of his son who he had hoped would become a Wonderbolt, seeing me return with those dreams dashed… and then running rather than face it.” Finished with his work, he jabbed bitterly at the camera aimed at the door. “This is all that kept me aloft in Equestria. Not magic, not friendship, and certainly not the critics that plague my art.” “I understand the pain of your loss, Reeltime,” Spectacle started. “But that does not make doing…whatever monstrosity you’ve visited on those other fillies acceptable! Spreading your misery doesn’t make the friendship problem go away, it just makes it everyone’s problem!” “Oh, please don’t waste my time on such trite pleas,” snarled Reeltime. “The last snapshot is almost ready. A pity your little photographer Grey Film never told you of why we’re so close.” “He told me enough, Reeltime!” Spectacle yelled. “He told me you’ve stalked him!” “You see, this is why people should watch more films!” Then Reeltime reached for the clasps to his mask, unhooking each one with foreboding snaps. “Then this wouldn’t be a surprise.” As the leather and metal fell away, what lay beneath made both Spectacle and Sunburst gasp. Despite the age that had silvered his mane and the lack of an actual horn on his head - unlike what the pointed mask hinted at - the face was all too familiar. Sunburst had seen it in the complaints report, even his name was in the headline of the Homeroom 22 papers. Spectacle, however… had likely seen him far earlier than the others. “Grey Film…” she moaned, and the word fell from her lips like an anvil. “By Celestia…” “Oh believe you me - she’ll be before the lens in good time. And speaking of…” Grey Film, now revealed as Reeltime, clapped his hooves. “My wonderful negatives - make them shine. You know where the source is for the dip.” Then the ichor-dripping ponies lunged forward, grabbling clumps of fur and clothing in their teeth and dragging the three ponies away. The fourth - the one not holding Spectacle, Sunburst, and Trixie - and turned to snarl at the frightened fillies, keeping them rooted. For the three unicorns being pulled away, however, those growls rang in their heads like tambourines. It was a dark testament to the sounds - and freedom - they’d have taken from them in minutes’ time. Just then though, Sunburst caught a glimpse of a flash of purple outside the window of the auditorium, and his eyebrows rose. He nudged Trixie, who glanced over and understood at once. She darted forward, aiming right for Reeltime, and he was forced to scramble backwards away from her until he could blast her again with the freeze-flash of his camera. He caught his breath, and then brushed himself off. He stood on the very precipice of the black lake on the stage, Trixie frozen before him, her hooves outstretched towards him. Reeltime laughed cruelly at her ridiculous posture, and flicked her dismissively on the nose. “Nice try, Trixie. Was that the last trick up your sleeve? Not much more of a threat than your mother.” He sneered over at Spectacle, and it was then that a flash of blue magic sparked into being above his head. A snap of magic and dislodged air announced Starlight’s arrival, and before a dazed Reeltime even had a chance to look up, Starlight was landing on his shoulders, her strike making him lose his grip on his camera. It tumbled from his grasp and into the black pool of ichor. Reeltime gasped and swung after it, trying to catch it, and Starlight’s weight on his shoulders was just enough to throw his balance off. He skidded in the oily pitch, his hooves slid from beneath him, and then he and Starlight were falling, falling, Reeltime’s forelegs windmilling and his mouth open in a rictus snarl of fury as Starlight’s horn lit and -- SNAP! The flash of Starlight’s magic blinded them for a moment, and the first thing Trixie and Sunburst could make out were the last ripples on the pool’s surface as Reeltime’s reaching hoof sank. “Starlight!” Sunburst howled, rushing to the edge. “Up here!” A distant voice called, and their heads tipped back to spot a little purple shape crouching in the rafters of the auditorium. Starlight teleported one last time, down to their sides, and the three friends watched in amazement as the ichor began slowly but surely to drip away from the negatives. “I think...I think we did it,” Starlight said slowly. “We solved our friendship problem.” “We did far more than that,” Trixie said, putting a hoof around Spectacle’s. “We found my mother.” “And saved all these ponies,” Spectacle added, beckoning the frightened fillies towards her, to watch the faces of their friends emerge from the slick black ichor together. It had taken only an hour for them to get the other ponies freed from the pools that Reeltime had made for them. Once that was over, trekking up the dumbwaiters was tough work - but one that four unicorn horns were all too happy to facilitate. After all, Grey Film’s spare camera was still in the shaft. And when they got back to normal Equestria, the shaft was where it would remain - with a vow between them to never tell of the horrors it’d produced again. Starlight, however, had been busy wondering just what it was that prompted the two arriving mayors to follow them into the school fast enough to wrap them in hugs when they got back from the monochrome wordl. Or what had caused the once bitter rivals to start whispering to each other so fast after their reuninon. Goodness, Starlight thought, what could have gotten them so chummy in a hurry? I mean, besides, the obvious? She got her answer when she went through the portal in a flash of sparkles and alongside Trixie, Sunburst and Spectacle. And both she and Spectacle jumped at the seeing a tarp-draped black figure standing behind an old camera. But this time, the source was far more tame than the abductor of Homeroom 22. “Up for another photo?” Mayor Skies said. Starlight, the second she got her heart rate down to normal, asked the obvious question at hand. “For what end, Mayor?” “Well….” Mayor Mare popped her head into the auditorium, now brightly lit with the help of the tinkering Torque Wrench. “I… realize I may have been a bit hasty as to who was to blame for Homeroom 22’s end. And I wanted to give Skies the moment to capture my great error.” Mayor Skies nodded. “Plus, Mayor Mare wants to celebrate the lift of the blockades and the finding of the fillies. Perhaps a snapshot with the saviors? And the brave magicians alongside them?” Almost immediately, Trixie and Spectacle posed for Skies. “Yup, definitely Trixie’s mother…” grinned Sunburst around a cup of pumpkin juice. “Dunno - I think cameras are a bit of a sore spot for me.” Then one of the rescued fillies leapt into Starlight’s embrace, hugging her. Starlight noticed the mark on her flank - a rainbow ring around a blue star in the center - her memory telling her that it was the very ‘negative’ that she’d rescued. Almost immediately, she brightened up. “On the other hand…” Several minutes later, Starlight, Trixie add Sunburst left the room, heading for Trixie’s cart and their home in Ponyville. Leading the charge to the cart was Spectacle, all smiles at Trixie’s latest story of how she and Twilight had ‘saved’ Ponyville from the corruptive influence of the Alicorn Amulet. Sunburst was stuck between shaking his head at Trixie's braggadocio, and pleading with Starlight to stay for Hope Springs' Eternal Festival. And Starlight was busy pointing out to Sunburst how important it was to let Jack-Pot know of his long-lost wife. But hanging in the corkboard just inside the swinging schoolhouse door was the product of the unicorns' efforts - a large panoramic photo of them, the Mayors and the gathered fillies, standing in the great auditorium. Already, the dumbwaiter door was boarded up in the background, another Torque Wrench insurance policy. But pinned at the edge of the door, signed in looping purple cursive, was the message that’d greet anypony that moved through those doors. Hope Hollow Thanks Spectacle, Trixie, Sunburst and Starlight! Every picture is a window into the soul And some of them are of those lucky ones, again made whole.
