Jingle Bells, This Song Smellsby Frazzle2DazzleChaptersStarting On A Bad NoteThe Song That Never EndsThe Song That Did EndStarting On A Bad NoteHello again, one and all! Welcome again to a tale so tall! Of horror and danger, of sounds unique! About our two heroes, whose futures are bleak! Listen on, read if you dare! For it’s time to start our Christmas scare… ”We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmaaaaas~, and a happy New Year~!” Trixie felt her eye twitch as she heard the song play over the speakers for the twelfth time that day, which was impressive at only nine-thirty in the morning. It probably wouldn’t be so bad if it was some other cover of the song, either more traditional and smoother on the ears, or a rendition that actually had nice sounds, one of those would greatly improve the experience as she worked her part time job at the mall. But it was a metal cover, and the only one the mall had of the famous song, so it played over and over and over and over again, and the customers kept being angry at stuffed bears and their price, which only highlighted the irritation of the experience. “When will the torture eeeend…!” Trixie had a short reprieve from her job as she ate her lunch, but sadly not the overhead music, sulking into her arms while lazily eating a salad, “The great Trixie Lulamoon does not deserve this abuse.” “Well, aren’t you a sorry sight.” Trixie was sulking so hard, she didn’t notice Starlight arrive until there was an arm wrapped around her shoulder, causing the blue girl to look up at a decidedly more lavender girl sitting beside her with a smile. “Oh. Hi Starlight,” she gave her a hug back, “Work has been… Brutal,” Trixie shivered a little, “I don’t know if I can last another week of this madness.” Starlight laughed, “Oh, come on, it can’t be that bad. It’s a Teddy Bear workshop, it should be fun and games, cheese and cake, ice cream and chocolate!” “Trixie does not think toddlers pulling her hair out is ‘cheese and cake’, Starlight,” she icily said as she held up a few tufts of the damaged and shortened hair. Starlight winced sympathetically, “Ouch… You have my sympathies, Trixie.” “Those gremlins aren’t even the worst part!” she gestured with her fork up to the speakers, the blasphemous song of all things unholy going through the chorus. ”Good tidings we briiiiiing~! To you and your kiiiiiin~! Good tidings for Christmaaaaaaas~! And a happy New Year!” “That song is soooo annoying, Starlight! Trixie’s ears can’t take much more of this….” Starlight raised an eyebrow as the song played, “I admit it’s a bit… Much, but it can’t be any worse than ‘All I Want For Christmas’?” Trixie opened her mouth to retort… Before quickly closing it again, and just grumbling to herself with her arms crossed. Starlight laughed. “It’ll be fine, Trixie,” she pulled out her own bag of food, some tacos from nearby, “It’s just a couple more weeks, right? After that, Christmas will be over, the people will move on to complaining about Valentines Chocolates, and you’ll be back to studying while not having a job to worry about.” Trixie grumbled but admitted defeat, settling for stabbing the salad with a fork while the song continued its annoying tune and Starlight worked on eating down her own meal. “And what about you? Is everything going well for Starlight’s grand Nutcracker play?” “Ehhh… It could be better. I think the cast is finally getting into it, but I’m still waiting on half the sets to be painted, and nobody’s volunteered to be any of the extras.” “The great and powerful Trixie hopes you’re not trying to get her to play a secondary role in your show,” Trixie teased, “I’m clearly only for the front of the stage!” “Yeahhh… That’s how everybody else feels…” Starlight muttered, “Still, I’m sure we can get it working in time.” ”Now bring us, some figgy pudding! Now bring us, some figgy pudding! Now bring us, some figgy puddiiiiing~! And a cup of good cheer!” Starlight looked up in annoyance at the speakers as the song ended, “And I hope you don’t go crazy with that song playing…” Trixie gave her a strained smile, “I think you’re beginning to see my pain.” “Oh Romeo, oh Romeo, where art thou Romeo?” “Applejack… That’s Shakespeare,” Starlight sighed as she facepalmed. A day later, she was working through the lines of the main cast for a climactic scene. It was a bit of a struggle, and she was definitely wary of the job when Rarity asked her to fill in and help direct the play with Pinkie while she was on vacation. But with how important it seemed, Starlight took up the job. Of course... There were still some challenges. "..Uhh... Line please?" "Snails... Did you read any of your lines...?" It was the third time he'd forgotten what he needed to say, and only the sixth line he needed to say. "I- I'm trying!" Snails had a difficult time adjusting to a role in center stage, and getting him to remember his lines was almost more impressive than getting Applejack to say the right thing. She would consider moving him to a different role if there were anyone else that was a good fit for the male lead, but she barely had enough people for the minimum extras with everybody drying up once Rarity was no longer involved and moving on to other events for the holidays. Besides, it’s too late to recast now... She had to work with what she had. Running things back to restart the scene, she heard the tune from the mall being hummed by one of the few extras in the front row of the audience. “We won’t gooooo, until we get some~!” Her eye twitched, but she chose to ignore the song and got back to getting Snails and Applejack through the big speaking scene, “Alright, now you need to say it with a lot of passion, Snails…” Starlight’s eye twitched as the song played again during a lunch break, some of the cast and crew playing it on their phones in different parts of the room, all out of synch, and all horribly within hearing distance, each one the same cover that the mall was playing. “So,so,bring,bring,some,some,riiiiiight,riiiiiight,here,here~!” For the love of-! Don’t these people have headphones?! It wasn't just one or two people, it seemed like everyone working on the play had at some point during the day been humming, singing, or playing the song, over and over and over and- ! Starlight steadied a breath in before letting it fade out of her. She could deal with this minor annoyance until she got back to her apartment. She’d make the best gosh darn play in Canterlot High history, no matter the distractions. This would be fine. “This is not fine!” Trixie yelled, clutching pillows to her head as the bucking annoying song droned through the walls from a party across the street. Sure, it was a big ol’ Christmas party, and sure, maybe she’d have gone down there to join in once upon a time, but playing that god forsaken metal song that eviscerated the lifeblood of good cheer and turned it into a pumpkin spiced machine of ear death four times already that night?! It went way beyond lunacy, maybe even into nightmarecy! The furthest point from sane! She barely registered as the door opened and Starlight walked in, looking just as stressed by the goings on of the people across the street. “This needs to stoooop…..” Starlight fell to the couch, pulling the cushions up over her head, “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you about how bad this song is!” “Trixie’s sorry about that too!” she kept the pillows to her ears, “How does one stop this though?!” There was an unintelligible cry from underneath the cushion sounding halfway between a sob and a death threat. “Starlight! Does Trixie have to tell your father about those naughty words?!” “Uggghhhh… Trixie, please… Let’s just go somewhere we can think…” “Of course! …As long as you pay for it!” “Fine, yes, let’s just get away from this song!”” They were sitting near the local library at an ice cream shop that was too old fashioned to have anything but the radio playing, and as such was filled with some classic Christmas carols and none of the modern hits. A thankful departure that would otherwise have been frowned upon by the pop music their friends tended to listen to. Trixie ate a peppermint ice cream cone while Starlight had a chocolate sundae, both enjoying the ambience and peace in a corner booth. “This was a good idea…” Trixie sighed as she licked up her ice cream. “Uh-huh… Nice and relaxing, and absolutely no figgy pudding,” Starlight ate a bit of the banana, “I wish we could just stay here…” Trixie frowned, “I still have work to do. At the mall. Tomorrow morning. And at the mall, tomorrow morning, that song will play again and again, and Trixie will have this whole day of false cheer start alll over...” “Ughh… I don’t get it. Why do people like it so much! It’s like they’re hypnotized or something!” “Welll…” Trixie tapped some stuff out on her phone, “The music artist appears to be uncredited. It’s just some music company from… ‘Latveria.’ That’s a funny name… Sounds fake. Like Turkey.” “Turkey’s a real country, Trixie. But yeah, it’s weird that there isn’t a credited artist for it…” Starlight looked over Trixie’s shoulder at the screen, “Only thing is this company called ‘Hive-Web’, strangely enough. ‘We’re dedicated to bringing out the best in our talents and making music that resonates with our audience.’ That doesn’t sound like something people who would make that song would say, does it?” “Clearly a lie. Which means… They’re not a music company?” Trixie ate another bite of the ice cream, trying to think that over, “I wonder what they’re doing than.” “Hmm…” Starlight pulled out her own phone, “I think we have a way to find out for sure. There’s supposed to be some concert directed by them in town soon, day after tomorrow and taking place at a venue across town from the mall you work at. We might be able to find out some things if we ask them directly.” Trixie grinned as she took another bite out of her ice cream, “It sounds like it’s time for a heist! Of music!” Starlight raised an eyebrow, “Don’t you have work in the morning?” “…A change of plans, the first step is to get earplugs! Then we go on the heist tomorrow!” The Song That Never EndsTrixie flopped to the couch in the apartment, groaning into the throw pillow. Oh, how she’d love to throw that pillow right now… Just getting back home from work, she was free from that song once more… The song that seemed to be playing more and more often in the mall, echoing through the building and infesting people’s ears. She swore she even heard people humming it! If there was anything to be done about it, she’d have already done so. But alas, it seemed formally written letters did not look convincing to the manager when pushed under the door of his office. She’d have to try for the top of the door next time if her HeistTM with Starlight didn’t work. Maybe find some blackmail… But before I can do anything else, “Must… Get… Energy… Back…” Trixie grumbled out as she got up, stretching her limbs as she went to the fridge to grab one of the energy drinks she left there. The door to the apartment opened as she sat back down, and she turned to see Starlight walking in. “Finally! Trixie had such a long day, Starlight, let’s go and get that song dealt with already!” “Trixie… One minute, please.” Trixie paused at how… Tense Starlight sounded, and looked closer to see a twitching eye, straining neck muscles, and a scary frown. Definitely not a winning combination. “Uhhh… Okay?” Trixie didn’t try stopping her as she walked to her bedroom, slamming the door behind her. Trixie did however move to listen at the door… Only to flinch back at the muffled scream that poured out from the room. A moment or two later, and the door opened back up with Starlight looking a lot calmer, “Hi Trixie, how was your day?” “It was… Okay. But I should be the one asking, what happened with you?” Starlight’s eye twitched again, but she took a deep breath in before slowly releasing it, “So… You know how we’ve been hearing that song more and more, right? Well-“ ”Now bring us some figgy pudddiiiiing~!” “Guys, that’s not one of the songs!!!” ”And a cup of gooood cheeeer~!” “Gahhhh!!!” “For three hours straight, through rehearsing, lunch, all the other breaks, it feels like nobody would shut up at any point about the song, they were even replacing lines with the lyrics! I feel like I’m going insane!” They were back over at the couch as Starlight recounted how the majority of her day went, sitting together in solidarity over their shared annoyance. “Geeze…” Trixie gave Starlight a pat on her shoulder, “And I thought the mall was bad… What the buck’s going on in this town?” “Whatever’s going on, we can find out when we get to the ‘Jaunty Shells Concert Hall.’ The sooner we do, the better,” Starlight patted her bag with a grin, “I took the liberty of rounding up some things we might need for this… Investigation.” Trixie’s mouth turned upwards in a grin, “Spy gadgets! Please tell me you have spy gadgets!” “Haha, well, it’s not quite that advanced, but I think we can get through security with this stuff. How about you, got anything?” Trixie nodded as she got up to the table, where a bag was sitting open, “I prepared them before I left this morning, they should’ve fully set by now,” grabbing something from the bag, Trixie produced a small egg-like object that was blue with sparkles on it, “Voila, Trixie’s Disappearing Smoke Bombs! For any quick getaways we may need!” “Aren’t they a little….” Starlight tried to think of a good word that wouldn’t hurt her friend’s feelings, “…Unpredictable?” “Please! I only ended up on that rooftop one time! And the bird was fine afterwards!” Starlight still held reservations, but sighed as she acquiesced to Trixie’s contribution, and got up to the door, “Alright then. Let’s get going.” “Yes! Onwards! To revenge for our ears!” Trixie declared as she ran out the apartment door. The venue was in the middle of the entertainment district of the city, where all kinds of theaters, arcades, fancy restaurants, and bars resided. The specific concert hall, named after the musician Jaunty Shells who had passed away years ago, was right next door to an arcade and a fast food place, which made the stakeout easier. While the place wasn’t exactly like the prison Alcatraz made, there were still a whole lot of cameras and guards at a lot of the exits. It was something to mull over while eating some overpriced burgers. “So, there’s a camera on every entrance, a guard at every exit, and a million ways we could fail. Any bright ideas, Trixie?” “Welll…” Trixie held up one of her smoke bombs. “No Trixie. That’s going to be way too flashy.” “Awww…” Trixie grumbled a little as she leaned back in her seat, “Theeeen… How about taking that in?” she said while pointing to where one of the guards for the building had just parked a van, just barely getting out of the vehicle before making his way to the door. It had the logo for the Jaunty Shells venue on its side, so there was little doubt to its origin, and only the question of whether it was coming or going remained. Starlight almost couldn’t believe that stroke of luck, but there was still the matter of getting on the vehicle. “Wait, that’s one of those ‘Starlight made a weird plan’ faces! Let me guess…” She held an excited grin as she pulled out the smoke bomb again, “You need a Boom?” “Well, not quite a ‘Boom’, but I’ll take it,” Starlight looked around as the guard was ordering, before settling on the bathroom, “Can you set it up to go off over there?” “With pleasure!” Trixie immediately got up, a smoke bomb in hand with a piece of almost invisible string in the other. To unfortunately set the mood, the song that brought them there in the first place came on as she was tying the trap into the door, setting it to go off when it was next opened. Though… Starlight noticed a change that came over the crowds from the song. It was like everybody got a little glassy eyed, their conversations dying off into little snippets. Even the guard seemed pretty out of it, singing quietly along to the song. Aaaaand, I think this just got creepier, Starlight shivered in place as she got chills from how still everything was. “Aaand, done!” Trixie grinned as she sat back down, “Should have our distraction aaaany moment now!” she paused as Starlight didn’t respond, finally noticing the disjointed chorus singing, “Uhhh… What’s going on?” “I think it’s doing more than being annoying, Trixie…” she quickly got up, looking around to confirm that, yes, nobody was paying attention to them, much less anything else, “Let’s take this chance and get in there.” “What about the keys?” Trixie’s words halted Starlight as she poked a hole in the plan. Ice cream and crackers! No biggie, maybe nobody will notice if we use Trixie’s bombs to- “Heyyy, can you hear me?” her blood ran cold as she turned to see Trixie waving an arm in front of the guard. He simply nodded numbly, still softly singing to the song, “Oh, great! Can you give me your keys real quick?” And like magic, he casually obeyed her and pulled a pair of keys out of his vest pocket, handing them to Trixie. After saying her thanks, she grinned as she walked past a stunned Starlight. Starting with a small sound that was some mix of astonishment and anger, she followed Trixie outside, “What the buck! That could have made things so much harder, Trixie!” “It worked out, didn’t it? Besides, they looked hypnotized, I just wanted to test if they were hypnotized! After Sunset’s big debut of magic, you gotta check for these things.” Starlight couldn’t physically keep being so angry at the unnerving train of logical leaps and mental gymnastics Trixie had to do for that. So she didn’t stay angry. A deep breath in… And out. In… Out. And she was calm again. You could hardly see her eye twitching! “Okay… Let’s just… Get into the van, Trixie.” They left the keys in the ignition while hiding in the surprisingly sizable gap between the seats and the cab wall. Eventually, the guard had finished his meal, coming back humming the song. He seemed surprised, patting his vest all over and scratched his head with a frown. He sighed while facepalming before sitting down and starting the van up, grumbling to himself while unknowingly smuggling a pair of teenage intruders into the venue. The first of Starlight’s gadgets was a pair of hats. Not quite fashionable like Rarity might have wanted, but they were functional. There were a series of dots on them that disrupted how a camera saw their heads, making them blurry. Maybe not something people would notice at first, but it would buy them enough time to sneak around and investigate. Thankfully the driver never checked behind his seat to see if there were stowaways. A few minutes after he was gone, Starlight peaked a head up to look around through the windshield, only seeing a regular garage. “Coast is clear, Trixie. Come on!” The first step was completed. Now for the second step of their plan, blending in. “Ugh, it’s so dark in here,” Trixie grumbled as they walked along the wall, ready to freeze if they heard anything, “Still a no on phones?” “As much as I’d like to know what that puddle we stepped in was, still a no. We can’t risk getting caught.” “Yeahhh… Figured.” The garage itself wasn’t all too big, having only a couple vehicles there, but it had an open entrance from the surface and didn’t look well maintained. If lights were supposed to be on here, they certainly weren’t for them. Maybe a good thing if they didn’t know anybody was still down here. There were two spots of light in the whole place, the first being sunlight streaming in where they came in from while the other dimly shone from a door along one wall. It made it seem eerier than it probably was. Sneaking over, the door thankfully let them in. Through it seemed to be a series of smaller storage rooms, full of stage equipment, liquid for the fog and fire machines they sometimes used, and spare parts for all the stuff they might need. And of course, there were also uniforms. “Good grief... Is this what Rarity feels like?” Starlight held up the drab gray and pink combo of the shirt and pants, the colors looking like an awful shade for both. “As long as it lets us stop whatever’s happening here, it could be green and purple for all I care,” Trixie slid the outfit over her own clothes, the tight uniform obscuring that she had two sets of clothes on, “And you can’t even tell there’s a fabulous Trixie underneath this!” Starlight grumbled, but knew Trixie was right. Whatever the distaste, they had to get to the bottom of this. Their hats were a little strange being indoors, but she had thankfully not gone for a standout black color and settled for a dull grey, which wasn’t too far off from the outfits own color palette. They might get a raised eyebrow, but she didn’t expect anybody to stop them for wearing the caps. From there, as they walked up a set of stairs down the hall and entered the main building, it was just a matter of- “Hey, you two!” -not drawing attention. Starlight inwardly cringed as she turned to see a green man walking over, in a slightly more elaborate uniform. “Yes sir?” “You’re the new gals Shipwright sent over, right?” “Uhhh,” Justrollwithit! “Yes sir! We were told to report to you!” “We haven’t even been told what we’ll be doing yet.” Trixie added in. “Huh… I guess she must be busier than I thought if she didn’t tell you your job before sending you my way,” he muttered under his breath before continuing, “You, blue girl, you’re with the sound stage. You’ll help with setting up for the concert,” he then turned to Starlight, “And we’re understaffed on janitor duties, you’ll be cleaning up a few halls. You’ll be working with our sanitation manager, Tossup, until you learn the ropes. Got it?” Not bothering to give them time to complain, he pointed Trixie off to where the main hall was while he called over Tossup, an elderly man, to take Starlight over. Well… I guess we cover more ground this way? Starlight could only hope this turn of events would yield some good fortune for them as she gave a nod to Trixie before walking off to start her own journey through the building. Trixie groaned as she dragged her feet. This was not the kind of job she thought she got assigned with. It seemed that while everybody else was busy setting up music equipment or cleaning the seats, she was stuck with going every which way to get them their food like she was some kind of water girl. It left her with almost nothing to do as it seemed like they didn’t trust her to do anything, and so she was left standing around and out of the way. Now what am I supposed to… Oh yeah. Revenge mission. She thought back to how everybody in the restaurant had fallen into a trance when the song started playing, leaving her and Starlight the only ones unaffected. It was unlikely that everybody had the same sound systems to listen to the song, so that only left the music itself as the culprit. “Now where would a fancy music room be…” If she could get her hands on where it was stored, maybe she could reverse it or something and make everybody get unhypnotized. Making sure none of the crew was paying attention to her, she made her way around curtains and other things to obscure herself as she went backstage, looking for where the computers were. It wasn’t too hard to find the bulky equipment. It was in its own box for the audio tech to sit in while overlooking the stage. “Time for some master hacking,” Trixie cracked her knuckles sitting down in the chair, “Aaaand… I don’t have those skills.” An obstacle to her plan… …But somebody had left the computer unlocked, thankfully. A lucky break. Going through some of the still open files, she didn’t notice the sounds of footsteps approaching. Starlight walked along with the broom in hand, being largely ignored by everybody else around her as she made her way in and out of the various rooms when they weren’t looking. It was a training session of about fifteen minutes with Tossup, basically amounting to ’Sweep the halls and put the dirt in here.’ Not too complicated. So she did just that. Moving along the halls with a broomstick in her hand, she swept them when people passed and checked the rooms when they didn’t. It wasn’t all that many rooms though. It seemed like most of the building’s space was taken up by the concert hall with only a bathroom or entrance into the employee backrooms every now and then. I’m never gonna find anything with this cover story… Sighing, she finished off the hall and stretched. Her arms were already complaining as her stomach added in with a gurgle of hunger. “Yeah… I guess I could have a bite to eat…” Leaving the broom in the hall, she went through the door to the employee area looking for somewhere she could get some food, or even just a vending machine, when she heard a conversation from one of the open rooms. “…and then he even barked for me, it was freaking hilarious!” “No way, he was that deep under? How weak willed was that dude!” Deep under…? “Nah, he was pretty smart. He just had waaaay too much of the song already. I think I heard his daughter playing it, and then he just went brain dead. Bet I could’ve sold him his own shoes!” Song? Selling a guy his own shoes? This sounds like… Starlight moved closer to the door, peering around the opening while staying hidden. Inside were a couple of people on a sofa, a guy and girl grinning at each other while lazing around. As opposed to the uniform she wore, they had regular, if very formal, clothes on. They clearly weren't here to work. "And we have this miracle food to thank for that!" the girl agreed, taking a bite of something that looked vaguely like a cake from her plate, "Alas, if only we could hypnotize you into choosing better seasoning. This is way too sweet, man." "Figgy pudding is figgy pudding, doesn't matter what I put in it if it still does it's thing and keeps us sane. Besides, you're judging it too much, this is great!" So this keeps them sane... I guess I know who the masterminds are. But what do they get from this...? ...Well, besides controlling the city. I need to get my hands on some of that, but I doubt they’ll hand theirs over peacefully… I need to get out of here. "Get a better recipe at least. It almost hurts to eat this, gah…” the woman happened to glance over to the door, just catching a blur of Starlight ducking away, “Oh great… Chitin, I think we have another curious crewmember.” He groaned, getting up and stretching, “Yeah yeah, I’ve got it. It’s your turn to put them back in line next time,” pulling out his phone, he put the new classic ‘Twelve days of Christmas Song’ on with the volume cranked up, “Man, this song gets on my nerves sometimes…” And with that, he rushed out of the room after Starlight. Trixie looked over the files, finding the audio for the song pretty quickly. She grinned while pulling it around to an audio software she was… Semi-familiar with. She needed sound cues for her shows, after all. “Let’s see, ‘reverb’, ‘echo’, ‘noise reduction’, aha! ‘Reverse’! Now, let’s see what this does…” She played the song for a few seconds, blaring out of the small speaker set next to the monitor. “…Aaaaand my ears feel like they’re bleeding,” not quite what she wanted from that, “Hmm, maybe if I just-“ “What are you doing here?” A hand on her shoulder corresponded with the question, making her jump in her seat, “Gahhh!” She whipped her head around to see a tall woman with greenish-turquoise hair standing behind her, a predatory look in her eyes. “Oh, uh, hi there, ma’am! I’m just part of the sound crew, and I decided to check out what’s on here to see if it’s in order, but it looks like it’s all A-okay! I’ll just be on my way now- “ “I think not,” the grip on her shoulder tightened, “Why don’t you tell me why you’re really here… Did Saint Nick send you?” Trixie’s mind blanked at that, “Saint… Nick?” “…Hmph. Dumber than I thought. No matter,” her eyes started glowing, “It looks like I’ll still be able to steal Christmas, so your efforts are meaningless.” Trixie struggled to break free of the grip, but the woman wouldn’t let her go, “‘Steal Christmas?’ Who are you, the Grinch?” “I suppose I’m close enough. Now…” leaning around Trixie, she undid the reverse and played the audio for the metal song again, “Let’s see what you do know.” The glow in her eyes got brighter, and Trixie’s mind blanked. The Song That Did EndAs she walked down the hall, Starlight heard music approaching from the direction the room she was spying in on had been. She glanced back to be shocked at seeing the pale red man from the room running towards her. Oh… Shoot. She went from her steady walk to a full out sprint, trying to find a way she could get out of this mess. “Get back here, we both know how this ends!” The man yelled as he gained on her. What do I do, what do I do?! She had the smoke bombs Trixie had given her, but those didn't work half the time, while a quarter of the time... Was better left unsaid. "We wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas~!" The music was getting louder as the man got closer. Bit by bit, lyric by lyric, her shorter legs weren't matching up to the pace he had set. She was running out of time as she weaved down the halls. Ah, buck it! Grabbing one of the smoke bombs from her pocket, she threw it to the ground as she turned a corner. As the man ran through it, he slid to a stop as he realized he couldn't see her out the other side. "What kind of spy tech does this girl have? She can't be that far..." taking his phone out, he let it keep loudly playing as he looked around where the smoke had dissipated. Meanwhile, back with the other one... She was just grabbing a soda from the fridge when she heard a loud poof behind her, startling her into it. Starlight looked around to see she was back in the breakroom the two schemers had been talking in, and saw the girl pulling herself out of the fridge. On the table, there was the forgotten Figgy Pudding on a plate. I could try and get more information out of her... Or I could just- "Yoink!" Dessert in hand, she ran back out of the room as the woman pulled herself out, looking around confused, "What the heck was that?" Trixie was a good worker. She was good at what she did. "How did you get in here?" What she did was follow orders. Trixie knew she should follow her queen's orders. She was a good queen. "I snuck into one of your vans." She should just listen. Do what people told her to do, and be a good worker. "Interesting... It appears I've dumbed down the guards too much. So, why did you come here? You're with somebody other than the Nicks, obviously." Why should I listen? Because everything was better when she wasn't thinking. "My friend came with me. We wanted to know why everyone was acting so weird." Is it worth being better when you sell out your friends? Yes... Starlight can be better too. She just needs to listen. "Not a lonesome troublemaker, eh? Sigh, I guess I'll have to deal with her as well. Tell me, where did she go?" Don't help her! I have to help her. She's telling me what to do. "She went to clean with somebody called 'Tossup'. I'm not sure where she is now." Doing what she says is right. Because she can think for me. "Good enough for now. Come with me, I think I'll show this girl how things are run around here." I can't believe I... I'm going to go help Starlight understand. She should listen too. Out of the backroom and into the regular hallways, Starlight rushed as fast as she could to the main performance hall, barely sparing time to get a bite of the Figgy Pudding down. However this works, I hope it works fast! It would probably be a short mission otherwise. "Hey, what's going on? Why are you running?!" the green manager guy from before called out while she was speeding towards where he was. She managed to skid to a halt while keeping the plate upright. "I, uh, was told to pass out some of this to people! It's Figgy Pudding! You should try it, it's really good!" she held up the plate with a nervous smile while the man looked at her dubiously. "Okay... Should I just take a chunk out of it, or-" "Yes, just take a piece off, it's meant to be, uh, finger food! People won't mind!" He still looked a little weirded out by it, but conceded as he took a small chunk of the stuff. Before he knew it, Starlight was gone again and heading to the concert hall. I realllly hope it works! It would be nice to have somebody working here not be hypnotized. It wasn't a short distance to the concert area, and every step of the way it seemed like more and more people were in the halls she ran through, and each stop costing her time for the guy chasing her to catch up, as well as bits of the Figgy Pudding. Eventually, as she finally found out where the main hall actually was, she was rushing through the doorway when she slammed into somebody. "Agh! Oh my gosh, I am so-" "You insolent little...! Watch where you're going!" the lady she ran into yelled, fury in her eyes. "I didn't mean to, I'm just in a hurry! I just need to get to my friend real quick!" she pleaded with the green-haired woman. "I'm right here, Starlight." The dull sentence made her freeze as Trixie numbly stepped out from behind the woman, a flat look devoid of emotion on her face. "Oh... So this is your friend?" the woman grinned, "She was so much easier to find than I thought. She came right to me, even, ha!" "Tr- Trixie...? What did she do to you?" The woman sneered at her, her eyes shining brightly, "Why should I tell you when I can show you?" she pressed one of her bluetooth earbuds, "Merengue, start up the speakers and play the song. I want to let the employees see how great the concert they're working for is." Starlight's eyes widened. Is she trying to- No, I have to stop this! Looking around, she found where the plate had fallen, the remaining Figgy Pudding half crushed on it, and grabbed a chunk of it out, rushing over to Trixie, "Trixie, eat this!" The woman flinched back at Starlight's rush, "Wait, is that-?!" GULP Before she knew it, Trixie had taken the portion from Starlight's hand and swallowed it with barely a chew... Which immediately led into a coughing fit as she gagged on the dry Figgy 'Pudding'. "Agh, bleh! Cough Cough What was that?! Oh, I'm gonna be sick..." The song started playing over the speakers, but Trixie kept coughing while the woman had a furious look on her face. "Oh, Starlight, cough, what happened, did we manage to beat the bad guys yet?" "Uhhh... I don't think we've beaten her yet, Trixie." "This wasn't something I expected..." the woman growled as she fully stood, "No matter. I can keep you here until the dessert wears off. You two!" she pointed to the side at a pair of the crewmembers, "Apprehend these two, I need them in the backroom!" a moment passed, and the two didn't do anything, "What are you standing around for?! I told you to take care of them!" "Yeah... I don't think we're falling for those tricks anymore," the green man from before walked up, "Song hypnosis... Very weird. But ever since I ate that stuff this girl gave me, my head's been clearer than it's been in days." "Wait... She gave you..." she looked around to the people around her, most with angry faces while those who still looked dulled by the music were being held back by their co-workers. "As you can see, there's been a bit of a change in hierarchy here." "...Shi-" Hot cocoa, thermal blankets, and various extra helpings of a lesser eaten dessert, the rest of the day went by in a blur as the police arrested the three people masterminding the scheme. The two girls managed to get some of the facts about what happened. Apparently the woman had found some kind of magic artifact like the ones popping up around Canterlot High, and had decided to use it to try and steal all the gifts people had in their homes. Something about ‘I never had Christmas’ or ‘You don’t deserve Christmas’. It was pretty vague as to why she had done it. But thankfully, the mall and the school and everybody else finally stopped playing that stupid song, and Trixie and Starlight could finally get some sleep… ”Princess! You have saved me from this curse, and I am a man once more!” “With the curse gone, please come with me to the Sugar Plum Fairy! I’m sure she can send us both home!” Not all the lines were quite accurate in the play, but it was good enough for Starlight. Nobody was quoting Hamlet, Shakespeare, or Twelve Days Of Christmas, and they managed to get the spirit of the play. It went off without a hitch, so she figured she’d get a pass for this. “So that’s what you were working on for the past month!” Trixie stretched as they got out of the school, heading back to their apartment, “I’d give it an eight out of ten, I wouldn’t mind going again next year.” “Yeah, Applejack and Snails really pulled through. They could probably get an easy A in the theater course.” Trixie laughed at that, “Perhaps, if they had the same flare for the dramatic that Trixie the Magnificent does!” Starlight smiled back, “Suuure. Whatever you say, Trixie.” Heading home in companionable silence, they heard carolers singing Jingle Bells, Winter Wonderland, and Let It Snow, not once down each block did they hear the Twelve Days Of Christmas, traditional or otherwise. Starlight supposed that it probably wouldn’t come back until next year. Walking into their apartment, Trixie made her wait outside for a moment. Confused, Starlight waited for a few minutes in the hall. “Okay, you can come in now!” Pushing the door open, Starlight was blown away at what she saw on the dining room table. Shining up and down, with black metal and a smooth screen, there was a ribbon on top of the laptop to give it a splash of red. “What… Trixie?” She stepped from the side to give Starlight a hug, “I knew you wanted a new laptop, so I saved up to get one. It’s one of the fancy schmancy ones that loads programs fast.” “You… You shouldn’t have. Thank you, Trixie.” Starlight had a big smile on her face as they hugged. Trixie smiled back, “Merry Christmas, Starlight.”
Starting On A Bad NoteHello again, one and all! Welcome again to a tale so tall! Of horror and danger, of sounds unique! About our two heroes, whose futures are bleak! Listen on, read if you dare! For it’s time to start our Christmas scare… ”We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmaaaaas~, and a happy New Year~!” Trixie felt her eye twitch as she heard the song play over the speakers for the twelfth time that day, which was impressive at only nine-thirty in the morning. It probably wouldn’t be so bad if it was some other cover of the song, either more traditional and smoother on the ears, or a rendition that actually had nice sounds, one of those would greatly improve the experience as she worked her part time job at the mall. But it was a metal cover, and the only one the mall had of the famous song, so it played over and over and over and over again, and the customers kept being angry at stuffed bears and their price, which only highlighted the irritation of the experience. “When will the torture eeeend…!” Trixie had a short reprieve from her job as she ate her lunch, but sadly not the overhead music, sulking into her arms while lazily eating a salad, “The great Trixie Lulamoon does not deserve this abuse.” “Well, aren’t you a sorry sight.” Trixie was sulking so hard, she didn’t notice Starlight arrive until there was an arm wrapped around her shoulder, causing the blue girl to look up at a decidedly more lavender girl sitting beside her with a smile. “Oh. Hi Starlight,” she gave her a hug back, “Work has been… Brutal,” Trixie shivered a little, “I don’t know if I can last another week of this madness.” Starlight laughed, “Oh, come on, it can’t be that bad. It’s a Teddy Bear workshop, it should be fun and games, cheese and cake, ice cream and chocolate!” “Trixie does not think toddlers pulling her hair out is ‘cheese and cake’, Starlight,” she icily said as she held up a few tufts of the damaged and shortened hair. Starlight winced sympathetically, “Ouch… You have my sympathies, Trixie.” “Those gremlins aren’t even the worst part!” she gestured with her fork up to the speakers, the blasphemous song of all things unholy going through the chorus. ”Good tidings we briiiiiing~! To you and your kiiiiiin~! Good tidings for Christmaaaaaaas~! And a happy New Year!” “That song is soooo annoying, Starlight! Trixie’s ears can’t take much more of this….” Starlight raised an eyebrow as the song played, “I admit it’s a bit… Much, but it can’t be any worse than ‘All I Want For Christmas’?” Trixie opened her mouth to retort… Before quickly closing it again, and just grumbling to herself with her arms crossed. Starlight laughed. “It’ll be fine, Trixie,” she pulled out her own bag of food, some tacos from nearby, “It’s just a couple more weeks, right? After that, Christmas will be over, the people will move on to complaining about Valentines Chocolates, and you’ll be back to studying while not having a job to worry about.” Trixie grumbled but admitted defeat, settling for stabbing the salad with a fork while the song continued its annoying tune and Starlight worked on eating down her own meal. “And what about you? Is everything going well for Starlight’s grand Nutcracker play?” “Ehhh… It could be better. I think the cast is finally getting into it, but I’m still waiting on half the sets to be painted, and nobody’s volunteered to be any of the extras.” “The great and powerful Trixie hopes you’re not trying to get her to play a secondary role in your show,” Trixie teased, “I’m clearly only for the front of the stage!” “Yeahhh… That’s how everybody else feels…” Starlight muttered, “Still, I’m sure we can get it working in time.” ”Now bring us, some figgy pudding! Now bring us, some figgy pudding! Now bring us, some figgy puddiiiiing~! And a cup of good cheer!” Starlight looked up in annoyance at the speakers as the song ended, “And I hope you don’t go crazy with that song playing…” Trixie gave her a strained smile, “I think you’re beginning to see my pain.” “Oh Romeo, oh Romeo, where art thou Romeo?” “Applejack… That’s Shakespeare,” Starlight sighed as she facepalmed. A day later, she was working through the lines of the main cast for a climactic scene. It was a bit of a struggle, and she was definitely wary of the job when Rarity asked her to fill in and help direct the play with Pinkie while she was on vacation. But with how important it seemed, Starlight took up the job. Of course... There were still some challenges. "..Uhh... Line please?" "Snails... Did you read any of your lines...?" It was the third time he'd forgotten what he needed to say, and only the sixth line he needed to say. "I- I'm trying!" Snails had a difficult time adjusting to a role in center stage, and getting him to remember his lines was almost more impressive than getting Applejack to say the right thing. She would consider moving him to a different role if there were anyone else that was a good fit for the male lead, but she barely had enough people for the minimum extras with everybody drying up once Rarity was no longer involved and moving on to other events for the holidays. Besides, it’s too late to recast now... She had to work with what she had. Running things back to restart the scene, she heard the tune from the mall being hummed by one of the few extras in the front row of the audience. “We won’t gooooo, until we get some~!” Her eye twitched, but she chose to ignore the song and got back to getting Snails and Applejack through the big speaking scene, “Alright, now you need to say it with a lot of passion, Snails…” Starlight’s eye twitched as the song played again during a lunch break, some of the cast and crew playing it on their phones in different parts of the room, all out of synch, and all horribly within hearing distance, each one the same cover that the mall was playing. “So,so,bring,bring,some,some,riiiiiight,riiiiiight,here,here~!” For the love of-! Don’t these people have headphones?! It wasn't just one or two people, it seemed like everyone working on the play had at some point during the day been humming, singing, or playing the song, over and over and over and- ! Starlight steadied a breath in before letting it fade out of her. She could deal with this minor annoyance until she got back to her apartment. She’d make the best gosh darn play in Canterlot High history, no matter the distractions. This would be fine. “This is not fine!” Trixie yelled, clutching pillows to her head as the bucking annoying song droned through the walls from a party across the street. Sure, it was a big ol’ Christmas party, and sure, maybe she’d have gone down there to join in once upon a time, but playing that god forsaken metal song that eviscerated the lifeblood of good cheer and turned it into a pumpkin spiced machine of ear death four times already that night?! It went way beyond lunacy, maybe even into nightmarecy! The furthest point from sane! She barely registered as the door opened and Starlight walked in, looking just as stressed by the goings on of the people across the street. “This needs to stoooop…..” Starlight fell to the couch, pulling the cushions up over her head, “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you about how bad this song is!” “Trixie’s sorry about that too!” she kept the pillows to her ears, “How does one stop this though?!” There was an unintelligible cry from underneath the cushion sounding halfway between a sob and a death threat. “Starlight! Does Trixie have to tell your father about those naughty words?!” “Uggghhhh… Trixie, please… Let’s just go somewhere we can think…” “Of course! …As long as you pay for it!” “Fine, yes, let’s just get away from this song!”” They were sitting near the local library at an ice cream shop that was too old fashioned to have anything but the radio playing, and as such was filled with some classic Christmas carols and none of the modern hits. A thankful departure that would otherwise have been frowned upon by the pop music their friends tended to listen to. Trixie ate a peppermint ice cream cone while Starlight had a chocolate sundae, both enjoying the ambience and peace in a corner booth. “This was a good idea…” Trixie sighed as she licked up her ice cream. “Uh-huh… Nice and relaxing, and absolutely no figgy pudding,” Starlight ate a bit of the banana, “I wish we could just stay here…” Trixie frowned, “I still have work to do. At the mall. Tomorrow morning. And at the mall, tomorrow morning, that song will play again and again, and Trixie will have this whole day of false cheer start alll over...” “Ughh… I don’t get it. Why do people like it so much! It’s like they’re hypnotized or something!” “Welll…” Trixie tapped some stuff out on her phone, “The music artist appears to be uncredited. It’s just some music company from… ‘Latveria.’ That’s a funny name… Sounds fake. Like Turkey.” “Turkey’s a real country, Trixie. But yeah, it’s weird that there isn’t a credited artist for it…” Starlight looked over Trixie’s shoulder at the screen, “Only thing is this company called ‘Hive-Web’, strangely enough. ‘We’re dedicated to bringing out the best in our talents and making music that resonates with our audience.’ That doesn’t sound like something people who would make that song would say, does it?” “Clearly a lie. Which means… They’re not a music company?” Trixie ate another bite of the ice cream, trying to think that over, “I wonder what they’re doing than.” “Hmm…” Starlight pulled out her own phone, “I think we have a way to find out for sure. There’s supposed to be some concert directed by them in town soon, day after tomorrow and taking place at a venue across town from the mall you work at. We might be able to find out some things if we ask them directly.” Trixie grinned as she took another bite out of her ice cream, “It sounds like it’s time for a heist! Of music!” Starlight raised an eyebrow, “Don’t you have work in the morning?” “…A change of plans, the first step is to get earplugs! Then we go on the heist tomorrow!”
The Song That Never EndsTrixie flopped to the couch in the apartment, groaning into the throw pillow. Oh, how she’d love to throw that pillow right now… Just getting back home from work, she was free from that song once more… The song that seemed to be playing more and more often in the mall, echoing through the building and infesting people’s ears. She swore she even heard people humming it! If there was anything to be done about it, she’d have already done so. But alas, it seemed formally written letters did not look convincing to the manager when pushed under the door of his office. She’d have to try for the top of the door next time if her HeistTM with Starlight didn’t work. Maybe find some blackmail… But before I can do anything else, “Must… Get… Energy… Back…” Trixie grumbled out as she got up, stretching her limbs as she went to the fridge to grab one of the energy drinks she left there. The door to the apartment opened as she sat back down, and she turned to see Starlight walking in. “Finally! Trixie had such a long day, Starlight, let’s go and get that song dealt with already!” “Trixie… One minute, please.” Trixie paused at how… Tense Starlight sounded, and looked closer to see a twitching eye, straining neck muscles, and a scary frown. Definitely not a winning combination. “Uhhh… Okay?” Trixie didn’t try stopping her as she walked to her bedroom, slamming the door behind her. Trixie did however move to listen at the door… Only to flinch back at the muffled scream that poured out from the room. A moment or two later, and the door opened back up with Starlight looking a lot calmer, “Hi Trixie, how was your day?” “It was… Okay. But I should be the one asking, what happened with you?” Starlight’s eye twitched again, but she took a deep breath in before slowly releasing it, “So… You know how we’ve been hearing that song more and more, right? Well-“ ”Now bring us some figgy pudddiiiiing~!” “Guys, that’s not one of the songs!!!” ”And a cup of gooood cheeeer~!” “Gahhhh!!!” “For three hours straight, through rehearsing, lunch, all the other breaks, it feels like nobody would shut up at any point about the song, they were even replacing lines with the lyrics! I feel like I’m going insane!” They were back over at the couch as Starlight recounted how the majority of her day went, sitting together in solidarity over their shared annoyance. “Geeze…” Trixie gave Starlight a pat on her shoulder, “And I thought the mall was bad… What the buck’s going on in this town?” “Whatever’s going on, we can find out when we get to the ‘Jaunty Shells Concert Hall.’ The sooner we do, the better,” Starlight patted her bag with a grin, “I took the liberty of rounding up some things we might need for this… Investigation.” Trixie’s mouth turned upwards in a grin, “Spy gadgets! Please tell me you have spy gadgets!” “Haha, well, it’s not quite that advanced, but I think we can get through security with this stuff. How about you, got anything?” Trixie nodded as she got up to the table, where a bag was sitting open, “I prepared them before I left this morning, they should’ve fully set by now,” grabbing something from the bag, Trixie produced a small egg-like object that was blue with sparkles on it, “Voila, Trixie’s Disappearing Smoke Bombs! For any quick getaways we may need!” “Aren’t they a little….” Starlight tried to think of a good word that wouldn’t hurt her friend’s feelings, “…Unpredictable?” “Please! I only ended up on that rooftop one time! And the bird was fine afterwards!” Starlight still held reservations, but sighed as she acquiesced to Trixie’s contribution, and got up to the door, “Alright then. Let’s get going.” “Yes! Onwards! To revenge for our ears!” Trixie declared as she ran out the apartment door. The venue was in the middle of the entertainment district of the city, where all kinds of theaters, arcades, fancy restaurants, and bars resided. The specific concert hall, named after the musician Jaunty Shells who had passed away years ago, was right next door to an arcade and a fast food place, which made the stakeout easier. While the place wasn’t exactly like the prison Alcatraz made, there were still a whole lot of cameras and guards at a lot of the exits. It was something to mull over while eating some overpriced burgers. “So, there’s a camera on every entrance, a guard at every exit, and a million ways we could fail. Any bright ideas, Trixie?” “Welll…” Trixie held up one of her smoke bombs. “No Trixie. That’s going to be way too flashy.” “Awww…” Trixie grumbled a little as she leaned back in her seat, “Theeeen… How about taking that in?” she said while pointing to where one of the guards for the building had just parked a van, just barely getting out of the vehicle before making his way to the door. It had the logo for the Jaunty Shells venue on its side, so there was little doubt to its origin, and only the question of whether it was coming or going remained. Starlight almost couldn’t believe that stroke of luck, but there was still the matter of getting on the vehicle. “Wait, that’s one of those ‘Starlight made a weird plan’ faces! Let me guess…” She held an excited grin as she pulled out the smoke bomb again, “You need a Boom?” “Well, not quite a ‘Boom’, but I’ll take it,” Starlight looked around as the guard was ordering, before settling on the bathroom, “Can you set it up to go off over there?” “With pleasure!” Trixie immediately got up, a smoke bomb in hand with a piece of almost invisible string in the other. To unfortunately set the mood, the song that brought them there in the first place came on as she was tying the trap into the door, setting it to go off when it was next opened. Though… Starlight noticed a change that came over the crowds from the song. It was like everybody got a little glassy eyed, their conversations dying off into little snippets. Even the guard seemed pretty out of it, singing quietly along to the song. Aaaaand, I think this just got creepier, Starlight shivered in place as she got chills from how still everything was. “Aaand, done!” Trixie grinned as she sat back down, “Should have our distraction aaaany moment now!” she paused as Starlight didn’t respond, finally noticing the disjointed chorus singing, “Uhhh… What’s going on?” “I think it’s doing more than being annoying, Trixie…” she quickly got up, looking around to confirm that, yes, nobody was paying attention to them, much less anything else, “Let’s take this chance and get in there.” “What about the keys?” Trixie’s words halted Starlight as she poked a hole in the plan. Ice cream and crackers! No biggie, maybe nobody will notice if we use Trixie’s bombs to- “Heyyy, can you hear me?” her blood ran cold as she turned to see Trixie waving an arm in front of the guard. He simply nodded numbly, still softly singing to the song, “Oh, great! Can you give me your keys real quick?” And like magic, he casually obeyed her and pulled a pair of keys out of his vest pocket, handing them to Trixie. After saying her thanks, she grinned as she walked past a stunned Starlight. Starting with a small sound that was some mix of astonishment and anger, she followed Trixie outside, “What the buck! That could have made things so much harder, Trixie!” “It worked out, didn’t it? Besides, they looked hypnotized, I just wanted to test if they were hypnotized! After Sunset’s big debut of magic, you gotta check for these things.” Starlight couldn’t physically keep being so angry at the unnerving train of logical leaps and mental gymnastics Trixie had to do for that. So she didn’t stay angry. A deep breath in… And out. In… Out. And she was calm again. You could hardly see her eye twitching! “Okay… Let’s just… Get into the van, Trixie.” They left the keys in the ignition while hiding in the surprisingly sizable gap between the seats and the cab wall. Eventually, the guard had finished his meal, coming back humming the song. He seemed surprised, patting his vest all over and scratched his head with a frown. He sighed while facepalming before sitting down and starting the van up, grumbling to himself while unknowingly smuggling a pair of teenage intruders into the venue. The first of Starlight’s gadgets was a pair of hats. Not quite fashionable like Rarity might have wanted, but they were functional. There were a series of dots on them that disrupted how a camera saw their heads, making them blurry. Maybe not something people would notice at first, but it would buy them enough time to sneak around and investigate. Thankfully the driver never checked behind his seat to see if there were stowaways. A few minutes after he was gone, Starlight peaked a head up to look around through the windshield, only seeing a regular garage. “Coast is clear, Trixie. Come on!” The first step was completed. Now for the second step of their plan, blending in. “Ugh, it’s so dark in here,” Trixie grumbled as they walked along the wall, ready to freeze if they heard anything, “Still a no on phones?” “As much as I’d like to know what that puddle we stepped in was, still a no. We can’t risk getting caught.” “Yeahhh… Figured.” The garage itself wasn’t all too big, having only a couple vehicles there, but it had an open entrance from the surface and didn’t look well maintained. If lights were supposed to be on here, they certainly weren’t for them. Maybe a good thing if they didn’t know anybody was still down here. There were two spots of light in the whole place, the first being sunlight streaming in where they came in from while the other dimly shone from a door along one wall. It made it seem eerier than it probably was. Sneaking over, the door thankfully let them in. Through it seemed to be a series of smaller storage rooms, full of stage equipment, liquid for the fog and fire machines they sometimes used, and spare parts for all the stuff they might need. And of course, there were also uniforms. “Good grief... Is this what Rarity feels like?” Starlight held up the drab gray and pink combo of the shirt and pants, the colors looking like an awful shade for both. “As long as it lets us stop whatever’s happening here, it could be green and purple for all I care,” Trixie slid the outfit over her own clothes, the tight uniform obscuring that she had two sets of clothes on, “And you can’t even tell there’s a fabulous Trixie underneath this!” Starlight grumbled, but knew Trixie was right. Whatever the distaste, they had to get to the bottom of this. Their hats were a little strange being indoors, but she had thankfully not gone for a standout black color and settled for a dull grey, which wasn’t too far off from the outfits own color palette. They might get a raised eyebrow, but she didn’t expect anybody to stop them for wearing the caps. From there, as they walked up a set of stairs down the hall and entered the main building, it was just a matter of- “Hey, you two!” -not drawing attention. Starlight inwardly cringed as she turned to see a green man walking over, in a slightly more elaborate uniform. “Yes sir?” “You’re the new gals Shipwright sent over, right?” “Uhhh,” Justrollwithit! “Yes sir! We were told to report to you!” “We haven’t even been told what we’ll be doing yet.” Trixie added in. “Huh… I guess she must be busier than I thought if she didn’t tell you your job before sending you my way,” he muttered under his breath before continuing, “You, blue girl, you’re with the sound stage. You’ll help with setting up for the concert,” he then turned to Starlight, “And we’re understaffed on janitor duties, you’ll be cleaning up a few halls. You’ll be working with our sanitation manager, Tossup, until you learn the ropes. Got it?” Not bothering to give them time to complain, he pointed Trixie off to where the main hall was while he called over Tossup, an elderly man, to take Starlight over. Well… I guess we cover more ground this way? Starlight could only hope this turn of events would yield some good fortune for them as she gave a nod to Trixie before walking off to start her own journey through the building. Trixie groaned as she dragged her feet. This was not the kind of job she thought she got assigned with. It seemed that while everybody else was busy setting up music equipment or cleaning the seats, she was stuck with going every which way to get them their food like she was some kind of water girl. It left her with almost nothing to do as it seemed like they didn’t trust her to do anything, and so she was left standing around and out of the way. Now what am I supposed to… Oh yeah. Revenge mission. She thought back to how everybody in the restaurant had fallen into a trance when the song started playing, leaving her and Starlight the only ones unaffected. It was unlikely that everybody had the same sound systems to listen to the song, so that only left the music itself as the culprit. “Now where would a fancy music room be…” If she could get her hands on where it was stored, maybe she could reverse it or something and make everybody get unhypnotized. Making sure none of the crew was paying attention to her, she made her way around curtains and other things to obscure herself as she went backstage, looking for where the computers were. It wasn’t too hard to find the bulky equipment. It was in its own box for the audio tech to sit in while overlooking the stage. “Time for some master hacking,” Trixie cracked her knuckles sitting down in the chair, “Aaaand… I don’t have those skills.” An obstacle to her plan… …But somebody had left the computer unlocked, thankfully. A lucky break. Going through some of the still open files, she didn’t notice the sounds of footsteps approaching. Starlight walked along with the broom in hand, being largely ignored by everybody else around her as she made her way in and out of the various rooms when they weren’t looking. It was a training session of about fifteen minutes with Tossup, basically amounting to ’Sweep the halls and put the dirt in here.’ Not too complicated. So she did just that. Moving along the halls with a broomstick in her hand, she swept them when people passed and checked the rooms when they didn’t. It wasn’t all that many rooms though. It seemed like most of the building’s space was taken up by the concert hall with only a bathroom or entrance into the employee backrooms every now and then. I’m never gonna find anything with this cover story… Sighing, she finished off the hall and stretched. Her arms were already complaining as her stomach added in with a gurgle of hunger. “Yeah… I guess I could have a bite to eat…” Leaving the broom in the hall, she went through the door to the employee area looking for somewhere she could get some food, or even just a vending machine, when she heard a conversation from one of the open rooms. “…and then he even barked for me, it was freaking hilarious!” “No way, he was that deep under? How weak willed was that dude!” Deep under…? “Nah, he was pretty smart. He just had waaaay too much of the song already. I think I heard his daughter playing it, and then he just went brain dead. Bet I could’ve sold him his own shoes!” Song? Selling a guy his own shoes? This sounds like… Starlight moved closer to the door, peering around the opening while staying hidden. Inside were a couple of people on a sofa, a guy and girl grinning at each other while lazing around. As opposed to the uniform she wore, they had regular, if very formal, clothes on. They clearly weren't here to work. "And we have this miracle food to thank for that!" the girl agreed, taking a bite of something that looked vaguely like a cake from her plate, "Alas, if only we could hypnotize you into choosing better seasoning. This is way too sweet, man." "Figgy pudding is figgy pudding, doesn't matter what I put in it if it still does it's thing and keeps us sane. Besides, you're judging it too much, this is great!" So this keeps them sane... I guess I know who the masterminds are. But what do they get from this...? ...Well, besides controlling the city. I need to get my hands on some of that, but I doubt they’ll hand theirs over peacefully… I need to get out of here. "Get a better recipe at least. It almost hurts to eat this, gah…” the woman happened to glance over to the door, just catching a blur of Starlight ducking away, “Oh great… Chitin, I think we have another curious crewmember.” He groaned, getting up and stretching, “Yeah yeah, I’ve got it. It’s your turn to put them back in line next time,” pulling out his phone, he put the new classic ‘Twelve days of Christmas Song’ on with the volume cranked up, “Man, this song gets on my nerves sometimes…” And with that, he rushed out of the room after Starlight. Trixie looked over the files, finding the audio for the song pretty quickly. She grinned while pulling it around to an audio software she was… Semi-familiar with. She needed sound cues for her shows, after all. “Let’s see, ‘reverb’, ‘echo’, ‘noise reduction’, aha! ‘Reverse’! Now, let’s see what this does…” She played the song for a few seconds, blaring out of the small speaker set next to the monitor. “…Aaaaand my ears feel like they’re bleeding,” not quite what she wanted from that, “Hmm, maybe if I just-“ “What are you doing here?” A hand on her shoulder corresponded with the question, making her jump in her seat, “Gahhh!” She whipped her head around to see a tall woman with greenish-turquoise hair standing behind her, a predatory look in her eyes. “Oh, uh, hi there, ma’am! I’m just part of the sound crew, and I decided to check out what’s on here to see if it’s in order, but it looks like it’s all A-okay! I’ll just be on my way now- “ “I think not,” the grip on her shoulder tightened, “Why don’t you tell me why you’re really here… Did Saint Nick send you?” Trixie’s mind blanked at that, “Saint… Nick?” “…Hmph. Dumber than I thought. No matter,” her eyes started glowing, “It looks like I’ll still be able to steal Christmas, so your efforts are meaningless.” Trixie struggled to break free of the grip, but the woman wouldn’t let her go, “‘Steal Christmas?’ Who are you, the Grinch?” “I suppose I’m close enough. Now…” leaning around Trixie, she undid the reverse and played the audio for the metal song again, “Let’s see what you do know.” The glow in her eyes got brighter, and Trixie’s mind blanked.
The Song That Did EndAs she walked down the hall, Starlight heard music approaching from the direction the room she was spying in on had been. She glanced back to be shocked at seeing the pale red man from the room running towards her. Oh… Shoot. She went from her steady walk to a full out sprint, trying to find a way she could get out of this mess. “Get back here, we both know how this ends!” The man yelled as he gained on her. What do I do, what do I do?! She had the smoke bombs Trixie had given her, but those didn't work half the time, while a quarter of the time... Was better left unsaid. "We wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas~!" The music was getting louder as the man got closer. Bit by bit, lyric by lyric, her shorter legs weren't matching up to the pace he had set. She was running out of time as she weaved down the halls. Ah, buck it! Grabbing one of the smoke bombs from her pocket, she threw it to the ground as she turned a corner. As the man ran through it, he slid to a stop as he realized he couldn't see her out the other side. "What kind of spy tech does this girl have? She can't be that far..." taking his phone out, he let it keep loudly playing as he looked around where the smoke had dissipated. Meanwhile, back with the other one... She was just grabbing a soda from the fridge when she heard a loud poof behind her, startling her into it. Starlight looked around to see she was back in the breakroom the two schemers had been talking in, and saw the girl pulling herself out of the fridge. On the table, there was the forgotten Figgy Pudding on a plate. I could try and get more information out of her... Or I could just- "Yoink!" Dessert in hand, she ran back out of the room as the woman pulled herself out, looking around confused, "What the heck was that?" Trixie was a good worker. She was good at what she did. "How did you get in here?" What she did was follow orders. Trixie knew she should follow her queen's orders. She was a good queen. "I snuck into one of your vans." She should just listen. Do what people told her to do, and be a good worker. "Interesting... It appears I've dumbed down the guards too much. So, why did you come here? You're with somebody other than the Nicks, obviously." Why should I listen? Because everything was better when she wasn't thinking. "My friend came with me. We wanted to know why everyone was acting so weird." Is it worth being better when you sell out your friends? Yes... Starlight can be better too. She just needs to listen. "Not a lonesome troublemaker, eh? Sigh, I guess I'll have to deal with her as well. Tell me, where did she go?" Don't help her! I have to help her. She's telling me what to do. "She went to clean with somebody called 'Tossup'. I'm not sure where she is now." Doing what she says is right. Because she can think for me. "Good enough for now. Come with me, I think I'll show this girl how things are run around here." I can't believe I... I'm going to go help Starlight understand. She should listen too. Out of the backroom and into the regular hallways, Starlight rushed as fast as she could to the main performance hall, barely sparing time to get a bite of the Figgy Pudding down. However this works, I hope it works fast! It would probably be a short mission otherwise. "Hey, what's going on? Why are you running?!" the green manager guy from before called out while she was speeding towards where he was. She managed to skid to a halt while keeping the plate upright. "I, uh, was told to pass out some of this to people! It's Figgy Pudding! You should try it, it's really good!" she held up the plate with a nervous smile while the man looked at her dubiously. "Okay... Should I just take a chunk out of it, or-" "Yes, just take a piece off, it's meant to be, uh, finger food! People won't mind!" He still looked a little weirded out by it, but conceded as he took a small chunk of the stuff. Before he knew it, Starlight was gone again and heading to the concert hall. I realllly hope it works! It would be nice to have somebody working here not be hypnotized. It wasn't a short distance to the concert area, and every step of the way it seemed like more and more people were in the halls she ran through, and each stop costing her time for the guy chasing her to catch up, as well as bits of the Figgy Pudding. Eventually, as she finally found out where the main hall actually was, she was rushing through the doorway when she slammed into somebody. "Agh! Oh my gosh, I am so-" "You insolent little...! Watch where you're going!" the lady she ran into yelled, fury in her eyes. "I didn't mean to, I'm just in a hurry! I just need to get to my friend real quick!" she pleaded with the green-haired woman. "I'm right here, Starlight." The dull sentence made her freeze as Trixie numbly stepped out from behind the woman, a flat look devoid of emotion on her face. "Oh... So this is your friend?" the woman grinned, "She was so much easier to find than I thought. She came right to me, even, ha!" "Tr- Trixie...? What did she do to you?" The woman sneered at her, her eyes shining brightly, "Why should I tell you when I can show you?" she pressed one of her bluetooth earbuds, "Merengue, start up the speakers and play the song. I want to let the employees see how great the concert they're working for is." Starlight's eyes widened. Is she trying to- No, I have to stop this! Looking around, she found where the plate had fallen, the remaining Figgy Pudding half crushed on it, and grabbed a chunk of it out, rushing over to Trixie, "Trixie, eat this!" The woman flinched back at Starlight's rush, "Wait, is that-?!" GULP Before she knew it, Trixie had taken the portion from Starlight's hand and swallowed it with barely a chew... Which immediately led into a coughing fit as she gagged on the dry Figgy 'Pudding'. "Agh, bleh! Cough Cough What was that?! Oh, I'm gonna be sick..." The song started playing over the speakers, but Trixie kept coughing while the woman had a furious look on her face. "Oh, Starlight, cough, what happened, did we manage to beat the bad guys yet?" "Uhhh... I don't think we've beaten her yet, Trixie." "This wasn't something I expected..." the woman growled as she fully stood, "No matter. I can keep you here until the dessert wears off. You two!" she pointed to the side at a pair of the crewmembers, "Apprehend these two, I need them in the backroom!" a moment passed, and the two didn't do anything, "What are you standing around for?! I told you to take care of them!" "Yeah... I don't think we're falling for those tricks anymore," the green man from before walked up, "Song hypnosis... Very weird. But ever since I ate that stuff this girl gave me, my head's been clearer than it's been in days." "Wait... She gave you..." she looked around to the people around her, most with angry faces while those who still looked dulled by the music were being held back by their co-workers. "As you can see, there's been a bit of a change in hierarchy here." "...Shi-" Hot cocoa, thermal blankets, and various extra helpings of a lesser eaten dessert, the rest of the day went by in a blur as the police arrested the three people masterminding the scheme. The two girls managed to get some of the facts about what happened. Apparently the woman had found some kind of magic artifact like the ones popping up around Canterlot High, and had decided to use it to try and steal all the gifts people had in their homes. Something about ‘I never had Christmas’ or ‘You don’t deserve Christmas’. It was pretty vague as to why she had done it. But thankfully, the mall and the school and everybody else finally stopped playing that stupid song, and Trixie and Starlight could finally get some sleep… ”Princess! You have saved me from this curse, and I am a man once more!” “With the curse gone, please come with me to the Sugar Plum Fairy! I’m sure she can send us both home!” Not all the lines were quite accurate in the play, but it was good enough for Starlight. Nobody was quoting Hamlet, Shakespeare, or Twelve Days Of Christmas, and they managed to get the spirit of the play. It went off without a hitch, so she figured she’d get a pass for this. “So that’s what you were working on for the past month!” Trixie stretched as they got out of the school, heading back to their apartment, “I’d give it an eight out of ten, I wouldn’t mind going again next year.” “Yeah, Applejack and Snails really pulled through. They could probably get an easy A in the theater course.” Trixie laughed at that, “Perhaps, if they had the same flare for the dramatic that Trixie the Magnificent does!” Starlight smiled back, “Suuure. Whatever you say, Trixie.” Heading home in companionable silence, they heard carolers singing Jingle Bells, Winter Wonderland, and Let It Snow, not once down each block did they hear the Twelve Days Of Christmas, traditional or otherwise. Starlight supposed that it probably wouldn’t come back until next year. Walking into their apartment, Trixie made her wait outside for a moment. Confused, Starlight waited for a few minutes in the hall. “Okay, you can come in now!” Pushing the door open, Starlight was blown away at what she saw on the dining room table. Shining up and down, with black metal and a smooth screen, there was a ribbon on top of the laptop to give it a splash of red. “What… Trixie?” She stepped from the side to give Starlight a hug, “I knew you wanted a new laptop, so I saved up to get one. It’s one of the fancy schmancy ones that loads programs fast.” “You… You shouldn’t have. Thank you, Trixie.” Starlight had a big smile on her face as they hugged. Trixie smiled back, “Merry Christmas, Starlight.”
