Lock Your Doors and Hide Yourselves
Serrating sounds sonorously susurrate in the darkness. Chains rake the ground. A wooden door creaks open. Chains pass between a pony's hooves, catching slightly, then falling aside as they're shaken off.
Clip-clop clatters against tile. A crack spiderwebs across an old tile-setting from a harsh, heavy hoofprint striking at its perfect weak point, spreading decay.
A hoarse whisper reverberates from the castle's acoustic walls. "Power... power..."
From the eaves to the floor, the sound echoes. A scraping can be heard in the kitchen, reflecting an emptying of the pantry. Dishes clatter. A voice sounds, louder: "Full...." The speaker does violence against the dishes. "Grape..."
Blood red sauce streams slither across the floor, leading to the privies, passing the privies, continuing up the stairs to Princess Twilight Sparkle's eyrie.
Bangs reverberate against a door, followed by the scraping of hooves until the door's entry-ring is caught and pulled open. Groans emanate from ill-settled wood sliding against tile and also from the out-of-shape creature laboriously huffing and puffing as she pulls the door. She scuttles inside the room. "Privy performance..." She bashes against an urn that clatters, but manages to not fall. "Just a moment..." Liquid falls, a trickling, pattering hard rain. "One night only--" she sighs and shifts. "Tricksy's here..." She moves off the urn's rim, which teeters. The urn crashes.
Lights go on. A candle illuminates shadows. A horn flashes in the darkness.
Another figure, her horn alight, pushes further open the Princess's door, "I heard--"
"Starlight! Glad you're here. There's an intruder--" Princess Twilight Sparkle illuminates her room with a bright blast of magic, then centers her horn on the room's intruder, preparing to blast the villain, who is flailing on the floor.
But that is not necessary.
"Trixie!" Starlight calls. "What are you doing?"
"Where is Trixie?" Trixie moans, splaying herself adjacent to an overturned urn. "And why is her coat wet?"
Starlight sniffs the air. "It smells like... not clean water...."
"What are you doing in my room?" Twilight says, focusing on the blue magician pony, the Great and Powerful Trixie. "I gave you run of the castle EXCEPT this room. You should have knocked!"
"Hoarseapples," Starlight sighs. "Trixie was sleepwalking. I forgot to chain the door... or I didn't chain it tight enough. I found this on the way." She holds up a chain.
"Sorry I slipped the bonds again," Trixie says, from the floor.
"Slipped?" Twilight asks. "You also tied up Trixie?"
"That was mostly Trixie's doing. Practice for her show. She's always working on her technique. It's amazing," Starlight beamed, but she stopped after a moment. "Although, it has awoken me sometimes. A lot of times. Not this time, though. I've gotten too used to sleeping through. And yes, I helped yanked her chains tight."
"I... see... but more pertinent now--she's done this before? What happened last time? Where did she go?"
"Last week, she made herself a sandwich."
"Which day?"
"Sunday--Celestia's Day. We spent an hour cleaning before the servants came in. She spilled a lot of stuff," Starlight sighs.
"But I DID make it--with my eyes closed. As good as any of my magical tricks!" Trixie, the Great and Powerful magician, smugly asserts, still splayed across the floor.
Twilight Sparkle's eyes widen. Her little brother, Spike, yawns, rubs his eyes and sits up in his bed, situated not too far from the end of Twilight Sparkle's.
"And then, after the kitchen? Did she go anywhere else? Did she say anything?"
"She mumbled about being ready to perform after having filled and emptied herself."
"That means I--" Trixie starts.
"She went to the privies? Did you find her there?"
"She was in the hall. Around here."
"Spike?" Twilight looks at her little brother. "Do you recall last Sunday?"
"Do I wha--"
"Oh no," Twilight Sparkle slaps a hoof against her forehead.
"Oh..." Spike yawns and nods. "Sorry. I'm still waking up. Last Sunday? That's the day you woke up with that funny smell and had me bleach the room." He sniffs the air. "I'm smelling it again!"
Twilight Sparkle glares at Trixie. Starlight glares at Trixie. Spike continues sniffing the air. Twilight Sparkle increases the brightness emanating from her horn.
Trixie bites her lower lip and wiggles a bit away from the urn and the yellowish liquid dripping from it.
"Oh no," Spike's gaze drifts to Trixie and the overturned urn.
"This was all an illusion!" Trixie says as she scoots and crawls to the door, making squeegeeing sounds while sliding her hide all squick-a-squick. Behind her, she leaves the trail of a yellowed smear.
"Sorry Twilight," Starlight grabs Trixie with her magic, lifting her in the air and dragging her out, still dripping. "Knock on my door if you want us to clean. Don't be a stranger."
Twilight's face goes all funny, askew at an angle and she swallows some bile.
"Actually," Starlight grins a silly forced smile. "We'll be back."
Twilight takes a deep breath.
"Rather," Starlight amends, "I'll be back. I'll take care of everything by myself. Trixie doesn't need to return unless you want. I'll be here as soon as I get Trixie showered."
Twilight frowns. Beside her, Spike trembles. "Your bed, Twilight! Last week it was covered in that smell!"
"I know, Spike."
"I think I know what that smell was!"
"Yes, Spike."
"It had to be--"
"You don't need to say it."
"It's so disgusting. And it was on your pillow, which means it was probably also on your--"
"Let's not speak of this ever again."
Starlight frowns, "Please don't evict us."
"You don't need to worry," Twilight says. "I always suspected Trixie had... subconscious dominance issues with me...."
"Thank you for being so kind!"
"You... don't need to worry," Twilight repeats, so Starlight gets the point.
Cursing under her breath, Starlight takes Trixie with her magic and leaves the room.
"Never fear! Starlight! Trixie can also assist! It will be a great and powerful cleaning," Trixie's muffled voice calls while she is marehandled down the hallway.
