Tranced
Chapter 1 - Moving In(Butterbell)
"Okay, stop here," I instructed to the stallions. "Here's a tip."
The stallions neighed, pleased with their tip. I headed off to the house I was supposed to go to, dragging my luggage along.
After staying in Baltimare for a few years, I had decided to move. My mother had encouraged me to travel the world and explore. I decided to start in Ponyville.
A pink pony was trotting down the street.
"Excuse me," I asked her. "Do you know where 305 Carrot Avenue is?"
"Yep! Follow me! I'm Pinkie Pie, by the way! What's your name? What's your cutie mark represent? Why do you want to visit 305 Carrot Avenue?"
I memorized each question and responded in the corresponding order. "Butterbell. That's classified. I'm moving there."
Pinkie Pie started bouncing happily. "Yay! A new neighbor! Where did you live before moving here? What was it like? Why is your cutie mark classified?"
I responded in the same way, "Baltimare. It was a nice place, but I wanted to see a bit more of the world. I don't want to talk about it."
My cutie mark was a purple spiral. Most would wonder what this stood for. I'll get to that later.
"I'll have Twilight give you a tour! Oh, here we are!" Pinkie Pie came to a halt at 305 Carrot Avenue. "I'll see you later!"
I waved bye. Then I unpacked.
A few minutes after I had set up everything, somepony knocked on the door.
I opened it. A purple unicorn with a darker purple mane was there.
"Hi! I heard we had a new neighbor, and I thought you might want to learn a bit about Ponyville. I'm Twilight Sparkle. Pleased to meet you," she said.
"A pleasure to make your acquaintance," I replied, shaking her hoof.
"I'll give you a tour," Twilight Sparkle said. "Follow me."
Since I see no need to go over boring details, Twilight showed me the basic places like Sugarcube Corner and Sweet Apple Acres.
"Well, since you probably want to go back to your home now, I'll let you go! Have a nice day!"
I bid my farewell. "Goodbye!"
I arrived at my house and took a rest on the couch. I started reading a Daring Do book, my favorite series.
Ten minutes later, someone knocked on the door. People here must enjoy neighbors, I thought to myself.
I opened it. A yellow pony with a pink mane was there. I remembered her - Fluttershy.
"Hello," I said. "Fluttershy, right?"
The pony nodded shyly. "I'm from earlier, remember? I ran away and hid in the bush."
"Well, come in," I requested. "Have a seat."
Fluttershy seemed really shy. I decided to fix this.
Now, to tell you a bit about my cutie mark.
My special talent is hypnosis. I've dreamed of being a hypnotist since I was young, and received my cutie mark when I successfully hypnotized a pony to act like a chicken. I decided to help Fluttershy overcome her shyness.
"Fluttershy, do you like my couch?" I tried to engage in conversation.
"Oh, yes. It's relaxing," Fluttershy replied. I chuckled to myself. This would be easy.
"Very relaxing?"
"Yes." Fluttershy's body seemed to slump into the couch.
"Could you do me a favor and stare at this?" I took out a crystal.
"Sure," Fluttershy responded as she stared at the spinning crystal.
"Fluttershy, are you tired?" I asked nonchalantly. I couldn't slip up, otherwise this wouldn't work.
"Yes," Fluttershy replied. Her voice was getting flat.
"Well, you may need to close your eyes. Just let them get heavier with each word I say."
I waited a bit before going on.
"I'll count to 3, and on 3, you will fall into trance. 1, 2, 3!"
I could tell that Fluttershy was under my power. I decided to do a test before actually attempting the confidence.
"I command you to dance. An Irish jig, maybe?"
Fluttershy was doing a perfectly executed Irish folkdance in a matter of seconds.
"Stop."
Fluttershy slumped back onto the couch.
I decided to try boosting her self-confidence now.
"I'll count to 3 again, and when I reach 3, you will wake up and forget that I ever hypnotized you. Whenever you feel shy, the shyness is replaced by self-confidence. 1, 2, 3!"
Fluttershy's eyes - well, fluttered - open. "It was nice staying with you."
I noticed that her voice wasn't the quiet voice - it was a socially engaged voice. An excited voice.
"See you later!" I waved as she left.
I took out my book, making sure that the bookmark was there, then continued reading.
Two evil ponies watched from the shadows.
"When is she ours?" one hissed in a raspy voice.
"Soon. Don't be impatient Impatience is our weakness. We were defeated before because of it," the leader said in the same voice as the other pony, except much more intimidating. "It will not happen again."
"But how will we take her?" the minion demanded. "She resisted us."
"That's because I wasn't doing the job!" the leader snapped, losing his patience. "If I had done it, I'm sure that I could have taken her!"
"Either way, what if she resists?"
The leader's eyes flashed. "We'll have to resort to... Plan Zeta."
The minion gasped. "Plan Zeta? But that's for emergencies!"
"Are you questioning me?" the leader said in a cool tone of voice.
The minion gulped. "No, sir! Not at all!"
The leader observed Butterbell. "We won't take her first. We'll start minor."
Twilight Sparkle - Strange Occurrences
Tranced
Chapter 2 - Strange Occurrences(Twilight Sparkle)
"Fluttershy is a social butterfly now!" Rainbow Dash insisted. "Someone must have cursed her or something! Not that it's a bad thing, but still!"
"I know. I'm trying to investigate it, Rainbow," I said impatiently, checking my library.
"I bet it's that new pony, Butterbell," Rainbow said. "She seemed suspicious."
I dashed to Rainbow, furious. "How dare you accuse her! She just got here yesterday! And besides, I'm good friends with her!"
"Does that really change the fact that she could be evil?" Rainbow Dash said.
Okay, she had me there.
"Um... no. But still! And besides, why would she do that to Fluttershy?"
Rainbow pondered this. "Good point."
I took out a book called "Strange Behaviors". I flipped through the book. "Poison, mind control... this might be it!"
I showed Rainbow Dash the "Hypnotism" section.
"We just need to confirm one important detail," I said, my eyes twinkling.
I rushed to Fluttershy.
"Hello!" she said cheerfully.
"Um, Fluttershy? Could I see your eyes for a second?"
"Sure."
One glance at her eyes was all I needed to know.
"I'll see you later!" I said awkwardly, dashing away.
Fluttershy was probably wondering why I asked such an awkward question and then left immediately afterward.
"So... she's hypnotized?"
"Correct," I confirmed. "Her green irises proved it."
"But... how are we going to get her out of it?"
I looked in the book again. "To break somepony of a hypnotist's control, the hypnotist must re-hypnotize the subject and tell them to forget all changes, unless they have assigned a trigger word."
"Wasn't Butterbell's cutie mark a spiral?" Rainbow pointed out.
I pondered this. "Yes... but we still can't accuse her. I guess it wouldn't hurt to ask her about this, though."
We wandered to Butterbell's house. "Do you know anything about why Fluttershy is acting strangely?"
Butterbell paused before answering. "I was not directly involved," she finally answered.
"Okay, then, we'll be on our way," I said. As I trotted away, I couldn't help but glance back at Butterbell.
"How do we know she wasn't lying?" Rainbow asked.
"I never said she wasn't. Also, I'm suspicious too, but we still don't have any proof."
I headed back to the library to do more research. "She's the only pony I can think of! And I'm sure that Trixie hasn't done anything since we became friends."
"Don't you have a spell or something to help?"
I thought through my spells. Then it came to me.
"I have an idea! I'll use a memory spell to search Fluttershy's memory! Maybe I'll find out what happened." I went back to Fluttershy.
"Could I try a memory spell for a second?" I asked her.
"Sure." Fluttershy flew over to me.
I activated the spell.
Memories came flooding to me, but I couldn't find anything out of the ordinary.
Then something flashed for a split second. It was a bright yellow pony holding a crystal. Fluttershy was with her.
The other pony looked exactly like Butterbell. My suspicions had been confirmed.
"That's all," I said, heading back.
"Rainbow Dash, you were - " I stopped cold.
A black pony with a sliver mane and tail was standing over an unconscious Rainbow Dash. He let out a blood-curdling laugh, then turned towards me.
"I am Dark Silver," he said. "Now, I need a new slave. You're filling the job, like it or not!"
He rushed at me, and everything went black.
