//------------------------------// // Chapter 8: Whispers of Children. // Story: Harry Houdini: The Great and Powerful // by CrackedInkWell //------------------------------// “Now that my assistant is strapped down to the wheel,” the blue magician announced as she walked away from the circular piece of wood that Peppers Ghost was currently strapped onto, an usually calm look on her face. Her sister, meanwhile, held up a bag of knives for her boss, though she looked a bit worried. “I shall let it spin while I put on my blindfold.” Trixie lit up her horn, activating a machine that started turning the wheel while placing a blue fabric over her eyes. Of course, the three of them knew that the blindfold only made it seem like she couldn’t see, when in fact she could. “And now, the Great and Powerful Trixie will throw all fifteen daggers at her assistant without harming her.” She reached a hoof over to the bag, pretending to feel her way around. Lifting the first knife over her head, she called out “One!” before throwing it, missing her assistant but hitting the round board. Even though the daggers themselves were real, Trixie’s horn was what really guided them, the glow of it hidden beneath her hat. As she counted, she made sure that some of the sharp pieces of steel hit only a few inches away from her, causing the audience to be on edge as the number of knives wen tup. “Thirteen.” The dagger landed almost a little too close to Pepper’s ear. “Fourteen.” Another hit the very edge of the wheel but didn’t fall off. “And finally… fifteen!” With the last knife in the air, she guided it next to her assistant’s neck. There was a sigh of relief before Trixie heard the applause. Yet somehow, the cheers, stomping, and hoof-clopping seemed quieter. After taking the “blindfold” off, she turned around to find that the theater wasn’t exactly full. _*_ Once the stage had been cleaned up and ready for the next night, Trixie made her way home on her usual route, passing the gleaming theater baring Houdini's name. After the decent sells made that night, there was a lot for the unicorn to think about. Soon enough, she was on her street and near her apartment. The rows of buildings had most of their windows opened, letting air into their rooms and letting their conversation come out. “You should have seen her,” Trixie heard a little colt’s voice say. “At the end of her show, she somehow got the diamond to appear under her heat while she was blindfolded, tied up, and hung upside-down over a vat of pudding, with nothing but a burning rope to hold her up!” Hearing this made the midnight unicorn smile with pride. At least somepony was talking about her. “Pfft. Oh, come on,” another young voice joined in, “you weren’t there at Houdini’s show. His was so much better.” Trixie’s smile quickly dropped to a frown. “I mean, have you ever heard of half of what he did,” the colt continued. “He was able to get himself locked in jail, in hoofcuffs, and still got out. He was able to escape out of a locked box filled with water, and upside-down too! He even got some of the audience to come on stage and tie him to a chair. He had ropes, chains, hoofcuffs, everything! And he was still able to get out! It’s like no matter what you put that guy in, he somehow finds a way out of it.” “So what?” the other colt commented. “The hu-mon got out of hoofcuffs, what’s so weird about that?” “That’s where things get crazy.” Trixie turned to the windows where she spied the two colts. Although their backs were to her, she could still see them talking face-to-face. “I was there when he did his show yesterday, and the Great and Powerful Trixie was there too!” “Really?” He nodded. “Yeah, and rumor has it, near the end of his show when he asked ponies to come on stage and tie him up, she came on stage too. I heard that she placed some hoofcuffs on him and set an alarm spell on them so that if he or anyone else tried to use magic on them, she would know. But the weird part is, even when the cuffs came off, nothing happened.” The other colt was taken back. “What?” “Yeah,” he nodded, “and so far, nopony can figure out how he did it. I heard that it even left Trixie stumped! And you know what? That’s exactly why I think that Houdini is the better magician.” At this point, Trixie’s mood had soured further. “I mean, when you really think about it, whenever you go to a magic show, have you noticed that they’re always unicorns?” The other colt nodded. “Whenever you go to those shows, you’d think that they would think that they would try to do something impossible using their horns, like levitating a key to unlock a lock or something. But Houdini gets into the most dangerous things that should be impossible to get out of, and he doesn’t even have a horn! So tell me, how do you think that anypony would be able to get out of someplace like a jail cell without magic?” The other colt paused for a moment. “I… I don’t know. How do you think he did his stuff?” He shrugged. “Don’t know. It kinda makes you wonder what he’s going to do next.” At this point, Trixie continued homeward with despair in her head. At least this explained why the theater wasn’t completely sold out. It was all because of him. For her, this went far above anything that mare in Ponyville had done to her. Oh no, this human, this hairless ape, this giant Houdini was doing something that she hated above all else: stealing her audience. It was clear that she had to do something quickly. Going to his shows wouldn’t be enough. She had to find out exactly how he’d been able to do all of his impossible stunts. A look over the flat rooftops along with the fact that Houdini’s theater wasn’t too far gave her an idea.