//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: Whisper // by Warren Hutch //------------------------------// The five ponies all coughed and blinked their eyes as the smoke cleared. Rainbow Dash hopped into the air and dispersed the rest of it with powerful flaps of her wings. The grey unicorn mare was nowhere to be seen. Applejack reached up a hoof to rub her eyes clear. "What the hay was that all about?" Twilight cocked an eyebrow, a look of deep thought and puzzlement on her face. "I have no idea. I've never met that unicorn in my life, but she seems to know me, and to think I've wronged her somehow." Rarity's mannered voice chimed in, still a bit rough from the smoke. "What a simply ghastly creature. Just her mane alone sets fabulousity back a hundred years." She sniffed with disdain. "If she turns up again I may need to round up a posse at the spa for an extreme makeover." Fluttershy spoke up... Well, she spoke. "Um... I don't know, but if it's okay with you all... If you don't mind..." She plucked up the jar containing the parasprite in her front hooves and lifted off with a soft beat of her wings. "One of us should take this parasprite out to the edge of the..." She swallowed hard. "... the Everfree Forest and turn it loose." Rainbow Dash flew over and clapped her on the shoulder, nearly causing her to drop the jar. "Don't sweat it, Fluttershy. I'll go with you." She leaned in and sneered at the merrily bobbing little monster in the jar. "The buffet is CLOSED for you little jerks here in Ponyville." As the two pegasi gave a wave and flew off, Twilight crouched down and began to examine the other personal effects that were scattered around the stranger's fallen saddlebags. Her voice was thoughtful as she gathered the various objects up and placed them back in the bag. "I wonder who she was." Rarity craned her neck to look, her sapphire blue eyes narrowing. "There doesn't seem to be much to go on here, darling. Some cheap brushes and combs, some make up which wasn't doing her a bit of good." She cocked her head. "Hello, what have we here? A round trip train ticket from... Fillydelphia to Ponyville?" The two unicorns traded a pensive look, before Twilight directed the alabaster coated mare's attention to some other bits of paper that had fallen out of the bag. "And what are these... More ticket stubs. Theater tickets? Neighvid Cropperfield, Mane and Trotter, Lipizzaner The Great, The Amazing Pooftwinkle... Magic shows?" Applejack had been standing off to the side watching them with a furrowed brow. "Y'know, gals. Normally I wouldn't cotton t' rummagin' through a pony's belongin's, but I reckon that gal was mighty suspicious..." She raised her eyes to scan the surrounding streets of Ponyville. A puzzled expression crossed her freckled face. "Hey, wait. Where'd Pinkie go?" *** Whisper stood pressed tightly against the wall around a nearby corner, fuming and panting raggedly for breath in tiny wheezes while she watched the trio of mares rifle through her personal effects. She spat on the ground and stomped a hoof, turning to slink away out of sight. A manic pink face with wide blue eyes filled her vision. "Hi again!" The drab unicorn's mane and tail sprung straight out like she'd bitten down on a joy buzzer, and she let out a scream that sounded like a drawn out cricket chirp as she leapt into the air with front and back hooves flailing. She pivoted in midair and shot off like a rocket, scrambling madly into the street. Pinkie Pie shrugged and started to skip after her. Applejack's eyes narrowed as she spotted the flourish of pinkness bouncing out into the open, and a second later she spotted the dun colored figure that her fellow earth pony was following. Casting about for a second, she spotted the wreckage of her apple cart nearby and darted toward it. After a moment of rummaging, she produced a coiled lasso, thankfully undiscovered and therefore undamaged by the parasprite plague. With a whoop that startled Rarity and Twilight, she reared back and broke into a gallop. In a few rapid strides she had matched Pinkie Pie's carousel-like pace, hot on the retreating unicorn's heels. The blonde farm mare turned to her bubbly pink friend with an eager glint in her eye. "Pinky, go 'round and head that varmint off. I'm gonna try t' lasso her." The bouncing party pony nodded and threw her a salute. "Okey dokey, smokey! We'll catch this bandit before she reaches the county line!" With that she bounded down a side street, making woOooo woOooo noises for some reason. Applejack let out a loop of lasso and started it spinning over her head. Whisper's features contorted into a desperate grimace as she glanced back at the galloping farm pony thundering hot on her heels. With a look of determination on her plain face, she sparked her horn to life. The faint, whitish gray glow of a teleport spell started to play across her drab coat. She spared one last sneering glance back at her pursuer as she felt the static like crackle of magic envelop her. She let out a gasp as she looked forward. More horrible, inescapable pink filled her field of view, as the manic mare dropped seemingly from the sky right in her path. The desperate unicorn's spell fizzled, her concentration broken. She let out a barely audible snarl and lowered her dull horn in a charge. Her candy colored tormentor reared back and spread her forelegs wide as if expecting a hug. Suddenly, Whisper's back hooves were slammed together by a coil of rope that went taut with a snap, sending her pitching forward face first onto the street. The impact knocked her silly. She flipped over, her horn sparking on the cobblestones as she pivoted over it, and tumbled like a rag doll into Pinkie's waiting hooves. The drab mare mumbled as her eyes rolled back in her head and she lost consciousness. "And for my next trick I'd like a volunteer from the audience..." Applejack casually coiled the rest of the lasso as she trotted up. Pinkie Pie extracted herself from underneath the unicorn's limp, insensate form and bounced to her hooves, sharing a victorious high five with her fellow earth pony. Twilight Sparkle and Rarity came cantering up, both of the relatively non-athletic unicorns panting for breath. The lavender mare had the stranger's panniers slung across her back. The bookish unicorn gave her friends a warm smile. "G-good job, guys. We ought to be able to get to the bottom of all this now." The three turned at the sound of Rarity letting out a gasp. The alabaster unicorn pointed a hoof toward the grey pony's hindquarters. "Speaking of bottoms, look there! I've seen that cutie mark before!" The others turned their attention to the fallen stranger's flanks. The groaning unicorn pony was lying face down with her fore hooves splayed out and her rump in the air, which had caused her skirt to fall aside and reveal a pictogram of a light blue magic wand with a pale crescent of magic trailing from the star at its tip. Twilight's jaw dropped as she saw it, and she turned to Applejack to see a similar expression on the farm mare's face. Pinkie cocked an eyebrow, shrugged, and let her jaw hang open as she fixed a wide eyed stare on the unconscious unicorn's upraised rear end in imitation of her three friends. *** The mare who'd called herself Whisper awoke with a throbbing pain in her horn. She blinked her eyes and looked around groggily. She was lying on her side on a soft couch in a large room lined with book shelves. The unicorn let out a tiny gasp of alarm and dismay as she realized that she was enveloped in some kind of shimmering purple magic field that seemed to center on her horn. She tried to rise and found that she couldn't move her legs. Her enraged squeak shifted into a frightened one as a mannered voice called out nearby. "Twilight, darling. It seems our guest is awake now." Rarity tossed her luxuriously curled violet and purple mane as she stepped into view. The white unicorn cocked an ear and leaned in as the drab stranger began to mutter while straining against her magical bonds. "Oh do speak up, my dear. I can hardly hear you." Her porcelain features flushed bright red as Twilight walked up flanked by Applejack and Rainbow Dash, with Pinkie Pie and a skittish Fluttershy in tow. The lavender unicorn cast a questioning glance at her. "What's she saying, Rarity?" The elegant mare cleared her throat, still blushing a bit as she flicked an ear. "Nothing repeatable in pleasant company. After we wash this guttersnipe's mouth out with some soap I fear I may need to wash my ear out as well." Twilight pursed her lips and fixed the captive unicorn with a questioning gaze. "Allright, Trixie. What's going on here?" The drab mare scowled at her, and she spat back in a barely audible tirade. "Oh, so you're finally done pretending you don't recognize your own handiwork, eh? Tired of that little game, are we? Enjoy your sick amusements while you can, you evil enchantress." The lavender unicorn blinked, and shook her head, a hint of frustration creeping into her voice. "I never did anything to you, Trixie. What in the wide world of Equestria are you talking about?" Tears began to roll down Trixie's drab grey muzzle as she replied, her faint voice cracking in anguish. "Don't lie! You did this to me, you spiteful witch. You stole my voice, and took away my beauty. You made the Great and Powerful Trixie into the dull and forgettable nopony! It wasn't enough that you humiliated me and destroyed all of my material possessions on that terrible night. You had to take away everything else as well. I'll never be in the spotlight again, and it's all because of you."At this she broke down, sobbing bitterly into her hooves. Twilight's brow furrowed, as she leaned in to make eye contact with the miserable mare. "Trixie, I promise you, I didn't do this to you." The grey mare scowled up at her through her tears. "I don't believe you! There's no other possible explanation. I've seen your power. Only a unicorn like you could cast an unbreakable enchantment like this, and believe me I've tried everything to break this curse you've placed me under." Twilight tossed her head dismissively. "Trixie, please. There's no such... thing... as... curses..." Her eyes widened as she trailed off, the wheels turning in her mind. She knelt down beside the weeping unicorn, taking one of her hooves in her own. "I need you to tell me everything that happened to you after you ran off. Give me every detail." Trixie was taken aback by the urgency in the lavender mare's tone, and eyed her suspiciously through her tears. She strained to try to tug her immobilized hoof away. "Wh-what? Is this another twisted game?" Twilight gravely shook her head. "No games, Trixie. I didn't do this to you and I want to help, but I need you to confirm a theory. Please, just tell me what happened to you after you left Ponyville that night." The grey unicorn stared hard at her interlocutor with her dull brown eyes, then let out a trembling sigh. "All right. I'll play along. I ran out of town at a full gallop, and didn't stop until I was deep in that big forest outside of town. By that time I was exhausted and terrified and miserable and humiliated and heartsick and put upon and nobody liked me and..." At this Applejack interjected. "Y'wanna spare us the adjectives and stick to th' nouns and verbs, there, Trix." The drab mare cast her a scalding glare and continued. "Fine. So I found a patch of flowers and settled down to take a little rest and gather my wits. I guess I fell asleep 'cos the next morning I woke up there. I had weird, unsettling dreams all night, but when I woke up, that's when my real nightmare started, because I was like this. I didn't even realize I was screaming at first, I thought it was a bird chirping." Twilight gave a nod. "Those flowers, do you remember what color they were?" Trixie blinked at the question and cocked an eyebrow. "What does that even matter?" The lavender unicorn rolled her eyes. "Were they blue flowers, Trixie?" The captive mare nodded, a scowl appearing on her plain face once more. "Yes. They were. A beautiful blue like I used to be before you cast your wicked..." Twilight held up a hoof for silence. "Okay, that's what I thought. Trixie, do you think you could open your mouth and say AAH for me?" The drab unicorn blinked in shock at the request, then huffed and complied with a vindictive glare at her captors, poking her tongue out farther than was necessary. Her faint "aah" became a squeak of surprise as she found her jaws held open and her tongue pushed down by shimmering purple magic. The lavender mare leaned in and peered down her throat, shining a beam of white light off of the tip of her horn into Trixie's mouth. "Uh huh... Just what I thought." She turned and beckoned to her yellow pegasus friend. "Fluttershy, come here and look at this. What do you see?" Fluttershy came tentatively forward and looked into the indignant mare's mouth. "Um... okay. What am I looking for... Oh! She's got blue spots all over her throat." They both turned as Pinkie Pie's voice chirped behind them. "OoOOooh! She's got poison joke!" Twilight turned to her with a smile and tapped the tip of her nose with a hoof. "Bingo!" Trixie felt the hold on her jaws release, and she blinked at the assembled mares in confusion. "P-poison what?" The lavender unicorn settled easily into a discursive manner as she climbed to her hooves. "Poison joke, a member of a genus of plants that act like naturally occurring magic wands. In this case, the spell it casts is transformational in nature, and takes the form of a cruel practical joke on the victim. Those blue flowers you slept on were poison joke. Probably the same patch that got all of us a couple of months back. We've all suffered the plant's ill effects." She gave their captive a smile. "Luckily, the cure is fairly simple." At this Trixies dull brown eyes started to glisten. "It... it is? You... you're not lying to me, are you? I... I could really be my... myself again?" Before Twilight could answer, Rainbow Dash interjected, a frown creasing her brow. "Slow down a minute there, Twilight. Before we rush out to help the faint and inaudible Trixie here, we need a couple more questions answered, like what was she doing with that parasprite in her bag?" Rarity chimed in, arching an eyebrow as she looked the suddenly stricken grey unicorn over. "Yes, and what's the connection with Fillydelphia? I find it a rather telling coincidence that they are suffering an infestation there as well." Applejack drew herself up and fixed the cowering unicorn with stern, green eyes. "I reckon' tellin' is what our gal here better do if she wants us t' fix her up the way she used ta be. And even then a lot is gonna depend on what we think o' what we hear." The drab unicorn's watery brown eyes darted from face to face, and she began to tremble. Her plain features contorted in abject misery as new tears began to pour down her cheeks. "By the grace of the sisters, what have I done? What has Trixie done?" She broke down more bitterly than before, sobbing uncontrollably. Fluttershy and Pinkie both rushed forward and laid comforting hooves on her. The shy pegasus spoke in a soft, soothing voice. "There there, you don't have to cry." The pink earth pony's face was grave, as she stroked the shuddering unicorn's back. She hated seeing anypony cry, no matter who they were. "What DID you do, Trixie? Maybe if you get it off your chest you can feel better." Trixie kept her eyes screwed tightly shut, her head slumped against the back of the couch. "I'll tell you what I did. I brought the parasprites to Ponyville. I planted them around town, and I used my magic to mess up that spell you cast to stop them, Twilight Sparkle." At this the lavender unicorn's jaw dropped while all around her friends let out a collective gasp. "How... how did you manage that? I would have noticed if somepony was interfering with my magic." The drab mare rolled her head sideways, looking in Twilight's direction with puffy, tear reddened eyes. "If what you say is true about this poison joke, then part of the gag is that my magic has become rather hard to notice. Blink and you'd miss it." A shudder passed through her as she looked away. "Performing was my life. I loved the stage, I loved the attention, the applause. But once... once this happened, that was all denied to me. Who'd pay a moment's attention to a mare who looks and sounds like a mouse? With magic you'd have to strain your eyes to even see?" She continued, her tiny voice so low and morose that the others had to strain to hear her. "I went back home to Fillydelphia, took a boring job filling out boring forms in a boring office at the boring Bureau of Agriculture just so I wouldn't starve in the streets." A wistful look washed across her plain face. "What... what little money I had left over I'd spend on tickets to magic shows. I'd sit in the back and blubber quietly to myself while the magicians did their tricks, just s-so I could close my eyes while everypony else was cheering and applauding and imagine it was me up on stage again." The wretched unicorn let out a tortured squeak of a sigh. "I spent my nights dreaming of ways to get back at you, Twilight Sparkle. To get my revenge on you and all of Ponyville. When parasprites started turning up on the farms around Fillydelphia, I hatched my little scheme and bought a train ticket. I lifted one of the little beasts from quarantine and smuggled it here in a jar. The Princess' upcoming visit was just icing on the cake. Here was my chance to bring you down, and Ponyville with you." Her faint voice took on an edge of hysteria. "And now it turns out it wasn't your fault all along, and I... I wrecked an entire town for something they didn't even do to me. I'm a worse monster than that horrible ursa!" A haunted look settled on her features. "And worst of all, I've blown any chance I had of getting back to normal because of it." With that, she let out a tiny wail and buried her face in her hooves. Twilight cast a sidelong glance at her shocked companions. "Girls, I think we need to have a talk."