//------------------------------// // 11. The Taming of the Queen // Story: The Fishbowl // by Shrink Laureate //------------------------------// “Morning, Trixie!” Trixie slid into the back seat. “Good morning, Glow. Here, have a sweetie!” she chucked a big gobstopper to Pacific Glow. “Thanks!” She popped it in her mouth. “You’re im a goob moov shoday,” she said through a mouthful of gobstopper. “That’s right, Trixie is excited for the gala.” “You gof ve eshtra tickesh you ashed for, righ?” “Sure enough.” She waggled her phone. “Washou gon wear?” “That outfit with the big hat and all the sparkles, I think. The one mother got me last year. Speaking of which, can Trixie perhaps ask you for a little favour?” “Hmmmf?” “Hey Trix, I got the speaker you asked me… for… huh?” While hefting a nearly person-sized speaker, Vinyl looked around in confusion. Trixie had closed the door behind her, locked it with jangling keys and shoved those keys firmly in her pocket. With effort, Vinyl lowered her hands enough to let her peer over the top of the big speaker. Octavia was stood at the far side of the music room with her arms crossed, frowning. She turned back to Trixie, who was standing in front of the door. She narrowed her eyes. “I’m guessing you weren’t really going to ask me about the acoustics, then?” she asked. “Sorry about the trickery, girls, but Trixie really needs to talk to you two together,” said Trixie, stepping forward to take the speaker from Vinyl with both hands and walk it carefully over to the far side of the room. Hands full, facing away from her, totally defenceless. The keys are in my back pocket, she saw me put them there. Right now she’s wondering if she can get those keys out of my pocket and escape while I’ve got my hands full. But if she does that she’ll never find out what this trick was about, and the curiosity will kill her. So she won’t do that, and having decided not to, she’ll have no choice but to take the conversation seriously. She’s so easy to mold. Trixie put the speaker down in the corner and stood up. “Take a seat.” She indicated a table with three chairs. Vinyl and Octavia reluctantly took seats on one side, avoiding each other’s eyes, while Trixie hopped into the other, leaning forward. Damn it, they’re still at it, thought Trixie. “Okay, so,” started Trixie. “It’s clear you two have something going on,” she said, waving a hand in the air between them, “and that’s lovely, really, but we’re on a clock here and Trixie really needs you to back her up. Both of you. Think you can do that?” The other two murmured their assent, looking more and more like naughty children. They’re still at it. Whatever it is, it’s still going on, and it’s going to distract them from what we need to do next. How can I get them to concentrate? She said, “Good, because Chrysalis is expecting me to swing by her shop tonight, and Trixie doesn’t plan on being her plaything any longer.” She turned to Vinyl. “You wanted to get closer to the politico Pinkie Pie. I have an idea where we can do that.” She slid a leaflet across the desk. Vinyl leaned forward to read it. “The Grand Gathering Gala?” “The Gala?” asked Octavia, suddenly interested. She reached for the leaflet “Well, I’d love to go, of course, but it’s famous for—” Her fingers brushed Vinyl’s, which were reaching for it too. They both pulled back, looking away. Yep. Damn it, damn it, damn it. They just can’t concentrate like this. I have to fix this right now if they’re going to be any use at all. Sorry, girls, but this is for your own good. Trixie put her phone down on the desk in front of her and unlocked it. “Yeah, actually…” She stood up, still looking down and tapping buttons on the screen, and said, “Octavia, here, can you have a look at this?” Octavia leant forward in her chair. Without warning, Trixie reached a hand behind Octavia’s head and pulled her forward into a kiss. Octavia froze, her hands awkwardly waving in the air. Vinyl’s widening eyes darted quickly between the two as she realised what was happening, until she jumped to her feet and shoved the two of them apart. Octavia fell back into her seat with a soft thud, a look of shocked confusion on her face. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” shouted Vinyl. In response, Trixie grabbed the lapels of Vinyl’s jacket and pulled her forward into a kiss as well. It was badly aimed, sloppy, and only lasted a second before Vinyl pushed away and stumbled back, knocking over her chair and landing roughly on the floor. Trixie stood up straight, looking down at both her victims. She took a second to catch her breath. Octavia recovered first. She coughed into her hand. “I suppose that little trick was intended to make a point?” “It was,” confirmed Trixie. From the floor, propped up on one elbow, Vinyl looked from one to the other, reserving her harshest glare for Trixie. She touched her fingers to her lips as if wary of a cut or bruise there. “Care to spell it out for me?” she said resentfully and a little too loud. Trixie waved a hand in a big circle over the two of them. “This, whatever it is, this thing that you two have going on? I need you to get over it. I can’t just wait patiently while you figure it out, we need to pay attention right now. Chrysalis has been playing with us all, getting us to do her dirty work, and I’m pretty sure she’s got big plans for the Gala this weekend.” Vinyl wiped her lips resentfully. “Where’d you get all that from?” “First, she makes us doubt ourselves with that detail about our past. She gives us a lead so we’ll uncover clues that reinforce what she’s saying. Then she isolates us and tries to manipulate us individually. I’m guessing one or both of you have been to see her already?” Octavia looked away. “Trixie thought so.” She checked Vinyl, who shook her head. “You’re probably next, then. Well, two can play at that game, and Trixie can win it.” Vinyl set her chair upright and firmly sat on it. She crossed her arms and slouched, shooting daggers at Trixie. “Why? What’s this Gala thing?” Octavia cleared her throat. “The Gala is an event held once a year at Fillydelphia Hall, attended by the cream of local society.” “I don’t get it,” said Vinyl. “What’s the big deal? It’s just a party, right?” “It isn’t just any old party. The Grand Gathering Gala is the most prestigious event of the year,” explained Octavia. “Snobbiest party ever. Gotcha.” “Many of the most important people in the city will be there.” “Boring old guys. Great.” “The masquerade is apparently a sight to behold. Everyone who attends the Gala dresses spectacularly.” “Stiff clothes. Check.” “They’ll have the Griffonstone Quartet playing the ballroom.” “Dull music. Boring dancing. Right.” Despite the slight against her craft, Octavia pressed on. “It’s extremely exclusive. The absolute cream of society will be there.” “Tedious conversation. Whoo.” “Including, I imagine, the Mayor.” Vinyl finally got it. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “And you think, if there really is a Pinkie Pie working in the Mayor’s office, she’ll be there too. And we can find her, talk to her or stalk her or something, and get some answers.” “Exactly,” said Trixie. “Or at least, there’s a good chance she’ll be there. And even if not, many of the people there are likely to know something. It’s our best chance at finding a connection and some answers that don’t come from Mistress Chrysalis.” “But as I said, it’s utterly exclusive,” reiterated Octavia. “Money alone won’t get you a ticket.” Vinyl snorted. “I’ve snuck into plenty of parties before.” “Not with security like this. Do you really imagine we could inveigle ourselves into it without getting caught?” Trixie proudly brandished her phone. “Why should we sneak in when Trixie has tickets? Wait, hang on.” She tapped in the unlock code again and brandished her phone, a little less triumphantly. “Tickets!” Octavia’s eyes grew till they looked like saucers. “How…” she breathed. “The Great and Powerful Trixie has her ways,” she boasted. “Speaking of which, there’ll probably be a second Pinkie Pie at the Gala.” “Who?” asked Vinyl, moments before Octavia could. “My mother’s secretary, Pacific Glow.” “What? How long has…” “She’s been working for Mom for a few months now, but I only just worked out who she really is. She hid it well. She keeps her hair up in a big puffy twintail thing and wears glasses, and she really doesn’t act like a Pinkie Pie - until you give her sugar, that is. Then she becomes totally Pinkie.” “We are so going to that party,” said Vinyl. “What were you saying about Chrysalis wanting to see you?” asked Octavia. Trixie told them the story of her intimidating invitation the day before, concluding with, “I’m through being her puppet. It’s time we took control.” “All right, but how? Whenever we talk to her she seems to know everything about us, and we know basically nothing about her.” “That’s what she wants us to think. She’s been trying to play hard to get, making us work for it, reeling us in, but she’s gotten more hurried lately. Her ‘invitation’ for me to meet her tonight was even more forceful.” “It’s terrible,” sympathised Octavia. “It’s desperate,” corrected Trixie. “She’s running out of time, and she needs us for something soon. She lured us in, she told us about our memories, pointed us at the Pinkie Pies, and pushed us into finding the horizon. She wanted us to learn about all of that. And she’s clearly on a timescale, or she wouldn’t be pushing at each of us so hard now. Remember that night she called us ‘puppets’?” Octavia nodded. Trixie continued, “She made a distinction between ‘locals’ like us, and ‘guests’, or outsiders like her. That means there is an outside, something beyond that horizon.” Vinyl’s scowl deepened. “That’s a big conclusion to get to from a couple of words.” “I know, but there’s one more thing. She also called herself a ‘prisoner’.” “Meaning that, however many of these ‘outsiders’ there are, they’ve all been put in here as some sort of punishment?” asked Octavia. “That this whole city really is… their prison?” “The thing is, Chrysalis doesn’t strike Trixie as the type to just put up with something like that. Trixie’s guess is that she has an escape plan, some way out of this town, and we’re a part of it. She needs the three of us to do something to make it happen. And if it’s urgent like that then it probably has something to do with the Gala this weekend.” “So she wants you there tonight so she can manipulate you into doing… whatever she needs you to do to escape?” clarified Octavia. Trixie nodded. “Like what?” asked Vinyl. “I don’t know, but whatever it is she’ll probably try and make me think it’s my idea. And in the next couple of days I expect she’ll do something similar with you two.” “I can’t say I enjoy being her plaything either,” said Octavia. “What can we do about it?” Trixie reached under the table and pulled out a heavy bag that she put in front of Octavia. “You’ll need these.” Trixie closed the door behind her with a soft click, leaving Octavia and Vinyl Scratch sitting there. For a second, Vinyl almost expected her to lock them in. They sat side by side, both facing nothing. With Trixie gone, Vinyl lost the target that had been keeping her angry and focused. There was nothing left but her and Octavia. No excuses, no distractions, no helpful annoying splinter to fixate on. Nothing but the awkward silence between them. Octavia broke it first. “What do you think is out there?” Vinyl looked out of the window, as if that was symbolic of the world beyond the horizon. “An answer to all this ‘pony’ nonsense we keep hearing about would be a start,” she said. “Beyond that… I’d like to see a world that isn’t locked up in a little box like this one.” “Is it really so little?” Vinyl shrugged. “Okay, so it’s a fairly big box.” “What I mean is… is it so constraining? Are we suffering so badly from being here? Whatever is outside the box could be absolutely anything, Vinyl. It could be a desert wasteland, or an old and dying world, or black empty space, or frozen ice, or something beyond our imagination. Compared to that, life in here is set up pretty well.” Vinyl frowned at her. “So you’re happy living in this cage? I can see why you would be. It is nicely gilded.” “I didn’t say that, Vinyl,” insisted Octavia more sharply. “I want answers just as much as you do. But I need to know if you’re prepared for what we might find.” Vinyl stared down at the table. I know I shouldn’t take it out on her. Tavi has stuck with me through plenty of scrapes before. She’s got the same doubts as me, I’m sure. “Mice,” she whispered eventually. “I beg your pardon?” “It’s about what I saw at the horizon,” said Vinyl quietly, “and what Chrysalis said before. ‘Little mice can scurry in and out of the cage and never know it’s there, but once they see the bars they’re trapped’.” She took a deep breath. “I told you, I saw a car full of people drive out of town, and just… wink out. Stop being people. They never realised it was happening. And maybe some time later they’ll drive back through, and start being people again. Maybe the same people, just with a few extra memories, and they’ll never realise those memories aren’t real. Or maybe they’ll be whole new people that just think they’re the same people. Either way… I…” She struggled for words. “Now that you’ve seen the cage bars, you can’t ignore them?” Octavia finished her thought for her in a gentle tone. Vinyl nodded. “Yeah, I can’t. I can’t… pretend to be fine, you know? Not any more. Not when I feel like I could just be rubbed out at any moment, at the whim of… whatever it is that’s set all this up. Or when…” “When what?” asked Octavia. “Not when the same thing could happen to you.” “To me?” “If all our memories are fake, or some of them are, and there’s no way of telling, then what’s to stop you from being a different person from the one I know? How can I…” She trailed off. “How can you what?” asked Octavia more quietly. Vinyl looked resolutely at the speaker sat in the furthest corner of the room. She forced out, “If… if you could change suddenly like that, or if my memories of you could change for no reason, then how… how can I love you?” Octavia looked away, closing her eyes with a pained expression. Nothing but the sound of their breathing interrupted the silence. Vinyl became acutely aware of the feel of the chair, the sweat under her shirt, the shape of her spine, the position of her fingers, the pressure on her toes, the thickness of her tongue. She coughed, feeling cold creep up her cheeks. “Oh, Vinyl. What am I going to do with you?” Vinyl gasped, and looked up sharply to find Octavia looking right at her with an indulgent smile. “You always try to handle things like this on your own. It’s okay to ask for help sometimes.” Octavia turned her chair around to face Vinyl directly. She rested one hand below her throat and Vinyl could see the fingers shivering slightly. Taking a deep breath, she said, “I love you, Vinyl Scratch. But I’m also your friend. I don’t ever want to be part of what’s making things more difficult for you. When you’re facing a problem like this, know that you can talk to me. Don’t be afraid of scaring me away.” Vinyl’s eyes grew wide. She tried to reply but could do nothing but gape. She closed her mouth, scrunched her eyes shut, and meekly nodded. “Good.” She felt Octavia’s hand gently tap the top of her head. She felt Octavia lift her hand away, and heard her stand up. “When you’re ready.” People milled around the square outside Chrysalis’ shop, admiring clothes and jewellery in shop windows. The sunset was spilling warm gold across the tiles, bricks and ivy. Inside the shops and cafés, candles were being lit and lights were being turned on. The door to Chryssi’s Wedding Supplies jangled open and Trixie stumbled in, pushed by the female of the two assistants who followed her in and stood by the door. Chrysalis looked up from the display of corsages she was arranging. “So glad you could join me,” she said. “What’s going on?” asked Trixie, glancing frantically around the shop. “Who are you?” Chrysalis sighed. “Has it really been so long? I’m a little disappointed, I suppose, but not really surprised. None of you ever manage to remember me for more than a few days.” Trixie watched in confusion as Chrysalis walked about the shop, smartening up the displays and picking up dropped petals from the floor. “My name is Chrysalis, and I have an offer to make you.” “An offer? Is that why the great and powerful Trixie was dragged here by that ruffian?” She turned to look accusingly at the assistant standing guard by the door. “I hope you weren’t treated too badly. It was a necessary precaution to make sure you found your way here safely. To make sure you didn’t miss out.” “Miss out on what?” “On a solution to your problem, of course.” Increasingly exasperated, Trixie called out, “What problem?” “I’m talking about your mother, Trixie. Dandy Lion never has time for you, does she?” Trixie gasped. Chrysalis put a hand on her shoulder. “I know, dear. It’s all right. You haven’t done anything wrong, but it feels like you’re being punished, doesn’t it? Like the only thing she really loves is her job.” “How do you know all this?” asked Trixie. She blinked tears out of her eyes. “It’s my job to know people. And when I can, it’s my job to help people. Let me help you, Trixie.” “Help me how?” “I believe your mother does still love you. She just needs reminding of it. And what better way to do that than to make her think she’s going to lose you?” Trixie flinched. “Lose me? What are…” Chrysalis shook her head. “Don’t worry, you won’t be in any real danger. It’ll all be a trick. But Dandy Lion doesn’t need to know that.” Trixie swallowed and cleared her throat. “What do I need to do?” “We’ll send her a message saying you’re caught in a… shall we say, a gas leak? Something like that? When she hears that I’m sure she’ll come running over to see you.” “A gas leak? Um… where would there be a gas leak.” “I’m fairly sure your school still has a gas boiler, right? Listen, I’ll take care of sending her an urgent message – let’s say, Saturday afternoon? You just need to let her know in advance where you’ll be. Tell her you’ll be dropping by school for a club activity. And maybe mention that the school have announced they have problems with their gas flow, or something. What would they call it, to avoid causing a panic? A ‘breach’?” Trixie snorted. “I would if I ever saw her.” Chrysalis gave her a sad smile. “That’s a shame. In that case I suppose you’ll have to tell somebody else and ask them to pass the message onto her. Is there anybody like that?” she asked. As she will know, that would be mom’s secretary, Pacific Glow. Who is actually a Pinkie Pie. And the Pinkie Pie Society will meet on Saturday. A broad, wicked smile slowly leaked onto Trixie’s face. “So that’s how Trixie fits into your plan.” “I beg your pardon?” Straightening her back and standing tall again, she said, “You need the great and powerful Trixie to leak information about a breach in the wall to the Pinkie Pie collective, ahead of their next meeting on Saturday morning, so that they’ll act as a distraction during your own escape that night.” “What are you…?” “Very clever. And you probably have similar plans for all three of us. Did you get all that, Octavia?” “Oh, thank goodness,” said the assistant standing by the door in a politely clipped voice. She reached up and dragged the turquoise wig from her head. “This thing is unbelievably itchy.” She unclipped her own silky dark gray hair, allowing it to flow down, and ran both hands through her hair. “Yes, I heard every word of it, and it does confirm the conclusions you reached quite nicely. Vinyl?” “Yeah, I’m impressed, Trix,” said Vinyl, walking in the door with a phone pressed to her face. She hung up and put her phone away. “You really had her eating out of your hand.” The three girls surrounded Chrysalis, who looked on with wide eyes. Where previously she had owned the space, now she was fenced in. Her stunned expression quickly soured into one of resentment that she turned on Trixie. She caught Trixie’s eyes as she stepped forward, drawing her in, and the girl was treated to a brief vision of something much more bestial, with dark, serpentine eyes and a long, snarling muzzle full of teeth. She knew it couldn’t be real, but the image was incredibly compelling. Er… maybe it wasn’t such a good idea for Trixie to confront her after all… Then Trixie’s vision was filled with pink as Fluffle Puff collided with Chrysalis, standing between her and Trixie, and wrapped her arms around the older woman. Chrysalis closed her eyes, her ire calming. After a few seconds she said very quietly, “Thank you.” Fluffle Puff lifted her face to look into Chrysalis’, her eyes dotted with tears. In return, Chrysalis patted her head. “It’s all right.” The pink girl nodded, squeezed one more hug, then bounded into the back room. Turning back to the three girls, Chrysalis crossed her arms and stood up straight. “So I take it the three of you remember a little more than you were letting on?” “You mean about the horizon, and all the Pinkie Pies,” replied Octavia. “The real live Smarty Pants,” added Vinyl. “The fake memories,” said Trixie. “Oh, and your lackey cornering me in the biology room. I couldn’t forget that.” Chrysalis nodded. “Interesting. And now you’ve come here to stop me, I suppose.” Trixie exchanged a glance with the others. “Not… necessarily,” she confessed. Chrysalis narrowed her eyes and considered them cautiously, waiting for the rest. “It rather depends on what you were planning,” continued Trixie. “See, Trixie figured you had an escape plan of some sort, and it involves the three of us. Only, now we’ve figured it out, and without us doing your dirty work that plan’s falling apart. You’re on a deadline, right? So you’ve got a choice, really. We can work together, or you can go back to square one.” Chrysalis said nothing, but stood for a few moments more in thought, then she turned and called out politely, “Fluffle Puff dear, can you make our guests some tea?” The pink girl leaned out of the door and saluted. Turning back to the three girls, and gesturing to some chairs at the back of the shop near the shoes, Chrysalis asked, “Why don’t we take a seat?” She walked over and sat on a bench by a rack of brightly coloured ribbons. “Where shall we start?” Vinyl was the first to speak up. “Let’s start with what this place really is.”