In the quiet of the night, the only sounds that could be heard on the Mezza Voce estate was that of the rustling of bushes and the occasional grumble from the four ponies attempting to navigate through them. The loudest of such grumbling, however, came from Trixie, who was in the best position of all to complain as she crouched behind Time Turner as he looked out towards the mansion.
“So this was your master plan then, hiding in some bushes?” Trixie whispered, poking the brown stallion in the back as he moved back into the bushes.
“Well you really didn’t think I was going to just go running in right through the front door now did you?” the Earth Pony said, his head going back out to observe.
“I still don’t get why not? I mean it’s four of us against one dude. We’d be able to beat down that door and take him down no problem with those odds,” Vinyl complained, squished between Trixie on one side and Octavia on the other.
“Vinyl, I’m sure Time Turner here would prefer to not resort to violence as a first resort for dealing with this situation and would prefer something more…diplomatic I presume,” Octavia said, her position being right in the rear, using some of the extra space to try and remain dignified in sitting. Her attempts, however, were quickly put to dust as Time Turner’s return into the bush prompted several branches to whack her in the face.
“Uhm, well, I was more concerned about him possibly hypnotizing you and me and making us battle the two of them, but that’s quite the excellent reason as well my dear,” he replied, Trixie and Octavia shooting him a condescending glare.
“I’m sorry but I’ve already been hit by Trixie’s thunder once and that’s good enough for me thank you very much. Have you ever struck yourself with your lightning before Trixie? Tis a very painful experience,” he replied, Trixie just sighing as she put a hoof to her face in shame.
“Yes, well, that matter aside, just what is it that you have been looking at? Is something going on?” Octavia responded, her attempts to try and push through to see thwarted by the inconvenience of Vinyl and Trixie’s presence.
“Actually, there is something happening, something very worrisome. It seems that Mezza Voce has invited Fleur over for some reason. I can’t hear any music, but there is a record player in the room, and Fleur is looking rather giddy. Could be using some of his music to hypnotize her into being a little more compliant…”
“Or maybe Fleur is acting a little bit naughty hmm? What you’re calling giddy I call being drunk off her flank,” Vinyl said with a small, little laugh as Octavia shoved her a little on the side.
“Vinyl, that’s hardly an appropriate thing to say about one of the most respected socialites in Canterlot.”
“Hey, I’ve DJ-ed quite a number of those fancy garden parties. You’d faint from the shock of seeing how wild some of those prim and proper ponies get. Like this one time when Jet Set and Upper Crust had a couple shots and then dived right into the swimming pool and started…”
“While I’m sure your stories of debauchery are quite thrilling, we do have more important issues at hand,” Octavia replied, Vinyl responding with just sticking her tongue out. Trixie was quite glad to have the whole thing over and done with. Still, sitting in a bush doing ‘recon’ was not what she had expected, and she was finding it very hard to continue to just sit with branches poking her all over for much longer.
“So are we just going to sit here and gossip all night then, or are we actually going to do something about this pony? Cause I don’t plan on sitting in a bush for the rest of the evening thank you very much.”
Time Turner took another look out of the bush before turning to everyone. His serious face was back, although Trixie could sense there was also a slight twinge of a smile in the corner of his mouth; the thrill seeking loony. At the same time, however, she couldn’t help but feel a slight rush of adrenaline herself. Sure it wasn’t the same rush she felt when she got on stage, but she still felt jumpy and ready to go…oh she hoped that Time Turner wasn’t starting to rub off on her. Travelling around Equestria was fine, but she had no desire to start making a habit out of this. Heroics were not her ‘thing’, regardless if she didn’t really have a ‘thing’ now that her stage career was over.
“Well, you have a point there Trixie. So then, I guess our only option then is to politely walk up and knock on the front door then. Who wants the honor?”
Several seconds later
The door to the Mezza Voce mansion was blown straight off its hinges, raising quite the racket as it slammed into the ground. Trixie’s horn, a moment ago glowing with power, started to dull as she walked in, the rest of the group following in right behind her.
“I thought I said politely knock on the door. It was quite a lovely door too. It didn’t deserve that fate,” Time Turner said with a sigh as he looked down at the door.
“It did cross my mind, but I figured this would get our point across a lot better,” Trixie replied, a smug smile across her face.
“Well I should have expected that I suppose. You are a show pony after all, always got to have the dramatic entrance and what not…” Time Turner replied.
“Unfortunately for you all, that dramatic entrance just happened to be on my property. I should have the Royal Guards come and…ahhhh, Octavia, I should have known you’d be showing up here soon. And you brought some friends.”
At the sound of the voice, everyone’s attention was drawn towards the smoky-blue stallion and the whitened mare hanging onto him. Not surprisingly, Mezza had quite the scowl on his face, with Fleur just looking at them rather confused for a second before gasping and smiling as if she had received a pleasant surprise.
“Oh hello there Time Turner, Trixie. It is so nice to see you again. Did you invite them over dear? Oh they are such lovely company those two.”
“Ah yes, hello again Fleur. Looking lovely as usual,” Time Turner replied, giving her a little wave before the collective tension of the moment forced him to back down. Trixie couldn’t believe how even in a moment like this his first reaction was so casual and relaxed. Right now she was standing on edge, her horn slightly glowing with magic as if she was ready to cast a spell this instant. For a brief moment there was a standstill, interrupted only as Octavia stepped forward with a scowl on her face matched only by Mezza’s.
“Enough games Mezza. We know who you are and…”
Octavia’s speech was interrupted as she winced before bringing a hoof to her head. It was a motion soon followed by Time Turner, and Trixie was beginning to feel an ache in her head as well. The sound of the cello was faint but present; if they wanted to deal with Mezza they were going to need to deal with him before the music took full effect. Mezza simply stood there with a smile, moving only to point towards the stairs for a brief second.
“Is that so? Fleur dear, would you mind going upstairs for a bit as I entertain my guests for a moment. There is a record player upstairs if you want to listen to another record.”
“I’ll have to take you up on that offer then. It was a pleasure seeing you two again,” Fleur said, curtsying to Time Turner and Trixie before starting up the stairs. Trixie began casting a spell to block her, but her own magic was interrupted by Mezza’s as Fleur faded into the hallway. Soon the sound of a second record player could be faintly heard from upstairs. Remembering what Time Turner had theorized about multiple record players serving as a tool to amplify his power, Trixie figured that this whole scene just became a lot more dangerous.
“Now now, it would be rude to keep Miss Fleur from enjoying herself now wouldn’t it. Come, the parlor is a little more respectable for hosting guests than the hallway,” Mezza responded as he headed towards the room they had been able to see from the outside. Octavia and Time Turner soon started to follow, but Trixie and Vinyl blocked the path.
“Come on, you gotta resist this two-bit talentless hack,” Vinyl whispered to Octavia.
“Yes, I know, but I can’t help it. It’s like the music is burrowing inside my head. No matter how much I try to block it out, it just owwwwww,” Octavia hissed as she put her hoof to her head again, this time almost collapsing but saved by Vinyl.
Meanwhile, Trixie was focusing on Time Turner, who didn’t seem to be in a much better position. While he wasn’t almost collapsing, his closed eyes and gritting teeth was enough to let Trixie know that he was under just as much pressure as Octavia was right now.
“Vinyl, Trixie, each record player he plays amplifies the power of the other ones. Since we’re actively trying to resist, we could handle one, but two gahhhh,” Time Turner cried out in pain as Trixie grabbed ahold of him to prop him up, but she was pushed back by him.
“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. As long as you and Vinyl are finnsssssss,” he hissed.
“Y-yeah, we’re both fine. I can feel the magic pressing on my mind, and I’m getting a really killer headache, but I think I can focus on getting the record player in the parlor destroyed,” Trixie responded before being joined by Vinyl.
“It’s just like doing some DJ-ing in the middle of a hangover. Just leave it to me you three,” Vinyl responded. She sounded confident, but Trixie could see from Vinyl’s wincing at her own speech that her head was in terrible pain as well.
“Oh come on now my guests, it is rude to keep your host waiting,” Mezza’s voice called out. As if obeying a master, Octavia and Time Turner made steps forward.. With no real choice now, Trixie and Vinyl followed. Stepping into the parlor, Trixie had to step back as her jaw dropped and heart started pounding faster and faster in fear.
“No, that’s…that’s just not fair.”
Vinyl, coming in right behind her, responded in her more usual manner.
“Oh for Celestia’s sake!”
Sitting on the sofa was Mezza, eyes closed a devilish smile on his face as his hoofs swung in the air to the beat of the music playing. Surrounding him, however?
“Aww, I see you noticed my small collection of record players. Fortunately this isn’t all of them, but I do believe that having about five of them gives you the feeling as if you were in the concert hall, a full orchestra playing.”
Trixie started to power up her horn, ready to blow them all away with a blast of lightning, but the sound of “Tsk tsk” and magic coming from Mezza’s horn, centered right on the needles of all the players, caused her to freeze.
“Now now, you already broke my door, do you really want to add in damaging my antique record players to your lists of crimes today? Why don’t you just relax a little, enjoy some more music. I’ll just turn it up a little more and…”
A third record player was now starting, and even Trixie was finding it hard to keep her conscious thoughts running as the magic drilled into her brain. Glancing over at Time Turner and Octavia, she looked in horror as the two of them collapsed onto the ground. It was obvious that their fight against the music was lost. As Time Turner went down, he was able to say one last thing.
“I’m sorry Trixie, I’m so sorry…”
“D-don’t worry about it you complete loony,” Trixie said towards the now sleeping body of the Earth Pony. Glancing towards Mezza, who was giggling to himself in joy at the scene, Trixie felt several emotions. She was scared for her life; she simply wanted to run away and leave this whole mess behind. Alongside that fear, however, was anger, anger at the pony who was hurting her…acquaintance, and of course hurting her. Her glancing turned into glaring, and the glaring was soon joined by the glowing of her horn as her head started to feel as if a herd of buffalo was migrating through it. Beside her she could sense Vinyl’s magic joining her own. If Mezza wanted a fight, he was going to get…
“Oh, are you two trying some spells again. You do realize I have about another, oh, three record players to turn on?”
The instant the needles fell onto the records, Trixie’s mind broke as if a boulder had come smashing down onto it. Her spell disappeared instantly, and even what little magic she could perform was being used to try and purge her mind of his spell. So far all that could do was barely keep her conscious. Beside her she see Vinyl collapsing after a few seconds of continuing to struggle. That left only her, the Weak and Powerless Trixie, on the floor and the mercy of this stallion, to beat him. With every last bit of her willpower dedicated to keeping conscious against the ever increasing crescendo of the records, all she could do was look as Mezza’s hooves filled her vision.
“Hmm, still conscious are you? I do have to say that I am very impressed by the willpower to accomplish such a feat. In fact, I’m going to be a little merciful. After all, I do have a few questions to ask…,”
Trixie’s mind soon felt slightly relieved as one of the records stopped, but she winced in pain Mezza using his magic to levitate her head up so she could face him.
“So let’s get started, shall we? Why don’t you tell me what it is that you all had hoped to accomplish coming here?”
“We…we were going to stop you from releasing your record…” Trixie replied, Mezza raising an eyebrow.
“Oh, was that all? You were going to stop a professional businessman from releasing a product? Oooh how blueclass worker that is,” he said with a laugh, causing a shot of pain in Trixie’s head.
“G-give it up Violino. We know you are planning on hypnotizing the city of Canterlot, how you were kicked out of the conservatory when you were younger for a fling with Fleur and…”
Mezza’s giddy mood quickly turned sour as his grin turned into a frown. His magic disappeared, causing Trixie’s head to smash into the ground. In her current state, she might as well have just fell out of Cloudsdale; it felt about what she thought such a feat would feel like.
“So what, you believe then that all of this is a plan to get back at the world for that injustice? That I plan on hypnotizing all the elites of Canterlot into loving me and my music and to worship me in order to get revenge for those dark days of my life?”
Trixie gave a slight nod.
“Hmm, fair enough. I had actually thought of that plan, but what would be the point of the fame if I still didn’t have the one thing I truly wanted?”
Trixie opened an eye and looked up at Mezza Voce, who was glancing over at the stairs.
“Let me guess, Fleur?”
Mezza’s grin returned.
“Exactly.”
“But she’s married to Fancy Pants,” Trixie responded, causing Mezza’s mood to turn sour again.
“A minor inconvenience, but one that will be rectified soon enough. For you see, and I bet you’ve figured this out already, each record dramatically increases the ability of my hypnotic songs. When a pony is willing to do something, one player is all that is needed for your everyday behaviors.”
At this Mezza turned his back on Trixie, walking over to the record players as he continued to talk.
“That is why concert crowds are so easy to manipulate into liking my music. They are there to enjoy music and relax, and so they willingly succumb to the music and afterwards feel as if I’m absolutely brilliant.”
Trixie glanced around, trying to figure out what to do, what she could work with. Glancing over at Time Turner, she found herself wishing he was awake. That crazy mind of his would have been useful in thinking outside the box right now…hold on a moment.
“But when faced with a suggestion that they disagree with, ponies become resistant, and such resistance simply gives them a headache. It takes more magic and music to get them to either comply or simply faint from the pain like your friends, but I can only play so many instruments at once you know.”
Trixie’s eyes were focused on Time Turner’s saddlebag, him falling just the right way that she could slip something out of it. Focusing on it, and her mind feeling as if it was splitting open, she began to dig through. There were those stupid play tickets again, the flashlight…and his time sheets. Well, hopefully he had already submitted those because they were going to a more noble cause now. Slipping one of them out, she kept an eye on Mezza as he kept talking.
“So I delved into research on enchantment, and eventually found a way to place my hypnotic spell into the vinyl so that any music recorded on it could be used to place ponies under my spell.”
With the time sheet free, Trixie began to burn a message onto the paper with pure magical energy, slightly annoyed about the lack of pens in his bag. He could carry around time sheets and pocket-watches, but Celestia forbid he has something as useful as a pen. Moving as careful as she could with the greatest headache of all time, trying to avoid tipping off Mezza with the smell of burning paper, Trixie began to write “Please come down.”
“With that power at my hooves, I wondered just how far could it go? So I began to make records and purchasing record players, to see just what I could make ponies do. Oh the laughs I had as I used the records to make the elite of Canterlot do the silliest of things. But the concept proven, I moved onto the next challenge,” Mezza continued as he moved to look out the window, “Filling every home with my records, hundreds of them playing nonstop around the city.”
With the message just about burnt, Trixie could sense Vinyl stirring beside her. The smell of the burning paper had been drifting into her nose, which was recoiling at the smell. For a brief moment mare’s eyes opened, but were closed again as the pain returned.
“Vinyl, come on, try and use your magic to help me levitate this note upstairs,” Trixie whispered. With Vinyl helping, it would put less strain on her mind. By herself, Trixie doubted that she could get the message even halfway up the stairs.
“But my heeeeeeaaaadddd,” Vinyl whined.
“Can you even imagine what possibilities exist if an entire city played my music? Well, I could, I could so very easily. No pony would be able to resist it; I would have the power of a god over them. And with it I could do more than make them love my music, I could make them love me! So tomorrow, with all the city playing my songs, Fleur shall be…”
Trixie froze as she heard Mezza become silent, and watched in despair as he turned around and glanced down at her and the awakened Vinyl…and the paper.
“Oh, trying and send a message for help. Here, let me…oops,” he said with a mocking laugh as he burnt the paper with magic.
“I’m sorry you two, but there isn’t any hope for you all. Your friends are knocked out, Fleur is acting like a giddy schoolfilly upstairs, and I am a simple kick in your face away from knocking you out. So what gives you any hope of winning?”
“Because I can help them.”
Mezza, Trixie, and Vinyl shifted their heads, the latter two barely, towards the sound of Fleur, who was standing at the bottom of the stairs. Her horn was blazing with magical energy even as her long, thin legs wobbled beneath her.
“F-Fleur my dear, I thought I told you to wait upstairs while I entertained the guests.” Mezza replied, nervously backing up towards the records.
“I was getting tired of waiting and wished to come down and join in the company when I saw....this happening.”
“I-I was simply dealing with these intruders. Come now, relax, enjoy some wine while I have the Royal Guards…”
“What did you mean about my marriage to Fancy Pants being an inconvenience?” Fleur said, taking a weak step forward. She was suffering from the same battle with the music that Trixie and Vinyl were, but something was keeping her moving forward. Whatever it was, Trixie was just glad that somepony was finally making Mezza back off long enough to give her a slight respite to get her mind together.
“N-nothing at all Fleur, it’s nothing you should be worried about. Just relax and enjoy your evening tonight, and tomorrow we’ll…” Mezza replied as he tried to put another record on. His magic was intercepted, however, by the white-colored power of Fleur’s as it snapped the record in half.
“And what, Violino, were you going to do tomorrow?,” Fleur said, taking another step forward as Mezza, whose face was starting to look a little bit pale, bumped into one of the record players.
“A-absolutely nothing. I was just…”
“Were you going to try and force me to love you Violino? Do you honestly believe that your magic could overwhelm love itself?”
“N-no, but that shouldn’t be a problem! After all you don’t really love Fancy Pants, it’s me you love! Remember those nights! Remember…”
Mezza quickly found his mouth shut tight by the force of Fleur’s magic, which was now forcefully breaking down the record players one by one. As the pressure faded from her mind, Trixie found her headache dulling, even if it was still a feeling that could only be described as waking up after drinking an entire barrel of Sweet Apple Acres Cider…Trixie still shuddered at the thought of that particular challenge. Vinyl was starting to find her legs as well, though Trixie was still concerned that Octavia and Time Turner were still out.
“It’s true, at some point I was rather fond of you, and after my father forced us apart I felt like my world was destroyed. Even with Fancy Pants entering my life I felt a fondness for you, but as time went on I began to see how kind and loving Fancy Pants was towards not just the elite like me but everypony. You always had a problem with ‘mingling with the commoners’, but I always brushed it off as just overcompensating for your background. But after we were separated, when you tried to use your magic to break us apart, to kidnap him and make him disappear, I knew that you were nothing more than a selfish, uncaring brute”
Mezza’s horn glowed as he removed the spell keeping him silent. His eyes glared at Fleur, his eyes burning with anger as he yelled.
“All lies! You love me! You will love me! I command you to love me!”
As he finished, his horn glowed with a massive burst of energy. The records had stopped, but the burst of magic was aimed right at Fleur, who was taken aback at the sudden surge of power from Mezza. Mind clearing, Trixie took a stand and added her own magic to the mix with a classic bit; a small, little cloud right behind Mezza…
“If music won’t work, I’ll just take you over directly. It might take every last bit of energy I have, but I don’t care. You will love me even if….ow!”
A small lightning bolt struck Mezza on the flank, and the temporary distraction was enough for Fleur’s magic to finally overpower him. He was sent stumbling into the record players, smashing them all onto the ground as he collapsed down onto the ground.
“I’m sorry Violino, but you can’t command love as if it was something that belonged to you and you alone. Love can only be given to you willingly, and I have given all of mine to Fancy Pants,” Fleur responded, her magic fading as she finally found herself collapsing onto the ground tired.
As Fleur talked, Trixie watched as Vinyl started making her way towards the still conscious Violino, whose legs were all caught up in the shattered remains of his beloved records. It didn’t take a genius to realize what the electric-blue haired pony was planning.
“But-but I was…”
“Look, we don’t care. Goodnight,” Vinyl said as she whacked the stallion right in his smoky-blue face, finally putting him to rest.
“See, I told you all we needed to do was give him a good beating,” Vinyl said, giving an exhausted grin as Fleur and Trixie just laughed.