Hello again, one and all!
Welcome again to a tale so tall!
Of horror and danger, of sounds unique!
About our two heroes, whose futures are bleak!
Listen on, read if you dare!
For it’s time to start our Christmas scare…
”We wish you a merry Christmas,
we wish you a merry Christmas,
we wish you a merry Christmaaaaas~,
and a happy New Year~!”
Trixie felt her eye twitch as she heard the song play over the speakers for the twelfth time that day, which was impressive at only nine-thirty in the morning.
It probably wouldn’t be so bad if it was some other cover of the song, either more traditional and smoother on the ears, or a rendition that actually had nice sounds, one of those would greatly improve the experience as she worked her part time job at the mall. But it was a metal cover, and the only one the mall had of the famous song, so it played over and over and over and over again, and the customers kept being angry at stuffed bears and their price, which only highlighted the irritation of the experience.
“When will the torture eeeend…!” Trixie had a short reprieve from her job as she ate her lunch, but sadly not the overhead music, sulking into her arms while lazily eating a salad, “The great Trixie Lulamoon does not deserve this abuse.”
“Well, aren’t you a sorry sight.”
Trixie was sulking so hard, she didn’t notice Starlight arrive until there was an arm wrapped around her shoulder, causing the blue girl to look up at a decidedly more lavender girl sitting beside her with a smile.
“Oh. Hi Starlight,” she gave her a hug back, “Work has been… Brutal,” Trixie shivered a little, “I don’t know if I can last another week of this madness.”
Starlight laughed, “Oh, come on, it can’t be that bad. It’s a Teddy Bear workshop, it should be fun and games, cheese and cake, ice cream and chocolate!”
“Trixie does not think toddlers pulling her hair out is ‘cheese and cake’, Starlight,” she icily said as she held up a few tufts of the damaged and shortened hair.
Starlight winced sympathetically, “Ouch… You have my sympathies, Trixie.”
“Those gremlins aren’t even the worst part!” she gestured with her fork up to the speakers, the blasphemous song of all things unholy going through the chorus.
”Good tidings we briiiiiing~!
To you and your kiiiiiin~!
Good tidings for Christmaaaaaaas~!
And a happy New Year!”
“That song is soooo annoying, Starlight! Trixie’s ears can’t take much more of this….”
Starlight raised an eyebrow as the song played, “I admit it’s a bit… Much, but it can’t be any worse than ‘All I Want For Christmas’?”
Trixie opened her mouth to retort… Before quickly closing it again, and just grumbling to herself with her arms crossed. Starlight laughed.
“It’ll be fine, Trixie,” she pulled out her own bag of food, some tacos from nearby, “It’s just a couple more weeks, right? After that, Christmas will be over, the people will move on to complaining about Valentines Chocolates, and you’ll be back to studying while not having a job to worry about.”
Trixie grumbled but admitted defeat, settling for stabbing the salad with a fork while the song continued its annoying tune and Starlight worked on eating down her own meal.
“And what about you? Is everything going well for Starlight’s grand Nutcracker play?”
“Ehhh… It could be better. I think the cast is finally getting into it, but I’m still waiting on half the sets to be painted, and nobody’s volunteered to be any of the extras.”
“The great and powerful Trixie hopes you’re not trying to get her to play a secondary role in your show,” Trixie teased, “I’m clearly only for the front of the stage!”
“Yeahhh… That’s how everybody else feels…” Starlight muttered, “Still, I’m sure we can get it working in time.”
”Now bring us, some figgy pudding!
Now bring us, some figgy pudding!
Now bring us, some figgy puddiiiiing~!
And a cup of good cheer!”
Starlight looked up in annoyance at the speakers as the song ended, “And I hope you don’t go crazy with that song playing…”
Trixie gave her a strained smile, “I think you’re beginning to see my pain.”
“Oh Romeo, oh Romeo, where art thou Romeo?”
“Applejack… That’s Shakespeare,” Starlight sighed as she facepalmed.
A day later, she was working through the lines of the main cast for a climactic scene. It was a bit of a struggle, and she was definitely wary of the job when Rarity asked her to fill in and help direct the play with Pinkie while she was on vacation. But with how important it seemed, Starlight took up the job.
Of course... There were still some challenges.
"..Uhh... Line please?"
"Snails... Did you read any of your lines...?" It was the third time he'd forgotten what he needed to say, and only the sixth line he needed to say.
"I- I'm trying!"
Snails had a difficult time adjusting to a role in center stage, and getting him to remember his lines was almost more impressive than getting Applejack to say the right thing. She would consider moving him to a different role if there were anyone else that was a good fit for the male lead, but she barely had enough people for the minimum extras with everybody drying up once Rarity was no longer involved and moving on to other events for the holidays.
Besides, it’s too late to recast now...
She had to work with what she had. Running things back to restart the scene, she heard the tune from the mall being hummed by one of the few extras in the front row of the audience.
“We won’t gooooo, until we get some~!”
Her eye twitched, but she chose to ignore the song and got back to getting Snails and Applejack through the big speaking scene, “Alright, now you need to say it with a lot of passion, Snails…”
Starlight’s eye twitched as the song played again during a lunch break, some of the cast and crew playing it on their phones in different parts of the room, all out of synch, and all horribly within hearing distance, each one the same cover that the mall was playing.
“So,so,bring,bring,some,some,riiiiiight,riiiiiight,here,here~!”
For the love of-! Don’t these people have headphones?!
It wasn't just one or two people, it seemed like everyone working on the play had at some point during the day been humming, singing, or playing the song, over and over and over and- !
Starlight steadied a breath in before letting it fade out of her. She could deal with this minor annoyance until she got back to her apartment. She’d make the best gosh darn play in Canterlot High history, no matter the distractions.
This would be fine.
“This is not fine!” Trixie yelled, clutching pillows to her head as the bucking annoying song droned through the walls from a party across the street.
Sure, it was a big ol’ Christmas party, and sure, maybe she’d have gone down there to join in once upon a time, but playing that god forsaken metal song that eviscerated the lifeblood of good cheer and turned it into a pumpkin spiced machine of ear death four times already that night?! It went way beyond lunacy, maybe even into nightmarecy! The furthest point from sane!
She barely registered as the door opened and Starlight walked in, looking just as stressed by the goings on of the people across the street.
“This needs to stoooop…..” Starlight fell to the couch, pulling the cushions up over her head, “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you about how bad this song is!”
“Trixie’s sorry about that too!” she kept the pillows to her ears, “How does one stop this though?!”
There was an unintelligible cry from underneath the cushion sounding halfway between a sob and a death threat.
“Starlight! Does Trixie have to tell your father about those naughty words?!”
“Uggghhhh… Trixie, please… Let’s just go somewhere we can think…”
“Of course! …As long as you pay for it!”
“Fine, yes, let’s just get away from this song!””
They were sitting near the local library at an ice cream shop that was too old fashioned to have anything but the radio playing, and as such was filled with some classic Christmas carols and none of the modern hits. A thankful departure that would otherwise have been frowned upon by the pop music their friends tended to listen to.
Trixie ate a peppermint ice cream cone while Starlight had a chocolate sundae, both enjoying the ambience and peace in a corner booth.
“This was a good idea…” Trixie sighed as she licked up her ice cream.
“Uh-huh… Nice and relaxing, and absolutely no figgy pudding,” Starlight ate a bit of the banana, “I wish we could just stay here…”
Trixie frowned, “I still have work to do. At the mall. Tomorrow morning. And at the mall, tomorrow morning, that song will play again and again, and Trixie will have this whole day of false cheer start alll over...”
“Ughh… I don’t get it. Why do people like it so much! It’s like they’re hypnotized or something!”
“Welll…” Trixie tapped some stuff out on her phone, “The music artist appears to be uncredited. It’s just some music company from… ‘Latveria.’ That’s a funny name… Sounds fake. Like Turkey.”
“Turkey’s a real country, Trixie. But yeah, it’s weird that there isn’t a credited artist for it…” Starlight looked over Trixie’s shoulder at the screen, “Only thing is this company called ‘Hive-Web’, strangely enough. ‘We’re dedicated to bringing out the best in our talents and making music that resonates with our audience.’ That doesn’t sound like something people who would make that song would say, does it?”
“Clearly a lie. Which means… They’re not a music company?” Trixie ate another bite of the ice cream, trying to think that over, “I wonder what they’re doing than.”
“Hmm…” Starlight pulled out her own phone, “I think we have a way to find out for sure. There’s supposed to be some concert directed by them in town soon, day after tomorrow and taking place at a venue across town from the mall you work at. We might be able to find out some things if we ask them directly.”
Trixie grinned as she took another bite out of her ice cream, “It sounds like it’s time for a heist! Of music!”
Starlight raised an eyebrow, “Don’t you have work in the morning?”
“…A change of plans, the first step is to get earplugs! Then we go on the heist tomorrow!”