//------------------------------//
// The Great Fall 
// Story: The Great and Powerful Escape Artist! 
// by Phoenix Quill 
//------------------------------//

The clock continued to climb ever closer to the noon hour as Spike rode into the back stage area with Twilight, "Do you think Dash will make it in time?"

"I hope so, last I heard she was at home, and I can't teleport there and cast a cloud walking spell, I would wear myself out and the cloud walking spell would cancel! Ohhh if only I had wings!"

Spike snorted a bit, "Yeah like that would ever happen."

Twilight and Spike kept looking around the small areas back stage in search of Rainbow Dash, but there was no sign of her, "Oh no, how could this happen? Did she fall asleep again?"

"Hold your horses Twilight!" She looked up to see none other than Rainbow Dash lounging in the rafters, "What kept you? I've been waiting here for the last fifteen minutes!"

Twilight looked up at Rainbow Dash with annoyance etched out on her face, "I'm on time, in fact I'm early!"

As Dash glided down she waved a hoof through the air, "Doesn't matter, the point is you had me waiting. Now how much longer till the big drop?"

"Only thirty minutes, you had better make sure Trixie is ready now before you buck the cloud away," Twilight said with a slight tone of worry in her voice.

"No worries, I'll check in a minute."

Twilight and Spike looked around for a few moments before leaving the small back stage area to see the ever growing crowd, "I hope everything goes alright Twilight."

"Me too Spike, me too."





Prince Blueblood and Berry Punch were sitting on a pair of chairs and looking out the window together as they hoped to see anything of the stunt happening a few blocks away, "Can you see anything Berry?"

"No, can you?" Punch asked as she squinted into the distance.

"Does that little blob in the sky count?" 

"No, that's just dirt on the window..."

After a few hours of conversation the two ponies found that they had a lot in common, mostly that they like to drink, but still it was something to go off of, That was when a brown and tan blur swooped passed the window, "What the hay was that?" Blueblood asked as he jumped into the arms of the mare to his right.

"I don't know, but your royal flank is heavy," Berry said as she dropped him on the ground, only for him to shoot in the air when a grey and yellow streak ran past the window next.

Prince Blueblood and Berry Punch looked at each other for a few moments before the prince finally spoke, "What do you suppose that was all about?"

"I don't know," she replied, "But if there is two things I know, its this. One, something big is going down if we saw what we thought we saw, and Two this place practically has a revolving door, COME ON!"

The two ponies quickly ran across the room before coming into the hall way, "Wait, what do you think is going on?" Prince Blueblood called out.

"There is a pony that comes by once in a while, and whenever he does Ditzy Doo is sure to follow, and if those two are together and galloping, then something big is going down. I don't know what but something!" 

The two kept galloping through the halls until they reached the small lobby, there the found Nurse Hardcase sitting at the reception desk filing some paperwork. Blueblood and Berry looked at each other for a moment as the plum mare grinned wide and pulled a rubber ball out of her mane. He gave her a quizical look before she threw the ball at a file cabinet. The nurse turned to the sound, and as she did the two ponies quickly ran out the front door.

"Well that was pretty smart, but now what?"

Berry Punch paused to breathe for a few moments before pointing in a direction, "We try to catch up with those two, come on!" And so the pair took off in a hurry.

Meanwhile, just ahead of the two recovering alcoholics, The Doctor and Ditzy were galloping and flying along the road at break neck speed trying to find the next area, "Now Ditzy, according to legend today is the day of the great fall," he stopped to breathe for a moment and looked at his companion for any insight, she gave none so he continued, "If the fall does not happen successfully, then the land of Equestria will be thrown into an age of dullness, brought about by a lack of music!"

"Doctor what do you mean?"

"What I mean, is haven't you noticed that there has been a lack of something? Ponies that used to break out into song at any moment have all been silenced in Ponyville, and it's spreading! We have to find Song Lore, he works for them."

"Works for who doctor?" Ditzy asked in confusion.

"The musicians Mafia, we have to find him, and follow him. Find out where they keep the warehouse so the great fall will succeed, or the events that are supposed to take place in just two days will be catastrophic without music!"

"I don't understand!" 

"You will, now come along Ditzy, I can see him up ahead, onward and upward!"

The two ponies came to a slow down before the doctor looked at the situation, "If only one of us had a mail bag or something, some way to deliver a message."

Ditzy looked The Doctor over a few times, "Really? Just, really? You couldn't have had me get my bag out of my cottage before we left," She looked at him as he smiled sheepishly, "Oh Ditzy, you don't need your bag, just leave it! THAT'S what you said, RIGHT?"

The Doctor looked down the road as he watched the goon go into a bar, "Ditzy, now is not the time for this, how far away is your cottage?"

She looked the Doctor over a few times before finally sighing and pointing to her left, "About three minutes that way if I fly."

"Then this is what I want you to do," he looked around for a bit before whispering something in her ear, she nodded a few times and smiled before backing away, "So I'll be tailing him, take this psychic paper with you, I'll let you know where I am got it?"

"Okay Doctor!" The pegasus took off as quickly as possible, headed off to the west end of town. Suddenly the sound of galloping reached The Doctor's ears, he turned to find Berry Punch running up to him.

"See, I told you we would find him here," Berry said to the stallion with her, "Doctor, this is Prince Blueblood the twentieth, we saw you and Ditzy run by the rehab clinic, what's going on?"

The Doctor looked at the pair and smiled a bit wider, "Berry Punch! How are you doing? It's been ages, well actually about a day for me, but still how are you doing? Still brewing that delicious punch?"

The mare giggled into her hoof before replying, "Not at the moment, I got busted for being drunk in public, again."

"Oh Berry, how many times must I tell you not to drink too much when you are brewing!"

"I Only had a glass to make sure it tasted proper," The mare started to defend as the prince backed away from the pair slightly.

"Bad news love, but a glass usually does not take two barrels to fill. Hello there, Prince Blueblood, I've heard of you. By the way, might want to give up the salts, settle down and not sleep with strangers. Just in case that one blue pony turns out to be a cop, hired by a rival of yours."

Blueblood looked at the tan pony in confusion for a few moments before finally giving the best answer that he could at the moment, "err..."

"Well, anyhow love to chat, but my target is on the move, follow me if you must, but I need you to stay silent if you do." 

So it was that Blueblood and Pinot Noir were confusedly drafted into helping The Doctor spy on Song Lore to ensure The Great Fall.





It has been three days since Trixie has gone into the box.

Three days of ponies teasing her, three days of hunger, misery, and boredom. She had endured rain, thirst, hunger, electrocution, ponies pelting food at her, pegasus ponies shaking the box, and the need to use the bathroom with no chance of escape.

But that was all going to be behind her, as she looked down and watched the open grass of town square and the stage by it become more and more crowded with ponies, excitement began to fill her.

As she looked down, a blue and prismatic streak shot into the sky. The close it got, the more Trixie could tell that it was Rainbow Dash headed up to talk with her, "Hey are you ready up here?"

Trixie nodded to her from behind the glass, "Trixie is prepared, how long until you drop the Great and Powerful Trixie?"

"About five minutes, if there is an emergency just let me know before I buck the cloud away and I'll bring this to a halt."

Trixie nodded before Dash flew back down to the crowd below, no doubt to make sure that the crowd was truly excited.

Down below, Lyra had just walked onto the stage with Twilight Sparkle, Octavia, and Sven Biller to the roar of applause, "Thank you for coming," Lyra started as the applause died down, "We have just sent the captain of the Ponyville Weather Team to talk to Trixie to make sure that everything is alright, and here she comes now to give us the news!"

As Rainbow Dash landed on the stage the group of ponies applauded wildly, and Dash ate it up like a foal eats candy on Nightmare Night, "Thanks, The Great and Powerful Escape Artist Trixie is prepared for the fall, are you ready to watch her escape?"

The ponies in the audience again applauded, only to have the cheers inturupted by Lyra, "Everypony remember, Trixie will be available to sign autographs and there will be live music provided by a one time only performance by Octavia and her group from Canterlot, with Sven Biller, and others sitting in for a one time only super group! This show is free of charge to you ticket holders, so don't throw your tickets away!"

Everypony applauded again, everypony that is, except for two. Dark Star and Essence looked at each other with anger in their eyes as they nodded, "We break her horn for this, Essence. Keep an eye on the show, I'm going to get Bones and Pyro to help us out at Lyra's music shop."

"Good luck misser, I'll meet you at the shop." The couple kissed each other quickly before her husband took off to find his thugs to help him out.

As he left the crowd, the show went on, as Rainbow Dash flew up into the air, "Remember the after party will begin at Three O'clock!"

Rainbow Dash flew back up to the lone cloud in the sky, and the box suspended benieth it, and Trixie smiled, "It's time."

She looked down the clear flexible glass like material and made note of how far the ground was below her, and looked up at the solid wood top above. A small smile crept upon her face as she saw the gathering ponies below her begin to flash pictures.

Dash stopped just before the box and knocked three times, "Are you ready?"

Trixie nodded and swallowed down some saliva before answering, "As ready as I'll ever be, " this was it, time for Trixie to begin her escape.

Dash flew up a little higher, and turned to buck the cloud. Trixie breathed in and before she could let a breath out the cloud holding the box from above was bucked away from existence, and the box began to tumble to the ground.

The box fell quickly, as if gravity was pulling harder for avoiding this for three days. Trixie was thrown about the box like a rag doll for a few moments, breathed out and closed her eyes.

The ground was getting closer, and she made a motion as if stepping to the right, that's when the box smashed into the ground into shards of its former self.

The crowd of ponies, so intent on watching the events finally play out could not believe what they have just witnessed, a group of ponies suddenly ran forward into the rubble and began to sift through the pieces hoping to find the mare that crashed into the earth.

Twilight looked around, for a few moments before running to join the rescue team. She lifted wood and plastic high up in hopes of finding Trixie. After a few moments of frantic searching, all she or the rest of the crew could find was Trixie's hat and cape.

"She, she failed!" Twilight Sparkle called out suddenly to the shock of everypony.

"THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE NEVER FAILS!" The call came out loud, and the entire crowd turned to look for the voice that called out, so smug and assured. There in the dead center of the crowd, a blue unicorn stood with an inhibitor ring on her head, "The Great and Powerful Trixie LIVES, and she demands her cape and hat!"

Confusion raged throughout the crowd, then joy and cheers as they lifted Trixie high into the air! The impossible has been done, and ponies knew that on this day, they have witnessed the greatest escape of all time!





The Doctor, Blueblood and Berry all were standing a few feet away from The Manticore's Mane Pub waiting to see if Song Lore would be headed out soon when Ditzy landed behind them, "Sorry I took so long, you won't believe how much dust a mail bag can have after sitting around for a few months."

"Never mind that now, did you bring the pen and paper?"

Ditzy fished out the requested items and passed them to the Doctor, "Right here!"

Quickly the Doctor took the items and began to write out a hasty message, "I need you to read this aloud to Song Lore, tell him that you have a message from Shred. Do you understand Ditzy Doo?"

The Grey pegasus nodded as Prince Blueblood and Berry Punch stood baffled to the side, "Then get to it, I'll be right here to back you up if you need it."

Ditzy Doo looked at the trio of ponies standing before her, raised an eyebrow then asked a question that's been bothering her all day, "How do you know all these ponies names?"

The Doctor smiled a bit as he explained, "Been here before, several faces ago when I was content to just observe, in fact here I come now!"

The rest of the ponies watched as a blue unicorn trotted down the road, he had a wavy mane and tail that was white and lighter blue and wore white shirt with ruffles, a black bow tie and a red crush velvet jacket. Most importantly, he had the same hour glass cutie mark as the doctor that was with them had. The unicorn kept trotting down the road, paying no mind to the quartet of ponies observing him, and instead observed the bar Song Lore had entered up ahead.

"That's me about seven faces ago, wish I could tell him about Metebelis III, but you know how that goes by now..." he went off into his memories for a moment before clearing his mind, "Anyhow, that's how I know so go to it Ditzy, off you trot."

Ditzy seeming satisfied with the answer took off to deliver the phony telegram to the pony inside The Manticore's Mane, Blueblood on the other hand had one last question on his mind, "Did you really just say I, I, I, instead of three?"

The Doctor turned to the prince and gave off a cocky half grin, "Prince Blueblood? Would you kindly shut up and just bask in my brilliance for a moment before you open your mouth, thank you."

Ditzy walked over to the pub and frowned as she adjusted her delivery bag, it felt so wrong being as light as it was, almost as if it had wasted away in the time she was gone. She reached her hoof forward only for the door to be cast in the golden glow of magic. She turned to find the pony that The Doctor pointed out as himself had just opened the door for her, "After you my dear," he said with a kindly smile as she moved to let her by.

"Your too kind sir," she stated simply as she trotted in and he followed after her. Ditzy looked around the seedy pub and nearly gagged at the sticky sweet smell of beer and cider spilled on the collection of tables, so long ignored that the sticky residue would take hours of work to just make the smell go away, let alone sanitary.

As Ditzy stood stock still looking for the earth pony she was sent after, she couldn't help but notice the former incarnation of The Doctor walk past her and set himself down on a bar stool. He pulled a hoofkerchief out of his breast pocket and wiped his hooves off from the sticky substance no doubt gained from walking across the pub's floor. 

Ditzy gave a sigh of slight boredom as she looked for a sign of the grey and black earth pony, but could find none at the moment. That was until she heard a door open, "Now mister Tapper, aren't you glad to have seen things my way?"

"Yes Mister Lore, I'm happy to pay for my protection. I'll let you know if we have any bands performing of course Mister Lore."

Song Lore nodded at the pony in the other room before letting the door shut. Ditzy quickly trotted up to the stallion and tapped on his shoulder, "Excuse me, Mister Lore? I have a telegram from a mister, Shred?"

Song Lore turned around and looked Ditzy in the face, and Ditzy couldn't help but gasp at what she saw. While his left eye was a bright and vibrant green, his right eye was a dulled off white color. as if they had scrapped away the very stuff his eyes were made out of, "A telegram? What does that air head have to say now?"

Ditzy shook her head and blinked before pulling out the sheet of paper and reading aloud, "Mister Lore, stop. Forgot where to go after I make my rounds, stop. Send reply via this mare, stop. Signed Shred Guitar, stop."

Song looked at Ditzy and rubbed his good eye with his hoof, "You don't have to say stop aloud you know," he paused to breathe in deeply before slowly letting it out to calm down, "Tell that idiot to meet at the warehouse on Bridle and Saddle Soap, got it?"

Ditzy wrote the message down on a fresh sheet of paper as she kept her right eye closed, "Got it! That'll be a quarter bit collect for reply message Mister Lore!"

The stallion glowered at Ditzy for a few moments as he fished around in his jacket pockets for a few moments before fishing out a golden bit, "Here, since you got such a beautiful set of eyes, keep the change." 

Ditzy looked the stallion over for any signs of insincerity at his comment but found none and gave a soft smile, "Thank you mister Lore! See you later!"

She galloped away as quickly as she could out the bar to meet up with The Doctor and the other two. To let them know the location of their secret warehouse.





Lyra sat in her music store, once again alone. She waited calmly for the arrival of Dark Star and Essence, but this time she would be ready.

Across the street from her small store, a team of ponies were doing some light repair work on an empty shop. Lyra paid them no mind, and they none to her as the time continued to slowly drag on.

A grey pegasus landed in the road and passed a piece of paper to one of the ponies, she dropped her paint brush to read the note before galloping down the narrow street as fast as she could, but Lyra paid it no mind as she simply waited for the inevitable.

When the sound of a door slamming shut from the store room echoed loudly, followed by the sound of a few rushing out the door only for it to slam again, Lyra paused to wonder what could possibly be so important to make the other musicians leave. Yet she still did not take her eyes off the front door and waited for the inevitable.

The pegasus stood in the road for a few more moments before a trio of ponies met up with her, they spoke for a few moments before finally they all took off together. Yet still she paid no mind to what was going on. All she wanted to do was wait patiently.

The sound of voices filled the air, and Lyra's ears perked up a bit. She looked out the window and saw four ponies walking up to her shop. The familiar duo of Dark Star and Essence, followed by a small elderly earth pony so thin he looked like a skeleton, and another red and grey earth pony. Older but not as elderly. All four of them were carrying bats and knives clearly visible.

As the quartet headed into the shop, Lyra took her rear hoof and placed it on the floor, lifted then dropped it down again to finally stand up, "Welcome Dark Star, Essence. It's a great joy to see you both here again, and you brought friends! Sorry boys but we're all out of stock on everything, perhaps you would like to order-"

"Cut the crap Heartstrings, you know why we are here," Dark Star interrupted quickly, "You set up a music show without informing us, and now you are going to pay."

Lyra looked at the four ponies in her shop, "I don't know what you are talking about. I'm not getting payed, its a free show you are invited to see it if you want to. I'll pay up the money I owe you now if you want as per usual."

Dark Star lit his horn and pulled forth a bat as Essence pulled her knives out of her horseshoes, "You messed with the wrong ponies, Bones! Pyro! Hold this unicorn down, I'm going to cut her horn off as a reminder of who we are."

Lyra to her credit did not even blink at Essence's threat as she stepped closer from behind the counter, "And who do you think you are? Demanding money from me? HUH?!"

Essence reached back and slapped Lyra across the cheek with the back of her hoof, "Don't play dumb with me girl! We are the Musicians Mafia, and you damn well know that what's yours is mine!"

As Bones and Pyro reached forward Lyra simply smiled, "Then you should know better than to bring a knife to a gun fight."

As if on cue, the front door and back door to the small shop burst open, "FREEZE!" The four ponies holding Lyra suddenly looked around in panic as they were surrounded by four more ponies.

Octavia stepped forward with Royal Ribbon, Octavia held up a bow with a blade running down where the hair normally would be in a defensive stance, while Royal Ribbon held a small kazoo at the ready, "By the authority of the Pinkieton Detective Agency, the four of you are under arrest for racketeering, strong arming, possession of illegal weapons and terrorism," Octavia spoke loudly with authority, "Drop your weapons and come peacefully."

Fiddlesticks, and Fredric Horseshoepin stood blocking the front doors holding up their own little devices, one a Tommy Gum, and the other held what looked like a recorder flute in her mouth. Dark Star and Essence looked around for a few moments, finally Dark Star let out a laugh, "So this is it huh? The end of the road for me? And what are you going to do? Party me to death if I don't?"

Lyra reached back behind her counter and pulled out her signature lyre, "Give it up, your out classed. Don't make us use these party favors."

Dark Star and Essence looked at each other. The tension was so thick in the air that you could cut it with a knife. Finally Essence spoke, "Kill them. Kill them all."

"WRONG MOVE!" Fredric called out before pulling the trigger on the Tommy Gum, covering Bones and Pyro in the pink goo that shot out sticking them to the floor. Essence reared up and brought her hooves to Octavia in an attempt to slice her open, only to be blocked by Octavia's own sword. 

Essence blinked a few times and made several more attempts at getting to the grey mare, while Dark Star used his magic to swing his bat wildly at Brass Beauty's direction. 

It almost seemed comical how things happened next. Lyra threw her lyre across the room, only for it to miss the target. Dark Star laughed menacingly as he continued to swing at Brass as she continued to swiftly dodge. "Give it up, your just going to wear yourself out before you hit me," she called out as he missed another swing.

"Stop moving so I can hit you!" Dark Star yelled right before the lyre boomeranged back and beaned him in the head, snapping the tip of his horn off, "MY HORN! I'LL KILL HER!"

While he turned back to Lyra, Fiddlesticks played a few notes on the recorder, releasing a sleeping dart and getting the mob boss in the neck, bringing Dark Star to the ground faster than a ton of bricks.

That only left Essence, who was still dueling with Octavia. Essence sliced upward as she flapped her wings to try and confuse Octavia, but the bluff didn't work. Octavia then gave a quick diagonal slice of her bow sword, clipping several feathers on her right wing.

While Essence was distracted the simple note of a kazoo filled the air, only to launch another dart into the orange mare's flank.

She let out a small scream before finally falling over into the pile of gum next to Bones. Octavia and Lyra looked at each other before smiling slightly, "Well that is one way to handle it I suppose. You remembered to activate the cameras and audio recording equipment right?"

Lyra nodded slightly as she picked up her lyre, "Yes, with this evidence the Musician's Mafia will be put away for a long time."

Brass Beauty looked down at the sleeping pair and tutted slightly at the still struggling stallions trying to get out of the bubblegum, "Give it up you two, its over," she then looked at Fiddlesticks and Fredric with a rare smile, "Good job you two, there might be room for you in the Pinkieton Agency after all this is done. Music Department could use a few good ponies."

The pair looked at each other and smiled slightly, "Maybe we should discuss this later." Fredric finally answered, "Lets get these four on a cart to the station, they need to answer for their crimes at Canterlot."

Lyra felt as giddy as a filly as she gave Octavia a grin, "So I guess you would say Operation Great Fall was a complete success!"

Octavia frowned as she looked down at the four thugs on the floor, "Not yet, we need to find out how things went with the other four at the warehouse. Come on, help me cuff them."





The Great and Powerful Trixie was exhausted in every sense of the word, it took nearly an entire hour to get away from all the ponies congratulating her before she could make it to the safety of the Golden Oaks Library where Twilight awaited.

There were a few things that she wanted to do, and was glad to be away from the thousands of suddenly adoring ponies, one of them was to use the bathroom for several reasons. Toilet aside, she smelled like a public bathroom from being locked in a plexiglass box for days on end with no real fresh air. 

After a relaxing shower, Trixie ate a simple meal and drank a glass of water, and finally slept on Twilight's couch, waiting for three o'clock for the after party.

Twilight was very understanding to all this and kept relatively silent, only helping Trixie when she asked for it in the kitchen, or offering conversation when Trixie initiated it. The mood was somber despite the success, and Twilight almost felt awkward being around the magician.

When Trixie excused herself and passed out on the couch, Twilight frowned despite herself, and opened up a book to read silently, waiting for the party at three o'clock.





On Bridal Street it was very quiet on this end of town, a lone cockroach scuttled across the dirt road in an attempt to reach for a discarded banana. Upon reaching the rotten fruit it climbed up onto its rear most legs, threw the remaining four into the air and screamed, "WORLD DOMINATION!"

That was when the claw of Sven picked up the bug and ate him.

Vinyl, Harpo and Royal Ribbon looked at the gryphon with disgust as he shrugged, "Vat? I vas hungry!"

The three ponies rolled their eyes as they made their way closer to the intersection of Bridle and Saddle the warehouse came into full view. Like most buildings on this side of town, it was brick, industrial and filthy.

"So you think that they are in there?" Harpo called out as he stepped forward tentivly.

"They had better, or that derpy mail mare is going to get it from me," Vinyl said with a growl.

The quartet silenced up as they got closer and closer to the building. Finally when they reached the warehouse, they dropped the black cases holding their weapons and looked up at the building, "Vell, now vhat fearless leader?"

Royal Ribbon looked up at the building and spotted an open window, "Fly up there Sven and let us know if you can see them, or a way to get us in."

The gryphon nodded and flapped his wings a few times to become airborne, soon enough he was looking in through the window and could see crates and crates filled the vast room. There were shelves musical instruments lining the walls from floor to ceiling. Sven reached a claw up and wiped a tear from his eye, "It's, so, wunderschönen," he whispered out loud.

"HEY! Are they in there or not?" Vinyl called up to the gryphon.

"OH!" he shook his head a few times before blinking again, "Ja, dey are playing cards at de table in de center of de room," he then glided down and smiled, "Dere is an open door on de side of de building, Diss vey!" 

The four quickly made their way around to the side of the building and sure enough, a giant rolling door was opened up all the way in an attempt to bring cool air into the warehouse. Royal Ribbon looked at Vinyl and nodded, "Alright, what equipment do we have with us?"

Vinyl smiled as she opened up the cases one by one, "We have a standard issue confetti gun, a pack of explosive play-dough, one Tommy Gum, and the Bass Canon, Ma'am."

"Alright, gather around, here's the plan."

Inside the warehouse, Song Lore and Shred looked at each other over their cards making some small talk, "When do you think his royal shortness is coming back?"

"Don't know, I still can't believe you sent a telegram because you forgot what was next on the agenda though.

Shred looked up at him with some confusion, "I never sent you such a message, why would I do something that dumb?"

Song looked Shred in the eye with his one good one, "Because you are a complete idiot, that's why."

The yellow and red unicorn was about to answer, when suddenly they felt a rumble throughout the building, "What's that? An earthquake?"

Suddenly the sound of shouts erupted from the far side of the room, and the pair turned to see three ponies and a gryphon making their way towards them, "We've been double crossed Song! Help me defend!"

Song Lore looked at Shred, then at the oncoming group and snorted, "Yeah right! I'm not going back to jail, your on your own kid!" With that said he took off galloping for the back door.

Sven took off into the air and perused the grey earth pony with gusto while Royal Ribbon pulled the trigger of her Tommy Gum with her magic, quickly disabling the unicorn before he could even attempt to throw a punch, "Quick get that inhibitor ring on his horn!"

"On it!" Harpo called out before slamming the small ring onto the unicorns horn, "Well that was easy."

Song Lore meanwhile was nearly at the back door, and was making a great leap for the escape when Sven suddenly cut him off, "Going somevhere my little mahlzeit?

Song quickly put on a stern face, "I aint ever going back, you won't take me alive!" The pony quickly pulled the first thing he could grab as a weapon, an over sized tambourine and smacked the gryphon upside the head!

Sven shook his head for a few moments before reaching back to punch him in the face, only for him to duck out of the way and smack him with the tambourine again, "COME ON!"

Sven frowned and let out the cry of a predator before taking one of his claws and scratching down across the left side of Song's face. At first nothing happened, but then the blood from the cut dripped into the only good eye that Song Lore had left, "ARGH! YOU BLINDED ME! YOU OVER SIZED CHICKEN, YOU BLINDED ME!"

Sven turned and grabbed a crate and threw it at the thrashing earth pony, knocking him out cold, "That's your problem," as he turned away he walked up to the shelves on the wall and found there among the hundreds of instruments, his beloved clarinet, "Hallo Schatz."

Royal Ribbon quickly galloped up to him with a serious look on her face, "A job well done deputy, listen, after the show come speak with me about signing you up with the agency."

Sven looked at his clarinet, then at Royal Ribbon, "Sorry, but I vant to play music, not spy. Do you tink dat ve should tie dese two up?"

"Quite right, come on there has to be some rope here somewhere."





Three o'clock came much too quickly for Lyra Heartstrings. It was no easy task finding the warehouse and returning all the instruments back to the original owners. The crates and crates of equipment however, had no owners and as thanks for her involvement were given to her free and clear along with the title of the warehouse itself.

The Musicians Mafia were all cuffed and had inhibitor rings on if they were unicorns, and rode the train back to Canterlot with Royal Ribbon acting as guard in the cargo hold with them.

But the rest of the group still had work to do.

Lyra smiled about her accomplishments as she knocked on the library door and waited. It did not take long for Twilight to open the door, "Oh hello there Lyra, how are you?"

"Great, thank you. Is Trixie ready? The rest of the band is all set up on the stage, and we just need her to make the party complete."

Twilight nodded a bit before answering, "She's sleeping right now, but is presentable. I'll go get her up."

Trixie was quickly awoken from a marvelous dream where everypony loved her, and she was the princess of magic all across the land. She was at her favorite part of the dream where she makes Twilight her official court jester when she was shaken awake, "Come on, your going to be late for your own party!"

Trixie woke up in a snap, "Oh my gosh, your right!" She ran quickly out the door, her hat and cape following after her before placing themselves on her body, "Come on! Trixie doesn't want to miss a moment of this!"





Not too much after Trixie arrived, the rest of the guests started to file back into the area in front of the stage. Lyra joined Octavia, Vinyl, Sven, Brass, Harpo, Fiddlesticks and Fredric on the stage with a smile, "Sorry I'm late, is everyone ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," Octavia announced in her usual dry manner, "On my mark, one, two, three, four."

Octavia slowly drew her bow across the strings of her cello to start off a slow, somber song as the curtain rose. Lyra stood up on her hind legs and grabbed the microphone in a hoof, and her lyre in her magic, "Mares and Gentlecolts, in honor of the great fall may I present Equestria's first super group, Electronic Symphony!"

Applause echoed throught the party in front of the stage as the cello was now accompanied by the docile tones of a piano, harp and lyre. Then Vinyl dropped the bass.

The wubs echoed across the field as the traditional instruments weaved in and out of the electronica with a finite precision never before seen in the world. It was loud, it was new, it was exciting. The DJ lowered her volume slightly as Sven blew a solo into his clarinet and Fredric's electric piano took a small spotlight of its own.

Meanwhile across the small field, Trixie sat behind a small table signing countless autographs, while the party seemed festive, she had to settle for what she promised to do. Luckilly for her, Twilight and Pinkie Pie stayed close by to keep her company.

"Next," Trixie called as she gave the little filly a smile, "And what is your name little one?"

The young unicorn gave off a smile, "My name's Sweetie Belle, can I ask you a question?"

Trixie grabbed a pen in her magic and began to sign her name on it, "I don't see why not."

"Well, how did you do it? Without your horn I mean. I can't do magic at all even when I concentrate really really hard, all I can do is shoot sparks."

Trixie looked at Sweetie Belle and smiled, "Magic is more than just sparks and flashes little one, it took me a long time to understand that in subtlety there is power," she paused and gave Sweetie a smile, "I can't tell you how I did it, trade secret and all, but I will say this. You can learn a lot on a rock farm."

Sweetie Belle gave Trixie a confused look before shrugging and turning away to let the next pony get a free souvenir from Trixie.