“So, what is it that you think you can do better than The Great and Powerful Trixie?” Trixie’s magically enhanced voice boomed over the audience.
Thunder, who had followed Trixie back to the stage, grinned. “Hoof-wrestling.”
Trixie scoffed. “Hoof-wrestling? Rather plebian for The Great and Powerful Trixie, but so be it. Hoof-wrestling it is!”
She telekinetically pulled a small table from her carriage and placed it between them. She raised a foreleg and placed it on the table, silently challenging Thunder to put his bits where his muzzle was. Thunder stepped up and placed his hoof against hers.
“Begin!” Trixie called. Thunder began to push against her hoof with all his might. Trixie’s foreleg descended slowly toward the table, overpowered by Thunder’s strength. She looked utterly unconcerned.
As Trixie's hoof neared the table, Thunder suddenly felt a strange sensation around his stomach. It tickled like crazy, causing him to squirm uncomfortably and lose his focus. He had been concentrating so hard on Trixie’s foreleg that he hadn’t even noticed her horn glowing. The tickling sensation intensified and Thunder lost control, laughing and squirming uncontrollably as Trixie slammed his hoof down on the table.
“Once again, The Great and Powerful Trixie is victorious!” she announced as the crowd laughed at the display.
Thunder scratched himself to get rid of the last of the magical tickling. “I’ll get you next time, Trixie!” he shouted dramatically.
Trixie laughed. “The Great and Powerful Trixie doubts that, but she will look forward to your challenge. Now begone with you!”
Thunder made a great show of leaving the stage in defeat. The crowd made way for him until he was able to rejoin Octavia near the back.
“She certainly does lay it on thick, doesn’t she?” Octavia asked in distaste.
Thunder waved a hoof. “It’s just her gimmick, it’s all part of the show. It’s like how I’m not actually a loud, angry jackass, and you’re not actually a snooty high-society type.” He scrunched his nose in mock-confusion. “Wait…”
Octavia scoffed and smacked him jokingly.
They passed the rest of the show in companionable silence, drawing comfort and strength from each other’s nearness, though Thunder had to remind himself several times to keep his feelings in check. They tended to rage out of control around Octavia—rather, they tended to rage out of control a lot of the time, but more so than usual around Octavia.
When the show ended and the crowd dispersed Thunder and Octavia approached the stage. Trixie was packing up her props, but hopped down to give each of them a hug.
“It is good to see you both,” Trixie said with a smile. “I did not know you were in Canterlot, Thunder.”
“The Great and Powerful Trixie didn’t know something?” Thunder arched an eyebrow.
Trixie scoffed. “It must have been beneath The Great and Powerful Trixie’s notice.” She maintained her haughty attitude for a moment longer before it cracked into laughter. “What brings you here?”
“Cacophony.” That single word silenced the happy laughter of the three friends. “I came here with some fillies from Ponyville to meet with Princess Celestia and find a way to stop it.” Once again Thunder told the story of his various encounters with the monster, and how Celestia believed that he and the others could work together to defeat the echoes.
“I see.” Trixie’s normally boisterous voice was subdued. “I hope that you succeed, for everypony’s sake.” Octavia simply nodded in silent agreement.
“You said Ponyville?” Trixie asked hesitantly.
Thunder nodded. “Yeah,” he said, “I heard about when you performed for them. I think you let them off easy, after the crap they were saying.”
“Where are they now?” Trixie asked.
Thunder shrugged. “Bucked if I know. They ticked me off, so I left for a while.”
“Whatever did they do?” Octavia asked.
“Remember how I said I heard about when Trixie performed in Ponyville? Yeah. It was that. Who the buck do they think they are, going to somepony else’s show and talking about them like that?”
Trixie winced and looked away. “I think you did not hear the full story.”
“I heard that they were standing right up front and talking trash about you and your show,” Thunder said. “You used your magic to make them look stupid, and it sounds to me like they had it coming.”
“That was only the beginning of it,” Trixie said quietly. She looked uncomfortably at Octavia, who took the hint and politely excused herself. Thunder was sorry to see her go, but he understood.
“Do look me up when your business in Canterlot is done,” Octavia said to Thunder before leaving. She gave him a brief hug and trotted off toward the marketplace.
“What you heard, I think, was only the beginning of the story.” Trixie briefly related how the situation had escalated from there, with some overzealous fans bringing an Ursa Major—which turned out to be an Ursa Minor—to Ponyville for her to “defeat,” and how Twilight had saved them all. She then related the incident with the Alicorn Amulet. Thunder listened, horrified at what the artifact had done to his friend. Trixie had always been brash, and sometimes inconsiderate, but never in her life had she been cruel.
“So you see,” Trixie finished quietly, “the blame for that incident does not lie entirely, nor even mostly, with those six. Nonetheless,” she said, perking up, “we have forgiven one another, and it is in the past now.”
“I… wow.” Thunder cast about for something more fitting, or at least more intelligent, to say. “Still, it all started because of how they treated you.”
“It did,” Trixie agreed, “but it escalated beyond all reason, and that was my fault.”
Thunder sighed and pawed the ground, realizing that once again he had let his anger make a foal of him. “I suppose I may have overreacted a bit.”
“A bit,” Trixie agreed snidely. “I am glad you came to see me, but right now your friends need you. Equestria needs you!” she reared up on her hind legs and let off a flurry of magical fireworks. “Go, Thunder Growl! Slay the monster and save our fair land, before the Great and Powerful Trixie does it for you!” She returned to all four hooves as the last fireworks spiraled off into nothingness. “And come have a drink with me when you’re done.”
Thunder laughed at the over-the-top display. “Alright, alright, I’m going! Now, if I were a dorky purple unicorn, where would I be?”
Thunder and Trixie met each others' eyes and spoke in unison.
“The library.”
Thunder returned to the royal palace. After asking directions from a guard, getting thoroughly lost, and somehow finding himself in an upside-down multiverse made of licorice and inhabited by a draconequus, Thunder found himself in front of the door do the royal library. He peered inside. As he had expected, Twilight had her muzzle buried in a book and was surrounded by stacks of texts.
Thunder’s heart fluttered nervously. He was sure that he was in for a lecture, and by Faust could that nag lecture. The image of Octavia’s thin face and sad eyes swam into his mind. The poor mare was heartbroken, and she wasn’t the only one. With a pang, he remembered Berry Punch, so desperate for music and laughter that she sacrificed herself just to bring its joy to Ponyville one more time. He forced back the tears that sprang to his eyes at the thought, crushing them under a fierce determination to set things right, first with these six ponies and then with all of Equestria. He took a deep breath and entered the library.
“Thunder!” Rainbow Dash, whose attention had been wandering restlessly, spotted him first. She flew over in a prismatic blur. “You’re back!”
“Of course I’m back.” Thunder raised a hoof and bumped hers. “I told you I would be.”
“I know, but you seemed pretty mad back there,” Rainbow answered.
“I was,” Thunder sighed. “I was angrier than I should have been, and I didn’t know the whole story. Do you think we could get everyone over here? I’d rather only do this once.”
“Sure!” Rainbow took a deep breath. “Hey, everypony!” Everyone except Rainbow winced as her voice echoed around the nearly silent library.
The librarian gave her a glare that could have curdled milk and an angry “Sssshhhh!” but the pegasus seemed not to notice.
Thunder waited with some trepidation as they gathered around. Last of all was Twilight, who had taken longer than the others to realize that something outside of a book demanded her attention. When she saw who was there, she started to say something, but Thunder stopped her with a raised hoof.
“Everypony,” he began, then stopped. The librarian was still glaring at all of them over her horn-rimmed glasses. “Actually, would you mind if we stepped outside for a minute?” Once everyone was safely in the hall, away from the librarian’s death-stare, Thunder took a nervous breath and tried again.
“Listen,” he said, “I talked to Trixie, and I know I really flew off the handle back there. I overreacted, and I didn’t know the whole story. Not by a long shot. I just got so angry the second I heard that you had insulted a friend of mine, I didn’t even stick around to hear what happened next. So, uh…” he scuffed the floor with a nervous hoof.
“Apology accepted, Thunder,” Fluttershy said with a gentle smile. “Actually, I think there’s something that we need to say too.”
“Yes, there is.” Twilight stepped forward. She, and the other ponies, looked strangely abashed. “Thunder, when we were saying those things about Trixie, we didn’t realize how hurtful we were being, and we didn’t understand why Trixie reacted the way she did. You were right to get angry about it. It was rude of us, and inconsiderate to bring it up again in front of you.”
“Ah was badmouthin’ her—again—and I didn’t even stop ta think that she might be a friend of yours,” Applejack chimed in. “Not that I shoulda been sayin' those things in the first place. Ah’m awful sorry, Thunder. I sure know how ah’d feel if someone were talkin’ like that about a friend o’ mine.”
“I… huh?” Thunder, caught mid-apology, stopped and tried to process what was happening.
“What we’re trying to say is that, in this case, we were all in the wrong,” Rarity filled the gap in the conversation. “Everypony spoke without thinking and without knowing the whole story, and because of it we all ended up looking foolish.”
There were nods all around.
“Huh.” Thunder felt strange. It was almost like he had a headache, except it wasn't unpleasant. “I think I just learned something.”
“I think we all did. In fact,” Twilight turned to her assistant, “Spike, take a letter.”
Spike reached behind him and produced a roll of paper and a quill. Someday Thunder was going to have to ask where he kept those. On second thought, perhaps he was better off not knowing.
“Dear Princess Celestia," Twilight dictated. "Today I had an argument with one of my friends. I insulted someone he cared about without thinking, and without realizing that they were friends. He got very upset, and things got even worse because we all thought we knew what was right when really each of us only knew our own side of the story. No story is one-sided, and it’s a big mistake to assume you know everything when you only have your own perspective on it. I’m just glad that, this time, everything worked out in the end. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle."
Twilight looked around at the group. “Anypony have anything to add?” The others all shook their heads, so she nodded to Spike. The letter disappeared in a burst of green fire.
"Now," Twilight said with a gleam in her eye, "we have some studying to do!"
Her excitement was met with a round of groans.
An hour later Thunder lethargically nosed a book aside and let his head flop down on the table. How could learning to destroy something with his voice possibly be so bucking boring? Truth be told, he thought Twilight was the only one here who really knew what she was looking for. She kept going on about pitches and magical frequencies and amplitude, and everypony else just sort of nodded along and idly nosed through the books she pointed at. Rainbow Dash had given up on even that and was dozing in a corner, though Rarity seemed able to at least somewhat keep pace with Twilight. Thunder supposed that, as a unicorn, she probably had at least some idea of what was happening with all this magical horse dung.
"Pinkie Pie, that's a cookbook," Twilight said exasperatedly as she returned from her latest foray into the stacks of books. The pink pony nodded happily and went right back to reading. "Hey, Thunder, I think I found something." Twilght magicked a thick book with a worn brown cover to him. Written on the spine was A Brief History of the Battlesingers. Thunder perked up immediately, thinking that that sounded like absolutely one of the most kick-flank things he'd ever heard of. His interest piqued, Thunder opened the book and began reading.
"The Battlesingers were one of the most powerful groups in old Equestria," Thunder read eagerly. "They used their magical songs to calm ponies' hearts and bring peace to conflicted—argh!" He slammed the book shut.
"Do not underestimate the power of peace, Thunder Growl," a regal voice came from behind him, by the entrance to the library. Thunder jumped and turned around to see Princess Celestia there with what he was beginning to suspect was her default expression: a knowing smile. "After all," she approached the group, "are you not trying to bring peace back to Equestria?"
"Princess Celestia!" Twilight exclaimed. She and the others bowed, then she trotted over to her teacher.
"Twilight," she smiled, "I had a rare moment to myself when I received an interesting letter, and I thought I would see how my student and her friends were doing."
"Sorry," Thunder said. He wasn't exactly sure what he was apologizing for, but it felt like he should.
"Do not be sorry," Celestia said with a smile. "Disagreements, even arguments, between friends are not uncommon. I think that how quickly you all made amends says more about you than the disagreement itself. How is the research coming along, Twilight?"
"Ugh!" Twilight voiced what they all were thinking. "We just don't have enough information!"
Well, maybe not quite what they all were thinking, Thunder mused as he looked around at the piles of books.
"I know the spell that I need to use," Twilight continued, "but if I don't get the magical frequency exactly right it won't spark the resonance. Beyond that, I don't how much volume we're going to need, and if the amplitude of the waves isn't high enough it won't disrupt the reverberation!"
The others in the room stared at Twilight.
"Uh, anypony else understand a word o' that?" Applejack asked.
"Well, Twilight, why don't you start with what you do know?" Celestia suggested gently.
Twilight sighed. She had been over that in her own mind a hundred times in the last hour. "We know that Cacophony appears wherever there is music, and much more strongly if the Elements of Harmony are used," she began rattling off her list. "We know that it targets specific ponies and—with the exception of its first appearance at the Manehattan Bash—does not cause collateral damage. We know that the Cacophonies we have seen are resistant, if not immune, to all traditional forms of attack, both physical and magical."
"We know that they're really, really loud," Pinkie offered.
"We know that they're strong as b—uh, that they're very strong," Thunder added.
"We know that their shapes constantly change, though they remain equine," Rarity said.
"And we know," Thunder paused to swallow and blink rapidly, "we know what they do to the ponies they catch."
"Right," Twilight resumed her summary, "and since the ponies don't come back when we hit the echoes with the Elements of Harmony, we can assume that there is some kind of transport magic involved as well."
"So, what does all of that information tell you?" Celestia asked.
"That we're dealing with somepony, or something, that has incredibly powerful and varied magic. Somepony strong enough to maintain an amalgamation of at least several dozen ponies, and I suspect they must be maintaining a mind-control spell too, or else the conflicting thoughts from all of the different ponies would make the gestalt useless. On top of all of that, they are able to teleport ponies from anywhere in Equestria to wherever they are operating from with just an echo of their magic." She rubbed her eyes. "I can't think of anyone powerful enough to do all of that except maybe Discord, but this isn't his style at all."
"What about the Alicorn Amulet?" Thunder remembered the story he had heard from Trixie. "Doesn't that make unicorns crazy-powerful?"
"That was one of my first thoughts too," Twilight said, "but I sent a message to Zecora and it's still in her hut. Nopony's used it."
"Something similar, perhaps?" Rarity suggested.
"That would make sense," Twilight agreed, "I don't see how anypony could manage this without something boosting their magic. Still, for now we're trying to stick with what we're certain of."
"Which ain't a whole lot," Applejack said.
"More than you think, perhaps," Princess Celestia cut through the babble. "You've answered many of your own questions about what makes up these echoes. Now, if only you had something to test your theories on...?"
"Of course!" Twilight practically pranced with glee. "Oh, Princess, you're brilliant!"
"Why Twilight, I haven't done anything at all," Celestia winked at her student. "But I do think that, perhaps, we are getting a bit too boisterous for the library."
The ponies all looked over at the librarian, who was doing a very good job of staring them down while somehow avoiding glaring at the princess.
"I've set aside the inner courtyard for you," Celestia informed them. "You may use it for whatever experimentation you need. I'm afraid I must be going. Do stop by and see me before you leave, though." The princess of the sun gave them all a smile and excused herself.
"So, what was that all about?" Applejack asked once Celestia was gone.
"I had the answers the whole time, I just didn't see them!" Twilight exclaimed, still brimming over with excitement. She stopped suddenly as she caught the librarian's eye. That mare had a stare to rival Fluttershy's. "But the princess is right," she said sheepishly, "we should probably go."
"The missing information was right in front of us," Twilight explained as they walked the halls of the palace. "We needed to know what the echoes of Cacophony were, but the answer was in what they could do. They're literally made of magic, so their abilities can tell us exactly what they are!"
"And the," Fluttershy gulped, "experimentation?"
"Well," Twilight said, "I've been doing some research on sound magic. Now that we've put all the pieces together, I should be able to make something that's pretty close to one of these echoes. If it works, we should be able to practice as much as we need to learn how to dissipate it!"
"Wait, you learned how to to use a completely new type of magic?" Thunder asked skeptically. "In, what, the past two days, in between studying, traveling, and fighting?"
"Well... yeah." Twilight at least had the decency to look self-conscious about it.
Rainbow laughed. "That's our egghead!"
Thunder shook his head in disbelief and continued to follow the others.