Changing Gossip

by KErlend

Ch. 1- First Suspicions

"There," Trixie rubbed her two forehooves together, brushing off the small amount of dirt and dust that had rubbed off on them. "That's the last of them." She stepped back a few steps to admire her work. A new bookcase now stood against the wall, just filled with some of the books she had deemed useful from Twilight's dumped wagon. Most of them were books with a handful of spells in them, some of them whose methods of obtainment were questionable, but one or two was a reference book that had looked interesting. She had skimmed through the pages of one of them, Monster Manual: A Reference Guide to All Known Creatures of Equestria and Beyond, and it had piqued her interest. She had it set out to read first.

But now wasn't a good time to read. Trixie had promised Carrot Top she'd have lunch with her... in five minutes.

Trixie levitated her hat onto her head and dashed out the door, towards the cafe she was meeting Carrot Top at.

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As Trixie trotted up to the table outside the cafe that Carrot Top was sitting at, she tapped her hoof on the table. "Not late this time" Trixie stated slyly as she sat down.

Carrot Top looked at the clock tower in the middle of town. She grinned. "Barely. What kept you this time?" Carrot Top asked as merely a question.

"Filing some books new books I, ahem, found." Carrot Top nodded in response. They both ordered something from their waiter.

"Anything interesting happen lately?" Trixie asked. All she got in response was a thoughtful look that could see straight through the showmare. "Hello?" Trixie waved her hoof in front of Carrot Top's face. "Equestria to Carrot Top."

"Huh, what?" Carrot Top looked around as she was pulled from her thoughts. "Oh, right, sorry. Just what you said reminded me of something. You may want to go see Lyra. She's been acting pretty weird lately."

"How so?" Trixie asked as the unicorn waiter lowered her daisy sandwich in front of her.

"I don't know, something just seems off about her. Bon-Bon says she hasn't talked to her for over a day. And according to Raindrops, she's been playing pranks on ponies. Nothing serious, but still."

"You're right, that doesn't sound like her." Trixie chewed a bite of her sandwich thoughtfully. She levitated the flowers out of the pot on the table and some dandelions off the ground and put them in her sandwich and took another bite. "I'll go talk to her." Carrot Top nodded in response.

Trixie and Carrot Top finished their lunches. Trixie tossed a couple of bits on the table and trotted off. Carrot Top shook her head with a smile on her face. Trixie had paid for her meal and Carrot Top's as well. Carrot Top threw the bits she was pulling out onto the table for a tip.

Trixie asked around and found out that Lyra had last been seen near Sugarcube Corner. Trixie made a beeline for the sweet shop. She asked the Cakes if they had seen Lyra- thank Luna Pinkie Pie wasn't there!- but they weren't sure where she was. "She left 15 minutes ago deary" Mrs. Cake said. It was then that a cupcake the confectioner had been carrying exploded. Frosting and cake batter now covered her face. From outside, Trixie heard a familiar laugh.

"You okay Mrs. Cake?" Trixie asked as she levitated a napkin over to Mrs. Cake.

"Oh, yes deary, I'll be fine" said Mrs. Cake as she took the napkin from Trixie's telekinetic grasp.

"Good, I gotta run. See you later Mrs. Cake." Trixie dashed out the door and listened for the sound of the laughter she heard earlier. After a trolley passed by, she heard a faint laugh coming from the alley next to Sugarcube Corner. Trixie trotted slowly towards it. A seafoam-green unicorn could be seen laughing hysterically under a window looking into the sweet shop.

"Lyra?" Trixie asked as she walked up to the Element of Loyalty.

Lyra sat up and wiped a tear from under her eye as she slowed her laughter. She looked over at the blue unicorn. At first, her expression was one of puzzlement. Then, something seemed to dawn on her. She grinned at Trixie, then quickly got to her hooves and ran off, out of the alley.

"Hey!" Trixie shouted as she took off in pursuit. Lyra looked back at her pursuer as she ran through the Ponyville marketplace. She turned around just in time to see a cart full of potatoes a mere five feet in front of her. The seafoam-green unicorn leaped onto the roof of the cart, a good ten feet off the ground, and jumped down on the other side. Trixie's horn glowed as she launched magic at the cart just in time, creating an area on it that allowed her to phase straight through it. She popped out of the other side with ease, and cut off the flow of magic. She continued her pursuit. "Lyra, what the hay?!" The mare ahead of her didn't even turn around. Instead, she ducked into an alley.

Trixie redirected her course and put on a burst of speed. She opened another phase portal on one of the buildings that made up the alley. She popped out on the other side and cut of the magic from her horn. She looked ahead and didn't see Lyra, so she turned towards the alley, waiting for Lyra to come out. A figure of a pony appeared coming out of the alley. When the figure stepped into the light, she was not the seafoam-green unicorn Trixie expected. This unicorn was white with a bright red mane. Had Trixie not been completely astounded she may have realized the mare was familiar. But in her haste, this detail was overlooked.

"Did you see Lyra in there or run past?" Trixie asked the mare.

"Seafoam-green, unicorn, white streak through her mane?" Trixie nodded in response. "Yeah, she ran past me. She seemed to be in a hurry, ran towards the train station, I think."

"Thanks!" Trixie called to the mare as she began to trot off at a run. The white mare smiled mischievously as she watched the blue showmare run off. "I gotta be more careful from now on" she said to herself. "Nah, what's the fun in that?" She chuckled and went back into the alley. A green flash emitted from it as she disappeared from sight.

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Trixie looked around the train station. A train had just unloaded from Canterlot, so it was crowded with ponies. She looked all around her, eyes darting between ponies, looking for even a glimpse of seafoam-green. There! Trixie thought. She saw a seafoam-green mane with a streak of white through it. The showmare pushed through the crowd towards it. She soon found herself face-to-face with Lyra. Trixie grabbed the musician, much to Lyra's astonishment, and dragged her away from the crowd of ponies.

When they got out of the train station, Lyra looked at Trixie with a mixture of confusion and slight agitation. "What was that all about?" she demanded of Trixie.

"Hmm, where should I start?" Trixie stated sarcastically. "How about why have you been pulling pranks more than Pinkie Pie lately?" This was an exaggeration, as Trixie had no idea how many pranks Lyra had been pulling. Trixie continued. "Why have you been acting weird lately? Why did you run from me?"

"What are you talking about?!" Lyra yelled at Trixie in what the Element of Magic saw to be genuine confusion.

"I'm talking about the fact that you haven't talked to Bon-Bon in at least a day. About the fact that you have been pulling pranks on Ponyvillians this week. And about the fact that when I confronted you in an alley outside Sugarcube Corner after you caused a cupcake to explode in Mrs. Cake's face, you ran off, exemplifying enough physical prowess and coordination to sign up as a non-pegasus Wonderbolt!"

Lyra stood there, dumbfounded. "I honestly have no clue whatsoever about what you're talking about."

"How can you not get what I'm talking about? You did it! You have been doing this for the past day!" Trixie's words then became incoherent mumbling. Lyra looked down at the ground and tried to comprehend the situation. When Lyra looked up, Trixie had stopped mumbling to herself and had pulled out a deck of cards. She had them wrapped in a levitation spell, shuffling them mid-air. Lyra looked at her questioningly. "It helps me calm down" Trixie informed her.

"Start from the beginning" Lyra told Trixie after some thought. "Just what happened today."

Trixie recounted her lunch with Carrot Top, asking around Sugarcube Corner and the subsequent chase, and then finally finding her at the train station. "Well I can tell you one thing" Lyra said as soon as Trixie finished talking. "That couldn't have been me. I had to go to Canterlot unexpectedly to fill in for a cellist friend two days ago. I left a note for Bon-Bon. Then again, I probably shouldn't have placed it on the top of my pillow. Bon-Bon is a restless sleeper... Whatever, all I know is I just got back into town. That was why I was at the train station, I just got off the train. So it couldn't have been me doing all that."

"What? This makes no sense. How could there be two of you?" Trixie trailed off.

Suddenly, a pink pony popped up between the two unicorns. "Hi Miss Lulamoon" she said. "Hi Miss Heartstrings."

"Hello, Pinkie Pie" Lyra responded.

"Miss Lulamoon," Pinkie Pie said, ignoring the fact that Trixie did not return her greeting. "I thought you were just at your house. How'd you get down here so fast?"

"Wait, what?" Trixie said, confused. "Pinkie, did you just say you just saw me at my house?"

"Yeah! I even said 'Hi Miss Lulamoon' and you were all like 'Hello, Pinkie' and I asked you what you were doing and you said you were getting some things from your house so I asked if you wanted help and you said sure so I went in and helped you get some stuff from your house."

"What was it, exactly, that you helped me get from my house?"

"Let's see, there was an empty box, some fireworks, a flashlight, a box of sparklers, a bottle of alcohol, some whipped cream out of your fridge, a pie, but don't you remember silly, you were there."

"Why did you leave, Pinkie?"

"Well you told me that was all the help you needed so I left your house and you stayed in there but then I heard your screaming so I came over here as fast as I could to find out what it was about and I saw it was you and Miss Heartstrings and that was how I got here."

"When was this, exactly?"

"Oh about five minutes ago. Why?"

Trixie was already trotting off in the direction of her house, Lyra close behind her. "Because that means she should still be there."

"But you're right here, aren't you?" Pinkie said to herself. She shrugged, then bounced off.

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