//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: The New Entertainment in Town. // Story: Harry Houdini: The Great and Powerful // by CrackedInkWell //------------------------------// Not too long after the blue magician made her escape, another slender creature stepped into the rainy, dark streets. The man looked around, completely confused. “What?” He looked up one of the streets. “This isn’t Broadway.” He looked down another just to make sure before looking upwards. “And wasn’t the sky clear a few hours ago? What’s going on?” “Harry?” Another figure walked through the wooden doors, in the middle of putting her coat and hat on. “Harry, what is it?” “Something’s wrong.” He looked around the street they were on. “Bess, is it me, or is the theater on the wrong street?” She looked around in surprise. “This isn’t Broadway… where are all the lights?” “Do you see it, boss?” one of his assistants asked, peeking his head out of the door. Harry turned to walk back into the lit theater. “No, I don’t see your unicorn, but I can see that we’ve somehow moved.” “How could we have moved, Harry?” Bess opened the door for him. “And where did we move to, exactly?” “Antony,” he turned to his assistants, “how about you run to the corner and find what street we’re on.” “Sure thing, but what about that thing I saw?” “If you wanna convince me that you saw a real unicorn,” Harry joked, “why not take a picture next time? They’re more convincing that way. Now go on, try to find out where we are.” His assistant did as he asked as Harry and Bess walked into the theater’s reception. Harry walked over to one of the three phone booths and picked up the phone’s handle from the hook. He took a moment to listen to it before putting it back on the hook, doing the same thing to the other two booths. “They’re dead.” He told Bess. “Hon, all the telephones are dead.” She looked up at the still-lit bulbs. “If we’ve somehow moved and the telephones are dead, how come all of the lights are still on?” “There an electric generator under the theater, remember honey? We installed it in case the lights went out so we’d have a backup.” “Hey, what’s going on?” Another assistant walked into the reception area. She was one of the assistants that helped him on stage, still dressed in her red circus costume. “And why’s there a brick wall blocking the door backstage?” “What?” Harry and Bess asked in unison. “Yeah, come and see.” She led them into the heart of the theater, past rows of seats, over the orchestra pit, and through the stage where a crowd of the show’s staff surrounded the area where the back entrance used to be. Harry made his way through the mob to find it exactly as his assistant described. Behind the door was nothing but a smooth, brick wall. The magician put his hand on the solid materials. The mortar had long since dried, and none of the bricks seemed to be coming loose. He ended up stepping back and scratching his head. “Okay, something weird is definitely going on here.” “Hey, boss.” The theater troupe turned to find one of the backstage assistants running up the aisles of chairs. “Anthony,” Harry made his way over to the front stage, “have you found out where we are?” “Actually, I ran into the police, and they, uh....” “Well, spit it out.” “They’re…” Anthony trailed off, but his inquiry was answered when two small creatures came through the curtains separating the reception area from the theater. They were both dressed in blue uniforms, the theater staff all staring at them wide-eyed. “Alright everypony,” the pegasus said, “what’s going on… here…?” The other stallion didn’t say a word as they both stared back at the lanky creatures staring back at them. The unicorn finally broke the awkward silence. “Huh… now there’s something you don’t see every day.” _*_ The next morning, Trixie levitated the newspaper in front of her as she sat down to have her first cup of coffee. After unfolding it, she saw that the front page had a picture of the mysterious theater that she saw appear last night. There was also a smaller photo of one of the lanky creatures in a suit, crouching down to speak to a group of reporters. Mysterious Theater Appears After Mysterious Storm Manehattan, Equestria Among all of the puzzling events from last night’s storm, perhaps none were as strange as the theater that appeared on the lower end of Fifth Street. The House of Wonder (see above) had somehow materialized during last night’s storm. Manehattan police received a tip from a concerned citizen who claimed that she saw the theater appear right after lightning had struck the previously empty lot as she was on her way home. She said that she came running after she saw one of the strange creatures exiting the doors of the new theater. The two nearby policecolts, Law Abiding, and Swift Order came to the scene to discover the theater and the creatures inside. “Even before we went in, we heard somepony calling out for help,” Law stated. “We quickly found out that it wasn’t a pony at all, but this two-legged thing that was on the corner. It seemed like it was looking for something, and when we called out to it, it went back into the theater, so we followed it.” “Once we went inside,” Order added, “there were more of them on the stage, all confused with no idea what had happened. To tell you the truth, they looked like they were more surprised about us than we were with them. In fact, when I started to use my wings, they were all shocked as if I suddenly grown a third wing or something… Then there was this guy, the magician with his face plastered over the posters outside, asking us if we’d be interested in joining his show.” The creatures have identified themselves as “Human Beings”. After some talk with the local police, they have been confirmed as posing no danger to anypony and were escorted to the Silverhorn Hotel where they could rest. Our investigation team was fortunate enough to interview one of these Humans who goes by the name Harry Houdini (pronounced Who-dee-knee, seen lower right), an illusionist and self-proclaimed escape artist, who was happy to be interviewed by us. “I’m still really trying to figure out what happened,” he said. “We were cleaning things up for tomorrow’s show when suddenly we all heard this really loud crack of thunder over our heads, almost like a cannon going off. The next thing we knew, we were someplace else. All of our telephones were cut, there’s a brick wall where a rear entrance used to be, and now there are a bunch of talking horses walking around… uh, no offense. You see, I’ve been doing magic alongside freak shows for years, but this takes it to a whole new level of weird for us. Even my wife is still coming to terms with this place.” According to Houdini, he has never heard of Manehattan or even Equestria, nor has he encountered any pegasi or unicorns, except in fairy tales. He claims that he, his wife Bess Houdini, and his theater troupe are from a country called the United States of America. Police released a statement stating that they will try to get in contact with the Princesses in order to help return this theater troupe return to their home. When we told Houdini about this, we also asked what he had planned to do during his asylum in Manehattan, he responded, “we’re going to do what we’ve been doing all over our country and Europe: we’re going to entertain the folks of this city. And trust me, I’m the best at my craft, and no one can outdo the Great Houdini.” When asked what he plans to do to advertise his show, he smiled and told us that we would just have to wait and see. ‘No one can outdo the Great Houdini?’ Trixie thought as she put the paper down on the table. Now she was curious. A slender creature, a fellow magician from someplace else, claims himself to be the best at what he does? She looked at the photo of Harry again. “How can he be the best magician? He doesn’t even have a horn.” Trixie took another moment with her coffee. “Whoever and whatever he is, I don’t believe I have anything to worry about this Houdini.”