//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: A Free Ticket and a Card Trick. // Story: Harry Houdini: The Great and Powerful // by CrackedInkWell //------------------------------// “I don’t get it,” Trixie muttered. “I simply don’t get it.” “Huh?” the reporter asked as he and the blue unicorn rode a taxi back to her theater. “I’m talking about what that giant did,” she clarified. “How could that thing have gotten out?” “It’s certainly a puzzle, I admit,” he agreed, nodding. “Even I’m still trying to figure out how he did it. Maybe he had a pick stashed away somewhere--” “But that officer searched him, remember?” Trixie pointed out. “Well… what if he had a unicorn accomplice?” “There was not an ounce of magic found on the cuffs or in the cell.” “Um…” the report paused for a moment to think. “What if… no… how about… no, that doesn’t make sense… I give up.” Trixie took this opportunity to pull the pointy hat off of her head, looking at the ticket that the “Great Houdini” had offered her and the other magicians. It was for a show of his on Wednesday night at eight o’clock. She pondered what he was trying to accomplish. He and the other creatures appeared out of nowhere, shocked and confused, and now he was trying to advertise for his show in a similar fashion to the way she used to do with hers’ years ago when she was still living in her little wagon. “Are you going to his show?” the reporter inquired. Trixie stared at the ticket in her hoof for a moment longer before turning to the stallion. “Only to take some notes.” As soon as Trixie came back to her theater, she went in and told her assistants and the stage director that their show on Wednesday was canceled. Peppers Ghost questioned why she would make such a decision. “I think we’ve just gotten ourselves some new competition,” Trixie replied. _*_ Houdini Escapes Prison: Leaves Magicians and Investigators Baffled Manehattan, Equestria. Yesterday, the human Harry Houdini pulled off the impossible when we walked into Manehattan’s Pine Ridge Penitentiary, asking to not only be locked up in one of its cells but also insisting that he be bound in hoofcuffs. He made a bet with Officer Lock that he could escape within the hour, betting with his mother’s pocket watch. This reporter, along with several others from various other newspapers and the city’s finest illusionists, witnessed Houdini locked in three pairs of hoofcuffs, even going so far as to allow the gathered crowd to test the cuffs for authenticity and magical resistance. We also saw the human being locked behind a heavy steel door in a concrete cell that had been made to hold the city’s most dangerous criminals. After an hour had passed, we returned to check on him only to find that the cell was empty, with the cuffs and door still locked tight. Shortly after, Houdini was found at the officer’s desk, reclaiming his mother’s pocket watch. “I’m completely stumped,” Officer Lock said after he sent some investigators to examine the cell. “We all saw the cuffs being put on him. I checked every spot that he could have hidden something, and even had the key to his cell in my pocket the entire time! Not only that, but the detectives couldn’t find a trace of anything that could’ve helped him escape. It’s like the thing just walked right through the door or something.” “I’ve been doing escapes for years, but I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Card Trick, one of the magicians that were present at the prison. “Other than the use of real cuffs, the weirdest part is that he somehow got out without the aid of unicorn magic. I, along with many others, checked every inch of the cell for magical residue, but we found that it was completely clean. How anypony could have gotten out of there without using magic is something that I’d really like to know.” As for Mr. Houdini himself, he plans to do public escapes in the day and nightly performances on Fifth Street while he and his troops find a way to eventually return back home. He even presented free tickets to each of the magicians who were present at the Penitentiary for his show this Wednesday. Prices for The Harry Houdini: Master of Mystery at the House of Wonder Theater are now set to be seven bits for adults and five for foals. _*_ The lower part of Fifth Street isn’t known for being a place that anypony would go to for entertainment. This is why the residents of said street received front row seats to an unusual view: a crowded line that reached all the way down the block. Even before the scheduled eight o’clock performance, the bright lights of the new theater lit up the street like a star that fell from the sky. All ponies from the skeptically old to the curiously young lined up with bits in their hooves for what was possibly the most unusual show in Equestria, with none of them having any idea what to expect. Among this crowd where some of the curious magicians from a few days earlier, such as Trixie and her two assistants. Once the blue unicorn was inside and her assistants paid for their tickets, they wandered into the theater looking for a seat. They all quickly found that the velvet seats were unusually large, potentially fitting two ponies or three foals each. Trixie and her assistants tried to find a seat as close to the stage as possible so that they could get an up-and-close look at the new illusionist’s work. When the time came and the lights dimmed, a spotlight fell upon the crimson curtain and a human stepped out from the stage’s side. He was richly dressed and his blonde mane was pulled back. “Ladies and gentlemen -- or should I say, mares and gentlecolts, doubters and dreamers alike! Tonight, you are about to witness one of the greatest wonders you’ve ever seen, for all of you are about to see a man that has traveled the world over, mystifying audiences from the royalties of old Europe to the streets of San Francisco. And now he has come here, in the land of magic itself, by unusual circumstances to bring his professional craft to you! So here, at the House of Wonder, I give you the King of Handcuffs himself, the Emperor of Escape, the Mastery of Mystery, the Great Harry Houdini!” The audience applauded as the human walked off stage and the curtain rose, revealing the lanky magician himself at center stage with a starry night painted in the background. With a kind smile, he walked up to the audience and raised his hands into the air, revealing a raven and dove in each hand before they flew away. “Welcome everyone, to what is surely the most mysterious night of your lives,” he announced. “Allow me to introduce myself. For those who don’t know, I am the Great Harry Houdini, and I shall be the one entertaining you all this fine evening.” The audience applauded kindly before he continued. “Perhaps before we begin, I should give a brief introduction as to what I am. For you see, I am more than just a magician or that fella that just got out of jail.” This made his equine spectators laugh. “In truth, I am many things in my profession. I have been a circus magician, an escape artist, an airplane pilot, an actor, a historian in magic, and much more. “Where I come from,” Houdini took a pack of cards out of his coat pocket, “I’m known for doing things that my people would claim to be impossible, which I will be demonstrating in the coming days, as well as tonight.” He waved to the side of the stage where a chair and table were brought up to the stage. On top of the table were a pen, a metal bowl, a cup with a clear substance in it, a box of matches, a cutting board, and a knife. “For this, I’m going to need a volunteer.” Immediately after saying that, he was quickly joined by a unicorn that teleported from her seat. “The Great and Powerful Trixie would be more than willing to assist you,” she said with a smug smile, receiving some applause from the audience. “I see that you’re pretty popular around here,” Houdini pointed out. “That is because I am. I was one of the magicians that you invited to witness your escape a couple of days ago.” He smiled. “Well, it’s a good thing that you made it to my show. If you could just hop on the chair, we’ll begin.” Trixie did so, getting a better view of the table. Houdini opened the box and started to shuffle the cards. “So tell me, Trix, being a magician yourself, are you aware of the basics of how card tricks are supposed to work?” “Of course,” she nodded. “You give somepony a random card and then try to give them their card back after losing it in some way.” “Very good.” He shuffled the deck again. “But as we know, there’s a big problem with card tricks: they get ridiculous pretty fast. You have to keep coming up with a new variation of it, otherwise, people stop taking it seriously, right?” Trixie agreed. “So now, I shall perform for you one of my many takes on the card trick.” Houdini then laid the blue-backed cards on the table and spread them out. Once he did, he turned his back and took several big steps away from the cards, keeping his back turned. “For this, I want you to choose two cards from the deck. One for all to see, and the other for your eyes only. I’d also like you to use the pen to sign your name on both of them.” Trixie raised an eyebrow but did as she was told, grabbing the pen in her magic. She picked out the seven-of-hearts and the four-of-spades. Signing both of them, she placed the heart card face up and the spades face down. “Trixie is ready for you trick, Mr. Houdini,” she told him as the illusionist returned to the table, picking up the visible card to show to the spectators. “The seven-of-hearts,” he declared as he put both of the cards back into the deck, shuffling it one more time before putting the deck back into the little white box. “Now, both of the cards are lost. But not only are they lost…” He then put the box into the metal bowl before pouring the clear liquid onto it. Houdini swiftly lit a match and dropped it into the bowl, setting its contents aflame. “It’s now on fire, but not just on fire…” He quickly dumped the blackening deck onto the chopping board, grabbing the knife and swiftly chopping it into nothing but ash. “It’s now diced into pieces. In other words, whatever was in that box is now destroyed… or is it? Excuse me, miss.” He pointed towards the balcony. “You there, with those lovely green wings and the sunflower mane, wearing the brooch and hat.” “Yes?” The mare in question stood up. “Would you empty your purse, if you please?” “My… purse?” she blinked. She bent down and took the purse in her hooves. “I don’t understand.” “Can you please open it and produce the seven-of-hearts?” Still as confused as ever, she unclasped the little back before her eyes widened. “But… how?” “Madame, may we see it?” The mare reached into her purse and pulled out a blue-backed card, flipping it over to reveal the seven-of-hearts with Trixie’s signature on it. This got the audience to applaud at the miracle that they had just witnessed. Trixie, on the other hoof, stood there with her jaw reaching the floor. She couldn’t help but blink. “Thank you, the Great and Powerful Trixie,” Houdini said. “You may return to your seat.” The unicorn teleported back to her shared chair but noticed that her seat felt a little funny. She stood up and levitated what she sat on before gasping. It was the autographed four-of-spades! “Oh, before I forget,” Houdini called out from the stage, “is that your card?”