//------------------------------//
// Chapter 17: The Vanishing Elephant and the Brick Wall. 
// Story: Harry Houdini: The Great and Powerful 
// by CrackedInkWell 
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About five minutes later, the stage was reset for the next trick. While Houdini excused himself, the curtain opened up to reveal a tall structure. The audience saw a massive platform with a ramp leading up to a flat surface. On each of the four corners stood a post, each holding up a velvet canopy and red curtains draped over the sides.

‘What is he planning to do now?’ Trixie shared the same thoughts as the rest of the audience, with even Celestia gazing at the structure in curiosity.

As they waited, the blue unicorn noticed two things. First was a muffled noise that seemed to be coming from behind the curtain in the background. It sounded almost like somepony was stacking stones or something else that caused some sort of scraping.

The other was that across from the Solar Princess stood Houdini’s wife. Instead of being in a circus costume like she expected, Bess wore a black dress with a red bead shawl. Her hair was still short and wavy, and underneath her makeup, she seemed thoughtful of the stage’s unique setup.

A spotlight illuminated the left side of the stage as Harry walked out, now fully dressed with the speaker stone pinned to his tie. He strode out before the audience’s applause.

“During my time here in Equestria, I have discovered something that’s caught my interest ever since I first arrived,” he said. “That discovery, as strange as it might sound to you all, is that you ponies possess magic that my kind has written off as impossible. The ponies of the earth possess the strength of stone, and the ponies of the sky have been granted the ability to fly into the heavens above. Those gifted with horns have powers that are only limited to their imaginations. In fact, many of you here might say that the ability to levitate objects and teleport are limited to unicorns.”

Trixie nodded to herself, inquiring where he was going with this.

“Then I must tell you, mares and gentlecolts, that this is simply not true.” This statement got the whole theater whispering to one another. “For while it quite obvious that I was not born with a horn, I have spent fifty years of my life perfecting my mind to make the impossible, possible! I can hear you wondering how I am able to prove such a bold declaration. I would be more than happy to demonstrate.”

With a hand raised high above his head, he gestured to those hidden backstage.

“May I introduce to you, from our very own Manehattan City Zoo, Lilly the Elephant!”

From stage right, a pale gray tusked elephant that easily towered Houdini and his troupe slowly crossed the stage as the crowd respectfully stomped their hooves. Leading the elephant was a violet pegasus with a blond mage who was wearing a dark green uniform.

“Lilly here is nine feet tall, weighing just a bit over five tons,” Harry told his audience as he walked around the passing elephant. “Truly, a living marvel to behold. She was rescued from poachers in the grassy plains of Zebrica who I am told wanted her ivory tusks. Thankfully, she now resides in the sanctuary of your city’s zoo.”

As the audience continued applauding, the pegasus led Lilly up the ramp and into the center of the canopy structure.

“But now, mares and stallions of all ages, with the power of my well-trained mind, I will make this beauty vanish before your very eyes, causing her to suddenly reappear back at the zoo.”

Curtains from all sides of the structure were closed by the humans with a little help from a few pegasi until all four sides were drawn, hiding the elephant from view.

Now with Harry standing at center stage, he closed his eyes. He put one hand on his chest while his other was in front of his face with his fingertips placed on his forehead. Taking several deep breaths, he slowly turned around. The audience was captivated and watched his every move, wondering how he would make the large animal disappear.

Now facing the enclosed structure, he slowly raised his hands before giving a sudden and sharp CLAP! He then gestured with both of his hands, signaling his assistants to open the curtains.

Three sides of the canopy were pulled aside, revealing the enclosed space devoid of an elephant.

Gasps were collectively voiced, ponies’ jaws dropping to the floor with eyes wide open. Without a puff of smoke or a flash of light, a five-ton creature had just disappeared in front of a crowd of at least a thousand ponies. The silence was quickly broken by thunderous applause.

‘For something that claims to not have magic, that was a really good trick,’ Trixie thought. ‘I should really figure out how he did it.’

“Thank you very much.” Harry took a bow while his assistants pulled the tall structure off of the stage. “While making an elephant vanish is quite difficult for someone lacking a horn sticking out of their forehead, how about I do something a little bit harder?”

The green curtain was suddenly pulled away, revealing several construction ponies finishing a brick wall. Confusion spread across the audience’s faces just as the last pieces of brick and mortar were placed.

“As you can see,” Houdini pointed to the construction ponies, “while the show was going on, these brick masons have spent the past hour quietly erecting this brick wall, doing their best to not interrupt the show. What an achievement.”

While the audience applauded, the construction ponies took their leave. As they left the stage, one of Harry’s assistants came on and brought him a mallet.

Taking the hammer into his hands, Houdini turned to the audience. “As you can see, this wall--” he hit the dried brick wall with the mallet, “--is completely solid on all sides.” He walked around to all of the sides, smacking them with the mallet. “This wall has been built right into the very back of the stage, so it should be impossible for me to go around it without any of you seeing me.”

His assistants took the heavy mallet away, leaving only Houdini and the wall on stage. “I may have made a full grown elephant vanish, but my next trick will show that I can use my mind to walk through this very brick wall.”

Intrigue spread throughout the crowd. Trixie glanced over at Celestia, noticing that she was craning her neck over to get a closer view, but her expression was otherwise unreadable.

As Harry went into a meditative state, four female assistants joined him on stage. They dragged out two flat panels on wheels that had been painted to look like bushes. As they showed off both sides of the dividers, Houdini slowly made his way toward the brick structure before the set pieces hid him away from the audience’s view.

When the panels were wheeled away, the ponies were surprised to see that Houdini had suddenly appeared on the other side of the wall.

“Wanna see that again?”

”YES!”

Like before, the human meditated and the assistants blocked the audience’s view for just a moment before Harry reappeared on the other side.