Ticket Holder
Chapter 3
Good Morning!
-Blossomforth’s Home-
After the crazy event that took place with Twilight today, Blossomforth left the library later that day and returned home to eventually wait for Twilight’s decision on who gets the ticket. Even after making a “truce” with Trixie in order for Twilight to not interrupt their competition for the ticket, she couldn’t sleep late that night. She laid in her bed just staring at the ceiling as the hours ticked by. She then looked over to check her clock again and sees that it was nearly midnight, and she didn’t even feel the least bit tired. Continuing to toss and turn in her sheets doesn’t help the matter that something was on Blossomforth’s mind at the moment, Trixie.
“I just know that Trixie is planning something so that I don’t show up to get the ticket tomorrow,” said a skeptical Blossomforth.
Blossomforth then took her covers off and got up from her bed. She then proceeded to pace back and forth in her room as thoughts were racing in her head. Is she going to be left out with her friends? Will she be outwitted by Trixie? Will she accept defeat? No, she can’t! Blossomforth whined and groaned into her pillow as if she was going to explode with all of the stupid thoughts in her head.
Then Blossomforth remembered that Honey left the ticket at the museum. So she got an idea.
“I’ll simply go to the museum and take the ticket so that Trixie can’t get her hooves on it,” said Blossomforth out loud.
But she then also remembered her promise to Twilight and that she didn’t want to break it. Also, she didn't want to resort to breaking the law to get what she wants, but at the same time though she didn’t want Trixie to be the one at the museum first that morning. How will she be able to secure the ticket for herself, and also delay Trixie’s approach? Then another idea popped into her head.
“I’ve got it!” said Blossomforth with a stroke of genius, “I’ll just lay a trap for Trixie so she can’t use her fancy magic to mess with me or get a head start to get to the museum that morning. But what can I use?”
She then looked around her room and then the rest of her apartment to find the right tool to sabotage Trixie’s morning arrival. Then she headed out to her greenhouse and looked over all of her plants. She found something that could work, so she had put on her gardening gloves and then carefully clipped some leaves off the stalk of the plant and placed them into a jar. While out of the ordinary, Blossomforth got an evil smile with her little devilish idea moving forward.
“One touch of this plant, and she won’t be going anywhere,” Blossomforth said with a wily smile.
She then bagged the jarred plant into a knapsack and then sneakily headed out towards Trixie’s wagon. Just to be sure, Blossomforth went through her plan one more time in her head.
“Once I’ve planted the….plant into position, I’ll sneak into Honey’s office and grab the ticket for myself. Once I have it, I’ll return back to my place and safeguard the ticket just in case Trixie comes looking for it. When dawn breaks, I’ll then sneak back into Honey’s office and place the ticket right back where I found it. Then, I simply wait at the entrance for both her and Twilight to come and then with Trixie still occupied with her ‘gift’, I’ll reap the reward and enjoy the Gala with my friends,” she planned thoughtfully.
With everything planned out, she began her operation.
-Trixie’s Wagon, Outskirts of Manehattan-
-Midnight-
Elsewhere at Trixie’s, she also wasn’t having the best time getting some shuteye. Trixie was trying to practice some tricks for her show, but she couldn’t concentrate with what tomorrow may bring. She stopped levitating objects and turned towards the window near her that looked towards the city. The many lights from the city that never sleeps was a good way to calm her nerves.
“What will Trixie do about Blossomforth interfering in my plans to get the ticket?” questions Trixie, “Trixie promised Twilight that she wouldn’t do anything brash or rude to Blossomforth in order to get the ticket, but what other choice is there? Augh!”
Just at that moment she used her magic to throw a ball to the wall and it bounced right off on the walls until it hit Trixie right in the back of her head. Trixie, then face first on the floor, groaned in both agony and in need of answers. She then pulled herself off the floor and couldn’t get all the way up. Her belly felt stuck and was forcing her back to the floor. Then using all four legs, she then pulls with all of her might and with a grunt, got herself unstuck. She then examines the thing that got her stuck on the ground. It was pasty, slimy, and sticky to the touch. She then realizes that she fell on one her props, the sticky bomb. She looked at what remained of the prop and a memory popped up.
It was an old parlor trick she used in some of her acts during her days with Hoofdini. The trick was that the two of them would juggle the balls of slime back and forth to each other without any of the balls breaking. The trick was for Trixie to completely cover her mentor to where he stood and encase him in a slimy cocoon. Deeming that nopony could break out of it, she then used an immolation spell to harden the slime to make it rock solid. She then took a hammer to try and release her mentor, only to reveal that a dummy that looked like him was inside. Hoofdini would then appear in the crowd staged as an audience member and showed that he was okay. The trick was after he was encased by the immolation spell, he would then teleport himself into the crowd and switch places with the dummy he sneakily placed into the crowd beforehoof. It was the good ‘old switcheroo routine.
Feeling nostalgic, she then took out a couple more of the sticky bombs and placed them on the table. She never used the balls ever again after the accident and wondered why she never threw them away. Beside the point, she was getting distracted from her main focus of getting the ticket from Blossomforth.
“What can Trixie do to stop that no-good ticket snatcher from getting her filthy hoofs on my ticket?” Trixie questioned herself.
Trixie then looked back to the balls on the table, then the wheels in her head started to turn.
“That’s it!” exclaimed Trixie, “I’ll use my old sticky bombs to slow down Blossomforth’s attempt to get the ticket first! All I need to do is booby trap Blossomforth’s place with these bombs and she won’t even be able to leave her doorstep. If anything, she can’t fly to beat me to the museum in the morning. Trixie will then meet with Honey and Twilight at the entrance, and without Blossomforth to show up, I’ll reap the rewards!”
Trixie then cackled an evil laugh that resonated through her whole place. Then a side thought occured to her.
“Just in case Blossomforth does manage to get out of my sticky trap with her herbal knowledge, I’ll just sneak into the museum and swipe the ticket away for safe keeping overnight. Then when dawn breaks, I’ll place it back and wait for my friends. Then Trixie will show her spectacular talent to all of her friends at the Gala,” Trixie thought through.
She gathered up the sticky bombs and carefully placed them into her bag, she then headed out to sabotage Blossomforth.
Unbeknownst to the both of them, their opponent each planted their sabotage on the top of the other pony's doorway. Blossomforth rigged a makeshift contraption to open the jar filled with her ‘special’ plant to be dropped onto Trixie, while Trixie planted her sticky bombs by planting all of them in a bucket, like the old water bucket over the door trick. Once their traps were set into place, they both headed out towards the museum to snatch the ticket away.
-Manehattan Museum of Natural History-
After trekking through the city streets at night, both mares had arrived at the museum without being seen by the passing taxi carts or citizens. Both mares had different plans on how to approach of getting into the museum. Trixie decided to take the easy route and went straight for the window that lead into Honey's office. The matter of the fact is that her office is on the third level, but to Trixie it seemed no problem. Blossomforth on the other hoof decided to try a more complex approach by going through the glass ceiling overhanging the main lobby and navigate to the office without getting caught. She would simply open the window and fly through the building to the third level and find her office without any security guards finding her. So both mares then sprung into action.
Trixie went around the edge of the museum to find the only window that overlooked the city. Honey had mentioned to the group once when she got the job in the museum, she wanted her office to have a window overlooking the city as to remind herself of her ventures into the jungle. The closest thing she got to see was the "concrete" jungle for it was better than nothing. After about a few minutes of searching, she found the window and opened it. This was perfect for Trixie as she had found the perfect opportunity to get inside. While her teleporting skills weren't on par with Twilight, she needed an opening of sorts in order to teleport into something like a building, otherwise she could've teleported into the wall. Since her concentration for that particular spell isn't quite perfected yet, she still trained on that spell, but that night was better than nothing to see how far she had come. She prepared her spell with her horn and was imagining the place in her mind while also concentrating on keeping the spell active. She got the image of Honey's office through the window and executed the spell. She then vanished in a flash for a second, and the next she was set in the center of Honey's office. Just as she was about to celebrate her victory, she then feels a force starting to push her out. Before she could react, she was then thrown outside the window and back down onto the ground outside with a 'thud.' Hearing a buzzing in her ears, she then stood herself straight back up and shook off the pain. She then looked back to the window only to see a magical barrier blocking the window. Trixie thinks to herself that something must be producing the barrier to ward off any magical intruders. Whatever it was she didn't know, but she then knew she had to find another way into the office.
Blossomforth landed on top of the building and went over to the overhead window. Since barely anypony goes up there, except for the janitor to wipe the windows, she figured the windows weren't well protected. Strangely enough, there were no locks on the latch of the window. Confused, she wondered why there was no lock but found it lucky to get into the building. Blossomforth undid the latch and opened the window to get inside. When she flew into the building, she found it very creepy to see the building in the dark at night without any of the lights on. Blossomforth got a little worried and scared from the sight of the statues, props, exhibits, and fossils surrounding the place. While scared, she flew towards the third floor and then landed on the floor. She's been to Honey's office before, so she remembered the way to get there. The only problem was that she had to trek through the extinct animal exhibit to get there. Normally this was never a problem, but with the lights off it was very scary. The bear, dragon, and dinosaur statues all gave off a menacing scary feeling as she passed by each statue one by one. Blossomforth started to become paranoid in the room and began to panic. She then started to back up from fear and bumped into something. She heard some shaking behind her, and then something dropped right in front of her. It was the head of a bear statue, and it was staring right into her eyes. Blossomforth then screamed at the top of her lungs and started to run off in a random direction. Without even thinking, she bumped into another statue and looks up to see a dinosaur statue staring at her. She got more panicked and got even more freaked out. For the next few minutes, she ran throughout the whole exhibit while screaming and crying at the same time with no clear direction in sight. Afterwards, she then bumped into the wall and stopped for a moment to catch her breath and rubbed her head from pain. She then looked up expecting another freaky thing staring at her, but surprisingly, it was the door to Honey's office. Seeing her objective was in front of her, she then calmed down and wiped away the tears in her eyes. Blossomforth felt she may have panicked a little too much, but pulled herself up. Before she decides to go in, she noticed that while during her panic trip that none of the security guards had come to check on the noise. In fact, she noticed no guards at all in the museum. Shaking off her suspicions she then opened the door to the office.
Earlier...
Trixie pondered for a bit on how to get into the window without using her magic, otherwise she would be catapulted out again if she tried. So she decided to go the old fashion way, climbing to the top. Luckily she found a nearby tree to the side of the window with a branch nearly reaching out. The only problem was that the branch was pretty thin and looked like it wouldn't be able to support her weight, but either way it was her only option without resorting to magic. Trixie levitated herself to the nearby branch and placed herself on the base of the branch. This wouldn't be much problem at first for Trixie as when she traveled with Hoofdini, she would often practice on a tightrope to get over her fear of heights when practicing her levitation spell. The height back then was over five stories tall on average, and the branch was about three stories above ground, so no worries for her. The problem was if the branch gave way, she would have no easy way to get inside without getting caught. She readied herself at the base of the branch and walked towards the window. She moved little by little to not force any tension on the branch. She swiveled inch by inch on the branch and didn't make the slightest movement of the branch. When suddenly, Trixie heard a snap. She turned around and saw at the base that the branch was starting to snap and crack. With each passing second, she felt the branch start to break down. With no time left Trixie leaps from the branch and landed on the open window, then she looked behind to see the branch fall to the ground. She breathes a sigh of relief and proceeds into the office. Just as she landed in the office, she heard the door start to open.
"Oh no, did a security guard hear me?" panicked Trixie.
With nowhere to run the door opened up all the way. Trixie closed her eyes and prepared for punishment, but instead heard a meek voice call out.
"Trixie?! What are you doing here?" said the voice.
Trixie recognized that voice and immediately opened her eyes. She then saw Blossomforth in the doorway.
"Blossomforth?! The better question is what are you doing here?" answered Trixie with another question.
"To stop you from getting the ticket!" said Blossomforth as she then booked for Honey's desk. Without a second to respond, Trixie also booked for the desk. Both of them collided and then struggled with each other at the foot of the desk.
"How dare you meddle with my dreams of performing at the Gala!" shouted Trixie as she pulled of Blossomforth's tail.
"Your dreams? I just want to have a lovely night with my friends and enjoy the royal garden!" yelled Blossomforth as she pinned Trixie to the floor.
Trixie then flips Blossomforth over onto her back and replies, "I want to enjoy the night with our friends too! What makes you more special over The Great and Powerful Trixie that you deserve the ticket?!"
"More than the pony that boasts herself 24/7 just to gain attention!" Blossomforth spat harshly.
"Same can be said for the pony who blends into the crowd that nopony would ever pay attention to!" Trixie replied bitterly.
"Some friend you are!" proclaimed Blossomforth.
"Trixie never wants a friend like you!" Trixie exclaimed.
Both of them continued to wrestle with one another for a few minutes at the desk and proceeded to wrestle all across the office knocking over books from their shelves, flower pots off of tables, papers from the waste basket, and ruining the furniture. After another few minutes, both mares became tired from their struggle and were out of breath. The office laid in waste with papers in all angles, flower pots shattered and dirt covering the floor, furniture ripped and broken, and books spewed about the room. Trixie then got up with what little strength was left and limped over to the desk's top drawer.
"It may have been a struggle, but I, The Great and Powerful Trixie will now reap her rew...." said Trixie boastfully before she cut off in mid sentence. When she opened it up the ticket was not there, just a lone piece of paper. She looked through the drawer more to see if it was more in the back, but nothing. The only thing in the drawer was the lone piece of paper. Trixie took it out with her magic and turned it around to the other side. She then goes wide-eyed as it says that this paper was addressed to Blossomforth and Trixie. Trixie then limped over to Blossomforth and said, "This letter is addressed to both of us."
Blossomforth still woozy from the fight got up and asked, "Really? Why is that?" Trixie shrugged and proceeded to read the letter aloud.
To Blossomforth and Trixie,
If you are reading this, that means you both got to my office and noticed the ticket is not in my desk. I figured one or both of you would try to pull something, so I lied to lead you both astray. I have the ticket with me and the both of you aren't going to get it. I'll be sure Twilight knows what you have done when I come into my office the next morning. Don't even think about sneaking into my place to try and get the ticket, I've been known to deal with intruders in the middle of the night.
Signed,
Honey Do.
Both mares were dumbfounded on what was read, Honey was one step ahead of both of their plans and had the ticket the whole time. Both of them fell to the floor defeated. Their objective was thwarted by their friend from the very start and everything they did up to this point was pointless. With nothing left to do, they reflect on what went wrong with their plans. Did they not think of this possibility, the way of entry, whether or not the other would come, or whether their booby tarps would stall them? While they pondered, they thought to their fight and remembered the harsh words they said to one another.
Both of them got the same thought in their head and looked towards the other pony. Blossomforth was the first to speak, "Trixie, those words I said, they meant nothing. I'm really, really sorry for what I said. It's just, this ticket is driving both of us crazy and made us say things we didn't mean.
Trixie replied, "I agree. We both got greedy for something as trivial as a piece of golden parchment to an event that comes every year. We have hurt each other both mentally and physically because of this stupid thing. It's my fault that I started this. You wanted to go before I just came out of nowhere and proclaimed to go. I don't deserve to go to the Gala."
Blossomforth retorted, "Oh no, this was my fault. It's true what you said. My reason for going isn't that significant compared to me. You said originally you wanted to impress your family at the Gala and show them how much you learned. I just wanted to go as an excuse to see the garden. Twilight can take me anytime, so you should go."
"No, Trixie insists you go," Trixie proclaims.
"No, you're more important," Blossomforth says trying to convince Trixie.
"Wait," interrupted Trixie, "We'll let Twilight decide in the morning like she originally planned. We'll also have to accept the consequences from Honey on what we did to her office."
"Agreed. Friends?" asked Blossomforth as she motioned for a hug.
Trixie returned the favor by hugging her and said with sincerity, "Friends".
Trixie teleported themselves away from the museum and transported back to their homes. Trixie dropped off Blossomforth first then teleported away. Blossomforth then approached the door to her home when a bucket filled with Trixie's sticky bombs completely cover her body making a sticky cocoon. As Trixie teleported back to her home, she then opened the door to her home when a bucket of Blossomforth's plant dropped onto her. Trixie wasn't injured but noticed blue leaves covered her and the ground around her. Trixie knew she has seen these leaves before. She then realized what the leaves are and where they came from. It was Poison Joke. Blossomforth at the same time lied standing in front of her doorway unable to move save for her face that was left untouched. She knew of only one pony who could've done this. Both of them realized who their culprit was and both remembered their own traps. They then collectively said in both realization and embarrassment, "Uh oh."