Reeltime Roadtrip

by Vis-a-Viscera

The Feature Confrontation

“Oh! You’re here already!” Mayor Sunny Skies chortled. “You’ll have to forgive the light spread. I figured we’d need to have the Hope Springs Eternal Festival early, considering…” His smile dropped as he pointed to one of the newspaper stacks nearby him.

Starlight levitated the paper over, Sunburst skimming the headline before whistling. “Geez! We got here just in time - the blockade’s getting ridiculous!” he quickly said. “I'm Sunburst, that’s Trixie, and the purple mare picking her jaw off the floor is Guidance Counselor Starlight Glimmer.”

Mayor Skies shook Starlight’s hoof first, his grin returning as Starlight’s gaping mouth closed. “Starlight, I’ve heard of you before - through Headmare Twilight!”

“Apologies in advance then, Mayor Skies...” Starlight grimaced. Visions of Our Town were dancing through her head.

“Whatever for, Starlight? Being the most dedicated student Twilight’s ever had?” The way Starlight’s face lit up at the praise, one would think there were three ponies named ‘Sun’ in the room. “You’ve got the camera she told me to look out for. I assume Miss Twilight had other obligations today?”

“Unfortunately,” Starlight affirmed.

“Well, we’re hardly oversights ourselves, Mister Sunny,” huffed Trixie. “What is so pressing that I have to worry about the Mayor sending the Great and Powerful out of Ponyville?”

“She forced you to come?” Before either Sunburst or Starlight could correct him, a scowl flashed back onto Sunny Skies' face. “I see she hasn’t lost that tendency to bully ponies since we last met, either! Now her superstition’s the town’s problem.”

“Forced is a strong word there.” Sunburst’s replied. Mayor Skies's disclosing didn’t seem to really gel with the rational Mayor Mare that Sunburst knew. “And what superstition is that you're talking of, Mayor Skies?”

The mayor grimaced. “Well, it all began with that blasted homeroom.”

“A homeroom”

An uncomfortable beat passed, before Sunny Skies finally turned to the newspaper again, flipping to its third page. “It’s been pushed off the front due to this… ridiculous feud Mayor Mare insists on continuing, but…look.”

Sunburst’s eyes bulged at the picture the mayor showed him. Reclusive as he was, even he knew the cold equation playing out before his eyes. Black-and-white class photos with the words ‘MISSING’ never boded well.

Starlight gasped as she read the headline.

“Class of Hope Hollow’s Elementary, ‘Homeroom 22’, missing since 1970: visited by traveling magician, Spectacle”

The fillies in the photograph were as different from one another as could be imagined, their expressions ranging from beaming smiles to camera-shy scowls, but every face in the photograph sent a little pang of pain lancing through Starlight. Especially the younger ones, some of them barely out of kindergarten. How could all these little lives have evaporated into smoke?

The magician Spectacle stood off to one side from the group of children, a smarmy grin splitting her muzzle as she theatrically flourished her wand at the camera. Starlight barely spared her a glance. She couldn’t look away from the fillies. Goddess, some of them were my age when I ran away from Sire’s Hollow. My home town.

Starlight's eyes brimmed with tears as she forced herself to read further. Only to keep from ruining the paper, she said to herself. I don’t want the others to see a Friendship School official break down. Yet the spike of shame at her display of emotion burrowed in her breast as she read on.

“HOPE’S HOLLOW - The upcoming anniversary of the disappearance of Homeroom 22 will continue as planned, despite the possibility of a trade fallout between Hope’s Hollow and Ponyville.

‘We must not forget how, even with the Elements’ saving of our town, there are still some wounds here that only remembrance can heal.’ said Mayor Sunny Skies. He refused to comment at the time on whether it was this event that led to the departure of Mayor Mare from Hope’s Hollow and the subsequent feud between the local governments of Hope Hollow and Ponyville.

However, this moment still serves as a secret shame to many in Hope’s Hollow, according to First Lady Petunia Petals. Shortly after the above picture was taken fifteen years ago, the twelve fillies of Homeroom 22 and their visiting guest magician Spectacle disappeared without a trace. The investigation led by recently minted Mayor Mare at the time was inconclusive, with no new leads reported after the first week of the case.

Some ponies report that it is possibly the need for a scapegoat that led to Mayor Mare leaving Hope Hollow, and the current strife between government officials in Ponyville and Hope Hollow today.

“By Hoofdini’s mane…” whispered Trixie. Starlight cast a sideways glance at her friend, and was surprised to see all the color had drained from Trixie’s face as she stared open-mouthed at the photograph of the travelling magician.

“I was…hoping you could assist us mayors in bringing some closure to this,” Mayor Sunny asked. “I know that even Mayor Mare must feel the same way about this.”

Sunburst gulped. “We’ll try, Mayor Sunny. But I don’t know what we can do that your law enforcement ponies couldn’t.”

“You can use a little magic, for starters.”

At Sunburst’s questioning expression, Sunny Skies continued his explanation. “We had Hope Hollow Elementary shut down the day after to prepare the scene. But soon after, the first issues with our rainbow machine occurred - drew off all the magical pony power we had. Eventually, there were too few to process the scene, and we had to call off the case.”

“Do you at least know who took the photo? We could start there!” Trixie asked hastily. Something beyond mere eagerness made the tone of her voice seem low and desperate.

“The old photographer Grey Film?” Mayor Sunny shook his head. “Sorry. Passed a magical polygraph when we asked if he’d seen them leave the school. We had to let him go - nopony’s seen him since either.”

Starlight nodded. “Then we’ll start at the school. I assume it's still closed off?”

“Yes,” the mayor confirmed. “Derelict since the incident. Nopony would go back. This should get you past the guards overseeing the front of the building.” Mayor Sunny handed Starlight three golden badges. “Good luck.”

“You too,” Starlight replied, batting off Trixie’s hoof as she snatched at the badges.

The three of them turned to leave, but a heavy sigh from Mayor Sunny Skies drew Starlight’s attention back. “Are you sure you’re alright, Mayor?”

Sunny Skies lifted a cerulean hoof in a shrug. “It’s just all...such a mess. Mayor Mare and I were friends, before all this. I don’t think she’s ever forgiven me for it.”

“To this day, I don’t know why the parents did.” The cold voice made all four of them flinch and turn to see who spoke, and they swung around to see Mayor Mare stalking towards them, her eyes steely with resolve.

Trixie’s eyes widened at the Mayor’s sudden appearance, and Sunburst’s ears tipped back in dismay at the hostility on her face. “I guess we should have known she was already here,” he hissed to Starlight.

Starlight was frantically scanning the newspaper once more, trying to capture anything she might have missed on her first read through.

The disaster unfolding in front of her soon drew her attention back as voices began to climb.

“Nopony forgave me for that, Mayor Mare, least of all me! But we were in a crisis-”

“And you decided a machine was worth more than the welfare of thirteen fillies!” Mayor Mare spat.

“A case which I reopened right after the color came back to Hollow!” protested Mayor Sunny. “And considering what happened to this town after the machine started sputtering, I’d have thought you’d be happy to be well away when it went kaput!”

Mayor Mare hmphed.

“If you still want us to help, Mayor Skies, we’d be happy to try,” Starlight offered tentatively, her smile wilting as she spoke.

Sunny Skies’ expression became conciliatory once more. ”If you would,” he said, almost begging. “Before we have to bring out wheelbarrows for a jar of Zap Jam.”

“Right!” Trixie said suddenly, blurring into motion, and scooping up both her friend’s tails in a pink field of magic, she dragged them backward and out of the hall. The mayors watched them go, their mouths falling open slightly in shock, and Trixie waved a hoof. “We’d better get started if you’ll excuse us!”

Sunburst was first to speak, the slight feeling of gratitude for being removed from the mayoral squabble drowned out by his indignation at such rough treatment. “Trixie, what in the world-”

“I recognize that stage magician.” Swiftly, Trixie pointed out the paper still in Starlight’s magical aura. “More to the fact, I was born to that stage magician.”

Starlight brought a hoof to her mouth, humbled by the hurt in Trixie’s eyes. “Goodness, Trixie, I never knew that your mother had gone missing.”

Trixie pulled the brim of her hat over her eyes, but the tears twinkling at the edges of her eyes were still visible. “It's been our secret shame. I think it’s why Dad tried to keep it from me. And later… why he spoiled me so much.” Trixie’s shoulders rolled as she trotted out toward her caravan. “But now these Mayors have given the Great and Powerful Trixie a chance to get closure.”

Sunburst, after a short pause of his own, followed Trixie. “When Trixie’s right, she’s right,” he said softly.

Starlight lingered for a moment, though. Looking at the paper and the camera around her neck - the only evidence of this ‘Grey Film’s’ existence - her mind was a turbulent tempest. Were the disappearances and the wrecking of that rainbow machine connected? Where’d Spectacle and Homeroom 22 go, if not out of school grounds? How could a whole class just vanish? And could such a terrible event somehow happen again?

The investigation into this friendship problem had grown - at least, enough to finally get clues. So why did Starlight feel like she was still stuck in a grey area?

“Only one way to find out,” she murmured to empty air as she raced to the wagon. Wherever this would take them, Starlight was ready to shed some light on this missing mare mystery.

Comments

[LightningStrike34]

Is this a nod to that one Jimmy Neutron episode?