The Haunted Dressing Room

by JesterOfDestiny

Chapter 2

So we arrived at the hot air balloon station, right outside Las Pegasus. Golden bridges arching over the clouds, all sprawling into smooth artificial islands, filled with glamorous buildings and vendors selling shiny trinkets. And most of all, huge crowds to get lost in. Lyra seemed to be distracted by every single shining light, so I had to pay attention to where she was going. Lots of opportunities to spend all her money, before we even get to our destination.

We arrived at Flim and Flam’s resort, our wallets still safely sealed shut. Though when it comes to these two, that might not be the case for long. I hear they’re way better than the previous owner; would hate to see what that guy was like. You just can’t trust anypony who builds a golden statue of themselves.

It took barely five seconds talking to the bellhop and Lyra was already somewhere else. Thankfully I found her quickly and dragged her back to our luggage.

“At least we should get to our room first, before you throw all your bits at something.” I scolded her.

She chuckled. “You’re right. Maybe you should put me on a leash.”

When we arrived at our room, she ran in immediately, bedazzled by the spectacular interior design. She threw herself onto the bed and declared it to be the best birthday ever. I took our luggage and tipped the bellhop. By the time I finished, it took barely a few seconds, she was already off somewhere else. Before he left, the bellhop told me she went to the pool. Sure enough, when I looked out the window, there she was, relaxing in the pool, by the stepped pyramid fountain, wearing sunglasses I’m pretty sure she previously didn’t own. I stepped to her, blotting out the Sun with my displeased face.

“Heh heh,” she chuckled, “I ran off again, huh?

“At least you could tell me, before you do that.” I glared at her.

“I’m sorry. But look on the bright side, at least I didn’t spend any money yet.”

“Where did you get the sunglasses then?”

She looked down at the glasses on her nose, then back at me with a nervous smile.

“Whatever, be sure to stay in one piece until the concert.”

“No promises.”

“Lyra!”

“Okay, okay, don’t worry. I am not that dense.”

I held my glare for a bit. “Stay here, I need to take care of something.” Then I left.

The next thing she knew, I was doing a somersault over her head, right into the pool, splashing her all over.

“Ha-ha, gotcha!” I exclaimed, while she tried to comprehend what just happened. And when she did, she burst into laughter.

“Ah, I could really get used to this!” She leaned back into her relaxing position.

I brushed up against her. “Your wallet wouldn’t.”

“Alright there, Ms. Stingy, let this mare enjoy her birthday.”

“You’re right, I mean, I did give you this opportunity.”

She lifted her sunglasses to look at me. “And I’m endlessly thankful for that.” She said and hugged me.

We stayed there for a while. The show wasn’t about to start for quite a few hours, so we weren’t in a hurry. She slid down a few times on the stepped pyramid fountain-slide, while I slurped on some fancy drinks. We don’t often get to enjoy such extravagant activities, so we let ourselves indulge in it.

But she insisted on leaving early, she wanted to be among the first ones in the line. When we got there, barely anypony was standing in the line. But right before we could get in, we heard an explosion and an angry voice.

“Darn it! I told you to keep them separate!” The voice yelled.

We turned to see what happened and there was Starlight Glimmer unloading big boxes alongside a few other ponies. We rushed there to see what happened.

“Is everything alright?” I asked her.

“Yeah, nothing serious,” she said, “just a bit of a packing mistake.”

“What happened?”

“A few fire orbs got mixed in with the fireworks.”

“Fire orb?” Lyra asked. “What’s that?”

“It’s an exciting new invention,” Starlight took out a small orange, rubber ball looking glowing orb, “it’s a specially designed tool for fireworks. It ignites them with a single touch, without being a fire hazard themselves. That is, if it’s packed correctly!” She glared at the worker ponies.

“Fireworks inside a concert hall?” I inquired. “Isn’t that a bit dangerous.”

“Didn’t you know?” Said Starlight. “The roof is retractable. You only need to aim them upwards.”

“It is still an experimental invention and I don’t trust it.”

“Yeah,” Lyra added, “one moment you’re setting up the projector for a presentation and in the next, an ancient phantom is putting a curse on you.”

“Oh, that was a doozey!” I said.

“Don’t worry,” Starlight tried to calm us down, “Trixie is inside setting everything up. She’s an expert. Though she did not tell me all the details; she wanted to keep it a surprise.”

“I surely hope she’s not planning anything shady.” Lyra felt suspicious.

“What do you mean?” Starlight asked.

“She used to have a bit of a feud with Hendrix not too long ago.” Lyra replied. “I just think it’s odd that everything’s fine and dandy now.”

“Oh no, that hatchet has been buried long ago.” Starlight said. “She said that she doesn’t even remember why it started, but she felt the need to apologize, by helping him put on a show.”

“Well, it better be freaking awesome!”

“Oh, you bet your cutie-mark it will!”

So we finally went inside. Lyra immediately rushed forward, right in front of the stage. I went after her, though I wasn’t planning on staying there. I was going to watch it from somewhere in the back. But Lyra wanted to be right in front of the action. At first only a few ponies were there, but slowly the hall was filling up, so I decided to move to the back.

I wasn’t even outside the crowd. That’s when a huge explosion could be heard. The crowd turned quiet for a brief moment. I didn’t want to wait for an official statement. I glanced back at Lyra, who felt much the same way and was on her way towards me. I didn’t wait for her; I rushed to the source of the explosion. I saw smoke coming from the dressing area and out of the smoke there was Starlight running at me.

“Call the authorities, the police!” She panicked.

“What happened?” I asked.

And with terror on her face, she said: “He’s gone!”

Comments

[A Random Guy]

I'm calling it now. The sunglasses did it.

[Whisper Spirit]

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How did you know!