Vinyl clung to a thick cable in the middle of the elevator shaft, trying her hardest not to slip down. Her horn was glowing brightly, illuminating her surroundings in a pale blue glow. Below her, she could see the elevator cab at the bottom of the shaft.

Wrapped around her hind legs was a thin section of rope, now dangling limply below her. She frowned down at it. “A ‘come to life’ spell, huh? Well, two can play at that game.”

The blue glow of her magic began traveling down the length of the rope and it slowly rose into the air, unwrapping itself from Vinyl’s legs before tying itself snugly around the mare’s midsection. Aided by some levitation magic on Vinyl’s part, the rope began sliding itself up the side of the elevator shaft like a snake immune to the laws of gravity. The rope then wrapped itself around a steel beam at the top of the shaft, pulling tight until it started slowly lifting Vinyl upwards.

About halfway up the elevator shaft, there was a sudden ‘thoom’ coming from overhead before the air was filled with a loud hum. Vinyl noticed the thick cable she had been clinging to was now moving and she looked down to see the elevator coming up towards her, threatening to squash her against the ceiling.

Vinyl looked unfazed. “Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.” She glanced around before spotting a set of wires running along the wall of the shaft. Vinyl swung over to the wires, grasping them between her teeth before yanking them away from the wall. With a spark of electricity, the wires broke apart and the elevator below grounded to a halt.

“Alright, Curtain Call,” Vinyl muttered, using her magic to open the fourth floor doors as soon as the rope pulled her up to them. “Let’s see you hide behind your illusions this time.”

Octavia shook her head rapidly. “Wait a moment, what am I saying?” She stood up and stared defiantly at the stallion before her. “Of course this is impossible! You’re dead! What’s more, I killed you!”

Con Mane grinned back. “Beauty like mine shouldn’t be kept from the world. Especially from a fine mare like you.”

“Stop this!” Octavia roared. “You’re not real! You’re an illusion created by Curtain Call! For that matter, how do you... how does she even know about Con Mane?”

“Why, no mare should have to live without knowing of my charms,” Con Mane replied, giving Octavia a wink. “Though I must admit, I was initially attracted to her. Much like you, she has abilities that make her very difficult to capture.”

He grinned slyly, waggling his eyebrows at Octavia. “And as you know, I love a mare that plays hard to get.”

Octavia gritted her teeth and let out a snarl. “Why did you kill New Wave? Why did you try to kill Hitchcolt and Stage Craft? Is this just your revenge for not making it as a themerse director? Is that what this is?”

Con Mane put a hoof to his chin, looking thoughtful. “Hmm... I’m not sure, actually. You’ll have to ask Curtain Call about that.”

“You are Curtain Call!” Octavia roared, stamping her forehoof on the floor. “You’re an illusion! Stop this Con Mane nonsense this instant!”

“First rule of my work: never break character,” he replied with a wink.

“Fine,” she growled. “Then will you at least care to explain why you are targeting us? Why you tricked Sharp Eye despite having never seen her before?”

“Ah, now that was fun,” Con Mane murmured, smiling and gazing off into space, as if recalling a fond memory. “A fine looking mare, that one. Not as fine as you, of course, but certainly pleasing. Though I question her tastes in stallions.”

“Why did you go after Sharp Eye?” the mare muttered through her clenched teeth.

“Ms. Octavia, isn’t it obvious?” When she didn’t respond, he shook his head and chortled. “Why, to mess with you, of course!”

Octavia stared back with a blank expression on her face for a long, silent moment before she sighed deeply and started trotting down the hallway. “I’ve had enough of this. If we’re quite finished here, I’m going to find the mare who started this madness and put an end to it.”

Con Mane stepped in front of her, blocking her path. “I’m afraid I can’t allow you to do that. Curtain Call isn’t going anywhere.”

“Oh, please,” Octavia muttered, continuing to trot forward even as Con Mane raised one of his forehooves. “You’re not real. I may have fallen for the earlier illusions, but this one is too transparently obvious for me to—”

Suddenly she felt the impact of Con Mane’s hoof against her chest before she was sent flying down the corridor. Octavia hit the floor hard, skidding to a halt. She looked up at the figure of the stallion who was slowly trotting towards her.

“Alright,” she muttered, grunting as she rolled upright. “That felt real.”

Con Mane reared up on his hindlegs, raising his forehooves to strike again, but Octavia was too quick. She nimbly rolled out of the way just as his hooves came down onto the floor, then sprung up and delivered an uppercut to the stallion. He stumbled back, clutching his jaw, while Octavia leapt to her hooves and charged at him.

Con Mane saw Octavia rush at him just in time to dodge her punch. He sidestepped the agent’s next attack, pulling back to avoid another swing before striking back, hitting her with enough force to knock her against an apartment door. He ran at her, but Octavia was already prepared.

Just as he was almost upon her, she crouched low to the ground and snapped out a hoof, causing him to trip. As the stallion fell on her she reared up on her hindlegs, lifting him with her back and launching him into the air. Con Mane went sailing over before smashing through the apartment door, landing on the other side with a loud crash.

Octavia stood up, peering through the hole in the door into the darkness of the unlit apartment beyond. A groan came from within, followed by the sound of something shifting beneath planks of wood before there was silence. The mare braced herself, waiting to see if he reemerged, but nothing came back out. Octavia hesitated for a moment, then began galloping down the corridor towards the door at the end of the hallway where Con Mane had come through.

“I’m getting really tired of this,” Vinyl grumbled under her breath as she walked down a dark corridor, her horn providing the only source of illumination in the gloom. Everywhere she shined her light, she would catch a brief glimpse of a swarm of cockroaches scuttling back into the shadows. Granted, she wasn’t entirely sure if this was an illusion or merely the condition of the apartment building, but it was enough to alarm her either way.

Vinyl whipped her head around for what felt like the umpteenth time in the last few minutes, looking for a figure she could have sworn she saw out of the corner of her eye. She looked back and forth up the corridor, expecting to catch a glimpse of a figure walking across the hallway.

Vinyl took a step forward only for the floorboard beneath her hoof to creak loudly. She quickly withdrew her hoof, holding her breath and waiting for any hint of being detected. Several moments passed, with the only sound reaching her ears being the scuttling of insects in the darkness around her. Finally, Vinyl slowly exhaled and carefully maneuvered around the creaky floorboard to continue down the hallway.

She looked up at one of the apartment doors, the light of her horn reflecting off the number “410” in metal lettering mounted on the door. A strange whistling noise was coming from the other side. Vinyl placed her hoof on the handle and took a deep breath before opening the door to Curtain Call’s apartment.

A rush of cold air swept past her and she squinted at the sudden brightness meeting her eyes. Vinyl blinked and looked inside the apartment, seeing nothing but white for a few seconds before she started noticing vertical lines of brown...

“Tree trunks?” Vinyl thought. Her eyes widened as she began to fully grasp what she was seeing. A snowy forest lay within, extending far into the horizon. She stepped inside, hearing the slight crunch of snow underhoof over the whistling sound of a breeze sweeping through the branches. Save for the bare trees which rose above her, everything from the snow-covered ground to the overcast sky overhead was white.

A rush of wind swept past her and she heard a rustle from behind. She glanced back to see that the door had vanished and replaced by more of the snowy landscape. Whatever was casting the illusion knew that Vinyl was here.

“I know you’re in here,” Vinyl called out. “You might be pretty good at this themerse stuff, but it can only disguise you. It can’t make you invisible.”

She glanced around at her silent surroundings. The stillness was unnerving. Vinyl took a step forward and heard the creak of a floorboard barely disguised underneath the sound of crunching snow. She glanced down at her hoof and noticed how her white coat seemed to vanish into the snow on the ground. The wheels in her head began turning and a small grin crept across Vinyl’s face.

Vinyl’s horn lit up and her mane and tail changed from their normal bright blue streaks to the same white of her coat. “Well, maybe you can’t turn invisible,” she said with a chortle as she took off her goggles and tossed them onto the snow. Quick as a flash, she let off a bright light from her horn which crackled and flashed brightly like a firework, a trick she had learned for her stage shows. Under cover of the distraction, she dashed over to the nearest tree and ducked behind it, glancing around to see if anypony was watching.

It seemed that her distraction had done the trick. The firework faded and silence fell over the woods once again. But the stillness was quickly shattered when a knife came hurtling through the air, passing through the spot where Vinyl had been standing. She was able to spot the faint glow of magic encasing the knife before it sunk into the ground with a loud ‘thunk’ of metal piercing wood, a noise that sounded out of place in the snowy illusion.

Vinyl crouched low to the ground, counting on her disguise to keep her camouflaged. As she lay there, Vinyl noticed that the snow beneath her wasn’t crunching underhoof like it had before. With nopony to keep track of her to maintain the illusion, the sound couldn’t sync up with her actions any longer.

The wind whistled through the trees, rustling the branches overhead. Just over the sound of the breeze, Vinyl could make out a low voice: “Get out.” It rang clearly through the woods, mingling with the wind so that it seemed to be coming from everywhere at once.

“Subtle,” Vinyl muttered under her breath.

“This is my home,” the voice continued. “Leave.”

Vinyl scanned the tree trunks, looking for any sign of movement and knowing that Curtain Call was likely somewhere out there doing the same. She began walking slowly around the edge of the clearing. “You do realize you’re surrounded, right?” she called out, trying to throw her voice between the trees. “There’s no way out of this, Curtain Call!”

“Get out!” The voice suddenly lost its loud, echoing character and was now just a shout in a normal, feminine voice. Vinyl whipped her head around to try and spot the source. “You’re not supposed to be here! Leave me alone!”

“Maybe you should have thought of that before trying to off half the directors in Manehattan,” Vinyl shot back.

“I had to show them my talents! None of them ever took me seriously before, they always looked down on my art. I had to get their attention!”

“Well, you managed that pretty well,” Vinyl muttered. “So, what? You killed New Wave just because she didn’t appreciate you enough?”

There was a moment of silence before Curtain Call spoke again. “New Wave was a monster. I once thought she was my friend, but she stabbed me in the back! She never saw me as an equal!” As she spoke, the wind picked up and began to roar through the trees. “That last play she did, where the mare falls into the river, did you know that I wrote that? But she never used it until I was gone! She always took advantage of me! She deserved what she got!”

Vinyl took a step forward and heard the crunch of snow under her hoof. She froze in place, looking down at her hoof. The agent remained in place, her ears swiveling around as complete silence descended on the woods. Vinyl gulped, eyes searching for any sign of movement. She knew what was coming, it was just a matter of getting the timing right.

“You know,” Vinyl said, her muscles tensing as she braced herself, “all these trees and places to hide in here... it would be a perfect place for somepony to try and...”

She heard the creak of a floorboard directly behind her and reacted instantly, spinning around to see a cloaked figure standing not two paces away. “—sneak up on me!” Vinyl bellowed, leaping for the pony.

She passed right through the figure, landing on all fours as the cloaked figure vanished in a pull of smoke. Vinyl was momentarily stunned. “Wha—”

All of a sudden she felt hooves grab her from behind, wrapping around her throat. Vinyl was pulled back off her hooves, struggling against the grip of her assailant. She grasped at the hooves wrapped around her neck, trying to wrench herself free of the strangle hold as the air to her lungs was cut off.

It was then that she noticed a pale glow of magic materialize around the handle of the knife that was embedded in the floor. The blade wrenched itself free and came hurtling through the air towards them, but Vinyl reached out with her own magic, catching the knife in mid-air. It hovered in place, jerking around violently while both unicorns struggled for control over it.

As they battled, Vinyl noticed the surroundings changing abruptly. Trees were fading in and out of sight, the cold air seemed to fade, and the sky had simply vanished, replaced by an apartment ceiling. Curtain Call was grunting and Vinyl could hear the telltale crackle of sparks emitting from her assailant’s horn. Despite only doing one task with her magic, Vinyl was struggling for control over the knife as Curtain Call continued to clamp down on her throat, squeezing the air from her lungs.

In her desperation to escape, Vinyl flailed about in a panic, thrusting her head upwards. She felt her horn come into contact with something before the grip around her throat suddenly slackened and the illusion of the snowy woods abruptly vanished, replaced by a dimly lit apartment. Vinyl heard a howl of pain as she slumped to the floor, gasping for air. Her eyes were trying to adjust from the bright snow to the sudden darkness, and she wheeled around blindly, just barely able to make out the figure of a mare on the floor holding a hoof to her eye.

Vinyl rushed forward, tackling the cloaked figure to the ground. Curtain Call struggled under her hooves, pinned down by her weight. “Ha! I got you now—”

Curtain Call’s head lunged up at Vinyl with alarming speed, her eyes narrowing to yellow slits and curved, gleaming fangs emerging from her mouth, reaching out to sink themselves into Vinyl’s flesh. The agent yelped and leapt back just before the monster could reach her, but the snake’s head quickly vanished and Curtain Call, free of Vinyl’s grasp, scrambled to her hooves and bolted for the open front door.

“Stupid, Vinyl, stupid!” the agent cursed under her breath, immediately giving chase. She stayed hot on Curtain Call’s heels even as the trail of her cloak whipped around the corner into the hallway outside. Vinyl began to slowly catch up, the end of the cloak flicking against her snout before she lunged forward and grabbed it between her teeth, galloping hard to keep up with her assailant while yanking back on the cloak.

The two struggled for a moment, with Curtain Call frantically trying to gallop faster and Vinyl continuing to pull her down. Finally, the fabric couldn’t take it any longer and the cloak ripped in two, sending both stumbling over each other. Curtain Call fell to the floor but was able to scramble back up, while Vinyl tripped and landed with a hard thump, the torn remnant of the cloak held in her mouth.

She jumped to her hooves, spitting out the fabric, but even as she continued to run she realized she had lost track of Curtain Call. Vinyl cursed again, galloping down the corridor. Now that she had a moment of relative calm, she could hear the whir of propellers outside the walls of the building. A beam of light passed over a window at the end of the hallway, and Vinyl paused to look out and see an airship with “POLICE” written on the side circling overhead, its spotlight trained on the building.

There was a sudden creak of a floorboard coming from nearby and Vinyl whirled around to face the door at the end of the hallway. She held her breath, treading carefully towards the door and charging up a spell in her horn. As she came nearer, Vinyl slowly reached for the handle.

Just when she grasped the handle, the door flew open at Vinyl, smacking her in the face and briefly stunning her. She stumbled back, looking up just in time to see somepony rushing at her before she was tackled to the ground. Vinyl struggled against her unseen attacker for a moment before the beam of light from the airship passed over the window again, revealing the face of Octavia looking down at her.

“Oh geez, am I glad to see you,” Vinyl muttered, smiling up at her friend. She made to get up, but felt Octavia holding her down.

“Hold it!” Octavia snapped. “You’re not fooling me this time! You didn’t even get Vinyl’s hair right!”

“Hair?” Vinyl mumbled before realizing with a start what she was referring to. “Oh right, the mane! Sorry, I had to put on a disguise.” Her horn began to glow and the white strands of her hair turned back to their normal neon blue. Octavia’s grip relaxed and Vinyl was able to sit up, though the cellist was still giving her a suspicious look.

“I’m sorry, Vinyl, but I just have to be sure. Tell me something only the real Vinyl Scratch would know.”

“Uh... Ooh! You once told me you have a crush on Fawn Cale!”

“I told you, it’s not a crush, I just appreciate his mus—” Octavia stopped when she caught sight of Vinyl’s sly grin before smacking herself in the face. “Never mind. Did you find Curtain Call?”

“I almost had her! I was this close! She’s somewhere up here. What about you? What took you so long to get up here?”

Octavia swallowed and glanced up and down the hallway, causing Vinyl to give her a curious look. “You okay, Octy?” she asked, tilting her head to the side as she examined her friend. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Octavia turned back to Vinyl, her face pale. “It’s—”

Before she could say another word, there was a thunderous boom coming from overhead. Both mares glanced up at the ceiling, then out the window where they saw smoke pouring down from the roof, then finally at each other before making a run for the stairs.

They raced up the stairwell, barging through the metal door at the top to find themselves enveloped in a thick cloud of smoke. Around them, beams of light were barely able to penetrate the cloud and shouts rang out in the darkness, almost inaudible over the steady hum of the airships. Vinyl and Octavia scanned their surroundings, but there was little for them to see.

The smoke began to clear, but before either of them could get a good look around they had to shield their eyes from the sudden brightness of something overhead. Both glanced up to see the police airship with its spotlight trained on them, then looked around through the clearing smoke to see that the roof was deserted save for them.

The door behind them suddenly opened with a loud bang and Vinyl and Octavia looked back to see Gum Shoe and several police officers charge through. “Hold it right— Oh, it’s you.” He stopped short and glanced around. “What happened up here? We saw some kind of explosion.”

Vinyl and Octavia glanced at each other before Vinyl responded. “I don’t think you’re going to find any evidence of an explosion, detective. In fact, I’m not sure you’re going to find anything here at all.” She looked out over the surrounding rooftops, and even through the bright beam of the searchlight she could see the lights of the Manehattan skyline across the dark reaches of the river.