//------------------------------//
// Act IV - Ch. 33 Symphony of the Angels 
// Story: Justice Itself 
// by Autocharth 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 33 Symphony of the Angels


***


The day dawned with the sun rising, shining rays across the land of Equestria. Ponies awoke to the bright day, with equally bright attitudes. Some greeted the day with a smile, surrounded by family. Some covered their heads, grumbling and hiding under their sheets. One particular pegasus threw her pillow at the nurse who dared open the shades, and spent the next half an hour alternating between trying to waken latent psychic powers to make it levitate back over while her roommate watched with a concealed smirk, and trying to steal said roommate’s pillows. But generally, ponies all over Ponyville woke up to a bright, happy day.

“He~eeeeeeeeeeey.”

Paladin woke up to a faceful of Pinkie Pie. He stared up into her wide, wide smile. It was not a sight for the unprepared soul, first thing in the morning, before breakfast. He felt his brain shrivel in an automatic fear response. Or maybe his barely-awake mind was exaggerating in panic. It was hard to tell.

“...Pinkie Pie…” he groaned, covering his face with his wings. Reaching up, he pushed back. Distantly, he hoped his hoof would find nothing and this was a delusion or he was still asleep. Unfortunately, he was not so lucky. Opening his eyes again as he pushed Pinkie back, Paladin caught a hint of yellow behind her and the faint flap of gently flapping wings. “Fluttershy?!”

A blushing, awkward looking Fluttershy was trying in pull Pinkie back. She gave Paladin a weak wave of greeting, looking as mortified as it was possible for a pony to look without imploding. He didn’t need their bond to sense Pinkie’s antics were driving her to the edge of her tolerance for Pinkie Pie.

“Uh, g-good morning,” she stuttered, her cheeks a faint pink with embarrassment. “She, um, Pinkie is really eager for tonight…”

Paladin blinked, slowly. Pinkie’s impossibly wide grin didn’t waver in the slightest. She just kept on grinning with the same insane glee that nothing could dent, aimed directly at the stallion. He pushed her back further, enough for Fluttershy to lift Pinkie away. He didn’t say anything, walking silently past them to the kitchen. Fluttershy turned in place, she and Pinkie watching Paladin leave. They remained there for a few seconds, waiting for a reaction.

“It,” came Paladin’s weary voice. “is too early to deal with this.”

Fluttershy, who had been woken up half an hour earlier to feed her animals and found a vibrating Pinkie Pie, literally on the edge of bursting with excitement, at her doorstep, couldn’t agree more.

“Don’t worry!” Pinkie said, sitting across from Paladin at his breakfast table. Fluttershy looked down, realising that her hooves were empty. She had no idea when that happened. “I brought muffins! And cupcakes! And dooooooooughnuts!”

“Huzzah,” Paladin deadpanned. He opened one of the Sugarcube Corner cake boxes, within which waited a dozen doughnuts. They were still warm. “These ones have sprinkles.”

Pinkie nodded.

“For this, I shall look past being awoken the way I was,” Paladin began to devour the doughnuts. He gestured at one of the chairs when Fluttershy trotted over. She took it, which was entirely by chance the one nearest to him.

“Hooray!” Pinkie buried her head in one of the boxes of treats she had brought.

Taking the chance while Pinkie was distracted, Fluttershy leaned closer to Paladin. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “She was just so eager, I couldn’t convince her that breaking and entering might upset you.”

Paladin shrugged. “It’s fine,” he murmured. “She’s naturally excited. Besides, it is…” he sounded as awkward as he looked, a faint colouring hidden by his dark fur. “Good to see you. I can’t complain about that.”

Fluttershy blushed, and smiled at Paladin. “Y-yes, I can’t either.”

“Aw~wwww.”

They looked at Pinkie, who grinned at them with icing around her mouth. She giggled at their red cheeks.

“You two are having fun, aren’t you? You’re gonna have even more fun tonight! Rarity made everypony special swanky outfits for it, since she said we’re in…” Pinkie pulled out the tickets. She studied them intently. “...very important seats which are called something fancy that looks like it probably doesn’t sound the way I think it does.”

Paladin grunted, going back to eating. Pinkie’s cheer was undeniable, sadly, robbing him of the chance to be early-morning grumpy, and quite infectious. Fluttershy’s amusement and odd relief washed over him, prompting a look her way. She shook her head at Paladin, not saying anything but not hiding her good mood.

“I suppose waking this way isn’t the worst way,” Paladin conceded. He glanced in Pinkie’s direction, adding, “Which is not a suggestion that you repeat it. I would prefer to wake up without your face an inch away, Pinkie.”

Both mares giggled, Pinkie nodding. “Sure thing! Next time, two inches!”

“....” Unsure if she was serious, and unwilling to venture into that conversation, Paladin focused on filling his stomach. Conversation fell to Pinkie’s chatter and Fluttershy’s soft replies. He engaged little, slowly letting the fog of sleep fade. Though he could simply rise and force himself to attention, Paladin found letting his body wake at its own pace much more relaxing. Given that he had tens of thousands of years worth of memories that lacked any relaxment, he decided to allow himself this.

“Rarity said we should stop by the boutique later, before we go,” Fluttershy said, directing her words to Paladin. She absently brushed her mane to the side, unaware of how his eyes followed the gesture. “I’m just glad its not as fancy as the Gala, but she said it was black tie.”

Pulling his attention away from breakfast, Paladin nodded in agreement. Clothes seemed largely arbitrary to him, but he wasn’t going to deny Rarity her obvious passion. A frown appeared on his face, thoughts of Rarity going over the top with her work plaguing him.

Fluttershy smiled reassuringly. "I'm sure Rarity has kept your taste in mind."

"I hope so," was all he had to say about that. Paladin checked the time. "Pinkie, it's eight in the morning."

"Yep!" She beamed. "Eight twelve!"

"Yes...and we leave for Canterlot at two in the afternoon, " he pointed out. He watched Pinkie’s expression slowly change, going through various stages of exaggerated confusion, comprehension and then alarm.

"Oh! Oh! Mrs Cake wanted me to finish the birthday cake for Pokie!” Pinkie swept them both into a hug. “I’ll see you at Rarity’s at twelve! I’ll bring lunch!”

They watched Pinkie gallop off. It took them a few seconds to realise they were still pressed against each other from Pinkie’s mutual hug. It happened at about the same moment, and their reactions were pretty similar. They began to separate, got about halfway, and reconsidered.

They spent the next half an hour reconsidering. It was quite relaxing.


***


The day dawned grey and dreary. She awoke from dreams of an endless, perfect song to a world that was empty and boring by comparison. She stared at her ceiling. Her stare slowly became a glare that drifted down to her cello. The instrument stood on its stand, waiting to be used. Her beloved cello…

Her pillow bounced off the wall next to it. The miss drew a hiss of anger, the first real emotion she had displayed since waking. Her glare sharpened and she wanted to get up and buck the wretched thing into splinters for being so useless.

Even though she knew it was futile, Octavia got up and approached it. The house was silent. Vinyl would be asleep for at least a few more hours. More than enough time for her to try and fail, like she failed every morning and every day. The dragging sense of pointlessness weighed down on the somber mare as she took up her instrument. She placed her bow upon the strings, standing on her back legs. Mentally preparing, she let the many thoughts that plagued her fade away. All that mattered was the song. She could hear a hint of it at all times, but after waking, every morning, it was strongest. The impossibly beautiful music filled her dreams and stirred her soul.

Bow to string, music rising from her depths, she began to play. The bow moved with unerring grace and confidence, each stroke across the strings birthing divine notes. She played with her eyes closed and no sheet to play from. There was no planning or intent to her playing save for the need to remake the endless harmonics that haunted her. She played with all the skill she had earned in her years of hard practice. Octavia played with more focus and dedication to perfection than she had ever given to the fops and dandies her music was wasted on.

Her music drifted from her home, walls and windows providing no barrier to it. As it had for the past week, it was welcomed into the ears of all who heard it. Those who still slept found the music filling their dreams, eliciting delight and joy. The beauty of the solo cello filled their souls with inspiration and warmth. Those who were awake stopped what they were doing to listen.

Vinyl Scratched yawned, waking to the sound of beautiful cello music. She yawned again, running a hoof through her mane as she cocked one ear to listen. It was absorbing, how wonderful Octavia’s magic was today. It made Vinyl want to leap from bed, gallop to her friend’s room and…

She grinned to herself at the decidedly censor-worthy thoughts.

Octavia felt none of this as she played. She heard no beauty in her music. She felt no grace in her movements. She was so close, the music that plagued her was so close, but each stroke of the bow against the strings of her cello was not enough, not in the slightest. What was to others the highest degree of skill was, to her, nothing but a clumsy, worthless act of failure. She heard nothing more than the flaws and weaknesses that only she could detect.

Those dark thoughts didn’t show as she played. Only when she finally stopped did Octavia begin to shake. She trembled with pent up fury, her eyes snapping open to glare down at her instrument. She had been so close, practically on the cusp of replicating the music. Those divine notes had been so close she could feel them. She could hear them so clearly, she knew how to remake what she heard, but when the thoughts were translated into movement something was ruined. They came out wrong. She did it wrong.

Vinyl stopped as she passed the door. Her sigh of disappointment from the end of the solo became a ‘huh’ of confusion when she heard the loud snap. The DJ eyed the door for a moment, wondering what had caused the loud sound. Slowly raising a hoof to knock, she lowered it when the handle twisted. Her trademark sunglasses still in her room, there was nothing to disguise the shock on her face when she saw Octavia standing there, her bow snapped in half. The middle of the cello bow was cracked, the wood splintered in Octavia’s hoof. She dropped it into a bin without expression.

“Uh...mornin’,” Vinyl said, blinking and clearing her eyes just to be sure she was really seeing what she thought she saw. The idea of Octavia breaking something, let alone something as precious as part of her instrument, was unfathomable. “Is that…”

“It broke,” Octavia’s voice was flat and dull. She strode past Vinyl without looking at her, attention focused elsewhere.

Vinyl followed her. “Tavi, are you okay? How the hay did you break it? It looked like you snapped the damn thing in half!”

Octavia just shrugged. “It wasn’t good enough,” She trotted on to the kitchen, her empty expression becoming sour. “None of its good enough.”

“Whacha mean, it wasn’t good enough? Didn’t you hear yourself this morning?” Confusion filled Vinyl’s eyes as she watched her friend. “I mean, I usually think classical stuff is a bit lame, but when I woke up that was awesome! You were on fire.”

“The only thing on fire will be my cello, if that wretched thing is still so useless!” The milk carton began to leak as Octavia’s grip on it tightened. She slammed the fridge shut, drawing in heavy, agitated breathes. “Useless, broken, pointless!”

In the silence that followed, Vinyl was pretty sure she could hear the sound of birds crapping from the sky outside. Technically speaking, she could probably have heard a pin dropping too. Either way, she was too distracted by hanging her mouth open and staring at Octavia.

The earth pony blinked, apparently confused by the look. “Vinyl, is something wrong?”

“Something wrong? With me?” Vinyl shook her head. She advanced on Octavia until the other mare was retreating from her, resorting to standing on her back hooves with her back against the fridge. “Okay, yeah, you don’t get to ask me that after squeezing the milk so hard it breaks, slamming the fridge door so hard I’m pretty sure we’re gonna need it fixed and screaming at it how useless your cello bow is!”

Octavia stared down at the hoof pressing against her chest. She seemed as shocked as Vinyl, raising a hoof to her forehead.

“I…” She looked down at the milk carton, rivulets of cow juice running down her hoof, wetting her fetlock where it curled around the container. Exactly what she had just done struck Octavia so hard she felt faint. “I...goodness. I just…”

“Whoa!” Vinyl’s magic caught Octavia as she slipped and fell. A thud from the back of Octavia’s head hitting the fridge was the only thing she couldn’t stop, but Vinyl lowered her friend to the floor. She liberated the milk carton, throwing it in the sink and levitating over a cloth. “You okay there, Tavi?”

Rubbing the back of her head, Octavia just stared at her milk covered hoof in silent shock. Her mouth formed words but none emerged. 

“Tavi?” The DJ’s normally brash voice grew soft. “Tavi, I think something’s wrong. You’ve been getting weird, just acting kinda cold, but now you’re going crazy angry.”

Nodding mutely, they were both surprised when Vinyl began to rise only to find Octavia holding on. The unicorn silently lowered herself to the floor, letting Octavia wrap her hooves around her.

“I...I broke it…” Octavia whispered. “What...what in Equestria was I thinking? It was just so useless. Its not good enough. Nothing has been.”

“Good enough? Tavi, you’re amazing! What could you be measuring yourself against? Princess Celestia’s own fine plot?” Blunt as ever, Vinyl gave her friend a squeeze. “Because trust me, yours is just as fine.”

Ignoring the heat rushing to her cheeks, Octavia shook her head. “No, no, there’s a...a song. Music. I keep hearing it. Vinyl, it’s beautiful. I can’t imagine what sort of instruments could create it, but it’s always there in the back of my mind.”

Vinyl didn’t find hearing music that hard to believe. She heard music all the time. She ran a mental turntable pretty much all the time. Music wasn’t just her talent or hobby or job, it was her life. She didn’t question hearing music. She did question hearing music so good it sent Octavia into a blinding fury at her cello.

“When I couldn’t recreate it, when my music wasn’t able to match it, it felt so terrible. Every morning, Vinyl, every morning I try so hard and I keep failing. Its perfect, but I’m not!” Nearly in tears, she tried to wipe her eyes dry before they fell. “It’s just so frustrating! I can get so close, I can nearly do it but I just can’t!”

The words tore from Octavia in a scream, a shout that nearly edged into sobs. Vinyl pulled her closer, rubbing her back soothingly and trying to calm her. The DJ was perplexed, confused and worried. Her friend had always been a solid rock of reasonability and bound firmly in the realms of normality and stability. Vinyl had seen Octavia when she was angry. She had seen the prim and proper mare on the edge of apocalyptic fury only kept from boiling over by swift application of alcohol. She had never seen Octavia crying.

Vinyl felt a headache coming on. Octavia wasn’t supposed to cry. She was supposed to snark and grumble and complain about untidiness while giving rude ponies withering glares. Despite the strange twist her morning had taken, Vinyl wasn’t about to move. She stayed there, doing her best to help her friend, wondering when the world had turned upside down and inside out.

They lay there, slowly letting Octavia calm down.

“We…” Octavia mumbled. Vinyl’s ears perked up, looking at Octavia for something that would sound like Octavia again. “We...need more milk.”

Vinyl stared at her for a moment, then let out a burst of laughter. She couldn’t help it. She pulled Octavia close, nuzzling her.

“Good to hear you sounding like yourself!” Vinyl said, trying to suppress her laughter. “You feeling better now?”

Nodding shakily, Octavia managed a small smile. “Y-yes. I am. I am very sorry, I just...it was too much. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

“Hey, come on, you’ll be fine. Maybe ‘cause you banged your head on the fridge, bet you’ve got a heck of a lump back there,” Helping Octavia to her hooves, Vinyl used her magic to rub the cloth over the milk that had been under Octavia. No reason to leave that there for Octavia to have a fit over later. “Why don’t you go rest or something? I’ll be here if you need me, okay?”

Octavia mumbled her agreement. She stopped a few steps away, looking down. Her eyes rose back up to Vinyl.

“Yes...yes, I’ll just...rest. Thank you, Vinyl. You’re a very good friend,”  With that she fled upstairs, her mind in turmoil.


***


Twelve came almost too fast. Mostly because Paladin had followed Fluttershy to Sweet Apple Acres, making only a slight detour to drop something off with Twilight, lending his aid to the work he now only did on a part time basis while she gave Winona a check-up. They left as swiftly as they arrived, Paladin coaxing Fluttershy to fly for the sake of not being late.

“Do you really want to see how Pinkie would react to us being late to the very first part of what is, to her, the most exciting day ever?” he asked, finally convincing her. With a wave of farewell to the Apples, they set off.

It was fortunate for all involved they did. Pinkie was staring intently at the clock when they arrived. Her back to them, her eyes fixed on the clock with such intent that it wasn’t hard to imagine the sheer intensity cracking the glass and shattering the clockwork.

Rarity was in turn watching Pinkie with a worried air. She sighed in relief when the pair arrived, giving them a grateful smile.

“Pinkie, darling, look!”

“Uh-huh, yeah, sure,” Pinkie replied in monotone. The clock trembled a bit.

Smile turning brittle, Rarity twitched slightly. “Darling, if you turn around, they have-”

“And take my eyes off the clock?” Pinkie looked at Rarity, taking her eyes off the clock to give her friend a deeply serious look. “How could you even suggest that?!”

“B-but...Pinkie, you’re not-” She stammered.

Pinkie was staring at the clock again. “I’m not what?”

Rarity’s mouth moved without sound for a few seconds before she simply gave up. Fluttershy trotted over, giving mercy to Rarity by gaining Pinkie’s attention.

“Uh, Pinkie Pie, Rarity was just trying to tell you-” Fluttershy began.

“Fluttershy!” Twisting her head, Pinkie fixed her fluttering friend with a pouty stare. “I’m waiting for you and Paladin - Hi Pally! - to arrive! If you interrupt I might miss the exact second it goes from eleven fifty-nine to twelve!”

“Oh, um, I’m awfully sorry-”

“Just kidding!” Pinkie hugged her. “You made it! With….one-hundred and twenty-two seconds to spare! Wow!”

Fluttershy giggled, hugging her back. “It’s alright. Hello, Rarity. I hope Pinkie hasn’t been too much of a bother. Not that you’re a bother, Pinkie, I didn’t mean that.”

“She has been…bizarre but when isn’t she? Now, let’s get you three into your attire! You’ll blow them away!” Relieved to have Pinkie’s stare no longer threatening her clock with destruction, Rarity herded them upstairs. “Paladin, darling, as per your request I...I…”

Paladin bit back a sigh. “I just wanted the same as the suit you made for the gala. The exact same suit, in fact.”

“I know!” She cried out, coming very close to just plain crying. “And I did! But...but I had to make it a little bit different. It has a bit of colour, just some white trim. I wanted to do so! Much! More!”

He gave her a flat, steady look. Her dramatics elicited sympathy from Fluttershy and giggles from Pinkie. Paladin just nodded after a moment.

“Thank you for restraining yourself. I appreciate it,” he said, patting her on the shoulder. “Your work is always appreciated, even if you do wish you could have done more.”

“I said you could go ka-razy on mine!” Pinkie volunteered. She bounced outside the door to Rarity’s inspiration room. “I wanna see it!”

Fluttershy nodded with a soft smile. “Oh yes, at least you could work on mine. Whatever you think is best.”

Trotting past them, Rarity offered a grateful smile. “I know, and thank you both, but I do get so few chances to design suits, and Paladin just wants something…simple. So very spartan.” She shuddered.

“I prefer to avoid being overly ornamental,” Paladin began to say. He paused, remembering for a moment the silver and gold of the High Heavens, the endlessly ornate towers and the statues of the Angiris Council that rose above all but the Silver Spire. “With all due respect, it feels pretentious to do so.”

As she took out the outfits, Rarity’s smile became a tad more devious. “Why, Paladin darling,” she cooed. “Are you saying it would make you feel self-conscious? You?”

“Me? No, of course not. Why would I feel self-conscious?” His eyes narrowed as he stared at her. “I do not feel self-conscious. Ever.”

“Well…” Fluttershy flinched when they both looked at her. She felt like a traitor. “Uhm, that’s...not quite true. S-sorry…”

“Ah ha! So even the ever-unflappable Paladin can feel self-conscious!” Rarity crowed victoriously. “And here I thought the only thing you got flustered over was Fluttershy! Nothing wrong with it, I just like knowing deep down, darling, you can be as self-conscious as anypony here.”

“Hey, Rarity! Lookit me! I’m a beard-pony!” Pinkie grinned through the cloth scraps she was using as a ‘beard’. 

Rarity sighed. “Well, almost everypony here. Alright, time to get dressed! Pinkie, please take that off. It would clash with your dress far too much.”

The door, closed by Fluttershy as the last one in, creaked open as Rarity began to help her friends into their attire. Sweetie Belle watched from the doorway. The moment she heard voices, and realised Pinkie had decided to stop staring their clock to death, the filly had come to investigate. The look she sent at Rarity was equal parts pout and scowl. What else could she do, having been grounded for something that wasn’t even her fault?

Rarity, of course, insisted she wasn’t punishing her. This was not being grounded. Rarity was just keeping her safe. It all felt the same to Sweetie Belle. She hadn’t even seen Scootaloo for a few days!

“Somepony’s got a frowny-frown face!” Pinkie left Rarity behind, bouncing over to her little sister instead. Any dress Pinkie wore had to have a bit of flounce or it’d tear apart in the face of her sheer bounciness. “Hi there Sweetie Belle! What’s wrong?”

“Oh, uh, hi,” Sweetie squeaked, stepping back with a guilty look. “I-I’m fine. Just bored.”

Rarity ceased fussing with Fluttershy’s fancy, looking over with a regretful frown. “Sweetie, dear, I know being stuck at home isn’t fun, but what if that monster attacks again? There are guards in town now, yes, but we can’t possibly risk it! You are staying with me until we’re sure you will be safe.”

“But I wanna go out and Crusade! Scootaloo must feel so lonely!” Sweetie whined. “Apple Bloom is stuck at Sweet Apple Acres, or at the library with Twilight. Twilight wouldn’t even let us play with that doll this morning.”

Paladin twitched slightly and fought the urge to proclaim that it was not, in fact, a doll. It was the replica of Ardleon, made by Fluttershy, and he had parted with it reluctantly and curtly. Whatever tests Twilight did, he hoped it was useful. At the same time, he found himself hoping for the opposite. To find out it was useless as a vessel, to get it back unharmed.

His eyes caught and followed Fluttershy as she trotted past him, her ‘black tie’ dress making him feel quite odd. He stared slightly while she reassured Sweetie Belle that Scootaloo was fine.

“She’s been visiting Rainbow Dash, and taking Tank with her. I’m sure she’ll be happy to come over as well. If you want, I can ask her when she comes to pick up Tank next time?” Fluttershy offered.

Sweetie Belle smiled brightly at that. “Could you? That would be great!” she proclaimed cheerfully. “Although I bet she’s having too much fun with Rainbow Dash…”

“Well, Dashie has been reading Daring Do with her,” Pinkie said thoughtfully. She grinned again. “Don’t worry though, I know Scootaloo will wanna come over. She’s your friend, and I bet she misses you and Apple Bloom as much as you miss her.”

“Thanks! Oooh, I saw Rarity making those! You all look really nice,” Sweetie peered between them all, fascinated. She giggled. “She kept muttering when she was doing yours, Mister Paladin.”

Paladin, adjusting the collar of the dark suit trimmed in white, gave a snort of amusement. “I’m sure she was.”

“Sweetie! I wasn’t muttering I was...thinking aloud,” Rarity blushed, looking away haughtily. “Nothing so crude as ‘muttering’. You make it sound like I was planning something devious.”

She busied herself with making sure everything was just so, unwilling to let any of them leave without their outfits being utterly perfect. Whoever saw them would know that they dressed in style. It was just a shame Rainbow Dash wasn’t going, though she was meant to leave the hospital in a few days when the staff were sure she was no longer going to be any more likely to hurt herself than usual.

“Rainbow Dash would have looked simply darling in the dress I had in mind for her. Why did she have to throw herself so brazenly into battle?” she muttered as she worked.

“Because she’s Rainbow Dash, duh! Dashie is too Dashie to not be Dashie!” Pinkie struggled to keep still for Rarity. It was a challenge for the exuberant mare, but she pulled through. “And we wouldn’t want her to be anypony but Dashie.”

“True, I suppose, although I wouldn’t mind if she was Rainbow Dash with a tad more concern for her appearance. A little shampoo and conditioner would go quite far. Why are all the pegasi I know such wonderful models who don’t want to be models?” lamented Rarity. She glanced over at Paladin and Fluttershy, smiling in pleasure at the way their outfits matched. It was such a shame, she could imagine how marvellous they would look modeling matching outfits for her, or for anypony.

Sweetie Belle tried to help, which mostly consisted of poking something until Rarity shooed her away from it. The fashionista fussed as thoroughly as she could, insisting on all three trotting around the room with each adjustment until, at last, she proclaimed them perfect.

“Now take them off! What if something happens on the way there?! Carefully! Your train leaves in an hour, and I would rather not to have to do a rushed repair job if they get damaged,” She took out covers to keep each outfit safe, watching fearfully as Pinkie shed her dress with little regard but not a single risky movement. “There we go, nice and fast and not at all damaged! Thank goodness.”

“Of course I wouldn’t rip your amazing dress, Rarity!” Pinkie assured her with a bright smile. “That would be super bad! I’d never do anything super bad like that to you. So smile and think about all the fancy prancy ponies in Canterlot who are going to see me in your super-duper dress and think ‘Wow, what a nice dress, I bet the pony who made that is mega-talented’!”

That brought a smile to Rarity’s face and a giggle to her lips. Nothing was as cheerful as an optimistic Pinkie Pie. She just had an aura of ‘it’ll be okay’ and ‘trust me, everything will work out’ that made it hard not to agree that with a simple smile, everything really would be okay.

“The important thing is that you have a good time, and do your best to connect with Octavia. I have had the pleasure of hearing her play a few times, and she’s marvelous. Why, we’ve even talked once or twice, and she always struck me as a sensible, intelligent pony. Hopefully, Vinyl will be there to bridge the gap between you,” Rarity joked with a delicate titter. She made sure each outfit was stored correctly. The thought of them getting rumpled, ugh, no, she couldn’t bear the very idea!

Ignoring the way Rarity was cringing and muttering about ‘evil creases’, Paladin generously took the carrying of the three outfits on himself. Not that he didn’t trust Pinkie Pie. He just didn’t trust her to not bounce them off her back into a puddle or a vat of jelly or something.

“We should be ready at the train station before time. Thank you for the help, Rarity. It’s a shame you can’t come with us,” Fluttershy helped Rarity up, coaxing her friend from her visions of dress-destruction and desecration. “We’ll tell you all about it.”

“Please do. Have a wonderful time and good luck. To all of you.” Walking her friends to the door, Rarity wasn’t ignorant of the pleading look Sweetie Belle sent them when they trotted outside. She had a lot of work to do, but some things, Rarity knew, were far more important than work. Her little sister for example.

“Oh, Sweetie Belle darling, shall I take my break now? What was that game you wanted to play earlier?”


***


Vinyl groaned, dropping the bags on the kitchen table. “That’s the last time I offer to pick up the groceries,” She pressed against her back with her magical grip, groaning again before calling out. “Hey, Tavi, I’m back! You feeling any better?”

She peered from the kitchen, looking up and down the hall. She had only left on Octavia’s insistence. It was grocery day, no matter what. Vinyl had only kept Octavia from a panic attack by volunteering to go herself.

The unicorn unpacked the bags but didn't bother with much putting away. Octavia would just get annoyed and redo it all. Cocking an ear, Vinyl waited for an answer. Worry gnawed at her when none came.

"Tavi?" She called hesitantly. "You still here?"

She left the kitchen to search for her friend. There was no answer volunteered by her apparently absent friend. Octavia’s room was empty, as were the living room and every other room Vinyl searched. And search them she did, finding nothing and nopony. Eventually she was left with only one room to search, but she dismissed that out of hoof.

“What would she want in my room? She musta left while I was out. Cheeky,” Vinyl muttered with a shake of her spiky blue mane. She trotted past her room, heading towards the front door. “Why did she have to pick now to follow my advice and rebel? Sheesh, talk about timing.”

Speaking of time, the thump of a hoof banging the floor made Vinyl stop. She looked at the door to her room. She stared at it disbelievingly. Vinyl knew it couldn’t have come from there, even if it sounded liked it had. It was her room. A room Octavia swore up and down was a portal to the underworld, from which demons and devils and DJs were belched forth. The prissy mare hated what Vinyl lovingly termed ‘organised chaos’, and not just for the contradiction in terms.

Yet still Vinyl pushed the door open, peeking in to see her friend was indeed in there. She had Vinyl’s headphones on, the music player next to it lit up as it played. As the unicorn watched, Octavion reached to the volume knob can gave it a twist. After a few seconds of listening the knob turned again, and then again. Each time she turned it up Octavia cocked her head to the side with an expression of intense concentration before scowling and repeating the procedure.

“Tavi?” Vinyl asked. She smacked herself just below the horn at how stupid that was. “You’ve got my headphones on with loud music, duh, of course you’re not gonna hear me. Hey, Tavi! Octi! Tavi’puss! Octo-mare! Octavia!”

With each name Vinyl voice grew until she was shouting. Still Octavia did not turn from her strange activity.

“Sheesh, now I’m starting to know what it feels like to be you,” Musing on this annoying twist of fate, Vinyl walked up and tapped her friend on the shoulder. She really couldn’t stop the wide grin that spread across her muzzle when Octavia yelped and practically flew into the air. Snickering filled the room as the earth pony landed, headphones askew.

“Vinyl! Don’t sneak up on me!” she exclaimed.

The unicorn had a dirty grin on her face at the reaction, smirking as her magic gently pushed the headphones down to hang around Octavia’s neck.

“Having fun? You know, I could have sworn you keep saying how much you dislike my genre. All the time, in fact. Yet here you are...wanna tell me something, Tavi? Go on, let out the little raver we both know you have deep down inside,” she asked, her voice dripping with smugness.

Her cheeks crimson, Octavia pulled the headphones off and placed them off to the side with all the dignity of a queen in her court, if her court was someone else’s room, and she was the sort of queen to have a very messy court. She scowled at her friend.

“I was just…” Her scowl dropped away. “..trying to drown it out. I hoped maybe your music could make it stop.”

Vinyl’s smirk vanished. She put a foreleg around Octavia’s shoulders, the frequent closeness of the two helping reassure the earth pony.

“Did it?” Vinyl asked quietly.

Octavia just shook her head. “It’s still there. I think its louder. Your music didn’t do anything...”

Shrugging helplessly, Vinyl’s magic opened the case, letting her peer at what was in there. “That’s just my new one. Not finished yet. Maybe something else you might like more?”

“No, that’s not it. I liked it, really.” Despite the strain of her musical pressure, a small smile came to Octavia’s face. She gave Vinyl a sly look. “In fact, I think I heard a bit of very familiar cello in there…”

This time it was Vinyl’s cheeks that went red. She rubbed the back of her head with a nervous laugh. “Oh, uh, you noticed that? I was gonna ask first, that one was just me playing around, seeing how it would mesh. You liked it?”

“I did. You made something special, putting them together. It felt right. It almost made this strange music bearable. It wasn’t as perfect, as wondrous. Nothing could be. But your music, Vinyl-”

“Our music,” Vinyl corrected her. She grinned and gestured for Octavia to go on.

“Our music,” Octavia agreed with a faint smile. “Nothing could be like the constant heavenly music, but our music was much more...me. Us. It felt good to hear.”

“Awesome! That’s awesome to hear, Tavi! You’re great, I’m great, put us together and you get the greatest! Maybe we could spend tonight trying to come up with some more. You know, put your mind on other stuff,” The idea made Vinyl tingle with excitement, grinning widely.

Despite her smile Octavia shook her head. “I have the orchestra tonight, remember?” She stood, letting Vinyl’s hoof slip from her shoulders as she gingerly trotted from the room.

“Whoa, Tavi, you’re not serious, right?” Vinyl followed her out, blinking in the harsh sunlight. She slipped her sunglasses back on, grumbling for a moment. “You’re always serious, yeah, but you can’t be serious now.”

“Why not? Just because I am having a few issues does not mean I cannot do my job.” Her tone was certain and her manner firm. There was no mistaking her determination. It was the same determination that allowed Octavia to edit a living pony out of her real time perception.

Vinyl, of course, would let no determination or resolution keep her from voicing her concern. “Issues? Tavi, you’re hearing constant ‘perfect’ music, you smashed your cello bow!”

“What do you suggest, Vinyl? I should just turn up, tell them I can’t perform at one of the most important events in the year and just waltz out! They’d be furious! Not to mention that ma- PInkie Pie. I have to be there for that, at least. I’m not sure I have it in me to try again.” Shaking her head, Octavia set off for her room. “I need to get ready, so I have time to replace my…”

Sighing in despair as she passed the evidence of her fit, Octavia ignored the unicorn at her side. She was determined to go tonight.

“I made a commitment. I can’t just fob that off because I have music in my head,” she said curtly, her patience beginning to run thin.

Vinyl practically growled her reply, “Yes, you can! There’s something wrong with you, and for all we know it could get worse! You need to go to a doctor, or a mage or something.”

“I was just a bit upset, that’s all.”

“You were crazy angry and you were crying! Octavia, you’re not well! I can meet Pinkie and her friends, and tell them you’re sick-” Vinyl went on unrelentingly.

Octavia’s eyes narrowed. Her patience was gone. She had to play tonight. She knew it. She could feel it in her bones, in the music that filled her soul. It was playing clearly now, urging her to play. Tonight she could play, her music reinforced by an orchestra of skilled musicians.

“I am going tonight,” she said coldly. Her glare was icy, not a hint of warmth or friendship in it. “I will play. As ever, the ticket for a seat you never accept will be sitting on the kitchen table.”

Her door slammed shut in Vinyl’s face. The unicorn glared at it, her burning gaze hidden behind her shades. A few seconds passed as her expression contorted between anger, worry, frustration and sheer exasperation. Eventually, she found an outlet.

“Fine! This time, I’ll be there, but don’t expect me to help clean up the mess when it all blows up in your stupid face!” She shouted. Teeth grinding, the DJ stormed from the house. She stomped off, not sure where she was going, only knowing she needed to get out and distract herself. She needed to think of something other than Octavia.

Within the shadows cast by the midday sun, a pair of eyes slowly opened. They tracked her path, slipping along from shadow to shadow, following every turn and each twist in her journey until, at last, Vinyl Scratch darted down a narrow alley, taking a shortcut that was abruptly cut short.

She didn’t come out the other end.


***


The train ride was, well, a train ride. The only notable thing about it was Pinkie Pie. Whenever she tried to sit still, at Paladin or Fluttershy’s request, Pinkie vibrated with excitement. Her inner core of energy wouldn’t rest for even a moment with so much anticipation built up over what would happen that night. The thought of not just making a friend, but making a friend out of a pony who had been ignoring her existence utterly, was more than a mere delight for her. It was a complete and super delight. The biggest delight in all the world.

Their tickets had been purchased, quite unwisely, for the cheaper but slower train of the day. A five hour train ride was not something any of them looked forward to. Tedious was one word for it, although the presence of Pinkie Pie went quite far in fixing that particular problem. Paladin and Fluttershy were still relieved to arrive, disembarking with sighs of relief.

“I can’t wait to meet Octavia again! And this time, she won’t pretend I don’t exist!” Pinkie bounced from the train. “Hel~looooooo Canterlot!”

“Hel~looooooo Pinkie Pie!” A passing stallion, in a sombrero and poncho, called before disappearing into a train cart, his rubber chicken flopping with each energetic step.

“Wow, Canterlot has gotten even friendlier!” She grinned, squealing in glee. “This is my kinda town! Except for Ponyville, of course, which is even more my kinda town, but then again every town is my kinda town, because every town has new friends in it.”

Paladin glanced across the train platform, ignoring Pinkie Pie. ‘I wonder if there are normally ten guards for a single platform,’ he mused. Somehow, he suspected there was not. Ten guards, paying careful attention to every inch of the platform, from the biggest pony to the smallest shadow.

Except, in fact, not the biggest pony. None seemed to be paying him any mind. Or, he realised as he watched, his companions. The guards focused their attention on everypony, some openly inspecting while others did so with much greater subtlety. They were keeping an eye on everypony except the trio most likely to need watching, given how often their lives were drawn into a whirlwind of mayhem and adventure.

“The guards are here to look out for us,” he informed his companions. “I suspect the attacks have made the Princesses cautious enough to deem placing guards on the platform we were destined to arrive at a prudent decision.”

Fluttershy hid her face behind her mane and herself behind Paladin, his bulk shielding her from sight on one side. “Oh my. I guess I can understand, but, uh, they probably have more important things to do.”

“Nothing,” Paladin said to her in a firm tone. “Is more important than you.”

She blinked a few times, blushing brightly.

“Now, lets depart,” he went on briskly, stoically ignoring Pinkie’s giggling. “Twilight advised me that Princess Celestia has made quarters at the palace available for us to get ready, and to stay the night.”

The guards were out in force, he noticed as they trotted through Canterlot. Their presence was unmistakable, vigilant ponies in armour at intersections. Invariably they would discreetly glance at the trio, tracking their presence in lengthening shadows. Dusk was falling, Celestia guiding the sun to its slumber as the moon rose sedately. Lanterns and lights across the city flared into life as Canterlot moved from the busy hours of the day to the no-less busy hours of the night.

It was a beautiful sight, the city coming to life as night draped it, and as they crested a hill all three paused to watch.

“It’s beautiful,” Fluttershy said, smiling warmly.

“It is!” Pinkie agreed. “But it’s no Ponyville. After all, Ponyville is full of friends! Canterlot is full of future friends!”

There was one particular friend to be that was near to Pinkie’s thoughts. She smiled into the twinkling sea of lights, knowing by the time this night was over, she and Octavia would be the best of friends.


***


Octavia stared at herself in the mirror. For the umpteenth time she adjusted her bow. Unlike the splintered wood of her cello bow, the bow around her neck was pristine. The white collar was unstained and unblemished. The bow itself was tied perfectly, nothing about it in need of more primping. She sat there, staring at it with a vacant expression, until repetitive knocks at the door behind her finally roused Octavia from her trance.

“Octavia! Are you done yet?” called an anxious voice. Brass Beauty knocked again. “I really need to pee.”

Sighing, Octavia turned from the mirror. The moment she opened the door her friend galloped past her in a blur. Stepping out, Octavia let the door swing shut, fortunately cutting off Beauty’s sigh of relief. The cellist sat outside, staring blankly at the hallway. She could hear the hustle and bustle of the final preparations for the show tonight. With the abrupt news that Princess Celestia would be coming tonight the need for perfection had been cranked up to eleven, turning everything into a hive of activity.

She felt oddly distant from all of it. Her face was an expressionless mask. She felt empty now, all her emotion drained from her confrontation with Vinyl Scratch hours ago. Now she was just numb. The music was only at the edge of her hearing, the quietest it had been all day.

Perhaps it was being in a place of high music. Octavia didn’t know. Despite the torment its constant, endless haunting had given her, she wanted the music to come back. She wanted to hear more of it. She had been so close to embracing it and letting the music flow from her. If she could reproduce the music, if she could match it, she was sure she would be alright. Everything would go back to normal.

“Oooh, that was such a relief!” Beauty Brass was standing next to her. Octavia hadn’t even noticed her friend leaving the toilet. The other mare cocked her head to the side curiously. “Something wrong? Not nervous, are you?

“Nervous, why would I be nervous?” Snapping back to reality, Octavia contrived to seem as normal as ever.

Brass gave her a funny look. “We are playing your piece for the first time, and the Princess is going to be here for it. Most ponies would worry or be nervous,” After a moment she added, “Not that you need to worry! It’s amazing, we all love it, but a lot of ponies would be nervous.”

“My...piece…” Octavia blinked. Yes, she had composed it. Worked on it relentlessly when the song began to fill her. She had forgotten..somehow…

‘We usually practice new pieces for months before we play them,’ she thought distantly. ‘Why are we playing mine so soon?’

Octavia realised she had tuned out Brass. It was becoming so easy to be lost in her thoughts. The music felt like it had slipped its way into each thought. She focused again, trying to ground herself in the sound of Beaut Brass’s voice.

“-loved it so much, it’ll be great to play! There’s just something so...haunting about it! I bet Princess Celestia will love it!”

“The Princess...oh yes, of course,” Despite how hollow her voice sounded, Octavia still tried to convey the impression she was in control of herself.

Brass leaned closer. “Speaking of love, did you and Vinyl have a fight?”

That certainly brought Octavia’s focus firmly into reality. She gave her supposed friend a narrow glare, one that bounced off Brass’s grin.

“As I have told you again and again, we are not like that. We are friends, who happen to live together,” Octavia snapped.

“That doesn’t answer my question, you know. You don’t seem nervous, but you do seem out of sorts. Go on, you can tell me,” Brass urged her. She smiled warmly as she spread her forelegs in a gesture of openness.

Biting back her first instinct to snap again, Octavia spent a few seconds contemplating something. Just when Brass began to grow nervous with worry that she had upset her friend, the cellist sighed.

“Yes, we did,” she answered simply.

Brass said, “Really? I hope it wasn’t anything serious.”

Octavia gave an attempt at a nonchalant shrug in reply. “I’m not sure. She went for a walk to cool down, but she never came back. I may be a tiny bit worried.”

“Octavia, there’s nothing wrong with being worried. You invited her to come again, didn’t you?” Sympathy filled Brass’s voice. She knew how much Vinyl’s friendship meant to Octavia, and it was obvious from how distant she had been since arriving how badly the thought of losing that friendship was affecting her.

They parted to let a pony gallop past, a mare holding strings in her mouth and carrying an air of desperation. No doubt the victim of some bad luck or ill-timed accident, much like they had all suffered. The pair trotted along through the backstage halls they knew so well, seeking what little calm there was before the musical storm.

“I did. She has a seat, right next to, well, you know, our special guests. She knows Canterlot like the back of her hoof, so there was no way I could find her before I had to be here.” The thought of their ‘special guests’ made Octavia sigh. “I’m not sure how I’ll cope if Vinyl isn’t here…”

Brass winced. “That pink pony...I really, really hope you two make up. None of us took the Gala as hard as you-”

“-and its not healthy to carry around so much anger, yes, I know.” A scowl lit up Octavia’s expression, raising it from her dull, numb mask. “As you three and Vinyl have been telling me for months. I invited her, she’s coming, and we’ll talk after the orchestra. What more do you want?

Backtracking, Brass gave a nervous chuckle. “Sorry, you can just get so passionate when something motivates you. It takes a lot to get a rise out of you, after all, and the only ponies I’ve known to do that are Vinyl and Miss Pie.”

“...” Octavia looked very carefully at Beauty Brass. “Did Vinyl tell you? I swear, you can’t ignore even a single pony’s existence without everypony talking about it!”

“She told me a little.” Wincing sheepishly, Brass shrugged. “Sorry, I came by and you weren’t in the mood for company, remember?”

She did, after a minute. It was a vague memory from...she couldn’t quite remember. The music drowned it out.

“Yes,” answered Octavia. “I do. Completely. I’m sure Vinyl will be here, the seat I left for her is with Pinkie Pie and her friends. Everything will be fine.”

Brass smiled. “It certainly will! The Princess is coming, that must be a good omen.”

Despite the way she nodded, Octavia couldn’t help but feel a good omen was out of place here. The music was all that mattered.


***


The Royal Canterlot Orchestra, from the ponies within to the building itself, were not unused to loud noises. It rather came with the whole ‘orchestra’ thing. What the Royal Canterlot Orchestra was not used to was the doors being flung open and for a voice to announce, loudly, clearly, and cheerfully;

“Hello~ooooo Royal Canterlot Orchestra!” 

Pinkie Pie grinned at the reception hall full of ponies dressed to the nines. Nobles, wealthy merchants, ushers and a few bored looking foals in uncomfortable clothes. The nobles looked offended. The merchants looked confused. The ushers looked alarmed. The foals looked significantly less bored.

Before the nearest of the staff could pounce on this well dressed mare who was clearly in the wrong place, she trotted in and to let a far bigger pony, in every sense of the word save perhaps verbosity, enter. How the assorted orchestra-goers had missed the presence of her white coat, flowing mane with three bright tones and of course her rather great height was a mystery for the ages. Or perhaps the shock of a pony acting improper just caused their attention to stop at the pink pony grinning widely.

“Hello there, my little ponies,” Princess Celestia greeted the approaching staff with a warm smile. “I hope Pinkie Pie didn’t disturb anypony.”

“U-uh, y-your highness, we...didn’t realise she was with you. Not that we had any problems with her!” A pony who was either the most important or the one with the most spine gulped as she bowed.

Celestia turned to Pinkie, concealing her amusement at the innocent look Pinkie was giving her. “I see. Pinkie Pie, do you have your tickets?”

“Right here!” Hoof digging through her mane, Pinkie’s exaggerated gestures had the unhappy foals looking a mite happier, one or two giggling as the mare pulled a rubber chicken, a squeaky bone toy, an orange and an apple, and then finally an envelope from her mane in a burst of streamers. 

“Wonderful. I’m afraid we shall have to part ways, my friend, when we go to our seats.” The disappointed sigh Pinkie gave at the news rather warmed Celestia’s heart. Pinkie Pie was one of those ponies she could trust to be honest with her, regardless of her status.

“Awww, why? Paladin, you’re all suave and have a deep, booming voice, convince the Princess to sit with us!” Pinkie looked out the door.

Paladin glanced in. His steely gaze swept the hall. Nopony held his gaze. Most looked away.

“I’m a bit busy, Pinkie. There are a lot of ponies, a crowd in fact, looking this way,” he said significantly.

She blinked. “Oh, uh...Ooooh! Hey, miss.” Pinkie looped a foreleg around the shoulders of the nominal spokesmare, dragging her over. “Can you show my friend Fluttershy and her coltfriend in through another door? She’s shy.”

“I’m not….” Paladin trailed off, looking outside at Fluttershy before back to the mare Pinkie had dragged over. “Yes. She’s shy, and this sort of attention isn’t going to help.”

The mare looked at the Princess, who nodded, then over the ponies doing their best to pretend they weren’t all staring at the Princess and her ‘friends’. Their best turned out to be very poor. There was a small group of foals who had acquired the toys spawned from Pinkie’s mane, but they were ignored.

Paladin walked off, quietly going to a side door. This of course left Pinkie Pie along with Princess Celestia, and technically a room full of other ponies. The pair passed through the crowd, ponies parting for them.

“I’m a bit too big to fit in normal chairs, Pinkie. I would block the view of the ponies behind me,” the Princess explained as gently as she could. 

Pouting, Pinkie let out an ‘awww’. “That’s a shame, I guess we don’t want to ruin it for everypony. But if its music, is being able to see super-important? If you were making it hard for them to hear, maybe, but being big doesn’t mean you’re loud! Unless you’re Princess Luna, she can be super loud.”

“She can indeed. You should have heard how loud she was as a foal. Glass would have broken at her wails, if we’d had glass,” Celestia confided with a sound far too noble to be a giggle.

Giggling with her, Pinkie slowly trailed off. Her smile became a very small frown as she fell into her own unhappy thoughts. Looking down at her with a worried look, Celestia lowered her head to be more on the same level as her normally cheerful subject.

“Is something wrong?” she asked gently. A subtle glow wrapped her horn for a moment. The sound around them didn’t so much simply vanish as fade away over a few seconds.

“No...well...do you think Octavia will really want to be friends? She was so angry last time, and even if she sent the tickets, maybe its all some sort of prank, and she just wants me in the perfect position to hit me with something!” Pinkie worried at her lower lip nervously. “Like a pie! Wait, that would be funny. Like..paint! Maybe she wants to hit me with paint because I ruined such an important night for her!”

Celestia kept her own counsel on the matter of the Grand Galloping Gala that had been ‘ruined’. Regardless of how the princess had ensured none of the ponies in attendance, whether as guests, staff or performers, had suffered from the event, she understood that often it was hard to see beyond a failure you perceived as your own.

“I’m sure she’s planning on nothing of the sort. Imagine the harm to her own reputation. More, my little pony, I doubt she is the kind of pony to do so. Banish these fears. All they will do is cloud your perception. If Octavia really wants to forgive you, as the sole focus of her anger over that night, you should be waiting with arms open rather than cowering in worry.” Her tone was light, but her words were calm and guiding, urging Pinkie to optimism.

“Yeah, you’re right! I’m gonna be right there with my arms wiiiiiiiiiiiiide open!” Pinkie’s brow furrowed. “Wait, if having my arms open shows her that, maybe I should open my legs for her too!”

Celestia was so very relieved she had cast the privacy spell. She swallowed her laughter, pushing away the urge to burst out in giggles as she faced Pinkie’s innocent expression.

“I...am not quite sure you should go that far. She might think you mean something rather different.” At the perplexed look Pinkie was giving her, Celestia patted her on the shoulder reassuringly. “Trust me, just your arms. In fact, Pinkie, I would suggest being very careful about ever spreading your legs for anypony who isn’t very, very special.”

“Okie-dokie-lokie!” Pinkie nodded, her worries fading with the Princess’s reassurances. “What about you?”

The princess’s expression turned quizzical. “About me?” she asked.

Pinkie nodded. “Can I spread my legs for you? You’re a very, very special pony! Like, one of the most specialist! Super-duper special!”

Staring down at Pinkie for a few seconds, Celestia fought the blush that was trying to warm her cheeks. It was more embarrassment on Pinkie’s behalf, but there was the undeniable need to laugh so hard her lungs gave out.

“I think…” Celestia said slowly, carefully, keeping the urge from her expression. “We part ways here. E-enjoy the show, Pinkie Pie.”

“Uh, okay, sure thing.” Pinkie waved goodbye, confused, as Princess Celestia trotted off. After a moment of contemplation Pinkie shrugged. “Wow, the princess can be weird.”

By the time Pinkie reached her seat, with the directions of a helpful usher, Paladin and Fluttershy had already taken theirs. Paladin gave her a welcoming nod before turning his attention back to Fluttershy. The smaller pegasus was nearly huddled in her seat, trying not to notice how much attention their favourable seating had generated. They were among the very best seats in the orchestra.

“Sorry it took me so long,” Pinkie chirped as she bounced into her seat. “I was getting snacks!”

Paladin’s brow furrowed in confusion. He blinked, and suddenly Pinkie was holding a large drink, sucking cola through the straw.

“What?” she asked in reply to his stare. A ‘ding’ went off in her head. “Oh, I got you one too!”

“Pinkie, I don’t think you’re meant to have drinks here.” Paladin indicated a few fancy ponies giving her offended looks. “You seem to be annoying the locals.”

An usher was already advancing towards them. Pinkie’s sucking became a vacuum, draining the cardboard cup until the loud slurp of an nearly empty drink filled the hall. The usher arrived, politely informing Pinke that drinks were not permitted during the show.

“That’s-” Pinkie burped, throwing the empty cup to him. “That’s fine! I’m done.”

“I never knew a place as fancy as this would have snacks,” Fluttershy murmured, peeking out from her wings.

Pinkie giggled, her titter interrupted by the bubbling burps from chugging her drink. “Silly filly, of course they don’t have snacks.”

“Then where did you...oh, I guess it’s not important.” Fluttershy grimaced, shaking her head gently. “Pinkie, please don’t make a scene. Octavia did invite us here after all; we should really mind our manners.”

Paladin arched an eyebrow, looking at Fluttershy with amusement at the ‘we’ she had included. She shrugged back, settling into her chair with her side resting against his. Look of amusement wiped away, Paladin went stiff for a moment. Before she could pull away, she felt him relax against her.

More ponies came streaming in, albeit streaming in quite elegantly. Princess Celestia took her reserved seat. Rarely used, Celestia had long ago insisted that keeping her size from blocking the sight of the paying guests was more important than just giving her the best seat.

Pinkie was practically vibrating in her seat as she waited for it to begin. As the orchestra began, the musicians taking their places, one hoof rose to wave at Octavia. In a startling bout of self-awareness, her other hoof rose up to slap it down.

‘Remember Pinkie, you’re here to make friends with a prim and proper pony,’ she thought, giving herself a stern warning to keep calm and to be placid. Unfortunately, Pinkie’s preparations for the orchestra had not included how to entertain herself when she realised that classical music, while impressive, was just not her thing. She felt a bit bad about that; how amazing would it have been if she had turned out to have an ear for it? It certainly would have busted up the opinions some ponies had of her.

This was not to be, to her misfortune. Pinkie glanced at Paladin and Fluttershy as she fidgeted. They were clearly enjoying the music; Paladin was gazing at the musicians, mesmerised by the coordination displayed by the ponies before them. He had draped a wing over Fluttershy, and she seemed to watch him as much as the musicians, the music filling their ears as surely as it did the rest of the hall.

Forcing herself to pay attention again, Pinkie tried to keep herself calm and relaxed. The music was good. It was better than good; it was wonderful! Having an ear for music, Pinkie could tell that surely this was a display of incredible skill on the parts of every pony in the orchestra. It was just….well, boring.

‘Don’t think that! Think happy thoughts! Like cupcakes! Cupcakes and cakes and pies and soda and waterfalls and rivers and streams and oooooh I gotta pee,’ Pinkie thought with a wince. She was sure it had been less than an hour….maybe less than two, hopefully. Either way, her drink had made its way through her at lightning speed.

Octavia watched Pinkie Pie, her eyes lingering on the pink pony throughout each piece. She felt a distant worry, that something would go wrong, that the chance for them to settle what lay between them, but it was just that; a distant worry. The music dominated her attention. It wasn’t good enough, but she could feel it within reach. As her bow moved, playing the strings to bring forth her music, each note joined its kin in the beauty that was the orchestra. She could not achieve that perfect music on her own, but together….

Time seemed to pass in a blink for Octavia. She worked on automatic, until suddenly attention was on her. She remembered the piece she had written at...some time. It was hard to remember. Octavia didn’t let it bother her. She was so close. She set her bow to strings, standing by her cello, no longer within the ranks but now at the centre of attention.

The tiny part of her that thought something was wrong was glad to see Pinkie Pie’s seat empty.

The first notes of her piece began to play, her bow moving with delicate agility. From behind her more played out to join her. With the skill that earned them their place, each musician played their part. Their music slotted into place, musical cogs in a wondrous creation.

Hearts began to soar. Though the piece had been practiced before, there was something different. Octavia played with a strange energy about her; eyes closed, her bow dancing with flawless economy of movement and unerring grace.

‘Yes,’ she thought. Her ears twitched, thrilling in the sounds. ‘So close!’

Paladin sat with Fluttershy against his side, his eyes fixed on Octavia and his ears hearing only the music that was….beautiful. Utterly, perfectly beautiful. He had never heard such music. Only Sweetie Belle’s empowered voice had been its equal.

His nearly closed eyes snapped open, realisation striking him as the music began to build to a crescendo. Paladin began to rise, alarm on his face, just in time for the crescendo to pinnacle. He saw Octavia’s eyes snap open, iris, pupil, everything lost in the pure white glow of angelic energy.

‘No!’ Octavia’s mind whirled as the crescendo began to fall away. Everything had lined up perfectly, for just a single instant, and now it was falling away. ‘No!’

“No!”

Her bow made her cello sing, a shimmer in the air carried through the air by each note. Paladin froze. Fluttershy’s eyes turned from him and her expression of concern faded as she was drawn back to the musician. All movements slowed, then stopped. There was a moment in which Celestia’s expression twisted into shock, and her horn began to glow. The shimmer in the air struck her as it had her ponies below. 

For a single instant, the world inside the orchestra went still, save, of course, for Octavia. She played, and each note brought one of her fellow musicians back to action. Their bodies began to play as their minds went dull. 

The music continued, though nopony moved who did not play. Determined fury was written onto Octavia’s face. She played tirelessly, her entire world dissolving to the song. She grasped the world around her through her music with an unrelenting will.

‘I will not fail!’ There was nothing else that mattered. Only matching the hauntingly perfect music did. She would use her friends and co-workers if she had to make them play until their bones were ground to dust and their muscles were paste.

Only two ponies in the audience were aware of what was happening. Paladin struggled to fight off the influence that was dragging his mind into slothfulness. Celestia watched, and listened, and knew she had a choice; yet she held herself back, unwilling to strike, unwilling to take an innocent life.


***


Pinkie hummed as she finished washing her hooves. She loved that feeling of relief, the one you only got after holding it in for way too long, and she might have spent a few more moments basking in it if a shiver hadn’t danced its way down her spine. A twinge in her knee and a twitch in her left nostrils made her frown in the mirror.

“Huh...that one is new…”

She trotted from the bath room with a curious look on her face. Her ears flicked, picking up an odd sound at the edge of her hearing. The hall was calm and placid. Far too quiet. She couldn’t hear the orchestra anymore.

‘I wonder if they’re having a break. Oooh, just my luck, I go potty during the break,’ Pinkie thought with a pout. She approached the door, her expression falling into a frown. The strange signals from her Pinkie Sense gnawed at her thoughts. Her hoof came to rest on the door. Her tail shivered as she pushed the handle down.

The door swung open. Pinkie Pie stared at the shimmering air in front of her.

“Huh…”

She cocked her head to the side, staring at it. After a moment, she took a step back.

“Maybe I better go tell somepony they’ve got magic shimmery air,” she thought aloud, gulping. She was almost certain that weird, shimmery air wasn’t normal at orchestra’s. She turned from the door, but paused. She had thought she was alone, but that turned out to be very much wrong.

The creature stalking towards her resembled a bat in the way a dog resembled a wolf, if the wolf happened to be bipedal. It strode on it’s back legs, it’s arms drooping with leathery wings. Wide eyes blinked as they met Pinkie’s. There was no blindness in those eyes, as Pinkie had thought a bat would have, but then again most bats weren’t over twice the height of a pony.

The party pony gulped. She glanced back at the door. The shimmer had expanded slightly, creeping an inch through the door.

“Ooookay, big bat monster, I don’t want to be mean, but you look really scary. Soooo….I’m just guessing, but-” Pinkie stopped, staring at the monster as it opened it’s mouth wide. Unhinging to hang at least a foot between its deadly fangs, its jaw gaped wide with its thick tongue twisting oddly. Between the strange shape of its teeth and its tongue, there was something in that made Pinkie of…”An amp?”

In answer, it roared. A wave of sound, a heavy rolling blast of dubstep, struck Pinkie with quite literal force. Her ears rang as her body bounced down the aisles. Nopony around her reacted. She rolled to a stop, pressing hooves against her ears. She felt like daggers had been rammed into each side of her head as she rose up, staggering.

“Owie…” Pinkie couldn’t even hear her own voice. She shook her head, catching sight of the ponies around her. She twisted her head to follow their stares. The air shimmered around her, and the source was obvious.

Octavia played from the centre of the room, her eyes dominated by a now familiar white glow. Around her the other musicians played, all moving perfectly synchronized. Whatever they were playing, she was sure it was g-

Invisible force slammed into her again, reminding Pinkie firmly that she wasn’t alone. The bat-monster’s dubstep roar launched Pinkie further down the aisle.

‘Okay, remember when evil bat monsters are attacking,’ she scolded herself. A grin popped onto her face as she sat up. ‘Ah ha! Miss monster has beaten herself!’

“Paladin!” She called, or at least she was pretty sure that was what she called. It was hard to tell when she couldn’t hear herself. She could hear dubstep though. When it hit her, she had heard it for a brief second and it was oddly familiar.

She had landed next to the row where Paladin and Fluttershy sat. They didn’t look away from Octavia at Pinkie’s frantic call. Neither moved at all. A faint wisp seeped from their mouths and eyes, fading into the shimmer towards Octavia.

Pinkie gulped again. “Fluttershy! Paladin!” She glanced at the advancing bat monster. It stood up, spreading its arms and its wings with them as it prepared to strike again.

Jumping away, the sonic roar slammed into the carpet where Pinkie had been moments before. She skidded down the aisle, drawing in a deep breath.

“Boom!” She shouted, punching unseen verbal force through the air at the bat monster. Her voice-given-power slammed it back, launching it through the door it had knocked her through. Pinkie glanced back at her friends, then up to the Princess. ‘Maybe I can get the others to stop listening!’

No more than one step had been taken towards her friends when the monster was back. She had to dodge away, bouncing with exuberant grace turned from happy travel to desperate evasion. The dubstep roar pulsed out, the bat’s maw hanging open as it followed her. Mindless ponies were knocked about by the continuous stream of sonic attack, making Pinkie wince.

“Stop hitting ponies! What did they ever do to you, you big bully? Bang!” Pinkie’s voice made the word into a short, sharp blast that struck one of its legs beneath it. She galloped past, jumping over it. Her tail smacked it between the eyes. “Follow me!”

She caught the side of the door with her hoof as she left, swinging on it to throw herself down the hall. Pinkie’s hooves pounded on the thick carpets. She spared a moment to look back, grinning when she saw the dubstep bat following her. She wanted to help her friends, but she couldn’t do that while the monster was hurting everypony around her.

‘I really wish I could hear,’ Pinkie thought as she led the dubstep bat away. ‘’Cause it looked like Octavia was playing super well.’


***


The fork, its tip laden with delicious pancakes dripping with sweetest maple syrup, paused. The cobalt magic holding it continued to shimmer, but the precious pancake payload remained where it was, only a few inches from the waiting maw of Princess Luna.

Shining Armour peered up at the Princess from his place at the table, his french toast already half gone. He frowned at the strange look on her face. With a sad look at his dinner time breakfast, the Captain of the Guard lowered his own utensils.

“Your highness? Is something wrong?” It was a tad presumptuous, but he reassured himself that he was technically a prince now, and Princess Luna’s very distant in-law, so he forgave himself the bluntness. “Is something wrong with dinner?”

“I...no. The royal breakfast is delicious,” she replied after a moment. Her eyes were distant as she turned to peer at the wall. Her gaze pierced the window set in one of the walls. “I sensed something. To arms! Something has happened to my sister.”

Pushing his chair from the table, Shining Armour was up instantly. “I’ll call the guard. Lieutenant, muster the mages and get the men ready. Have somepony get my armour out.”

Turning back, Luna mused for a moment on the Captain’s sudden shift of mood. “Neigh, Captain! Belay the last order, Lieutenant. Prince Shining Armour shall not see the field of battle until all can be assured is well with him.” She directed a stern look at Shining Armour. “You are still injured. I shall lead the guard if it is needed.”

“What? Princess, with all due respect, I need to be out there,” he said, a note of protest in his voice.

“You are not yet fit for combat, Captain. Exercising your magic now will simply jeopardize your recovery!” The princess made a grandiose gesture, wings flaring. “If some creature has truly been foalish enough to attack Celestia, it will be more than your guard can handle without my assistance.”

Much as he wanted to, Shining Armour couldn’t deny her claim or, in the end, her orders. That didn’t mean he had to like it. Sighing, he nodded at the lieutenant, “take your new orders and be quick about it.”

Luna favoured him with an apologetic look as she strode from the room. “You may not thank me, Prince Shining Armour, but your wife certainly will.  Whatever foal has interfered with my sister shall soon learn the price of harming my family!”


***


She could do it. It would last only a few seconds, but she could do it. The very presence of the thought, the knowledge that she was considering this course of action, sent a shiver down Celestia’s spine. She watched and listened with the tiny self she had sealed from the real world, letting the greater portion of her mind be occupied with Octavia’s impossibly perfect music as she plotted. She watched with eyes that gave no sign of her struggle, a struggle against no enemy worse than herself.

It brought her no joy to gaze upon Octavia and imagine a slender pin-point of heat drilling through her skull. In fact, she recoiled from the thought. Even as she felt the angelic power pulsing out, warping the world and bending it to Octavia’s maddened whims, Celestia refused to use the tiny thread of magic she could summon for such an act.

There was, she told herself, still time. The slow theft of energy would take a while still. If she had to, to save another life, it wasn’t yet. Celestia sought another solution, her attention unwavering and her curses sent towards Ardleon. Time enough would see her power returning to its pinnacle, but she had scarcely enough time to begin her recovery. She would not let the aftermath of his insane exploits force her hoof.

‘Pinkie Pie is free. Wherever you are, Pinkie, I’m sure you can do this,’ she thought, silent prayers sent to Pinkie.


***


The bat-beast was, Pinkie had to admit, really good at hide and seek. She slipped through the apparently endless halls, glancing around corners in hope that this time, she could see a way out that didn’t have the creature waiting for her. How it was tracking her, she had no idea. For all, she knew, she was making a lot of noise and it was just using its huge ears to follow her. Pinkie just couldn’t hear to tell; her ears were hurting and useless to her.

‘I hope my ears get better,’ she thought with uncharacteristic nervousness. Giving her head a shake to knock the dark thought loose, the determined party pony shot towards an unguarded window. Pushing it open revealed a short drop to the ground. ‘Score!’

Princess Luna strode towards the orchestra, a regiment of guards at her back. Unicorns trained to dispel and counter magics of all kinds stood at the ready, though she was sure she would have little need for them. She swept her gaze across the  facade of the fancy building, taking in the details.

“Nothing appears out of the ordinary….yet my magic senses something most unusual!” she declared, her mane billowing dramatically. Her horn lit, but it was hardly needed.

“Eeeeeeeee!”

Luna teleported towards the cry, abandoning the guards. She re-appeared in a side alley that ran along the edge of the orchestral hall just in time to grasp the shrieking pony.

“Eeeeeeeee!” Pinkie continued to shriek, flailing wildly as she hung upside down, her face a few inches from the cobblestones. Despite the fact she had stopped falling, she continued to scream.

Staring at Pinkie, Luna pursed her lips in a frown of uncertainty. Now she thought back on her morning dinner, Celestia had mentioned something about Pinkie Pie attending something. The orchestra would not have been Luna’s first guess. The screaming became tiring in very little time, so she gave the pony in her magic’s grip a shake.

“Cease your wailing, brave Pinkie Pie!” Luna commanded. Her frown deepened when Pinkie disobeyed. Her frown only grew as her eyes spied the drops of red that fell from the tips of Pinkie’s ears.

“Eeeee -  oh, hiya Princess! - eeee!” said Pinkie when she was turned to face Princess Luna. She was turned right side up and dumped on the ground without ceremony, and at last she ended her high pitched scream of fright. “Did you catch me? Thanks!”

Luna shook her head. “Twas no problem, jubilant Pinkie Pie, but we have more pressing matters. What goes on in the orchestra? I sense a strange presence within, which grows with each moments!”

The silence stretched for longer than Luna was comfortable with. Pinkie just stared at her with wide, confused eyes.

“Uh, Princess Luna, you’re really, really good at mime, but now isn’t the time! I know, who would have thought there was a time we wouldn’t need mimes? I certainly didn’t! Octavia had gone all super magicked and she’s making everypony stare at her, and there’s a bat monster that didn’t seem nice at all!" Pinkie explained, giving Luna a frantic shake, a hoof on each dark blue shoulder.

Luna’s head bounced back and forth, but between the shaking she caught sight of the blood matting the fur under Pinkie’s ears. Shrugging Pinkie’s hooves off, Luna didn’t waste a moment with formalities. She just lowered her horn, pressing the tip of her horn to Pinkie’s forehead.

“Be calm, Pinkie Pie! I suspected your ears have been hurt,” Luna thought-spoke. She reached up, keeping Pinkie from pulling her head away. “Tell me, Pinkie Pie, what has happened within?”

“Ooh, cool- wait, no, not cool! I told you, Octavia has gone all magical-music, and I think it’s like Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle , but it’s happening to Octavia and it’s way, way worse! Not to mention the monster!” Pinkie would have shaken Luna again had the Princess not stilled her hooves.

“I see! Oh, ahem, I see! If this incident is similar, then the beast is surely the result of Scorpan’s dark magic. Troubling, that he should have learned his master’s power so swiftly. If he follows his pattern, the bat-creature is a friend of Octavia’s, or family.” Princess Luna glanced at the window Pinkie had come from. “It appears that your ears being hurt kept you from being afflicted by the angelic music you say this musician is producing. It seems such music was able to afflict even my sister.”

“Yeah, but you’re here now, so we can go back in and stop the evil- oooh! I bet I know who the bat is! It’s gotta be Vinyl! She’s Octavia’s friend and everything! Plus it was shouting at me with dubstep,” explained Pinkie. Her expression fell as the implications of that struck her. “...I was gonna ask if you could get somepony to find Vinyl, so she could snap Octavia out of it!”

Brow furrowed, Princess Luna glanced once more at the window. She needed a plan. Even as schemes began to form within her mind, she felt a pulse of energy from within. The faint tingle of angelic energy at the edge of her arcane perceptions grew with the pulse, leading her to a dreadful conclusion.

‘The power grows, and expands!’ Troubled, she sent the thought to Pinkie. “Though I am loathe to give you such a task, I must ask you, Pinkie Pie, to distracted the creature. Regardless of who it is, it may interfere. I must contain this angelic outbreak before it spreads too far, and such magic will be delicate. The aim of these shadow-creatures has always been the pony possesed by heavenly force. Keep it from reaching its objective, and I shall join you. You need simply provide me with the time to do it.” If she had to admit it to herself, Luna wasn’t sure she should trust Pinkie Pie with this. Had there been another there, she might have, but only Pinkie was blessed with angelic power of her own and, quite importantly, impaired hearing. Just this once, she would have to let the silly pony try, and pray she was not sending Pinkie to her doom.

Pinkie straightened, saluating. In her proud, too-loud voice, she said, “You got it, Princess! Nopony has anything to worry about with Pinkie Pie on the case! If there’s one thing this party pony can do, it’d be a distraction!”

Luna had no time to go into more depths, to suggest a course of action or provide what little help she could. The moment Pinkie was done talking, she charged away, swinging through the first door she could find. Resisting the urge to grab Pinkie in her magic, Luna tried to console herself. She was positive the seemingly foalish mare would be alright. She had been on far too many adventures and fought evil creatures with such frequency, surely she wasn’t helpless.

Except, Luna noted with a lump in her throat, Pinkie Pie had always been one among others. She only doubted if Pinkie could do as well on her own. She would have to hope her doubts were in vain..

Lifting into the air, Luna began to gather her magic, binding the eldritch forces within her to her will. She could feel the growing strength below. Rather than strike directly she began to weave her power into a net, each thread slowly growing, bleeding into each other until they formed a dome. She continued her casting, forcing back her too-easily occurring fatigue. There was too much responsibility upon her shoulders to give in.


***


Pinkie bounced at galloping speed across the plush carpets, heading straight for Octavia. Technically the Princess had told her to stop the monster, but surely helping Octavia would also help stop the probably-Vinyl monster.

The shimmering domain of Octavia’s music had pushed past the doors of the main orchestral hall now, and it expanded again as she approached. Pinkie paid it no mind, the looming shape of bat-Vinyl far more important. Landing within the field, Pinkie braced and rose not in a bounce but a leap.

“Boom!” Pinkie blew bat-Vinyl off its feet. Her leap carried her over it, landing with a yelp before rolling back upright, standing between Octavia and bat-Vinyl.

Rearing up, the corrupted unicorn, her form twisted fiendishly, let out another roar, a tunnel of sonic energy that throbbed and thrummed like the music she loved so much.

“Gaaaaaaaaaaaah!” Lungs burning, Pinkie didn’t even try to use a proper word. She just pushed her lungs and throat to pump out every breath of air into her own. Keeping at it, she  managed to keep it going just long enough, outlasting bat-Vinyl by mere moments. Taking great, hungry breaths, Pinkie found her foe was not so encumbered.

Bat-Vinyl sprung towards her, revealing claws that cut through the carpet, and the wood below, where Pinkie had been standing. Leaping away, Pinkie bounced off the back of a chair and went rolling across entranced ponies. None noticed, not even as the bat beast came charging after its prey.

Pinkie squealed, pulling herself back just in the knick of time. Bat-Vinyl’s talons did more than just knick the padding of the seat next to her, however, and took half a mane of the pony sitting, staring dully, in the seat on the other side.

Eyes wide in alarm, realising what a close call that had been not for her but for the innocent mesmerised pony, Pinkie found a  new rush of energy rushing through her as she jumped to her hooves and took off through the chairs, bouncing between rows, trying to get clear of any bystanders.

‘Oh no no no, Vinyl is going to be so upset if she hurts anypony!’ She thought with a desperate wince as bat-Vinyl came after her. At the apex of her next bounce the dubstep roar hit her, blowing her across the room. She landed with a grunt, vanishing from sight between the chairs.

A hungry, gleeful growl rolled out from Vinyl’s wide maw. The corrupted pony wasted no time following after her. Knocking the ponies around Pinkie’s landing spot away, it froze as it stared down at the empty space. It couldn’t hear the sound of loud slurping, all other sounds blocked out by Octavia’s puppet orchestra, as it clawed fruitlessly at the floor.

“Urp!

Pinkie put the straw of the drink she got for Paladin back into her mouth, guzzling another mouthful, feeling it slosh down her throat. She felt the next wave of sensation rise up, gathering in her chest before she unleashed another angelic burp. It shook the air, pounding bat-Vinyl with incredible force.

“And they don’t allow drinks!” Pinkie said, giggling. Her humour was lost on the mutated DJ, and not just because she couldn’t hear it. Dropping out of sight, Pinkie was gone when the dubstep roar lashed out. 

“Urp!”

Her attack hit from another direction entirely. She waved from the doorway, sucking thirstily on her fizzy drink. It was, she decided, very fortunate Paladin hadn’t been thirsty. She still winced when her angelic burp blew the twisted unicorn off her talons.

This was the next worst thing to a nightmare. Pinkie didn’t like hurting others. It was the exact opposite of what she liked. Happy, happy, happy, that’s what she wanted. Yet she was sneaking through rows of chairs, past mindless ponies, to misuse her magic voice to hurt Vinyl. As much as she loved playing cat and mouse with Gummy, this was one game she wasn’t enjoying at all.

Of course, Pinkie was nothing if not a master of confusion.

She let the bat-beast see her as she slipped out the door, her tail following her as she fled the room. With a shriek no one heard, it took off in pursuit. After a few seconds, Pinkie was back inside, closing the door behind her. Trotting down, Pinkie glanced at her friends before focusing on Octavia.

“Octavia? Can you hear me? I’m sure you can, my voice is all magic and stuff. Hehe, I can’t even hear myself, but I bet you can!” Pinkie let the power from within flow out, her voice becoming something greater, something that didn’t need sound. “Oh, wait, I can hear myself! My magic voice is super neat, huh?”

Octavia didn’t answer. She continued to play, each movement of her hooves guiding the orchestra, forcing them to play, to lend their meager mortal support to her divine symphony.

Pinkie nearly frowned, but she forced herself to smile. Smile, smile. smile. “Your music is great! I love it, well, I did when I could hear it. But Vinyl kind of did something to my ears and I can’t hear and...you know, I’m sure the  Princesses can fix it. And then, I can hear your music.”

Now, she really did frown. It lasted only a moment, the sight of a twitch of Octavia’s ear giving her hope. Forging ahead, Pinkie took a step closer.

“I can play lots of instruments, sometimes without even knowing how! But you’re really amazing, so I wanted to hear you...but you you, not the evil possessed you. Because that’s not you! You’re you when you play and you smile and you’re happy, and why else would anypony play if it didn’t make them happy? I  know all about making ponies happy, it’s what I do! Aside from bake, and throw parties, but those are both to make everypony happy, so yeah, that is what I do!” Pinkie gave Octavia a wide grin, letting her pride in her work, in her life, shine through the expression. “So...why aren’t you happy? You’re playing, you’re literally playing the best music ever...but this party pony doesn’t think you’re happy, and I’d know! You know who else would know?”

The door was ripped apart, the furious shadow-bat stalking forward, great maw gnashing furiously. Each step was muffled by Octavia’s music, nothing giving it away as it approached its vexing prey.

Pinke beamed. “Vinyl would! She’s your best friend, after all. I’ve talked with her heaps of times, and she talks about you a lot! She’s your best friend and...and I know you don’t like me. It makes me really sad, but I guess I understand. I really wanted tonight to be when we, you know, made up and became friends, or even just….well, not hate me…” She trailed off, her smile drooping. Taking a deep breath, Pinkie forced herself to keep going, knowing her voice was reaching some part of Octavia. “So...Octavia, Princess Luna wanted me to try stopping or delaying or something-something to Vinyl, because she’s been turned all evil and batty by this mean Scorpan guy. I don’t really like hurting her, even if she doesn’t feel it, not after how beat up Spike and Mac got. I really don’t like doing stuff like that.”

Vinyl’s corrupted form stood over Pinkie, and a dim, trapped awareness heard the words projected beyond mere hearing and despaired. Nothing she could do could hold the claws back. No fighting could restrain the swell of dark magic that gathered to end the party pony. 

“Even if you never liked me, I really have to ask you to do something. Just...look over here. Open your eyes, and help your friend. Because I don’t know what to do, but you know what?” Pinkie sat down, no reaction to the impending attack from behind appearing on her face, no glint of mischief in her eyes denoting a trick, nothing. She just smiled at Octavia. “She’s your friend, and I know you’ll help her. All you have to do, just for a teeny-tiny second, is listen”

Vinyl’s claws descended, a swift, violent slash. They fell towards Pinkie, tearing through the air with dreadful silence. A single deadly stroke with a single, simple, bloody purpose.

Octavia blinked. The glow in her eyes dimmed. For a moment, she saw beyond the endless angelic music that filled every niche of her being. She saw Pinkie, sitting there with a smile, and she saw the mass of shadows. Time slowed, vicious talons moving in a slash that inched downwards. Far more than that, Octavia heard a voice. How could she not? She would know that voice anywhere.

‘Vinyl…’

She heard Vinyl screaming. Muffled and trapped, her voice silenced, Vinyl still tried. She saw what she was being forced to do and she hated it. She loathed it. She was afraid of it, because she didn’t have a voice. The darkness had stolen her form and her voice, taken her magic and her talent and twisted them into a weapon.

‘Vinyl!’

The world came into focus. The swelling tide, drawn from the entranced souls around her, had grown so great, the music so bloated with its own perfection that it had began to blot out everything else. So much power, and yet she felt helpless before a murder she couldn’t stop. Except, now, she could.

Her soul burned with the music of the Heavens. Perfect notes, all in harmony, reverberated through her soul, overwhelming and beautiful, but it was her soul. It was her soul, and it was her music. It was hers to play, to record and to teach, to write and recreate, and Octavia decided in that second that lasted a lifetime that it didn’t matter what the music thought. It was in her, and it would do what she wanted it to.

The shimmer didn’t so much as vanish as concentrate. The beautiful orchestra formed a single note that lashed out with invisible grace. Vinyl stopped, her talon captured moments from its grisly work. The hidden core of the unicorn’s essence didn’t have time to celebrate this turn of fortune.

Octavia’s hoof moved, and the music flowed once more. It was no longer the raw outpouring of influence, a thirsty drain capturing and controlling. She played with a single goal in mind, and a single intent for which no music was more perfect. Pure notes became waves of sound that rolled over the shadows clinging to Vinyl, emptying Octavia of all that pent up power. With each wave the darkness was stripped away. Foul magic shrivelled away. When at last Vinyl finally fell to the ground, her white fur was unblemished and untouched by a single mote of dirt. Nothing marred her as she sat there, too stunned for words. Only Pinkie’s sudden hug kept her from collapsing.

“W-whoa…” Vinyl mumbled. She stared past Pinkie, gaze fixed on Octavia’s no longer incandescent form. 

“It worked! It really, really worked!” crowed Pinkie with an excited giggle. She hugged Vinyl tightly. “Best friends always help best friends! Eeeeee, I’m so happy you’re okay!”

From her perch on the stage, Octavia smiled as she listened to that strange, much too loud, pink pony babble on. Babbling, perhaps, wasn’t that bad, she decided as movement was slowly stirred back into the released audience.

Octavia smiled again. For lack of a Pinkie Pie to hold her up, her knees buckled and Octavia finally, gracefully, slowly, fell to the floor. It was a warm, thoughtless darkness that waited for her, but where she was sure she should have felt a harsh thump from hitting the floor, Octavia heard nothing. Well, she heard a pair of worried gasps, but they were distant and hard to focus on.

“Shhh,” soothed a wise, motherly voice. Octavia forced her eyes open, catching a glimpse through the golden glow that held her up. Princess Celestia, tired but looking more alive than she had in weeks, smiled down at her. “Sleep, my little pony. You need your rest.”

‘Yes,’ agreed Octavia in the safety of her own head. Her blissfully quiet head. ‘I really, really do.’


***