On a dark day, one may wonder: just what horrors lie beyond the veil of the heavens? What ghastly demons exist that could only spawn in a pony's dreams? What terror!? What blight in the face of all that is good!? What- wait, it's the Mane Six?

What sort of twisted reality contains a lycan Applejack, a vampiric Fluttershy, a ghostly Rarity, and a lich queen Twilight Sparkle, you may ask? Why, it's just the Nightmare Realm, existing one and a half dimensions below and above the normal Equestria, and they are sick and tired of Nightmare Night not living up to its name in the 'real' world.

However, are these nightmares truly nightmares, or do they just like a good scare? Why, it depends on who you're talking to! So sit tight, give way to fright, for coming soon is Nightmare Night!

Rainbow Dash flies east.

Every pony in Equestria knows the names Octavia Philharmonica and Vinyl Scratch. Every musician in Equestria knows and reveres their talent and most semi-jokingly complain that Octavia and Vinyl's relationship should count as a monopoly on musical talent. Very few know their early story, years ago when Octavia had only just left Canterlot Conservatory and Vinyl was... well, being Vinyl.

"They take da' pain out, make it somethin' good, somethin' good. Wear yer' blues well, colt, you gonna earn every drop of em'. Yer' gonna be tangled up in blues," the old stallion told Blues, presenting him with the saxophone.

Blues himself tells us of his life after that day and as he explores what it means to be "painted blue"; to hope, to fear, to love, to lose. He tells us as he learns what really makes a stallion a stallion, what it's like to leave something you love behind, and what risks one must face in life or risk becoming nothing at all.

All of this, Blues tells us, takes place against the background of critical moments in his life and as he travels the scope of Equestria from Manehattan to Ponyville and Appleoosa. All the while the songs he learns from his pain mingle with the one his mentor, Moody Blues, revealed within him...something unbelievable the old pony did to bring it forth.