“Hungry. So…hungry. Accursed Windigos.”
—King Sombra, shortly after being rescued.
‘Do you plan to stare into the fire all night, child?’
Octavia did not answer. The flames were still roaring strong, but she casually tossed another smashed piece of furniture into the fire. The remains of a bedpost snapped and popped as the blaze slowly consumed them, flooding the small room with a new wave of heat.
She had to keep the fire going. She had to keep it burning, keep in strong. If it wavered, even a little, then it would be catastrophic. The light had to stay bright. The room had to stay lit. The darkness was constantly threatening to take it over, and if the room fell—if she didn’t keep the darkness back—then her world would fall with it.
‘That is being rather dramatic, child.’
Octavia ignored the voice again, staring intently into the flames. She did not know what time it was, only that it was well past the witching hour. All the others had long since fallen asleep. They had agreed beforehoof to take turns keeping watch—despite reassurances that no pony would find them in Princess Platinum’s castle now—but the cellist did not see the logic in waking the others. She did not plan to sleep. Somepony had to make sure the fire did not go out.
The pressure in the back of the Earth pony’s mind shifted a little. Octavia had come to realize it was how the monster inside her laughed.
‘You need to sleep sometime, young one.’
She tossed another bit of fuel into the flames and watched it burn away.
“Octavia?”
In a flashed, the cellist was standing on all four hooves and facing away from the fire. She had dropped into a low fighting stance in less than a heartbeat, and a vicious glare now covered her face.
Was this it? Had he finally made his move? She was positive she had stayed awake, but just a moment of inattention could—
“Steady there,” a familiar voice said. Bon Bon stepped forward slowly. She hid it well, but Octavia could see little signs that the mare was ready to attack at a moment’s notice.
“Where did you learn that?” the cellist asked as she relaxed. She sat back down on her rump and turned back to watch the fire.
“Learn what?” The mare walked up and sat down next to her without a sound, another surprising skill she owned.
“I always assumed you were a candy maker, Bon Bon,” Octavia continued as the two gazed into the red and orange dance. “Lyra, I understand. She was always going on some grand escapade, and Equestria is filled with dangers in forgotten corners. But she is…rough, unrefined. A brawler, if a Unicorn can be called such a thing.”
“I’m usually the one doing the heavy hitting,” Bon Bon said with a wry smile. “Launching some creature through a window, and smashing somepony through an old wooden floor. You sure I’m not the brawler?”
“You know what I mean.”
“I do.”’
“How? And before you say that you simply picked it up travelling with Lyra, I know that is not the case. You have been trained.”
An odd smile crossed Bon Bon’s face as her eyes glazed over. She looked past the flames, into something that only she could see.
“I’m not surprised you spotted it,” she said after a few moments. “You’ve been trained too, but not like me. You know, I’m not supposed to tell anypony this, but considering you laid your darkest secret out there, I’m fairly certain I’ll be forgiven.”
For the first time in what felt like years, Octavia felt genuine curiosity wash over her. She turned to look at her friend, momentarily forgetting all of her own burdens, and waited.
“Lyra and I are kind of Princess Luna’s secret recon team.”
“You jest.”
“You don’t think it’s weird that we just happened to find you two out in the Frozen North, with no map and no idea that you were even out there?”
Octavia opened her mouth, and then stopped.
‘This mare has a point, it seems.’
“I…had not really thought about that,” the cellist conceded. “I suppose things have been happening too fast for me to truly notice, but you are correct. The odds of you two accomplishing what you did are beyond preposterous.”
Bon Bon let out a small laugh. “Yeah, Lyra has a knack for that usually, and not in a good way. But this time, we had help. Princess Luna was able to contact Vinyl before you two truly left the edge of Equestria. She told us about where you two were. We were already out there investigating…”Bon Bon paused for a moment and cleared her throat “Something that I probably shouldn’t talk about yet. But anyway, it was just a matter of following the tracks after Princess Luna told us.”
“The Princess…spoke to Vinyl?”
Bon Bon turned her head. “Yeah. Didn’t Vinyl tell you?”
Octavia hung her head.
“Oh.” Bon Bon was silent for a few moments, and then she sighed and turned to completely face her friend. “Look, Octavia. I don’t know what happened between you and Vinyl. Something about a bow, but I can tell there’s a lot more than just that. Something between you two broke.”
‘I like this mare. She does not hold back.’
“Be silent,” Octavia whispered, but when she saw Bon Bon’s scowl, she quickly added, “No, not you. My apologies.”
Bon Bon narrowed her blue eyes and then continued. “Whatever this is, whatever happened, you two can fix it.”
‘If she survives, and for that to happen, you need me.’
“Lyra and I have had our fair share of fights, but this is something different. You both were throwing yourselves into danger, saying you were doing it to protect the other one. But the fact is neither of you wanted this, right? Did you want Vinyl to end up nearly dead, kept alive by some monster’s magic?”
“No,” Octavia replied quietly.
“And I am certain Vinyl would never want you to be possessed like you are now. So ask yourself how you both got to this point? And then, ask yourself how you are going to make sure it never happens again, because this—” the mare gestured with her hoof around the room “—is not healthy. And I’m not just talking about being turned to stone, or beaten to an inch of your life, or possession. If you and Vinyl do not fix your relationship, it’s going to poison both of you.”
Octavia hung her head. Her body felt like it was back out in the frozen wasteland, bare against the elements. She felt tears dribble down her cheeks, but she made no effort to stop them. She simply sat there, staring at the stone floor and letting the liquid fall from her eyes in silence. Eventually she closed her purple eyes, both to give them a small rest and to force the tears out faster.
“This is all my fault,” she whispered finally. “If I had…if I had just told her everything from the start.”
“So why did you not?”
Octavia opened her mouth to answer, but the words caught in her throat. She knew the answer. She had gone over it a hundred times in her mind, but to say the words out loud would make them true. They would reveal the ugly part of her, the part she hated more than the monster currently residing within her. Sombra was something she could expel, something she could rid herself of, and she planned to do it the moment Vinyl was safe.
But the part of her that had caused all of this, the part of her that had failed not only as a friend but as a lover and mate, was a part of her own being. It lived inside her, and it was her own weakness that had created it. She had tried to push it down, to keep it back, hoping that if she did not acknowledge it, it would vanish.
But now she knew that had only given it power, and it had used that power to throw not only her life into chaos, but that of her friends, and her love.
“Octy? Why did you not tell me?”
“BECAUSE I DID NOT TRUST YOU!” Octavia screamed as she whipped around to face the white Unicorn standing at the edge of the firelight. “Are you happy now? Is that what you wanted to hear? Despite everything you have done for me, despite all the times you have stood up for me, been there for me, swore that you would never leave me, I still did not trust you.”
Vinyl took a step forward, her body seeming to glow in the firelight. “Did not trust me with what?”
“Not with what,” Octavia said, tears freely streaming from her eyes now. She buried her face in her hooves and shook her head as the cap on her emotions erupted. “I did not trust you to stay!”
The cellist slammed her hoof into the floor, causing the stone to crack. “Deep down, I knew how utterly insane that was. We have had our fights. Our relationship has been strained to the breaking point a few times even.”
Vinyl remained silent, simply staring at Octavia.
“But you, you fought through it all. Time and time again, you came back. You did everything you could to keep us together.”
“Even when you pushed me away,” Vinyl whispered.
“Exactly!” Octavia cried, fresh tears coming from her eyes. “You kept coming back. You wanted to be with me. You even saved my life in Manehattan. But after all that…”
“After all I did, it still was not enough?”
Octavia hung her head and shuddered. “I…do you remember what you said? When I finally told you?”
Vinyl lowered here sunglasses and shrugged. “If I recall correctly, I did not care.”
“Your exact word was, ‘So’.” Octavia let out a small laugh as she rubbed her cheek with her hoof. “It was so infuriating. I had just told you my darkest secret, the weight that my family has carried for generations, and you just brushed it aside. Years of living in fear and quiet shame, and you treated it like it was nothing.”
Vinyl shrugged and offered a smile. “What else would you expect of me?”
“Nothing,” Octavia whispered. “That is why I was upset with you. You did not care, despite the fact that, deep down, I knew you would not. In truth, part of me was ecstatic. You had just dismissed my fears, but the rest of me was…angry.”
“Awfully petty of you, Octy,” Vinyl replied with a sneer.
“I know,” the cellist whispered. “I think I always knew that you would react that way; not caring about family history or ancient curses. You live in the moment too much, and I love that about you. And I—”
“And that is why you think this is all your fault,” Vinyl finished for her.
Before Octavia could respond, the Unicorn continued.
“Well, I have news for you, Octavia. You are correct.”
“W-What?” Octavia blinked and looked up at her marefriend, only to find a dark scowl staring her down.
“This is all your fault. You knew I would not care. Like you said, I have literally risked my life for you. What more proof of my unconditional love could you need?”
“Vinyl, I—”
“She is right, Octavia,” Lyra added, suddenly appearing from the shadows. “Bon Bon and I have our fights, but we would never question our loyalty.”
“Certainly not,” Bon Bon added as she slid seductively up next to her wife. “And now, thanks to your selfishness, we are all out here, half frozen, barely conscious, and running out of food.”
“And all of our friends are dead,” Ice Air added as she and Snow Drift came forward, glaring down at the cellist.
“I did not—” Octavia started, but Vinyl stepped forward with a purposeful stride.
“You could not trust me to stay, despite everything I did for you.”
Octavia scooted back as her marefriend drew closer.
“Even when I went after that stupid bow, you still could not tell me the truth.”
“Vinyl, I…I…”
“You what? Were too scared? I faced down a gang, trekked through the Frozen North, and even watched ponies die! How do you think I felt during all of that?”
Octavia backed up again, pulling further away from the warmth of the fire.
“Oh, but that is right,” Vinyl continued, the sneer on her face warping into a look of disgust. “Tavi here only cares about how she feels. She did not care that I was hurting, or how scared I was, or how her friends wanted to be safe at home instead of chasing after her selfish flank out here. It is all about what she wants.”
Octavia wanted to back away, but she had back up against the castle’s wall. All she could do was cower as Vinyl towered over her.
“You see this, Tavi?” Vinyl stood up, and Octavia watched in horror as a gaping hole slowly formed in the Unicorn’s stomach. Blood flowed out of it, staining her white coat a dark crimson.
Vinyl smiled wickedly and reached into the hole with her hoof, covering it with blood. “This is your fault.” She smeared the blood across her face, laughing as she did. “I am dying because of you!”
“Stop! Please, Vinyl, stop!”
Vinyl froze for a moment, and a new twisted smile came to her face. She leaned down and slowly brought her face close to Octavia’s. “Oh, does the scared little demon daughter want a kiss? Will that make her feel better?”
Octavia tried to get away, but before she could move, Vinyl’s bloody lips were pressed against hers. She felt the liquid trickle down her face. She wanted to scream as it began to fill her mouth, but Vinyl refused to let her go. She felt a hoof caress her cheek and instantly felt her fur matting as the warm liquid mixed with her. A tongue forced its way into her mouth, pinning her own down so that more blood could flow in. Her eyes went wide as it began to gush down her throat, cutting off her air.
Finally, when she was certain the blood from her marefriend was going to drown her, Vinyl pulled away. The red liquid spilled from Octavia’s mouth and lungs like a waterfall, and she gasped for air as her insides burned.
“A little something to remember me by,” Vinyl said with a small laugh.
Octavia looked up to see a horrid sight. Blood was gushing from Vinyl’s mouth in rivers, flowing between her teeth and down her chin, adding to the pool that had already come from her stomach hole. She stood in a puddle of her own crimson fluid, her hooves soaked almost up to her ankles.
“Goodbye, Tavi,” the Unicorn said, turning so fast in the blood that it whipped up and splashed the cellist in the face.
“Where…? Vinyl, wait!” Octavia plead, but the Unicorn did not look back.
“Oh, do not worry, Octavia,” Bon Bon said, draping herself over Vinyl’s back and rubbing her hoof through the mare’s bloodied coat.
“We will take care of her,” Lyra added, kissing Vinyl on the mouth and coming back with a bloodied face of her own.
“Always wanted to tap that flank,” Bon Bon added, slapping Vinyl’s hindquarters and then giving them a solid squeeze. “She is too good for you anyway.”
“Vinyl, please!” Octavia screamed, no longer caring about her blood soaked body. Fresh tears of a despair mixed with the red liquid on her face, turning her elegant features into a grotesque sight.
“Good job, you Sombra slut,” Vinyl called as she disappeared into the darkness with the others. “You managed to do the one thing you were trying to avoid. Ha ha ha ha!”
Octavia stared in horror as the three ponies faded into the dark. She wanted to go after them, wanted to stand and chase them, or even just call out one more time for them to stop, but she could not. Her body felt heavy, and her hooves seemed glued to the floor. Blood bubbled up in her throat constantly, forcing its way out with each breath, robbing her of any chance to speak.
They are correct, she thought in anguish. It is my fault. All of it.
“Are we even better off after having met you?”
“Our lives were far from perfect, but they were better than this.”
Octavia turned to face Ice Air and Snow Drift. The two mares stood far away now, their eyes dark and their horns glowing with red magic. They looked thin, as if they had been starved for weeks and were only able to stand because some invisible force was holding them up.
“I was in the main resistance cell,” Snow Drift said, her voice echoing off the darkness. “It was cold, but it was better than life as a slave. Where do I go now?”
“You…you come back to Equestria,” Octavia stammered, forcing herself to speak despite the blood in her mouth and the tears in her eyes.
“We will never make it,” Ice Air cut in, her voice assaulting the cellist from seemingly everywhere. “Our only options are to freeze to death here—”
“—or go back to being slaves,” Snow Drift finished, her black eyes narrowing to slits. “I will never go back to being a slave. I would rather die.”
“It was not enough for you to kill your marefriend?”
“You had to kill us too?”
“No!” Octavia forced herself to stand, although the effort caused the bottom of her hooves to tear off. “Please! You must believe me! If we can reach Equestria—”
“If, she says,” Ice Air sneered.
“So you would have us freeze to death out there?” Snow Drift added. “I would rather take my chances here. Maybe we will go with the others.”
Both Unicorns looked at the ground, at the bloody trail Vinyl’s wound had left in the darkness, and smiled.
“Be seeing you, Master,” Ice Air said as she disappeared with a laugh.
Snow Drift simply looked at Octavia for a moment, and then she vanished as well.
“Ice Air?” Octavia called, terror creeping into her voice. “Snow Drift? Lyra? Bon Bon? Vin—” She hesitated to call the last name. Did she have the right to call out for her anymore, after everything she had done? Did she deserve to have those hooves touch her ever again, or have that coat nuzzle her neck while she slept? Did she warrant having those piercing red eyes look at her, and only her, after all of the trouble her selfish actions had caused?
“No…” the cellist whispered to herself. Vinyl was right to hate her. She had killed her. Lyra and Bon Bon were right to leave her behind as well. If not for her, they would no doubt be back home, sharing a nice walk or a warm bed. Of course Vinyl would want to go with them. They would treat her right, better than Octavia ever could. They would not lie to her, they would not hurt her, and they would love her. The D.J. would certainly be in better hooves with them than her.
So what if it felt like her heart had just been ripped out? So what if two of her closest friends had just walked out with her mare, fully intending to use her to their hearts’ content? So what if Vinyl had willingly gone with them, waving her flank one last time in Octavia’s face? So what if—
“Heh heh heh heh…”
Octavia’s head snapped up and she looked around. A few trots away, a fire burned in the darkness. That was right. She had to keep that fire going, otherwise the darkness would win. It did not matter that her friends and lover had abandoned her in this place. She still had to keep the fire going, even if only to save herself now.
Slowly, Octavia made her way toward the fire. She felt the warmth on her body as she drew close, but once she reached it and sat down to stare into the flames, the heat seemed to die, replaced with a chill that crept into her bones. She did not mind, though. As long as the purple flames stayed bright, she would be okay. She just had to make sure that they had plenty of fuel to burn.
“This should help,” a voice said, and suddenly her family’s heirloom bow was tossed into the flames. “You never cared for that thing much anyway.”
“Yes,” Octavia said as she sat down and held her front hooves out to the fire. The flames roared in the darkness as the Princesses’ hair burned to ash. “It has brought me nothing but heartache, it seems.”
“Heartache?” A pony sat down next to her in the darkness. Octavia turned to see who it was, but the pony was covered in shadows, as if the dark itself had latched onto its body. “If you mean by reminding you of your true birthright, your true power and how it was denied to you, then I can see it as heartbreak.”
“No, that is not—Vinyl left me because of that thing,” Octavia protested.
The dark pony next to her scoffed. “You are forgetting the important part of that sentence, my child. That mare left you.”
Octavia hung her head, new tears threatening to spill from her eyes. “Exactly.”
“Exactly,” the pony repeated. “She chose to leave you. You did not drive her away. She left you. Your friends left you. Even those two Unicorns left you. You did not drive them away. They chose to leave.”
“No, I did—”
“Were you not just thinking that exact thing?” the other pony cut in. “So what if Vinyl left? So what if she went willingly to be Lyra and Bon Bon’s little slut? Was your rage not building with those thoughts?”
Octavia opened her mouth, but then closed it again.
The fire burned brighter, pulling away part of the pony’s shadow cloak. A single red horn appeared on the mysterious pony’s forehead.
“You know whose fault this really is, do you not?” the pony asked, staring into the fire.
“Mine,” Octavia said, but as soon as the word left her mouth, she felt a twinge of anger in her mind.
“That is right,” the other pony said, a smile appearing where the mouth would be. “You know it was not your fault. You did not ask Vinyl to run off after that bow, did you?”
“No,” Octavia answered, the twinge getting stronger in her mind. “I did not.”
The fire burned again, revealing a grey face and flowing black mane.
“That is right, you did not. In fact, I believe you told her…”
“I told her to forget about it,” Octavia finished, narrowing her eyes as she stared at the purple flames. “I told her to stop, to come back home and forget the whole thing!”
“And did she listen?”
“No!”
The purple flames reached higher now, and Octavia saw two faint eyes looking at her from the pony’s shadow cloak.
“If she had just done what she was told! If she had just listened to me! If she had just gone back home like she was supposed to! But no! That stupid mare has to do things her way! She never does anything I ask of her! It is always her fault that—”
“Ha,” a single laugh echoed through the dark, and Octavia felt all the anger in her wither in an instant. She knew that laugh. It had haunted her constantly recently, and she knew it would likely haunt her for the rest of her days.
“YOU!” Octavia rounded on the pony sitting next to her. She jumped forward, slamming her whole body into the figure next to her, sending them both tumbling to the ground. Octavia struggled to keep herself on top, and when the rolling stopped, she pinned the pony to the ground by the throat.
“I do not know how you got out, but I am ending this now! I will not let you poison my mind any more!”
“I have done no such thing, my daughter,” a dark voice said from the darkness itself. A chuckle followed the words, and Octavia felt her entire body twitch with revolt.
“Liar!” the cellist shouted back, tearing off the dark cloak that surrounded the pony beneath her hooves. “I am going to smash that…No.”
A familiar face stared back up at Octavia, but it was not the one she was expecting.
“It seems you are more like me than you care to admit,” Sombra said as he strode into the purple light.
But Octavia could not tear her eyes away from the face staring up at her.
“No. No no no no no!”
Octavia found herself looking down at her own body. A blood red horn grew from her forehead, cracking her skin with magical energy that seeped from her wounds. Her purple eyes bled flames of the same color, and two crimson orbs floated among the sea of fire. They glared back up at her, adding to a menacing smirk that made the entire face horrifically alien and disturbingly familiar at the same time. The black mane flowed wildly behind the head, much like the Princesses’, but none of the elegant beauty came with it, instead replaced with a dark energy that threatened to swallow the entire world.
“I enjoy this part of you,” Sombra said, coming closer and looking playfully down at the twisted vision before Octavia. “It seems like it, at least, is aware of what you could be.”
“No! No, I’m not like this! I’m not, I’m not!” Panic was swelling in Octavia’s mind now, drowning out every other function save for the desperate need to prove Sombra wrong.
“Why don’t you just disappear, Octy?” the other Octavia said with a face that burned its way into the cellist’s mind. “No pony cares for you anymore. They all hate you.”
“No no no no! I’m not like you!” She jerked her head up to look to Sombra, whether for help or in defiance, she could not tell. “I’m not you!”
“Then perhaps it is time I was you instead!” the other Octavia said as the horn on her head glowed with magical energy.
“NO! NO NO NO NOOOOOOOO!”
Octavia screamed as the magic fired. She felt her grey coat burn away in a flash. She felt her skin blister and pop and then tear away. She felt her blood boil into vapor and her muscle tendons snap and break. She felt her bones melt, until finally her body could take no more and her head was blasted off, vanishing in a brilliant swirl of light and agony.
* * *
Octavia’s eyes snapped open. Immediately, she saw a pony looming over her and felt two hooves pressing down on her shoulders. Fear boiled up in her for a second, then it was drowned out by rage. She lashed out with her hind legs, putting as much strength behind the kick as her Earth pony body would allow. The blow caught the pony in the stomach, and for a moment the pressure on the cellist’s shoulders eased up.
Seizing her chance, the mare twisted her body, sweeping her hind legs out in a flurry to kick the other pony away and give herself some distance, but to her shock, she found her kick blocked. It slammed into the other pony’s foreleg, and while she felt a little give, the impact was not nearly enough to accomplish what she wanted.
“Octavia!” a voice shouted. Somewhere in the back of her mind she thought it sounded familiar, but she brushed it aside. She had to deal with this mysterious attacker—or more likely, Sombra somehow trying to take full control of her body.
She twisted her hind legs, wrapping them around the attacker’s foreleg in an instant. She then rolled to the side, taking the other pony with her. She put extra effort into the throw, making sure she combined her own inertia with gravity so that her attacker slammed into the ground, instead of just falling.
But once again, her attacker seemed to anticipate her move and rolled with the blow.
“Enough!” the familiar voice yelled, and a second later, Octavia found herself flat on her stomach, a hoof pressed firmly against the back of her head while two more were between her thighs, forcing her hind legs apart to an uncomfortable degree.
“Octavia, snap out of it!” the voice yelled. “I don’t want to hurt you! Fight him!”
“That is exactly—“ Octavia stopped struggling when she suddenly realized not only who the familiar voice belonged too, but that it was coming from the pony attacking her. “Bon Bon?”
“Are you back?” the other Earth pony asked, still pinning Octavia to the floor. “I mean, it’s really you in there, right?”
Octavia blinked a few times. “Yes. I…I believe so.” Instantly, the hoof on the back of her head disappeared and the pressure on her thighs with it. She shook her head and then slowly pushed herself up from the floor. “What happened?”
“You were having a bad dream, I think,” Bon Bon said, taking a small step back. Her blue eyes scanned Octavia for a moment, making sure that the cellist really was still sane. “You were mumbling in your sleep about stuff, and then you started screaming. I was trying to wake you up and, well…you kick pretty hard.”
A dream?
“I…fell asleep?”
“Yeah, almost as soon as we started talking about Vinyl.”
Octavia blinked in surprise. “But I…I cannot fall asleep! Bon Bon, how could you let me?”
“Because you were exhausted,” her friend replied, taking a step back as Octavia stepped forward in a small panic. “You know full well you can’t stay up on watch all night. That’s why we agreed to take shifts.”
“But…but I cannot! What if…? What if I am…what if he takes over?”
“Then we rip that thing out of your forehead and smash it into little pieces,” the candy maker replied, her face darkening. “I still think that sounds like a good idea anyway.”
‘Noted. I will have to be weary of this one.’
Octavia ignored the voice in her head and instead focused on her friend. “I fully intend to do that once we get back to The Crystal Empire, but…” Octavia hung her head, the images from her dream still fresh in her mind. “Bon Bon, I need you to promise me something. If…If I lose myself, if I lose control…”
“Don’t talk like that,” Bon Bon said, but Octavia quickly cut her off.
“If it happens, you must stop me! Sombra cannot be allowed to return!”
“That was the plan from the beginning, Octavia,” Bon Bon replied. “And if it comes down to it, Lyra and I will rip him out of you and smash him, and then we’ll find some way to save Vinyl without his help.”
‘Unlikely, pony, but I shall keep that in mind. She seems to be the biggest threat. Would you agree?’
Keep your voice to yourself!
“Besides, I don’t think you’re giving yourself enough credit, Octavia.”
“Bon Bon, you do not understand. I can feel him in my mind, slumbering in a dark corner—”
‘Slumbering? Do you make me sound like some uncivilized beast, child!’
“—like he is simply waiting, watching me for that one chance to take control. You did not see what he did to Keket. At the end, there was nothing left of her soul. It was all him!”
‘Oh, she was still in there, I assure you. Up until the very end. I can still hear her scream as I tore her mind apart when I left.’
“SHUT UP!” Octavia screamed, collapsing on the floor and clamping her forelegs over her head. “I hate you! I will never let you take me! I will sooner—”
“Octavia, calm down.”
A gentle cream-colored hoof touched Octavia’s head and she immediately felt her mind calm. Slowly, she raised her head and saw the smiling face of her friend staring back at her.
“Maybe you’re right. Maybe he is just waiting for the perfect moment, but I don’t think that’s entirely it.”
“But he—”
“You slept through the whole night, and you’re still you, right?”
Octavia’s mouth fell open. “The…whole night?”
“Yeah, look.”
Bon Bon raised her hoof and pointed toward the window. While it was nowhere near as beautiful—or bright—as back in Equestria, there was still the smallest hint of sunlight seeping in through the storm.
Stunned, she turned to look at the fire she had been so focused on keeping alive, only to find that it was little more than smoking ash with dying embers now.
In fact, Octavia suddenly noticed that she and Bon Bon were alone in the room they had all slept in. Lyra, Ice Air, and Snow Drift were nowhere to be seen. Panic immediately seized her. Had Sombra done something to them? What if she had done something to them? Or what if this was still a dream, and—
“It’s okay, Octavia,” Bon Bon said as she carefully put a hoof on Octavia’s shoulder. “They’re all safe. Even Vinyl.”
Octavia turned to where Bon Bon nodded and saw the familiar heartbreaking sight. Vinyl’s stone body was lying on the floor on the far side of the room. Octavia had taken extra care setting it over there the previous night. Sombra had promised her that, as long as he remained fused with her and she did not die, his magic would keep the Unicorn securely encased. While she was like that, nothing could hurt her, but Octavia still did not want to take any risks, so she had made sure Vinyl was far away from everypony else, just in case someone rolled onto her and broke her.
‘I keep assuring you, child. Your precious trophy toy is completely safe. Think of it as hibernation for her. Completely unaware of the world around her.’
“Tell that to Princess Amore,” Octavia hissed.
“What?” Bon Bon asked, cocking her head to the side.
“It is nothing,” the cellist responded.
‘Oh, so you know of her fate, do you? Yes, I am rather impressed with it myself. Sometimes I wonder what became of her. And whether she can feel her body, despite being in pieces. I imagine it must be excruciating if she can.’
“Well, now that you’re awake, let’s go find the others. Hopefully they managed to find something for us to eat,” Bon Bon said as she turned to leave the room.
“You need not wonder what it feels like much longer, monster,” Octavia said as she followed her friend at a distance. “You will share her fate. Once we arrive back in the Crystal Empire, I am going to make certain your precious little gem is smashed into fine dust.”
‘Curious that you choose the same painful demise that I used on that wretch. Perhaps inflicting pain is yet another trait we share?’
Octavia gritted her teeth, but said nothing as she focused her magic on Vinyl, slowly lifting her statue into the air before following Bon Bon.
The two mares trudged through the ruined castle’s hall in total silence, and much to Octavia’s relief, even Sombra did not seem to be in the mood for speaking. That gave her time to think, and she knew she needed plenty of it. She had no doubt that Sombra was telling the truth about Vinyl. He needed her to be safe, because the moment she was not, he was dead. Yet he did not seem very concerned with his approaching doom. Once they made it back to the Crystal Empire, Ocatvia knew there would be ponies who could save Vinyl’s life without the dark magic currently sustaining her, and once that happened, she fully intended to make good on her threat of smashing Sombra’s gem. For all his bargaining power at the moment, he was effectively her prisoner, and she was leading him to his execution, yet all he did was mock her.
He must be planning some scheme.
‘Of course I am, child. I would be a fool not to be. The question you must concern yourself with is, will you be able to stop me?’
I will. I will make sure your cursed blood never haunts my family again.
‘Seeing as my blood ends with you, I am not certain it will matter much. Or has Equestria found some way for a mare and her whore to bare a child? My, to think magic and science would come so far. Then again, it has been a thousand years.’
Vivid, private images flashed through Octavia’s mind.
‘You enjoy some interesting kinks, my dear. So you like control, do you? Heh. Tying her up like that, holding her down. Imagine what you could do if you could use magic like she can.’
‘Oh, you HAVE! Does she know about these fantasies? I must admit, that one is even more than I would—’
Stay out of my head!
Octavia clamped down on her mind and stray thoughts. She pictured herself slamming in door in Sombra’s face, and catching his hoof in it as she did. It must have worked, because she heard the beast let out a surprised yelp of pain before falling silent. She allowed a little smirk to come to her face as she continued to follow Bon Bon.
Eventually, Bon Bon led Octavia into a large room. Like so many other places in the castle, it was in tatters. No signs remained of lavish wealth that Princess Platinum no doubt had. Instead, there were cracks in the walls and dark stains on the floor. Smash chandeliers still rested on the ground, their twisted frames berift of any jewels or precious glass they may have once held. A few broken tables were pushed over to one side of the room next to a fireplace, no doubt having been used by the rebels—or perhaps even Princess Platinum’s servants long ago—for kindling against the bitter cold. While it was hard to tell now, Octavia could still see signs that the tables had been grand, stretching the length of the room, but now there was little more than boxes and stones arranged to look like meager dining spots.
Clang!
Octavia jumped and whipped her head toward the noise. There was a small room off to the side, and a faint glow was coming from it, along with other banging noises.
“Lyra!” Bon Bon called. “You okay in there?”
“Yeah,” came the familiar voice. “Although I won’t be held responsible for anypony’s wellbeing after this. Are the others back?”
“No, but Octavia’s up.”
“Is she still with us?”
“I am,” Octavia called, ignoring the chuckle in her head.
“Great. Just in time for…I think it’s breakfast, anyway.”
A moment later, the Unicorn came out of the small room. She was still covered in cuts and bruises, but she did not look nearly as haggard as yesterday. Still, Octavia could not help but notice that she was walking with a bit of a limp, and even her magic—supporting a massive black pot and several bowls—seemed to be dimmer than normal.
Lyra brought the pot and bowls over to one of the makeshift tables and set the pot in the middle, and then placed the bowls around it. Looked up and smiled at Bon Bon and Octavia for a second, and then bowed her head and held out her hoof.
“Breakfast is served, my ladies.”
“Great,” Bon Bon said as she walked over and sat down next to her wife. She took a hesitant look in the pot and then scowled. “What is it?”
“Snow Drift promised me that it was eatable,” Lyra said and she used her magic to fill her bowl and then Bon Bon’s. “She did not, however, vouch for the taste. Said we’ll get used to it.”
Octavia opened her mouth to grab the ladle, but before she could she felt the horn embedded in her forehead glow angrily.
‘You have magic, child. Do not debase yourself so!’
Octavia ignored the comment and took the ladle; carefully pouring whatever the liquid was into her own bowl. Steam rose from the dark brown liquid, and she was fairly certain she could see chunks of something floating in it, but she could not deny that the smell was unappetizing.
“What is this slop?” Bon Bon asked.
“Some sort of root veggie, mixed with a few spices and stuff,” Lyra said with a shrug. She blew on her soup and took put a little in her mouth. To her credit, she did not gag, but the look on her face did Octavia’s appetite no favors. “Look, everypony knows you’re the cook, yet you had me try to whip up breakfast.”
“I had…other things to take care of.”
Octavia did not miss the quick glance Bon Bon gave her, but she ignored it. Taking a deep breath, she took a small sip of her own bowl.
To Lyra’s credit, the taste was not horrible, but it did little to impress either. It was simply…there, sloshing around in Octavia’s mouth for a moment before she swallowed it. Next she tried some of the vegetable, but just like the soup, it had no flavor. She felt like she was eating paste.
“At least it is warm,” she offered, allowing the heat to spread through her body for a moment. “Where are Ice Air and Snow Drift?”
“They said they were going to check on the rest of the castle,” Lyra offered, taking another big bite of soup. She seemed to want to get it down as fast as possible. “Look for supplies and medicine, but I’m pretty sure that’s not what Snow Drift is hoping to find.”
Lyra’s golden eyes turned to Octavia, but the mare simply hung her head.
“Well, let’s hope they find something,” Bon Bon added, steering the conversation back on track. “Just getting back to that city is going to be a challenge, and if we don’t have any way of resupplying once we get there, Equestria may as well be a dream.”
The three ponies ate in silence after that, fully aware of what Bon Bon meant. They were injured, out of supplies, out of food, and out of funds. Snow Drift had found some more medicine last night and given each pony a bottle of it. It had helped dull the immediate pain, but just looking at her two friends was enough for Octavia to know they needed more. They needed proper rest, real food, and actual healing, and none of that could be found in this cursed castle. Their only chance was to make it back to Earth and try to find help there, but even that came with its own set of risks.
The sound of hoofsteps began to echo throughout the room. All three ponies froze, and then slowly turned their ears toward the noise. The only logical conclusion was that Ice Air and Snow Drift were coming back, but after everything that had happened, none of them were willing to let their guard down. They waited in silence, each one shift slightly to get a better angle of attack as the hoofsteps grew louder and closer.
“We’re back,” Ice Air called before she came into view. “Please don’t blast us or anything.” A moment later, her head poked out of another hallway, her purple face partly covered by her auburn mane.
“Just in time for breakfast,” Lyra said with a wave and a smile. “I did the best I could but…how did you ponies live on this stuff?”
“It’s all that really grows out here,” Snow Drift said as she appeared next to Ice Air. “Earth ponies know how to grow other stuff, but…we haven’t had a prisoner out here for a while, so…” Her eyes glanced at Bon Bon and Octavia for a moment, then quickly went to the floor as she followed Ice Air to the table.
Octavia noticed that the two mare each set full saddlebags down next to them before pouring themselves some breakfast.
“Did you two find anything?” Bon Bon asked, her eyes fixed on the saddlebags as well.
“Not as much as you’re hoping,” Ice Air said. She kicked her saddlebag and it jingled with something. “Snow Drift was right. All the food was in the kitchen, so there was none of that.”
“We were getting ready for another raid before…” Snow Drift trailed off as she took another mouthful of soup.
“Not much in the ways of medicine either,” Ice Air added. “Found some bandages, but that’s about it. I’m starting to think my little cave was better outfitted than this place.”
“Keket…changed after she found that,” Snow Drift whispered as she gestured toward Octavia’s forehead. “We all did. Food stopped being important, allies stopped mattering. Even the cause seemed…so small. I don’t understand what happened.”
“Sombra happened,” Octavia replied darkly.
“It was like…something else was in my head, forcing me to forget everything else that mattered to me. Only what it wanted was what mattered, and I…we all went along with it without question. It just seemed so right.”
‘It was not easy, controlling that many while I am in such a state. It took months of simply feeding off of Keket’s hatred before I could even form words, let alone speak to her. Damn Windigos.’
No pony asked you.
“Octavia? Can I…ask you something? Or, can I ask him something?”
The entire room froze at Snow Drift’s question. Lyra and Bon Bon shot each other a look before focusing completely on the cellist. Ice Air inhaled sharply and took a step back from the makeshift table, and Octavia herself found that she was holding her breath. There was no way Snow Drift could still hear Sombra’s thoughts, was there? He did not have the poor Unicorn still under his spell, correct? No, it was impossible. He had almost made Octavia kill her yesterday.
But then, what if that had all been a ploy? What if he had never planned on actually letting it happen, and simply used the event as a way to ingrain Snow Drift into their good graces? What if she was waiting for the right moment to strike, working under Sombra’s control to help him regain his full power?
‘My, you have a vivid imagination. So…what do you plan to do? If what you fear is true, then perhaps you should destroy her now. Leave her body here to rot along with her friends.’
Octavia forced herself to swallow; and ignore Sombra’s taunt.
“First, I must ask you something, Snow Drift,” the mare answered. She looked straight at the other mare, trying to see past her eyes and into her mind. She stared in silence for what felt like a lifetime, looking for something she could not even begin to describe.
It was not until Snow Drift started to fidget and look away that Octavia asked her question.
“What do you plan to do now?”
The white colored pony opened her mouth, but then she closed it and hung her head. She was a far cry from the arrogant prisoner that had guided them to this place before.
“Um…I don’t know,” she replied before looking back at Octavia and matching her stare. “That kind of depends on my question, I guess.”
“This is ridiculous,” Lyra interrupted as she shook her head. “She’s coming with us, right? Ice Air, you’re coming back to Equestria, right?”
“If Octavia orders me to,” the Unicorn answered.
Octavia’s ear twitched at the cowed tone in Ice Air’s voice. Ever since she had seen Octavia lose control yesterday, she had slowly been crawling back into her shell. The cellist made a mental note to talk to her later and tell her there was no reason to treat her differently.
“Orders you to?” Lyra rolled her eyes at the suggestion. “We’ve been over this already. You’re not her property. If you want to come, you can. And besides, you already said you wanted to, right?”
Ice Air nodded, not taking her eyes off of Octavia.
“There, see?” Lyra turned back to Snow Drift. “She’s coming, and you’re coming too. This place is horrific and—”
Bon Bon put a hoof on Lyra’s outstretched foreleg and gently brought it back down to the table. “Easy, Lyra. Ice Air had her choice. Snow Drift gets one too.”
“But why in Celestia’s sweet mane would she—?”
“Because this is still her home.”
Lyra sighed collapsed on her hindquarters, crossing her forelegs and pouting as she did. Octavia knew she was right, of course. Only a mad pony would willingly stay in this land, so the fact that Snow Drift hesitated seemed completely insane, but Bon Bon had a point. And up until now, no pony had bothered asking for Snow Drift’s opinion. The only reason she was even here was because they had forced her to come.
“Okay, Snow Drift, what did you wish to ask me?” Octavia asked.
“My…my friends. What happened to them? I know that…thing on your head took control, but what did he do?”
‘I doubt you want to hear the full explanation, my child, so let me say this: it is an ancient ability that I posses from before my time in The Crystal Empire.’
“This monster has always had the ability to influence and control ponies’ minds. He once managed to seize an entire empire back in our land.” Octavia felt a smile come to her face as she added, “In fact, you could say that is what caused his current situation.”
Octavia smiled again as she heard the voice in her head scoff.
“So then…did everypony turn to stone in that place too?”
“No,” Octavia answered shortly.
‘I simply banished them from this realm for a thousand years is all. Ha ha ha!’
“So what happened here?” Snow Drift asked, her eyes glazing over and wandering for a moment as if she was trying to see every single stone pony in the castle.
Well?
‘Well what?’
Do not play coy now, beast. I know you are relishing this. Now answer the question, or I will—
‘Yes, yes, I know. Your threats grow meaningless, my child, if you never follow through with them.’
Just answer!
Octavia listened as Sombra explained the petrification, and then relayed the answer to Snow Drift.
“It had to do with the mind control. He was too weak to use it normally, so he had to put a bit of his essence into it. A little piece of him settled into every pony’s mind and he…he fed off of their hatred, making himself stronger.”
You are nothing more than a parasite!
“And when Keket finally allowed him to fuse wit her fully…” Octavia trailed off for a moment. She noticed that not only was Snow Drift staring at her in rapt attention, but so where her other companions. It made her uncomfortable, but she pressed ahead. “When that happened, he yanked all of his essence back. Doing so caused a surge of magic that turned all of them to stone.”
‘Truthfully, that was always the plan. I knew that, even with your body, I would not be strong enough to fight my way out of this castle. Not after I killed their leader.’
A failsafe then. You truly deserve to be buried in the snow and ice, lost to the ages.
‘Are you not going to tell her that part? I would love to see the expression on her face.’
Octavia remained silent.
“Is…is there a cure?” Snow Drift asked, her ears tipping up just a little. “Can you undo what he did?”
‘Ah, so that is what she was getting at. I see, I see. Oh, you need not worry so, dear child.’
I am not worried!
‘We share the same mind now, Octavia Melody. I can sense your apprehension. You worry that there is a cure, that Snow Drift will ask you to release her friends from their stone tombs, and then you will be surrounded once more by enemies. Fret not. I can assure you they are all quiet dead. When I pulled my essence out, I broke their minds as well. And even if they had survived that, this is not the same stone spell I used on that wretched Princess. I am much stronger now. I made sure they did not survive, and I made sure they felt every last agonizing moment as their hearts stopped and the blood in their veins turned to rock and the air was forced from their lungs!’
“SILENCE!” Octavia screamed, clamping down on her head with her hooves and burying in face in the table. She could feel Sombra’s laughter echoing in her mind. She shared his sick joy as he vividly recalled the terrible death he had bestowed on all the rebels and it made her want to tear her flesh off. She was not like this, not like him!
“Um…Miss Octavia?”
The grey pony’s head whipped up and she glared at Snow Drift. “I am not like him! Do you hear me? It was his magic!”
Snow Drift yelped and fell backward at the sudden verbal outbreak. Octavia lunged toward her, her eyes wide.
“I did not do it! He killed them! Not me! Do you understand? I had—”
“Octavia!”
Suddenly Octavia felt her entire body floating in the air. Her vision cleared and she realized she was looking down at a terrified Snow Drift and a scowling Bon Bon and a grimacing Lyra. The mint green Unicorn’s horn was glowing, but it was clear that the effort of suspending Octavia was too much strain for her wounded body. A second later, her magic fade and the cellist dropped the small distance to the floor.
“I…I am…” Octavia stammered. She wanted to comfort Snow Drift, but the fear in the mare’s eyes told her to stay away. Instead, she hung her head and tried to steady her breathing.
“You still with us, Octy?” Lyra asked wearily as Bon Bon slipped between her and Octavia, the same scowl still on her face.
“Yes,” the cellist answered, her head still low. “I apologize for my outburst.” She raised her head and looked at Snow Drift, who had scooted closer to Ice Air. “I am sorry, Snow Drift, but your friends are gone. The magic Sombra used…it was not meant to sustain them.”
Tears came to Snow Drift’s eyes, but they refused to fall. She blinked them away after a moment, and then stood up. She slowly walked back toward the table, but she refused to look at Octavia as she did. “I thought that might be the case. I guess I should thank all of you then. If you hadn’t captured me, then…” She trailed off as she sat down, staring into her soup.
“What about Vinyl then?” Ice Air suddenly asked. Octavia turned to look at the statue of her lover, gently resting in the corner, away from any accidents or careless bumps.
“Different magic,” Octavia replied. “That is what this whole thing is about. He needs me, needs the magic—his magic—in my blood to regain himself. He is using her as leverage.”
“How do you know he’s not lying?” Bon Bon asked, still standing protectively in front of her wife. “What if—”
“He is not!” Octavia replied, a little louder than she meant to. She took a calming breath before she continued. “I can…sense Vinyl in there. It is weak, and I fear what will happen when I finally rid myself of this monster, but for now she is still alive.”
‘And she will stay that way, as long as you fulfill your end of the deal.’
Octavia ignored the comment and looked at Snow Drift. “So will you come with us, Snow Drift? I do not see much of a life left for you here.”
“Unicorns rarely have much of a life here to begin with,” the pony answered as she took a small bite from her breakfast. “And it seems I have even less than that now. I will go to this Equestria with you, if you will take me.”
“Good,” Ice Air replied, sitting down next to the snow colored Unicorn and giving her a small hug. “We can be strangers together there. I just hope we can somehow manage to get enough supplies for the five of us to make it.” She looked at the other four ponies and shook her head. “Like we said earlier, this castle’s pretty bare.”
“Right, no food and no medicine,” Lyra said, her ears drooping little as she steered the conversation back to the original topic. “What about winter gear? Coats, boots? Surely living out here means there were plenty of those?”
It was true. Out of all of them, only Snow Drift’s outfit remained mostly in tact, and it was nearly in tatters. The battle had reduced their warm winter attire to little more than scraps of fabric, and that would not protect them once they went outside.
“A few blankets and cloaks, but it won’t get us far. Not far enough to where I found you, anyway,” Ice Air said.
Octavia thought back to when she had first met Ice Air, in battle in the middle of the Frozen North. Vinyl, Glint, and herself had already been marching for over a day when that had happened, and then…
“Ice Air, how far did you take me?” Octavia asked.
“Carried you through the snow for two days,” the Unicorn replied. “I hit you harder with that spell than I meant to.”
“Two days…” Octavia whispered. That meant that they were going to spend at least three days trekking through nothing but sheer blizzard. They would need to get better clothes, or face death by exposure.
“So what did you two find?” Bon Bon asked with a frown.
“Every last bit of wealth from Keket’ resistance,” Ice Air said, tapping her saddlebag with her hoof. “We should be able to get some gear and food with this stuff.”
“Trinkets, jewels, bits,” Snow Drift said as she took another sip of her breakfast. “Anything of value we could get off of our prisoners. Ransom helped too.” A small, sad smirk came to the Unicorn’s face. “Of course, we didn’t always return them alive, but…”
Octavia pushed the dark thoughts from her mind. “Okay, so we need to get back to the city, get ourselves sorted, and then get back to Equestria. Does anypony have any suggestions?”
“What do you mean?” Lyra asked, pushing her bowl aside and deliberately not looking at the pot. “Seems pretty straight forward to me. I mean, that wealth is still worth stuff back in the city, right?”
“And who is going to sell to a group of three real Unicorns, one Earth pony that looks like a Unicorn, and an Earth pony traveling with them that looks like she just got the stuffing beaten out of her?” Bon Bon asked with a raised eyebrow. “We walk into any store right now, and the entire city guard will come down on us.”
“Right…” Lyra said as she hung her head.
“We’ll need disguises,” Snow Drift said.
“And Snow Drift and I think we have the perfect ones.” Without another word, she reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a few metal rings. She held them up with her magic. “Magic collars. They’re broken, see?” She slipped one onto her horn, but the magic did not immediately snap off. “We used them all the time to sneak in and out of the city. Put one of these things one, and you’re just another slave.”
‘Such a little toy would never contain my power, even if it was functional. You have nothing to fear.’
I am an Earth pony by birth, Octavia thought back darkly. I have been making due without magic my entire life.