Octavia had never once asked about where Vinyl Scratch had gotten the meat to satiate her ravenous hunger. Frankly, she really hadn't wanted to know. Unfortunately, it wasn't long after the cellist's much needed wash in the slightly rancid stream that she got her answer anyway.
Octavia smelled them before she saw or even heard them. The stench made the monstrous mare pause, but that was all she'd had time to do. The noises came just as she was processing that something was wrong. Slow, guttural clicks that somehow sounded wet to her ears. The disturbing sounds rose up from somewhere ahead of her and Vinyl, bouncing off the rocky walls on either side of them and carrying much too far and too loudly for Octavia's liking.
She opened her mouth, not sure if she was going to gasp or shriek or ask Vinyl what in Celestia's name that was. The grotesque clicks increased in number, speed, and volume before she could do any of those things. In a matter of seconds, the once unnatural silence was gone and the entire ravine echoed with the noise.
Octavia watched, wide-eyed and horrified as slimy, hairless things started emerging from the shadows. First there was one of them, then two, then five, and they didn't stop there. They crawled out from behind boulders and from beneath sparse, dry underbrush with rake-like claws and much too long and lanky limbs. They skittered down the cliff faces from above, their bulbous, fleshy bodies hidden from view by the relentless darkness pressing down on the ravine from up high.
Bulging, bioluminescent eyes protruded from their vaguely reptilian skulls like sickly yellow suns. Long ropy grey tongues hung from their slavering maws and, despite the pervasive darkness, Octavia could clearly make out vicious fangs dripping with foul black ichor. The disgusting creatures continued to spawn from the shadows one after another, crawling and slithering and scuttling on all fours.
When all was said and done, the terrified cellist counted several dozen of the wretched flesh-things barring their path forward. She might've become a monster in her own right, but Octavia had no experience dealing with this kind of horror. She'd never been into those kinds of picture shows or campfire stories like Vinyl Scratch. While normally not one to shy away from a tough situation, she'd been a mare of perfect poise and noble upbringing.
This nightmare was so far out of Octavia's wheelhouse that she couldn't help but laugh. It was a manic thing born of helpless terror and more than a little madness, but she thankfully managed to cut it off almost as soon as it rose from her throat. Fighting against an encroaching mental break, Octavia swallowed, took a slow step back, and turned to her longtime friend and roommate without taking her eyes off the creeping, clicking horrors.
“V-Vinyl?”
That was it. That was all Octavia could think to say in the face of her situation. It wasn't much, and the quiet rasp barely reached her own ears, but the reborn mare put every ounce of her fear, confusion, and desire for assistance in dealing with the threat into the name she spoke. Fortunately for her, that was all Vinyl Scratch needed to hear to understand.
“Yeah, this ain't good,” Vinyl muttered in response. She grimaced at the sight of the creatures before them. “Might've stirred things up a bit too much while I was out, uhhh... foraging for food.”
“Foraging for...” Octavia's face twisted in bewilderment for a second, then she finally tore her terrified gaze from the beasts to look at her friend in shocked disgust, her face going pale, “...no, you can't mean you... th-that I just—that they were what I just—”
“No time,” Vinyl quickly interjected, “look, these things might look scary, but they're actually cowards. Opportunists. They only attack in numbers and when they think they can win, but the moment you prove you're the stronger predator, they flee like frightened rabbits.”
As Vinyl Scratch spoke, her eyes burned a brighter crimson and Octavia suddenly noticed fangs she only just now realized hadn't been there a moment ago. A feral grin crossed the now monstrous unicorn's face as she adopted a threatening crouch. She looked to the stunned earth pony like a manticore getting ready to pounce on its prey as she eyed the things that had been edging ever closer this whole time.
As if to prove Vinyl's point, the slimy beasts paused at the sight of her baleful gaze and lowered stance. Octavia couldn't tell for sure, but she got the impression that the creatures suddenly looked... uncertain. Their grotesque clicks sounded more... hesitant. It might've just been her imagination, but the mare didn't think so. Vinyl spoke again before she could dwell on the matter too long.
“In this case, you gotta strike before they do—catch 'em off guard,” the DJ growled, her voice suddenly husky and dangerous, “sorry in advance, Tavi, but I'm about to go a bit wild here. You might not like what you're about to see, but I need you to ignore it and book it past here the moment they scatter.”
“What? Wait, but I—” Octavia's voice caught in her throat and she paused. She found her eyes wandering back to the fleshy monsters. Seeing her like this, Octavia had no doubt that Vinyl Scratch could take care of herself, but she still couldn't help but worry—both about herself and her friend. She understood what she had to do... but still, “...what about you?”
“I'll be right behind you, don't worry,” Vinyl replied, flashing a confident grin that looked more like a bestial snarl, “just... try not to trip over your own hooves once you take off. Got a lot more strength in those legs now, y'know?”
Octavia wanted to argue the matter more, but knew Vinyl's plan was a solid one, assuming she was right about them and could keep them at bay long enough to make them flee. She was also too late in any case. As they talked, the creatures started in on them again, their movements slow and cautious. Before they could take more than a single step and before Octavia could say anything else, Vinyl Scratch made her own move.
She shot off like greased lightning towards the flesh-things, the unicorn gone from Octavia's side before she could blink. By the time the earth pony whipped her head back around to the clicking beasts, Vinyl was already laying into them. She could only watch in horrified fascination as her laidback, layabout roomie of several years viciously and mercilessly ripped the flesh-beasts apart. She tore into their viscous fleshy hides like Octavia had not so long ago.
Frantic clicking turned to angry screeching as the creatures swarmed Vinyl. They bit at her with dripping fangs and clawed at her with raking talons but the mare didn't relent. The unicorn was a machine, ripping literal chunks out of the horde with her own fangs and pulping heads, torso, and limbs with each powerful blow of her hooves. She took each strike against her in stride, ignoring them outright as her torn and punctured flesh regenerated at a speed that outpaced the horde's attacks.
Despite her true, monstrous nature, Vinyl Scratch was still a unicorn, and thus had access to magic. Octavia knew this and had expected her to use it, but her friend seemed to be content with physical brutality. Given what she was doing to her adversaries, Octavia couldn't find it in her to blame the other mare. She clearly had no need for the more arcane option, and if Octavia was being truely honest with herself... she was beginning to see the appeal.
There was a primal satisfaction she felt somewhere deep within her watching Vinyl systematically dismantle each and every one of those crawling horrors. Her fear waned as the fight went on, turning to something close to visceral joy as she began to imagine herself in Vinyl's place. The longer Vinyl Scratch fought, the more she could see it. She could almost feel her fangs biting into soft flesh, rendering it asunder, the red meat and succulent juices filling her mouth.
She could almost taste it all, swallowing it down and feeding her insatiable hunger even as she smashed into their reptilian skulls with her own hooves. It was a tantalizing thought—intoxicating even. Somewhere off in the distance she heard her stomach growl. The world around her was growing hazy but the massacre in front of her was thrown into sharp relief. Octavia was panting now, her breath coming in ragged, needy gasps. She took one step forward, then another, her hooves seemingly moving of their own accord.
She wanted it. She want it so badly. To rend the flesh. To break the bone. To feed and feed and feed until her stomach was full to bursting. She was so close. They were right there. Right. There. All she had to do was—
With terrified screeches that shook the stagnant air, the horde broke and ran. What creatures remained fled in all directions. Some scurried into the underbrush but most took to rocky walls, using their long talons to quickly scale the cliffsides. The sight made Octavia falter long enough for Vinyl to cut through her haze of violent madness. The unicorn was still wrestling with a few stragglers when her crimson eyes caught Octavia's. She didn't say anything but the message in her gaze was clear.
Run.
Octavia hesitated, but only for a moment. She had no idea what had come over her, and knew full well she'd need to unpack what just happened sooner rather than later, but not now. Now she was in her right mind once again and that meant listening to her friend and following the plan. The creatures had scattered just as Vinyl predicted and it was time to go. The earth pony ignored the intrusive voice in her mind telling her to finish what Vinyl started and took off at her fastest gallop.
The mare very nearly did trip over her own hooves as she raced past Vinyl Scratch and the remaining monsters. To her astonishment, she'd cleared the distance in the blink of an eye—almost literally from what she could tell. The world blurred as she sped down the only path ahead of her. She weaved her way past towering boulders and over minor crevasses that'd opened up in the ground with an almost effortless grace she'd never had in her previous life.
The obstacles—which she'd realized earlier were likely a result of the world tearing itself apart—were barely slowing her down. She hadn't even broken a sweat yet. It wasn't long before her shock turned to exhilaration, the simple act of moving becoming a rush unlike anything she'd felt before. At some point—Octavia wasn't sure how long it had been—she heard Vinyl's voice from somewhere behind her calling her name.
Looking back, she saw a small speck of white rapidly closing the distance. It was Vinyl, and unlike Octavia, who'd chosen to dodge past the giant rocks, Vinyl Scratch simply leapt atop them, hopping from boulder to boulder at a clip that outstripped even Octavia's ludicrous pace. Mere seconds after spotting her, Vinyl took one final leap and landed next to her friend, smoothly transitioning into a gallop that matched the earth pony stride for stride.
“Hoo boy! That was wild, huh?” Vinyl grinned at Octavia, not sounding winded in the least as she ran. Her grin didn't last long and a concerned frown replaced it a second later as she continued. “You okay, though? Looked like you went a little crazy back there at the end.”
“I'm fine,” Octavia replied, surprised to find that her voice and breathing were both fairly steady as well, “Well... I'm fine now, but what was that, Vinyl Scratch? You know something about it, don't you? What happened to me?”
“Yeah... well, maybe,” Vinyl conceded with a pensive frown. She paused a moment to gather her thoughts, then spoke. “When you first woke up, you were on death's door and starving. Your initial reaction back then was only natural for our kind. This reaction could have been the lingering remnants of that initial frenzy... but I don't think that's the case.”
I returned her pensive frown with a concerned frown of my own. “What do you mean?” I asked, “Are you saying this doesn't normally happen? Maybe some... I don't know. Some symptom of the recently turned? I've never read them myself, but I've been told that happens sometimes in those vampire stories.”
“We're not vampires, Tavi,” Vinyl replied in a rare display of seriousness, “and those are just stories anyway. No, it doesn't work that way with us. I don't remember a lot about myself, but I do remember how our race works... mostly. I at least know that turning another creature into one of us is rarely done, if ever. Too many risks, though I can't remember why or what kind.”
“I see. That's... more than a tad concerning,” Octavia replied, her frown deepening as worry set in. She tried to shove aside the questions Vinyl couldn't answer and press on with the topic at hoof. “What do you think is going on then?”
The DJ said nothing in response for a bit as the two ponies rounded a jagged bend in the path. The turn ended in an incline that wasn't quite steep, but not exactly slight either. Several massive rocks piled up near the bottom and Octavia could see the anemic trickle of another stream trying to push its way past the blockage of stony debris. It was an easy feat for her and Vinyl to make their way up and over the boulders and they did so without slowing down.
The incline evened out a short distance ahead and the two powerful mares had to keep to one side of the deep ravine as the trickle widened into more of a proper river. The water was still relatively foul and the plant life dry and mostly withered, but as they pressed on, they saw more and more evidence of nature around them. To Octavia, it felt like progress, even if neither of them knew where they were headed in the end.
“I think... it might have something to do with this place—the world, I mean. How it changed,” Vinyl finally explained after some time. She raised her eyes to the black nothingness above them both, “my memory might be shot, but... I don't think my world was like this when I was last here. All these shadows and the looming darkness is bad enough, but there's something in the air.”
She trailed off for a long moment, just staring up at the bottomless void above. Octavia waited for her to speak again, opting not to look herself. Every time she looked at where the sky should've been, the utter nothingness above made her shudder. Eventually, Vinyl shook her head and focused on the path ahead as she continued.
“At first, I thought it was something about Ayafern's atmosphere that changed you, but after giving it some thought, I'm not so sure,” she said, her tone slow and thoughtful, “I can feel that this is Ayafern, but there's a... a haze hanging over everything—or maybe it's more like fog after a heavy rain,” she grunted in frustration, “whatever it is, it wasn't here before, I'm sure of it. I can't really explain it, but I think that invisible fog might be what started changing you and it's that change that's having a lingering effect on your mind.”
“A fog, you say?” Octavia looked around, but couldn't see any fog. Perhaps her senses weren't keen enough yet. Vinyl had apparently been the creature she was since birth, unlike Octavia who'd been turned. Maybe that gave her naturally stronger senses she used to see the unseen. “I can't see anything like that, and I feel fine now,” she turned back to Vinyl Scratch, “are you quite certain it's nothing to do with my changes?”
She trusted Vinyl Scratch, despite everything, but she still felt the need to ask. As she expected, Vinyl Scratch just shook her head again and tapped her nose with a hoof, her stride unbroken. “I'm sure, Tavi. It's not something you can see really. It's closer to a smell, though not quite that either. Like I said, it's hard to explain. But the, uh... scent for lack of a better word, it stinks of madness and bloodlust and odic energy. Took me some time to figure that out, but... yeah.”
“Odic... energy?” Octavia tilted her head in confusion at the unfamiliar term, “what is that?”
“Right, guess you wouldn't know, would you?” Vinyl chuckled awkwardly, “Od, or odic energy, is... well, you can think of it as Ayafern's version of mana. It's what conjurers use to cast their conjurations—like mages with spells. Get it?”
“Yes, that's a simple enough concept to grasp,” Octavia nodded, “so if I'm understanding your hypothesis correctly, you believe this 'invisible fog' is what caused my initial transformation, and—though incomplete—you believe that change has allowed this pervasive madness into my mind?”
“More or less,” Vinyl confirmed, “I'm pretty sure my intervention kept most of whatever this is from affecting you, so we're probably good for the most part. You... might have some relapses from time to time, though, like before,” she somehow managed to shrug as she ran, “mind you, this is all pure conjecture here. I have no idea how any of this works because I don't know where this is stemming from.”
“I understand,” Octavia replied, “but this does raise more concerns. Namely, if this fog is everywhere, then what happened to everypony else? Did they transform? Are they vicious bloodthirsty monsters like those things back there?” her face suddenly went pale as another thought struck her, “Sweet Celestia... were those other ponies?!”
“Nah, I don't think so,” Vinyl replied, unperturbed, “pretty sure, those were local beasties. Natural ambush predators from Ayafern. Something tells me we'll know a changed pony when we see one,” Vinyl blinked, then frowned, her ears and nose twitching, “speaking of ambush predators...”
Octavia wasn't nearly as convinced as Vinyl Scratch seemed to be, but it turned out she didn't have time to argue. It took a moment for her to pick up the familiar scent, but pick it up she did. It was a stink she wouldn't soon forget. The smell was bad enough, but then the clicking came, the sound resounding throughout the ravine. It came from every dark corner. Every direction. Behind, ahead and above.
The lack of air resistance made the eerie clicks and screeches plenty audible even as the two ponies tore across the ravine at impossible speeds. It was long before Octavia spotted the telltale glow of those buggy yellow eyes peeking at the two ponies from just about every angle further up ahead. Her already racing heart sped up another notch as a deep shriek loud enough to shake the earth and vibrate the bones suddenly erupted from somewhere further behind them.
“Vinyl?” Octavia squeaked in a voice several octaves higher than normal, “Vinyl, what was that?”
“Aaand this is why we didn't stick around,” VInyl muttered before replying out loud as she studiously keeping her eyes eyes forward, “just try not to look back and don't stop mov—”
VInyl turned to see that her friend was already watching the path they'd come from with a look of terrified anticipation. The unicorn swore and turned to look behind her as well. At first, they could see nothing, but Vinyl Scratch could feel the earth trembling beneath their pounding hooves. Another second passed. More trembling. And then a veritable tidal wave of pink flesh, bulging yellow eyes, slavering jaws, and long, flashing talons burst forth from the darkness, tearing down the ravine after the pair.
As if that hadn't been horrifying enough, a massive pair of luminous golden eyes descended from the shadows above the tide, the orbs shining like twin suns in the sky. Slimy, flesh covered limbs half the length of the Friendship Express reached down the cliffside to join the rest of the horde in its pursuit. The titanic horror that emerged from around and above the bend didn't seem to care if its gargantuan claws crushed the much smaller beasts beneath it.
The looming abomination of viscous flesh and and rending claws and dripping fangs only had eyes for the prey in its sights.
“Oooohhh no,” Octavia whimpered, “oh no. No no no no...” She turned away, unable to bear the sight of what lay behind them.
Thankfully, Vinyl Scratch and Octavia were fast enough to keep ahead of the horde. Unfortunately, what awaited ahead of them wasn't much better. The appearance of the massive monstrosity behind them had made Octavia forget all about the ambush waiting before them. More of the slimy creatures leapt at the galloping ponies from the cliff face with talons outstretched, clicking and screeching all the while.
Before Octavia could inhale a breath to scream in terror, a magenta glow encased the closest of the beasts and every one was crushed and tossed aside not a second later. The path now clear, the two ponies continued onward unimpeded for the moment. It took a second for Octavia to process what had happened, but when she finally did, she turned to Vinyl Scratch, astonishment written clear across her face. The mare's horn was aglow with that same magenta light, her expression one of grim focus.
“Vinyl, you—”
“Cool, right?' Vinyl interjected, her light tone not at all matching her serious scowl, “I know. Just keep running and don't stop for anything. I'll take care of the creepy crawlies in front of us.”
Octavia eyed her for another brief moment, then swallowed and nodded before putting on an extra burst of speed. And so they continued to run, ignoring the horrible shriek of the giant and the countless screeches of its smaller kin. True to her word, Vinyl Scratch used her magic to keep the horrors in front of them at bay. Thankfully it seemed most of the creatures were gathered behind them, leaving the path ahead relatively clear in comparison.
The two ponies also moved fast enough that their would-be ambushers mistimed their ambush and had to scramble after them more often than not. All the same, Vinyl and Octavia knew they couldn't keep outpacing their pursuers forever. Speed was all they had going for them in the face of those numbers and though the two friends could keep going for a while yet with their powerful bodies, their endurance wasn't endless.
They'd tire eventually, and once that happened, Vinyl Scratch knew not even she'd be likely to survive what came next. Something had to change before it was too late, but neither mare could see any way out of the situation. No matter how it twisted or turned, the ravine didn't seem to have an end. The dry foliage had grown exponentially thicker, but that was little comfort when there was only one path.
Even if they attempted to hide in the underbrush, they only had two ways to go, and the horde was large enough to fill the entire ravine. Vinyl and Octavia would be swarmed regardless of what they did. Vinyl couldn't tell if Octavia realized this, but the unicorn herself certainly did. Still, she pushed on nevertheless in hopes that their luck would somehow turn around. She wasn't sure how, but something had to give... right?
Then something changed and in the span of a single heartbeat, all was confusion.
Three ambushers lunged at the pair from the dry but plentiful foliage and Vinyl's horn lit up to crush them like the rest, but that didn't happen. Instead the beasts halted mid leap, seemingly catching on nothing at all. They screeched in confusion and thrashed about wildly for a second or two before being yanked back into the foliage so fast it almost looked like they'd teleported.
Vinyl hadn't expected that, nor had she been able to register what happened before something else caught her attention. Next to her, Octavia cried out and tumbled to the ground, limbs flailing for purchase that suddenly wasn't there. Vinyl only had time to look over in surprise when the other mare's flailing body also vanished into the desiccated underbrush.
This time Vinyl caught something on the edge of her enhanced vision—a razor thin thread that somehow glinted in total darkness. It shone briefly before disappearing into the bushes along with Octavia. Vinyl Scratch didn't waste time thinking what that meant, nor did she bother to call out her best friend's name. With no hesitation in her heart or mind, she rapidly changed course, racing into the rough thicket after the other mare.
Bursting through the parched shrubbery an instant later, Vinyl Scratch was surprised to find herself rushing through a cramped cave tunnel. She was so surprised by the abrupt shift in scenery that, for a moment, she scrambled to a stop to look around. Looking behind her she saw that, sure enough, she'd entered a small cave hidden just behind the underbrush. Strangely, the foliage beyond the entrance didn't look the least bit disturbed despite her mad dash into it.
Distantly, Vinyl heard the earthshaking shriek of the titanic horror outside and briefly wondered if the horde had seen them enter the underbrush. Would the monstrosities follow them into the cave or had they escaped the bloodthirsty tide? A startled cry from further in the cave brought the DJ back to the issue at hoof. She cursed herself for getting distracted, put the questions and worries out of her mind for now, and took off once again.
No time. Whatever happens with those freaks, happens. Nothing I can do about it right now.
With that thought in mind, Vinyl pressed on. Luckily, the tunnel, while not very large, didn't seem to branch off into several other tunnels like the unicorn feared it might. It was a fairly linear path, for which she was thankful. That said, there was something strange about the cave. It wasn't entirely shrouded in darkness like everywhere else. Embedded in the walls around Vinyl were small crystals that gave off a subtle blue-white glow.
Some might have found the light calming, but to Vinyl Scratch, the light was slightly uncomfortable. Not only that, but it felt weirdly familiar. Again, the mare pushed it out of her mind, saving the mystery for later. It wasn't long before the cave widened out and Vinyl started to see what she'd half expected to see when she noticed what had pulled Octavia and the crawling horrors in.
Webs.
Thick, glossy spider webs stretched across the walls, ceiling, and floor of the cave ahead of her. Vinyl grimaced at the sight, but didn't stop moving. The sooner she made it to where Octavia was, the better. She deftly avoided the numerous threads and made her way deeper in, only to grunt in surprise at what she saw next.
Tangled within the webs up on the ceiling, clicking and screeching in rage and fear, were the horrors who'd been yanked into the cave first. All of them were thrashing and flailing like their lives depended on it, but to no avail. Their knife sharp talons apparently proved useless in the face of the webs that held them aloft. Momentarily stunned, Vinyl looked around, but whatever spider that had done this was nowhere to be seen—nor was Octavia.
Must be further in... hold on Tavi, I'm coming for ya.
Her conviction redoubled, Vinyl left the beasts to their hopeless struggle and moved on. Thoughts of what the posh cellist might be going through tried to assault Vinyl's mind, but she viciously shoved them down. She hadn't heard Octavia's voice since her initial shout, but that didn't mean she wasn't alive. Even if she wasn't a fighter normally, Vinyl didn't believe for a second that some cave-dwelling spider would be enough to take her out. Not anymore.
She was strong now.
In addition to saving her life, Vinyl Scratch had given her longtime friend the gift of power. The same kind of power she enjoyed. Octavia might not have fully understood that now, but she would. When push came to shove, she'd fight back, and she'd win. Vinyl was sure of that. No, Vinyl reminded herself, there was no need to worry about her body. Her mind was another issue altogether—one that Vinyl didn't have a solution to quite yet.
She was pondering what she could do for the mare's potentially compromised mental state when the web strewn path opened up into a wide cavern. All of Vinyl's musing came crashing to a halt as she took in the situation laid out before her. Those thoughts that had tried to grab hold of her mind—those fears that she might've been too late to save Octavia—all of them dispersed and blew away like smoke on the wind, only to be replaced with complete and utter bafflement.
The open cavern was awash with that same radiant blue-white light Vinyl had seen in the tunnel, only it was much more vibrant here. The light was soft, but powerful in a way Vinyl couldn't quite comprehend. The glow triggered some instinctual aversion within Vinyl, but paradoxically brought with it a sense of peace and relief. And at the center of that radiant light was a small crystalline sapling, the little root practically pulsing with hidden power.
As surprising as that was though, the sapling wasn't what caught and held Vinyl's attention. No, what caught her glowing crimson eye were the two creatures on either side of the sapling. One of them was the mare Vinyl had expected to see, but not at all in the way she'd expected to see her. Octavia sat near the sapling, completely unharmed. She looked wary but also seemed perfectly at ease in the light. The other creature...
Vinyl blinked, then blinked again, as if she was trying to dispel some hallucination. But no, the creature wasn't going away. It was very real, and had some very familiar features to boot, even if they had been drastically twisted. Perched high up on the wall amidst what Vinyl could only describe as a nest of webs was a massive spider with eight sturdy chitin plated legs and a glossy, pale gold cephalothorax. Again, Vinyl had expected as much, and wasn't even surprised to find that it had a humanoid torso where its head should've been.
The torso was almost anorexically thin but still had clear feminine curves and, like its lower half, was covered entirely in pale gold chitin. Its arms took on a similar shape to its many legs but with delicate, almost dainty looking hands that tapered off into needle-like points at the end of each finger. The large abdomen had a bright pink pattern on the top that was vaguely reminiscent of a butterfly with jagged wings.
Vinyl Scratch had never seen such a monster before—or at least, not that she could remember—but after what she'd seen so far, this just seemed par for the course. Again, expected. What the DJ did not expect, however, was for the arachnid to be wearing Fluttershy's face. It had changed significantly. The term rising from the depths of Vinyl's shoddy memory classified her face as 'human-like', though that was being a bit generous.
Her two largest eyes were bright cyan orbs that, like the horrors just outside, shined with an inner glow. Six smaller orbs ran parallel across her forehead and though most of her features were covered by a long, flat sheet of pale, rosy pink hair, Fluttershy couldn't hide the large and deadly fang-tipped mandibles that marred her otherwise rather shapely face. Yes, her features had changed quite a lot, but Vinyl Scratch had seen Fluttershy around Ponyville enough times to recognize the pony beneath the spider.
Both Octavia and the arachne that was clearly Fluttershy looked as if they'd been having some kind of conversation up until Vinyl showed up. Now though, they'd both turned to her with visible surprise on their faces. The tension lasted only a moment before both pony and spider relaxed and genuine smiles of relief crossed their face. Vinyl figured Octavia would say something but it was Fluttershy that spoke first, her voice just as Vinyl Scratch remembered it, albeit with strange clicking undertones not dissimilar to the flesh things outside the cave.
“Oh, I can't tell you how glad I am to see the two of you safe and sound.”