The two ponies and single draconequues floated above the new chaos-ridden streets of Ponyville, riding on a cloud shaped like a limousine. Discord was equipped with a chauffeur's uniform for this special occasion, holding a steering-wheel made of clouds in front of the two alarmed ponies sitting in the back.
Bon-Bon and Lyra were somehow stood atop the clouds despite not being pegasi themselves. Somehow, Lyra felt able to attempt to communicate with their mad abductor, contrary to her partner, who was busy trying to contain her breakfast due to the breakneck speeds they were travelling.
"Uh, Driver?"
"Yes, Madam?" He answered, rather relaxed.
"What the hay is going on?"
"Oh, nothing much. You just have the privilege of witnessing the rise of my empire, the fall of the princesses and some tasty destruction," He said with a wave of his hand.
Neither of the mares was able to form a response to this, instead choosing to stare over the city with blank faces.
"Oh, ok."
"VINYL! TURN IT DOWN!" Octavia screamed. Compared to the booming sub-woofer, her pitiful yelling proved no match for the stream of electronic wubs bombarding her. She was barely clinging onto the sofa as Vinyl's music blasted her eardrums and threatened to send her flying.
The only response she received from the white unicorn was a wider grin, and a hoof to her ear, gesturing to the lack of volume Octavia was producing. The falling décor and smashed ornaments suggested otherwise.
Octavia was able to grab a pillow and attempted to lob it at the assaulting unicorn. Unfortunately for her, the offending sound fired it straight back, hitting her in the face and causing her to lose grip of the sofa. She fell, hitting her back on the far house wall.
A few more seconds of this and Octavia was sure her head would explode. She didn't want to think about what the neighbours would do. Then again, they would probably be used to it. Luck did, however, bless her with access to her cello.
It too was stuck against the wall, along with the playing bow. Moving her hoof against the force of the sound, she reached over and picked both items up. All thirty minutes of her archery practise would now pay off.
Struggling valiantly against the music, she positioned her bow at a right-angle to her cello. She held it against the cello string as Vinyl's head came into aim. The pressure of the bow against string reached it's maximum, and Octavia propelled it's wooden body at the DJ.
A resounding 'bonk' halted the flow of dubstep as Vinyl collapsed to the ground, sliding the volume down with her. Her body fell behind the stacks of speakers and equipment encasing her.
"With any luck, you are seriously injured," Octavia said tiredly, but pleased none-the-less at the successful shot. There was a faint groan from behind the modern music equipment. Following that was a thread of incoherent mumbling.
Octavia trotted up to the sound system and peeked over, seeing the unicorn laying on her back, head spinning.
"Tavi, I think you gave me drain bamage," Vinyl said, only now rubbing the hit area of her forehead. The world was still a swirly haze for her, she was barely able to make out the features of Octavia's bemused face. Reaching a hoof out, she poked and prodded Octavia's face, still steadfast in it's position. She jabbed her nose, eyes and mouth, trying to squish her facial features into a more forgiving expression, but to no avail.
Bored with the pointless tampering her face was receiving, Octavia grabbed the frolicking hoof and helped Vinyl up. As she did, she also picked up her sturdy bow.
"Honestly, Vinyl, I have no idea how you expect any sort of collaboration project when you insist on deafening the audience with that."
"What? It's the perfect plan! You get the mood all smooth and mellow, then I'll blow up the room with 'that'."
"So your plan is to scare them into enjoying the piece? I somehow doubt that will be very effective."
"Whatever, we've got loads of time. And, y'know, you could have just told me to turn it down. You didn't need to give me a concussion."
"There's a fine line between need and want, Vinyl. Besides, it worked, did it not?"
"I'm pretty sure healthy relationships don't count on as much physical abuse that you inflict on me daily." Vinyl concluded, more to herself, but still audible enough to make Octavia laugh.
While Octavia got to work on cleaning up the battered trinkets and generally tidying up the scarred living room, Vinyl instead decided to head for the kitchen, before hearing the doorbell ring. Maybe this was the final, final notice for noise complaints. It was always fun to see their reactions, so she decided to take this one.
"I got it!" Vinyl walked past Octavia, tediously re-aligning her cello against the sofa, and into the main hall that lead to the front door and stairs. Upon arriving at the door, she took a glance through the spy-hole. Unable to see anything, completely blocked with whiteness, Vinyl shrugged and opened anyway.
A few moments passed, and Vinyl made no sound. Octavia called through to the front door, "Vinyl? Who is it, dear?"
Several hoofsteps sounded and Vinyl appeared in the doorway, a blank face and, after pulling down her goggles, a vacant look in her eyes.
"What's wrong, Vinyl? You look as though you've seen a ghost. And don't be rude, who is on the doorstep?"
"A... uh... well... you ever see those huge marshmallows Pinkie sells?"
"Don't remind me. You brought home dozens."
"Yeah, well I've brought home a few more, apparently."
Behind the DJ then slowly started filling with white sponginess. The walls, floors and framed pictures were devoured by the mysterious substance before it eventually came into view, standing right behind Vinyl. The gooey, monstrous maw of the over-sized marshmallow opened, revealing an empty chasm of darkness that was ready to devour the slowly-turning unicorn.
"Sweet Celestia! Vinyl! Run! Or jump! MOVE!" Octavia pleaded rapidly.
Only at the final command did Vinyl back-step away as the gaping mouth started chewing where she used to be. Behind the suckling monster came yet another whale of a marshmallow, struggling through the doorway side-by-side with it's partner.
"Ideas?" Vinyl wondered, but received a blank face and shrug from the usually formal cellist.
The two ponies backed away gently, hoping not to aggravate the things more. This was until Vinyl accidentally bumped into Octavia's cello.
"Hey! Careful! We may be about to be eaten but I could get that preserved for my funeral."
Vinyl's eyebrows suddenly raised in excitement, a wide smirk beginning to form. She floated over the heavy wooden instrument, and grasped it in a bat form with her hoofs.
"I have to do everything around here, don't I?" Still holding onto the cello, Vinyl stretched her arms and practised her swinging, much to Octavia's dread.
The earth pony stood, a mix of flaring anger and abysmal worry rising at the very suggestion her partner was about to do what she looked like doing.
"Vinyl, don't you dare do what you're thinking about doing," Octavia said, slowly, with a hint of insanity.
"What? Look how big it is! It'll be fine!" The marshmallows had almost squeezed through, and Vinyl double-took to see Octavia's, writhing angrily, face.
The slate earth pony trotted closer to the unicorn, and Vinyl instinctively flinched before anything had happened, clenching her eyes shut and hugging the instrument. Somehow, nothing had happened. When she opened her eyes, Octavia was not there.
Vinyl turned around at the sound of unplugged wires. With the intimidating look and strength of Horse Power, Octavia raised the colossal black sub-woofer over her head, breathing heavily.
"Holy Tartarus, Tavi, put it down!" Vinyl begged
"Put down the cello!"
"But they're getting closer!"
"Well, since you're insisting on using weapons I have mine picked out! A dumb, obnoxiously loud, bass blaster!"
Vinyl was taken back by the insulting comments made about her pride and joy, "Then I have mine! A snobby, ancient, over-sized violin!"
The monsters both jammed through the doorway, targeting a pony each, separated by the coffee table. "IT'S A DAMN CELLO!" Octavia screamed as she brought down the sub-woofer onto her marshmallow. With a squelch, part of the intruder became indented into the floor, losing a fifth of it's face. Wherever it's face was.
Seeing her best friend, the sub-woofer, being used so violently sparked Vinyl into doing the same. Vinyl swung the club-shaped instrument at the mouth of her attacker, taking off a few of it's glutinous teeth and pulverising a section of it's face. She took another shot, slicing straight downwards on top of it and splitting it into two.
"Woops," She muttered, and proceeded to take out the new one that had emerged.
Octavia, like Vinyl, was taking out the anger at each other in a similar way. Tenderizing the marshmallow into the ground, a white coating was forming over the bass box. The adrenaline coursing through them both was the only thing that allowed them to use each other's massive musical weapons.
Eventually, the remains of the marshmallows were paste, glued to the floor and the weapons. Exasperated, Octavia placed down the sub-woofer and sat on in, finally able to catch her breath. Exhausted, Vinyl did the same, but instead choosing to collapse on the ground, panting.
"Tavi? You don't think it's really a dumb instrument, do you?" Vinyl asked tiredly.
"No... it is loud, though," Octavia said. "Did you seriously think it was a violin the whole time?"
"Nah, it's a contrabass or something, right?"
Octavia gave her a cold stare perched atop the sub-woofer.
"Kidding! Cello, yeah, yeah..."
Octavia stared sadly at her war-torn cello. Surprisingly, both instruments faired well against their sticky combatants. Although there were fragments of the monster lodged in-between the strings and covering the cello, it was relatively unscathed. While Vinyl's sub-woofer had chunks on top, but not in the main speaker; it would be much easier to clean.
"Do you think that contents insurance covers being mauled by marshmallows?" Octavia wondered.
"Depends where you got the insurance from. Pinkie? Then probably."
After a moment of catching their breath, the two ponies stood up and examined the room. The walls had been layered in a white coating, just like their instruments, part of the coffee table had been eaten, and Octavia was glued to the floor with the marshmallow's remains.
Vinyl extracted her hoof with her magic and tasted part of the substance hovering in the air. "Hmm, not bad."
"You are repulsive."
"Well, sor-ry, go ahead and give it it's last rites before I devour it. Or maybe you want to conduct it's funeral? It's a marshmallow, Tavi." She put the blob of goop in her mouth and chewed, mouth wide-open.
"You're still gross."
Vinyl responded, mouth still full of marshmallow, slurring her words, "Maybe we should tell somepony what just went down. I somehow don't think this is a natural occurrence."
Silently agreeing, Octavia headed for the door. They tried to avoid stepping in the trails of marshmallow lining the floors, but it proved impossible as they got closer to the door. At last they reached the already-open entrance and stepped outside into the new Ponyville.
"Oh, Celestia, never a average day, is it? Just once I'd like to have some normality in this town," Octavia sighed.
"I dunno, the giant bear was pretty cool."
Though the marshmallows had partly de-sensitized them to the new reality they were facing, it still did not prepare them for what was ahead. A mish-mash of oddly shaped buildings, swarms of mutated animals, more over-sized nonsense, crazy weather problems and multi-coloured horizons.
"Hey, at least the sun is..."
Vinyl was halted as the sun and it's warmth vanished from sight, replaced instantaneously by the vibrant moon and cold night sky.
"That can not be good for my eyes," Octavia said as she rubbed them, annoyed.
"You need some goggles! Some sleek black ones would look great on you!"
"I think I'll pass, I need to be able to see the notes I play."
The couple looked around the chaos-scorched earth, for what, they were unsure. Maybe a sign of somepony else to help them. Then again, they couldn't be the only ones undergoing such things. They trotted off in a random direction, timing it so that they missed the barrage of cheese wheels driving around town in a line formation.
As they walked, behind Octavia, something caught Vinyl's goggled eye. "Hey, Tavi, your flank is awesome."
Vinyl's poor choice of words made Octavia look back with a raised eyebrow.
"It's hardly the time for-..." She cut herself off when she noticed her treble clef cutie mark racing around her body, around and down her legs and back up. "Oh, my... get it off!"
"I'll get the cello again," Vinyl joked, but then was stopped by Octavia's hoof. The grey pony then pointed to the unicorn's own flank. Sure enough, Vinyl's own black double note was mirroring Octavia's. They went at frantic speeds, hitting every position of the two ponies' bodies, even at one point managing to be on Vinyl's forehead.
While Vinyl was too caught up in amusement, trying to catch her cutie mark like a cat on a mouse, Octavia was hoofing at her coat, following the cutie mark and even trying to gnaw it off. It was a fruitless effort though, cutie marks were naturally a mysterious thing, so moving ones proved even less likely to be understandable.
Some time later, they gave up, standing still as the marks whizzed around their bodies.
"Tavi, your ampersand's on your tail," Vinyl pointed out.
"Ampersand?! Why would my mark represent another symbol for 'and'?"
"You mean it's not?! I always thought it was because you never stop talking."
A second later, Vinyl was face-first in the now-green sand after receiving a blow to the back of the head. Vinyl spoke through a mouthful of candy-like tasting sand.
"Worth it." She spat out some of the more expired grains and got back to her hoofs, rubbing the back of her head. "You sure you weren't ever a boxer? Ow. You're so easy to rile up!"
Vinyl went for a playful nudge into Octavia's side, but that could always be considered a threat. She instead arced her hoof and pretended nothing happened.
A brief awkward silence later, Vinyl took a hoof-full of green ground-candy and offered it to Octavia.
"Want some sand?"
Octavia gently and slowly slapped it out of her hoof, confused on what path to next take or generally what to say.
"Could of just said no."
Then, to add to the mix of bewilderment, a flying cloud open-top limousine flew down and pulled up next to them. On board were two friendly faces being driven around by a hybrid dragon-goat-pony thing wearing a fancy driver's uniform.
The mint-green unicorn mare, Lyra, was sitting in her signature pose, enjoying the comfy texture of the clouds she was sitting on. Meanwhile her partner, Bon-Bon, was resting her bored-looking head on her hoof closest to them. Upon noticing the two new ponies, Bon-Bon perked up and told Lyra.
"Vinyl! Sup?" Lyra waved a hoof at her counter-part from the limousine, while both Octavia and Bon-Bon were mentally face-hoofing as Vinyl jumped in the limo and hoof-pumped the green unicorn.
"Lyra! What's happenin'? The white unicorn asked happily, choosing to ignore the messed up creature driving, who had yet to look back at them.
As the two unicorns chatted, Bon-Bon and Octavia were left rolling their eyes.
"Hello there, Bon-Bon," Octavia greeted calmly, "How's yours?"
"Hi, Octavia. Lazy and crazy. Yours?"
"Loud and annoying," The dark-maned pony replied, to which they both laughed.
"Octavia? You've got something on your face," Bon-Bon pointed out. The cutie mark had come to rest over her nose, finally pausing for breath.
"Oh, yeah, cutie marks. I honestly have no idea. Try to ignore it, maybe it will go away," Octavia said. "So would you happen to know what is going on here?"
"Hop in, I guess, we'll explain on the way to wherever we're going."