Pets of Chaos
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
~-~-~-~-~-~▼~-~-~-~-~-~
The sound of a cello. It was the most beautiful sound in the world for the mare that stood in the middle of the studio. Her stance was one that required skill and balance, and one she executed with elegance, as was required by a pony of her ranks. Behind her, spread throughout the set of broad stairs, a plethora of ponies held their own instruments. All of them observed their lead player, patiently waiting for their cue in the song.
Her right hoof grasped the bow, and her left was wrapped around the cello's neck. She stood on her hind legs, a position rather infrequent in society. Alas, it was perfect for the purpose it currently served.
She had her eyes closed. More than an instinctual gesture, it was an artist's way of demonstrating entrancement in their works. A pony so enamored with their instrument like her was no exception.
Were any of the present capable of reading her mind, they would discover that today that wasn't the case. Her eyes were being forced shut - however discreetly. Try though she might, her mind was unable to focus on the song she played.
"Octavia?"
She shoved the producer's call to the back of her mind and continued to bow the cello. She knew she could concentrate without his warnings. If only she could ignore the stream of thoughts that kept breaking her focus.
Admittedly, playing for a machine that recorded your sound - and, if she was to be honest, a hooful of ponies - was simply not the same as standing on the stage of a prestigious theatre in front of a crowd of countless important - and regular alike - admirers of music. Perhaps that's what filled her mind.
The producer continued to call her name, oftentimes adding eloquent variants of warnings and curses to his cries.
It was cold outside. Almost exaggeratedly so. She had grown used to the moderate weather of Manehatten in the duration of her short stay. Perhaps it was the irregular climate that was confusing her.
"Octavia!" came the producer's voice in a louder than usual tone.
Or maybe she was truly preoccupied with the success of her business. She couldn't have said no to the invitation of such figures as The Manehattens, now could she?
Of course she could have, but her manager hadn't had the presence of mind to allow it.
The recording studio's door was thrown ajar, effectively snatching Octavia from her private little world. A pegasus stallion trotted in, his movement deliberately wobbly so as to make his skin-tight, tailed black suit flutter behind him as much as possible. His eyes were hidden behind a pair of solemn shades, in a way that heavily reminded Octavia of a certain other mare.
Unlike that certain pony's carefree nature, however, her producer was the definition of strictness. 'No bread for crazy people', as her manager had put it. She had never really understood that Trottuguese pony's expressions.
She lowered the bow as soon as their stares met, and promptly looked away. "Would Miss Octavia mind explaining what exactly is the problem today?"
Octavia chose not to reply. Not even she knew what was wrong.
Instead, she carefully set her treasured cello on its stand and moved directly towards the exit.
"Miss Octavia! I will have you know that you are violating the terms of our contract!" the producer threatened. The door closed behind her, and the stallion was no longer within earshot.
The studio's long, pristine white halls stretched ahead of her. A chilling breeze blowed, likely from a crack in one of the many windows that composed the wall to her left, allowing a perfect view of the streets below. There was a thin layer of snow accumulating on their sills, much like on the rooftops of the seaside metropolis. She shivered, immediately regretting having stormed out of the recording room without first picking up her winter coat. A ribbon was far from ideal for that frosty environment.
She sighed and pressed on through the halls. She needed a break. "...I need a coffee."
The sweet, saliva-inducing scent of the cafeteria greeted her no less than a few steps from the end of the corridor. Her stomach grumbled, manifesting its need for food. She wasn't sure what time it was, but after spending all night trapped inside a recording room, any time was good for a meal. Especially if it meant keeping her awake.
The area was mostly devoid of ponies. Save for the employee behind the counter (who's head bobbed forward occasionally, causing the light red aura that enveloped a delicate glass cup to flicker), she could see no pony else. At least, no ponies that were awake, given that some of the tables were actually occupied by snoring equines, often with drinks spilled over the tabletops.
She leisurely approached the clerk, taking her time to soak in the cafeteria's warmth. There was no rush; her producer could wait.
"Excuse me," she spoke, startling the stallion out of his near-slumbering state. "May I have a cup of coffee, please?"
He eyed her in confusion for a moment, his mind still trying to catch up. Then, with a firm shake of his head, he mouthed an apology and trotted off. Octavia sighed for what seemed the millionth time that night and sat on one of the pillows that surrounded a nearby table.
There was a murmur of a machine in the air. For a mare so used to composition and to the gentle sound of her cello almost constantly caressing her mind, this nightly silence bothered her. It wasn't the respectful quietness of a crowd that listened to the dying notes of a melody - it was a much more eerie, grave void.
Just like in her dreams, in the fantasies that accompanied her throughout the night ever since she arrived to the city. She always found herself in the same frozen wasteland, wielding her signature instrument to face a towering beast that hid in the dark clouds of the snowstorm. She felt fear eating away at her mind, but she somehow remained impassible. Standing on her hind legs to support the cello, she would face the ponies she didn't even know were next to her and wait for their signal. A wave of their hoof would tell her to start playing. When the monster was in front of her, the bow would strike the cello and-
"Octy! He-hey!" Octavia's head shot up at the voice's call. It was distinctively female, yet too guttural to be so. The unique mixture that made it sound so familiar, should the use of her nickname not be a dead giveaway.
"Should you not be recording as well, Vinyl?" she deadpanned at the white unicorn across the table.
"Yeah, well, one of the tables broke, and they're tryin' ta fix it." Octavia raised an eyebrow, inciting Vinyl to roll her eyes. "Fine, I broke it, whatever! Maybe they should get some better ones!" The earth pony added a frown to her features, to which the other mare replied with a groan. "You're a pain in the flank, Octy."
"You say that like it's a bad thing." A cup of steaming hot coffee was placed on the table, and Octavia gave a grateful nod to the dozy employee. In any other occasion, she would have considered the fact that he hadn't delivered it himself a lack of respect, but given both of their states, she turned a blind eye. As she'd witnessed in Canterlot, some earth ponies could get rather picky about how unicorns use their magic as an advantage that their psychic-less relatives would never have.
She found the whole thing pointless, and she couldn't argue, either. Especially not with how often she ran into a certain unicorn.
"How was your stay in Canterlot?" the earth pony asked, playing with the mug.
"It was... eventful." Octavia raised an eyebrow at the choice of word. "So, how're you liking Manehatten?"
Octavia sighed, carefully pulling the cup closer. She pulled her hoof back at the first touch with a quiet complaint, earning herself a much noisier laugh from Vinyl. "It's cold."
"Sure it is, Octy." A light blue glow enveloped the cup, and it floated closer to the cellist. "You just gotta get used to it."
Octavia felt her mouth curving downwards, but forced it back to a neutral expression. "Says the bat mare."
"'Sides, we've had worse. That little snowstorm's just a taste of how REALLY bad winter can be here."
"I would much rather have had it if this demonstration had happened while I was not around."
"Yeah, I tried to get the weather ponies to clear the skies just for you, but they said you were cursed with bad weather."
Octavia smirked, raising her forelegs to grab the cup. "What would my stay here be without you?"
"A totally boring one, I'll bet!"
So very true...
Silence fell upon them while Octavia sipped the drink as leisurely as possible. With the increasingly nervous producer breathing down her neck, Celestia knew when she would have another one of these.
She stole a glance at the DJ, whose gaze was directed at the windows across the dining area. For the first time, she considered the possibility that she had been the pony in her dreams.
That is silly, though. It's just a silly dream. She inadvertently shook her head. Heh... Monsters...
"Penny for your thoughts, Octy?" Focusing on what she was seeing again, she noticed that Vinyl's muzzle was just inches away from her own, sporting an amused smile. "Wait, you sell them for a bit, right?"
"I-I..." she stuttered, placing the empty cup down. Octavia took a moment to regain her composure and drove Vinyl's face away with a hoof. "I was just... enjoying the coffee."
"And I'm the Queen of Neigland. Octavia." The cellist raised her eyes towards the other mare. Much to her surprise, Vinyl bore a concerned frown. One of her hooves were outstretched to reach hers. "What's up? You have that look like when your chell thingy's chords don't agree with you."
Had this happened with somepony else, Octavia would have promptly dismissed her less-than-jovial manners as the effect of too many nights of barely any sleep.
This was Vinyl she was talking about, though. There was no dissuading this mare of her goals, she'd come to realize throughout the years. Right now, she knew that the eyes behind those large purple glasses were staring into hers in a grimace that begged for answers. With a defeated sigh, she reached out for the unicorn's hoof. "I have been having these... Dreams..."
Vinyl's brow furrowed much more than Octavia had expected. "Dreams?"
"Yes, it's... I am always in a snowy field, in the eye of a storm... There is something in the fog, and there is somepony else there too."
"Me?" Vinyl answered. The hopefulness in her tone was almost palpable.
"I am not sure..." The cellist gently stroked her pastern with her hoof. "But I wish it was you."
The unicorn smiled warmly in response, mimicking the gesture. "I'm sure they're just dreams, Octy. Besides," Her glasses floated from the bridge of her muzzle, allowing Octavia to see the purple irises they hid. "What kind of monster would face you?"
Octavia immediately smacked the hoof she'd been holding, causing Vinyl to pull it back in a pain as feigned as her regretful pout. The cellist giggled. She knew that deep down, there was no way she could ever get truly angry at the other mare.
"I must be going," she said with a tone of finality, rising to her four hooves. "The ensemble will want my neck if I don't show up."
"Sounds like ya got your hooves full," Vinyl commented, resting her head on the table.
"I'm afraid so." Octavia gave a tired sigh and turned to leave. Then, with the slightest stutter, she said, "Meet you - ahem - after the session?"
"You know it, Octy." Vinyl couldn't see it, but she was certain that her friend was blushing. Rather furiously, at that. The cellist gave a choked cough and started back to the studio.
Vinyl watched the mare leave. The way she assured that her face was visible from any angle but Vinyl's only made the jockey's grin grow broader. Once she was out of her sight, she sighed contentedly.
"Heh, Octy and her shenanigans..."
"Miss Scratch." The sheer presence of the voice completely robbed the mare of her happiness. Vinyl slowly turned around, conjuring what she hoped was an intimidating scowl. The business-suit-clad, tan-coated mare behind her remained as stoic as Vinyl remembered. "It has been a while. You have been creating relationships, I see."
"Yeah, well, not all of us are hollow shells. Kinda like you, Noc." The crimson-eyed unicorn didn't so much as frown in response. Her mouth remained a perfectly straight line at all times. Vinyl had the feeling that was the reason why she didn't like her.
"You understand, Vinyl, the danger of-"
"Yeah, yeah, compromise and duty." Vinyl sighed in exasperation. "Look, I know my boundaries, Nocturnal. You don't have to keep tabs on me like I'm a little filly."
"You, above all others, should know that I wholeheartedly trust you." Mother of Celestia, how can she say that without smiling?
Nocturnal circled the table and took Octavia's seat. Her graying blue mane, efficiently tied in a ponytail, bounced with her every step. "But with the cataclysm that Equestria is currently enduring, I cannot tolerate distractions."
"I want. To. Protect her."
Her voice grew more aggressive. "Your loyalties lie with the Princesses, Vinyl." Finally, some emotion! "One pony will not make the difference!"
"Exactly! So I won't make the difference either!"
Nocturnal's lips slowly formed a frown. She remained quiet, her eyes shifting in the slightest way possible, as though she were examining the mare facing her. Vinyl had crossed the line, and both knew it.
"Vinyl. Do you recall why I allowed you to leave Hollow Shades?"
Vinyl's brow furrowed. "Because my training was complete." Nocturnal continued to glance directly into her eyes. After sufficient time, Vinyl rolled her eyes and groaned, "Because I..." Her expression softened. "Wanted to study music."
"And what did I say?"
The jockey moaned in resignation. She hated when she couldn't have her way. "...so long as I wasn't needed."
"The façade is over now, Vinyl." Nocturnal rose to her hooves and walked to Vinyl's side. A soft red glow enveloped her horn, with which she touched the other mare's forehead before retreating. "Meet me at the pier after you are done. And Vinyl?" Vinyl's response was a barely audible grunt. "Do see Miss Octavia off safely."
Whatever the suited mare had meant with her parting statement, Vinyl never got the chance to ask. When she turned to talk, Nocturnal was already gone.
She let her head rest over her hooves, her snout just narrowly missing the tabletop as it fell. Noc has the worst times to pop up.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
~-~-~-~-~-~▼~-~-~-~-~-~
For as far as the eye could see, Applebloom was faced with a low-hanging layer of golden white fog. That was, perhaps, the best way to describe that almost heavenly place. Everywhere she looked, the yellowish hue of the clouds was all that met her sight. Snow softly fell from the skies above.
"Hello?" she tentatively called. It wasn't her voice, she realized afterwards. In fact, there had been no sound whatsoever, no echo to be heard reverberating across that empty field of clouds. Despite this, she had to be persistent. "Is anypony there?"
"Where am I?" She paused. There was no accent to characterize her words, she realized. And hadn't she just thought that exact same question?
She wasn't afraid, though. As vast and desolated as this field was, fear was not one of the feelings it inspired in her.
In the blink of an eye - literally so - a shape appeared just in front of her. It was evidently an earth pony stallion, a bulky one at that. Aside from the glistening rubies for eyes and ghostly body of vibrant golden colors, he possessed no other features: there was no mane or tail to be seen, or even a trace of an expression on his muzzle. A glowing sphere occupied the center of his body, apparently giving the stallion a shape.
In his teeth was the hilt of a sword as long as the young Apple was from muzzle to tail. Its edges we're tattered in several points, and cracks ran across its blade, but the weapon lost none of its intimidating factor. With a flick of his head and neck, the blade quietly pierced the cloudy floor, freeing his mouth.
"Filly who dares face the forces of evil," he spoke as he marched forward. "Applebloom."
She felt her body straighten up almost reflexively at the sound of her name. In spite of the lack of proper irises in the stallion's eyes, it was clear to her that she was being studied.
Finally, the stallion's head lowered towards hers, and he spoke, "I sense... Great promise in you. But," he added as if to correct himself. "Also a great deal of... Sadness? Disappointment? I cannot rightfully tell..."
Applebloom released a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding when his head pulled away. His gaze turned to the clouds in the distance. "Their ways are unclear. Your arrival to my hooves should only serve to confirm that."
"They?"
"Spirits greater than any of us. Them who crafted the lands and the skies, breathing life to their servants. We are their playthings, yet we serve them without questioning. To them we are puppets, characters with a mark that symbolizes their role. But sometimes, even they cannot control everything. After all, you exist." Applebloom pointed a hoof at herself, and the stallion nodded. "Because of you, the gods are at loss. You are the variable they forgot. And because of that, your fate has yet to be determined. With this blade," The stallion illustrated his point by removing the sword from the ground. "I will help you forge that fate."
"I... But..." Applebloom managed to stutter. "I don't want to-"
"To fight?" the stallion cut in. "Then what purposhe do you plan on giving to the shword on your back?"
"Sword? But I didn't..." She stopped at the motion of the stallion's forelegs. The pressure of a belt that ran down her chest suddenly became noticeable. Something had been strapped against her back. It was a scabbard.
"What will you do with it?" he spoke, pointing at the wooden pommel that stuck out from under her cape. "You may try to delay it, but the time when you will be needed draws ever closer. You arrived here for a reashon."
“I just wanted help…” Applebloom forlornly confessed, studying what little she could see of the hilt.
The stallion raised an eyebrow in a questioning manner, looking down at the filly. “Help, you shay?”
Seeing an opportunity to get away, the young pony quickly exposed her situation. “My friends were taken away… I just asked for somepony’s help, not… not to learn how to kill!”
“I shee.”
Before Applebloom could say another word, the stallion’s head arched back and swung the sword forward with another flick. With no time to react, Applebloom closed her eyes.
“The foul beastsh in the Everfree Foresht,” the stallion spoke again as the cold edge of the blade touched the fur of her neck. She shivered at the contact. “would not have heshitated to carry thish move out.”
The sword slowly removed itself, and Applebloom mentally heaved a sigh. The high-pitched screech of the sword penetrating the ground made the filly cringe. “Your friends are with those fiends, now. They are being guarded by heartless, merciless carapaces with a thirst for naught but bloodshed. Should you not hurry, then it is very possible that they, too, will count themselves as one of them.” The stallion pushed his snout against hers and continued, “That is their fate unless you act.”
He gave a heavy snort and briskly pulled away. The stomp of a hoof prompted the filly to open her eyes. “So I ask again, Applebloom! Will you let such ill-mannered events take place?!”
“No!”
“Will you allow the gods to decide what becomes of you?! What becomes of your friends?!”
“No!”
“Will you do whatever it takes to protect them?”
“I… I will!”
“Then let teachings of old pass to you! Take sword in hoof and fight me!”
Fueled by some newfound courage, Applebloom tasted the wooden pommel and unsheathed the blade in a single, fluid movement. Without a moment’s hesitation, she leaped towards the stallion and swung.
Her ‘tutor’ easily caught it between his hooves, but she didn’t give up. Slash after slash, she felt that she was closer. One by one, the stallion successfully blocked her strikes. “I’m going to save Sweetie Belle. I’m going to save Scootaloo,” she kept muttering to herself as though those words were the source of her power.
“Find your enemy’s weaknesses!” the stallion’s voice reverberated across the fields. Applebloom had grown invulnerable to his booming warnings, however. The world was a massive white and yellow blur to her eyes. Only her target remained focused, clear as crystal. “Use your wits!”
His last words had barely left his lips when Applebloom ducked and ran right between the stallion’s legs. Once behind him, she unleashed her best impression of a war cry and jumped onto his broad back, rearing up and raising her sword to strike.
“A sword wields no strength unless the hoof that holds it has courage…” he managed to speak just as the sword dug straight through his back. Time itself slowed to an imperceptible pace as the edge of the blade pierced the specter’s core. The explosion of lights that followed left Applebloom in a world of empty whiteness, one where the stallion’s last breath echoed. “Remember those words…” they said…
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
~-~-~-~-~-~▼~-~-~-~-~-~
"And this, young pegasi, is an example of the armor that our ancestors wore when there was a problem in Equestria! Does anypony know when the pegasi started fabricating plate armor?"
"Oh! Oh!"
Rainbow rolled her eyes and groaned, tuning out of the conversation. There was always some egghead who knew all the answers. The filly wished they would just chill sometimes.
Trapped in a museum. Just the perfect way to spend a sunny day - one of the few that the weather ponies had allowed in the previous week. She began to study the expositions all around her, though absentmindedly so. She really couldn't care less for the year when somepony thought it was a good idea to melt steel and shape it like a foal playing with plasticine.
She had to admit, the Cloudsdale Temple was cool. It had all sorts of awesome stuff: cool armors, bows with wicked designs, and paintings of ponies striking epic poses with a stormy background. Cool ponies don't look at explosions! she used to say.
So why did the theoretical flight instructors have to make it look so boring?
"Caught the nerd syndrome, Dash?"
"You wish, G," she answered, glaring at the griffon beside her in mock anger. Ready to prove her point, she raised her small frame off the ground and hovered to the top of a glass cabinet. With a deep inhale, she puffed her chest and did her best impression of the pony in the painting behind her. "How's this?"
"Pfft, not nearly as cool as me!" Gilda called from a sumptuous chair on the other side of the hall. She sat down and dramatically turned her head upwards, as though she was the ruler of the two pegasus ponies that flanked the throne-like seat. "All bow before Queen Gilda!"
"Rainbow Dash! Gilda!" The prank-happy twosome cringed at the call. Their group was already at the end of the hall, while their instructor was storming towards them with her wings flared. "Come down here this instant!"
"Aw," Rainbow still moaned. Any attempts at dissuading the pegasus on the ground proved fruitless, as the mare's frown heightened. "You're no fun, miss Cloudstrider."
"Yeah, why do we have to stay cooped in this mushy old place?" Gilda added, joining The rainbow maned filly on the ground.
"Because," the mare began with the calmest tone she could manage. She was used to this kind of behavior, especially from two rowdy students like Rainbow and Gilda. It just took the right words to spur their motivation. "We want to learn about how the pegasi came to Equestria. AND," she added just before the twosome could open their mouths to complain. She gestured them to come closer to her, and then whispered, "Because we want to see if we can find Commander Hurricane's great secret treasure!"
She smiled as Rainbow's mouth formed a small circle. "Treasure?" When Cloudstrider gave a little nod, the filly began to ecstatically shake Gilda. "Did you hear that, G?! There's some real big treasure stashed here!"
The mare winced slightly at Gilda's passive response. "But we have to very, very quiet about it! We don't want every pony to go after it too!"
"You can count on me, miss Cloudstrider!" Rainbow spoke, giving her instructor a salute. "I won't tell anypony!"
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
~-~-~-~-~-~▼~-~-~-~-~-~
"Junior Speedsters are our lives, Sky-bound soars and daring dives..."
The sound of Rainbow's voice echoed briefly throughout the lifeless halls, ricocheting on their cloud walls before finally disappearing. A quiet whistle would then take its place, and very occasionally, the creaking of a structure in the floors above would accompany the wind's melody.
The once white mantles that had been thrown over the cupboards and expositions danced as the breeze reached them. They had long since grown stained by the forces of Nature.
Surrounding them were barriers composed of velvet rope, used to keep the tourists at bay. Not anymore; there was, after all, barely any pony who was still interested in this type of thing. Or, at least, so thought Rainbow. Yet she found herself here, offering absentminded stares at the yellowed covers and rusty armors.
Derpy had yet to speak up. The only guarantee that Rainbow had that she was still following was the sound of her breath. She would spread her wings sometimes, folding them afterwards and carrying on.
"Derpy," Rainbow quietly spoke after an emboldening sigh. Derpy answered with an inquisitive grunt. "How's... how's Cloudsdale?"
The gray pegasus uttered nonsensical sounds for a moment. There were many ways in which the question had taken her by surprise. She chose to temporarily choke back her concerns and give a proper answer.
"I-It's... Bad..." She heard Rainbow gulp, perhaps more loudly than the mare had wanted or expected. "These really bad ponies appeared and started doing bad things to everypony's house... Then they... They..."
Neither one spoke anymore. They soon reached the end of the hall, where the first shaft of upward-bound stairs had its entrance. The twosome easily trespassed the fine cord of royal colors, ignoring the obscene amount of papers plastered all over the walls, stating that the area was out of limits.
Rainbow idly wondered just how many of these shafts they would have to take until they reached Dinky or the top of the fortress, whichever came first. An estimate made on the spot told her that no less than fifty of them remained, a number that tired Rainbow for just thinking about it.
She got her answer when they reached the second floor. All traces the first one had of vague maintenance were completely gone here. Large bits of clouds were missing from the ceiling, and all sorts of old pamphlets and papers filled the floor. Almost all of the shelves were toppled over, along with every other part of the exposition.
It was the third floor - which both silently had agreed to access via the shortcut they'd been provided - that truly gave away for just how long the tower's doors hadn't been opened. There were no more fancy decorations meant to set the limits for the tourists, nor blankets thrown over fragile glass lockets. The wind blew more fiercely here, thanks both to its greater height and to the oval windows that dotted either side of the corridor.
"Rainbow Dash..." Derpy called in a hushed tone, head hanging low. "I-I don't like this place..."
"Don't like it anymore than you do, Derpy."
A quick look up revealed that there were many more holes in the ceilings of the following floors, most of them lined perfectly. Had Rainbow had to guess, she would have said that something had tumbled down the tower and through the floor. Something about twice as large as a pony. She gulped at the thought of such a beast wandering loose in the fortress.
"We'll go up," the pegasus decided, already taking off. "If Dinky's in any of these floors, we'll see her."
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
~-~-~-~-~-~▼~-~-~-~-~-~
"Ooookay, everypony, let's try this again. Miss Octavia, for heaven's sake, please focus this time." Octavia let the spiteful comment pass and gave a professional nod. The pegasus flexed his wings with a relived sigh.
Turning to the pony at the sound control, he received another nod. "Alright, let's do Cara Mia one more time. Casserole, you aren't stressing the word 'scienza' correctly. It's schi-EN-zah, not schien-ZAH." A light brown-maned mare in the ensemble bobbed her head in recognition, eliciting another sigh from the producer. "We're on a tight schedule as is, and our... benefactors... want this rehearsed and recorded before Hearth's Warming Eve."
The ensemble gave a more or less unison grunt of acknowledgement, and the producer stomped his hooves. "Perfect! Now, without further delay..."
One of the staff members signaled Casserole with both forelegs, lowering one, then the other in a timed fashion before hitting one of the console's many buttons.
All eyes turned to the five second countdown on a tiny screen just above the glass that separated the recording room from the production team. When it hit zero, Octavia closed her eyes and dutifully began to play her part. A voice chanted the lyrics of the song in her mind, assuring the cellist that she was on the right track. The cello's melody faded, and another harmonious sound took its place. The singing mare's voice was mesmerizing, she admitted to herself.
Casserole's voice faded with the delicacy of a dying flame. Her cue arrived again, and Octavia intently bowed the cello while the rest of the ensemble followed her lead.
A cold breeze that wafted over the studio prompted her to open her eyes. The producer was arguing with a fellow employee, who in turn was clearly yelling at a pony that was hidden by the room's open door. Her employer trembled visibly, picking his coat up with his wings to put it on.
Cold... A field of snow...
"...Addio..." Casserole's voice rang increasingly low. The entire orchestra stopped momentarily, as planned. When they resumed, the song had a whole new vibrance.
Their enthusiasm died shortly after. Octavia found herself playing on her own under the baffled gaze of the performers and their producer.
"Octavia, what are you doing?!" a fellow performer whispered in her ear.
"Urgh, not again..." somepony else groaned. The cellist frowned; why didn't they do their job instead of wasting time bothering her?
"Would you please focus on the song?" she scolded back.
"How're we gonna do that when somepony's not even playing the right one?!"
Octavia's ear twitched. Not playing the right one?
"Octavia!!"
The cellist shot her head forward and gasped. Though they were certainly not that different, what met her was not a fuming producer who could maim her right there and then.
It was a towering monster in the midst of a snowstorm. Its eyes shimmered in the darkness with a sickly yellow color, with a pair of disproportionate red circles for irises. Her song ceased with a screeching noise. She found herself staring up open mouthed.
"Octavia!" the monster bellowed, its voice so guttural that the very ground shook.
Desperate, she turned to her side. As always, the other pony was there to guide her. It waved a hoof and flared its wings at the monster - it was a pegasus this time?
Octavia wasted no time: immediately, the bow struck the cello's strings. This melody she recognized from her dreams. The monster reacted just as she'd expected. It unleashed a pained scream and reeled back to the tempestuous bowls of the storm.
"Octy!"
"Vinyl?"
"Who let that blasted mare in here again?!"
As if she had awoken from a dream, the snowstorm faded back to the warm interior of the studio. Vinyl was on the other side of the glass, pawing desperately at the door to try and pry it open.
Weirder still than that image was the way Vinyl was dressed. From shoulder to hoof, her legs were wrapped in bandages, and a thick coat hid the rest of her body, leaving only her head and vivid blue mane poking out.
"What is she wearing..." the cellist thought at the unusual garments.
Behind her, her producer was climbing the walls. Ponies ran from one side of the room to the other in a frenzy. Some attempted to remove Vinyl from her position, but the unicorn promptly kicked them back.
Seeing that all of her attempts had failed, Vinyl stepped back, and her horn lit up. The door was blasted apart by an explosion of light, and Vinyl galloped in. Octavia barely had time to realize what was going on when the jockey tackled her into a hug.
"Vinyl, what are you doing in here?!" The cellist found her efforts to push her friend away swatted. She really had more strength than she let on.
"Octy, we need to leave!"
"OCTAVIAAA!!" It was no beast calling her name this time. "Octavia, you are FIRED! I'm gonna make sure your sorry flank isn't hired ANYWHERE in Equestria EVER AGAIN!!" the pegasus stallion roared from the room. This time, Octavia managed to shove Vinyl off of her. She ran towards the room, but the producer was long gone into his office. "And will somepony do something about that damned window already?!"
"Sir, I-I..." she still stuttered, scraping at the door with her hooves. Vinyl quickly caught up to her, clenching her teeth around her friend's tail.
"Come on, Octy, we gotta go!"
Tired of the unicorn's now constant pushes, Octavia spun on her hind legs and summoned her inherently superior strength to shove Vinyl away. The latter recovered surprisingly well from the rather intense blow. "I am not going anywhere with you, Vinyl! Can you not see what you've done?! Of all the absurd things you've ever done, this is the most-"
"There's no time to explain! We just need to leave!"
"I said I am not leaving with you! Just go away and stay away, Vinyl!"
Something crashed. A bloodcurdling scream pierced right through the twosome's argument, calling their attention back to the office behind Octavia. The cellist only got to glance back at the door before leaping to Vinyl's side with a hushed 'Eep!'.
A thin layer of ice was rapidly spreading outwards from under the door like a pool of water, causing the room's red carpet to be encased in a mantle of whiteness. Vinyl's brow furrowed, and she turned to Octavia. "This is why we gotta leave!"
Octavia raised a trembling hoof to talk, but Vinyl readily stopped her by blocking her mouth with her leg. "We gotta go!"
"I am not leaving without a reasonable explanation!" the earth pony yelled back after wiping her hoof away. For the first time since she'd known Vinyl, the unicorn seemed to take offense at the gesture. There was no playful pout on her features; the hurt behind the frown was very real.
"Fine, you want the explanation? Well everypony's gonna die! There's a Celestia-damned snowstorm - hay, this ain't even a snowstorm! - that's destroying the city!" For some moments, the room was dead-silent. Vinyl knew what she'd done. She chose not to face the rest of the ponies; they were short on time as it was.
She jumped to action at the sound of a thump on the door, placing herself between the obstacle and Octavia with her teeth bared and horn alight. The beats became faster and more numerous.
Her horn burst with light when both doors were blasted open. Octavia found her legs wrapped around Vinyl as she held on against the ferocious gale that suddenly blew from the exits. Under the frightened cries of the ponies and the deafening roar of the snowstorm, she could hear the jockey pronouncing something in a strained voice.
Her ears perked up when she heard a neigh. Numerous neighs, from everywhere at the same time. No hooves to be heard, not even the faintest trace of movement.
"V-Vinyl..." she shakily asked. "What's g-going on?"
"The Windigos... Hnng... are attacking Manehatten!"
"Windigos?!" The creatures were well-known to any pony who was remotely familiar with Equestria's history. Octavia, once the prized student at the Canterlot University, easily recalled the typical foal tale of Hearth's Warming Eve and the sordid details she'd been taught regarding the creatures. How they only appeared in times of conflict, how they mercilessly froze everything they attacked.
She squinted as if it would allow her to see through the fog. All she could see was the silhouette of a pony rearing up. Unmoving. As if it had been... Petrified. "Why would Windigos attack us?!"
"I've got my guesses. Now hang on, I'm tryin' to get us outta here!"
"Get us out of here? Ho-" Another explosion of light from Vinyl's horn brought upon a drastic change of scenery. Octavia rubbed her forehead as though it had been the horn she didn't have that had cast the spell.
They stood on the frosted remains of one of the building's floors. The violence of the indoor storm in the higher floors caused the walls to shudder. Finally away from the Windigos, Octavia let Vinyl go. The cellist looked away, hoping - in vain - to hide the warmth that crept to her cheeks.
Something was different in Vinyl, though. She noticed this now that the mare turned to her, having chipped a large bit of her shades’ purple lenses. “Vinyl… your eyes…”
The jokey raised an eyebrow. “What about them?”
“They’re… they’re red…”
Vinyl remained still for a moment, until her pupils shrank in realization. She muttered something under her breath and sharply turned around. The spectacles floated up in the womb of a light blue cloud, and the glass began to regenerate itself.
“It’s… a family thing.”
“But… they weren’t like that before…”
"Octavia..." Part of her hoped that Vinyl's sudden stop and gaping mouth were attributed to some sort of romantic epiphany, given how she was looking in her direction.
She only realized that the jockey was focused on the window behind her when it was too late.
Bang bang BANG!
One by one, the windows were reduced to piles of broken glass, allowing the equine-like spirits of chaos to gallop inside. The ground was coated with a fresh layer of snow and ice. Before long, Vinyl found herself held down by icy cuffs.
Octavia fared no better; her panicked screams were swallowed entirely by the combination of the mutinous neighs of the Windigos with the storm's own bellows. Vinyl tried to call for her, and did capture her attention at some point, but she knew just as well as the cellist that there was little either one could do now. The ice casing crawled up the bodies of the two musicians, its unrelenting nature having already rendered Vinyl's legs motionless.
Its progress halted at the echo of a laugh. It was a deep, mischievous guffaw that the Windigos apparently took as a sign to stop. They simply stood, leaving their azure spectral bodies to float in the air. While Vinyl was relieved to see how little the ice had affected Octavia, the jockey mentally groaned at how much reduced her neck's freedom now was.
It was a very short-lived relief, she soon realized. The ice around Octavia's hooves cracked and shattered. The earth pony found herself floating in the air.
Immobilized by the invisible grip of magic, Octavia hastily squirmed to see who her kidnapper was. The hardships of her dreams rushed back to her mind when those same, shimmering yellow jewels met her gaze. She should have known that the uncannily devilish laugh could only belong to a draconequus like Discord.
"Well well! That was no fun!" he spoke, floating closer to her. “Running away from me? Those aren’t the rules of our game!”
Octavia felt her heart drop to her stomach when she noticed how far away from the Manehatten streets they were. It was a fall that not even a pegasus could withstand. She'd encountered the chimera, however indirectly, when he decided to turn Canterlot into a feast of flying bricks and sentient banners. Her body trembled at the remembrance of hopping from brick to brick just so she could get home.
Right now, pranks didn't seem to be what Discord was up to. Aside from the thick layer of ice and randomly distributed stalagmites, everything seemed to be in place in Manehatten. Aware as she was of Discord's potential, she knew better than to question his motives.
"Let go of her, Discord!" Vinyl’s voice broke through her focus.
Discord was less than unfazed by her demands, even resuming his fit of laugher. "Is that the best you can come up with? 'Let go of her'? That is so generic!"
"Why don't'cha let me go and I'll show you how generic I am?"
"Reverse psychology! Very good, miss Scratch!" Discord teleported to her side in a flash to reward the jokey with a pat on the head. Vinyl still tried to move her head away, but the ice won the struggle. "But, you see, I can't do that! My friends from the north are very hungry, and I would much rather let them have the meal they were denied years ago!" One of the Windigos approached the chimera and rubbed its head against his side with a contented neigh. "And let's not forget our friend here – even though we both know she’s a bit more than that, yes?” he added, moving a little closer to Vinyl’s ear, but speaking just loud enough for Octavia to hear. When he was done mentally elbowing her, he drifted back to the cellist. “It has been a great deal of time since I last heard a pony play that song!"
“I know not what you speak of!”
“Oh my, we have a fancy mare!” He snapped his lion-like fingers, and a golden monocle and wooden smoking pipe were summoned. Despite his initially pompous composure, Discord quickly lost control of his tone. “Do tell me more, miss Octavia. Tell me of that little ballad you so disrespectfully played in my PRESENCE!!”
“I know nothing about it! And as it seems, even if I did know anything, then perhaps it would be in my best interest to keep that information to myself!”
The tinniest smile tugged at Vinyl’s lips, much unlike Discord’s progressively angered frown. Throwing the accessories away without a care, he lounged toward the cellist as if to strike. All he managed to do was keep an eagle-like claw pinned to her chest. “I see foolishness runs with the song! Why not allow me to wipe that silly grin right off your snout?”
Another snap of his fingers, and the Windigos moved again. They formed a tight circle around the earth pony, and began to draw circles around her.
“Enjoy the sight while it lasts, Vinyl!” the draconequus triumphantly shouted. “Let us see how precious your marefriend’s smile looks when it’s trapped in ice!”
True to his word, the Windigos began to work their magic. It took only a matter of laps around her for the very fur of her coat to utterly ice over. “Vinyl!!” she still tried to call. Her cries were subdued by Discord’s own mirth.
“Let go of her, you monster!”
“Are you, by any chance, aware of how a Windigo’s power operates?” he asked nonchalantly, ignoring her question. Taking her moment of hesitation as an answer, he continued, “In times of conflict, the Windigos thrive! It is their bread of every day!”
“Vinyl!! Help me! Please!!”
“The greater the magnitude of said conflict, the more aggressive that clash becomes, the more powerful they become. The winter they cause, the ice that follows in their wake… it becomes stronger, more durable! And do you know who the best source of anarchy in all of Equestria – nay, the world! – is?” The Windigos finally spread out, and Discord lied down next to Vinyl as they waited for the storm clouds to clear. Vinyl’s ear twitched at the coldness of the spirit’s breath. “It’s me. Discord.”
As though it had been sculptured from a block of ice by the hooves of the most experienced of craftsponies, the likeness of Octavia came into sight. One of her forelegs was outstretched in Vinyl’s direction, and her eyes and mouth were wide open in a scream that never was. Minuscule icicles hung from her chin. Tiny beads still fell from their tips, salty droplets like the ones that coursed down Vinyl’s muzzle.
Never satisfied with mischief, Discord flew closer to the statuette and ran a finger down the side of its head. The resulting screech of his claws against the ice stung Vinyl’s heart like red-hot iron rods. “Beautiful, is it not?”
“H-How could you…”
“Aw… did I make the little filly cry?” Discord dramatically pressed his lower lip outward. “Wait, I have an idea!”
No commands were needed this time around. The Windigos flew down, preparing to initiate their spell while flying around the jockey.
“Why don’t you join her?” the draconequus completed his thoughts, grabbing the ice sculpture off the air and leaving it under his arm.
Not a sound was heard from Vinyl as the mythical horses finished what they had started. When they finally pulled away, the statue of a spectacled mare glancing distraughtly at the floor was all that was left. Discord allowed himself a quiet chuckle. This one isn’t going anywhere.
“You know your jobs! Freeze the entire eastern coast and return to the Frozen North!” Discord shouted down. The Windigos nodded with the unanimity of a machine and flew away in all directions. With them gone, Discord took a more careful look at his first prize. We shall see which one of us laughs last, Celestia.
He glanced back at Vinyl as a safety precaution. It had been rather fun for him to destroy her life in front of her eyes. It was the sort of chaos that always guaranteed his satisfaction.
No time to dilly-dally! he thought, casting a toothy grin at Octavia. There was a place in the mountaintops reserved just for this frosty gem. He giddily laughed at the thought of how good it would look. His flight back home would be filled with guesses on the best accessory to give it.
What he never got to see was the silent crumbling of the jockey’s statue.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
~-~-~-~-~-~▼~-~-~-~-~-~
“By Celestia… what is this place…” Rainbow muttered in astonishment. Her eyes hadn’t left the ceilings since their arrival to the topmost floor of their shortcut.
The special stone that composed them – which she knew only as plumitite – was rich with drawings, not unlike the stained glass walls of the Temple of Time. In sharp contrast with the colorful windows, Cloudsdale Temple’s runes were depicted only in black and a dark shade of orange.
Aside from the heroic pegasi that wielded their bows and stood at the arrow slits to face their foes from within the fortress, the mare found one symbol that every single etching sported: the winged thunderbolt. The trademark of none other than the famous Wonderbolts.
There were no decorations at all in that floor. The tiles they stepped, just like the walls around them, were all composed of the same, pitch-black stone, granting the relatively dark hall an even eerier appearance. The moon outside was their only source of light. If they were half as high up as Rainbow had estimated, then the shortcut had been a godsend.
“Hey Rainbow Dash! Look at this!” Derpy called from above, pointing at one of the more crowded illustrations. Closer inspection from Rainbow revealed that there were more creatures than just ponies in the middle of the fray. In fact, these were much different from ponies: they were griffin. Rainbow felt a lump in her throat at the sight of a pegasus that was clearly shooting one of the chimeras down with an arrow.
She had never been the best student in her class at history lessons, but given how old the bonds between the pegasi and the griffin were, the fact that a war had been waged between the two sides surprised her more than it should. How ironic, she thought, lightly tracing the lines with a hoof.
“D’you think this is why they built the tower? Because, well…” Derpy paused to gulp. “They were f-fighting the griffin?”
“Maybe…” She found her gaze drifting away from the war. All sorts of gruesome events began to unfold in her mind. Theories of how these very same halls had once been splattered with the blood of their allies and ancestors, flooding her mind with memories she didn’t have of a dreadful scuffle. She could almost hear the imposing voices of the pegasi leaders, ordering their best bowponies to gallop into battle and defeat this menace. They were intertwined with the pained roars of a wounded griffon that would never fly again because of a damaged wing, or a fractured limb on which it would never be able to stand anymore. She shook her head to abandon the scenario, focusing on the moonlit hall ahead. “Let’s just find Dinky and split. I don’t want to stay in this place anymore.”
The moment she set down was the moment a crack echoed throughout the temple. She didn’t move for a second. How could she? After such imagery, the last thing she wanted was to find any unpleasant remains. A long breath later, she gathered the courage to carefully lift her hoof, all the while praying that the object she’d just crushed was simply a loose bit of rock. Her already unsettled heart almost stopped when it turned out to be a loose bone.
“D-Derpy…”
“Yeah Rainbow Dash?” Rainbow wasn’t entirely sure which was more disturbing: the bone, or the other pony’s overall passive response to the entire fortress. She decided on the latter, given how Derpy just giggled after Rainbow pointed the bone out. “Oooh! You found a bone!” Without a care in the world, the mailmare picked it up with a wing and examined it. “You think it’s a pegasus pony’s bone? Maybe it’s a griffon’s!”
“For Celestia’s sake, Derpy, it’s a bucking bone!! Some living thing lost that!” Rainbow suddenly snapped, raising her tone a little more than she wanted. The wall-eyed mare stared at her (or at the bone, she couldn’t tell) in confusion. “Just… just leave it here, okay? We gotta get out of here.”
“Come on, Rainbow! What are you afraid of? Ghosts? Spirits? Zombies?” The way Derpy just gleefully trotted alongside Rainbow was beginning to try the blue pony’s patience. “Maybe we could be like those ponies in ‘The Trotting Dead’ and just take one of these crossbows and-”
“Would you please be quiet, Derpy?! You’re starting to scare me and - wait, where did you get that crossbow?” Derpy looked down at the wooden crossbow in her hooves as if to make sure she knew what she was talking about, which Rainbow’s exasperated nod confirmed.
“I just got it from that little hole over there!” She simply answered, pointing a foreleg at a rather concealed crack in the wall. Given the color of the walls and the darkness that inhabited whatever was beyond that entrance, it was easy to miss the fissure. “There are lots more of them there, you know? Oh, oh! And bones! Really, really many bones!”
“B-Bones?”
“Yeah! Of griffin!”
The massive, walking skeletons on the other end of the hall, barely visible under the moonlight, never seemed so real.
Stats
Page generated in 0.046 seconds
Total duration
1,074 users online
1,937,693 hits today, 2,054,621 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
There shouldn't be an apostrophe there
It's hard to tell who's speaking here, and I don't think you want the question mark after "eventful"
I think you mean "jockey" ("jokey" means "funny"). There are a few others
"She" should be capitalized
I think you forgot a d
Should be "this"
Wow, there are so many plots going on in this story, I feel like it's a clopfic!!!
Get it! Plots = Flanks... clopfic... right? Oh come on! These are the jokes!!!
Anyway, as always, you leave me wanting more, which is always a good thing.
I'm going to favorite this and like this just because! This idea is genius!
I'll get to reading this later.
1536546 Erm, likely not. I was still trying to get the writing style straight in the first few chapters. I've already edited the first one plenty (and still am), and will do the same for the rest of the chapters as I go.
But it's fine, really. Blame it on my writing style. xD
So many things going on.
1536623 Luckily, I'm done with character perspectives. This is as many as it goes (actually, the Vinyl/Octavia one is more of a one time thing so I can leave hints behind).
IT'S SPELLED "JOCKEY"
You used jokey several times, not just the one time
KEEP IT UP LADDIE
It seems like Vinyl is a part of the Equestrian Shiekah tribe. I mean, red eyes, weird boss lady showing up and saying she needs to go protect Princess Celestia, and then leaving just as silently, and the way that Vinyl was dressed in what I assume to be a leotard and bandages. And Octavia apparently has freaky song powers.
1536562
You keep saying "jokey" for Vinyl. It's "jockey". Jokey's not a word to my knowledge, unless pertaining to the state of something being like a joke.
1538239 Yeah, I've been told several times now. I've already corrected it, thanks for pointing it out tho. =P
1536733 IT HAS BEEN CORRECTED.
CONFOUND ROYAL CANTERLOCK, IT DRIVES ME TO CAPS
1536526 Thanks for pointing those out; I've corrected them now.
1538259
Took me awhile to get around to reading the chapter with all the updates I get at one time, so the comments were unpopulated until I refreshed the page after I posted.
1538295 Hah, I know the feeling. I have dozens of notifications buried in my inbox waiting for me to read them.
1540614 I'm tempted to say Derpy's attention/memory span for some stuff is rather low xD
And yup, one appeared in the previous chapter. As for bosses, well, yeah, I just haven't said when or who will become one. :3
This is simply AMAZING! Vinyl is a Sheikah, Applebloom is mastering the art of the sword, and Derpy has a crossbow! I love that Walking Dead reference you threw in there. Daryl is probably one of the best fighters in the group. Can't wait for more!
1540940 Not related to your post, but just letting you know you referred to Discord many times as a "chimera"; he is a dracoequous
1556115 Which, in turn, is technically a chimera. I refer to him as both, actually.
Wow, I read from first chapter until present in only a few hours ... Well, I think that means you did one heck of a job.
When I first found this I was 'Meh, LoZ and MLP? Lets see what happens.' Then, around chapter 3 I was sucked in to the point where I got annoyed when I had to wait for the next chapter to load. I must say, a few portions had me somewhat confused—especially the train boarding portion which I actually had to reread—and there are a few errors here and there though others have already notified you of them from what I could tell.
It is all so well explained so far, and I really have no problems with how you're writing it yet. Keep up the good work!
"we're tattered"
purposhe do you plan on giving to the shword on your back?"
Quite a few h's poking up between the text of the tutor and Applebloom. Just letting you know.
1581441 That was mostly to reflect the fact that he's holding a sword with his mouth.
I feel that "WERE any of the present..." is closer to being grammatically correct than 'was' seems to be.
This is painful to read aloud, maybe have it say "...was what kept her mind busy." (just a suggestion)
Take out one 'and'.
What's Gilda turning up?
The apostrophe-s looks out of place in "everypony's" and may not be needed; it was with a 'relieved' sigh he flexed his wings.
This would look easier to read if it's "Higher up, the walls shook with the violence of the indoor storm."
Hoping that Derpy finds her little muffin soon! 'Til next chapter!
1698092 Thanks for pointing those out, I've now corrected them.
1699974 Welcome, always happy to be of help!!
This is getting exciting, but I worry that there are too many plot threads running around.
1716839 Well, as I have mentioned before, I will be tying many up from here on out. Starting next chapter especially.
"It's schi-EN-zah, not schien-ZAH." A reference to Harry Potter maybe.
p.twimg.com/Axg_yRBCIAATO_J.jpg:large
wow this is a slightly confusing story but a very good one