Lunarium

by Tramper

Part 2: Chapter 8 ~ I Always Wanted To Play The Cello (V2)

Octavia dreamt of how her days should have been. She dreamt of Hugh and Madame, her friends and herself walking into the Celestial Hall, past soldiers clad in gold and marble statues of the heroes of legend. The red carpet was beneath them, leading up and into the main auditorium.

Everypony was so very excited they could barely contain themselves, even as they took their seats in the front row they could only barely sit in them. However, nopony noticed, as they were all just as excited.

The Celestial Hall was filled to the brim with ponies and the noise they made was something to behold. Some were laughing at jokes, others were fevering towards the show and especially the celloist, for they were the most famous classical soloist in all of Equestria.

The warmth overshadowed everything, both laughter and happiness knew no boundaries in her dreams. Even to her side, they had their place.

Lyra made funny faces at Trixie, who pretended it wasn't as funny as it was. Derpy and Raindrops bounced up and down on their seats, but quickly sat up straight and proper, and they did that with just one angry glare from Madame Hooves.

Octavia only barely noticed them and only from the corner of her eyes. Instead, she was on the edge of her seat and her hooves trembled with great excitement.

It had been so long since the fire and since her father had left this world behind, but he had come back just this once, to fill this hall with his magic again. Maybe it was for her, maybe for everypony.

Maybe he would smile at her again and maybe she would finally get to hear him again. No matter what would happen, she felt her throat going dry as the lights dimmed and somepony stepped onto the stage.

However, it wasn't the pony she had expected, but one who moved with an unearthly fluidity and elegance in her every movement. This pony was simply the most graceful mare Octavia had ever seen.

Her coat was of a goldish grey and her mane was both long and well-cared for. It was dark grey with a lighter tint to it and hung from her head and neck as perfectly as it could be. Her eyes were as violet as mulberries.

Yet her face was a rock and remained in a cold stare as she looked over the ponies. It was as if she only saw the numbers of the taken seats and not the ponies who sat on them. Nevertheless, her presence was undeniably the center of attention now and with every movement of her head, another part of the hall stopped making noise.

Her silence was like a command for everypony and Octavia, too. And it also helped everypony focus more on her, for they all awaited what would happen next.

But the silence was broken by a sudden laughter and the mare turned around, glaring at the ones who came up from behind her. The other bandmembers showed themselves, stepping onto the stage not half as dignified as the mare had.

The pianist laughed at a joke cracked off-stage and the brass player seemed to have trouble in stifling her giggle. The only one who didn't appear happy was the harpist, who shook from stage fright and nervously eyed at the crowd.

As they noticed her glare, they quickly quieted down and made to their respective instruments, however, and the mare nodded. She turned around and for a moment Octavia wondered what she would play. It certainly looked like a giant violin.

What was it called again? she wondered and closed her eyes, asking herself where she'd seen that kind of instrument before. Then she started to giggle. Of course.

As Octavia looked again, she found the mare putting the bow to the strings of her cello. For a short moment her eyes were fixated on the instrument and even though her face remained unmoved, Octavia could see the shine in her eyes. It was the glitter of nostalgia and happiness, of emotions she herself knew all too well.

It made her wonder who she was and what she would play? And if she could move the crowd like her grandfather did? Of course, those questions would soon answer themselves, once the music started. Octavia blinked.

The mare then took a deep breath and looked over all the ponies in the hall again. So many had come today, not a single seat remained empty and not just that, no, something else would fill these halls tonight. Once more there would be music here and she would be the one to play it.

That was everything she hoped for and then the mare turned to her compatriots. All of them looked more confident, now that they were in their familiar space. It would all work out, she knew. She nodded at them and then turned back around, pulling the bow across the strings.

As the first sound escaped the instrument, the hall was set ablaze.

The fire was around her and all the ponies watched in silence as she stood alone on the stage. She knew not what to do until her father came up and yelled something she didn't understand. Yet she knew.

Here she was, playing the cello against his will and so he smashed her head to the ground, kicked her and then choked her. She felt it and yet didn't. The cello was gone from her hooves and she tried to look for it, but only saw his face, contorting itself in unspeakable wrath.

She also saw her mother there, laughing smugly and holding a foal in her arms, one with a white coat and a blue mane. The image only remained for a second, for then the poison rain fell from the sky.

Greenish drops of water hit the ground and melted the stone away with a fierceness the flames could not hope to match. As it met with the bodies of her parents, they, too, started to melt, but as they did, they never felt the pain. He still hit her and she still laughed, the pain would remain with her forever.

And then they were gone and she stood in the middle of nowhere, the rain falling down hard on her body. Every drop burned her skin and so she tried to run, only for the drops to go into her eyes, blinding her.

She wanted to scream as that happened, but when she opened her mouth, raindrops fell into it and she lost her voice.

She stumbled forward, not knowing to where she was going. Maybe she was walking up stairs, maybe she was smashing against a building, maybe she was falling into a sea of stars, she did not know.

Tavi ran into something then, and felt the rain and the sound of everything vanish. In the distance she heard a scream and a shot, as well as the curse of a soldier.

Finally she could open her eyes, to see herself cowering beneath the seats of the hall. To her side was Rainbow Dash, whom she had left before. She had told her that she was safe, that everything would be fine and somepony would come to save her.

Octavia had smiled at her and told her that she would keep her promise. She would come back for her and the world would be safe then. Then she started into a run, away from the soldiers, away from the hall, away from Rainbow Dash. That's how it'd been before.

However, as she reached the edge of the hall, Octavia heard a gunshot, echoing across the world. It made her stop, it made it hard to breathe.

Within the realm of her dreams and fantasies, Rainbow Dash was already dead.

Octavia shook her head. That couldn't be. The soldiers only used their guns against ponies who could have seen, ponies who were strong enough to fight back. But Dashie was blind and small and helpless, she couldn't harm a fly and had wanted to see the Wonderbolts with her father.

The wind moved through her mane, leaving an unearthly feel in her bones and she felt the bed of flowers, pressing against her tiny body. She heard them sing to her, too, and it helped her calm down.

As she opened she blinked again, they both sat on a stage amidst the ashes, where the curtains had long since turned to dust and been blown away by the wind. She let her legs dangle off the edge of the stage and looked at the other pony. Tavi felt so small compared to the graceful mare.

Between the two stood a tea set made out of the finest porcelain and steam rose from the pot. In one fluid motion, the mare elegantly took the pot and poured the tea for both of them. Just looking at her was awe-inspiring for Tavi.

Then, the mare lifted one cup and took but a small, perfect sip.

“I always wanted to play the cello when I was younger,” she said, her voice filled with longing and melancholy. “When my grandfather died they forgot about him, too. Everypony left him while his body was still growing cold. My father left the instrument in the corner to gather dust, my mother never had been one for the arts. But I? I looked at it every single day, sometimes for hours. Then, one day, I simply decided to pick it up and pluck the strings. I was just prattling on.”

Her eyes looked at the little filly, who started to smile for herself.

“I did that, too,” the little one confessed. “Sad thing about it is that they kicked me out of the house for it,” she said, lowering her ears. “Father hated grandfather, everypony did thereafter, but I just wanted to hear it again, to make others hear it again. I have a wonder … Did you ever find it, the magic in the music?”

The two Octavias looked at each other and then the older one started to laugh. It was not what the younger one had expected, for it wasn't elegant and it certainly wasn't classy. Instead she snorted and guffawed like a little foal.

The moment thereafter, two Octavias looked at each other. They were of the same age, but one was a bit taller, and it was she who pointed at her cutie mark.

Octavia looked at it, seeing how it was painted on the flank, but she could feel the power surrounding it.

It's all real simple in the end. You start to prattle on like it's nothing and then somepony hears you and they carry your tune into their life. There is a magic in music, the taller one stated.

One last time they looked at each other, but even that dream had to end.

---

Octavia Quartnote woke amidst blue flowers that only the most knowledgeable scholars could have identified. They gleamed with a pale blue light that faintly illuminated the entire cave. From a distance, the flowers had been like a beacon for the fillies. Octavia smiled as she went over them with one hoof.

She felt the weight of Raindrops' head on her left arm, which the black pegasus used as a cushion, but she also felt her body's warmth. Compared to the cold she'd felt before this was much more comfortable. Everypony else was fast asleep, too, and huddled together.

Even with how comfortable this place was, Octavia was happy that everypony else was so close by. Even though there was no song here, their breaths lessened her worries and the occasional snore allowed her to feel like she was still alive.

She felt a heavenly tranquility in this place, but she also didn't want to close her eyes again. A part of her body longed for sleep, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. Right now, the whole world that surrounded her was perfect.

She looked at the ceiling of the cave. It was fairly low, she noticed. So low, in fact, that even if they could climb up the cliffs to the top of the waterfalls, proceeding any further would be impossible. It wasn't something she let herself be bothered by, for right now, this was fine enough.

Though her gaze did shift to the statue, the only hint that this was truly an alicorn's design. Alas, there were no features except its roughest stance and the remnants of hooves that made it out to be equine. The statue had neither face, nor a horn, nor wings. Like these tunnels were lost to the world above, this statue would not be able to provide them with any information.

Octavia finally decided to push lightly against Raindrops, so that she wouldn't wake. Then, she stood up and looked at all her sleeping friends. Derpy was spread out on her stomach, happily snoring away, while Twilight had rolled up in a ball beside her, mumbling softly in her sleep. Lyra was rolling from the left to the right, however, and she contorted her face a bit.

Octavia nodded and decided to go over to the water, but to also do it as quietly as possible. So she dropped all pretenses of grace she held and just tip-toed over to it. Not once did she stumble over her own, little legs while doing so. The pain of every time she had remained with her, of course, but if this was how it felt if one didn't have their nose up in the air, then she would never stop walking like this.

Then she stepped close to the water and looked at it. It was the clearest water she had ever seen–not that she had high standards or anything–and clearly made out her own reflection in it.

A grey filly with a horrible black mane and eyes like rotten mulberries. She was the smallest of the group, but also the eldest. A part of herself wondered if her parents would love her for her size, because she could really easily pass herself as a doll with it.

Don't think about them, she chided herself and closed her eyes.

As she opened them, however, she spotted the other her in the water, the grown mare who so gracefully played the cello. The image only lasted for the blink of an eye, for when she closed hers, she lost sight of the mare.

She remained by the water and stared at her reflection for a few moments longer, hoped to find the other her in there again. But she did not appear and all Octavia could do was let her thoughts drift. And that they did, until finally the image of another filly appeared on her mind. Rainbow Dash, she remembered, the filly whom she had left behind.

I lied to her, didn't I? she asked herself bitterly.

She had. She had told her that everything would be fine, that somepony would come to save her, that she would come back. Had she been telling those things Rainbow Dash or herself?

Whom had she wanted to give hope right then and there?

A smile plastered itself on her face, though it was only a small one. Canterlot was gone now, but maybe Rainbow Dash had fallen asleep clinging to the faint hope of that stupid other filly coming back. Maybe she'd even gone out with newfound strength.

Why can't I think that she's still alive? she wondered. Why don't I want to think that?

Octavia turned around to find the others stir and wake from their sleep. Twilight rose first, even though she had eaten quite a bit herself, but required help from a friend. Said friend turned out to be Derpy, whose smile seemed less forced now that she'd gotten a good rest.

Then, there was Raindrops, who stretched all her legs and stared at the ceiling above them before she finally got up.

The last one to move was also a surprise to Octavia, considering how active she usually was. Lyra turned herself into a proper position, albeit slowly and when she first tried to put some weight on her hooves, she quickly fell over, screaming out in pain.

Everypony's attention turned to her, but only Octavia moved. She tried to get a look at the spot on Lyra's leg, but what she found was less than pleasing.

The grey had vanished and the skin was a deep black, it was all mushy, too. Lyra's veins had blacked on the whole lower leg and wherever they ran, her fur came off.

Octavia felt horrible just looking at it, but then she made the mistake of taking a breath close to Lyra. The smell of rotting meat hit her nostrils and she reeled back. Tavi had never smelled something so bad before, she couldn't even begin to describe it. Like a corpse rubbed in horrible poisons, maybe.

But she tried to steady herself and took another, deep breath before she walked over to Lyra again. The filly was grinding her teeth yet again and muttered something under her breath as she lay there.

“Lyra,” Octavia started, but she didn't know what else to say.

She could only look at Lyra, who sweated and huffed, but looked up to her nonetheless. Her face was contorted into a horrible smile that must've hurt just as much as the leg did.

“It's fine,” the unicorn lied.

Octavia didn't know what to do, but then she looked at the water. If it can prevent you from starving, then maybe, she thought and nodded to herself. Then she reached out to her friend with a hoof.

“Come on, maybe the water will help.”

Lyra looked at it, then away and then back at it again. Maybe she was trying to measure whether this would really help, maybe she just had more pride when she let on. Not that it really mattered, because Lyra allowed herself to trust Octavia and took her hoof.

Octavia smiled as she led her friend to the water.

Crack!

The water felt cool against her coat as she stepped into it, and it was fairly deep, too. She wasn't just saying that because of her size, but because it really was. The water even reached her belly, which made the experience only a bit worse.

She took Lyra's hoof and nodded to the other filly. Tavi then proceeded to pull it into the water, very slowly and carefully, and Lyra bowed down with her, until the lower left leg was submerged in the water. As it reached the spot, Lyra screamed a high-pitched scream and Octavia nearly fell over.

However, the longer they stayed, the calmer Lyra got. Her expression softened by the moment and after a while, her smile grew to be more natural again. That meant that the water did help and they both grinned at each other.

During the process, she'd looked at Twilight for help at least once, but the other filly could just stare at them helplessly. Everypony could only do that, so Octavia blamed none of them for it. And Twilight probably also didn't know anything about this spot to begin with. So that was that and they could get to discuss how they should proceed next.

Crack!

“Did you ponies hear that?” Derpy asked suddenly and everypony turned towards her.

After a moment of quiet, Lyra merely shrugged. If there had been something, Octavia hadn't heard it because she'd been busy with Lyra, anyway.

“There's nothing there,” Raindrops said, her voice unsure, her ears perked.

Lyra tried to stand on all four hooves again and quickly brightened up.

“The water worked!” She said with a happy laugh. “I don't know how, but it did the job! There's no pain anymore!”

The filly started to hop towards and around her friends in a happy dance. Octavia smiled mildly and got herself out of the water, the sleepiness catching up to her. Still, she decided to get back to where her friends sat in a half-circle.

They needed to start a discussion on what to do next. They couldn't walk back, because then they might see Canterlot again and she didn't want that.

“This is a dead-end,” she started, “We need to find another way, I think.”

Crack!

The sound echoed through the caves and all the ponies immediately put up their hooves to guard their ears. It was the noise of bones breaking and the sound of sawblades cutting through flesh and steel alike. A cacophony of despair and fear singing in the silence.

All their gazes turned towards the entrance, from whence they had come and from whence the sound came, too. They spotted the beasts stalking through the darkness, moving towards them.

They wore cloaks made from the nightly sky and walked on cloven feet while their hands had sawlike fingers. Their heads were horse skulls, with one eye gleaming with a mad red swirl, while black liquid oozed from the other.

Loose flesh hung from the bones of their upper bodies and an ungodly blackness followed in their wake. It was a blackness armed with claws and teeth and everything terrible in the world ready to strike at them.

I always wanted to play the cello, Octavia thought at that moment, the breath leaving her and sweat running down her brows, because that was the only way to keep my grandfather alive in this unforgiving world.

Raindrops was crying, or maybe it was Derpy, or both, or all of them. Either way, they all stared at the beasts.

“Never forget who you are,” he had told her a thousand years ago, even before the fire took him.

The creatures moved forward, their gait missing in form and law, while their steps had the sound of pain and shattering glass, of crying and laughter. Everypony tried to move backwards, only Octavia remained.

Was she too scared to move? Or was she trying to protect them? She didn't really know at this point, but tears were rolling down her cheek. Octavia closed her eyes.

There is a magic in music, the other had told her and Rainbow Dash was still waiting beneath the rubble of a dead city. …

Wait!

It was like she was opening her eyes for the first time since forever, like she'd woken from a long sleep. A gust of wind followed and the nightmarish creatures all stopped dead in their tracks, screeching and howling.

This was the moment she realized what exactly she had told Rainbow Dash, or rather what she herself had wanted to believe. That somepony would come and save her and all of them, that some hero might appear at the end, a parent, a father, even a grandfather.

It was something simple, something innocent, but it was wrong. The world did not work that way. No, what she truly knew was that because the filly with the many-colored mane was still her friend and she had made a promise, she would keep on going. Be they hunger, soldiers or monsters from beneath the bed, she would overcome them all.

That was the moment she heard Her voice clearly in her head.

That's it! Now you can do it!

She felt strange, like a necklace was wrapped around her neck, like she stood taller than before, and stronger still. The pain and the feeling of despair and hopelessness, they were all gone and her sight was clear.

The others looked at her from behind, mouths agape in wonder.

“Octavia,” Twilight said with a stutter, “y-you got a mark on your flank.”

She took that moment to turn around and give them all a confident smile.

“Trust me,” she said, bristling with might, “and follow my lead.”

The creatures screamed and leaped forward, weeping and bleeding, sawing and breaking. The darkness flooded the room, swirling in a mad whirl, ready to swallow them whole.

But Octavia didn't wait, because she wouldn't be scared and she wouldn't hide away anymore. Now their backs were to the wall, but they were on the right path and this was the moment to take the dive.

She turned towards the lake and started into a gallop. None of her friends wasted a second and all did the very same. As Octavia jumped into the water, so did they.

The last glimpse she took was one of her own reflection. It didn't belong to the filly who'd been abused and thrown away by her parents, but neither to the mare with the godlike grace. The reflection was merely Octavia and all she ever strived to be.

There's still magic in this world, she thought. It was in music, in poetry, in song and in every art to be created. But magic was also something else entirely, she understood that now, something the people had all lost. Magic was trust and hope and honesty.

Then the water swallowed them, but the darkness did not stop to claw at them. They had dared to defy the King of Nightmares and his anger would destroy them all.

As the darkness dropped down, the water went into a swirl, but Octavia just continued to swim, down and deeper down. Only once did she look behind her, to check up on the others.

Twilight was clinging to Derpy, who sank like a rock. Lyra moved arms and legs in frantic motions that could be interpreted as swimming and Raindrops looked like she was very determined on avoiding both dying in the darkness and by drowning.

At least Octavia knew that she really wasn't scared anymore. Trixie had sacrificed herself for them, Rainbow Dash was still waiting and the Lunarium was getting closer. If she'd been ever sure of anything, then it was that they could do this.

Yet the darkness sank into the water and started to surround them. The current changed with its presence, driving them up again. They swam against it and the strength slowly left their arms. Octavia didn't even really notice it, at least until everything was just gone.

The strength, the force, everything just vanished as the darkness overtook them. In the distance, she could hear a monster's laughter, like it would be the last thing they would ever hear.

Her parents also had laughed at her. …

What foul obscenity she yelled lost itself to the waves, but she declared Magia and them the same thing, even if only the water heard it. She opened her eyes wide and saw the floor of the lake approaching. She bellowed loudly and pushed her right hoof against the current and drove it against the ground with all her might.

Then, with a flash of light erupting from her hoof, the stone ground cracked and broke. Octavia didn't notice that she was falling until seconds thereafter. Everything fell with her, the ponies, the water and the stones. Out of the darkness and unto a different plane entirely.

Beneath them there seemed to be no ground, but what looked like the night sky itself. It was a sea of a billion stars, going on eternally.

Everypony screamed but Octavia.

“Trust me!” She yelled against the wind. “We'll make this!”

She didn't know whether anypony had truly heard her, but she really hoped that they listened. It was right then that she felt somepony tugging at her arm and turned around to see Derpy frantically trying to reach her. She held Twilight in one hoof already and Octavia quickly grasped what she wanted to do.

Or we could just do that, she noted mentally and grabbed Derpy's arm.

The pegasus spread her wings in hopes of braking the fall at least a little. Octavia also spotted that Raindrops held Lyra, who was laughing like a maniac at this development.

“Best! Morning! Ever!” She screamed.

Derpy looked down with worry. “Do we need to get down there now?”

Everypony was screaming, everypony but Octavia who simply went in head first.

"Trust me!" She yelled, "We'll make this!"

“Yes!” Twilight shouted back, the adrenaline rushing through her. “We're closing in on the Lunarium!”

Thus Derpy took the chance to launch downwards and Octavia, for the first (and hopefully last) time in her life, felt what it was like when a pegasus undertook a nose-dive.

She felt the wind blowing through her mane, probably ruining it forever, and held on to Derpy as strongly as she possibly could. The sea of stars was closing in and she didn't want to look back and see what was happening to the darkness and the walking nightmares.

Twilight was right, however. She felt it, too. They were only a few steps away from it now, from the Lunarium, from the end of their journey. She saw stones falling into the stars, splashing and casting ripples to move across it.

It's another lake, she thought and felt very inclined to shout some sort of battlecry.

Just you wait, RD. I'll fix this world and there'll be songs all around us again. Our dreams will be fulfilled, I swear it.

Those were the last thoughts she had as they crashed into the water. For the briefest of seconds then, she blacked out and found herself surrounded by the light of the stars. There was somepony else there with her, with all of them, watching over them.

Don't give up now. You've made it to the final stretch already!

Comments

[Remmy4warlord]

Love the chapter I can hardly wait till the others realize that Magic still exists for everypony.

[Fire_Starter]

5412521 What makes you so sure that they will realize this fact? Pr that this is even a fact at all?

[FIMScourge]

this be getting confuddlingly interesting

[Remmy4warlord]

5414101
Welll... now that you mention it it is more about Friendship than it is Magic.

[Shining Dawn]

5402979 I made that comment before I read that.
And when I found out I was way to traumatized. i.imgur.com/AdiBPrO.jpg

[Shining Dawn]

5403216 That doesn't seem to make much sense in context.

[Sycamore]

The darkness monsters remind me of the things in the first maze runner book.

[MustacheMerlin]

5429774 You mean the grievers? I can see that. The saw hands are what really sell it for me.