In The Suspicion.

“I heard it from there; the screams and howls of the wicked mare,” Zecora led Mayor Mare through a shortcut along the Everfree Forest.

The Mayor was greatly disturbed by this mention of burning and loud screams coming nearby Ponyville, she was feared that everypony might be in danger if this was true. Was this maybe some witchcraft ritual a couple of fillies were joking around with? But why would fillies be burning anypony? Perhaps Zecora's nose deceived her, but still, anything the zebra had told the Mayor in the past was the truth. The herbalist wasn't one to lie about such threats to ponykind.

“Who lives here?” The Mayor asked, slowing down her frantic pace when the ponies passed a small cosy-looking cottage by the stream. The Mayor couldn't help but notice all the animals that looked a little helpless in the yard.

“That is where young Fluttershy is seen to stay, there is certainly no critter that pony would slay,” Zecora answered, urging the Mayor to hurry along.

“Oh, this is the house?” Mayor Mare stood small against the narrow stone pathway to a huge mansion that seemed greatly out of date, “This is where the old Smallfeather couple used to live. Many say it's haunted and perhaps they're right,”

The light grey mare didn't want to admit it, but looking up at the stone building gave her the creeps. She wanted to turn around and run back to Town Hall, but being the mayor she had to stand her ground against anypony, big or small.

“So maybe what they say is true, but what I say is true too,” Zecora nodded toward the building, “There's a pony who lives inside -she never comes out, she's here to hide.”

“Hide from what?” The Mayor whispered back.

“Nopony knows exactly what from, but today is the day we can learn more. Come.” Zecora led the frightened Mayor up the narrow path, small stones rolling under heavy hooves.

The Mayor found it harder and harder to follow Zecora, feeling as small as an ant when they reached the tall door. Zecora took a deep breath through her nose and then looked at the Mayor with piercing navy eyes.

“You smell that smell I feared the most?” She asked. The Mayor sniffed the air experimentally and quickly regretted it. She wanted to gag, “It's the smell I smelt of burning host.” Zecora turned back to the door and then raised a hoof.

“What are you going to do?” The Mayor asked in a tiny voice, fear finally reaching her eyes as they grew wide. Zecora closed her lids, ignoring the mare, and knocked politely on the door. “There's a doorbell,” The Mayor squeaked, receiving a knowing look.

The ponies listened carefully and then heard it: a set of hooves clacking against the floor and growing louder by the second. Mayor Mare's heartbeat quickened as she hung close to the taller, bolder striped mare in front of her. She didn't want to die and she was so extremely frightened by who might just answer that door... being the Mayor she should've known where every pony lived, but very rarely did Mayor Mare travel near the Everfree Forest.

The lock slid open and the door creaked, pulling inward as a soft, clean atmosphere caught the two mares by surprise. Octavia opened the door and stared at her wonderment visitors, almost in excitement.

“Mayor Mare and Zecora at my doorstep? What a wonderful surprise! Would you ladies like to come in? I was just making lunch.” The grey mare smiled, pushing the door completely open and bowing her head with the utmost courtesy.

“Thank you, O-Octavia,” The Mayor nodded back and so did Zecora before entering the pony's home.

“Could I get you anything? Soup maybe?” The cellist trotted past them after closing the door following their entry.

“A stay so long we can't guarantee, but may I say this is not what I expected to see.” Zecora looked at the murals and stain-glass windows in amusement.

Octavia put on her best confused smile and raised an eyebrow, “I beg your pardon?”

“What she's trying to say is...” Mayor Mare glanced over at Zecora for an okay to tell her story. When she received a nod, The Mayor continued, “Zecora filed a noise complaint, along with the complaint of... outrageous amounts of foul smell coming from smoke belonging to a chimney. Now I'm not pointing hooves at anypony, but I'm here to investigate a little to get down to the pit of this concerning factor.” The Mayor nodded, looking about the house, trying to find anything out of place or worth noting.

Octavia stared at the respectful Mayor with watchful eyes and then looked at Zecora who also seemed to look around suspiciously, only not as noticeably.

“Yes, well perhaps I could explain all of your suspicions over lunch.” Octavia finally spoke up, watching in humour as the two mares snapped their attention back to the cellist who was leaving the room and walking toward the kitchen.

As the three mares chowed down on their thick soups, Octavia began to explain how all of this came to be. Being extremely intelligent and cunning as she was, she had made up a story before-hand, knowing for certain she would be questioned if anything abnormal was to come. She had excuses and lies for every detail of the house, every crack in the floor or ceiling, every lock, knob, switch, creak, stain, mark, or feather found anywhere at all. She had it all memorized and had it all burned into her mind.

“Are you two enjoying your soup?” Octavia smiled as she finished hers.
The mares nodded in unison.

“I have never tasted anything so great and so raw. What is your recipe, Miss Philharmonica?” Zecora asked, swallowing her last satisfying bit.

“Well, the trick is to keep the lettuce always freshly picked and washed in cool water, dried very well with a towel. Then the dandelions, I always have to purchase from the market. Golden Harvest always has the freshest, I find. I've paid for a unicorns help at puréeing these ingredients at high temperature to perfection.”

“What about this redish colour? It must've made all the difference to the taste.” The Mayor asked, “I've never seen this, nor tasted this sort of thing coming straight from plants before.”

Octavia looked at it and quickly searched in her memory for her excuse, “Oh, yes, but of course. Those are tenderized beets. An old Philharmonica trick for perfect soup.” Octavia smiled.

“How peculiar... very nice, though,” Mayor Mare nodded, finishing up.

"This was excellent lunch but for long we can't stay, now about the explanations you've been meaning to say?” Zecora watched the strange grey mare with uncertain eyes as the cellist nodded and took in a deep breath.

“Well, Spring time was coming to an end so I decided I should do a little cleaning. I usually have a fire going with some incense in the basement to cover up the ghastly smell of mold. You see, when it rains, my basement walls spring a leak. It's a headache, really.” Octavia drastically rubbed her temples with her hooves.

“And the noise?” Mayor Mare asked.

“Ah, yes, the noise,” Octavia sighed, “I've been hearing it too, and perhaps the stories of this house being haunted weren't really ponytails after all. It gets a little freaky at night.”

“So why not move? I'm sure I can find you a wonderful new home somewhere in town, or what about Canterlo-”

“I refuse to move back to that place!” Octavia snapped suddenly. Zecora and the Mayor exchanged curious glances, “Excuse me.” Octavia apologized, clearing her throat and mentally kicking herself for the outburst, “I just... haven't been really close with my family lately. We're in a heated argument I wish to not get involved with.”

“Fair enough.” The Mayor nodded, “I only suggested from the fact that you've lived there most of your life.”

“I understand.” The cellist nodded.

“Should we see your basement then?” Mayor Mare looked over at Zecora and then Octavia for approving nods.

The grey mare smiled, her purple eyes glimmering with ecstatic notion, “But of course! Right this way, ponies. Mind you, the couple that lived here before had a bunch of strange locks on the door. They must have been hiding something pretty important down here.” Octavia lied, bringing her company close to the door.

The young mare popped open the heavy door, seeing as no locks were fastened to mask her illusion. She drew the light and told the ponies to watch their steps.

As the three mares trotted slowly down the stairs, they whispered to each other about the stench, but Octavia mentioned again about the incense and mold. When their hooves landed on concrete, Octavia drew another light. Everypony looked around and murmured to themselves.

The entire basement was cleared out. No stains of rust or blood were left on the floor, the tools and ropes were neatly stashed away to make it seem like just another old storage area, and no trace of a soul was left behind. Octavia smiled to herself and then sighed.

“I have no idea what to do with this place anymore, so I kind of gave up on it. I wanted to use it as a personal storage area, but I have no things to really store but my instruments, so I just craft cellos down here. It's a quiet, serene place.” Octavia nodded, looking to the floor, examining as she did so.

Her heart started to pound fast as she saw a long piece of light, pink hair wisp across the floor while Zecora walked by. The grey mares eyes snapped over to the Mayor who was slowly fixing her glasses atop her muzzle. But before Mayor Mare could adjust her specs, Octavia walked over and hid the hair under her front hoof, smiling lightly at the Mayor who looked back suspiciously.

“I must say, Octavia, your ways have slightly changed since you've moved into Ponyville.” The Mayor chuckled.

“Well, everypony alters a bit whilst growing up, don't we?” The cellist remarked, chuckling back and scooping up the hair when the Mayor turned around to join Zecora on the other side of the room.

Octavia stuffed the pink hair into her mouth and chewed quickly, trying to break the extremely thick strand. She finally managed to split it into two at least before swallowing with a graceful gulp.

“Anything strange you see?” Mayor Mare leaned in close and whispered to the zebra.

“None that I can see with my eyes of blue. What about you?” Zecora whispered back.

“Absolutely nothing. Maybe you were hearing the Timberwolves screaming, Zecora. I don't know about you, but I certainly don't believe in ghosts.” The Mayor frowned.

“Well perhaps now we may find no evidence, but remember this place for future reference.” Zecora said, making the Mayor nod in agreement.

“Well, luckily for you, Miss Philharmonica, we found nothing out of the blue, so we wont bother you any further today,” The Mayor said with a nod, “But this doesn't mean you're off the hook.”

“Understandable, Mayor,” The grey mare nodded, “I'm glad I can be of any help to you two,”

While Octavia waved the two mares goodbye, she couldn't help but smile gleefully to herself. Once the ponies left her sight, she closed the door and locked it behind her, drawing in a deep breath and then letting it out.

The exhausted cellist stalked up the stairs slowly, pushing her tired and aching body up each step. She had been up all night cleaning the house, and by the morning she had to murder her victim, which was a lot of work like usual. She also spent most of the day slicing the flesh bit by bit off of the Pegasus skeleton to make a purée for soup, and then cleaned the access blood from the floors and walls, but it was all worth it after a nice hot bath.

She had expected a visit by the Mayor from all the screeching Fluttershy's bitchy, ignorant rabbit did, so she was happy she woke up to early enough to get everything done. She was also greatly happy that the Town Hall was about an hour and a half away by hoof from where she lived.

Octavia finally made it to her bedroom and instantly galloped over to her large closet in which she opened to reveal her oddities: one half-sawn Fluttershy corpse, and a chestnut cello that waited patiently for her to embrace.

Octavia admired the corpse before grabbing hold of her cello and standing next to the dead pony in the closet. She began to play, once in a while looking at the mangled Fluttershy and smiling to herself.

Once she was done, she took a bow and could imagine the respectful cheers and claps from an imaginary audience.

“Thank you, thank you everypony. You're all too kind,” She whispered and then looked at the hanging corpse again, “What's that?” She asked, leaning her perked ear closer to the skeleton, “You want a private concert? Well of course I can do that for you, Flutters! Anything for you, my love,”

Octavia plays a note experimentally before nodding to herself and continuing the piece as fluently as ever... the same Bach piece in G major she knew all too well.

Vinyl stood on the podium, cranking the familiar knobs with her magic in rhythmic perfection to the beat she's drawn from scratch that very morning.

The unicorn had to admit that she was feeling extremely nervous and frightened before setting hoof on stage, but as she did, her fear vanished as fast as it had come and she smiled into the audience of all the ponies who have come to watch her play: hundreds, if not thousands of ponies, big and small, Pegasi, unicorn or earth, even the large groups of glittering crystal ponies had pooled in just moments ago.

The lights were blinding as they passed by Vinyl's vision, but her glasses helped with the most part. She spotted Pinkie Pie jumping up and down excitedly with her friends, her smile gleaming with joy at her friend on stage. The Mayor and Zecora even came in together. There were only a couple unfamiliar faces and a whole heap-load of crystal ponies, all smiling and dancing to the music that the young DJ produced.

The club was so overpacked that ponies had to stand outside as well, seeing through the glass windows that the large club had to install. Vinyl swung track by track, not missing a beat as she herself enjoyed the music too. She looked out into the crowd a bunch of times, searching for more familiar faces she might have missed, but the two ponies she desperately wanted to see there weren't... her parents.

She wanted, more than ever, to see the looks on their faces now that their very own daughter was living her dream. Vinyl's blood boiled in her veins as she tilted her horn forcefully forward and cranked all the knobs up. The bass erupted throughout the club, shaking the walls and throwing all the ponies into a gleeful frenzy. Maybe her parents can hear her now.

And then the white unicorn paused from turning any more knobs as she noticed a big flash of light come from the doorway. Everypony looked over and gasped at the sight and Vinyl was absolutely clueless as to what was going on. As soon as the light dimmed down again, a tall and slender pony with a whitish-pinkish coat and flowy multi-coloured tail and mane glided through the crowd.

Everypony clapped and cheered at the presence of Princess Celestia. Vinyl's heart leaped high into her throat and she smiled stupidly as the Princess looked over and nodded, acknowledging the pony's efforts. And then another flash of darker light shone and the princess's younger sister, Princess Luna of the night, showed up and the cheers only grew louder. Vinyl wanted to faint right then and there, but pushed herself onward, not wanting to disappoint the princesses.

Vinyl pulled the microphone from the stand and brought it to her lips, “Are you ponies ready to DROP. THE. BASS!?” Vinyl screamed into the microphone and received howls and cheers right back, “Come on, now!”

Vinyl twisted a very large knob which brought the frequency of the bass to a dangerous low, but it even got Princess Celestia nodding her head to the beat, smiling and greeting her subjects as she did so. Luna's expression looked unpleasant as usual, but Vinyl wanted to so desperately change that.

Vinyl switched her track to a greatly familiar album that she knew would get Luna grooving: Filly Gaga.

Finally, Vinyl saw Luna's dark eyes widen with glee and look over to her older sister. Celestia laughed out loud and flank-bumped her sister into moving. With great hesitation, Luna finally started to feel the rhythm with her hind quarters and Vinyl patted herself on the back.

Octavia was soaking in a hot bath filled with lavender salts to ease her mind from constantly replaying the events of the day. She's never had a complaint filed about her doings and that scared her greatly. She could tell the older zebra was still cautious and would keep a sharp eye and ear out for anything else suspicious. Zecora knew everything there was to know about the Everfree Forest, and that made Octavia shiver, even though her entire coat was dunked into a steaming hot tub of water.

As the grey mare watched the thick steam rise to the ceiling of her large, stone bathroom, she sighed. And then the cellist paused her thoughts and looked back at the water. She noticed, without a single movement, the waters surface rippled.

One. One two. One. One two. It was a pattern of music she understood quite well. But where was this low frequency coming from? Certainly she wasn't playing her cello nor did she have the radio plugged in... so where was it happening? Who was playing this terribly loud music?

Octavia stepped out of the tub and drained the water, slinging a towel over her back and walking into her bedroom. She drew the curtains open and looked out the window across the trees and toward the town of Ponyville. She saw some lights and beams shooting into the air and knew something interesting was going on. Perhaps a new club opened? She did hear something about the crystal ponies visiting...

Octavia still wasn't going to let this go. She wanted to get to the bottom of this frightening enigma that is the DJ. She nonetheless turned her plot to the window and trotted over to the mirror. She combed out her mane and tail and then neatly adjusted her bow tie and collar around her throat. She admired herself in the mirror for a split second and then looked away, hurrying down the stairs to get to the lobby.