Timeless

Chapters

Alone
Clash in "Manehattan"
Outbursts and Discoveries
Corruption
Not Alone
Performance
Shadow

Alone

Vinyl scratched at her horn, still feeling some of the painful sensation that had blasted it not too long ago. Muttering a curse under her breath, she continued to walk down the seemingly endless dirt road that she was beginning to think was leading her in circles. While it was somewhat hard to see due to the darkness of night, she was at least thankful that the temperature was neither too cold nor too hot for her tastes.

"How long have I been doin' this?" she wondered to herself aloud as she continued on. "Or maybe a better question would be, why is this happening in the first place!?" her irritated shout broke the silence of the night. Letting out a heavy sigh, she stopped and sat on the grass by the edge of the road. This whole situation made no sense to her, and she knew a thing or two about senselessness. Her current predicament however, was on a completely different level from her usual DJ related activities and partying.

"So let me try and get all this straight again." she began to speak, not caring in the least that she was completely alone. "First, it turns into night time in the middle of the afternoon. Then when I go outside to see what's going on, everypony else is completely frozen like they turned into statues... except without the... statue part. Then I turn around and get nailed right in my horn by... something and pass out. Then finally I wake up on this STUPID ROAD" she picks up a nearby rock and throws it at the dirt as she shouts again, "and I can't use my magic anymore either..." She sighs once more as she lets herself fall back onto the grass.

"Maybe this is one of those weird dreams where you're aware of everything that's happening..." she muttered before forcing a halfhearted laugh. "Yeah right, if it was then my horn wouldn't feel like it got crushed by a rock over and over." Looking up at the moon, she tried to make sense of her situation once more. It was a futile effort, of that she was well aware, but she had run out of energy to be angry at dirt roads and inanimate rocks. As she laid there, thinking about a way out of this situation, she failed to notice her eyelids wavering. Within minutes, she'd fallen asleep, exhausted from the day's (or in this case, night's) events.

As she began to regain consciousness, Vinyl slowly sat up and scratched at her horn again. She let out a yawn before looking over her surroundings. She let out yet another sigh once she realized that she was still at the side of the dirt road. Even though she felt as though she'd slept for hours, the darkness of the night still clouded her vision. She stretched a bit as she got to her feet and then, with another sigh, she set out upon the road.

"It wouldn't be half as bad if there were at least some crickets or something..." She spoke to herself once more. She'd heard not a single sound aside from the occasional breeze of wind since she first woke up on the road. She began to think that perhaps she was the only pony left who wasn't apparently frozen in time. But if that were true then why her? What had she ever done that could possibly lead to her current situation? Sure she'd seen her fair share of strange things, but they were always things that simply came with being a DJ for a living.

As she continued down the road, something caught her eye. She squinted to try and make out what it was but her eyes quickly widened once she saw it clearer. A town! A town somewhere down the road! Vinyl began galloping towards her new target with a renewed sense of hope enveloping her.

"A town means ponies, and ponies mean information, and information means I get to know what in Celestia's name is going on!" She said to herself between breaths as she continued to pick up speed. She didn't think for a moment that the town's inhabitants might also be frozen like those she'd seen previously. Rather, she couldn't think that. If she did then she may as well just go back to sleeping on the grass for the rest of her life.

As the town came closer into view, Vinyl tightly closed her eyes and wished that somepony, anypony would be there to give some kind of help. Even if they knew as little as she did about what was happening, at least she wouldn't be alone anymore. In the back of her mind she knew that out of all the strange things going on, that was the scariest thought of all. That she would be alone.

Finally reaching her destination, she slowed herself down so as to catch her breath. Looking around at the buildings, her sense of hope instantly broke down. She saw no lights in any of the buildings. No ponies anywhere in sight. Not even a pet or some other kind of creature moving about in the shadows. Nothing.

Falling back onto her haunches, she let out a long and very loud yell in frustration. As she caught her breath, she lowered her head and her mouth started to quiver as tears began to form in her eyes. Were they out of sadness? Frustration? Anger? All three? She wasn't sure. She didn't care though. All she knew was that she was now trapped in a world where time itself seemed to have stopped, along with every other pony excluding herself. Her greatest fear had been realized. She was alone.

She sat there for what she thought had seemed like an hour, though now that time had apparently frozen she didn't think it mattered much. All the thoughts and fears rushing in and out of her mind. What was she going to do now? Was there anypony anywhere that wasn't frozen? Was this the end of Equestria? Was she fated to die here... alone? Her tears began to stream down her face again as she started sobbing.

Vinyl had never been a very sensitive individual. She never seemed to cry even when others would. She had been told that she didn't care about anyone else when she really did. That she was cold hearted when she really wasn't. When she attended a funeral once the other ponies there were almost more shocked that she actually shed a single tear than they were that they had just lost one of their own.

But the idea that her fate had been cursed to have her spend the rest of her life alone, both figuratively and literally, managed to break something in her. She never had many ponies that she truly considered friends that she could rely on and vice versa, but the ones that she did have she always treasured. But now, to know that their fate was to be frozen in time, lifeless and unresponsive, while hers was to carry on without any of them... it was too much for her to bear.

With exhaustion grasping at her once again, she fell onto her side with a thud. She'd passed out, and for all she could have cared she would be better off never waking up.

Something else had a different idea in store for her though. She bolted upright, awakened by the almost unreal sounding BANG of an explosion somewhere in the town. Before she could make sense of what was going on, another BANG sounded out, this time closer to her. Vinyl's first reaction was to run towards the noise to investigate, but something within her prevented her from doing so. She didn't know if it was fear or some survival instinct, but she retreated from her current position nevertheless.

Explosions continued to ring out in different directions around her. She was almost ready to run out of the town completely until she saw... it. A massive shadowy figure rose up in what seemed like the center of the town. The creature had to be nearly four stories tall. Vinyl's eyes widened in shock and terror. Before she could formulate a response to the sight before her however, there was another explosion. The shadowy form had been hit with a blast of some kind of energy, causing it to fall back onto a building behind it.

The blasts continued to come, seemingly originating from a rooftop not far from the monster. Squinting her eyes again to try and see what was causing them, her jaw fell agape as she made out the form of a lone pony, standing on the roof. She began galloping towards the direction of the building without a second thought.

She only caught glimpses of the fight while she focused on where she was going, but from what she could make out it appeared that the beast was being assaulted with waves of light. The light had a purple sort of tint to them and seem to be some form of magic. The lights exploded as soon as they made contact with the shadow, staggering it and forcing it back. They continued to be fired off in quick succession, each just as brilliantly bright as the last.

She continued to gallop her way ever closer to the sight of the battle. Her fear gone and her survival instincts ignored, she got closer and closer to the center of the town. The monster seemed even bigger now, towering over everything around her, but even so her focus was still on the rooftop where the blasts emanated from. While she couldn't make out any specific details still, she could tell that the figure on the rooftop was most definitely another pony, and a pony who could still use their magic at that.

As she got even closer however, the creature took notice of her presence. Shifting it's shape so as to dodge the next blast, it smashed part of itself into the ground in front of Vinyl, throwing her back. Dodging another blast, it grabbed Vinyl with shadowy tendrils that sprouted forth from its main body and pulled her into itself.

The pain was excruciating. It felt like her whole body was being crushed from every single side. She wanted to scream but she seemed to be paralyzed, unable to move an inch as this monster slowly crushed her within itself. Through her wincing eyes she caught a glimpse of the pony on the roof just as another blast hit the creature. The blast staggered it but the shadow refuse to relinquish its hold on Vinyl.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity to her, Vinyl was knocked free from the beast by another blast. Instead of being crushed however, she now found herself falling straight towards the cold hard ground. Closing her eyes and preparing for the inevitable, she never felt the smash of her body hitting the ground. Instead she was caught in what appeared to be levitation magic from that of another unicorn. She was gently placed onto the rooftop which she had seen before.

Looking up weakly, Vinyl caught sight of her savior. It was a mare with a calm gray coat and a long mane as black as the shadowy monster she battled. However, despite the blasts of magic she had apparently been using to combat the monster, Vinyl saw no horn upon her head. The mare said something to her but Vinyl didn't hear it. Her ears were ringing and her head was pounding, her view fading by the second. Her last sight before she passed out once again was of a great ball of light, bigger and brighter than any of those before it, being thrown at the beast, putting it down for good.

"WAIT, DON'T GO!" Vinyl shouted as she bolted upright. Her breaths were quick and uneven, her head still pounded, and a general soreness held onto most of her body. Her eyes darted around the small room she just realized she was currently in but the only thing of note was a window on the wall in front of her. After a few moments to get her bearings she steadied her breathing. At this point she realized that not only was she in an actual room, she was also in a bed, covers thrown off from when she bolted awake.

"Well it looks like you're finally awake." A voice called calmly as its owner entered the room. Vinyl was shocked to see that the voice belonged to none other than the gray mare who had saved her life.

"Y-you! It's you!" Vinyl said, not fully believing her own eyes.

The gray mare looked at her, confused. "Well, I suppose that's true, I am me. But the real question is who are-" Her sentence was cut off by Vinyl jumping out of the bed and enveloping her in a bear hug. "Ow! Okay, okay! Let go of me!" She pleaded, somehow managing to pry Vinyl off her.

Vinyl finally realized what she had just done and looked away with a blush, muttering an apology. She quickly returned to her eager earlier self however. "But wait, you're real! Right? You're not a statue like everyone else!"

The gray pony readjusted the pink bowtie around her neck which Vinyl just now noticed, and quickly brushed her hair back into place with her hoof. "No, I am not... and neither are you."

"Well yea, obviously I'm not! But you have no idea how happy I am to see you! Well, maybe not you specifically seeing as I have no idea who you are, but seeing another-"

"Yes, I know." The gray mare cut her off. "I figured that I would be the first pony you've seen in a while who can actually move." Vinyl just kept smiling widely, her happiness too much to contain. Her smile faded slightly at the unknown mare's next words however. "Now... you're going to tell me everything about what's going on. RIGHT. NOW." As she said this, orbs of purple light began to form at her sides.

"Woah woah woah! Wait a minute! What are you doing that for, I'm not that big shadow thing!"

"No, you're not. What you ARE is the only other pony I've seen who isn't completely frozen, and I've seen a lot of them. That means you must know what's going on, seeing as you're perfectly fine compared to everypony else." The balls of light grew in intensity.

Vinyl took two steps back. "Now wait a minute, just calm down! I don't know what's going on either. All I know is that it turned into nighttime, everyone froze, and my horn got hit with something that took away my magic... it still hurts too." she rubbed her horn once again as she finished.

The other mare eyed her intently for a few moments more before the orbs at her sides disappeared and she relaxed her posture. "Well it looks like you're telling the truth."

"Of course I am! Why wouldn't I be?!"

"Forgive me if I'm skeptical of the first other pony I see who is neither a statue nor a shadow in disguise."

"Wait a minute, you mean that thing you were fighting was a pony?!" Vinyl asked, unable to believe what she just heard.

"No." was the calm response. "I said 'shadow in disguise'... Twice over now I've walked by a pony who I thought was frozen only to be attacked by one of those things." She walked over to the room's window and looked outside, scanning the area.

"So that huge monster thing-"

"Shadow."

"Yeah yeah, shadow, whatever. That huge thing disguised itself as a regular pony?!" The gray mare simply nodded in response. "Well how do we know they aren't all shadows?! What the hay IS a shadow anyway?! And why can they get so big?! WHAT'S GOING ON?"

"Quiet!" the other pony commanded, making Vinyl take another two steps back. Sighing, she spoke. "I'm sorry, but shouting gets us nowhere. Anyway, I know nothing more than you do. I also found day suddenly turned into night and everypony else was frozen. I suppose my situation was rather the opposite of yours from that point on though. I obviously am not a unicorn so I can't have my magic sealed. " She motioned to her hornless forehead. "Instead I was knocked unconscious by some force that I couldn't see, and when I woke up I found that I was able to perform magic... and I had this." She held up her left hoof which sported a shimmering purple bracelet around it. "I haven't been able to take it off, but whenever I use magic it glows, so I suspect it's the reason I can even-" She stopped after noticing a grimace on Vinyl's face. "What is it?"

"So I lose my magic and my shades while you get a bracelet that let's you do magic even though you're an earth pony."

"That seems to be our collective stories so far, except for how... wait, how did you get here anyway?" The other pony asked.

"I... I woke up on this dirt road in the middle of nowhere and just kept walking until I saw the town. So then I just... came here I guess." Vinyl responded, leaving out the parts about her throwing rocks at the road and breaking down in tears.

"I also woke up on a road and followed it to that town. I however was attacked by another shadow on the way there. The bracelet seemed to activate on it's own and I managed to fend it off though" She informed Vinyl, seeming uncomfortable with the memory.

"Wait." Vinyl interrupted before the other pony could continue. "You said, 'that town'... does that mean we aren't there? Where are we now?!" Vinyl hurried to the window and pushed the gray mare out of the way. "Woah..." She was greeted by the sight of tall buildings above and narrow alleys below. "Where in Celestia's name are we?"

"It looks like Manehattan, but it definitely isn't."

"Yeah..." Vinyl replied, knowing exactly what the other mare meant. Despite possessing the look of the big city, something felt off. Somehow, Vinyl knew that this was not the real Manehattan.

"Well, since you're up now, we'd better get going." The other pony said, walking out of the room.

"Going? Go where? and we as in... us? together?" Vinyl asked in disbelief.

The other pony didn't even turn around as she responded. "Yes, together obviously. Unless you'd rather travel on your own and risk getting attacked by another of those shadow monsters."

"Well when you put it like that..." Vinyl said as she followed the other pony out of the room. "I guess we're traveling buddies now... two questions though."

"Make it quick, I don't like the idea of being ambushed by another of those things while we sit around here."

"Where are we going, and just who are you exactly?"

"I can only assume that the place most likely to give us an answer is Canterlot... so we should make our way there... somehow. As for the other question." She turned around and gave a short bow. "MY name is Octavia. Yourself?"

"Vinyl." She replied quickly. "Vinyl Scratch."

"Well then Miss Scratch. I hope you can keep up. I do hate to carry unnecessary luggage around." Octavia said as she turned back around and began walking.

"Heh, right back at you m'lady." Vinyl replied, quickly catching up and making sure to walk ever so slightly ahead of her new acquaintance.

They exited the building together, both taking a moment to take in their surroundings before beginning the journey ahead of them. They both seemed to agree that they should try and make their way to Canterlot. But first they needed to navigate the winding alleys and empty roads of their current location.

With a breath to steady herself, Octavia took a step out into the streets and began walking. Vinyl did the same, a renewed purpose in her steps. She still might not know what's going on or why any of this is happening, but for the moment her greatest fear had been alleviated.

She wasn't alone after all.

Clash in "Manehattan"

An old newspaper blew across the road in front of the two ponies as they continued walking on. They'd been on the move for at least an hour now and they were both showing signs they needed a break.

"Hey... can we... stop for a minute?" Vinyl asked as she came to a halt, trying to catch her breath.

"We need to keep moving. We could be attacked at any time." Octavia responded, even though her breathing was also heavy and tired sounding.

Vinyl sat down on the road, "Better we be attacked while we're rested than when we're out of breath." Octavia just sighed in response before taking a seat herself. A cool night wind blew by the two, kicking up the loose newspapers left on the ground.

"So Octavia, what did you do before... all this happened?" Vinyl motioned to their surroundings.

"Does it matter? Right now we need to focus on finding our way out of this city... though I don't think the city agrees with the idea, seeing as we've been walking for an hour and still haven't seen anything of note or any kind of exit." Octavia responded dismissively, scratching at the bracelet on her hoof.

Vinyl watched silently, not knowing whether to speak up or if it would just annoy her partner. After a few minutes of Octavia continuously scratching absentmindedly at the bracelet, she decided to ask anyway.

"Does that hurt?" she asked, motioning to the bracelet. A single nod was her only response. "Just like my horn then." she observed, leaning back a bit to look at the sky. The two remained silent for a few more minutes before Octavia got back to her feet.

"That's enough rest. Time to get going again."

Vinyl got up with a groan. "You sure are a taskmaster." she said jokingly. Octavia stopped in her tracks and immediately turned around, a scowl on her face.

"No. What I AM, apparently, is the only one who understands the real gravity of our current situation. We're the only two ponies that we know of that aren't frozen in time with the rest of Equestria!" she walked angrily towards Vinyl as she continued. "And our current situation is being trapped in a fake Manehattan with monsters that want to kill us possibly lurking around literally every corner!" her face was inches from Vinyl's now. "And if we die then the rest of Equestria is probably doomed to stay the way it is. In case you hadn't realized, we're in a situation where we could seriously be dealing with the end of the world! But instead, you're more worried about taking rests and cracking jokes!" she finished, her temper still flaring.

"I-I was just trying to lighten things up a bit..." Vinyl responded quietly, backing up so as to put some space between the two. "I'm sorry."

Octavia sighed, putting her hoof to her temple. "No, I'm the one who should be sorry. I'm just... well, "stressed" isn't exactly the word for it. I've been stressed and managed to keep my emotions in check... this? This is just..." She struggled for words.

"Too much?"

"Yes. I believe that's an accurate summation of my feelings towards everything that's going on." She said, putting her hoof back down and returning to her normally rather stoic self. "Let's continue. We really do need to keep moving." She said, turning around and walking once more. Vinyl just nodded in response and followed alongside her. She made a mental note to be a bit more careful with any jokes from that point on.

The two ponies walked down an alleyway while keeping their eyes out for any kind of movement in the shadows. They'd not been attacked yet and this was just another of many alleys they'd already had to walk through, but they both still felt that they weren't alone in this city, and not in a good way.

"This one seems longer than the others, huh?" Vinyl spoke absentmindedly, looking from side to side.

"Indeed... the others also had a bit more... space to them." Octavia observed in response. They'd been walking down this way for a number of minutes and while they started side-by-side, at some point they were forced to walk single file, with Octavia in front and Vinyl in back. "I was a musician by the way." Octavia said out of the blue.

"What?"

"You asked what I did before all of this earlier. I was in a band." Octavia informed her, continuing to look straight ahead.

"No way! Me too! What instrument do you play? Guitar? Drums? Bas-" she was cut off.

"Cello... I played the cello."

"Oh..." Vinyl responded somewhat halfheartedly. Octavia looked glanced back at her as if to ask if there was a problem with that. "I mean, that's cool! I guess... I'm not really much of a... "classical" pony myself..."

"So I figured. Let me guess, you were a DJ of some sort?" Octavia questioned.

"How did you know?"

"Well your parents certainly gave you a name suited for the job. Your mane also looks about what I'd expect from such a person." She responded, turning her head to look forward again.

"My mane?" Vinyl touched her hoof to her hair. "Just because my hair is like this doesn't mean I'm DJ or that I'm a hard partier or something... even though I am... but that's beside the point. What about you then? If we're talking about looks now then you look like you do nothing but sip tea all day in some stuffy upper-class room and look down on everypony else."

"Looks can be deceiving..." was the surprisingly calm and somewhat quiet response. "But if you take offense to me making simple observations then I'll be sure to "look down on you" in secret from now on."

Vinyl glared at the gray pony and opened her mouth to respond but she was stopped by the sound of something falling over behind them. Both ponies struggled to turn around quickly in the small space at the same time, but when they did they saw... nothing.

"What was that?" Vinyl asked, squinting to see if she might be able to make out something in the darkness. Octavia didn't respond, instead turning back around to look down the other end of the alley.

She gasped and pushed Vinyl to the ground. "Get down!" she yelled as she did so, a black blast of black energy flying just over their heads.

"What?! What is it?!" Vinyl questioned, frantically trying to figure out what was going on.

"Hold on to me!" Octavia commanded. Vinyl didn't object and grabbed hold of the gray pony's waste as the two quickly levitated into the air, narrowly avoiding another blast. Vinyl's eyes widened as she caught sight of the culprit. Another shadow at the end of the alleyway, this one much smaller than the one she'd seen Octavia fight before.

Before she knew it they had landed in the middle of the street behind the monster. When she felt her hooves touch the ground she let go of Octavia. Looking at the mare though, she noticed something different. Octavia was wearing some kind of dress.

"What the hay are you wearing?! I hardly think this is the time to go to a ball!"

"Be quiet! It happens when I activate the bracelet. I was wearing it back when I saved you but apparently you were too busy passing out to notice back then." Octavia called back to Vinyl behind her. "Never mind that though, focus on the thing trying to murder us!" She shouted, jumping out of the way of another blast while Vinyl gasped and ducked under it instead. "Split up!" Octavia shouted out to her as she galloped down one side of the street.

Vinyl nodded quickly and began galloping down the other side. She didn't get very far before she realized something. "Hey wait a minute! You're leaving me! I can't use magic, remember?!" She shouted back. But Octavia was too far away to hear now. She decided to keep running after noticing that the shadow was now twice the size it was originally and was still growing.

"Great. Time frozen all around me, an earth pony who can use magic even though I can't, fancy dresses appearing out of nowhere, and now we're back to a giant monster trying to kill me." She looked at the sky and shouted "Will somepony tell me what's going on already!" as she kept running. Glancing behind her, she caught sight of the shadow being blasted by a ball of purple light. "Yeah! You show him!" She shouted out to Octavia despite knowing the gray pony couldn't hear her. She wasn't paying attention however and tripped over her own hooves as she ran, falling to the ground.

As she was about to get up, she saw a mass of black shadow about to smash down right on top of her. Her mind flashed with images of the last time such a thing happened, and the unbearable pain it brought. She didn't think she'd be able to handle going through that again. She tried to get out of the way, but the black mass was movie towards her too fast. It covered too much ground in its shadow. Vinyl was sure this was the end of her.

Except this time someone else knew about her presence on the impromptu battlefield. As fast as lightning, a blast of purple energy smacked into the mass of shadow, pushing it away and saving Vinyl. She made a mental note to thank Octavia with another bear hug later and began her swift retreat.

Meanwhile, Octavia was having her own problems. This time around the monster in front of her seemed to be more resilient to her attacks. It was obviously affected by them, but it refused to be staggered or toppled over. While the beasts were essentially ever shifting forms of black shadows, the three she had encountered now all seemed to have at least one part of their mass dedicated to keeping their footing on the ground. She had figured out from her previous two battles that a key to defeating them seemed to be forcing them to lose their footing so that they fell to the ground below. Such a task was proving much harder this time around.

"Either they're getting stronger or they're learning a better way to stand." Octavia observed, her mind racing to figure out a way to defeat the creature as fast as possible. The last two times it had only been her against the beasts. Sure she saved Vinyl after the monster attacked her in their second encounter, but the fight was pretty much over by the time Vinyl came into play. This time she had to ensure her partner's safety and defeat her enemy from the get go. "There has to be an easier way to do this. Some kind of bigger weakness to exploit..." She thought to herself, dodging an attack by jumping to the next rooftop over.

Octavia continued to pepper the monster with blast after blast while dodging it's counterattacks, but it refused to give an inch of ground up. Her frustration growing, she attempted to use her newfound magic to get to a rooftop behind the creature, but no matter where she went it kept it's gaze fixated on her. "Well at least it's forgotten about Vinyl." Octavia observed, trying to find some kind of upside to her situation.

Her words came back to bite her though when she noticed Vinyl being chased by shadowy tendrils left over from the place stricken by the monster earlier. Shouting a curse, she shot off a blast that hit and promptly disintegrated the tendrils. However, this led to her not noticing a ball of black energy coming straight for her.

Vinyl looked on in horror as she saw her newfound companion hit square in the face by the dark blast. Screaming her ally's name at the top of her lungs, she watch as Octavia was flung into the building behind her, breaking through the wall and leaving a cloud of dust and debris in her wake.

"No..." her voice was barely audible. "No... Octavia no..." Tears were streaming down her face. Looking towards the beast with a glare so full of rage that it could rival a fully grown dragon, she ran full speed straight towards it. She had no plan and nothing to fight it with, but she didn't care. Overcome with anger, she was just about to run head first into the place where the shadow touched the ground when suddenly... she was stopped. In the next instant she found herself teleported to another rooftop. Standing beside her was none other than Octavia.

"YOU'RE OKAY!" She shouted, about to launch herself at the mare until she was picked up by the purple light and placed further away.

"Yes I'm fine, but save the celebration for later please. This monster seems to still be standing." Octavia sported a number of smalls cuts and bruises and her outfit was torn here and there, but the most striking sight was a gash along her cheek that looked and was quite painful. She continued to keep her eyes firmly upon the monster though, ignoring the presence of her injuries.

"How aren't you dead?" Vinyl asked, still unable to believe that the other mare was standing strong.

"I shielded myself with magic just before the impact. It didn't block everything, but it did well enoug-MOVE!" She interrupted herself, using her magic to launch herself and Vinyl to another rooftop.

"How many buildings are there in this city!?" Vinyl cried out when the two landed.

"Haven't you noticed yet? Look around. That's why this place felt so wrong even though it looked like Manehattan..." Vinyl took Octavia's advice and looked around, her view strengthened by their vantage point.

What she found was nothing short of awe inducing. Multiple storied buildings as far as the eye could see in every direction. Nothing but building after building in line after line separated by streets and alleys. "Well that explains a couple things..." she said quietly before she suddenly found herself being launched over to another rooftop and placed down gently once there. Looking at her previous location, she saw a massive hoof shaped part of the shadow crushing the building into the ground.

"Time for admiring the view is up." Octavia said, launching another blast at the beast. "This blasted thing just doesn't want to go down. I've hit it with everything I have and it just shrugs it off!" Octavia's frustration was showing itself clearly now. Vinyl looked away and began to think. She was reminded of her head first charge towards the place where the beast anchored itself. Suddenly, she had an idea.

"Hey! Can you get us onto the ground? Right about where I was being chased by those things to be more exact." Vinyl asked as they jumped to another roof.

"Are you insane? We'll be at a massive disadvantage on the ground!" Octavia shouted.

"I have an idea but we need to be down there for it to have a chance of working!" Vinyl shouted back.

"Fine! But if we get crushed then I swear I'm haunting you!" Octavia responded as she used her magic to help them down to the street. Vinyl briefly had the thought to ask how a ghost could haunt another ghost, but she knew there were more important things to deal with.

As they landed on the street, Vinyl quickly explained her plan. "It seems to be anchored to that specific spot. If you can use your magic cut through it then PRESTO, we call timber and the rest of it falls to the ground!"

"How am I supposed to cut it?! All the magic ever does is explode as soon as it touches them!"

"You've only thrown waves and blasts at them. Try making an edge like a blade and throw that instead!" Vinyl explained "But do it quick cause it just found us again!" She exclaimed as the beast's gaze fell upon them again.

Knowing there was no time to debate and there was no reason not to try it, Octavia focused her magic into a straight line. Focusing even harder, the line grew in size and gained a rather sharp looking edge to it. Hoping for the best, Octavia shot the "blade" of purple light towards the beast.

As the magic collided with the monster, Octavia expected an explosion. Instead she was shocked to see the blade cut right through the monster, separating it into two pieces. As the upper half fell into the buildings and tumbled to the ground below, the lower half began to disintegrate into the air.

"Okay! Now launch yourself into the air and blast it with all you got!" Vinyl said quickly, knowing the fight wasn't over yet.

"Excuse me?!"

"Just do it before it gets back up!"

With a groan of disapproval, Octavia charged her magic into her hind legs and released it, throwing her high into the air. Once she was high enough to have the whole monster in view, she channeled all of the magic she could muster and shot it towards the beast. The resulting blast smashed into the monster with a massive amount of force, pushing it deeper into the ground before exploding. As Octavia used what was left of her magic to ensure she didn't smack into the ground far below, she saw the monster disintegrating into the air, it's shadowy mass dissipating as it leaked out until there was nothing left.

With a sigh of relief Octavia's legs gave out on her, her energy near completely gone. Her fall was stopped by Vinyl, who looked at her with a large smile. "Can we rest now?" She asked, still smiling. Octavia sighed again before nodding in defeat. As Vinyl helped her sit down, the two noticed something surprising. Down the street where the monster had been vanquished, somewhere in the distance, the endless row of buildings ceased.

"Looks like we found our exit." Vinyl said happily, her mood now elevated after their victory. Still too tired to give a verbal response, Octavia nodded in response. As she looked towards their new path, she let sleep take her. Vinyl looked at her and stifled a laugh, but then she noticed something peculiar. Not only had Octavia's outfit disappeared just as suddenly as it had appeared earlier, her bracelet was no longer shining with it's purple light like before.

Instead of getting answers, Vinyl only had more questions about the current state of affairs. They weren't any closer to finding out why any of this was happening in the first place, but now it seemed like the world was shifting itself around as evidenced by the previously endless rows of Manehattan styled buildings. Where were they? Why were they the only two who were unaffected by the stoppage of time? Would they really be able to find an answer in Canterlot? Would they even be able to find Canterlot at all? All these questions buzzed around in Vinyl's mind, but there was one thing she did know for certain.

They had a long road ahead of them. In more ways than one.

Outbursts and Discoveries

Vinyl and Octavia walked along the dirt road at a steady pace. It'd taken them close to half an hour to make their way down the street and reach the exit to the fake Manehattan. They hadn't spoken much since they began walking again, both still feeling some of the fatigue left over from their recent victory.

Vinyl had noticed that Octavia's bracelet was slowly regaining it's purple glow over time. She assumed it must have had something to do with Octavia using up her magic and having to recharge or something similar. Even though she knew Octavia still had to be a little tired, the silence was beginning to get on her nerves. Taking a breath, she spoke up.

"So... that certainly was something wasn't it?" Octavia just gave a small nod in response like Vinyl figured she would. "Are you sure you're okay?" Another nod. "I'm sorry I couldn't be more help back there..." Vinyl apologized out of genuine regret that she had to leave most of the battle up to Octavia.

"It's alright. It's not your fault." The gray mare finally spoke in response.

Vinyl took this as a sign that it was okay to keep talking. "You said you'd fought one of those things before the one in the town right? What was that like?"

Octavia paused a moment, trying to figure out what words to use before deciding on "Pretty much the same... maybe a little smaller, definitely slower moving... I don't like to think about it."

"Oh..." Vinyl responded, letting silence take over once again. They continued on for another hour or so before both agreeing it was time to rest again. The conversation had remained dead up until that point, and Vinyl knew there was no way Octavia would revive it, so it was up to her.

Inwardly sighing to herself, she spoke up. "That dress looked cute on you..." She said with a smirk, preparing herself for the angry response. Instead, Octavia just turned towards her while sporting a look halfway between annoyance and disbelief at what she just heard.

"Excuse me?" Was her initial response. Vinyl knew she would continue though so she cut off her chance by continuing herself instead.

"The dress that appeared when you were fighting that thing. You looked cute in it. You should just wear it all the time. It'll make the journey a little nicer. Maybe we can find you a nice bow for your hair." Vinyl said, managing to keep in her laughter.

Octavia continued to sport her annoyed and disbelieving look, but a small blush was being added to it now. "I hardly think the outfit matters! Besides, I told you it only appears whenever I activate the bracelet."

"That's lame. Here I was hoping I had a chance to travel with a pretty princess. You certainly have the overly entitled and dignified look to you... you should do something about that by the way." Vinyl responded as she leaned back against the tree they had decided to rest under, not thinking much about her words. Octavia meanwhile abruptly stood up, unable to comprehend just where Vinyl was going with all of this, her blush continuing to intensify.

"What in Celestia's name are you talking about?! I am hardly a princess. And overly entitled? I don't under-" Vinyl cut her off, hopping up to her hooves.

"You need to loosen up!" She said happily, putting her hoof around Octavia's shoulder. "Learn to enjoy things! I mean, there's not much to enjoy right now, but once we fix all this what are you gonna do? Go back to being all uptight?" Vinyl laughed.

Octavia pushed the other mare off of her rather forcefully, clearly not finding any humor in it. "If we're going speak of looks then I'd say you look "loose" enough for more than just the two of us. Also, did you take nothing away from our little "chat" before?! The fate of Equestria is at stake and you're just cracking jokes and trying to get a rise out of me!"

"I'll ignore that loose comment; now calm down, calm down. It was just a jo-"

"Just a joke?! What do you know about me?! You keep talking about how I must be snobbish and uptight! Like I'm some kind of royalty who thinks herself better than everyone else! And why? Just because I like to present myself well? Because I wear a bowtie and like to keep my hair neat and under control? Or is it because you look at me as I appear and feel bad about how YOU present yourself?!"

Vinyl was too late, only now regretting her pushing of Octavia's rather obvious buttons. She wanted to calm the situation down somehow but Octavia wasn't finished with her explosion of anger. "You speak about saving Equestria like we've already achieved it! In case you failed to notice, if it weren't for me then you would be dead two times over now and I'd have to try and save the world myself! And I'm not saying that I'd be able to do it on my own, quite the opposite. There's absolutely no way I can continue to fight monster after monster by myself while trying to find a place that I'm not sure will give me any answers or information on how to fix things. I'm not even sure if the place in question is even around anymore, and I certainly have no idea where to start looking to find a way there!" Vinyl could've sworn she saw steam rising from the gray mare's head.

"And to top it all off" Octavia said, seemingly entering the final stage of her rant. "Not only is the one other pony who can even move unable to use her magic, not only is she more concerned with resting and cracking jokes about me. She speaks to me as if she knows everything about me! You don't even know why you can't use your magic, yet you're going to sit there and judge me based on appearances?!" Octavia continued to flare, backing Vinyl up to the tree before turning around and continuing.

"Let me tell you a story. It's a story about a little filly whose parents expected nothing but perfection. They made her learn how to play the cello at a young age even though she would have rather gone to school instead of being tutored privately, or played with the other fillies her age instead of being forced to attend the gatherings her parents dictated to her. "Upper class citizens like us do not associate with those beneath them" was what her parents told her, forcing her more and more into the mold of their perfect idea of what a child should be." She took a breath before continuing.

"As the filly started growing up, she began to accept that this was just the life that she had to live. Then, after she had come of age, she did one thing, ONE. THING, that her parents so vehemently disagreed with that they deemed it necessary to kick their one and only child out of their house and cut off all contact with her forever. Would you like to know what that one thing was?" She turned to Vinyl and asked rhetorically. "That one thing was saying she didn't want to go along with an arranged marriage that they were setting up for her. AN ARRANGED MARRIAGE!" She shouted, causing Vinyl to flinch. "WHO DOES THAT?! Apparently my parents didn't like the idea of me wanting to find the pony who's right for me on my own! So they kicked me out to live on my own and take care of myself! Nopony else in my whole family would even speak to me anymore either! I had to work two jobs just to keep up with my apartment's rent, not because it was high class or fancy, but because no job that actually paid decently would accept me seeing as my only skill was playing the cello and putting on airs! And let's not even get into how I managed to finally find the apartment in the first place!" Another pause and deep breath, seemingly calming herself down a little.

"For nearly two years I had to waste away like that before I finally got a break. I managed to join a classical band after attending their tryouts. We were so well received as a band that we even played at the royal gala in Canterlot. After that I made one last attempt to contact my parents. "Maybe they'll be proud of me now. Maybe they'll acknowledge me now that I played in front of royalty!" I thought to myself. You know what I got back in response to the letter I sent?... Nothing! I started asking around to try and figure out why they wouldn't respond. I finally come to find out that they adopted another filly not long after they kicked me out. THEY REPLACED ME! THEIR ONE AND ONLY CHILD AND THEY REPLACED ME LIKE SOME KIND OF TOY!" She screamed, tears in her eyes. "As far as my parents were concerned, I died as soon as I disagreed with them. ONCE! I DISAGREED WITH THEM ONCE! I did everything they ever asked or told me to, thinking that if I didn't then they wouldn't love me. Well what do you know, I was right! And now look at me! I'm stuck in what could be the end of the world! I...I don't... I..." She stammered, her voice getting caught in her throat as more and more tears streamed down her face. She put her hooves to her mouth to try and control herself, but it was no use.

As she began to sob, she fell back onto her hind legs. Vinyl slowly made her way over and embraced her, not knowing what else to do. She didn't get pushed away, so she tightened her grip slightly as Octavia continued to scream and cry in despair. Looking up at the dark sky, Vinyl noticed tears beginning to stream down her face as well. She kept silent however, continuing to hold onto the gray pony who she knew needed some kind of comfort, even if it was a small reminder that she wasn't alone in the cruel situation they now found themselves in.

Octavia's eyes slowly opened as she woke up. She stifled a yawn that she felt coming as she looked about. The same night air and dark sky greeted her eyes, crushing the tiny hope she somehow still had that this might all just be a dream. She sat up as she tried to brush the remaining sleepiness from her eyes.

As she became more aware and her daze slowly lifted itself, she felt something pushed up against her hind leg. When she looked down to investigate she saw Vinyl, fast asleep. Octavia's mind turned to the still fresh memory of her earlier explosion, letting out all her pent up anger and frustration. She remembered how Vinyl just sat there silently, letting her get everything out of her system. She also remembered Vinyl embracing her as she broke down, trying to comfort her.

She looked away from the sleeping mare, disgusted with herself. She'd released all her pent up anger towards the current state of things on Vinyl. While Octavia still didn't agree with the idea of Vinyl joking around when they were stuck in such dire straits, she also knew that Vinyl only meant to lighten the increasingly grim mood, something which Octavia herself was becoming fed up with.

Octavia sighed as she looked back at Vinyl, still sleeping without a care. Perhaps she envied her, the gray pony thought. The ability to lighten the mood or crack a joke no matter the situation was something Octavia never possessed. Looking at the sky in thought, she wondered if her personality would be different if she'd grown up with different parents. One's that actually loved her because she was their child and not because she just did what they told her to. Would she be a better pony because of it? Would her values and ideals be any different? Or would she still be the usually stoic, little-to-no-nonsense mare she was today.

She knew that part of her life was in the past and there was no way she could change it, but there was still a part of her that longed for the love that only a parent can give. Brushing a tear from her cheek, she laid back down on the grass. Resting her head on her hooves, she watched Vinyl as she slowly moved about in her sleep, giving the occasional grumble. Octavia smiled to herself. Her traveling companion might not be perfect, but the fact that Vinyl was still around was enough for her.

Looking to the stars and thinking about recent events, she felt a nudge against her side. She looked over and gave a small snort of amusement upon finding that Vinyl had rolled over onto her side with her mouth slightly agape, little droplets of drool falling onto the grass. Carefully closing her mouth so as not to wake her, Octavia settled herself back into a comfortable position, closing her eyes and eventually falling back to sleep.

The music was blasting. The crowd was jumping and dancing about. She felt the rush of excitement flow over her as she moved her head in tune with the beat. She had the best seat in the house, able to see everypony before her as they lost themselves in the music and let all their cares wash away, at least for now. She could see groups of friends chatting at tables in the back of the club. Stallions trying to flirt with mares by the bar in the hopes that they might not spend another night alone. The bartender performing his tricks as he mixed drinks for the patrons, putting smiles on their faces.

She shook her head and smiled herself. This was it. This is what she lived for. This was the place she enjoyed being at the most. A place where she could leave all her worries and insecurities at the door and distract herself from the everyday grind. Nothing but her, her music, and the other ponies just looking to have a good time in one form or another.

As it came time for her to take a break she made her way over to the bar and asked for her usual. The bartender smiled at her warmly and said "sure thing Scratch, nice set by the way." She thanked him and looked back out towards the crowd, the ponies still dancing and having a good time. "Here ya go." she heard behind her as the bartender set her drink down. After another "thanks" she took a sip and looked towards the crowd again. "Where's your clique?" The bartender asked. He meant well, but it stung Vinyl in the heart all the same.

Instead of snapping though she just put on a smile and responded with "I guess they couldn't make it tonight." hoping her smile didn't look unnatural.

"That's a shame." The bartender said, bowing his head in apology as he was called away by another order.

Vinyl continued to sip away at her drink here and there. This was the third night she was scheduled to perform where her so called "friends" hadn't shown up ever since she told them she couldn't pull any strings to get them in free of charge. It wasn't as if she didn't try either. The manager just wouldn't budge. Naturally when she tried to explain things to them, it was suddenly all her fault and she obviously didn't really care about them.

Vinyl's gaze hardened without her noticing. Why did she expect anything else? That was always the name of the game when it came to her life. Everyone always thought she was just the cool DJ and wanted to hang out with her but then dumped her like trash once they realized that she had actual feelings and some kind of personality flaw they always managed to notice or make up.

She fidgeted with her custom made, tinted glasses absentmindedly as she thought about all the so called friends who had just given up on her over the years. As the time for her next set neared, she took a deep breath and put her glasses back on, the tinted shades hiding her teary eyes.

Stepping back up to her station and readying the music for the eager patrons, she knew it would be another night where she got home to her apartment only to cry herself to sleep.

Vinyl let a large yawn out as she walked along the road, Octavia at her side but slightly ahead of her. Once the two had woken up, Octavia sheepishly apologized for her outburst which Vinyl accepted without a second thought, even if Octavia made sure to make it clear that she still didn't agree with Vinyl's joking.

"What's wrong? You just slept for nearly twelve hours." Octavia asked in regards to the yawn, glancing back.

Vinyl gave a small scoff. "How do you even know it was that long. It's impossible to tell what time it is when all you can see is night. Even the moon isn't around!" Vinyl motioned to the sky that consisted of nothing but dark clouds and a few stars.

"Well it seemed long enough..." Octavia mumbled in response, not wanting to admit that Vinyl made a good point.

"So how much longer do you think until we actually find something?" Vinyl asked absentmindedly before yawning again.

"How should I know. It took both us long enough to find that town if our stories match up, and we only ended up in... "Manehattan" because my bracelet started shining and teleported us there."

"So that's how we ended up there..." Vinyl muttered, remembering that she'd never been told just how she passed out in a rural looking town and woke up in an apartment building in a fake Manehattan.

Octavia sighed. "So unless this thing starts glowing again" she wiggled her front leg, the bracelet still stuck in place, "then our only choice is to keep walking until we see something."

"If it starts glowing and it teleports us, will I get to see you in your pretty dress again?" Vinyl smiled.

"Ugh! Enough about the dress!" Octavia groaned in annoyance knowing full well that Vinyl would never let that go.

"But it's sooooo pretty. And you looked simply lovely in it." Vinyl jokingly swooned.

"Vinyl stop..."

"What? It's just tha-"

"No, I mean STOP." Octavia commanded, physically stopping Vinyl with her leg before pointing in front of them.

Looking closer through squinted eyes, Vinyl saw what Octavia had pointed towards. Ruins of what looked like a castle of some kind. "What do you thinks' over there?" She asked.

"I don't know and I don't care. What I DO know is that it's a landmark that might give us a better vantage point to see our surroundings at least, and it might even have some kind of information at best." Octavia responded before taking off towards them.

Vinyl sighed as she began galloping after the mare. Despite that, she found she was unable to stop herself from smiling in excitement and anticipation for what they might find.

Corruption

Vinyl heaved a sigh as she walked along, her legs getting tired. "Isn't there any way we can move around faster..." She complained as she stopped for a moment to stretch her knees. "Can't you just fly us around with your magic?" She asked Octavia.

"I don't want to waste my magic if I can avoid it. What happens if we get attacked and I'm out of energy?" Vinyl sighed again at her response. "Come on, it looks like we're almost there." She urged Vinyl on.

"Yea and it's looked that way for like fifteen minutes now." Vinyl continued to complain as she started walking again.

"Sore legs are a small price to pay if it means we can find a clue on how to fix all of this. Try and be more serious about this."

Vinyl grimaced at Octavia's comment. "I know it's a small price to pay, but we can rest if we get tired. I mean, we aren't running out of time or anything... seeing as how it doesn't appear to be around anymore."

Octavia stopped and turned to look at her. "And how do you know that? What if we ARE running on limited time? What happens if things are getting worse while we sit around resting? We can't see the effects of this all over Equestria, only what's in front of us. What if things are getting worse somewhere else?" She looked angrily at Vinyl, apparently expecting an answer.

"Do we even know if we're still IN Equestria? I'm pretty sure that wasn't Manehattan we were at before, and I'd never seen the town before that. And if that's not enough, then how about the fact that we haven't seen so much as another pony, frozen or not, ever since we met at that town." Vinyl countered. "Look around! We haven't seen ANYTHING except fields, trees, and this damn road!" Vinyl kicked at the ground.

"And that makes our situation any less dire? Even if we aren't in Equestria, that doesn't mean we know Equestria is okay, or that we aren't moving on borrowed time." Octavia argued before turning back around and walking again.

Vinyl sighed for the third time in the past few minutes. "The discussion isn't over just because you walk away you know!" She called.

"Well then I refuse to take part in the rest of it." Octavia replied coldly, not slowing her pace. Vinyl shook her head before walking after her, making sure to keep some distance between them.

Several minutes passed in silence, tension still lingering in the air. After a while however, Vinyl spoke up again. "I'm sorry okay? I'm just still trying to wrap my head around all this and you seem like you have it all figured out already."

This time Octavia was the one to shake her head. "It's okay. Trust me, I have no more of an idea of what's going on than you do. What I DO know is that we can't just sit around and not do anything. If we do that then we'll keep getting attacked and eventually we'll probably be killed... or maybe worse."

"But we haven't even seen another monster ever since Manehattan... and before that it was only in that town. So maybe they only come out in places where buildings are." Vinyl tried to reason.

"I already told you. I was attacked on the road before I got to the town. Maybe you got lucky. Maybe they only target magic which means they come after me. I'm not sure why they're attacking us, but I DEFINITELY know that they aren't limited to appearing around buildings."

Vinyl had no response. While she could just chalk Octavia's story up to lying, there was no reason for her to do so. Even if there was, Octavia didn't seem like the kind of pony to tell a lie. To Vinyl she came across as more of a "hit you with harsh truth even if you're down and out, simply because it was the truth" kind of pony. They continued on in silence until finally they both came to a stop and looked up ahead.

"Well... it looks like we're here." Octavia said, taking a deep breath.

Vinyl and Octavia stood outside the ruins, taking in the sight of the enormous structures before them. They definitely made up a castle at some point in time, the walls and stones being much larger now that they saw them up close. Vinyl laughed nervously. "Here I thought it looked big from far away... You sure about this?" she asked the mare beside her. Octavia responded with her usual silent nod before walking inside. Vinyl sighed and followed her, looking around cautiously.

Walking into what they assumed was the main hall, the two ponies looked about their surroundings. The interior seemed to be in better shape than the exterior and some furnishings still adorned the room. There was a large staircase that split to the left and right at the top along with two doors on either side of the ground floor. Vinyl scratched at her horn, the slight pain still bothering her. Walking further into the room, she finally realized just how big the hall really was.

Vinyl sighed. "You aren't going to say we should split up, are you?" she asked Octavia, looking up at the ceiling that she couldn't see due to the darkness.

"Absolutely not." was the answer. With a sigh of relief Vinyl took a few cautious steps up the staircase so as to make sure it wouldn't fall out from under them. Looking back behind her she was surprised to find that Octavia hadn't moved an inch. "Well, are you coming?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

Octavia swallowed audibly before giving her usual nod and following up the stairs. Vinyl had taken notice of this but decided it was best to leave it be for now. "So... right or left?" she asked, looking to either side once they reached the top. Octavia stayed silent as she thought for a moment before apparently deciding on left, walking up the next set of steps without a word. Vinyl continued to take note of her odd behavior as she followed behind.

Finding themselves in a long hallway with a few doors here and there on either side, Vinyl squinted her eyes. "Geez, wasn't it dark enough already outside?" she spoke up, walking slowly to make sure she didn't trip over something which she couldn't see. There was no response from Octavia though. She then attempted to open a few of the doors but none of them seemed to budge. With a huff of annoyance, she scratched at her horn again, harder this time. "Geez, why are you starting to hurt again... you were fine enough ever since Manehattan." she spoke to herself before trotting back up to Octavia who hadn't stopped walking.

They continued walking for a few moments before Vinyl bumped into the gray mare who had apparently come to a halt in front of her without warning. "Woah! Mind telling me before you do that?... Octavia?"

"This way." Octavia said suddenly, turning and walking down another hallway to their right which Vinyl hadn't noticed.

"Hey! Wait up!" Vinyl called out, following after her. "What's going on? You've been acting weird since we came in here." Vinyl finally asked, unable to let it slide any longer. After not receiving any response, she pushed further. "Hey! I'm talking to you!" she tried to get the gray pony's attention, getting annoyed when she still received no response. Having had enough of being ignored, she trotted ahead and stopped in front of Octavia.

"HEY! Hold on a second!" She commanded, blocking Octavia's path. The other mare stopped but still refused to say anything, instead staring at Vinyl coldly. "What's your problem?! Why are you ignoring me? Did I piss you off again somehow? And how do you know this is the right way? At least talk to me. You kno-" Vinyl stopped when she saw an orb of light appearing at Octavia's side. "Woah, woah, woah! What are you doing!" She dropped to the ground just as the orb moved. Instead of being launched at her however, it crashed into the wall to their right. After the dust cleared and Vinyl managed to stop coughing, she saw a hole and staircase leading downwards into darkness where the wall used to be.

Octavia looked at her for a moment before saying "let's go." and beginning her descent down the stairs, a small orb of purple light clearing the darkness in front of her. Vinyl looked on in disbelief for a moment before following behind.

"What the hell was that all about?!" She demanded as she caught up with Octavia.

"I was trying to focus." Was the quick response.

"Focus?! That's your response after ignoring me and nearly blasting my head off?!"

"You weren't in any danger, and yes that's my response. I've had this feeling since we entered this place. Like my magic is pulling me in a certain direction. But I have to focus or else I won't know which way to go."

"Well you could have said that earlier!" Vinyl complained, still upset at Octavia's behavior. The gray mare just rolled her eyes and kept going, earning a glare from Vinyl. As they reached the bottom of the staircase, they found themselves at another pair of hallways to the left and right. Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes for a few moments, Octavia decided on right. With a "tch" Vinyl followed her.

After a few more minutes of walking, Octavia came to a stop and turned to face a door on their right side. With another deep breath to focus herself, she pushed the door open cautiously. Taking a few short steps in, she motioned for Vinyl to join her before walking towards a bookshelf at the other end of the room.

Looking around, Vinyl saw a number of very old, torn and ragged books scattered across the floor as well as a large desk on the left side of the room. "So what are we doing here?" She asked, trying her hardest to ignore the seemingly growing pain she felt in her horn.

After a moment, Octavia looked back at her and responded. "This is where the magic was guiding me. There's something in this room somewhere, but even if I try to focus I can't figure out where. So I guess we just have to find it the old fashioned way."

"Well that sure is helpful." Vinyl said sarcastically as she picked a book up off the floor before dropping it with a thud.

"We could do without the attitude." Octavia commented, looking through the bookshelf for whatever it they were supposed to find.

Vinyl scoffed. "You're one to talk. Five seconds and you could've explained what we were doing. But instead you ignored me and left me thinking you were possessed or something while I thought we were walking around blindly!" Vinyl responded angrily.

Octavia sighed. "As I said, I had to focus or I might've lost the feeling. Do you really think I would have led us here if I didn't think it was safe? And if something DID happen then I could've just protected us with my magic."

"Well hooray for you, you can still use your magic. I bet you feel so strong and important." Vinyl said, her words practically dripping with venom now.

Octavia turned around, a confused look on her face. "Why are you getting so angry? If it really upset you that much then I'm sorry alright. I just thought that-" Vinyl cut her off.

"Thought what?! That I was just being an annoyance? That me wanting to know where we were actually going was too unreasonable? Or maybe you thought you'd be better off without me!" She shouted, becoming more enraged by the second. "That's it isn't it? You think I'm just slowing you down. I'm not good enough to keep up with you, right?!"

"Vinyl what-" Octavia stopped herself as something alarming caught her attention. Starting from a small spot on her horn, Vinyl's coat was slowly blackening until it matched the darkness of the room around them. The formerly white mare continued to seethe in anger as the darkness continued to engulf her until even her hooves and tail were covered. Octavia was about to speak but had to dodge to the side after a blast of dark energy was suddenly hurled at her. Looking from the impact point of the blast to Vinyl, she saw a darkened glow emanating from Vinyl's horn. "Vinyl stop!" She called out, dodging another attack.

It was no use. Vinyl couldn't hear her anymore. Something had taken hold of her and directed it's rage at her companion. Shouting in anger, she continued to fire off dark blasts at Octavia. As the gray pony continued to dodge the blasts, she found the condition of the room becoming progressively worse for wear. Thinking fast, she activated her bracelet and blasted the ceiling with a wave of energy before quickly levitated herself up through the hole it left. As she reached the other side of the long impromptu tunnel, she found herself back in the main hall, moonlight pouring in from a hole in the ceiling where her blast had continued on.

Hearing a rumble from below, Octavia quickly flew herself onto the staircase, just barely dodging a huge beam of black energy. As she coughed from the mass amounts of dust flown about, she saw Vinyl ascend from a large hole left in the floor. Octavia gasped in horror as the dust cleared. Vinyl was now completely consumed by the dark energy. Her hooves looked cracked and bloodied, her mane and tail resembling shadows more than hair, and her eyes darkened and filled with anger. Most strikingly though, was that her horn was now less of a horn and more of a spike bursting out from her skull through her forehead.

"Vinyl please stop!" Octavia pleaded, dodging another blast. Vinyl paid no attention to her words though, continuing the assault without letting up for a second. Octavia found herself galloping down the hall they'd traversed previously, unable to see Vinyl behind her yet still able to hear her screams of rage. "Why is this happening?!" Octavia shouted, as she neared the turn they'd taken before.

As she continued galloping, she tried to think of a way to bring a stop to this. She didn't want to hurt Vinyl but that was quickly becoming a moot point. Vinyl was slowly destroying the castle by blasting walls, doors, and anything else within reach as she chased after Octavia. At this rate the entire castle was going to come down on both of them. In an attempt to buy herself some time, Octavia tried something new.

Envisioning the main hall in her mind, she closed her eyes and summoned up her magic. "Please let this work..." she whispered quietly before releasing her magic. She felt a strong force pull her suddenly and when she opened her eyes she was floating above the large hole in the main hall that Vinyl had left.

She had little time to celebrate though. Hearing an ear piercing scream followed by the crashing and banging of ruins being destroyed, she went straight back to thinking as Vinyl began zeroing in on her.

Coming up with the best course of action she could, she prepared herself as Vinyl crashed through the wall at the top of the staircase. She looked even worse for wear than before. She sported several cuts and gashes about her body, and her horn was twisted into an even crueler looking shape. Octavia knew that if this kept up then Vinyl would most likely die of blood loss from self inflicted injuries due to her apparent disregard for her own well being

"Okay Vinyl... let's try this out." Octavia spoke to herself as she summoned her magic and formed it into two orbs at her sides. Vinyl rushed straight at her, throwing a blast along the way. Octavia formed one of the orbs of light into a wall a few feet in front of her, blocking the blast before it was broken by Vinyl crashing straight through it. She then jumped high in the air over Vinyl and landed behind her. As Vinyl turned to rush her again, Octavia released the second orb which she had left floating in the air above. Quicker than Vinyl could react the orb crashed down on top of her, engulfing her in it's purple tinted light.

As Vinyl desperately tried to break free Octavia summoned up another orb and launched it. The orb crashed into the makeshift prison causing it to explode and send Vinyl flying back. Octavia quickly summoned another wall of light behind Vinyl so that she didn't smash into the stone walls of the castle. Continuing to act without giving Vinyl time to counter, she reformed the wall into a cube, trapping Vinyl within before it also exploded.

Panting heavily, Octavia took a deep breath and steadied herself. Watching as the dust from the explosions and crashes settled, she was caught in the face by a sudden left hook. Thrown to the side, her imminent crash into the wall was stopped by Vinyl quickly floating behind her and catching her with a kick, flinging her to the floor.

Coughing as she got up, Octavia looked back just in time to dodge a blast of dark energy and put up a shield as Vinyl crashed into her again. Both ponies were thrown back from the collision, Octavia catching herself with her magic and Vinyl slamming into the wall she previously kicked Octavia away from.

Octavia's dress summoned by the bracelet was damaged and torn, showing off her various cuts and bruises similar to when she fought the shadow in Manehattan. On the other side of the room, Vinyl continued to look worse and worse every time Octavia caught a glimpse of her. The dark energy engulfing her was quickly taking it's toll, and Octavia knew she had to end this soon or Vinyl wouldn't survive.

As Vinyl readied herself for another charge, Octavia closed her eyes and focused. Hearing the sound of Vinyl taking off towards her, a tear fell down her cheek. "I'm sorry for this." She whispered.

Just before Vinyl collided with her Octavia released all of her magic at once. Vinyl was caught in a massive blast of focused energy which slowly formed into a giant ball of purple light with her stuck in the center. The orb took up most of the main hall's space and began to slowly crush itself into Vinyl's body as it attempted to forcefully exterminate the dark energy that had corrupted her.

Octavia fell to the ground and turned her head away. With tears in her eyes, she covered her ears as she heard Vinyl's screams of pain and anger. Slowly but surely the ball shrank in size as it was absorbed into Vinyl, alleviating the corruption bit by bit until eventually only the mare was left. As Vinyl began to fall, Octavia managed to summon up just enough magic to catch her before she smacked into the ground.

Rushing over as her outfit disappeared and her bracelet lost it's purple glow, Octavia felt a wave of relief when she found Vinyl laying on the floor, white coat and multi-colored hair intact. Her horn had returned to it's original shape and many of her injuries had disappeared, though she retained some bad cuts and bruises here and there.

With a final sigh of relief the last of Octavia's strength left her. She fell down beside Vinyl, unable to keep herself standing any longer. Trying to catch her breath, Octavia was unable to stop her tears of relief from flowing down her cheeks. Weakly embracing her unconscious companion, Octavia thanked her lucky stars and just about any other thing she could think of thanking. Vinyl may be a handful and occasionally frustrating to deal with, but Octavia knew now more than ever that she needed Vinyl just as much as Vinyl needed her, perhaps even more. As Octavia let herself rest she noticed a small light. Looking down, her eyes widened as she saw it's source.

Around Vinyl's front leg was a bracelet much like her own. Instead of a purple light however, this one was glowing a soft blue. Unable to focus any longer despite her new discovery, Octavia closed her eyes. Not once did she ease her embrace, even as she passed out.

Not Alone

Her eyelids were heavy and tired. Her head was pounding. She tried to stand up but she didn't have the strength. She tried to look around but all she could see was darkness in all directions. The pounding in her head was getting worse. She was in so much pain but she still tried to get back to her feet. She made it to the halfway mark before she fell feebly back to the ground.

She was about to try again until she heard a voice speak to her. "Why do you bother trying so much?" the disembodied voice asked, seemingly originating from all around her. She didn't respond. Instead she tried to get up again only to fall back down a second time. The voice laughed at her. "You know it's pointless. No matter how many times you try to pick yourself back up, you're just going to be thrown back down." the voice said as she tried a third time. This time though she felt something forcefully push her back down. "You see? Every time. It never changes."

Before she could try yet again she saw an image appearing in front of her. She recognized the scene immediately. It was like she was watching her own memories from her point of view turned into a movie.

The view showed the hallway of a school building, a group of ponies gathered a few feet ahead towards the left side of the hall. The "camera" approached them and said something unheard. After a moment of exchanging awkward gazes, the group of ponies said something unheard back before walking off and laughing. The view turned downwards as a small tear dropped onto the ground below.

She remembered it all perfectly. She had asked if the group was doing anything after school and if she could join them. They just said no and laughed at her. All she wanted to do was hang out with somepony else and they laughed at her like she was some kind of freak.

The voice spoke up again. "They were so cruel. They didn't even care about your feelings, they just didn't want to be seen with somepony like you. After all, who would?" it said in a mocking sort of tone.

The scene changed to the inside of a house... her house, or more appropriately her parents house. There were two ponies on the screen, her father and mother. They were arguing with the camera angrily. The words and shouts went unheard but she remembered them like they were said yesterday. As the argument grew more intense it hit it's end when the camera quickly turned around and rushed out the front door. The camera continued rushing from the house, never looking back. She could remember her father yelling after her.

Her parents had gotten upset with her because she had been staying out and coming home in the middle of the night without ever informing them. They came to the conclusion she must have been out doing drugs with others, or worse being one of... "those" kinds of mares. The truth was she just wanted to spend as much of her time away from the house as she could. She hated being at home. She hated having to talk to her parents. All they ever did was criticize her actions and compare her with a certain other family member.

As the scene faded, the voice spoke yet again. "Isn't it pathetic? They never did anything but compare you to "her" and put you down, yet they got angry at you when their own imaginations thought up something absurd. They never even bothered to ask if they were right, they just went straight to yelling at you for being a failure and doing things unbefitting of a well raised mare. Why couldn't you be like "her"? Why couldn't you be like the apparent perfection that was their first daughter?" She shook her head in denial, but the voice just laughed again.

The scene changed once more, this time to a nightclub filled with ponies dancing to the music that blasted throughout it. The camera however was focused on a stallion with his hoof on it's "shoulder". Another hoof, belonging to the camera, swatted the stallion's hoof away angrily. He just laughed and said something before trying to grab at the camera again. After a small struggle, the camera grabbed a bottle off a nearby table and smashed it over the stallion's head, knocking him to the floor. The camera staggered back a little as it looked at the scene in front of it, other ponies rushing into view. A few helped the stallion to his feet as he yelled something at the camera. The camera turned and ran away, rushing out the nearest exit and down the streets.

The voice decided to laugh before it spoke this time. "He'd pretended to be your friend. He'd said all those nice things, but in the end he only actually wanted one thing from you. He wasn't the only one either. Nobody ever cared about your feelings or what you wanted. It was always about them. "Knowing a DJ will get us in free of charge." "Hey I heard she'll give "it" up to anypony for a chance to play a gig" "She's nothing but a freak, a total slut". Oh the things they say. The stories they imagine without ever speaking a word to you."

She was crying now, but the voice was merciless. "Yet you never got the message behind it all. You decided to foolishly try, try, and try again. No matter how many times you got tossed away and treated like garbage, you kept telling yourself next time would be better, it would be different... and it never was. But that's fine. After all, it was better than acknowledging the truth, right?"

She shook her head weakly, muttering a tearful "no" over and over to herself. She wanted it to stop, she wanted to go home.

The voice laughed. "Home? What home? You don't have a home! You never did. No place would ever want to be called home by somepony like you. All you ever did was run from place to place. Things went sour and you ran away until they went sour again so that you could keep running. That's what you really wanted, isn't it? You enjoyed the heartbreak and the running. You always knew that nopony was ever really your friend. You were just waiting for the moment where they threw you away like the trash you are. You liked it didn't you?" the pain in her head was excruciating. She muttered another "no" as she held her head in her hooves. There was a pause before the voice spoke up again. "But that's all over now. Now that there's nothing left, nopony can hurt you anymore. Oh, except. For. Her."

The screen reappeared, showcasing a gray coated mare with a beautiful black mane. She looked at the screen tearfully. "Octavia..." she whispered, shaking her head in disbelief.

The voice laughed. "That's right, that one. You know what going to happen, don't you? She's using you to help her find what she's looking for. Then she'll drop you and leave you behind to spend eternity alone. She doesn't care about you. She's just like all the others."

"No... She wouldn't.... she's different." she said weakly.

"Oh she's different is she? She already said what she really thinks about you, you just chose to ignore it. You're just an annoyance to her. You do nothing but slow her down. You just get in her way. It's amazing she's put up with you as long as she has already, isn't it? It won't be long before she gets rid of you at this rate." She kept shaking her head in denial. When the voice spoke again, it was as if it was whispering right into her ear. "What do you say we switch the tables around. Just this once. WE'LL be the ones who drop HER. We need to go quick though. There's not much time left. Or do we have all the time in the world? Doesn't matter really, does it? Let's see what it's like to be on the other side."

The darkness around her was closing in. It began enveloping her. She couldn't breathe, everywhere the darkness spread began to sting with immeasurable pain. When it reached her horn, she let out a scream of agony. It felt like her horn was being forcibly torn off her head.

After a few moments, the voice spoke to her one last time, but this time it was almost like the voice was coming from inside her own mind.

"Don't worry, it'll all be over so quickly. Then you can go back to being alone... just like you always really wanted."

Suddenly she was overcome with a feeling of power. The pain was still excruciating but she didn't care anymore. Instead, her feelings turned to anger. Anger at every pony she ever knew who treated her like garbage. Anger at the world for forcing this fate on her. And anger at Octavia, because she would be the next one to throw her away like trash.

It was through these eyes of anger that she looked towards the gray mare. She wouldn't let it happen again. She would put an end to all of it. She'd destroy the whole world if she had to. She could hear the voices of those who'd tossed her away mocking her in her head. They never ceased and only grew louder with time. No matter how many times she shouted at them to stop they just kept judging, laughing, mocking. With a final scream of rage, she rushed at the image of Octavia, overflowing with killing intent.

She would put an end to it all here and now.

Vinyl jolted upright. Her breathing was erratic. Her vision was blurry. Her head felt like it had a cannon going off inside it and every inch of her body had a sort of numbing pain to it. Before she could take any further action, she was gently pushed back down onto what felt like grass.

"Easy now, you haven't fully healed yet." a voice said to her. She recognized the voice's owner as Octavia. She looked up and tried to focus her eyes but all she could make out was a gray blur that looked vaguely similar in shape to a pony. "I know you probably don't understand what's going on, but you need to rest right now." she said comfortingly, moving out of sight briefly before returning.

"I-I'm... f-fine..." Vinyl said unconvincingly, her breathing still uneven. She tried to steady her breaths. It took some time but eventually her breathing returned to it's regular rhythm. Her vision was slower to fix itself, a fact that irritated her greatly. Once again she attempted to sit up and once again Octavia eased her back down.

Octavia sighed. "I told you, you need to rest. Everything..." she took a breath to calm her suddenly unsteady voice. "Everything is alright now." she said with a nod as if meaning to reassure herself more than Vinyl.

"W-what do you mean. What happened?" Vinyl asked, turning her head to the side to try and get a better view. Her vision still seemed to insist on taking it's sweet time before fully fixing itself.

Octavia was initially confused by the question but after a moment she understood. "I... I'll tell you once you're feeling better." she replied. It hadn't occurred to her until the question was asked. Vinyl had absolutely no idea what had happened. It probably felt as if a chunk of the past few hours was missing from her memory. "Well it typically isn't normal to for one's memory to just blank out like that" the mare thought to herself.

"Octavia...? What's wrong? Tell me what happened." Vinyl demanded, feeling uneasy due to the odd response.

Octavia shook her head. "Not now. Rest." was all she was willing to say as she quickly stopped Vinyl from trying to get up for the third time. Vinyl tried to protest but the gray pony was having none of it. "Yes I understand, "you're alright" and "you feel fine". Except that you're not, and you don't. Trust me, just rest right now... please."

Vinyl was caught by surprise. Octavia almost sounded like she was pleading with her to just lay down and be quiet for now. Something obviously happened but no matter how hard she tried to remember, nothing came to her mind. Octavia sat down beside her. Her vision was a little clearer now and she could make out the other mare's face finally. At first it looked to be sporting the same stoic expression as always. As she focused harder however, Vinyl noticed something else there. She couldn't make out what it was exactly but it didn't look like a happy kind of expression.

"What the hell happened..." she thought as she turned to look at the sky. The pain in her body was beginning to subside and her vision continued to slowly adjust back to its normal state. Despite all of this though, her head still felt foggy. Beyond that there was something else. She couldn't pinpoint just what it was, but she felt different somehow. She felt Octavia's front hoof nudge her own. After a moment of confusion at the other pony's actions, she nudged it back. Looking back up at Octavia, Vinyl swore she saw the smallest of smiles on her face, but it went away just as quickly as it came.

They stayed that way for a while, looking off into the distance as time both did and did not pass by. Not a word was said by either one of them. At some point Vinyl had found enough strength to sit up. Octavia didn't notice and Vinyl chose not to say anything, opting instead to just continue with the somehow comfortable silence between them.

It seemed like an eternity before the silence was broken, but eventually Vinyl spoke up. "So... When we... If we get through all this... and we manage to fix everything. What are you gonna do?" She asked, continuing to look off into the distance as she did so.

Octavia didn't move her gaze either as she responded. "I don't know... even if everything goes back to normal then how... how are WE supposed to? After everything that's happened... everything that will or might happen... do we just pretend that we never did any of this? That time never froze? That I never used magic? Will anypony else actually realize anything happened? And of course, will we even remember everything?" she responded with all of the questions that popped into her head. She gave a small, forced sounding laugh. "I don't know if I'll even want to remember everything..."

"I would." Vinyl said immediately. Octavia looked over at her questioningly but Vinyl just kept staring off as she continued. "I wouldn't want to forget everything... I've seen so many unbelievable things already... I've realized some things about myself... come to terms with a couple things... If I forgot all of this then I'd forget all that stuff too." Octavia looked away, but her gaze was pulled back after Vinyl said her next words. "I don't want to forget about meeting you either..."

Octavia looked at her for a moment before looking away, feeling the slightest blush coming on. "I'm not so sure. After all the trouble we caused for each other-"

"I'm serious." Vinyl looked at her this time. "I don't want to forget about the first real friend I've had in a while..." she said quietly.

"Come now, I'm sure you have plenty of friends. Besides, I hardly think I deserve to be called your frien-"

Vinyl cut her off again. "If you aren't my friend then I don't know what else to call you. You might not believe me, but you're the first pony who's showed me any sort of real kindness in a long time..." Octavia was about to protest but Vinyl didn't give her the chance. "You saved my life twice already... and I think it's safe to assume that you saved me a third time not too long ago considering I woke up with a bunch of injuries and no memory of how I got them... Instead of just leaving me when you got angry with me you let me stay with you. I know you might just say something about how it's because you can't do this on your own, but even if that's true it still means a lot to me... You let me in on the painful moments in your life, even if you were really, REALLY mad at me when you did... If I can't call you a friend after all that, then I need to invent a new word to classify you as." Vinyl finished with a small sigh.

A moment of silence passed between the two, Vinyl finished with her speech and Octavia unable to find any words to form a response. Eventually she decided though.

"I think I owe you an explanation..." she said. Vinyl nodded with a smile, holding up her front leg to show off the bracelet that she'd taken notice of when she had finally managed to sit up. Octavia shook her head though. "Not just for that... There's more..."

Vinyl sat in a stunned silence. Octavia had just told her about everything that had happened in the castle ruins. About how Vinyl had attacked her in a blind rage, about how she had managed to subdue her, and about how she had gotten them out of the castle as soon as her magic came back. Vinyl was about to apologize, the only thing she could think of saying, but Octavia stopped her.

"Don't... it's not your fault. Before I got us out, I found what I was supposed to be looking for in that room. It was some kind of crystal. It was pitch black and it burned my hoof when I tried to touch it. I can only assume that it was the source of whatever energy possessed you... it probably would have possessed me too if it weren't for my magic... that's probably why I got the feeling that I was being drawn to it... the crystal was trying to pull me in while my magic was letting me know where it was so I could get away from it." she explained. Vinyl just looked off in disbelief.

The last thing Vinyl could remember before her memory just cut off entirely was walking up the stairway in the main hall. Everything after that was completely absent from her mind. "You didn't take that thing with you, did you?" she asked quickly once she regained her senses.

Octavia shook her head. "Like I said, it burned just trying to touch, I didn't bother to risk finding out what happened if I actually picked it up. Besides, it crumbled into dust soon after... But that doesn't mean it was pointless for us to go there. After all, you've got a bracelet now too... WAIT! I can't believe I forgot! Your magic! Try using it!" Octavia said quickly once it dawned on her.

Vinyl's eyes widened at the revelation. Nodding quickly in response, she stood up and looked around for something. Spotting a rock not too far from them, she attempted to bring it over using her magic. To their surprise and Vinyl's delight, the rock slowly rose from the ground and floated over to them. Vinyl was ecstatic as she jumped up and down in happiness. "I can't believe it! It's back!"

"Try something bigger. See if you can summon the magic into some kind of form like I do." Octavia suggested. Vinyl nodded happily in agreement. Closing her eyes to focus herself, two orbs of blue light quickly began to form, one at each of her sides.

"YES!" Vinyl shouted in celebration. As she did so, the orbs suddenly shot out before exploding in the distance. "Woah!"

Octavia shook her head but was unable to contain a small laugh. "You need to stay focused or else you'll lose control of them."

"Oh, okay. I get it." Vinyl said seriously before closing her eyes and summoning the orbs back to her sides. Octavia couldn't help but smile in response to her companion's happiness. It was too infectious to withstand, even for her. "So how do I blow stuff up with it?" Vinyl asked excitedly as the orbs disappeared.

"Pardon?"

"You know!" Vinyl motioned to her. "Like you did when you fought those monsters. How do you do that?"

"Oh. Well, um, you need to activate the bracelet first I guess."

Vinyl looked down at the accessory newly attached to her leg. "How do you do that?"

"You just have to think it. Take a deep breath and focus on the bracelet and it kind of just does the rest on it's own." She instructed.

"Does this mean I'll get a pretty dress like you?" Vinyl teased the gray pony who just sighed and shook her head.

"I knew you'd bring that up again. Look, just activate it already." Octavia ordered, surprisingly less irritated than she thought she'd be. Vinyl stuck her tongue out childishly before taking a step back. After closing her eyes and taking a few deep breaths, she began to float in the air slightly while being enveloped in a bright blue light. After a moment, the light faded and she felt her hooves touch the ground again. Opening her eyes, she turned her neck here and there to look herself over. Just as they both expected, she was now clad in a dress similar to the one that Octavia's bracelet seemed to summon, though with a soft blue theme instead of Octavia's purple. Her bracelet was also glowing brighter than before.

Octavia looked from Vinyl's bracelet to her own before speaking. "From my understanding, activating the bracelet boosts the power of your magic, but it also makes it drain quicker than normal." she explained. Vinyl just nodded quickly in response, still obviously excited over the new developments. "Shall we practice then? It takes some getting used to..." Octavia said lowly, inadvertently reminding herself of her first time using her magic, when she was first attacked. Her expression lightened though when she saw Vinyl eagerly nodding her head.

They spent the next half hour or so getting Vinyl up to speed with how to use her newfound abilities. When her bracelet started losing it's glow, they decided it was time to take a break.

Falling back onto the grass with a smile on her face, Vinyl couldn't help but laugh happily. Octavia took a seat next to her as she spoke. "I know this is a good thing but don't you think you're overdoing it?"

"No way!" was the instant response. "You don't know what it's like, suddenly being unable to use magic at all after using it your whole life. It felt like I was missing a part of myself or something..." Vinyl said with a grimace before smiling once again. "But now I've got it back! and if those things attack us again then I'll actually be able to help! We'll show 'em!" Vinyl said, jumping back up to her hooves excitedly. Something dawned on her then. She'd forgotten in all the excitement of getting her magic back, but Octavia had said that there was more to explain than just what happened during the time Vinyl couldn't remember. As she mentioned it to Octavia, she suddenly wished she didn't when she saw the gray pony's expression harden.

After taking a breath and a moment to find the words, Octavia began. "It's something I never really noticed because I didn't have time to think about it I suppose. But after you returned to normal and I got us out of those ruins I had some time to think and it just sort of came to mind..."

Vinyl nodded but didn't speak, letting Octavia continue uninterrupted for once. Octavia honestly would've preferred she did get interrupted though. Nevertheless, she continued. "We've both come to the conclusion that time has somehow stopped for everything and everypony except us and apparently those monsters, right?" Vinyl nodded again. "But that's the problem... we haven't actually seen another pony, frozen or otherwise ever since we met... right?"

Vinyl took a moment to think back to when she was first saved by Octavia in the town where she found the other pony battling the giant shadow. Her eyes began to widen when she realized that Octavia was correct. Vinyl couldn't remember seeing a single pony in that town that was locked in time. To be precise, she hadn't seen another frozen pony ever since she first found herself on the dirt road.

Octavia took Vinyl's expression as a confirmation and continued. "Then there's the Manehattan incident where it became clear that both time AND space are being affected. It also occurred to me that both of us were knocked unconscious and both of us awoke on a road that led us straight to that town. After that we only ended up in that fake Manehattan because my bracelet started glowing and teleported us there."

Vinyl was about to say something but Octavia predicted this and put her hoof up to preemptively silence her. Lowering her hoof after a moment, she continued on. "Then, only after we defeated that shadow were we allowed to leave... We ended up back on the same dirt road which eventually led us to the ruins... more specifically, to the crystal that possessed you and ultimately caused you to get your magic back."

"So what are you saying?" Vinyl asked quickly before Octavia could silence her.

The gray pony sighed. "I'm saying that not only am I having serious doubts we're still in Equestria... or at least the Equestria that we know... but also that we aren't alone here... and I don't mean the shadows. Something with a will or a mind of it's own is controlling everything about wherever we actually are. It's been leading us along ever since we first came here, and I have reason to suspect that it's also what brought us here in the first place."

"So you mean whatever knocked us both out when we were sure we were still in Equestria is the same thing that brought us... wherever the hay this place is... and that it's in complete control of... everything?" Vinyl summed up the information she'd just been given, struggling to keep up with it all. Octavia nodded in response. "So... what does that mean then? If we can't stop it from making us go somewhere since it'll just change the world around, what do we do? And what about everypony else back in the real Equestria? Are they still frozen? Or are they alright you think?"

Octavia shook her head. "I don't know... there's still too many things I don't know... I can't make sense of what it's doing. For example, why would it bother taking your magic away, only to lead us to a place that ultimately ended in your magic being returned. Why would it bother sending us straight into those monsters that are trying to kill us, yet provide us with a way to fight them off... I don't understand any of it..."

There was a moment of thoughtful silence before Octavia looked up to the sky. Her eyes widened in horror at what greeted her. Somehow, after audibly swallowing her fear, she managed to direct Vinyl's attention to the skies and speak up. "Well... I think THAT confirms my suspicions about us not being alone." Vinyl had the same exact reaction as the pony beside her, swallowing audibly before nodding slowly.

In the night sky above, the moon that had previously greeted them whenever they looked up was absent. In it's place was a giant eye looking down at them, lids and all. After a brief moment it blinked and disappeared. Another moment later, the moon returned to it's previous state.

Octavia was right. They weren't alone. They hadn't been from the start.

Performance

Soon after the moon had returned to normal, but before they could discuss just what they had seen, Vinyl and Octavia were engulfed in a blinding light. They both felt a strong force pull them backwards as they quickly shut their eyes in response to the light. When the light cleared and she opened her eyes, Vinyl found herself standing atop a large hill. Down and away from the hill a bit was what appeared to be a maze made out of excessively tall hedges with a road leading straight to it. Octavia was nowhere to be seen though.

Before she could panic though, Vinyl noticed something in the distance past the maze. It was very far away but she knew what it was immediately upon noticing it. A faint ray of purple light pointing up into the sky. Vinyl focused on her magic and summoned up her own ray of light at her current position. A few seconds later, the purple light blinked before disappearing completely. She took this as a sign that Octavia had gotten the message and began galloping down the road towards the maze.

As she focused on her destination at the end of the road, Vinyl couldn't help but notice that it seemed to get both closer and farther away at the same time. She wasn't sure if her eyes were just playing tricks on her or if the world was shifting itself again. Her irritation building, she quickened her pace. She knew that the highest priority was reuniting with Octavia. Even though she had her magic now too, she'd be at a disadvantage if she were attacked on her own. She hadn't yet really gotten used to controlling it. For some reason it was different than her normal unicorn magic.

A thought popped into her head then. If she'd hadn't been able to get used to using her magic yet, then how did Octavia wield it as well as she did? Octavia had mentioned that she'd woken up with the bracelet in the first place, but she also said that she was attacked before she reached the town where they met. According to her story there was only the attack in between the two events, so how had she managed to survive the attack and come to control her magic at the same time?

"Maybe she'd been on the road longer than I was." Vinyl tried to reason, not wanting to acknowledge the holes that were beginning to pop up in her companion's story as she continued to think. "Damn it, how far is this thing?" she said with a sort of growl, getting more and more annoyed as the road apparently got longer and longer. "Why are we even going there anyway? No doubt there's gonna be some creepy thing trying to kill us inside. Can't we just teleport back to each other?" Vinyl wondered aloud before looking down at her bracelet. She found that the accessory had lost it's glow, the magic taken out of it somehow. "Well I guess that answers that..." she muttered, not happy with her situation in the least.

As she raced past a large rock on the side of the road, a crack on it's surface opened slightly. From the recess in the stone, an eye watched her progress further down the road and out of view before the crack closed on top of it.

Octavia stood in front of the entrance to the hedge maze. She examined the hedges that made up the outer wall but couldn't find anything odd about them aside from their massive height. She'd had the brief thought of trying to going around the outside of the maze and meet up with Vinyl on the other side, but she quickly disregarded it. "The walls will just grow and I'll end up galloping on endlessly."

It was with this in mind that she took a deep breath and took her first steps into the maze. As she continued on, she kept an eye out for any small detail that might provide any clue as to why they'd been brought here. It was about five minutes of walking before she reached the first fork and not once had she seen anything to indicate that she was doing anything aside from walking through a normal hedge maze.

"We probably just have to reach the middle then..." She muttered to herself as she decided on the left path. The turns came quicker than before, the length of the paths getting shorter and shorter. She continued to stay left on the next two forks before she came to her first dead end. With a sigh she turned around, prepared to backtrack. When she turned however, she found herself facing another wall of hedges. Confused, she back up expecting to hit the wall behind her. When she didn't after a few steps, she turned around again. What greeted her was the place where she'd entered from. With one final turn around, she groaned in annoyance. "You can't be serious!" she exclaimed.

She was back at the entrance after what seemed like twenty minutes of exploring. Looking up at the sky in scorn she shouted out "So that's how you want to play?! Well fine!". After taking another deep breath she walked inside once again, anger across her face.

"Can't believe this. As soon as I figure out who's behind all of this I'm going put my hoof so far up..." she continued to mutter angrily to herself as she explored. Instead of coming to the fork like last time, she found herself in the middle of a four way intersection. With a few shakes of her head she continued straight. Eventually she came to another dead end. With a curse she turned around, fully expecting to be back at the entranceway. Instead she was back at the four way intersection.

She sighed heavily. "I hope Vinyl is making better progress than I am." she said as she turned right and kept walking. As she walked down the pathway, a small hole in the hedge opened as she passed by. She didn't notice it or the eye that was watching her from inside it. After she made another turn and went out of view, the hole closed.

Vinyl walked along dejectedly. She'd come to no less than five dead ends now. It seemed like no matter how many times she came to a fork, or which direction she took, she always ended having to backtrack and take the other way. It was costing her a considerable amount of time.

"Just how big is this place?" she asked to nopony in particular. She'd been walking through the maze for what she thought seemed like an hour now, and yet she hadn't seen anything aside from the hedges and the grass beneath her hooves. "What's the point of sending us here? Is there another crystal thing in the middle that's gonna make us go crazy? ...Erm, scratch that thought. You didn't hear that, alright?!" she yelled up towards the sky. With a sigh she continued on, not seeing any other option.

"I bet Octi is already at the center by now." she said. After a moment her head perked up. "Did I really just call her "Octi"?" she asked herself. While she did tend to assign nicknames to other ponies she knew, they were typically... unflattering ones that she only keep to herself in her head. "Hmm... Octi... nah... maybe... Tavia? Tavi?" she continued debating the new subject with herself, her mood quickly improving. She'd never really had the opportunity to come up with a nickname for a friend before, so she found the idea quite fun. She stopped in her tracks then.

"Friend, huh?" she questioned, her fun quickly fading. "Is she... really a friend? I mean... she's not an enemy... I do like her... don't I? Then she'd be a friend. But... why does "friend" not sound right then... Partner in crime? Sidekick? Saving-the-world-buddy?" she debated with herself as she began walking again, confused at the idea.

She'd never really had another pony who she considered to be a real friend, yet at the same time she knew what a friend was. For whatever reason, she simply couldn't consider Octavia as a friend. Perhaps it was because of the conditions under which they met, or the situations that they've found themselves in ever since. For whichever reason though, calling Octavia a friend just didn't feel right to Vinyl. She pictured the other mare in her head, smiling at her.

She was stopped in her tracks yet again by this. The image of Octavia she imagined gave rise to another thought that caused her to blush intensely. She began viciously shaking her head, pushing the aforementioned thought out of her head.

"No, no, no! No way! There's no way that's what it is! Definitely not! ABSOLUTELY not! Negative. Impossible." she told herself over and over, trying as hard as she could to think about something else.

Her savior from her thoughts came in the form of a loud BANG somewhere in her leftmost direction. Hurrying down the road she was currently on, she found herself at another fork. Looking from one path to the other and back again, Vinyl groaned in frustration before galloping down the left one, praying that she picked correctly for once.

The paths twisted and turned. She almost crashed into the wall a number of times because the distance between each turn was getting increasingly short. Eventually though, she found herself in a clearing. It was shaped in a perfect square and was large enough to fit a house. She would have investigated more, but her attention was stolen by what was in the center of the clearing.

A large, black crystal, floating slightly above a small rock formation. A shadowy mist seemed to engulf the crystal with an occasional tendril like limb flicking out before being pulled back in. Looking upwards, Vinyl gasped in horror at what she saw.

Floating slightly above the crystal, being held up by the shadows that poured fourth from it, was Octavia. Her body was limp, eyes shut and mouth slightly agape, apparently unconscious.

Vinyl rushed over but was thrown back after a tendril appeared from the black mist and smacked her away. Ignoring the pain, Vinyl dashed in again only to be smacked away once more.

Spitting a bit of blood to the ground beside her, Vinyl glared at the crystal. It felt like it was laughing at her. Mocking her. As if to say "there's nothing you can do to help her". Vinyl took that somewhat imaginary challenge and concentrated all of her power on her bracelet.

She hadn't checked to see if it had recharged but she didn't care. She had to do something. Thankfully it apparently had indeed managed to recharge during her exploration as she was engulfed in a bright blue light and her blue themed outfit took form. Glaring at the crystal, she waited a moment before rushing toward it, her only thought being one of saving Octavia... Just like Octavia had saved her before.

She thought she could hear a voice calling her name so she opened her eyes. What greeted her was both unexpected and yet familiar. She was in the backstage section of a theatre, her trusty cello close by. Examining it for a moment, she found it to be spotless, as if it were brand new. That couldn't be right though. She'd owned her cello for a number of years now. She always took extra special care of it of course, but even she knew it shouldn't look like it did now.

The voice called her name again. Looking up, she saw a mare standing at the bottom of the steps leading up to the stage. The other pony looked at her nervously and motioned to a clock hanging on the wall. Looking at the clock, it came back to her. "That's right..." she mumbled. She remembered now. This was her big shot. Her chance to pick her life back up. It'd taken her so much effort to get this far, now all she had to do was prove she was ready to move on in her life.

She blinked and found herself onstage, face to face with her audience. There must of been a few hundred or so ponies, all dressed up and ready to hear her music. She took a deep breath and gave the crowd a small smile before she began to play.

She'd forgotten what it was like. The calmness it instilled in her. All her negativity seemed to wash away as the music soothed her mind and spirit. She'd been so agitated and angry ever since she was kicked out, yet any time she picked up her cello and began to play, it calmed her. She was able to let everything out of her mind and focus all her attention on the music.

Her eyes were closed the entire time. Even when she was just listening to music and not playing it herself she would close her eyes. It helped her focus. That was all she needed. She didn't need any fancy decorations around her house, or overly expensive clothes she hardly ever wore. She didn't even need her so called family anymore. As long as she could lose herself in the melodies and rhythms then she didn't need anything else.

As she continued playing, she noticed herself smiling. It was something she rarely did anymore. The only time she ever did was when she took up her instrument. To an outsider it might seem tragic or heartbreaking, but to her it was just the norm. She'd decided that she didn't need the support of family or parents or anything like that. Her parents probably thought that she'd go crying back to them not long after leaving, begging them to let her back. But she would show them. She would prove them all wrong. She'd pick herself up, dust herself off, and make something of her life. She would do this on her own. Her only support she needed was music, as long as she had that then she would be fine.

Then it happened. First it was just a small tremor. The room shook, causing her to miss a note. Her eyes opened quickly but when she saw the audience looking back as if nothing happened she kept playing, flashing a small, apologetic smile. "What was that?" she wondered. She determined it must have just been her nerves. After all, any pony would be nervous performing solo in front of so many others.

A few moments later, it happened again. It was more intense this time, as if the entire building shook. She stopped playing completely as she tried to steady herself. The audience looked on though, still acting as if nothing happened. Some of them were beginning to whisper and give her strange looks.

Another apologetic smile, this time with a nervous laugh. She went to continue playing but a third tremor stopped her. This one didn't let up however. It felt like an earthquake and yet not a single audience member moved. She couldn't keep her balance any longer. She fell, losing her grip on her cello as it fell to the floor as well. She tried to grasp for it but everything was still shaking intensely. Before she could reach it, the cello slid off the stage, shattering upon impact with the floor below. Her eyes widened in horror... and then she heard it. The proverbially straw that would break her back, or more appropriately, her heart.

Laughter. It started small, perhaps from a single pony, but it quickly grew louder. As the seconds passed by more and more ponies began to laugh until the whole theatre was in an uproar. Laughing at her misfortune, her pain, her failure.

"No..." she whispered as she looked up. "Please..." she was beginning to cry, something she hadn't allowed herself to do anywhere but her bed before she fell asleep. "Please.... stop." but her request went unheard. The ponies kept laughing, as if it were the most hilarious thing they'd ever seen. "Stop it..." her voice was growing louder, but so too were the laughs. She began to tremble in anger before finally letting it all out. "STOP IT! STOP IT, STOP IT, STOP IT!" she yelled fiercely.

The laughter stopped instantly. The audience now just looked at her, all of them with angry stares. She responded with her own sort of death glare despite the tears falling down her cheeks. Her glare changed to a look of confusion when she saw one of the audience members in the front row become engulfed in shadows. After a moment, the shadows disappeared, along with the audience member. Looking up, she took a few steps back in shock as she saw pony after pony become engulfed in shadows before disappearing, never letting go of their angry stares or showing any sort of acknowledgement to what was going on. The pace increased. Quicker and quicker they disappeared until finally the theatre was empty aside from one pony standing on the stage.

She fell back onto her hindquarters, mouth agape in disbelief. What had just happened? What was going on? Numerous questions bombarded her mind but she couldn't organize them. Putting her hooves to her head, her tears intensified. "Why is this happening?" she mumbled, trying with all her might not to break out into sobs.

Just as she was about to, she heard a voice call out to her from the audience. She let go of her head and looked up, shock written clearly on her face. Sitting there in the middle of the theatre, was a mare looking up at her with a gentle smile.

"Why did you stop?" the pony asked innocently.

Her disbelief quickly turned to anger. "How can you ask that?! I screwed up and they all laughed... then... then they left... I... I failed..." her voice was shaky. "My... my cello..." she looked down, straining to hold back her tears.

"You mean that cello? Looks fine to me." the other pony replied.

She looked up suddenly, about to yell at the other mare, but she was stopped by what she saw. Laying on the stage not far in front of her, was her cello. Walking slowly towards it, she found it to be in one piece. Not only that, but it was back to its spotless state from before.

The other pony spoke up again as she was trying to make sense of what was happening. "Well, aren't you going to play?" she asked.

"But... but the audience, and the earthquake..."

The pony tilted her head in confusion. "Audience? Earthquake? Well I don't know about any earthquakes, but I'm here so that counts as having an audience. Doesn't it?"

She couldn't understand. What was happening? Who was this pony? The mare seemed familiar somehow but she still couldn't organize her thoughts and questions. She closed her eyes for a moment but quickly opened them when something seemed strange. She was now in position at the center of the stage, cello at the ready. Meanwhile, the other pony had moved up to the front row.

"Well? You won't make your audience wait, will you?" the other pony smiled.

"But... I can't... what's happening? My head... it's all too..."

"All I need is music." the pony said, causing Octavia to look up. "That's what you told yourself right? Then why did you work so hard to get here?" she asked.

"I... To get noticed..."

"By who?"

"A... a talent scout? No... an agent? No that's not right either... A band?" she grasped at an answer but none of them seemed right. The other pony looked on expectantly in silence. Then it dawned on her. The real answer. "...Anypony... I wanted to be noticed by anypony... it didn't matter who, I just wanted someone to see..."

"See what?"

"See that I could do it..."

"That you could do what?"

"That I could stand on my own!" she shouted. "That I didn't need anypony to support me. That as long as I had my music I could make it. That the only thing I needed to depend on was myself and my music!"

The other pony tilted her head again. "But why?"

"Why? Why? Because!"

"Because...?"

"Be-because... Because nopony needed me..." she looked down, tears welling up again.

"But that's not true..."

"OF COURSE IT IS!" she shouted. "My own parents kicked me out without a second thought! None of my other family would even bother talking to me, much less take me in! Nopony cared that I still existed!" she fumed.

"But what about your band mates?" the other mare asked.

Her head shot up, eyes wide. She felt a hoof on her shoulder, and when she turned to look she saw none other than Beauty Brass, her band mate and the one who'd invited her to the band in the first place. To her other side were her other band mates. She then looked back out towards the other pony who was still sitting in the front row, smiling. She wasn't alone however. The audience had returned, looking at the stage expectantly, many also with smiles.

Looking back towards her band mates, she found them all at the ready to play. All they needed was her cue. With a deep breath, she wiped away the last of her tears. After a moment, she began to play, the rest of the band following suit. The music took over again, stealing away her focus from everything else. She was free again. Free from her anger, her pressures, her stress and her negativity. It was just her and the music.

"No... that's not right. It's us and the music." she corrected herself with a small smile, feeling the presence of her band mates... her friends around her.

The performance was flawless. Every note perfectly played. Every line perfectly delivered. Every band member perfectly in sync with each other. When it ended, she opened her eyes was greeted by thundering applause. Everypony in the audience had a smile on their face. This in turn caused her to smile openly, the first time she'd done so in a long time. She looked for the pony who'd spoken to her, but she couldn't see her. Her smile began to fade until her band mates stepped up beside her. Beauty gave her a nudge, smiling at her when she looked over. Understanding what she meant, she took a graceful bow.

When she got back up though, everypony was gone. The audience, her band mates and their instruments, nopony was left. It was just her, alone on the stage yet again. She was about to look downwards in sadness until a familiar voice spoke up.

"You see? There ARE ponies who care."

She looked up to see none other than the pony from before, this time standing onstage with her. She was about to say something but she was caught off guard by the other mare quickly, yet gently, embracing her.

"And I'm one of them." the other mare said before letting go and taking a step back.

Yet again she was about to say something in response, and yet again she was cut off. A bright light began to envelop everything around her. It was too intense for her eyes. She squinted harshly, trying to keep view of the other pony. "It's time wake up now." she could hear the other pony say. The last thing she was able to see before she had to close her eyes completely, was once last glimpse of the other pony.

She was smiling at her. A smile that felt familiar somehow.

Shadow

Octavia awoke to find herself being flung through the air. Panicking, she tried to activate her magic as fast as possible. Much to her distress, her magic did not appear. Before she had any time to think further, she crashed into one of the hedge walls before falling a short way to the grass below. It wasn't the most comfortable landing, but she was thankful that it was at least plant life and not stones.

Attempting to regain her vertical base, one of her front legs gave out on her. She fell back to the grass beneath her, now beginning to notice a stinging pain in the same leg. Looking down, she was shocked to see that her bracelet was missing from its usual place. Instead, an almost gash-like wound circled around her leg where her bracelet had been previously. Blood was dripping from the wound, staining the ground and her hoof below. Despite its harsh look, it wasn't bleeding as much as it seemed it should have been. That did little to allay her fear. "That means it's deep... this isn't good... calm down. Calm down. Deep breaths..." she thought to herself, attempting to regain her cool, unsuccessfully.

Her attention was pulled away from her wound when she heard a shout followed shortly by a crash. Looking up, her eyes widened. In the center of the clearing she apparently found herself in, was a massive shadow beast, reeling back after being struck by something. Before she could make sense of what was going on, a disc made of blue light was flung at the creature. Instead of exploding on contact, the disc sliced cleanly through the creature before lodging itself in the hedge wall on the other side and dissipating soon after. A second later, the event repeated itself. Another disc sliced clean through the monster and lodged itself into the wall before disappearing.

Turning her head to the source of the discs, she saw none other than Vinyl standing atop a pillar made of blue light. She was clad in her "battle dress" summoned by her bracelet and was in the process of launching disc after disc of blue light at her enemy. Her face sported a glare the likes of which Octavia had never seen on her before.

Just as the monster launched a blast of shadows at her, Vinyl leapt from her perch atop the pillar. As her hooves left it, the pillar instantly disappeared before reappearing at her destination, effectively allowing her to dodge the monster whilst also keeping her vertical base intact.

As soon as she landed, Vinyl summoned up two more discs at her sides. Unlike the previous ones though, the edges of these two were both sharpened and spiked. They began to rotate at high speeds, getting faster and faster by the second. After a moment to allow them to reach their full speed, they were launched at the creature, once again slicing clean through it. Instead of lodging themselves in the wall though, they switched course and came back. Slicing through a second time, they took their place back at Vinyl's sides. They continued to spin so fast that they simply looked like circle shaped blurs though.

Dodging another attack, Vinyl sent the discs out once again, knocking the monster back but not off its feet. Frustration was beginning to show on her face. Though her attacks seemed to hurt the monster, it just seemed to regenerate any parts that she cut away from it.

Finally regaining her senses and fully understanding the situation, Octavia attempted to get back up again. Clenching her teeth in pain, she managed to stand up but was forced to pick her hoof off the ground slightly as putting pressure on that leg caused her far too much pain. She knew that in her current state she'd only be a hindrance, but she still felt she needed to do something.

She considered the idea of attracting the monsters attention to herself so that Vinyl could execute a full on assault without having to stop and dodge. She discarded this idea shortly after thinking of it though. Her current state meant she'd be unable to effectively dodge any attacks launched her way.

As Octavia continued to try and think of a strategy, Vinyl continued her assault. She hadn't yet noticed that her ally had regained her bearings, her attention completely absorbed in her battle. As the fight wore on, the shadows attacks came faster and faster, allowing little time for any counterattacks. Eventually the only thing Vinyl could do was dodge its attacks with barely a second in between.

Vinyl knew if things kept up like this then she'd soon run out of magical power and would be rendered helpless in the face of her foe. Dodging another attack, she was caught off guard in mid air by a second attack before she could reform her pillar. Just barely managing to catch herself with her magic before she hit the ground, she shook her head in frustration before noticing the presence next to her.

"Octavia!" she gasped, attempting to hug the other pony without thinking.

"Look out!" Octavia yelled as she pushed Vinyl to the ground, falling on top of her. Half a second later a blast hit the wall behind them, traveling just barely over their heads. Quickly getting back to their feet, Octavia grunted in pain. "Let's leave such things for another time. UGH!" she groaned in pain and frustration. "What happened to my bracelet... AND my leg for that matter?!"

Vinyl pointed towards the core of the monster, directing Octavia' s gaze. The gray pony gasped upon seeing her bracelet, stuck floating inside the center of the monsters body. "What happened?!" she asked desperately. Instead of an answer, she found herself teleported to the other side of the monster, dodging another blast. Vinyl was still beside her.

"You were floating above a big shadowy crystal thing, unconscious. I managed to destroy the crystal but then this guy appeared and tried to hold you inside of it. I managed to knock you back out of it but somehow it kept the bracelet. Watch out!" She explained, forced to finish quickly as she used her magic to keep herself and Octavia safe.

"So it was literally ripped from me..." Octavia mumbled, flinching at the sudden pain as her hoof touched the ground. "I'm sorry, I wish I could be more help but..."

"Don't worry about it, this guy's nothin'!" Vinyl said confidently. "I'll have 'em licked in no time!" she stated as she took off into the air towards the monster.

"Vinyl wait!" Octavia shouted, a second too late for Vinyl to hear. The ensuing scene happened so fast that she could barely make out what happened. Just before Vinyl made contact with the creature she rolled into a sideways spin. Upon crashing into the monster she was absorbed into it, but she continued to spin faster and faster. Upon reaching her max speed a second later she stopped herself suddenly, returning to an upright position. Just as she stopped herself, a massive blue shockwave launched itself out horizontally in every direction around her, slicing the monster into two halves from the inside out. Seeing her chance, Vinyl grabbed the bracelet in her mouth and used her magic to launch herself backwards, smashing into the hedge wall behind Octavia. Embedded into the hedges, she tossed the bracelet to Octavia with a "think fast!".

Catching the bracelet, Octavia quickly sat on the grass and put the bracelet on her uninjured leg. After a moment of focusing on the item she became confused when nothing happened. Noticing that the bracelet didn't regain its magic glow, Octavia looked hesitantly at her injury. The gash that circled around her leg still looked and felt extremely painful. "This may very well be the dumbest thing I've done in recent memory..." Octavia said to herself, muttering a curse under her breath afterwards.

Pulling the bracelet off her leg with her teeth as she held up her other hoof, she tightly closed her eyes as she began to carefully slip the accessory on. She had assumed that the anticipation would be worse than the actual pain. She was wrong. The very instant the bracelet connected with the wound an awful feeling shot through her. It felt like a million needles were stabbing themselves into her injured skin. Holding in her screams, her eyes quickly began to tear up from the intense agony. Gathering her courage, she made one final push, finally letting out a scream as she did so. She wanted to pass out from it all, but she willed herself on. Vinyl needed her help. If she could just activate the bracelet then...

Just as she started regaining her composure she looked up and saw a massive, shadowed claw reaching for her. Moving completely on instinct, she jumped to the left just in time to avoid it. However, because of her injured leg she lost her balance and fell to the ground with a yelp. As the claw moved to attack again it was sliced off with a lightning quick flash of light. Octavia looked up to see Vinyl dash by riding on a disc of blue light. Telling herself to thank the other mare later, Octavia stood up. The bracelet had regained its purple glow despite the small streams of blood leaking out from beneath it. Hoping beyond hope that her plan would work, Octavia closed her eyes.

Using all of her willpower, she focused all her attention on the bracelet. A moment later she was engulfed in a purple light. After a few seconds the light faded, Octavia emerging in her own battle dress. Though it still hurt, the pain was slowly fading, her magic healing her wound with every second that passed by. Looking up, she saw Vinyl distracting the shadow by flying circles around it with her magic, periodically launching discs at its center section. She was trying to impede its progress in regenerating itself, but she couldn't keep up. It was healing too quickly.

"Can't let that crazy pony outdo us now can we?" Octavia spoke to the inanimate accessory around her leg. Summoning up her magic, she launched herself high into the air. Once she was at what she deemed an acceptable height she threw up her uninjured leg as if she were punching the sky. As soon as she did so a large orb of purple light began to form. Landing safely back on the ground, she quickly checked on Vinyl's status. Just as before, she was distracting the monster by flying about on her disc, throwing out attacks every now and then. It was clear she wasn't making any progress in actually defeating the creature though, and she looked to be getting more tired by the minute.

With a deep breath, Octavia looked up at the orb of magic she'd left in the sky. It had begun reshaping itself while quickly expanding.. Unable to keep up her attacks any longer, Vinyl landed on the ground, her dress disappearing into light as she breathed heavily. Looking up at the sky her mouth fell agape in awe. The orb had restructured itself so that it floated a few yards above the shadow. Its shape had changed as well, now resembling a giant purple cello.

Octavia turned her gaze back to the monster. "Now!" she shouted as she tightly shut her eyes. The giant cello immediately began falling from the sky. As it collided with the creature it continued to descend, crushing the monster into the ground. No matter how much it struggled, the shadow was still rooted to the ground and therefore unable to escape as it was crushed into nothingness. With a final, defiant roar, the last of the monster was crushed under the magic.

After a moment to make sure it was gone, Octavia released her magic. Her wound seemed to have healed, but her leg was still sore. Hearing her name, she looked up just in time to see Vinyl launching herself towards her. As Vinyl collided with her and knocked her down back onto her hindquarters, she pulled the gray mare into a huge hug, refusing to relinquish her grip the slightest bit.

"Vinyl! It's alright, I'm fine. You can let go." Octavia said, trying to remove the other pony from her. Vinyl just shook her head, mumbling something indistinct. Though Octavia couldn't see her face, she could tell Vinyl was crying ever so quietly. Octavia figured they were just tears of relief but it made her uncomfortable to just leave it like that. "What's wrong with you? I'm fine, see? My leg is even healed. Everything shipshape." she attempted to lighten the mood, holding up her leg to show that it was indeed alright.

After a few more moments Vinyl finally loosened her grip and pulled back. With her eyes still tearing up a bit, she stared directly at Octavia for a few seconds before knocking her roughly on the noggin. "OUCH!" the gray mare exclaimed. "What was that for?!"

"Because you're stupid!" Vinyl replied immediately. "How could you think you're a failure like that? How could you say that there's nopony who needs you?!" she raised her voice in frustration. "That nopony cares..."

At first Octavia didn't understand. After a moment though it came back to her. The dream. She'd been traversing the maze for a while before she finally made it to the center and found the large, shadowed crystal. She'd attempted to activate her magic but before she could the crystal had somehow used its own magic to grab hold of her. After that her memory cut out until the dream or... wherever it was she had found herself. "You... you saw that?" She asked timidly, embarrassed by the idea that Vinyl saw her breakdown.

"Of course I did! I'm the one who had to save you!" Vinyl responded, raising her voice a bit again. She gave Octavia another knock across the head.

"Stop hitting me!" Octavia exclaimed, swatting at the other mare in response.

"I'd be inclined to be more sympathetic if I'd just seen the theatre and nothing else, but I saw your memories of your band mates too, your friends! How could you let yourself think that nopony cared about you when you held those memories so close?!"

"Excuse me?! How could you say that?! And how did you end up seeing things like that?! For that matter, how did you see anything at all? Who gave you permission to go rooting around in my head?!" Octavia fired back.

"I found you floating above that thing and when I activated my magic to save you something threw me into the crystal. Next thing I knew I was watching what I figured were your memories or something. Once I pulled you out of that stupid theatre the crystal broke open and that shadow thing appeared." Vinyl explained the series of events leading to their current situation. "And how dare I say that? I'll say whatever I want! They obviously care so much about you but there you were thinking that you were all alone! You almost gave up on yourself! You almost gave up on them! I don't know which is worse!"

Octavia scoffed. "You don't know anything! You have no idea what kinds of things I've had to endure! What it's like to have your own parents throw you out as if you were just some garbage. To have rebuild your life with nothing to your name except the few things you just happened to be good at!" her eyes were beginning to tear up. "I owe my band more than they'll ever know, but they all act like I'm some sort of super pony who can handle anything. I'm nothing like that. I'm just a weak fool who got lucky. Even now in this stupid world I-" she was cut off by Vinyl pulling her into another overly strong embrace.

"Stop it." Vinyl said calmly. "I hate it when you do that. You're not weak and you certainly aren't a fool. You're one of the strongest ponies I've ever known... and I've known a lot of ponies. You're smarter than I could ever hope to be. You have your rough edges but we all do. You're a pony who will do whatever it takes to get the job done while helping out those around you. I don't need to look into your mind to know that." Vinyl pulled back. "When I look at you I see a strong, intelligent, determined, beautiful pony who doesn't give herself enough credit." Vinyl smiled. "Emphasis on beautiful." she said with a small laugh as a slight blush appeared on her face.

Octavia just stared at her with her mouth slightly agape, dumbstruck. "Vinyl..." she spoke quietly, to which Vinyl just looked back with a tender smile in response. She was about to say more but they were interrupted by the sound of hooves clapping together off to their right side.

Quickly jumping apart and turning to the source of the noise in the same motion, the two took up battle positions but their stances faltered when they caught sight of the source. A few yards away, floating a bit above the ground, was the shadowy form of a pony. Despite having the shape of a pony though, it completely lacked any kind of features. It was as if a pony's shadow had taken on a three dimensional form and a will of its own. It lounged back as if it were reclining in a seat that wasn't there. It finished clapping it's hooves together and simply began to stare at the two ponies, as if it were waiting for something.

Vinyl took this as a sign for her to speak up. "Who are you?! Are you one of them?! You wanna go too?!" she shouted as she aggressively walked forward a bit before being stopped by Octavia.

"Vinyl stop." Octavia ordered before addressing the shadow. "Are you the one who brought us here? What do you want?" she demanded, staring the shadow down... if it had any eyes to stare down. The shadow simply stared back, unmoving. This apparent battle of wills continued for a few minutes more until the shadow pony lurched forward as if in pain. Vinyl and Octavia both took a step backwards and readied themselves for anything.

The shadows body continued to turn and contort in pain as two wings began to form from its back. They pulled and stretched away from its body as if they were ripping right through its flesh from the inside. Even for Octavia and Vinyl, who thought they had gotten used to the horrific forms of the shadows by now, it was hard to watch. At the same time that this was happening, the ponies' bracelets began to shine a little brighter with every passing second. The ponies themselves however were too caught up in the horrific sight before them to notice.

After the wings finally pushed all the way through and were fully formed, the shadow continued to act in an extremely pained manner, this time putting its hooves to its temples as a bump began to form in the middle of its forehead. As the bump slowly got bigger and rose up, the bracelets began to shine so bright that Vinyl and Octavia were knocked back to their senses.

"I have a most... unpleasant feeling about this..." Octavia said as she looked toward the shadow and began to back away.

Vinyl mimicked the other pony's actions. "You too huh? Maybe we should uh..."

"I believe a tactical retreat may be in order..." Octavia responded lowly. Just as she finished her sentence, the shadow craned back and let out a loud roar. "RUN!" Octavia shouted as she quickly turned and ran out the only exit she could see, Vinyl close behind.

As they galloped through the twisting pathways of the maze they could hear an almost constant roaring not far behind them. They dared not look back, both for fear of what they might see as well as the action slowing them down. As they came to a fork Vinyl shouted "this way!" while turning towards the left as Octavia followed, the two never slowing down. All the while their bracelets continued to shine more intensely than they ever had before.

Realizing that they were now running through the side opposite the one she entered, Octavia let Vinyl take the lead. Thankfully the maze seemed to have stopped altering itself since the destruction of the crystal. Still, she knew it was taking them too long. The shadow was gaining on them little by little. Thinking quickly, Octavia came up with an idea that she could only pray worked. Using the magic that her bracelet had apparently been charging on its own, Octavia pulled up beside Vinyl. Closing her eyes and focusing, she jumped on top of the other mare and held her tightly as they both became engulfed in light and felt a pulling sensation. In the next moment, they were gone.

Appearing above the ground in a flash of light, the two ponies fell with a thud. "What was that?!" Vinyl demanded as she quickly got back to her hooves, still surprised.

"I teleported us. It was all I could think to do." Octavia responded as she brushed the dirt off herself.

"A little warning would have been nice." Vinyl commented before proceeding to take a few steps around, trying to figure out where they were.

"I'll be sure to remember that the next time we're running for our lives."

Vinyl just sighed. "So were are we this time?"

Octavia shook her head. "I'm not sure. I just kind of thought "anywhere but here" when I teleported us..." she answered as she too began to look around to confirm their location. She jumped in surprise as Vinyl suddenly raised her voice.

"WOAH! Octavia, look! The sky!" She shouted hastily.

Looking upwards, Octavia immediately noticed what Vinyl had meant. "The moon... it's gone." Up in the sky that had been permanently shifted to night ever since they arrived, all signs of the moon had disappeared. An uncomforting development considering what had happened the last time they'd been shocked by the moon.

As the two were looking upwards, they were snapped to attention by a roar so loud it made the earth beneath them shake. Quickly turning around, Octavia pulled Vinyl to the ground with her just in time to avoid the massive creature that flew over their heads. Whatever flew over them was so big that seemed like an eternity before it had fully passed by them and they got up. Turning back around as they did so, the two ponies looked on in awe as a massive serpent-like creature flew into the distance.

"Is that... a dragon?" Vinyl asked, still paralyzed in a combination of shock and fear.

Octavia took a moment to come to her senses before responding. "That thing is far too big to be just a dragon."

"Have you ever seen a dragon?" Vinyl asked, still shocked.

"Well it's certainly not a dragon like the ones from our Equestria..." she responded as the two continued to look on.

The monster flew about in the distance, letting out another roar so loud that the two ponies had to cover their ears as the ground shook once more. As the two observed the beast more, they found that Octavia was right. It certainly wasn't any kind of dragon ever seen in Equestria, or at least not one ever recorded in history. Its body was much longer and snake like than a normal dragon. It also had two pairs of wings instead of one, with the second pair on its back closer to its hind legs. Aside from the differences in shape, its size was much more massive than anything ever recorded in Equestria and a sort of black fog seemed to constantly fall from its equally dark scales. Octavia didn't doubt that it was big enough to engulf most, if not all, of Canterlot in shadow.

"So..." Vinyl finally broke the silence. "What in Celestia's name is that thing?" Octavia began respond but she was cut off by a voice from a third party.

"THAT is the reason behind your appearance in this world that shouldn't exist." a strong and commanding voice answered from behind them.

Quickly turning around to see the source of the voice, nothing could have prepared the two ponies for what they would find.