Freefall (A Vinyl Scratch Story)

Chapters

Gaining Speed
Falling Headfirst
Experiencing Vertigo
Screaming Soundlessly
Flailing Wildly
Praying Hopelessly
Closing Eyes
Reaching Bottom
Ground Impact
Beginning Descent

Gaining Speed

Author's Note

Freefall was originally supposed to be a short story about Vinyl falling through the sky for my deviantART's second anniversary. Unfortunately, I couldn't finish in time so I decided to just leave it as part 1. Slowly, more ideas about Vinyl's mental state, Derpy's past, Vinyl's relationship with Octavia, and everything just came to me. And this is fun to write, so I see it going on longer than intended.

Gaining Speed

"...don't know how it happened..."

"...sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so..."

"...hard enough getting her out of that party without Cheese Sandwich waving that dumb rubber chicken around..."

"...think Vinyl's waking up..."

Vinyl slowly climbed up a long, black tunnel and found herself back in consciousness. She felt a pillow behind her. There was bright sunlight coming through one of the windows, making the white room even whiter. It hurt Vinyl's eyes, and she didn't even have her shades. Where'd she leave them this time? Sometimes it was in Octavia's room (don't ask why Vinyl was there in the first place), sometimes on her DJ stand, sometimes...

Oh right. Primary Alley. He tried to... to...

"Vinyl, can you hear me?"

One voice above all the rest. Vinyl felt immense relief to hear her voice.

"Octavia..." She whispered, her voice coming out dry and cracked. Her vision was blurry, but she could make out a few shapes. She felt somepony gently grab her hoof.

"I'm here, Vinyl. Come on... wake up."

Vinyl blinked a few times and groaned in pain. The hooves holding her own suddenly gripped tighter. Through the thick haze, Vinyl could start to make out Octavia's wide purple eyes.

"Vinyl...!"

"Oohhh..." Vinyl moaned, and then grinned at Octavia, "Come on, Tavi... just five more minutes..."

Octavia blinked once, staring at Vinyl with her mouth slightly open and eyes wide, and then she moved so swiftly that for a moment, Vinyl thought she was going to slap her. Instead, Octavia wrapped her hooves around Vinyl in a hug.

"Don't... you ever... do this... again..." Octavia said through deep breaths.

"I won't, Tavster. I promise," Vinyl said, closing her eyes and smiling.

When Vinyl and Octavia had finally parted from their warm embrace, Vinyl looked around. The first thing that she noticed was that she was lying in a bed in what looked like a hospital room. She wasn't wearing a hospital gown and didn't have any needles stuck in her leg, so she assumed that meant she was fine. The second thing Vinyl noticed was that the Doctor and Derpy were standing at the foot of her bed.

"Hey! Doctor! Derpmeister! Good to see ya!" Vinyl greeted them cheerfully, but her smile faded when she saw the solemn expression on the Doctor's face and the tears flowing down Derpy's face, "What happened...?"

The Doctor opened his mouth like he was about to speak, but no sound came out. He cleared his throat and opened his mouth again, but then Derpy let out a loud cry, and fled from the room. Vinyl, smile now completely gone, stared at the doorway long after Derpy had gone. She turned toward the Doctor.

"What happened?" She asked him. The stallion awkwardly adjusted his tie and smoothed his jacket. Clearing his throat one last time, the Doctor began to speak.

"I'm not sure if you remember, but you had gone out to the balcony-"

"It's more of a porch, really," Vinyl interrupted.

"Ditzy and I were outside at the time, investigating a possible lead on Zarbi in Equestria-"

"What's a Zarbi?" Octavia asked.

"Giant ant-like things with two strange-looking legs... I'd rather not go into detail. Anyway, the lead turned out to just be a fruit bat-"

"Vampire fruit bat."

"Oh, can everypony please stop interrupting-" The Doctor exclaimed, but stopped when he saw who had spoken. Derpy had returned to the room, and was wiping tears from her face. She went over to the corner and stood there, staring emotionless at the floor. The Doctor looked back toward Vinyl, appearing at a loss for words, and then continued.

"Right... well then, the lead turned out to be a VAMPIRE fruit bat. Ditzy and I were both quite disappointed, but then we heard you screaming for help from the balcony."

Porch, Vinyl thought.

"Ditzy had wings, so she was up there faster than I was. I had to go through the house and fight my way through a crowd of party ponies! One of them almost spilled his Applejack Daniels on my jacket... don't know where he would've got that..."

Oops... Vinyl thought, grinning a bit.

"When I got to the balcony, you were on your back, delirious and mumbling things, and Ditzy was... well... repeatedly slamming... that stallion's head into the floor... It didn't take the brightest stallion in the world to piece together what was going on. I tried helping you up, but then..."

"I fell, didn't I?" Vinyl finished. The Doctor nodded without taking his serious-looking eyes from her. Vinyl looked around, "But... what happened to Primary?"

There was no response. Octavia looked away from her and suddenly became very interested in what was outside the window. The Doctor shifted his weight on his hooves awkwardly. Derpy finally lifted her gaze from the floor, staring in Vinyl's direction but not at Vinyl, and said, very plainly:

"I killed him."

And with that, Derpy burst into tears once more.

* * *

Vinyl sat alone in the room, trying to sleep. A nurse had came in, and told her she'd have to stay in the hospital another night for "possible schizophrenia evaluation". Vinyl had argued (like it would help) that she was feeling fine, only a slight headache, but the nurse had been adamant about making her stay.

So here she was, lying in a bed. Vinyl pulled the blanket over her. She listened for a sound, but the only thing she could hear was a soft hum from the lights. Vinyl threw the blanket off her. She had done enough sleeping, but was that truly the reason she was so restless? Perhaps she was afraid to close her eyes, afraid that when she opened them she'd be 100 feet in the air falling, with the ground coming at her-

"Vinyl?"

Vinyl had just been dozing off when there came a quiet whisper from her left. Vinyl jumped in fear and surprise, but then noticed Derpy lurking over to the side of her bed.

"Oops, sorry. I didn't mean to startle you..." Ditzy Doo apologized, standing up straighter and putting her front hooves on the bed. Vinyl relaxed, now recognizing the mare.

"Oh, of course not. You? Startle me?" Vinyl joked, trying to create a lighter mood. Derpy let out a small grin, but her eyes twinkled with tears even as the grin appeared and then vanished. She let out a sigh, and Vinyl decided that now wasn't really the time for jokes (It never was, was it?), "I'm only kidding, Derpy. I... I really owe you for saving me. Primary was going to..."

"I know, Vinyl," Derpy whispered, "It's just... I killed him."

"He might've killed me."

"The party shut down when the paramedics arrived. They took you away on a stretcher... and they took him away in a body bag. I... I couldn't stop crying..." Derpy told Vinyl, while distantly surveying the floor, "The Royal Guards took me away and made me tell them everything that happened..."

"They couldn't throw you in some dungeon, you were protecting me!"

"There's justice in Equestria, Vinyl. I'm not going to be thrown into a dungeon," Derpy said with a weak (though reassuring) smile, "It's just... I killed a pony that night... I... actually...killed..."

"First of all, stop saying that," Vinyl interrupted. Derpy looked over at her with a surprised expression, "You're not a killer. You're Derpy, and you saved my life. Second of all, Primary was a creep. If it hadn't been me, it would've been somepony else. He took the opportunity to attack me, and you stopped him. You're a hero, Ditzy."

"It's not that simple!" Derpy yelled, "I thought I was just punching him. I-I-I wanted to kill him, but I never thought I actually would! His head... the back of his skull cracked on the balcony, and he died even as I sat on top of him, hitting his lifeless face with my hooves!"

"Derpy-"

"No Vinyl! I'm a murderer! I could kill anypony next! I could kill you!" Derpy shouted, more tears starting to stream down her face. She looked to the ceiling and roared: "I WANT TO KILL MYSELF!"

There was a sudden silence in the room as Vinyl stared at Derpy, who buried her face in her hooves and cried. Vinyl looked at the Pegasus, and felt something. She wasn't sure what it was. Fear definitely, but also... what was it? Pity? Sorrow?

A distant memory of Octavia scolding Vinyl as she was brought home by Royal Guards surfaced in Vinyl's mind. I'm worried about you, Vinyl, Octavia had said, You're going to ruin your life. Vinyl shivered, finally coming up with the right word.

Sympathy.

"I... I'm sorry, Vinyl..." Derpy said quietly, the rage leaving her, "It's just..."

"Why?" Vinyl asked. Derpy looked over, confused, "Why did you do it? It'd be one thing if you just knocked him off me, but you... you kept hitting him. Why?"

Derpy sighed, "Because... when I saw you lying on your back with him standing over you... I knew what he was going to do... and it made me remember..."

"Remember...?" Vinyl asked. Suddenly she realized what Derpy meant, and her blood went cold.

"Somepony like him came after me one day..." Derpy continued, not looking at Vinyl, "But there was nopony to save me. After he... I couldn't sleep... or talk to anypony... or eat... They never found the stallion who... who..."

"Derpy..." Vinyl leaned forward and took her friend's hoof to comfort her, "You never told us this."

"No..." Derpy agreed, tears continuing to fall from those strange eyes of hers, "I felt... like it was all my fault... and I thought none of you would like me anymore..."

"Of course we'd like you," Vinyl said with a reassuring smile, "You're our friend, and nothing can change that."

Derpy smiled, and the two sat alone in the dark hospital room, both in deep thought. Vinyl admired how cheerful Derpy had always been, knowing that the stallion who had raped her was never caught. She wondered what her wall-eyed friend was thinking.

There was suddenly a loud whirring sound as a strong wind blew through the room. There came a sound like the very air itself was being pressurized around them. Vinyl gripped the blanket in fear as her mane whipped around in the tornado that the room had become while Derpy simply sighed.

"Why is he here...?" She mumbled to herself.

At the foot of Vinyl's bed, a large blue shape began to form. At first it was transparent, and became more solid as that sound continued. Finally, a large blue box stood tall in the room. Vinyl could have sworn it seemed familiar (like she had seen it in Canterlot, but never paid any attention to it) while Derpy only scowled. Near the top of the box, there were signs that read "POLICE BOX". A door on the side opened and a certain stallion stepped out.

"Evening, Vinyl!" The Doctor announced, "Ignore this box, it's not important. Oh, Ditzy! You're here too! Brilliant!"

"D-Doctor...?" Vinyl stammered in disbelief, "What... how..."

"He's always doing this," Derpy said, "Like when you showed up at, or rather IN my house on Hearth's Warming Eve."

"That was a special occasion, and I didn't want to be late!" The Doctor defended himself.

Derpy scoffed, "How can you be late if it travels through ti-"

"Whoa, whoa, what?" A very bewildered Vinyl interrupted, looking from Derpy to the Doctor to the box, "What's going on? What are you...?"

"Oh, just decided to pop on by, see how you're doing, find out where Ditzy disappeared to, all that," The Doctor answered, "Not much, really. "

"I-" Vinyl couldn't think of a reply to the Doctor's fast, smooth talking, "Visiting hours are over!"

"Yes, but you're glad for the company, aren't you?" The Doctor grinned, sliding over next to Derpy at the side of Vinyl's bed, "I'd imagine so, seeing how boring this room is. Lucky for you, you get to go home tomorrow! Oh, blimey... I feel bad for whatever poor soul has to stay here for more than a few days..."

"Ooh, that's right, Vinyl! You get to go home tomorrow morning! We're all coming to see you out... I think Lyra and Bon-Bon are making a cake to celebrate!"

"You guys don't have to go through all that trouble," Vinyl said, flattered that her friends cared that much.

"Oh, no we don't," The Doctor replied, "But we're still going to!"

* * *

No matter what The Doctor had said about how boring the hospital room was, he was in no hurry to leave. Derpy had to practically shove him back inside the blue box so Vinyl could get some sleep. Derpy had bid her farewell, bye, see you tomorrow morning, and then climbed into the box with The Doctor. Vinyl wondered how they could both fit inside such a cramped-looking box. The box had made that strange air-pressurizing sound again, and then disappeared.

Alone, Vinyl tried once more to get to sleep. Usually, sleep was something to be avoided at all costs. Party all night and take a few of Tavi's donuts in the morning was a strict code she lived by, but tonight would be an exception.

However, no matter how many times she laid her head in different spots on the pillow, no matter how much she adjusted the blanket, no matter how long she kept her eyes closed, Vinyl just couldn't drift off into slumber. Her thoughts were racing about her brief encounter with Derpy (and also about where The Doctor had gotten a magical disappearing box, but mostly about Derpy). Who knew such a quiet, but joyful pony could hide such a dark secret?

Vinyl yawned, and stared at the spot that the blue box had been. Was it an illusion? Some sort of magic, perhaps? Or maybe-

The next thing Vinyl knew, she was being nudged awake by a green stallion in a white doctor's uniform.

"Wake up, Miss Scratch," He whispered gently, "It's almost noon. Are you feeling alright? You get to leave today... are you awake?"

"Y-yeah man," Vinyl said, yawning as she stretched her front legs out into the air and then her bottom legs, "Almost noon? I can do better than that..."

"Yes, well..." the stallion, identified as Doctor Greenluck by his nametag, said, pulling up a clipboard with his unicorn magic, "Ahem, you'll have to take it easy for a few days, so no wild parties, no inappropriate beverages, and no excessive physical stress. You'll also have to start taking naps, as part of your psychiatric treatment. Not long naps, maybe from noon to two."

"Gotcha," Vinyl said, throwing the blanket aside and slowly climbing out of her bed onto shaky hooves, "But I still get wubs though, right?"

"Wubs...?" Greenluck questioned, looking at Vinyl with a raised eyebrow, "Erm... oh, right. Wubs... music. Of course... but at an appropriate volume! Loud music can severely affect your mental state, Miss Scratch."

"Awh man," Vinyl said with a slight whine in her voice, "Ah well. Better then going stone cold, I guess."

"Come with me, I'll show you out," Greenluck offered, turning toward the door. Vinyl hesitated for a moment, her hooves feeling like iron and her head beginning to throb with a pounding headache, but then it cleared and she slowly (and shakily) began to follow Greenluck out to the front desk.

* * *

After all of the "boring, official hospital stuff" had been taken care of by a spectacled mare behind the front desk, Vinyl stepped out into the hospital waiting room where she was greeted with loud cheers and a bit of confetti thrown into her face. After Vinyl had recovered from her initial shock, she laughed. All of her friends, Octavia, Derpy, The Doctor, Lyra and Bon-Bon (the last two holding an oversized vanilla cake with colorful sprinkles arranged in letters reading "V-I-N-Y-L-S-C-R-A-T-C-H" together) were waiting for her. There were a few mares sitting in the waiting room chairs, two looking over in curiosity and one fixated on a magazine. After assessing the scene, Vinyl guessed that Derpy had been the one to throw the confetti.

"What're you guys doing here?" Vinyl asked in delight, "I mean, I know Derpy told me you'd be here, but still...!"

"You told her?!" Lyra exclaimed, turning to Derpy, "Derpy, this was a surprise!"

"It was?" Derpy said, blinking in bewilderment.

"Oh well, it doesn't matter now," Octavia shrugged, stepping over to her friend and roommate, "Are you feeling alright, Vinyl?"

"I'm feeling amazing, Tavi," Vinyl smiled, stepping forward and wrapping her hooves around Octavia in a hug. Without any hesitation, Octavia hugged her back. Vinyl's smile widened, and she suddenly felt more awake than she had in days.

* * *

The group of six ponies trotted from the hospital to the home shared by Octavia and Vinyl. The Doctor told them all a story about something that had happened to him and Derpy with the occasional interruption from Derpy herself ("You didn't just flinch, you screamed!" Derpy corrected the Doctor when he told them that the "Cyberpony" had jumped at them from nowhere). The stories sounded amazing to Vinyl, and she always admired how he could come up with them out of nowhere! What a strange stallion, that Doctor.

The trip was slowed by Lyra and Bon-Bon, who were both trying to keep the large cake balanced between both of them. After Bon-Bon had nearly tripped for the 14th time, causing Lyra to scream for the 15th, Octavia finally pointed out that Lyra was a unicorn and she could carry it with magic. That arrangement greatly improved their progress.

Finally arriving at the house, Octavia opened the door to reveal a startlingly clean house. Vinyl's eyes widened as she stepped inside.

"Whoa, Tavi..." She said in awe, "Wasn't there a huge party here a few nights ago? With bottles of Applejack Daniels and rowdy ponies everywhere dancing to amazing music?"

"Of course," Octavia answered, looking over to Vinyl, "I wonder where exactly they got those bottles."

"Beats me," Vinyl lied.

"We spent all of yesterday cleaning the house so it'd be nice when you came back!" Bon-Bon announced, "It took a lot of work, even for five of us... do you have any idea how hard it is to get somepony's tie down from a chandelier?"

"Or clean up an Applejack Daniel's stain from the ceiling?" The Doctor added.

"Or to collect piercings and broken shards of glass from the carpet?" Derpy added.

"Or to-" Lyra began.

"Okay, I get the idea," Vinyl interrupted with a grin, "No more Applejack Daniel's parties."

"Wait, you knew about the-" Octavia began to scold.

"Let's not worry about the details, Tavi," Vinyl said, "Let's have some cake!"

Falling Headfirst

After Vinyl's "Welcome Home!" party thrown by her friends finished up, Lyra and Bon-Bon took what was left of the cake home. The Doctor disappeared at some point before night fell, leaving only Octavia, Vinyl, and Derpy, who had insisted on staying the night to ensure Vinyl was okay after the brief stint in the hospital (though Vinyl assumed it was because Derpy was frightened of the dark night outside after the discussion they had had in the hospital room). With Derpy hanging around, Vinyl found it difficult to find alone time with Octavia so she could finally confide in her about the nightmares.

Vinyl hadn't had a nightmare while she was recovering the hospital, and suspected that the hallucinations that had placed her at Primary's mercy was the end of it. Or at least, she hoped it was the end of it. Even so, Vinyl still wanted to tell Octavia.

Octavia had thrown a blanket onto the couch, and told Derpy that she'd be sleeping there because they had no guest room. Vinyl remembered that they DID have a guest room, but the two musicians had been storing boxes in there so it was no longer a place for guests. Even so, Derpy didn't seem to mind. Octavia went to her room while Vinyl and Derpy remained in the living room, talking. They discussed plenty, covering a lot of topics which included Derpy's hectic move from Ponyville to Canterlot, Vinyl's latest dubstep album, why Bronyrick had left the heavy metal band Maredeth, all kinds of topics while being sure to keep a respectable distance away from what had been said in the hospital room. Somehow, Vinyl knew that she and Derpy were okay.

"...And that's why I can never listen to Two Steps from Tartarus ever again," Vinyl finished her story with a gleam in her eye, "Crazy, huh?"

"Really? I... I just... I can't believe that..." Derpy responded, blinking in confusion, "Are you just messing with me?"

Vinyl put a hoof on her chest and stuck the other in the air in a promise gesture, "It happened! Swear to Celestia!"

Derpy giggled, and Vinyl felt a warm smile on her face, the first genuine one in quite some time. Vinyl wondered why she and Derpy had never really spent a lot of time together like this. Probably because Derpy was always with the Doctor doing... whatever it was they did. Vinyl wasn't sure, but she had a general theory that involved lots of... mature content.

Eventually, Vinyl remarked that it was getting late, and Derpy told her to get to bed. After all, she'd just gotten out of the hospital, and what kind of a friend would Derpy be if she let Vinyl stray from her well-needed rest? Ever the night pony, Vinyl was reluctant to go to bed so early ("It's not even midnight!" she exclaimed), but Derpy was firm, and threatened to carry Vinyl to her bed herself. Vinyl knew Derpy was right, but she wasn't happy about it. Derpy compared her to a schoolfilly who didn't want to go to bed, and even Vinyl had to admit that seemed pretty accurate.

Vinyl lie in her bed, and heard Derpy shifting her position on the couch. It was a pretty comfortable couch... compared to other places Vinyl had slept. She remembered sleeping on the floor in clubs and bars (and being nudged awake one time by Diamond Rough back at the Dragon's Claw after a particularly wacky New Year's party), falling asleep over her DJ stand and waking up with the imprints of buttons and switches on her face (Octavia hadn't been able to stop herself from laughing when Vinyl stepped into the kitchen the morning after), and even sleeping in the cold night air on the porch-

Vinyl fell asleep mid-thought.

For a moment, she only slept, her body's face curling in a content smile as the white unicorn curled up deeper into her pillow. Vinyl hadn't suffered another nightmare since the hallucinations had put her at Primary's mercy and landed her in the hospital for a day or two. The blanket over her felt like it was protecting her in its warmth, and Vinyl knew no harm could come to her while it was over her. Somewhere deep in her mind, deep inside her unknown subconscious, Vinyl was still awake and thinking deeply while the rest of her body shut down. This "thinking time" occurred on average once a month. Vinyl's self-explanation said that it was a lucid dream, but she wasn't entirely sure. Inside her thinking time, Vinyl was afraid. She feared another attack from a pony like Primary Alley. After all, her personal sanctuary (the porch) had betrayed her and nearly yielded her to Primary. What was to stop some random stallion (or mare, Vinyl realized) from breaking into the house and attacking her in her own bed?

Octavia and Derpy, Vinyl thought. Her friends were close by, and they would protect her. With this thought, her dream took on a considerably warmer feeling and Vinyl no longer felt afraid.

Until she realized that she was falling once more.

Even though these nightmares had been active for the past months, it never got any easier to deal with. Vinyl had painted a mental picture of herself, falling from Celestia-knows-what heights at Celestia-knows-what speeds with her arms crossed and a stoic expression on her face, not caring if she died. She hadn't gotten so far that she could react like that to the nightmares, especially with the "crash" that had put her in the hospital, instead screaming in a high-pitched voice as she struggled to flip herself in midair so she could at least see her oncoming doom. There was a distant crack, yet Vinyl didn't feel anything. Maybe it was a thunderstorm. Vinyl looked up at the clouds above and wondered if any Pegasus ponies were behind the puffy layer of clouds. The crack sounded again.

At times like these, when her mane was dancing in the high-speed winds and covering her eyes, Vinyl considered a manecut. Scoffing at the idea even as her limp body fell to the ground, a sack of meat ready to burst open at the seams, Vinyl could feel the grass scratching her back below, could just imagine her glazed, lifeless eyes still staring up into the clouds long after the fatal crunch had sounded after she hit the ground. The crack sounded again, closer this time. Vinyl couldn't scream, only stare up at the clouds and admire how puffy they seemed. As she stared, the clouds began to part as though they were curtains preceding a play. That had never happened before... Vinyl watched incredulously as the clouds left her vision to reveal the night sky, the moon looming over her and glowing a bright white that was almost blinding to Vinyl without her shades on. There were no stars, Vinyl noticed-

CRACK!

Vinyl sat up in her bed with a gasp, shaking her hooves as though fighting off a dream demon. She looked around, now understanding that she was no longer falling. She was safe in her bed. Around her, her red eyes surveyed her very messy room. Record sleeves, band posters and various pairs of headphones littered the floor, along with candy bar wrappers, comic books and dirty clothes (which was strange, because Vinyl couldn't remember the last time she wore clothes. Heck, she wasn't even aware that she owned any). She was unsuccessful in her search for the source of whatever had woken her up.

There came the sound of running hooves in the hallway, and then Derpy threw her bedroom door open. Vinyl was about to question why her wall-eyed friend was making all kinds of noise so late at night (or early in the morning?), but stopped when she saw Derpy's wide eyes and panicked expression.

"Did you hear that?" Derpy said through her ragged breathing.

"Hear wha-" Vinyl began to say. She was interrupted by another loud cracking noise, this one powerful enough to shake the house. Vinyl tumbled out of her bed while Derpy was thrown to the floor with a shout. Bright greenish-blue lights were thrown in from the window and covered the wall. Vinyl struggled to regain her balance on her hooves as the house finally stopped shaking. She managed to stumble over to the window just as the lights vanished.

"Dear Celestia!" Derpy exclaimed as she shakily climbed to her hooves, "What in Equestria was that?!"

"I don't know..." Vinyl said, peering out the window, "I don't see anything out there anymore. It's pitch black out there."

Derpy moaned fearfully as Vinyl continued to glance out the window. She half-expected something to press its ugly face against the window like in a horror movie, but nothing happened. Vinyl stepped away from the window in confusion; what had been making that noise? Nothing had ever woken her up from her nightmares before. She had to find out what it was.

"Come on," Vinyl said, motioning Derpy to follow her into the darkened hallway, "Let's go check it out."

Derpy stared at Vinyl in shock, "W-what?! Are you crazy? I'm not going out there! Can I just wait in your room and hide under your blankets?"

"Sure," Vinyl smirked, stepping out of her room, "You can wait here... all alone... in the dark..."

Derpy was quick to change her mind and follow Vinyl after that.

Vinyl never noticed how big the house was, and wondered why that was the first thing she noticed under the circumstances. The house was dimly lit by the light of the moon outside, but the world was still just barely visible. Vinyl heard Derpy gasp behind her and whirled around, expecting a monster but instead finding that Derpy had tripped over a chair.

Vinyl quickly realized how peaceful the house seemed in the blinding darkness and earshattering silence. It seemed like a perfect substitute for the porch, but Vinyl preferred the fresh air outside anyway. Derpy was breathing heavily, her eyes darting around in every direction. Watching Derpy's eyes move would have made anypony dizzy. Vinyl led the way, and Derpy closely followed. At one point, the gray pegasus' hoof gripped Vinyl's tail, but Vinyl hardly noticed. There was nothing out of the ordinary in the living room, nor in the kitchen.

"It was nothing, Derpy," Vinyl told a relieved pegasus.

"Are you absolutely sure?" Derpy asked, playing on her last bit of doubt, "Those were some very loud noises..."

"I don't know if anything was here, but it's gone now," Vinyl replied, suddenly feeling tired, "Look, I'll walk with you back to the couch and-"

An earsplitting shriek rang out from the back of the house. Vinyl felt her hair stand on end while Derpy yelped and fell to the floor in a shaking heap. Shiver after shiver ran down Vinyl's back, even as the scream faded and finally ended, leaving hardly an echo in the hallway the bedrooms were in.

"But... we were just in my room..." Vinyl whispered, "How did... Octavia!"

Vinyl leaped over Derpy, who was still cowering on the floor, and galloped to her best friend's room.

"Vinyl, wait!" Derpy cried after her, "Don't leave me!"

Vinyl had gone deaf to the gray pony, and threw herself down the hallway, stumbling into Octavia's room where she froze in terror, eyes staring at the bed. Derpy hurried to catch up to Vinyl, and stopped in the doorway. Vinyl heard her clap a hoof over her mouth.

"Oh my Celestia..." Derpy trailed off.

Octavia was gone, leaving only an empty bed.

Vinyl stared at the vacant bed for a moment as though waiting for Octavia to suddenly reappear in it, and then she slammed the floor with her hoof, making Derpy jump. She grit her teeth, trying to fight back warm, wet tears. A knot tightened in her stomach, and she squeezed her eyes shut. Derpy hesitated, and then put her hoof on Vinyl's shoulder.

"Vinyl... come on..." she said gently, "Let's get out of here... I'm sure Octavia is alright..."

"Who did this...?" Vinyl wondered, fighting to keep her voice even, "Who would do this?"

Derpy started to reply, and then another crack shook the house. Vinyl, insane with rage, threw herself off the ground in a frantic gallop and pushed past Derpy, accidentally knocking her friend to the floor. Vinyl stormed down the hallway and rampaged into the living room, kicking the chair that Derpy had tripped over to the side.

"Where are you?!" Vinyl screamed, "Octavia! Where are you?!"

CRACK!

From outside, there came another rumble that nearly threw Vinyl off her hooves. In addition, a bright green-blue light flashed through the windows. Vinyl stumbled backwards, caught off balance. Either some insanely powerful unicorn was lifting the house up or there was one crazy laser lightshow outside. Derpy hurried into the living room and, upon seeing the unexplained lights, yelped and ducked behind the couch.

"Vinyl! Come on!" Derpy pleaded, "We've got to get out of here!"

"Not without Octavia!"

"Vinyl-!"

Looking out the windowed back door, Vinyl and Derpy witnessed a black-cloaked figure appeared to shoot down from the sky onto the porch from outside as the rumble sounded for the final time and quickly faded. The figure landed on all four hooves, paying no attention to the two ponies inside. Instead, he turned his back to them and gazed off the porch railing, the same gaze that Vinyl herself had once held.

"Oh no!" Derpy cried, "It's the Headless Muffin! Run for your life!"

Derpy leapt out from her hiding spot behind the couch and galloped from the living room before Vinyl had a chance to ask how a bakery product could be headless. After a moment, Vinyl heard the sound of the front door opening followed by the noise of Derpy's panicked hooves fleeing from the house. It seemed that in her panic, the ditzy pony had forgotten to close the door.

Vinyl remained where she was after Derpy had gone, and took a few cautious steps toward the door to the porch. Outside, she could see the figure still unmoving. Vinyl quietly pulled the door open, and flinched when it made a squeaking sound. Still, the figure didn't turn around. Vinyl stepped outside onto the porch, and as she reached to pull the door closed, she realized that her hooves were shaking. In her confusion, Vinyl had overlooked one crucial fact:

She was terrified.

"Quite... assssstonissshing, issssn't it?" the figure spoke in a voice like smoke. Vinyl's heart sank into icy waters as her mind raced for a response.

"Yes?" She finally came up with.

The figure chuckled, the sound like paper caught in a fan, "Thisssss moon... sssstill haunted by the ghosssst of what you poniesssss call Nightmare Moon."

Vinyl could hardly understand the figure when he lingered on his "S" sounds, but still managed to piece together what he said.

"Where's Octavia?" She asked before she could stop herself.

"Your friend was temporarily drawn from this plane of existence," The figure replied in a solid, deep voice. Vinyl was caught off-guard by the sudden change from unmoving snake to cold rock in the figure's voice.

"W-what does that mean?"

The figure turned around to reveal a dark face underneath the black hood. White eyes were visible in the darkness, and they seemed to pierce Vinyl like glass while warming her like sunlight.

"It is not a concern any longer. Your friend was not the one we seek. The issue has been rectified, and she will be returned."

The figure's eyes seemed to glow brighter as Vinyl stared. It suddenly felt very warm, and Vinyl began to sweat.

"She wasn't...?" Vinyl wiped her sweaty forehead off with a hoof, "Who are you seeking?"

"It was quite difficult to determine the one we seek with the mass population of Canterlot," The figure answered, his eyes lighting brighter and brighter, "Fortunately, we eventually determined the identity of the pony."

"W-who is it? Just tell me already!" Vinyl coughed, "Who is the one you seek?"

The figure's eyes burned even brighter, engulfing Vinyl in a blinding white. Vinyl couldn't scream, couldn't gasp, couldn't breathe in the intense heat. She could feel her mane burning, and her skin melting as the figure's gaze increased in power. Just before the heat became overwhelming, Vinyl heard his last words to her.

"You are."

And then the world vanished.

Vinyl blinked her eyes open as the morning sunlight streamed into the house from her open window. Outside, she could hear life in Canterlot continuing as normal. Vinyl sat up in her bed, and realized that her pillow was dripping with sweat. Vinyl looked around the room, thinking back to what had happened the previous night. What had happened to the figure? Derpy had fled, but what about-

"Octavia," Vinyl breathed, climbing out of her bed. Vinyl hurried out of her room and looked into Octavia's bedroom. Her heart sank and her eyes welled up when she saw the bed was empty.

Vinyl staggered into the living room, determined to sit on the porch until that figure came back, and froze when she saw Octavia in the kitchen, humming to herself as she brewed a cup of coffee to go with her donut. Octavia turned around to see Vinyl staring at her in complete bewilderment, and smiled.

"Good morning, Vinyl!" Octavia cheerfully greeted her friend, "I think Derpy must have left really early this morning. Must be because of her mail run... are you okay? You're so pale... Vinyl, you look like you've seen a ghost. Vinyl? Vinyl?"

Experiencing Vertigo

Vinyl wandered into "The Dragon's Claw" at sunset in a daze, her shades perched on her unicorn horn unceremoniously, as though Vinyl had forgotten they were there. Heads turned as Vinyl, mane even more disheveled than usual and a sleepy expression on her face, trotted straight up to the bar and took a seat on a barstool.

"Mystic Amethyst, please..." Vinyl requested to the stallion behind the counter. The stallion, who had been standing facing away from Vinyl, now turned around.

"Wha- Vinyl?" Diamond Rough asked incredulously, eyes going wide, "What are you doing? You don't drink!"

"It's been a rough day," Vinyl replied, rubbing her eye with her hoof, "Dear Celestia, I need a drink. Look, I can pay for it..."

"What's wrong, Vinyl?" Diamond asked, leaning on the counter as he surveyed Vinyl's tired appearance suspiciously, "You aren't a drinker. What're you doing?"

"I don't know, man..." Vinyl sighed, putting both hooves to her forehead, "Things are just... I can't..."

Vinyl noticed somepony else seated at the counter, a blue mare with two bracelets that read "REBEL", gazing at her. Vinyl turned to her like a snake lashing out.

"What the buck are you staring at?!" She spat out, startling the mare, who quickly looked away.

"Vinyl!" Diamond Rough gasped.

"It's the same thing all over Canterlot!" Vinyl exclaimed, slamming her hoof down on the counter, "I went into the music store today to buy the new Iron Manen album, and everypony there was staring at me the entire time! Ponies kept bucking glancing at me as I trotted down the street! And now I come in here and I can't even get a drink without everypony bucking watching me! What's there to look at?!"

"Vinyl, it's just..." Diamond lowered his head, "Somepony died, Vinyl. Stories about the death of Primary Alley are going around. Everypony thinks you're a murderer and, well... you're not exactly helping to prove them wrong."

"Buck Primary Alley," Vinyl cursed, "He was bucking scum. Can you just get me a drink? I don't want to talk about this right now."

Diamond shook his head as he turned, grabbing a purple bottle of Mystic Amethyst and a shot glass and setting them on the counter.

"It seems to me that you need somepony to talk to right now, Vinyl," Diamond said as he poured the alcohol into the glass, "It also seems to me that Primary isn't the only thing on your mind."

"I don't give a dirty parasprite what anypony says," Vinyl said emotionlessly, watching Diamond finish pouring her drink, "It's just... I think I'm going crazy, Diamond..."

"Why haven't you talked to that mare you live with?" Diamond questioned, putting the bottle back on the shelf, "Octave, I think her name is?"

"Octavia."

"Yeah, her," Diamond said, turning back toward Vinyl, "I thought you two were good friends. Can't she help you? You don't have to suffer in silence with whatever it is that's happening, Vinyl."

"I don't know, Diamond..." Vinyl said glumly, staring down at the floor, "Things are just falling apart lately. I think I'm going crazy and she doesn't even realize it."

"Oh, she probably realizes it, Vinyl," Diamond said, a small twinkle in his eye indicating that he had been in the same position once before, "She's just too afraid to confront you about it. What you need to do is talk to her."

"But-"

"No," Diamond interrupted firmly, "I know you think you're invincible, Vinyl Scratch, but you're not. Even DJ-P0N3 could use friends."

One of the stallions who worked at the Dragon's Claw called to Diamond, who cast Vinyl an apologetic grin before hurrying over. Vinyl stared into her drink, and briefly considered what Diamond had said. Her eyes glistened with the tears of many sleepless, lonely nights as she thought about Octavia. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and imagined herself falling. Finally, she sighed deeply and hopped off the barstool, leaving two golden bits and an untouched Mystic Amethyst on the counter as she trotted out the door into the bustling streets of Canterlot.

* * *

Octavia was having one of the worst days of her life.

She had woken up from a nightmare of unimaginable terror to start off the day, and though she had forgotten what the nightmare was about, she still remembered the cold fingers of fear that had gripped her heart. After that, her morning progressed as usual. She had gotten out of bed, put her bowtie on, and eaten her usual morning breakfast, which consisted of a donut and a cup of coffee. The living room was empty with no sign of the ditzy mare that had slept on their couch; She assumed that Derpy had left at some point during the night.

As Octavia continued with her morning routine, Vinyl hurried into the kitchen, looking wide-eyed as though she had also awoken from a nightmare. Octavia smiled and happily greeted her strange friend, but Vinyl kept staring as she cautiously trotted over to where Tavi stood and hesitantly poked her.

"What are you doing?" Octavia asked as Vinyl poked her again, wondering if her wild friend had experimented with cocaine with some of her rambunctious friends.

"Tavi?" Vinyl questioned uncertainly, "Is that you?"

"Of course it's me, Vinyl," Octavia answered tiredly, "Is something wrong?"

"Where were you last night?"

"What?" Octavia cocked her head to the side, "What do you mean? I went to bed after everypony left last night. Well, I mean, everypony except Derpy."

"That can't be... how...?" Vinyl seemed at a loss for words as she slowly turned away from Octavia, staggering toward the front door.

"Where are you going?" Octavia called after Vinyl, tempted to stop her disoriented roommate from leaving.

"I-I-I need to, uh, to think," Vinyl replied, opening the front door, "Don't worry, I-I'll be b-back later."

"Don't you want anything to eat?" Octavia asked, taking a bite of her donut. The door slammed shut behind Vinyl.

Octavia shrugged. After all, she was accustomed to Vinyl's unusual morning behaviors after living with her for so long. There had been several mornings when Vinyl had stumbled into the kitchen, stolen Tavi's donut, ate it in one bite, and then sleepwalked back to her room. Still, there was something different about Vinyl this morning, but Octavia couldn't quite put her hoof on it.

Brushing it off as typical DJ-P0N3 weirdness, Octavia finished her donut and gulped down her coffee before grabbing her cello case, securing it to her saddlebag, and stepping out into the morning Canterlot streets on her way to band practice.

While Canterlot had a reputation as an "upper-class" city, being home to Royalty and all, Octavia was noticing quite a few more punk ponies storming the streets as though determined to conquer the mountainside city. Octavia secretly wished for the wild ponies to relocate to some disorderly town like Dodge Junction or Ponyville where they could go as crazy as they wanted. Surprisingly, Vinyl shared Tavi's sentiments, but her main complaint seemed to be "longer lines at the music store".

Tavi trotted past Jet Set and Upper Crust, Equestria's trendiest married couple. She had seen them at a few of the parties that she and her ensemble had played, but had always seen them as the type of ponies who ruined Canterlot's reputation with their snobby attitudes and obsession with being important. Not to mention, the fact that they were always glued to whoever was the most popular pony at a party was annoying. Octavia thought it was pitiful to pretend to like somepony else just to keep up appearances.

"Jet Set! Upper Crust!" Octavia jovially greeted them, shaking both of their hooves, "What a surprise to see you two around and about on this fine morning!"

"Terrific seeing you today, Octavia," Jet Set said, keeping his snout in the air.

"Oh, we simply adored your performance at Moondancer's party last Sunday," Upper Crust praised, "Quite enticing, if I do say so myself."

"The other ponies in the band will be delighted to hear that," Octavia thanked her with a grateful smile, "Speaking of which, I'm off to band practice now, so I suppose I'll see you some other time?"

"Actually, we were going to ask you to play at our anniversary party next Saturday," Jet Set revealed, "Would 500 bits be enough, or...?"

"500?!" Octavia repeated, turning to him with her jaw hanging open in surprise. Usually, her band played for 100 bits... maybe 200, "I-I mean, um, of course! 500 should cover it. I'll tell the others and we'll get back to you as soon as we can."

"Wonderful!" Jet Set and Upper Crust said in unison.

Octavia continued on her way, still awestruck at the news. They'd be playing for 500 bits... there were three other ponies in the band, so four shares total. That'd be... 125 bits for each pony? Octavia would be able to afford that new cello she wanted... maybe get a new bowtie... maybe be able to replace the vase in the house that Vinyl had broken...

She was practically bursting with excitement when she arrived at Clef Clavichord's home to begin band practice.

Clavichord lived in a two-story Canterlot home that was significantly larger than the house shared by Octavia and Vinyl. In fact, out of everypony in the ensemble, Clef had the biggest house, which was why they stored their instruments there and practiced in a special, soundproofed room. Octavia clambered up the walk to the front door. From inside came the muffled, hypnotic, majestic sounds of somepony playing a harp. Octavia impatiently rapped her hoof on the door.

"Clef! It's Octavia!" she hollered, "I've got big news!"

Senza Sousaphone, the tuba player, opened the door, casting a disgusted grimace at Octavia as though she were something unpleasant that Senza had stepped in. Octavia was too excited to notice as she pushed past Senza and hurried into the living room where Clef and Tremolo Hymn were sitting, the latter moving his hooves over the harpstrings of his harp as they sat awaiting Octavia's arrival. Octavia strolled into the living room with Senza following behind her, a wide smile on her face as the two stallions looked up.

"You won't believe this," Octavia began, "I-"

Clef sighed, holding up his hoof for silence. Octavia's voice faltered and then she stood, blinking in confusion. Clef sighed, subconsciously placing a hoof on his red bowtie. He looked down at the floor, neither he or Senza or Tremolo daring to meet Tavi's gaze. A fearful sense of dark foreboding began to grow in the pits of Octavia's stomach as she looked around at her solemn, stonefaced band members.

"What's going on?" Tavi squeaked, already knowing what was going on, but refusing to accept it.

"Octavia, we've played a lot of... wonderful concerts together..." Clef began, finally looking up with his green eyes to stare into Tavi's purple ones, "And we've had so much... uh, fun together in our band practices, but..."

"You're out," Senza interrupted, plainly confirming Octavia's worst fears. Octavia turned to Senza as Clef sighed, her eyes faintly glistening as the truth began to sink in.

"W-what...?" She whispered, a sense of helplessness seizing her in its cruel grasp.

"You're out of the band, Octavia," Senza repeated, "We decided on it yesterday after you left. In fact, we've already found a replacement cellist. It's been fun, but here's where we part ways."

"You... you..." Octavia looked away from Senza's smug face to Clef, who was looking at the floor, and then to Tremolo, who was pretending to be examining his harp.

"It's not that you're a bad cellist, Tavi..." Clef said quietly, "It's just... you don't really, uh, fit in with us. Your musical tastes are a bit different than ours. And this other pony is a lot better. Er, I mean-"

"But what about the concert at the Summer Sun Celebration?!" Octavia interrupted, unable to keep the desperation out of her voice, "What about the time we played in that concert hall in Manehatten? What about the Grand Galloping Gala?! Doesn't that mean anything to you? To any of you?"

Clef looked away, silent. Tremolo continued to toy with his harp, pretending it was important.

"I think it's time for you to leave," Senza spoke from behind Octavia. Tavi slowly turned around and stared at Senza, who was trying (and failing) to hide the glee in her face. Senza never had liked Octavia. Tavi looked around at her other two former bandmates for any kind of support. Finding none and fighting back tears, Octavia finally broke into a run, pushing Senza aside as she threw open the door to Clef Clavichord's home, galloping outside back into Canterlot.

She didn't stop running until she was almost home. Memories of past concerts came back to slap her, the stinging pain of loneliness threatening to make the mare fall to the ground in a sobbing mess. It couldn't be true. She had been with those ponies for so long...

"Octavia!"

Surprised, Tavi glanced in the direction of the pony that had just spoken. Upper Crust, with Jet Set looking on, hurried across the street over to Octavia.

"Good to see you again," Upper Crust said, "And again, we're really excited to have your ensemble performing at our anniversary party!"

"Right... the party..." Octavia murmured as Upper Crust trotted away. A small, devious grin slowly grew on her face, "Of course the ensemble will be there. In fact, I think I've already told them..."

It seemed that Jet Set and Upper Crust would just have to throw a party without music.

* * *

Alone in the house, sitting at the table and flipping through the newspaper, Octavia sipped from a mug filled with hot chocolate. No matter how many times she looked through the classified section, there wasn't anypony asking for a dedicated cellist. Seeing as Octavia was currently unemployed with barely enough bits to last her the rest of the month and nopony was looking for a musician, she would have to try to find another line of work. Octavia was bitter about her unceremonious dismissal from the ensemble, and felt no remorse for not telling them about Jet Set and Upper Crust's party. After all, the ensemble would be to blame for ruining everything, not Octavia.

But somehow, revenge on Senza Sousaphone didn't exactly warm her heart.

Octavia's cello sat in its case in her bedroom. She was unsure of the next time she would play it... if she ever played it again. It hurt too much to know that ponies she had the utmost trust in would just betray her like that. The ensemble was like her own family, and now...

Her ear perked up when she heard the front door open and slam shut. A moment later, Vinyl rushed into the room, her eyes gleeful behind her purple shades and a wide smile showing off all of her teeth on her face. Tavi surveyed Vinyl blankly, unimpressed.

"Octavia, there's something I want to talk to you about..." Vinyl began, taking a deep breath. Octavia didn't know that Vinyl had thought about what she was going to say almost 10 times on the trot home from the Dragon's Claw.

"Not right now, Vinyl," Octavia dismissed, looking back at the newspaper. Vinyl stopped.

"What?"

"I said not right now. I'm busy."

Vinyl blinked a few times, "But... but Octavia, it's really important. I-I-"

"I don't care, Vinyl!" Tavi snapped, glaring at the stunned unicorn, "I'm too busy right now to be playing your stupid games! I have far more important things to do!"

"But I... Octavia-"

"Just leave me alone, Vinyl," Octavia hissed, her eyes narrowing as she flipped through the want ads for what felt like the hundredth time.

"I-I... I can't believe..." Vinyl stood there looking like she had just been punched, and then she broke out of her trance and headed for her room, "Fine! I'll just leave you alone! Obviously that stupid newspaper is more important than your best friend!"

Octavia said nothing as Vinyl stomped to her room, slamming the door behind her hard enough to make Tavi's hot chocolate tip over, causing it to spill across the table and fall onto the floor. Octavia sighed, closing the newspaper as she went to get something to clean up the mess with. Something alcoholic was starting to sound really good to her, Octavia mused as she began to wipe up the spilled beverage.

Dear Celestia, she needed a drink.

Screaming Soundlessly

5
Screaming Soundlessly

Vinyl's body easily went through the clouds as she fell.

When she had first begun to have the nightmares, her heart beat rapidly and she panicked hopelessly. Now, all she felt was numb. It wasn't the terror that was hurting her, it was the mental strain of feeling herself fall from unimaginable heights, slam into the ground, and die every night. Often, Vinyl tried to stay awake throughout the night, just to put off sleep as long as she could, but she felt herself more tired than usual as of late. Maybe it was a side effect of being in the hospital, or maybe it was the hallucinations.

As she fell, limp as a doll, Vinyl realized that she needed somepony to talk to, even if Octavia wouldn't be that pony.

Vinyl reached top speed as she rapidly approached the ground. The familiar fears were starting to return, that vertigo she got whenever she looked from a high place made her stomach churn. She only prayed for it to be quick and painless, maybe even a clean death-

Suddenly, she wasn't falling anymore. Just like that, one moment she was falling and then she was standing on all four hooves miles above the ground on thin air. Vinyl looked around, and lightly stomped with her hoof. Whatever she was standing on didn't give way. Vinyl looked up to see the clouds separating to reveal the once-blue sky was now dark and dotted with stars. The moon loomed over her, and then a dark form began to take shape on the glowing lunar surface.

Vinyl watched as the dark form began to grow as it came closer. Soon, she was able to see a dark blue coat, a shimmering blue-and-purple mane, and a black tiara over her unicorn horn. Even before the pony landed on the invisible surface in front of Vinyl and folded her wings, Vinyl already knew who it was.

"Princess Luna," Vinyl breathed, falling to the ground in a respectful bow. Dream or no dream, Vinyl wasn't going to risk insulting the recently-returned Princess of the Night.

"Rise my subject," Princess Luna spoke in a clear, echo-y voice that somehow enhanced the dreamy quality to Vinyl's nightmare, "We are grateful for the show of respect, but now is a dire time."

"A dire time...? Wait, what are you doing here?" Vinyl asked, looking around, "Don't you have royal duties in the castle or something that's more important than me?"

"We are thy Princess of the Night!" Luna replied. Vinyl noticed for the first time that Luna was speaking as though it were 1000 years ago... which made sense, seeing as Luna had just returned from her imprisonment in the moon a few months before she began having the nightmares, "It is our duty to patrol the dreams of all our subjects to ensure they remain peaceful and magical! Art thou, perchance, troubled as of late, Vinyl Scratch?"

"Um... kinda," Vinyl admitted, "For some time now, I've been having these... nightmares."

"Ah, yes," Luna said thoughtfully, "We have been watching thou's dreams, only to find misery and despair."

"Do you know anything about the nightmares?" Vinyl asked eagerly, "Like a solution? Some way to stop them?"

Luna shook her head, "Alas, thy dreams are filled with a certain... dark magic. We have never seen anything like this before, that is why we have kept our distance until now."

"A... dark magic? What do you mean?" Vinyl asked, unsure.

"It is... difficult... to describe," Luna thought for a moment, "We do not know where to begin. What most troubles us is that the dark magic is much more powerful than the dark magic which transformed us into Nightmare Moon a millenium ago."

"...oh," Vinyl blinked, "But... but I'm not that kind of unicorn! I don't know a whole lot of really cool magical spells or anything! The coolest thing I ever did with my magic was levitate myself outside Tavi's window one time in the middle of the night and knocked on it. It was pretty funny, until I laughed so hard that I lost control of my magic and fell two floors down. Then Octy was laughing at me..."

"We do not believe thou art the cause of the magic, merely the source," Luna specified, not seeming at all interested in Vinyl's story, "It seems as though something has latched onto thou and is manifesting itself through dreams. Perhaps thou are being visited by an incubus...?"

"As cool as that would be, I don't think it explains the dreams," Vinyl shrugged.

"Maybe it is a rogue form of a wild Tantabus," Luna mused, "We have been longing to see a Tantabus..."

"Princess, it isn't just my dreams," Vinyl said quietly, "When I'm awake, sometimes... sometimes I can still feel myself falling. I'm having, like, hallucinations."

"Did any of them appear to be glimpses into another world?" Luna asked eagerly.

"Uh, no? Why?"

"At this moment, there is an unknown force trying to withdraw thine physical form," Luna explained as though discussing the weather.

"What does that even mean?" Vinyl inquired, confuzzled.

"Thy dream self is a spiritual form," Luna explained patiently, "When thou heart, soul, mind, and essence take on their own form and construct a body that is neither real nor unreal, not flesh and bone, yet not entirely imaginary. Thou physical form is the keeper of your spiritual form. As thy Princess of the Night, we have control over a pony's spiritual form while they travel in our realm, the realm of dreams. However, we also possess a limited control over thy physical form. As we speak, we sense something magical attempting to move thy physical form someplace I know not."

"Wait, you mean every time I've been having one of these nightmares, something has been trying to take my body?!" Vinyl shivered, "Gross! That's disgusting! Totally pervy, y'know?"

"Thy outrage is justified, yet we sense something amiss," Luna's eyes began to glow white, "It would appear that whatever it is, it is trying to take thou from this plane of existence."

"Wait, plane of... that sounds familiar..." Vinyl gasped as a memory came to her, "That pony! The one on the porch the night Octavia disappeared! He said that she was taken somewhere..."

"Vinyl Scratch, thou must not allow this mysterious pony to take you," Luna warned, her eyes continuing to glow as she presumably used her cool alicorn magic, "His powers are fascinating, yet evil. Even now, we sense him growing angrier. We cannot say why he has chosen you as his prey, but we will try to find more information. In the meantime-"

Luna's face went pale.

"What? What is it?!" Vinyl asked nervously.

"Too late...!" Luna stammered, "He comes! Vinyl, flee! You must-"

And then Luna was gone, and Vinyl opened her mouth to shriek as she found herself falling once more, but now Equestria was gone. The grass and the sky faded away around the white unicorn as she fell, yet flew. She plummeted, yet soared. The world was gone, and Vinyl was alone in an abyss of darkness.

"Luuuuuuunaaaaaaaaaa!" Vinyl screamed, but then there was a flash of white light and Luna's echo-y voice resonated around the walls of the endless abyss.

"Be safe, Vinyl Scratch."

And then there was nothing.

~~~~~~

Vinyl awoke with a gasp, immediately sitting up in her bed and twisting around to spot any dark intruders. Unfortunately, when she twisted, the blanket had come around her and Vinyl instinctively tried to pull away. The mare didn't realize her hooves were caught in the blanket however, and she lost her balance and fell face-first out of her bed onto the floor.

"Ow!" Vinyl pulled herself free from her blanket and rubbed her face where she had made contact with the floor, "Note to self: put pillows on the floor. That sounds smart."

Vinyl climbed to her hooves and glanced out the window to see that it was dawn; Celestia's sun was only just beginning to rise, but Luna hadn't lowered the moon yet. Was the Princess delayed because of her interference in the nightmare? Vinyl wondered.

Vinyl quietly trotted out of her room and down the hall, toward the porch. She slid open the door and stepped onto the porch. She had always liked watching the sunrise from here. It was an excellent vantage point, and often allowed her a calm, scenic atmosphere to think. Vinyl sighed as she leaned against the railing and then slumped, resting her head on the railing. First Primary Alley, then the cloaked figure, then Octavia, and now Princess Luna warning her about dark magic. When had life become so hard?

Maybe it's because I pissed off that gypsy in Ponyville... Vinyl thought to herself as she sighed, still resting her head against the railing as her eyelids began to flitter closed, and then she fell asleep, still leaning against the railing.

~~~~~~

"...Vinyl...?"

"Mmm..." Vinyl stirred, waking up. Surprisingly, she hadn't had another nightmare... or even a dream at all, for that matter. Had the Princess cast a spell or...?

"Vinyl," that voice again.

"Tavi...?" Vinyl murmured, realizing she was lying on her side on the porch. At some point, she must have fallen off the railing. It looked to be late morning now. Vinyl pushed herself upright into a sitting position and then she looked over her shoulder to see Octavia standing in the doorway.

"Vinyl, wake up," Octavia called to her.

"I'm awake..." Vinyl yawned.

"Come inside; you'll catch a cold for sure," Octavia gestured toward the house and Vinyl clumsily climbed to her hooves and trotted into the house as Octavia slid the door shut behind her.

"Didn't think you cared," Vinyl said before she could think about it, and then she silently cursed herself for speaking without thinking. Speaking without thinking was how she had somehow ended up buying an Orthros once... and that hadn't ended well. Behind her, Octavia took a deep breath.

"Vinyl, look," Octavia winced, "I'm sorry for last night, okay? I just... I shouldn't have snapped at you. Can you please accept my apology?"

"No, it... it's fine," Vinyl didn't turn around, instead staring straight ahead at the kitchen. One of Octavia's mugs sat on the table next to a small plate with crumbs on it, presumably from a bagel, "And it wasn't cool of me to storm off like that and knock over your hot chocolate either. I need to apologize for that."

"I deserved it," Octavia said with a light chuckle, "So... friends again?"

There was a pause as Vinyl still refused to turn around, and then the white unicorn whirled around and reached out with her hooves. Tavi yelped as Vinyl pulled her closer, and then she realized that it was a hug.

"Best friends," Vinyl smiled as Octavia awkwardly hugged her back, and then Vinyl gave her a final squeeze before the two separated.

"And, um... if there's anything you need to talk to me about, Vinyl... I'm here," Octavia promised, "I thought you'd be a lot more shaken up after that dreadful Primary Alley... but you and Derpy seem to be recovering from it fairly well. Even so, if you need to talk..."

"I don't have anything to talk about right now, Octy, but I'll keep it in mind," Vinyl lied, forcing a grin to cover it. She started trotting out of the kitchen back toward her bedroom, glancing at Octavia's mug as she passed only to see it was empty, "You gonna go play your cello now? Or- no wait, band practice today, right?"

Octavia always liked to practice her cello after breakfast even on days she didn't have band practice, but today Tavi bit her lip nervously, "Um, actually Vinyl... I don't really feel like playing today, and I don't have band practice."

"Oh! Okay," Vinyl shrugged, not noticing Tavi staring at the floor miserably behind her as she left the room.

~~~~~~

Derpy Hooves stared down at Equestria below miserably, almost mirroring Octavia at that same moment perfectly. The mare hadn't eaten anything for breakfast; not even her "morning muffin" that she had eaten every morning for years; she simply felt too sick to eat.

She remembered that night. It felt like an eternity ago, but it still stuck out in the normally-featherheaded Pegasus's mind unpleasantly. The memory of it was enough to cast a dark thundercloud over her for days, but Derpy thought that she had moved on with her life remarkably well... then again, she had the Doctor to thank for that. He was such a strange stallion, really, but Derpy found herself drawn to him in a way she couldn't explain. And their travels... they were the best time Derpy had ever had.

Now, as she leaned against the railing separating Canterlot from the endless sky, Derpy felt like crying. The mare was currently in a plaza in the famous mountainside city, standing beside a table. There were a few tables scattered around the street, and Derpy had been sitting at this one by herself before she found herself drawn to the railing. One noteworthy feature of Canterlot was the railings; because most of the city was built to jut out the side of a mountain, safety railings had been built to prevent clumsy ponies from accidentally falling to their certain deaths off the enormous platforms. Everypony seemed to adore this feature of the royal city; the porch at Vinyl and Octavia's house was just like this, Derpy remembered.

But the thing was, if somepony were to jump over the railing, they would fall hundreds, if not thousands, of feet (hooves?) to the ground below. This was the tallest mountain in Equestria, and the fall from Canterlot was a great distance.

As Derpy stared out to the land below, however, she only saw her own memories. The dark alley that night. The rain. The movement in the shadows before... before he had jumped out and thrust a hoof over her mouth, grabbing her even as she tried to struggle and scream. She had put up a fight, but he had... hit her. Derpy's lopsided eyes welled with tears; that stallion had taken something from her that night. Something that she could never reclaim.

He had taken her very essence.

That had changed when she met the enigmatic Doctor though. Inside the TARDIS, all the adventures they had... meeting Lyra, Bon Bon, Octavia, Vinyl... having friends... she had never made friends easily because of her eyes and with the lack of confidence she had. Slowly, she could feel herself becoming whole again, and Derpy had moved on with her life. She was happy...

...until she had beaten a stallion to death to protect her friend.

From there, things had worsened. She had no remorse for saving Vinyl or ensuring no mare had to worry about Primary Alley ever again, but that was the worst part. Was she becoming as unfeeling as the stallion who had taken her from herself so long ago?

She hadn't even known the stallion's name when she saw Vinyl faint, or when he climbed on top of her. All she had known was that she could stop it. She could've done what nopony had done for her that night.

Without realizing it, Derpy's wings began to flap and carry her up into the air. The mare's hooves barely grazed the top of the railing as she flew over it, away from Canterlot and into the openness of the sky. She looked down; not even Cloudsdale had a fall this high. She glanced behind her to see three ponies sitting at a table, not even looking at her. A few other ponies trotted by, some of them not wasting a look in her direction. A Pegasus pony flying; what was more usual than that?

Her wings slowly stopped flapping and keeping her airborne. Derpy turned her gaze back toward the ground below, and wondered how long it would take to hit the ground. She wondered if it would hurt. She wondered where she would land. She wondered if anypony would find her. Derpy was gradually beginning to descend as her wings flapped slower... and slower... and slower... and-

"Ditzy!"

Derpy cried out in surprise and she raised herself a little bit higher, now flapping her wings again. She turned around to see the Doctor standing against the railing, frantically waving his hoof at her, an excited smile on his face and his usual red bowtie on his chest. She had never understood where this mysterious stallion got all his energy... or why he insisted on calling her by her proper name "Ditzy Do Hooves" rather than her popular nickname "Derpy".

"Ditzy, come see!" the Doctor gestured for her to come with him, and Derpy flew back to Canterlot, "Get in the TARDIS; you won't BELIEVE what I found on the outskirts of Equestria!"

"What? Why were you out there?" Derpy asked curiously.

"Never mind that," the Doctor dismissed, "I found this HUGE flower! I think it had traces of magic on it! We're going to use the TARDIS to pick it. Maybe there's a powerful magical artifact buried beneath it! How else could a flower grow so big?!"

Derpy giggled at the Doctor's astonishment, and he extended a hoof to her.

"What do you say, Miss Hooves?" the Doctor asked with a sly grin, "Want to come?"

"Always," Derpy smiled, taking his hoof and following him toward an inconspicuous blue box waiting for them down the street.

Author's Note

Recently, I've been struggling to become a better writer, which meant less MLP. That is, until I realized that I'm perfectly capable of writing a chapter every week for a ten chapter Vinyl Scratch story.

So the hiatus this story was on is over.

Freefall is back, with a better author.

And I hope you enjoy it. :derpytongue2:

Flailing Wildly

6
Flailing Wildly

Octavia closed her eyes as the music overcame her. Her hooves moved up and down the strings on her cello, and a sweet, mournful tone rang out, locking the musician in a serene fantasy. She felt as though she were on the biggest stage in Canterlot, playing for an audience that was completely silent as the music washed over them in wave upon wave of calm grace. She slid the bow back and forth, back and forth, over the strings. Right now, she was playing from the soul. Right now, she understood what music was all about.

Right now... Octavia was one with the music.

Meanwhile, Vinyl bopped her head as the drilling guitars of heavy metal roared out of her headphones as she sat on the couch behind Octavia, reading a Maredevil comic book. She turned the page, and then felt something poke her foreleg. Vinyl set down the comic book and looked up to see Octavia prodding her with her cello bow.

"WHAT?" Vinyl asked loudly; her headphones were at a very high volume.

Octavia's mouth moved, but then she realized Vinyl couldn't hear anything and she gestured for Vinyl to take off her headphones. Vinyl did so reluctantly.

"Honestly, Vinyl," Octavia sighed, "You're going to give yourself hearing damage..."

"Sorry, Tavi, but Griffallica songs need to be played LOUD!" Vinyl declared passionately, "Anyway, what were you saying?"

"I was only inquiring as to why you haven't been near your DJ stand in a few days," Tavi rolled her eyes, "Isn't that your main source of income?"

"Hey, I have an album out there!" Vinyl argued, "Remember? 'DJ-PON3'? And you said naming an album after myself was a bad idea. Ha!"

"An album that's only sold in the most unreputable music stores in Canterlot that attract ruffians and juveniles," Octavia retorted.

"What about 'Music4Ponies'? That store sells my album!"

"Like I said..."

"You're just jealous," Vinyl crossed her arms and laid back on the couch, "And anyway, what about you? I haven't seen you go out to band practice in the last few days. Aren't you guys supposed to meet every other day?"

To this, Octavia had no comeback. For a moment, Vinyl saw her expression break, but that broken look was gone as soon as it had appeared and Vinyl wondered if she'd just imagined it. Octavia looked down at the floor, appearing to think for a moment, and then she took a deep breath and looked back at Vinyl.

"Look, Vinyl-" Octavia began, but then there came a loud whoosh-ing sound from outside the house. It sounded as though wind from every direction was connecting at one spot directly outside the house, "What's that?"

"Derpy and the Doctor," Vinyl replied instantly. She remembered hearing the same sound and seeing a big blue box when they had come to visit her in the hospital. She still didn't know what the deal was with the giant box because nopony bothered to explain it to her. Maybe now she could get some answers.

Yes, answers! Vinyl rose from the couch, accidentally knocking her comic onto the floor, and marched over to the front door as the sound faded and somepony knocked. Already, she was going over what she was going to say in her head. She wasn't going to let them distract her; no, she was going to demand answers and with Celestia as her witness, she was going to get some!

She opened the door to see the Doctor in his usual bowtie standing next to Derpy, who was holding a plate covered in tinfoil, which she thrust at Vinyl.

"Here! I made you cookies!" Derpy smiled. Vinyl gasped and grabbed the plate.

"Oh my Tia, cookies!" Vinyl pulled off the tinfoil to reveal a plate of warm, freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies. She picked one up with her magic and devoured one whole, then turned to Tavi and spoke through a mouthful of cookie, "Mm... Tavi, check it out: cookies!"

"Vinyl, aren't you going to invite them inside?" Octavia asked impatiently.

"Oh yeah. Come on in, guys," Vinyl ushered them in, her previous mission now entirely forgotten, and Derpy giggled as she followed the Doctor inside.

"Thank you, Vinyl," Derpy greeted as Vinyl handed her back the cookies, "Hello Octavia!"

"Ah. Playing the ol' cello, are we?" The Doctor asked with a grin, eyeing Tavi's instrument, "I swear Octavia, you can play that better than anypony I've ever met!"

"Thanks, Doctor," Octavia smiled, but Vinyl noticed a sort of sadness to her smile. Vinyl narrowed her eyes at her friend as the first inklings that something was wrong started to dawn on her.

"Here, Octavia, you gotta try one of these cookies!" Derpy exclaimed, carrying the plate over to Octavia, but her hoof landed on the comic book that Vinyl had carelessly dropped on the floor and slid. Derpy yelped as she lost her balance and fell forward. Vinyl and Octavia gasped in unison and the Doctor ran forward as Derpy landed on the plate with a loud crack as the glass plate shattered, throwing cookie chunks and shards of glass all over.

"Ditzy!" the Doctor grabbed her shoulders, "Are you alright?!"

"Y-yeah... I think... I think I'm fine," Derpy whimpered, lifting her foreleg toward the couch to pull herself up, and Octavia screamed. A large chunk of glass was stuck in Derpy's leg, not very far, but far enough to draw blood. Vinyl moved forward, feeling woozy as she did so, toward Derpy's leg.

"Derpy, I'm going to pull the glass out," Vinyl said, determined, but the Doctor quickly held up his hoof.

"No! No! You can't!" his eyes widened, "That glass is the only thing keeping the blood inside her! We need a Band-Aid or something...!"

Octavia ran from the room toward the hallway closet where a first-aid kit was located and hurried back less than a minute later with the first-aid kit. The Doctor opened it and ripped out a band-aid before looking back up at Vinyl.

"Now Vinyl, you can pull it out- WITH MAGIC! WITH YOUR MAGIC!" the Doctor quickly yelled when Vinyl moved her hooves toward the glass. Vinyl took a deep breath and then her unicorn horn began to glow. The piece of glass pulled itself out of Derpy's foreleg, and Derpy winced before the Doctor pulled out a bottle of rubbing alcohol, "Need to sanatize the wound..."

"Yaaaaaaahh!" Derpy cried out in pain as he poured a few large drops on her cut before putting the band-aid on top.

"There we go..." the Doctor breathed, and Octavia and Vinyl relaxed as Derpy panted heavily.

"Well... this visit has gone spectacularly so far," Octavia said, getting a few chuckles from Derpy and Vinyl while the Doctor grinned, "Come with me, Derpy, I'll help you clean the blood off your leg."

"Sorry about the mess, Octavia..." Derpy apologized sheepishly, crawling off the floor weakly and limping on her injured leg, "I-I'll clean it up, I promise."

"Doctor and I can handle that," Vinyl volunteered as Octavia led Derpy to the bathroom, and then they heard the running water of the sink a few seconds later, "You handled that pretty well."

"Ditzy should be fine in a week or two," the Doctor shrugged, brushing the cookie pieces and shattered glass on the floor into a small pile.

"You know how to handle a lot of different kinds of situations, don't you?" Vinyl asked, picking up a few loose shards of glass with her magic.

"Well... I don't like to brag about it," the Doctor grinned, "But you'd be surprised, Vinyl."

"What if... uh... what if somepony was having nightmares?" Vinyl asked, trying to sound as casual as she could, but she could feel her voice shaking, "Nightmares filled with, like, dark magic. What would you, um, do?"

"Strange thing, magic," the Doctor stopped picking up glass and stared at the wall vacantly for a second, "Never really understand it... what's the difference between light and dark magic? One pony's dark magic is another's light."

"So you're saying it's a good thing that pony is having those nightmares? What if they're, like, hallucinating about them during the day?"

"I'd try to find the source of the nightmares," the Doctor replied, "All dreams come from somewhere."

"What if that pony has looked for a source, but couldn't find one?"

"And here's where the dark magic part comes in," the Doctor answered with a sly, clever grin, "That pony probably looked for a source when they were awake, but what about in their nightmares?"

"You think the source of the nightmares is INSIDE the dream itself?" Vinyl blinked in astonishment.

"Again, I'm not very familiar with magic, Vinyl. I'm more of a science pony myself, but magic still has to obey the laws of logic. There's something casting the magic, and there's the effects of the magic itself. If there's nothing casting the magic in the real world and all of the dark magic seems to stem from the nightmares, then the logical answer would be that the caster is inside that pony's nightmare."

"And how would that pony stop it?"

"And that," the Doctor finished, "Is what I don't know."

Octavia and Derpy re-entered the room just after Vinyl and the Doctor finished sweeping up the few remaining pieces of glass and cookie crumbs. Derpy's Band-Aid was still slightly damp from having her leg cleaned, but all of the blood was cleaned off. She still limped slightly, but it could have been worse. She hadn't damaged anything major, and the cut would heal itself soon.

"Did you guys save any cookies?" Derpy asked eagerly, but the Doctor and Vinyl exchanged a worried look.

"Actually... no Ditzy," the Doctor sighed sadly.

"Look on the bright side," Vinyl suggested with a smile, "At least I had one. How's your leg?"

"Hurts pretty bad," Derpy said, lifting her foreleg off the ground to examine it, "But I think I can manage. Especially since I can just fly around instead of walk."

"The good news is that it'll heal," the Doctor said, "Maybe within a month too."

"That'd be great," Derpy sighed in relief, "The sooner the better."

~~~~~~

After Derpy and the Doctor had left and Octavia put her cello in its case (which was strange; Vinyl noticed that she only put her cello in its case when she was taking it to a concert or to band practice, but instead Tavi put it in the closet), Vinyl put on her shades and got her headphones and trotted toward the front door.

"Later, Octy! I'm gonna be gone a while!" Vinyl called to Octavia.

"Where are you going?" Tavi hurried into the room where she surveyed Vinyl suspiciously, "To find work, I hope?"

"Actually, yes," Vinyl said pridefully, "I'm gonna trot over to the Verdant- you know, that one nightclub?- and get a gig there. DJ-P0N3 hasn't had a gig in a while."

"I do wish you'd stop referring to yourself with that ghastly name," Octavia sighed.

"You're just upset that I called you 'C3LL0-P0N3' that one time," Vinyl scoffed, "And I'm telling you, that name is cool!"

"If you say so, Vinyl," Octavia rolled her eyes and retreated back into the kitchen where she was making something for dinner. Octavia was fond of trying out new recipes in times of turmoil, just to keep her mind off her troubles. Today, she was trying a new recipe that she assured Vinyl would be "simply spectacular".

Vinyl still had her doubts.

Today, the streets of Canterlot were moderately filled. There was enough room to walk around freely, while at the same time trendy ponies were everywhere. Once outside, Vinyl put on her headphones and trotted to the beat of the music. She bopped her head to the music as well, and did this until she arrived in the most popular part of Canterlot, the Trendy District, she liked to call it. The Verdant nightclub was just ahead, and through the glass windows she could see that it was almost empty because it was just after noon, yet Vinyl noticed somepony in a green hoodie inside trot out of her line of view.

Vinyl was about to trot across the street to the nightclub, and then she felt somepony roughly tap her shoulder. Vinyl used her magic to pull off her headphones and turned around to see a gray stallion with tiny spectacles and a yellow mare with an expensive-looking hairdo glaring at her. Vinyl gulped, wondering what she'd done to upset these two strangers. Had she disturbed them during one of her late-night wubs experiments? Were they at her last gig when she had accidentally knocked over a table and spilled drinks on a few ponies?

"You're Miss Vinyl Scratch, correct?" the stallion asked, raising an eyebrow.

"That's me," Vinyl said, forcing a grin, "You can call me DJ-P0N3."

"My name is Jet Set, and this is my wife, Upper Crust," Jet Set introduced himself.

"Charmed, I'm sure," Upper Crust said stiffly.

"You're Octavia Melody's roommate?"

Oh man, Vinyl thought, Were these snobs at the party that night?

"Yeah? So?"

"We need you to deliver a message to her for us," Upper Crust cleared her throat, "Tell Octavia that never again will we hire her to perform at any of our social events, nor will we trust her as a pony ever again."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Vinyl demanded, "Octavia is a great pony!"

"Ugh," Upper Crust made a noise. It was an odd noise, like a mixture of a scoff, a chuckle, and a groan. Upper Crust then held up her hoof and whispered to her husband, though it was more of a stage-whisper that Vinyl was meant to overhear, "Miss Scratch must be more small-minded than I thought..."

"I heard that," Vinyl growled, "You better watch it, lady."

"Oh, there's no need for such hostile words," Jet Set intervened, peering at Vinyl through his spectacles, "You did know about the party, correct?"

"What party?" Vinyl narrowed her eyes. She was never invited to the really fancy Canterlot parties, but she was invited to almost every party that involved something alcoholic. Vinyl often wondered if it was just because the pony throwing the party needed music, and this might have been why Octavia was her best friend. She'd never admit it, but Octavia was the only pony she really felt close with. Right now, these two upper-class posers were threatening to ruin the closeness she felt if they really knew something about Octavia that she didn't.

"I thought not," Jet Set sniffed. Vinyl detected a note of smugness.

"A few days ago, we asked Octavia to get her band to perform at an anniversary party at our private estate and offered her payment of 500 bits," Upper Crust explained as Vinyl listened, her feeling of dread growing bigger and bigger, "Octavia was on her way to practice with her ensemble at the time, and she promised she would tell them about our party. Less than an hour later, we saw Octavia again."

"She appeared rather dazed, now that I think about it," Jet Set added.

"She confirmed that her band had agreed to perform. When the day of the party came, Octavia's ensemble was nowhere to be found," Upper Crust finished. Though they couldn't see Vinyl's eyes behind her shades, her eyes were wide with shock, "So, again, we would like for you to deliver a message to that... that flake. She is not a serious musician; instead, she is an untrustworthy pony that will no longer have any business at a party of ours."

"I... Octavia wouldn't..." Vinyl struggled to find the right words. When she was unable to produce exactly what she wanted to say, she instead turned around and began trotting in the other direction.

"Does this mean you'll deliver our message?" Jet Set called after her.

"Sure. After I have a talk with Octavia's band members..." Vinyl growled a reply. Behind her, she heard Jet Set mention something about being late to the opening of Sassy Saddles' new boutique, and the couple started trotting again.

Something wasn't right. Vinyl had felt it, but had thought that she didn't have the right to investigate after she and Octavia had just rekindled. Now, she was determined to find out what happened. Why was Tavi so distant lately? Why had she been reluctant to play her cello? Something happened with her band, and Vinyl was going to make them tell her what.

For Octavia.

~~~~~~

Vinyl stuck out in the posh neighborhood Octavia's band practiced in. Ponies with slicked-back manes couldn't help but stare at her wild, neon one, and she overheard a few whispers about "that mare's ghastly sunglasses". She had been tempted to yell at this inconsiderate ponies that they were SHADES, not SUNGLASSES, but she knew that she had to force herself to remain focused on what she was doing NOW.

She had only been to Clef Clavichord's home twice. One time when she'd followed Octavia to band practice, and the other time when she interrupted band practice to ask Octavia if she'd pick up donuts on the way home. Octavia had been really confused about how Vinyl was willing to go six blocks out of her way to ask her to get donuts, but not two blocks to get the donuts herself. In the end though, surprisingly, Octavia returned with the donuts. An awkward silence had ensued when she walked in with the donut box to find Vinyl sitting on the couch with a box of donuts that she'd gotten after disturbing Octavia's band practice.

Clavichord's house was humongous. Vinyl had always thought that it would be incredible to hold a wild house party here, but she knew that if Clavichord was anything like Octavia (if anything, he was more uptight than Octy), there was no way he'd ever go for it. Vinyl had often wondered how Clavichord could afford so many expensive things, but Octavia couldn't. In fact, late at night during her darkest moments, Vinyl seriously thought that Octavia would have a more expensive lifestyle if she wasn't dealing with Vinyl's antics all the time.

Vinyl trotted up the walk to the front door of Clavichord's place, and rapped her hoof on the door.

"Aw man... forgot about the soundproof room!" Vinyl silently cursed herself when she remembered that Octavia's band practiced in a soundproof room. They might not even have been able to hear her knocking.

But a moment later, a mare with a blue coat holding a tuba answered the door, only to look at Vinyl with a mix of confusion and disgust, as if she didn't know why Vinyl was there, but knew it couldn't be for a good reason because of the punkish way she looked.

"Um, can I help you?" Senza asked, scrunching her nose. The way she said it really ticked Vinyl off, but she was determined not to let Senza know that.

"Senza, you know me," Vinyl sighed, "Remember? I'm Octavia's roommate?"

"Oh. Octavia," Senza groaned. She looked like she was about to say more, but suddenly Clavichord appeared behind her and he trotted to the front door.

"Vinyl Scratch?" he asked, "To what do I owe the unexpected... erm, pleasure of your visit?"

"What happened to Octavia?" she demanded, "She's been acting differently lately, and I know it has something to do with you guys, so spill. What happened?"

"Um... Octavia... didn't tell you?" Clavichord stammered.

"Wait, she didn't?" Senza's eyes widened in glee.

"What? What happened?! What didn't she tell me?" Vinyl pleaded, "I need to know!"

"Octavia, well... she isn't a part of this ensemble anymore," Clavichord said sheepishly, "I admit, we didn't part on the best terms, but-"

"Octavia didn't tell you she got kicked out of the band?!" Senza laughed, and Vinyl glared at her, "Guess you two must not be very good friends if she doesn't trust you with something that important, huh?"

"Octavia is my best friend!" Vinyl argued, a little too loudly.

"So why didn't she tell you, huh? Why didn't she tell her 'best friend', Miss Scratch?" Senza retorted with a snicker as Clavichord watched, looking completely helpless. Behind him, Tremolo Hymn trotted into the room to see what was going on.

"Look, Vinyl, Octavia is a wonderful cellist, but there's a significant difference between her and us," Clavichord explained, "Not just playing style, but her musical tastes vary considerably from ours... oh, and the concerts..."

"Dear Celestia, she was always such a nuisance at concerts," Senza rolled her eyes.

"The point of an ensemble like ours is to show up, perform, and then leave," Clavichord sniffed, "We must be professional. Octavia wasn't like that; whereas we would leave the concert and maintain our appearance, Octavia would always stay behind and talk to everypony. Even the delinquents such as yourself."

"And what's wrong with that?" Vinyl demanded. To this, Clavichord looked a little taken aback.

"Well, uh... a reputable musician associating with the lowlifes of Canterlot? That's why Octavia didn't very well fit in with us," Clavichord explained, "We'd leave, and she'd still be at the venue talking with ponies that we would never be seen with."

"Actually, Vinyl," Senza chimed in, "Maybe Octavia is like that because of you. A respectable cellist sharing a house with a crazy DJ like you? Living with you has done something to her."

"Yeah. It HAS. She's more accepting of ponies that are different," Vinyl grit her teeth, "Which is more than I can say for you stuck-ups. And Senza, you're not going to try to blame me for you kicking Octavia out of your band!"

"I think we're done here," Clavichord started to close the door, "Goodbye Vinyl."

"No! You're going to stand here and explain to me why in Equestria you kicked the best cellist ever out of your band!" Vinyl pressed her hooves in the door, stopping Clavichord from closing it and even forcing it open a few inches.

"She's crazy! Crazy!" Senza howled.

"Explain!" Vinyl screamed.

"What's going on?" a thin stallion poked his head out of the soundproof room next to Tremolo. In his hoof, he held a cello bow. Octavia's replacement!

"Hey, I know you!" Vinyl exclaimed, "You were trying to score something from a dealer outside the Peppermint nightclub! I saw you after a gig one time! You're a user! They replaced Octavia with you?!"

"That's enough, Vinyl Scratch!" Clavichord declared, finally closing the door with Senza's help, "Good day!"

"Prick," Vinyl cursed, trotting away from Clef Clavichord's place. And sure, Clavichord had been rude, but he had told Vinyl what she needed to know about Octavia's behavior. Now, she had to get home. Octavia had a lot of explaining to do.

~~~~~~

Vinyl arrived home and opened the door. Immediately, she could smell the faint scent of something burning, but it was fading as though somepony had taken care of it already. Octavia sat at the kitchen table, eating a slice of pizza. The large white pizza box sat on the table next to Octavia, and Vinyl noticed that it was cheese pizza. When the two of them couldn't agree on toppings, they just ordered cheese.

"Oh, hello Vinyl," Octavia greeted, "I've taken the liberty of picking up a pizza for dinner. Did you get the job at Verdant?"

"Octavia," Vinyl took a deep breath as she closed the door behind her, "We need to talk..."

Praying Hopelessly

7
Praying Hopelessly

"Oh, hello Vinyl," Octavia greeted, "I've taken the liberty of picking up a pizza for dinner. Did you get the job at Verdant?"

"Octavia," Vinyl took a deep breath as she closed the door behind her, "We need to talk..."

"About what?" Octavia inquired.

Vinyl made her way to the table, trotting as though she were in a trance, and then she stopped across the table from Octavia, who had set her slice of pizza down; clearly, Tavi could feel something was wrong. Vinyl opened her mouth, and then closed it. How in Equestria was she supposed to say this? Her mind raced to find the right words, but all she got was a jumble of letters in her head. When she finally formed a two-word coherent sentence, Octavia leaned forward with her hoof outstretched and shushed her.

"Vinyl, I know what you want to say," Octavia smiled, "And I'm not mad."

"Huh?"

"I'm not mad," Tavi repeated, "I know things have been a bit frosty between us lately, and if you want to talk about... about me refusing to listen to you that night, I'm more than willing. I thought you might not have been satisfied with how we resolved things that night-"

"N-no, no..." Vinyl waved her hoof in dismissal, "I'm over that, but it's just... I... ugh! Why is it so hard for me to talk to you?!"

"Vinyl- what's wrong?!" Octavia gasped, reaching forward and putting her hoof over Vinyl's on the table, "If you have something you need to get off your chest, I'm ready to listen!"

"Why? Because we're best friends?"

"Yes? What-"

"Then why didn't you tell me?!" Vinyl breathed heavily, staring at Octavia's hoof over her own, but not making eye contact with Octavia.

"Tell you... what? That we're best friends? Vinyl, I thought you knew-"

"I know, Octavia," Vinyl said tonelessly, "I know why you haven't been going to band practice. I know why you're afraid to play your cello now."

Octavia froze as Vinyl finally looked up, and their eyes met.

"I know they kicked you out of the band."

Octavia slowly withdrew her hoof from Vinyl's as she stared, clearly rattled, at her friend. Her purple eyes were wide, but her jaw was firmly clenched.

"How?" she inquired.

"Jet Set and Upper Crust," Vinyl answered, "They told me that you bailed on their party. They also said that they don't trust you anymore."

"I suppose that means no more party invitations..." Octavia leaned back in her chair, "No matter. They were phonies anyway. But how did they know that I...?"

"I went to Clef Clavichord's house after that," Vinyl continued, "And Senza opened the door. She's horrible, by the way. They told me what happened. They... they even had a replacement with them."

Octavia sat at the table for a moment longer. Vinyl looked away again, now staring at the floor. A few moments of silence went by as Octavia let this new information sink in, and then without a word, Octavia stood up and slowly started trotting toward her bedroom.

"Octavia? Where are you going?" Vinyl said uncertainly. Tavi stopped, but didn't turn around.

"Oh... you know..." Octavia said, her voice shaking, "Just... to my room."

And then Octavia fell to the floor and started to cry.

"Octavia!" Vinyl jumped up from her chair and hurried over to where Octavia was sitting. Tears spilled out of the cellist's eyes as she sobbed, and Vinyl put her hoof around her friend.

"Oh Celestia, Vinyl..." Octavia coughed out, squeezing her eyes shut as she finally lost control of her emotions, "I loved playing in an ensemble... I actually loved those ponies too, even Senza. I-I... After y-you, I thought t-they were my b-best friends..."

"Shh... it's okay, Tavi..." Vinyl said in a soothing voice as she hugged Octavia, who sniffled and wiped her eyes with her hoof.

"I-I... I think I-I'm done p-playing music, Vinyl..." Octavia said fearfully, "No other b-band in Canterlot would hire me now!"

"Hey, you're the best cellist in Equestria," Vinyl grinned, "If you can't get hired by a band, then Celestia help us all."

Octavia giggled a bit at that, and rubbed her eyes again, now taking a few deep breaths, "I'm feeling a lot better now... thanks, Vinyl."

"Awh, c'mon, Tavi. That's what I'm here for," Vinyl said, "Are you gonna be okay?"

"Maybe after a good night's sleep... I can think more clearly about what I'm going to do," Octavia decided, "You should get some rest too. You're looking a bit tired."

"Yeah... okay..." Vinyl nodded sullenly as Octavia trotted toward her bedroom, "A good night's sleep. Of course..."

~~~~~~

The situation was all-too-familiar. Vinyl would put off sleep as long as she could, but she now felt exhausted. Vinyl would meekly slide under the blankets, fall asleep with a fearful anticipation in her stomach, and then find herself falling and not waking up. It happened too often that it was now routine for the unicorn.

But not tonight.

When Vinyl fell asleep, she opened her eyes to find herself in the dream world, not falling but instead on an ethereal purple platform, standing before Princess Luna herself. Quickly, Vinyl bowed, and Luna made a noise in response. Was that... a chuckle?

"We are most pleased to see you once again, Vinyl Scratch," Luna greeted in her usual loud, royal voice, "Regrettably, our research into this unpleasant subject has yielded no results."

"Awh..." Vinyl pouted, "Then you might as well wake me up then. I like the night... and it's not just because I'm talking to the Princess of the Night."

Luna shook her head, "We have something else in mind for tonight. Also, we have observed a few of thous activities in Canterlot during our nights, and believe that keeping such a wild unicorn asleep would be a mercy."

"Gee, thanks," Vinyl said sarcastically, "So what else did you have planned?"

"We intend to explore this dream," Luna revealed with a wicked grin, "Venture forth through it in search of a creature of nightmares. Already we have cast a spell that shall protect your physical form from harm, though I must warn you that your spiritual form may be in danger."

"I could die?"

"That is correct."

"I could die in a dream," Vinyl repeated, "Doesn't that mean I just wake up?"

"In a way, thou art correct," Luna explained, "But in truth, the physical form of a pony always pulls the spiritual form from the dream before they can fully perish. Because of our magic, thou art more in touch with thy spiritual form than thy physical, so the danger is very much real."

"Great," Vinyl sighed, "Because what would this little adventure be without real danger?"

"Fear not, for we can wake you before any serious harm may come," Luna informed her, "What say you, Vinyl Scratch?"

"Let's go? I guess?" Vinyl reluctantly decided.

"Huzzah!" Luna cheered, and then the platform below them vanished. Vinyl opened her mouth to scream as she and Luna hurtled down through the sky, toward the ground. They seemed to be falling at a much quicker rate than usual, and Vinyl wondered if Luna had used her magic to speed up their fall.

"LUUUUNNNAAAAAA!!" Vinyl shrieked, "We're gonna die!"

"FEAR NOT, VINYL SCRATCH!" Luna shouted back, unfurling her wings. Vinyl felt herself seized by the alicorn's magic, and then Luna descended and gently lowered Vinyl to the ground before letting her go. Vinyl landed with all four hooves on the ground, safe and sound. A moment later, the princess folded her wings and landed beside her.

"Huh," Vinyl poked at the grass with her hoof and looked around, "Never thought I'd actually be standing here in one piece."

"We must search for a landmark," Luna said, looking around, "Something to guide our journey into the realm of dreams."

For the first time, Vinyl noticed that all around this large stretch of empty, grassy field that she would have landed in was surrounded by a distant white fog, sealing the field in its own form of isolation. Nothing could be seen whatsoever; certainly no landmarks.

"How are we supposed to do that?" Vinyl asked, puzzled.

"Observe this area more clearly, Vinyl Scratch," Luna gestured around, "Does this not seem familiar to you at all?"

"It does, but I'm not sure why-" Vinyl's eyes widened as she finally saw it, "Wait, I get it! This is the field I see every time I look down from my house! When I'm on the porch! This is the field around Canterlot Mountain."

Luna nodded, "And which way would the mountain be?"

Vinyl pointed, "That way."

"Then that is the way we shall venture. Come, Vinyl Scratch," Luna began walking in that direction, and Vinyl nervously followed. As the two ponies trotted closer to the fog, Vinyl could see that it was like a wall. A huge, looming cloud of fog, held back as though by glass. Luna's alicorn horn lit up, and she shot a blast of bright blue magic into the fog. There was a loud rumbling, and then it appeared to dissipate.

Beyond the cloud, the dream world took a more frightening turn. The sky was black, but this was no night. The only thing lighting their way was the glow from their horns. The ground was purplish and squishy, disgustingly so. Glowing orange fungai poked out of the landscape, and the world became far different from a simple field. Even Luna looked a little unsettled by this.

"My..." she trailed off, thinking aloud, "How... horrifying. Perhaps THIS is the realm the dark magic is trying to drag your physical form into. Your physical self in the world of dreams..."

"You mean I've had this... this THING attached to my nightmares?! For how long?!" Vinyl panicked.

"Perhaps you will discover the answers you seek over there," Luna nodded in a direction, and Vinyl followed her gaze to see that the strange world curved upwards to form a large hill, and atop the hill was... a mansion. There were lights in a few of the windows, indicting that they weren't alone in this dream.

Vinyl gulped, "O-kay... let's go then..."

She stepped forward, only to grimace when her hoof sank an inch into the moist ground. She looked down, disgusted, and continued trotting. Luna, on the other hand, used her wings to fly a few feet above the ground behind Vinyl. Vinyl looked back at the princess with a resentful glance. Though Luna was careful to maintain an elegant, high-class appearance, Vinyl could've sworn that the princess cast her a smug look.

They reached the mansion to see that it appeared to just be an ordinary mansion, like something Vinyl would see walking through the aristocratic neighborhoods in Canterlot. The ground turned to stone surrounding the mansion, and Vinyl was grateful to climb out of the muck to get to some solid ground. Luna landed beside her and led the way toward the mansion. In front of the enormous building was a statue of a stallion who appeared to resemble King Sombra (who was extremely obscure in literature, but was on the cover of one of Ponyowar's albums, which was how Vinyl knew him), but looked a bit different. This stallion, for example, had a beard. Luna had apparently noticed the resemblance as well, and she grit her teeth as they passed it.

They climbed a short set of stairs to the mansion's front porch. As they reached the top and Vinyl wondered if they were supposed to knock or ring the doorbell or what, the two front doors slowly creaked open, revealing a dimly-lit foyer.

"Ooookay, this is something out of my nightmares," Vinyl said, a chill running down her back, "Oh wait. Scratch that, this IS my nightmare."

"Perhaps we should continue by ourselves," Luna suggested, glancing at Vinyl, who was trying to figure out what the heck she just said. We? Ourselves? How did that make sense? Then Vinyl remembered that Luna substituted "I" and "myself" for "we" and "ourselves".

"You want to go on without me?" Vinyl gasped, shocked.

"The road before us is littered with perils and dangers, Vinyl Scratch. In order to keep you safe, we believe locking you out of the dream world is the best decision right now," Luna explained, "Our magic is powerful enough to sustain the dream for thirty minutes once you have gone. You will not be awake until that time is up, but you will be safe."

"No! I couldn't do that," Vinyl quickly shook her head, "This is MY dream, MY nightmare, so I'm going to see it through."

At that moment, a loud howling sound wailed out from somewhere deeper in the mansion.

"You know, on second thought, I think I'll just, uh, stay out of your way," Vinyl said, closing her eyes, "Wake me up."

Luna's horn lit up again, and Vinyl was engulfed by a bright blue aura, but then the princess's magic fizzled and then went out. A quizzical look swept over the princess's face, and she tried again. Again, her magic fizzled out.

"Um... we may have encountered an issue," Luna's eyes widened.

"You mean... I can't wake up?!" Vinyl began to panic, "Am I going to be stuck here forever?!"

"It is not likely, though it is not on the list of impossibilities," Luna struggled to find an explanation, "Our magic must be interfered with by something within this mansion!"

"Princess Luna, I can DIE here!" Vinyl's cheeks began to burn red.

"And that is why we must venture forth, Vinyl Scratch!" Luna scolded, "Until we find the source of the dark magic, you will be in constant peril!"

With that, Luna turned and started trotting into the house, "You may follow us or wait on the porch, but all this will end tonight."

Vinyl trembled with fear, but took a deep breath and trotted after Luna. The mansion appeared to be even bigger on the inside, and each hallway seemed to lead down an endless path, with an infinite amount of doors. However, Luna's magic didn't appear to be limited within the dream, and she easily navigated the hallways. She opened the right doors that led to staircases, and soon she and Vinyl found themselves on the third floor. The tricks of the mansion ended here, and this story seemed to be normal. There was a long hallway, but Vinyl could clearly see the end of this one. In the middle, the hallway built into a bigger room with a large staircase in the middle.

"Those stairs led up to the roof," Luna informed Vinyl, "On top of this mansion, I know not what we'll find, but I DO know that whatever it is, it is the source of the dark magic."

"Whatever it is, it'll give me some answers," Vinyl grit her teeth, following Luna up the stairs.

The roof of the mansion seemed a lot higher than it had seemed from the bottom. The roof had sloped edges, but the center of it was a smooth platform. On top of this smooth platform was a pony, the same one from that night Octavia went missing. His black cloak billowed in the strong wind, and it seemed that a storm was contained right on top of the mansion. Thunder cracked and lightning flashed, and Luna and Vinyl stood facing this mysterious stallion. He stood behind a podium with a spellbook on top of it, but this podium was surrounded by creatures resembling large dogs, but they were made of dark purple ooze, almost like liquid shadow. Their glowing eyes surveyed the two ponies hungrily, ready to devour the ponies that wandered into their midst so thoughtlessly.

"Attention, creature of nightmares!" Luna shouted at the cloaked figure, "Thy Princess of the Night stands before thou, and demands that you leave this dream at ONCE!"

"Oh, Princesssssss Luna... who'd have thought that you would ever return?" the figure chuckled in its raspy, smoky voice, "I cccccertainly didn't."

"I COMMAND you to vacate this dream!" Luna ordered.

"I do not follow your orders anymore, Princess Luna," the cloaked figure replied, his voice now changed, and the dogs began to growl and snap their teeth excitedly, "Once, you were the honored Princess of the Night. Then, you were the noble Nightmare Moon. Now, you are only a joke."

The cloaked figure turned to his hounds, and pointed at Luna and Vinyl with a hoof.

"Consume their souls," he commanded. The dogs charged forward, and Vinyl screamed as Luna jumped back, but Vinyl wasn't quick enough. One hound leapt into the air and lunged for her. Instinctively, Vinyl held up her hoof to stop him, but the beast dug its fangs into Vinyl's foreleg. Vinyl howled with pain-

-and then, somehow, woke up in her bed.

Vinyl looked around, bewildered at what she had just experienced. She sat up in her bed as the sunlight trickled in through the window, and reached her hoof up to scratch behind her head. However, in doing so, she yelped when she felt it: a piercing pain in her foreleg. Vinyl looked at where it hurt the most, only to see bite marks.

Bite marks... from the nightmare hound.

~~~~~~

"Vinyl, a letter for you arrived this morning," Octavia informed her roommate, taking a sip of her morning coffee. Octavia always got the mail; it was part of her morning routine.

"Really? Was it from the Unending Paradise Nightclub?" Vinyl asked eagerly, "They owe me a gig."

"It's on the table," Octavia said, wandering into the kitchen. Vinyl hurried over to the table to see that a flawless white envelope with 'VINYL SCRATCH' written across it lie on the table. Vinyl opened the envelope and pulled out a small note.

"BEHIND THE DRAGON'S CLAW AT NOON" the note read.

Princess Luna! Vinyl gasped. She must have gotten out of the nightmare unscathed, and now had information to give her. The Dragon's Claw nightclub was an odd place to meet, but it was close and Vinyl knew it was secluded and private back there, so there would be nopony to interrupt them.

Vinyl glanced at the clock. Noon was only two hours away.

~~~~~~

Derpy peeled off the Band-Aid over her foreleg, and examined her wound. Her house was silent, except for her tense breathing. The wound had flakes of dried blood around the deep cut, but seemed to be healing properly so far, though she was only a day into the healing process.

But Derpy felt a knot in her stomach every time she looked at that wound. Now, the knot was squeezing her middle, and somehow she only knew one way to release the pain she felt.

In her hoof, Derpy clutched a kitchen knife. It was a typical knife, with a sharp, jagged side for carving. She stared down at the knife with her strange eyes, the eyes that had gotten her teased so much by so many different ponies...

Without even thinking about it, she brought the knife down over her foreleg. Derpy cried out in pain, but this pain quickly subsided even as the blood began to spurt from the long, thin cut. Derpy dropped the knife, letting it clatter to the floor as she clutched her self-inflicted cut.

Derpy licked the blood from her foreleg, calmly put the knife away, and then trotted out of the room without looking back.

Closing Eyes

8
Closing Eyes

A sign in the door to the Dragon's Claw nightclub announced that the place was closed for a few days in order to deal with a Twittermite infestation. Vinyl didn't know what a Twittermite was, but the words on the sign were written in big, red, blocky letters, so Vinyl assumed they must have been important. The sign went on to say that when Diamond Rough found the pony that had let a jar of Twittermites loose a night ago, they were going to be banned from the nightclub for life.

Vinyl hadn't expected the nightclub would be closed. Still, the note she'd gotten said that Princess Luna wanted to meet with her behind the building, so this wasn't a problem. In fact, it only meant there was nopony around to intrude or overhear their conversation. Vinyl trotted around the side of the nightclub, down a thin alleyway, toward the isolated back of the nightclub. Ponies would stumble out here to be alone so they could a) express excessive public displays of affection with their dates, b) puke after having a few drinks too many, or c) deal/do illegal substances. This never happened during the day however, but Vinyl was still confused about why Luna would want to meet here of all places. She couldn't have gotten a private chamber in the castle or something...?

Then again, maybe Luna wanted a LOT of privacy; this WAS some dark magic they were dealing with after all, especially if it could hurt her in the real world.

She still limped on her leg where the nightmare hound had bit her. It seemed both unreal and absolutely terrifying to think about; her DREAMS could hurt her. Just like something out of Nightmare Moon on Elm Street. Vinyl arrived in the secluded area behind the Dragon's Claw a few minutes before noon, just because she was so desperate for answers, for Luna to somehow make sense of the insanity her life had become.

This area was fairly big; about the size of Vinyl and Octavia's house, really. Other shops and buildings were stacked around it from all sides, making the alleyway and a backdoor to the building the only ways in and out, unless you were a Pegasus. Trashcans were lined in a row by the backdoor to the nightclub, and a large, empty dumpster sat in the back of the area.

Vinyl wondered how Luna would make her arrival. Would she swoop in on her alicorn wings? Teleport in and blow Vinyl's mind with how dramatic she was? Emerge from the backdoor of the Dragon's Claw wearing a pestpony uniform and holding a jar of captured Twittermites? Vinyl giggled a bit at this last thought because of how ridiculous it was.

But her giggles abruptly stopped when the backdoor's knob turned and the door swung open.

Vinyl nearly cried out "Luna?! You have a day job?!", but she fought back the urge to scream when a stern-faced stallion, a Pegasus with a blue coat, stepped out of the building. He was followed by a mare with a cherry-red mane and waaaay too much makeup and another stallion, this one wearing sunglasses.

"Whaddya know. Angel, it worked!"

"Of course it did," the mare said pridefully, "It was MY plan."

"Plan? The buck...? Who are you?" Vinyl demanded.

"Is this her?" Sunglasses gestured toward Vinyl, ignoring her question.

"Yeah. I recognize her hair and the shades," Blue replied.

"Finally! Somepony says shades!" Vinyl grinned, "But you didn't answer me! Who are you? What are you doing here?"

"Dear Celestia, she really is dense," Angel shook her head, "Hey genius, who do you think put that note in your mailbox telling you to be here?! I knew you'd want to find out who wanted you here!"

"Oh! You're working for Princess Luna!" Vinyl exclaimed.

"Princess Luna?" Sunglasses repeated, cocking his head to the side, "What are you rambling on about?"

"Um... hang on..." Vinyl started feeling a bit uncomfortable. This didn't feel right anymore... "If she didn't write that note and you aren't working for her, then why...?"

"Are you KIDDING me?!" Angel suddenly shouted, making Vinyl jump, "It's been a WEEK, and she forgets all about him already?! She killed him, and doesn't even care?!"

"What?! I never-" Vinyl stopped, her eyes widening. A week ago. That party. The porch. Primary Alley. The wretched stallion's face flashed into her mind, and Angel took advantage of her silence to further yell.

"We were his friends!" Angel pressed her snout into Vinyl's, who cringed as spit flew off the crazed mare's lips onto Vinyl's cheeks, "I was his MAREFRIEND!"

"He had a marefriend...?!" Vinyl's jaw fell, "But..."

"Word is all over Canterlot," Blue glared at Vinyl, "A few ponies at the party saw him follow you outside, and then he was dead! Wonder why no clubs are hiring you lately? Because you killed him! Why the Tartarus aren't you in a dungeon?!"

Vinyl realized that nopony- not these ponies or the ones at the party that night- knew that Derpy was the one who had accidentally beaten Primary to death. This was good news because Derpy put up with enough already because of her eyes, but it was bad because even as Vinyl realized her friend wasn't under suspicion, she now understood that everypony blamed her for his death.

"Listen, I'm telling you, he was a bad pony," Vinyl began, trying to keep her voice from quivering, "I was nearly unconscious, and he rolled me onto my back and tried to get on top of me!"

"You're lying," Angel grit her teeth. Vinyl wasn't sure if Angel thought she was lying, or if the mare simply couldn't believe it.

"It's the truth! He-he told me to just sit there! He said-"

"You're LYING! YOU'RE A LIAR! LIAR!" Angel shrieked, roughing shoving Vinyl. The DJ stumbled and fell backwards onto her flank. Angel swiftly moved forward while drawing her hoof back, and she kicked Vinyl in the stomach. Vinyl doubled over in pain, and gasped for breath, but it wouldn't come. The two stallions closed in on her from behind Angel even as she wheezed, trying to gulp in another breath.

"We're going to get revenge," Sunglasses said softly, "Revenge for our friend."

"You murderer," Blue growled.

Vinyl closed her eyes, and her unicorn horn powered up. One of the trashcans next to the door was grabbed by her blue magical aura, and Vinyl threw her head back as the trashcan left the ground, soared through the air, and collided with Blue and Angel from behind. Sunglasses was caught off-guard by the sudden attack, and Vinyl seized the moment to climb to her hooves and take off, making a mad dash for the alley that led out of the area. Blue made a grab for her, but his hoof only managed to brush against her tail as Vinyl raced away from them. Angel let out a frustrated cry that sounded like a mixture of a scream and a sob, and Vinyl heard her hooves on the pavement as she chased after the white unicorn.

Vinyl shot out of the alley and galloped down the street at full speed with Angel following closely behind her. Already, Vinyl was beginning to pant and her pace slowed. The adrenaline she had felt when running away from the Dragon's Claw was gone now, and Vinyl desperately scanned the area for another way to escape.

"You know why we chose the Dragon's Claw?! It was HIS favorite place!" Angel yelled from behind her, "This was all YOUR fault, Vinyl Scratch!"

The street was empty. It almost always was during the day, especially if nopony was going to the Dragon's Claw. There was nothing but two walls of shops on either side of Vinyl. For now, it looked like she had no choice but to keep running.

"Face it, Vinyl! You deserve this! YOU DESERVE TO DIE!" Angel hollered as they approached the end of the street. A green stallion in a black hood turned the corner as Vinyl reached it, and she narrowly swerved to avoid colliding with him. Angel, on the other hand, ran right into the stallion, knocking both of them to the ground as Vinyl galloped away, down the road.

"You killed Primary! You won't get away with this! VINYL! YOU MURDERER!"

Angel's voice echoed in Vinyl's ears as she turned down a back alley onto another road and ducked into a bakery where she waited for around twenty minutes just to assure herself that she wasn't being followed. She finally decided to leave when the stallion behind the counter asked her if she was going to buy anything, and she curtly replied that she didn't have any bits before trotting out the door.

~~~~~~

Vinyl opened the front door to the house and trotted inside, exhausted. She was vaguely aware of somepony sitting on the couch, and she cast a tired "I'm home, Tavi..." in that direction as she wandered into the kitchen and got herself a glass of water. As she raised the glass to her lips and swallowed a few gulps, she nearly choked when the pony on the couch replied.

"Vinyl, we know not of this 'Tavi', but it is good to see you."

Vinyl coughed up a bit of water as she turned around to see Princess Luna sitting on the couch. Luna smiled at her as Vinyl trotted back into the living room, staring at the Princess agape.

"You... how did...? You're in my HOUSE?!"

"The door was unlocked," Luna answered, obviously seeing no problem with just walking in, "Why do you appear surprised?"

"Because usually ponies knock before just walking into somepony else's house!" Vinyl sighed.

"Oh. Apologies; we have been gone for 1000 years, Vinyl Scratch. Customs have changed," Luna seemed a bit tired, as though she were used to being told things had changed. Vinyl knew life probably hadn't been easy for Luna since her return, and wondered if she'd been too hard on the Princess, "But as to why we have come here today, we have exciting news! After spending a few hours in the Canterlot Castle Archives, we have discovered the true identity of the pony in thine nightmares."

"Wow, really?" Vinyl said eagerly, "Who is it? Can you tell that creep to get out of my head? Why does he make me think I'm falling? How do we stop him? Will the nightmares stop entirely?"

"The Spirit of Nightmares," Luna began, holding her hoof up to shush Vinyl, "His name is Somex Terribat. In the ancient language of the Omares spoken many years before even the birth of my sister and I, it means 'Reaper of Nightmares'."

"Somex Terri-what?" Vinyl repeated incredulously, "I didn't understand HALF of that! What has that got to do with me?"

"Somex was an entity that existed in the realm of dreams," Luna explained slowly, "Possibly since the beginning of time. When Celestia and I came of age and took control of the day and the night, I encountered him while traversing the ethereal plane. Back then, Somex was... another stallion. He explained that he was the Spirit of Nightmares, much in the way that Discord is the Spirit of Chaos, but to my surprise he wanted to use his powers to defend his sleeping subjects. Somex and I patrolled the dream world together, facing hostile imaginary creatures birthed of unpleasant thoughts in the dreams of many ponies. We believed him to be our best friend, the only one who truly understood our night."

"So... what happened to him?"

"Thou must understand, Vinyl Scratch! He... he was more than our friend..."

"You mean... wait... you two-?!"

"Somex became our lover," Luna nodded, now looking away from Vinyl at the floor, "But only in the dream world, to my dismay. He wanted, more than anything, for us to be able to live our lives together for eternity, but there was only one problem. His magic wasn't strong enough for him to travel between the plane of dreams and the plane of reality. Desperate, he took to consuming the magic in the dreams of ponies in order to strengthen his own power. In doing so, he replaced the magic with the darkness of nightmares, causing ponies to experience the vivid nightmares that haunt you, Vinyl Scratch. We didn't want to believe it was him, but..."

"But you still knew," Vinyl interrupted, "You knew that what I'm going through- you knew it had something to do with him, right? Or at least, you thought?"

Luna opened her mouth as though she were going to say something, but then closed it and nodded. Her lip twitched.

"So why didn't you tell me, Princess Luna?" Vinyl implored.

"We... we were ashamed," Luna hung her head, "What happened to Somex was because of me. It was because of our restrained love for each other. I-I... I did not want you to blame me, Vinyl Scratch..."

Luna's lip quivered again, and Vinyl noticed that Luna was trying not to cry.

"What happened to him, Princess?" Vinyl asked, sitting down on the couch next to the alicorn. Luna took a deep breath and continued.

"Somex was unable to get the power he needed. Meanwhile in the real world, I discovered many ponies suffering from the nightmares and travelled into the dream realm to seek Somex's help in discovering what was causing the nightmares. I never imagined that he..." Luna sniffed, and then wiped her eye with a hoof, "Apologies. I confronted him, and he insisted that the other ponies didn't matter because he almost had enough power. I was disgusted; I couldn't believe that the stallion I'd met had become so corrupt. My heart... I felt it shatter. He was causing untold anguish, but he was doing it for me."

"Sounds like you had to choose," Vinyl said, her voice somber and clear in the ringing silence.

Luna nodded, "Between the stallion I loved and my duties to Equestria? It was a choice, Vinyl Scratch, but it was not that simple. Somex was no longer the stallion I loved, so the choice was obvious. I told him that what he was doing was wrong, and if he honestly believed that it was for a good cause, then I wanted no part of it. I turned my back on him. He tried to stop me from leaving, but I was determined never to see him again. He grabbed me just as I teleported out of the dream world, and the magic he'd stolen all came out at once. Somehow, by some magical accident, his power and mine joined together and brought us both to the real world. I woke up to find him standing in my room, disorientated and confused. Somex was never meant to leave the dream world, you see...

"Celestia found out what happened. To this day, I am still unsure how. Perhaps she sensed a magical disturbance or heard me shouting at Somex, but my sister appeared in my private chamber with a group of guards. Somex felt betrayed for what I had done to him, and he attacked the guards and fought my sister. The guards went down fairly easily, and none of them slept well for a week after this encounter, and even my sister was powerless. In the time he'd spent living in the dream world, Somex learned how to accomplish feats that overpowered even Celestia. That, along with the magic he possessed from the ponies, resulted in my sister almost dying. Somex was really going to do it. He wanted to kill her. He had her on the ground, he was standing over her ready to strike, and then I just... I attacked him. He looked back at me, and I saw in his eyes that he couldn't fight me. Anypony but me. So he ran... and I followed.

"Somex ran across the castle, and I pursued him. This evil could not be allowed to roam unchecked, so I knew the time had come to put an end to my former lover. Finally, he succumbed to exhaustion and fell on the castle balcony. In a dream, nopony ever gets tired, so this feeling was foreign and overwhelming on him. Somex knew he couldn't escape me in the real world, so he took one last look at me and then activated his magic. I do not know if he believed it would work, but Somex's only refuge was in the dream world, so that is where he went. Unfortunately for him, the energy he spent leaving the dream realm and fighting my sister had left him weak, and I thought he lacked the magic necessary to travel between the realms. He vanished in a burning white light, and though I have spent many hours in the dream realm, I have not seen him since that horrible day. I believed him dead... until now."

"So... that's it? He just disappeared?"

Luna bit her lip, "Well... no. Before he vanished, Somex said his final words to me. I still remember his strong, clear voice... so unlike that ghastly hissing noise. You noticed it, Vinyl Scratch, I know you have. One moment, Somex talks normally in that haunting voice I remember so well, and the next he is hissing like a snake made of wind. In his last words to me, he hissed them."

"What did he say, Princess?" Vinyl asked, hoping she wasn't prying too hard. Luna swallowed, and then closed her eyes.

"The last words Somex Terribat ever spoke to me were... 'Ssssssomeday, you will fall... and I will pussssshhh you'," Luna imitated Somex's snakelike voice, and Vinyl shuddered, "I don't know why he chose you Vinyl Scratch, and you have my sincerest apologies for getting you involved in this."

"It's not your fault," Vinyl argued, "You couldn't have known what he was doing."

"I did not stop him when I could have," Luna grit her teeth, "If I had only caught him before he vanished back into the dream realm... how could I have been so foolish? It never occurred to me that he knew how to hide in the dream world someplace where I could never find him."

"Princess, you're doing everything you can to stop him now," Vinyl said soothingly, "None of this is your fault. Did you find a way to defeat him?"

Luna nodded, "We will have to travel into the realm of dreams again-"

"Of course we will," Vinyl sighed.

"-and perform an anti-nightmare counterspell," Luna explained, "Somex is controlling the darker aspects of the dream and warping it to suit his own reality. We need to somehow revert control of the dream back to the dreamer, who in this situation is you."

"So it's gonna be like a lucid dream? Aw yeah," Vinyl pumped her hoof in the air, "But what do I do when I have control again?"

"You'll have to push Somex out of your dream," Luna answered, "Controlling a dream sounds difficult when you are awake, but you do it all the time when you are sleeping, so it should be fairly easy. Because Somex has only affected YOUR dream, I believe he is still weak. If he had the strength to move from dream-to-dream, Somex likely would have escaped when we found him last night."

"Sounds simple enough," Vinyl shrugged.

"Ah... there's one last thing," Luna said somewhat timidly, "Somex's interference has caused your dream to become... unstable. We will need to increase stability by adding to the number of dreamers connected to your nightmare."

"What does that mean?"

"We will need at least two other ponies to sleep and enter the dream with us," Luna grinned nervously, "I can perform the magic to connect them to your nightmare."

"Who are the other two ponies?" Vinyl inquired, a bit uncomfortable with the idea of random ponies running around in her head.

"That is an issue you must solve, Vinyl Scratch," Luna shifted on the couch, "Find two other ponies to enter the dream with us, or this may all be for naught."

Vinyl didn't reply. She leaned back on the couch, staring at the wall in a stunned trance. Two other ponies... how was she supposed to find two ponies she trusted enough inside her head? Octavia immediately jumped to her thoughts, but there was no way Vinyl could put her in danger like facing Somex Terribat.

"I must make a confession," Luna said quietly, breaking the tense silence between her and Vinyl, "I became Nightmare Moon only a month after Somex's disappearance. Since he reappeared, I have wondered... is he the reason that happened to me? The nightmares he filled ponies' heads with in his search for power, I had to trot through that darkness when I ventured through the dream world. Were those shadows responsible for turning me into Nightmare Moon? Or was it my own hatred...?"

Vinyl couldn't think of a reply quick enough, and Luna sighed before climbing off the couch.

"Apologies, Vinyl Scratch. I was... thinking aloud," Luna said dazedly.

"Princess, I was wondering if you could just bring two Royal Guards to stablize my dream?" Vinyl asked quickly, impulsively. Luna looked a bit taken aback at this, and then considered it.

"Well... I do not see why they could not," Luna nodded, "Tomorrow evening at eight 'o clock, I will return with two Royal Guards. This night I will spend preparing to face Somex. I do not believe Somex will trouble you tonight."

"Tomorrow night at eight. Got it," Vinyl agreed.

"I will see you soon, Vinyl Scratch," Princess Luna smiled as she trotted toward the door, "I promise, the next time we meet will be the last time you ever see Somex Terribat."

~~~~~~

Octavia arrived home only an hour after Princess Luna left. Vinyl had been wondering how she was going to get Tavi out of the house the next evening, and finally decided to ask Octavia to dinner at a restaurant on the other side of Canterlot. While Octavia would safely be at the restaurant, Vinyl would be at the house with Luna and the guards.

Tavi opened the door to the house to discover Vinyl waiting for her on the couch. The former-cellist's pink bowtie was around her neck, which Vinyl thought was a good sign; Octavia had noticably not worn her bowtie since she was kicked out of the band.

"Sup, Octy?" Vinyl asked with a grin.

"Hello, Miss Scratch," Octavia said playfully as she trotted over to where Vinyl sat at the kitchen table, "Have you found another job at another nightclub yet?"

Vinyl remembered what one of the stallions who tried to attack her had said about her not getting any gigs because everypony thought she killed Primary Alley, and forced a smile.

"Yeah. What about you? You're in a good mood, which is a nice change from sad Octavia."

"I met with a member of another Canterlot band this afternoon," Octavia revealed happily, "She and I really hit it off, and we scheduled another meeting! It'll be like an interview to see if I can get into their band, and she told me that I'm the finest cellist they have lined up."

"That's... wow, that's great, Octavia," Vinyl blinked in disbelief, and then almost yelped as Octavia suddenly leaned forward and hugged her excitedly.

"It's just such a big opportunity for me, Vinyl," Octavia said, letting Vinyl go after giving her a tight squeeze, "This is the best piece of news I've gotten in a while, especially with everything that's been going on since the party..."

"Sounds like you have a lot to celebrate. Want to go with me to Gustave's tomorrow evening? I know how much you love the éclairs there," Vinyl offered, "Tomorrow at eight? My treat."

"Ooh... eight? That's actually when the meeting with the mare is scheduled..." Octavia said apologetically, "Some other time perhaps, Vinyl."

"Oh, that's okay," Vinyl said, trying to act disappointed, "Some other time."

Octavia trotted down the hall and disappeared into her room, and Vinyl pumped her hoof in the air again. It was perfect. Octavia wouldn't be around, so she would be out of any danger. Vinyl leaned back in her chair and took a deep breath. So far, things were going okay. Now all she had to do was face Somex, and the nightmares would end.

Then all of the insanity in her life would disappear.

~~~~~~

Derpy frantically ran around her house, tearing through drawers and closets in search of something, anything, to wear. The Pegasus's mane was disheveled and her house was a mess; but the only thing that mattered right now was finding something to wear. At times like this, she really regretted never spending her bits on clothing, but she'd never had very good taste in clothes.

"Oh, come on, come on..." Derpy mumbled to herself as she raced around, "The Doctor will be here any minute now! I need something...!"

There was a knock at the door, and Derpy almost screamed. Finally, in the back of her closet, she spotted a large, overstuffed coat that made her seem three times fatter than she actually was.

But it was all she had.

The Doctor adjusted his bowtie as he stood on the porch, waiting patiently for Derpy to open the door. The TARDIS rested in front of the house, and the Doctor was absently trying to snap his hooves to see if the doors would open (snapping fingers was possible. Turns out, snapping hooves was impossible). They didn't.

Finally, the door swung open and the Doctor stopped his pointless activity and turned to face the Pegasus in the doorway.

"Ah, Ditzy! I was... um... what are you wearing?"

The black coat restrained her wings and covered most of the mare's body, with the exception of the upper half of her face, the bottoms of her hooves, and her rear end (though half of her Cutie Mark was still exposed). Derpy tried not to blush as she replied.

"I was, uh, hoping we could go someplace cold for a change!" Derpy quickly lied. The Doctor stared at her with a raised eyebrow.

"You hate the cold," he said.

"What makes you say that?"

"Just last week, you told me that you'd rather jump into a volcano than go to the Frozen North!" The Doctor chuckled, "Ditzy, take that coat off. What's really going on?"

"I, um, changed my mind!" Derpy said, "It's been so hot lately. Let's go someplace fun, like maybe a planet made of ice cream or go back in time to see the Windigos-"

"Even if you were being honest about liking the cold, you still have to take that coat off. I don't think the TARDIS doors are wide enough for it!"

"Let's try!"

The Doctor suddenly moved forward and unzipped the front of Derpy's jacket, causing the mare to gasp. She tried to stop him, but the coat almost prevented her from using her hooves entirely, so the Doctor managed to pull most of the coat off before she could do so much as move.

"What are you hiding, Ditzy?" he asked, looking his companion right in her eyes.

"N-nothing! Stop! You can't take off my-"

The Doctor pulled off Derpy's coat, and the mare yelped as he dropped it to the ground and stared at her in shock and horror. Her forelegs were almost entirely red; there were cuts all over them. Derpy opened her mouth, but nothing came out. The look on the Doctor's face paralyzed her, and then he sprang forward and grabbed her shoulders.

"Ditzy, who did this to you?" he breathed, "Who attacked you?!"

"N-nopony!" Derpy said, her lip wobbling as a tear fell from her eye, "Nopony!"

"DITZY, WHO DID THIS?!"

"I did!" Derpy wailed, now full-on crying. The Doctor stopped, and only stared at Derpy, "P-please don't be mad... I couldn't take it if you were mad..."

"Come on," the Doctor motioned for her to follow him into the TARDIS, "We're going to Vinyl and Octavia's."

"No! I c-couldn't!" Derpy sobbed, "I'm sorry!"

"Ditzy, get in the TARDIS!" The Doctor demanded, "We're going to talk with Vinyl and Octavia! Cutting yourself?! Why would you even consider-"

"It's because of that stallion I-I killed!" Derpy buried her face in her hooves, "I c-can't live with myself after t-that!"

The Doctor let go of her and stood on her doorstep, looking lost for words. Derpy softly cried, letting tears streak down her face. For the first time in days, she was wondering what in Equestria she had been thinking when she had slid the knife across her forelegs. Finally, the Doctor stood up a bit straighter and stared directly into Derpy's eyes.

"Ditzy. Do. Hooves," he said slowly, deliberately, with as much strength as he could muster, "Get into the TARDIS. Right now."

Derpy whimpered as she stepped outside, closed her front door, and trotted past the Doctor into the TARDIS. The Doctor took a deep breath, wiped his eye, and then followed. A moment later, there was a loud whooshing noise as the blue box started to vanish. Finally, the noise faded as the TARDIS disappeared.

It was 7:54. A few minutes earlier, Octavia left the house on her way to meet with the mare from the band. At that moment, Vinyl Scratch was at home, nervously pacing around the living room and awaiting Princess Luna's arrival.

Reaching Bottom

9
Reaching Bottom

The sun was beginning to disappear over the vast horizon, sending beams of yellow light in every direction and bathing Equestria in the light of the sunset. The air was cool and crisp, and Vinyl Scratch inhaled deeply through her nose before exhaling through her mouth. Her eyes were closed behind her purple shades as she savored the time of day when the afternoon turned to evening: dusk.

In a way, this was so utterly perfect. Vinyl hadn't confessed it to Luna the previous day, but after finding the bite from the nightmare hound on her foreleg even after waking up, she worried that facing Somex Terribat in her dream may not be as safe as she once believed. Now, the sun was setting on what could possibly be her final day... and here she was where it all began: the porch.

When she and Octavia had been looking for a place to live, they had both mutually agreed that it should have a pool. Octavia had presumably looked forward to serene nights that she could spend lying on an inflatable pool bed with flickering candles carefully positioned on the side of the pool, setting a hypnotic atmosphere over the still water as she elegantly floated across the water. Vinyl had looked forward to making wicked cannonballs into the water, maybe splashing Tavi's mane and getting her all wet... Vinyl giggled at the thought.

In the end though, a Canterlot house with a pool had proven too expensive, even for the two musicians who were splitting the cost straight down the middle. At the time, Octavia's band hadn't been getting paid as much as they did now, and Vinyl was still struggling to make a name for herself as DJ-P0N3, so they didn't have as many bits as they made now, but Vinyl thought those pool houses were still too expensive with the money they had now.

After realizing there was no way they could get a pool, the two ponies had looked at other houses, and found this one. Octavia had immediately fallen in love with the open, yet modern feel to the house, and Vinyl had admitted that the porch was no pool, but it would do just fine. The realtor mare had commented that no other house on the market came with such a "scenic" view of Equestria from the porch, which was perched precariously over the side of Canterlot and hung straight over the rocky slopes of the mountain. When Vinyl had agreed to buy the house with Octavia, she never imagined the many nights of standing out here, hooves leaning against the rail as she stared off the side to the ground far below, yawning widely and forming a horizon as if it awaited her to make her descent.

In time, the porch became her refuge. The one place she could go to be alone, and sure, Primary Alley had almost ruined that, but Vinyl wouldn't let the spirit of the porch be tainted so easily. Perhaps she had come out here tonight to spite his memory after those three ponies had tried to attack her earlier, or maybe she came out here because this was where the hallucinations from her nightmares had started... and tonight, it would end.

Inside, Octavia was fumbling with her pink bowtie as she trotted over to the sliding glass door that led out to the porch, and then she slid it open before poking her head outside.

"Vinyl, I'm leaving now," Octavia informed her. Vinyl turned around and forced a wide grin.

"Good luck tonight, Octy," Vinyl said playfully before reaching out for her roommate with her hooves and pulling her into a hug. Octavia gave her a tender squeeze back, and then tried to pull back, but Vinyl held on for a few extra seconds before letting her go.

"Thanks Vinyl," Octavia smiled, and then she shivered, "Ooh... I'm so nervous."

"That's good. Use that nervous energy to be the awesome cellist I know you are."

"You know Vinyl, you really are my best friend," Octavia said sincerely, her purple eyes staring past Vinyl's shades, and even past the unicorn's red eyes right into her, "Now I really must be going. Would you like me to pick you up anything for dinner after my meeting?"

"Nah, that's cool," Vinyl waved her off, "Just leave already, would ya? Wouldn't want to be late!"

Octavia chuckled, "No, I suppose I wouldn't. See you later, Vinyl."

"Goodbye, Octavia."

Octavia trotted toward the front door, leaving her friend and counterpart on the porch, staring at the door as it swung open and then shut. Outside, Octavia reflected on the hug Vinyl had given her. It was rare for Vinyl to even consider being so affectionate, let alone to cause the hug to go on for as long as it had. Perhaps it had only been that Vinyl was displaying her support in the best way she could think to do so... or perhaps there was some deeper meaning that Octavia wasn't seeing...

Octavia shook her head and tried to turn her thoughts elsewhere as she trotted down the street toward All Of Garden, Canterlot's trendiest restaurant and where the mare from the band was going to meet her. Now wasn't the time to get worried about Vinyl, and yet... she had seemed so... so...

Octavia kept trotting. It was 7:51.

Vinyl took one last glance over the side of the porch, and then trotted to the sliding glass door before reentering the house. Her hooves clacked against the hardwood floor as she looked around, making her way to the living room. Her eyes lingered on the couches for a moment, and then she placed her hooves on them and grunted as she began to push. If Octavia had been here, she might have scolded Vinyl for scratching up the floors with the legs of the couches, but Octavia wasn't here, and soon Vinyl had managed to clear out a large space in the center of the living room. Big enough for her, Princess Luna, and two Royal Guards to lie down. Heck, it was even bigger than that.

She sighed, reaching two hooves up to her face. She pushed her glasses up over her unicorn horn and rubbed her eyes. There was a nervous knot in the pit of her stomach, and she felt like she had to puke. This was worse than waiting backstage in anticipation for her first time onstage as a DJ. Still, she knew she could at least chalk up a few symptoms to sleep deprivation. She hadn't slept at all the last night, instead listening to loud music through her headphones to keep herself awake. Vinyl briefly wondered if Luna had; what did the Princess of the Night do during the night? Or during the day, for that matter?

"Well, if I live, I'll have to ask her," Vinyl said aloud, and then snickered as she went to her room and got her pillow and blanket. She found a few spare blankets in Octavia's closet, and tossed the decorative couch pillows onto the floor to create four improvised cots. She wasn't sure what she was expecting to happen; were Luna and the guards going to lie down in these little beds and go to sleep like it was some kind of slumber party?

Suddenly, there came a loud whooshing sound from outside. Vinyl's eyes widened and she was immediately snapped out of her thoughts. Though she hadn't heard that sound since the night she spent at Canterlot Hospital after the party, Vinyl recognized it. Without hesitation, she darted toward the front door and pulled it open just as the noise faded. A blue box sat in the front yard, and as she stared in horror, the two doors on the front opened and a stern-faced Doctor and crying Derpy stepped outside.

"What the Tartarus are you doing here?!" Vinyl hissed through grit teeth, "You two need to leave! Now!"

"Vinyl, we need to speak with you for a moment-" The Doctor began, but Vinyl darted forward and pushed him back, "Hey, what-?"

"You two need to leave! Come back tomorrow!"

"Vinyl, what's going on?" Derpy asked, concerned, noticing Vinyl's face turning red as she frantically tried to push the two ponies back toward the blue box. Vinyl cast her a look, and her eyes were drawn downwards to Derpy's forelegs where she froze upon noticing the lines of cuts.

"What... what happened to you?" Vinyl asked quietly.

"Ditzy has been... well, you must understand, Vinyl! She-"

"I've been cutting myself!" Derpy interrupted loudly. The Pegasus squeezed her eyes shut in humiliation, but after bottling up her emotions for so long, a wave of fear, anguish, and pain all came out at once, "I-I can't live with myself after killing somepony! Even if he was trying to... to..."

"Derpy... he was going to hurt me," Vinyl said, stunned. She had no idea that Derpy was having a mental breakdown, but there had been the little issue of being preoccupied with an interdimensional entity haunting her nightmares with magic dark enough to scare the Princess of the Night, so she could understand why she'd been too distracted to pay a whole lot of attention to Derpy.

The Pegasus licked her lips, and then took a few deep breaths as she carefully considered what to say next. Finally, she turned her lopsided gaze to Vinyl, "If I was in danger... would you do anything for me?"

"Well, yeah. Of course I would," Vinyl agreed, "But what-"

"Then it was all worth it," Derpy shrugged, "But still... Vinyl, I-"

"No, okay? Just stop," Vinyl interrupted irritably, "Look, we can talk tomorrow, but for now, both of you need to get out of here."

"Why?" The Doctor spoke up in an inquisitive tone, "What are you doing?"

"N-nothing, you just need to go-!"

"Would it happen to involve Princess Luna?"

Vinyl's jaw fell, and it took her a moment to recollect herself before she replied, "How did you...?"

The Doctor nodded at something in the street, and Vinyl turned to see Princess Luna trotting toward the house from the street with two guards in tow. When Luna had said "guards", Vinyl had imagined the white stallions in golden armor that she had often seen around Canterlot, but these ponies were different. They resembled bats, with leathery wings and tufted ears, and their armor was a dark purple to reflect on the whole "Princess of the Night" theme Luna obviously worked hard to maintain.

Of course Luna arrived a few minutes before eight. Not like Vinyl expected anything different with her luck, but at least Octavia was gone.

"Many greetings, Vinyl Scratch," Luna addressed the unicorn as she approached, coming to a stop in front of the blue box. She glanced at Derpy, and then at the Doctor, and Vinyl could have sworn that she saw a spark of recognition in the Princess's eyes when she looked at the Doctor, "And these are two friends of yours, I presume?"

"They were just leaving," Vinyl replied.

"Leaving? Oh, but it's just getting good!" The Doctor looked from Vinyl to Luna excitedly, "What's going on? Someone clue me in!"

"They do not know?" Luna rose an eyebrow.

"No, because they weren't supposed to be here!" Vinyl sighed.

"Perhaps it'd be best if you explained it to them inside," Luna suggested, and Vinyl reluctantly motioned for the Doctor and Derpy to follow her into the house. Once they, Princess Luna, and Luna's Guards had entered the house, Vinyl took one final look around the street to ensure nopony else was around before she went into the house and closed the door.

Octavia always thought that the streets of Canterlot during the evening were rather portentous. The everyday hustle-and-bustle gave away to a wistful night haunted with a certain ominous undertone. The sound of her own hooves clacking on the solid ground beneath her sent echoes across the empty pavilions and squares as she passed, and everything glistened with a faint blue tint acquired from the gloomy night sky above. This was another side of Canterlot, Octavia realized. The side that was always present, yet constantly remained invisible. Without all of the posh, elite covering that masked its true form, this was Canterlot. This was the city's true face.

Octavia hated it when she saw things poetically.

She tried not to think of Vinyl. She really did. But there had been some small, subtle hints in her behavior that Tavi couldn't ignore. There was the hug, yes, but that was nothing to really be concerned about. Yet, despite Vinyl's friendliness, the unicorn had seemed to be in a hurry to get Octavia out of the house. Could it have been that Vinyl was worried about her missing the appointment, or was there some other motive that Octavia was too blind to see?

What if... what if she was thinking about doing something... drastic?

Octavia wasn't stupid. Completely oblivious and inconsiderate at times, yes, she admitted to that, but she was no idiot. She had seen Vinyl's behavior becoming increasingly more erratic and difficult to explain in recent days, and though she had chalked this up to a troubled mind after her friend had lost consciousness at the party and then spent two nights in Canterlot Hospital, she suspected there was more going on than what appeared to be.

There had been that whole ordeal where Vinyl had tried to confess something to her, but Octavia had refused to listen. She looked back on this with shame, and though she and Vinyl had patched things up, she wondered if this confession was going to be something horrible. Was Vinyl in debt with dangerous ponies? Had she robbed the castle? Had she been diagnosed with a debilitating, fatal disease and was producing drugs in order to earn enough money for her family after she was gone?

Whatever it was, Vinyl probably felt guilty about it. Octavia had noticed the growing bags under her eyes that implied Vinyl wasn't sleeping, and when Vinyl DID sleep, she had nightmares that were presumably about whatever trouble she was in.

Octavia stopped trotting and turned around, now galloping back toward the house at twice the speed she had been going. She wasn't going to blow off the meeting with the mare from the band completely; she was just going to go check on Vinyl and make sure everything was okay. She just felt like something wasn't right.

But really, it was probably going to be nothing, Octavia assured herself. When she got to the house, Vinyl would be just fine.

She hoped.

"So! What's going on? What are we doing? How'd you two meet?" The Doctor asked in a barrage of question marks as he laid down on one of the cots Vinyl had prepared. Derpy leaned against the wall, unsure of what to do, as Vinyl stood over the Doctor and glared down at him.

"If I answer all the questions, will you leave?" Vinyl asked impatiently, "This is important, and I don't want anypony getting hurt because of me!"

"Agreed. It is important that you two are aware of the dangers present in our ritual tonight," Luna added, "We will want to avoid any unnecessary casualties."

"Ah, Ditzy and I can take care of ourselves," the Doctor said, putting his hooves behind his head and getting comfortable on the cot as he stared up at Vinyl with a grin, "So tell us. What ritual are you referring to?"

"Princess Luna, her guards, and I are going to go to sleep, and she's going to cast a spell to send them into my dreams," Vinyl explained, expecting the two to be surprised. Sure enough, Derpy gasped, but the Doctor's grin didn't even waver.

"Interesting, I'll admit, but why?" he asked, "That's the question you aren't answering, Vinyl: why?"

Before Vinyl could reply, the front door opened, and she froze. This was bad. This was really bad. This was really, really bad. This was really-

Vinyl turned around to see Octavia standing in the doorway and looking very apalled by all the ponies in the house. She had been expecting Vinyl by herself, not THIS. Her eyes swept through the room, examining everypony in turn until finally they locked onto Vinyl's eyes, and Vinyl stared back. An uncomfortable silence fell over the room as the two mares looked at each other, both of them expecting the other to speak first. Finally, Vinyl cleared her throat.

"I swear to Celestia, this isn't another party, Tavi," Vinyl assured her.

"Vinyl... what in Equestria is going on here?"

"I... I really didn't want you to find out... um, hey, have you met Princess Luna?"

"Hello again, Octavia Melody," Luna smiled.

"An absolute pleasure again, Princess. I only wish we met under less awkward circumstances," Octavia greeted the Princess of the Night, and Vinyl looked from her to Luna in disbelief.

"Hang on... you two know each other?!"

"Of course, Vinyl," Octavia answered, "Princess Luna and I met at the Grand Galloping Gala, in the courtyard."

"I detest the Grand Galloping Gala," Luna sighed, "I only get to greet, I never get to meet anypony. 'Tis the same for my sister, though she does not mind it. I met Octavia completely on accident."

"I bumped into her," Octavia admitted with an embarrassed smile.

"What...? Why didn't you ever tell me you met the Princess of the Night?!" Vinyl exclaimed.

"She likes her privacy," Octavia shrugged.

"Our reunion will have to wait; there are more pressing issues concerning us right now," Luna grit her teeth.

"Pressing issues?" Octavia repeated, turning to Vinyl, "Vinyl, what's she talking about? What's going on?"

"Octavia, listen," Vinyl pleaded, "You have to get out of here-"

"Vinyl Scratch, you listen to me!" Octavia shouted, causing even Luna's guards to jump, "I will NOT leave you. Not here, not now, not for any reason. I am supposed to be your best friend... and I've failed at that. I'll admit it. You... you've needed me these last few days, you've needed somepony to talk to, and I wasn't there for you... but I'm here now. I'm here for you now, Vinyl, and I'm not going anywhere, so stop trying to push me away. It's time for you to tell me what's been going on... so I can help you."

Vinyl stared at the floor for a while. Octavia finished and left the room ringing with an unnatural silence, but Vinyl refused to break that silence without carefully considering her next few words. She looked up to see Octavia's eyes were still on her, and she sighed as she closed her own eyes and buried her face in her hooves.

"I've been having... nightmares," Vinyl finally said.

"...nightmares," Octavia repeated.

"Yeah, but the thing is... these aren't just nightmares, and I didn't just pass out at the party," Vinyl finally looked back up at Octavia as she told her story, "That night, the night Derpy saved my life-" Derpy covered her mouth with her hoof, "-I was hallucinating. I was seeing things from the nightmare and I could feel things in real life. That's why I fainted; because of the nightmares."

"What happens in the nightmares?" Octavia asked in a hushed voice, almost a whisper.

"In my dreams, I'm falling," Vinyl revealed to everypony, "I'm falling from so unbelievably high up, and then I hit the ground. Every night, it's the same thing. I didn't think it was anything serious until Princess Luna found me and told me that my dreams contained dark magic.

"There's somepony in my dreams. Somepony evil. We're going to stop him."

"His name is Somex Terribat," Luna explained to everypony, "He's the Spirit of Nightmares, and he has made it his goal to steal magic from sleeping ponies in order to escape the dream world."

"Wait, but Vinyl..." Derpy spoke up for the first time, "What about that one night when you came home from the hospital? Remember? Octavia disappeared and that thing was on the porch? Was that... Somex?"

"I believe that was an etheryl projection of him," Princess Luna replied, "He wasn't actually there, but his magic was. If he was strong enough to escape the dream world, we would know. Listen, the only way to stop Somex is to defeat him. Vinyl and I are going into her dreams, but we need at least two other ponies to accompany us."

"That's what the guards are here for," Vinyl quickly added.

Octavia looked down at the carpet for a second, carefully running through the situation in her mind. Finally, she looked up at Luna with determination in her eyes.

"Send me into the dream too. I want to help Vinyl."

"Octavia, you can't!" Vinyl gasped.

"And we'll come along as well, isn't that right, Ditzy?"

"Uh... yeah!" Derpy nodded.

"Stop! No! I don't want any of you getting hurt because of me!" Vinyl all but shouted, "It means a lot to me that you all want to help. Really, it does, but this is dangerous. A few nights ago, something hurt me in the dream world and the mark from it was on my body after I woke up!"

"It is worse than I feared," Luna murmured, "Somex is gathering power at an alarming rate. We must leave to stop him at once."

"She's right, Vinyl," the Doctor agreed, "We're coming with you."

"You can't!" Vinyl protested, "I told you, it's dangerous-"

"Oh, SHUT UP!" Derpy exclaimed heatedly. Everypony turned a surprised eye toward the Pegasus's sudden outburst; even Luna's guards seemed a bit startled. Vinyl's jaw fell as Derpy seethed, practically radiating frustration.

"D-Derpy...!" Vinyl stammered.

"You think we don't know it's dangerous?!" Derpy demanded, stepping closer to Vinyl and forcing the unicorn to slowly move back, "Princess Luna is here! Of COURSE it's dangerous! But we're your friends! We don't care about that, because we want to help you! Vinyl, you're pushing us away because you think its right... and I know what that's like. Believe me, I do," Derpy lowered her head solemnly, "After accidentally killing Primary Alley that night, I thought that the only way to make sure you all were safe would be to lock myself away. When that didn't work, I resorted to... cutting myself. Every time I bled, I thought things were getting better... but they weren't."

Derpy looked back up at Vinyl unwaveringly, "Thanks to the Doctor, I can see that that wasn't the answer. The answer would have been to come to my friends, and I know that if I had... you, the Doctor, Octavia, Lyra, Bon-Bon... you'd all have been there for me, so I'm going to return the favor whether you like it or not. And Celestia help me, Vinyl, if everything I've said hasn't convinced you, if you still don't let us come with you, I'll knock you out myself so you can't stop us when the Princess sends us into your dreams!"

Derpy finished with a confident, determined expression on her face, and Vinyl could only stare back at her. Finally, Vinyl looked away and shook her head, moaning as she did so.

"Fine," she forced a smile, "At least now we're all in this together."

"That's more like it, Vinyl," Octavia put her arm around her roommate, "We'll be by your side the whole way."

"Thank you," Vinyl smiled, and then she looked back at Princess Luna, who was trying to look regal, but dabbed at her eyes when she thought Vinyl wasn't looking, "But you said only two ponies can come with us."

"I said at LEAST two," Luna reminded her, "The more the better because it means the dream will become more stable."

"Guess we're gonna need another pillow then," Vinyl glanced down at the four cots on the floor.

"No need," Luna waved her hoof, "While I appreciate the gesture, I will not be requiring a place to lie down when I perform this spell. Echo, Nocturn, will you watch over their sleeping bodies?"

"All night, we'll stay awake," Echo nodded, "Especially if it's for your sake."

"Thank you," Luna motioned for Vinyl, Octavia, Derpy, and the Doctor to lie down on the improvised cots Vinyl made, "Now we must begin. If all of you could lie down and fall asleep, I can begin the spell."

The four ponies complied. On the row of four cots, Vinyl lie between Octavia and Derpy, and the Doctor was on the end by Derpy. Each of them shifted and got comfortable; Vinyl realized that she would be able to fall asleep rather quickly considering that she hadn't gotten a good night's sleep in months.

"Ooh, this is so exciting," Derpy squealed excitedly, "I don't know how I'm ever going to fall asleep! I mean, Vinyl did a great job with these; they're really comfortable. Maybe more comfortable than the couch! What do you think, Doctor? Will you be able to sleep? I probably won't-"

The Doctor reached up with his hoof and poked a certain spot on Derpy's forehead. The mare instantly went limp and her head fell against the pillow as she fell asleep. The Doctor chuckled and laid his head down on the pillow. Vinyl glanced over to Octavia, whose eyes were already closed.

Vinyl took a deep breath, and then closed her own eyes.

Magical, sparkling dust, expelled from Luna's alicorn horn, drifted down on the four ponies to help them fall asleep more quickly, and soon all four of them were snoring and muttering in their sleep. Vinyl twitched uncomfortably, and Luna knew the nightmare was starting.

Her eyes began to glow white as the alicorn princess's hooves left the floor. Her horn began to glow with a vibrant blue color that flashed over the four sleeping ponies. A loud hum of magical energy sounded out before being unleashed with a loud CRACK. Four tendrils of white magic from Luna's horn curled from Octavia's, Derpy's, and the Doctor's foreheads into Vinyl's.

"Time to finish this, Somex," Princess Luna murmured to herself before she disappeared in a flash of cerulean light into the nightmare.

Ground Impact

10
Ground Impact

Her hooves flailed wildly as she spun head-over-hooves down to Equestria. The wind around her seemed to be carrying her, no, slamming her down toward the ground. Her iconic glasses fell from her face, leaving her wide red eyes exposed as she spun upside down in the freefall. Her normally messy mane fell into her face and obstructed her vision, making it all the more terrifying.

Below was an empty field. At least she wouldn't land on anypony by accident, she thought crazily. In her panic, she didn't even think to scream. The unicorn was falling headfirst, hornfirst, into the ground, and in a moment her bones would snap as she hit the ground at Celestia-knows-what speed. She closed her eyes-

No. Not this time. This time, she wouldn't wake up. She would fall to her death. Vinyl opened her eyes again, and they welled with tears. This time wasn't like the times before; this time was real.

This time, she was going to die.

Then:

Vinyl Scratch awoke from the nightmare with a sharp gasp. Her eyes, wide with fear and glistening with the faintest of tears, surveyed the room in a sleepy, alarmed panic as the adrenaline from the dream started to fade. The white unicorn realized that she had been holding her breath, and she now let it out in one long exhale as her heartrate slowed to its usual speed.

Vinyl rubbed her eyes sleepily; though she could see the black, star-filled sky and pale moonlight sneaking into the room from between the curtains on her window, she felt wide awake. The nightmare had been horrible. She dreamt that she was falling from the very top of the sky, and she had woken up just before hitting that special place where the sky ends and the ground takes over... but it was just a nightmare. That's all it was, just a nightmare about falling.

Freefalling.

From down the hall, there was the sound of sheets shuffling and somepony whispering. Octavia, no doubt. The cellist had been getting stressed lately because the Grand Galloping Gala was in a week, and her ensemble was due to perform. Vinyl's ear twitched at the sound of Octavia rolling over in her bed and murmuring in her sleep, her voice sounding eerily quiet and soft, like a filly's.

"N-no... bowties are... cool..."

Vinyl sighed, trying to keep her breath even to make it as quiet as possible. She shifted her blanket off her body and crawled out of her bed. One of her hooves landed on an empty bag of chips, letting out a loud rustle from the bag. She froze, but the noise was met with utter silence. Vinyl moved more cautiously from then on, sidestepping a Gryffallica album and finally emerging from her room into the hallway. From there, her hooves pounded heavily on the floor and sent deep echoes through the hall, but this was much quieter than the chip bag. Vinyl reached the living room and trotted across it to the sliding glass door that led outside to the porch.

She pushed the door open, admiring how it glided out of the way almost silently, and stepped outside, closing it behind her. Now alone in the darkness of the night, Vinyl gazed up at the stars overhead and then glanced down at Equestria below the porch. She was feeling better now; after waking up from such a horrible nightmare, there was nothing quite like coming out here to see the delicate beauty of the world, from the calming sky above to the endless expanse of ground below.

It almost made her grateful to the nightmare for scaring her into coming out here, but Vinyl still shivered when she thought back to how real it had seemed, from the wind scratching at her face to the way her heart stopped just before she hit the ground. Ah well... it wasn't like she'd ever have that nightmare again.

Vinyl leaned against the railing to the porch, and stared up at the moon.

Now:

"Aaaaaaahhhhhhhh!"

Vinyl fell at a speed that felt faster than usual, but she suspected that her heartrate quickened because she knew the sky around her was all a lie, a false image created by Somex Terribat, the Spirit of Dreams and Reaper of Nightmares... and beyond that was an unearthly world governed by a once-proud stallion that was now nothing more than a simple parasite, feeding off the pony magic in her dreams.

Might've been kinda cool if he wasn't out to kill her.

She could feel her descent slow, and realized that her body was glowing with the bright blue magical aura of alicorn magic. From above, Vinyl could hear the powerful flaps of Luna's wings before the Princess of the Night herself swooped down out of the sky. Behind her, also being carried by Luna's magical aura, was Octavia, Derpy, and the Doctor.

"That was a loud scream, Vinyl," Octavia noted, amused. Derpy giggled.

"Uh, w-what do you mean? Who's screaming? I'm not screaming," Vinyl coughed, "And let's see you fall from, like, a hundred miles in the sky without screaming!"

"There will be plenty of time for that later," Princess Luna spoke up, her voice sounding oddly echo-y and more melodic in the dream world than it was in the real world. Vinyl was briefly tempted to try singing something and see if her voice was the same, but she suspected that it wasn't; her luck wasn't that good, "For now, we must return to Somex's realm. I will lead the way."

"Lead the way?" The Doctor repeated, puzzled, looking around as Princess Luna safely dropped them all on the grass below, "But there's nothing here!"

"Just wait," Vinyl assured him, "I swear, your bowtie will fall right off when you see it!"

"This is actually a very peaceful field," Octavia said, looking around, "If you weren't falling, this would be a pretty good dream."

"We could have a picnic here!" Derpy exclaimed, "A dream picnic!"

"I'd rather not, if you don't mind," Vinyl grinned nervously.

"I may be able to arrange that," Princess Luna said thoughtfully, "But before we may consider such festivities, there is still the matter at hoof..."

"Lead the way, your Majesty," Octavia nodded. Luna turned and began trotting toward the hidden veil that separated Vinyl's dream from Somex's nightmare. The ponies followed closely behind her as the group entered the thick, hazy cloud that kept Vinyl's dream contained to this one stretch of field. A beam of bright blue magic shot out of Luna's alicorn horn, just like before, and the cloud disintegrated once more as Luna lit up her horn to illuminate the blackness beyond the white cloud. Everypony but Vinyl and Luna gasped in surprised horror at the world before them when it was finally revealed.

Somex's realm had changed since Vinyl had last seen it. The sky was still black (naturally), but things seemed more... decayed. The glowing orange fungi that dotted the wet, purple landscape were now limp, and their bright light had been reduced to a faint, dim glow. The ground itself was still mire, though it seemed more rotten now and gave off a foul stench. Vinyl tested it, and her hoof sank deeply into the ground. She grimaced, but kept trotting. Luna used her wings to avoid touching it while the Doctor unflinchingly followed Vinyl. Octavia had a disgusted look on her face and almost seemed to regret her decision to enter the dream, but she pressed on through the slime anyway, though she didn't seem too happy about it.

Derpy was about to follow, but as soon as her hoof touched the ground, she let out an "Ewww!" and used her wings to hover behind Luna. Vinyl wondered why Luna didn't use her magic to levitate them over the gross nightmare swamp. The Princess must have secretly enjoyed their suffering, she thought to herself in amusement as she trudged on toward the mansion that she remembered so well.

"What was that?" Octavia suddenly gasped. Luna immediately turned around to face her with a critical expression.

"What? Did you see something?"

"Over there," Octavia pointed toward a hill that had a dead tree atop it. The tree sagged gloomily, as though it were put on the squishy ground just to die, "I saw something. It was a dark shape that moved rather quickly, so I didn't get a good look at it."

"Hmm... perhaps we should hurry away from here in an orderly, restrained fashion-" Luna began with an urgent calmness.

"Everypony run!" Derpy shrieked as she flew toward the mansion. It was still a fair distance away (it seemed to be further than last time to Vinyl), but the group could still easily see the roof over the top of the nearest hill.

"Ditzy, don't panic!" The Doctor pleaded, but it was too late. There was a loud hiss from the direction Octavia had pointed at, like an insect chittering with its grotesque appendages, "Never mind. Everypony- panic! Run!"

"To the mansion, my little ponies!" Luna shouted, flying above them and making sure they were safe. Vinyl, Octavia, and the Doctor galloped over the hill toward the mansion with Derpy and Luna in pursuit from the sky as the creature behind them chittered again, clacking what sounded like pincers together. Vinyl galloped a bit faster when she heard whatever it was scuttling after them, its appendages making the oddest sound on the spongy ground, like somepony repeatedly sticking a fork into a pile of Jell-O. Octavia tripped, but Luna scooped her up with her magic and carried her the rest of the way to the concrete surrounding the mansion as Vinyl and the Doctor finally made it to solid ground. From behind, the creature hissed and chittered one final time before the ponies heard it scuttling away.

Luna dropped Octavia onto the concrete beside Vinyl, and everypony except Luna panted after such a close call.

"What-*gasp*- the Tartarus-*gasp* was that?!" Vinyl exclaimed, bewildered.

"I believe it to be a Level 2 Class B Night Frai," Luna answered.

"A what?!"

"A form of monster that lurks within dreams, the kind of beast that Somex would attract. Its presence here does not bode well for us moving onwards," Luna grit her teeth, speaking more to herself than the other ponies, "I foresee encounters with more of them when we get into the mansion."

Derpy lowered her head and sighed glumly, "I'm so sorry, everypony. It was my fault that thing saw us. We wouldn't have gotten chased if it weren't for me."

"Oh, don't be like that, Ditzy," the Doctor comforted her, "We got away, didn't we?"

"I guess..."

"That's the spirit!" Vinyl encouraged.

"Enough. To the mansion," Luna beckoned, and the group of ponies followed the Princess of the Night down the concrete toward the mansion. They passed the large stone statue of the stallion again, but Vinyl noticed Princess Luna kept her eyes firmly pointed straight ahead as they passed it. She also noticed, or rather overheard, Derpy and the Doctor's reaction to the statue.

"Hey, he kinda looks like King Sombra..." Derpy whispered to the Doctor.

"Aside from the mane, the wardrobe, the horn, probably the coat, and I don't think he'll have a particular taste for crystals, world domination, or killing us and destroying the TARDIS like Sombra did," the Doctor whispered back, and Vinyl wondered what in Equestria they were talking about.

"What an absolutely astonishing manor this stallion has!" Octavia complimented the ominious, though oddly well-built structure that towered over them with a sly grin before turning a teasing eye to Vinyl, "You must admit, Vinyl, the stallion in your dreams has lavish taste."

"Hey, if you want him in your head, you can have him," Vinyl offered with a frustrated eyeroll.

"Do not let appearances fool you," Luna warned, stopping when they reached the front of the mansion, directly in front of the two large wooden front doors, "For inside this mansion lies the heart of darkness of the most wicked stallion in this realm."

"Aren't I the only other stallion in this realm?" the Doctor wondered.

"It is the realm of dreams. There are always ponies coming and going as they wake and sleep," Luna explained, "But we are getting off-topic. Prepare thyselves for what unspeakable horrors lie behind these doors, for the creatures created from the ooze at the bottom of absolutely horrific nightmares, and for whatever unforeseen consequences that we may encounter and be forced to endure."

"So this sounds fun," Vinyl said sarcastically.

"I did not intend to frighten you, Vinyl Scratch," Luna apologized.

"Awh, it's fine. Just open the door," Vinyl brushed it off, "I can't wait to kick Somex's tail for giving me all those stupid nightmares!"

Luna looked a bit troubled at Vinyl's words, and for a moment she looked as though she were about to say something, but she reconsidered it and instead nodded before opening the door. The interior of the mansion was dark, and the ponies were cautious as they entered into the foyer. From here, three separate hallways branched off from this entrance room leading to Celestia-knew-where. Derpy entered last, looking nervous to be shrouded in darkness, but as soon as the Pegasus was inside, the doors slammed shut behind her and she jumped away with a cry of surprise.

"No-!" Luna exclaimed, her eyes wide, and a candlelit chandelier suddenly lit up above them. All throughout the mansion, the hallways and rooms were suddenly lit with candles, casting a sinister orange glow over the floors and walls. Their shadows loomed over them, stuck against the walls but distorted monsterously. The floor beneath them began to rumble, nearly throwing the ponies off their hooves, and then it went still.

"...I don't like this," Vinyl said softly.

Immediately after the words exited the unicorn's mouth, there came loud barks echoing from down the hallways. Octavia and Derpy screamed, the latter of whom jumped behind the Doctor, who looked around in dreading anticipation of what was to come. Vinyl gulped, remembering the dogs. The-

"Nightmare Hounds!" she yelled as the dogs charged out of all three hallways. Luna's horn powered up, and she fired a blast of electric blue light at two of the hounds who stopped in their tracks, shifted for a moment, like shadows moving or waves crashing against the shore, and then exploded into nothingness.

"Everypony! Flee!" Luna yelled, shooting another blast before one hound barrelled toward her and leapt into the air, tackling the alicorn princess to the ground.

"Ditzy, this way!" The Doctor grabbed Derpy's hoof and pulled her down the hallway on the right.

"No! They'll get lost without Luna-!" Vinyl tried to gallop after them, but two hounds jumped into her path, blocking her from following. They bared their teeth and prepared to pounce on her, and Vinyl was caught off-guard and froze. The two hounds attacked, diving through the air at Vinyl, but Octavia managed to pull her out of the way at the last second, and only one of their claws raked against Vinyl's side. She cried out, but she struggled through the pain and managed to follow Octavia down the middle hallway.

"Have at thee, mindless creatures!" Luna roared, and explosions of light and startled growls were heard from behind the two mares as they hurried away from the grisly scene.

Vinyl seriously wondered if this was what Luna's bad side looked like. If not, then she dreaded being the mare who ticked the Princess of the Night off.

"Octavia, wait," Vinyl stopped her friend, "We can't go too far. We need to go back for Luna!"

"We will, once she's finished dealing with those monsters," Octavia shivered, "Sweet Celestia, Vinyl! Was it one of those things that caused that frightful mark on your foreleg? I saw it this morning, but thought almost nothing of it!"

"Yeah," Vinyl nodded, wincing as she rubbed the new scratch on her side, "One of 'em got me here too..."

"Just try to dream yourself a bandage," Octavia suggested.

"It doesn't work like that!" Vinyl said indignantly.

"Have you tried?" Octavia giggled, and then she stopped, "I can't hear anything from the foyer. Do you suppose that means Luna has finished?"

"Let's go see," Vinyl offered, leading her back the way they came, "The Princess has been pretty helpful so far. It's really cool that she's doing all this."

"We should repay her somehow," Octavia said thoughtfully as the two turned a corner in the hallway, "But how...? I'm thinking... uh... Vinyl?"

"What...?" Vinyl and Octavia stopped trotting. Around the corner, instead of there being a hallway that lead straight back to Princess Luna, there was only a dead end. Vinyl slowly moved forward, as though in a trance, and she hesitantly placed her hoof on the tall wall before turning back to a horrified Octavia.

"The... the hallway!" she gasped, "It changed! We can't get back to Princess Luna!"

The hallways of the mansion were elegantly designed. Tall, white pillars stretched alongside the walls from the ceiling to the floor every twenty feet. The trim was white, but the rest of the walls were dark red. There were hundreds of brown doors lining the walls in every hallway, but the Doctor and Derpy didn't dare to open one for fear of where it might have led.

They were currently wandering aimlessly through the mansion since they had been unable to find their way back to the foyer where Princess Luna had fought off the Hounds. The Doctor had suggested that they put their hooves to the right wall and keep trotting because they could solve any maze that way, but so far it hadn't gotten them anywhere.

"Doctor, isn't there some easier way?" Derpy pleaded tiredly, "It feels like we've been stuck here forever!"

"I warned you not to run off and get separated from the others!" the Doctor reminded her, "Besides, look at it this way: it gives you and I a chance to talk!"

"About what?" Derpy asked curiously.

"Oh, I don't know. How about the cuts all over your forelegs?" the Doctor suggested. Derpy stopped trotting, and looked down at the floor, "Ditzy, you couldn't possibly think we were done discussing-"

"There's nothing to discuss!" Derpy insisted, her face turning red, "Can we just talk about something else? Or we could not talk at all if that's what you-"

"We need to talk about this, Ditzy!" the Doctor pressed, "This is a very serious problem! Don't you understand that?"

"Shut up!" Derpy closed her eyes tightly and yelled, "Shut up, shut up, shut UP!"

"I'm going to help you, Ditzy!" the Doctor said firmly, "You can't think that you can just act like everything is fine when it isn't, because I know you! I know when you're upset, and when you're confused, and when you're scared, and when you don't know what to do, and I know that I won't stop until I can help you!"

"Do you even know what it's like?!" Derpy shouted, tears starting to fall from her infamous eyes that were currently glowing with outrage, "That stallion is dead, and it's all my fault! I have to live with that every day for the rest of my entire life! He was a horrible degenerate piece of filth that would have hurt Vinyl very badly if I wasn't there, but he was still a pony! He still had a life, he still had friends-" she glared at the Doctor, and both of her eyes actually focused on their target in a rare occasion, "So I'll ask you again: do you have any idea what that's like?"

"...yes," the Doctor bowed his head shamefully, and Derpy's anger unexpectedly evaporated as she looked at her friend, who refused to meet her gaze, "I do, Ditzy. I do. The TARDIS and I, we've done things I can't always be proud of. I have seen wars and had a part in destroying living, breathing creatures. I've even... I've even had my friends die, and it was all my fault..."

The Doctor looked back up, his eyes filled with determination and a sort of valor, the sort that manifested itself in Derpy the longer she looked at him, "But I don't stop. I don't quit. I will keep running for the rest of my lives because that is the right thing to do. Sometimes, there is no other option. You can't always save somepony without making a sacrifice. Listen, I don't know what Primary Alley was thinking when he took Vinyl outside. I don't know what was going through your head when you stopped him, but something tells me that Vinyl wasn't the first mare he's taken advantage of. She probably wasn't the last either. Ditzy Do Hooves, you have gotten justice for every mare he's ever touched and abused and saved every mare he would have touched and abused... including our very own Vinyl Scratch. You're a hero... so stop treating yourself like the villain."

Derpy didn't move. Her mouth fell slightly open as she and the Doctor silently stared at each other. A tension hung in the air as both of them waited for the other to make the first move, but both were too afraid to do so themselves. Derpy breathed in long, ragged breaths and she sobbed, now filled with regret and remorse for the cuts she had so foolishly carved onto her own body.

Finally, without any warning, Derpy threw herself at the Doctor and wrapped her hooves around him in an emotion-fueled, instinctual hug.

"Oh Celestia, I'm sorry," Derpy cried, tears now streaming down her face more freely now, "I'm so sorry, Doctor! I-I never wanted... I'm s-sorry!"

"Shh, shh, it's alright, let it out..." the Doctor soothed, hugging her back and patting the back of her head as the mare wept into his side, "It's alright now, Ditzy, it's alright... it's over. It's all over..."

Derpy didn't cry as long as she thought she would have, but that was in part thanks to the Doctor's support. She gave him one final, meaningful squeeze before they separated, and he awkwardly shifted his weight between his hooves as she dried her tears and finally smiled.

"We'd better keep going if we're going to find the others," Derpy's voice still shook a bit, but it was also filled with tenderness and happiness. She had finally found her catharsis, thanks to the Doctor. Her own personal, enigmatic hero, "What do you say, Doctor? Want to come?"

"Always," the Doctor grinned, as the two set off through the halls once more.

"So... when, exactly, did you plan on telling me what was going on?"

"Octavia..."

"No, Vinyl," Octavia asserted, "No more excuses. No more lies. I want the truth. Tell me about the nightmares, and why you didn't feel the need to tell me."

Vinyl sighed, silently wishing Luna would suddenly teleport in front of them and interrupt so she wouldn't have to say one more word to Octavia right now. She even wished a Hound would appear, because she would definitely take a battle to the death with one of those over confessing everything to Octavia.

But the hallways of the mansion were completely silent, except for the pressure between these two mares. Apparently, Vinyl thought, the place itself was evil.

"I..." Vinyl didn't know where to start. With the party? With Luna? With the first time she experienced the nightmare?

"Is it... is it because you don't trust me?" Octavia whispered.

"What? No! Nonono. Of course I trust you," Vinyl quickly insisted, "I just... it..."

"Vinyl, I thought we were friends," Octavia looked down at her hooves, "I thought we told each other everything, I thought we were... musical confidants? Surrogate sisters?"

"Well, what about you?" Vinyl's eyes narrowed, "When were you planning on telling me you got kicked out of your band?"

To this, Octavia looked taken aback. Though she knew she should not have, Vinyl felt a certain smugness to this reaction. Octavia collected herself, and went at Vinyl with a retort of her own.

"At least I finally told you everything when you found out," Tavi sniffed, "I found out about all of this, and you're still keeping secrets!"

Vinyl had no reply. Octavia was still staring at her expectedly, and finally Vinyl took a deep breath... and then she explained it. All of it, everything about the nightmares, from when they started to the party to seeing Somex with Derpy to meeting Luna, even to encountering Primary Alley's cronies, until finally she had gotten to the part when Luna arrived at the house when the Doctor and Derpy were still there. Here, Vinyl's voice faltered and she glanced at Octavia suspiciously.

"So there you go. That's everything... but now here's something I don't get," Vinyl said softly, "Why did you come back?"

"Pardon-?"

"You were on your way to a meeting with somepony from a band, somepony looking for a cellist. You needed the job... why did you come back to the house?" Vinyl pressed, and now it was Octavia's turn to gulp nervously.

"Vinyl, you'd been acting so strange," Octavia answered shrilly, "You were quieter, unstable, and always appeared tired. I just thought... you know... that you were going through something harrowing, something cataclysmic! I just... felt like something was wrong with you, and I had to be sure you were alright!"

"So... you just came back because your Octavia-senses were tingling? You risked your entire career based on that?" Vinyl exclaimed in disbelief, "Why would you do something so stupid?!"

"Well, I was right, wasn't I?" Octavia argued, "Why can't you just accept my help? I know you think this is dangerous, but I saved you back there! You can stop complaining about that anytime you'd like-"

"I'm not complaining-!"

"-because, Vinyl, I'm here to help you whether you like it or not!"

"You think I don't want your help?" Vinyl impugned, "Octavia, I wanted to tell you, I really did. In fact, I almost did more than once, but I was distracted every time. With everything I did, I tried keeping you safe."

"How is it safe to not tell me?" Octavia stuck her lip out, somewhat hurt, "Is it... are we really friends...?"

"How can you even ask that?" Vinyl gasped, "Of course we are!"

"Well, I would think that friends don't keep secrets... especially secrets that could be life-threatening, Vinyl!"

"I know, I know-!"

"Are we even really friends then, Vinyl?" Octavia growled, "All this time. All this time you didn't trust me enough to even mention that you were having nightmares! Oh, I was a fool; I heard you talking in your sleep, but I never thought anything of it... you acted like everything was so fine when you were around me, but you then you would tell somepony else instead of a mare who thought she was your best friend-"

"Octavia, I love you!" Vinyl suddenly blurted. Octavia's eyes widened and her mouth fell open in mid-sentence, but as she tried to continue speaking, her face only turned red. Vinyl quickly specified, "N-not like that, I mean. I...I like you a lot, and I can honestly say that yes: I love you, Octavia Melody. But not in that way, I mean, I'm definitely attracted to stallions, but I mean, like... you're like my actual sister. You're the pony who's there for me when I don't know what to do, and you've helped me out countless times. I just... I just wanted to keep you out of this because I didn't know if you would get hurt or not. I didn't know if I could die or not, and if I did, I wanted you as far away as possible so you wouldn't get hurt."

"But Vinyl... I'm your friend," Octavia stepped a bit closer to the unicorn, "I don't care if I get hurt, as long as I can help you."

"Thanks Tavi," Vinyl grinned, and then the two musicians hugged.

Vinyl and Octavia have had their fair share of conflicts. Whether it was Octavia yelling at Vinyl not to blast her music so loudly or Vinyl complaining that Octavia was "too fussy" or Octavia calling Vinyl "lazy" or Vinyl getting fed up with Octavia's aristocratic nature, the two never had disagreements in short supply. Occasionally, however, the two were reminded of how much their friendship meant to both of them, like the time Octavia replaced Vinyl's shades after Vinyl accidentally shattered them or when Vinyl showed up to one of Octavia's most important concerts so the cellist could keep her eyes on her friend's supportive smile the whole time and not be nervous when she played.

This hug, this amorous embrace between the two mares, was one such reminder that neither of them wished would end.

Suddenly, Vinyl looked up, "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Listen."

And Octavia listened. Sure enough, down one of the darker hallways there came a sound. A voice! It had to be a voice! It was soft, light, and feminine... either the Princess or Derpy. Or, of course, there was the chance it was something else... but neither Vinyl nor Octavia cared about that. Somepony else was here!

"Let's go," Vinyl said, motioning for Octavia to follow her down the hallway.

"Right behind you," Octavia followed Vinyl with a sly grin on her face, "Oh, and Vinyl?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you too." Octavia smiled.

"...if we could find Vinyl, it would work."

"Are you really sure about that?"

"Positive. Well, kinda sure," the Doctor admitted, "Well, a bit. Well, not really. Well... it's worth a try, right?"

"I guess..." Derpy slowly nodded her head.

"Excellent! Now all we have to do is find Vinyl and tell her our theory."

"Oh, yeah. Find Vinyl in all these hallways. That'll be easy," Derpy rolled her eyes, and with her eyes, this looked rather dizzying.

At that moment, Vinyl and Octavia hurried around the corner and stopped upon seeing the two, then a wide grin stretched across Vinyl's face.

"There you two are!" Vinyl said, exhilarated to find her friends, "You haven't seen Princess Luna, have you?"

"H-How...?" Derpy whispered to herself, still surprised at their sudden appearance.

"Unfortunately, no," the Doctor answered solemnly, "We haven't seen her- or you, for that matter, until now- since we got separated."

"It feels like that happened hours ago," Octavia shuddered.

"Time passes differently in dreams," the Doctor explained, sounding uncharacteristically serious, "In the real world, who knows how much time has passed? We might have gone to sleep only thirty seconds ago, or maybe it was two hours ago. Maybe it's been an entire night."

"Personally, I'm still trying to comprehend the fact that we are in a dream," Octavia sighed thoughtfully.

"Me too!" Derpy agreed.

"Eh, you get used to it," Vinyl shrugged.

"We are in a dream!" the Doctor said excitedly, "Vinyl's dream! Before you two arrived, we were talking about possible ways to find this Somex Terribat, and I think I might have an idea! If this is Vinyl's dream, then theoretically, we could affect the dream by doing something to her."

"What? How is this supposed to work?"

"You said that when the Hound scratched you, it left a mark on you in reality. Basically, something happened to you in the dream world, and it affected your body in the real world," the Doctor reminded her, "I'm not suggesting we do anything harsh, but if we could find a way to use this connection..."

Octavia glanced at Vinyl, and then reached over and took a lock of Vinyl's blue mane in her hoof before giving it a sharp tug.

"Ow! Hey!" Vinyl yelped, pulling away.

"Well, that didn't work," Octavia thought for a moment, "I say we pinch her next."

"Not cool, Octy," Vinyl scowled. Derpy moved forward and grabbed the sides of Vinyl's face with her hooves before pushing her own face toward Vinyl's. For a crazy moment, Vinyl thought Derpy was about to kiss her, but Derpy stopped with her snout pressing against Vinyl's and stared into her eyes.

"Look into my eyes, Vinyl," Derpy said slowly, moving her yellow eyes around in opposite directions.

"Hey, I didn't know you could do that," Vinyl blinked.

"Keep looking," Derpy told her, tightening her grip. Vinyl stared, and the spinning became more... hypnotic. It was like she was watching two wheels turn. It cleared her mind because right now nothing existed except her and those eyes, spinning around and around and around and around forever and ever and ever and ever...

Finally, Derpy released her, and Vinyl blinked a few times, now feeling off-balance and woozy.

"Vinyl?" Octavia's concerned voice sounded far away.

"Try opening a door," the Doctor suggested. Vinyl shook her head to clear the dizziness away, and then trotted toward the nearest door, bumped into the wall, and then twisted the knob. The door opened to reveal a staircase going up, and Vinyl realized this was the way.

"It worked! You guys, it worked!" Vinyl cheered. Derpy gasped, covering her mouth with her hoof.

"It did?!" Derpy was in awe, "I didn't actually think it would!"

"You didn't think I'd find the right door?"

"No, I didn't think I could use my eyes like that! That was neat!"

"Let's go upstairs, shall we?" the Doctor followed Vinyl up the staircase, "Oh great. More hallways."

"These ones are just normal though. They don't change," Vinyl said, relieved after coming with Luna once before. The stairway up to the roof was still on the other side of the room, and Vinyl pointed to it, "In fact, look! There's the other staircase right over there."

"Where do you suppose the Princess is?" Octavia wondered, "She may be looking for us downstairs right this minute!"

"Luna had a spell though," Vinyl remembered, "It showed her the way through the mansion without wandering all the hallways aimlessly like we did. She might be up there fighting Somex right now."

"Then we'd better hurry," the Doctor started trotting toward the other stairway, "Luna might need help!"

With a few murmurs of agreement, the ponies hurried up the stairs to the roof. Vinyl gulped as she reached the top of the stairs and was confronted with Somex Terribat once more.

The roof was just as she remembered it; huge, with sloped edges that would probably qualify as an official safety hazard, lights that illuminated the black fog that usually hung over this section of the dream like a veiled darkness stood on tall posts in a row along the sides of the platform, so Vinyl imagined that she might be able to grab onto one if she lost her balance near the edge. A podium as gray as smoke sat in the middle of the platform, and behind it was a stallion in a billowing black cloak.

Somex Terribat. The Reaper of Nightmares himself.

Derpy grit her teeth, remembering the terrifying encounter she had had with this enigma the night Vinyl had come home from the hospital. Even the Doctor and Octavia seemed unsettled by his appearance. Vinyl tried her best to keep a stone cold expression, but a bead of sweat unwillingly trickled down her face in nervous fear. Somex leaned against the podium, gazing down at a large spellbook atop it, and didn't seem to notice the four ponies standing in front of him. Vinyl took a deep breath. She didn't understand why she was so afraid all of a sudden. She exhaled, and then she realized what it was.

Princess Luna wasn't here.

Somex glanced up. Though most of his face was hidden in the shadows of his hooded cloak, Vinyl could still see his lips curl in a smirk as he gently closed the book and shifted his weight on the podium to see them better.

"Vinyl Ssssscratch. You've brought friendssss I sssssee," Somex licked his lips as he observed each of them in turn. When he got to Octavia, his gaze lingered, "Haven't I sssssseen you sssssomewhere before...?"

Octavia turned pale, and looked down, away from his gaze. Somex looked away, apparently now uninterested in her, and turned his attention to Vinyl.

"You have caused me a lot of trouble," Somex's voice now took on its hauntingly calm, chilling, deep tone. Octavia and Derpy flinched, but Vinyl was used to his strange speech patterns, "First you refuse to sleep and deny me my power. That may have been forgivable, but involving Princess Luna?"

Somex grasped the sides of the podium with both hooves and paused, as though considering what to say next. Then, with a mighty roar, he tore the podium off the platform and heaved it off the side of the roof. Vinyl jumped back with a gasp and Derpy screamed as Somex turned back to face them furiously.

"That was going too far!" he yelled, "You talked to the Princess? She brought you into the dream itself?! No, Vinyl Scratch. This cannot be forgiven. You will be punished most severely. When my power returns and you and I awaken from the dream world, I will make you beg for a nightmare like this."

"Dude, this is my head!" Vinyl, though frightened and helpless against his power, retorted defiantly, "You can't just come in here and make me dream that I'm falling every night! Besides, you're, like, super evil..."

"What? You think that I made you dream...?" Somex waved his hoof in dismissal, "No matter. I was monitoring your progresssss through the manssssion. You honesssstly believe that you could control your dream? You thought you found the ssssstairsssss by yoursssself? No! It wasssss alwayssss me. I moved the hallwaysssss, I reunited you with your friendsssss, and I brought you here to end your little crussssade! Asssss for Princessssss Luna, ssssshe can wander the hallwaysssss for an eternity of dreamssss!"

Somex threw back his head and laughed. It was an ugly sound that echoed in the empty abyss of the nightmare and sent chills down Vinyl's back. Somex's cool composure was gone and replaced with this hysterical lunatic, but just as soon as it had vanished, Somex stopped laughing and it returned.

"Now to deal with you."

"What do we do now, Vinyl?!" Derpy anxiously whispered to Vinyl, her face turning pale as Somex began to rise into the air with the use of the power of his own magic. His torn black cloak made him resemble a flying predator of the night, and the gleams of his eyes were visible in the shadows beneath the hood, as was his sharp-toothed, hungry smile.

Vinyl gulped, "Run?"

"What?"

"Run!" Vinyl screamed before diving at Octavia and pushing both of them out of the way as Somex reached out his hoof and unleashed a burst of flaming blue magic. The Doctor grabbed Derpy's foreleg and pulled her to safety as Somex looked down from where he hovered, confused about which group to attack.

Vinyl's surprise tackle had been too strong; she and Octavia were now off-balance and falling toward the edge of the roof. It was all her fault, Vinyl realized. They were going to fall and it was because she had made a mistake. Saving Octavia had been a reflex, and now she was paying for it. She started to tumble down the sloped edge, but felt herself pulled back by her tail. She looked back in shock to see Octavia holding her tail in one hoof and one of the lightposts in the other.

"V-Vinyl!" Octavia gasped, struggling to hold on to her friend, "You're... heavy!"

"Well, that's just rude," Vinyl frowned, "We don't all have strict diets like you-"

"This is serious!" Octavia shouted, exasperated, as Somex glowered down on them from above and charged up another energy blast. Vinyl and Octavia looked up to the sky in horror as the Spirit of Nightmares prepared to wipe them from the face of existence. Somex inhaled deeply through his nose before shooting the beam of magical annihilation at the two-

-And then he let out a yell of surprise as he was struck with a burst of purple magic. His shot went wild, zooming out from his horn into the side of the mansion where it not only exploded and caused the roof and 2nd floor to cave in, but it also started a fire.

"Gah! Who dares-?" Somex growled, turning around.

"I do!" Princess Luna shouted as she soared toward him on her wings and slammed into him at top speed. Taking advantage of the distraction, the Doctor and Derpy hurried over to Vinyl and grabbed her legs before pulling her back onto the platform.

"It's the Princess!" the Doctor said triumphantly, "She found her way out of the labyrinth!"

"I wonder how..." Derpy covered her mouth with her hooves in surprise as she watched Luna and Somex duel in mid-air. Somex fired another magical blast at her, but Luna dove under it before flying back up, grabbing the sides of his cloak, and pulling him back toward the roof.

With a scream of determination, Princess Luna dragged Somex back to the platform and threw him down onto the concrete before landing on top of him violently.

"How could you, Somex?" Luna furiously shouted in his face, "How could you do this?! Any of this?!"

"Princessssss Luna..." Somex chuckled, "Alwaysssss knew you would return..."

All of the fight visibly left Luna as she stared down at her former lover in sorrow, her heartbreak evident just by her face. Luna stepped back, and Somex sat up painfully from where he had landed on the platform.

"You are the reason I returned, you know," Somex continued, a smirk growing over his face as he spoke. Every word cut into Princess Luna, and he knew it, "After our last encounter, I was reduced to almost nothing when I returned to this realm, but a powerful magical anamoly woke me up a few months ago. You don't remember what you did while you were Nightmare Moon, do you? You came into the dream world and your magic woke me up! YOU are the reason I came back, Luna! YOU are responsible for all of this!"

"I... I-I..." Luna stammered, trying to find the right words to say, but her mind was blank and she looked as though she were just slapped.

"Princess, don't listen to him!" Vinyl shouted desperately, "You've done everything you can to stop him! Somex is trying to get inside your head; you can't let him!"

"Why did you choose Vinyl Scratch?" Luna asked Somex, her eyes narrowed and her face set stoically, "Why did you choose her out of everypony in Canterlot? Why did you give her the dream about falling?"

"You think... I did that?" Somex chuckled, and then giggled, and then he was roaring with laughter. Luna glared down at him, but Vinyl felt a knot start to form in her stomach. Something wasn't right here. Something was... wrong. Finally, Somex looked at her with his fanged smile stretched wide across his sneering face, "I did not create a dream for this mare...

"...I only entered one she created for herself."

Luna gasped, "But... but the magic! That means...!"

"A premonition!" Somex exclaimed with glee, "I did nothing to influence her dreams! All I did was hide here, in the place in the dream that was missing. I was here, veiled by the invisible curtain that nopony notices but everypony senses there is something wrong. There's a place to hide in every dream, and this pony's premonition was no exception. Vinyl Scratch never even noticed this curtain existed until you came and ruined everything!"

"But... but I was reformed three months ago!" Luna cried, "The Elements of Harmony banished Nightmare Moon from me three months ago!"

"And I've been having these nightmares for a little over a month!" Vinyl added, "How long have you...?"

"Not very long," Somex breathed, his voice now solid rather than raspy, "You see Luna, while you were Nightmare Moon, you attempted to revive- or should I say, resurrect- me from the nothingness that I had dissolved into from our last encounter. Unfortunately, you became distracted when you sensed the presence of the Elements of Harmony. You didn't finish my revival, but you promised you would return when you dealt with the pony wielding the elements."

Vinyl couldn't see Somex's eyes, but she knew that he was staring daggers at Princess Luna, who had tears falling down her face. The Princess was crying, and she couldn't bring herself to look at Somex, who was getting angry. Luna even jumped when he shouted.

"BUT YOU NEVER CAME BACK!" Somex's voice boomed over the roof, almost like it was enhanced by magic, "You left me there to die! I was so weak... I couldn't move..." Somex snickered now, hysterical. He was losing it, "I actually tried to finish healing myself, you know. In my state, I actually tried it..."

Somex reached up with his hooves, gently took the sides of his hood, and then pulled it back. Luna's eyes widened at the sight of him. Somex looked normal enough as a dark blue alicorn, if not thinner and more haggard than usual, but he didn't have a mane. His horn was twisted and sharp, his teeth were no more than fangs now, and his eyes... one was a soft, calm yellow and the other was a vibrant, enraged shade of red. His yellow eye was lit up, actually glowing, while his red eye seemed dimmer by comparison, almost dead, but then the light in his yellow eye was extinguished and his red eye came to life. Suddenly, he started grinning again, showing off his jagged smile.

"You ssssssee?" he hissed, "I made myssssself a monsssssster. I tried to heal mysssssself, but I only made... another half. I can't control it. We are Sssssomexxx Terribat!"

"You are a monster, Somex," Luna said faintly, softly as though comforting a child, but then she set her face in stone and her voice took on a more firm, grave tone, "But it has nothing to do with your other half."

Somex's red eye dimmed again, and then his yellow eye was illuminated, "It took me months to find the strength to climb out of that, out of my own personal oblivion. By then, this unicorn was already having her nightmares. Unicorn premonitions are like a beacon of magical energy. Once I latched onto it, all I had to do was leech that magic until I had enough to return to the real world."

"Vinyl... when you passed out at the party!" Octavia remembered in horror.

"That was you, wasn't it?" Vinyl's mouth felt dry, "That was you attaching yourself to my dream..."

"And what happens when you have enough magic to escape into the real world again, Somex?" Luna demanded.

"Then," both of Somex's eyes seemed to flash with malice, "Equestria."

"Princess Luna, what does he mean by 'premonition'?" Vinyl asked nervously.

Luna didn't say anything for a few seconds. She took a few deep breaths, and then turned to Vinyl with a grimace, "Sometimes... unicorn magic affects dreams when it foresees a time of frenzied stress..."

"Foresees...?" Octavia repeated and then she gasped, "You can't mean-!"

"Vinyl Scratch, your dreams are not nightmares," Luna swallowed solemnly, "You're seeing the future."

"You mean... Vinyl is going to fall... for real?" Derpy whispered fearfully, "There must be something we can do...!"

"There is not," Luna lowered her head, "I'm sorry."

Vinyl felt sick. She swayed on the spot, woozy and disoriented. This was worse than the time she had challenged Pinkie Pie to a coffee drinking contest during a trip to Ponyville. She felt a pounding in her head, and her mouth felt as though she had just swallowed sand. The Doctor laid a comforting hoof on her shoulder, but she was both unaware of it and felt it lying heavily on her at the same time. Somex started to laugh and stood up, pulling his hood back up over his face.

"How horrible," he sighed exuberantly, "How sad, how touching, how absolutely heartwrenching this must be for you. How does it feel, Luna? To lose somepony else because you didn't save me?"

Vinyl trotted forward dazedly, barely aware of what she was doing. The Doctor's hoof fell away and Luna reached out to stop her, but Vinyl pushed past her, toward Somex.

"Vinyl?" she was faintly aware of Octavia's voice behind her, but her attention was on Somex. Finally, she stopped barely a foot away, and stared at him coldly as his red eye flashed under the hood and he snickered.

"I tried to ssssave you," Somex told her with a smug grin, "When I cast that projection of myssssself into the real world and accidentally took your friend? I wasssss trying to take you into the dream world with me. You would have been in an eternal ssssslumber within your own mind, but you would have been sssssafe from your vissssion and I would have gotten the magic I needed much fassssster. But now?"

Somex leaned in closer so his and Vinyl's snouts were almost touching, "Now you can perish at the bottom of that fall."

Vinyl hit him. Her hoof reared back, and before he could blink, she lashed out in a wide, powerful swing that caught Somex on the side of his muzzle. His head snapped to the side, and he stumbled to regain his balance. From behind her, Vinyl could hear Octavia, the Doctor, and Luna gasp, but Derpy cheered her on. His surprised expression remained in place for just a flicker of a moment when he looked back at Vinyl, but then he hid it behind false arrogance as he wiped the side of his mouth and then examined his hoof for blood.

"Mind your temper, mare: it might get you into trouble," Somex advised her, putting a certain dark emphasis on the last few words.

"What are you gonna do?" Vinyl pressed, "Kill me?"

"I could," Somex said thoughtfully, "But it would be more fun to see the horror on your face when your worst nightmare comes true, and then to hear that satisfying squish in reality... ooh..."

"Enough, Somex," Luna stepped forward when she saw Vinyl was about to hit Somex again, more out of concern for Vinyl than for protectiveness for Somex, "This is between you and I. Let this be thy only opportunity to face me by yourself. Free these ponies."

"Alas, Princess Luna," Somex smiled sadly, "If I were to free them, only the unicorn's death will be ensured. I want them all!"

Somex's strike was like an unseen snake leaping from its hole. Luna was caught completely off-guard when he shot a writhing tendril of electric blue magic out of his horn directly at the Princess's face. She reacted instinctively, managing to turn her head away in time to avoid the blast of magic, but it still hit her body. Luna was thrown back, screaming, and she landed roughly on the platform where she thrashed and shrieked in agony. The Doctor rushed over to her while Derpy gasped and pointed at her side where the lightning had struck.

"There's a scorch mark!" she cried.

Somex laughed again as his hooves left the ground. He floated over the roof, staring down at the screaming Princess victoriously.

"Come on, Luna, you can handle it, you're strong..." the Doctor tried to soothe her.

"Look out!" Octavia yelled, jumping out of the way as Somex launched a pink blast of magic at the spot she had been standing less than a second before. The magic hit the platform and exploded loud enough to rattle jaws. Vinyl galloped across the roof, managing to take cover behind Somex's podium before another magical burst demolished it, sending concrete raining in almost every direction. The book that had previously perched atop it fell next to Vinyl, who cast it a terrified glance and managed to read the title.

LEGEND OF THE TANTABUS

Vinyl rolled out of the way of another magical explosion, but when her eyes swept through the wreckage of the blast zone, she saw Derpy fall backwards, thrown by the explosion. Vinyl reached her hoof out, as if to try to catch her, but Derpy was too far away. She tried to shout, but nothing came out as Derpy disappeared down the sloped edge of the roof and fell. A moment later, she flew back up on her wings, and Vinyl sighed in relief; she'd forgotten Derpy was a Pegasus.

"N-no, Somex..." Luna struggled to stand up, in spite of her pain, "You must... stop..."

"Princess, think," the Doctor implored her, "How can Somex be beaten?"

"I... I do not know..." Luna whispered.

"He said he accidentally created two halves of himself when Nightmare Moon stopped reviving him," the Doctor said, "That's part of his magic and part of your magic. What if you were to give him the half of your magic that he's missing?"

"It would... push the other half out?" Luna sounded unsure, "Doctor, I do not want to heal Somex. He is too powerful... but if thou are certain that this method will work..."

Luna climbed to her hooves and launched herself into the air on her wings, rocketing toward Somex just as he was blasting magic at Vinyl, who galloped out of the way. Somex turned in time to see Luna, but she slammed into his middle before he could get his hooves up to block her. The two wrestled in mid-air for a moment until Somex got the upper hand by holding Luna's hooves. He sneered as his horn lit up again, but before he could fire, Luna brought her head back and then headbutted him in the snout. Somex let out a cry of pain, and Luna's horn lit up.

"You want my magic, Somex?!" Luna demanded, "Take it!"

Rays of purple, pink, and blue magic poured out of her horn into Somex. He blinked a few times, but as realization dawned on him, so did horror. He started to yell and tried to push Luna away, but just as the Doctor had planned, it was making half of him weaker, magically and physically.

"N-No..." Somex weakly pounded Luna's foreleg as he felt half of him falling away. To Vinyl's astonishment, his red eye was slowly turning a shade of yellow, "No no no!"

He threw his head back and howled, "NOOOOOO! My other half! Sssssstop! It'ssss... it hurtsss... you have to... please..."

Somex went as limp as a marionette, but instead of strings, Luna held him in the air before dropping him in disgust. Somex fell to the roof and crumpled, beaten. Luna flapped her wings and lowered herself to the roof, but her hooves had barely touched the concrete before the Doctor wrapped his forelegs around her in a gleeful hug.

"You did it!" he celebrated, pulling away from her, "It worked! It WORKED!"

"You kicked his plot!" Vinyl praised Luna before blushing when Octavia elbowed her, "Um, your majesty."

"Is he... dead?" Derpy wondered uncertainly, looking at Somex's body nervously.

"Unfortunately, no," Luna narrowed her eyes at her foe, "He is only unconscious. For now, we must decide what to do with him."

"Is there, perhaps, a dream jail he can be locked in?" Octavia asked hopefully. Luna shook her head.

"What about Vinyl's nightmare?" Derpy asked, concerned, "Was he lying about that being a... a premonition?"

"Who cares?" Vinyl grinned as she wrapped her foreleg around Derpy's shoulders, "We win!"

"Not yet!" Somex suddenly roared, jumping up from where he'd been lying and causing his hood to fall back, revealing his two golden eyes.

"Get back!" the Doctor exclaimed urgently as Vinyl and Derpy leaped away in fright. Luna started forward, but Somex lunged at her with a snarl and bared his fangs, the madness of losing his other half now driving him to a feral state. Luna struggled to push him off her as she lit up her unicorn horn.

"Oh no you don't!" Somex hollered, lighting up his own horn, "Not THIS time!"

A shimmering white light erupted from his horn and grew larger and larger to encompass himself and Luna. Vinyl could only watch in wonder, completely oblivious to Octavia clutching her foreleg.

"Vinyl! We need to get out of here!" Octavia pleaded. From somewhere behind her, Derpy was screaming, "Vinyl! We need to-"

Vinyl opened her eyes and sucked in a deep breath. She was aware of her own pillow under her head and her blanket over her, but she wasn't in her bed. No, she was lying on something hard. The floor, she remembered. Next to her, somepony stirred. On her other side, somepony shifted.

And above her, somepony was yelling.

Vinyl sat up, still bewildered after the dream. She glanced up to see Princess Luna standing in the middle of the living room, staring at something in stunned terror. Her guards stood at her sides, their spears extended intimidatingly. She followed Luna's gaze to see what she was looking at, but when she saw what it was, she let out an alarmed screech.

Somex Terribat, with both of his eyes now golden yellow and his cloak torn up, was standing on the other side of the room shivering. He examined his shaking hooves, and breathed heavily, as though he'd just finished a long jog. Vinyl was used to that sound from the times Octavia had tried to "get in shape", but now wasn't really the time to look back at how hilarious that was.

"Somex, listen to me," Luna began slowly, carefully, "You should not be here. You are not meant to be outside of the dream world. You must go back in."

Somex looked away from his hooves at Luna, and his eyes narrowed.

"Get ready to run," Octavia murmured in Vinyl's ear.

"Princess Luna," Somex rumbled.

"We can't just leave Luna here," Vinyl whispered back.

"The last time I was in the real world, I thought I would die," Somex continued ominously.

"She's the Princess of the Night, Vinyl!" Octavia's face went pink.

"Now, it is you who will die," Somex grinned threateningly. Luna charged up a magical blast and launched it at him, but Somex deflected it with a magical green shield. Luna's alicorn wings unfurled and she threw herself through his shield directly at him, broke through the magic, and starting punching him, landing hits on every part of his body that she could. Somex dodged a punch and grabbed the Princess's hoof before using his own wings to shoot them both into the air.

Magical blasts fired in all directions. Luna's Royal Guards tried to help by shooting their own magic at Somex, but all of their shots missed. Somex kicked at Luna, who flew under his hoof and tried hitting him with another punch, but Somex was ready. One of his hoofs caught her punch while the other clutched her side, and then he pulled her off-balance and hurled her back to the ground. The Doctor and Derpy jumped out of the way as Luna slammed into the place that both of their cots had been only moments before.

"Princess!" Vinyl gasped, instinctively trotting toward her.

"Vinyl, no!" Octavia pleaded just before she was thrown to the ground as the house shook. Vinyl lost her balance and nearly tripped as the floor jumped, and the Doctor struggled to crawl out of the living room.

"We're gonna die!" Derpy sobbed, flying around. From above, Somex blasted the ceiling apart with his magic and caused debris to fall. Pieces of ceiling tile and wood rained down from above and pummelled the ponies relentlessly as the house began to fall apart. Vinyl narrowly avoided being hit by a piece of the ceiling only for a few splinters of the roof to fall on her. A piece of wood fell and struck the Doctor on the head, and he crumpled to the ground immediately. Octavia rolled out of the way of an entire heavy wooden beam that crashed down next to her.

"I do think this means we've lost our deposit..." she groaned.

"Priorities, Tavi!" Vinyl called to her, holding her hooves over her head protectively, "Everypony out!"

Octavia helped Derpy carry the Doctor to the front door, and then ushered them outside. Princess Luna was climbing to her hooves; her guards were standing in front of her defensively, shooting off magical blast after blast at Somex as he ripped through the roof of the house in his insane rage, but when Somex turned his attention back to them, they didn't stand a chance. Somex swooped down on his wings and grabbed both of them by the front of their armor. He turned his head and aimed his horn at the back of the house in the direction of the porch and fired a blast of magic that demolished the wall before, with hardly a grunt, he hurled the two guards out the enormous hole in the side of the house where they soared over the porch and off the side of the mountain. Fortunately, these two guards had wings, but Somex hurried out to the porch and leaned over the railing where he shot two bursts of green magic that hit one guard on the side of the head and the other one directly in the face. Both of them fell unconscious almost immediately and went limp. Panicking, Luna rushed across the house to the gaping hole in the wall and dove out into the open air. Her magic was able to catch both of the guards before they could fall out of her range, and she carried them back up to Canterlot before dropping them safely on one of the city's platforms.

"Vinyl! It's not safe in there! You've got to get out!" Octavia exclaimed from the front door, "Hurry! I think he's trying to destroy the platform-!"

Vinyl, now alone in the house, started galloping toward the door, but a piece of the ceiling fell in front of her with a loud CRACK as it split from the rest of what remained of the house. A cloud of dust exploded in her face, and Vinyl coughed and blinked, trying to go toward the sound of Octavia's voice. She wasn't sure where Somex was, but he was almost certainly decimating a portion of the house. Not even three seconds after this thought, the wooden tile floor in front of her split apart as Somex burst through it with a loud shout. He peered at Vinyl for a moment, and something that had a faint resemblance to sanity flashed across his face.

"You destroyed my house when you brought the Princess there," he whispered, "Now I'm returning the favor."

Vinyl barely had time to react before Somex pulled his hoof back and punched her, his movements as fast as lightning. It didn't feel like a punch; it felt like she'd been hit by a train. She was thrown off her hooves, across the room, and out the hole onto the porch by the force of the impact, and her back painfully slammed into the porch railing. She winced and collapsed to the bottom of the porch. Somex took off into the sky on his wings again, but this time a giant magical laser erupted from his alicorn horn and reverberated into the house, cutting into the floor and platform below. Vinyl struggled to climb to her hooves, but she felt helpless and completely at the mercy of the powerful magical being floating above.

Suddenly, Somex's laser went wild as Luna tackled him from behind. The two thrashed as Luna attempted to stop him, and the magic shot in frenzied arcs over the house.

"Vinyl!" Octavia shouted desperately, unable to enter the house amid the chaos of the spells and lasers being fired down from the heavens. Vinyl leaned against the railing of the porch for support, and suddenly became aware of the tears falling from her eyes, "VINYL!"

"Octavia..." the name whispered out from Vinyl's lips on a gust of wind that rendered it nearly inaudible, but strangely comforting to the unicorn as she blinked through the tears, trying to see her friend.

There was a loud CRACK from the support beams holding the porch to the rest of the house, and Vinyl's eyes widened behind her shades. She gasped, and clung to the railing for support, but she felt the porch begin to tip hazardously over the abyss of sky. Vinyl cast a terrified look over her shoulder to see Equestria, miles upon miles below, yawning out to meet her. Her heart leapt into her throat as the porch split completely sideways, holding Vinyl's head over the world below. She lost her grip on the railing and became engulfed in a sense of panic. Her hooves struggled to find something to grab onto, but it was too late. Vinyl fell head-over-hooves off the porch...

...and into the sky below.

No. Not this time. This time, she wouldn't wake up. She would fall to her death. Vinyl opened her eyes again, and they welled with tears. This time wasn't like the times before; this time was real.

This time, she was going to die.

It was odd to see Canterlot and the mountain this time because it was no longer a dream, but it was all strangely calm once she realized that. This time, there would be no startled yelp as she jerked upright in her bed, her heart still pounding. This time there was no doubt, no fear, no questions. Only acceptance... and sorrow. She would never see Octavia again. She would never know if Luna defeated Somex. She would never perform at the Dragon's Claw, tell another joke, even wear her shades ever again. A glistening tear left her eye, and she grit her teeth, ready for the inevitable crunch.

She wondered if she'd feel the grass.

She always wanted to feel the grass.

She wondered if the grass was soft.

From above, there was a loud groan from the rest of the house as it yawned, now falling down the side of the mountain after Vinyl. There was also a sound like wood splitting as the part of the Canterlot platform that the house was constructed upon fell away from the rest of the city as well, and these all came apart in mid-air. She wondered if they would find her body among all of the wreckage.

There it was: the grass, sprawled out and ready to meet her. Vinyl closed her eyes, ready to stop this endless fall. It was like a dream composed of a far-off memory scattered through her mind, but now that the memory had been pieced together, it was a dream she couldn't wake up from. Her time had been fleeting, but this was the end.

The end of Vinyl Scratch.

"Goodbye..." Vinyl whispered, her lip quivering and her voice shaking, "Goodbye..."

"No!"

Vinyl's body jerked, and her stomach shifted as she felt a sudden jerk on her leg. The tips of her hair rustled through the grass as she was held upside-down by somepony clutching her foreleg. She looked down toward the grass to see that instead of falling toward it, she was soaring over it horizontally. She hadn't stopped falling; now she was flying on the momentum built up by the fall. Vinyl strained to look up at the pony holding her, and her face broke out in a wide smile.

"Derpy!" she exclaimed. It was clearly a difficult task for the Pegasus to hold Vinyl and herself up in the air, but her wings were extended like a glider. She couldn't flap them; she and Vinyl were already falling too fast for that. Now she could only ride the momentum over the ground and away from the mountain while making sure not to drop Vinyl in the process.

"Hold on!" Derpy yelled down. Vinyl glanced behind her to see the ruins of the house falling like a storm on them. When the first piece of debris hit the grass, it sent a hail of dirt in every direction and formed a deep crater. Vinyl gulped, and reached up, trying to grab hold of Derpy's hoof.

"Oh Celestia!" Vinyl shrieked as Derpy moved from side-to-side, avoiding the meteors of broken house and platform as they collided with the ground. The wind whooshed beneath Derpy's feathered wings as she glided through ground zero of the one of the biggest domestic disasters Canterlot had seen since Discord's return (or maybe the Grand Galloping Gala). A smoke of dirt and dust rose from the shattered pieces and threatened to envelop the two mares as they outran the devastation, until finally the dust settled and the catastrophe reached its end. Derpy's grip on Vinyl slipped, and Vinyl dropped to the grass, unharmed, and rolled to a stop as Derpy, exhausted, landed in the grass.

The two sat in the grass, breathing heavily as they shivered, their nerves catching up with them and letting chill-after-cold chill roll down their backs as they realized that they had gotten away from the storm of disaster.

"Oh. My. Tia," Vinyl breathed.

"V-Vinyl..." Derpy panted, "...Vinyl...?"

"Yeah, Derpy?"

"...are we... alive?"

Vinyl laid on her back in the middle of the field, staring up at the wild blue sky above her, and she ran her hoof through the blades of grass to find that they were indeed soft. She turned her head to see Derpy lying on her stomach facing Vinyl, her wings twitching tiredly and her eyes frozen in anticipation.

"I hope so," Vinyl answered, licking her lips, "Or that was the worst rescue I've ever seen."

She and Derpy stared at each other for a few seconds, until Derpy giggled. Vinyl squeezed her eyes shut as she started to snicker uncontrollably, and then the two were laughing hysterically. Both of them were crying and couldn't breathe, but they laughed like they'd just witnessed the funniest occurrence in all of Equestria.

"We made it, Derpy!" Vinyl exclaimed victoriously, extending her hoof to Derpy, "Dear Celestia, WE MADE IT!"

"NEVER do that again, Vinyl!" Derpy bumped Vinyl's hoof, "I think I had a heart attack..."

"You're bucking amazing, Derpy," Vinyl sighed heavily with relief flooding her body, "You know that? You are the most amazing mare who has ever bucking lived!"

The two were emotionally overwrought, but it didn't matter.

They were alive.

Octavia and the Doctor could only watch in horror as the house collapsed and fell out of sight off the side of the city. Vinyl had fallen, and Derpy had suddenly galloped forward and dove over the railing after her, but they couldn't see what happened after that. Were they... dead? Octavia's eyes welled with tears, and she choked up, trying not to cry, but heavy sobs escaped her. Vinyl was gone, but was she dead? She needed to know.

Tavi glanced at the Doctor to see him staring at the spot Derpy had been. She could tell that he was trying to keep his expression stoic, but he wasn't doing a very good job of hiding his feelings. It suddenly occurred to her that the Doctor and Derpy were connected in a way that she hadn't noticed before. The two already had a possessive air around them, like they'd been on plenty of adventures together but couldn't share the details with anypony else. They'd clearly had some kind of relationship... perhaps it was even romantic...?

"Derpy is a very brave mare," Octavia consoled him, and the Doctor glanced at her.

"Thank you for that," he replied.

"She really is."

"No, I didn't mean for what you said," the Doctor shook his head.

"Then... what did you just...?"

"I meant thank you for not saying she 'was'," the Doctor finished, his voice cracking a bit on the last word. Octavia exhaled mournfully, and she wrapped her hooves around the bowtie-wearing stallion, who gratefully returned the gesture.

As the two friends hugged, Luna made sure her guards were safe and she flew up to where Somex was waiting in the air above the destruction, stopping not very far from the mentally-unhinged Spirit of Nightmares. Somex was looking at his hooves again, which were now more withered than they had been earlier.

"It has started," Luna said softly, "You are degenerating, Somex. You were never meant to be outside the dream world."

"You knew?" Somex asked, sounding surprised. Though Luna knew he wasn't, she nodded.

"I never told you of my research," she looked down wistfully, "When I believed you and I would be together for an eternity... I spent many hours in the castle archives, searching for a way to bring you outside the dream world. I tried to tell you that it was impossible countless times, but you... you were determined."

"You were everything to me, Princess Luna," Somex grinned sadly, "I was willing to undergo this process if it meant only a few minutes with you in your world."

"We came from two different worlds, Somex," Luna closed her eyes, "Two worlds that were never meant to connect."

"Perhaps not," Somex chuckled, "But I am glad they did. There is still some part of me that feels something toward you."

Luna looked at him sternly, "You just tried to kill me, my guards and sent Vinyl Scratch, the mare whose dream you possessed against her will, falling to her demise. I could never love a stallion like you."

"But you did, Luna," Somex said faintly, "You did. Once."

"And never again," Luna promised. Somex was withering away faster now, and flakes of ashes and dust began to sprinkle down from his cloak. Somex sighed, sounding genuinely remorseful, but he nodded.

"You know... the real world is more serene than I had imagined..." Somex said, looking around, "But the dream world feels more free."

"That's what I love about it," Luna agreed, a glistening tear sliding down her face, "That's why I loved you."

Somex's face was hollow now, and he looked up at the morning sun in the sky one final time before closing his eyes. His body fell apart like gray sand raining down, until Somex Terribat was nothing more than a tattered black cloak lying on the ground atop a pile of dust. Luna stared down at his remains regretfully, and closed her eyes as she took a deep breath. Involuntarily, waves of bitter regrets ran down her body as she released her anguish, and she glanced over the side of the city from where she hovered.

Sure enough, the house had been completely demolished. The debris was plentiful down in the valley below Canterlot, and Luna knew it was going to be a nightmare to clean. Especially when she found Vinyl Scratch's remains. Her eyes surveyed each piece of the disaster, until she noticed a flicker of movement.

It... it couldn't be...

Luna looked closer, her blue eyes widening in disbelief with each passing second, and then the Princess of the Night began to smile. The joy was almost overwhelming; it wasn't a sensation she was used to, but this was incredible. Far below Canterlot in the field of the valley, she could see two distinct figures climbing up from the grass.

"They live!" she exclaimed, and then she soared down to Octavia and the Doctor, "Your friends- they live!"

"You mean... Vinyl isn't dead?!" Octavia gasped.

"Ditzy... dear goodness, she did it!" the Doctor laughed, "She saved Vinyl!"

"Come," Luna gestured for them to follow her with a wide smile, "Let us hurry down to the valley to meet them. I am sure they will be most pleased with your arrival."

There was a lot of hugging, Vinyl remembered.

Octavia had been crying when she galloped across the field to where Vinyl and Derpy were, and she had nearly choked Vinyl with her squeezes. Naturally, Vinyl hadn't cried... (very much). After everything they had been through, the hug felt like a huge relief.

The Doctor had approached Derpy solemn-faced.

"Ditzy, I... I thought you were gone," the Doctor said quietly.

"Oh come on, Doctor..." Derpy said playfully, "You're not gonna get rid of me that easily."

And then the Doctor had protectively wrapped his hooves around Derpy, who buried her face in his shoulder. Hugging felt good. For Ditzy Do "Derpy" Hooves, this was the perfect end to possibly the worst week of her life.

Vinyl offered Luna a hoofshake after she and Octavia had separated, but Luna had grabbed her hoof and pulled her in closer for a tight hug. Unfortunately for Vinyl, Luna had alicorn strength, making her squeezes twice as intense as Tavi's. Octavia watched and snickered at Vinyl's predicament.

Hugs were a beautiful thing, really.

The Doctor's blue box disappeared amid a series of screeches and whooshes, and then he and Derpy were gone. Vinyl and Octavia stood in front of the still-smouldering remains of their once beautiful home. Down the street, curious ponies stopped and stared at the destruction. None of them could even begin to grasp the full scope of what had happened here.

"So... I suppose this means we'll have to move," Octavia said, breaking the respectful silence toward the destroyed house.

"Ooh, do you think this means we can finally get a house with a pool?" Vinyl asked excitedly.

"I would be happy to aid you in your search for a new home," Luna said from behind them, "The citizens of Equestria owe you a tremendous debt for your bravery against Somex. The castle will pay for the cost of your new property. There are plenty of extravagant homes in Canterlot to choose from."

"Oh..." Vinyl said tonelessly, "I, uh... I was joking about the pool..."

"That is, um, very generous of you, Princess..." Octavia said, a bit uncomfortably.

"Octy, can I speak with you for a second?" Vinyl inquired. Octavia looked at her, but nodded, and the two put their heads in closer together and spoke in hushed tones, "I don't think I want to live in Canterlot anymore."

Octavia looked surprised, but Vinyl wasn't finished, "Wait, just let me finish before you say anything. I found out a couple of days ago that some ponies here blame me for Primary Alley's death. We might be in danger if I stay here, and I haven't had a gig in ages, so I think... I think I'm going to leave. You don't have to come with me, but..."

"Vinyl, I am coming with you," Octavia said, to Vinyl's surprise, "You know I got kicked out of my band, and I've probably ruined my interview with that mare already," Octavia chuckled, "Besides, I'm not really a Canterlot pony, now am I? What city did you have in mind?"

"I don't know," Vinyl admitted, "Someplace not very high off the ground, definitely. Maybe Manehattan or... I don't know, Ponyville. I know some ponies there."

"I have family in Ponyville," Octavia smiled, "And Lyra and Bon Bon moved there just last month... if we moved, they wouldn't have to take a long train ride to come see us..."

"So... this means..."

"Ponyville it is," Octavia nodded happily.

"Princess Luna," Vinyl began, pulling away from Octavia and addressing the curious alicorn, "We were wondering if your offer is only for houses in Canterlot...?"

Clef Clavichord shifted in his seat uncomfortably. To his left and right were Tremolo Hymn and Senza Sousaphone. The three musicians were sitting at a table inside Gustave's, one of the trendiest (and most expensive!) restaurants in Canterlot. A plate of warm, creamy eclairs sat in front of them, but they were untouched and the frosting was starting to melt.

"Oh, where is she?" Clef murmured to himself, checking the clock on the wall.

"Just like her to be late..." Senza muttered under her breath. Tremolo cast her an annoyed look.

"She usually showed up before you did, Senza," he said in his booming voice.

Finally, the bell above the entrance rang as somepony trotted inside. Clef nearly leapt up from his chair when he saw it was Octavia, but he managed to restrain himself as she trotted over to their table.

"Clef, Tremolo, Senza, good to see you again," Octavia greeted them all in turn as she sat down across from the three of them. A unicorn waitress trotted over with a notepad held up by her magic, but Octavia waved her off, "Nothing for me, thank you. I won't be here very long."

"Um, Octavia..." Clef stammered as the waitress trotted away to serve another table, "You're looking nice today."

"Why thank you, Clef," Octavia smiled, "I apologize if this is rude, but I was hoping we could get down to it. I'm in a bit of a hurry you see."

Clef sighed, "We asked you here tonight to say we're sorry."

"Replacing you was a mistake," Tremolo added before nudging Senza, who was glowering at the eclairs.

"Sorry Octavia," Senza apologized like a schoolfilly that had been forced to ask forgiveness after giving a big, ridiculous sigh.

"Your new cellist isn't working out, I take it?" Octavia asked, slightly amused.

Clef shook his head, "Your friend was correct. It seems that he was indeed a, urm... a user..."

"Imagine that," Octavia leaned back in her chair, "Vinyl was right about something."

"So, um... we were wondering if you would like to, er, possibly consider... rejoining the ensemble," Clef offered, "With, um, an added 10% onto your usual payment."

"Well, it certainly sounds tempting, Clef, but I'm afraid I'll have to decline your kind offer," Octavia said courteously, "I'm leaving Canterlot, you see."

"I understand," Clef bowed his head in disappointment.

"We won't find another cellist like you, Octavia..." Tremolo said with a faint hint of pleading in his voice.

"My mind is already made up," Octavia stood up, "But if any of you ever find yourselves in Ponyville, we could have a reunion concert. Goodbye Clef, Tremolo... Senza."

"You're making a mistake, Octavia..." Senza said tersely.

"No," Octavia grinned fondly at her former bandmates, "I'm making the right decision."

With that, Octavia turned her back on the ensemble once and for all before trotting out of the restaurant. As she pushed open the door and trotted outside into the chilly Canterlot evening, she wondered if she would miss Gustave's eclairs. She had actually confessed this to Vinyl, who had brushed it off and told her about a bakery in Ponyville that made Gustave's "taste like cardboard".

Octavia was a bit nervous about leaving the mountainside city, but she was also very excited. Her stomach felt full of butterflies when she thought of her new life among the ponies of Ponyville, but she felt a sense of comfort when she remembered that Vinyl would be at her side the whole way.

She continued trotting down the streets, pondering on whether she would ever see them again.

The Doctor leaned back in his chair with his bottom hooves up on the control console. In his front hooves, he struggled to solve a Rubik's Cube, twisting and turning it. There was a creak as the doors to the TARDIS opened, and he glanced up to see Derpy trotting inside.

"So it's true what they say," the Doctor grinned, tossing the Rubik's Cube over his shoulder as he stood up to face Derpy, "Adventure can find you anywhere you go. Even here in Canterlot."

"Yeah, it, uh... it's been a crazy week," Derpy agreed, though she seemed sheepish.

"What's wrong, Ditzy?" the Doctor asked, concerned. Derpy sighed, now looking down at the floor.

"Oh, Doctor, I really hate to ask, but..."

"Oh, come on, you know you can ask me anything. Well, almost anything. Depends, really."

"I, uh... I wanted to know if I could move in with you full time?" Derpy asked hopefully, almost pleadingly, "I kinda lost my job, so no more bits for rent. I mean, you can say no-"

"Are you kidding?" the Doctor said incredulously.

"I-I'm sorry! Forget I-"

"Of course you can move in full time!" the Doctor exclaimed excitedly, and Derpy gasped, "There's a room right down the hall over there that you can have. There's a bunk bed in it, because who doesn't like bunk beds?"

"Do you really mean it?" Derpy asked, awestruck.

"Absolutely," the Doctor nodded with a smile, "Now you're a full time assistant."

"Companion."

"Right, that's what I meant."

"Yay!" Derpy cheered, noticing his Rubik's Cube and picking it up, "So where are we going first?"

"Well, Vinyl and Octavia are leaving Canterlot for Ponyville soon. I figured that the train station should be our first stop."

"Are you sure that should be where we go first?" Derpy trotted back over to the console, "We could go anywhere and still be there on time..."

"Oh, you temptress," the Doctor flipped a few switches and flashed her a mischievous grin, "Hold on."

With that, he pulled a lever back and the TARDIS began to shake. The familiar sound began to resonate from the control room itself. Derpy was nearly thrown off her hooves, and the Rubik's Cube flew from her hoof onto the keyboard in front of the Doctor. He picked it up and regarded the now-solved Cube with surprise before putting it back down.

"Where are we going?!" Derpy yelled over the sound of the machine.

"You'll see!" the Doctor shouted back, "Just hang on and enjoy the ride!"

Princess Luna, thine Princess of the Night, did not return to Canterlot Castle until the sun was already hanging low in the pinkish orange sky. The palace was eerily silent as she used her magic to open the two colossal doors that led into the entrance hall and trotted inside. Her crystal horseshoes clacked against the solid tiled floor and sent echoes throughout the entire area. She surveyed the area with her wide blue eyes unblinkingly, observing every shadow with a feeling of apprehensiveness, but everything seemed normal.

She had returned months ago, and she still couldn't believe that this castle had hardly changed in a thousand years.

Luna trotted up one of the main staircases to one of the highest towers in the castle. It was a winding, seemingly endless trip up, but that was fine: she had a lot to think about. Her hooves moved almost mechanically, and her gaze rarely shifted from watching the stairs as she climbed up. Finally, she reached the top only to be greeted with a door. Luna took a deep breath and then rapped her hoof on it a few times.

The door creaked wide open, and Luna entered.

"There you are," her sister glanced up from a book she'd been reading, "I was beginning to think I would have to raise the moon myself."

"My apologies, sister," Luna lowered her head. Although she would often pursue entertainment rather than responsibility, Luna took her duties as the Princess of the Night very seriously, "There was... a situation."

"And would this situation happen to include the complete destruction of a house over on the west side of the city?" Luna quickly looked up with a mixture of shock and fury in her eyes. Her sister continued matter-of-factly, "Oh, don't look so surprised. All of Canterlot knows about it. It was difficult to miss."

"Wonderful," Luna sighed ruefully, "Then they will fear me even more."

"Luna-"

"I know the townsfolk were suspicious of me when they learnt of my history as Nightmare Moon, and now they have more reason to be afraid," Luna was getting upset now, "Can they not see that I was only trying to save not just Canterlot, but all of Equestria?"

"Luna, they do." Princess Celestia, the Sunraiser, set down her book and trotted across the room over to her sister before lying a comforting wing over her shoulder, "Everypony could see you facing off against that cloaked fiend. The word isn't that you tried to destroy anything, it's that you succeeded in preventing more devastation."

Luna was taken aback by this, "Are you... is this true?"

Celestia nodded with a warm smile, "During my late-afternoon walk, I overheard some ponies calling you a 'hero' for guarding them so faithfully. In fact, I also listened to a few of the Guards express their disappointment that they were not there to support you."

Luna stared at the floor. She couldn't believe it, any of it, and yet... she felt a warm feeling start to bloom in the bottom of her stomach. She felt the soft feathers of her sister's wing beneath her chin, gently pushing her face up so the two were looking at each other.

"You've made me proud today, little sister," Celestia said softly, "And I'm sure our mother would be as well."

"Thank you, sister," Luna said, quickly averting her face back to the floor so Celestia wouldn't see the wide grin that her lips had curled into, "I... I think it is time for me to raise the moon now..."

"Oh, and one more thing," Celestia began as Luna trotted over to the window. Her alicorn horn lit up, and as the sun made way for the dusk, the moon was raised high into the sky, "Who was that pony in the cloak that you were fighting?"

Luna sat down, resting her front hooves on the windowsill and staring out at her shining night sky. The twinkling stars and luminescent moon reflected in her sad eyes as she gazed out the window unblinkingly.

"...it does not matter," she sighed, closing her eyes, "He is gone now. Forever."

She galloped at full-speed across the station, panting as her red eyes darted across the platform behind her purple shades, looking for her train. Finally, her eyes found a sign that announced platforms 9 and 10, and she grinned before hurrying in the direction of platform 10.

She nearly ran into the wall between the two platforms in her haste to get to the train, but managed to stumble out of the way before hurrying toward the train that was getting ready to leave. She gulped nervously at the sight of Octavia tapping her hoof because although she looked patient, this was a sign that her patience was at an end.

She sheepishly trotted over to where Octavia was waiting alongside Derpy, the Doctor, and surprisingly enough, Lyra and Bon Bon. The two must have ridden the train from Ponyville to Canterlot just to ride it back with them. The moon was high in the sky already, and the station was illuminated by a series of bright lamps, so she mused that they might've been expecting to sleep the entire trip back. They'd get a rude awakening (possibly literally).

She didn't intend to sleep for a while.

She stopped in front of Octavia, who simply looked at her, and cast her a timid grin.

"Lovely night, huh?"

Vinyl Scratch took a deep inhale of Princess Luna's carefully crafted night while Octavia sighed and rubbed the spot between her eyes in exasperation. The air was crisp and cool, as it always seems to be when the sun goes down, and filled with a sense of fresh renewal akin to the first time opening a long book.

"So I see Vinyl is early, as usual," Bon Bon smirked.

"Better late than never, Bons!" Vinyl exclaimed as Lyra and Derpy giggled.

"You'd better get on the train," the Doctor checked his golden pocket watch, "It leaves in one minute and twenty-three seconds."

"Farewell, Doctor who never told me his real name!" Vinyl playfully bowed to him, "And to Ditzy Do Hooves, whom I shall always remember as my friend Derpy."

"I think we'll see each other again," Derpy smiled, scrunching up her nose to do so.

"I hope so!" Lyra winked at her before climbing aboard the train, "You were always so good at helping us bake muffins."

"I told you, you have to use a 4/7 cup of sugar, not 1/2! And 2 and 1/6 cups of flour!" Derpy called after her, "And-"

"Goodbye, Derpy," Octavia hugged her and then shared a hoofshake with the Doctor, "Doctor."

"See you 'again', you guys," Bon Bon grinned as she followed Octavia onto the train.

"I can't thank you two enough for what you did," Vinyl said sincerely, "Like, honestly. Especially you, Derpy."

"Don't worry, there aren't a lot of high places to fall from in Ponyville," Derpy joked, "But if you ever do manage to somehow do that... I'll be there to catch you."

"You're a great friend. You both are," Vinyl laughed, "I'll-"

"Vinyl! The train!" Octavia called to her from the door. The train wheels were gradually starting to roll, and Vinyl threw a quick "Bye!" at Derpy and the Doctor before leaping into the train before Octavia slid the door shut. As the train to Ponyville left the station, Derpy and the Doctor were left standing in the steam emitted from the train's departure.

"Do you think I should have told them about my new mailmare job in Ponyville?" Derpy turned to him.

"Nah," the Doctor shrugged as he turned and led her back to the TARDIS, "They'll figure that out for themselves. In the meantime, get in the TARDIS; we're going to Ponyville!"

Meanwhile, aboard the train, Vinyl, Octavia, Lyra, and Bon Bon sat in a compartment, and watched Canterlot disappear from the window.

"So why were you late, Vinyl?" Lyra asked, "Did you somehow forget where it was?"

"I just had to pick up a new pair of shades and say goodbye to all the club owners, bartenders, and ponies I used to party with," Vinyl replied, "That took a lot of time. I was all over that city!"

"I still can't believe you two are moving to Ponyville," Bon Bon blinked in astonishment, "I thought you loved Canterlot!"

"Well, we thought it was time for a change," Octavia answered with a sly grin, "I simply cannot wait to see our new abode..."

"It's called a house, Tavi," Vinyl nudged her.

"So what will you do when you get to the new house?" Lyra leaned forward, "Bon Bon and I spent almost a week decorating ours when we moved!"

"Hmm... I'm imagining long blue drapes over the windows," Octavia mused, "And a glass coffee table, provided Vinyl remembers not to put her hooves on it."

"Oh no, the first thing we're doing is splitting that house right through the middle," Vinyl interrupted, "Tavi can have all her stuff on one side and I can have my cool stuff on the other. That way, you won't be playing your classical records on my DJ stand!"

"Your equipment always distorted the sound anyway," Octavia said curtly, "And if we do arrange the house in such a manner, I get the side with the bathroom."

"The bathroom is neutral territory!" Vinyl argued.

"That would be pretty interesting, actually," Lyra agreed, "We could help you set it up! I'm thinking different colored carpets and wallpapers up to separate the two areas..."

The ponies kept talking for a while, but conversation finally slowed, and then Lyra dozed off for the overnight train ride. After that, Bon Bon and Octavia passed out as well, leaving Vinyl alone in the compartment, listening to the power of the train as it charged through the landscape and staring out at the moon.

Finally, Vinyl closed her eyes and succumbed to sleep. She had been evading it so long, it managed to find her quickly once she decided to finally give in. Vinyl nestled against the wall next to her chair, feeling lulled by the comforting rumble of the train moving, and fell into a calm sleep.

She had very pleasant dreams.

THE END

Author's Note

Writing Freefall was always really turbulent for me. I wanted drama, but I also had to work it in to fit the show's canonity and the characters' personalities. A lot of fan headcanons (fanon) fueled this as well. But even with all of that, I was never very clear on where to go next. In an earlier version, aliens were going to be responsible for Vinyl's nightmares! ALIENS! :rainbowlaugh:

The ending, however, was always going to be the same. She would fall, Derpy would catch her, and they would move to Ponyville in the end. I never planned for Vinyl and Octavia to end up in a relationship (though if you're so bold, you may headcanon that. :raritywink: ) or for the villain to have personal ties to Princess Luna, who originally wasn't even in the story. :twilightblush:

But I'm very happy with the final product, and I hope you are as well! :yay:

Freefall began on November 16th, 2014, and it finished March 18th, 2016.

Thanks for reading. :rainbowkiss:

Beginning Descent

Her hooves flailed wildly as she spun head-over-hooves down to Equestria. The wind around her seemed to be carrying her, no, slamming her down toward the ground. Her iconic glasses fell from her face, leaving her wide red eyes exposed as she spun upside down in the free-fall. Her normally-messy mane fell into her face and obstructed her vision, making it all the more terrifying.

and then Vinyl Scratch woke up screaming in her bed.

"Vinyl! Shut up!" came her roommate's tired voice. During the day, Octavia's reaction might have been something classy like "Do be quiet, Vinyl," but this was the middle of Princess Luna's night and Octavia was awfully sleepy due to a long concert performed the night before in Canterlot's Royal Symphony Hall. In fact, Octavia could hardly speak coherently when she arrived to the home occupied by her and Vinyl, ignoring Vinyl's jokes about classical music and instead trudging straight to her bed.

Nevertheless, Vinyl heard Octavia's rapid hoofsteps in the hallway before the tired-looking cellist appeared in the doorway to Vinyl's room.

"Wha's goin' on...?" Octavia mumbled sleepily, struggling to keep her eyes open. Vinyl noticed her mane was tangled and ragged-looking, but decided not to say anything, "Yokay?"

"Y-yeah, I'm fine, Tavi," Vinyl answered, managing a grin. After the dream (nightmare) she had just had, Vinyl felt wide awake. Dear Celestia, that was better than any coffee-and-wubs mix in the morning, but Vinyl still hated it.

"Mmmkay... you sure...?" Octavia asked again, blinking away the dark spots in her vision as she yawned. Tavi drew closer to Vinyl's bed where the unicorn lie, the latter hardly daring to move out of fear that she'd begin falling again. Octavia kneeled down by her friend's bed and rested her head on the bedsheets as she observed Vinyl's scared face through drowsy eyes, "You whisper 'n your sleep e'ry nigh..."

Vinyl cursed silently. The dream hadn't been a one-night thing. It was a recurring dream, but she had never woken up screaming before. Actually, Vinyl had never gotten that close to the ground before in her dream. A cold shiver went down her back and melted in her hooves as she remembered how close she had come. She could still feel the taller blades of the grass scratching at her face as though reaching for her, welcoming her.

Vinyl blinked out of her thoughts, only to see that Octavia had fallen asleep while resting her head on Vinyl's bed. Carefully, as not to wake the lightly-snoring Tavi, Vinyl took her pillow and gently placed it under Octavia's head as she quietly crept out from under the warm blankets. Then, taking care not to make a sound, Vinyl stalked out of the room down the hallway.

The Canterlot house shared by both Vinyl and Octavia was a bit small, but seemed quite spacious in these late hours. The moon outside illuminated the living room with a dim white light. Somepony (Vinyl) had left the glass door out to the porch wide open, letting in a cool air, but Vinyl didn't shiver until she thought of how warm and inviting her blankets were. Even so, she trotted outside onto the back porch.

The porch was actually a fancy patio, suspended on the edge of Canterlot. If somepony were to lean over the side of the railing, they would see down the side of the mountain to the sprawling Equestrian landscape below. There was Ponyville in the distance, and Cloudsdale in the sky. If it was a very clear day, Vinyl supposed she could see all the way to Manehatten. She had never actually seen Manehatten, but despite Octavia's constant nagging that it was impossible, Vinyl had never given up trying.

All-in-all, it was a strange place to go for comfort after having a nightmare about falling to your death.

Tonight, Vinyl stared up into the moon and the dark sky beyond it, which was dotted with little stars. It was a wonderful place to just be alone, in solitude, and think. Vinyl was thinking more about falling than anything else as she gripped the railing with both hooves, refusing to look down without realizing it. She thought of the windy sensation, and the feeling of being completely helpless as she spun through the air. There was literally no way to save herself in the nightmare. Vinyl looked down below, and a dizziness pounded in her head. Her hooves gripped the railing tighter.

"Come on!" She shouted at the night, bringing her right hoof up and back down to hit the railing, making it quiver a little, "Why is this happening to me?! Why?!"

Vinyl collapsed on the porch, letting her left hoof slide off the railing down to the crumpled and broken figure that was Equestria's most famous DJ (in her opinion). It was there, lying on the floor outside on the porch, that Vinyl did something that she hadn't done in a long time.

Vinyl Scratch, the DJ-P0N3, cried.

* * *

"So Vinyl, did you remember to pick up the chips?"

Vinyl was pulled back to reality by Octavia, who was enjoying a large glazed donut for breakfast. Vinyl thought back to the night before, skipping over the hour she had spent outside in the cold night sobbing like a little filly in her mind's DVD player. Had she remembered to pick up the chips? First she had met up with Neon Lights at his private recording studio, left and went to a store to pick up the new Gryffallica and Dragonhorse albums and a new pair of headphones to listen to them with. She prayed to Celestia that she remembered to pick up a bag of chips while she was there, but yesterday had been a bit of a blur. Maybe Neon had slipped something into her drink. Either that or it was the seven hayburgers she had eaten for breakfast and then followed up by drinking twelve Manticore Energy Drinks.

Octavia noticed the desperate look on Vinyl's face and sighed, "Oh Vinyl. You couldn't have forgotten those chips. It was the only thing I asked you to get for the party tonight. It was our deal, I'd get the punch, arrange the invitations, tidy up the house, and prepare everything, and you had to get the chips-"

"And not invite any of my 'rowdy' friends, Tavster," Vinyl interrupted with a grin.

"But I know you did anyway. Remember, I sent out the invitations," Octavia shook her head, opening the pantry door. Vinyl closed her eyes and sighed, waiting for Octavia to tell her to run down to the closest market or shop to purchase a bag of chips, but to her surprise Octavia was smiling.

"You did get the chips!" She exclaimed, "Vinyl Scratch, I'm sorry for ever doubting you."

"I did...? I mean, of course I did, Octy! What, you thought I'd let ya down? Have a little faith!"

“Well, if you can behave yourself tonight, maybe I will,” Octavia said through a mouthful of donut as she took the last few bites and followed it with a small glass of milk. Vinyl was filled with relief, but tried not to let it show on her face as she stared at her breakfast, a stack of fluffy golden-brown pancakes dripping with hoof-churned butter and mouth-wateringly sweet syrup.

Later that evening, a large party (which Octavia insisted on referring to as a “social event” instead of party) was taking place in their house. The usual group of friends was invited, Lyra, Bon Bon, The Doctor, Derpy, as well as Minuette, Colgate, Berry Punch, Golden Harvest, Carrot Top, all the members of Octavia’s ensemble, and (naturally) some of Vinyl’s rowdy friends. A group of singers who had taken the name “The Dazzlings” was to perform. Octavia had initally wanted to hire the Ponytones (very popular in Ponyville the last time she had visited), but the Ponytones hadn’t answered their letters.

Octavia straightened her pink bowtie before taking another donut from a large box sitting on the counter, this time a chocolate one adorned with colorful sprinkles, and glanced at Vinyl with a raised eyebrow. Uncharacteristically, Vinyl immediately felt self-conscious (Octy had that effect on ponies), and suddenly became very interested in eating her pancakes.

“Where are your glasses?” Octavia finally asked, taking a bite from the donut and letting her eyes droop dreamily as the wonderful flavor registered in her mouth.

“Um, they’re called 'shades', Tavi.”

“I don’t care, but aren’t you going to wear them?” Octavia questioned, “You never take them off! Are you finally deciding to look respectable for the social event tonight?”

“No, I’m definitely going to wear them,” Vinyl said, devouring the last of her pancakes in a second before getting up, leaving her syrup-covered plate on the table, and then she began to trot out of the house.

“Get a haircut!” Octavia called after her. Vinyl grinned. Oh, Tavi.

The streets of Canterlot were often bustling with activity, mostly classy ponies dressed in suits and (Vinyl snickered whenever she saw anypony wearing one) monocles. Certainly a place suited to somepony like Octavia at first glance, but there was a lively underground scene that was perfectly suited to somepony like (who else) DJ-P0N3. Members of this hidden scene often occupied night clubs (Vinyl's personal favorite), bars (Berry Punch was well-known for winning several drinking contests against several ponies... without stopping), music stores (Vinyl had worked in one at one point in her life), and shady restaurants (where you could get a burger and fries with a side of bloody knife and an apple cider). Sometimes they were seen on the streets, sometimes not. It was only the way things went.

Today, Vinyl trotted down the street, slower than usual as she thought about her dream even more. She was embarrassed to think of the long hour she had spent lying on the porch, remorselessly letting tears stream from her red eyes and choking, crying sounds emerge from her throat as she lie in the frigid cold. Embarrassed, yet relieved.

Vinyl arrived at a favorite nightclub of hers after a short, philosophical trot, a huge place called "The Dragon's Claw". Not the snazziest name ever, but it worked. She stepped inside to a nearly vacant club, aside from unconscious stallions who had had too much to drink the night before and were now moaning as they awoke to pounding hangovers and annoyed employees, who were cleaning up the place and telling the drunk stallions to get out. The nightclub was like this every morning, but at night? At night the bar was crowded, the dance floor was full, and everypony enjoyed themselves. She would know, seeing as she was frequently hired to perform here. Maybe that was why it was called a "nightclub". Maybe.

"Ah! DJ-P0N3! Good to see you! No shades today, I see."

Vinyl turned to see the wild-maned nightclub owner, a stallion by the name of Diamond Rough, lumbering toward her with a wide grin on his face. On his trot over to Vinyl, he clumsily knocked over a small table but didn’t seem to notice. Instead, he seized Vinyl’s hoof with both of his and shook it vigorously. Vinyl always admired how a stallion of his age still had so much energy and enthusiasm. Finally, he released her hoof and cast her a stern look.

“I hope you aren’t here to steal more of my business,” he said, unsuccessfully trying to keep a straight face.

"It's just for one night!" Vinyl replied indignantly, "Keep that attitude up, and I won't invite you."

"You wouldn't invite the stallion who gave you your first job as a DJ?!" Diamond gasped in mock surprise, clutching a hoof to his heart, "Dear Celestia, Vinyl!"

"You didn't give me my first DJ gig, you've just given me most of them."

"Oh, so I hire you to perform here ten nights a week..." Diamond grumbled, "I see how it is..."

"Oh, quit it, Rough. You can come if you want," Vinyl sighed with a small grin on her face.

"Sorry Vinyl, can't make it. I've got a poker game with Trenderhoof and Rightful Vice tonight," He revealed with a sly gleam in his eye, "Maybe I'll swing by if I've got time."

Before Vinyl could respond, she felt a heavy hoof clop down on her shoulder. Surprised, she turned to see a big, sober-looking (but looks can be deceiving) stallion who was flashing her a wide grin, showing off his white teeth, the sleazy teeth of a sleazy chariot dealer or sleazy magician. In any case, this was definitely a sleazy pony. His name was (Vinyl shuddered at the mere mention of it, but only because she was thinking of those hypnotic teeth of his) Primary Alley. He was definitely a despicable pony.

"Eyyy," He said in his seedy voice, "If it ain't Vinyl Scratch! You come lookin' for me? Finally ready to 'ave a drink?"

"I don't drink all that much, thanks," Vinyl said, slowly inching away from Primary, who took it as his cue to advance on her.

"Come on, hon," Primary said, refusing to be shot down... again, "We is in a bar, y'know. Come on. Let's have us a good time."

"She said no, for Celestia's sake," Diamond said in an agitated tone as he went around Vinyl into Primary's face, "And if you don't get out of here in 10 seconds, I'm calling the Guards and banning you from The Dragon's Claw! 10...9...8..."

"A'ight, A'ight, I'm goin'," Primary huffed, turning toward the door. Just before he stepped out, he turned over and glanced at Vinyl one last time and winked, "But if the mare here ever wants to have some fun..."

"I said get out!" Diamond shouted, causing Vinyl to jump in surprise and finally convincing Primary to leave. Diamond turned to Vinyl with an exasperated expression, “Sorry about that, Vinyl. You came all the way here, and find that jerk harassing ya! Anything I can do to help?”

“Nah, man,” Vinyl said, grinning widely, “I’m used to his type coming up to me at shows. It happens.”

“But-”

“Shh,” Vinyl said, holding up a hoof to her lips, “It happens. Now then, I came here to get some champagne or wine or whatever fancy drink you have in the back. I know Tavi won’t approve, but I know that the ponies I invited won’t be satisfied with a few bottles of Applejack Daniels!”

Diamond thought for a moment, and then clapped his hooves together, “I may have something, but it’s very expensive.”

“How expensive? I’ve got about… 9 bits. Maybe 10 at home.”

“It costs 400,” Diamond answered with an apologetic smile.

"Oh," Vinyl said tonelessly, "Well..."

"Yeah," Diamond smiled, "Anything else I can do for you?"

"Nah man, that's it," Vinyl said, backing toward the door, "I'm gonna go. No hard feelings about the party though, right?"

"Of course not," Diamond waved the question off, "Now run along, I have to clean up for tonight... if anypony shows up."

"Oh, it'll mostly be Octy's type at the party."

"I'm sure it will," Diamond sniffed.

* * *

The party was in full swing before Vinyl could blink behind her shades, which was something she always admired about parties. It was such a bore waiting for everypony to show up. The party had so far gone quite well. The Dazzlings hadn't shown up, so Octavia was worried about what they were going to do for music. Vinyl had pointed out that they were both musicians and asked why Octavia thought they needed to hire music in the first place. Octavia had given her an incredulous look and then retorted that hiring music had been Vinyl's idea.

That meant it was up to Vinyl to find a solution.

She thought about it for a long fifteen seconds and then set up her DJ stand with a few huge speakers with the help of a few of her "rowdy" friends, who had invited some of their "wild" friends, who had brought along some of their "psychotic" friends, and even a few of Vinyl's "Octavia-ran-out-of-terms-for-rambunctious-ponies" friends showed up. Perhaps the party would've turned out the opposite of what Octavia had wanted, but fortunately she had invited her "classy" friends and "upper-class" friends, and even went so far as to invite her "Vinyl-these-ponies-are-the-complete-opposite-of-your-friends-please-don't-ruin-this-for-me" friends. The party turned into a strange mixture of formal and informal, restrained and unrestrained, classy and punk. Vinyl marvelled at how smoothly it was working out, a stallion in a tuxedo talking with an intrigued-looking mare with a stud in her nose and her mane dyed black. Vinyl knew her friend Pinkie Pie from Ponyville would've been proud to see a party like this, and then realized that she hadn't remembered to invite her. Vinyl felt guilty, but then remembered that Ponyville was a fair distance away. Maybe Pinkie wouldn't have came even if she had received an invitation.

With the party like this, torn between classy and punk, and Vinyl as DJ, she was a bit confused as to what she was supposed to play for music. If she fulfilled her sacred duty and played wubs, she'd drive Octavia's ponies away. If she went against everything she'd ever done and played classical music, she'd offend her own kind. In the end, Vinyl decided on playing dubstep remixes of a few of Octavia's favorite symphonies. She had been working on the remixes for Octavia's birthday, but now seemed like a good time for an early birthday present.

With just a few knob turns (and the playing of a record), the music began. At first, everypony looked around at each other confused as Ponythoven's Fifth Symphony, distorted with wubs, began playing. A few silent moments passed, everypony's faces like concrete. The complete opposite reaction of what Vinyl was used to, which was crowds screaming for joy as a song started. For a moment, she wondered if everypony hated it. Maybe she should've tried a symphonic version of a dubstep song...

All at once, everypony began cheering on the unique blend of two musical genres that Vinyl had created. It had the trademark pounding of wubs mixed with the fragile melodies of an orchestrial piece. Octavia (whom Vinyl noticing staring in disbelief) would have described it as "quite an extraordinary bit of music". Vinyl grinned, and for a moment felt on top of the world.

But then she fell.

For a moment, Vinyl was falling again, spiraling through the skies as she plummeted toward the ground below. What she was seeing didn't register with her though; hadn't she just been playing music at the party?

Vinyl blinked, and suddenly found herself back at the party. Flashes of the falling sensation came over her every few seconds, like the rush of the wind, the way her own mane slapped her in the wind as she desperately tried to grab onto something (dear Celestia don't let it end like this). She flashed back and forth from the party to the sky, back to the party, back to the abyss, back to reality, back to falling into madness on the slow descent to Tartarus.

Vinyl put a hoof to her forehead, and stumbled down from her DJ stand. There were a few snickers, and Vinyl heard somepony whisper "Drunk?" to her friends. Vinyl ignored them. She left a few friends of hers to take control of the music while she found her way outside on the porch, whimpering as she stepped out the door. Her head felt like it was being split open. Was this what crazy felt like?

Usually she wondered why she came out here for comfort, but for now she was just grateful that nopony else was out here. She could easily see a drunken stallion find his way out here to puke over the railing or a young mare and stallion couple seek some "alone time" (wink wink). It was Vinyl's solitude, and she had never been more thankful for it.

Vinyl groaned as the once-nightmare now became a vivid hallucination, the likes of which no drug-induced daydream could compare. She felt as though the porch beneath her hooves would split open at any moment or tilt completely sideways, leaving her to fall down the side of the mountain. Maybe she'd get lucky and hit her head on the way down so she wouldn't have to witness her own death for the thousandth time since the fateful night she had gotten the first nightmare. What in Tartarus was happening to her?

Just when it seemed that it couldn't get any worse, the door opened and a stallion stepped onto the porch.

"Hey-yo, DJ-P0N3," Primary Alley greeted, grinning with those teeth of his once more, "Looks like we finally got ourselves some alone time."

"Prime... get Octavia..." Vinyl pleaded, looking at Alley with tears in her eyes. She had kept the dreams secret from her roommate since she first started having them, but the time had finally come to tell Tavi, "I need... help..."

"I can get ya all the help ya need," Primary said, his smile going wider as he stepped closer to Vinyl. He wrapped his hooves around her, squeezing her white coat against his dark purple one, and whispered in her ear, "Kiss me, Vinyl."

What are you doing, you creep?! Vinyl tried to yell, but suddenly she was shaking too badly to let out the slightest whisper, let alone resist the stronger stallion. The hallucination was starting to affect her physically as well as mentally.

"Shh..." He said, running a hoof through her mane. Vinyl felt like puking (preferably on him), but she went limp instead as she nearly fell unconscious. Reality was fading, and the dream was everything. She was no longer being held by the suspicious stallion, instead she was screaming as she fell through the sky.

No! I've got to wake up... get away from Primary...

Vinyl's face winced in pain in reality as she forced herself to snap out of the nightmare. She reached up a hoof, and grabbed at Primary's face, trying to shove him away from her. Primary didn't notice, instead taking off her shades and throwing them away from the two ponies. This porch, the place she had so long come to for comfort, for an escape to be herself, was now going to be the place that Primary Alley had taken her for himself.

Her mouth was dry, and she could hardly breathe, yet Vinyl managed to scream.

"Octavia!" She shouted, yearning to see the pony who had stood with her for so long, the pony Vinyl called her best friend, "Octavia! Somepony! Help me!"

"Ssh, it's just us right now," Primary whispered, covering her mouth with his hoof. Vinyl wanted to bite him, but he wisely kept his hoof over her mouth instead of in it. He had seen Vinyl on the porch and knew it was the perfect opportunity. Everypony else was inside, listening to pounding music. In addition, it was beginning to rain heavily over Canterlot. They wouldn't be noticed out here. Vinyl felt her strength draining; had Primary drugged her? Impossible, she hadn't had anything to drink.

Primary withdrew his hoof from her mouth, and licked it, dropping Vinyl gently onto her back, leaving her sprawled out on the cold porch floor.

"N-no... please, Celestia, no..." Vinyl whimpered, closing her eyes so she wouldn't have to look at the stallion standing over her.

"Just sit there, Vinyl," Primary told her, "I can do most of the work."

"You son of a-!"

Primary was suddenly gone as a dark blur slammed into him from the side. Vinyl managed to roll onto her side, and saw two forms thrashing together. She blinked, trying to clear her vision, and then saw a gray pegasus on top of Primary, throwing punches everywhere she could see while Primary feebly tried to defend himself.

"Derpy...?" Vinyl's tiny voice was lost in the downpour of rain.

Another stallion was suddenly there, his coat whipping around in the harsh winds outside, and he grabbed Vinyl's shoulders.

"Vinyl? Vinyl, stay with me! You're going to be fine! Ditzy, stop it, Ditzy...!"

"Doctor..." Vinyl said in relief. In one part of her mind, the darker half, she felt herself beginning to fall again. It felt as though she was in control of two bodies, one being shaken by the Doctor and the other helplessly falling through the sky, "Find Octavia..."

"Ditzy, get off him! Of course, Vinyl, but we have to get you some help first. Are you hurt?"

"You tried to hurt her! I know what you were trying to do to her!" Derpy was screaming as she whacked Primary with her hooves over and over again.

Chaos. The mythical Lord of Chaos Discord (though Vinyl believed that Discord was real and had in fact been in Ponyville recently. Octavia, along with many other ponies, didn't agree) would have been overwhelmed with this scene. Vinyl was flashing back and forth between reality and nightmare while Ditzy Do "Derpy" Hooves continued to beat Primary's face with every ounce of strength she had. The Doctor was trying to keep everything in control, but his yells for calm were silenced by the heavy rain. The sound of water hitting the ground was deafening. Beyond it was the music from inside, and the muffled yells of many delighted ponies partying inside.

Vinyl felt herself being picked up by the Doctor as he tried to get her onto her hooves. She steadied herself, putting one hoof on the Doctor's shoulder. Vinyl put her mouth to his ear, and whispered.

"You'll find Octavia...?" She asked, feeling herself drawing closer to the grass as she fell. She fell even as she leaned on her friend, if that made any sense. The rain slapped her continuously. The Doctor nodded and Vinyl smiled, "Good..."

Vinyl's hoof left the Doctor's shoulder. Her hooves left the floor below her as she began to fall down, adding to the feeling of vertigo she had in the nightmare. The Doctor gasped and tried to catch her, but his hoof just barely missed. Derpy was crying as she continued to hit Primary, who was now coughing as his nose bled and his eyes bruised.

And then Vinyl hit the ground, both in reality and in her nightmare.