The Shadow Went Down to Ponyville

by VioletHeart77

Rating: everyone
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Octavia, King Sombra, Adventure, DJ P0N-3
Length: 5560

When Vinyl is captured by King Sombra, Octavia must face him head-on to rescue her.

One fateful Nightmare Night, Vinyl gets herself into a bit of trouble. To rescue her, Octvaia must face one of the most vile of all villains: King Sombra.

Inspired by a deleted scene from "Slice of Life."

Cover Art by Izeer

Published 2015-10-26 13:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2015-10-26 13:50:01 UTC

The Shadow Went Down to Ponyville

"Tavi! Hurry up! The others are waiting!"

Octavia rolled her eyes and turned to face the closed door to her bedroom. "Calm down, Vinyl!" she yelled. "I'm almost done!" She finished combing her mane, knotted her scarf, and straightened the collar of her shirt.

"Okay, I'm ready!" she called. She turned away from the mirror, grabbed her cello case, and walked to the door.

Vinyl wasn't sure what exactly she was expecting to see when Octavia opened the door, but it certainly wasn't what she was looking at now. Octavia's mane, normally worn straight down, now surrounded her face in a wild, wavy style, and she was wearing a heavy black jacket over a white puffy shirt and a red scarf. Truth be told, she looked like a stallion, and an old one, too. And, on top of that, she was carrying her cello case on her back.

"What the heck are you supposed to be?" she asked.

Octavia's eyebrows rose. "Isn't it obvious?" she replied. "I'm Ludwig van Beethoofen!"

Vinyl cocked her head. "Who?"

"Only the greatest composer for cello who ever lived! Don't tell me you've never heard of him!"

Vinyl remained silent. Octavia groaned and rolled her eyes again.

"What?" Vinyl replied indignantly. "I didn't tell you I'd never heard of him!"

"Your silence told me everything. And what exactly are you, anyways?" Vinyl was wearing a black bodysuit covered with large rectangular sequins that formed vertical rainbow stripes, each ending at a different height on her chest. A pair of matching striped headphones hung over her neck, and her eyes were covered by her usual sunglasses.

"I'm Dubstep," Vinyl answered flatly.

Now it was Octavia's turn to cock her head. "Dubstep what?"

"Just Dubstep," Vinyl answered again. "You know, like my music, but ponified."

Octavia's puzzled expression didn't change. Vinyl sighed.

"It's like, if Dubstep was a pony, it would look like this." She turned a knob on her right earpiece, allowing Octavia to hear music playing from her headphones. "I even made a special new Nightmare Night mix to play for ponies to hear when we walk by," she added.

It was an unconventional costume, for sure, but why was Octavia surprised? Everything about Vinyl was unconventional! "Well, alright then," Octavia laughed. They walked down the stairs and went outside into the cool night.

"You know that it's silly for you to wear your sunglasses at night, don't you?" Octavia teased.

"About as silly as it is for you to carry your cello into town when you're not even going to use it!" Vinyl retorted lightheartedly.

"My Beethoofen costume wouldn't be complete without it!"

"Well, it's the same for my shades with my Dubstep costume," Vinyl replied. "Now, where did Bon Bon tell everyone to meet, again?"

"She said that she and Lyra would be waiting at the fountain in the square," Octavia answered.

The path they walked into town was lined with trees covered with leaves of fiery reds, burning oranges, and glowing yellows. The moon shone brightly against the backdrop of of the starry purple sky. When they arrived at the square, ponies of all ages and dressed in all sorts of costumes were laughing and taking part in the Nightmare Night festivities. After a few minutes, they came to the fountain where Lyra and Bon Bon were waiting.

"There you guys are!" Bon Bon called. "Happy Nightmare Night!"

"Same to you!" Octavia replied. "I love your costume!" Bon Bon was wearing a long lavender ball gown and a golden tiara with gems of the same shade. A beige silicon horn stuck out through her bangs, and a matching pair of velvety wings was strapped to her back.

"I told her that it wasn't very original," Lyra commented playfully, "but . . ."

"Hey, there were about a million things I could have said about your costume but didn't, so don't even start!" Bon Bon laughed as she gently elbowed her best friend.

"What exactly are you, Lyra?" Vinyl asked curiously. She was wearing a loose pink tank top and headband, a pair of ruffled teal shorts, and a gold necklace with a charm shaped like her cutie mark. On her back legs, she wore yellow socks and a pair of tall magenta boots, and her front hooves were covered by some odd fabric tubes, the same mint green as her coat, with with skinny loose bits hanging from the end. The strangest thing of all, though, was that she was standing on just her back legs!

Lyra grinned. "What else? A human!" They all laughed.

"Hiya everypony! Happy Nightmare Night!" a familiarly cheerful voice exclaimed. The four turned to see Derpy and the Doctor walking towards them.

"I say, Octavia," the Doctor said, "Your Beethoofen costume is exquisitely accurate! You look just as he did when I met him once!"

"Thank you, Doctor!" Octavia responded appreciatively. "Finally somepony knows who I am!"

"What are you, Doc?" Lyra asked. He was wearing a solid red shirt under a vest and a pair of pants in two different plaids, both of which were in turn under a long brown overcoat. Sticking out of one of the pockets of his coat was a silver metal stick with a red circle on the end. His mane was much curlier than usual, and it was under a wide-brimmed fedora. But it was his long striped scarf that was the most eye-catching.

"My fourth incarnation," he answered. "It was my longest-lived, and a personal favorite of mine."

"I'm a muffin!" Derpy suddenly proclaimed matter-of-factly, and nopony could help but laugh because of just how adorably obvious it had already been.

Bon Bon sniffed. "You even smell good, Derpy!"

"That's because I just baked it today!" Derpy proudly replied.

"You mean it's real?" Vinyl asked. "But how did you hollow it --"

She was interrupted when Derpy suddenly gave a small burp. " 'Scuse me," she said with a sheepish smile, and all six of them laughed again.

"Well, now that we're all here, what should we do first?" Octavia asked.

"Bon Bon and I saw a corn maze earlier," Lyra suggested. With that, the friends decided to make their way to the maze. On the way, they passed a stage where an old stallion dressed in black was telling Nightmare Night tales to a group of foals, so they decided to stop to listen.

"They say that Nightmare Moon is the most evil of all nightmares," the stallion narrated ominously, "but they forget about a villain more ancient and a thousand times more vile: King Sombra!" At this point, the curtain behind him was illuminated by a spotlight, which cast a menacing shadow puppet onto the curtain.

"Legend tells that he ruled the Crystal Empire with a cold iron hoof and a heart blacker than Nightmare Moon's blackest night! In fact, some ponies even say that it was he that cast the darkness into Princess Luna's heart that caused her transformation! After a thousand years of slumber, he returned as a shadow to reclaim the Crystal Empire -- nearly felling some of Equestria's greatest heroes! -- but he was eventually turned into crystal and shattered." The distant sound of a scream rang out then as the spotlight dimmed, fading the shadow into nothingness.

"BUT!" the storyteller continued. A soft red glow was cast onto the stage. "Rumor has it that his horn remained intact, allowing his essence to survive. They say that he still lurks in the shadows on the edge of Equestria, waiting for unsuspecting ponies to come close enough to . . ." Suddenly, a figure burst through the curtain with a roar, sending the shrieking foals scattering. Upon closer examination, however, it was obvious to the adults that it was merely another stallion in a costume.

"Wow," Derpy quavered, "that King Sombra sure sounds scary."

"Pfft! Puh-lease!" Vinyl snorted. "From what I've heard, King Sombra was barely even a threat!"

"I don't know about that, Vinyl," Octavia responded. "I heard that he set a lot of clever traps to keep the Crystal Heart hidden, and that he came dangerously close to victory."

"But all the traps in the world still weren't enough to stop him from being beaten by, what? A princess and a baby dragon? How lame can you get?" Vinyl retorted. "Plus, the whole time he was attacking the Crystal Empire, he said not even fifteen words! Most of the time he was just all: 'Grr, crystals! Gak gak gak gak gak!' " As she performed this impersonation, she gritted her teeth and assumed a mockingly menacing pose. "Like, dude! Speak English and then MAYBE you'll scare me!"

"Careful, Vinyl!" the Doctor suddenly cried. "Some species can hear their names being whispered from another galaxy, and many of them get rather temperamental when they feel insulted!"

"Oh, please!" Vinyl rolled her eyes behind her sunglasses. "He's dead as a door nail! Everypony knows that! You guys are worrying about nothing!"

"Well, either way," Bon Bon replied, "it's called Nightmare Night, not Sombra Night, so I'm sure we'll be fine." On that note, the six of them kept walking until they arrived at the entrance to the corn maze.

"Which way should we go first?" Lyra wondered aloud as she and her companions gazed at the many winding trails ahead of them.

"Adventurers always go left," the Doctor answered confidently.

"Says who?" Bon Bon asked.

"Doesn't everypony?" the Doctor replied with a smile. The others decided to go with it, until three left turns later when Derpy came to the wise observation that if they turned left again, they might arrive back where they started, at which point Octavia suggested that they alternate between choosing left and right. They continued like this for about fifteen minutes until Vinyl suddenly stopped as the others were about to turn right.

"Did you guys hear that?" Her ears perked up suddenly.

"Hear what?" Derpy asked.

Vinyl paused. "I don't know what, really . . . but it sounded like it was that way!" She looked down the path to the left. "I'm gonna go see what it is. You guys go ahead."

"Are you sure, Vinyl?" the Doctor called.

"Yeah, I'll catch up to you later! The maze can't be that big, can it?"

"Don't get lost," Octavia joked.

Vinyl trotted down the path, humming along to her music as she went. A moment later, she stopped at an intersection and listened. There was the sound! But . . . what was it, exactly? It sounded like a low howl, with undertones of a rumbling growl, and she figured it was probably from a soundtrack of Nightmare Night sounds. Her ears perked up again.

"Whatever that is, I should sample it and add it to my track!" she said to herself. Now even more eager to find the source of the noise, she ran straight ahead, then turned right as she came to a corner of the maze. However, she quickly skidded to a halt.

"Huh? What the . . . ?" She lifted her shades to make sure she wasn't seeing things. Was it just her, or did the intersection she was standing at now look exactly the same as the one she'd just left?

"Weird . . ." she mumbled. She knew she hadn't turned right enough times in a row to come back to the same spot. But of course, these kinds of mazes were designed to be confusing, weren't they? It was probably just a trick.

There was the sound again! She dashed down the middle path before her, then went around a bend to the right. No sooner had she gone around it, though, before she froze in her tracks.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" she exclaimed agitatedly. She knew that maze designers were clever, but how in Equestria could anypony build a path that would her bring her to the exact same spot three times in a row?

As she stood scratching her head, she heard the same sound once again. She closed her eyes and listened again. It still sounded like it was coming from ahead of her . . . but there was no way she was going to fall for that trap again!

"Doc said adventurers always turn left . . ." Maybe that's where the sound was coming from. If not, she could always come back and try going right. She opened her eyes.

"What the buck?!?"

The path to the left had disappeared, leaving a thick wall of cornstalks in its place! As she turned around, she saw that right path had vanished too! Now all that remained was the straight path she was standing on, which seemed to run straight on forever in both directions.

Vinyl growled and looked up the sky. "Is this some kind of joke?!?" she screamed. She heard a rustling in the cornstalks beside her and whipped her head to the side.

"Who's there?" she demanded. "If this is some kind of prank, you better knock it off now if you know what's good for you!"

The only answer she received was another rustling sound. In a rage, she pounced into the wall of plants with a yell to tackle who ever dared to mess with her, and thus was quite bewildered when she landed flat on her face in the middle of the same path.

She sat up and looked around frantically. "C-come on, guys. This isn't funny!" she stammered. The mysterious sound returned, but much louder than before. But this time, dread filled her instead of curiosity.

"I hear you're not afraid of King Sombra . . ." a deep voice echoed ominously around her.

Vinyl jumped at the abrupt sound of the voice. "Who's there?" she shouted defensively.

"I hear that you think he's lame . . ." the voice continued. "Barely a threat . . ." At this moment, dark smoke began rolling out of the walls of cornstalks, clouding the path around her.

"Yeah, I'm not afraid of King Sombra," Vinyl retorted, "and I'm not afraid of you either!" The last part was a blatant lie, but there was no way she was going to admit it.

The voice laughed sinisterly, and Vinyl became aware of a sound like unicorn magic, but edgier. "You fool . . ." the voice hissed. "Don't you know . . . ?"

The sudden feeling of cold metal on her back caused Vinyl to leap forward with a shout. As she cautiously turned her head, she found herself staring into a pair of piercing red eyes.

"I'm speaking English."

The sharp sound of a scream suddenly cut through the blackness of the night like a knife through soft caramel, sending shivers down the spines of a group of ponies navigating the corn maze.

"What in Equestria was that?" Bon Bon asked as she shuddered.

"Maybe it was that old stallion telling more ghost stories," Octavia suggested.

"It sounded closer than that, though," the Doctor responded, "as if it came from another part of the maze."

"It almost sounded like it could be Vinyl's voice," Derpy added.

Octavia had almost forgotten that it had been nearly five minutes since Vinyl had gone off on her own at the intersection. Out of nowhere, she was struck by a sinking feeling in her stomach.

"Maybe there was somepony hiding behind a corner to jump out and scare passersby," she suggested. "You know how some ponies can be on Nightmare Night."

"But Vinyl isn't usually the type to be rattled by something like that," Lyra replied.

Octavia didn't need to be reminded of that fact -- really, Vinyl was more the type who would be hiding behind the corner waiting for ponies to scare! -- but she'd made the idea up to reassure herself. But Lyra pointing out the obvious truth only served to worry her more.

"I . . . I think I'm going to see if I can catch up to her," Octavia stammered nervously. "Just to make sure she doesn't too lost." With that, she ran off in the direction she and the others had come.

"Don't get lost!" Derpy called, concerned.

The words echoed in Octavia's mind. She'd said that exact sentence to Vinyl while she went off on her own . . . why? She'd been teasing, naturally, but wasn't that just guaranteeing that something bad would happen?

Octavia shook the thought from her head. No! Vinyl was fine! It was perfectly normal to hear screaming on Nightmare Night by the nature of the holiday! Why, for all she knew it wasn't even Vinyl that screamed! Vinyl was fine! She had to be!

"Vinyl!" Octavia called frantically. "Vinyl, where are you? Are you alright?" When she finally she came to the intersection where Vinyl had left them, she galloped down the left path at full speed.

The path seemed to stretch out forever, but Octavia raced down it almost as fast as her thoughts raced through her mind, sending her flying forward when she suddenly tripped. She stood up, wanting to keep going, but something compelled her to turn around and see what had tripped her. As she looked back, a gasp escaped her.

In the middle of the path, a jagged black crystal jutted up through an ominous cloud of dark smoke. But what truly terrified her was the sight of Vinyl's sunglasses lying abandoned on the ground.

Octavia wanted to scream, but no sound came out. As she stood staring in horror at the crystal, an unnatural purple and green glow covered it, and it began to recede into the smoke. Without hesitation, Octavia leapt forward and grabbed the crystal, fearing that if she lost it she would lose any chance of finding Vinyl. Suddenly, the shadows below her grew to surround her in total darkness.

After a moment, the blackness parted like a pair of curtains, and Octavia found herself standing in a round room with walls that appeared to be made of the same black crystal. The only source of light was a trail of wrought iron sconces wrapping like a corkscrew up the wall, each one holding a torch that burned with an eerie green flame. As she attempted to follow the trail, she stumbled forward and found that the room was mostly taken up by a shadowy spiral staircase that appeared to reach into the sky. As she pondered whether or not she should climb it, a foreboding laugh echoed down from above her.

"Vinyl!" Octavia screamed. Her mind now made up, she began scaling the staircase.

After what felt like an eternity of climbing, she emerged in a room that was blindingly bright compared to darkness from which she'd just come. Once her eyes adjusted to the light, she could see that she was in a throne room that reminded her of the Crystal Empire. As she looked around, a pillar of black smoke caught her eye. She then followed the smoke upward and found it ending in front of a iron cage hanging from the ceiling. Looking more closely, she could see Vinyl in the cage!

"Vinyl!" Octavia called frantically.

As Vinyl looked down, her eyes widened. "Tavi?!?"

The pillar of smoke turned around to reveal a menacing face -- King Sombra was staring directly at Octavia!

For a moment, Octavia froze, but she forced herself to put on a brave face. "You!" she shouted. "Let her go! NOW!"

King Sombra's eyes narrowed as he let out a sinister snarl. He dove towards Octavia, but Octavia rolled away just before he reached her. As she stood up, she could see him flying straight at her along the ground, but she managed to jump over him. She turned around, then watched as his horn gave off the same purple and green that the crystal had produced earlier. Suddenly, the ground around her began to shimmer in the same way, and crystals began to sprout up to trap her!

She jumped up to escape, but saw that the opening between the crystals was too small for her to get through and instinctively kicked out her legs, smashing the crystals. As she landed back on the ground, she breathed heavily, surprised by her own display of agility and strength, then looked back up at King Sombra.

"It's going to take more than that to get rid of me!" she yelled. "I'm not leaving without my friend!"

A purple mist then began to stream from King Sombra's malevolent eyes, and Octavia prepared herself to dodge another spell. Thus, she was caught quite off-guard when instead of attacking, he began to shrink! Surely she hadn't beaten him just like that, had she? This was a monster so vicious that the mere mention of his name struck fear into the hearts of even the toughest royal guards -- how was it possible for her, of all ponies, to defeat him without even attempting a single attack?

Sure enough, she hadn't. As the shadows dissipated, a tall gray unicorn stallion wearing a scarlet cape and silver armor appeared. Octavia's eyes widened as King Sombra walked towards her, in the flesh.

"My, my, aren't we a stubborn one?" King Sombra smiled. "I must say, your courage and determination are admirable. But surely you must know that you are no match for my power. So I suggest you leave now while you have the chance . . ."

"Not without my friend!" Octavia insisted, her eyes narrowing adamantly. "I could take you on in anything!"

As soon as the words had left her mouth, she wished they hadn't. How could she say she could take him on in anything? How could she be so rash, so impulsive . . . it seemed more like something Vinyl would do! As King Sombra paused in thought for a moment, Octavia feared the worst.

He then stepped closer and examined her. "Beethoofen," he mused, seeing her costume. He stopped behind her upon seeing her cello case. "You play?"

Octavia nodded. She'd completely forgotten that she'd been carrying her cello with her -- with that in mind, how had she been able to perform those acrobatic feats?

"You may not know this," King Sombra commented, "but I'm actually a cello aficionado myself. What would you say about you and I giving an impromptu performance?"

"Like a duet?" Octavia asked, confused.

"More like a duel." King Sombra grinned in a way that seemed genial, but that still gave off an air of suspicion. "My talent against your talent. If you win, your friend shall be freed. But if I win . . ." Though he trailed off there, it was easy for Octavia to understand what he meant.

"Don't do it, Tavi!" Octavia looked up and saw Vinyl reaching downwards desperately. "Don't worry about me! I'll find a way to escape! You get out of here while you can!"

After a tense silence, King Sombra extended his hoof towards Octavia. "Well, what do you say?"

Octavia looked at him, then up at Vinyl, then stared King Sombra directly in the eye.

"I accept your challenge!" she answered firmly. With that, she took his hoof and they shook on it.

"Excellent!" King Sombra hissed. His horn began to glow again, and a cloud of smoke appeared beside him. The smoke parted to reveal a cello crafted from shining black crystal, with strings that seemed to have been spun from silver. He held the cello and picked up a black bow laying on the ground, then bowed his head towards Octavia. "Ladies first."

Octavia hadn't expected to play so soon. She slowly pulled her cello case off her back and set it on the ground, her hooves sweating profusely as she opened the latch. What song should she start with? She had a few pieces memorized, but in general she was accustomed to using sheet music. As she lifted her cello and bow, a thought finally came to her, and she nervously began to play.

Perhaps it was her costume that inspired to choose Für Elise. It was a short, simple piece, yes, but that meant it wasn't easy to mess up, which would buy her more time to plan her next move. As she pulled her bow across the strings, she gradually started to feel calmer. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the delicate melody. After a few brief minutes, she came to the end and opened her eyes.

King Sombra nodded in acknowledgement, then raised his bow. He started softly and slowly, then abruptly grew louder and more dramatic, and Octavia recognized the tune as the Danse Macabre. It was captivating to watch him play; with all that she'd heard about him, she'd never imagined him as such a skilled, sophisticated musician. Even the sound from his cello -- it was like nothing else she'd ever heard, with a faint echoing quality to it. The only word that could properly describe it was "haunting."

As he finished, Octavia couldn't believe that already seven minutes had passed. Maybe he hadn't played the entire piece? But she was sure that she recognized it from start to end . . . well, never mind it. She brushed her pondering aside. Her mind now clear, she played Moztrot's Night Music.

With the end of the final movement, she motioned for King Sombra to start. This time, the beginning was like a burst of sound, but after a few measures he played quicker and quieter, though the music was no less suspenseful. It was O Fortuna, a piece normally performed by an entire orchestra, who accompanied a choir singing the words of a medieval poem. Amazingly, though, the absence of these elements didn't detract at all from his stellar performance -- yet another testament to his talent, Octavia thought to herself as she watched him play, mesmerized by his every note.

After a few minutes, he looked up at her and smiled, and suddenly Octavia realized that he had finished and it was now her turn again. She had already chosen to play 1812 Overture next, but just the Finale since the entirety of the selection was rather long. She touched her bow to the strings.

Squeak . . .

Octavia stopped instantly, then smiled sheepishly at King Sombra, who showed no reaction. Had her cello somehow come out of tune? The strings looked fine, but she turned the knobs slightly just in case, then started again.

It was a disaster. She kept playing sharps where there were flats, flats where there were naturals -- not to mention that the tempo and volume were far below the level at which they should have been. She tried playing with her eyes open so that she could see the strings, then with her eyes closed so that she could concentrate harder, but nothing seemed to help. In the final minutes, she played with somewhat better accuracy, but her playing was still nowhere near strong enough.

'It's over,' she thought as the final note rang out. 'It's all over! I've doomed both of us . . ." She slowly opened her eyes, bracing herself for the worst.

King Sombra, oddly, was smiling more than he had been before, but there were no signs of malice in his eyes; it was more like he was smiling to be polite. Octavia let out a sigh of relief as he began playing Night on Bald Mountain.

What had gone wrong? Never before had she given such a poor performance, not even when she was first learning to play as a filly! Perhaps she shouldn't have tried to pull off such a complicated piece from memory . . .

Too deep in despair to truly listen to King Sombra playing, she looked up at Vinyl, hoping for a glimmer of encouragement. Vinyl sat motionless, not even looking at her.

Octavia bowed her head and sighed, disheartened by the fact that she'd done so horribly that even her best friend couldn't take her eyes off King Sombra to acknowledge her . . .

She stopped. Why was Vinyl looking at King Sombra so intently? She looked up again, this time squinting to see more closely.

A hazy, emotionless look was cast over Vinyl's face. Her unblinking eyes, normally magenta, now glowed green and red, with an unsettling purple mist streaming from the corners.

Just like King Sombra's . . .

The lost sense of time . . . the allurement of his performance . . .

In that moment, it became clear to Octavia that King Sombra had not planned on this being a real competition.

By this time, King Sombra was in the last few measures of Night on Bald Mountain. He'd had his eyes closed the entire time, so Octavia looked back down to gaze at him, allowing her eyes to glaze over, and hoped that he wouldn't notice that she'd broken free from the enchantment. When he finished and looked over at her, she continued to stare for a moment before rapidly blinking as though she'd been jolted from a trance. She took a deep breath, then began what she knew would be her final turn.

She wasn't exactly sure how it would work, but if she just kept playing, maybe something would happen. She'd decided on another Beethoofen piece, the final movement of his Ninth Symphony. Once again, she closed her eyes, but this time she focused harder than she ever had before, playing as though her life depended, because, of course, it did. As she played, her confidence began to rise. She could do this . . . she had the talent! She could do this! King Sombra couldn't stop her!

DUN DUN DUN DUNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The booming chords startled Octavia tremendously. As her eyes flew open in surprise, she saw King Sombra now deep in concentration as he played Beethoofen's Fifth.

He knew . . .

Octavia regained her composure and immediately resumed playing, this time louder than before. King Sombra was quick to increase his volume in response. Back and forth they went, until the humming of the dueling cellos was almost deafening.

In all the years since she'd earned her cutie mark as a filly, Octavia had given hundreds of performance, some for crowds of a thousand or more -- but never had she so strongly poured the entire essence of her being into her music as she did now, with this audience of two. Soon, her memorization gave way to improvisation, with music flowing from her instrument -- but truly, from her soul! -- without her even thinking about it.

Suddenly, Octavia began to feel a strange warmth, which started both in her chest and her flank before filling her entire body. She opened her eyes but saw nothing but a blinding white light. A yell rang out, and then everything went black.

"Tavi? Tavi?"

Octavia opened her eyes and saw Vinyl staring worriedly at her. She then sat up and saw that they were in the corn maze, in the exact spot she had last been.

"Are we . . . are we back?" Vinyl asked, looking around confused. "Did we even go anywhere?"

It was a strange question, but Octavia understood it completely. The whole experience had seemed so real, but thinking about it now, it could only be described as surreal.

"There you guys are!"

They turned around and saw the others coming around a corner.

"We were worried about you!" Bon Bon exclaimed. "Did you get lost?"

Octavia and Vinyl exchanged a glance. How they could explain what happened, especially when they weren't certain it even really happened?

"Yeah . . ." Vinyl finally answered after a pause, "I got a little lost, but luckily Tavi came along to help me." She smiled at Octavia.

"Well, it's a good thing we found you," Derpy replied. "The apple bobbing contest is about to start! Come on!" With that, she led the other three back the way they had come. Vinyl picked her sunglasses up off the ground and followed them, leaving Octavia alone.

So Vinyl seemed to remember the encounter as if it were real . . . but then again, Octavia had heard before of ponies having the same dream at the same time. Was this one of those cases? It was all so strange.

Just then, she noticed that her cello case was lying on the ground with the latch undone. As she reached down to clasp it shut, a small flash of light caught her eye.

She lifted the lid, and an astonished gasp escaped her. Her cello, which had been made of mahogany wood the last time she'd seen it, now sparkled as though it were shaped from golden crystal. She stood frozen for a moment, then reached to gently touch the strings. The melodious sound that resulted had the ethereal resonance of a harp, but the deep pitch of a cello.

"Tavi! Are you coming?"

Shaken from her awestruck trance, Octavia closed her case and lifted it into her back. "I'm coming!" she called. And with that, she rushed through the cool autumn air with a smile.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading my first completed Fimfic! Happy Nightmare Night! :pinkiehappy: